Dexterity
| Dexterity | |
|---|---|
| Effect | Adds to damage defence |
| Requires | Armour worn, or the bonus is zero |
| Published example | 12 dexterity adds 0.24 |
| Starting value | 5 |
| Training cost | ((current - 4) squared) x 2 gold |
Dexterity is one of the five attributes bought with gold at the merchant, and it is the one that raises damage defence. Damage defence is taken straight off the damage an opponent deals, so each point makes every blow that lands a little cheaper.
It is also the only one of the five with a condition attached: what it scales is worn armour, so a knight wearing none gets nothing from it at all.
What a point of dexterity buys
The source will not say. It reports that a formula probably sits behind the bonus and cannot be read off the screen, then offers one worked example in place of a rate: a dexterity of 12 adds 0.24 to damage defence. A knight whose armour and shield give a base defence of 1.00 to 3.00 fights on 1.24 to 3.24 instead, and that whole figure comes off each hit that connects. Levelling raises the bonus as well.
No armour, no bonus
A two-handed weapon fills both hands, so no shield can be held, armour skill largely stops earning its keep, and dexterity goes out of the build alongside them.
The source stops short of never, though. Its advice to a two-handed knight preparing to switch is to buy dexterity before the reset begins, and it warns that switching that way costs more than the reverse, because one-handed carriers train dexterity too.
Where the gear moves it
Every weapon, shield, ring and amulet in the tables carries a dexterity figure, and body armour carries none. One-handed weapons and jewellery mostly add, to a maximum of +16 on a weapon, +30 on a ring and +23 on an amulet. Not one shield or two-handed weapon adds any, and the worst take -17 and -28. The shield supplying the base defence is therefore paying part of the bill for the attribute that scales it.
The cost of a point
Dexterity sits on the expensive of the two training curves, the one it shares with strength and stamina, at twice what martial arts or parry cost at the same value. The full price table belongs to skill points. Skill points can be reset, and the five attributes cannot, so dexterity trained for a one-handed knight goes on counting towards combat potential after a switch to a two-hander, long after it has stopped reducing anything.
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