Arena talk:Classes

Class-specific abilities

Considering that the flavor text, save for certain classes, is not very detailed in regards to class-specific abilities (for example, mentioning that a class can deliver a critical strike but actually relating what the chance is for such an attack to occur), this particular Arena article may benefit from having those statistics documented for both old and new Arena players to use when determining what class they wish to play for a session. I've just uploaded a start at this, adding the rate at which characters perform critical strikes and what their max spell points are. My ability to contribute further is limited by my equally-limited access to the Codex Scientia, I was wondering if anyone would like to contribute other things, such as Lockpicking chances and "Stealing Items from Shops" chances, etc.. (LordHaHa 22:54, 26 February 2010 (UTC))

I did have the Codex Scientia 15 years ago, but lost it during one of my move-outs. In regards to specific abilities, I have been playing (still nowadays!) four classes:

1) Highelf Battlemage - destruction effects do cost only half the normal spell points for other classes and is immune to Paralysis.

2) Redguard Assassin - whether the calculation is correct or not, at level 21 he scores Critical Strikes almost every time he hits someone (I actually count the rare ocasions he does NOT score one).

3) Redguard Ranger - at level 18 he *seems* to be killing foes with fewer hits than before. In other words, *apparently* his ability to add extra damage equal to his level is correct.

4) Redguard Monk - the descritption here *seems* wrong: he does not have 3% / level as the Assassin to score Critical Strikes. Maybe 2% or just the regular 1%. Quite simply, everytime I played Assassins, I ALWAYS got a couple of Critical Strikes in the initial dungeon, where I always reached level 4 before leaving. My Monk is level 4 and so far NO Critical Strikes. I decided to test this, as this would turn the Monk into an awesome class: deadly as the Assassin and harder to hit, in exchange for not wearing leather (which I have to buy new every time I get out of a dungeon....)? I will play on for some levels as a Monk, yet I see no brighter future for him in this regard.

As for whether races pluses kick in (like Redguards adding level / 3 to hit and damage), I cannot know for sure. There are some ways to test this but I do not have the time or patience. I assume if you have a colossus-level 99 Highelf Warrior with 0 Strength bonus wielding a Mithril Dagger (so you can hit everything) and the same being a Redguard, then you can know if you're just doing the puny dagger damage or adding +33 from your racial advantage... (User:Pain Maximiz'rrrr 10:24, 19 May 2011 (Brasil))

LV. 10 cap?

One of the notes at the end of the page mentions a cap of Level 10 for all classes. However I vaguely remember reading (in the manual and on other game forums) that Levels beyond 10 can be achieved (I remember one post where someone calculated that around 1 million XP an average character should be around LV. 13-15, depending on class). Is this information correct or is it misleading (on either end)? (LordHaHa 22:54, 26 February 2010 (UTC))

• I did some research and I just leveled up to LV. 11 in one of the main quest dungeons. The "LV. 10" cap suggested by an earlier author is quite clearly incorrect. Amending that statement now. LordHaHa 07:12, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

What version of Arena are you using? I tested the information in-game by giving myself stupid amounts of XP and was unable to level beyond 10. I've also reverse-engineered the code to confirm, and the code itself doesn't support beyond level ten. It may be that this cap has been removed (or was added) in certain versions of the game, though, or you've installed a mod of some kind. I've reverted the information for now, pending further discussion. ‒ Robin Hood↝Talk 07:51, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I just did some more testing and code examination of my own, and it appears there may be more going on here than I originally thought. I clearly remember hitting a Level 10 cap, but in further testing, this cap seems not to be there. I'll have to check into it more and see if there's something unusual going on, like perhaps a difference in leveling calculations after that point or something. For now, I'm reverting my own reversion and restoring your information, since it clearly is possible under some circumstances to get around the apparent cap I encountered. ‒ Robin Hood↝Talk 08:30, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Okay, clearly you were right and I was wrong. It's hard to say a couple of months after-the-fact what I did wrong, but obviously I did. Looking at the code again, and testing in-game confirms that my above suspicion is correct, there's a level-break — up to level 10, you need 1.875 times your previous level XP, rounding down to the nearest whole number (which are the levels mentioned on the page). To get to level 11 or above, you only need 1.5 * previous, rounding down. I'll tweak your example on the page to match the new info. Thanks for the catch! ‒ Robin Hood↝Talk 09:28, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

