<pause for the traditional guide book whine about to come>
Warriors
are the neediest bunch of em all. No spells, no lore, no picking (ill get to bashing
later), no healing, no rezzing--just bad smell and nice ASs. (or so the ladies tell
me) Hopefully this book will help you maximize your versatile blood crazed warrior
a bit. This guide is meant to help the one handed warrior or variations of one warrior
start quickly and begin to maximize around year 25.
The number one thing to survive as a warrior is to have friends. So ya prefer to hunt by yerself eh and ya don't like makin friends? Ya shoulda been a sorcie then. Well imagine yerself at age 50, a nice AS of 361, a DS of 173 (that is with +30 plate and +35 shield) and not being able to hunt anything at all without running to a empath all the time. That's the life of a warrior. So let me be more specific, drag a lot (not yer knuckles dummy, dedders!), give away wands a lot, tip well, hug a lot, be friendly, tell jokes, buy beer, do anything to endure yerself to others. At my age, I cant even hunt Stone Giants without spells.
"Is there a guild master here?"
A youngin, which I will not
name, walking into Bert's office with 12 of the most legendary guild masters present
to nominate Lord Odieus to Guild Master. Present were Berr, Kinshack, Evia, Dubricius,
Kildar, Gaq, Blaqtar, Exttior, Kerl, Geijon, and me. Everyone laughed, a few whistled
and the youngin left thinkin none of us could promote him.
Before I go into the guide too much, I wanted to say a few things about what
this guide is for, mention goals and a few other things.
First off, when I
wrote this guide the first time, there were very few options to being a warrior.
Two handed warriors suffered such a large DS penalty it wasn't worth it sometimes,
two weapon ditto, ranged is in now, and reflux has changed it all. Knowing what I
know now, I'm certain I would have had Comm train a bit differently. Which brings
me to a story I'd like to tell. A long time ago there was a legend sorc who the lands
considered such an asset to the lands they made him his own lil house on teras. This
sorc truly was powerful and was rolled perfect. Back in those days, sorcs got their
mana from wisdom and aura was relegated a low stat much like charisma is now treated.
Well, one day the gods up and changed the mana stat and this legend sorc suddenly
didn't have enuff mana to spell himself up and still hunt. The point of this story
is, the gods are quick to give and taketh away without so much as offering a way
to change with the times.
Now to goals: Node hunting is the premium goal
for me, therefore, to be able to wave a wand with 418 in it at level 40 was a large
goal of mine. Sending 40 mana for opals and alkars was the highest goal. Reading
scrolls upto level 5 was also important. For hunting, being able to hide like a good
rogue and then ambush is very important. Making Voln master, with the ability to
use the symbol of dreams is a super-charge experience factor so thats why I choose
Voln. For those that say the Voln powers are too taxing, Comm has 500 plus turns
on the globe and uses his Voln powers constantly. Comparatively, he gives up 7 points
to his AS and DS with that choice but can go from fried to bell in half the time.
Wear plate armor. Some warrior guides point out that brig is a better use of tps
compared to plate and that plate is a total luxury. Well, we are warriors and I feel
we should wear plate for the rp of it at the very least. It makes a big difference
too fer damage. Brig is a better point usage but the incremental benefit of plate
is worth it after a while, also, there ain't much to train in, especially considering
reflux. Warriors shouldn't learn spells, the benefit of mana share far outweighs
the use of learning spells. Fact, half the professions know either 103 or 401 and
406 so why bother learning what everyone else knows. No matter what I say about mana
share, young warriors dont train in it and I get email that goes like this, "yep,
ye were right, I need more spells than the ones I have and I cant send for them so
now I have to beg". Skinning was a nice goal but I couldn't afford to be a great
skinner and git my other goals so now I'm good at skinning critters way younger than
me. Being a good guild master was always a goal of mine. Getting 2, 3, maybe 4 masters
in the skills is impressive. Finally, a great rper and a great rep should be everyone's
goals. A good rep can go a long ways, believe me, when the gods intervene, even they
will rely on the word of mouth of your rep too. I encourage you to use that sense
of humor you have for your rep, there is never such a thing as too much cheer. These
goals dont have to be for you but they are what make me tick.
Reflux is the biggest thing to hit the lands since the iceage. Reflux gives
warriors and rogues a new lease on life whereas before, we had to have spells. We
still do, but we dont need the whole christmas tree now.
df redux bonus =
SUM [K(i)*(primary skills)] + SUM [K(j)*(weapons skills)] - (spell penalty)
In
english, that means it runs on a percentage of maximum total. For instance, at level
0, if you train in all the listed skills twice, you would have a perfect 100% total
score. If you trained in 7 out of 10, then 70%. The training skills are 2 weapons,
armor, shield, cm, multi-ops, climbing, swimming, ambush, physical training, ohe,
ohb, 2 handed weapon, polearms, and brawling. Subtract a penalty for the highest
level spell you know plus 1. So if you know 406 and 103, then subtract (6*6=36+1=37
and 3*3=9+1=10, 37 plus 10 equals 47 penalty, which adds up to a few levels of trainings
for a warrior.
This score reduces the damage taken. What! You dont have a
perfect score? Dont worry, they tested it on many folks who didn't either but try
to stay at 40-50%
also, df redux bonus must be > 350 before it will work,
which means roughly level 23.
"When you were a child, did yer parents have to send you to school on
the small wagon?"
Silvean and Lylia lecturing on the Hearthstone steps
one day to anyone that would stop to listen.
When Comm was young and he saw the real legends on the Hearthstone porch, he
desperately wanted to be in their inner circle yet the inner circle seemed closed
and unwanting to have their fame diluted by the likes of me. Or so I felt. Further,
my encounters with legends at all were usually negative--bitching and moaning on
the HS steps, killing youngins, arguing with youngins over who knew who when. I've
seen folks killed fer saying they were friends with a great warrior named Meta and
a legend taking exception over it. Folks. Legends who do that are not legends in
any respect other than the kind you give them.
Now let me tell you why legends
act like that. On Teras, the lands are much much different than the mainland areas.
In teras, 10 folks in a room is considered crowded. The amunet is used for rping
and important stuff, usually. You see about 3 voln thoughts a day and 10 amunet thoughts
an hour. There are 12 nodes in town so you can rest in town without hiding at the
wayside inn like I do to talk to someone without getting a headache. Rping is the
absolute standard and is peer pressure enforced. Teras is deadly and fun. When Karess
and I went to teras, we were stunned at how quiet is it and peaceful. We were also
stunned at how tough it is to hunt and the absolute lack of income. And the fact
that decaying is pretty common. We had to brush up on our etiquette even and rping.
I made a few mistakes there and got such a blistering lecture like I had never received
for small minor mistakes. But you know what, thats why it works so good and others
like it. The last thing anyone wants is some morons to come to the isle and mess
up the whole thing. To get an empath or cleric, you usually have to wake one up or
call one in from a hunt so they are truly appreciated. While it is true, there are
some poor examples of legends out there, I really feel most of the time, its the
wehnimer folks who aggravate the situation. Talkin to Celtic once, he said he would
talk to anyone at length if they were nice and courteous, but if their conversation
started with, 'hey Celtic, will you et for me?', then no, he would ignore that person.
Legends who come to the landing and make asses of themselves would never get away
with that behavior in Teras so this isn't an excuse to act stupid, I'm just adding
why they sometimes do that. It is rare that someone that does not know me, just walks
up and says 'hello' or 'fine day to ye Commie!". Instead, legends get asked
to pick, pop, enchant, bless, make sheaths, imbed or what not. Teras can also balloon
the ego of someone falsely. A good friend of mine told me this story: a friend of
his died and he dragged her to the gate to be rezzed, later she told him to never
drag her around anymore, she was embarrassed by the uncouth act of being dragged,
next time she will decay.
