Skillmasters
Using a point based skill system, the Skillmaster allows you to design
your own class. Upon birth you will receive 5 points to spend. You will
gain an additional skill point for every 5 levels of experience (for a
total of 15 skill points). You may spend these skill points to gain or
improve various skills with the G command (which is the same command
spellcasters use to gain a spell).
To play the Skillmaster effectively, you should have a plan as to which
skills you will learn and when. Since there are many more skills to
learn than you could possibly hope to acquire with just 15 skill
points, and since your skill choices are permanent, you will be stuck
with the choices you make. So, unlike a spellcaster that can be assured
of eventually learning all spells, you will not be able to play this
class effectively without a bit of forethought. This document should
help.
Overview of the Various Skills
The available skills come in various kinds, or groups. You learn
individual skills, but the number of points in the corresponding group
is sometimes also important. For example, the first group of skills is
Melee. Here, you may choose skills to specialize in various classes of
melee weapons, or even in bare handed combat (Martial Arts). The total
number of points spent in the group determines your overall Melee skill
(as shown on the Character Sheet) as well as your starting STR and DEX.
On the other hand, the number of points spent in the skill itself
determines your proficiency with that particular class of weaponry and
also influences how many attacks per round you get. Each skill group is
discussed in detail below.
The main skill groups are:
Melee Effectiveness in hand to hand combat
Ranged Effectiveness with ranged combat (e.g. Archery)
Magic Access to spell realms as an INT based caster. Every
spell realm except Life is available.
Prayer Access to prayer realms as a WIS based caster. Only good
and evil realms are available.
Skills Improve basic skills such as Devices, Stealth, Speed and
Saving Throw
Techniques Access to advanced or unusual talents that most players
lack. This includes some book based talents, such as
Burglary and Kendo, as well as other non-standard talents
like Riding and Dual Wielding.
Abilities For a single skill point, you can buy a power like Stone
Skin or an ability like Good Luck.
Proficiency
Before discussing each of the skill groups in detail, it is useful to
make a note regarding the proficiency system. As you are aware, normal
classes improve in various aspects of the game through practice. This
applies to individual weapons and shooters as well as to individual
spells. Initially, the player is unskilled with an item or spell, and
must practice using it in order to acquire proficiency. Should they
change weapons or switch to using a different spell, the process is
repeated. In addition, there is also a proficiency system for various
broad skills such as riding, dual wielding, and martial arts. If you
have ever tried to master these broad skills, then you know it often
takes most of the game to learn them.
But the Skillmaster is completely different. Indeed, they do not learn
through use and practice. Rather, when they buy into a skill, they
instantly acquire proficiency. As an example (of very bad advice), a
first level Skillmaster could spend all 5 points in Dual Wielding (or
in Riding) and instantly achieve Master level proficiency. Similarly
with weapons. The number of points in a particular weapon class sets
your proficiency level, and this level never improves ... unless you
spend more skill points!
Melee Skills
Melee skills affect your skill in hand to hand combat. Each skill in
this group affects a single class of weapons (swords, polearms, blunt
weapons, diggers) or allows bare handed martial arts fighting. To use
any particular class of weaponry, you will need some skill. Thus, when
investing in melee skills, you must choose whether to specialize in one
or two classes of weapons, or whether to spread out your skill. You
will be less effective in the latter case, but you will have access to
more kinds of weapons (and avoid the frustration of finding awesomely
powerful weapons that you can not wield).
The total number of points in this group determines your basic melee
skills in the same way that a normal class choice determines melee
skills. That is, you get a fixed amount of base melee skill, and an
extra amount that improves with level. Warriors are very good fighters;
mages, not so much. But you, as a Skillmaster, can improve your melee
whenever you choose simply by investing more points in various melee
related skills. As a rough guide, consider the following tables:
Melee Group Weapon Class
Pts Relative Skill Pts Proficiency Blows
0 Mage 0 Unskilled 4.00
1-2 Priest 1 Beginner 5.00
3-4 Ranger 2 Skilled 5.25
5-8 Paladin 3 Expert 5.50
9+ Warrior 4 Master 5.75
5 Master 6.00
Note that Melee and Magic are somewhat antithetical. Investing in Melee
also improves your starting STR and DEX, but too many magic points will
decrease your STR (and CON). Magic points also decrease the maximum
number of blows displayed in the table above (currently, by just 0.05
blows per point, but too much magic will make this effect noticeable).