No problems, at least it was fixed. It's too bad I don't have the Codex Sci. on hand, as the whole Arena section could really use the same amount of mechanical documentation that the DF, MW and OB sections have. LordHaHa 19:10, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't know if anyone still checks this but I think there's more to it than achieving level 11+ with 1.5* your previous level's experience requirement. If I'm understanding this correctly, the experience requirement, based on these calculations, for a knight to reach level 11 would be 251943. However, in playing the game, I have found that my character (A dark elf knight) is still at level 10 despite having 315400 experience. I do not know what factors may influence this but for research purposes, my character has attained 1 piece of staff and is, as I said, a dark elf knight. Dynas 02:23, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

https://www.gog.com/forum/elder_scrolls_series/arena_max_level Apparently it is possible to get to level 38. 77.254.226.253 16:28, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

Lockpicking/thieving abilities

I've added how effectively a given class is able to pick a lock, based on the conversation going on at the discussion page of "General Hints" in this section. Robin Hood has decoded the formula somewhat, but not entirely, so I've come up with a very basic method of inputting this data into this section, given lack of an exact formula at the moment.

Part of the formula that Robin Hood decoded includes the multiplier for each particular class. The lower the multiplier, the better they are able to lock pick in Arena by default, and if all other attributes, levels and random factors are equal. Burglars have the best multiplier of "2", while non-Thieves have a multiplier of "8". Therefore, with a fraction of 2/8, we come to the conclusion that a Warrior, with all other factors being equal with a Burglar of the same level, is 25% percent as effective as a Burglar when it comes to picking locks.

With this in mind, and the data from that particular section of the site, I've have added this information the "Special" tab for each of the classes. Hopefully, at some point the special abilities of all the classes will be fully or at least partially documented. LordHaHa 02:50, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Sorcerer and Spell Absorption

The paragraph states that "If a spell is absorbed, the Sorcerer takes no damage, but instead adds the spell's total power points, divided by the Sorcerer's level, to his/her spell points". That would mean that the higher the level the lesse effektive useful his ability gets. Is this really the case? -Meisterdieb 17:56, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

This DOES mean that, at higher levels, s/he harvests fewer sell points from a given spell. This is mostly to keep you from finding some weak spellcaster enemy and grinding their spells that won't hurt you much if they DO hit, and require you to take SOME risk to refill your magicka. 207.228.62.86 07:38, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Monk's critical hit chance

From the Codex Scientia, it's actually 3% per 2 levels, and only with melee weapons. -- Flo — Unsigned comment by 90.22.254.213 (talk) at 13:10 on 21 January 2012

Thank you, I've made the change. – Robin Hood↝talk 07:46, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Monk

The loss of the measly triple damage from a melee weapon doesn't mean much when several fireballs are headed your way and you can't even touch your enemies.

Bad idea. Hight leveled monk is assassin-like close combat killing machine who eliminates everything in seconds with his ebony dai-katana. Turning monk into a bad archer is waste of class abilities. Just use the Ring of Phynaster against powerful mages. — Unsigned comment by 95.71.71.141 (talk) at 05:02 on 3 June 2012

Ranger's damage bonus

Ranger does not deliver additional damage to undead monsters (according to Codex Scientia, p.11). --95.71.71.141 05:31, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

There is a bug in Arena (or DosBox?) which skips that check. KShrimp (talk) 09:23, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

Bard

Moved from article

Bard can level until level 26 but is block after (around 175,000,000 XP if I remember correctly but I have now more than 380,000,000 and I didn't level any more) — Unsigned comment by 93.0.125.131 (talk) at 06:19 on 4 September 2013

Assassin Health should be 25+d8?

