ZOE'S CLASS SPECIFIC NOTES
This section has some things you might want to know about the class of your character in particular. Some of it you may have known for ages, some might be new :) I have to say that my information is restricted to the classes i have played/play. Therefore some classes won't have much information from first hand experience. I will say so in the notes on the class.
BARBARIAN:
-The barb get's extra combat skills (hidden combat adds)from class training, roughly every 3 experience levels, which makes him the earliest and fastest, hardest hitting class in the game.
-The barb has innate resistance to all forms of psi attacks. This feature is referred to as 'ABS', short for 'ABSORPTION' since it strongly resembles the ment disc's effects. This resistance get's stronger with every experience level gained.
-Barbs can buy the most hitpoints from the hitdoc of all classes (up to 580 in Nork).
-Barbs have the ability to go 'beserk'. This is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things to learn to do right in the game. The bonusses of 'zerking' are: 1)you will put all the crit's efforts towards hitting, thereby hitting almost everything almost everytime at 2 even 3 skill levels lower than the required skill level. 2) You are able to automatically drink an IH, even with hands full, when below 30% of your hitpoints. 3) you are able to hit twice in a single round on occasion. 4) at exp level 16 you will gain strength bonuses while zerked, thus hitting harder. 5) at exp level 18 you will gain hitpoint bonusses while zerked up to a total of 135% of your regular hitpoints.
The disadvantages of 'zerking' are : 1) You can't do anything but attack, move and pick up/drop things while zerked. This means you can't talk in game, drink an IH, set a twig, go up/down stairs, etc. 2) You may accidentally hit a friendly character. 3) You may accidentally pick up or break an item that was on the ground.
Guidelines on how to zerk: Always zerk up to frothing. Do not start zerking before you have designated your target. When the target has but 2 parts of heart left, let the zerk start to wear off to prevent accidents. Do not go for the killing blow when zerked (even if only fidgety). When you have a wrong crit targetted, go offscreen and zerk until the message 'You look for another head to smash' shows up. Then return to the fight and target the correct crit again. Avoid zerking on crits that hit for more than 30% of your hits unless there is a healer present.
Most of all, don't think your barb is invincible :)
- Barbs are very poor magic users. Scrolls, rings and twigs don't work too well for them.
- Barb's autobalm (the drinking of IH while zerked as previously mentioned) will go into effect when, and only when: 1) there is IH in sack, 2) you are attacking, 3) you are below 30% of your hitpoints, 4) you have an 'Out Of Control' round.
You will find that up to experience level 25 the amount of 'OOC' rounds are plentifull and AB is pretty reliable.
- At exp 21 a barb becomes virtually stunproof.
- Due to the sheer power of the barb class they have to skill on larger crits at lower skill levels. For example in the 'low level hints' section they will skip the 'griffon skill' part and move straight to the 'minotour skill' part as explained in the 'medium player' section.
FIGHTER:
FIGHTER/MENTALIST:
With my love for this class, my information may become a tad biased. However I will attempt to remain factual.
Most of the notes on mentalist and fighter apply to this class as well. A few differences :
- F/M does not get weapon specialisations.
- F/M does not get the mentalist ep regen bonus at skill 18, nor the disc 'ENERGY LANCE'.
- F/M can wear any armor including seahag, allthough FP does mess up the use of psi like any other psi class. he has the option to not use psi however, which mentalists don't really have.
- F/M is able to buy up to 400 hitpoints from the hitdoc in Nork.
- F/M gains additional attacks and additional combat skills (hidden adds) from class training as a fighter does.
- F/M is able to hunt harder areas much faster than either other class, due to the better defense than mentalists and more varied attacks and prots than the fighter. (I actually managed to survive on m-4 and kill a named ninja at 15/12 solo).
- Contrary to public opinion the F/M is very usefull in lairs. Not just for getting rid of the IH on the ground, killing the zoos surrounding the lair crit and casting prots on the party members (eg ES, ABS and RESP), but also for actually doing damage to the lair crits, using weapon skill or ment skill, and depleting psi user opponents. At higher skill levels F/M can also use their energyspear to stun crits like mentalists do, and do some nice damage in the process. I for one wouldn't like to count the number of times my F/M 'surprisingly' struck the killing blow in a party of sizeable sticks.
- F/M is able to use all magical items (eg heal scrolls, cc scrolls) which makes the class the most versitile in my opinion.
HEALER:
MARTIAL ARTIST:
MENTALIST:
MERCHANT:
This isn't really a class. It's a crit that is classless, hence no specific info applies, except to say that none of the benefits of any class apply to the merchant.
PALADIN:
I have no specific info on this class yet.
THIEF:
My knowledge of this class is limited. I will update it as my character grows.
- A thief gains skill fast at low levels, but training is expensive.
- A thief's hide is directly related to his agility, skill level and the experience level of the crit/person hiding from. Increasing these characteristics will allow the hide to be successful closer to the crit in question as well.
- Thieves from skill 12 on seem to be able to hide from a great many of levels of crits, up to exp 17 on hex in my experience. This means they are able to hunt most nork and maeling dungeons easily, even some small lairs.
- Their backstab (starts at skill 8) becomes the most damaging skill in game. At skill 13, backstabbing with a weapon at skill 12 for example, a crit as large as a frore minotour is killed in a mere 30 blows. This kind of damage basically done while not visible to the victim makes the thief a very amiable class.
Since thief Backstab only works when the target is unable to see you, it is possible to BS at any time the thief can not be seen, ie, fast moving can't be seen (eg, S S Backstab N will work), dark, hide, invis are all friends of the thief class.
- Thieves are able to wear all kinds of armor, including fullplate and I believe even seahag (not sure on this one) without being encumbered. It does however cut down on the amount of agil adds that can be worn (bnr's, camo cloaks).
- The thief's low hitpoints force him to rely on his hiding ability and keeps the class at oneshot-level in many lairs for a very long time. This disadvantage can become very frustrating at higher levels, being able to do damage, being able to get to and into the lair, being able to hide from the lair crit, but being a oneshot as soon as you lose hide after the attack. this keeps many thieves out of lairs, which renders them useless on a great deal of hunts :(
- Thieves become great coiners and looters, and are very helpfull at retrieving items and scouting areas.
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