Template Construction: Skill Complexes
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 3:33 pm
A difficulty any player may encounter, while designing a template, is the tendency to try to include too many skills: the Skillcap rears its ugly head, and the player is left with the unhappy decision of which skill(s) to abandon; sometimes, it can prove terribly confusing to determine which skills can be combined in the same template.
In this post, I propose that any player consider the puzzle of template design in the context of Skill "Complexes": while a few skills operate entirely independently, there are skills that must be combined with one or more other skill(s) --in a complex -- in order to be optimally effective.
Base Considerations:
Skillcap: for any who might be unaware, there is Skillcap of 700.0 skill points; no player can develop any more than 700.0 skill points, divided among all developed skills.
Skill v. Ability: Skill points represent "learned" expertise in any discipline; with certain skills, this base facility can be enhanced by the influence of stats to produce total "Ability"; it is not uncommon for a character, limited to 700.0 Skill points, to actually possess more than 1000.0 points of Ability; "Show Real" isolates learned Skill only, and will help anyone track the character's relation to his/her Skillcap; stat-influences decline, proportionate with increased development in the skill, until there is 0 stat-influence at 100.0.
Certain skills enjoy a great magnitude of stat-influenced Ability.
An annotated list of common skill complexes, and their skill-point "cost":
Animal Taming I (300)
100 Animal Lore
100 Animal Taming
100 Veterinary
The complete Tamer.
Animal Taming II (200)
100 Animal Lore
100 Animal Taming
Practical, if combined with a (high-level) Magery complex to provide for Healing; extremely pragmatic, otherwise.
Animal Taming III (110)
Animal Lore 50
Animal Taming 60
This is a "novelty" complex, allowing one to build an army of Giant Scorpions and Spiders, and virtually nothing else ...
Bard I (400)
100 Musicianship
100 Provocation
100 Peacemaking
100 Enticement
For the Bard fanatic, only: Enticement is largely useless, and Peacemaking has only a few specialized applications; see Note, below.
Bard II (300)
100 Musicianship
100 Provocation
100 Peacemaking
This represents the truly-dedicated Bard; see Note, below.
Bard III (200)
100 Musicianship
100 Provocation
The Provoker is likely the most pragmatic and, hence, popular Bard skill complex.
Note: Regarding Bard skills, particularly Enticement & Peacemaking: 100 Musicianship by itself will actually impart a 50% success chance, even if developed levels of these skills are 0; 50 points in either of these skills will raise success to 75%, and so on, so any Bard always possesses some (small) facility with these skills, even if the skills themselves are never developed. EDIT: this information was based on an old formula that was found to be NEA, and changed; Bard Skills are now evaluated as WhateverSkill*Musicianship.
Healing I (200)
100 Healing
100 Anatomy
Maximum success, maximum effect: desirable for PvP duelling; unnecessary, PvM.
Healing II (160)
080 Healing
080 Anatomy
High success probabilities, strong bandages, and Resurrection is still possible; Healing Ability will actually be a little more than 80; required for PvM only if Resurrection is desired.
Healing III (120)
060 Healing
060 Anatomy
"First Aid": moderate success, and Curing Poison is possible; minimalist Healing, acceptable only for Team PvM, or someone who already has an extremely tight template (maybe a Bard-Tamer; you'd be better off with an economical Magery complex, though).
Note: for a PvM warrior, 100 Anatomy & 75 Healing is likely the most-effective, most-economical combination; the bandages are weaker, and there is a small chance of failure, but these are not critical considerations, PvM; the full damage provided by GM Anatomy will always be useful.
Lockpicking I (300)
100 Lockpicking
100 Detect Hidden
100 Remove Trap
This is for Magic-free chest-cracking; it's only truly useful application would be combined with Stealth, for a deep-dungeon template.
Lockpicking II (190)
095 Lockpicking
060 Detect Hidden
035 Magery
This complex represents the most-common compromise, as it can be extremely arduous to GM Lockpicking; once Lockpicking has reached a full 100.0, Detect Hidden can be dropped (Lockpicking III).
Lockpicking III (135)
100 Lockpicking
035 Magery
Can crack anything (with less than 60 Detect Hidden, though, multiple attempts will be required for Lvl5 chests).
Magery I (300)
100 Evaluate Intelligence
100 Magery
100 Meditation
Full, effective, use of offensive spells; Meditation can be "shorted" to 75.0 (see "Shorting Skills" below); PvM, Evaluate Intelligence can be "shorted" to 60.0-75.0.
Magery II (200)
100 Magery
100 Meditation
"Support" Magery, providing strong buffs/debuffs & Heals; damage-dealing will be accomplished through Summoning; Meditation can be shorted to 50.0-75.0.
Magery III (125)
075 Magery
050 Meditation
"Utility" Magery: scrolls still allow use of all existing spells (although Circle 8 will be unreliable for in-combat Summoning; casting failures do not destroy scrolls); reliable casting to Circle 5, but active Meditation is not reliable.
