Magic Skills above level 7, why?

[Arkain]

Only the second post to this board, lots of good reading. Thanks for all the info.

I was wondering why you would place more than seven skill points into a magic skill since there are only 7 magic levels. I have read, somewhere, that 7 is good enough for weapon skills too, since you will hit nearly 100% of the time at that level. Are these not true or is there a reason?

I also read that hitpoints are tough to come by, so should I make all my warriors do the barb quest at first so I can get many hitpts before going to Ishad N'Ha? One warrior would become a pally, then others samari/ranger

I have read a lot, but can't seem to locate these answers.

Thanks in advance.

Arkain

[Sazerac]

If you change roles to one that no longer supports that magic skill, you can still learn magic from that realm, but at 1/2 the skill level. So a skill level of 6 would mean the maximum spells you could learn would be level 3.

Example: A priest changes to paladin. He keeps learning Spirit magic at the same level (because Paladin still supports "Spirit" magic). However, his Vine magic at level 6 means he can never learn more than level 3 spells in Vine now...unless he "ups" his Vine magic two levels for each additional level. Theoretically, a Paladin would only be able to get level 6 spells in Vine (with a Vine skill of 12).

-Sazerac

[Bungleau]

Hitpoints were not really an issue for me, even though my starting party had two wizards. No one hit the Barbarian path early, which also meant I didn't really get any HP bonuses. In a new game, all warriors will go to Barbarian ASAP, so as not to waste levels.

All that was really required for me was a cleric -- excuse me, priest able to heal, those two stacks of healing and extra healing potions, and swift feet for when those got to be too little, too late.

As for the magic levels, I had a delusion that some spells would work better if you had a higher magic level skill. I just reviewed the manual, and there seems to be no indication that that is true. What a bummer... toward the end, all my characters ended up with several skills at level 12 simply because they had to find *something* to train in every guild, every level.

Stupidest mistake I made: completing a quest *before* having a character complete a class change quest. Could have had a free level, but no, I flushed it away...

[the_young_one]

Sazerac's answer to why you might want to increase your magic spell levels above 7 is spot on. There are also benefits to increasing the sorcery skill above 7 since the power of the skill is increased (I remember reading something along the line that each skill=10%).

As to whether to change roles to barbarians early on in the game. I've found the best reason to change to a barbarian is that they can donate boogre brew to the idol in boogre prison and gain the giantstrike trait. If you want to do serious damage, get giantstrike.. You will also get more hitpoints per level as a barbarian than other classes, but imho the difference is minor..

[Arkain]

Thanks for all the details everyone. I didn't quite understand the reading of 1/2 spell power, I initially thought they had meant that you would only heal/hurt things with half strength, not that the way Sazerac put it.

Thank you.

Arkain

[Sazerac]

I only went to Barbarian with my characters as a last class change, so they could finish out endgame with mondo HP and great fighting stats. That was only on one character, as well (4-character party), who had gone from Warrior to Paladin to Samurai to Barbarian...could cast both Sun and Spirit magic (maxxed out on spells on both) and then got the massive fighting capacity of the Barbarian +HP. I think he finished around Level 60, with like 660 HP.

Cheers,
-Sazerac