Stats - how much is enough ? (all Games)

Isildion · 02-13-2012, 12:14 PM

I'm currently playing Geneforge 1 but I plan to play the entire saga of course.

So I would like to ask for some advice regarding stats of all kinds.

I plan to play a Shaper in every game.

How much strength/dex/int/end should I try to have ?
It's obvious that int is the most important stat, but I guess you need some strength and especially endurance, and these stats aren't cheap.
So far I figured out that str.4 dex.0 int. 10(+) and end. 4 work quite good.

Same goes for the other skills, how much leadership will be enough ? How much mechanics ? How much luck ?
I've gathered so far that ~13 leadership is enough for all the dialog in Geneforge 1. Mechanics should be around ~5 combined with the Unlocking spell and lots of living tools. And luck only 2 points and the rest should be learned from a teacher to 30.

As a shaper I somehow don't consider magic important at all, I propably wouldn't spent a single point here. The only nice spell seems to be Unlock, and here I can ask how much is enough ?

For Shaping skills I will propably go all out magic shaping with Vlish, so that Battles will go down smoothly and I can enjoy the story and exploration.
But how do you balance out intelligence vs. shaping skill ?
It's obvious you want to have 7 of your chosen creatues with +2 int for combat control, but should that be your goal ? Or would you try to get more int to boost stats ?
What's more effective overall ? Boosting stats with more essence, or just increasing the shaping skill and therefore the level of the creatue ?

Like I said I'm currently playing Geneforge 1, but plan to play all, so I would be grateful for tips on all games.

Something like "Try to get 13 leadership for G1 and G2, and 15 for G3 ..." (just as an example).

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

Jothki · 02-17-2012, 12:14 PM

As a Shaper, you should have just enough strength to wear the equipment you need, and no more. Don't underestimate magic, you can probably skimp on offense but being able to bless your creations and disable enemies is pretty important.

It helps that in the later games, the points needed for stats increases as you increase them, meaning that you're encouraged to find some kind of balance.

Isildion · 04-19-2012, 03:56 AM

As a Shaper don't bother that much with strength, you will propably carry too much stuff anyway most of the time. And if you let your creatures handle the fighting there's no need to be agile during a battle. Just stay out of harms way.
Just ignore dexterity. As for intelligence you propably can't have enough, but after 10 it becomes far to expensive. You need enough to create all the creations you want with at least 2 points in intelligence.
Endurance ... as with most games you can't have enough, however, you most likely will never have enough. It's pretty normal to die in one hit mid-to-endgame, sometimes you die faster than you can even react, it's frustrating but that's why you should rely on your creations.

Same goes for the other skills, how much leadership will be enough ? How much mechanics ? How much luck ?
I've gathered so far that ~13 leadership is enough for all the dialog in Geneforge 1. Mechanics should be around ~5 combined with the Unlocking spell and lots of living tools. And luck only 2 points and the rest should be learned from a teacher to 30.

For most games a leadership of 10-12 is enough for pretty much all encounters. For mechanics you should get around 8-10 and save living-tools by using the Unlock spell on low-level locks. (1-2 living tools). But be careful, living tools are heavy, each one is 1 lbs. Pretty heavy for a lockpick.
You can pretty much ignore luck, it's not really worth that much, use the points somewhere else.

Combat Magic isn't that important but get around 5 in Blessing Magic and Mental magic. Mass Daze and Mass Energize are really really useful, but difficult to use. Mass Daze is resistet a lot of times and for Mass Energize you have to put yourself in harms way, but they can both turn the tide of the battle. Mass Energize pretty much doubles your battle power.

For Shaping skills I will propably go all out magic shaping with Vlish, so that Battles will go down smoothly and I can enjoy the story and exploration.
But how do you balance out intelligence vs. shaping skill ?
It's obvious you want to have 7 of your chosen creatues with +2 int for combat control, but should that be your goal ? Or would you try to get more int to boost stats ?
What's more effective overall ? Boosting stats with more essence, or just increasing the shaping skill and therefore the level of the creatue ?

Vlish are pretty good but not all-powerful. You don't really have to boost anything but the 2 points in intelligence. Get the shaping skill to 10, that's a trivial task for a Shaper.
Propably the most important thing is to keep your creations around so they gain level-ups. First time I played I payed no attention to that and destroyed/recreated my creations for no real reasons other than "they're slightly damaged". If you can create a creature with a higher level, go for it, level is pretty much everything. And if you get like ... a 3 in the Creation skill and a 10 in the Shaping skill your creature get's +13 on it's base level, so let's say the base level is 15, meaning you can create a creature at level 28. Now as soon as this creature gains a level it's stronger than any creature you could normally create. Even if you fully boost a creature (max out all stats during creation) another creature could become stronger simply by having a higher level. (of course a boosted creature with a high level would be even better)

So when you create a creature with level 20 (base 15, +3 creation, + 2 Shaping) and increase your Shaping skill so you can now create a level 21 creature, go for it. But when you hit that "natural" limit where increases become to expensive, level your creatures.

The skills are all pretty much the same in all Geneforges, so no matter what game you're playing a leadership of 10-12 will be enough for most of the game.
Also, just keep equipment around that can increase these skills and quicksave often.

Hope that helped.

EDIT: Wait a second ... oh ... well, whatever, maybe it helps other players. lol.

