Shattered Kingdoms

I'm biting off Firin's thread a bit, because I have some similar concerns. I've pretty happily settled in to a character now, which is nice, and I'm curious about a few things. I've been playing MUDs for way too many years, so I haven't had a ton of trouble grasping what I've learned, but I've definitely never played one quite like SK, so if I ask any questions that aren't appropriate OOC then by all means tell me to stfu .

First off, I don't have any real interest in playing a "learning" character where I wreck its future (at least for pk) by making stupid mistakes with game mechanics like trains and whatnot. My dude's a rogue, and I maxed his strength and trained con up to durable because I was getting annoyed at not being able to carry stuff or run around, but other than that I've sorta just been saving up my trains for lack of any idea what to do with them. Since stuff like this sort of skirts the border of ic/ooc, I dunno exactly what to do, but if someone was willing to just chat about char builds with me on AIM, or something, it might be helpful =p.

Second is more open ended, but just a general question. To what extent do you guys tend to plan out your character's life? I had a decent idea for where I was going with him, but he's sort of taken on a life of his own...

And then lastly how young is too young in your char's life to pursue a religion? Is that just sort of varied or should I wait a bit and feel things out more?

I've played a few rogues in my day and this is how I've gone about their stats. On my current rogue I maxed his strength, his constitution, his charisma, and his art. Art is nice for rogues too because they can use scrolls and certain scrolls in PVP are ridiculous. I would only put 6 into art though, because thats all scrolls will use of art anyhow.(I think a rogues max art might be 6 anyway). Dexterity is extremely important for a rogue, I would either max it or - you can leave it -2 or -4 from max and just depend on dex mods which are ridiculously easy to come by: I personally don't like to rely on mods though and would much rather have a sickly enchanted piece of gear in its spot. If you have any stat points left after that (which I did) you can perhaps put it into int if you plan on being in a cabal with spells. As far as charisma goes that is up to you. I don't think you'll suffer if you keep it low as a rogue, but having it high has its advantages like faster levelling, and faster order times for your pets. Also I think it might affect a few rogue skills but I do not know for certain.

For your second question - Personally I just roll whatever race/class combo I am feeling and I RP it like a book(one page/day at a time). I do have a rough story in my head but I normally make the details up on the spot. It keeps it fresh and interesting to me, and I've always been horrible at conjuring huge histories for a character I havn't even played yet.

A character is never to young to get in a religion in my opinion. Personally I would invest you at novice if you came to me and could at least convince me with a bit of RP.

Just for reference this is my half-elf rogues current stats without mods.



This is at Champion2. Max str, dex is -2 from max, con is max, cha is max, and art is max and I've got 2 more points left to gain from levels.
I'm going to put the rest of my points into int because I plan on joining a cabal with spells and I'll need the help with concentration.

Rogues want dexterity. Strength is good. Con is good. I would probably want some hp trains. You could also do well with scrolls if you train some art.

The second question, the sky's the limit, but everyone else has goals and drives, so they might get in your way.

You've done perfectly fine so far. As far as your other trains, a lot depends on how you mean to play the character.

If you plan on joining a tribunal, get your charisma high. This will -also- help in gaining experience faster, which is always wonderful.

Otherwise, if you plan on joining a cabal, make sure that your int isn't horrible, (probably somewhere around mid-smart at least) and maybe even get your wis out of naive if it happens to be there. The reason for this is that all cabals have castable spells which require both concentration to maintain (Derived from INT) and mana (Derived from WIS)

Finally, after all this, you're most likely going to be choosing between HP trains and art trains. If it were me, I would probably go art, but it would be a very hard choice. HP is alllways nice.

As for character planning, I play nearly every single one of my characters as Terrus described: When I make a character I think of a general idea of a backstory and play along with it, then more or less apply it as I go. Oftentimes, when I reveal details of my character's life to other players, they're learning it at the same time that I am. As far as joining a religion, if you have one you're really interested in, go for it! Any decent High Follower of a faith, or even a patron IMM if there isn't a High Follower around, should RP with you regardless of your level. Just look around for titles fitting what god you want to follow and send them a tell. Odds are they can at least point you in the right direction.

Welcome to SK! In my opinion, it's by far the most impressive MUD I've ever played.

Cool, thanks for the advice. I think the character seems to be headed for a tribunal rather than a cabal, we'll see, but if that's the case, how much unmodified charisma? Max? Mod? Personal preference?!

And this is because tribunals get to lead NPCs but don't get spells, while cabals get spells but don't get to lead NPCs? And then, if tribunals don't get spells, and I end up going that path, and obviously rogues don't get spells, is there any real reason for me to train int and wis? Does it affect scrolls? I've been wearing gear with int on it because I like those pretty green skillup messages, but I've been assuming I'll ditch those later.

