Lord
I gots me a group
A group wit a gut full of fear
Ladies and gentleman
Boys and girls
Dying time is here

--The Warriors Prayer

Table of Contents (top to bottom, left to right)
 

Appendix
 

Intro

On the amunet one day.

Sorchia: "Afternoon Landing!"
Darwar: "INVASION!"
Sorchia: "No no, I come in peace"

<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 raising--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, two handed and other variations start quickly and begin to maximize around year 50 to 75.

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 an 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 level 50, I couldn't even hunt Stone Giants without spells.

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Preface by Commandant

"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 of all, I want to thank everyone that helped me write this and all the letters I've received for writing it. Back in 1996, when I wrote this guide the first time, there was not one warrior guide and I wrote this mainly as a couple spreadsheets and small notes for training myself. Notes that had, "black crystals--keep em, make a disk", "armor, keep doing it tell 240" were the basis of my guide. When my eventual wife saw it, she laughed but borrowed the guide for her rogue and soon a few other friends were using it for charting their training paths. A habit I have from being a member of Toastmasters International is I always write down something I view as a pearl of wisdom, humor or witty saying. I saved all my favorite parts from Gemstone and added them into here to spice up an otherwise boring guide. This is the fourth rewrite of it and if you have read these before, you will notice that some changes have been made but mostly adding new stuff.

When creating your warrior, consider why I've felt compelled to rewrite it four times. Things change. For example, a long time ago, for a sorcerer, the charisma stat was the mana based stat and wisdom didn't do anything. Imagine playing a sorcerer for a long time and making, say level 70 and one day they reverse it so your worst stat is now your most important. Like the popular saying goes, stuff happens. For me, I started pre-redux and for a warrior, that’s akin to the day the dinosaurs died. Armor works now. Two weapon users get a defensive bonus and now breakage is coming back along with the finally asked for multi-opponent critters.

On to goals: First of all, an asset to the lands is numero uno. Being viable is second. Being known as a great role-player and good person are my highest goals. What comes around goes around in the lands. As I'm typing this, a bard is doing symbol of need in the rift and nobody is going to get him. Why? This jerk has walked by others countless times, got older by wasp nest hunting, he sang to each and every gem he had at the most populated resting spots in town and has always argued over the net. A good role-player, not a chance. When your warrior dies, be sure, you want others to locate you because they know who you are, what you stand for. A robo hunter might fog you in but that time comes when none of them are near to where you are, if you get a good rep, you will get saved. The same goes for getting imbedding, enchanting, healing, singing and so on. My other goals were to make guild master in a few skills, Voln master, being able to send 50 mana for spells, becoming a decent skinner, wear plate. In my opinion, warriors shouldn't learn spells. Ok, there are about four critters that cast dispell so it's nice to have a spell prepped all the time. At the same time, only one critter, Sprites, have no other like-aged area to hunt in. Therefore, if you’re a soloist, hunt sprites for a long time, a spell is useful. Also, knowing 401 or 101 are not exactly uncommon spells to come by from others. Warriors should wear plate armor just because you’re a warrior. Those don’t have to be your goals but those are what make me tick.

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Redux (also known as DF Reduction) by Koranis Krandorrsson

A massive troll king claws at you!
AS: +350 vs DS: -30 with AvD: +52 + d100 roll: +66 = +498
... and hits for 20 points of damage!
Elbow wrenched.

You’re probably wondering what DF Redux is. The simple answer is: Get beat over the head enough and you stop feeling it as much. The elongated answer is: Spend enough time training in such intensive physical skills as weapons, climbing, and physical training, and you’ll soon be able to stop taking as much damage from melee attacks. What this means mechanically is once you’re skilled enough, you start reducing the amount of damage you take from normal melee hits. Let me give you an example:

 Koranis swings a red shaalk longsword at you!
AS: +1000 vs. DS: -50 with AvD: 41 + d100: 1 = +992
…and hits for 80 points of damage!
Powerful slice to the wrist cuts it right off!

Scary, isn’t it? That’s how DF Redux works. You have a certain number (in this example it was 6.783) which is your Redux factor. Take the raw hp damage of any hit, and divide it by that number. Thus, what would normally be a 379-point hit was reduced to 55 points, plus the added damage of a rank 9 crit.

Important things to remember about DF Redux:

• There are three things that impact Redux. They are: Skill ranks, Spells, and Level.
• You must maintain a certain number of skill ranks per level to obtain and keep Redux. (This number used to be 8 primary, 3 weapon, but has changed since.)
• Training in spells hurts DF Redux. A lot.
• There is a level-based penalty in the formula. The penalty goes down as you go up in level. For this reason, and skill training limits, the earliest you can get DF Redux is approximately level 17. I don’t believe it is possible to get it earlier.

Ok, so you have two different types of skills. Primary, and Weapon. They are:

Primary Skills:
Two Weapon Combat
Armor Use
Combat Maneuvers
Shield Use
Climbing
Swimming
Multi-Opponent Combat
Ambush
Physical Training

Weapon Skills:
One-Handed Edged
One-Handed Blunt
Two-Handed Weapons
Polearms
Brawling

 Note: It doesn’t matter to DF Redux if you train twice per level in OHE, OHB, and once in polearms, or if you train once in OHE, OHB, 2HW, polearms, and brawling. The number of ranks, not which particular skill, is what matters. What does this mean? Well, this is the reason you’ll see 80 train warriors with 81 ranks in climbing and swimming. Other than that, it’s only a reference.

Note the Second: The formula is weighted towards Primary skills. That means, if you have the option of getting either a weapon skill or a primary skill, unless there’s another reason to get the weapon skill, go for the primary one.

