8. Exceptional Gear
EXCEPTIONAL GEAR
This chapter covers exceptional gear, which for the purposes here, are items that are
worn, carried on the belt, or carried in the hands. Armor and weapons but also items like
amulets, holy symbols, etc
CRAFTSMANSHIP
In the construction of weapons and other gear, there are various approaches that can be
taken, with superior craftsmanship typically requiring superior skills or materials as
follows:
Well Crafted: These are typically weapons where the local smithy has applied
the exceptional abilities or materials available to him in the construction of the weapon.
Weapons at this level of craftsmanship are +1 in combat.
Finely Crafted: These are weapons where the smithy of a major city in the land has applied
the exceptional procedures or materials at his disposal in the construction of the item.
Such weapons are superior to well crafted weapons and are a +2 in combat.
Expertly Crafted: Items where the king's smithy has applied his exceptional materials or
procedures in the construction of the item. These exceptional items are +3 in combat.
Superbly Crafted: Weapons where a king's smithy has come up with a process or procedure
that is superior to those in all the other nations in the land. These weapons are +4 in
combat.
Perfectly Crafted: A weapon that is constructed with all the best processes and materials
available in all the kingdoms throughout the land. These weapons are rare and are a +5 in
combat.
Enchanted: To be enchanted, a weapon must be perfectly crafted. If enchanted the physical
abilities of the weapon do not change, but a level of intelligence is imparted to the
weapon. Such weapons are +6 or greater in combat, depending on the level of enchantment.
Armor: Armor of superior craftsmanship works similar to superior craftsmanship weapons
except the advantage is in increasing the armor blocks of the armor.
Shields: Similarly, shields of superior craftsmanship increase one's blocking level with
shield.
Boots and Shoes: Superior craftsmanship here increases one's dodge level.
Helms: Superior craftsmanship in helms increases one's resistance to head blows caused by
hits from weapons.
Gauntlets and Gloves. Superior craftsmanship here increases one's resistance to being
knocked down by weapon attacks.
SUPERIOR BASE MATERIALS
In the land it is rumored that there are areas where superior base materials can be found
thus allowing gear to be created having superior capabilities to that made from the
commonly available materials. One such superior material is STEEL, which gives a
significant advantage to gear made from it compared to IRON, and in fact STEEL gear is +3
compared to IRON in combat whether it be in attacking with a STEEL weapon (where STEEL
weapons also do double damage) or defending with STEEL armor, shield, etc. Other superior
base materials can also be found but must be sensed or taken to a specialist in the land
to determine exactly how much of an advantage they give.
MAGICAL GEAR
Magical gear can be found in the land that does magical damage (if attacking) or protects
from these types of attacks (known as 'Essence' affects, for Clerical affects, and
'Elemental' affects, for Mage affects) and normal cleric or mage prayer or spell attacks
as well.
When attacking, magical weapons do not need to hit to do their damage, and thus gain an
advantage of +6 to do such damage. However, the amount of damage is the same regardless of
how well you hit your target. Magical weapons can be at various levels, and do an
additional level of damage for each additional level of magic that they are at.
When defending while wearing magical gear or carrying a magical shield, the level of the
magic in the item protects against that many levels of magic (of the same type) in the
attacking weapon. Magical gear also reduces the damage inflicted by spell or prayer
attacks of the same type, and does the same re elemental attacks (e.g. attacks similar to
spells and prayers except they are transmitted by dragon breath or similar means) which
are not affected by defensive spells and prayers. Because more than one magical item of a
given type would interfere with others of the same type, only one magical item of a given
type may be worn at a given time.
Magical weapons and other gear may be enchanted, in which case the enchantment just
increases the level of the magic that is in the item.
