User:DAID/Sandbox

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Welcome to my playground!

I just finished my guide on magically opening boxes, now located at Popping boxes. Want to get all the 416 messages for disabled traps.

Alchemy notes

Notes for myself to keep my buying list straight. However, I have considered making a guide, Having Fun With Alchemy so I might as well stick stuff here.

Cheating

We wonder when we wrote this here

  • Keep asking the arcane masters for a recipe until they give you one you prepared a recipe for. The only loss is the time they take to ask you.

Skills

  • As for extracting, I completely missed Murdroot extract for years. That's a really easy one!

Present

NB: When 'Present' means "Some time ago when I had almost mastered alchemy, and then had a frontal lobotomy kthx " Now I make elemental soulstones and inky black potions, as well as some other things when I get bored. (Kaldonis, Grandmaster Alchemist)

Future

Consignment Locations

Alchemical consignments are like pawnshops except for alchemy reagents. Like the pawnbroker, they will also sell items they purchase on tables. They will only stock up to three (3) of a specific reagent at any one time on the table; however, depending on your location, you might be able to check more than one table. Although you will get kicked out of the consignment table area for loitering too long, you can (and should) visit one or more times per day if you need to hoard up reagents for your present list of recipes.

Below is a consolidation of Alchemy Shops in tabular form, including room numbers for the emporium tables. These locations are typically nearby the lich tag for ;go2 consignment but this tag will only take you to the nearest location.

Shop Region Lich ID
'Tain't Much Magic Northern Caravansary 9280
Darbo Phoop's Arcane Outfitters Solhaven 9398
Alchemist's House Wehnimer's Landing 6257
Sorena's Emporium Icemule Trace 13056
Marble House Mist Harbor 16471
The Waggler's Warehouse Zul Logoth 9565
Elantaran's Magic Supply Ta'Vaalor 10366
Ta'Illistim Alchemy Supply Ta'Illistim 13053
Raechaer's Alchemical Supplies Cysaegir 17164
Lomara's Supernatural Supplies River's Rest 11004
Thistleberry's Hut Kharam Dzu ?
Mystigoggles Consignment Kraken's Fall 28944

Kaldonis's Standard Well-Rounded Sorcerer Guide

NOTE: This is largely deprecated, as A beginner's guide to playing a sorcerer is quite good.

This is a sandbox of a basic sorcerer build guide. However, owing to substantial debates relating to topics like Perception, Physical Training, Spell Aiming, and Sorcerer Base ranks, at present I want to work on this in my own sandbox, and probably just make my own guide so that I don't have to deal with a majority-rules approach to sorcery even if some of the wisdom is deprecated by one or two decades of knowledge.

The guide does not claim that a path outside the one outlined herein is not viable. However, it shows a way, with plenty of points available for taste, that a sorcerer could always be viable.

The prime tenant of this build is that we reject the necessity to triple train Spell Research to further the Sorcerer Base, which trades vast training point expenditures in a huge sacrifice for minor perks in additional CS. That approach is boring, antiquated, negligent, and most importantly a build the community needs to reject as unsustainable for the class as a whole. It is unsustainable because its an adage of old from GSIII, which is a prime reason creature TDs for the Sorcerer Base are so high in modern times, which results in a positive feedback loop; positive feedback loops cannot be sustained!

As long as this is a soapbox, it should be stated that this guide prefers further and extreme nerfing to overtraining in a single spell circle to acquire CS. The irony of all this is that the approach is mostly used by characters of dark elves, who already have something like a 340/0 PTP advantage in CS when it comes to overtraining the Sorcerer Base to other races. Players of other races tend to be a minority but manage to adopt a more sane view, despite the fact they are the ones who actually benefit more from Sorcerer Base ranks owing to the disparity from stat bonuses. (This paragraph probably does not belong in the guide as it has a strong bias and has a very antagonistic attitude...even more than the previous paragraph.)

Core skills (trained on a per-level basis):

This standard and well-rounded path uses 17/43 training points per level, which even without further training is sufficient for success. Fortunately, it does not come too close to allocating all of a character's training points, and allows reasonable wiggle-room for individual taste while staying inside a standard build.

