Welcome!

As you may or may not know, I have taken on the awesome task of revamping character creation and the newbie zone(s). Part of this process concerns the types of skills new characters have, or, more importantly, don't have. To help out our newest members, I request your creativity in brainstorming new skill ideas for level 1 characters.

These skills could be for every race/class, or just particular to specific races or class. The skills should give the new players options when fighting that have different effects on the low level mobs. For example, I believe Tabaxi's get 'claw' cause they are Tabaxi (cat people).

What other way could you fight someone with no training, besides punching and kicking and clawing? Anything come to mind? Write em' up on the Realmz board: http://www.realm.tempusmud.com/ in the Class section, at post Level 1 skills (Wish's Quest).

Please reply to this post with your ideas.

• wish *

pound, stab

52] Nevermore quest-says, 'What about a 'grapple' skill… giving a chance depending on level to get multiple punches in… not powerful but effienct for a newbie.

/chop

52] Arna quest-says, 'how about hair pull? '

52] minotaurs could trample

52] Sepherus quest-says, 'charlie horse =]

52] Sepherus quest-says, 'riposte?'

-beat

Ram/gore

rush, collide

Newbie Skill Ideas: Ok i'm thinking punch should stay. But it'd be nice if the newbies got a "trip" like skill at an early level, if nothing else it teahes the NEW NEW NEW newbie the concept of a grounded mob. It doesn't have to last that long, like clothesline, where the mob can stand really quickly.

From the few fights i've been in, where i wasn't wielding a sword (which would be every fight i've been in) dodging punches and kicks were most of what i did. So maybe giving newbies a "dodge" command, where they stop attacking and try to dodge the next attack that comes at them. If nothing else, it gives them something to do whilst they wait forever to ill the newbie mobs, if they have no eq.

As far as Racial skills are concerned, here's what i can think of.

Ti'd be cool if racial skills, kind of showcased what that race is know for, elves for int, orcs and minotaurs for str, halflings and tabaxi for their dex, etc.

Orc/Half-Orc: I personally think orcish races, should get bash at level 1. When i think orc I think: big, dumb, bad ass. granted that's not always the case, but a way to showcase the size difference between that of an orc and, lets say a halfling, by letting Orcs use their body size as an advantage in combat.

Halfling: Obviously halflings are like, dextereous and crap, so maybe they could get a skill that shows how agile they are. Gosh, I can't think of something that would do that though. Maybe something where the halfling can run around their enemy in circles and kind of confuse them? maybe cause their hitroll to go down a bit or something…sorry i'm kind of thinking of these off the top of my head.

Tabaxi: I personally like the fact that tabaxi's get claw and bite, it does a good job of showing that while tabaxi are humanoid in a sense, they are also animals and still retain they're um…animal ferocity? It'd be cool for tabaxi to get a "growl" move, like a really crappy intimidate…

Elf/Drow: In all honesty, i can't think of anything to showcase an elf's intelligence, other then like, bore, which would be just lecture with a different name, so it wouldn't be a good idea.

Dwarf: Dwarves might be able to use their stout selfs to take blows a little better? something like "resist" where they get like 5% reduc for a round. That's the best i can think of

Minotaurs: I liked the idea of Mino's using their hooves and horns in combat, i think Gore was mentioned and trample. possibly gore could push you and the mob to another room, so it gives the feeling that you are actually running into something.

I think that covers all races, i did my best in thinking quickly, hope something helps out.

Gas

For thief, I think it would help alot if we put trip down to lvl 1 with punch. It is too weak to seriously be at lvl 18 anyhow IMO.

In general, I see punch, kick, gouge, claw, trip etc as being roughly equal.

Dodge wouldnt be too bad for classes that require dexterity like monk, thi, kni, ranger,barb, or merc. It would be a weaker version of uncanny dodge of course.

We can't give them too many more skills/spells to prctice though without giving them more starting cash, since it is going to take them alot of trains to learn it to any useful point because of the average stats upon creation these days.

Dunno if this could be done with a universal skill or not but the one thing EVERY newbie of ANY class needs more of is Move points. Nothing worse than fighting forever and a day cause they cant hit anything, then run out of moves and cant continue fighting until after they sleep for awhile. As a true newbie i spent a TON of time asleep, and frankly it was mondo boring.

Just my .02 Cents DS

Reading Gasraidh's post reminded me of something else.