Going on, the next thing that matters to DF Redux is spells. Let’s say you’re a Cleric. You train in 12 primary ranks per level and 5 weapon ranks per level. That’s a really good training plan. However, you also know spells up to 325, 225, and 130. Ouch. That’s a big penalty. The way the spell penalty works is like this:

Number of spells known x (number of spells known + 1)
This is done individually for each circle. So said cleric has the following:
For the Cleric circle: 25 x (25+1) = 650
For the Major Spirit circle: 25 x (25 + 1) = 650
For the Minor Spirit circle: 30 x (30 + 1) = 930

Total spell penalty: 2230. Like I said, that’s a big penalty. Time for another example. Here we have a warrior who knows the Minor Spirit circle up to 103, for the DS and TD bonuses it gives. He’s got a penalty of:

3 x (3 + 1) = 12

Not so bad. Let’s say he didn’t learn 103, but instead he learned 401. Now he’s got:

2 x (2 + 1) = 6
1 x (1 + 1) = 2

For a total penalty of 8. Even better. So let’s move on to the formula, shall we? Here it is, in all its glory:

((Primary Ranks x 1.7) + (Weapon Ranks x 0.6) – (Spell Penalty) – Level – (100/Level)²)/350

Does that make your head hurt? Most people would say yes. Now, for the in-depth explanation of how to compute your DF Redux factor. Grab a pencil and some paper, this is going to take some writing to do.

First, total up your ranks in the following: two weapon combat, armor use, shield use, combat maneuvers, climbing, swimming, multi-opponent combat, ambush, and physical training. Write that number down and mark it Primary.

Second, total up your ranks in these skills: one-handed edged, one-handed blunt, two-handed weapons, polearms, and brawling. Write that down and mark it Weapon.

Next, count your spells. Don’t have any? Then skip this. If you have any, write down the number of spells in each circle. Next to each number, write down that number plus one. So if you had 5 spells in the minor spirit circle, you’d write down 5, and next to that 6. Do that for each circle you have. You should have two columns, with up to three rows of numbers. Take the first number, multiply it by the number next to it, and write it down in a third column. Do that for each set of numbers. After that, add up the third column, write it down, and mark it Spell Penalty.

Here’s the easiest step: Write your level down and mark it Level. Easy as eating pancakes.

Here comes the hard part. Take the number marked Primary and multiply it by 1.7, then write that down and mark it Weighted Primary. Take the number marked Weapon and multiply it by 0.6, then write it down and mark it Weighted Weapon. Add them together, write it down and mark it Skill Ranks.

Take the number marked Skill Ranks, and subtract your Spell Penalty and Level numbers from it. If you don’t have a Spell Penalty number, don’t worry about it. Take that new number, and write it down. Mark it Penalized Skills.

Take your Level, and divide 100 by it. For example, if you’re 5, you should get 20. After that, multiply that number you just got by itself. Write that down and mark it Level Modifier.

Subtract your Level Modifier from your Penalized Skills, and then divide that new number by 350. Write it down. That’s your DF Redux factor, +/- 5%. If it’s less than 1, then you can forget about it, because DF Redux is always at least 1. (Otherwise I could hit a 150-train sorcerer and kill him on a 101 roll.) If it’s over 1, then that’s great! You now divide the raw hp damage from all hits by this number to get your actual damage.

If you came up with a number over 1, then all it takes to activate it is a visit to the trainer.

Note: If DF Redux does not activate, it may be because you are very close to getting it. Wait a level, train in some more skills, and then go. The reason for this is because this formula is NOT an exact one. It is, in fact, an approximation. So don’t hold me to it.

Keep in mind that as a warrior DF Redux is going to be your saving grace. Redux and Full Plate are what makes us Warriors what we are. Kuromaku once ran a test on Teras Isle. He had 10 warriors lie down in offensive, then swung at them with 1000 AS. Only one died, because of an instant death crit. Keep that in the back of your mind, to remind you of what a well-trained warrior is capable of.

Other then that, I don’t have anything else to say on DF Redux. If you have any questions, email me at pwilcox@dnai.com, or find me in the lands. I’d like to thank Commandant for giving me the opportunity to write this explanation for his guide, and I’d also like to thank Juspera for a huge amount of mechanical references available on her website. (Blurb for Juspera) Look to my website, Koranis for a more in-depth guide to combat and DF Redux.

Good hunting, fellow warriors.--Koranis Krandorrsson.

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Legendary Pursuits

"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.

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 whom knew whom 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 that 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 usually used for rping and important stuff, usually. You see about 3 Voln thoughts a day and approximately 20 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 first 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 not uncommon. 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, that's 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. While it is true, there are some poor examples of legends out there, I really feel most of the time; it's 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 raised, 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 whispered to quite often and 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 far too often in Wehnimer or Voln, and it isn't worth it to go there anymore and Karess to the same degree also.

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Min-Maxing

From Nevrek

report I seem to be dismissing other peoples' disks.
report Ahem...forget that last report.. <blushes> It didn't go away.. I just..waved at it.
SEND[Fawn] That doesn't sound right. :)
SEND[Banthis] Do you realize how many heart attacks you just caused? :)
SEND[Mhorigan] There was a chorus of unhappy expletives on the GM channel ;).and they all used emoticons.

This guide would not be complete without a special part to explain the negative affects of the next two sections. Min-maxing is the process of taking every available edge you can get a use it to your advantage. For instance, if you follow this guide, your warrior will be better than someone that has never read any guide whatsoever. An inherent problem with this is that it provides an advantage over someone that would prefer to "dream" or "imagine" what his or her warrior should be like.  If most every warrior followed this guide to the "T", then warriors would be viewed differently and changes would be difficult to make in terms of those that have gained a high number of trains versus what a warrior should be.