Threshold skills

Armor Use is only need at 4 ranks if full leathers are worn, and no ranks if robes are used instead. MOC can be discussed later, but only a few ranks, or using an Adv Guild badge is fine. Climbing and Swimming I can take from my work on Paladins since it affects sorcerers the same. We may also want Survival for characters near IMT, etc.

If a sorcerer uses the above core skills, it should be impossible to embark on a mutant or otherwise compromised training path, with intention or by accident. However, as the core skills do not allocate all the character's training points, some basic suggestions and guidelines are offered for maximizing the most gain out of the remaining training points.

Lore training can be expected to occupy a number of training points. 1 rank of Necromancy is easy and opens the Blood Burst (701) health gain effect at a minimal of cost. Demonology, necromancy, and Summoning are all good. Expand on this more carefully later.

Overtraining spells is not a bad idea, once these core skills are achieved. At low levels, this is generally better to diversify in MnS and MnE than pump Sorcerer Base (except the first 30 days). Sorcerer Base can even go below 1x while total Spell Research goes past 2x to achieve notable spells like 425, 430, 120, etc.

Arcane Symbols is a definite favorite to put more ranks in, owing to Scroll Infusion (714). The benefits of a good scroll collection, strong infusion ability, and long duration of spells cast from scrolls, is likely to outweight almost any other skill, at a mere cost of an additional 0/4 per level.

Spell Aiming training will need a clear, lucid, and compelling argument. The idea is that it affects: 708, 710, 713, 720, 111, 118; these can be supplemented with wands, too. It's known that Spell Aiming is a "2x or go home" skill. But sorcerers already convert PTPs as a general rule, and actually the skill is quite cheap. The main advantages here, among many others, is that the Sorcerer Base warding spells are generally rubbish when it comes to group hunting and invasions, where in contrast ball spells using Spell Aiming really shine. It's also the case of how "maximizing CS against all else" is flawed; Spell Aiming not only opens bolt spells, but also Maelstrom and Focused Implosion. Thus the claim that some creatures have high sorcerer base TD and require over-trained Sorcerer Base CSes is misguided, since any well-rounded sorcerer would immediately have two other options (bolt or implode) to deal with the situation, even at a fair minimum of cost (2x Spell Aiming vs. 3x Spell Research: at level, it's +(3/16) CS vs. a full slew of utility!!!) 708 is also somewhat unique utility, and the TD change is vastly better than anything Spell Research could offer for CS gain, although only for this spell. 710 is also known to be good in the levels like 20-30, but this mostly points out that 2x Spell Aiming is important even early on.

Perception needs also points. This includes all of the MnE that help for Popping boxes where this skill is critical. Illusions. Creature maneuver defense. And we are #1 suck at foraging.

Piercing Gaze Magically Disabled Trap Messages

Fire Vial: Looking closely into the keyhole of the lock, you spy a tiny hammer device and several splinters of glass.

Also tossed some quick notes on realm ending points for teleportation...

Now I'm going to start a draft page on my own character, because I'm conceited.

Realm Ending Points

To clean up later, using Lich ID numbers or something, but should be useful to know the precise breaking points of realms for various intrarealm teleport (gold rings, 130, 225, Travel Song, Planar Shift, etc etc etc). See eg Kastrel's Planar Shift Guide Realm Colors as note the places with the same color are the same realm.

Straight from my runebook:

1. a set of squiggly aquamarine "beq-beq-sh-gy-op" sigils [Solhaven, North Market]
2. a set of circular aquamarine "beq-beq-sh-gy-th" glyphs [Solhaven, Liabo Plaza]
3. a set of angular aquamarine "beq-zi-op-op-zi" glyphs [Vornavis, Broken Tower]
4. a set of curving slate grey "beq-eks-pu-jil-ka" glyphs [Northern Caravansary, Stockade]
5. a set of angular aquamarine "beq-noj-eda-wo-zi" runes [Redwing Spire, Planning Room]
6. a set of twisting aquamarine "zi-ka-fs-pu-rov" signs [Solhaven, South Market]
7. a set of circular aquamarine "zi-ka-fs-so-th" sigils [Solhaven, Beacon Tower]
8. a set of twisting slate grey "beq-eks-pu-jil-rov" glyphs [Northern Caravansary, Green]
9. a set of curving slate grey "beq-eks-pu-jil-ka" glyphs [Northern Caravansary, Stockade]
10. a set of curving stone grey "ul-str-ka-rov-ve" glyphs [Plateau, Flynth River]
11. a set of spiraling stone grey "ul-str-ka-rov-ch" symbols [Tor Aganrahk, Switchbacks]
12. a set of broken stone grey "beq-eks-eks-fs-so" glyphs [Zortahg's Spine, Highroad]
13. a set of sinuous stone grey "beq-eks-eks-pu-lu" symbols [Stoneharrow Swale, Roadway]
14. a set of broken stone grey "beq-eks-eks-pu-eda" glyphs [Stoneharrow Swale]
15. a set of jagged ash grey "beq-eks-so-mer-beq" symbols [Cairnfang Pineforest, Bridge]
16. a set of curving aquamarine "beq-eks-gy-rov-gy" symbols [Marshtown, Glok's Pier]


