Difference between revisions of "Skill"

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'''Skills''' are the many particular aspects of the adventurer's trade that your character will need if they intend to survive. Like [[experience level]]s, they are gained automatically as you earn [[experience]] through the killing of monsters. While gaining experience levels provides general boosts to your character, gaining skill levels only provides benefits for the narrow sections of adventuring that they pertain to. Like character levels, the highest level a skill can reach is [[27]].
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'''Skills''' represent your character's effectiveness in offensive, defensive, and magical disciplines.  Starting skill levels depend on character [[species]] and [[background]].  As characters earn [[experience]], XP is spread across different skills according to the distribution specified on the Skill Screen ('''m'''), multiplied by species' [[aptitudes]]. Skill levels are capped at [[27]].
  
Focusing your skill progression on skills that A) your [[species]] has a natural [[aptitude]] for and that B) you'll actually use can make or break a character. Every species has an aptitude ranging from -5 to +5 for each individual skill, a measure of how easily they can learn it. While you aren't necessarily restricted from branching into skills you have a bad aptitude for, training them will take longer and you may not be able to acquire enough experience to keep your character effective as you go deeper into the [[Dungeon]].
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Skill management is central to strategic play.  Allocating your XP to align with your [[aptitudes]], available [[Item|equipment]], and playstyle will make or break your character.  
  
Characters start the game with access to a small selection of skills. More can be acquired over time.
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Every species (excepting [[Gnoll]]) is rated from -5 to +5 in each skill, with higher scores yielding faster skill progress. Training skills with poor aptitudes is possible, but will be notably slower and may leave characters underprepared for later content.  
  
 
==Skill Types==
 
==Skill Types==
Skills are roughly divided into five categories:
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Skills can be divided into three categories:
  
 
'''Offense'''
 
'''Offense'''
*[[Fighting]]: Improves your damage in melee, increases your max [[HP]].
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*[[Fighting]]: Improves melee damage, melee accuracy, and max [[HP]].
*[[Unarmed Combat]]: Improves your damage, accuracy, and attack speed when making melee attacks without a weapon, and allows you to make auxiliary unarmed combat attacks.
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*Weapon skills: Improve damage, accuracy, and attack speed with a weapon group. Training a weapon skill also gives a bonus to any skills that [[cross-train]] with it.
*Individual Weapon Skills ([[Short Blades]], [[Maces & Flails]], etc.): Improves your damage, accuracy, and attack speed when using the weapons each skill covers. Some weapon skills cross-train, allowing you to learn their associated, lower-level skills at a faster rate (+4 to the corresponding aptitude, roughly 2× normal speed).
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**[[Axes]]: Axes.    ''Cross-trains with [[Maces & Flails]] and [[Polearms]]''
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**[[Bows]]: Bows. 
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**[[Crossbows]]: Crossbows.
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**[[Long Blades]]: Swords.    ''Cross-trains with [[Short Blades]]''
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**[[Maces & Flails]]: Maces, flails and whips.    ''Cross-trains with [[Axes]] and [[Staves]]''
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**[[Polearms]]: Spears, tridents, etc.     ''Cross-trains with [[Axes]] and [[Staves]]''
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**[[Short Blades]]: Daggers, short swords, rapiers etc.    ''Cross-trains with [[Long Blades]]''
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**[[Slings]]: Slings.  ''cross-trains with [[Throwing]]''
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**[[Staves]]: Quarterstaves, lajatangs and magical staves.    ''Cross-trains with [[Maces & Flails]] and [[Polearms]]''
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**[[Throwing]]:  Thrown weapons & blowguns.     ''cross-trains with [[Slings]]''
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**[[Unarmed Combat]]: When without a wielded weapon. [[Auxiliary attacks]] are ''not'' improved.
  
