Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle/Trainers
Background
See Ultima VII: The Black Gate/Trainers for an overview of the Ultima VII stat system and an explanation of the "rubber band" effect. Not much has really changed since the first part of Ultima VII, save the starting stats of certain characters. The Avatar starts with twenty-five (25) Intelligence and and twenty-nine (29) Mana, reducing or completely eliminating the need for magic-related training.
The Silver Seed add-on makes two additional trainers available as well as several stat boosting items. Erinon's Axe adds ten (10) points to Combat, the Gauntlets of Quickness add ten (10) points to Dexterity, and the Belt of Strength adds ten (10) points to Strength and Hits as well. For the purposes of training, the Gauntlets of Quickness do affect stat gain, meaning the Stat Gain Equation treats the item-modified stats as base stats. Holding these items can bring a character to maximum stats, but at that point they can prevent actual base stats from increasing, so be cautious.
List of Trainers
| Name | Location | Cost | Train. Pts. | Com. | Dex. | Int. | Mag. | Str. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luther | Monitor (L.F. 9 A.M. - 12 P.M.) | 50 Monetari | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Caladin | Monitor (L.F. 9 A.M. - 12 P.M.) | 50 Monetari | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Brendann | Monitor (L.F. 3 P.M. - 6 P.M.) | 50 Monetari | 3 | 3* | 1 | |||
| Shazzana | Monitor (L.F. 12 P.M. - 3 P.M.) | 50 Monetari | 3 | 3* | 2 | |||
| Tsandar | Serpent's Fang (Cells) | 200 Gold | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Elissa** | Serpent's Fang (Basement) | 150 Gold | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Note: Numbers obtained with an Avatar with stats all at ten (10), save for Magic as that could not be lowered.
Note 2: When a character maxes out a particular stat, trainers cease charging Training Points for it. This is also true when maxed from holding a stat-boosting item.
*Shazzana and Brendann both train Combat, but also receive extra points for training in Dexterity.
**This one is really only useful for the Avatar.
List Field
Practicing with any of the Monitorian trainers involves fighting at List Field. Each trainer is only available during certain hours. The Avatar or a companion will lose their normal equipment and instead fight in leather armor and a selected weapon. Companions fight automatically while the Avatar is controlled by the player. The chosen character doesn't actually have to win the fight to receive a training gain. Losing is good enough.
The remaining trainers teach in the "old fashioned" Black Gate method of merely paying to receive improvements.
Example: Training a Character with Items
To get a better understanding of using items to gain stats, we'll examine a hypothetical character with a Dexterity of twelve (12) and Combat of eight (8). In all cases, the character trains with Shazzana. This example also demonstrates the rubber band effects of the Stat Gain Equation.
| Dexterity | Combat | T.P. Consumed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 8 | 0 | Starting stats. |
| 22 | 8 | 0 | Starting stats with Gauntlets of Quickness. |
| 24 | 17 | 3 | First training, gained two (2) to Dexterity and nine (9) to Combat. |
| 26 | 23 | 3 | Default gain to Dexterity, Combat gained six (6). |
| 16 | 23 | 0 | Removed the Gauntlets of Quickness. No training occurred. |
| 18 | 28 | 3 | Combat gained five (5). |
| 20 | 30 | 2* | Combat is now maxed. |
| 22 | 30 | 2 | Shazzana now only trains Dexterity, so she only charges two Training Points. |
| 24 | 30 | 2 | Continues like this until Dexterity reaches its limit. |
This character could potentially max out his relevant stats by level eight (8) or nine (9) as long as Training Points are spent carefully and frugally.
*Shazzana actually only consumes two Training Points at this stage. Apparently, she teaches Dexterity first, which caused a two point increase to Combat, thus she never consumed a third Training Point. All trainers seem to not consume these excess points.
