Talent

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ToME Version: 1.4.3

Talents are all of the skills and spells your character can learn. Most are available based on your class or race, although some can be learned from escort quests or other quests.

Learnable talents are divided into two broad groups: 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. Some (but not all) Generic talents may be purchased in stores, or acquired as quest rewards. Racial talents are also Generic.

Certain equipment may bestow a talent on you, including talents not available any other way (for example, Block). These talents exist only while you have the item equipped.

Using Talent Points

For every character level gained, a character receives:

  • 1 Class talent point and 1 Generic talent point that can be used to increase Class or Generic talents, respectively. At intervals of five levels (levels: 5, 10, 15 ...) you will receive instead 2 Class talent points and zero generic talent points.

Talent points are used to gain new abilities and skills, or to increase to power of those skills. Most talents have requirements of character level or stats which much be met in order to train that skill further. For example, the common talent Armour Training requires Strength 16 for level 1, Strength 26 for level 2, and on up to Strength 44 for level 5.

Each talent point can be used to increase the Talent level of one particular talent. Only Generic points can be used for Generic talents, and only Class points for Class talents. Increasing the level of a talent will increase the effects of that talent, or unlock new abilities for that talent. All talents start at zero talent level and have a maximum level of five. There are a few special exceptions to this rule.

Mastery

Talent categories have a mastery value applied to them, which increases or decreases the effective talent level for all talents in that category. Your class and race will determine additional the mastery multipliers which can increase or decrease the final effective talent level - and therefore effectiveness - of your talents.

For example, a Brawler has access to the Combat Training tree with a x1.10 multiplier. One point invested in any skill in this tree will make an effective talent level of 1.1. With five points invested, the effective talent level is 5.5. Meanwhile a Berserker has a x1.30 multiplier for the Combat Training tree. With five points invested, the effective talent level for the Berserker in any of those skills would be 6.5.

Using Category Points

Characters also receive 1 Talent category point at character levels 10, 20, and 36. These can be used to learn a new talent category (grey in the talent list), to increase the mastery of a known category by x0.2 (only once per category), or to add an additional infusion/rune slot (up to a maximum of 2 additional slots). The Cornac subrace of humans will start the game with one additional category point for the player's free use.

Prodigies

At characters levels 30 and 42, a character may learn Prodigies. These are separate from talents and do not cost any type of talent points.

Maximum Points

The typical maximums that can be reached by a character on easy/normal/nightmare difficulties are as follows:

Base Stat Points: 232
  • 60 base points from 10 points in each of six stats at start
  • 9 points from class modifiers at start
  • 3 points from level 1 available to distribute at start
  • 147 points for leveling up to level 50
  • 10 bonus points upon reaching level 50
  • 3 points from consuming the Heart of the Sandworm Queen, or its corrupted counterpart
  • Not included in total above: 9 points on average from consuming the Wyrm Bile
Class Talent Points: 70
  • 4-5 points from new character at start (depending on class)
  • 59 points for leveling up to level 50
  • 3 bonus points upon reaching level 50
  • 2 points from the Alchemist Quest
  • 1 point from consuming the Heart of the Sandworm Queen, or its corrupted counterpart
  • Not included in total above: 1 irreversible point in Lichform for completing the From Death, Life quest
Generic Talent Points: 50
  • 2-6 points from new character at start (depending on class and race)
  • 39 points for leveling up to level 50
  • 3 bonus points upon reaching level 50
  • 2 points from The agent of the arena quest in Derth
You may select a party member to receive this reward
Category Points: 4
  • 1 at level 10
  • 1 at level 20
  • 1 at level 36
  • 1 for consuming the Wyrm Bile
  • Not included in total above: 1 from start if Cornac
Prodigy Points: 2
  • 1 at level 30
  • 1 at level 42

Note: There is a small possibility that earning 2 class talent points from the Alchemist Quest will prevent the quest from ever rewarding you with 2 generic points, and vice versa.