 
'''Defense'''
 
'''Defense'''
*[[Dodge]] - Improves your [[evasion]] (more effective when wearing lighter [[armour]]).
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*[[Armour (skill)|Armour]]: Improves the [[AC]] bonus armour gives (more effective with heavier armour).  Reduces the impact of armour [[EV]] and [[spell success]] penalties.
*[[Armour (skill)|Armour]] - Improves the [[AC]] bonus armour gives you (more effective when wearing heavier armour), reduces the impact of armour EV penalties.
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*[[Dodging]]: Improves [[EV]].  More effective with lighter [[armour]] and higher [[dexterity]].
*[[Shields (skill)|Shields]] - Improves the [[SH]] bonus [[shields]] gives you, reduces the impact of shield EV penalties.
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*[[Shields (skill)|Shields]]: Improves the [[SH]] bonus [[shields]] gives you. Reduces and eliminates the impact of shield [[EV]] and [[spell success]] penalties.
*[[Stealth]] - Reduces the likelihood of unaware monsters detecting you.
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*[[Stealth]]: Reduces the likelihood of unaware monsters detecting you. Increases the chance of out of sight monsters losing track of you.
  
'''Thievery'''
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'''Magic'''
*[[Stabbing]] - Adds a damage multiplier when you attack an enemy that is not yet aware of you (more effective with certain weapons).
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*[[Spellcasting]]: Slightly increases the [[spell power]] and [[spell success|success rate]] of any spell you cast, reduces the [[spell hunger]] generated, increases your max [[MP]], and grants you extra spell levels to memorize more spells.
*[[Traps]] - Increases the likelihood of you finding nearby [[traps]] as well as your ability to disarm mechanical traps.
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*[[Invocations]]: Improves the effectiveness of powers granted by your [[god]], increases your max [[MP]]. Some gods do not require training of this skill.
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*[[Evocations]]: Improves the effectiveness of using [[wand]]s and [[evocable]]s. Increases your max [[MP]].
  
'''Spellcasting'''
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The highest of your [[Spellcasting]], [[Invocations]] and [[Evocations]] skills will determine your [[MP]] bonus. For this purpose each level of Spellcasting skill counts as two.
*[[Spellcasting]] - Slightly increases the [[spell power]] of any spell you cast, reduces the [[spell hunger]] generated, increases your max [[MP]], and grants you extra spell levels to memorize more spells.
 
*There are many individual skills for the many magic schools you can study. These include styles such as [[Conjurations]] (direct attack magic) and [[Charms]] (magic to enhance your abilities), as well as [[element]]al schools such as [[Fire Magic]] or [[Poison Magic]]. All of these skills have the same general effect, however: to improve the spell success rate and spell power of their associated spells (though some schools have other minor benefits as well, such as improved prowess while wielding an elemental staff). Be aware that some elemental schools are opposed (Fire/Ice, Earth/Air). If you've already gained skill in one school, you'll find it much harder to train the other (-4 to the corresponding aptitude, roughly 1/2 normal speed).
 
  
'''Alternative Magic'''
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*[[Spell school]] skills: Improve [[spell power]] and [[spell success|success rate]].  Casting a single spell may rely on more than one skill.
*[[Invocations]] - Improves the effectiveness of powers granted by the [[gods]], increases your max MP.
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**[[Air Magic]]: Mainly attack spells that focus on [[wind]] and [[electricity]].
*[[Evocations]] - Improves the effectiveness and safety of using magical items. Increases your max MP.
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**[[Conjurations]]: Direct attack magic.
 
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**[[Charms]]: Magic to enhance your abilities.
Note that of the three different skills that contribute to your maximum MP value, only the highest skill will contribute -- you will not receive the bonuses from each.
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**[[Earth Magic]]: Mainly attack spells that involve manipulation of the earth.
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**[[Fire Magic]]: Attack spells that involve fire.
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**[[Hexes]]: Magic to weaken enemies.
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**[[Ice Magic]]: Mainly attack and enhancing spells that involve cold.
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**[[Necromancy]]: Spells involving manipulation of negative energy and the undead.
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**[[Poison Magic]]: Magic involving poison.
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**[[Summonings]]: Magic involving temporarily creating allies.
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**[[Translocations]]: Move yourself, enemies or objects.
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**[[Transmutations]]: Transform yourself, enemies or objects.
  
