Speed completely uselss (long discussion)

[fung]

The following discussion relates to an earlier post by Gimli:

"if you look at your characters stats during a fight where a level 7 haste is up, it pumps their speed by I think 70-75 points"-Gimli

hence the theory is that no party member except for the caster of haste will need to put any points into speed and they will all get speed of 100+. If this theory was true, then charcs. in wizardry 8 will be built a lot differently...since most guides (Jandrall webpage) advocate pumping speed for melee charcs. and unlocking snakespeed for greater initiative.

Question 1) Does speed have a cap?
I think this is the most important question, if speed does not have a cap. it will be useful to pump speed to 100, coz 100 + 75(haste) will give my melee charcs ~175 speed hence allowing to hit ALOT.

However, if speed does have a cap at say 125. Then all my charcs. will leave speed base e.g. 50 + 75 = 125...any points beyond that is a waste.

Question 2) Does haste really work as I stated earlier...if so it is no doubt the most overpowered spell in the game...allowing 5 party members to ignore the speed attribute.

Comments appreciated.

[MasterPooBaa]

125 is the max i thought for anything.... even with spells ontop.

and yes, i use haste considerably. i find its useful in unlocking extra attacks and swings, as well as increasing the chance of my guys attacking first.

[Kakero]

when I level up I don't put points on speed. so I use haste spell to enable my character attack first.

I thought extra swings or attack is cause by higher dexterity?

Hey, haste rocks. I like striking first, getting more hits, n kickin the enemies @$$. Hows that for an answer??

[Gimli]

Speed does max out at 125, and speed points from what I remember are twice as effective adding to initiative than snakespeed points. Also senses is the same way, so for a truly maxed out initiative character, you'd want 125 in speed and senses, and 100 snakespeed. But it's more than sufficient to have one character get the 100 speed and build snakespeed, have a decent senses score, and then cast haste to start every fight (this can be done with a bishop, monk, psionic or bard). It is a really potent spell, don't think any other effects a stat so radically and for all characters at once. Only caveat is that haste is a fire realm spell, so when you're underwater it won't work. For a haste type party I do the sea caves later in the game at a higher level as they will be slower underwater, but for the rest of the game all they need (I think) is a 50 speed to get 125 when it counts, in combat. Also made me rethink choosing certain races when I would make characters as speed meant alot less to me.