Now what does this mean to you? When you see a legend,
realize they probably get a whisper every 30 seconds, someone tries to get their
attention and some even do stupid things to impress them. Give them space and if
you have a question, you will usually see it without asking too strongly. Fact, Comm
gets a whisper every 2-5 seconds in wehnimer town or Voln, it isn't worth it to go
there anymore and Karess to the same degree also.
"Oh honey, can I please have sum food or maybe sumtin to drink fer my
parched throat"?
"Back to work woman!"
"Karess hon, wanna
borrow my stick to keep hI'm in line?"
Mollye coming to the rescue of Lady
Karess in Heathstone after Lord Commandant checks the nights' silver takings of Karess's
lockpicking efforts.
Highest stat should be Aura (90s, for mana you plan on sending and mental tps), then Reflexes (90s, defense, defense, defense), then Discipline (80s, mental tps), Strength and Constitution should be 62-72 (before bonus, kill'em before dey kill you and so you can bleed a long time without worrying). To do this, you need a roll of 620 or better. Heard that before? Well, how many times have you heard of someone bored to death watching the roller and just settling for stats and proceeding to play for 4 hours immediately after? Think of it as a BIG investment and do it.
Special Note on ST and CO: since these two rise so quickly, the placement of them can vary on where you want them to be in 20, 30, 60 years. I placed them 4th and 5th with them maxing out at levels 38-28 and now that I'm 50, I sorta wish I placed them lower. For me, they grew 1 point almost every level so i could have put in 30s for them and still have perfect 100s at level 70. I didn't so i still have crappy low scores in my other stats which grow about 1 per 5-9 trainings.
Race Note: Since your race varies how much you grow in certain stats, take the race you choose, the stats bonus you get and drop it one or two ranks and move the others up.
AU, RE, DI, ST, CO, DE, IN, LO, WIZ, CH.
Hey, did I tell you "I love you man"
--a broke Lord Commandant
sitting outside Stovel's Wagon and seeing Lord Baser arrive
Double Train in these Always: Armor, Combat Maneuvers (this adds to your AS, helps with ambushing, maneuver attacks) , Shield, Edged or Blunt Weapons (edged has far more selections but blunt has some pretty gruesome hits, if you want to research it a bit, see a weapon guide that lists avds vs armors, plan goals around weapons for instance)
If you plan on using voln fu a lot, add brawling to your double trainings. Brawling does improve your ds when you dont have both your weapon and shield out, like when dragging others.
Train Every Level: Hiding/Stalking, First Aid (tending, this is for cash raising), Ambushing (whacking legs and heads are a lot easier to do then pummeling beasties to death), Disarming Traps (unless you marry a rogue like me), Perception (find things, prevent thieves) , Physical Training (to 105, most guides say double train, I don't think its necessary, dump spare points here when you run out of things, dont ever double train tho, it helps the increase of blood rejuvenated)
At some point you will have a lot of things out of the way and can afford more trainings, eventually, you will want to add ambushing and hiding/stalking to your double trainings.
Variations for two weapons, two handed, or ranged, always train 1x in addition to above.
Train Every Other Level: Mana share (maybe every 3rd level, see below, dont ignore this), Swimming (to 50, needed for higher levels), Climbing (to 50, needed for higher levels), Pickpocketing (only once or so to help prevent it), Scroll Use (to 60, most scroll spells goto no higher than 6th level), Magic Item Use (to 60 for 905 or 702 imbedded wands, 100 for 416 wands),
Two handed Weapon Training is good for your defense when you are bashing with a claid in the field but I don't do it.
Long Term Goal: I have changed my thinking on mana share a lot. At 52, I'm nothing without spells and since the stuff I hunt is far away from town, I need to be able to send mana. I recommend every warrior train every other level asap. I know Lord Vindicate can send up to 170 mana, that can get you some very nice personal massies from a spell caster. I'm going to train every or every other level until I reach full mana share because I don't have the patience to wait for massies or friends to show up.
Example Defenseless warrior approaches smart lookin wizzie, Lord Qyan. "Lord Qyan, can ya spell me up?" Ole Lord Qyan is a nice guy but is goan hunting in a few minutes. So he must choose, does he, A) use up 40-50 out of 90-120 mana he has to spell you up and wait till it comes back in ten minutes, B) spell you up and hunt for 15 minutes less than normal, C) accept that aqua wand you are offering him to compensate his lost mana so that he can hunt a while longer too or D) accept that wand, spell you up, receive 20 mana from your share, embed that blue tanik amulet with blurries and tell you he loves you man! The point is, would you lend out your shield, weapon and armor to someone so they can hunt for 10 minutes and bring it back. Their mana is the equivalent to your gear, without, they cant hunt either.
What! You say you can't do that? Well some things like climbing, swimming, physical training, scroll use, magic item use and a few others will not be needed after a while so triage a few but never skip the double Trainings.
'Yer a handsome lookin man"
'thank ya, but I'm taken"
'not
by that old wrinkled women?"
'fraid so Scoutgirl"
--the unmovable
Lord Blaqtar making a slip of the tongue regarding his wife Lady Daelynn to an impetuous
young Scoutgirl
I'm adding this only because I'm sick of seeing names like 'Darkwarior' (lame, unimaginative and misspelled), 'Oblesynck' (hard to spell) names. Imagine those poor empaths and rogues saying "thank you <insert awful name>". Pick something short and neat or easily abbreviated. Stupidest name list: Joeybeboo, Bob, John.
This is a lil off the subject, but you can tell the age (RL and RP) of someone by their altered items: "A shield with the bodies of half-dead screaming orcs surrounding a warrior oozing blood from his arms while wielding a fang-toothed cleaver" means to me "Hi, I'm 13 years old and watched cartoons after school before my parents bought me this computer."
Come to the dark side brother
--Lord Baser to Lord Commandant
At age three you can choose a religion basically. Join one. Both have advantages but let me remind you of something, the road to riches is not always the shortest and easiest path. Sorry, cant say much more regarding this. One thing, its pointless to join one and not pursue it. I recently found a Lord who just made master in the other <cough> one after joining at age three and was so proud and I thought to myself, 'what a loser!' That is so easy to master in too. Voln does not start bearing fruit until the later stages but is very nice. From a purely material point of view, the single best thing about Voln is not the different symbols though, its the fraternity of it all. I've made tons of great friends from Voln and I attribute much of what I do know learning from them. When I die, Volners locate me, thoughts are send out to recon my dead body out etc. It is the greatest networking thing in the lands. Voln is much more than symbols and friends, its role playing the release of undead and feeling relived every time.
This point requires some insight to understand (and which I cannot say) but here it goes: Spirit points, which warriors traditionally have few of, when used, lower your AS and DS by the proportion used below 8. For instance, if you have 5 spirit points and use 1, you lose 20% of your AS and DS until it raises back up. And 40% for 2 etc. After using 2 points, you cant go lower than that or something will happen. (wink)
Have a beer, its free
--Lord John Belushi, member Animal House
I only know Silvergate and all I can say is I have nothing to compare it too other than the fact that it seems the other houses aren't in a hurry to admit others while Silvergate actively pursues others. Joining a house is a good way to meet friends, have fun and the locker is worth it. Some think the cost is a little high when your young but if you were like me, I spent 2-5k a month in the moot hall lockers and I had to wait in line a long time.
Helden Hall is the warrior house but I have mixed feelings about it. First of all, warriors don't need more warrior friends. On the other hand, Helden Hall is a great place to learn more about warriors and more in general. The warriors there are real pros. Many of its members have helped me learn about the other professions and to repeat it once more, they are the real pros. Unlike most houses where you go for the locker and an annual event, Helden has a ongoing events and I understand there is a democracy of how things work unlike a few of the other houses. Its a very cool looking hall and if yer lookin for a source of friendship or knowledge, the warriors there know their stuff. I can say from experience, whenever I meet an older warrior, my first impression is favorable because I know the work it was to be become an old warrior. I like the idea of a warrior hall and the warrior order. Phoenix is a house mainly dedicated to warriors and Voln also, they again are pros and have a good time with events.
