Warrior Guild/FAQ

Official Warrior Guild FAQ 1.0

April 23, 1997

by Giacomo

PLEASE direct further questions to the GemStone III message center, under the general guild or Warrior Guild topic.

HOW DO I JOIN?

Approach the entrance of the Warrior Guild and try to enter it (GO DOOR, GO PORT, etc.). You will be informed what the requirements are to join.

Also READ the plaque that's posted at the entrance. This will tell you what the initiation fee is and how much the monthly dues are.

Once you meet the requirements, find a Guild Master and ask to be initiated. Your best bet is to bother the NPC Guild Master who can be found on the Guild campus (unless he/she is running errands).

Dues are paid monthly, and you will automatically lose membership when your dues are unpaid more than three months. You may only use the guild skills while you are an active member.

I'M NOT A WARRIOR, CAN I JOIN?

Currently, the guilds are limited to their respective professions. This means, rogues can't join the Warrior Guild and warriors can't join the Wizard Guild.

The plan is to allow joining any guild once all professions have a guild of their own. However, level bonuses to skills will only apply to members of the same profession, and training will be more difficult for those joining guilds outside their profession's guild. And, of course, Guild Masters can only be the same profession as the guild.

WILL I BE ABLE TO JOIN A HOUSE AND SOCIETY, TOO?

Yes, Virginia. You'll be able to join one of each type of organization: Guild, House and Society. For help with House and Society, see those topics in the message base.

WHAT BENEFITS DOES THE WARRIOR GUILD OFFER?

If you're looking for a way to become the character with the best numbers in combat, look elsewhere. The Guild System is designed as a largely role-playing tool, giving you camaraderie, a list of skills to make your character more unique, and opportunities to take on leadership roles.

As such, the skills you learn in the Warrior Guild may give you different ways to engage in combat, but may not necessarily be better. The combat benefits you do get from Warrior Guild skills may even seem unworthy of the effort to learn, but hey--when's the last time you got an AS boost from role-playing?? And at least with the Warrior Guild, when you're beating your head against a wall, it may actually do some damage to the WALL. :)

Currently, there are six skills: Disarm, Berserk, Warrior Tricks, Tackle, War Cries and Batter Barriers. See the next section for more detailed descriptions.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE INDIVIDUAL SKILLS?

DISARM: Use your weapon to knock your opponent's weapon away. Then hack them into bits while they recover their bearings.

BERSERK: A controlled rage that will get you an AS bonus at higher ranks. You will automatically chase your foe until they die. Leap to your feet when knocked down. At higher ranks, you will be able to shorten stuns, immobility (fear, binding) and webs.

WARRIOR TRICKS: A collection of miscellaneous skills, largely flashy weapon play to impress your comrades and foes alike. Some you'll find quite useful. You'll have to find out for yourself what the 20 tricks are.

TACKLE: Attempt to knock over your foe, and wind them badly enough to keep them from getting up for a few seconds, possibly even stunning. Failed attempts will leave you in a kneeling position.

WAR CRIES: Battle cries that can have a negative effect on your opponent and a positive effect on your comrades. You'll have to discover what the six cries do on your own.

BATTER BARRIERS: Break open locks on chests and doors.

WHAT AFFECTS MY SUCCESS WITH THESE SKILLS?

DISARM: A successful disarm consists of two parts: a skill maneuver roll to gain opportunity for the disarm, and a Maneuver Attack.

Your skill maneuver roll takes your skill bonus, level bonus (equal to your level if you are a warrior, non-warriors get no bonus), minus wounds and CP damage penalties, minus 50 for not standing, and plus 50 for stance offensive (subtract 20 for each stance lower than offensive; stance defensive is -50). An open-ended roll is done, the normal armor hindrance penalty is applied (including armor training and encumbrance penalties), and the Mobility spell is added.

The Maneuver Attack (MA) is like a warding spell attack. Your offensive bonus is called Maneuver Strength (MS), defensive bonus is called Maneuver Defense (MD). Your armor type is compared to your target's armor type for an additional penalty/bonus, called Maneuver Attack vs. Armor (MAvA). Generally, the heavier the armor is, the higher the penalty. Your MS consists of a base of (3 X your level) plus a skill bonus which is modified by stance. The skill part is +1 per rank of Disarm, plus 1/4th your level (warriors only).

BERSERK: To go berserk, you must pass a skill roll of +4 per rank of Berserk, plus your Discipline stat bonus (only half is applied if your stat bonus is negative) and a d100. Wounds give a penalty towards your ability to go berserk. You always have a 1% chance to attempt to go berserk. If your total is over 100, you go berserk, the higher the roll, the longer the duration. You also receive an AS bonus for every two ranks past your twentieth rank. One-fourth your level (warriors only) is added to your ranks. So the complete formula is

(((<ranks> + <1/4th level>) - 20) / 2)

After nine rounds of berserking, you can stop by typing STOP BERSERK. When you stop berserking, you receive a 20% AS penalty for 20 seconds per round you spent berserking, minimum of three minutes.

WARRIOR TRICKS: Each trick is a bit different. Many are automatic. Some use the standard maneuver roll like when you try to stand up (armor training and hindrance included). Others use their own skill roll, usually modified by Dexterity or Reflexes or both. Typing WTRICK by itself will tell you how much skill you have with each trick.

