A Warrior's Guide, by: Flintum "The Red" Kneecrusher Disclaimer: This is player-created and is not an Official Simutronics Document. The Warrior The warrior class is an over looked class when playing GS III. Many people play warriors, for the lone reason of the amount of damage they can produce. This profession is taken lightly, but this should not be the case. Many players have written their scopes on how to make effective Sorcerers, Wizards, Clerics, and Empaths. So here is my option on how to make an enjoyable warrior. The warrior is a weapon, he does not cast spells, pick locks, or heal. The warrior must depend on his skills and weapon to effectively meet the challenge of the creatures that venture through Elanthia. Many players tend to restrict their warriors to one type of weapon, mostly edged. I hope with the advice I give here, a person may develop a warrior that is proficient in any type of weapon he may pick up, as well as his hands. Character Generation When generating your character it is very important where the prime stats should be placed to make him or her an effective and versatile weapon. It is best to re-roll until the system produces numbers that are suitable. What the player looks for is at least three numbers, two of these numbers should range between 90 and 85. The third number should range between 90 and 100. All other numbers should be over 35. It may take some time, but the numbers will come. Placing where the numbers you have rolled should go as follows. CO: 90 - 85 Range DE: Any, if planing to cast spells in the future ensure this number is in the 50 - 70 range. DI: 50's LO: 50's IN: Any ST: 90 - 85 Range RE: 90 - 100 Range CH: Any WI: 50 - 80 Range AU: Any, if planing to cast spells in the future ensure this number is in the 60 - 80 range. Why place numbers in those places? To begin with the warriors prime stats are CO and ST. The warrior will get a +10 to both stats, to a max of 100. So a number higher than 90 will waste points. Reflexes helps with your Defense, a high RE will give you a better DS which is important in not getting hit. Race depends on the person, yet I have found the best races for the warrior class are the Giantman and Dwarf. Both have high racial stat bonuses to ST and CO, thus allowing more HP and a higher AS. Although the Giantman does have some draw backs. A Giantman is huge, averaging 7 feet tall and weighs a lot. In the event a Giantman warrior is killed, there better be another Giantman there to drag him back to town. It is also my belief because of the Giantman being big, there is a slight modifier that is added to the creatures AS, thus making a Giantman easier to hit. The pro to a Giantman is, if you wish to cast spells in the future be a Giantman. Dwarves have a slight resistance toward elemental magic, and the cost for buying spells is close to 160 mental points. There are three skills that are the greatest importance to the warrior; Armor Training, Combat Maneuvers, and Physical Training. These three should be trained in as many times as is allowed. Here is my assumption of what you should train in at character generation. As many times as possible: Armor Use: this is your first line defense, and allows as you progress to wear better armor. Combat Maneuvers: this boosts your AS as well as DS and will give you a good AS on weapons you haven't trained in. Physical Training: this is how you gain health points, and health points are your second line defense. The more you have, the more damage you can take and live. At least twice at character generation: Shield Use: this will boost your DS as you wear a shield. Brawling: this allows you some way of attacking when you do not have a weapon in your hand. Although the brawling does not do as much damage as weapons, I have had many creatures turn and run because I could still give them some damage. Once each, or alternate if you can not spare the points: Perception: allows you to find hidden things as well as those sneaky pickpockets that hide in various stores. First Aid: not only does this make your chance of skinning a creature better it allows you the chance to tend bleeding wounds you may have, which will buy you time as you making it back to town to get healed. You may be asking why no weapons at this point, simply because you do not need weapon training at this time. Although your fist is a weapon. Entering town and making it to 1st Year. Before entering town ensure you have some type of map that can help you get around. If not, the DIR command can help you. Once entering town you need to start visiting the various stores within the town. Alchemist Shop ( magic, fun stuff place ) Pawnshop ( check out the back room for some good deals ) Herbalist ( healing herbs that leave scars ) Catacomb Entrance ( go out as soon as you go in ) Locksmith ( this is where those, uh "Rogues" get those box picker things ) Healers Tent ( might be a "character" healer here if you need one someday ) Furrier ( sell those hides, pelts, skins, beards, feathers, etc ) East and West Towers ( no not the one by the Alchemist Shop ) Weaponsmith ( don't buy anything ) Armory ( again, don't buy anything ) Moot Hall ( go in the office and pay off your debt ) General Store ( once again, don't buy anything, but if you payed your debt you can't ) Gemcutter ( sell those gems, search around you might find a pickpocket ) Bank ( go visit where the tellers are ) Town Square Central ( commonly refered to as TSC in GS slang ) Thrak Inn ( Located North of the Bank, or West of the Weaponsmith. Place to train ) Not only will you know where these places are for future reference, after visiting all these places you might have enough exp to train for 1st year. So go train, and train as you did at character generation. Oh, by the way, you train at the main Inn. 1st Year to 2nd Year Many will say this is the longest time between levels, so we shall spend it wisely delivering messages, a character can deliver messages up to 4th year. I know its boring, but after delivering messages for that time I had saved over 40k in the bank. Once you earn 600 silver, while delivering messages, or with gems that you happened by somewhere. I suggest going to the temple to buy deeds. The amount of deeds to buy is up to you, but I recommend at the most two. I have seen characters with 6, 8, and 10 deeds at one time. I myself believe this is a waste of money. If you are witty enough not to die, you could buy some real good stuff with that money. With two deeds if you die out in the wilds