Mysteries of Stats and Stat Migration 

From the time you create your character you are immediately given the opportunity to change your stats and secondary pools. If you're like many, myself included you were so interested in jumping in-game that you only really paid attention to the primary stats and got a general idea of what they were about and made a decision as to what you would like them to be at. As the game progressed you learned a little more and wanted to change them. This article will help you understand what the stats do and how to change them.

Lets start with the basics

What are the minimum and maximum stats that your specific race can have? Below is a table listing the race and stat pool minimums and maximums.

What do the stats do for me?

There are three primary stats, Health, Action, and Mind. Each of these are the "How much of it I have" number. Each primary stat has two sub categories. The first is how efficient this stat is for me, the second is how fast will I get it back. These are described in further detail below:

Health is a primary stat; it is directly represented in your HAM (health, action, mind) bars and is the amount of physical damage your character can take before becoming incapacitated.

Strength refers to the ability to exercise brute force in physical activity, it is your efficiency stat. This effects how expensive any action requiring Health cost you. The higher this stat, the cheaper, point wise, your actions are.

Constitution is the measure of your ability to recover from damage, your regeneration stat, or how fast you will recover health. The larger this number the faster you regenerate.

The other 2 stats are very similar

Action is a measure of how rested your character is. As you grow tired, you will see your Action points being depleted. It is a primary stat directly represented in your ham bar and is the amount of Action damage you can take before you become incapacitated.

Quickness is the measure of your characters fitness; it is the stat that effects how much of the action pool you use for abilities requiring action.

Stamina is how quickly characters recover from intense physical activity, this is the Action bars regeneration stat.

Mind is a measure of your alertness and mental capacity. A player with a higher Mind is better able to tackle complex technical tasks. It is the stat directly represented in your ham bar and is the amount of Mental damage you can take before being incapacitated.

Focus is your character's effectiveness in concentrating on mental activity. It is the stat that determines how much of the mind pool you use for abilities that require Mind expenditure.

Willpower helps you recover from expenditure of mind. It is the regeneration stat for the mind pool.

Where to put my stats?

There are several things to consider when deciding how you want to distribute your stat points. There are things that can alter your stats, such as armor encumbrance. So if you are planning on wearing heavy armor you will want to make the appropriate adjustments in your secondary stats, which is where the encumbrance is taken from. You can also get buffs, which enhance the values of your stat pools. Doctors can enhance your Health and Action pools, Dancers your Mind and Musicians your Willpower and Focus. Chef foods can also alter all of the above but to a slightly lesser degree than the other professions.

Next you want to consider what profession you will be playing. If you are going to be an entertainer of some sort, high action would benefit you the most since the flourishes use action. Likewise you would probably want high quickness and stamina so you can regenerate these faster. If you plan on playing a medical profession you will want high mind (and mind regeneration) since this is the primary stat used to perform your procedures (Image design uses mind as well for alterations). For combat the choices are more dependent on how you plan to play. If you do not plan on getting hit much but using a lot of special attacks you may wish to have a high mind or action pools.