Re: Advice Wanted (DM)

From: johnjohn@cco.caltech.edu (John Carlos White)

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 22:53:07 +0000

mysticbob@aol.com writes:

>I got my second turn back and thanks to the DA have three new roll-ups to
>work with.  But before I get to those I have a couple of questions about my
>turn results.

>1)  I went with the majority of advice I got and now have a lunger with
>11-5-9-15-17-10-17.  You guys most know something because I ran him with
>leather armor and a longsword going 10-10-6 every round and he won big.  He
>went against a game run Convicted Thief and wounded him on the left hand.
>And then the thief gave up?  What's with this?  Is the thief a wimp?  Was it
>an incredible blow?

Ok, you know how your warrior has 84 points?  Well, supposedly, the DA
guys have around 100 points, while the computer generated warriors have
around 50.  All the non-DA computer guys are wimps.

Type in the attack lines for us:
For Example:
Mr. Lucky Newbie lunges with his longsword.
Mr. Lucky Newbie thrusts devestatingly with his longsword.
etc.

Each warrior has a favorite weapon, and will tend to make more exciting
attacks with it.  What kind of attacks are you making?

>Oh, he started out with an expert rating in init and
>attack

Bastard!  As of right none of my warriors have started out that well.
This is a really good guy.  I would train wit to 16, THEN STOP.  It's
supposed to help your learns, to have higher wit.

>2)  What affect does skills and ratings have on the fight?  As I understand
>it a fighter can learn X amount of skills during a fight and after so many
>skills they get a rating in that skill?  I have the chart that was posted a
>bit ago (Stats to Skills) but I don't quite follow it?

One question at a time;  Skills are everything in determining whether your
warrior goes first, hits, gets hit, keeps attacking, counterattacks...
That kind of thing.  Almost everything.  Some things are stat based, like
whether your warrior gives up (or dies) at the current amount of damage
he has taken.  That kind of thing.  Is that clear?

As an explanation of the skills system:
Each warrior starts with a certain number of skills in each area.  This
is determined by stats and the style of the warrior.  After that warrior
has learned enough skills in an area to get 16 skills total in that area,
that warrior is rated expert in the area.  It just so happens that some
warriors will start out with 16 skills or more in an area.  This is what
happenend to your lunger in attack and init.  This is good.  Very good.

Added level of complexity:
Training up certain stats will get you certain skills.  Look at the chart
that you got from the net last week. and look under the intelligence area.
There is a 1 next to attack (among others).  That means that you get an
attack skill when training from 16 to 17 wit.  Now hold on before you do
any such foolish thing.

More complexity:
Each warrior has the potential to learn 20 skills in each area.  Got that?
For the purpose of learning skills from a fight, the computer treats
skills that are learned, and skills gained from training stats to a
break point (like 17 wit).  If there are 20 total, then it won't let you
learn any more.  On the other hand, for the purpose of gaining skills from
a stat train, the computer doesn't look at all to see if you're over 20.

Example:
In the next couple of turns, you train your lunger's wit to 17.  Then
over the next bunch of turns, he learns 19 more attack skills.  He won't
be able to learn any more skills since number of skills totals 20.

On the other hand, if he didn't train with to 17, he has the chance to
learn 20 attack skills.  If after he does so, then he trains wit to 17,
he gets that skill, for a total of 21.  See?  Training skills to
breakpoints now ruins your potential later on.  And you don't want
to do that.  Believe me.

Any questions you have on this process are welcome.

>3) What is some basic strategy on attack and protect locations?  I don't see
>much posted about them?  Do they matter?

Not much that I know of.  Usually for my guys, I attack and protect head
for quick wins and to keep from getting killed.

>4)  Ok here are my new rolls:

>11-13-5-10-10-5-16

The best that I can come up with is: 11-13-5-15-11-8-21 PR.  You can't
get to 17 wit/will with is almost a prereq for a long term warrior.  I'm
experimenting a little with low will PR's right now, so that's what I'm
doing with this kind of warrior.  He could do really well.

>9-7-11-5-12-10-16

Unfortunately, you're not going to have a long-term warrior with a 5
wit starting.  A good throwaway type warrior would be 13-7-11-5-17-10-21
Lunger.  Run 10-10-7-HE-HE-open.  This guy'll go 5-1-1 or something like
it, with some luck in matchups (stay away from TP's).  Then ditch him.

>9-9-9-13-14-4-12

You have INCREDIBLE luck...  You can get 17's in the three most important
stats: wit/will/deftness
There's a choice you have to make here... Usually, you don't want to add
to speed at all.  However, you might want to in this case.  I hope someone
posts an opinion on this.  Is four speed high enough?  Or should he go to
five?  The warrior I'm talking about would look like this:

10-9-9-17-17-4-17 with a point left over for str or speed.  I would tend
to go with the 11 str, as it gets your valuable wall of steel weapons
(I would make this guy a wall of steel).  I've had guys with crappier
stats go 11-5, 10-4, etc.  Consider training con (no skills in con)
to 11 for an increase in carrying capacity.  Definitely get 11 str, the
more I think about it.  Anyway, once he looks like 11-11-9-17-17-4-17,
he'll be ready to learn skills for the rest of his career.

>For the most part I still don't have any clue on what to do with my roll-ups.
> I've gathered that wit is important, but hopefully guy #2 with wit 5 isn't a
>total lost cause.

No, he'll bump up your team record.  I wish I had one like him now.

>And from my limited observation here are two fighters I
>came up with based on the third roll-up
>11-11-9-17-15-9-12 Parry-Striker
>13-12-9-15-19-4-12 Waste

No, those articles were written a long time ago.  Look on your stat/skills
chart and notice that for 17 and 21 in wit/will/deft you get a good number
of skills.  That's what you're aiming for.  13 too in deft.  Designing
warriors wit even numbers in those areas is very silly.  If you can get
17, take it unless it makes the rest of the warrior unplayable.

Ignore those articles.

>I made these two based on articles about the styles I found posted on this
>group.  If anyone has more articles about other styles or even fighter
>make-up in general I'd love a copy.

>Here is what I have pulled off the net so far:
>Phido's PS article
>Weapons vs. Armor
>Phido's Waste article
>DM FAQ
>Stats to Skills
>Weapons vs. Styles
>Weapons and Stats Requirements
>TP Overview

Like I said.  Ignore those Phido articles.  They're almost 10 years out
of date.

John
-ask more questions!
--
John White
johnjohn@unholy1.caltech.edu
The Kings are Stanley Cup bound.  Really!

References

Advice Wanted (DM)
mysticbob@aol.com
Wed, 26 Jan 1994 18:11:28 +0000