Schools & Skills

I have a question regarding the joining of 'prestige' schools and the skills required to do so.

I would like to create a bi-ped that starts off in both the Scout and Warrior schools to begin with. At some point later on, I would also like for them to be able to join the Knight of Creation school. The problem is that in order to join as a KNOC, my character will have to accumulate a minimum of 160 points in the Summoning skill, and an additional 200 points in One Hand Slash (according to the Wiki). Obtaining the necessary OHS skill points shouldn't be an issue because both Scouts and Warriors apparently gain experience in this area every time they level up. Summoning, however, only appears to be available to Mages, Conjurers, and of course, Knights of Creation (at least, once you manage to join and subsequently level up within one of said particular schools).

I want to know if there is any way of bypassing this hurdle - perhaps by temporarily acquiring and then boosting the skill needed (in this case, Summoning) in order to join the desired school? I'd rather not have to level up yet another set of abilities solely for gaining access to a single skill, and then never touch it again due to not having wanted to enlist in the first place.

Please note that the reason why I do not wish to level this particular character as a Mage, is because I already plan on creating other bi-peds that will do so in its place. I have the feeling that it may not be possible at all, but I wanted to double check with those of you who are more knowledgeable than me in this area.

You can join the Mage school, level it up to where you need it to be, get KNoC, and then drop Mage. KNoC shouldn't have an issue standing on its own as long as its giving you enough Summoning skill at the level you start at :) http://istariareference.com/ should be able to help you with skill gains/level

You can forget schools at someone in Dalimond, I believe. I'm not entirely sure which NPC it is, though, so someone else is going to have to fill you in on that

Also just saying but-

You'll probably want to level mage up too if you plan on maining in KNoC.

1. mage gives maximum magic evasion skill (along with other arcane schools - conj, sorc, wiz, but only doing mage provides benefits those 3 schools would not)

2. mastery over perfect spell early levels (guarentees spells will hit for 30 seconds- if you're doing a school that uses magic in any form at all, which you are, you WILL want/need this skill)

3. mastery over fusion burn at higher levels (flame spells do ethereal damage for...30 seconds i think, good for arcane schools, of which KNoC technically is)

4. mastery over multicast I (gives two additional hits of a spell - so where, say, flame spear would hit once with mutlicast it'll hit 3 times. another pretty much requirement for any magic school)

5. allows you to scribe arcane spells- looking at the Istaria Lexica it seems KNoC can use all arcane spells, that is ice flame mind summoning and energy spells. the only school where ALL of these skills are boosted (saving you from doing multiple schools) is mage, so you want to take it so you can scribe all the spells a KNoC will be able to use in the long run. don't want to be missing half of your arsenal of attacks at lv100, afterall.


Like monk, warrior and healer...mage is one of those schools that a maxed out biped will want/need almost reguardless of what school they main in - this is espcieally true if you want to take any arcane magic school (such as KNoC), as in literally all bipeds should take that school (even zerkers need the max magic evasion) in the long run.

What Azath said.

You will want mage and will want to keep it.

Plus, since Knoc starts are level 20, it only gets summoning skill for 80 levels. For levels 0-20 you would effectively get 0 summoning skill, nerfing it. You need to keep at a minimum, level 20 mage so that you get summoning skill levels 0-20 from mage, and continue adding to it for levels 20-100 of Knoc. Deleting mage would gimp you by 160 - 200 summoning skill (whatever mage gets per level x 20).

Alternatively to Mage, you could level conjuror to 20. But the same will apply, you will need to keep this school to keep the full amount of summoning skill.

Wow! Thank you all for the many detailed replies. I will definitely take this new information into consideration whilst continuing to move forward.

Although the original poster may be well beyond advice, I would like to offer a divergent answer to their questions, for anyone who will come with similar ones. Please forgive me for resurrecting a dead thread.

First, you can get the quest to drop a school from an NPC named Ethien the Tempered, who stands in Dalimond Bay a bit beyond the lighthouse. So it’s practical to get Mage high enough to become a KNOC, and then forget Mage.