02-13-2012, 12:14 PM	#1
Isildion Join Date: Sep 2009 Reputation: 14 Posts: 79	Stats - how much is enough ? (all Games) I'm currently playing Geneforge 1 but I plan to play the entire saga of course. So I would like to ask for some advice regarding stats of all kinds. I plan to play a Shaper in every game. How much strength/dex/int/end should I try to have ? It's obvious that int is the most important stat, but I guess you need some strength and especially endurance, and these stats aren't cheap. So far I figured out that str.4 dex.0 int. 10(+) and end. 4 work quite good. Same goes for the other skills, how much leadership will be enough ? How much mechanics ? How much luck ? I've gathered so far that ~13 leadership is enough for all the dialog in Geneforge 1. Mechanics should be around ~5 combined with the Unlocking spell and lots of living tools. And luck only 2 points and the rest should be learned from a teacher to 30. As a shaper I somehow don't consider magic important at all, I propably wouldn't spent a single point here. The only nice spell seems to be Unlock, and here I can ask how much is enough ? For Shaping skills I will propably go all out magic shaping with Vlish, so that Battles will go down smoothly and I can enjoy the story and exploration. But how do you balance out intelligence vs. shaping skill ? It's obvious you want to have 7 of your chosen creatues with +2 int for combat control, but should that be your goal ? Or would you try to get more int to boost stats ? What's more effective overall ? Boosting stats with more essence, or just increasing the shaping skill and therefore the level of the creatue ? Like I said I'm currently playing Geneforge 1, but plan to play all, so I would be grateful for tips on all games. Something like "Try to get 13 leadership for G1 and G2, and 15 for G3 ..." (just as an example). Thanks so much for your help in advance.

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02-17-2012, 12:14 PM	#2
Jothki Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 19 Posts: 70	As a Shaper, you should have just enough strength to wear the equipment you need, and no more. Don't underestimate magic, you can probably skimp on offense but being able to bless your creations and disable enemies is pretty important. It helps that in the later games, the points needed for stats increases as you increase them, meaning that you're encouraged to find some kind of balance.

04-19-2012, 03:56 AM	#3
Isildion Join Date: Sep 2009 Reputation: 14 Posts: 79	As a Shaper don't bother that much with strength, you will propably carry too much stuff anyway most of the time. And if you let your creatures handle the fighting there's no need to be agile during a battle. Just stay out of harms way. Just ignore dexterity. As for intelligence you propably can't have enough, but after 10 it becomes far to expensive. You need enough to create all the creations you want with at least 2 points in intelligence. Endurance ... as with most games you can't have enough, however, you most likely will never have enough. It's pretty normal to die in one hit mid-to-endgame, sometimes you die faster than you can even react, it's frustrating but that's why you should rely on your creations. Same goes for the other skills, how much leadership will be enough ? How much mechanics ? How much luck ? I've gathered so far that ~13 leadership is enough for all the dialog in Geneforge 1. Mechanics should be around ~5 combined with the Unlocking spell and lots of living tools. And luck only 2 points and the rest should be learned from a teacher to 30. For most games a leadership of 10-12 is enough for pretty much all encounters. For mechanics you should get around 8-10 and save living-tools by using the Unlock spell on low-level locks. (1-2 living tools). But be careful, living tools are heavy, each one is 1 lbs. Pretty heavy for a lockpick. You can pretty much ignore luck, it's not really worth that much, use the points somewhere else. Combat Magic isn't that important but get around 5 in Blessing Magic and Mental magic. Mass Daze and Mass Energize are really really useful, but difficult to use. Mass Daze is resistet a lot of times and for Mass Energize you have to put yourself in harms way, but they can both turn the tide of the battle. Mass Energize pretty much doubles your battle power. For Shaping skills I will propably go all out magic shaping with Vlish, so that Battles will go down smoothly and I can enjoy the story and exploration. But how do you balance out intelligence vs. shaping skill ? It's obvious you want to have 7 of your chosen creatues with +2 int for combat control, but should that be your goal ? Or would you try to get more int to boost stats ? What's more effective overall ? Boosting stats with more essence, or just increasing the shaping skill and therefore the level of the creatue ? Vlish are pretty good but not all-powerful. You don't really have to boost anything but the 2 points in intelligence. Get the shaping skill to 10, that's a trivial task for a Shaper. Propably the most important thing is to keep your creations around so they gain level-ups. First time I played I payed no attention to that and destroyed/recreated my creations for no real reasons other than "they're slightly damaged". If you can create a creature with a higher level, go for it, level is pretty much everything. And if you get like ... a 3 in the Creation skill and a 10 in the Shaping skill your creature get's +13 on it's base level, so let's say the base level is 15, meaning you can create a creature at level 28. Now as soon as this creature gains a level it's stronger than any creature you could normally create. Even if you fully boost a creature (max out all stats during creation) another creature could become stronger simply by having a higher level. (of course a boosted creature with a high level would be even better) So when you create a creature with level 20 (base 15, +3 creation, + 2 Shaping) and increase your Shaping skill so you can now create a level 21 creature, go for it. But when you hit that "natural" limit where increases become to expensive, level your creatures. The skills are all pretty much the same in all Geneforges, so no matter what game you're playing a leadership of 10-12 will be enough for most of the game. Also, just keep equipment around that can increase these skills and quicksave often. Hope that helped. EDIT: Wait a second ... oh ... well, whatever, maybe it helps other players. lol.