"Where should we hunt next?"
"Hmmm, we can try roltons but
I don't know, dere purty nasty"
"Roltons! You should try gnomes sometime!"
--Two unknown youngins overheard while Lady Karess and I were stalking around one
day
Try hunting away from Wehnimer. Elven Village, Rivers Rest and Icemule have more critters, less folks and so on. Wehnimer has everything including the guild, Voln and so on but take a few vacations. I have no idea why Icemule has such horrid people in it but that will someday change. Rivers Rest on the other hand is a friendly little village. Imagine going to a meeting place and people knowing your name: that is what Rivers Rest is like. Make it a challenge to see how long you can go without running back to town for something. Dont laugh! Really, other than dropping off your huge silver takings, go into the field for a few days and do a true adventure.
For the Voln Path: Once you can hunt dirges (level 9), you will start to gain
speed very quickly by graduating to masters (level 16), trees ( level 29) and then
pookas/mares (level 33 and 36), banshees (55). Be sure to get your cash reserves
in order because trees don't pay too well. Wights are a waste of time in my opinion
because they don't pay that well for the damage they deliver and the crypt is a crazy
place. The AI wraiths? <chuckle> I enjoyed hobland and the catacombs more than
the AI. Try the wraiths in
Icemule or Wolves Den first.
I prefer the swarming type of combat like crystal golems, mants and thraks, thryrils, trees etc.
Speaking of the catacombs and hobland--those places are horrible. I strongly recommend getting a few amulets and hunting in Rivers Rest or Icemule to start out. Hobland is like a gladiator ring with constant PvPs and teefs galore.
Pick up trolls skins, cobra skins, ghouls scrapings and other items and rape the other <cough> order's members in the furrier and make a nice little profit. <wait, I didn't just say that, I've never sold anything to them brothers and sisters!>
'Sheerah, will you marry me?"
"I don't know sis, I liked that
Karzak fella better dan dis wolf'
--Lord Commandant to his sister Lady Sheerah,
the night she titled, and Lord Karzak sent his familiar (a wolf) to propose to her.
I'm a huge advocate of getting adopted, adopting, having a brother or sister and so on. Its like a mentor process. Remember though (and this is not to my family), being family doesn't mean automatic draggings, rescues, loans etc. To have a good family member, you must be a good family member. How do you go about finding a family? Ask someone that you aspire to be like and ask. I got my kids by posting in a newcomer folder for adoptees.
What! Ya died and only have a minor injury on ya!? Geez, how's a path expected
to make a living!
--Lady Tygerclaws imploring the lack of 'good' injuries at
the Village one day and then pointing her stick at us to go back out.
Choose a few lifer-type empaths and regularly tip them well and ask for them to heal you. Its saves time and you form a bond with them. This goes for clerics too.
About Tsc and the North Gate--it is very rare to die of blood lose so please no screaming there and if you see someone that is repeatedly yelling, thump em and then whisper to them what they are doing wrong. That goes for massies too-no yelling, selling, or any dorking off.
'Thanks Kharbon"
"That's okies, ya jus made me a legend"
"Anything
I can do to help ya"
--Lady Karess to Lord Kharbon after he fogged her and
Lord Karzak and promptly rezzed them.
Remember the part about sending mana? Well its considered nice to be able to give back to those clerics, empaths, etc a lil mana for those rezzes, blesses, and heals etc. You would be surprised how much even 5 mana can do. Breezes, hps, brills etc.
About blessed weapons--It is rude to be in the other order and to blindly ask and then expect a Voln master bless on your vultite weapon. Favor costs time and Volners don't join Voln so they can bless your vultite weapons. Now if its a friend or something--sure. Potions can be poured by clerics to bless vultite weapons but if you are on the Voln path--this will require hundreds of pours and potions. I recommend using regular metals until you can really afford 100s or can master bless yourself.
"Too weak for me."
A nonchalant Lady Slylesta, showing her
true warrior spirit after shoving off a would be caller off the miner/pook ledge.
Lesson? Dont smooch chicks that can kick your butt if yer not sure they like you
yet.
Thinking about starting a second character? Who hasn't. This part encompasses
many of the other parts and will be most confusing to the new player. Understand
this, I'm leaving this part vague for an important reason for you to learn.
Most
often, warriors create a wizard with the idea of future enchanting in the future.
Let me dash that dream like a claid on china. Mages cannot et until they are minimum
age of 25, and cannot et successfully until around 40 for a worthwhile enchant. Only
be a mage for the fun of it.
However, if you want a second character that
is comparatively easy, fun, warrior-like, and the single most useful tool in the
lands, grow a giantman cleric. Why? <smile> Hint 1: read a lil ways down the
cleric list of spells. Hint 2: Then read my second paragraph again. If you dont git
it, dont worry, you will someday.
[Thought] Cru: Trivia Question: What is the name of the brewery owner?
answer
[Thought}
Cru: I'm surprised a warrior didn't git that one. Guess its hard to think when your
stunned. ::cackle::
The legendary cleric Cru, who along with making a living
rescuing warriors, likes to rub it in one in a while.
I'm going to get flamed for this point but bear with me on this. Most warriors that are in it for the long haul can send mana to 50% at least. <laughs at the poor warrior he met in teras that could send 3 mana when asking for 100 mana of spells before banshee hunting and complained he "...didn't have the tps to do so" outloud> Infusing is based on mana share. While we usually consider 102 ranks in mana share as 100%, what that means is two folks with 100% share can send evenly to each other. Mana share is really based on 204 ranks and having that means true mana share. At level 34, a warrior with 55 ranks in mana share, 100 mana, can infuse 25 mana. What does that mean to you? In a collective, economical sense, if all warriors stopped killing pulses when non-hunting, enuff mana could be infused into the realm for more enchanting. The more enchanting done, the lower prices become, the easier to buy and wear that dream armor. <stops for the other professions reading to stop laughing> Listed in the eting section is the in/out formula, its based on 500 mana infused in realm. I used that base because there are so many enchanters out there 500 doesn't last long. If there could consistently be 2500 mana in the realm, drop the entire equation by one group of mana. Is it possible to infuse 2500 just by warriors alone collectively? Yes indeed. Me, Vindicate, Blaqtar, Oaksheeri, and Jecquelynn could infuse 2500 in one guild training hour easily where normally the mana would be wasted. Make this a common practice instead of common sense thing and you will see a benefit.
"Where's the runner?"
"There's a runner by the tree bridge
in Upper Trollfang. If you run you might just catch him" --Lord Thalior to a
very young Sandlot
Imagine a town where no one helped one another and it was dog eat dog. No, not Icemule. <cackle> Without others helping others, life would be miserable so if you see someone shouting in all caps, selling during massies, or asking where the runner is, whisper to them and explain what they are doing or help them. If they are belligerent lil dolts, thump em and go abouts yer business. <natural selection and many of lifes principles are still at work in the lands> Sometimes I offer to do a Q&A for newcomers and broadcast it on the net. You know why I do this? Its not because I hope to get something back, its because I know good things happen to me because I do things like that and its fun to help others. Its even nice to be looked up to. <special thanks to Sheerah, Whiteknight, and many others that wiped my nose off after getting beat up> I promise, what goes around comes around.
Umm, Lady Karess? Excuse me, but could I have my armor back please?
