Items increasing skills dont work properly

Daemian Lucifer · Post by **Daemian Lucifer** » January 26th, 2008, 10:58 am

I wore a necklace that gives +3 to dodge,and the clocke that gave +3 to hide in shadows,yet I havent dodged a single attack,nor was I ever hidden in shadows.So,I started a new character and gave it 5 ranks in both dodge and hide in shadows,and had both in less than 5 minutes.Well,I guess the skills dont work when you dont have at least 1 rank on your own(which would be fine with me).But its not so.I have sandals that give +2 to divination,and I can learn and cast divination spells with ease(still I have 0 ranks in divination without them),and in one play I had an amulet that gave +3 to cleaving weapons,and it worked fine as well(with 0 ranks in cleaving otherwise).

Version is 1.4

EDIT:Skullduggery and lockpicking work fine as well when you have only the item and no ranks on your own.

Jude · Post by **Jude** » January 26th, 2008, 12:09 pm

I noticed that, too, about the cloak of hiding in shadows. I thought I must be doing something wrong because I couldn't seem to hide in shadows! I never had a real point in the skill, just the plus from the cloak.

Jude

acoustibop · Post by **acoustibop** » January 26th, 2008, 1:35 pm

I think that, with Hiding in Shadows, if you're in the dark but not Hidden, then you put the equipment on with the skill, you're still not Hidden until you move, which activates it.

Daemian Lucifer · Post by **Daemian Lucifer** » January 26th, 2008, 1:40 pm

Nope,I moved across the whole dungeon with the cloak on,hugging walls and everything.I moved outside the whole night wearing the cloak and nothing.But now,after I found the book and learned hiding in shadows,I need to just aproach a tree or a wall in dark and Im hidden.

Jude · Post by **Jude** » January 26th, 2008, 3:58 pm

Yep, same with me.

Jude

YouTube · Post by **BasiliskWrangler** » January 26th, 2008, 9:46 pm

Well, a +3 to Dodge means that you'll dodge only 3% (3 out of 100) of all attacks on you. It's just that you haven't done it yet. At 10% you'll definitely notice Dodging more frequently.

Hide in Shadows is similar. At 3 you are probably only going to be hidden when you are in very dark areas and close to 2 or 3 walls. It's not until you get up around 10-12 before you can be hidden without being near walls or in absolute darkness. Keep dumping points in that Skill and you can stay hidden in all but broad daylight.

Daemian Lucifer · Post by **Daemian Lucifer** » January 26th, 2008, 10:37 pm

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Well, a +3 to Dodge means that you'll dodge only 3% (3 out of 100) of all attacks on you. It's just that you haven't done it yet. At 10% you'll definitely notice Dodging more frequently.

Hide in Shadows is similar. At 3 you are probably only going to be hidden when you are in very dark areas and close to 2 or 3 walls. It's not until you get up around 10-12 before you can be hidden without being near walls or in absolute darkness. Keep dumping points in that Skill and you can stay hidden in all but broad daylight.

I know,but I tried just creating a new character with 5 dodge(5% is not so much larger than 3%),and I got one dodged blow after less than 5 minutes.With the amulet,I didnt get a single dodge in over dozens of battles.In more than 200 hits,one is sure bound to be dodged,right?

As for hide in shadows,I couldnt hide in pitch black darkness leaning so close to the wall as making love to it.But later,when I got a single point in hide in shadows(no cloack then,sold it some time before),I could hide in twilight just by reaching a tree.And 1 is lower than 3,right?

Believe me,I tested both a lot,and both dont work.Now,Im not sure if they dont work at all,and there is no way for me to test them with different number of skill ranks(especially not the dodge amulet),but I do know for sure that with 0 skill ranks,they dont work.

YouTube · January 26th, 2008, 11:25 pm

Okay...I'm checking this out now....

[UPDATE] Well, when I'm wrong I admit it.

Both Dodge and Hide In Shadows ignores the skill check function unless at least 1 point is in the "base Skill". This is a bug. You are still getting the bonuses from the items, but only when at least 1 point is in the base Skill, which is what triggers the game to make the appropriate skill check.

Obviously, this needs to be changed so that the game looks for at least one point in the "net Skill" to determine whether a skill check needs to be made. It is fixed now for Book II and a future Book I patch.

Dragonlady · Post by **Dragonlady** » January 26th, 2008, 11:41 pm

Read about this thread this morning and had started another character..a fighter and he found a cloak with +3 Hide in Shadows. Nothing happened except getting a minus to AC as I had no skill in wearing Light Armour. Then I found a book to get the skill and with level 1 I was now hiding in same spots I couldn't before with +3. This was on the Mac by the way, havn't tried it on the PC side of my Mac yet.

edit: oops, typing as BW was entering his post. Never mind.