This is a warning to those of you playing Paladins, so your game does not get ruined the same way mine was.

Bishop Herbertius drains your skillpoints. He does so permanently. If you tank him like you usually do on your Paladin, he will simply drain all your skillpoints away. I did not realize this until much later, so I could not reload an old save. Since I don't have much free time, full two weeks of my free video game time has been undone by this mistake. There is nothing you can do if this happens to you, your character has simply become as good as lvl 1 again and you need to start over again.

Now my personal opinion: This is so sad, because I was really liking this game. I don't understand why this is done. I don't know that permanently ruining characters is a good feature. I don't think it adds anything other than a broken heart. For me it has forced me to set the game aside after two weeks of playing. I'm not sure I'll have the heart to ever start over again. So everyone reading this, be careful around Bishop Herbertius and always look at your stats after boss fights. I do not know about other bosses in this game, but I guess there are more that will destroy a character. So just be careful!

In the worst case, you can add your lost skill points through the console:
- press ~ (next to 1)
- type \addskillpts X (X = the number of skill points you want to gain)
- press Enter.

Of course, it is a cheating, but if you didn't notice bishop's "special ability" in time and cannot or do not want to load your save position from before this encounter this is the best solution there is.

I saw, but the zombies I had fought so far had conditioned me into believing it was just temporary. They drained points, but you got those points back. So the game trained me to believe this was always temporary. There was nothing special to indicate the Bishop was any different, it just said I lost points, like every zombie I had fought before, so there was no reason for me to check. So setting the normal zombies up with temporary drains, but the boss with permanent drain, is a bit of a nasty feature. Don't think good design decision, because it becomes a nasty trap, a trap that very potentially is not noticed until much, much later, which makes it so hard to accept.

This is why I give warning. So others know of trap and know this is a very nasty boss to fight as paladin. I do not even use spoiler tag, because I think this is so important. If you miss this trap, your game is ruined and you need to stop playing. It is ruined because you fight for very long time before you realize there is trick to the fight (heart), so by the time you figure out trick you're level 1 again, in my case without realizing it was permanent drain until much later. Not happy game feature, so important to know beforehand. So I try to help! So others don't make same mistake!

But I do not have the heart to start over, but I also do not want to cheat, so I will never see how game ends. Don't understand why they do this in such a fashion. But I'm not angry, just sad. So see my warning, Paladins.

[edit] But thanks for potential solution Kovi, it may help others!

I agree that Herbertius's ability to permanently drain skill points is probably one the most nasty abilities of bosses in video games.

I myself can recall the problem I had in The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind in which due to a bug, a certain type of zombie could also permanently drain stats, like Strength and Dexterity. There however one had the possibility of using restoration potions/herbs to regain lost stat points. Inquisitor lacks a bit in that department.

Also, rather than warning paladins against tanking Herbertius, I would like to warn priests/thieves against letting your companions tank Herbertius. You can add your lost points back. They cannot...

That way both my companions became completely useless in an instant :(.

I find it easier to play solo than to babysit the companions.

As for Herbertius, the seals are invaluable for paladins: for single bosses use the one with high damage that also slows the target, for mobs run around until you gather as many around you then spam vidergo to kill them all at once. Only tank weak monsters or when you can't afford seals.

Wow, thanks for the warning. I am a Paladin but I didn't try to tank him because I just opened a magic box on his @$$. The only other monsters I can recall that would ever permanently drain skill points and experience levels was some of the stronger enemies from the first few Wizardry games.

There are several bosses and other special enemies in the game that will permanently drain your skill points. I always have them attacked by my companions first. They aren't of much use later in the game anyway, so I care little if they lose a skill point or two.