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A N A L Y S I S - A T T R I B U T E S | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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By Bones The Attribute System is the foundation of the Might & Magic role-playing games. To a greater or lesser degree, every other aspect of these games depends on the Attributes and the qualities they influence. It is also, however, one of the most poorly understood parts of these games. This article is my attempt to explain the Attribute System so that everyone can use it the his or her best advantage. Before we can discuss the Attributes themselves we'll have to cover briefly the values that they affect. Most of this material will be review unless you are relatively new to these games, but even veterans may not be familiar with all of it. If you're tempted to skip certain topics, let me suggest that you skim them instead. That way you can tell me what I missed. ;-) |
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The Secondary Stats The seven Attibutes are also called the Primary Statistics. They share the Statistics screen with the Resistances and several other values which sometimes are referred to as the Secondary Statistics. All of the easily observed effects of the Attributes can be seen in the Secondary Statistics; the remaining effects are less apparent. You can get a brief description of all the stats by right-clicking on their names and values, but please note that some of the information is not entirely accurate. The first three of these values appear directly under the Attributes. Like the Attributes, the current value is listed on the left and the permanent value is listed on the right. We're primarily interested in the latter.
There are three values at the top of the right side which we will cover only briefly here. The first, Age, has a direct effect on the current value of certain Attributes. We will talk more about the Age Stat later. The second, Level, is used in determining the Hit and Spell Point Statistics as mentioned above. The third value is Experience Points. This provides the gamer with a convienient way to track progress toward the next Level but has no effect on character performance. The next group of values that we'll discuss are the four Attack and Shoot values on the right side of the Stat screen. The term Attack refers to attacking with the currently armed melee Weapon. Shoot applies to attacking with the currently armed Bow.
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Other Effects A few other features of the game are also affected by the Attributes. These are more obscure since the affected values are not displayed on screen like the Secondary Stats. The first of these features is Recovery Time. Most of the actions that our characters can perform as individuals take time. This is referred to as that action's Recovery Time and is measured in the game's Time Units (sometimes called ticks). Attacking and casting Spells are examples of actions which have Recovery Times. Mixing a Potion does not have a Recovery Time, but consuming a Potion does. The Recovery Times for attacking with Weapons and Bows are affected by the Speed Attribute. We'll discuss the mechanics of this later. These Recovery Times can be influenced by many other factors as well. If you're interested in learning more about this then you may want to visit Bones' Combat Guide to Might & Magic VI. Although there are some important differences between MM6 and this game, all of the principles still apply. The next affected feature is Resistance. A character's Resistances to different types of Damage are given in the last group of values on the Statistics screen. These values are poorly documented and just as poorly understood. They are used to determine the portion of Damage from a successful attack that a character receives. The higher a Resistance value, the more likely it will be that Damage of that type will halved, perhaps more than once, before reducing a character's Hit Points. Immunity usually means what you'd expect, but there are a few oddities in the system that might catch you by surprise. The Resistance values can be affected by certain Enchantments, certain Spells and by the Leather Armor Skill at grand master level. The Attributes have no effect on the Resistance values, but the Resistance calculations are influenced by the Luck Stat in a manner that will be discussed later. We will not cover the Resistances in any more detail here. If you'd like to learn more and have Excel then you will want to download a spreadsheet on it by clicking here. You also will want to visit our Spells pages in the Reference section to learn what kind of Damage each Spell delivers. The final feature we need to cover is Perception. The most apparent facet of this Skill, the highlighting of surfaces with special characteristics, was introduced in MM7. The original role of Perception was to enable and enhance a character's ability to avoid Damage from exploding traps. The Luck Attribute influences this calculation and (you guessed it) we'll say more about it later. |
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The Breakpoints Understanding the Breakpoints is the key to understanding the Attribute System. Every action of the Attributes is mediated by the Breakpoints, so it's hard to understate their importance. The benefit of increasing any Attribute is received only when that Attribute meets or exceeds any of a number of threshhold values. Passing one of these threshholds, called Breakpoints, changes the contribution that an Attribute makes to a dependent value. For example, when the Might Attribute passes one of the Breakpoints, its Bonus Value (ie, the contribution that it makes to the Attack Damage) changes by a set amount. Take a look.
The first few Bonus Values are negative; a value of 13 is considered to be the base for all Attributes. Attribute Values of less than one still have Bonus Values of -6. There are no additional benefits gained by increasing an Attribute beyond 500, but note that the last two Breakpoints provide a Bonus Value increase of 5 each. All other increments are of one. |
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The Attributes The seven Attibutes (also called the Primary Statistics) form the core of the Attribute System. Each one affects differents parts of the game, so let's run through them and cover what each one controls and how.
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Attribute Modifiers There several ways that the Attributes can be changed, and indeed a major objective of the game is to build up your characters' Attributes. We'll skim over the common features that affect the Attributes and spend more time on the more obscure ones. We need not do anything more than mention the existance of Barrels and the Wells that temporarily boost certain Stats. There is one Well for each Attribute that will give a permanent +2 boost to a character with an Attribute value of 15 or less. You'll want to visit a Day of the Gods Spell Pedestal until you can cast it yourself. The Standard Enchantments all increase one of the Attributes or Secondary Stats. The Special Enchantments and the enchantments on the Artifacts, Relics and Special Items might affect one or more of the Attributes. There are Potions to boost the Attributes both temporarily and permanently. Less widely known are the effects of a character's age on the Attributes. Please note that all these effects are on the character's base value -- ie, before the transient effects of Enchanted Items and the temporary effects of Wells, Spells and Potions. For a character of 50 to 99 years the Might and Endurance values are reduced by a quarter and the Intellect and Personality values are increased by half. At 100 years of age a character's Intellect and Personality drop back to their base levels, and, except for Luck, all other values fall to 40% of their base levels. The values of all Attributes except Luck will sink to 10% for the character who reaches the surprising age of 150. Aging can happen in two ways. The first way is by the normal progression of game time. Different characters start at different ages. Your starting character begins aging at the start of the game, with a birthdate of January 1st. A roster character begins aging from the moment he or she first joins your party. The other way to age is by casting Divine Intervention (Light #11). This magical aging can be undone by drinking the Rejuvenation Potion. In MM7 certain Monsters could magically age your characters, but there are no such Monsters in MM8. Finally, the state of our character often affects the Attributes. Good is the standard Condition; the base values of all Attributes are expressed at 100%. The adverse Conditions that don't alter the Attributes affect other qualities such as Recovery Time (Weak), success at spellcasting (Cursed), and the ability to take any action whatsoever (Asleep, Dead, Paralyzed, Stoned, and Unconscious). The following is a table of the Conditions that affect the base values of the Attributes and the percent change of each of those values. Please note that the last two Conditions, Drunk and Zombie, do not appear in MM8 (even though the graphics for them exist). These are included as a reference for Might & Magic VI and VII.
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