Shattered Kingdoms

How much testing is it reasonable for someone to do before they are able to create a playable character. I understand that D is of the mind set that less numbers means more RP. However the more I think about it the less I think this is a rational stand point. I understand how broader information is useful for keeping things interesting. However when players are making multiple GM characters just to test out the game system and explore their options for a "Real" character. That seems kind of ridiculous. Having played SK for quite some time I am well aware that the difference between an average build and a "perfect" build is significant (good and perfect isnt as significant but is still there). Considering a perfect build starts in halls of creation Im starting to think that having more transparency on the website might be a good idea. An example leaving the words in the game is good, but letting everyone know somewhere on the website a moderate enchantment could be +2 or 3 would probably be a lot better. Similarly for stats, almost all of the vets can tell you what their toons stats are by numbers and how many mods they require for reaching max stat and what that is of their race/class. So hiding these numbers away from new players increases the learning curve and makes the likely hood of their first character being less than average. When you look at the change to level to include the rank in the status made a significant impact on people feeling like they where progressing, and I am not saying that such a number should be added to each stat although I am not overly against the idea. I am thinking that such information should likely be somewhere other than non official websites.

I am not pushing for super secret information or even total explanations Im just looking to open the accessibility of the game to newer players this is information at least 75% of the player base already knows. Anyone who doesnt know it probably wouldnt care even if the information was accessible. I personally feel that the immersion breaking of "testing" things or having to throw away a rubbish build far out weighs the immersion breaking of having information accessible.

I know I'm not staff, but I can give my input on the matter, which is usually how I describe it to new players who roll (and who are worried whether or not they've "screwed up" their stats to the point of no return)I don't think it's necessary to test anything at all before you create a playable character: As a new player to SK, even if you're not new to mudding, you will have an incredible amount of things to learn if you want to maximize your characters' potential, and unless you do something that's honestly just not intuitive, like maxing strength first on a sorc, even your first characters' potential is going to be impacted by your playstyle -much- more than your stats.

As a new player, you will die a lot. You will die to imps, osquips, kobolds, worgs, ice wraiths, guards, and get arrested by Tylindas. You will run around in the front row and get PKed, you won't buff yourself up before fights, you will bash instead of switching to mood defensive, you will not carry recall potions, you will forget to quaff heal potions, you will neglect to carry around or use buffs in order to survive in PK, you will get lost, you will drown, you will dismount in open air, and you will probably zap yourself with chain lightning. You will panic in PvE and PvP, you will freeze up and mistype important spells, you will not set aliases to swap your gear quickly in cases of emergency, you will not find advanced trainers for your important skills. You will have absolutely no idea where to get good gear, nor you will not know what the best weapon subtypes to use are.

All of these things will keep you from reaching the "maximum potential" for a perfect character of your class, and absolutely none of them will have anything to do with whether you trained HP 5 times or 19 times.

That's not supposed to be discouraging or insulting! It's supposed to be an encouragement for you to not fall into the temptation of trying to make the "perfect" character, but rather to realize that it's really just not a -huge- deal if you build your first character "wrong." What matters is whether the character is fun for you, and if you are able to enjoy the game and enjoy playing with others. My first character was an elf rogue, I tanked wis and got put to sleep by sleep staves and bounced off of intimidate in practically every PK I ever had. I still ended up leading the Peacekeepers, and I age deathed her. She was easily one of my favorite characters, back when I was always so amazed every time someone was gracious enough to give me a mithril shield or vest, so I could be cool like Bilbo Baggins.

Now, that said, there definitely -are- some classes where your stat trains can very severely impact your usefulness as a character. Specifically, casters that don't max mana and usually art are much less useful than those who do. To that end, I would definitely suggest that a new player who -does- like min-maxing and meta-gaming to read this, because it's an extremely useful guide for anyone who wants to know the more mechanics focused side of character creation. It's even very useful for people who have played this game a long time!

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=24608

If you follow the guide Finney made, you will not have a character that can be seen as poorly built by any stretch of the imagination.

My last observation is this: SK used to be a lot less forgiving about where you placed your att trains, because stat mods couldn't be enchanted, and as such were among the most coveted items in the game. Now, if you don't max your int or wis on a caster, you can enchant for that, and if you don't max your strength or dex as a warrior, you can enchant for that. +2 innate mods are also easily accessible to any character for needing stack more than 4 easy enchants to a targeted important attribute if you really missed a vital stat. The primary exception to this is, of course, mana and art trains for casters, which is the primary reason why I referenced Finney's awesome character building guide. That said, his guide is also really useful for any class that you want sound advice for building, and once you play a couple of characters, you may even come to your own conclusions as to what you'd like to do.

with the new enchanting system, it's really hard to end up with a bad character. u can still make characters that r sub optimal, but not useless like u could before it was possible to enchant attributes onto jewelry. ur far more likely to end up with a bad character based on the race and class u pick than the how u use ur attribute points.

if i was going to update my guide, i would remove halfling from the list of recommended newbie races and add warlock to the list of recommended newbie classes.