1. a set of squiggly twilight grey "mer-pu-jil" glyphs [Wehnimer's, Land's End Rd.]
2. a set of squiggly twilight grey "mer-th-jil" runes [Town Square Central]
3. a set of jagged twilight grey "aq-beq-beq" glyphs [Town Square, Small Park]
4. a set of twisting twilight grey "ve-fs-gy-rov" sigils [Courtyard]
5. a set of broken twilight grey "im-op-eda" symbols [Graveyard, Crypt]
6. a set of curving twilight grey "rov-qom-eda-gy" sigils [Lysierian Hills, A Small Shrine]
7. a set of angular twilight grey "rov-ac-so-sh" sigils [Monastery, Misty Chamber]
8. a set of jagged twilight grey "es-hee-so-mer-eks" sigils [Inside the Glacier]
9. a set of sinuous twilight grey "ve-rov-ty" glyphs [Foothills]
10. a set of thin twilight grey "ul-qom-str" symbols [Baker's Shop, Alcove]
11. a set of broken twilight grey "ty-qom-eda" glyphs [Spider Temple, Near Altar]
12. a set of twisting twilight grey "ty-ac-fs-pu" glyphs [Sea Caverns, Stagnant Pool]
13. a set of sinuous twilight grey "es-hee-lu-ty-lu" signs [Temple, Crypt]
14. a set of twisting twilight grey "mer-th-pu-qom" glyphs [A Faint Path]
15. a set of circular twilight grey "es-gy-rov-ve-mer" sigils [Locksmehr River, South Dock]
16. a set of squiggly twilight grey "es-hee-so-mer-jil" runes [Glatoph, Glacier]
17.
18.
19.
20. a set of thin twilight grey "pu-ty-wo" runes [Abandoned Inn, Ruined Workshop]


1. a set of squiggly frosty white "ul-str-gy-aq-jil" glyphs [Icemule Trace, Town Center]
2. a set of sinuous frosty white "beq-es-so-mer-ul" symbols [Abandoned Farm, Garden]
3. a set of jagged frosty white "beq-es-eks-noj-beq" signs [Ice Plains, Shrine]
4. a set of angular frosty white "beq-hee-op-op-sh" runes [Northern Slopes, Rocky Incline]
5. a set of spiraling frosty white "beq-hee-op-op-aq" glyphs [Northern Slopes, Rock Ledge]
6. a set of angular frosty white "ul-str-so-fs-sh" glyphs [Tartifacts, Balcony]
7. a set of curving ghostly white "ul-str-pu-jil-ka" glyphs [Glatoph, Glacier Chasm]
8. a set of squiggly ghostly white "ul-str-pu-jil-im" runes [Snowy Plains, Bridge]
9. a set of squiggly pearly white "ul-str-pu-qom-jil" glyphs [Snowy Plains, The River]
10. a set of squiggly pearly white "ul-str-pu-ty-op" runes [Blue Glacier, Mountain Pass]
11. a set of squiggly bone white "ul-str-pu-fs-im" glyphs [Icemule Trail, Tundra]
12. a set of spiraling bone white "ul-str-pu-ay-aq" symbols [Icemule Trail, Snowy Forest]
13. a set of sinuous frosty white "beq-es-sh-im-ty" symbols [Icemule Trace, Forest]