The different types of magic which may be found in gear are as follows:
'Soul Chilling' - Inflicts or protects against Priest Essence affects
'Harmful Looking' - Inflicts or protects against Healer Essence affects
'Impressive Looking' - Inflicts or protects against Witch Essence affects
'Natural Looking' - Inflicts or protects against Druid Essence affects
'Pulsing' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Energy
'Glowing' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Light
'Flaming' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Fire
'Ice Cold' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Ice
'Rock Solid' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Earth
'Transparent' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Air
'Shimmering' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Illusion
'Mind Boggling' - Inflicts or protects against Elemental Delusion
ENCHANTED GEAR
Besides the 'enchanted magical' items listed in the previous section, there are various
other enchantments that can be found in enchanted weapons, armor, shields, boots and helms
as follows:
'Killing' weapons: These weapons inflict significantly greater damage (50% of the target's
stamina) when they hit, but only against a specific type of critter, whether it be
demi-humans, animals, undead, evil humans, or any of the various elemental types of
critters. Protection from Killing armor or other gear protects against these types of
weapons in the hands of critters of the given type, and also decreases damage taken from
that type of critter by 50%. Note that, in the hands of critters, all Killing weapons and
other gear are considered to be 'Player Character Killing'.
'Slaying' weapons: These weapons function the same as Killing weapons, but instead inflict
100% of the target's stamina as damage (in other words, they slay the target in one shot).
Protection from Slaying gear defends completely against Slaying weapons in the hands of
the critters of the given type, and also decreases damage taken from that type of critter
by 75%. Similar to Killing weapons and other gear, Slaying weapons and other gear in the
hands of critters are always considered to be 'Player Character Slaying'. Also, note that
Protection from Killing defensive gear will drop the affect of Slaying weapons to that of
Killing weapons. Lastly, there are higher levels of Slaying weapons and defensive gear
that apply to more than one type of critter as follows:
'Intelligence Slaying' - Undead and Evil Humans
'Instinct Slaying' - Demi-humans and Animals
'Change Slaying' - Fire and Ice Elemental Creatures
'Density Slaying' - Earth and Air Elemental Creatures
'Humanoid Slaying' - Undead, Evil Humans, Demi-humans and Animals
'Elemental Slaying' - All Elemental Creatures
'Slaying' - All Creatures
Other Enchantments: There are various other enchantments as follows:
'Bleeding' - Inflicts bleeding whenever it hits. How much depends on how well the weapon
hits. Protection from Bleeding gear protects against this type of weapon and also
eliminates all normal Bleeding.
'Wounding' - Inflicts wounds whenever it hits. How much depends on how well the weapon
hits. Protection from Wounding gear protects against this type of weapon and also
eliminates all normal wounds from occurring.
'Headhunting' - Inflicts a head blow (e.g. Dazed, Stunned, etc) whenever it hits. How much
depends on how well the weapon hits. Protection from Headhunting gear protects against
this type of weapon and also eliminates all head blows occurring normally.
'Knockdowns' - Knocks the target down whenever it hits. Protection from Knockdowns gear
protects against this type of weapon and also eliminates all knockdowns occurring
normally.
'Poison' - Poisons the target when it hits, which causes a continuous reduction in stamina
potentially to the point where the target is dead. How severe the poison affect is depends
on the severity of the hit. Protection from Poison gear protects against this type of
weapon and also eliminates poison affects incurred normally.
'Disease' - Causes the target to become diseased, potentially to the point where they
can't defend themselves. How severe the disease affect is depends on the level of severity
of the hit. Protection from Disease protects against this type of weapon as well as
disease affects occurring normally.
'Blindness' - Causes the target to become blinded, making it unable to attack and
defending at a disadvantage. Protection from Blindness protects against this type of
weapon as well as blindness affects occurring normally.
'Petrification' - Causes the target to become petrified and thus unable to defend
themselves. Protection from Petrification protects against this type of weapon as well as
petrification affects occurring normally.
'Body Injury' - Combines the affects of Bleeding and Wounding.
'Head Injury' - Combines the affects of Headhunting and Knockdowns.
'Illness' - Combines the affects of Poison and Disease.
'Strickness' - Combines the affects of Blindness and Petrification.
'Injury' - Combines the affects of Body Injury and Head Injury.
'Sickness' - Combines the affects of Illness and Strickness.
'Malady' - Combines the affects of Injury and Sickness.
