Question regarding stat boosting

So I'm playing a fighter w/ a little magic.

I took the Earth spell to raise STR by 4 as my initial spell (and only until I had got my fighting maxed mostly), which worked awesome so far by the way. It was hugely useful in the early goings.

So anyway, I noticed that the spell itself will not raise my STR above 20 (it will raise Sogg's to 24). So my question is, is there any other way such as items that I CAN raise my strength above 20?

I ask because wearing nice armor makes it just barely impossible for me to stay unencumbered. Carrying nothing but my worn equipment and a small assortment of potions and scrolls (which I can't make Virgil carry because he'll just use them up in 20 seconds), I'm at about 1700 stones.

Thanks!

 

Why don't you just raise your strength? Wouldn't that accomplish the same effect?

What armor do you have that's so heavy? Also, did you accidentally put something heavy in your quick bar? I know I've done that before, and I believe it's counted in the total stones you're carrying.

 

I do have my STR raised to 20 naturally now, thus the Earth spell no longer does me any good.

I have Mystic Plate Mail on which is the big culprit (1000 stone).

I suppose I could just reduce the number of potions and such I carry. I'm carrying 2 sticks of dynamite, 2 grenades from the original crash site, and a bunch of healing, poison, and haste potions.

I've never actually used any of these things at all so far in the game, so I suppose I could just dump them. I just have this nagging feeling that the moment I leave them behind I'll encounter some tough battle where I need them. I wish I could just make one of the other guys carry them and tell them not to use them.

This is my first playthrough by the way and I'm trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

 

I would suggest you to use a magick robe, or a magick leather armor, because they are not too heavy, and have the bonuses from magick.

But as your problem is with overall weight, not only with the armor (I guess), you should go check Shrouded Hill's tavern, talk to people there and you will find a (partial?) solution for your problem.

 

What good does that do someone who is levels beyond said person and doesn't have the charisma for 3 followers?

As for the topic at hand I usually go through the whole game almost always lightly to heavily encumbered even with npc's packed to the brim as well. :lol:

 

How about getting yourself a suit of Elven Chainmail? Almost as good armor class (AC14 instead of AC15), and half the weight.

 

It sounds like the OP has Sogg as a follower already. In which case, I'll just say that you can give Sogg the dynamite and grenades and he won't use them.

 

Awesome, I had just been assuming that followers were use them if I handed to them since they seem to use anything else I give them without a second thought. That will help.

Yes, I have Sogg and Virgil. I'm maxed at two and I've stuck with those two since the beginning. I would have been tempted to drop Sogg for the undead Knight guy that I found, but he wouldn't travel with me anyway because I'm too good.

I might as well ask an unrelated question rather than start a new topic since I'm sure you guys will know: Am I not supposed to know where Stillwater is until later in the game (my next main plot line is Isle of Despair)? I have had it mentioned to me many times throughout the game as the place to find a Dodge Master as well as I now have a potion I'm supposed to deliver to the blind guy, but I'm never given the dialog option to ask anybody where it is. Seems strange that I've had it mentioned to me repeatedly since Shrouded Hills, but still can't ask anybody about it. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious.

 

No, you can't boost your stats above your racial cap.

You can swap your plate mail for a good chain mail, though. Or even leather. Try gypsies for magickal armor.

Yes and no. You will have to go to Stillwater a bit later in the game as part of the main plot, however, you can also find it by yourself by roaming the map, it won't break anything.

 

OK, thanks. I don't really want to just "find it by accident" since there is no way that would actually happen without me cheating. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss some obvious NPC somewhere who is supposed to tell me where it is.

It just seemed odd, as pretty much any other time that a location or town is mentioned to me, it's either put on my map immediately or I can ask random NPCs about it from that point forward until I find one that knows. Since neither thing had happened after being told to go there by several people, I thought I might have missed something important along the way.

Thanks!

 

I'm surprised no one has pointed out that raising your Strength above 20 wouldn't help you at all with your problem, seeing how the character's Carry Weight ability doesn't go above 10'000 stones with >20 Strength.

You forgot the Mystic Plate's (+8) AC magickal bonus there, not to mention the vastly superior resistances.

 

Yeah, I should have noticed that it wouldn't help anyway since Sogg's encumbrance limits are the same.

Anyway, I've just accepted being lightly encumbered the whole time. It makes things easier not really having to worry about what I'll need to pick up during the trip anyway, since I've got so much leeway before I hit moderately encumbered.

