Question about stats...

[Yeyo]

Hi all, new player here (actually my bro started playing this and I got hooked as a lover of TB games!). I read some posts & guides here, but I still cant understand what is the main stat for Rogue & Archer to boost dmg. Since they both do physical dmg, shouldnt be the STR instead of DEX ? Why the growth is A on DEX instead of DMG ? Am I missing something here in the mechanics?
Great game btw, we are before the spider queen now!

[MCMel]

If you want to boost your DMG STR will do it (it is the stat to scale physical damage). Dex gives them a boost in ACC and initiative if I remember it correctly. I look for rogues and archers with Sadist or Strong to compensate for their lower growth rate.
But these classes should do enough damage even without a higher Str core if you utilize their class perks (Spezial Arrows, Poison, Sneack Att DMG) and you mostly don't need ACC from your gear and can use items that boost their phy dmg


Also spoiler:

There is a story character that can get a passive to scale its Damage for 30% of their dex and an item exists that makes it so that you scale the damage of your dex but it is late game

[Rubidium]

Strength is the damage stat for all physical attacks (including Rogue and Archer).

Intelligence is the damage stat for all magical attackers (mainly Mages and Priests).

Dexterity affects accuracy, initiative, and dodge rate, which is presumably why Archers (who attack at range, and thus need more accuracy) and Rogues (who are squishier and thus may want more dodge since they fight in melee range) get the extra dexterity.

And yes, that's one reason I like to have folks I want to be Rangers/Assassins (both of which are excellent classes late-game, with their T3 versions being even better) spend time as a Knight (or better a Monk), rather than leveling them as a Rogue/Archer, so they get some extra Strength before I switch them into their final class.

It's probably relevant that the unique Archer and unique Rogue characters both get special skills to boost their damage to compensate (and even then, I like to change their class to something else for a bit).

Very late game (like, shortly before the final battle), you can get extremely rare items that will mitigate the issue

[Yeyo]

so their main stat to boost dmg is str? and not dex? (for rogues and archers?) I dont understand then why the default growth is on DEX....rather than STR

[MCMel]

Originally posted by Yeyo:

so their main stat to boost dmg is str? and not dex? (for rogues and archers?) I dont understand then why the default growth is on DEX....rather than STR

It is probably a balancing choice but you get the tools to make the classes work

[Yeyo]

ok thx a lot guys! One last question: I read on a guide here that only 1 of your party can be a Master class and not everyone in your main party... Is this true?

[Rubidium]

Originally posted by Yeyo:

so their main stat to boost dmg is str? and not dex? (for rogues and archers?) I dont understand then why the default growth is on DEX....rather than STR

Yes, the main damage stat is still Strength.

That said, you do no damage if you can't hit your target, so Dexterity has value for them too.

And note that traits (including trainings, like the one you get from training with Falkreath) have a large effect on stat growth as well.

Every class has different growth rates, so you can put folks in the class that will make them grow better towards what you want them to be. In particular, the Tier 2 classes (e.g., Assassin, Ranger, Knight, Bard, Paladin, etc.) all have minimum stat requirements but generally give better growth rates. The basic T2 classes (e.g., Knight, Ranger, High Mage, etc.) tend to align their stat requirements with the growth of the base class (so Ranger requires 12 Dex and 10 Str to switch, while Knight requires 12 Str and 10 End, and High Mage wants 12 Int and 10 Wis), so you may want a class that aligns its growth with those stat requirements to hit the higher class ASAP (and thus get the better growth rate and better skills). The hybrid classes (e.g., Monk, Paladin) tend to have weirder stat requirements, which can be harder to hit.

Rogue in particular tends to have a Jack-of-All-Trades stat growth, so can be useful if I want to hit the minimum requirements for one of the hybrid classes sooner (especially Bard, which it matches with very nicely). At the cost of maybe having slightly less Str than if they had leveled as a class with better Str growth.

If I have a character I want to be an Assassin in the end-game, I like to switch them to Monk ASAP to have them level up in that class for a while, for the extra Str there.

[MCMel]

Originally posted by Yeyo:

ok thx a lot guys! One last question: I read on a guide here that only 1 of your party can be a Master class and not everyone in your main party... Is this true?

You can get every master class once per playthrough so you can't get 3 Dragon Knights in your main party (in your first save) but you can use a saint and a Dragon Knight in the same party without a problem

[Rubidium]

Originally posted by Yeyo:

ok thx a lot guys! One last question: I read on a guide here that only 1 of your party can be a Master class and not everyone in your main party... Is this true?

Spoilers about mechanics, obviously, but since you are specifically asking:

Each Master class is restricted to one character. If that character dies/leaves you can make someone else a Master, and you have the option to make them surrender their class if you decide you want them to be a different class instead.

There are 6 different Master classes, though, so in theory you can have a main party made up of 6 characters, each of whom is a different Master class. And of course the tier-2 hybrid classes (Paladin, Bard, etc.) are unlimited, and in some cases may be more useful.

[Yeyo]

Many thanks guys for all your precious info !