A new newbie from the land of Erf!

[Kinak]

Welcome aboard!

RKBrumbelow has some good advice for where to put skill points. If you're not having to use Knit Bone too much, you're probably fine not using Mind Jab. If you're getting hurt a lot (especially if you're missing a lot), Mind Jab can be more effective.

The formulas for a lot of the skills can be found in the manual, if you're the number-crunching type. If not, I'd just stick with what feels right.

Also, the futility belt (although hilarious) probably isn't great until you have your legs under you

But, hope you enjoy yourself and feel free to pepper us with questions.

Cheers!
Kinak

[Theo]

What's an Erf?

[Kinak]

What's an Erf?

Erf is the setting for Erfworld, which RKBrumbelow linked. It's sort of to turn-based wargames as Twilight is to superheroes. The people living there take it seriously, despite being equal parts loving parody and pop culture reference.

Cheers!
Kinak

[Cristiona]

The way I see it, PPs for psion are there for after fight healing and to put up Vim?

There's also always resting.

That being said, if you're wanting to hit things with a stick, Vim is certainly the way to go. It's a big help, especially as you add skill points.

[Harry Dresden]

Shadow is one of the Seven Armaments of Destiny; it will disappear at rollover but you always have a chance of getting it or one of the others again. There are conditions you have to meet for each, and if you do you will be part of Fate's "raffle" to decide who gets which weapon at rollover.

Also, if you click on the item picture you'll get a pop up box that gives a description of effects and tells you it's rental equipment.

[Cristiona]

The current Item of the Month, the Costunomicon, has been pretty well received, and is a rather fun little item that grants you a skill.

[Kinak]

I could be happy to plug a few dollars into the game for some stars/IoTM. Are any of this months good?

The only one that's actually monthly is the Costunomicon, which is one of my all-time favorites. But that doesn't mean it's good, necessarily, just that I enjoyed making it and hiding stuff in it As Cristiona said, folks seem to like it.

Some version of the talismans are always available, switching up every December. That makes them less urgent. They're nice for shoring up areas you're having problems with, but switching talismans costs a percentage of your total XP, so it's best to do at the beginning of a retcon.

That said, anything you donate goes towards the "server maintenance and letting Kinak do this full time" fund, so is much appreciated!

Cheers!
Kinak

[Kinak]

Phew. So I'm just about to take on Mick by the looks of things. Wish me luck!

Good luck!

Cheers!
Kinak

[Sanjuro]

Tougher foes means more XP, but not more items or chips.

EDIT: Perhaps I should explain a little bit more. Increasing foe toughness makes combats harder to win, but you get more XP. That is why enchantments that simply give you +XP per combat are either harder to get than +Foe Toughness or have higher level requirements.

[Harry Dresden]

You get 1 extra XP point for every 2 points of Foe Toughness, if I remember correctly. Good for power leveling through retcons, not good for new players who don't have all the gear they need to withstand all the extra damage enemies are doing.

[Lxndr]

There's exactly 73 skills in the game that can be permed - although Cristiona has said that there's another needed skill that "hasn't been forgotten" so lets' pretend 74, because it'll eventually come out.

(Not counting auto-perm skills like Precompletion Pro or Fortune Cookies)

So, theoretically, assuming "getting new skills" is your only reason for retconning, then 75 retcons later (since you don't get a skill for your first run) you might start thinking it's pointless.

But there's other rewards for retcons. Skill points, for instance. Also once-per-run drops.

Plus there might simply be joy you find in retconning. Some people don't enjoy that, and spend their time in aftercon. From what I hear there's some great quest in the latter 30s. I personally just find enough joy in retconning (and lack the joy in level-grinding) that I'll probably not experience that content for a good long time.