Also, Magic improves INT and your device skill, but too much Melee will
have a slight negative effect on both of these.
Each skill in the Melee group should be fairly obvious (except perhaps
Martial Arts). Basically, when you wield a melee weapon the game checks
the number of skill points in the appropriate group to determine your
proficiency and to calculate your number of attacks per round. The
individual melee skills are discussed next.
Swords
Swords are the most common class of weaponry and include the basic
Long Sword, Broad Sword, Bastard Sword, and Two-Handed Sword, as well
as all the shorter daggers and such. If you look at the proficiency
screen (~P) then swords are all those weapons displayed in the first
column. If you are specializing in a particular class of weaponry,
then swords and polearms are both good choices. While there are many
good blunt weapons, they are not nearly so common as swords and
polearms are.
Polearms
Polearms are the next most common class of weaponry and include the
Trident, Spear, Lance, and Pike as well as all the Axes. If you look
at the proficiency screen (~P), then all the polearms are listed in
the second column. Like swords, if you are specializing, then this is
a good class to choose. In addition, if you are building a Riding
class, then you really want to choose this skill as well to enable
access to the various Lances. In fact, for riding based melee, the
Heavy Lance is the weapon of choice!
Hafted (Blunt Weapons)
Hafted weapons are currently about half as common as either swords or
polearms. The traditional province of the priest, blunt weapons
include the Mace, Whip, Club, and War Hammer, as well as various
Staves. The most deadly weapon in the game, the Mace of Disruption,
is also in this group (see the third column on the proficiency screen
for a complete list). But note that unlike the Priest, a Prayer based
Skillmaster has no weapon restrictions. Still, this group is worth
investing in if you want access to general weapon based melee. For
example, with 6 total points in melee, investing 2 in each of Swords,
Polearms and Hafted is a reasonable balanced approach (Personally, I
have trouble resisting 5 in a single class, but that is my own
problem and need not be yours as well :).
Diggers
Yes, you can melee with Picks and Shovels if you want, but the
weapons in this class are incredibly uncommon when compared to the
three main groups. Still, there are a couple of powerful end game
diggers and this class of weaponry might be worth a point or two
should you find one.
Martial Arts
With this skill you may fight monsters using a special, bare-handed
combat technique. I assume you've played a Monk before (if not, try
one as they are most enjoyable) and this skill allows you access to
this powerful mode of combat. If you are building a Martial Artist,
then I recommend using the full 5 points for this skill as that will
give you 100% monk-like efficiency when choosing types of attacks and
critical hits. But compared to the monk, you will get one fewer
attack per round.
A few cautions regarding this skill are in order. First, if you fight
bare-handed, then you get the normal monk armor restrictions as well
as the AC bonus when forgoing various equipment slots (but you do not
gain a monk speed boost or access to various postures). These armor
restrictions do not apply if you switch to normal weapon based melee.
Second, martial arts will not work when mounted so it is a bad idea
to waste your precious skill points on Riding when building a martial
arts based class. Finally, you've played a Samurai before, right?
Well, even if you have, you might never have noticed that casting a
Kendo technique requires a melee weapon, so won't work at all with
martial arts.
Ranged Skills
Ranged skills include Archery and Throwing. As a group, the total
number of points affects your Ranged skill, as displayed on the
Character Sheet. However, with only 2 skills in this group, it is usual
that you should treat Archery and Throwing as mutually exclusive
talents.