Kaldonis Harvest-Moon

Kaldonis hails from a small farming community near the outskirts of Icemule Trace, typical of his Paradis ancestry. A product of his environment, he has experienced a sequence of traumas in life, beginning with the destruction of his village and most of the Harvest-Moon clan. A wandering band of sylvans took him in, with whom he traveled far, learning about the Lady Imaera, the shaping flesh to suit any purpose, and spiritual magic. Out gathering herbs one day far from the camp, he was kidnapped by a group of Faendryl for experimentation, including being sent to Lorae'tyr on numerous occasions, complicating any attempt to quantify his time in captivity. His service to the dark elves terminated upon his escape by squirming into an unstable interplanar rift. Already missing some extremities and exiting well above the ground, he landed abruptly in Kharam Dzu with a sickening thud. Unable to discern any apparently useful information amidst his endless screams and prognostications for the future, he was escorted by the local dwarves to Teras Asylum in short order, where he remained for some decades. His stay there did little to cure, and likely only added to, his tormented mental condition. His strange fascination with the smell of socks found him one day in a laundry bag, leading to his inadvertent release back into the world...

He has been hiding in exile in River's Rest ever since.

Views on Demonology

Having spent significant amounts of time with minor demons while in captivity, in particular imps and shien, Kaldonis holds an educated and empathetic view towards these creatures. He possesses a rather unusual wealth of knowledge for our plane, including being able to draw from memory several uncommon summoning runes. He also quickly realized that considering all beings from other planes evil as the result of the Undead War would be similar to considering Truefolk evil for being co-inhabitants of Elanthia with the likes of dark elves and dwarves. He also points out that the Paradis clan originated by separating from the other halfling cultures to found Icemule Trace, owing to disgust and shame with their allegiance with such vile and brutish creatures from this and other planes, and yet Icemule Trace is the only city in Elanthia where minor demons are entirely legal.

When the First Common Edition of the Enchiridion Valentia was published in 5103, Kaldonis had to ensure history would follow its proper course by allowing humans to retain their ridiculous superstitions. Thus, he went into a league of mischief with his longtime demonic collaborators, inconveniencing greedy people by dropping especially loving items (so-called "cursed") here and there which they had difficulty selling. Within a short time, he was ejected from the Sorcerer Guild, and the town of Wehnimer's Landing passed an ordinance outlawing demonic summoning. Although such laws originated primarily from the interests of would-be merchants rather than serious concerns for public safety, many other towns heard bad rumors and quickly followed suit. Prior to these legal changes across Elanthia, membership in the Sorcerer Guild was unfavorable to many, as the monthly dues did not seem justified for paltry parlor tricks. Kaldonis suspects a sizable fraction of Sorcerer Guild funding lines the pockets of influential politicians so that the guild can continue to justify its existence.

Dietary Preferences

Kaldonis's metabolism never fully recovered from the inadequate foodstuffs provided in his past. To survive he had to consume whatever fungi grew in the dank and dark holes he was locked in. Although these molds largely eradicated his taste buds, he observed they seemed to demotivate the dark elves from consuming his limbs while feeding him a diet full of sovyn. Unfortunately, dealing with Faendryl over such vast epochs, many fell ill and met their demise to inexplicable fungal toxicity. His developed love for any and all mushrooms and molds probably explains the emergence of his peculiar fondness for the scent of used socks.

Since his re-introduction to society, he can often be found rooting around for and munching on such delicacies as blue trafel, daggerstalk, softwhite, and trollfear mushrooms. Unlike many of his more well-fed cousins, he will not usually eat donuts, tarts, muffins and the like unless they are at least partially stale, and greedily devours ones which provide thriving colonies of mold.

