Re: Duelmasters: What would you do with this guy?

From: ccmpoet@george.ucdavis.edu (Donald Trump)

Date: Fri, 22 May 1992 01:46:09 +0000

Thomas,

I saw your recent post re-iterating your desire for some discussion
that doesn't involve designing the perfect character, but rather
winning with what you've got.  I'll try to answer your question, but
I caution that it may not be to your satisfaction.

In article <1992May19.161023.18583@cco.caltech.edu> thogek@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Thomas Kiefer) writes:
>Hello fellow DMers!  With all the net traffic being taken up by that
>OTHER game lately, I thought I'd toss out a question to the DMers.
>
>Yeah, it's another "What would you do with this guy?" kinda thing.

Actually, I think you get a pretty good response of "do this with
this guy" almost no matter *why* your post your DM observations. :)

>No, it's not a new rollup.  In fact, this is one of my original five.

Hmm..old guard...does not bode well! :)

>He was designed by someone who didn't have a clue about warrior design
>or training strategies (as many of you will notice), but being stubborn,
>I kept him around, and he's now in AD.  I still experiment with him, in
>spite of his lack of success and potential.  My question is, given this
>guy at this point, what would you do or try with him?  (And please, no
>"DA him" or "forget him" kind of suggestions; they are not helpful.)

I'll do my best to restrain myself.

>Basher  [23-40-2, 111]
>
>Originally: 14-12-14-10-11-10-13       Has: AdvExp, Attack
> Presently: 17-14-14-13-14-11-15            Expert, Parry
>                                            Expert, Initiative

First things first: NO MORE STAT TRAINS!!!  I don't have my charts with
me, but you've already lost a bundle of skills due to stat trains (al-
though the exact numbers will not come out right due to the RSI chan-
ging its tables over time.  I've got a lunger with something like
Expert Riposte+6 AdEx Init+8 who has yet to get the next rating).

It would really help if you could also post how many skills it took
him to get each rating, or at least approximations if you've lost the
actual numbers.  I mean, this guy looks bad, but how bad off he is really
depends on his ability to improve over time.

>Is right handed
>Is bright
>   Conserves his endurance past what might normally expect
>Has a good endurance
>Can take a lot of damage
>Can carry a good amount of weight in weapons and armor
>Does great damage with every blow
>
>Is naturally adept with the quarterstaff
>Has a fighting rhythm which favors a high offensive effort
>   and a low activity level
>Tends to focus of parry skills in training

Okay, some parts of this roll-up look good.  First of all, he does
great damage, and his favorite is the quarterstaff.  Thus, he should
be relatively quick as well as able to do a lot of damage.  My
advice: always use the QS, with a backup WH.

Beyond that, he has an annoying tendency to learn parry skills, which
is an extreme liability for an offensive style, but can't be helped.
What this essentially means is that valuable Init, Decis, and Attack
skills will be slow in coming, while the parry skills pile up.  I'm
interested in knowing how much this retards his "natural" learning
curve, because if he seems to learn Att/Init/Dec/Parry at about an
equal rate, then other offensives who have this for a favorite might
actually be helped tremendously by it.  Sure, they won't max out in
Attack by the 10th fight, but they might gain unexpected new abilities.

But I digress...

>Other notes: this guy was pretty good at first; he ran up a record of
>7-3-0 early on, then 16-10-1, and then began his long downhill slide.
>He was 22-32-2 when invited to AD, and is now 23-40-2 as listed above.

Typical quick start basher.  I've had several of them, and it doesn't
seem to matter too much what kind of WT or WL they have.  Personally
I would have DA'd this guy long ago, but to be fair when I had my first
five I wouldn't have, because I had no idea what was good or bad.

In those days, the only measure of success was W/L %, and this guy
probably would have passed that test.

>And that's all the info I'll list.  I'd like various people's reactions
>to this information: given that you had to fight this guy in the arena,
>what would you try?  Any great strats for this guy?  And interesting
>experiments?

Strengths:  Good parrying ability, carry, and damage-taking.
Weaknesses: Only fair attack, no ratings whatsoever in Init or Decis.

Due to this guy's favorite rhythm (high offensive, low activity), I
would dress him up in big-time armor: APM/F.  He's not going to get
the jump on anybody, so you need to be able to absorb the initial offen-
sive barrage that your opponent is going to get off.  By parrying a blow
or two, and absorbing the rest, you may be able to get in one or two
devastating blows and win the fight.

Maybe...

Always use your favorite strategy every minute of the fight, except in
desperation.  In those cases go 10-8-8-Decis.  Always protect the head
and aim for the head.  Never use a tactic, unless it's Bash around the
3rd minute (except Desp, of course).  Oh yeah, AVOID LUNGERS!!!

You do have one potential opponent whom this guy might do well against:
large, scummy total parries who somehow make it to AD.  Believe it or
not, there are quite a few WT 5-9 TPs in AD, and if you can catch a
few of them for the couple of turns that their manager runs them, you've
got a real shot at a win.

I think that this guy has a chance of winning about 30% of his fights in
AD, because he can take a lot of damage, and because he dishes it out
so well.  However, this is strictly a crap-shoot thing, dependent on
getting the chance to swing, and then actually connecting.

The main thing, if you really want to win, is to train skills continually,
and then to transfer to Home Guard as soon as you are eligible.

>Thanks.  And have a day.

No problem.  Good luck with this guy.  If you're ever in Home Guard,
tell Westwing that Riff-Raff sent 'ya!

Trump (aka Riff-Raff, among others)

dfcleary@ucdavis.edu

References

Duelmasters: What would you do with this guy?
thogek@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Thomas Kiefer)
Tue, 19 May 1992 16:10:23 +0000