Dexterity, opening chests, and skills

[Sajen]

I am one of those who can't stand to leave a treasure chest unopened. Bashing doesn't seem to be a good solution so far, so I am left with learning pick locks or a spell I read about on the forum - "melt lock".

If I go the pick locks route, what is the relationship dexterity has on the skill? Is it a minor one, or an important one in how successful the lock picking works?

For example, if I leave my dexterity at say 10 or 11, and level up my pick lock skill to a high level, will I still have trouble picking some locks?

Next, what level of spell is the melt lock spell? Could I pick up that spell as a "dabbler" in magic if I don't want to be a full blown wizard and just want to use that spell to open locks? Or is this not a viable option?

To explain further, the character I want to have is a paladin type with healing spells, so you see I have to work on several skills at once like divination magic and sword combat so I don't think I have much room for error in picking and developing other skills.

Finally, how many skills can we expect to master? I still am unsure how many skills I should pick because I don't know how much room I will have to get good levels in many of them.

Any ideas on how many skills a typical character should take?

[Randomizer]

Lock melt is a middle range spell so you would need to train in elemental magick and find the book.

Pick locks increases your chance by 3% per level. Burglar gloves gives +2 pick locks.
Dexterity increases your chance but you need more for a lower improvement. But it helps with armor, to hit, and missile damage.

You will need pick locks over 10 for most locks. Each level of lock difficulty is 10% harder than the previous one.

Depending upon how much you use trainers will determine how many skills to get. For fighters it's easier to concentrate on one melee and one range attack. You should have an armor skill to avoid the penalty. After that most useful skills have trainers or books to help you.

[Sajen]

Thanks for the info. It sounds like pick locks is the better way to go for what I have in mind.

[Ojisan]

Just tested it abit. Was trying to pick lock that had 1% chance, casted +24 dexterity buff and my chances... doubled!!!

[Lhoric]

Lock Melt will need to be cast at higher levels for harder locks. Meaning you will need to add to your Elemental + Intelligence for some locks. If you're playing a mage, that shouldn't be a problem. But for a fighter, you may still end up bashing higher level locks even with Lockmelt.

[Ojisan]

Hmm, already 20h played time, almost all locations discovered. All traders visited and restocked numerous times...still no lockmelt - is it super rare?

[Randomizer]

Everything you or the monsters do has a minimum 1% chance of working and an equal chance of failure so you can never exceed 99% of success. So when you have a 1% chance to unlock a door you may need much more to move it up past !% than you think.

Lock melt and trap kill aren't that rare unless you want them. By some perverse law of gaming the spell you want is always the hardest to find. I went through Hammerlorne as a mage without lock melt once and another time didn't get trap kill until near the end of Hammerlorne which makes it two thirds of the game without them.

[Dragonlady]

Lock melt and trap kill aren't that rare unless you want them. By some perverse law of gaming the spell you want is always the hardest to find. I went through Hammerlorne as a mage without lock melt once and another time didn't get trap kill until near the end of Hammerlorne which makes it two thirds of the game without them.

Oh, this one is so true! I tried for ages to find Ice Lance spell one time and another I was after Dense Nimbus.