Items - Explanations:
Overall structure of the Table of Items:
Items are classified by the location where you wear them, and listed in the order used by INVENTORY:
finger, neck, on body, head, legs, feet, hands, arms, shield, about body, waist, wrist, wielded (weapon), held, used as light. Items not worn have their own categories, at the end.
Note: Your character has only two (2) hands. The three "locations" labeled 'used as light', 'wielded' & 'held' each use a hand. Thus, you can wield an item and 'use as light' another item; or, you can 'hold' an item and 'use as light' another item; etc. Unless your character is very strong, very heavy weapons must be used two-handed (numbers unknown). At least sometimes, the MUD will not let you use a weapon requiring two hands and also wear a shield.
What are the stats on the items?
| Our label | MUD's term | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| ac | AC-apply | high ac means high protection, and high durability of the item. Although some items have values of higher than 10, that is an error. They will protect your character as if the value were actually 10. |
| armor | ARMOR | lower (more negative) armor means higher protection (i.e. -10 is better than -5) |
| hr | HITROLL or HIT-N-DAM | hit roll: affects the chances of hitting your target |
| dr | DAMROLL or HIT-N-DAM | damage roll: affects how much more damage you cause per hit |
| avg | average amount of damage this weapon does on its own, including any 'dr' effect (but not including any 'weapon spell') | |
| hp | HIT | hit points: how much it affects your total possible hit points (damage you can sustain before dying). More is very much better! |
| mana | MANA | mana points: how much it affects your total possible mana points. |
| move | MOVE | movement points: how much it affects your total possible movement points (a.k.a. vitality points or VP) |
| regen | MANA REGEN or HIT REGEN or MOVE REGEN | regeneration: change in your default rate of regeneration of lost hit points, mana points or movement points (a.k.a. vitality points or VP) - given in points per game hour (which is 75 secs of real time) |
| spellfail | SPELLFAIL | the lower (more negative), the better. change in percentage chance of failing to cast a spell. (When you are around Superb (86%+) at casting a spell, wearing such an item prevents you from reaching the maximum of 95% without it. Take off the item to get better at the spell.) |
| anti-thief | Cannot be worn by (and) ANTI-EVIL | means what classes or alignments can't wear an item |
| save | SAVING_ALL SAVING_PARA SAVING_BREATH SAVING_SPELL SAVING_PETRI | lower (more negative) value is better. Save means resisting a specific kind of attack (spell, paralysis, breath, fire, petrification, etc.). A successful 'save' means 1/2-damage from some attacks, and no effect from others. |
| (weapon) spell | (WEAPON) SPELL AFFECT By | When wearing this item, you are affected by the given spell. Or, when wielding this weapon, you will cast this spell on the victim, every time you hit with the weapon. |
| str int wis dex con chr | STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, CHR | The character's statistics: Strength Intelligence Wisdom Dexterity Constition Charisma. See the "Newbie page" of the official Criterion MUD website for some pointers. See our Character Statistics page for more details |
| sneak hide backstab steal kick bash disarm hunt ... | SNEAK HIDE BACKSTAB STEAL PICK FIND-TRAPS TRACK KICK BASH DISARM RIDE ... | change in the percentage chance of success when using the skill. Positive values are good. (When you are around Superb (86%+) at using a skill, wearing such an item prevents you from reaching the maximum of 95% without it. Take off the item to get better at the skill.) |
| haste | HASTE | number of hundredths by which the 'haste multiplier' is changed. Thus, '+11% haste' changes the default multiplier from 1.00 to 1.11, slightly increasing the PC's number of weapon attacks/round. Has no effect upon aging. (The Haste spell adds 1 to the default multiplier, so it becomes 2. It drastically increases the rate of aging.) |
| dmg to <align or race> times | Damage to | when victim is of given alignment or race, multiply this percentage times damage that weapon attack would normally do (incl. all +dr). (NOTE: If less than 100%, less damage is done to such victims!) |
| attacks | ATTACKS | change in the number of the PC's weapon attacks/round [possibly has no effect] |
| wt <number> | Weight | Weight of item. Seems to be given in 'pounds'. Less heavy items are better, if they're otherwise equivalent. |
