Tales of Maj'Eyal 4 pasta for /rlg/

v0.4
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Table of Contents
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1. Links

2. Character Creation
2a. The Unlock System
2b. How to Get the Fucking Archmage
2c. Races
2d. Classes

3. Playing the Game
3a. Stats
3b. Talents
3c. Inscriptions - Infusions and Runes
3d. Point Distribution
3e. Status Effects
3f. IMPORTANT - Recommended Abilities
3g. The Brotherhood of Alchemists

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1 Links

The game:
http://te4.org/download

More detailed shit than this pasta:
http://te4.org/wiki/wiki

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2. Character Creation

2a. The Unlock System

The most contentious feature of ToME 4 is its system of unlocks for Races and Classes beyond the typical archetypes of human, elf, Halfling, dwarf, and fighter, rogue, mage. Don’t let this dismay you – the seven initial classes on offer are, with one notable exception, indicative of the broad play experiences on offer.

For example, a Temporal Warden will play a lot like a Shadowblade crossed with an Archer, and a Reaver is like a corrupted, Disease-focused Arcane Blade. If you learn the basic systems, these classes’ intricacies will come a lot easier.

Unlocks are easy, quick, and plentiful – if you’re lucky, you’ll get a new class within the first two dungeons, and most are along the main path of the story. You’re not really at a lack for options even if you’re booting the game up for the first time; there is also only a single class and two races that require more than one playthrough.

2b. How to Get the Fucking Archmage

…There is one case where DarkGod fucked up, and that’s in locking the Archmage behind the game’s first unlock. Putting a spoiler front and center in this guide, I feel, is necessary; people want their wizards. To get the Archmage in five minutes, kill the first boss in your starting dungeon, find an arcane-powered artifact, and give it to the Apprentice southwest of Derth; and he’ll let you into the home city of the Archmagi, earning you the class.

2c. Races

All races have four basic things:
Experience Penalties – their percent deviation in XP gain from Cornac Humans.
Life Gain Per Level – this is independent of Constitution, which raises Life separately.
Stat Modifiers – Generally don’t matter very much; stats are VERY plentiful in ToME 4, but it’s something to take into consideration.
Racial Talents – By far the most important differentiator. All Races aside from Cornac Humans have these; instead, Cornacs have a single extra Category point on creation.
(Racial Talents must be leveled up and unlocked like all Talents, and fit into a Race’s thematic archetype – Higher Humans have better vision and can regenerate their health, Dwarves are more powerful and hardy when possessing lots of gold, etc.)

2d. Classes

Classes in ToME 4, far more than Races, are the single most important determinant in a character’s playstyle. All classes are essentially bundles of initial stat distributions, resources, and, most importantly, Talent categories. These are described below.

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3. Playing the Game

3a. Stats

These are all rather self-explanatory: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Magic, Willpower, Cunning. Different classes will want to pump different stats, and equipment can boost or drain different stats.

3b. Talents

The meat and potatoes of ToME 4, talents are activated, passive, or sustainable skills that must be leveled up individually and used in combat to be successful. All talents have five levels that can be raised. Increasing a Talent’s level increases its effectiveness and sometimes grants it new abilities – for example, a level 5 Flame spell acts as a bolt, whereas prior levels are single-target projectiles.

Talents utilize Resources, such as Mana, Vim, and Paradox. Each has their own peculiar behaviors, which can be further modified by class choice; for example, Arcane Blades and Shadowblades are not well-attuned to their magical abilities, and cannot regenerate Mana on their own, unlike Mages. Talents also operate on cooldown timers, which can be seen on the hotbar.

All Talents are organized into categories of four, and later talents in a category can only be unlocked when previous talents have been picked. For example, it’s sometimes worth it to put one point in a shitty talent you don’t like just to get the good one behind it. Entire talent categories can be leveled up, and new ones can be added to classes during the game, but neither of these are necessary; the default talents for a class are more than sufficient to get you going.

Categories may be locked initially, and these must be unlocked through Category points, granted at levels  10, 20 and 36. Cornac Humans start with a Category point at creation instead of a Racial Talent Category.

3c. Inscriptions and Runes

ToME 4 doesn’t have health or curing potions. All such functions are handled by Infusions – natural abilities that are granted by activating them, and Runes – arcane abilities that function much the same. For example, a Healing Infusion instantly recovers a set amount of health, and a Shielding Rune generates an impenetrable magical shield of a set power and duration.

