Character Build

A deliberately small build space. Ten levels, four attributes, nine skills — and one attribute doing far too much work.

Starting state and the curve

Fresh hero: all four attributes at 6, 16 attribute points and 18 skill points to spend, level 0. Each level-up grants +1 attribute point, +15 skill points, and a full life/mana refill. The XP table runs 2,000 / 4,000 / 6,000 / 10,000 / 16,000 / 26,000 / 42,000 / 68,000 / 110,000 / 178,000, and the level-up check only loops to 11 — level 10 is the ceiling.

Total lifetime budget: 26 attribute points, 168 skill points. Roughly a third of your final character is decided at creation, before you have played a minute — an old-school choice that Arx never softens with a respec.

The four attributes

Attribute	Direct effects
Strength	Melee damage max(1, Str×0.5 − 5); feeds Projectile, Close Combat, Object Knowledge; hunger burn rate
Dexterity	Crit chance Dex×2 + CC×0.2 − 18; swing charge time −20 ms per point over 10; feeds Stealth, Mecanism, Projectile, Close Combat
Constitution	Max life = Con × (level + 2); poison resistance; life regen; feeds Defense ×3
Mind	Max mana = Mind × (level + 1); magic resistance; mana regen; caster level; item identification; feeds Intuition, Ethereal Link, Casting, Object Knowledge, Mecanism

Mind touches five of the nine skills, both derived pools you care about, the identification check, and the caster-level formula. It is the most overloaded stat in the game and the reason a "pure warrior" build feels punished in ways the fiction never explains.

The nine skills, and what each actually does

Attribute contributions (getAttributeSkillModifiers) are additive on top of spent points:

• Stealth (Dex×2) — raises the light threshold at which NPCs see you 15 + Stealth×0.1; grants the backstab roll at Stealth × 0.5%
• Mecanism (Dex + Mind) — lockpicking; must be ≥ the lock's lockpickability or the attempt auto-fails and damages your picks. Success chance is Mecanism − lockpickability + 20 percent per 3-second attempt, +150 XP on success. Locks set to 100 are narratively unpickable
• Intuition (Mind×2) — +0.5% sell price per point, so 100 Intuition is +50% on everything you sell. In-game framing also ties it to sensing hidden things (unverified in engine code)
• Ethereal Link (Mind×2) — mana regeneration rate
• Object Knowledge (Mind×1.5 + Dex×0.5 + Str×0.5) — item identification: reveals an item when ObjectKnowledge + Mind ≥ item's identify_value
• Casting (Mind×2) — caster level clamp((Casting + Mind) × 0.1, 1, 10); magic resistance multiplier
• Projectile (Dex×2 + Str) — bows
• Close Combat (Dex + Str×2) — melee damage +0.1/point, crit +0.2/point
• Defense (Con×3) — armour class, damage absorb = Defense × 0.5 %, poison resist, life regen

The efficiency asymmetry

Because attribute→skill contributions are multiplicative in effect (Con×3 into Defense, which then gives 0.5% absorb per point), attribute points are worth far more than the 1:15 ratio suggests. A point of Constitution is +3 Defense = +1.5% permanent damage reduction, plus max life scaling with level. Spending skill points where an attribute already feeds heavily is the trap the interface never warns you about.

Touchpoints

• → Combat and Magic & Runes consume nearly all of it
• → Economy & Items: Intuition is a pricing stat, Object Knowledge is an information stat
• → Stealth & Light: Stealth's contribution is smaller than players assume
• → Player Journey: the 16/18 creation spend is made before the player understands any of the above

What breaks if you remove it

The build layer is thin enough that removing it would leave a playable action-adventure — but it is what makes the same locked door a different puzzle for two players, and it is the only thing converting exploration into a felt reward.