--Lord
Jaleen after he discovered he placed his 4x and 4x padded armor in Lady Karess' disk
when Lord Commandant and her zoomed by hI'm
Get a armor guide and understand it on your own. Its extremely difficult to explain to someone when they don't have it. Usually, unless you have something special, wear full body protection and all the accessory armors while keeping your rt at 5 for a regular attack and 7 for an ambush.
Get a weapon guide and start noticing AVDs vs certain critters. If you like hunting mountain ogres for instance, carry a falchion based weapon for that 36 AVD. I carry 3 weapons for different types of critters.
Fluff is nice but remember that et'd armor costs cash and lots of it so get some nice things and leave the toy collections to the...well...I'll just shut up about that.
Buying Drake Falchion!--think to me! gah! In all my years and all the critted weapons I've had, I can count on two hands (is that nine fingers or eight?) how many critters I've killed with a fire, vibe, ice, blah blah crit. Special crits are so over emphased its funny. Yes they are nice and yes they help but gimme a good all around weapon and I'll be happy. My preferences are 1) damage weighting 2) crit weighting 3) flare-type critting. Would I spend an extra 100k for a vibe fal over a heavy fal though? Not until you are old enuff to spend lavishisly. Always think defense first and try to get a better shield and armor first. If your not sure, stick with a vultite axe to start with and then expand. For more info on armor, weapons and how they compare to each other, check out Amerlise's Chambers.
The latest craze is acid crits. Third verse, same as the first. Acid crits look very cool but do the same thing as vibe or whatnot and dont always do it. Nothing beats damage weighting if you cant ambush well, or crit weighting if you can hide/ambush.
Containers are important for a warrior because we traditionally assume the role of the pack mule. If you're giantman, get a miners pack and then a spider silk back asap. When I was young, I'd whack trolls all day and fill up my cloak, pack, satchel, boots, and whatever else I could and go pawn the stuff. Just the other day I carried 9 boxies on me from a hunt. <thinks no one bothered to thank hI'm for sacrificing his rt for the whole group> The point is, we can carry more than others without or less penalty, so do it.
Have some container items to place your stuff in and use them for organization.
example
1: silk sack (herbs), velvet sack (gems), cloak (things to sell), pack (boxies and
big things), scabbard, sheath, sling for holding 3 weapons
example 2: herb satchel (herbs), thraak sack (gems), cloak (embedded items, boxies), bag (deed food), vest (gifts), backpack (embeddable items, things to sell, boxies, and big things), britches (two blessable weapons), back scabbard (two weapons, vultite and claid), boots (scrolls to be read)
Start to place value on the weight of an item, what it can carry, how it can simplify your life instead of it simply being dyed "blood red".
Pardner, if yer lookin fer trouble, I'll surely accomadate you.
-- Lord
John Wayne making friends in Helgas Tavern
One of most difficult tasks in the lands is not killing troll kings, banshees or sentinals, I rank eting as the single most time consuming and frustrating experience there is. Eting is a spell a mage casts to raise the AS or DS of a given object. To successfully cast the spell is the easy part. For the spell to work, the mage needs 1000s and 1000s of mana in the pool. To do so, the mage and others infuse the mana into a pool. There are regional pools like TS in Wehnimer and there are workshops like house workshops and the Abandoned Inn. Since the mana infused is quite an effort, you don't want to infuse mana into a pool where some other mage can ‘steal' the mana and et something for themselves. If you see a mage selling lots of small et'd items, although not conclusive, its a sign of a mana taker.
With that in mind, workshops are the best way to control access to mana. There
are 5 private workshops but don't even think of getting access to them or ever having
a mage et for you there. Those belong to truly legendary mages. Your choices are
house workshops, the AI, and a few other small pools in the lands. The house workshops
usually have lists of who is using the workshop at what date. The lists, not surprisingly
are very long and the waiting line can be 6 months to a year to get in. That leaves
you with the AI or some other pool. After you select the pool, and provided you have
a mage to et for you, you must infuse the mana into it. If you are going to run it
yourself, I suggest getting an eting guide with the numbers in it. Understand right
off, it takes 60,000 mana infused to raise a vultite item to +25.
Infusing
formula for eting
In mana pool/workshop, or using in/out method:..... In
mana pool/workshop..... In outer pool/realm
1x 500..........................................................................
500..................................... 0
2x 2500 ........................................................................500
.....................................500
3x 12500......................................................................
2500 ...................................500
4x 62500 ......................................................................12500.................................
500
5x 312500.....................................................................
62500................................ 500
6x 1562500...................................................................
312500.............................. 500
7x 7812500...................................................................
1562500............................ 500
Now to the problems, as you can see 60k mana is quite a lot to infuse for just one enchantment. To do that, you need an army of clerics, empaths and others to infuse mana. While your friends will spell you up now and then, asking them to take 2 days off and be bored to tears is quite another thing. Paying infusers is difficult too. So the remaining option is to broadcast on the net for infusers and prepare for the worst onslaught of newbie-ness you have ever seen. The people that come will drive the eting mage crazy asking if they can be on the et list, or asking questions like, can you spell me up so I can go hunt and come back and infuse my 30 mana later? I have seen all out brawls at infusing parties and even seen someone implode a workshop killing 27 people when a mage stole the mana from an infusing party. If you have been in a merchant room with a list waiting to open, imagine that scenario intensified by 10x with the characters that come to help infuse. And the whole time, you are at their mercy to help you. Five star hint: Just leave your weapons in your locker before going infusing.
How to get on a mages eting list: I have no good ideas of how. The way I did it was I met a mage that I knew would be a legend one day and promised hI'm 10 good wands a week for 20 years. Since he was poor and I was rich, I also bought him merchant items time to time. This sounds like using him but it was a business deal and he understood it that way too. He and I are friends but it was also understood what I expected. Btw, that only got me a spot on his list, It was still 500k silvers per enchantment. Giving a wand to a friend for spelling you up is not, I repeat not, the way to get on a et list. And, asking older mages to et for you is akin to yelling, ‘anyone seen the runner?' in TSC. Best bet is to really discuss eting with someone your own age and not expect to get any eting till you are at least level 25 and they are 37.
Love hurts
--Lady Nikkee to Xathar after casting blood burst (701) at hI'm
when she meant to cast elemental defense I (401)
Remember those wands I told you not to sell? Save them for things like this. Try being a wizzie or dating one. Its sooooo difficult to make a life begging for wands or mana that these wands are a lot more valuable to them than 1k in silvers. If you have one and need a disk or embedding, use them as barter but generally give them away to a few wizzies.
Let me understand this. Your gonna pay me 500 silvers fer drinking that? Cool
man! And then jump from the tree?
--Unknown newbie yelling for silvers when a
surly Lord Commandant handed hI'm a flask of oil.
I know a few Lords and Ladies that seem to never have any pothinir grass, ephlox moss, or stem. <flail> Pluuuese go buy some and not expect everyone to have it. Its expensive. Btw, some herbs can be duped. Where did you think those 300 bite acantha leaf bundles came from.
"Scrub boy!"
Lord Leighander to a young Commandant after first
joining the guild
Personal Note: In no way do I diminish the value of any of the guild skills
you are training on and this is my own personal perspective. Most warriors as soon
as they hit the guild for their first time blurt out, "whew! no more working
with those damn tip hungry rogues!' and immediately train in bashing forever with
the painful thoughts of getting pickpocketed in the east tower forever burned in
their mind. Or they want to be diversified and train a lil in each skill. No skill
is worth a hoot until you are past 30 ranks except bashing. My recommendation is
train until 1 in each skill, train in bashing to 10, and then choose a skill to master
in.
If your going to be around a while, think over where you probably will
hunt in the future. Me, for instance, didn't train with vision. I'm 51 and cant disarm
anymore except things that will prolly kill me. I can still tackle a few critters
but again its very dangerous to miss a tackle. Warcries? I'm glad i got those out
of the way because it would be the same. Berserk, bash, and tricks can be done anytime.