Magery IV (35)
035 Magery
Rudimentary Ability only: allows Circle 4 & 5 only through scroll-use
Stealth I (200)
100 Hiding
100 Stealth
Optimum Ability: desirable for any criminal.
Stealth II (160)
080 Hiding
080 Stealth
This is adequate for anyone who only wants to be able to function as a "Scout".
Thievery (200)
100 Snooping
100 Stealing
This is pretty much essential for any thief with ambitions.
Weapon I (300)
100 Weapon
100 Tactics
100 Anatomy
Weapon "mastery"; Anatomy melds nicely with the Healing complexes.
Weapon II (200)
100 Weapon
100 Tactics
This should be considered bare minimum for anyone to even contemplate developing Weapon skill(s).
Some complexes will be built upon other complexes:
Assassin (300-400)
Weapon I or II (Bladed)
100 Poisoning
Treasure Hunting (235-400)
Lockpicking I, II, or III
100 Cartography
MiB Fisherman (235-400)
Lockpicking I, II, or III
100 Fishing
Other considerations:
Shorting Skills: There are skills that do provide performance that is proportional to their level of development; generally, the skill does need to be developed above 50 to provide any appreciable usage.
Anatomy: lower damage from weapons, and lower Healing value on bandages.
Healing: lesser success with Healing, and significantly lower value on bandages than Anatomy.
Meditation: lower success with active Meditation, and slower mana regeneration rates; still, a little goes a long way; 75+ Skill in light armor gives extremely quick regeneration.
Poisoning: lower success and increased chance of Poisoning self; however, 80 is sufficiently high to avoid self-poisoning altogether.
Skills that give significant return at low level:
Hiding: anyone can hide beside/in any house, with a good chance of success; thus, 15-25 is adequate to provide for bio-breaks; there is no purpose for highly-developed Hiding in the absence of Stealth (except maybe for a Treasure Hunter/MiB Fisherman).
Tracking: a little goes an incredibly long way, particularly considering robust stat-influence; more than 50 can actually be a liability, as the skill can take in too many results to process, and "overloads and shorts out".
Survival Skills: Resistance & Wrestling
Consider what is more important: Resisting Explosion + Flame Strike from GM Magery + GM Evaluation, or maybe evading the follow-up Halberd swing.
For any character that either possesses no weapon skill, or wishes to rely on spell-casting during melee, Wrestling is essential; 100 should be considered non-negotiable for PvP, but 50-75 is "good enough" for any PvM character.
Regarding Resistance, 75-100 is minimum for Magic-PvP; 65-75 is minimum for PvM, but most characters will find 75 entirely sufficient.
Hopefully, this information will help some players streamline their template-design efforts.
SS
In this post, I propose that any player consider the puzzle of template design in the context of Skill "Complexes": while a few skills operate entirely independently, there are skills that must be combined with one or more other skill(s) --in a complex -- in order to be optimally effective.
Base Considerations:
Skillcap: for any who might be unaware, there is Skillcap of 700.0 skill points; no player can develop any more than 700.0 skill points, divided among all developed skills.
Skill v. Ability: Skill points represent "learned" expertise in any discipline; with certain skills, this base facility can be enhanced by the influence of stats to produce total "Ability"; it is not uncommon for a character, limited to 700.0 Skill points, to actually possess more than 1000.0 points of Ability; "Show Real" isolates learned Skill only, and will help anyone track the character's relation to his/her Skillcap; stat-influences decline, proportionate with increased development in the skill, until there is 0 stat-influence at 100.0.
Certain skills enjoy a great magnitude of stat-influenced Ability.
An annotated list of common skill complexes, and their skill-point "cost":
Animal Taming I (300)
100 Animal Lore
100 Animal Taming
100 Veterinary
The complete Tamer.
Animal Taming II (200)
100 Animal Lore
100 Animal Taming
Practical, if combined with a (high-level) Magery complex to provide for Healing; extremely pragmatic, otherwise.
Animal Taming III (110)
Animal Lore 50
Animal Taming 60
This is a "novelty" complex, allowing one to build an army of Giant Scorpions and Spiders, and virtually nothing else ...
Bard I (400)
100 Musicianship
100 Provocation
100 Peacemaking
100 Enticement
For the Bard fanatic, only: Enticement is largely useless, and Peacemaking has only a few specialized applications; see Note, below.
Bard II (300)
100 Musicianship
100 Provocation
100 Peacemaking
This represents the truly-dedicated Bard; see Note, below.
Bard III (200)
100 Musicianship
100 Provocation
The Provoker is likely the most pragmatic and, hence, popular Bard skill complex.
Note: Regarding Bard skills, particularly Enticement & Peacemaking: 100 Musicianship by itself will actually impart a 50% success chance, even if developed levels of these skills are 0; 50 points in either of these skills will raise success to 75%, and so on, so any Bard always possesses some (small) facility with these skills, even if the skills themselves are never developed. EDIT: this information was based on an old formula that was found to be NEA, and changed; Bard Skills are now evaluated as WhateverSkill*Musicianship.
