[Darksword]

I know this is not a new topic and I've read what is posted on this and other boards, and the result seems to be a certain amount of confusion in my mind: possibly this arises because the thing works differently in Gothic 2 and in G2 NotR.

I've played NotR through twice, and the early game about 5 times. As I prefer to be a merc I've never bothered to pray to Innos for permanent mana boosts. However, this time I decided that I would as I'm not sure what guild I'm going to join. What I understand from the posts I've read is that while guildless you can pray to Innos, donate 100 gp and get STR, DEX and MANA boosts. Well, I'm guildless, I've prayed and reloaded and prayed and reloaded game day after game day, and all I'm offered is STR or DEX boosts: I mean, I've reloaded and prayed 18 times and more, and all I ever get is STR or DEX. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks so much. And thank you for allowing posts in English.

[Arkain]

You can get a total of +10 str, +10 dex and +20 mana before joining any guild (or after becoming a paladin, militiaman isn't enough). Depending on the guild you join some of the bonuses may be lost, e.g. as a mercenary you won't get the mana if you haven't gotten it before. The trick to getting the mana, though, is that you'll only get it once you've gotten either 10 str or 10 dex. It basically replaces the one you've already maxed out, at least until you've gotten the full str and dex bonus, then it should be mana only. Might be that it's life or mana then, I'm not certain right now. Remember that after getting all the bonuses, the life bonus can be gotten as many times as you can be bothered to pray, though.

[Darksword]

Thank you, Arkhain! Now I understand why Messmer the Optimizer's guide doesn't mention praying early on for mana. Sorry for the delay in thanking you, migraine forced me to spend a couple of days AFK.

[Darksword]

I can now confirm that Arkain is correct: if you are guildless, until you have received either +10 STR or +10 DEX, paying 100 gp to Innos does not give you any other options.

I have now proved by testing that, praying and paying while guildless, if I took +10 DEX, I could then get offered MANA the next time I prayed. Arkain was not sure of this, so I decided another post was worthwhile.

Oh, yes, and, after receiving +20 MANA, I start getting offered +3HP.

Why did I want to find out? Well, I'm intending to play as a mercenary and want to train my STR to 88 before getting any boosts to it. I thought the +20 MANA from Innos would be nice to have, and the above is the way to get it without taking any STR boosts from Innos.

It costs 3000 gp of course, and there's an argument for not doing it - there are so many other MANA boosts available. But I woke up today feeling sick, and, as I'm nearing the end of Ch1, I didn't feel able to tackle any of the rather hard fights left to do. Rather than waste a precious Saturday, I did the DEX+MANA thing, sleeping and praying and getting soup and stew from Edda and Hilda in between, just to stock up on healing food.

In summary: paying Innos 100 gp while guildess:
1. Get either +10 STR or +10 DEX
2. Now you can get +20 MANA or the STR/DEX you didn't get in step 1.
3. After that you can get +3HP or the skill you didn't get in the above steps.

Hope this helps someone.