My suggestion is do tackle and disarm early and often before its too late. I know
a young warrior who is a master in tackle, he is amazing to watch when he instantly
stuns critters by tackling them everytime solo hunting.
For bashing, get a claid and a glaes club. The claid is for field bashing--its somewhat lightweight and can bash pretty good. For in town bashing and training, use the club (hmm, sounds familiar)--it saves you 50% time.
For berserk training, goto trolls, leg one in a remote area, put away your weapon and berserk it bare-fisted. The point is that you don't kill it and get in as many reps as possible. Injuries and scars hamper your success for berserking.
For disarm and tackling, get some full plate and have the recipient wear it to increase your odds of a successful rep. If disarm, although rare, I'd use a cheapee weapon so your super weapon doesn't get disarmed and some savage swipes it and runs off. Removing your own armor increases the chances of success. Choose critters that wear heavy armor like the hill trolls by the AI and take a friend to help you. For tackling, chop off the right arm first and then try tackling them, so if you miss, you don't get critted laying down or kneeling.
Warrior Tricks seems to be the easiest of them all to learn and get ranks but the combat effectiveness seems the least helpful. Ya ya, you can make neato sheaths and stall critters but this would be my third to last choice to train in. Although, making master quickly is very appealing so that you can get experience from promotions and such. Be careful doing tricks in ultra busy places, you can get an rt of 30 minutes if you aren't careful.
My favorite skill is warcries because it can help your group out with an increase of AS. Each cry has a different difficulty. Your Charisma bonus (if positive) is added to your skill bonus (+4/rank) and level bonus (1/4 level for warriors only), minus wounds and vocal stress, plus a d100. If this total is over 100, the war cry is performed. Each cry attempted adds to your vocal stress, which can be checked by typing WARCRY by itself. Your vocal stress heals by itself over time.
Berserking, disarm, tackle and others are cool but I see warcries as more of a team effort. Btw, when you hit the guild, start training with a passion and start burning gold rings left and right to get there and back. The longer you wait, the harder it is. When you are ready to be promoted, always ask if there is a guild master present to give you a promotion instead of that lazy Bert, They need the exp and are painfully helpful to all for hanging out in the guild.
How to rake leaves: ever been raking and run outta leaves? Just go back to the bin, try putting the bag in the bin and the leaves suddenly reappear.
"Honey, I'm hurt"
"Yer fine, jus a lil scratched up a bit,
wait tell were fried"
--Lord Commandant to Lady Karess after she takes 4
per and 6 per injuries
Ok, this is going to sound horrible to younger players but hear me out. The formula goes up with age as you know and soooo, don't sell your gems, get the good ones appraised, put them in a special place and try to get a deed every other hunt and get up to 40+. If you can get up to 100, you have it made. When you are young, those lil gems don't buy much anyhow. Remember, this is similar to placing a low stat in strength knowing it will go up to 100 by the time you are a Lord or Lady. Its a big investment.
Sarge, it seems I've lost a leg, but me tanks I've got sum rumble left in me
--Lord Toecutter, after losing a leg to a storm giant and bouncing back up
Ever notice that people use 2 or 3 stances only? Off, Adv, or total Def. Why the def at all? If you get knocked down and your in stance def, you have an rt to get up or maybe even fail to stand. Pick a stance (advance, forward, guard) that you can barely get by on when running through somewhere or resting. Stance defensive is hardly ever needed. Funny, most everyone knows their AS and DS standing up, start checking what yours is laying down before going to warfs or stone trolls so you aren't surprised when your DS is 170 standing and then its 90 laying down and there's a swarm of warfs coming in while your in rt.
Learn to stance dance--stance down, let beastie swing at you, go off or adv and swing, stance down, and repeat. After a certain age, this is totally necessary.
"Should we keep the money?"
"Hmmm, ya didn't say nuthin about
a 'safe' trip did ya?"
--a young Whiteknight to young and poor Commandant
during a money raising experiment where we charged youngins 2k each to see the 'exciting
and rich' lands of Icemule and promptly lost every paying member to a swarm of Giants
and were 'sledded' away by a swarm of Ice Trolls
I have learned more about how to be a good warrior by reading other profession's guides than anything else. I recommend reading a guide on every profession and I have left out a lot of info because I assume you will learn it there already. The best guide I've read to date is The Statistical Sorcerer Guide by Lord Sylvendal Thriftfellow. This one and an empath guide are musts to understand that weird magic stuff.
"Sarge, me tanks were losing the battle. Should we retreat?"
"Nay
soldier, not a retreat, err, a flanking maneuver might be in order though"
--Lord Zellex to Lord Commandant after 3 members of his party are instantly killed
and the breezer just ran away and another tree shows up.
There are a few programs besides the Wizard out there that are very helpful
to have around. 1) herb program, 2) deed program. For the Wizard, learn to run a
script and edit a script. Running from the guild to TS SW for massies and back and
other repetitive things like that can be a real brain easer when there is a lag and
your tired. <special note to Keith--pluuuus write a manual for the wizard in English
for us dummies>
Note about scripts: its ok to script to town or to move
around, its ok to script a gld skill when not around others, its not ok to script
guild skills in front of others or to use for hunting. Its not ok to kill a scripter,
its perfectly fine to tackle them, warcry at em or tell a sorc that he asked to be
cursed and played with. <wink> Beware: true story, a friend of mine found a
legend warrior who was scripting, he and a cleric stripped him from every deed in
about 1 hour and laughed about all night. Scripts make people into zombies a lot
so use discretion.
How to lead with the wizard: These tips will improve your ability to lead warmonging armies that pillage the countryside; highlight words like 'stunned, body, strongbox (all the boxies), cloud etc. This way, you kill something, you do a quick look, everything ok, you move without doing any annoying 'moving in 5!' or other needless things. Just give a howl, a morale booster like 'lean into em troops!' and go on.
Speaking of the wiz, go ahead and make a graph of the most common actions you do and hot key them. I have a graph that is 4 columns by 15 rows that has a logical order to do things like switch weapons, pick up a item and place it in a certain container etc.
For wiz scripts, I have a main directory and sub-directories of where my starting points are. For instance, my dir's Hearthstone and Pawnshop list all the scripts that originate from those areas.
To keep track of names, I color code paths, clerics, rogues, enemies, wizzies etc to help remember what profession they are. I only highlight the ones that are around a lot though.
We can move again as soon as our fearless leader comes bacI'm --Lord Olerin to Lord Commandant's group when Lord Commandant fails a fear warding and runs frightened room to room for a minute.
With a name like Commandant, its easy to role play the military leader with words 'flanking, retreat, salute, troops' etc. Try to pick a theme for your person and stick to it.
1) Your success is directly influenced by the friends around you. If you are
a Lord and Lady and consider only one or two others a friend, you are dead meat basically
unless you hunt the mass group places forever.
2) Assume the burden. This means
assume no one is going to do a damn thing about it so you must do it. Always assume
1) the dedder needs lk, needs a drag, needs a thought, 2) no one will tip the empath,
cleric, massier the rest of the month and yours will make their day, 3) everyone
needs a kind ear to listen to, hug, joke,
3) when near a PvP, its best to swallow
your pride and just apologize for the sake of ending a dispute like a poached kill
etc.
---thank you for taking the time to read this and hope you enjoyed or learned
someting from it. I would love to hear any feedback to add to this or change anything
included.
--Lord Commandant (send email to sheriff38@aol.com)
thanks to Lady Karess for all her input, constant attention, lockpicking, leg whackin, and love
Special note to readers, please, please, please do not I'm me to ask me questions. I love reading email and getting compliments about my guide but I have received too many IMs asking questions while I'm playing. If you need to ask, email me (I have answered 100s of emails and will continue to do so). I have been called a creep and worse for not answering or when they I'm me to ask if their stats are good or if I could hold their stuff while they reroll for 4 hours. Here is a tip, I play Gemstone to have fun, not to socialize on AOL.
