Classes, traits, skills and weapons

[Radek]

As we all know, not every skill works equally efficiently for every class. The well known level 12 lock in the Skull Castle can demonstrate this behavour: for a thief class (barbarian, assassin, etc.) with Traps and Locks 12, the lock is "moderate" and the character will almost always pick it. For a non-thief class (zenmaster, samurai, etc.) with Traps and Locks 12, the lock is "difficult" and the character will almost always fail to pick it.
I have seen another such behaviour recently: a ranger with a Healer trait behaves as if he did not have the trait. The Heal spell cast by a ranger healer usually heal 5-7 HP. Other classes known to me can heal more than 20 HP by casting a Heal spell with the Healer trait. If you switch from a ranger to another class, the Healer trait begins to work.
Also, I do not have a good experience with a zenmaster using daggers. Daggers seem to ignore Heroic Might, Bloodlust and similar damage boosting tools.

Can anybody put an order in it? Which traits do not work or do not work well for which classes? Which weapons are a good choice and which weapons are a bad choice for a particular class? Which skills work with penalties for which classes? The Scroll of Misinformation says cryptically that "STR increases damage inflicted by SOME weapons. By which ones? Any piece of information would be highly appreciated. Please, post also results of your experience even if you aren't sure about the thing.

[Wyvern]

Extremely interesting observation, Radek!!

Wish I had some information to add to the subject but I am sadly not so observant. It's not unlike all the players who have gotten so stressed over the 1 point increases on level up while I just played on figuring (rightly so) that it would all work out in the end. Fortunately, there are other players who pay attention to those details you've mentioned. It will be very interesting to read this thread as they add their comments!

Wyv

[the_young_one]

imho, the difference in the amount of healing done by your ranger vs other spellcasters is dependent on the sorcery skill of the spellcasters.

Regarding the difficulty of picking locks, maybe that depends on the "primary skills" of each class, so for a rogue this is more natural. Having pick lock skill equal to the difficulty of the lock does not guarantee opening the lock - remember when your skill was 1 or 2 and you tried - sometimes you were lucky, other times not so.

I have never had problems with my wizards and their daggers (especially since I usually equip them with wizards blade blessed to the max). Spells such as heroic might and bloodlust apply to the character and should be independent of weapon. If you are using plain daggers with their measly 1-4 damage then no amount of might or thirst is going to transform you (use blessings)

I am also confused by your "healer" trait, since I have never come across this as a "trait". Maybe you can clarify..

[Packrat]

The healer trait is a skill you can train a character in at the temple. It's offered to you when you reach priest guild level 4 or 5. It grants a bonus on healing spells. (an extra 25% of hit points).

... ....

It's similar to ironmight.