Shattered Kingdoms

Ok, two really fast questions here...

I have a pretty good idea for a well fleshed out character - I'm well aware that SK uses a static alignment system and I have no intention to change that, however, I was hoping to make a character that doesn't so much have a "change of heart" so much as having his eyes opened...

My idea is to make a Scrupulous character who, at first, does things that most definitely aren't good, but believes they are (I have the appropriate RP to back that up). Effectively brainwashed into thinking any innocents he harms, at the time, aren't.

Little later down the line, when he realizes he's been misled this whole time, he strikes back with a vengeance against those who caused him to cause the past harm... Would that be acceptable within said system, or would I be better off trying to squeeze that into a grey aura somewhere? This isn't at all mandatory for my character, but I have a pretty interesting idea on how I'd like him to turn out, and this "past" would be a great and logical way to get him there. If it's pushing it, or even "overdone", let me know - I have alternate means that are more straightforward.

Admittedly, a side-goal of that would be to meet players on both sides on both friendly and unfriendly terms, and thus making a lot more of the interactions more... personal.

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Also, I'm aware as to how most of the classes work in "solo" play (I use the term solo loosely). I'm even somewhat familiar as to how they function in 1v1 PK... However, Scouts elude me in both solo and group PK, so here is my question...

As a Scout in a 1v1 PK situation, what's the primary focus of the Scout? Obviously, going toe-to-toe with most classes would be ill-fated, and sneaking up to and backstabbing them ala a Rogue isn't the tactic either... Is it simply replace Hide with Camo and Backstab with Ambush?

In Group PK situations, what is the primary function of the Scout? I know the Bard is a buff/debuff machine, capable of swinging tides of battles immensely, whereas a Rogue looks for oppertunities to start Circle Stab spamming some suckers, as well as kicking dirt in their faces. What's the Scout's goal here, aside from straight up arrow-pelting?

Not asking for number crunches or game mechanic insight, so much as a general idea - I'll figure out the details on my own.

Oh, I plan to play as human, too - Unless they are just absolutely terribad Scouts.

No one checks for alignment. I play a principled character who went from an idealist to a hard-hearted killing machine. I've never been cursed, never heard a cross word about my RP, and I have the PAR flag at the moment (which is totally not a measure of quality, but does at least hint that I'm "getting away with it)".

One bit of advice, though: don't plan too much. Start with something open-ended and go from there. Plans have a habit of not working. Oh, and humans are fine.

Scouts: you are NOT a rogue. Tame a high-end pet, buff it and yourself up, and use a spear or a bow to wreak some unholy damage. You have the potential to do a hell of a lot, since you have access to so many buffs straight off the bat, not to mention healing herbs (which are a [REDACTED] to fight unless you end up in the front row, at which point you're dead regardless).

1v1, it basically depends on who has more firepower. If it's you, you want to close in and use a spear and your pet to crush the other guy by sheer weight of numbers. If you're outgunned (for example, if you're fighting a super-beastly barbarian), you want to use your superior mobility to wear the other guy down, and when he stops trying to run you down you close in and follow the first example, usually by way of o all bash. If you get hit, spam healing herbs.

In a group fight, you actually fulfill two functions. Your pet is a tank, and if properly buffed (you have no excuse for it to be otherwise), a GM scout pet is definitely worth having in front of you. You, on the other hand, are going to be sitting in the back row with your favorite bow and arrow, probably targeting the enemy group's healer. Either that or you're second row with a spear hitting the enemy tank. It depends on the situation.

If you join a tribunal, you're going to be amazing solo. No one wants to mess with a GM fighter, scout pet, and a buffed scout. Well, not many people do. If they do, they're either very stupid or very scary.

OMG rofl Hagrel is principled?

hahaha. Man, if I were an IMM, you'd have eaten a curse by now.

Good to know.

Yeah you can kind of tell that he didn't exactly start out this way.

For scouts, Le Petit Prince pretty much said most of what is fairly important. Your pet is a tank, and if you are unfamiliar with the wild animals in the game, you are constantly going to be looking for a bigger and better pet. That is your key to winning or a losing a battle. I can't count how many times I thought I found an awesome pet and someone chewed through it in a matter of moments, lol.

However, do not forget to be creative. I remember seeing a log of Chem's fist scout (BACK in the day when he actually played lol) using the skirmish skill very, very well. He didn't even walk into the same room as his target, but used skirmish, camouflage and ambush so well that he managed to get the kill quite easily anf probably fairly quickly. Scouts can provide a great deal of benefits to any solo and any group venture. Do not forget you are also a tracker, a pathfinder, a reconisence tool and so on so forth.

