[Klutz]

First of all, very good work.

I do have a quibble though... and it's one I've seen commonly in character development plans. Your stated goal for your Bishop is to get 100 in Int, Spd, and Pie as quickly as possible. Excellent plan, unlocking the 3 most useful expert skills for a party Bishop. So good, in fact, that I'm going to add an extra provision to the plan:


Don't spend a single attribute point in any attribute other than Int, Spd, and Pie until all 3 are at 100.


Let's take a look at what it means to adhere to that rule. I'll take the straight Elven Bishop first, as it's the simplest case. (And yes, I'm going to count Int as maxed at 95 for reasons most of you are familiar with.)

Elf starting attributes: 35 Str, 50 Int, 50 Pie, 35 Vit, 50 Dex, 45 Spd, 40 Sen
Bishop required starting attributes: 55 Int, 55 Pie, 55 Dex, 55 Sen

Elf Bishop, before assigning bonus points (30 available): 35 Str, 55 Int, 55 Pie, 35 Vit, 55 Dex, 45 Spd, 55 Sen

Elf Bishop start, after assigning 30 bonus points: 35 Str, 65 Int (+10), 65 Pie (+10), 35 Vit, 55 Dex, 55 Spd (+10), 55 Sen

That's the same point assignment you used, which puts the points exclusively in the 3 attributes you care most about. In fact, from here on out, we only care about Int, Pie, and Spd, so let's recap focusing on them:

Level 1 Elf Bishop: 65 Int, 65 Pie, 55 Spd
Goal: 95 Int (+30), 100 Pie (+35), 100 Spd (+45)

Already we can tell that we need 30+35+45 = 110 points to achieve our goal. If we keep our attributes focused on just these three attributes, it will take us 19 levels to get those 110 points (114 actually). That maxes them at 20th level. Now we just need to figure out how to do that in such a way that, for any level, we're putting no more than 3 points in each attribute. Here's one such solution for the Elf Bishop:

Levels 2-4: +3 Int, +3 Pie (Level 4 Elf Bishop: 74 Int, 74 Pie, 55 Spd)
Levels 5-11: +3 Int, +3 Spd (Level 11 Elf Bishop: 95 Int, 74 Pie, 76 Spd)

Note that at this point, Int is "maxed", and Pie and Spd are just about even.

Level 12-19: +3 Pie, +3 Spd (Level 19 Elf Bishop: 95 Int, 98 Pie, 100 Spd)
Level 20: +2 Pie, +4 other (Level 20 Elf Bishop: 95 Int, 100 Pie, 100 Spd)

So, instead of maxing Int/Spd/Pie for the Elf Bishop at 11/16/23, we max them at 11/19/20. The advantage of this plan is that you will have much more game-time with your character having access to all 3 expert skills, and that you don't waste a single point in a non-critical attribute until 20th level. The disadvantage is that you wait longer to get your second expert skill... in fact it comes in just before or at the same time as the third one. That third one, though, comes in a LOT sooner. 3 levels may not seem like much, but let's try another example:


Faerie Bishop

Faerie starting attributes: 25 Str, 55 Int, 35 Pie, 30 Vit, 50 Dex, 60 Spd, 45 Sen
Bishop required starting attributes: 55 Int, 55 Pie, 55 Dex, 55 Sen

Faerie Bishop, before assigning bonus points (25 available): 25 Str, 55 Int, 55 Pie, 30 Vit, 55 Dex, 60 Spd, 55 Sen

Faerie Bishop start, 25 bonus points, final attributes: 25 Str, 64 Int (+9), 64 Pie (+9), 30 Vit, 55 Dex, 67 Spd (+7), 55 Sen

In this case, my initial assignment is a tad different, focusing entirely on Int, Pie, and Spd.

Level 1 Faerie Bishop: 64 Int, 64 Pie, 67 Spd
Goal: 95 Int (+31), 100 Pie (+36), 100 Spd (+33)

Already we can tell that we need 31+36+33 = 100 points to achieve our goal. If we keep our attributes focused on just these three attributes, it will take us 17 levels to get those 100 points (102 actually). That maxes them at 18th level. Here's one such solution for the Faerie Bishop:

Levels 2-6: +3 Int, +3 Pie (Level 6 Bishop: 79 Int, 79 Pie, 67 Spd)
Levels 7-11: +3 Int, +3 Spd (Level 11 Bishop: 94 Int, 79 Pie, 82 Spd)
Level 12: +1 Int, +3 Pie, +2 Spd (Level 12 Bishop: 95 Int, 82 Pie, 84 Spd)

Note that this time we needed a "tweak" level to achieve the state where Int is "maxed" and Pie and Spd are just about even. This is actually more common than the Elf Bishop case.

Level 13-17: +3 Pie, +3 Spd (Level 17 Bishop: 95 Int, 97 Pie, 99 Spd)
Level 18: +3 Pie, +1 Spd, +2 other (Level 18 Bishop: 95 Int, 100 Pie, 100 Spd)

So, instead of maxing Int/Spd/Pie for the Faerie Bishop at 12/12/24, we max them at 12/18/18. By focusing 100% on our expert skill attributes, we get the Powercast, Snakespeed, Iron Will complete package a whole SIX levels earlier than the original plan.


I hope I've convinced some of you that it's worth taking a more careful look at attribute allocation than the default "max #1 and #2, then #2 and #3, then #3 and #4 ..." plan.