Quick question about stats?! Pump or spread?

[Tahl]

Is this one of those games where you focus on only your core stats and getting them as high as possible or should we be spreading a couple points around?

My best frame of reference would be the Larian titles but from what I know of Pathfinder it can be really nasty if you dont scale things correctly.
Im not so much asking what I 'should' be doing as much as what CAN we get away with here?

PS: Let me phrase this all a more specific way.
Is 30BS 30PER enough to use a ranged weapon or will that just miss 100% of the time? Not as ranged dps obviously, just off hand if needed.

Thx

[LArc7thHeaven]

Originally posted by Tahl:

Is 30BS 30PER enough to use a ranged weapon or will that just miss 100% of the time? Not as ranged dps obviously, just off hand if needed.

Thx

Haha good luck hitting anything, even as off hand it's sh*t, better equip two melee weapon

[Ash]

Most of the archetypes have a few key stats, so I'd say pump them.

For example, a Warrior will need WS, TGH, STR and _maybe_ a tad of AGI (but most of the time you won't have enough stat upgrades). Then the second archetype comes to play and that's where situation may change (i.e. melee Assassin will need AGI more than STR or TGH).
Or you can choose Vanguard and continue pumping up TGH.

[Hidetsugu]

Most effective I' say is to focus on 3 stats and 3 skills and "pump".
For example Operative/Assassin - sniper wants as high as possible BS/INT/PER
Officer/Grand Strategist - FEL/WILL/INT... and so on. The key is figuring out the 3rd stat and skill, usually the 1st and 2nd are easy.

[stax]

Originally posted by Tahl:

PS: Let me phrase this all a more specific way.
Is 30BS 30PER enough to use a ranged weapon or will that just miss 100% of the time? Not as ranged dps obviously, just off hand if needed.

Thx

It depends.

Base chance to hit is 30%. This is increased by the ballistic skill, which at minimum is 30. So you have 60% chance to hit a target within weapon's effective range even without doing anything else. Then, there are weapons which have a built-in bonus to hit chance. Highest i saw was 40%. If you give that weapon to your 30BS character, he will have 95% chance to hit (95 is the cap).

Even if you do not use such a weapon, there are ways of getting to 95% hit chance, for example operative "perfect spot" skill increases ballistic skill by 15, officer skills can increase ballistic skill of the people he orders around etc.

Your problem with using ranged weapons on a character that is not specialized for it will not be missing, but not doing all that much damage. Hit chance over 95% is converted to crit chance, so low ballistic skill chars wont crit much. Ballistic also governs bullet spread when burst-firing, so the bullets will go all over the place (but this might be a good thing, depending). Also important is range: beyond weapon's effective range, ballistic contribution to accuracy is halved, and high ballistic can help counter that.

Then comes perception. It is needed to defeat enemy dodge when shooting. But this too can be worked around - operatives can debuff enemy dodge, officers can command a teammate to ignore dodge completely, and for example Master tactician can also make his attack ignore dodge.

It is not a simple yes/no answer, as you can see :)

[Tahl]

Originally posted by stax:

Originally posted by Tahl:

PS: Let me phrase this all a more specific way.
Is 30BS 30PER enough to use a ranged weapon or will that just miss 100% of the time? Not as ranged dps obviously, just off hand if needed.

Thx

It depends.

Base chance to hit is 30%. This is increased by the ballistic skill, which at minimum is 30. So you have 60% chance to hit a target within weapon's effective range even without doing anything else. Then, there are weapons which have a built-in bonus to hit chance. Highest i saw was 40%. If you give that weapon to your 30BS character, he will have 95% chance to hit (95 is the cap).

Even if you do not use such a weapon, there are ways of getting to 95% hit chance, for example operative "perfect spot" skill increases ballistic skill by 15, officer skills can increase ballistic skill of the people he orders around etc.

Your problem with using ranged weapons on a character that is not specialized for it will not be missing, but not doing all that much damage. Hit chance over 95% is converted to crit chance, so low ballistic skill chars wont crit much. Ballistic also governs bullet spread when burst-firing, so the bullets will go all over the place (but this might be a good thing, depending).

Then comes perception. It is needed to defeat enemy dodge when shooting. But this too can be worked around - operatives can debuff enemy dodge, officers can command a teammate to ignore dodge completely, and for example Master tactician can also make his attack ignore dodge.

It is not a simple yes/no answer, as you can see :)

Mk, yeah Im just trying to get a general feel. I understand how to run a low WIS druid or Cleric in DnD and what itl cost to do it but I know these devs have a history with pathfinder and its more rigid system. Im running Officer right now and was trying to make sure I wasnt turning my PC into a backpack with a healthbar before Id even left CC, by not taking a direct offensive stat.
Thankfully, from what I can find on short notice it does appear the indirect power is stronk with this one, which is what I was gunning for. So it works out I think.

[Hidetsugu]

Originally posted by Tahl:

Im running Officer right now and was trying to make sure I wasnt turning my PC into a backpack with a healthbar before Id even left CC, by not taking a direct offensive stat.
Thankfully, from what I can find on short notice it does appear the indirect power is stronk with this one, which is what I was gunning for. So it works out I think.

Non psyker Officers are the rare class, where the most optimal way to play is not to use any actions on fighting änd instead fully focus on empowering your teammates (although you'd be able to fully do that only after lvl 7 iirc). Usually officers want to run max FEL and WILL + 1 more stat, depending on their 2nd archetype/personal preference. But this game is easy enough to forgive some mistakes.

[Trehek]

Identifying each character's important stats and pumping them is mostly the way to go. There are many abilities and talents which snowball, with a higher base attribute or skill resulting in a higher buff for a much higher total. Skill checks also reach really high difficulties towards the end of the game, going even past -100 modifiers especially on Unfair, so stacking a few main skills on top of a few main attributes is needed for comfort, spreading skill focuses around the party so every skill has someone good with it.