'Damage' - Inflicts 1.4 times the damage that a normal weapon inflicts, with Protection
from Damage gear reducing damage (against all types of critters and this is in addition to
any reduction from Protection from Killing or Slaying gear) by about 30%.
'Destruction' - Same as with Damage except the damage inflicted is twice the normal, and
the damage reduction is 50%.
'Annihilation' - Same as previous two except the damage inflicted is around 2.8 times
normal and the damage reduction is about 65%.
'Death' - Same as previous with damage inflicted at 4 times normal and the damage
reduction being at about 70%.
RINGS
Rings come in two varieties, SKILL rings and SPELL/PRAYER rings.
Skill rings are especially important in the game in that they increase your level
(assuming you have at least L1) in the skill in the ring, by the level of the ring. In
other words, if you have skill in PLATE ARMOR and find a L5 PLATE ARMOR skill ring, your
skill level in PLATE ARMOR will be increased by 5 for all purposes in the game.
Spell/Prayer rings include SENSE, CLEANSE, LOCATE and FIND, and in many cases may not only
be found in the land but may be purchased at appropriate sellers in the land as well.
SENSE is particularly important in that it allows you to determine the level of potions,
amulets, scrolls, armor, and also any special characteristics such as enchantment, etc.
Almost all adventurers where a SENSE ring all the time so they can determine exactly what
treasure they have found.
CLEANSE rings are used to get rid of any darkness or any outstanding sorcerer affects in
the dungeons. They can also be used against a character to remove protection affects, etc.
LOCATE rings are used to determine where a player's gear is if they have lost it due to
getting killed and stripped, or just forgot where they left it, etc. LOCATE rings will
only work for the gear of the player using the ring.
FIND is used to find the corpse of a player that has died. A direction rather than an
exact location is given when this prayer is used.
WANDS, RODS, STAVES
Wands, rods and staves all may contain spells, but the way each works is different. All
may be found in the land, but the only items that may be purchased at the magic store are
blank wands. Wands and staves may contain spells that can be cast, but rods may only
contain spells that emanate an effect.
At the present time, only the design for wands and staves has been completed. The rods
design is TBD.
To understand what spell or spells are contained in a wand or stave, a sense spell at
level 1 must be used. To understand what level the spells are at, a sense spell at the
level of the spells in the item, or greater, must be used.
The determination of whether or not a given character can cast a spell from a wand or
staff is done differently for each. For wands, the character's level in the class skill
pertaining to the spell must be equal to or greater than the level of the spell in the
wand. For staves, one HALF of the character's level in the specific skill pertaining to
the spell is added to the character's level in the class skill pertaining to the spell,
and if this number is greater than or equal to the level of the spell, then the character
will be able to cast it using the staff.
For staves the armor, etc, limitations, as if casting a spell normally, on the caster
apply but for wands they do not. In other words, a character may use a wand regardless of
what armor they are wearing.
Blank wands purchased at the magic store or obtained otherwise may be imbued with spells.
The maximum spell level that a given character can imbue is equal to the lesser of the
character's level in the specific skill pertaining to that spell, and the level of the
wand. The wand is held in the right hand and the command IMBUE is entered on the command
line with the name of the spell to be imbued and, optionally, the level that it is to be
imbued at. If the level is omitted then the character's level in the specific skill
pertaining to the spell is used. The character suffers mana fatigue as if casting the
spell but is otherwise not affected. The wand may be imbued with additional charges of the
same spell up to its total number of allowed charges. This number is a function of the
wand with higher level wands allowing more charges.
For a staff to contain spells, it must be enchanted (for a staff to be enchanted it must
be 'perfectly crafted'… but how such a staff becomes enchanted is not yet known). The
number of spells that an enchanted staff may contain is based on the level of enchantment.
A staff at level 1 may contain one spell and an additional spell is allowed for each
additional level of enchantment. Thus a staff with a level 3 enchantment can contain 3
spells. There is no limit to the level of the spells that can be imbued. The procedure for
imbuing a staff with a spell is exactly the same as for imbuing a wand except that the
staff is held in the right hand.
