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Original Gemstone III Dueling Site: Tarhen's Dueling Guide

This is my complete guide to dueling, here you can find some dueling techniques for each profession, as well as where to go to duel and how to go about it.

Basics Of Dueling

Dueling As A Sorceror

Dueling As An Empath

Basics Of Dueling
To duel you need to know a few basic rules:

Most duels occur at the boulder
Always check with your opponet to make sure he understands any special rules(ie. no guild, no implode, ect)
Make sure your opponet is ready before requesting a count down, usually someone will count for you.(counting isn't as important at lower levels, but in some duels the first person to make a move will win)
Make sure you have all your necissary equipment in the right place, armor, shield, weapon, ect.
Never come to the boulder heavily encumbered or with lots of coins, you won't be able to dodge well and your coins will probably disapear.
Don't go to the boulder and expect everyone to stop e-waving, call winding, ect. just because your there
Dont go to the boulder acting like "god", there is always someone there who can kill you, and if you make an ass of yourself they will do it.

Here is an example of a basic swinging duel between a rogue and a warrior:
TrollThwacker(warrior) says," Lets duel CatMaster (rogue)"
CatMaster says," Ok"
TrollThwacker says," we'll go to stun, someone count"
TheCounter recites:
1!
TheCounter recites:
2!
TheCounter recites:
3!
TheCounter recites:
Go!
CatMaster crouches, sweeps a leg at TrollThwacker and connects!!
MS: +100 -MD: +80 + MAvA: 0 +d100: +60== +80
CatMaster whacks TrollThwacker's legs futilely! CatMaster stumbles back on his feet.
TrollThwacker swings a backsword at CatMaster!
AS: +198 vs DS: +65 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +49 = +220
... and hit for 57 points of damage!
Off-balance slash to CatMaster's left arm shatters
his elbow.
*CRUNCH*
CatMaster is stunned!
TrollThwacker exclaims,"I win!!"

RP Fighting
Another form of PvP(player vs player) combat is actual fighting over something, fights are actually alot funner then dueling. I've been in many fights for many different reasons, alot of them were because of the race of one character or another, and others have been because someone came to the boulder acting like an ass, as well as some that started simply because I didn't like a character. If you fight anywhere besides the boulder you have to be careful not to get OOC, the GMs don't seem as restrictive on fighting on the boulder as far as the RP goes. Several people have been told by GM Andraste to take their fights to the boulder. Fighting doesn't involve any rules, anything goes, the only rules are the ones in the policy. These are some things that you get into trouble with the policy for alot of the time, but not always.

Casting mass damage spells in populated areas
Killing a player with another character that wasn't involved in the conflict
Harassing a player who you have killed and now wishes to be left alone
Casting area effect spells(ie. e-wave, call wind, quake, tremors, sanct, song of noise, ect.) excessively.
Dragging bodies away to decay or attacking characters trying to help those bodies(Every time I have witnessed this happen there was usually atleast a warning involved, and alot of lockouts)

Dueling As A Ranger

Rangers are my favorite profession in GSIII and probably will remain my favorite for a long time to come. Alot of this is because of their ability to compete against any profession of the same level. I rolled Tarhen for the express purpose of engaging in PvP and CvC, but you can be competitive without rolling to duel. Some of the more important spells for dueling at high levels are 616(spike thorn), 615(call swarm), 618(mobility), and 117(spirit strike)608, 612, and 607 will also prove useful. Against Warriors

Never go blow for blow, warriors can take alot more hits.
Immediatly hide if you expect them to use a warcry or tackle first thing
Don't try and ambush unless your sure you can stun them

Against Clerics

Make sure you have all your warding up, some clerics can cast fairly high
Keep your group closed, a swinging cleric loves to hold your hand and use 317 which will force you to offensive and subtract as much as 35 from your DS.