Archery
With this skill, you gain proficiency with Slings, Bows and
Crossbows. Each point grants enhanced proficiency with all missile
weapons (contrast this with Melee skills which require you to
specialize). With 2 or more points of Archery, you will begin to gain
extra shots per round as well as reduced breakage odds for your
missiles. You will never be so good as an Archer though with a full 5
points of Archery you can shoot just as well as a Ranger (and use
Slings and Crossbows too, which a Ranger can not). This skill also
increases your stealth.
Throwing
With this skill, you will gain the power of Throw Weapon which allows
you to effectively throw your leading melee weapon. The range of this
talent depends exclusively on your STR and the weight of the weapon.
The damage, however, depends on both the weapon (and any slays it
might have) as well as on your STR and the amount of Throwing skill
you have. In addition, with enough throwing skill, you may use this
talent more quickly, allowing you to throw your weapon more than once
per round.
Weapon throwing is not like Archery. For one thing, your weapon will
often return to you after striking a foe. With more skill, this
return effect can become (almost) certain. Also, you may catch the
weapon upon return with the same hand which threw it, effectively
re-equipping the weapon in a single, graceful, fluid motion. With
more skill, catching the return weapon becomes more likely, though
this depends on DEX as well. With a high enough DEX and a full amount
of Throwing skill, you can be (almost) certain to recover your
weapon, fully equipped, after each toss. However, you should always
be prepared for an occasional failure, no matter how skilled you are
(i.e., carry a spare weapon!).
The damage of your thrown weapon can be formidable. As your skill
improves, so does the damage multiplier of the toss. Throwing weapons
functions very much like normal archery, except you are the shooter.
This means that you supply the damage multiplier (based upon your
skill) and this multiplier is scaled slightly by STR just like with
normal shooters. And the weapon is the missile ... Damage is
calculated as with archery, using the damage dice of the projectile,
applying any slays, adding in the damage bonus of the weapon and then
multiplying everything together to get a nice, tasty sum. You can
view the details in the Throwing section of your Character Sheet. But
you should know that, in general, your other equipment will not
affect the damage of thrown weapons. Rings of Combat and even Rings
of Archery do not boost damage (though the latter does boost
accuracy). Also, rings that grant weaponmastery (i.e. increased
damage dice) or elemental slays will have no effect. This is a bit
sad, but, on the other hand, you can change your equipment
preferences with this knowledge in mind, perhaps assuming a more
defensive posture than you otherwise would.
Magic Skills
Each skill in the Magic group grants access to a single realm of book
based spellcasting. This realm will use INT as your spellcasting stat
for purposes of fail rates. Usually, you will also use INT as your mana
stat, but this can be complicated if you learn Prayer skills or other
magical Techniques. With INT based mana comes normal magelike glove
encumbrance as well as the ability to benefit from wizardstaves and
certain magical jewelry (This requires 5 points overall in the magic
group).
With just a single point in a given realm, you will be a poor caster.
In general, the more points you invest in a given realm, the better a
caster you will become. You will gain access to more spells and be able
to cast them at a lower level of experience. The casting costs and fail
rates will both diminish with each point of skill. Also, your minimum
fail rate will go down (And you know how annoying 5% fail rates can be,
don't you?). As a rule of thumb, you will need a full 5 points in a
given realm to cast (almost) as well as a Mage would.
But, aside from this, there are no restrictions on which realms you may
learn, and you can learn as many different realms as you like. You
don't learn individual spells the way a mage might but can cast any
spell in a known realm provided you have the book and your level is
high enough. Finally, you need not worry about spell proficiency. As
discussed above, the proficiency system does not apply to the
Skillmaster.
See [a] for the various magic realms. One final comment: The Life realm
is not available as a Magic skill. Instead, to gain access to Life you
must learn it as a Prayer skill.
The total number of points in this group determines your class skill
with devices. However, for mage-like device skill, you will also need
to invest in Skills/Devices. Your starting INT is also directly
influenced by the total number of points in this group. Unfortunately,
Magic impedes Melee skill, and too much magic will adversely affect
your starting STR and CON.
