To Rearrange or not to Rearrange

Rearrangement is somewhat tricky business. Prior to rearranging if you use "score stats" all of your stat points are at 13. Each stat area reflects a different aspect of your character and each stat area affects a skill from the skill tree.

The Rearrangement Help File

You will be allowed once during your character's life to modify the stats that you start with. Stats take the range of 8 to 23. You can make your stats what you want them to be by typing rearrange and following the instructions. The idea of this command is to make your character what you want it to be. You should also read the help on stats to find out what each of them does. Don't play with this until you have decided what you want your character to be like. You do not need to rearrange your stats very early on in the game, so spend some time playing with your character and getting the feel of how things work before you make a decision about how you wish to set your stats.

Rearrangement General Information

If you've already asked for rearrangement help from the talker you've most likely recieved some vague answers along the lines of, "if you have to ask you're too young", "don't be too extreme in your rearrange", and so forth. And while these pearl drops of wisdom are indeed true, inquiring minds do want to know:

First, I would like to point out that there is no deffinitive witches guild rearrange and most often every witch online at a given time will each have a different rearrange (at least by a few points here and there). This statement (most likely) applies to all guilds.

Pre-rearrange if you type "score stats" you'll recieve something similar to this: Con: 13 Dex: 13 Int: 13 Str: 13 Wis: 13 Hgt: ??? cm Wgt: ??.?kg. Now to break down what each stat actually does:

The "help stat" file: "When it comes to applying your knowledge, in the form of your levels in the various skills, it is very often the case that your bonus in a skill is used, rather than your level. The bonus provides a much more relevant measure of how good you are at something, since it takes into account your natural ability in the form of your stats. There are five stats, which you may view at any time with "score stats", and they are constitution, dexterity, intelligence, strength and wisdom. Your array of stats forms what wizards term your anima, as opposed to your skills which form your animus." - MUD

Constitution: "Your constitution is a measure of how healthy you are, and is frequently used to determine whether you succumb to disease or poison. Amongst other skills, it is important for your bonus in "other.health" and hence the number of hit points you have. " - MUD

Dexterity: "Your dexterity determines how agile and graceful you are. It will be used to determine how you land from a fall and is used in the determination of the bonus for many skills, for example "fighting.combat.dodging", "magic.methods.physical" and, of course, many of the "covert" skills." - MUD

Intelligence: "Your intelligence reflects how bright you are and determines how able you are at figuring things out for yourself. It is the most important stat for bonuses in "magic", so it is very important for wizards and witches." - MUD

Strength: "Your strength is a measure of your physical power and build. Its most obvious role is in determining how much you are able to carry. A fighter will need a good strength as it is the main stat used for calculating "fighting" bonuses, with dexterity not far behind, and is also used for "crafts.smithing.black" and the more physical "other" skills." - MUD

Wisdom: "Your wisdom is a reflection of the power of your intuition and common sense. It is by far the most important stat for priests, in that it determines bonuses in "faith", and is also used for "magic.methods.spiritual" and a number of the more mental "other" skills, including "other.perception"." - MUD

Now, what does this mean to you? As a witch your primaries are largely affected by intelligence and dexterity. However, there are other things you should take into consideration. Here are a few questions you may want to be able to answer before rearranging:

Questions

1. What sort of magic do I want to practice? Commands? Spells? Scrolls? Basic ability in everything?
2. Do I want to be able to do anything else besides magic?
3. Should I pursue none, some, or a lot of combat ability?

Often it does take some time to be able to answer these questions which is why it's not recommended to rearrange at an early age. But once you have been able to answer these questions (and attempt to answer these for a long term situation not to help meet any immeadiate goals) I highly recommend visiting this site which contains a bonus calculator or visit Flatline's skills page, submit your skills, and there is an option that will allow you to plug in changes in rearrage.

At this point you may choose to inquire on the talker, not for help with rearrangement, but for examples of what people have chosen as rearranges. This is often far more helpful than simply asking for help.

Recommendation Corner

The lowest you can set a stat is 8 and the highest you can set a stat is 23. I do not recommend setting any stat over 18. Anything beyond 18 will be considered "extreme" and isn't all that helpful. That is, the bonus difference that you'll get from a 17 to 18 stat change will be considerably larger than the bonus change from 18 - 19 and beyond. Basically meaning that most likely those points over 18 you place in a stat could be better used elsewhere in your rearrange.

By now you should have something of an idea of a rearrangement you wish to pursue. Feel free to run it by on the channel and see if anyone comments on it.

Also be aware that there are a few places around the Disc (such as in OC, AM, Djelibeybi, etc) where for a price you can "move stat points" post-rearrange. After using this once it takes about six months (roundworld months) to be able to use this function again and it becomes increasingly more expensive. There are also a variety of stat items and tea that can give you stat boosts for periods of time. Simply keep these in mind that you are certainly allowed a degree of experimentation.

If you still are clueless and somewhat frightened of rearranging I highly recommend keeping the original 13 in each stat and not rearranging. Many people carry on a happy existence on the Disc with never changing their stats.