 
==The Skill Screen==
 
==The Skill Screen==
Pressing '''[[m]]''' will bring up the Skill Screen, allowing you to select which skills you'd like to train and how you'd like the game to invest your XP. It also shows you your character's current skill levels and aptitude for each skill, complete with adjustments made for cross-training and opposed magic schools. You can switch between displaying only those skills you can train/have trained and all skills with the '''*''' button.
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Pressing '''m''' will bring up the Skill Screen, allowing you to select which skills you'd like to train and how you'd like the game to invest your XP. It also shows your character's current skill levels and aptitude for each skill, complete with adjustments made for cross-training and opposed magic schools. You can switch between displaying only those skills you can train/have trained and all skills with the '''*''' button.
  
 
You can select which skills to train by either clicking on its name in the list or pressing the key associated to it. Any skill that you haven't selected will have its name displayed in dark gray, and it will not improve. You can also choose to focus certain skills, causing them to gain twice the amount of experience they'd normally receive. Focused skill names are displayed in white, and their tiles icon will display with a blue glow.
 
You can select which skills to train by either clicking on its name in the list or pressing the key associated to it. Any skill that you haven't selected will have its name displayed in dark gray, and it will not improve. You can also choose to focus certain skills, causing them to gain twice the amount of experience they'd normally receive. Focused skill names are displayed in white, and their tiles icon will display with a blue glow.
  
 
The skill screen also allows you to choose whether to divide your XP in auto or manual mode by pressing the '''/''' key. Auto mode adjusts the XP division so that skills you use more will receive the greatest share of new XP, while those you rarely use receive less. In manual mode, each active skill receives a perfectly equal share of gained XP, while focused skills receive double that.  Most veteran players advise always using manual mode, as it is far easier to control where your XP goes using it. Furthermore, you can ensure your XP is split between fewer skills, which is generally good strategy.
 
The skill screen also allows you to choose whether to divide your XP in auto or manual mode by pressing the '''/''' key. Auto mode adjusts the XP division so that skills you use more will receive the greatest share of new XP, while those you rarely use receive less. In manual mode, each active skill receives a perfectly equal share of gained XP, while focused skills receive double that.  Most veteran players advise always using manual mode, as it is far easier to control where your XP goes using it. Furthermore, you can ensure your XP is split between fewer skills, which is generally good strategy.
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You can set skill targets by pressing '''=''' in the skill menu, then the letter of the skill you want to set a target for, then entering the value to set a target at. Once that skill reaches the skill target, it will automatically turn off. This can also be done for weapons' min-delay and shields skill-to-remove-penalty by entering the item description and pressing '''s'''. Skill targets let you much more easily control exactly how many points you want in a particular skill, and stop you from forgetting to turn off skills. Additionally, should all of your skill targets be reached and you're no longer training anything, you are prompted to turn on a skill.
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Pressing '''!''' will switch between 3 views: training, where you can see how much of your experience is going towards each skill; cost, which compares the experience requirement of raising that skill by 1 level with a level 0 skill at 0 aptitude; and targets, which shows your current skill targets.
  
 
===Skill Requirements===
 
===Skill Requirements===
 
In any case, you'll notice that you do not have access to all skills from the very beginning of the game. This is because many skills require associated equipment to become available:
 
In any case, you'll notice that you do not have access to all skills from the very beginning of the game. This is because many skills require associated equipment to become available:
 
*You must have an appropriate weapon in order to train its weapon skill.
 
*You must have an appropriate weapon in order to train its weapon skill.
*You must be wearing a shield or be able to create a magical shield to train Shields
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*You must be carrying a shield to train [[Shields]].
 
*You must have a spell of a particular school memorized to train that school's skill.
 
*You must have a spell of a particular school memorized to train that school's skill.
*You must worship a god who grants invocable powers to train Invocations
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**Having abilities provided by [[Kikubaaqudgha]] will allow training [[Necromancy]].
*You must have an evocable item in your [[inventory]] to train Evocations
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*You must worship a god who grants invocable powers to train [[Invocations]].
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*You must be carrying an [[evocable items|evocable item]] or have abilities provided by [[Nemelex]] to train [[Evocations]].
  
Removing these items, forgetting these spells, or abandoning these gods will cause you to no longer be able to train their skills, but you will not lose the progress you've made thus far. Be aware that when [[quaff]]ing a [[potion of experience]] or drawing an [[experience card]], you will immediately be asked which skills you'd like to improve. Make sure you have access to the skills you want to put this into!
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Additionally carrying a [[manual]] will always allow training the associated skill. Skill points gained from drinking a [[potion of experience]] are not subject to these restrictions.
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Removing these items, forgetting these spells, or abandoning these gods will cause you to no longer be able to train their skills, but you will not lose the progress you've made thus far.
  
