Ultima Online Evaluating Intelligence - the 4.6x spell damage multiplier and what it never touches

The multiplier

uo.com publishes the formula in one line:

Damage multiplier = ( ( Evaluate Intelligence × 3 ) ÷ 100 ) + 1

and works a single value through it: “if you have 120 Evaluate Intelligence, your base damage would be more than quadrupled, ((120 * 3) / 100) + 1 which would be 4.6.” Written as a total-damage expression it is the same thing: total damage = base damage × ( 3 × Evaluating Intelligence ÷ 100 + 1 ). At sample values:

Evaluating Intelligence	Damage multiplier
0	1× — base damage and nothing more
33.4	2× — doubles
66.7	3× — triples
100	4× — quadruples
120	4.6×

Read the shape of that, not only the endpoints. The multiplier is continuous from zero skill: there is no minimum Eval Int required to cast anything, and no threshold at which it switches on. Every single point is worth 0.03× base damage — the × 3 ÷ 100 in the formula — from the first point to the 120th. Nothing about the curve rewards stopping at a round number.

The Legendary scroll is therefore worth 4.6 against 4.0. That is the two published figures divided out rather than a separately published number, but it is the honest way to value the last twenty points: the same again as the twenty before them, and the twenty before those.

The four things it does nothing for

Four spells are not affected by Evaluating Intelligence at all: summons, Resurrection, Mind Blast and Poison [!]. uo.com confirms two of them from the other direction — Mind Blast damage is based on “Magery + Intelligence”, and Poison’s chance and strength come from Magery, Poisoning and the target’s Resisting Spells.

That list is a template argument, not trivia:

• Mind Blast and Poison are the two Magery attacks that remain fully effective without Eval Int. That is precisely why they appear on templates that spent those points elsewhere.
• A summoner gains far less from this skill than a nuker does, because Summons are on the excluded list. The points that buy a Fire Elemental nothing could buy something else.
• Resurrection is unaffected, so a pure support mage has a real argument for skipping it.

Two other multipliers stack alongside Eval Int and are often confused with it. Intelligence itself: uo.com, “Intelligence gives 1% spell damage increase for every 10 points, or (intelligence / 10)”. And Inscription: Grandmaster Inscription adds 10% Spell Damage Increase, which uo.com notes sits outside the item SDI cap in PvP. Three different mechanisms; none substitutes for another.

[!] Whether Evaluating Intelligence does anything at all for Necromancy, Mysticism or Spellweaving is not published. uo.com names only Magery. Eval Int did affect Mysticism before the February 2010 [!] change, after which Imbuing or Focus took over — and uo.com states the current position plainly, that “Imbuing works as a ‘support’ skill for a mystic, interchangeable with focus”. Necromancy’s equivalent is Spirit Speak. Treat Eval Int as a Magery skill.

Bless, Curse, and the formula where Resisting Spells fights back

uo.com: “Even bless and curse type spells rely on Evaluate Intelligence for their powers, a grand master mage can fizzle casting a simple 3rd circle bless.” That is a strong claim and it is uo.com’s own — 100 Magery is not, on its own, enough to reliably land a third-circle buff.

Two formulas that uo.com does not publish [!]:

Spell type	Formula
Positive buffs	Final Positive Stat = Base Stat × ( 1 + ( 1 + Evaluating Intelligence ÷ 10 ) ÷ 100 )
Negative buffs	Final Negative Stat = Base Stat × ( 1 − ( 8 + ( ( Caster’s Evaluate Intelligence − Target’s Resist Spells ) ÷ 10 ) ) ÷ 100 )

The second line is the most important thing on this page for a PvP mage. A debuff is settled on the difference between your Eval Int and their Resisting Spells, divided by ten. Against a target with no Resist skill your full Eval Int counts; against a target who matches you the difference term vanishes and the flat 8 is all that is left. It is the one place in the game where those two skills are set directly against each other as numbers, which is why Curse and Clumsy feel so different against a Resist mage and against a dexxer who skipped it.

[!] Neither formula is published by uo.com. uo.com’s only statement on buff strength is the qualitative sentence quoted above, so the exact arithmetic here is unconfirmed.

Using the skill on a target

Eval Int is also usable directly, and uo.com publishes the full response table. Below 76 skill this is all you get:

Response	Target’s Intelligence
“It looks smarter than a rock, but dumber than a piece of wood”	No Intelligence — non-living objects
“Slightly less intelligent than a rock.”	1–9
“Fairly Stupid.”	10–19
“Not the brightest.”	20–29
“About Average.”	30–39
“Moderately intelligent.”	40–49
“Very intelligent.”	50–59
“Extremely intelligent.”	60–69
“Extraordinarily intelligent.”	70–79
“Like a formidable intellect, well beyond even the extraordinary.”	80–89
“Like a definite genius.”	90–99
“Superhumanly intelligent in a manner you cannot comprehend.”	100+

At 76 skill the readout changes. uo.com: “From an Evaluating Intelligence skill level of 76 you will also see the mana level of the target displayed as a percentage of its maximum level, for example ‘This being is at 100% mental strength’.” That is a live read on whether an opponent can still cast, and it is the only hard threshold the skill has.

[!] The exact wording at percentages other than 100%, and whether the readout gets finer as skill rises above 76, is not published.

