1.1 Classes
1.2 Races
2. Combat dynamics
2.1 Weapons
2.2 Magic
2.3 Hit-and-run
3. Skills
3.1 Weapon and armour
3.2 Magic
3.3 Miscellanious/adventuring
4. Attributes
5. The world of Lotrim
5.1 A short description
5.2 Features and extra information
1.1 Classes:
At the beginning, you each choose from these classes to form your character. The character will then automatically start with the statistics and starting skills that were assigned to that class. In addition, race will modify some statistics and you choose an additional two skills and two attributes. In total, you can go negative on a statistic, but you will have to bear the concequences as the game progresses. No one can start undead, but you can become an undead later on, if you wish. All classes also have one or more skill restrictions, meaning that they cannot learn that skill.
Barbarian:
Starting skills: Spear and body building
Skill restriction: Magic of thought and mirror magic
Strength = 7
Endurance = 5
Accuracy = 4
Speed = 4
Intelligence = 0
Personality = 0
Knight:
Starting skills: Sword and shield
Skill restriction: Mirror magic and dodge
Strength = 5
Endurance = 6
Accuracy = 3
Speed = 3
Intelligence = 1
Personality = 2
Ranger:
Starting skills: Bow and leather
Skill restriction: Mirror magic and plate armour
Strength = 3
Endurance = 3
Accuracy = 6
Speed = 4
Intelligence = 2
Personality = 2
Monk:
Starting skills: Unarmed and spirit magic
Skill restriction: Sword and shield
Strength = 4
Endurance = 4
Accuracy = 3
Speed = 3
Intelligence = 2
Personality = 4
Druid:
Starting skills: Dodge and earth magic
Skill restriction: Plate armour and axe
Strength = 3
Endurance = 3
Accuracy = 3
Speed = 5
Intelligence = 3
Personality = 2
Cleric:
Starting skills: Shield and body magic
Skill restriction: Plate armour and bow/crossbow
Strength = 2
Endurance = 3
Accuracy = 2
Speed = 4
Intelligence = 4
Personality = 5
Enchanter:
Starting skills: Staff and mind magic
Skill restriction: Plate armour and physical magic
Strength = 2
Endurance = 4
Accuracy = 2
Speed = 3
Intelligence = 3
Personality = 6
Sorcerer:
Starting skills: Fire magic and air magic
Plate armour and chain armour
Strength = 1
Endurance = 2
Accuracy = 2
Speed = 5
Intelligence = 7
Personality = 3
1.2 Races:
Choose a race and add the statistic modefiers to the initial values of the classes. This will be the base set of statistics that the character starts with. This does not include modification by artifacts and attributes.
Human:
No penalty. Add one statistic point at choice.
Half-elf:
Accuracy +1, personality +1, endurance -1
Elf:
Accuracy +2, personality +1, strength -1, endurance -1.
Dwarf:
Endurance +2, intelligence -1.
Half-orc:
Strength +1, endurance +1, speed -1.
Orc:
Strength +2, endurance +2, speed -1, intelligence -1, personality -1.
Half-Genie:
Intelligence +1, speed +1, strength -1.
Genie:
Intelligence +2, speed +1, strength -1, endurance -1.
2.1 Weapons
Combat works the following way. Once you enter combat, every character will have speed points. You start with your twice your speed statistic in speed points and add once your speed statistic per round. Every time you perform an action, you will lose speed points. If you don't have enough speed points to perform the action, you will have to wait or do something else. Axes, for example, do a lot of damage, but take a lot of speed points (because they are slow). Daggers are very fast and hardly require speed points, but don't do a lot of damage. Spells also require a certain amount of speed points.
Whether your attacks hit or not is determined by a 20-sided die. You add the weapon attack bonus (if any), your accuracy skill and (if indicated) the weapon skill.
This number is weighted against the enemy's armour class to see if it hits.
Every weapon has a damage range, to which your strength skill is added and (if indicated) the weapon skill to determine the amount of hitpoints lost.
Bows work a little differently. Your accuracy statistic determines how far you can shoot. You can shoot 1 DU (standard unit of distance) per point of accuracy with the loss of one point of accuracy per DU. A character can also run 1 DU per turn of combat. Bows can also be used in close combat, but keep in mind that they are very slow in comparison to other weapons and don't do much damage.
2.2 Magic
Magic works more or less the same as weapon combat, but you can use magic in your adventuring as well. You have a certain amount of mana, determined by your intelligence and personality. The mana pool is replenished (just like your hitpoints) when you rest. You have to ask my permission if you want to rest and I may decide to not let you or let you rest at half effect, depending on the conditions.