| -<number> wt | CHAR_WEIGHT | change in weight of player character |
| +<number> ht | CHAR_HEIGHT | change in height of player character |
| gp | Value | basis of 'sell' and 'buy' values. Actual sell/buy values depend upon your CHR. |
| rent | Rent costs | Only RARE items actually cost this amount when you Rent, per day; we display this as 'Rent costs nnn gp'. This number determines if your character is 'too puny' to use the item. (See below for details.) For non-RARE items with a high enough rent to possibly reject a character, we display '(rent nnn)'. If rent is '-1', then the item is ephemeral; if you rent with it, it disappears; left in a chest, it disappears on reboot. |
| INSET | INSET | A single-classed thief has used the INSET skill to put a piece of TREASURE or GEM into a WEAPON, to grant it magical powers. |
| NODROP, cursed | NODROP | When first picked up, item cannot be dropped; spell 'remove curse' permanently removes NODROP from item. |
| NO-LOCATE | NO-LOCATE | The spell 'locate object' cannot find this item. |
| BRITTLE | BRITTLE | Weapon is destroyed after it first does damage. Other items, when they might be damaged, are destroyed (unless also RESISTANT). |
| INVULNERABLE | INVULNERABLE | Never damaged (e.g. by hits from enemies or damage from spells). |
| RESISTANT | RESISTANT |
For weapons & armor: when damaged by an attack (hit or spell), item only suffers 1 point (vs. a maximum of 20 per attack, repeatedly increased by 1 until it makes a 'save'); thus, a single damaging event cannot destroy the item, and hurts it only by the smallest amount. For other items, first time item would be damaged, instead, "RESISTANT" is removed; next time, item will be destroyed. |
| Item type | ARMOR OTHER WORN STAFF WAND FOOD PILL SCROLL LIGHT WEAPON TREASURE GEM TRASH UNDEFINED POTION NOTE PEN BOAT PORTAL BOOK TREE ROCK TRAP MONEY AUDIO BOARD CONTAINER, LIQUID CONTAINER |
Name, Weight and Type can be determined by anyone who has an item, using the command: VALUE <item name>
The other information given by VALUE is approximate (based upon your VALUE or EVALUATE skill), varies each time the command is given, and cannot be trusted.
What other info is included in the Table of Items?
An object's "True Name" [an unofficial term I just made up] can only be determined via Identify (via spell, scroll, wand...). To refer to an object in a command, you must use some part of the object's "True Name". Ex: VALUE says the name is "A pile of blue silk." Identify gives its True Name as 'cloak dark blue'. The commands WEAR SILK or WEA PIL will fail, whereas WEAR BLU or WEA CLOA would succeed. Usually, the Name & the True Name contain the same words, but not always; this can be frustrating. The True Name may also reveal more about the item. In the table of items below, our Example would look like:
A pile of blue silk "cloak dark blue"
The MUD Help says that you can distinguish 'short sword' from 'long sword' by typing short-sword or long-sword. However, this only works if those words are part of the True Name; if so, they can also be abbreviated, and put in any order. In our Example, some commands
that succeed:
EXA blu-clo
EXA cloak-dar
that fail:
EXA blue-silk
EXA pile-blu
When the description of the item, when lying on the ground, is at all unusual (or distinguishes it from an item with the same name), we include it. This is especially useful when scanning items in a Donation Room.
When the EXAMINE command says anything other than 'You see nothing special', we include what it says, prefixed by 'EXA:'. This can also help you to determine what an item is, without resorting to IDENTIFY.
Why can't I use a specific item?
Note: None of this seems to apply to potions, scrolls or keys. It only applies to items that are worn, wielded or held. You may GET or PUT any item (except 'test' items & a few others).
| The MUD says | Why |
|---|---|
| You are forbidden to do that. | Your class can never use this item. |
| You are zapped by... | Your alignment may not use this item. Alignment is changed by killing good or evil mobs. |
| You are too puny... | Your character needs to have a higher 'level' or 'stats' to use this item. |
At what level will I be able to use the item that tells me I'm 'too puny'?
(Remember: This only applies to items that are worn, wielded or held.)
That depends upon multiple factors: level, modified INT+WIS+CHR; and, if the PC is Neutral, whether or not the item is ANTI-GOOD or ANTI-EVIL.
First, look up the item in the Items table, below, and find its 'rent' number (or, do an IDENTIFY on it).