The racial modifier thing is pretty cool. Why not give the player a chance to shape their char into what the player likes? After all they are the ones that will be playing them for the next 10 gens or so. Many muds have a base stat sytem where stats cant be lower than like 6, nor higher than 18 and then the racial modifiers come into play. If i wanted a Human barb the racial mort maxes limit me to 18 on anything, but if i wanted a minotaur barb, it could be what? 20 i think the help file says? I would take pretty hard hit on my other stats but that should be my perrogative IMO. We could then do away with the guy in the newbie tower who lets them improve their stats once or twice, since they will be stuck with what they created until they can improve stats via the normal route. Do the magic classes get a bit of mana back when they sacrifice a corpse? If so, maybe the non spell chucker types might get a few move points back if they do? shrug

Replies to various posts…

Orc / Half-orc: having bash at level 1. While I agree with the reasoning that Gasraidh has used, Bash is a really crappy skill to have period. Anything that has a nasty sideaffect like leaving you prone on the ground for an imposed wait state while mobs / people lay into you is bad in my not-so-humble opinion :p So a level 1 character having bash…spells suicide. I actually think orcs / half-orc could potentially have the strike skill. (The only thing I don't like about that is taking away some uniqueness from a class that is already struggling with good skills) Obviously the damage the strike does should be scaled appropriately. Maybe instead of strike they should get 'mighty blow' an improved type of punch that has a chance of knocking the opponent down and possibly out? Again…scale it appropriately, I see no reason that the skill has to become useless as the character levels up.

Halfling: Steal an idea directly from Dragonlance (and later Neverwinter Nights) and give the Halflings a skill called taunt. Halfling taunts target and target flies into a rage and attacks the halfling physically ie Not magically. Give the opponents a save vs something to ignore the affect. Probably only useful against mobs. Again it'd be nice if the skill got harder to resist as the halfling learnt more and more and nastier and nastier taunts.

Elf: (lumping drow in here too) Currently elves get archery (I think so at least the last I checked) which is currently useless (or at least as near to useless as makes no difference) Elves are supposed to be dextrous as well as intelligent, perhaps a "battle dance" skill…passive and allows them to not get hit as often…eww that sounds a bit too much like uncanny dodge. Maybe it increases their chance to hit then..

Dwarves: Allow dwarves the abiltity to drink booze to gain damage reduction without the seriously nasty consequences! I think that would freaken rock! And then give them a skill to brew dwarven spirits…

Minotaurs: You could potentially give minotaurs berserk, it would suit them, however again, it takes away from the barbarian. I think Gore / Stamp / Charge would be good skills for the minotaur, allowing them a usuable set of extra "natural" attacks. Again, I'd like it if they scaled, no reason for them to stop being usuable at high levels.

Sacrificing corpses: All classes currently get mana from the sacrificing of the corpse, perhaps we could get a cascade affect where mana is first replenished and then when this is full, it could then move onto movement… maybe even have it replenish hit points once movement was full…

My apologies for the length of this…actually, y'know what? I'm not apologising at all! :P SO LET IT BE WRITTEN! SO LET IT BE DONE!

Elric said:

"Elf: (lumping drow in here too) Currently elves get archery (I think so at least the last I checked) which is currently useless (or at least as near to useless as makes no difference) Elves are supposed to be dextrous as well as intelligent, perhaps a "battle dance" skill…passive and allows them to not get hit as often…eww that sounds a bit too much like uncanny dodge. Maybe it increases their chance to hit then.."

Maybe "Blade Song"? I'm just borrowing from AD&D as well. Bladesingers were warrior-mages able to blend magic and sword craft in a furious blade dance. Elves are meant to be inately (sp?) magical, aren't they?

I'm not sure what bonus this would give? Something akin to kata but maybe able to be used within combat? shrug

For elves / Drows - Partial invisibility? as in, you can still see them in the "Who" list, but u cant see them in person without bieng a good bit higher then them level wise or some way to see invisible things? For drow, have this only work at night, or in dark places (ie, caves) and for Elves, only in the sun. Depending on how dark/light it is out, make the skill mroe or less pwoerful?

Just the humble thought of Craedric the beautiful (and returned, as of July 13th) fool

hmm, i think that might be a wee bit powerful Craed, if you were an elf being hunted for whatever reason, what better defense then not to show up on the who list, if no one know's you are on, no one can hunt you right?

I think his post mentioned that you would still stay on the who list, and only be invisible to people that were, say, in the same room as you. This would, I assume, have something to do with the fact that drow have dark colored skin, and live underground, and are all sneaky at night and whatnot.

ah i see, just read it fast. my bad craed

dont worry. We're all humans / Humanoids. we all make mistakes (except for Nevermind : ) [always good to compliment your overlords ; )])

hehe .. 'cept when the name is Nevermore.

sry, i was listening to nirvana at the moment. Back from the trip, so hey again all!