TACKLE: This works the same as Disarm, except your racial size is compared to that of your target as part of the maneuver roll. If your maneuver isn't 100% successful, but not a failure, ("weak grip" message), you'll get a -10 to your MS.

WAR CRIES: Each cry has a different difficulty. Your Charisma bonus (if positive) is added to your skill bonus (+4/rank) and level bonus (1/4 level for warriors only), minus wounds and vocal stress, plus a d100. If this total is over 100, the war cry is performed. Each cry attempted adds to your vocal stress, which can be checked by typing WARCRY by itself. Your vocal stress heals by itself over time.

War Cries for your party work automatically at a duration of one minute (flat). They do not stack on top of each other, or on top of Heroism and Bravery. They do not increase in duration with multiple cries. Cries that give the highest bonus replace those of lower bonuses. They also only work while in a group. War Cries against foes use the warding system with a CS of 1/2 your War Cry ranks, plus 3 X your level, plus 1/4th your level (warriors only), plus your Charisma bonus (only if positive). Your target will get the same defense as against a Spirit warding spell, except players that know War Cries also get a bonus to defend.

BATTER BARRIERS: Add your strength bonus, 1/2 weapon bonus (enchantment, magic metals--NOT your weapon skill), skill bonus (+4/rank), 1/4th your level (warriors only) and a d100. Anything over 100 results in a hit, the higher the roll, the more damage done. Crit weighted weapons (such as claidhmores) and heavy weapons add to the damage done after a successful hit, while light weapons (like daggers) reduce the damage normally done. How many hits your box has is based upon the lock difficulty and modified by the box materials. When a box is opened, there is a chance for items to break, which gets lower as you get more skill.

CAN I USE THESE SKILLS AGAINST OTHER PLAYERS?

The Warrior Guild skills fall under the same policies for other Player vs. Player (PvP) combat. Type POLICY in game to review these policies. In short, you're not to use WG skills to harass other players for your own enjoyment.

However, Guild membership will hold you to a higher standard of role-playing than non-membership. When you join, you agree to promote Warriors and especially Warrior Guild members. Using your skills in a way that gives the guild a bad reputation or violates policy could result in temporary or permanent banning from the guilds. Examples of abuse that's against policy would be roaming around and disarming people to steal their weapons, or using War Cries or Tackle to keep another player from hunting (or to get them killed) just to amuse yourself.

Although PvP in SOME cases is allowed by our policies, it is NEVER necessary (especially not lethal PvP). I have played GS3 for eight years and have never killed or been killed. I don't play empaths or clerics, and I have played lots of rogues who like to pickpocket. The key to avoiding PvP is to not do anything to make people want to kill you, not start fighting at the slightest offense, and learn to negotiate. To say that you can't help it if so-n-so starts it is just a poor excuse, and just a very lazy solution to a problem. OK? No more soapbox. :)

HOW MUCH CAN I LEARN?

Each skill has 63 ranks. You can learn up to (4 x (your level - 4)) ranks. With six skills, this means you'll be level 99 or 100 before you'll learn all the ranks in all the skills.

The guilds require you to diversify your training, so you can't simply work on one skill until you master it. Every 5 ranks in one skill, you must learn one rank in any other skill. This 'other' rank does not include the first rank in any skill.

HOW DO I BECOME A GUILD MASTER?

You must master (earn 63 ranks) in one skill and have the same profession as is represented by the guild (warrior Guild Masters only in the Warrior Guild). Then you must get five other skilled masters to nominate you before the Guild Master NPC and ask the NPC for a promotion.

A player Guild Master who is not a nominator can perform the promotion. This means you'll need the GdM candidate, the GdM to do the promotion, and five skilled masters to do the nominating.

Guild Masters have the ability to perform promotions (to GdM and to next rank), initiations and accept dues. GdMs get a commission on all funds collected plus experience and fame awards for performing promotions, initiations and collecting dues. GdMs get extra experience for helping members train and members will be able to train faster with a GdM's help.

WHAT LEVEL OF CREATURE WILL GIVE ME TRAINING CREDIT?

You will occasionally get tasks that require you to find a creature that is a suitable challenge for your skill. What this means is that the creature level must fall into EITHER of these two categories (whichever is lower):

A) The creature is X levels below your level, or higher.

If your level is...	X is
5 - 9	1
10 - 14	3
15 - 19	6
20 or above	10

B) Add up all your skill ranks (not including the first rank in each skill) and divide by four, add your level divided by five, then add three. The result is the number of levels below your level that you can train against. E.g. If you have 10 ranks of Disarm and 2 ranks of War Cry at level 20, you need to practice on creatures who are ((10/4) + (20/5) + 3) = 9 levels below you.

Most people will fall under category A.

WHAT LEVEL OF CHARACTER WILL GIVE ME TRAINING CREDIT?

For War Cries, your teacher must have one rank of War Cry more than you have, or be equal in ranks and be 50% higher in level.

For Disarm and Tackle, your partner's skill bonus (4*ranks plus 1/4th level if your partner is a warrior) must be ten points below your skill bonus, or higher. For example, if your skill bonus is +50, your partner's skill must be +40 or higher.