Appendix--this has the raw date about what is discussed above
And after flanking the stone sentinals and the trolls kings, we successfully
flanked right past the
banshees too!
Erm, you mean ya fled?
No, we flanked em! Tis a military maneuver ya know
--Lord Commandant telling
his story about he, Zellex and Lleto and their travels in Darkstone
Castle to
Seckara
In the Abandoned Inn, there is a magical workshop. It is in the attic, south of the stairs and through the mirror. In this workshop, there is a clear blue crystal in a dented brass setting. This crystal is unlike any other, for it can determine the magical properties of an item, much like a bard or Elemental Detection (405) can. By holding the item in ones left hand and nothing in the right and touching the crystal, a display will be set off depending on the attributes of the item. The crystal indicates different things about different items. I have here tables of what the crystal's displays mean and what they indicate about a specific object.
Note: Tiny golden sparks simply indicate, for all items, that it contains magic.
For Weapons
Silver nimbus Holy (any type of bless or sanctify)
Pure high note Voln or
pure-potion blessed or normal bless.
Shrill piercing note Elemental crits
Low
mellow tone Defender weapon (has DS bonus in stance offensive)
Low resonant tone
Crit-weighted
Deep bass tone Damage-weighted
Shadow Cursed
Red beam +1
to +5 bonus
Orange beam +6 to +10 bonus
Yellow beam +11 to +15 bonus
Green
beam +16 to +20 bonus
Blue beam +21 to +25 bonus
Indigo beam +26 to +30 bonus
Violet
beam +31 bonus and above
For Armor
Low resonant tone Crit-padded
Deep bass tone Damage-padded
Shrill piercing
note Enchanted by a wizard
Shadow Cursed
Red beam +5 bonus
Orange beam +10
bonus
Yellow beam +12 or +15 bonus
Green beam +17 or +20 bonus
Blue beam
+25 bonus
Indigo beam +30 bonus
Violet beam Above +30 bonus
For Shields
Shrill piercing note Enchanted by a wizard
Shadow Cursed
Green beam No
bonus above the innate +20
Blue beam +5 bonus above the innate +20
Indigo beam
+10 bonus above the innate +20
Violet beam Above +10 bonus above the innate +20
Special note on critting--when using the AI crystal or when a bard sings to a weighted or damage critted weapon, the bard gets the message ‘fearsome crits' for any weighting whether it be 1x or 5x weighting. There is no way to tell the true level of weighting or critting and I suggest testing it out rigorously and comparing it to another similar weapon. Most con jobs are done under the pretense of the rushed business person.
<singing>
I used to work in Wehnimer
I used to work in the store
I
used to work in Wehnimer
I don't work there anymore
A lady came in fer a hammer!
A hammer from the store?!
Aye, hammer she wanted, nailed she got.
I don't work there anymore.
--Lord Commandant and others singing an old favorite song that has this lady buying all sorts of things and getting something else, erm, in return each time.
WHAT AFFECTS MY SUCCESS WITH THESE SKILLS?
DISARM: A successful disarm consists of two parts: a skill maneuver roll to gain opportunity for the disarm, and a Maneuver Attack.
For Disarm and Tackle, your partner's skill bonus (4*ranks plus 1/4th level if your partner is a warrior) must be ten points below your skill bonus, or higher. For example, if your skill bonus is +50, your partner's skill must be +40 or higher.
Your skill maneuver roll takes your skill bonus, level bonus (equal to your level if you are a warrior, non-warriors get no bonus), minus wounds and CP damage penalties, minus 50 for not standing, and plus 50 for stance offensive (subtract 20 for each stance lower than offensive; stance defensive is -50). An open-ended roll is done, the normal armor hindrance penalty is applied (including armor training and encumbrance penalties), and the Mobility spell is added.
The Maneuver Attack (MA) is like a warding spell attack. Your offensive bonus is called Maneuver Strength (MS), defensive bonus is called Maneuver Defense (MD). Your armor type is compared to your target's armor type for an additional penalty/bonus, called Maneuver Attack vs. Armor (MAvA). Generally, the heavier the armor is, the higher the penalty. Your MS consists of a base of (3 X your level) plus a skill bonus which is modified by stance. The skill part is +1 per rank of Disarm, plus 1/4th your level (warriors only).
BERSERK: To go berserk, you must pass a skill roll of +4 per rank of Berserk, plus your Discipline stat bonus (only half is applied if your stat bonus is negative) and a d100. Wounds give a penalty towards your ability to go berserk. You always have a 1% chance to attempt to go berserk. If your total is over 100, you go berserk, the higher the roll, the longer the duration. You also receive an AS bonus for every two ranks past your twentieth rank. One-fourth your level (warriors only) is added to your ranks. So the complete formula is ((( + ) - 20) / 2).
After nine rounds of berserking, you can stop by typing STOP BERSERK. When you stop berserking, you receive a 20% AS penalty for 20 seconds per round you spent berserking, minimum of three minutes.
WARRIOR TRICKS: Each trick is a bit different. Many are automatic. Some use the standard maneuver roll like when you try to stand up (armor training and hindrance included). Others use their own skill roll, usually modified by Dexterity or Reflexes or both. Typing WTRICK by itself will tell you how much skill you have with each trick.
TACKLE: This works the same as Disarm, except your racial size is compared to that of your target as part of the maneuver roll. If your maneuver isn't 100% successful, but not a failure, (a "weak grip" message), you'll get a -10 to your MS.
WAR CRIES: Each cry has a different difficulty. Your Charisma bonus (if positive) is added to your skill bonus (+4/rank) and level bonus (1/4 level for warriors only), minus wounds and vocal stress, plus a d100. If this total is over 100, the war cry is performed. Each cry attempted adds to your vocal stress, which can be checked by typing WARCRY by itself. Your vocal stress heals by itself over time.
War Cries for your party work automatically at a duration of one minute (flat). They do not stack on top of each other, or on top of Heroism and Bravery. They do not increase in duration with multiple cries. Cries that give the highest bonus replace those of lower bonuses. They also only work while in a group.
War Cries against foes use the warding system with a CS of ½ your War Cry ranks, plus 3 X your level, plus 1/4th your level (warriors only), plus your Charisma bonus (only if positive). Your target will get the same defense as against a Spirit warding spell, except players that know War Cries also get a bonus to defend.
BATTER BARRIERS: Add your strength bonus, ½ weapon bonus (enchantment, magic metals--NOT your weapon skill), skill bonus (+4/rank), 1/4th your level (warriors only) and a d100. Anything over 100 results in a hit, the higher the roll, the more damage done. Crit weighted weapons (such as claidmores) and heavy weapons add to the damage done after a successful hit, while light weapons (like daggers) reduce the damage normally done. How many hits your box has is based upon the lock difficulty and modified by the box materials. When a box is opened, there is a chance for items to break, which gets lower as you get more skill.
HOW MUCH CAN I LEARN?
Each skill has 63 ranks. You can learn up to (4 x (your level - 4)) ranks. With six skills, this means you'll be level 99 or 100 before you'll learn all the ranks in all the skills.
The guilds require you to diversify your training, so you can't simply work on one skill until you master it. Every 5 ranks in one skill, you must learn one rank in any other skill. This 'other' rank does not include the first rank in any skill.
WHAT LEVEL OF CREATURE WILL GIVE ME TRAINING CREDIT?