A rent of '-1' is treated as if it were 50000 (but ignore KEY's and such).
Then, if you can use a 'Microsoft Excel' spreadsheet, download and use the Armor Class & Rent Wearable Calculator. You can play 'what if' with various levels and stat bonuses, to see what it would take to get that item to stay on!
Or, look up your level in the (more approximate)
Rent Wearable Table.
How is Armor Class determined?
(Use the Armor Class & Rent Wearable Calculator to give you the numeric answer.)
Base Dexterity (i.e. without items or spells) determines one's "base armor class". A naked player with average Dexterity has a base Armor Class of 100. To find your "base armor class", start with 100; then subtract 10 for every point of Dexterity above 14. [ Formula: base armor class = 100 - 10*(Max(Dexterity, 14) - 14) ]
However, the rule for Monks is completely different, using level, not dexterity. A Monk's "base armor class" starts at 100, and drops by 5 for every level, to a 'best value' of -50 at level 30. [ Formula: base armor class = 100 - Min(150, 5*Level) ]
For each item, take its "AC-apply" value (treating any value greater than 10 as being 10), multiply that by the "item location multiplier", and subtract that from the base Armor Class.
For each item, add in any line such as "Affects : ARMOR By -10" (from the Identify results).
Item Location Multipliers:
Body armors (multiply by 3)
helmets & leggings/pants (multiply by 2)
Capes ("about body"), shield, gloves, shoes, and objects for the arms (sleeves) (multiply by 1)
Belts, medallions, bracelets, rings, earrings?, eyeglasses? (multiply by 1)
Held, Used as light [very rarely these are of type ARMOR] (multiply by 1)
Example of determining Armor Class:
Assume naked player's Armor Class is 100. (Dexterity is 14.)
Wear "bronze breast plate", ac8.
Armor Class becomes: 100 - 8*3 = 100 - 24 = 76
Wear "bronze helm", ac6.
Armor Class becomes: 76 - 6*2 = 76 - 12 = 64
Wear "rusted shield", ac5.
Armor Class becomes: 64 - 5*1 = 64 - 5 = 59
Wear "a pair of skexie gauntlets", ac5, armor -5.
Armor Class becomes: 59 - 5*1 - 5 = 59 - 5 - 5 = 49
Wear "fiery orange medallion", ac3, armor -10.
Armor Class becomes: 49 - 3*1 - 10 = 49 - 3 - 10 = 36
How does Dexterity (after modifications from worn items) affect armor class?
Modifying Dexterity with items has no effect upon armor class.
What stats are the most important and in what order:
AC and Armor are very important. Go for the highest ac value and lowest armor class value (where a negative number is lower than a positive number, and therefore better). Your armor class (which you can only see precisely if you recite an identify scroll upon yourself; use an identify wand or some such) should be as close as possible to -100. (Better than -100, e.g. -110, acts the same as -100, so don't bother beyond -100.) Fighting higher-level mobs will be easier with an armor class of -100, because they will have a hard time hitting you.
Between +hitroll and +damroll, go for the damroll. Hitroll helps hitting mobs, but USUALLY you don't miss a lot, except if you fight a mob that is much higher level than you. Damage is the name of the game!
A negative value of spellfail helps success in spellcasting. Each of your spells, depending on its practice level and if you are fighting or not, has a failure value (a percentage chance of failure). Spellfail reduces that.
Miscellaneous Notes:
Some items have random stats. The stats depend on the level of the mob wearing it. Random gold, random regen, random weight, random ac, random "anti-", etc. ... are stats you can find. (When you Identify such an item, you will see a RANDOM flag in the list.) Any item in this list with the keyword RANDOM lists random stats, none of which can be trusted. (Please find a non-RANDOM version & submit its IDENTIFY info!) As the Immortals have opined, such items are usually worse than the standard items (but not always).
Items can be damaged. Get it fixed as soon as it is damaged. Some items flagged Brittle will be destroyed easily.
Some info might be missing about some items.
Getting & Giving Item Descriptions:
To get all the raw IDENTIFY's that went into the items list, download the list of Identify's.
To contribute more info on items, in the fashion that's easiest for us, please construct a file in the format of this example file, and email it to us as an attachment. Thanks.