Against Sorcerors

Always have up mobiles to help dodge e-waves/quakes
Never try and swing at a sorceror unless your dueling at a low level or have lowered their DS considerably( with swarm/sounds), their DS will probably be too high
If the sorceror has implode, and you didn't agree to a no implode/no spike duel, immediatly spike, more then likely the sorceror will immediatly implode, or e-wave and then implode

Against wizards either spike or wait for them to try and bolt and swing before they stance back if you can, or you can attempt to use 615 and then swing.
Use the same ideas against rogues as against warriors, except hiding won't be as effective.
Bards normally pose little threat, they do have rather high AS and DS but shoudln't be able to ward you, just stance dance with them until an opening presents itself, or use 615 or 607 to lower their DS enough to hit. Watch out for song of noise which will stop your spells alot if they're close enough to you in level. 117 can be useful in duels where you can't use 616 or 615.
Empaths rarely duel, and one of their few effective tactics against a same lvl opponet is to 125 and then sanct, this is useless against rangers because 612 can be used in a sanct to dispell the cloud.

Dueling As A Wizard

Wizards are fairly good duelers, at low levels 906 and 910 are your only effective spells, 912+910 against most opponets before 30 will be deadly if they fail to dodge the call wind effectively.
Against warriors and rogues you should probably be very quick whatever you do, if you need time to prepare an attack going invisable first thing is a good plan. Always have up 514 when you duel, it will be a life saver against tackles, e waves, sweeps, ect.
A good way to beat unspelled warriors and rogues is to go invis. and then use rapid fire 409 until the target is stunned or dead.
Boil is a very overused attack and is easily dodged, my lvl 30 ranger has dodged 10+ consecutive boils from wizards 10 levels higher then him, boil should only be used when the target is proned, or when your sure the target will be encumbered.

Against sorcerors in a no implode/no boil duel your best bet is to dispell them some and then 912, this will lower their DS by over 100 because of the -50 penalty for being prone as well as the 50 they will lose when the wind kills their 102 and then it will stance them up, a good bolt should finish them, use 904 if you can't get through with a regular bolt, 904 will bypass blues.

Dueling As A Warrior
Against Sorcerors, Wizards, Rogues, Rangers, Clerics, Bards, and Empaths.

Warcry, or Tackle. A warrior basicly loses if they dont have guild against casters, you can still beat other pure fighters fairly easy because they wont be using guild either.
If you want to duel, and wasted all your time working on Bashing Barrier and Warrior Tricks( I played a friends warrior who had 60 BB ranks, and 30 WT ranks, and about 6 warcry and tackle ranks) then hope your in voln, because voln fu is about your only hope.
Thats about all I know to do with a warrior, you just don't have alot of options as a warrior.

Dueling As A Cleric
Dueling Against Fighter Types

Blind and Bind are very useful, and both will reduce the opponents DS considerably, then you can just swing
Warding Rangers and Bards may be a bit tough, you may just want to stance dance with them until you get a good hit, or use the old hold hand and Zealot trick

Dueling Against Casters

Sorcerors will be a big problem, you may be able to hit them if your in the Evil Society, otherwise you'll probably be stuck with the 317 trick.
Id suggest requesting a no implode/maelstrom duel against sorcerors and if not atleast put up 207, it helps a little.
The same goes for wizards, who can hit you much easier then a sorceror could without implode. 904 will eat through about 75 of your DS and it can still stun even against brigand.
Put up Prayer(313) before dueling a wizard to help you dodge boils.

Dueling As A Bard

Song of noise is useful against casters. Wastes alot of mana for them.
Just use your spells against a warrior, since so many bards have different spell plans, its up to you to figure out what your going to use.
If you have 400's, e-wave can be useful, but don't expect them to stay down for longer then 5-10 seconds if they are close to your level.

Dueling As A Sorceror

Using implode every duel first thing is pretty weak. However if your dueling a warrior who is using a warcry first thing and has a ton of spells, you probably have little choice
702 is still a good spell, its very good for a cheap stun since it hardly ever crits anymore.
Try casting 708 on a person until all their limbs are gone on the boulder, the results are rather amusing

Dueling As An Empath

Making an empath who can actually duel will take alot of time and patience.

One of the few ways I can think of for an Empath to win a real duel is to use 125 and sanct, so either the person has to run and lose by default, or die.

Another way is an empath who is trained in ranged weapons and has up to 1130,117, and 215.