Resources are power pools used for various talents in ToME 4. There are several different kinds of resources, and some of them have unique behaviors.
- Life is the most important resource. You die when it runs out. Your maximum life is determined by your level and Constitution. You recover life slowly over time.
- Air only appears when you can't breathe for some reason (usually because you are under water). You die when it runs out.
- Stamina is used by most of the physical combat talents. It is affected by fatigue.
- Mana is used by most of the magical spell talents. It works much like Spell Points or Mana in most other RPGs. Not all classes can regenerate Mana naturally.
- Equilibrium is used by the Wild Gift talents, and represents how far the character is out of balance with Nature. Equilibrium starts at 0, and is raised by talent use; a high Equilibrium increases the chance of failure. It is restored by walking on the wilderness map, or by meditating.
- Hate is used by the Cursed and Doomed talents. It drops toward 0 when the character is walking or resting, and rises when the character kills.
- Positive energy is used (or generated) by the Celestial talents. It drops/grows to base value (initially 0) over time, and is produced by using certain talents (and consumed by others).
- Negative energy is the counterpart of Positive energy, used primarily by the Anorithil. It is produced and consumed by various talents, and otherwise drops/grows to base value (initially 0) over time.
- Vim is used by the Corruption talents, and is replenished by killing. Unlike Hate, it does not drop while walking or resting, but it is otherwise similar.
- Paradox is used by the Chronomancy talents. It is somewhat like Equilibrium -- it starts at 0, and increases as talents are used. High paradox causes failures, anomalies, and backfires, but also increases the power of some talents.
- Psi is used by the Psionic talents. It slowly regenerates naturally, but can be drawn from nearby enemies.
- Necrotic is used by Necromancers, and represents the number of souls caught within the necrotic aura. Each soul can become an undead minion. The pool is replenished by killing living beings.
In addition, Fatigue increases the costs of talents that use most resources (like Stamina or Mana), but not all. Fatigue depends directly on the armour and equipment worn and is expressed as a percent. For example, at 21% fatigue a combat talent costs 1.21 times as much Stamina and a spell costs 1.42 times as much Mana. Fatigue affects the use of the Stamina, Positive, Negative, and Hate resources, and has double effect on Paradox, Mana, and Psi.