All characters start with the ability to inscribe three Infusions or Runes, and any more require a Category point. Note that a Rune or Infusion can be replaced without harm.

3d. Point Distribution

On leveling up, aside from Stat points, a character earns Class and Generic Points; Talents are separated into these two categories and use separate points. Generic Talents, such as Combat training and Survival, are independent of Class; Class Talents are, obviously, class specific.

3e. Status Effects

There are three types of status effects in ToME 4:

Physical – stunning, blindness, etc.
Mental – confusion, silence, etc.
Magical – Arcane damage, hexes, etc.

3f. IMPORTANT - Recommended Abilities

Your first objective in ANY ToME 4 character will be to acquire six things:

Physical curing,
Mental curing,
Magical curing,
Instant healing,
Health regeneration,
and, if it isn't intrinsic to a class, the Combat Training category.

Most characters start with the first and second-to-last, though these will not be sufficient for very long. Search especially for inscriptions that cure two effects, such as [Wild Infusion: Magical, Mental] and the like. Most flavors of Mage have some form of healing, and certain classes or races will cover one or two Curing requirements innately.
Higher Humans are one of the best classes in the game for this very reason; their natural health regeneration is better than any Infusion, so that frees up a Category point for something else. Thus, a Higher can safely get one healing and two curing Infusions, at least one of which hopefully covers two status categories, and not need to spend any Category points satisfying these six requisite abilities.

The final objective is EXTREMELY important if you are not a warrior or rogue; most magical classes do not start with Combat Training, and they'll need it. While they won't be taking Weapon Mastery or anything like that (since they aren't pumping Strength), EVERY class must raise their Constitution, and having a high Constitution enables Thick Skin.

By the time you reach your thirties, Thick Skin really starts to shine - with a high enough Constitution, and at its max level, you've shaved off a guaranteed 15% of damage. That, stacked atop all other resistances, is critical for keeping your glass cannons alive.

3f. The Brotherhood of Alchemists

This is a very useful optional quest that can be activated at any one of the four alchemists of Maj'Eyal. The quest givers are in Derth, the elven city of Elvala, and the capital of Last Hope, as well as one hermit randomly located on the world map.

Each of these alchemists are trying to join the eponymous Brotherhood, but to make their potions they need you to collect three random ingredients for them, in the form of mob drops. Any time you kill a specific enemy, you automatically pick up a weightless ingredient from them, such as a hummerhorn stinger, a Vampire Lord's tooth, or a Warg's claw; if they have an ingredient to drop, they always will, and you will always only need one.

Why fuck around with these alchemists? Well, the potions they create, they give to you, and these can be quite beneficial indeed: a boost to Armor, four extra Stat points, a +3 boost to both Magic and Willpower, etc. Every alchemist offers three fixed, prospective potions; while a set may have similar-seeming offerings, each are optimal for different characters. If you're an Archmage, the Magic and Willpower boost will be more useful than four free Stat points of your choosing; if you're a Berserker, you don't need the Magic, and you can take the Stat points and put them wherever you wish.

The Brotherhood of Alchemists should be immediately taken by every single character you roll; you're already killing monsters anyway, so it's a massive potential for character building for zero burden whatsoever.

The trick is, some of the item drops are fucking stupid rare or difficult - that Emperor Wight ectoplasm or Multihued Wyrm scale won't be accessible for a very long time, and the alchemists are happy to demand them of your low-level character, effectively canceling out that potion choice for most of the game. Also, once you DO turn in a set of ingredients, another of the alchemists randomly finishes a potion of their own, regardless whether you'd chosen to help them with it or not. If you finish two ingredient lists before turning in either, carefully weigh the bonuses of each potion, as there's always a chance that the other will become inaccessible once you turn one in. If that's not the case, hooray; you can safely get both potions and quaff them at your leisure.

Also note that once any alchemist finishes all three of their potions, either through your aid or random chance, they are "accepted" into the Brotherhood of Alchemists and the quest is closed. The others failed to gain entrance and you can no longer turn in ingredients to them. All of this means that you should focus your efforts on the potions that seem the most useful; you may not get all or even most of them, but you'll probably get some of them.