I would suggest avoiding the instant-messaging habit for game-related information, which has the potential to get your character deleted if you break the rules when it comes to your character learning IC info from OOC sources.

The forums should be able to provide all you need - and also a suitable place to be warned if you start asking too many IC-related questions.

I only say this because I'd hate to come across such a new character having so much fun and have to delete them for a violation that could have been prevented. You'll enjoy the learning period more by asking around in-game anyway.

Any mechanics questions are always welcome in the forums, of course.

Hehe, well, I think I'll be pretty fine with keeping OOC OOC. Anyhow, I don't have YIM so that all amounted to not much. I've been learning most everything non-mechanics IC, anyways.

If you're planning on joining a tribunal, then Charisma is useful to have at least mid-level. There's only one reason, and that's "order lag." I don't think it's covered specifically in any helpfile.

When you order a pet, a charmed/controlled/animated/dominated person, a tamed animal, or (in the case you'll see it most) a tribunal guard, then you are lagged for a certain amount of time, which is supposed to represent how efficiently you communicate your orders.

This "order lag" is completely dependent on charisma, and can be anywhere from around 3 combat rounds if its low, or less than one combat round if you're near inspirational. That can make a huge difference in a fight, for example, ordering a guard to cast a certain spell, bash an outlaws face in, or rescue you, even.

The only other thing Charisma does is affect your experience gain; but mods will not help this, only your natural charisma. This is the only feature drawn from a stat for which mods are not used. For this reason, since you are new, I'd advise getting your charisma high(but not necessarily maxed), since leveling is boorrrring, and you plan on joining a tribunal anyway.

As a rogue, INT means almost nothing unless you plan on joining a cabal (Although I'm almost positive it affects lock picking, and probably scrolls also. I only failed one scroll after I mastered scrolls, though) aside from the usual chance to spontaneously improve at skills. What you're already doing, which is getting int mods while you train up skills, is a very good idea.

WIS helps in will saves. That and it gives you more mana for... tells? There are also a few "scripted" items in game that when worn, allow you to have spell-like abilities without being able to cast a spell, and these use your mana pool... but that's pretty far-fetched. If you run out of things to train and feel like raising your will save train wis I guess, but there isn't really a point if you aren't going to join a cabal.

You seem to be well on the right track though, I'm just giving a bunch of stuff you might find interesting.

Speaking only as a Religious High Follower, most High Followers will be willing to speak with you and talk with you about the faith.

My only rule about investing for my faith is you have to have an adjective and a description. Those are required by the time your character is a novice. I recently had someone contact me to talk about the faith and when I showed up, they had no adjective or description. I said the same thing to them as I said here. They thought it was lame. They thought investments should be based on RP. Your description and adjective are part of your roleplaying. They need to be included.

When it comes to a character's design, for me, I either have a very clear picture or I have a general idea.

With Lirimaer, I had a very clear picture of a priestess of Love who was very quiet and saw the world through an almost too-naive and innocent point of view. Time has certainly changed that.

With a few other characters, I created an idea and just let them grow and see where they go from there. There are times the concepts just aren't going in a way I like and I'll delete the character.

I think the only real pitfall is don't make a character too unique. Too unique and it becomes an uphill battle against those who want 'primarily cookie-cutter characters'.

This is true.

The usual backgrounds:
- Family died, took up the sword for vengence/justice
- Amnesia, for some reason fights well, goes with it.
- Fights for money.
- Fights because its what is fun and has been sicne he killed his parrents.

Unique backgrounds:
- haunted by demons that constantly force him to do evil acts while he was naturally a good hearted man..
- Is being possessed by ancient spirits who use him as their vessel to communicate with the world.
- A necromancer who fights to destroy all other necromancers because he believes they are using the art for the wrong reasons.
- A young upcoming paladin of alshain realizes that the paths of virtue and law are too limiting for him, decides to follow a slightly different path. Suddenly, his cure spells become harmful to the living...

And the too unique backgrounds:
- A necromancer, haunted by demons that order him to kill other necromancers because they're not using the art as it should be used. Wanted to be a paladin once but the demons kept changing his spells to harmful ones so he got kicked out of paladin school. His parrents sold his soul to the demons so he killed them for revenge, and remembers nothing before that day.

If you want to play a character with such a unique background, that's okay, but be careful not to draw too much attention to your background or people may get tired of you.

I write huge backgrounds for my characters myself, but only part of them ever comes out into the game.