The best example is the hide and ambush path, which I advocate.  Min-maxing doesn't mean you won't be a good player. Far from it.

The way Gemstone is today, hiding and ambush are the only viable path for a one-handed warrior and strongly improves the two-handed warrior. Should it be that way? I strongly disagree. I would prefer rangers and rogues be the hiders and warriors be the ones standing toe to toe. This guide is based on what is and not what should be. If others train the way I suggest, they will further perpetuate the problem. However, I fail to see a solution to this right now. Right now, if you choose to say, "Ah'm goan be a ohe stand and slug it out type of warrior', the person that says, "Ah'm goan take whatever they give me and use it to my advantage", the second will be the superior warrior hunting wise.

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How to Talk

Kulbaen:  The price?  Your dignity or your self-respect is all.
Desorceri:  I'm not sure I understand.
Kulbaen:  After stripping you of every last shred of self-worth and suffering the worst sort of humiliation, I shall give
you this enchanted armor.

Later in the day after many humiliating deeds.

Kulbaen:  So, how is your self-esteem doing?
Desorceri:  Sir, I feel invigorated.

Kulbaen, tiring of the same old selling on the amunet decides to give something away for "free".  Two people actually
made it thru his tortures and one even scared Kulbaen because of his fondness to torture.

For some, talking in character comes naturally.  For others, it doesn't or they can't type very fast.  If you want to
learn to talk in character or read something that has great use of slang, Mark Twain is the king.  For something
more modern and in my opinion, the best Vietnam book ever, try The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio.  You
will never say motherf*&%$ the same way as before after reading this.  It's more of a ghetto/drawl/southern
redneck talk but it works in Gemstone quite well.  I forget who suggested this to me but this is how I learned how to talk gemspeak.

When someone meets you, they rarely take your description and use it to determine your character's persona.
They also cannot read your mind.  For instance, while you might have lofty history of some great lore, the person
that meets you has no idea except how you talk.

The easiest way to speak well is to speak in good sentences with punctuation.  For instance, beginning each
sentence with a capital letter and ending it with a period is the sign of an intelligent person.  You can show wether
your lazy or not by the fact of wether you use accronyns or not.  A lazy person uses the terms OOC, BRB, TTM,
AS, DS, TD, CS, Per, RU.  A good role-player can think of other ways to say it or at least spell out the acronyms.
If you can't speak in character very well, the minimum is to not speak out of character, or lazy.  If you’re bleeding
from the neck 4 per, try saying "My neck is gushing from a vein, could someone heal me please?"  To an empath,
the knowledge of the 4 per is irrelevant.  A neck bleeder is a neck bleeder.  The fact that you said your bleeding
indicates it's not a minor.

An advanced role-player can skip the constructive sentences but only after what they say makes some sort of sense.  For instance, Thrud has mastered the short clipped sentences.  "Thrud says hello to healer friend."

A good role-player never talks about COL, never says "rezz" and prefers "raise".

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Stats

"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 him in line?"
Mollye coming to the rescue of Lady Karess in Hearthstone after Lord Commandant checks the nights' silver takings of Karess's lock picking efforts.

For the aspiring legendary warrior maxing out around 50 (after bonus to strength and constitution):
 

Right away, you will notice that strength and constitution are very low. Depending on where you want to max out at, place them higher or lower. When I say max out, I mean your stat grows to a 100. So if you want to max out at level 50, put a 50 in strength.

Your roll should have 3 90s and nothing below 30.

Aura and Discipline are high simply for the tps. Intelligence is high for experience absorption. Fact: If you have a stat of 100 in intelligence, you absorb experience that same rate as if you were resting in a node. Reflex is for defense, and dexterity is for those maneuver attacks. The last four are really up to you but keep charisma lowest for hiding. I put constitution down low because you will be training in physical train every level anyhow so you will get those hps up there eventually. Bumping it up to above logic is common for more physical tps in redux training.

Your physical stats will grow faster than mental and of your physical stats, strength and constitution will grow the fastest. At the early levels, warriors generally have a great AS and it's easy to see another warrior, same race with a higher AS. Believe me when I say AS does very little at the higher levels. Losing that +30 bonus from a 100 strength won't even be a factor.

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 if you want but those will do just fine the way they are.

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Training

Hey, did I tell you "I love you man"
--a broke Lord Commandant sitting outside Stovel's Wagon and seeing Lord Baser arrive

For the one handed weapon and shield after 20 training's:
 

From this example, with a roll of 630, you can't quite make this training (need 7 more phy tps but have 13 extra tps which can be converted to 6 phy tps) but 10/3 is a very good redux. This is can be reached if you drop down to say a 8/2 so you can add some scroll reading (10 times), magic item use (10 times), mana share every 3^rd level until you reach a 102 bonus. If you want to Fu a lot, then change brawling to a double. You can not brawl past 30 levels with singling. A big mistake is too single in CMs. You can make up climb, you can make up swim, you can make up anything but AS and DS. If you single in CMs for 50 levels, you lose 25 pts of AS. Down the road, your goal will be make hiding a double and ambush.

While some snicker at the idea of being roguish with the hide and ambush, believe me, that's the only way to kill critters if your alone unless your spelled up great and plan on pounding the daylights out of them for a minute or two each.

For the two handed weapon after 20 training's:
 

As you can see, it's not much different except for substituting weapon for two-handed weapon and removing one shield. Again, there is a small gap between what you can do at the beginning and what you can do later.