 
==Experience Required==
 
==Experience Required==
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These amounts are also themselves significantly increased as your character gains more and more skill experience.  At higher levels, the amount of actual experience required to produce the same increase in skill levels reaches as high as 265 times the amount of experience a character with no skill experience would require.  However, mobs in the late game give drastically more experience, so this effect is not too difficult to overcome.
 
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
Prior to [[0.12]], some skills had inherent bonuses or penalties to training, regardless of your aptitude. Spellcasting was penalized, requiring 130% of standard XP to gain each level. Invocations, Evocations, and Stealth were easier, however, requiring only 80%.
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*[[0.21]] - Added skill targets.
 
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*[[0.18]] - Added the ability to see the relative cost of training different skills.
Prior to [[0.10]], the Stealth skill training bonus was even better. Each level required only 50% of the XP needed for other skills.
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*[[0.15]] - Removed aptitude penalty for training opposed magic schools. Changed cross-training to give a direct bonus to cross-trained skills, rather than decreasing the XP cost of learning them.
 
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*[[0.13]] - Removed [[Stabbing]] and [[Traps]] skills.
Prior to 0.10, skills only required particular equipment or spells for the first level, and those first levels could only be gained by using those skills while gaining XP.
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*[[0.12]] - Equalized all skill costs. Formerly, [[Spellcasting]] cost 130%; [[Invocations]], [[Evocations]], and [[Stealth]] 80%.
 
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*[[0.10]] - [[Stealth]] cost changed from 50% to 80%.
Prior to [[0.9]], XP functioned very differently: instead of automatically being assigned to skills, it would go into an experience pool. This XP was then applied to skills as they were used, resulting in repetitive and annoying "[[victory dance]]s" designed to funnel the XP appropriately.
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*[[0.10]] - Equipment impact on skill training standardized from skill level 0-27.
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*[[0.9]] - Change to current skill system.  Formerly, [[XP]] was saved when earned, then applied to skills as they were used, resulting in repetitive and annoying [[victory dancing]] designed to funnel the [[XP]] appropriately.
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==
*[[Complete list of skills]]
 
 
*[[Skill titles]]
 
*[[Skill titles]]
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{{Skills}}

Revision as of 05:39, 8 June 2018

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Skills represent your character's effectiveness in offensive, defensive, and magical disciplines. Starting skill levels depend on character species and background. As characters earn experience, XP is spread across different skills according to the distribution specified on the Skill Screen (m), multiplied by species' aptitudes. Skill levels are capped at 27.

Skill management is central to strategic play. Allocating your XP to align with your aptitudes, available equipment, and playstyle will make or break your character.

Every species (excepting Gnoll) is rated from -5 to +5 in each skill, with higher scores yielding faster skill progress. Training skills with poor aptitudes is possible, but will be notably slower and may leave characters underprepared for later content.

Skill Types

Skills can be divided into three categories:

Offense

Defense

  • Armour: Improves the AC bonus armour gives (more effective with heavier armour). Reduces the impact of armour EV and spell success penalties.
  • Dodging: Improves EV. More effective with lighter armour and higher dexterity.
  • Shields: Improves the SH bonus shields gives you. Reduces and eliminates the impact of shield EV and spell success penalties.
  • Stealth: Reduces the likelihood of unaware monsters detecting you. Increases the chance of out of sight monsters losing track of you.

Magic

The highest of your Spellcasting, Invocations and Evocations skills will determine your MP bonus. For this purpose each level of Spellcasting skill counts as two.

The Skill Screen

Pressing m will bring up the Skill Screen, allowing you to select which skills you'd like to train and how you'd like the game to invest your XP. It also shows your character's current skill levels and aptitude for each skill, complete with adjustments made for cross-training and opposed magic schools. You can switch between displaying only those skills you can train/have trained and all skills with the * button.

