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This page serves as a starting point for character development in ToME 4. It gives an overview of how the talent system works, and provides links to more detailed resources.

Talents

A Talent is a skill that a character can learn and develop. Points may be invested to increase your proficiency.

Talents are divided into two broad categories: Class talents and Generic talents. Class talents are specialized skills that only specific classes may learn; Generic talents represent more general knowledge and are usually available to several classes, or maybe acquired as quest rewards.

Talent points

For every level gained, a character receives:
  • 3 stat points (2.5 in insane game mode) that can be used to increase Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Magic, Willpower, and Cunning.
  • 1 Class talent point and 1 Generic talent point (except: 2 Class talent points and 0 Generic talent points at levels 5, 10, 15, and so on) that can be used to increase Class or Generic talents, respectively.

Characters also receive 1 Talent category point at levels 10, 20, and 36. These can be used to learn a new talent category (grey in the talent list), or to increase the mastery of a known category by 0.2 (only once per category), or to add an additional infusion/rune slot (up to a maximum of 2 additional slots).

At levels 30 and 42, a character may learn Prodigies.

Finally, at level 50, a character earns 10 stat points, 3 class talent points, and 3 generic talent points (in addition to the normal level rewards).

Therefore, not counting quest rewards, a character will receive a total of:
  • 190 stat points
  • 63 class talent points
  • 43 generic talent points
  • 3 category points
  • 2 prodigies

Other sources of points:
  • Weapon stores in Last Hope teach how to shoot and reload a ranged weapon (cost: 8 gold), and open the Combat Training tree for classes that start without it (cost: 50 gold).
  • Completing the Arena quest in Derth will grant 2 Generic talent points.
  • Some of the Alchemist quest rewards grant Class or Generic talent points.
  • Eating the Heart of the Sandworm Queen grants 3 stat points, 2 Class talent points, and 1 Generic talent point.
  • The drop from the backup guardian in the Sandworm Lair grants a category point.

Inscriptions

The traditional potions and scrolls are replaced with infusions and runes (respectively), which are inscribed on your body. You get 3 inscription slots to start with, and each slot can accept either 1 rune or 1 infusion. You can buy up to 2 more slots using category points. You cannot have more than 2 of the same type of infusion or rune at once. Most players buy at least 1 more slot by the endgame; often 2 more (the maximum), depending on the race and class.

Replacing a rune/infusion destroys the previous one.

Two good Regeneration or Healing infusions, or Shielding runes, are strongly recommended for almost all builds. Other desirable choices are Wild infusions (for negative effect removal and damage resistance), Movement infusions (mobility/defense) and Controlled Phase Door runes (mobility). Controlled Phase Door runes are difficult to find in the early and mid game, however, so a Phase Door or Teleport rune will often be substituted until a Controlled Phase Door can be found.

Mana-using classes will often need a Manasurge rune; it is possible to do without one in some cases, but this is not advised for novices.

A Sun infusion can be handy for blinding opponents in the early game, before you've found better infusions. Heroism infusions may be useful in the late game, for dangerous battles. Some characters may be able to use Invisibility runes successfully, but this requires building the character for it.

Undead races cannot use infusions; they can only use runes.

Antimagic

Whether to use Antimagic or not is a fundamental decision in character building. Not all race/class combinations can do it (you must not have any Mana, Vim, Paradox, Positive or Negative energy resource bars the first time you enter the world map in order for Zigur to appear). Not all race/class combinations should do it -- there are substantial sacrifices and limitations.

Antimagic is a strong choice for classes that boost Willpower, as most of the talents scale with Willpower. The "Wilder" classes in particular are well suited to it.

Weapons

Some classes have flexibility in choosing which weapon(s) to use. Other classes are pretty firmly tied to a specific set of gear (to the point where choosing to equip, say, a magic staff as a Rogue would be suicidally dumb). Individual class pages should give overviews of the major choices, assuming they've been updated, but here are some of the interesting ones:

  • Archers may choose a bow, or a sling. They begin with talent trees for both kinds of weapon. You should probably unlearn any initial points in the one you won't be using. Bows are two-handed, but slings are one-handed; so if you go with a sling, you can choose to use an off-hand dagger, shield, or mindstar. The shield will require additional investment in Armour Training to equip. You may find yourself simply swapping offhand gear depending on what you find (using it for bonuses rather than actual fighting).
  • Summoners start with dual mindstars, and the Mindstar Mastery tree (locked), but will usually not build the stats for hand-to-hand combat. They may prefer to switch to sling + mindstar, solely as a fallback or as a means of augmenting their summoned allies.
  • Temporal Wardens start with a two-weapon set (sword + dagger) as well as a bow, and they are the only class that can swap between weapon sets instantaneously. (Other classes can learn to do it with a Prodigy). They have access to (locked) trees that can boost melee skills, or archery skills, or both.
  • Wyrmics have perhaps the most flexibility of all. They start with a two-handed weapon, and with access to the 2 Handed Weapons tree; they can certainly play well that way. They also start with access to the Shield Offense tree (though they'll need to invest in Armour Training to equip a shield), so they can also be built around Shield Pummel and Assault. Or, they can pick up Mindstar Mastery from a (betrayed) Alchemist escort quest, and build for Psiblades/Willpower.

Classes

Races