Polearm users and ranged weapon users are similar to both examples above but need to make a few changes.

Brawling does improve your ds when you don't have both your weapon and shield out, like when dragging others.

Training in physical training, while adding to your Hps, also increase the amount of hps you regen per round.

For what choice you make consider that both are excellent choices and both have their strengths and weaknesses. The rogue ambusher has more defense, has an extra item that can break, can crit from hiding as well or easier than a standing shot from a two-hander. The two-hander doesn't rely on hiding and has a chance to crit everything while standing. A two-handed weapon costs less (in general) than a one handed one.

Long Term Goal: I have changed my thinking on mana share a lot. 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, which can get you some very nice personal massies from a spell caster. I have trained to 102 by going every 3 or 4 levels. Yes, it was pathetic when I could only send 3 mana but now I can send a nice chunk. I can even help infuse. 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 it, they can't hunt either.

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Name

'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. Another sore spot with me is the plagiarism of other's names. Look, if you like someone, while copying their name might be a way to show your respect to them, to them, it usually doesn't work out that way.

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."

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Orders

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, can't say much more regarding this. One thing, it's pointless to join one and not pursue it. I once 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, "come'on now, it ain't that tuff." 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; it's 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 can't go lower than that or something will happen. (Wink)

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Houses

Have a beer, its free
--Lord John Belushi, member Animal House

I only know Silvergate and Rone Academy first hand and all I can say is I have nothing to compare them to. Sometimes it's hard to get into the house you want but if it's a good fit, it's worth it. 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.

Phoenix if a Voln and warrior house and I feel the same way. However, both houses are much more active in doing fun things than the other houses. Both have an active group of leaders and can boost the finest list of warrior members in the lands. Many of its members have helped me learn about the other professions and to repeat it once more, they are the real pros. 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.

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Where to Hunt

"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; Solhaven 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. Rivers Rest is the best-kept secret in the game. Imagine going to a meeting place and people knowing your name: that is what Rivers Rest is like. Make up your own adventures. Make it a challenge to see how long you can go without running back to town for something. See if you can go out for days and don't care about experience absorption. Don't laugh! Really, 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. Other undead places that are not hunted often are the Wolves Den, and anything outside of the Wehnimer area. 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 troll's skins, cobra skins, ghoul's 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! >

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Family

'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, and having a brother or sister and so on. It's 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.

Too often, I have adopted someone and a week later, never to hear from them again. Do not ask to be adopted unless you're in the game for the long haul because it's inconsiderate to do so.

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Healing

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. I don't enjoy invasions (other than I die at them) because at the north gate, people go nuts. They lose all civility they have because they are scared to death of decaying. Don't want to decay, don't goto the damn invasion. Worried that you aren't lkd? Join Voln. You probably won't decay anyhow. That goes for massies too-no yelling, selling, or any dorking off.

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Clerics

'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 raised 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.

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Meditative Thoughts

"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? Don't 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 don't git it, don't worry, you will someday.

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Mana Dump

[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 it's hard to think when you're 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 102 share can send evenly to each other. Or 98 and 106 for example. 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.

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Helping Others

"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 life's 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. It's 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.

It's odd but half the houses in the lands are all dedicated to improving the lands but rarely do any of them actually do a concerted effort to change things. Don't get overwhelmed by all of it when it gets bad and just try and be a model yourself. Sometimes, the problem with the lands isn't so much the snerts but the complainers. See the part about Meta and Berr regarding this.

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Gear

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 him

Get a armor guide and understand it on your own. It's 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.For instance, I carry my main critted weapon, a blessable one and a ice or heat critted weapon.

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 emphasized 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 (for lower levels) 2) crit weighting (for higher levels) 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 lavishly. Always think defense first and try to get a better shield and armor first. If you're 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 don't always do it. Nothing beats damage weighting if you can't 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 him 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".

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Eting

Pardner, if yer lookin fer trouble, I'll surely accommodate you.

-- Lord John Wayne making friends in Hell's Tavern

One of most difficult tasks in the lands is not killing troll kings, fire mages or sentinels, 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, it's a sign of a mana taker.

With that in mind, workshops are the best way to control access to mana. There are a few 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 62,500 mana infused to raise a vultite item to +25.

Infusing formula for eting
 

Now to the problems, as you can see 62.5k 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. Before, it was quite an achievement, today, it's not that hard if you're willing to pay a good price for it. The way I did it was I met a mage that I knew would be a legend one day and promised him 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.

The worst single thing to happen to the game is the invention of the enchanting factories. Different people would create 20 level 8 clerics accounts (yes, that’s 21 accounts total!) and would pool them with a friend who did the same for 42 accounts and use them to make high enchant items on an hourly basis. This started with three bought level 100 mages and had a trickle down effect on the rest of the game. Other mages would see this and feel compelled to do the same thing. While most of the enchanters have a few cleric-bots, they usually don't goto 20 clerics or even 40. This creates envy and anger from people who view this as cheating. You get all these people angry and it trickles down on everyone else. Next you see the level 10 warrior with wall of force and every spell. Next you see the person with a tag-along-wizard that casts haste. Tell me, who the hell wants to hunt hasted with zero interaction the entire time? Another side effect is the unbalancing nature of high enchanted items. When I was level 40, I had a very valuable 5x set of hauberk. People were envious of me for having it and it was rare. Now, 6x is considered normal simply because of the cleric-bot business. I saw firsthand people making 6x casts every hour with zero interaction. They will tell you how fun their infusing parties are but if you go, you see someone counting rapid fire and its all scripted. Why it continues even aggravates others still today. Plain and simple, it's an unfair advantage over a single account user.