However, I strongly urge learning multiple schools, and to consider carefully which ones to choose. One of the earlier posters suggests taking Warrior, Healer, Monk and Mage as a base for building a good multi-school character. One disadvantage of this is that you play most of the game as Warrior/Mage or Warrior/Healer rather than the schools you really want to play. The other disadvantage is that learning many schools raises your Adventure Rating, which makes it harder to get decent XP from monsters.

The base four combine flexibility with high or the highest stat gains:
Strength: Warrior 9. Berserker gets 10, Chaos Warrior and KNOC also get 9
Dexterity: Monk 10, Scout, Elemental Archer, Crossbowman and the Disciples get 9
Power: Mage 10, Wizard also gets 10. Conjurer, Sorcerer and Blood Mage get 9
Focus: Healer gets 10, Spiritist gets 9

It’s not absolutely necessary to build the highest stats – you can spend Training Points instead. Each point of stat gain can be replaced by spending 400 TP (out of the 1200 total that you can earn by level 100).

Besides Stats, every character uses Evasion, Magic Evasion, and Armor Use. The first two can be boosted by TP, but Armor Use cannot. Evasion and Magic Evasion are also boosted by Dexterity and Focus, respectively. Armor Use 9 is enough to wear all T5 armor. (However, at least 1 Epic item requires Armor Use 1000).



For this character, Berserker/Scout/KNOC/Conjurer would give a more focused character than Warrior/Monk/Scout/KNOC/Mage, with some significant advantages.

Berserker has a few advantages over Warrior:
- Strength 10 vs. 9
- Two-Hand Slash 11 vs. 10
- Evasion 10 vs 9, so it’s not necessary to take Monk for Evasion. Dex 9 from Scout is almost as good as Dex 10 from Monk, lessening the other reason to take Monk.
- Strength Boost I (+10 Str) masterable ability
- Battle Hardened (+55 Health, +62 Armor) masterable ability

You do lose a couple of abilites, plus the 10 point skill boosts to 1H and 2H crush and 1H pierce. Many of the Warrior abilities are covered by Scout and KNOC already.

The main disadvantage to dropping Monk (besides 100 points of Dex) is losing the Dexterity Boost II (+30 Dex) and Detoxify Self masterable abilities. The rest of Monk’s advantages are covered by Scout.
Taking Monk just up to level 10 gets the Foresight (block the next attack) and Evasion Boost I (+10 Evasion) masterable abilities, very worth it.



The other substitution, Conjurer for Mage, is somewhat less clearcut. It’s aways worth taking Mage to 18 for Perfect Spell though.

Conjurer gives Ice and Summoning 10 and Fire 9 vs. Mage’s Fire 10, Ice 9, and Summoning 8. Mage and KNOC cannot cast the top tier Summoning spells unless TP is spent to raise Summoning. However, Conjurer gives no raises to Energy and Mind, vs Mage’s Energy 10 and Mind 8.

For combat spells, Focus and skill level are crucial in order to hit. This can be mitigated by using a tech slot for an Accuracy tech, but Summoning and Ice spells will be disadvantaged with Mage, Flame with Conjurer. Also, Conjurer gives no access to Energy for Energy Ward, Energy Resist and Energy attack buffs.

Ice spells can carry Root, Slow, and Evasion debuff techs, which makes Ice very good for melee fighters and archers (such a teched Ice Bolt is usable by Scout and Berserker). In addition, Ice has the Stinging Cold spell that debuffs Evasion (usable by KNOC but not Scout or Berserker), as well as the universally usable Ice Shackles root spell. Flame gives added damage and DoTs to its spells, and Energy has techs for stun, an attack speed slow debuff, and an energy spell accuracy buff.

The other big magical advantage for Conjurer is masterable Multicast II ability at level 45. It’s above 50 for Mage, and therefore not Masterable. Mage’s is, as mentioned, Fusion Burn.

Another choice is Mage’s Melee Ward vs. Conjurer’s Ice Barrier (evasion boost vs. damage resistance).

All in all, the choice between Mage and Conjurer is pretty even, so it depends on how you want to play the character.