Appearance

You see Keeper Kaldonis Harvest-Moon the Witch Doctor.
He appears to be a Halfling.
He is diminutive and appears to be decrepit with age. He has hazy mismatched violet and green eyes and waxy sallow skin. He has ankle-length, knotted silvery white hair with a large bald spot. He has an emaciated face and large feet.
He has a tattooed rendition of a large-pupiled eye on his forehead, a series of numbers boldly inked on the back of his neck, and a tattooed Faendryl pentagram on his wrist.
He is in good shape.
He is holding a flame-etched ebonwood staff capped with a rusty doorknob in his right hand.
He is wearing a sunshine yellow wide-brimmed wicker hat with woven golden daffodils and sunflowers cascading down the sides, a sickly faewood mask grossly contorted into a scream, a pulsating blue sunstone earring, a starched white ritual robe covered with a thick layer of black soot, an oversized silk cloak with muddy footprints stamped about the hem, a blood-eagle feather talisman, a moonflower amulet covered with a blue crystal carapace, a golden brown acorn amulet, a harvest moon charm, a deep crimson silk sash, a gore-covered troll-leg backsheath, a polished maple baby rattle, a mithril chain wristlet, a hoary green tourmaline band, a braided leather rope belt with an ink-black ribbon woven into the braids, a snap-top small metal case, an inky black pouch intricately woven with verlok feathers and clasped with a polished runestone button, and some mismatched black and grey socks sporting a large hole in one toe.

OOC Harvest-Moon family history

Just copy/pasting this from the official forums, in hopes one day I'll get my shit together.


Sometime I want to formally write everything down about what has now become the Harvest-Moon clan, probably on GSGuide. I've some text files floating around, and some initial attempts on my KP user sandbox. But if I'm being honest, then part of the problem is that not only has the history of my character been somewhat fluid over the years (especially early on), but some things are not even decided or known to me. For the former, it's just a fact of trying things, finding they didn't work, and changing my mind. For the latter, it's less a lack of creativity or ideas and more because I don't necessarily like to set things down and decide them too early. I also don't really like telling people the OOC version of Kaldonis, either, since it's kind of spilling the beans, but here goes...at least as a general outline from my perspective as the player.

Kaldonis started out with the simple concept: "I want to try to make and play a crazy character." I've always played short races (see being 6'8" in real life), and a halfling sorcerer seemed like the oddest combination of class and race available in GS3. This was definitely a good decision for me as a player, because Kaldonis has always been really interesting and challenging to play, and I'm always trying harder. At first, he worshipped Zelia ('Harvest-Moon' was conceived as a reference to this), but this quickly seemed too canned for me, and further didn't make much sense because a truly crazy person wouldn't know or believe they are crazy. He went through a Luukosian phase but this definitely didn't work out, and it was more like being evil than insane.

His basic backstory was his small farming village burned down in early childhood (this is why, until recently, he was the only Harvest-Moon left) and being taken in by a band of wandering sylvans. Since halflings are often good with elemental magic naturally, and many sylvans are frequently empaths, it was a simple construct to justify insanity as well as knowledge of both spiritual and elemental magic. Once necromancy was released, everything fell into place. His name is Harvest-Moon, he's raised largely by sylvans, and one can definitely bend Imaera's being "the mistress of shaping flesh, bone, and plant to suit any need" into a wonky idea with necromancy. Of course, there's Imaera's "direct opposition to the twisting and deformation of life forms practiced by some of the Dark Gods," but this hardly need stand in the way of an insane halfling from making his own interpretation.

He's always hated dwarves, since I figured he did a stint in the Teras Asylum, but other than that, I wasn't sure really how he learned sorcery specifically, or how he got from somewhere near Icemule Trace to Teras Isle, either.

Then I figured, hey, why not have him out gathering herbs one day and getting kidnapped by some evil dark elves. Whether they were Dhe'nari or Faendryl I never fully decided, since they exhibit characteristics of both, but the weasel way out of that decision is to just say that Kaldonis didn't know where he was or who they were. Of course, deciding that the dark elves would abduct a halfling for experimental and culinary purposes, caging him with demons and variously chopping off his limbs and feeding him sovyn clove, that was an easy thing for me to conclude. And by years of observation, he could learn some secrets of sorcery, too (among them, lots of uncommon demon runes, yay!). Well, that was easy, I thought, so now, how do I get him to Teras Isle? I guess one day he isn't being properly supervised, and leaps into an unstable planar rift, teleporting him to Teras by mistake. The dwarves find him naked and raving conspiracy theories, no surprise he got carted off to the loony bin.

His earliest alteration was being the first person to poke some merchant who was hiding in town. I literally had only junk and no clue at all about my character, so while I was waiting for the game to finish, I went and killed a kobold, found "some yellow socks" and got them made into "some mismatched black and grey socks sporting a large hole in one toe". (Incidentally, those are now +5 DB and have closing pockets: best socks in Elanthia!). So I figured he escaped from Teras Asylum in a laundry bag after that, and that seemed like a credible enough back story to go with.