The mana cost of a spell is determined by the amount of skills involved. I've put up a list of compound spells and you can also cast spells from just one skill. Mana cost is 5 per level 1 skill involved, 9 per level 2 skill involved, 14 per level 3 skill involved and 20 per level 4 skill involved. The rules for mirror magic are different and I will exlain those later, when I make the rules.
The speed cost of a spell is three times the amount of all spells levels needed added together plus 2. So the lightning bolt (L2 fire + L2 air) costs 14 speed points to cast. Remember that you can cast any spell at any time in a non-combat situation, but if the spell is offensive, combat starts immediately. At that point, it is your opponent's turn and you are reduced to 0 speed points.
Targets can have resistances. Almost anything will have resistance against mind magic, since the mind is the targets own to control and taking it over requires power. If the target has a resistance, then a throw is made to which the magic skill of the highest magic required for the spell is added. The two are compared to see if the spell succeeds. If there are two magic skills of the same level required, then just take the one with the highest skill level. For example, if you cast lightning with a skill 4 in air and a skill 6 in fire, then the fire skill is added to the throw.
There is a total of 8 resistances. The following is a list of all of them. You can have various values in them and which one is used depends on the type of spell or creature.
- Fire (fire spells and various creatures).
- Cold (cold spells, thermal drain and various creatures).
- Electricity (lighting and various creatures).
- Physical (earth, some air and body spells).
- Mind (mind spells and fear).
- Spirit (spirit spells, immaterial attacks and life force attacks).
- Holy (life spells and holy attack)
- Doom (death spells and darkness attacks)
The basic character has no resistance in any of them, except for mind, which starts with a resistance of 10 (your mind is your own and you will protect it). When choosing your path, you gain 10 Dark for the good path, 10 Holy for the evil path and 5 of both for the neutral path.
At each level-up, you gain 2 resistance points that you can use at will. There is just one special case here. It costs 2 resistance points to raise the physical resistance with one point. This is because physical magic damage is mostly non-magical in nature and therefore harder to resist. You can also gain resistances from artifacts, as rewards for quests and at various locations. When you encounter a creature, it will look like this:
F0, C0, E8, P5, M10, S0, H0, Dm
"m" means that the creature is immume to the type of magic indicated. This creature is immume to Dark spells and attacks and has resistances against electricity, physical and mind.
2.3 Hit and run.
It will occur often that you are confronted by a creature that is simply too strong for you. Either you underestimated it or it appeared without you knowing. In those cases, you have the opportunity to run. The requirement is that you have at least five speed points available and that there is a clear way out behind you.
When you decide to run, you make a roll with the 20-sided die (I'll roll for you). To see what happens, you add your speed statistic to the roll and compare it to the opponents speed statistic + 12. Then, three things can happen:
-If you equal or get higher than the opponents speed check, then you get away safely.
-If you get 1, 2 or 3 points lower than the opponents speed check, then you get away, but the opponent gets one more attack, which is done with your armour class -10.
-If you get 4 or more lower than the opponents speed check, then you suffer the same penalty attack and remain in combat.
If you are fighting more than one creature, the check will be done for all of them. If you suffer a critical failure against a part of them, you will resume combat with only that part of the creatures.
There are attributes and artifacts that give a bonus to your hit-and-run roll.
This is all assuming that the creature does not have a ranged weapon or ranged magic attack. If this is the case, you still do the same calculation. If you get away, then are assumed to be at a 1DU distance from them. The opponent will keep shooting or spellcasting until you are out of range. Remember that you run 1DU per turn (but ranged weapons often take a few turns to load). For ranged weapons, the accuracy statistic is the range limit in DU. This can be the same for spells, or they have a specific range.
3.1 Weapons and Armour
This is the complete list of all weapon and armour skills. You can choose them at the beginning or purchase them for 400g each if the location allows training. The special weapons are restricted until certain quests have been completed.
Melee weapons:
Sword:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- Half of skill added to damage bonus.
Degree 3- Permits use of two swords (seperate calculations made).
Degree 4- Skill added to armour class.
Axe:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- One half of skill substracted from speed cost.
Degree 3- Skill added to damage bonus.
Degree 4- Strength statistic has double effect.
Spear:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- Skill added to armour class.
Degree 3- Accuracy statistic added to damage.
Degree 4- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Dagger:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- Permits use of two daggers (seperate calculations made).
Degree 3- Accuracy statistic has double effect.
Degree 4- Two attacks per round (if enough speed points).
Staff:
Degree 1- Skill added to armour class.
Degree 2- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 3- Skill added to damage bonus.
