So I was thinking, nobles like the king of yves (though maybe not him as he seems like he was wasted by his parents), the son of the dwarven chief (he was three or four when his parents handed him over to the training master), wealthy families and even to a lesser extent the troll mercenaries have a pretty big advantage as they can afford to spend a lot more of their time gaining power than normal people can. As we saw with the dwarf, parents will even send their children to be trained by others who won't hold back - apparently a small percentage of all trainees died from the Master's harsh training methods as well as fights they weren't ready for - which means that before they level at all their stats will be significantly improved. Even afterwards they continue to train hard for decades. So the question is, how much higher do you guys think their stats are at say level 20 compared to peasant adventurers of their race? Assuming said elites are not fed all sorts of statboosting goodies growing up.
Reiterated through the books is it’s not the absolute power but application of power that matters. The advantage training gives us the way to properly use weapons and learn fighting styles. I don’t think the stats increase much higher, maybe they could gain a point or three in endurance, strength, etc as either did when running for a prolonged period from the kbolds. But generally the stats will be the same—possibly an increase in one or two levels with of stat points at most. Not to say these elites are equivalent to a self trained thug Adventurer. The fighting styles and knowledge are huge. Look at Yoshi: I cant remember his level but he whoops Ritchers ass, and can leads large armies to boot. The way to properly fight is worth much more than raw stats, as Ricther demonstrates when dealing with the criminals. skill is another matter. A random adventurer is probably professed one a combat art but I don’t they would be an adept let a line a master. But the elites can very well be 60, 70, 80 skill levels in multiple fighting styles.
Proper application of power matter, but its not as important as some think. Martial arts and fighting is at least as much about raw power and speed as it is fighting techniques. Probably more so. Higher stats mean you are able to move faster, react faster, hit harder and endure more. Sure it isn't everything, but if the opponent has an average 10% stat advantage across the board they have a major advantage. As for how much they would gain in stats, i'd say the trolls 71 constitution are an indicator that training matters, even if most of theirs is from levelling. Now the dwarven four-year-old was sent to actually train, i'd guess he earned a lot more over the course of the years, being constantly pushed to the brink by a trainer who cared nothing for whether his trainees lived or died as long as some of them grew worthy of becoming granite breakers. Even Richter has gained quite a few statpoints when he pushes himself close to or past his limits, at least he did until he started filling up on easy points from levelling instead. This is from book 1 Richter basically spent a week travelling back and forth, in addition to fighting a handful of goblins, and gained 6 points for his efforts. He steadily gains agility points from various exertions well past agility 20 until it ends after book 4 or so. Same for other stats, and Richter isn't even trying to increase them. I wouldn't be surprised if a level 1 could earn a level's worth of stats across the board with a month's worth of hard training. After that it would go slower, but if you trained hard for years, getting pushed to the brink, you would see the points coming steadily. Slowing down gradually, but never stopping.
You are right. When Yoshi was teaching Ricther sword forms he complained about not leveling up like he did when sparring. Yoshi’s reply was a man trained in form could easily kill a higher level warrior. So apparently level isn’t as good as the knowledge.
Yoshi was talking about skill levels and someone like Richter who has trained by swinging his sword without guidance or a style being an easy target for a trained swordsman, which he would be all else being equal (such as the untrained brute not being a lot faster/ harder-hitting from stats or having special abilities. The mountain troll had zero training, but it slaughtered a lot of the troll mercenaries who seemed like welltrained soldiers). I deliberately did not bring styles, skills, expertise, etc. into it because I wanted to discuss how much training can move your baseline and how much of an initial advantage someone trained would have. I suppose I partially answered that, from Richter's example a human can raise their stats to around 25 from pushing their limits and exerting themselves till they almost collapse. With extreme training its likely they can grow that a bit higher, especially if they start training from young instead of as adults, but it won't be that much more (semihard limit at 30, with it taking years to raise it another point). Most peasants could never afford the kind of time and dedication it takes, but for nobility of all sorts, its a good way to get a leg up. In addition to also gaining skillevels, possibly unlocking a style meaning expertise points, and generally preparing to become a knight, warrior or the occasional rogue. Mages might also be on this track? After all humans have to be balanced or suffer consequences, so otherwise they would have to subtract points they could have invested into intelligence/ wisdom in order to raise physical stats they rarely use.
Didn't the Hearth Mother open Richter's mana channels? I think mages also can benefit from things like you are describing. While I like where this goes does AK really make the effort to go there too much? Personally if he did he would have IMO more content to put out books faster.