I know all the official manuals and this page say the Assassin's starting health and health per level are 25+d12, but all of my in-game testing indicates the health should be 25+d8. No matter how many times I rerolled during character creation to test this, I could never get the starting health to pass 33. 25 + 8 = 33. Currently my level 10 Assassin has enough natural END (without any items) to give it a +4 health bonus on level up, but I can never get a health roll higher than +12. 8 + 4 = 12 so this makes sense if the base value is d8. I'm playing the GOG version of Arena if that matters. Darkness Squall (talk) 17:35, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Apparently, it's not just the Assassin whose health is incorrect—most of the Thief classes are switched around, and the Healer class is wrong as well. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 21:47, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Leveling After Level 10

Just looking at various points on this page, it appears that leveling after level 10 isn't as consistent as stated on the page. If people could track the approximate XP amount when they actually do level and report it here, that would be enormously helpful in figuring out if there's something we haven't accounted for in leveling. Thanks! – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 22:24, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi guys...my first post here. I am playing a Wood Elf Battlemage and I just got to level 11. I am pleasantly surprised. My current EXP is 275810 (no additional EXP gained after leveling). 130.83.73.172 01:17, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

The experience tables are validated now. It is not needed to report anymore. KShrimp (talk) 12:49, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Added Dice Rolling section

Dice rolling in Arena is not quite as simple as d10 = 1-10. Much of the information is found on the OpenTESArena's wiki, but differs from that information in a few areas. In the "Character Generation" page under "Dice Rolling", it uses an example of generating random numbers based on 6, 5, and 4. It has been determined that the "rnd(4)" is not used and is a slight error when presenting an expanded version of the actual code. Because rnd(6) and rnd(5) will produce values of 0-6 and 0-5, these are described as 7 and 6 sided dice respectively. Under the "Health on generation" section of the "Player stats" page it describes how "+1" is added to the stats if the dice roll + the Health bonus (from Endurance) is = to 0. In practice, the "+1" is also added if the calculation is equal to -1. Most of the credit goes to user ArgonianAccount who helped clarify the code listed at OpenTESArena and pointed out discrepancies. My practical testing of over a thousand test rolls in Arena and some simple statistical analysis simply verified his information. More detailed information can be found in the Arena forum. --Satribe (talk) 03:44, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Temp undo for more testing. The section correctly described the Health stat dice rolls, but may be handled differently for other "d" rolls in the game. --Satribe (talk) 13:38, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Just closing this out - this was added to the Character Creation page. --Satribe (talk) 07:06, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

Knight won't break an Artifact?

I don't believe that's true. In the Advantages section under Knight we have this sentance: "In addition, if a Knight possesses a renowned Artifact, unless it is the Oghma Infinium, he/she will not need fear of losing it at a critical moment" A Knight repairs when resting and the repairs only take place as you cross over to the next day at midnight. If you are drinking potions or using magic instead of resting, your weapons don't repair and can break. I don't see why this wouldn't apply to an artifact. --Satribe (talk) 13:11, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

"this is fixed by the <empty>

In the current version the bugs version have monitor icons with a text talking about something having been fixed by something but the line itself is empty. — Unsigned comment by TheSeldomConsistentEditer (talk • contribs) at 20:33 on 28 September 2023 (UTC)

The formatting for assigning values to template parameters uses "=", not "." as was used here (so for the {{Bugs}} template, the proper formatting is "confirmed=1", not "confirmed.1"). This was causing the blank lines to appear. It was also breaking the table and references formatting; I've gone and corrected all the instances I could find. — Wolfborn^(Howl) 22:21, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

add row for starting weapon in table

I think it might be needed to list what weapons classes get on starting, broadsword for warriors, knights etc, dagger for mage and thief, etc. TheSeldomConsitentEditor (talk) 12:23, 13 October 2023 (UTC)