Newbies have no way to regenerate move points, and this is the number one reason they do not explore or get frustrated. Nobody wants to play when "You're just too damn exhausted, you freaking noob" is all they see.

Newbies need a way to regenerate movement.

All newbies should get bandage/firstaid free.

Markers should be put in for the newbie zones. i.e.: Newguy newbies, "Where's the silver tower? Somebody told me my wisdom is only 7 and that's bad." You newbie, "Head east to the Silver Signpost, and then south to the door of the Silver Tower, and you should be close. It's inside, up from the Circle of Light, and then south and east to a southern door. Look for the wise old cleric."

or

Newguy newbies, "Where are halflings/hobgoblins/elvens?" You newbie, "For halflings, head east to the Silver Signpost, and then south until you get to the boulder pile. Head east into the village." You newbie, "For the hobgoblins, head north to the broken tree in the road, and then west to the boulder." You newbie, "Oh. Elves are farther north than hobgoblins. Go north to the Elven Bridge, then head a few east over the Na River. It's five north from there."

Things like that.

Wish? Do you still need race specific abilities? Races need more abilities anyway, other than initial attributes.

Merriam

Good comments.

If you have ideas for race-specific abilities, keep em comin'!

• wish *

Dwarves should bite knee caps. I'm kidding. But seriously, what a great way to start a post, eh?

Minotaurs, if horned, should be able to charge or stampede a mob. They should also have a skill (I don't know the name), that scoops up the mob with the horns and flings them into the air–a knockdown skill. Picture a bullfight or the running of the bulls.

Elves should have archery, and it should be useful. Furthermore, rangers should have useful bow spells. But that's not really newbie related.

All newbies need a way to heal. They need some basic skill which does not really improve in effectiveness, but still helps at low level. A 25 hp heal means nothing at level 49, but at level 4 it can mean a lot.

Mortal skill/spell costs should be reduced.

You know how the mangy mutt licks his balls every now and then, and a cityguard talks to a citizen? These random procs on mobs should occur on newbies. Every now and then a newbie should hear, "If you're having questions, you might want to use the newbie channel!" Upon death (and immediately after the resurrection), a newbie should receive a message helping him with issues surrounding it. He should be informed about the retriever, and told that adventurers will sometimes help him retrieve it, etc. This "newbie echo" (and other newbie echos) after initial experiences with death, practicing, equipment usage, and so on, could help the newbie greatly.

Orcs should get the improved punch skill immediately, called smash.

Racial abilities should occur at high levels, or could be given upon remortation. I know I'm thinking of newbie ideas, but I wish races had viable options for the long-term. Elves are resistant to sleep spells (though I think melatonic flood and lecture and the like are not included, sadly–only magical sleeps). Could other races have such viable options? And why can't I think of any?

Tabaxi should get a bonus to dodge, on account of their "catlike reflexes."

Another problem surrounding newbies is that I believe the maxes for stats were lowered, such that I see the crappiest attributes on earth on newbies. I saw something like this earlier today: STR: 11, INT 16:, WIS: 5, DEX: 9, CON: 14, CHA 9 A newbie can't carry anything with 11 strength, and gets very encumbered in battle, thus attacking slow and ineffectively. It's like being slowed for your entire MUD experience. I tried to help give him some items, and he couldn't even carry them after 'dropping all' because his equipment was so heavy that he was at his "max capacity." And the 18/xx strength thing needs to go.

I posted elsewhere, but newbies need help with vitality points, because exploring is limited. The guardian could give them potions or something. That'd be neat.

I wish some newbies who quit would come tell me what was wrong that made em quit :p

Merriam

Wow, this is an old post. Good job resurrecting it Merriam. Personally I really liked my dwarfs drinking idea :P

I think the technical terminology that you want for the minotaur move would be "gore."

I'd just like to chime in that I like the signposts/landmarks idea a lot. It'd be a neat, immersive way to give directions to new players.

Instead of focusing on having damaging skills for 1st level characters it might be nice to have support-type things:

Maybe cooking for halflings, which will create a waybread, but use up a little bit of movement.

Sword-sharpening for dwarves, that will give any slashing or piercing weapon a small attack and/or damage bonus like (+1 to either, or both, depending on practice) for a short period of time. Will only work if the weapon doesn't already have any bonuses on it whatsoever (like a newbie weapon!)

Haggling for humans, to get a small discount at the store.

I'm sure you all get the idea.

Storm, are you still around these days? Elric and Storm, both good ideas! I wish I didn't congratulate you, cause now my name is on it again.. I have too many posts.

I'll just use an alt.

Maxwell