Int stuck at 3?

[robinjohnson]

Not sure if I've hit a bug or there's something I'm missing. I've drunk two potions of Intellect recently and my Intelligence hasn't risen from 3 (where it was put by a couple of different one-up-one-down potions I think), despite getting the "You feel very smart!" message both times. My stats say:



9 - 3 - 3 + 0 is edit: oh my god I'm an idiot (an earlier draft of this message insisted it was supposed to be 6). I'm sure I did down those potions of Intellect though. My INT never showed lower than 3 that I noticed; is it possible it was 'really' below 3, but showed as 3 because that's the minimum?

I'm also wielding a Ball-and-Chain (Holy Avenger) with +1 Int, shouldn't that show up in the EB? edit: no I'm not it's +4 Wis, what's wrong with me today

I'm a Dwarf Priest; here's all of my equipped gear, in case it's relevant:

[robinjohnson]

OK, given the number of elementary mistakes I made composing this post, it's far more likely I've made an error myself somewhere. I'll keep an eye on my Int next time I find a potion of Intel*.

[Cryomaniac]

3 is the minimum value for stats, so if your base INT value would have been lower than 3 with that -6 modifier, it still would effectively have been 3.

[robinjohnson]

I'm still confused. I just drank another Potion of Intellect (which I probably wouldn't have done, if I weren't trying to work out what's going on with this):



Not only is my Int still 3, but the stats here are unchanged.


I don't think the value under 'Self' was ever 8 (I suppose it might have been, as I've drunk a few non-Int related stat and 1U1D potions in the meantime, but I don't think so.)

EDIT: Must have been, I guess? I just got Int up to 4 with a potion of Augmentation.

[PowerDiver]

Once you've learned a 1U1D potion, you should have a good reason to quaff it. The way I assume they were intended to be used is to boost a primary stat. IMO it is a clear mistake for you to be using a potion of intellect. The only ones you should be considering at the moment are brawn and contemplation. A gain in int is not worth the risk of a loss of str or wis. You will eventually maximize your con first, so drinking toughness potions mostly means that future potions of constitution will become obsolete sooner, and one of your other stats will be diminished for a much longer period of time.

The other way to use these potions is to take advantage of the asymmetry of stat gain. You gain more than 1, e.g. a jump from 18 to 18/20 counts as 2, when a stat is a bit over 18. The way I use them is to only increase my highest stat that is 18 or less. Once a stat is above 18, I switch to the next highest 18 or less. This approach optimizes finishing stat gain completely at the cost of not having the top possible useful stats in the interim. I save the potions for the future at home. So with the stats posted above, I would hold off on !contemplation until after a !brawn, or !strength or !wisdom or !augmentation should you be so lucky.