As you level in Crossroads, your character gains stats. This is a brief guide about which stats, and how much, you gain each level:

+1 to all stats for being alive and leveling

+2 to physical/magical specific stats (depending on the type of level taken)

+1 elemental bonus applies to stats, but only to the stats of the physical/magical preference you leveled in.
(For example, Fire gets its +1 bonus in dexterity and intelligence, but you would only receive the intelligence bonus if you took a magical level, or the dexterity bonus if you took a physical level, but never both. Earth on the other hand gets a +1 bonus to strength and dexterity, so you would receive both if you took a physical level since those are both physical stats, and no bonus if you took a magical level since neither of those bonuses are magical stats.)

You can receive a maximum of +4 to a stat in a level. So, 1 for leveling and being a player in Crossroads, 2 for leveling either physically or magically that influences that stat, and 1 for being an element that gets a bonus to that stat.

You can receive a minimum of +1 to a stat in a level. 1 for leveling and being a player in Crossroads, and nothing for leveling in a physical/magical preference that does not influence that stat (and therefore the elemental bonuses will not apply either).

The Elemental Bonuses (when and where applicable, as above) are:

Speed is ALWAYS the average of your dexterity and intelligence, rounded down if the sum is odd. i.e., 20 dex and 24 int is 22 speed, and 21 dex and 24 int is still 22 speed.

The highest possible speed attainable (requires a maximum level character) is 92. With the fast spell or by invoking a chalice, this can be temporarily raised to 102.

Cheat Sheet:

Infinity makes an Air character and rolls it with 20 intelligence. He starts at level 1, and then increases his magical level 6 times, which means his character's score card (“stats” command) will show him as being a magical level of 7. What intelligence score does Infinity have?

Using the table above, we know Air magical levels gain +4 intelligence. He gained 4*6 intelligence for his 6 magical level increases, so 24 int. Since he started his character with 20 int, he would have a grand total of 44 int.

If he took a physical level next, he would have 45 int, and his strength and dexterity will be +9 from their starting values.

The following is a verbatim quote from the in-game help command “help attributes”:

Your character's primary attributes are Hit Points, Spell Points,
Strength, Dexterity, Ego, and Intelligence.  Each attribute plays a
crucial role in combat and solving certain puzzles in the game.  As you
gain experience, your attributes will change according to the type
(spell or physical) of experience.

Hit Points and Spell Points may both be lowered temporarily by
sustaining damage or casting spells.  Spell Points return naturally
with time, as do Hit Points, although at a slower rate.  There are
various mechanisms (spells, potions, Healers) for recovering lost Hit
Points and Spell Points quickly.

Hit Points, Strength, and Dexterity all rise when you gain physical
experience.  Strength represents your ability to withstand physical
damage.  Dexterity increases your chances to hit with a physical weapon
or perform a nimble feat.

Spell Points, Ego, and Intelligence go up when you gain spell
experience.  A higher Ego causes you to be more resistant to hostile
magic, and Intelligence raises your ability to attack with your own
magic.

It should be noted that hit points and spell points are both gained when any kind of level is taken, whether magical or physical. You receive more SP on magical levels than you would a physical level, and more HP on physical levels than you would a magical level.

A pure level 30 magical character compared to a pure level 30 physical character has roughly two-thirds the total HP as the 30 physical character.

Ego will help you avoid magical attacks, while Int will help you “land” them.
As unlikely as it may seem, Str will help you avoid physical attacks, and Dex will help you “land” them.
To understand these stats in action, consider the bestiary settings of the four realms:
Air Bestiary
Earth Bestiary
Water Bestiary
Fire Bestiary

Note for example that if you were to open the Fire Bestiary in another tab and see that the Hydra, Incubus, and Succubus are physical and Devils and Red Dragons are magical. You will find an Air Wizard to take considerable damage from the physical monsters (especially the Hydra) while an Earth Lord would destroy them without taking a scratch of damage. The Air Wizard and Earth Lord find their roles reversed against Devils and Red Dragons.
It is important to note that the attack message you read in-game can be misleading, like a red dragon (fire) or gryphon (air) clawing or biting at you: it is very much still a magical attack and your ego is used to dodge it. Attack messages that read in a literary sense of being magical may in fact be physical. The Bestiaries have the correct information.

The effect of SPEED is that monsters will attack multiple times if they are significantly faster than you, and this can often be fatal. Some monsters have a naturally high speed and will double-attack you regardless of how high you created your character's speed (i.e., the eel, the hell hound, and the seahorse). However, you will need to gain less levels to make them stop double-attacking you if your speed is high. You will also be able to strike a monster twice before it hits back in some cases, and this tends to happen earlier in your level progression if your speed is high.

The best argument for speed is perhaps, as the bestiary guides suggest, casters will always hit fighters, and fighters will always hit casters. Since a pure phys or magical character will undoubtedly encounter monsters of the opposite type, getting hit every time is going to be unavoidable. Therefore, the only real damage mitigation available at such a juncture is speed.

To do list: enable discussion for this page. / Sandrax