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Imbeddings, Disks and Spells

Love hurts
--Lady Nikkee to Xathar after casting blood burst (701) at him 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. Find a nice box, don't want the increased roundtime? Put them in a disk or put some armors and leathers in the disk and sell them at the pawn shop.

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Herbs

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 him 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. It's expensive. Btw, some herbs can be duped. Where did you think those 300 bite acantha leaf bundles came from.

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Guild

"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 you're going to be around a while, think over where you probably will hunt in the future. Me, for instance, didn't train with vision. Berserk, bash, and tricks can be done anytime. My suggestion is do tackle, warcry and disarm early and often before its too late. Believe me, you don't want to be Drizzsdt and have to drop a dagger and wait for a fire mage to pick it up to disarm him. 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--it's 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 or ogres, 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 or the game crashes. 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 get stance perfection 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.

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Deeds

"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+. 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. It's a big investment.

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Stance

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 you're in stance def, you have an rt to get up or maybe even fail to stand unless you use wtrick roll. Pick a stance (advance, forward, and 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.

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Guides

"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.

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Accessories

"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. It's not ok to kill a scripter, its perfectly fine tell a sorc that he asked to be cursed and played with. <wink>, it's not ok to script guild skills afk. If you're reading the message boards or the paper but still in front of the computer screen ok, but don’t ever be absent from the screen to interact with others. Scripting afk is one of the worst sins in the game. Please report all scripters to as soon as you see them. 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. Because this warrior was a known scripter, he was never restored. Scripts make people into zombies a lot so use discretion.

How to lead with the wizard: These tips will improve your ability to lead warmongering 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.

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Role-playing

We can move again as soon as our fearless leader comes back --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. If you can't think of anything, ask for help.

A lot of people have these really long wonderful stories about their character's history but that really is hard to infer when you first met them unless you act it out. Until we can learn to mind read, nobody knows your parents were slain and you want to exact revenge on the ogre family down the road. <G>

A good role-player can type well, can spell, can use punctuation, can speak and still have a point. A good role-player is not someone that gets upset all the time and screams bloody murder. Want to see Role-playing at it's finest, usually goto the hearthstone steps and watch. Seek out someone that has a great rep and watch them or even interview them.

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Of Berr and Meta

"Next time you slobber in mah ear you pansy arse tooth-pick waving son of a rolton, ah’ll break ya skinny neck."

Lord Metaboculous introducing himself to Commandant.  Note:  We later became friends and he never broke my neck.

Two warriors stand out as the greatest warriors in Gemstone lore. Both were everything that epitomized a great warrior. Both had wonderful attitudes and both were cherished members of the game. Both also left far differently than they were remembered for.

Lord Metaboculous (commonly known as Meta) was the first warrior to reach the age of legend and was known for his caustic and humorous personality. He went demonic in 1996 after growing continually unhappy with the changes in the lands and the lack of changes to the warrior profession. Meta was like an enduring joke amongst others because he picked boxes all day at the Hearthstone steps and chewed out any and everyone that happened along. When he quit, it was probably one of the most traumatic gaming days for many players because he suicided his character for approximately 24 hours as others constantly pleaded with him to stop. The lands have rarely seen a player so heartfelt close to and remembered as the likes of Meta.

Lord Berr was known for his heroics and his great helpfulness to others. Berr’s name is synonymous with most of the lands discoveries and great invasions. The Broken Lands, Darkstone, Estrion, the Mines, Teras, his role with Terate, he had a part in discovering and interacting with them all. My first real experience talking to him was during the discovery of the Sheru temple and he dispatched about 20 harbingers while I was bound and certain to die. Typical of Berr, he left a few limbless harbs for me to kill just to gain experience before we left to go chat a bit. Because Berr never went demonic and was seen as recently as 1998, I feel he still belongs as the number one spot amongst warriors. Berr, like Meta, was growing disenfranchised with the warrior profession. After redux came out, which he was a tester of, he grew weary of the limitations of the warrior profession and also the fact that warriors were no longer the supreme weapon wielders in terms of AS. Although today there are many great warriors, I suggest that Berr’s name not be forgotten and kept among your annals of great warriors. As Gaq once said, "Doan fergit him. Icon."

My reason to bring these two to light in addition to learn more about, is to discuss how to quit Gemstone. As much as an asset to the lands as any, at the end, both were the lands greatest liabilities. Their unhappiness was anything but private. They both constantly complained as loud as possible and brought down the spirits of others. I blame the loss of our last warrior Guru, Kuromaku, on this negitivity that warriors carry.

At one time I too became incredibly disenfranchised. I had nothing good to say and was to the point of bitterness in regard to warriors and gemstone. Normally, I’m as cool and calm as anyone you will meet and I was personally upset that I allowed something as small as a game to make me unhappy. I quit for six months and came back with a new perspective. Nothing had changed in the game but my attitude.

I humbly request that if you ever find yourself like this, you quit and in your farewell letter, entitle it "Of Berr and Meta". Others will know what this means simply by the title and will know that you made a very unselfish choice to quit to improve the lands rather than hurt it.

My other request is that instead of quitting, is to take a hiatus. Gemstone is a game and should be fun. If it makes you upset, see if you can quit and come back later with a better perspective.

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The Ultimate Warrior

Anna fer dat losted fiter...Fiters come inna all shapes anna sizes but th one place ye wont be findin no fiters wit der nose inna book.

In udder werds make yerself into wot YE would have yerself be...not wot udders have become. Nowadays, Dwu bets dat e'en th ol' sheeth-maker would agrees wit dat. --Dwu Axetoe

Dwu’s post on the message boards regarding my comments to a warrior’s question and making light of my guide and fondness for sheath making.

