Question on magically oriented races

OOC, does the -ranks to technical skill that elves and .5 elves have (or the bonus for dwarves) actually do anything? it seems from playing around that they can get to 100 in a technical college just like any other race can, and use all the same schematics. Is it just for show or is there some actual negative to the discipline I'm just not seeing?

 

I'm pretty sure they can, I think they just need to spend an extra character point to do it. It might seem like not much, one CP, but when you're playing a mage and ever spell/fatigue/CN counts, 6 CPS can be the difference between pulling off that last spell just in time, or lying unconscious in some dungeon.

Given that there is a pretty good choice of followers in the game, I would say just have a lock picker like Virgil, or techy firearm guys.

 

Unfortunately, you can't just spend another CP to make up for the penalty. When elves spend 0 CP in a tech skill, they have a rank of -2. When they spend 5 CP in a tech skill (requiring 18 in the corresponding stat), they have only 18 in that skill, not 20. They can't spend another CP, as they've already spent 5, so they need some kind of item, blessing or other effect to increase the skill to 20 for mastery.

 

You CAN master Lock Picks as an elf. You need only 18, not 20 to master a skill. Also, since dwarves have +2 bonus to all tech skills, they can master them while spending only 4 CPs. Very useful for Repair for example, since it always works 100% if you're a master, it doesn't depend on the actual skill in this case.

 

Alright, well I see we all have a lot of different takes on this.

Tomorrow I'll start a new character, and use ArtMoney/Hacks to see if...

1. You can spend 6 points to make up for the -2

2. You can attain a rank of "Master" with only 18 (God this is going to be an annoying one.

3. You can spend only 4 points and achieve the rank of "Master" if you started with a +2 in that skill.

4. You can use items to get from a rank of 18 (after spending 5 points, due to the -2 penalty from X race) to temporarily offset the -2, and acheive a temporary rank of 20, and therefore be able to achieve mastery (this depends on 2 somewhat).

4-A. What happens once the items are removed? Will you keep mastery, but have a higher chance of say, jamming the lock like Bob said?

This shouldn't be too hard, as I just uncovered my old saves and found an elf in there, so it's just a matter of running up and back to the locations and than experimenting, not going through the entire story for a simple test.

 

Of course, you should check, since I must be pulling bullshit out of my ass.

You can check, but everything was checked before you. All master dialogs have requirements of 18 for each skill. Also, considering 6 CPs: a skill can't go higher than 20, and even as an elf, you technically get it up to 20 with 5 CPs, the penalty just alters it in-game. The same with stat penalties.

 

Uhh can you chill out? Because I never actually referenced you specifically and you don't need to get all defensive like I'm insulting you.

I want to do the check, I took information from several peoples posts here. I never said anything about going higher than twenty, but if you like I can try to force that to with the hack thing.

 

I especially liked the bold part.

Well, if you find results of hacking with ArtMoney more credible than my experience, then go ahead. It looks like, there's no reason for me to bother explaining anything to people like you.

EDIT: Additionally, instead of hacking the game (as it would give god knows what kind of results if you don't know what you're doing), you could have used my Virgil's debug menu, which does the job in a few seconds.

 

Just because it's going to be annoying and tedious doesn't mean I don't want to do it? That's only 1/5 of the check. I'm sure you were annoyed by some of the fixes in your UAP, or found them tedious, but that doesn't mean you hated doing the entire UAP project. Way to nit-pick to try to insult me? What is the point of you saying this, I want to do the check, take my word for it about what I want to do. Don't care about the results, than don't reply.

I especially liked the bold parts as well. Keep in mind you aren't the only user that matters on this forum. What bob said got me curious, along with what Team A said.

Let's not make this personal, alright? I said I would try to force a rank over 20 if you'd like using artmoney, not just alter skills.

I think I'll try to do it anyway, the natural way with just playing through. I just like doing these kind of things.

 

If it's 18 for Mastery, what are the requirements for expert and apprentice? I assume you've checked those too.

 

You need at least 1 for Apprentice and at least 9 for Expert.

EDIT: Goddamn.