Newbie Questions - Human Fighters

[Panaver]

First off, fantastic game you have here. I've run a couple low level characters to get a feel for it, and I'm very impressed. Now I'm ready to start my serious character, but I have a few mechanics questions. It is important to me that my character's "build" match somewhat to his personality. So:

1. Human stats. Asking in game, it was suggested it is possible for a human to get a stat to 20. Just wanted to confirm as it looks like I need 19 for two-weapon fighting feats.

2. Two-weapon fighting. Is this a viable/useful style of fighting? Or is it reserved more for ranger/rogue types and fighters relegated to tromping around in full plate?

3. Riposte. Helpfile suggests you must be wielding a piercing weapon. I assume longsword would not work. Would longsword/dagger allow me to riposte with offhand once I've parried with mainhand? Just not clear on these mechanics.

SUGGESTION: Express Deliveries was a HUGE boon for me in learning my way around the city. Might be worthwhile to add a note at the dripping dagger board that they are hiring.

[Alitar]

Stats - Higher than 18 can be very, very difficult to find however they do reportedly exist (though reportedly not for all stats)
Two-weapon Fighting - This is certainly do-able for a fighter and indeed /can/ be very effective. One of the game's most powerful fighters uses this method- however, you will find your stat allotment makes this a very difficult fighting style to work with in addition to the fact that the feats required to use it will need you to grind for hours and hours to meet the requisite skill level(not to mention I don't believe these feats are available to all alignments yet).
Riposte - This skill only triggers if you are using a thrusting weapon. As for it working for an off-hand dagger, I am afraid I cannot be certain. If someone could give that a shot and answer, that would be appreciated. (Not many will have the requisite skills to test this for you)

SUGGESTION: Express Deliveries was a HUGE boon for me in learning my way around the city. Might be worthwhile to add a note at the dripping dagger board that they are hiring.

Seconded. I think that is an excellent idea.

[Nylo]

Riposte currently works with weapons in the thrusting blades category. You would need to use a short sword, instead of a dagger. Incidentally, the short sword does 1d6 damage vs the dagger's 1d4, so it's a better choice anyways.

[Alitar]

Riposte currently works with weapons in the thrusting blades category. You would need to use a short sword, instead of a dagger. Incidentally, the short sword does 1d6 damage vs the dagger's 1d4, so it's a better choice anyways.

While you're usually quite accurate on things like this, I believe you might be mistaken this time. I'm 90% sure I've seen kobolds parry with pick-axes which leads me to believe any piercing weapon works. I've been super swamped with work lately so I can't really look into it myself for the moment however if I get the chance I'll try to confirm.

[Nylo]

Mob skills often don't work exactly like their PC counterparts. This is true for Riposte as well. As for the thrusting blades limitation, I'm taking my information from the following post. It could quite possibly be out of date. viewtopic.php?f=148&t=15756&p=104373&hi ... te#p104373

[Panaver]

Thanks for the answers and helping me decide what weapons I will use. I think I've got my concept/build setup just fine.

Am I correct in assuming we get a stat point at every interval of 5 in levels?

[Alitar]

I believe it's 5, I'm afraid I really don't know about stats but I know Nylo mapped out feat points fairly well.

Every class gains normal feats at one every 8 levels. 1, 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, and 48. Bonus feats are different for each class:
Wizard -12, 25, 37, 50
Thief - 25, 32, 40, 47
I am not certain on fighter but it should be approximately - 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50.
Since you cannot join most fighter guilds until level 10, you will have 3 once you are guilded.

Maybe Nylo knows/can confirm the answer for Stats as well.

[Tyeslan]

Yes, you get a new stat point every 5 levels until level 50, if you are human.

[Baeus]

Stats - Higher than 18 can be very, very difficult to find however they do reportedly exist (though reportedly not for all stats)

Well, that is rather disappointing and it hurts the viability of the finesse weapon fighting style. The whole point of the latter is to forego the raw power, damage and increased carrying capacity of a strength based style for the agility based ac, lighter weight and unencumbered dexterity based style. If there are going to be stat caps like this I really wish the help files would reflect that. I burned multiple sessions doing nothing but searching for a stat trainer that will increase my human fighter’s agility past an 18, only to stumble across it here. I also asked nearly everyone I came across IC if they know of one.

Most of the aspects in FK are fantastic and I’m having a blast playing here. However, the skill, feat, and stat trainer search and distribution is... annoying, to put it mildly. I can deal with the IC reasons for having to search out trainers to learn new feats and skills: there are masters out there at various techniques and you are seeking them out to study. I can deal with the OOC reasons, which seem to be providing the main impetus for travel and exploration, at least for new players as opposed to using adventures to accomplish this. However it should not be this hard to increase base statistics which would rise in the course of performing said techniques and adventuring. The stat trainer should simply be the in-game mechanic for increasing the ability.

May I asked why there is such a tight rein on statistics and is strength capped in this manner as well, or is it just dexterity? Admittedly, this capping would create more well-rounded individuals as far as statistics but that decision should be left to the player. The shoe horn approach attacks diversity, which does not contribute to a RP atmosphere, it detracts from it. Yes, this is a RP oriented MUD but the numbers still matter to folks like me. Half the fun of RPGs is the character management aspect and shaping that persona in tandem with the skill set.

[Harroghty]

The trainers who will train above 18 are not advertised, but they exist in sufficient numbers (for DEX in particular) that someone actively searching will find them. I cannot say that they exist for all stats because I haven't really tried to tackle that bear yet during my tenure on the Builder Council, but I can say that those stats germane to this discussion (STR, DEX, and CON) do exist and are available.

Touching why, well, part of that goes back to the olden days of the game in which training in general was made very difficult to access. I believe that the idea was correct, but that the implementation was too severe. i.e. it's great to spread trainers around and force people to explore, but basic stuff such as weapon skills and statistics should all be accessible from square one as you build your PC and reach a training area.

Right now:

• all weapon skills (and weapon focus, weapon proficiency, and exotic weapon proficiency) are available across the board to new PCs
• all statistics are available for training within major hometowns (one accepts some risk in services when they spend kismet for a rarer race)
• weapon specialisation, greater weapon focus, greater weapon specialisation are available for every weapon (but trainers are spread across the game)
• every feat is available in the game (I believe) but I realize that not everyone has access to them or the knowledge of their locations, therefore there will occasionally (but infrequently) be visits from the Arcane spelljammer ship to ameliorate that

[Lirith]

I don't have a fighter character worth any salt, but for anyone curious about other stats, there is definitely one for INT that is accessible to anyone with a little perseverance.

[Baeus]

(Insert cheese eating grin here) Outstanding! So there is still hope for the build I envisioned. Thanks for the explanation. Tempus also talked to me in-game as to some of the reasoning behind the way stat trainers and skills are being handled.