Stats

Stats

AA has a fairly simple system of stats. We all know that they are Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex), Constitution (Con), Intelligence (Int) and Wisdom (Wis). Not any one stat is completely useless for any class, but some are just a lot more useful than others for certain characters. I’ll give a much better explanation of what each one does than the in-game help files.

Strength

Strength is generally speaking needed for any character. It determines a few essential things:

• Almost all weapons have a minimum strength requirement.
• How much damage you deal upon a successful hit.
• Strength determines how much you can lug around in your inventory.
• Success for smashing doors, chests, etc (in conjunction with the amount of weight you’re carrying in the inventory).
• Indirectly affects how quickly you gain weapon skills – it’s a widely held belief that harder hits gain you skills faster than softer hits.

As you see, it’s a stat for grunts. Almost all characters would rely upon physical damage as a substantial source of their damage, and strength is a huge part of the equation for the physical damage you will deal out. Another thing to note is that many of the high end weapons in the game require 16 strength – a character with a maximum strength less than that would miss out on many fun weapons.

Notable characters who don’t need so much strength are non-alteration mages, necromancers and shapeshifter drakons. They deal the majority of their damage with skills that are unrelated to strength.

Dexterity

Dexterity is another skill useful for every class. It affects:

• How much your physical attacks hit their mark, and how often you get hit back
• How well you dodge
• How often some mage spells hit, notably acid arrow, flame dart, magic missile, fireball and venom spit
• The success rate of a ranger’s strike ability
• Accuracy with various shapeshifter abilities (though not enough experience with those to be 100% sure about this).
• Accuracy with a bow, and thrown weapons
• Dodging various traps and avoiding falling off bridges around the MUD.
• Some weapons (rare) have a minimum dexterity requirement.
• Also indirectly affects skilling rate – the more you hit, the faster you’ll skill. This is especially noticeable at low dexterity, when raising things like two handed axe, two handed sword, etc.
• Hypothetically, if thieves existed, more dextrous ones would hypothetically steal better, and more dextrous characters will be harder to steal from

Dexterity is great, for every point of dexterity, you hit more often and get hit less. Or conversely, if what you’re hitting loses a point of dexterity then the same benefits apply. I highly recommend carrying around a boomerang for all characters – the benefits from having just one more point of dexterity over the opponent are very noticeable.

Constitution

Constitution is a no brainer, it gives you more hit points. It:

• Gives you 8 hit points for every point of constitution.
• Speeds up (slightly) your natural hit point regeneration rate.
• Determines how much you can drink and eat.
• Determines how vulnerable you are to poison.

The more constitution you have, the harder you are to kill, and the more you can eat and drink – adding up to how good you are at taking damage. Anybody who plans to do a lot of tanking would need a character that has 15 or more constitution. With that being said, constitution isn’t quite as important as strength and dexterity for a fighting character, especially if you’re just going to bash in parties a lot.

Intelligence and Wisdom

Intelligence and Wisdom are similar in some ways, and different in many others. I’ll list what they have in common first:

• The higher of the two determines you spell points pool. As with constitution, it’s 8 hit points per stat.
• They both have an effect on the rate your weapon skills go up, especially noticeable when your skills are high and don’t go up very often any more.
• The higher of the two determines your spell point regeneration rate (again, almost unnoticeable).
• Necromancers’ ritual lists are determined by the sum of their intelligence and wisdom – both stats are equally important to them.
• The intelligence + wisdom sum also determines the ability of lower level characters’ ability to tell how injured something is – that is, while a smart cookie can see the difference between ‘slightly hurt’ and ‘seriously wounded’, all a new character would see is ‘battered’.
• Some (rare) weapons have a minimum intelligence + wisdom requirement.

Attributes unique to Intelligence:

• This is a very important attribute for mages, almost all of their spells’ effectiveness depends on the value of their intelligence.
• Shapeshifter Drakons also appear to do more damage with more intelligence.
• It plays a small part in enhancing a paladin’s smite and harm damage.
• It plays a part in the accuracy of a fighter’s evaluations of equipment.
• Hypothetically, if thieves existed, intelligence helps you notice them.
• Hypothetically again, there are unconfirmed rumours that smarter hypothetical thieves would steal better.

Attributes unique to Wisdom:

• Wisdom is very important to clerics – it determines the success rate of their prayers, their effectiveness, and what prayers they have access to in the first place.
• For rangers with bonded wolves, wisdom determines the maximum size it grows to.
• For rangers who tame their wolves wild, wisdom determines the max size of the wild wolf they can attempt to attempt.
• For paladins, quite a factor in their damage from their spells.
• For mages, rumoured to affect the effectiveness of the Power Word: Heal and Power Word: Harm spells.

Race Stats

The maximum stats for race/class combo on Ancient Anguish.

Artificers Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 16 12 13 15 15 DEX 16 19 17 17 18 INT 14 19 18 17 15 CON 14 11 11 13 14 WIS 15 14 16 14 13

Clerics Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 18 14 15 17 17 DEX 12 16 14 14 15 INT 12 17 16 15 13 CON 15 12 12 14 15 WIS 17 16 18 16 15

Fighters Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 19 15 16 18 18 DEX 14 17 15 15 16 INT 11 16 15 14 12 CON 17 14 14 16 17 WIS 14 13 15 13 12

Mages Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 16 12 13 15 15 DEX 15 18 16 16 17 INT 14 19 18 17 15 CON 15 12 12 14 15 WIS 15 14 16 14 13

Necromancers Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 16 12 13 15 15 DEX 14 17 15 15 16 INT 13 18 17 16 14 CON 15 12 12 14 15 WIS 17 16 18 16 15

Paladins Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 19 15 16 18 18 DEX 13 16 14 14 15 INT 10 15 14 13 11 CON 16 13 13 15 16 WIS 17 16 18 16 15

Rangers Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 17 13 14 16 16 DEX 14 17 15 15 16 INT 12 17 16 15 13 CON 17 14 14 16 17 WIS 15 14 16 14 13

Rogues Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 17 13 14 16 16 DEX 16 19 17 17 18 INT 13 18 17 16 14 CON 15 12 12 14 15 WIS 14 13 15 13 12

Shapeshifters Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 17 13 14 16 16 DEX 14 17 15 15 16 INT 12 17 16 15 13 CON 17 14 14 16 17 WIS 15 14 16 14 13

Adventurers Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 17 13 14 16 16 DEX 14 17 15 15 16 INT 12 17 16 15 13 CON 16 13 13 15 16 WIS 15 14 16 14 13

Jaochi Stat Dwarf Elf H-elf Human Orc STR 17 13 14 16 16 DEX 16 19 17 17 18 INT 11 16 15 14 12 CON 15 12 12 14 15 WIS 16 15 17 15 14