You can select which skills to train by either clicking on its name in the list or pressing the key associated to it. Any skill that you haven't selected will have its name displayed in dark gray, and it will not improve. You can also choose to focus certain skills, causing them to gain twice the amount of experience they'd normally receive. Focused skill names are displayed in white, and their tiles icon will display with a blue glow.

The skill screen also allows you to choose whether to divide your XP in auto or manual mode by pressing the / key. Auto mode adjusts the XP division so that skills you use more will receive the greatest share of new XP, while those you rarely use receive less. In manual mode, each active skill receives a perfectly equal share of gained XP, while focused skills receive double that. Most veteran players advise always using manual mode, as it is far easier to control where your XP goes using it. Furthermore, you can ensure your XP is split between fewer skills, which is generally good strategy.

You can set skill targets by pressing = in the skill menu, then the letter of the skill you want to set a target for, then entering the value to set a target at. Once that skill reaches the skill target, it will automatically turn off. This can also be done for weapons' min-delay and shields skill-to-remove-penalty by entering the item description and pressing s. Skill targets let you much more easily control exactly how many points you want in a particular skill, and stop you from forgetting to turn off skills. Additionally, should all of your skill targets be reached and you're no longer training anything, you are prompted to turn on a skill.

Pressing ! will switch between 3 views: training, where you can see how much of your experience is going towards each skill; cost, which compares the experience requirement of raising that skill by 1 level with a level 0 skill at 0 aptitude; and targets, which shows your current skill targets.

Skill Requirements

In any case, you'll notice that you do not have access to all skills from the very beginning of the game. This is because many skills require associated equipment to become available:

  • You must have an appropriate weapon in order to train its weapon skill.
  • You must be carrying a shield to train Shields.
  • You must have a spell of a particular school memorized to train that school's skill.
  • You must worship a god who grants invocable powers to train Invocations.
  • You must be carrying an evocable item or have abilities provided by Nemelex to train Evocations.

Additionally carrying a manual will always allow training the associated skill. Skill points gained from drinking a potion of experience are not subject to these restrictions.

Removing these items, forgetting these spells, or abandoning these gods will cause you to no longer be able to train their skills, but you will not lose the progress you've made thus far.

Experience Required

The chart below shows how many total skill points must be allocated to a skill for it to reach each skill level:

Level Total skill points Level Total skill points Level Total skill points
1 50 10 2,800 19 12,300
2 150 11 3,450 20 13,950
3 300 12 4,200 21 15,750
4 500 13 5,050 22 17,700
5 750 14 6,000 23 19,800
6 1,050 15 7,050 24 22,050
7 1,400 16 8,200 25 24,450
8 1,800 17 9,450 26 27,000
9 2,250 18 10,800 27 29,750

These amounts are then adjusted based on your character's aptitudes. An aptitude of n means you'll need 2^(-n/4) times as much XP to advance as a character with an aptitude of zero for that skill would.

Aptitude +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 +0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5
XP Multiplier 2.38 2.0 1.68 1.41 1.19 1.0 0.84 0.71 0.59 0.5 0.42


History

  • 0.21 - Added skill targets.
  • 0.18 - Added the ability to see the relative cost of training different skills.
  • 0.15 - Removed aptitude penalty for training opposed magic schools. Changed cross-training to give a direct bonus to cross-trained skills, rather than decreasing the XP cost of learning them.
  • 0.13 - Removed Stabbing and Traps skills.
  • 0.12 - Equalized all skill costs. Formerly, Spellcasting cost 130%; Invocations, Evocations, and Stealth 80%.
  • 0.10 - Stealth cost changed from 50% to 80%.
  • 0.10 - Equipment impact on skill training standardized from skill level 0-27.
  • 0.9 - Change to current skill system. Formerly, XP was saved when earned, then applied to skills as they were used, resulting in repetitive and annoying victory dancing designed to funnel the XP appropriately.

See Also

Skills
Weapons Short BladesLong BladesRanged Weapons

AxesMaces & FlailsPolearmsStavesUnarmed CombatThrowing

Physical FightingArmourDodgingStealthShields
Magical SpellcastingInvocationsEvocationsShapeshifting
Spell Schools AirAlchemyConjurationsEarthFireHexesIceNecromancySummoningTranslocations