Defensive wrestling - half of a weapon skill, bought with two other skills

This is the part of Eval Int that has nothing to do with casting, and it is the reason mages take Anatomy. uo.com: “Having a high Anatomy and Evaluate Intelligence skill helps dodging blows in empty-handed combat”, and publishes the formula:

( Anatomy + Evaluate Intelligence + 20 ) ÷ 2 = defensive wrestling, capped at 120.0

The consequence: the two skills must add up to 220 to reach the equivalent of 120 melee defensive ability, and the result is capped at 120. So 120 Anatomy plus 100 Eval Int gets there; so does 110 and 110.

The catch is published just as clearly. uo.com: “However it does not give any offensive capability, for that you will need Wrestling skill.” Anatomy and Eval Int buy you the defensive half of Wrestling and nothing else — no unarmed damage, no Disarm at 70, no Paralyzing Blow at 90. A caster who wants the stun still has to buy the skill.

What makes this an unusually good deal is that both skills are doing another job anyway: Eval Int is your damage multiplier and Anatomy feeds bandages and melee damage. The defence is a by-product of points you already wanted.

[!] No published table converts that defensive-wrestling number into an actual block or dodge rate. The 120 figure is stated as an equivalence to melee defensive ability, and uo.com takes it no further.

In PvP

• It is the largest single multiplier on your damage. 4.6× at 120 against 1× at zero. uo.com’s own summary of a mage without it is “less than 10 damage” per spell.
• Your debuffs are weighed against their Resist. ( your Eval Int − their Resist Spells ) ÷ 10 is a term in the negative-buff formula, so Eval Int is simultaneously an offensive stat and the counter to an opponent’s Resisting Spells.
• 76 is a real threshold, not a rounding point — it turns the skill into a mana-tracker on the target.
• Bless and Curse run on it. A support mage who thinks of Eval Int as a damage skill is under-rating it; without it, a Grandmaster can fizzle a third-circle Bless.
• Paired with Anatomy it keeps you alive when closed on, up to 120 defensive equivalent, for points you were already spending.
• It does not carry Mind Blast or Poison, which is why those two remain the go-to spells on templates without it.

In PvM

• The same 4.6× applies to every direct-damage Magery spell. On a damage-dealing mage this is not optional.
• Greater Heal and the other positive buffs scale with it too, through the positive-buff formula — so a healer mage gets something back from it even though healing is not damage.
• Summoners get much less. Summons are excluded, and so is Resurrection. A tamer or summoner template with limited points should weigh Eval Int against skills that actually touch what they cast.

No mastery of its own - and two that run on it

Evaluating Intelligence has no Skill Mastery. It is not on uo.com’s list. It appears in the mastery system only as a scaling term inside somebody else’s abilities: the two Magery mastery abilities Death Ray and Ethereal Blast both scale on “magery skill, evaluating intelligence skill, and mastery level”.

The practical reading is that a mage’s mastery is partly an Eval Int mastery. Note also that masteries count real skill only — uo.com: “modified skill points from items are not counted” — so an Eval Int ring does not feed the mastery even though it feeds the damage multiplier.

Caps, stats and training

Evaluating Intelligence has Power Scrolls: 105 / 110 / 115 / 120, from Felucca champion spawns, non-cumulative, against the 720 total skill cap. Primary stat Intelligence, secondary Strength — convenient, since Intelligence is separately worth 1% Spell Damage Increase per 10 points.

It is also imbuable onto jewellery as a Skill Bonus, +1 to +15 at weight 1.4, or up to +20 found on loot. It sits in jewellery Group 4 with Mysticism, Bushido, Necromancy, Veterinary, Stealing and Anatomy — only one skill per group per piece, and a second overwrites the first. See Imbuing for the full group table.

Training is mostly a non-event, and uo.com says so: “There is no real need to train evaluate intelligence separately, it will go up quite naturally as you cast spells to raise your magery skill however at low levels it can be amusing to use the skill directly on npcs and fellow players.” Passive gains come from casting Magery spells including fizzled casts [!], and repeatedly casting Reactive Armor is the most effective passive method [!]; active training is by targeting creatures directly.

The accelerated-gain quest is “A Scholarly Task”, from Mithneral in the New Haven mage area. [!] The skill range it covers is not published. Behind all of it sits the Guaranteed Gain System’s mandatory 0.1 when nothing has been gained inside your bracket’s window, and a Scroll of Alacrity raising each check from 0.1 to 0.2–0.5 for 15 minutes.

What is not published

Looked for on uo.com, and not there:

• [!] Whether Eval Int contributes to Necromancy, Mysticism or Spellweaving damage on the current shards.
• [!] Any conversion of the defensive-wrestling number into a real block or dodge percentage.
• [!] The mana-percentage readout’s wording at values other than 100%, and whether granularity improves above 76 skill.
• [!] The skill range covered by the “A Scholarly Task” accelerated gain.
• [!] Any uo.com-published version of the positive and negative buff formulas — the versions above are unpublished.
• [!] Any Evaluating Intelligence Skill Mastery. There is none.

Where these come from

uo.com Magery, Evaluate Intelligence and Meditation · uo.com Magery Spells · uo.com Imbuing · uo.com Magic Item Properties · uo.com Skill Masteries · uo.com Publish 90 · uo.com Skills, Stats & Attributes · uo.com Skill Titles · uo.com Scrolls of Power · uo.com Accelerated Gains for New Characters · uo.com Skill Gain Systems. Everything here is from uo.com or the game itself; anything uo.com does not publish is marked [!] as unpublished where it appears.