Cool, but maybe you could edit this part - "

The pharmaceutical companies make this an uncomfortable abbreviation for my name.

This deserves a bumpy for any new arena players. Very helpfull.

Aha! This is exactly the sort of useful information about acrobats I was looking for-- their abilities do not go up with levels, while apparently a monk's do! Thanks Nirreln, that's the answer I was looking for!
On the other hand, it's not good news, since I liked the idea of acrobats. But if their ability is static, it's not very much use in the long term, I think.

:sigh: a lich is here. He necromanced an ancient thread.

An action for which I commend him. It's a great thread, one I would likely have never discovered if it wasn't for his bump.

On the other hand, it's not good news, since I liked the idea of acrobats. But if their ability is static, it's not very much use in the long term, I think.

One area where Acrobats shine is climbing out of pits and water. Any class can do it, but Acrobats get out like Jack the Bear (Argonian Acrobats are the shiz that way). This comes into play when there's an enemy (e.g., homonculus) hurling magic attacks at you whilst you emerge; you can't retaliate till you're out. Meantime, they kill you if you take too long. BTW, you can hide in a pit all you like and their attacks will still get you, so you have no choice but to get out or maybe run away in the pit and hope for the best.

I'd like to take credit, but if Zalphon had bothered to look, he'd have seen the last post before me was only a month and a half ago. Davor had already helpfully brought the thread back up, and why not-- as others have noted it's a darn useful thread.



I have noticed this, though I've only done it with Kahjiits, who jump out of pits like they're on springs. Unfortunately once they're out of the pit, they seem to die fairly quickly. The combat curve on Arena is sharp. By about level four the enemies seem to be able to cut through your armor like paper, and acrobats don't get that much armor to begin with. I've tried a 'gimmick' acrobat, with as much magical jewelry as I can find/steal to make up for the lack of spells, but the off-the-shelf shield spell in them is junk. Opposite of how it should be designed, y'know? High starting level with a tiny increase per level, unlike spellmaker spells which usually work better the other way?

Ok, so, what about monks, then? The base protection is purely a function of level, one-to-one? Or is it a percentage, X% per level? The magic resistance ability seems pretty useful, since a character with a high willpower would get that right from the start of the game. Combine that with another inborn resistance, say, High Elf paralysis immunity or Nord cold immunity and I'd think they'd be pretty well shielded against most spells, right?

Ok, so, what about monks, then? The base protection is purely a function of level, one-to-one? Or is it a percentage, X% per level?

Without cracking the code, I think you have to start with what the manual says and take it from there empirically. What the manual says about Monks is somewhere in this thread. It seems safe to say it goes up a bit when you level, but IME monster spellcasters are always going to be a factor; YMMV.

The magic resistance ability seems pretty useful, since a character with a high willpower would get that right from the start of the game. Combine that with another inborn resistance, say, High Elf paralysis immunity or Nord cold immunity and I'd think they'd be pretty well shielded against most spells, right?

Only one way to find out! Note that early in the game, you encounter few spell-throwers. You could well encounter none till you get to the bottom of Fang Lair.

IMO cold immunity isn't terribly useful. Only with snow wolves does it frequently come into play; even the mighty ice golem will only hit you with his gelid fist, which hurts everyone alike in my experience (anyone who'd like to experiment and post the results is encouraged to do so). NPCs rarely throw cold spells.

Paralysis immunity is pretty large, though. If I were making a particular point of trying not to die, a High Elf is what I'd be no matter what class I was.

I rarely bump threads, but although I found info more directed to noobs (and I am pretty experienced in A), only here did I find sth I was dying to know for sure: Critical hit chances for Assassin and Monk.

The way the UESPwiki writes, Monks and Assassins have the exact same chance for Criticals (3% / level), which would make the Monk more interesting IMO, due to his lower chance to be hit in melee, archery and spells.

But as it seems, Assassins remain the Kings of Critical Strikes, melee-wise. I gather Monks do NOT have 3% / level, but the same 1% most classes have. Anyone else has this understanding?

Also, another curiousioty: Rangers - AFAIK, they add their level to damage with any weapon. So, A level 15 Ranger would be dealing +15 damage. HOWEVER, somewhere here it is written it is "Ranger's level minus enemy's level". Anyone knows which is it?

Also, another curiousioty: Rangers - AFAIK, they add their level to damage with any weapon. So, A level 15 Ranger would be dealing +15 damage. HOWEVER, somewhere here it is written it is "Ranger's level minus enemy's level". Anyone knows which is it?

Unfortunately, nobody knows this sort of thing for a fact (this applies to your monk/assassin musings as well). The devs were for some reason loath to give exact percentages, either because they didn't want to tell us or because they thought we would be bored by such minutae, but whatever; there you have it. Also, you can't necessarily believe the manual or play guide; there were errata for the manual tossed in the box by the time they distributed 1.06, which shows there was more to be said on at least a few topics. For instance, IIRC one of those errata was how the Sorcerer accumulated magicka; this implies to me they were tweaking the game right up until they made the diskettes. And if they'd tweak that, what mightn't they have tweaked?

I've never heard about the Ranger differential, but who knows, maybe it does work that way. You'd need to go empirical; a huge number of attempts to hit the same enemy is the only thing that would allow you to be able to opine with any degree of confidence. BTW, "the same enemy" is saying an awful lot if you think about it; not all fire daemons are created equal...

Also FWIW I never got the feeling that the Ranger damage increase was a straight +level type of thing. I'd have to consult my manual to get the exact wording, but IIRC it was a bit wigglier than your interpretation. But you could be right; sometimes I don't read so good.

you're right - it may be totally pointless to try and get a better understanding than there already is. We can only speculate on what could be etc... and live with it. As I said, I do not really need to know these details to enjoy the game as I have. I always come back to Arena.

For my questions, what I can speculate about the A x M critical thing is that no one beats A's when it comes to frequency of CS, since Monks already havetwo nice enough abilities.

Hey, can you imagine, 20 years after Arena's release (it is coming...) an exclusive with those guys who actually did the work nad play-tested the mechanix, saying "sorry guys, the race, class specials...are just not accurate, only spell-wise, etc...", and here we are debating which is better... Ha ha ha...