The bonuses from the Mystic Plate certainly seem worth the extra weight to me. Combined with the Shield spell, my physical resistance is almost 100. I must say, my character is quite the dominant force at this point. I found the entrance to the closed off section of Tarant sewers at level 12. Clearing it took me all the way to level 20 and I came out with some nice equipment and cash too. Ever since then, I don't think I've encountered anything I couldn't have fought solo.

The fighter/mage combo seems quite powerful. I think I'll try for something more challenging on my next playthrough, although I still haven't finished, so there's plenty of time for me to run into tougher situations. I basically just ignore traps though...they don't do enough harm to worry about.

 

If you plan on remaining encumbered perhaps you will want to invest in the first tier of the fire tree. The dexterity would be good unless of course you have already maxed it. Alternatives to having the healing potions is learning healing magic and just having fatigue potions.

When you reach stillwater say hello to the priestess, she is an old friend of mine.

 

Just finished it last night.

Thanks to all of you for your help along the way.

It's nice to finally check this one off my list...it's been sitting on that list for a LONG time now.

Overall great game. I think at the end, my feeling is of a similar theme to many of the reviews in that while everything was very good, I find myself thinking about what "could have been".

The opening scene through Tarant is amazing. I hardly felt like I could be bothered to follow the main quest line with so much other stuff to do. However, after finally talking to Gilbert Bates, everything seemed to get very linear from that point forward. No new areas were available to explore until they became available via the main quest line. Most of those areas consisted of only the main quest plus maybe 2 side quests and I didn't really feel compelled to follow through on many of them.

Even if the overall amount of content remained the same, I feel like it would have been better if it were spread out more over the various towns and gaining access to those towns wasn't so tied to the main quest line. I mean, people had been telling me to go to Stillwater since Shrouded Hills (because they make the best swords and the Dodge master is there), yet nobody will tell me how to get there? I can't book passage on a boat to a major capitol city until a quest giver tells me to go there?

Also, the difficulty seemed out of whack. The beginning was VERY hard. However, once I found the entrance to the closed off sewers in Tarant and cleared them (which leveled me from 12 to 20), I never felt threatened again in the whole game. I carried around all those potions, grenades from the beginning, and fate points waiting for a tough battle that just never came.

 

It'd be nice if there was a list of permament stat raisers in game. Try as I might I could not find it. Such as all the blessings and instances where one gets a permanent stat/skill/or other boost via interaction with an npc or quest.

All I know about currently are the gods' blessings, the gypsy one, and the kindly araballah over near shrouded hills. Not really interested in the curses, however.

I know several other games have those guides so I figured if anyone knew in particular to add to it.

 

Virgil's Debug Menu allows you to try all the blessings/curses.

Apart from that, there's a schematic in the Vendigroth Ruins that allows you to make a potion that permanently raises all stats by 1.

 

That isn't quite what I meant. Was just curious who gave out what and where they were found.

Like alright I'll use Vampire the Masquerade as an example, if you're familiar with their faqs and guides.

Every instance someone would train you for free in any given stat/skill/power. Such as Nines training you to fight for free.

For Arcanum I was merely looking for a list of freebie permament stats, skills that you could aquire through blessings, or other similar instances. Or was permanent stats only given through blessing and nothing else?

I know there was the god's blessings and a few small quests that would. Was hoping for a complete list of quests without bug abuse that would raise anything on a character sheet permanently. Such as Araballah's, Gypsy, God's, and that nympho priestess at the altar. Bridgitte. Bridgette? The French woman.

I'll go find out what you're onnabout with the Virgil Testicular Abuse. Perhaps a clue dwells within. Or at least the source of Virgil's inadequacies.

 

Pretty much.

There are the twelve god blessings plus the blessings of Arbalah, Brigitte and Madame Toussaude.

Then there are the Therapeutics found schematics: Brain Builder*, Muscle Maker** and Vivifier*** and that's it.



* permanently +1 all mental and -1 all physical stats, can be used any number of times, schematic in the Wheel Clan mines, next to the dread crystal spider family

** permanently -1 all mental and +1 all physical stats, can be used any number of times, schematic at the Stonecutter Clan, next to the hiding dwarves

*** permanently all stats +1, found at the Vendigroth ruins, can be used only once because of the scarceness of one of the ingredients