whoa i just realised...

u can cast agility of fire, strength of earth etc as much as u like so long have u have the spell slot. so if i had 20 intelligence i could hav an extra 20 strength (SoE X 5=20)
and yes i hav tedted this theory and it works though i did it with VoA

 

That may be, but do some math: 4 points invested into INT to maintain the spell that gives +3 ST, or 4 points invested into ST directly. Which one gives more?

 

inmo having used those four points to obtain n additional 3 in strength is the best option. its not as if inteligence is only good for using that one spell, but strength is only good for damage hp and carry weight.

 

In fact, intelligence is only needed for a mage to maintain spells. When you happen to need it in dialogs, you can always use a Potion of Intellect. I don't use AoF or SoE anymore. A battle mage only needs three spells to maintain- Shield of Protection, Haste and Tempus Fugit. That requires intelligence 12, not higher. Well, Wall of Force may also be good, but its not really that necessery.

 

you can't go over 20 st, so if you have even 4 already you only need 4 SoE

 

im not sure but i think if u have 3 VoA's going and u have 8 con it gives u a heal rate of 7, which would increase ur healrate by 1
HR 3
-VoA X 3
+4 HR
= HR 4

and aside from thes benefits which may not apply ur fatigue goes up as in max fatigue as well as when the spell is on it is as if it isnt on as it gives a +1 healrate. also i use a mages dagger which gives me man 10 so when my dagger is fully charged and im using 1 VoA i get the full 4 HR for about 100(or 50?) secs

 

what about summon spells? or body of air? that helps me a shitload with 95 DR

 

what i meant was that if you are a level 50 mage and you cast that spell you suddenly mathematically represent more character points than there are available in an un-modded game, so in that sense, it is better to have spent the intelligence necessary to cast that spell, because it also opens up more magical advantages. while adding 3 strength might not be as beneficial to fighting as adding four, having a bunch of spells available AND having the bonus of 3 more points in strength is well worth it.

 

actually it adds 4 points of strength and it only costs 1 point to get the spell and that can add 8 to your strength if u have two spell slots and if u make another spellslot thats 12 strength and another 16 if these slots could only be used for these spells, yes it would be better to put the points right into strength but u can use em for summoning, shield of force, body of(insert element here) etc
And like i said before VoA is especially useful in that when u cast it ur heal rate goes up so its like ur not using the spell but ur max fatigue, poison recovery and poison resistance go up

 

not true, I'm using a half-ogre with 24 strength (melee man, pure and true!)

 

i think certain races can go over the 20 limit, but i dont think ogres can get over 16/18 in beauty and intelligence as a result, so it balances out. 20 is the limit for every human stat though...

or at least i think thats the way it works, i've only played with a human so far.

 

basically you can spend points like this.
Starting points( does not include backgrounds as they dont affect max stats) 12
therefore a half-ogre can get 24 str