Unlike wands, staves are not sold at the magic store as they must be perfectly crafted to
be enchanted in the first place and the procedure for enchantment is not generally known.
Thus they must be found in the land. It is rumored that enchanted staves containing
capabilities other than spells may also be found.
AMULETS
In the land there are various mages and clerics that cast attack spells or recite attack
prayers, and there are protection spells and prayers that protect against these attacks.
However, most characters to not have the ability to cast the mage protection spells nor
recite the cleric protection prayers. This is where amulets come in.
There are 4 clerical attack types and 8 mage attack types as follows:
Clerical Affects:
- Mind
- Body
- Soul
- Nature
Mage Affects:
- Energy
- Light
- Fire
- Ice
- Earth
- Air
- Illusion
- Delusion
This is the list of attack types and amulets can be found to protect against each of them.
These can be found anywhere but, the chance of finding a amulet with a given affect is
much greater in areas having mages or clerics that attack with it.
Amulets can also be imbedded in gear. This is not easy and the NPC that is able to do this
must be found in the land. Usually there is a cost associated with this but once this is
paid and the amulet imbedded, both the advantages of the amulet and the gear itself are
gained using just one body slot.
If a character wearing an amulet is attacked with a spell or prayer that is at a level
that is equal to or lower than the level of the amulet, the attack is stopped. However, if
the attack is at a higher level than the amulet, the amulet is destroyed but, the attack
only goes through with whatever levels are left after destroying the amulet. The target
character is then, however, vulnerable to attacks coming through at full strength.
At the point of attack, characters wearing amulets get their 'saving throw adder' added to
the level of the amulet. The saving throw adder comes from class rings and other special
items. An NPC can be found in the land that will tell you what your saving throw is at
that given point in time.
There are other special use amulets that can be found in the land. Sensing these items
will usually give you some feel as to what they are used for.
OTHER SPECIAL GEAR
There are other special items that are worn or carried as follows:
Sashes: These increase the saving throw adder of knights, warriors and mercenaries, with a
given sash for each class.
Monk Headband: This increases the saving throw adder of monks.
Monk Belt: This is an important item for monks. It slightly increases the monk's defense
but the important thing is if the belt is magical or enchanted, the monk hand attacks get
that magic or enchantment when attacking.
Holy Symbols: Only for Priests and Healers, Holy Symbols increase the character's saving
throw adder by the level of the Holy Symbol. This is particularly important because it
raises the level of Priest and Healer prayers by the level of the Holy
Symbol. An additional +1 is gained if the Holy Symbol is held in the right hand.
Witch Hats: These work like Holy Symbols except for Witches. The additional +1 is not
possible.
Druid Headbands: These also work like Holy Symbols except for Druids. The additional +1 is
not possible.
Mage Hats: These also work like Holy Symbols except for the mage classes. A differently
designed hat can be found for each of the mage classes and disciplines (eg. Energy, Light,
Fire, etc). For Mystics, headbands instead of hats can be found.
Robes: Robes can be found in the land for each Cleric class and each Mage
class/discipline. These are important for each class as they increase the character's
defensive level and also, and more importantly, increase the level of their prayers or
spells. A given robe can only be worn by the Cleric class or Mage class/discipline.
Bracelets, Ankle Bracelets, Shirts: These items cannot be found in the land but must
instead be purchased. Once purchased they can have elemental or essence affects,
enchantments and magical affects transferred into them. The main purpose if these items is
to be able to wear a protection that you could not use otherwise (e.g. You find a helm
with a nice enchantment but are already wearing a helm with a nice enchantment. So, you
transfer the enchantment into a shirt and wear the shirt).
Ceremonial Belts, Pants, Bracers: These work like the above items but only elemental and
essence affects, and amulets, can be transferred into them.
Tunics: These work like the above but only elemental and essence affects can be
transferred into them.
It should be noted here that many other transfers are possible, into weapons, armor, monk
belts, robes, hats, holy symbols and most other gear, but there are usually some
restrictions on what can be transferred. One must work with the NPC to find out which
transfers are possible.