--------------------------------------------------------------- Player Skills and Classes. --------------------------------------------------------------- :: Classes :: The Fighter. Fighters are best in combat. They are able to wield two weapons, have multiple attacks, have more knowledge of armour and weapons, wear any armour and wield any weapon. A fighter also receives more hp than any class. The Thief. Thieves are masters of stealth, cunning, and disguise. Thieves can pick locks on doors, set and remove traps, move with stealth and hide in the shadows. A thief is next best in combat compared to a fighter. As their skills require the use of both hands they are not able to wear shields, or wear heavy armour (like platemail and chainmail) due to it hampering the manual dexterity that their skills require. The can only wear armours such as leather, studded, padded, or cloaks and robes like mages do. They prefer weapons such as shortswords, longswords, daggers and the like in combat. The Cleric. Clerics are the servants of the Gods who pray to Them to receive their power. Clerics are the next best in combat. While they are usually only able to wield crushing weapons, they may wear any armour types. Their powers are not simply those of healing, but can be powerful in offence and defence. The Mage. Mages are the most powerful of all spell casters. Their power comes from intense mental and magical training, and hence they are not very powerful in hand-to-hand or weapon combat, preferring instead to use their magic to aid them. Due to the complex nature of spells' somatic components, and the very nature of magic itself, a mage cannot wear armour, or wield weapons other than daggers or staves. Mages also receive the least amount of hp. :: How this applies to You :: All players begin the game with the 4 classes: mage, thief, fighter and cleric. Players are able to enjoy all the benefits of skills in any class they are currently in - spells, weapons, and skills - but must also face the penalty of the worst armour restriction. EG - A player has all 4 classes; mage, fighter, cleric, thief. Mages cannot wear armour other than robes and cloaks or bracers, so the player is limited to those armour types. However, the player also has fighter as a class, so he is therefore able to wield ANY weapon he finds with reasonable proficiency. Hence all players suffer the worst armour restriction of their current classes, BUT gain the best weapon wielding ability. Another draw back of having more than 1 class is the exp is costs to advance skills. It costs x3 exp to advance a skill if you have 2 classes, x4.5 for 3 classes, and x6 for 4 classes. This can prove to be very expensive indeed, especially at low levels. To start a new class requires alot of new training. Players who have been in a set of classes for quite some time are very set in their ways and require alot of training! A trainer will charge about 1 gold coin for every level you have (player level). This means at 40th level you have to pary alot of money! On the other hand, being in more than one class has many advantages. You're able to use ALL skills available to the classes you have - all thief skills (locks, stealth), all fighter skills (weapon skills), all clerical spells and all mage spells. The amount of hp you also receive is averaged out amongst your classes. Mages only get 5 hp per point of constitution, but if you also have the class of fighter, that average is raised (Fighters get 12 hp per point of constitution). This can make you a much fit for combat! A player can leave any class he chooses. If he decides that all those classes are too expensive, he can leave all but 1. EG - He might leave all but fighter and thief. Ultimately, it is up to the player. At some later stage, it is possible to rejoin a class. If you leave a class, however, all skills within that class are reduced to zero. If you pick up the class again, all skills start at zero again. Note, however, that how many classes you have DOES NOT have a bearing on how much it costs to advance your NORMAL STATS - strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, combat, constitution and charisma. If you don't want to use your class stats you can play quite happily without them without hampering your playing too much. Much of the MUD, though, has the class skills integrated throughout it - from monsters to rooms! - so there may be times where class skills will come in handy and you may be disadvantaged to be without them. :: Guilds (Not yet implemented) :: Even though a player can play happily all by himself, and not worry about a guild structure, there are advantages to belonging to a guild. The social interaction guilds can serve is a very important feature that players enjoy, and that 'guildless' people miss out on. The most important feature of a guild is that while only having ONE class, say fighter, a guild can grant you skills from other classes! This means you only have to spend x1 the exp to advance skills! One of the drawbacks here is that guilds are considered to be reasonably permanent. EG - There may be a Paladin's Guild (hypothetical guild only). All players within the guild have the class 'fighter' only. This means they only have to spend 1x the exp to advance the skills the guild grants them. You also gain ALL the SKILLS that the class fighter grants (armour and weapon use). BUT being a paladin means you are granted CLERICAL powers as well - curing, immunity to disease, etc. In other words, you enjoy the benefits of the 2 classes, while really only being in 1. There may be a Bard's Guild. All players within this guild have the class of 'thief', yet their guild allows them to also have skills from mage and some from fighter! You only have the limitations of the thief class - weapons and armour - even though you have mage spells! Being in a guild may sometimes grant you other skills reserved for that guild only. Paladin can 'lay on hands' to heal people, while a Bard can sing to a monster and charm him to sleep. Such abilities are usually 'handy', and non-combat related. Being in a guild, however, does NOT make you more powerful than any other player. All the skills are designed to make sure that all guild or non-guild people have the same potential power. Given the Paladins Guild example, Paladins have the added disadvantage of following a code of ethics, staying a certain alignment, and donating money to the church they follow (Paladin are considered 'Holy Knights'). If a paladins healing sphere is also the same as the clerics healing sphere their healing spells are THE SAME IN POWER, regardless of their 'player level'. The cleric might only be 1st level and the paladin 30th level, but if their healing spheres are both 2 their cure light wounds spells performs exactly the same healing ability! While in a guild, however, you cannot join other classes. You remain limited to the advantages, restrictions, skills and skills that the guild grants a player. This means the Paladin cannot pick up mage as a class, and the Bard cannot pick up cleric skills. This does not stop them finding magical items that mimic these abilities however *wink* Paladin asks: Where did I put that wand of fireballs? Bard exclaims: I don't know. All I have left is my amulet of undead control! ::: Conclusion ::: The system allows you to decide what powers YOU want, and what powers you don't want. All classes do have their restrictions and sometimes to gain those abilities you have to pay the price. A hypothetical player - You may simply decide to be a fighter, and go up to about 20th level quite happily. At 20th level you may decide some mage spells might come in handy, so you pick up mage. At this level the exp penalty (x2 exp cost to advance skills) is compensated enough by the exp gained fighting monsters at this level! Life has gone on quite well as a fighter/mage. You now have asked a LORD to build a small tower for your mage studies; you have a following of a few players who you teach magic to; you have a few players who you teach sword use to; but you think some thief skills might come in handy to do a quest you want to do - now you decide to pick up thief and learn some stealth skills. At 50th level you think its about time you got some religion into you! Your skills are at their peak, but you need some healing ability for those REALLY TOUGH MONSTERS! You go to a temple and pick up the class of cleric! You play happily to 100th level and then decide you want to give more to the world. You find an ELDER and ask to become a CREATOR. The ELDERs meet to look at your playing history, reputation and interaction skills with other players and approve your position. Now you begin a new life making things for new players to do - new spells for them to cast, new weapon techniques for fighters to learn! (Note that the absolute minimum level to ask to be appointed to CREATOR is 30th level. Being given this position is not automatic upon reaching this level, as a player must prove himself on certain criteria first. c.f help <creatorship> ). - Ultimately, the choice is yours, as a player, to choose what skills you want to advance, what classes you wish to keep, or what guilds you wish to join. I hope you have as much fun in deciding what to do with your skills as me and my team of creators (including Zilanthius) has had in making them for you. Angel. September 1993.