What is this prowess stat?

[DangerBanana]

So I was looking at my friend play this and noticed that gear is stat locked behind something called prowess. What is this stat? Is it a derivative of the base stats? It doesn't seem to be completely proportional since I saw him level up several times but the prowess stat kept being low and it locks out a tond of stuff you can find early on.

This makes me feel the game is artificially made 'hard' in a very lazy way by just locking you out of using anything.

[MindFlow]

It's the sum of your three basic attributes (not including boni from buffs or equipment). It simply allows to measure your progress towards the next piece of equipment, no matter which attribute you put your LP into.

Note: Level up only gives LP. You can then put them into attributes to increase prowess (and attribute depending stats) or put them into other skills and prowess is not affected.