You will occasionally get tasks that require you to find a creature that is a suitable challenge for your skill. What this means is that the creature level must fall into EITHER of these two categories (whichever is lower):
A) The creature is X levels below your level, or higher. To determine X, use this chart:
Your level X is
5 - 9 1
10 - 14 3
15 - 19 6
20 and up 10
B) Add up all your skill ranks (not including the first rank in each skill) and divide by four, add your level divided by five, then add three. The result is the number of levels below your level that you can train against. E.g. If you have 10 ranks of Disarm and 2 ranks of War Cry at level 20, you need to practice on creatures who are ((10/4) + (20/5) + 3) = 9 levels below you.
Most people will fall under category A.
WHAT LEVEL OF CHARACTER WILL GIVE ME TRAINING CREDIT?
For War Cries, your teacher must have one rank of War Cry more than you have, or be equal in ranks and be 50% higher in level.
Ya know, a women like dat would become useful since we git hurt so much. Ya think she would be interested in one of us?
I dunno. Our gear is pretty cool afterall. And she did beam at us when we showed her our shiny earrings. I'm sure she I'm being sarcastic when she giggled.
--Zarapatista to Commandant, both at age 1, thinking that their matching bronze shields and drake fals would entice one of the oldest empaths in the lands, Lady Mistyrose, to be our girlfriend.
Any hit in any area has a chance to stun (provided the critter is not immune
to stuns). So I only listed those which will leads to an above average chance of
stun. The effect will also need a minimum level of critical rank to happen. You're
not going to kill anything on a level 1 head critical!
Body Part Effect HP
Loss
{Left | Right}Arm Loss of what the arm was holding, resulting in loss of
AS or DS.
Low
{Left | Right}Hand Same effect as arm, but more stylish.
Lowest
{Left | Right}Leg Makes standing really hard. Prone foes loose 50 DS and
AS. Negates effects of height : a halfling can hit a prone troll's neck without trouble.
Makes targeting easier. Preferred attack in groups.
Average
Head Stun/Death.
Prevents player characters from casting. Best used when solo-hunting.
Medium
Neck
Stun/Death. Harder to hit than head, but more effective and stylish. Makes you unpopular
when done in group hunting.
Low
{Left | Right}Eye Death. Hard to target
but deadly, the brain is right behind. Very stylish too!
Low
Chest Stun/Death.
Easy to target.
High
Abdomen Stun/Death. Nervous Damage. Easy to target.
High
Back Stun. Target may fall to the ground. Best against uncrittable
or hard to crit foes. Useful in group hunting.
High
The following is an excerpt from the Guide to Ambushing by Lebannen Obehol and Lady Elfarron Havnor.
Let's look at a typical hit from a non ambusher :
You swing a jet black
falchion at a rolton!
AS: +143 vs DS: +0 with AvD: +35 + d100 roll: +22 = +200
... and hit for 85 points of damage!
Lucky shot rips through bone and muscle
sending right leg flying.
A rolton screams and falls to the ground grasping its
mangled right leg!
The rolton hisses one last time and dies.
Round time: 6
sec.
The final roll is above 100, meaning the target is hit. In the following discussion,
I will call Success Margin (SM) the amount by which the roll does exceed 100. In
this example :
SM=100
First, the combat system will look at the armor covering the body area which
was hit. In this case, since rolton have no sense of decency and walk around naked,
the armor coverage is ‹ skin ›. If then looks in a table and determine the Damage
Factor (DF) for the weapon you're using versus the armor category. In this case,
Falchion vs Skin leads to a DF of 0.450. I then makes the product of the DF with
the SM. This leads to the Raw HP loss (RHP) :
RHP = DF * SM
RHP = 0.450 * 100
= 45
Then, the RHP is divided by 5 to figure out the Critical hit Rank (CR). If
the body area was not covered with armor, the rank is increased by 1. The maximum
rank allowed is 9.
CR = RHP/5
CR = 45/5 + 1 (Skin) = 9, because it is the maximum
;-)
Finally, the combat system looks at the weapon data to determine the kind of criticals it makes. Falchions produce two kind of criticals among the three possible : crush and slash, the third one being puncture. In this case, let's assume the system took slash (at random). It then looks on the slash critical table for a rank 9 leg critical. It comes with ‹ Lucky shot rips through bone and muscle sending right leg flying. ›, +40 extra damage and fall. Thus the final result.
Well, another quick example before we move to ambushing again...
You swing
a jet black falchion at a frost giant!
AS: +143 vs DS: +58 with AvD: +32 + d100
roll: +81 = +198
... and hit for 50 points of damage!
Crossing slash to chest
catches the frost giant's attention!
Round time: 9 sec.
SM = 98
DF : Falchion
vs Brigandine armor (AsG 12) = 0.250 (Scale)
RHP = 98 * 0.250 = 25
CR = RHP/5
= 5
Thus leading to a rank 5 slash critical to the chest : +25 HP
Now, the weapon you are using can have some special effects :
Crit weighted
weapons will add to the Critical Rank. Internally, the amount of weighting (CW) is
a number between +1 and +20 (with +40 for claidmore, which are a special case in
themselves). CW/5 is added to the CR. Most common crit weighted weapons have a CW
below 10.
Damage weighting adds a fixed value to the RHP. So, they will do extra
HP damage, but won't change the CR. Opaque Falchion for instance, are weighted with
+6 HP damage.
Elemental flares will produce an elemental critical flare (fire,
electricity, vibration, cold) every 7 to 10 hits. Most common weapons, including
Drake weapons, flares for 7-15 HP, with low rank criticals. E-Blade produces much
more powerful flares, up to 70 HP with occasional death criticals.
Ambushing only adds to the CR when done from hiding. Mêlée ambushing works exactly
like regular combat, only that it allows to adidn't a specific body area.
When
hiding, ambushing does add a part of the ambushing skill to the CR :
Hiding and
Aiming : CR = CR + (Ambushing Skill)/20
Hiding w/o Aiming : CR = CR + (Ambushing
Skill)/10
So, from the point of view of critical adders, the Ambushing skills tops out
at 80 (unaimed) or 160 (aimed). As long as you hit with enough force to benefit from
your skill, you're doing a rank 1 critical. And the maximum CR possible is +9. This
is the reason why most highly trained rogues prefer damage weighted weapons to crit
weighted ones. However, I would still recommend that people serious about ambushing
keep at least single training above +160 since you don't know how the ambushing system
will get tweaked in the future.
You leap from hiding to attack!
You swing a
jet black broadsword at a hill troll!
AS: +151 vs DS: +62 with AvD: +32 + d100
roll: +37 = +158
... and hit for 35 points of damage!
You hear several snaps
as the hill troll's neck is broken in several places.
The hill troll falls to
the ground and dies.
Round time: 8 sec.
SM = 58
DF : Broad vs AsG 11 equ.
= 0.300 (Neck is naked, but I believe hill trolls get Soft equivalent)
RHP = 17.4
CR
= 17.4/5 = 3.48
Ambush Skill = 24 ranks = 102
CR = 3.48 + 102/20 = 8.58 rounded
to 8 (or 9, not sure)
So, instead of a rank 3 neck critical, ambushing allows
me to do at least a rank 8...
Instant death results...
Notice how the troll
only lost minimal HP but was still killed on first hit.
Another quick example :
You leap from hiding to attack!
You swing a jet
black broadsword at a dark orc!
AS: +151 vs DS: +64 with AvD: +30 + d100 roll:
+5 = +122
... and hit for 16 points of damage!
Downward slash across the
dark orc's left thigh!
Gouges bone!
A dark orc screams and falls to the ground
grasping its mangled left leg!
The dark orc is stunned!
Round time: 6 sec.
SM
= 22
DF : Broadsword vs Scale (Brig equ.) = 0.250
RHP = 22 * 0.250 = 5.5
CR
= 5.5/5 = 1.1, a lowly rank 1 critical !
CR = 1.1 + 102/20 = 6.2, much better
now!
I made 10-11 extra HP thanks to ambushing, and severely broke my foe's leg.
