SKALD: Against the Black Priory – Gameplay Tips

Useful Tips and Tricks

General Tips

• You can right-click monsters in combat to see all their stats, including movement, resistances etc.
• Pro tip (included in the tutorial I believe) is mousing over the monsters in the initiative order: the relevant one will blink grey.
• When you reach level 5 and unlock Tier III spells, it requires FIVE points to unlock anything. That means you need to save 2 points from previous level ups if you want to access Tier III abilities at level 5, otherwise you’re stuck waiting for level 6 to accumulate enough points.
• When you’re on the boat in the prologue, make sure to give Roland all the gear you find. He’ll keep it when you see him again in chapter 1 on the coastal road.
• If you’re playing a martial class and hit level 4, don’t spend your 3 DP right away. Make sure to put at least 1 point in charger first. Then when you get to level 5 (probably around when you’re done checking out the lighthouse), you can drop 6 DP and unlock multi-attack. If you play TTRPGs, you know how huge it is to get an extra attack each turn. It really boosts your action economy and makes your martial characters way more effective.
• You only need a shield yourself for Phalanx to work.
• Weapons have two-handed versions. If you take skills for both the two-handed weapon and the regular type, you get bonuses from both trees.
• Motivate and forage are the only camping skills worth getting.
• Some skill checks are hard checks. You don’t get to roll – you just need to have a high enough number.
• It’s super easy to steal expensive items from merchants.
• The food system can be annoying. Crafted food doesn’t give better bonuses and often has weird uneven numbers. You usually end up wasting a bunch trying to hit the target.
• If you sneak into combat, you start right next to the enemies. If they’re sleeping, your thief gets free backstabs.

Primary Stats

Melee or ranged are both decent. Strength is god stat for all melee characters, even “hybrid” with melee. Each point is +1 hit and +1 damage. Agility is god stat for ranged. Pure mage should go max intellect. Hybrid battlemage is bad.

Maybe except thief. Thief stats all increase based on Agility. So a ranged thief that backstabs with their bow (yeah…) might be good. Ranger should go bow and agility as well.

Fortitude looks strong at the start, but the points are too small to matter at higher levels.

Points Explained

Basically you have movement and action points. When you take any action, movement points are lost. You can also transform action points into movement. So say you have 3+2, you can do 3 movement and 2 action, or 5 movement. Taking any action if you haven’t spent your movement points forfeits them this turn. There are also buffs that can temporarily give you an extra action point.

Most Useful Spells

• Poison orb (air 3): Stuns and poisons enemies in an area from a distance. The ring of +aura might boost it.
• Thunderclap (air 4): Stuns and damages all enemies.
• Summon Ooze (earth 2) and Summon Magmite (fire 2): Summons a melee-resistant creature that can keep enemies busy for several turns.
• Swarm of Gnats (earth 2): A cheap 3 mana attack spell that lowers enemy dodge. Better than Magic Missile.
• Arcane Shockwave (earth 2): A spell that stuns enemies within 3 range.
• Distort Mass (earth 4): Deals 15-30 damage plus aptitude (around 10 in late game) to a single enemy.
• Diamond Form (earth 4): Gives +7 soak and makes you immune to acid, cold, electric, fire (not many enemies use these), critical hits, and some status effects.
• Strength and Agility buffs (body and nature tier 2, not for mages): Great spells. Cast them after resting and they last until the next fight.

Map of the Sewers

The sewer NPC gives it after their quest.

Click to enlarge…

Statue Puzzle in the Black Priory

The reliefs are just red herrings. The best way to understand the puzzle is to map out the whole area on graph paper…

More Hints: The key words in the poem are the bits about “like the time passes” or something to that effect. Notice the lighter lines on the floor. They form a big square through all the rooms, through some collapsed passages.

Solution: You have to turn the statues so they point clockwise around the square. Then the final secret door will open.

Gameplay FAQ

How to get the key off the corpse in the underground water tunnel without drowning?

7 is the default number of moves. You get more with Athletics (and by making sure you aren’t Encumbered by armor). However, it is currently only checking your main character instead of your currently selected Lead character. Meaning the only way to get more turns is to have a Main with athletics. There are some items you can get that will boost Athletics, so that would be a workaround for this until AL patches it. Note: It’s hard to swim with a lot of weight.

How to switch weapon set?

You click on the sword or the bow before attacking. If you have them both wielded, two icons will appear to the left of the action hotbar.

Where to find Roland in Chapter 1?

You find him once you leave the beach and enter the overland going west to the lighthouse. He’s not possible to miss.

How to manually save?

Opening the main menu using escape doesn’t take you out of your game. Just hit escape again. You can quick save with F5, but esc’ing out to the main menu should not lose you any progress.

Trinkets: just for sale or something else?

Trinkets can be sold, never used for anything.