Prayer Skills
Prayer skills are like Magic skills in that each one grants access to a
single realm of spellcasting. However, there are many differences. For
one thing, each Prayer realm uses WIS as the spellcasting stat. As an
overall Prayer caster, you will also use WIS as your mana stat and
won't be subject to mage-like glove encumbrance. You can use
wizardstaves with just 5 overall points in this group (provided it is
your primary spellcasting group).
Another difference is that selection of realms in this group is
extremeley limited, consisting of just those realms that are either
good (Life and Crusade) or evil (Death and Daemon). Life magic is
uniquely available as a Prayer skill. For the other realms, they can
also be learned as Magic skills. However, the game will not allow you
to learn a single realm as both a Prayer and as Magic, so you need to
pick whether to use INT or WIS for these 3 realms.
The total number of points in this group determines your class saving
throw skill as shown on the Character Sheet. You can also improve your
saving throw by directly investing in Skills/Magic Resistance. Your
total Prayer points also determines your starting WIS.
A final contrast between Magic and Prayer is that points in this group
do not decrease your STR and CON the way Magic does. They do not
diminish your maximum number of melee attacks either. However, Prayer
has only a very small influence on device skills, so you might need to
directly invest in Skills/Devices when a Magic caster would not.
As mentioned above, a Prayer caster is not a priest. There are no
weapon restrictions on this class so you can gleefully slice and dice
while piously enjoying Life prayers. You can also freely mix good and
evil realms like Life and Death, whereas a priest may not.
Miscellaneous Skills
This group contains the remaining player skills as well as a couple of
skills that influence stats. Unlike the previous groups, the total
number of points in this group has no effect on your class. The skills
in this group each allow a maximum of 3 points to be invested. Since
they are not primary skills like melee, you should invest in these
skills sparingly in order to flesh out your character design (e.g. by
adding a bit more stealth or device skills).
Agility
This skill directly improves your starting DEX and also determines
your class Disarming skill, as displayed on the Character Sheet. By
default, the Skillmaster will disarm about as well as a priest. If
you feel this is not enough then you should invest an additional
point or two here. The only other skill that influences disarming is
the Burglary technique discussed below.
Awareness
This skill determines your class Searching and Perception skills, as
displayed on the Character Sheet. At the moment, these skills are
rather unimportant for game play, except in the early game (but that
may change some day). Eventually, all players can magically detect
traps and doors. To compensate, Awareness also gives direct benefits
depending upon the number of points invested, including faster
pseudo-id and see invisible (1); automatic pseudo-id (2); and finally
a telepathic awareness of nearby monsters (3).
Devices
Skill with magic devices is extremely important for most players. The
difference between being able to reliably use a staff of healing and
not can be the difference between life and death. By default your
Device skill is primarily determined by the number of points spent in
the Magic group. A small positive influence is also granted for
Prayer skills as well as learning the Sorcery realm. Melee points
have a small negative influence on device skills. Overall, a
Skillmaster can never equal the magical proficiency of a mage unless
they also directly invest in this skill for an additional
enhancement. If you never learn any magic skills, then you probably
better invest at least a point here as well (depending also on your
race and personality).
Health
This skill determines your class Life Rating which, as you know, is
used to scale the number of hit points you get. By default, you begin
with a 100% Life Rating which is the same as a Priest. This value
goes down as you learn Magic skills (to simulate a Mage-like player).
If you want more hit points, or if you wish to undo the negative
health effects of too many magic skills, then you should directly
invest in this skill. Also, investing in Health enhances your CON.
Note that while it is true that CON and Life Rating are not really
influential until later in the game, buying health also influences
the distribution algorithm for your extra hit points. If you've ever
played a Mage, and then followed up with a Warrior, then you have
some idea about what this means. Every class receives a fixed number
of hit points (in addition to the randomly rolled portion), but this
fixed amount is allocated by level differently, from linearly in the
case of a warrior, to cubically in the case of a mage. Other classes
blend these two extremes. For the skillmaster, your melee skills
increase the linear aspects of this distribution while your magic
skills increase the cubic aspect (Archery and Prayers increase the
quadratic weight). So if you are heavy into magic, your hit point
progression will become more mage-like (though not quite so bad), and
you can offset this with some mid-game Health. Of course, in the end,
all players reach level 50 and the extra hit point progression ceases
to matter.
