:
AS 100 vs. DS 86 + AvD of 36 + Roll D100: 50 = 100
Clear Miss!
7 seconds round time
So what do the Gods want to tell us there, besides that you have missed the
monster and that you have to wait for 7 seconds until you can do a thing.
I am glad you asked. Maybe you should try to get your round time down to
5 seconds? Lets use these valuable 7 seconds to reflect on what we observe
on the screen. We can see that the result of this whole long equation has
to be 101 or more to be a "hit." Okay, we know now that the result has to
be above 100. How do we get there? So what is this first part of the equation?
It is basically your Attack Strength (AS) minus the Defense Strength (DS)
of the monster plus an Attack versus Defense value (AvD) plus a random roll,
which is between 1 and 100. And as we see above our friend rolled a 50 and
did just miss the monster. With a roll of 51 he or she (he from now on) would
have just scratched it, this means he has a 50/50 chance of hitting. Just
for argument sake, what would be the highest DS our friend could theoretically
hope to hit?
Max. DS to be able to hit
= AS + AvD + (Roll D100 - 100) - 1<=>
= AS + AvD - 1
= 100 + 36 - 1
= 135
We know that the best our friend can hope for hitting is a 135, and he will
just scratch the monster. Better we can now tell that he has a 1% chance
of hitting a monster with a DS of 135, a 25% chance of hitting or better
1 out of 4 swings wounds or kills the monster. Do that little exercise for
yourself, it will help you to figure out if it actually makes sense for you
to fight a certain monster or not. It is a very good idea to know your AS
and DS in every stance to effectively tune your stance to the appropriate
monster.
Okay, now we know if and how often we can hit a monster. Now we should look
at what happens when a monster actually hits back. Basically, look at the
equation above from the perspective of the monster and you got the idea.
Hold on my friends, do we actually need to defend ourselves with a DS that
prevents us from being hurt all the time? The answer is that obviously we
only need our DS at the moment when that nasty, bloodthirsty, critter actually
swings its malicious weapon at us. Therefore, wouldn't it be a good idea
how often such a critter tried to swing at us? I would say definitely yes.
The best way to test this is to stand in front of your favorite monster,
smile at it, and take the time between two swings, preferably in Stance
Defensive.
Generally monster round times are between 5 and 15 seconds. Say, you are
attacking a troll, which has a round time of 15 seconds, and you have a round
time of 5 seconds, that means you have 2 swings free before you would stance
back into defensive. Then you wait for that friendly troll to swing at you,
and repeat the procedure. Obviously this tactic, commonly called stance dancing,
is only useful against single monsters which have a slower round time than
you have. At least I could never safely keep track of the round times of
two monsters in one room.
The other tactic is to set your DS to a level where you get hit with only
a certain probability and therefore severity, and still hit the monster with
sufficient force to ultimately kill it. The number crunching works like in
the above example. Personally, I am comfortable in most areas with a 75 or
above safety margin. You should adjust this level according to how crowded
the area is and how likely you are going to stun or crit the monster with
1 hit. In other areas, especially the Glatoph Ruins, Krolvin Warfarer Mine
and some areas in the Broken Lands, you have to include significant safety
margins to your DS, because some monsters there are hunting in groups and
are very generous with e-wave or quake. This spell will pin you to the ground
for up to 20 seconds and lower your DS by 50.
Another bit of very helpful information, character round time (that is yours
and mine) occurs after the swing, monster round time occurs before it swings.
That means you have some valuable seconds after the monster entered the room,
which you can use to instantly stun, maim, or kill that unfriendly intruder.
More unconventional ways to overcome an opponent involve the use of magic,
hiding, and/or ambushing. Hiding and ambushing is the way of the rogue to
eliminate the opposition and hopefully kill the enemy with one well-aimed
stroke, avoiding lengthy combat. For this undertaking a lot of training in
hiding, ambush, and combat maneuvers is essential. Combat Maneuver is a skill
any sword fighter should train in anyway. A critted weapon increases the
lethal effect of the hit even more. To fight like that you just hide, and
then ambush the monster aiming at a specific body part. Good targets are
head, neck, legs, or the back. The reason for head and neck is pretty obvious;
you simply can't live without them. The reason for legs or the back is that
sometimes you are simply too small to reach the neck or head of a monster
and have to find a body part you can actually reach. Legs flatten the monster
and reduce their DS considerably, the back is a pretty large target and will
take a lot of HP out of the monster and possibly break the back and you have
it on the ground as well.
A little variation on that theme is to use just hiding. Ever so often we
have fought a monster and have almost killed it, but the monster went into
defense, making it impossible for us to hit it. You can still kill it by
leaving the room for about 15 seconds, depending on the monster, or hiding
in front of it. Its wounds will make it very hard to spot you hiding, because
it is preoccupied with its wounds. The moment the monster does not detect
you in the room anymore, it will sit down and tend its wounds. Voila! The
DS just dropped from 200 or 300+ to about 30 to 50. You should be able to
relieve that poor monster from its pains. See it as a mercy kill. Another
way of overcoming this all so defensive monster is the use of a little magic.
A spell, like Elemental Blast 409 or Elemental Strike 415, usually puts an
end to the fight, (as long as your Casting Strength (CS) is actually high
enough to touch it) once the monster is sufficiently weakened. Please observe
that the Target Defense (TD) of a monster is independent of its stance; it
is always the same, as long as it is not spelled up of course.
My preferred way of fighting is using Elemental Wave (410), or better known
as e-wave, as the prelude to fighting. E-wave will pin everyone not joined
to your group to the ground for up to 20 seconds. This is quite handy because
your opposition will be on the ground and not fight back for some time. On
the other hand, don't do that in a crowded area, because your non-joined
friends will not be happy, being pinned to the ground. They will be especially
angry if you cause bodily harm or death because a monster came in and whopped
them while they were e-waved. Always cast e-wave at yourself, without a target
specified, because later on there are monsters that reflect magic upon you
and you would hate to be pinned to the ground facing a gargoyle. Rangers
have also a wonderful spell at their disposal called Tangle Weed. This spell
created vines that drag everyone not joined and younger than the caster to
the ground. Same effect at e-wave just a different flavor.
Tangle weed lasts longer than e-wave, but you have to stay with the vines
until they die off, because other people get really angry if they get caught
up in your vines, you left so carelessly around. Bards have, besides the
4xx spells, also their little holding (1001) and disarm songs (1002 and 1008),
I found those songs not to be really used by most bards, including myself.
Most fights, in which I am involved in right now, are rather short and violent,
resulting the monster to be either stunned or dead within one or two swings.
This reduces the need for non-lethal magic quite drastically.
This should give you a rough overview on how to fight and what all that "number
stuff" means.
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