What is a good warrior?

A good warrior is someone that is helpful, viable, friendly, a decent role-player and honest.

A great warrior is all of the above and a great warrior makes common sense common practice. A great warrior is always in character, never walks by anyone dead (even someone he detests), is knowledgeable of many things, is concerned about others and is a terrific character that others gain by your friendship.

A great warrior doesn’t outwardly lose their temper very often. When they post, they read their post for spelling, punctuation, good points and whatnot to make sure their post is read and considered. Great warriors don’t post rants and raves continuously until they are completely ignored. Great warriors don’t die and hope that someone above is paying attention because the truth is, nobody cares about your one death or even your 20^th death that week.

A great warrior is also a lobbyist. This doesn’t really strike the same message as say, "Conan the barbarian" but read on. <Pause for my elder warrior friends to stop laughing>

Gemstone is similar to our government. Changes are made on the behalf of lobbying to a great extent. In early 1997, there was a meeting amongst warriors and a large number of GMs attended it to discuss needs of warriors. Prior to the meeting, warriors did assists/referrals to "bug" GMs that we would appreciate their attendance or at least notice. While I don’t know if it played any role at all, the idea of redux sprung up and was eventually implemented at the end of the year. That, my comrades, was the finest hour for warriors. <Rogue readers, please send donations to the Commandant Super Weapon Fund>

Consider also that if it were as easy as calling your congressperson to get something changed, nobody would have a lobbyist. Well, it can be downright frustrating but collectively it does work eventually. Like rolling a new character or training, patience is a virtue.

In early 1999, there was another warrior meeting. The largest warrior meeting in the game's history. The subject was multi-accounting and the goal was to provide a baseline warrior to be judged. Depending on whom you ask, warriors commonly use multi-accounts to spell their warriors up. With plate armor, redux and the entire spell list, a warrior is only killable by stupidity, or a maneuver attack. The meeting suggested that all warriors forgo multi-accounting, choose group hunting tactics and send/ask for minimal spells. The idea was that since warriors had found their long lost fix, there was no reason for GMs to change anything. By providing GMs a baseline of what to judge, improvements could come so there wasn't an incentive to ma. Most of the members that attended the meeting swore off ma's and spells for a few months and Kuromaku quit shortly afterwards. Although the benefit of that meeting seems to be nil (warriors died those few months in droves), it marked an important subject that previously was unspoken of. It also drove home the importance of lobbying to all.

To me, a warrior loves his profession to a point of wanting to help others also on a wider scale other than helping someone with a simple question, or doing guild work with someone. A great warrior is a good person, hunter, helpful and honest.

A great warrior contributes to the warrior profession and to the lands in general by lobbying for changes from GMs, posting on the message board, voicing in a positive manner your feelings on the lands and the profession. A great warrior might become a GM someday and not suffer from the ‘inside the beltway’ disease and work hard to help their old profession.

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Final Two Five Star Tips

From Juspera (I'd just walked up the porch steps, and that was where I entered the conversation...) :

Mustafo says, "but the odd thing, after greasing his finger and pulling it out, I was most pleased"

 
  The friends around you directly influence your success. 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.

  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; 4) 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.

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It takes a big man to cry
But it takes a bigger man to laugh at him

•   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@home.com (current as of this writing), sheriff38@netscape.net (if that first one doesn't work, its my backup). Note: I'm not a cop, it was my fantasy football name when I first found the internet.

    Thanks to my wife, Lady Karess for all her input, constant attention, lock picking, leg whackin, and love.

    Thanks to all the past readers for their constant input.

    Thanks to the writers who contributed to this guide.

    Special note to readers, please, please, please do not IM (instant message) me to ask me questions. I love reading email and getting compliments about my guide (even criticisms) but I have received too many IM's asking questions while I'm playing. If you need to ask, email me (I have answered at least 1000 of emails and will continue to do so). I have been called a creep and worse for not answering or when they IM 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 AIM.

Appendix

Breakage

Juspera says, "Sorchia, gimme a powerful look."
Sorchia nods to Juspera.
Sorchia stares at Juspera.

80/200 is the strength/durability of the vultite longsword.
45/165 is the strength/durability of the reinforced shield.

If you are in combat and swing, or get swung at, there is a chance of a clash happening.  It seems to happen 50-75% of the time.

When a clash occurs, you see a message stating that a clash occurred and it shows the stats on the two items involved.  Say the vultite longsword up there clashed with a reinforced shield (80/200 vs. 45/165).

The first comparison is made between the strengths, 80 and 45 in this case.  Since the longsword is stronger than the shield, the longsword has no chance of shattering.  The shield will have to make a saving throw using an open-ended 100 roll.  If the end result of the roll is above the durability stat of the item (165 for the shield) the shield will shatter outright.  If the roll is not higher than the durability, the weaker item will take more damage than the stronger item.  But both items will take some damage.  If both items have the same strength (longsword vs longsword) both items must make the saving throw, and both can conceivably shatter.

You can assess the state of your gear by looking at them.  In the case above, the longsword might have taken 0.01% damage, while it destroyed the shield.

Armor can only be damaged if you are physically hit, while weapons and shields can be damaged anytime.  Just to make that point clear, armor can only be hit if your hit.   If you can be hit, all three are randomly target to a swing.   Age and AS/DS have no bearing on the system according to the GMs.

Leather armors have pitiful strengths and will melt fast.  Heavier armors have amazing strengths, and should resist most clashes unless you fight pyrothags.