Magic Resistance
This skill increases your Saving Throw as shown on the Character
Sheet. By default, you will have an average saving throw unless you
invest in Prayer skills. To further increase your saving throw, you
might want to spend a point on this skill as well.
Speed
This skill directly increases your speed. Arguably, speed is one of
the most important attributes in the game ... until you have enough
at least. In the early game, speed can be very useful. If you plan on
investing in this skill at all, you should probably do so very early
on. Each point in this skill will increase your speed by +2.
Stealth
This skill directly increases your Stealth as displayed on the
Character Sheet. By default, the Skillmaster has absolutely terrible
stealth ... even worse than a warrior. Both Archery and Burglary
directly increase stealth a bit. But if you aren't investing in those
skills, or if you want even more stealth, then you should spend some
points here. Each point invested in this skill increases your stealth
by +3. A single point will make you as stealthy as a mage while two
points will make you slightly more stealthy than a rogue. With three
points you will be very stealthy indeed. So much so that you can
often gain powerful sneak attacks on sleeping monsters.
Techniques
Techniques are specialty skills. By default, most players can not
access these skills unless they choose a specific class. For example,
Riding should only be seriously contemplated by Cavalry or Beastmaster
characters. But the Skillmaster also may learn these techniques, often
in powerful combination with other skills. You may invest up to five
points in each technique in this group. The total number of points in
this group has no gameplay effects.
Burglary
Normally restricted to the Rogue, Burglary is a spellbook based
technique using DEX as the primary stat. This realm functions like
the other realms in Magic and Prayer in the sense that the number of
points invested here determines each spell's level, cost and fail
rate. You will need a full five points to match a rogue in burglary!
This skill also increases your stealth and your disarming skills. See
[b] for more information.
Kendo
Normally restricted to the Samurai, Kendo is a spellbook based
technique that enhances melee combat. Indeed, in order to cast any
spell in this realm, you must wield a melee weapon (So do not attempt
to combine this skill with Martial Arts). There are no fail rates for
Kendo techniques. Also, learning this skill changes your mana to
behave like that of the Samurai. Your max resting mana is very small
and is determined solely by your WIS. But with Concentration (a
special class power), you can temporarily boost your mana pool.
Boosted mana decays rather quickly with each turn, so the net effect
is that you must time your concentration carefully before engaging an
enemy in battle, and then you must hurry to defeat your foe before
your mana runs out.
Unlike the Samurai, with this technique you will still need to carry
the various Kendo books in order to access the various talents. Also,
if you are mixing Kendo with other magic, know that the Samurai mana
mechanics take precedent. On the one hand, this should be rather
useful since you can regain your mana so easily (provided you have a
few quiet turns in which to concentrate). On the other hand, your
maximum mana, even after concentration, will never match the default
maximum for normal spellcasters. So, fewer spells will be possible
than normal. And concentration is quite a bit slower than quaffing a
potion of restore mana, so the final battle may be more difficult. As
a final insult, Kendo mana mechanics blocks the spell cost
enhancement effects of wizardstaves and mage jewelry (but the various
realm stones still work and you need not worry about glove
encumbrance).
If you are investing in this technique, even if you are combining it
with other casting realms, you really should invest in melee as well.
The spells in Kendo enhance your normal melee attacks quite
powerfully, but you still need to be able to hit monsters in order to
benefit.
Dual Wielding
The Dual Wielding skill allows effective melee with two weapons at
once and is inspired by the famous dual sword technique created by
Miyamoto Musashi. By investing in this skill, you will instantly
increase your proficiency with this powerful combat technique.
Obviously, you should combine this skill generously with Melee
talents.