and come back, you will have a backup deed until you can get some money to replenish the one you lost. Once you reach 2nd year your training in weapons will begin. At 2nd year training pick either Edged or Blunt. By picking either Blunt or Edged you are specializing in one type of weapon. The points you will spend on this skill will come from your brawling, that's right brawling training ends and weapons begins. Don't worry, as you train in Combat Maneuvers your AS in Brawling will go up as well. Continue to train in the other skills you have already. Avoid training in Two Weapon Combat, Multi-opponent, Two Handed, and Pole Arms no matter how tempting. At low levels the warrior does not concern himself with Offense as much as Defense. It is one thing to deal out huge amounts of damage, only you will receive them as well if you are improperly trained. I don't know about you, but I hate getting hit. 3rd Year and beyond Continue the training schedule I have listed until the time your AS in your specialized type has reached 200 in Advance Stance. There are few creatures in Elanthia that have a DS over 200, and those few that do are far from your reach at this time. Stop training in your specialized type and begin in the either Blunt or Edged, which ever one you did not choose. Do not be alarmed that you may have a high AS in your secondary weapon type, this is due to Combat maneuvers. As you continue to train in Combat maneuvers your AS in your specialized type of weapon will continue to go up. This allows you to persist with that special weapon you may have. Upon reaching a 200 AS in your secondary type of weapon you may find you have reached your maximum amount of Health Points. Continue to spend at least one per training in physical training at this point. From what I have read in various other text, this allows you a higher heal rate for damage you have sustained. With the extra points you have from Physical training it is wise to spend them in either Ambush or Stalking and Hiding. You may wish at this time to begin learning spells if you have chosen this course for your warrior. As I noted earlier upon reaching 200 AS in your secondary weapon type in Advanced Stance you can begin to spend those points in either Pole Arms or Two Handed Weapons. At this stage in your development, your DS can possibly do without the bonus a Shield offers. But some of us become sentimental about out shields. Once you have repeated the process of reaching 200 AS in Two handed Weapons and then Pole Arms, or vise versa. You may spend those points in either Two Weapon Style or Multi- opponent. As you can tell in this point, you as a warrior are a weapon with a front line defense of good armor and a secondary defense of health points. You will be able to take any weapon, ordinary or magical and nearly kill anything. As well, your brawling AS has still been climbing as you trained in Combat Maneuvers. You may believe all this training will take a great amount of time, true, in the beginning it will. As you train in Combat Maneuvers you will note the amount of training to reach 200 AS in Advanced Stance for each weapon type will lessen. Combat Tactics Stance is an important part of combat just as a characters AS and the creatures DS. What the stances do is divert a percent of you weapon skill to defence. The stances are configured as such. Stance Offense: 100% AS 0% DS Stance Advance: 80% AS 20% DS Stance Forward: 60% AS 40% DS Stance Neutral: 40% AS 60% DS Stance Guarded: 20% AS 80% DS Stance Defense: 0% AS 100% DS As a warrior I have come to depend greatly on two of these stances. Stance Advance and Stance Defense. I use Stance Adv when battling which allows me a little more to my DS when fighting creatures that have a high AS. Although I move to Stance Offense when I have stunned the creature in order to give that lethal blow. When traveling and in town I stay in Stance Defense this is a precaution that should always be remembered. To many times I have seen characters ambushed my another character or creature and die from critical damage taken. Also when searching creatures it is wise to put away your weapon, not shield, if to stay in Stance Off.. Should a creature enter as you are picking up a box or gems, while you are not in Stance Def, your Brawling will help you ward off the creature until you can get your weapon or go to Stance Def. Always try and maintain your RT between hits at 5 seconds. This is the lowest you can get between blows and allows you to hit the creature more times thus doing more damage before it hits you. Read the texts about what armor is best with the amount of armor training you have to keep that RT down. Rules of Engagement Rule One: Never steal another characters kill, nor the kills treasure. Rule Two: Ask before fighting a creature someone is engaged with. Usually the person may give you some silver for helping. Rule Three: If you can kill a type of creature with one blow repeatedly, its time to move on to bigger game. Rule Four: When hunting as a group the character that slays the creature gets the hide. The silver should be divided amount the group, as well as any items characters in the group may be able to use. All else is the death dealer's. Rule Five: Be courteous to those of higher level than you, and be courteous to those of lower level than you. Closing With what I have dictated here one will develop a warrior that will be flexible and strong. Your warrior will have abilities honed to perfection and yet have room to expand. The principle behind this type of warrior is to move the dependence on the character and away from the magical weapons. There are to many warriors out there that are nothing without their Vultite Great Swords. The warrior should always consider armor and defense before weapons. Armor does not raise your DS but the better the armor the harder for creatures to do critical damage. In my view, and since I still use a plain Morning Star, Magical Weapons should not be bought. If you find one, by all means use it. Save your money as you begin to pass the years, there is no need to rush out and buy a new weapon each level. Besides if you have to pay for a Magical Weapon you should have been a Rogue, they are the ones that need the extra help in combat. : ) Any comments or questions may be sent to: pyndragn@iconn.net Other Resources may be found at: http://home.navisoft.com/zepath/page1.html http://www.tamcon.com/GS3/ GEMSTONE III (c) Copyright 1995 - 1996 Simutronics Corporation All Rights Reserved.