Find a darn good spear and a darn good bow and stay in the second and third row, behind your pet and/or group tank. Just fyi, you will spend a great deal of time fletching as well, lol!

Scouts are an incredibly fun class if you take the time to understand how they work in a PVP setting.

First rule, the wilderness is your eternal friend. Like the prince said, wear your opponent out. Remember too, that up to 8 snares can be set in a wilderness room. Snares check based on dexterity, so if you play a race that doesn't have high dexterity, I wouldn't recommend trying to set 8 or you're going to end up snaring yourself and it's game over.

Second rule, anticipate your opponent in the wilderness. Know your wilderness area and master camouflage (mastering camouflage is kind of the most tedious mastering I think I've met in the game, so write some aliases into your MUD client so you don't have to ruin a keyboard). Camouflaging is significantly better than the hide skill, because only area of effect and faerie fog can expose you. Master sneaking so that you can move through the wilderness and they can't track you easily. The trick with camouflage is to stay in the same wilderness room type you're currently in, for example heavy forest indicated by a capital F, light forest indicated by a lowercase f and so on. If you change wilderness rooms, you break camouflage and open yourself. By anticipating your opponent, you can set snares in his path, camouflage and ambush him from a room away.

Third rule, learn what your pet is capable of and learn how to maximize the use of your pet. As you progress in level and especially once you hit champion, a literal plethora of scout pets become available to you. I honestly don't think there are any GM level animals that are able to be tamed, and if there are, you're going to spend a good 5-10 minutes spamming tame just to get them. However, there are some mentor/master level animals that can be tamed that make for really good damage/tanking. Max your charisma either by modding or by stats. I would recommend maxing it via your stats, both for ease of leveling and order lag. You'll generally want to save modding for int because mastering some scout skills can take a great deal of time. Elf scouts are incredibly good because they get 23 dex and 24 cha max. Sure, they have their weaknesses, but you're going to be taming things much earlier and come with sneaking innately mastered. Their only catch is they only get 18 con max, so you definitely want to avoid getting hit entirely. Putting points into move is not a bad idea and with recent changes to the reduction of PE usage with high dex saved scouts. You'll need it to take advantage of rapid shot. Also, I've found that the improvements to stance aggressive have made bow shooting wonderful now, so you'll need all the PE you can get without exhausting yourself.

Fourth, know your herbs. There's a great book that you can find out about IC that covers a lot on scout herbs. Herbs are also free with herbalism, so training move helps a great deal to walk around and collect them. What Prince said about not having your pet buffed fully is correct. Generally you won't want to hardcore PVP with a scout until you hit champion, because that's when you can get all the best herbs and I think that's when you can start collecting sanctuary herbs. But you can start collecting armor and protection herbs earlier, so keep you and your pet protected. Also, heh, don't drop healing herbs for your pet to eat mid-combat while your enemy is in the room unless you have an alias set up for it to automatically eat the herb. Don't feed your enemy your healing herbs is what I'm trying to say.

I would say the thing I like most about scouts is that you can skin your own armor. Ask around IC and there are scouts that can tell you about skinning as you go along. If you make friends with a priest, magical vestaments and scale armor put you at the same AC as good adamantite, most especially with GM magical vestaments. Later you can obviously skin much tougher materials and skins enchant very well. Keep your pet in stance defensive all of the time unless they're not going to be directly taking hits. I'm not sure what all the talk was recently about scout pets being super overpowered in defensive stance, because I certainly haven't seen it, but it seems to be some knowledgeable vets have maximized the use of spells to protect their pets. It's not a bug, it's just good tactics.

I can't really give you advice on RP except to make it convincing and put quality into it. If any IMMs have contention with it, they will most likely approach you IC or OOC about it and make sure you're all on the same page. They should generally guide you to make changes if necessary before issuing a curse.

Anyway, have fun with your scout. Mine is obvious to find IC and I'm always willing to RP some additional help and information. Enoy!

You mean

Meh, if someone wants to take the time to put armor, bless, protection, sanctuary, prayer, haste and giant strength on their pet, I don't know how that's exploiting anything. Scout pets have never really been incredible at soaking good damage in a PVP setting without a great deal of preparation. Just because they're finally viable doesn't make it a bug or exploiting anything.

Don't forget shrink.

I'm fairly sure the uberest pets are tiny size.