Riding
With this technique, you may ride pet monsters into battle. Each
point invested in this skill immediately increases your riding
proficiency which is important for your speed in combat as well as
your ability to ride more powerful mounts. Without adequate skill,
you will be tossed frequently during battle, especially after taking
a substantial amount of damage. Full mastery in riding requires five
points in this skill, though you might be able to get by with just
four. Note that Martial Arts is not possible while mounted. See [c]
for more information.
Abilities
Finally, as a Skillmaster you may invest a single point in any of the
following skills to gain a single power or ability. Unlike normal race
and class powers, any power related skill in this group is available
for immediate use without any mana cost and (usually) without any fail
rate. For example, you may buy the power of Stone Skin on level one and
use it right away. As you probably know, Stone Skin is also available
in both Craft and Nature spell realms, and you could have invested a
point in either of these realms instead. So, in addition to getting
your Stone Skin as a spell, you could cast many other spells as well.
But delayed gratification is the problem ... with the realm approach,
you would need to find your third spellbook and it would be a long time
indeed before you got to cast your Stone Skin spell. Other powers in
this group, such as Create Ammo or Eat Magic have no such spellcasting
alternative and are uniquely accessible as an ability.
The other types of abilities grant a passive talent, such as
Regeneration or Good Luck. Since they only cost a single skill point,
they are worthy of consideration for fleshing out your character
design.
Clear Mind
This power regenerates a very small amount of mana on each usage and
aids a spellcaster to recover their mana faster than resting alone.
With this power, the game will automatically activate it for you
while resting to save your typing fingers.
Create Ammo
Normally restricted to the Archer, this talent allows you to create
missiles from junk objects in the dungeon. You may create shots from
rubble; arrows from skeletons and broken sticks; and bolts from
skeletons. The quality of the ammo so created depends only upon your
character level.
Eat Magic
The power of Eat Magic allows you to drain mana from your devices to
replenish your spell pool. Unlike the other powers in this group,
there is always a significant fail rate and even if you succeed in
activating this power, you may still fail to drain mana from the
target device. You might even destroy the device in the process!
Nevertheless, Eat Magic is very useful for end game spellcasters
since monsters always have many times more hit points then your mana
can damage. For some foes, resting to recover mana before re-engaging
may be too slow and it is frustrating to return to battle only to
discovery your enemy back at full health!
Good Luck
With this ability, you will have slightly better odds of finding
excellent items. Even artifacts, especially the rare ones, are easier
to find. But note that some players are lucky even without this
ability (and vice versa).
Loremastery
This ability grants automatic, instantaneous identification of
objects as you step over them. If you find the loot identification
subgame annoying, with its impossibly slow pseudo-id and difficult to
cast early-game identify spells, then spend a point here.
Massacre
This power allows you to attack each and every adjacent monster with
your normal melee attacks. If you find yourself frequently surrounded
by orcs, hounds and trolls, they can be more efficiently dispatched
when you can kill them by eights instead of by ones!
Panic Hit
With this power you will understand how thieves feel. After attacking
an adjacent enemy with your normal melee attacks, you will be
teleported a short way off. This is very useful in situations where
you need to teleport anyway since you get to land some additional
damage in the process. But know this: sometimes you will fail to
escape. Thus, if you are on death's door then you better not attempt
to rely on Panic Hit (quaff some healing instead).
Regeneration
This ability allows you to more quickly recover both hit points and
spell points. It is slightly more powerful than normal regeneration
so you can stop your chuckling over my having included this in the
list :)
Resistance
This power grants temporary resistance to the basic elemental attacks
of acid, fire, cold, electricity and poison. Your resistances stack,
as you know, so having multiple sources of the same protection can be
useful both in protecting you and in protecting your gear.
Rodeo
This power allows you to attempt to forcibly mount an unfriendly
monster. If successful, you may tame yourself a new mount to ride.
But often such an attempt ends in utter humiliation. Perhaps you've
heard a certain saying?
Stone Skin
This power temporarily grants increased armor class, making you
harder to hit and harder to damage in melee combat. The amount of
protection increases with your experience level. If you plan on
defeating the Serpent of Chaos with melee, then this would be a very
useful ability to have.