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.