Additional Talents and Talent Categories

Many talents or talent categories can be acquired by characters even if they do not initially have access to them. Escort quests rewards are listed on the Escort page. Prodigies can be learned by any character that can meet their requirements. There are also special traps that are shown on the Trap Mastery page. All other means of learning talents or talent categories are detailed below:

Antimagic

Complete the Antimagic trial in Zigur.
If category was hidden or locked, unlock it at mastery level 1.0 and gain 1 free point in Resolve
If category was unlocked, increase its mastery level by 0.1

Combat Training

Purchase for 50 gold at any Last Hope weapon store
Unlocks category at mastery level 1.0

Harmony

Eat the Heart of the Sandworm Queen
If category was hidden, reveal it as locked at mastery level 1.0
If category was locked, unlock it
If category was unlocked, increase its mastery level by 0.2

Hexes

Complete the fall of Zigur quest
If category was hidden, reveal it as locked at mastery level 1.0
If category was locked, unlock it
If category was unlocked, increase its mastery level by 0.2
You may select a party member to receive this reward

Mindstar Mastery

Purchase at mindstar store in Zigur
Pay 100 gold to reveal category as locked at mastery level 1.0
Pay 500 gold to unlock category at mastery level 1.0 if it was previously hidden, or increase mastery level by 0.3 (to a maximum of 1.1) if it was previously locked. The latter case may occur if you learned Psiblades or Thorn Grab by betraying an Alchemist in an escort quest while the category was still hidden.
Pay 750 gold to increase mastery level by 0.2 if it was previously below 1.2

Shoot

Purchase for 8 gold at any Last Hope weapon store

Staff Combat

Purchase at the staff store in Angolwen
Pay 100 gold to reveal category as locked at mastery level 1.0
Pay 500 gold to unlock category at mastery level 1.0 if it was previously hidden, or increase mastery level by 0.3 (to a maximum of 1.1) if it was previously locked. The latter case may occur if you learned Channel Staff or Staff Mastery by saving an Alchemist in an escort quest while the category was still hidden.
Pay 750 gold to increase mastery level by 0.2 if it was previously below 1.2

As an important note that may not be obvious: This means that assuming you started with Staff Mastery hidden, you can gain a higher final talent level by learning Channel Staff or Staff Mastery from an Alchemist before revealing it, then paying the 500 gold to increase it to 1.1, and finally paying 750 gold to increase it by 0.2 to 1.3. If you do this without learning those from an escort, your final talent level will end up at 1.2 instead.

Vile Life

Eat the Corrupted heart of the Sandworm Queen
If category was hidden, reveal it as locked at mastery level 1.0
If category was locked, unlock it
If category was unlocked, increase its mastery level by 0.2

Talent Types

Talents are organized into trees (or category) and category types. A 'tree' is a set of four talents which have a similar mastery level (how effective the player is with those talents) and which have a similar focus. A 'category type' is a collection of talent trees with similar themes, usually for use by a particular class or group of classes.

For example, the 'Chronomancy' category type contains the trees: Age-manipulation, Chronomancy, Energy, Gravity, Matter, Paradox, Spacetime-folding, Spacetime-weaving, Speed-control, Temporal-combat, Timeline-threading and Timetravel.

All Category Types


Categories not directly accessible by players:

Talent Use Mode Details

There are three basic ways of using talents, often called "use mode": Passive, Active and Sustained.

  • Passive talents are always in effect once you know them; you don't have to do anything to make them work, and they cannot be deactivated by enemies. An example of a passive talent is Combat Accuracy.
  • Active talents have to be triggered, either by pressing a hotkey or clicking an icon on the talent/hotkey bar at the bottom of the screen. There is often (but not always) a resources cost to activate the talent, and a cooldown period before the talent can be used again.
Most active talents cost 1 turn to activate, but some are instantaneous (notably, wild infusions and shielding runes and most of the basic racial talents). Some active talents affect only the character using them (e.g. healing, teleport, shielding, ...), while others are targeted at a single opponent (Dirty Fighting, Assault), or a selectable area of the map (Fire Breath), or the tiles around the character (Death Dance), etc. Some of them produce effects that linger for a while (on the map, or on characters); others are resolved immediately. Each talent is different.
  • Sustained talents are triggered like active talents, but they remain in effect until deactivated. Most of them produce an effect that benefits the character using them; for example, Icy Skin gives armour and cold retaliation damage. Most sustained talents have a resource cost associated with them, which decreases the total available pool of that resource for as long as the talent is in effect. For example, Blur Sight is a sustained talent with a Mana cost of 30. If your character has a pool of 200 Mana, activating Blur Sight will decrease your Mana pool to 170. Stamina-using sustained talents work similarly.
Sustained talents that use Equilibrium or Paradox work a little bit differently, since those resources operate in reverse. Icy Skin has a sustained Equilibrium cost of 30. Normally, your Equilibrium level will drop toward 0 when Meditating or walking on the world map. When Icy Skin is in effect, your Equilibrium level will not drop below 30. Likewise, Weapon Folding has a sustained Paradox cost of 12. When it's in effect, your Paradox level cannot drop below 12. Sustained talents, and effects obtained from active talents, can sometimes be deactivated by enemies. Be careful out there!

For more details on how talents work see Talent mechanics.

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