Skills/Evaluating Intelligence

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Evaluating Intelligence lets you size up the mind of any creature, but its real value is in battle: it is the skill that makes your spells hit harder. Every serious combat mage trains it alongside Magery.

At a glance

Skill category	Magic
What it does	Increases spell damage; lets you judge a creature's Intelligence and mana
How you use it	Use the skill and target a creature within 8 tiles. It also works passively every time you cast.
Works with	Magery, Meditation and Anatomy
Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster), raised up to 120 with Evaluating Intelligence power scrolls
Stats it can raise	Intelligence

Spell damage

Wizard's hat

Whenever one of your damaging spells lands, your Evaluating Intelligence is compared with the target's Resisting Spells:

• If your Evaluating Intelligence is higher, the spell does extra damage: +1% for every 5 points of difference.
• If it's lower, the spell does less: −1% for every 2 points of difference. Fighting a strong resister with low Evaluating Intelligence hurts.

Your Evaluating Intelligence	Target Resist 0	Resist 50	Resist 80	Resist 100	Resist 120
0	+0%	-25%	-40%	-50%	-60%
25	+5%	-12%	-28%	-38%	-48%
50	+10%	+0%	-15%	-25%	-35%
75	+15%	+5%	-3%	-12%	-22%
100	+20%	+10%	+4%	+0%	-10%
120	+24%	+14%	+8%	+4%	+0%

This is applied on top of the other damage modifiers on the Magery page, like the double damage spells do to monsters.

Other benefits

• Protection spell. Your chance to keep casting while being hit under the Protection spell is (Evaluating Intelligence + Meditation + Inscription) ÷ 4 percent, up to 75%.
• Unarmed defense. When you fight without a weapon (holding a spellbook counts), you defend as if your Wrestling were (Evaluating Intelligence + Anatomy + 20) ÷ 2, if that's better than your real Wrestling. A mage with 100 Evaluating Intelligence defends like a 60 wrestler.

Evaluating a creature

Use the skill (What would you like to evaluate?) and click a creature or person within 8 tiles. If you succeed, you'll see how clever it is:

Intelligence	You see: "He/She/It …"
0–9	looks slightly less intelligent than a rock.
10–19	looks fairly stupid.
20–29	looks not the brightest.
30–39	looks about average.
40–49	looks moderately intelligent.
50–59	looks very intelligent.
60–69	looks extremely intelligent.
70–79	looks extraordinarily intelligent.
80–89	looks like a formidable intellect, well beyond even the extraordinary.
90–99	looks like a definite genius.
100 or more	looks superhumanly intelligent in a manner you cannot comprehend.

With 76 or more Evaluating Intelligence you'll also see how much mana it has left, in steps of ten percent (This being is at fifty percent mental strength.).

Your reading can be a little off at low skill. The margin of error shrinks as you improve:

Evaluating Intelligence	Margin of error (Intelligence and mana %)	Shows mana
0	±20	No
25	±15	No
50	±10	No
75	±5	No
76	±5	Yes
90	±2	Yes
100	±0	Yes

If you fail: You cannot quite judge his mental abilities. Trying it on yourself gets Hmm, that person looks really silly.

Training Evaluating Intelligence

• Cast spells. Every spell you attempt from a book or scroll, success or fizzle, gives you a chance to gain Evaluating Intelligence. Most mages raise it alongside Magery without trying.
• Use the skill on creatures. Each use is a chance to gain, and it costs nothing. You can use it again after 1 second.
• Mass Curse cast on a target gives you another chance to gain.
• Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
• The harder the attempt is for your skill level, the better your chance to gain. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Evaluating Intelligence cap and to your total skill cap of 700.
• If you've set Evaluating Intelligence to go down (the arrow in your skills list), gains elsewhere can lower it to make room under your total cap. Lock skills you want to keep.
• Reaching 100.0 adds Evaluating Intelligence to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
• Mages, mage guildmasters, holy mages, healers and scribes will train you for gold: up to a third of their own skill, at most 42.0, for 1 gold per 0.1 points. Ask them (or use their context menu) to train the skill, then drop the gold on them.

Stats: each successful use has about a 3% chance to raise Intelligence by 1 point. Each stat can rise at most once every 10 minutes, and only if it's set to rise.

Suggested path

Evaluating Intelligence	How to train
0 to about 33	Buy it from a mage trainer.
33 to 100	Keep casting while you train Magery, and use the skill on any creature nearby while you wait for mana. Every cast counts, so it usually keeps pace with Magery.
100 to 120	Requires a power scroll. Keep casting: the higher your skill, the slower the gains.

Power scrolls

Power scroll

Evaluating Intelligence tops out at 100.0 unless you use a Evaluating Intelligence power scroll. There are three kinds: exalted (110), mythical (115) and legendary (120). Double-click one to raise your Evaluating Intelligence cap to that number: "You feel a surge of magic as the scroll enhances your Evaluating Intelligence!"

• Evaluating Intelligence power scrolls come from champion bosses: Barracoon, Lord Oaks, Mephitis, Neira, Rikktor, Semidar and Silvani. Each champion boss leaves 6 power scrolls in random fighting, magic, bard and animal skills, handed out among the players who helped kill it. Each scroll is a 110 (60%), 115 (35%) or 120 (5%).
• A scroll only works if it's higher than your current cap. Otherwise: "Your Evaluating Intelligence is too high for this power scroll."
• Champion power scrolls are cursed: they always drop when you die, even from a blessed container. Use them or bank them quickly.
• Raising the cap doesn't raise your skill. You still have to train the extra points.

Tips

• Train it to match your Magery. Below the target's Resist, your spells lose damage fast.
• Check a mage before you fight it. A creature that "looks like a definite genius" probably has the mana to cast its strongest spells.
• Watch an enemy mage's mana at 76+ skill. When it's nearly empty, it's time to attack.

See also

• Magery · Meditation · Resisting Spells · Anatomy