Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence

Your character's three basic values. You spread them when creating your character, and they rise as you play. This page explains exactly what each one does.

What the three give

Stat	Gives directly	Also
Strength	Hit points = Strength ÷ 2 + 50	Your carrying capacity; the damage you deal (100 Strength = +35%)
Dexterity	Stamina = Dexterity	Your weapon swing speed, dodging, many skills
Intelligence	Mana = Intelligence	Your mana regeneration rate (together with Meditation)

Example: 100 Strength = 100 hit points. 25 Strength = 62 hit points. That is why a warrior starting with 45–50 Strength is far tougher than a mage with 10 Strength.

What stats add to skills

Stats do not replace skills; they enlarge or speed up a skill's result.

Skills also add to weapon damage: Tactics +68.75% at 100, Anatomy +55% at 100, Lumberjacking +30% at 100 with an axe. Strength, Tactics and Anatomy add together → Combat.

Caps

When you are at the total cap, one stat rising means another falls; you choose which one falls with the lock arrows in the status window (up = may rise, lock = fixed, down = may fall).

How do stats rise?

A stat can rise at the moment one of your skills gains a point; using the skill alone is not enough. On every skill point, a chance is rolled for strength, dexterity and intelligence in turn; the first stat that succeeds rises one point (at most one stat at a time). The chance depends on the skill itself:

Tactics, Meditation, Necromancy, Chivalry, Bushido, Stealth and Remove Trap give no stats. A stat whose arrow is not up is skipped. The same stat only waits a few seconds between two gains.

In short:

• Strength: mining, lumberjacking, carpentry, blacksmithy, swordsmanship, mace fighting, wrestling, animal taming — heavy work.
• Dexterity: lockpicking, tailoring, fencing, archery, hiding, stealing, fishing — work of hands and feet.
• Intelligence: cooking, magery, evaluating intelligence, inscription, alchemy, cartography — head work.

Stat gain is the same speed as classic UO (skill gain is 1.5 times faster, stats are not) → Skills.

Raising a stat quickly

1. The skill's arrow must be up. A skill whose arrow is locked or down in the skills window gives no stats even when it gains a point.
2. Set your stat arrows. In the status window, the stat you want to rise up, the ones you want to keep locked; as you near 225, the stat you are willing to lose down.
3. Train the skill that feeds the stat you want (list above).
4. Train with low skills. The lower a skill, the more often it gains points, and every point is a stat chance. A skill you have mastered (at its cap) no longer gains points, so it brings no stats either.

A stat scroll raises your total cap; it drops from champion altars → Champion Altars.

Carrying capacity

How much you can carry depends on Strength:

Weight limit = 100 + (3.5 × Strength) stones

450 stones at 100 Strength; there is a margin of 4 more stones. The moment you go over the limit an orange warning appears ("You are overloaded: 23 stones too much"), and you are told when your load gets lighter. While overloaded, every step you walk lowers your stamina (5 per step + 1 for every 25 stones of excess; twice that while running); when your stamina runs out you cannot walk. You can see your weight in the status window.

While mounted, your own stamina bar does not drop; it is your mount that tires, and its fatigue is not shown on a bar. The mount tires when running and when you are overloaded (faster under load). You get an orange warning when it is half tired and when it is very tired; when it is completely exhausted it stops. Standing still is enough to let it rest (it recovers one step's worth per second); pressing a direction key while stuck does not interrupt its rest. Lightening your load is the fastest fix.

Practical fixes: put your gold in the bank, buy a pack horse/llama (sold by animal trainers), carry boards instead of logs.

Stamina

Spent when running, fighting and carrying loads. When it runs out you go on at walking pace and your weapon slows down.

• The Focus skill speeds up regeneration (by skill ÷ 10 points).
• The "stamina regeneration" item property adds to it too (cap 24).
• Eating and lightening your load are the fastest fixes.

Hunger

Your stomach gets one step hungrier every 5 minutes of play (20 steps: a full stomach empties in about 1 hour 40 minutes). Being hungry has no penalty at all: health, mana and stamina regeneration, swing speed, skill and stat gain are not affected by hunger, and a hungry character does not die. The only effect of eating is to refresh your stamina a little (about 6–8 points per bite); you cannot eat when you are completely full.

Mana

The fuel of spells. You carry as much mana as your Intelligence; regeneration comes from three places:

Source	Note
Meditation	The biggest share. Your hands must be free and your armor suitable → Armor and Resistances
Focus	A small but steady contribution (about skill ÷ 20)
"mana regeneration"	Item property; cap 18

Lowering mana cost works as well as regeneration: the cap for "lower mana cost" is 40% → Item Properties.

Which spread to start with?

At the start you spread 90 points in total; it is not permanent, and it grows toward 225 as you play. The profession boxes give this spread ready-made → Professions.

Other pages: Item Properties · Combat · Armor and Resistances · Magic · Skills