stat improving items

[brsingr]

why don't they do anything when your stats are at their natural maxes? I one would think that.... say, i wasn't strong enough to wield this weapon. when i go get an item to make me stronger so i could wear it, i find out that it can only make me as strong as i could be without it. doesn't that kinda defeat the purpose?

[English lad]

You can't improve your stats beyond your natural maxes - this is necessary for balance reasons - it would be way to over the top if low strength races could you wear + str stuff to use what ever they want.

Any race that is low on stats in one area is high in another - its the trade-off you make.

EDIT - As regards to 'defeating the purpose' - Lots of nice weapons/armor have - Stats on them as a balance to the bonus' you get on them, by making use of appropriate + stat equipment to deal with this you can have all the benefits of these items, with none of the negatives.

[brsingr]

thanks. I use them to do that (balance out the ones that have -stats), but i just wanted a bit of an explanation.

[Anoneemus]

Eh, I don't think it would be unbalanced the other way, but it would require a complete retooling of the way the game works. It's just a difference between this game and, say, D&D where you start out with X stats but can increase them by magical means.

The only part that would be real stupid is if you could increase your con/int to like 99 right before gaining a level, but I think there are ways to fix that.

As for the purpose of those items, it's just as English Lad pointed out, but also lots of skills and spells alter your stats too, condeaths lower your con. I always find it helpful to have as much extra str as I can on a melee type, because you'll get hit with all sorts of weaken affects. Same goes for weak races who are wielding a weapon that they can just barely hold; you really don't want that dropping out of your hands at an inopportune moment.