User:SARAH3/Sandbox
Here's where I'll be trying stuff out instead of breaking pages and hoping to fix them in one shot.
Animal Companion
The Animal Companion spell allows a ranger to summon and befriend an animal as a permanent companion. The ranger can tell their companion to do a number of actions including attacking creatures or defending the ranger, although the companion will respond faster if it has a good relationship with the ranger and slower if not. A ranger can gauge the quality of the relationship by gazing at the animal companion and the relationship is established or improved by feeding, petting, casting helpful spells at or otherwise interacting with the animal companion in a positive fashion.
When a companion has been selected and befriended, it should be told to leave before the ranger retires from a hard day of adventuring or upon gaining a level and can be summoned again by preparing and casting 630 again, then telling the companion to return. Failure to tell a companion to leave before retiring from adventuring means the companion will forget new things (including improvements to the relationship and gear added to the companion) and failing to tell an animal companion to leave after achieving a new level means that the animal will not level with the ranger.
In addition, once a ranger learns this spell, using sense while outdoors will include a list of potential animal companions in the area.
>sense
You scan your surroundings, considering the various flora and fauna found here (and noting those which are absent). The indications of the temperate climate and the deciduous forest are clearly evident. You quickly note the signs of a black-tipped forest tiger, a white-footed woodland jackal and a black-nosed mottled ferret having recently been in the area. Circling overhead is a fan-tailed branch peregrine. You also see a steep path.
There will always be one of each type of animal companion (canine, feline, avian, rodent) in every outdoor room, but the exact animal noun (e.g. tiger, puma, ocelot) will depend on the location, with some animals being exclusive to certain cities and its descriptor (e.g. black-footed, amber-eyed) will depend on the terrain type in a particular room.
Summoning a Companion
Summoning a new companion is relatively straightforward. First, one finds the desired companion using sense, then one prepares 630 and summons the desired animal. Failure to specify a particular animal will summon a random animal in the room.
Example:
>sense
You scan your surroundings, considering the various flora and fauna found here (and noting those which are absent). The indications of the temperate climate and the plain dirt environment are clearly evident. You quickly note the signs of a black-tipped orange tiger, a white-footed drab jackal and a black-nosed mire ferret having recently been in the area. Circling overhead is a fan-tailed dusky peregrine. You don't see any other paths leading away from the area.
>prep 630
>summon tiger
You open your senses wide and allow the desires and feelings of the areas denizens fill your mind. At the very edge of your perceptions, you feel a bright glow of curiousity tinged with wariness. Concentrating, you focus your desire of friendship and camaraderie towards that bright spot. At first the wariness holds but it is soon followed by a sharp peak in curiosity as if a decision had been made.
A black-tipped orange tiger prowls majestically forward!
Companion Mechanics
All four companion types are capable of attacking creatures (or players) and they do either slash (feline, avian) or puncture (canine, rodent) damage. In addition, they each have different special attacks. Animal companions will attack when told to do so and will also attack automatically when the ranger is stunned or killed.
Include examples
Bard
To be added...
Very Generalized Blargle
The goal of this section is to go through what I believe to be the most general possible ranger training guide.
Core skills
These are the very basic things that every ranger should train in each level. Here, Cost refers to the training point cost expressed as (MTP/PTP) for a full single train at each level. A second training at each level costs double the first one. Note that since level zero exists, it is possible to train at one's level plus two for the single training costs. This is referred to as being fully single trained. The skills listed here should be fully single or double trained unless indicated.
# | Cost | Skill | Reasoning |
1x | 4/0 | Physical Fitness | Necessary for full hitpoints, as a cheap defense for maneuvers, good for redux. |
2x | Weapon Skill | Whatever the weapon choice, the training should be maxed out. | |
1x | 7/5 | Dodge | Dodge helps you avoid incoming attacks entirely. |
1x | 0/17 | Spell Research | Learning new spells, improving the effectiveness and duration of others. |
1x | 0/5 | Harness Power | Should be exactly at the character's level (not fully 1x) for 3 mana at each level. |
1x | 1/1 | Survival | It's cheap, helps skinning, helps foraging, helps move around in tricky places. |
1x | 0/2 | Perception | It's cheap, provides maneuver defense, helps rangers be even more amazing at foraging. |
1x | 2/1 | First Aid | It's cheap, helps skinning and allows more effective wound tending. |
Total | 12/31 |
The total cost of this training does not include weapon training since it is meant to be very generalized. Weapon training for a single weapon can vary from 9/3 for edged and ranged to 21/6 for polearms (if there are actually any rangers who hunt with polearms).
Depending on weapon choice and hunting style, a ranger will want to train in different skills each level as well. For example, an edged weapons user may wish to double train in Shield Use for an additional (15/0) training points. Archers will typically want to double train in perception (+0/4) and single train in ambush (3/3 or 9/9) as well as double in stalking and hiding (6/3) if they plan on hiding (note that hiding ranged rangers can sometimes get away with foregoing dodge).
If the training points are too difficult to fit in all of these skills at lower levels, a ranger may choose to skip training in dodge. Since mobility provides rangers with 20 ranks of dodge (with an additional rank for each subsequent ranger spell learned), rangers can be effectively more than single trained in dodge after level 18 without ever actually training in the dodge skill. Thus, it is often advised to save the TPs for other skills, though dodge can be trained if desired and if the training points allow.
Threshold Skills
These are skills you can train and then forget about. Once again, the costs listed here are the costs to train each skill once.
# | Cost | Skill | Reasoning |
30+ | 5/0 | Armor Use | 30 to use brigandine with minimal spell and maneuver hindrance. To save TPs along the way, train as many ranks as necessary to use the armor you have before moving up to the next class. |
10-35 | 2/0 | Climbing | For low- to mid-level hunting grounds, somewhere around 10-15 should be enough. You can add more ranks as necessary. |
5-20 | 2/0 | Swimming | For low to mid-level hunting grounds, somewhere around 5-10 should be enough. You can add more ranks as necessary. |
25 | 0/5 | Spirit Mana Control | 24 ranks for perfect sharing and an additional one for double incanting ability. |
While most of these skills are immediately useful, many rangers avoid studying more than about 10 ranks spiritual mana control until they are very high level. If you have a hunting partner who uses spiritual magic, you may find it more useful to train in this skill earlier on in your career.
Additional Training
And here are the things you should train when you have free TPs kicking around.