Degradation of the weapon DOES lower the ST/DU of an item.  Take the % of integrity and multiply it by ST/DU for the current ST/DU.  I.e. If you have a weapon at 50% and its st/du were 99/250 it would now be 49.5/125.

Crit padding and weighting are NOT considered in the breakage system.

Strengthening is a direct modification to the ST/DU of items. Lightening is a modification of the encumbrance values. Both aspects are criteria for breakage assessment.

If your weapon is stronger then the other target, you degrade by .02-4%.  I think it's a random number.  If you’re on the receiving end of a clash, that number goes up significantly and I haven’t found the formula yet.

Note:  This was written on 10/22/99 during the testing of breakage.  At this time, statements were made that very few changes if any would occur so this should be accurate.  If anything radically different happens, look for an update to come out.
 

The Abandoned Inn Crystal, from Ceranis Aesira's guide

And after flanking the stone sentinels 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. The blue crystal in the brass setting can tell the properties of an item similar to a bard song, spell 405, or asses. 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.

Note: Tiny golden sparks simply indicate, for all items, that it contains magic.
 

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 is got a small amount or is incredibly weighted. There is no way to tell the true level of weighting or critting other than assess. Most con jobs are done under the pretense of the rushed businessperson.

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Assessing

Dyant says, "He's my daddy, he can do anything."
Setzier glances at Juspera.
Bisco says, "you have a different daddy every week"
Bisco pokes Dyant in the ribs.

Padding, and weighting, whether it's damage or crit fall under one of these categories. From smallest to largest:

Lightly, Fairly, Somewhat, Decently, Heavily, Very Heavily, Exceptionally, Masterfully, Incredibly

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Guild Specs--with excerpts from Giacomo's former Guild webpage

<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.

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Ambushing

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

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Combat Statistics

"You can come watch if you want"
- Lady Kythyn responding to a young and somewhat cocky Sandlot after asking her if she wanted to go hunting.

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. It 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 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...

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Encumbrance

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 and armor.

Since race doesn't matter, you can carry the same weight with containers. 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, it also doesn't matter. 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), and 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))

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Grid

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

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DS Spells

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

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Philosophies of Game Design

Titaniia asks, "huh?"
Titaniia says, "speak up."
Titaniia takes a deep breath, raises the monir strongbox, and brings it crashing down on the top of her head!
Titaniia says, "TIS VERY HARD TO HEAR OVER THAT INFERNAL RINGIN SOUND"
Titaniia nods.
Titaniia takes a deep breath, raises the monir strongbox, and brings it crashing down on the top of her head!
Titaniia takes a deep breath, raises the monir strongbox, and brings it crashing down on the top of her head!
Titaniia asks, "WHY IS YOU ALL LAUGHIN?"
Titaniia takes a deep breath, raises the monir strongbox, and brings it crashing down on the top of her head!

Submitted by Gm Gorlash on the message boards Dec 24, 1998. "The following list came from Raph Koster, lead designer for Ultima Online. He built it with input from friends of his who have worked on other games, such as Mike Sellers of Meridian59, and other designers from some of the oldest MUDs."

Any general law about virtual worlds should be read as a challenge rather than as a guideline. You'll learn more from attacking it than from accepting it.

Persistence means it never goes away. Once you open your online world, expect to keep your team on it indefinitely. Some of these games will never close. And closing one prematurely may result in losing the faith

of your customers, damaging the prospects for other games in the same genre. Macroing, botting, and automation: No matter what you do, someone is going to automate the process of playing your world.

Game systems: No matter what you do, players will decode every formula, statistic, and algorithm in your world via experimentation.

It is always more rewarding to kill other players than to kill whatever the game sets up as a target. A given player of level x can slay multiple creatures of level y. Therefore, killing a player of level x yields ny reward in purely in-game reward terms. Players will therefore always be more rewarding in game terms than monsters of comparable difficulty. However, there is also the fact that players will be more challenging and exciting to fight than monsters no matter what you do.

Never trust the client: Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever forget this.

"Do it Everywhere" law: If you do it one place, you have to do it everywhere. Players like clever things and will search them out. Once they find a clever thing they will search for other similar or related

clever things that seem to be implied by what they found and will get pissed off if they don't find them.

"Do it Everywhere" Corollary: The more detailed you make the world, the more players will want to break away from the classical molds.

Stamp Collecting Dilemma: Lots of people might like stamp collecting in your virtual world. But those who do will never play with those who like other features. Should you have stamp collecting in your world?"

We know that there are a wide range of features that people find enjoyable in online worlds. We also know that some of these features are in conflict with one another. Given the above, we don't yet know if it

is possible to have a successful world that incorporates all the features, or whether the design must choose to exclude some of them in order to keep the players happy.

The quality of roleplaying is inversely proportional to the number of people playing.

The higher the fee, the better the role-players. (And of course, the smaller the playerbase.)

Enforcing roleplaying: A role-play-mandated world is essentially going to have to be a fascist state. Whether or not this accords with your goals in making such a world is a decision you yourself will have to make.

Storytelling versus simulation: If you write a static story (or indeed include any static element) in your game, everyone in the world will know how it ends in a matter of days. Mathematically, it is not possible for a design team to create stories fast enough to supply everyone playing. This is the traditional approach to this sort of game nonetheless. You can try a sim-style game which doesn't supply stories but instead supplies freedom to make them. This is a lot harder and arguably has never been done successfully.

Players have higher expectations of the virtual world: The expectations are higher than of similar actions in the real world. For example: players will expect all labor to result in profit; they will expect life to be fair; they will expect to be protected from aggression before the fact, and not just to seek redress after the fact; they will expect problems to be resolved quickly; they will expect that their integrity will be assumed to be beyond reproach; in other words, they will expect too much, and you will not be able to supply it all. The trick is to manage the expectations.