A
rank 1 critical would have added no extra damage or result...
Hey Frescalus, I'll pay ya git me sum lizard skins from Teras fer me? I could
use em fer sheath
makin.
Are you suggesting I work for you as a skinner Lord
Commandant?
--A suddenly frightened Lord Commandant after getting his first lizard
skin sheath order.
Again, this is an excerpt from the Guide to Ambushing by Lebannen Obehol and Lady Elfarron Havnor.
One major factor in determining your RT is encumbrance. You first have to know
your total load :
LOAD = Things Worn * Racial Modifier + Things Carried - Armor
Normal Weight
The things you wear are anything that can be put on with the WEAR verb. This
doesn't include the following things :
Containers, since not matter your race,
they can carry the same weight. They are factored in the ‹ Things Carried ›
Armor,
since its weight is already taken into account more finally by each AsG RT adder
and maneuver penalty. However, if your armor weight differs from the standard armor,
the difference is added to your LOAD. So, an imflass brigandine will reduce your
LOAD, while a glaes one will augment it. The standard brigandine will change nothing
to your LOAD. As long as you are properly trained, being naked or wearing a full
plate armor will not change your LOAD a iota. Believing the contrary is a common
misconception.
The Racial Modifier takes into account the fact that a halfling's
pant is much lighter than a giant's one. Believing the opposite is another widely
spread misconception. The encumbrance is then the ratio between your load and you
weight. The heavier you are, the less encumbered you will be (but the harder to drag
too... Nothing comes for free!). Your weight is calculated using your race, your
strength and your constitution.
ENCUM = (LOAD/WEIGHT)*100
I am a half-elf weighting 210 pounds.
I have a heavy backpack (20 pounds),
a double leather armor (not computed), a large sack with some stuff in it (total
of 30 pounds). I'm wearing a 2 pounds bandanna, a 6 pounds pant and a 4 pounds non-pocketed
vest.
LOAD = (20+30) + (2+6+4) * 0.92 ('cause I'm a half-elf) = 61
ENCUM =
61/210*100 = 29%
Race Racial Modifier Weight (50 ST&CO)
Humans 1.00 180 pounds
Giantmen
1.33 240
Half-Elf 0.92 165
Sylvankind 0.81 145
Dark Elf 0.84 155
Elf
0.78 140
Dwarf 0.80 155
Halfling 0.50 90
Your encumbrance does give you a penalty, calculated this way:
Encum Penalty
(EP) = MAX(0,ENCUM - 15 - ST_MOD - SPELL_MOD)
ST_MOD = (Strength Stat - 50)/2
+ (5 if dwarf), this is the Strength Stat, no racial bonus !
SPELL_MOD is +15
for Strength Spell (509) and +10 for Phoen's Strength (606)
I'm still the same half-elf as above... I have a 96 Strength. No spells.
ST_MOD
= (96-50)/2 = 23
EP = MAX(0,29 - 15 - 23) = 0
I will be able to carry :
LOAD
= (15 + 23 (ST_MOD) ) * WEIGHT/100 = 79.8 pounds before becoming encumbered
Every 5 points of EP will make me suffer 1 second of additional RT. This is
the encumbrance penalty
modifier (EPM).
EPM = EP/5
Each weapon has a base speed (WBS) which determines your base RT. The WBS varies
from 1 to 8 seconds. The weight of your weapon only adds to your encumbrance, it
does not modify its WBS. As long as your not encumbered, an imflass falchion and
a glaes one will have the RT.
Weapon Class WBS
Dagger 1
Rapier 3
Short
Sword 3
Broadsword/Falchion/Handaxe 5
8
If you want to determine the WBS for a given weapon, you can proceed as follow
:
1.Increase your load till your normal RT with a dagger is 6.
2.Adds some
weight to compensate the weapons difference of weight. Be sure to carry the other
weapon
while doing the test.
3.Switch to your test weapon. Keep the dagger in a container.
4.Swings
your test weapon, notice the RT difference.
5.Since the dagger WBS is 1, your
test weapon WBS is 1 + (Difference in RT).
Both your Dexterity and Reflex bonus (DE/RE bonus) will reduce your RT. Every +15 bonus will reduce your RT by 1 second. This is rounded up.
I have a +29 reflex bonus, a +10 dexterity bonus.
My RT is reduced by (29+10)/15
= 2.6 = 3 seconds
This reduction can go either towards reducing the extra RT from your encumbrance,
your lack of training in armor use or you additional ambush RT... It can't do all
of those at the same time!
I have a +2 RT from my encumbrance penalty.
I have
a +4 RT from being undertrained for my armor.
Despite my 3 seconds bonus, I will
still have a +3 RT
Ambushing adds +3 seconds to your RT. This penalty can be absorbed by your DE/RE bonus.
So, taking all those things into account, the RT calculation is as follow :
RT
= MIN(60,MAX(5,WBS + EPM + Armor RT - DE/RE Bonus + 3 if ambushing))
You leap from hiding to attack!
You swing a silver-hilted mithril falchion
at a stone sentinel!
AS: +348 vs DS: +175 with AvD: +21 + d100 roll: +68 = +262
... and hit for 58 points of damage!
Slash to head destroys the stone sentinel's
right eye!
Doesn't do its brain any good either.
The stone sentinel totters
for a moment and then falls to the ground like a pillar, breaking into pieces
that
fly out in every direction.
Round time: 5 sec
--Lord Karzak showing off his
ambushing skills to me in Darkstone one day. He winked at me as he
weighed the
box instead of telling me the weight. Notice the ambushing rt and eye crit of someone
that trains in
ambush every year for 40 years.
This is a sample grid I printed up and put inside a plastic cover page. After using it a while, I finally memorized it. The idea is to have a logical order of where everything is to save you time in the future. I use my ALT (attack, special ambush, stuff i change a lot) and CNTL (skin and search mostly) keys for hunting critters. I.E. ALT-M is ‘att miner\r' and CNTL-M is ‘search miner'.
Regular Function Keys Commandant
..........Bag.........Satchel(deeds)..........Green
Sack(gems)..........Back(embeddable)
Sell.....F1...........F2............................F3..................................F4
Look..F5...........F6............................F7..................................F8
Put
In.F9...........F10..........................F11................................F12
CNTL
Function Keys
Cloak(embedded) Floating Disk........Spider Vest(gifts)............Blk
Vest(herbs)
Sell.....F1...........F2............................F3..................................F4
Look..F5...........F6............................F7..................................F8
Put
In.F9...........F10..........................F11................................F12
Alt Function Keys
...........Opaque Fal........White Fal
Hold....F1......................F2..................F3
Bellow..........F4 Yoewlp
Sheath.F5......................F7..................F8
Growl...........F9 Shout
...........F10 Bless my Fal......................F11Cry..............F12
Hollar
Shift Function Keys
F1 Put in drawer F2 Put in satchel F3
Gld Promote F4 Warcry Teach
F5 Teleport F6 Load Blue Crystal F7 Disarm ? F8 Tackle
?
F9 Send Mana F10 Put gem in sack F11 Berserk ? F12 Appraise
to ? Gem
Goodness gracious, that's too much fer me. Just a lil bark or even an acorn
would be fine.
--A level 3 Mistyrose getting her first tip, a rotting oak
trunk, in TSC after healing an injured Lord. Seems Celtic told her wood things were
valuable in the lands and since he had an acorn, he would attract more giant rats
than her.
Knowing what spells look like and what they do can be helpful to ask for them
instead of just asking a wizard to cast some colors on you. I have found a
great link with exactly what I want: a list of spells others can cast on you, what
they look like, time, nicknames etc. I highly recommend printing it out.
Click
here for Barachado's Spells to
Live by
To go back to Lord Commandants Sheath Emporium, click here.