But some summer in undergrad, I must have gotten bored playing Kaldonis. I remember when I was in high school, my friend and I saw some red thrak hide sweater (that was really altered half plate) and some "halfling-sized" pit flail being variously sold, and we were like, "Someone really needs to be the halfling Flail who flails and kills with a hafling-sized flail, while wearing a red sweater." You can see I put tons of thought into the characters I create at the outset. So that was a warrior I got to level 20, and got bored of. More recently, I converted him to a paladin (since I wanted Divine Word and it was at least a goal), and taking advantage of the family name sharing possibility, elected him as a member of the Harvest-Moon clan. But all the Harvest-Moons were supposed to be killed off...how do I get out of that contradiction?

Oh, I've got it! When he was being experimented on by the dark elves, because of the Basilica and the threat of execution, they sent Kaldonis to Lorae'tyr a lot of times instead of going themselves; Kaldonis must just be from the future because of time dilation in Lorae'tyr and that final unstable rift he stepped into, and Flail is just some ancestor of his from the past. Of course, for the dark elves to do this, mostly they need to be sending him to abyran temples, otherwise they couldn't bring him back consistently in their time line to question him. It can pretty much be justified, because Kaldonis didn't personally have to breach Shieltine's Ward, and it was just some unknown dark elves who were doing it in secret; those dark elves are from the future, anyway, so that's the catch-all answer for everything I suppose. But this only seemed to make more questions. Why would dark elves want to send Kaldonis to various stone temples in Lorae'tyr? There was also the long-standing issue of a Paradis halfling summoning demons anyway, since that clan split off after the Undead War explicitly because of their shame in alignment with demonic summoners (although, ironically, Icemule, founded by Paradis, does not have laws against demonic summoning). Anyway, the Book of Tormtor is only assumed to have been destroyed by an implosion. But the legend Kaldonis heard was that the dark elves confiscated it, and eventually hid it in a specific temple in Lorae'tyr, and that's the information they are seeking, which is the real reason for the ban and monitoring of travel to Lorae'tyr. It also nicely ties up the natural question of why no dark elves followed him and tried to re-capture him when he went to Teras Isle. One question, for sure, was answered, which is why I have a Kaldonis in Platinum and have always jokingly referred to the main one as "Kaldonis Prime" as if he was a Transformer; SimuCoin age-resetting potions, make Kaldonis Platinum younger! (Whenever I get around to playing Platinum again, anyway...)

Recently I've been training Kaldonis in lockpicking (kind of always wanted that because of escaping from Teras Asylum), so I had a lot more reason to play Flail the last couple weeks, since he can get boxes for Kaldonis to pick. So now I've definitively placed Flail into a pretty intricate back story of another character (and am actually playing him at all), and I'm trying to decide where to go from there. At least I managed to get them to look kind of like they are related:

>You see Flail Harvest-Moon. >He appears to be a Halfling. >He is tiny and appears to be decrepit with age. He has mismatched haon grey and lavender eyes and sallow skin. He has raggedly cut, unruly white hair and a graphite wool flap cap with demon-cut diamond-buttoned ear flaps worn at a rakish angle. He has large feet.

>You see Kaldonis Harvest-Moon the Witch Doctor. >He appears to be a Halfling. >He is diminutive and appears to be decrepit with age. He has hazy mismatched violet and green eyes and waxy sallow skin. He has ankle-length, knotted silvery white hair with a large bald spot. He has an emaciated face and large feet. >He has a tattooed rendition of a large-pupiled eye on his forehead, a series of numbers boldly inked on the back of his neck, and a tattooed Faendryl pentagram on his wrist.

Got any ideas to add to this jamboree of madness?

~daid (player of Kaldonis)

PS: Flail's real name is Marlenot, and if you know the whereabouts of that pit-flail or red sweater, you should definitely tell me. And for Kaldonis, you can perhaps understand why writing a character history from the first person point of view is a major challenge! The problem is, I've made such a crazy backstory for him that Kaldonis himself winds up being pretty sane to me by now, ugh.

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