Online game economies are hard: A faucet->drain economy is one where you spawn new stuff, let it pool in the "sink" that is the game, and then have a concomitant drain. Players will hate having this drain, but if you do not enforce ongoing expenditures, you will have Monty Haul syndrome, infinite accumulation of wealth, overall rise in the "standard of living" and capabilities of the average player, and thus unbalance in the game design and poor game longevity.

Ownership is key: You have to give players a sense of ownership in the game. This is what will make them stay--it is a "barrier to departure." Social bonds are not enough, because good social bonds extend outside

the game. Instead, it is context. If they can build their own buildings, build a character, own possessions, hold down a job, feel a sense of responsibility to something that cannot be removed from the game--then you have ownership. If your game is narrow, it will fail. Your game design must be expansive. Even the coolest game mechanic becomes tiresome after a time. You have to supply alternate ways of playing, or alternate ways of experiencing the world. Otherwise, the players will go to another world where they can have new experiences. This means new additions, or better yet, completely different subgames embedded in the actual game.

As a virtual world's "realism" increases, the pool of possible character actions increase. The opportunities for exploitation and subversion are directly proportional to the pool size of possible character actions.

A bored player is a potential and willing subversive.

Players will eventually find the shortest path to the cheese.

Featuritis: No matter how many new features you have or add, the players will always want more.

Pleasing your Players: Despite your best intentions, any change will be looked upon as a bad change to a large percentage of your players. Even those who forgot they asked for it to begin with.

Loophole Law: If something can be abused, it will be.

Murphy's Law: Servers only crash and don't restart when you go out of town.

Attention is the currency of the future.

The basic medium of multiplayer games is communication.

Virtual social bonds evolve from the fictional towards real social bonds. If you have good community ties, they will be out-of-character ties, not in-character ties. In other words, friendships will migrate right out of your world into email, real-life gatherings, etc.

"The more persistence a game tries to have; the longer it is set up to last; the greater number (and broader variety) of people it tries to attract; and in general the more immersive a game/world it set out to be--then the more breadth and depth of human experience it needs to support to be successful for more than say, 12-24 months. If you try to create a deeply immersive, broadly appealing, long-lasting world that does not adequately provide for human tendencies such as violence, acquisition, justice, family, community, exploration, etc (and I would contend we are nowhere close to doing this), you will see two results: first, individuals in the population will begin to display a wide range of fairly predictable socially pathological behaviors (including general malaise, complaining, excessive bullying or killing, harassment, territoriality, inappropriate aggression, and open rebellion against those who run the game); and second, people will eventually vote

with their feet--but only after having passionately cast 'a pox on both your houses.' In essence, if you set people up for an experience they deeply crave (and mostly cannot find in real life) and then don't deliver, they will become like spurned lovers-some become sullen and aggressive or neurotic, and eventually almost all leave."

Violence is inevitable: You're going to have violence done to people no matter what the facilities for it in the game are. It may be combat system, stealing, blocking entrances, trapping monsters, stealing kills to get experience, pestering, harassment, verbal violence, or just rudeness.

Is it a game? It's a SERVICE. Not a game. It's a WORLD. Not a game. It's a COMMUNITY. Not a game. Anyone who says, "it's just a game" is missing the point.

Identity: You will NEVER have a solid unique identity for your problematic players. They essentially have complete anonymity because of the Internet. Even addresses, credit cards, and so on can be faked--and

will be.

Jeff Kesselman's Theorem: An online universe is all about psychology. After all, there IS no physicality. It's all psych and group dynamics.

Psychological disinhibition: People act like jerks more easily online, because anonymity is intoxicating. It is easier to objectify other people and therefore to treat them badly. The only way to combat this is to get them to empathize more with other players.

Mass market facts: Disturbing for those used to smaller environments, but administrative problems increase EXPONENTIALLY instead of linearly, as your playerbase digs deeper into the mass market. Traditional

approaches tend to start to fail. Your playerbase probably isn't ready or willing to police itself.

Anonymity and in-game staff: The in-game staff member faces a bizarre problem. He is exercising power that the ordinary virtual citizen cannot. And he is looked to in many ways to provide a certain atmosphere and level of civility in the environment. Yet the fact remains that no matter how scrupulously honest he is, no matter how just he shows himself to be, no matter how committed to the welfare of the virtual space he may prove himself, people will hate his guts. They will mistrust him precisely because he has power, and they can never know him. There will be false accusations galore, many insinuations of nefarious motives, and former friends will turn against him. It may be that the old saying about power and absolute power is just too ingrained in the psyche of most people; whatever the reasons, there has never been an online game whose admins could say with a straight face that all their players really trusted them (and by the way, it gets worse once you take money!).

Community size: Ideal community size is no larger than 250. Past that, you really get subcommunities.

Law of Player/Admin Relations: The amount of whining players do is positively proportional to how much you pamper them. Many players whine if they see any kind of bonus in it for them. It will simply be another way for them to achieve their goals. As an admin you hold the key to many of the goals that they have concerning the virtual environment you control. If you do not pamper the players and let them know that whining will not help them, the whining will subside.

In every aggregation of people online, there is an irreducible proportion of jerks.

Rewarding players: It is not possible to run a scenario or award player actions without other players crying favoritism.

Rewards: The longer your game runs, the less often you get kudos for your efforts.

Utopias: Don't strive for perfection, strive for expressive fertility. You can't create utopia, and if you did nobody would want to live there.

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