Healing I (200)
100 Healing
100 Anatomy
Maximum success, maximum effect: desirable for PvP duelling; unnecessary, PvM.
Healing II (160)
080 Healing
080 Anatomy
High success probabilities, strong bandages, and Resurrection is still possible; Healing Ability will actually be a little more than 80; required for PvM only if Resurrection is desired.
Healing III (120)
060 Healing
060 Anatomy
"First Aid": moderate success, and Curing Poison is possible; minimalist Healing, acceptable only for Team PvM, or someone who already has an extremely tight template (maybe a Bard-Tamer; you'd be better off with an economical Magery complex, though).
Note: for a PvM warrior, 100 Anatomy & 75 Healing is likely the most-effective, most-economical combination; the bandages are weaker, and there is a small chance of failure, but these are not critical considerations, PvM; the full damage provided by GM Anatomy will always be useful.
Lockpicking I (300)
100 Lockpicking
100 Detect Hidden
100 Remove Trap
This is for Magic-free chest-cracking; it's only truly useful application would be combined with Stealth, for a deep-dungeon template.
Lockpicking II (190)
095 Lockpicking
060 Detect Hidden
035 Magery
This complex represents the most-common compromise, as it can be extremely arduous to GM Lockpicking; once Lockpicking has reached a full 100.0, Detect Hidden can be dropped (Lockpicking III).
Lockpicking III (135)
100 Lockpicking
035 Magery
Can crack anything (with less than 60 Detect Hidden, though, multiple attempts will be required for Lvl5 chests).
Magery I (300)
100 Evaluate Intelligence
100 Magery
100 Meditation
Full, effective, use of offensive spells; Meditation can be "shorted" to 75.0 (see "Shorting Skills" below); PvM, Evaluate Intelligence can be "shorted" to 60.0-75.0.
Magery II (200)
100 Magery
100 Meditation
"Support" Magery, providing strong buffs/debuffs & Heals; damage-dealing will be accomplished through Summoning; Meditation can be shorted to 50.0-75.0.
Magery III (125)
075 Magery
050 Meditation
"Utility" Magery: scrolls still allow use of all existing spells (although Circle 8 will be unreliable for in-combat Summoning; casting failures do not destroy scrolls); reliable casting to Circle 5, but active Meditation is not reliable.
Magery IV (35)
035 Magery
Rudimentary Ability only: allows Circle 4 & 5 only through scroll-use
Stealth I (200)
100 Hiding
100 Stealth
Optimum Ability: desirable for any criminal.
Stealth II (160)
080 Hiding
080 Stealth
This is adequate for anyone who only wants to be able to function as a "Scout".
Thievery (200)
100 Snooping
100 Stealing
This is pretty much essential for any thief with ambitions.
Weapon I (300)
100 Weapon
100 Tactics
100 Anatomy
Weapon "mastery"; Anatomy melds nicely with the Healing complexes.
Weapon II (200)
100 Weapon
100 Tactics
This should be considered bare minimum for anyone to even contemplate developing Weapon skill(s).
Some complexes will be built upon other complexes:
Assassin (300-400)
Weapon I or II (Bladed)
100 Poisoning
Treasure Hunting (235-400)
Lockpicking I, II, or III
100 Cartography
MiB Fisherman (235-400)
Lockpicking I, II, or III
100 Fishing
Other considerations:
Shorting Skills: There are skills that do provide performance that is proportional to their level of development; generally, the skill does need to be developed above 50 to provide any appreciable usage.
Anatomy: lower damage from weapons, and lower Healing value on bandages.
Healing: lesser success with Healing, and significantly lower value on bandages than Anatomy.
Meditation: lower success with active Meditation, and slower mana regeneration rates; still, a little goes a long way; 75+ Skill in light armor gives extremely quick regeneration.
Poisoning: lower success and increased chance of Poisoning self; however, 80 is sufficiently high to avoid self-poisoning altogether.
Skills that give significant return at low level:
Hiding: anyone can hide beside/in any house, with a good chance of success; thus, 15-25 is adequate to provide for bio-breaks; there is no purpose for highly-developed Hiding in the absence of Stealth (except maybe for a Treasure Hunter/MiB Fisherman).
Tracking: a little goes an incredibly long way, particularly considering robust stat-influence; more than 50 can actually be a liability, as the skill can take in too many results to process, and "overloads and shorts out".
Survival Skills: Resistance & Wrestling
Consider what is more important: Resisting Explosion + Flame Strike from GM Magery + GM Evaluation, or maybe evading the follow-up Halberd swing.
For any character that either possesses no weapon skill, or wishes to rely on spell-casting during melee, Wrestling is essential; 100 should be considered non-negotiable for PvP, but 50-75 is "good enough" for any PvM character.
Regarding Resistance, 75-100 is minimum for Magic-PvP; 65-75 is minimum for PvM, but most characters will find 75 entirely sufficient.
Hopefully, this information will help some players streamline their template-design efforts.
SS