. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 5, Resolve 5] [375 XP to unlock].
-
Improve to Precision Training 2 for XP cost reduction of 2%. [Passive] [Requires: Focus 6, Resolve 7] [750 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotaclass="underline" 0
-
TOTAL SKILLMEISTER SKILL XP COST: 0
Summary
-
Available XP: 2,240
Cost of Intended Changes: 0
Precision Training Discount (0%): 0
Total Adjusted Cost: 0
Total Projected Remaining: 2,240
Confirm?: Yes / No
∇
“I don’t know what I’m doing though,” I said.
Oh, right, Nola said. Let’s take it from the top. You can change your weapon class any time, but you shouldn’t. Once you start improving it, you’ll unlock stronger and more accurate attacks that you can spend your Action Points on in battle. I call that AP for short. When you get hit by someone else’s attack, you lose Health Points, HP for short.
Weapon classes open up after you’ve started using a new type of weapon. Special Classes are difficult to open up, so you tend not to get many. Constitution is how robust your physical life force is. Each point of it increases max HP by 100. Reach zero HP and you’ll fall unconscious. It’s very easy for someone to kill you then, so try not to get too hurt.
Vivacity is how robust your spirit is. Each point gives you another 20 maximum Action Points.
Strength and equipped weapons improve your potential for harming an opponent, which will be reduced by their ability to block damage with Hardiness and armor. Focus and Resolve work the same way for magic damage inflicted and blocked.
Lastly, you gain experience points – XP – from certain things. If you have a weapon class available, you gain XP from defeating enemies. If you have a special class, you gain XP from using that. Skillmeister provides very little XP for beginners, so stick with combat for now.
As a skillmeister, you can spend anyone’s XP with their consent to improve their levels and skills. Special classes and their related skills are the most expensive, followed by weapon classes and their related skills. Least expensive are core attributes, but you’re going to upgrade those more often in order to improve the stats that go along with them. You’ll find that once you get close to having the attributes necessary to unlock new skills, those skills will reveal themselves.
Now, if you don’t mind, I need to rest so I can evolve.
“Wait!” I said. “You said we’d take it from the top. You skipped my name.”
I thought that part was self-explanatory. Oh, gods, I fried your brain didn’t I? Why can’t I ever get the link-up right? It’s a shame I ruined one of the cute ones this time.
“My brain isn’t fried!” I said. “Good to know you had no idea what you were doing when — wait, you think I’m cute?”
You were asking about your name?
“Oh yeah,” I said. “It says Arden Hochbright. Is that correct? I never knew I had a last name.”
You poor guy, Nola said. It has to be right. Congratulations on your new name!
“Yeah, thanks.” Hochbright. Where does a name like that even come from? I didn’t know anyone in Meadowdale with that name.”
Nola yawned. Not visibly; she still lay frozen inside her crystal. I heard it in my mind though. She was tired, and I should let her rest. It was the nice thing for a head priest to do.
“Have a nice rest, Nola,” I said. “And thank you.”
You are welcome. And with that, Nola stopped transmitting speech directly into my brain. I was relieved. I wanted some time to rest too, and to focus on my own skills and attributes. There was no better way to learn how to use this skill than by doing, right? I cracked open my skillmeister menu.
A lifetime of using my improvised spear and similar weapons against the vermin that crept into the temple had amassed to 2,240 XP. That didn’t seem like much for all the critters I had kiboshed. I suspected experience points were a valuable, if not rare, resource. Anything I could do to decrease how many I had to spend would be a boon.
The first thing I wanted to do was unlock Precision Training. That meant spending a lot of XP on other things first.
I spent 25 XP to raise Focus from 1 to 2. The price of moving from 2 to 3 was 50. Then 75 to go up to 4. I noticed a trend. For another 100 XP I achieved Focus 5.
I repeated the process for Resolve, then spent 375 points to unlock skillmeister’s first skill, Precision Training. The next level would be 750, and scanning further levels showed it would go up to 1125, then 1500 – an additional 375 on top of the previous level’s cost, each time.
By the time I confirmed unlocking Precision Training, I had already spent 875 XP. All that just to save 1% on my other skills. I suddenly wondered if that were at all worth it.
In the near term, I’d need to be stronger more than I’d need to be frugal. I decided to stop improving Precision Training there and move on to my weapon skills. I improved Constitution, Vivacity, Strength, and Hardiness all to level 5, spending another thousand points total, though my discount would save 1% of that.
Neat, I thought. I’ve saved 10 points already thanks to my skillmeister skill. I just wish I hadn’t spent so much on opening it.
With 125 XP to unlock Piercing Blow, I’d have a special polearm skill at my disposal. Since I wasn’t likely to cause any magic damage without magic spells available, I put some extra points into my Strength and Hardiness. By the time I was done, my skillmeister menu looked a lot better.
My remaining XP number was a little confusing though. I worked out some quick math to figure out that I earned XP from skillmeistering, roughly 0.5% of the XP I invested, which got added into my total at the end.
Δ
Skillmeister View of:
Arden Hochbright
Base Attribute / XP to Next / Intended Change / Total XP Cost
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1 Constitution / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 5 / Total XP Cost: 250
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1 Vivacity / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 5 / Total XP Cost: 250
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1 Strength / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 375
-
1 Hardiness / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 6 / Total XP Cost: 375
-
5 Focus / 125 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
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5 Resolve / 125 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
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TOTAL BASE ATTRIBUTE XP COST: 1250
Stats Affected by Change
-
[Constitution] Health Points (HP): 100/100 –> 500/500
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[Vivacity] Action Points (AP): 20/20 –> 100/100
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[Strength] Phys. Damage Inflict Range: 10-12 –> 60-73
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[Hardiness] Phys. Damage Block Range: 5-8 –> 32-46
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[Focus] Mag. Damage Inflict Range: 50-61
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[Resolve] Mag. Damage Block Range: 27-38
Skills For Weapon Class: Polearm
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Locked.
Piercing Blow 1.
Damage multiplier of 2.0
. [20 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 5] [125 XP to unlock].
-
Improve to Piercing Blow 2 for damage multiplier of 2.2. [20 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 7] [250 XP to improve].
…
Intended Change: 0 –> 1