Degree 4- Double skill and strength added to armour class.
Blunt (mace, club, flail):
Degree 1- Skill added to damage bonus.
Degree 2- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 3- Strength statistic has double effect.
Degree 4- Roll of 19 or 20 stuns target for two rounds.
Unarmed:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- Accuracy statistic has double effect.
Degree 3- Strength statistic has double effect.
Degree 4- Damage multiplied by 1.5
Ranged weapons:
Bow:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- One half of skill substracted from speed cost.
Degree 3- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Degree 4- Allows two shots, if enough speed points.
Crossbow:
Degree 1- Skill and half of accuracy statistic added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- One half of skill substracted from speed.
Degree 3- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Degree 4- Skill substracted from speed cost.
Throwing daggers:
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 2- Skill added to damage bonus.
Degree 3- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Degree 4- Accuracy statistic has double effect.
Special weapons (later in the game and only for certain path):
Atanic blade (good):
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Degree 2- Double effect of strength statistic.
Degree 3- Skill substracted from speed cost.
Degree 4- Three attacks per round (if enough speed points).
Shockwhip (good):
Degree 1- Double effect of accuracy statistic.
Degree 2- Intelligence statistic added to damage.
Degree 3- Negate electrical resistance.
Degree 4- Roll of 16 or higher causes 3-turn paralysis.
Sytmer (neutral):
Degree 1- Skill adds to armour class twice.
Degree 2- Three times skill added in physical damage.
Degree 3- Skill added to damage twice.
Degree 4- Never missing attack.
Grey dagger (neutral):
Degree 1- Two attacks per round (if enough speed points).
Degree 2- Accuracy statistic added to damage.
Degree 3- Skill added to attack bonus.
Degree 4- Roll of exactly 10 or 11 hits, then target dies.
Luantic staff (evil):
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Degree 2- Attack curses opponent.
Degree 3- Triple effect of strength statistic.
Degree 4- Weapon becomes vampiric (1 healed per 2 damage)
Death Axe (evil):
Degree 1- Skill added to attack bonus twice.
Degree 2- Triple effect of strength statistic.
Degree 3- Skill added to damage three times.
Degree 4- Damage multiplied by 1.5
Armour skills:
Shield:
Degree 1- Skill added to armour class.
Degree 2- Strength statistic added to armour class.
Degree 3- All ranged attacks do half damage.
Degree 4- Skill added to armour class twice.
Leather:
Degree 1- Skill added to armour class.
Degree 2- Speed penalty eliminated.
Degree 3- Endurance statistic added to armour class.
Degree 4- Skill added to armour class twice.
Chain:
Degree 1- Skill added to armour class.
Degree 2- 5 points added to all elemental resistances.
Degree 3- Speed penalty eliminated.
Degree 4- Skill added to armour class twice.
Plate:
Degree 1- Skill added to armour class.
Degree 2- Speed penalty halved.
Degree 3- Skill added to armour class twice.
Degree 4- Speed penalty eliminated.
Dodge:
Degree 1- Skill times 1.5 added to armour class.
Degree 2- Speed statistic added to armour class.
Degree 3- Skill times 2.5 added to armour class.
Degree 4- Allows use of leather armour (restricted to level 2).
3.2 Magic
The first Group.
Elemental Magic.
Elemental Magic is usually the crudest form of magic and it involves the control of matter, often liveless matter. However, it does provide some of the most destructive spells and it can be very useful in your journeys.
Fire Magic.
D1 Ignite flame: The ability to summon fire from matter. Can only be cast on matter that is capable of burning by itself. The specific spell is "ignite", which can be used to start a fire or to cause burns to an opponent. Can only be cast nearby.
D2 Control fire: The fire can now travel and be led by the caster. You can command fire not to harm something specifically or let fire fly. The specific spell is "fire bolt", which is basically a blob of flying fire, which can hurt someone from a distance or set fire to something flamable at a distance. However, the fire is not strong and will do no more damage or set nothing more on fire than a torch would.
D3 Magic focus: This is the point where you stop using normal fire and focus the powers of fire on a specific point. A fire, focussed on a specific point can burn through most things and cause very bad damage. The specific spell is "prism fire" which can do a lot of damage to an opponent on close range and burn through some locks and doors.
D4 Fire spread: The fire is now not only controlled, but will grow by the power of the caster. Good fire magic wielders at this level can set fire to whole towns in a matter of minutes and will destroy almost anything that is not protected on the battlefield. The specific spell is "fireball", which sets fire to a large area and is the spell to use on battlefields with a lot of soldiers on the opponents side.
Air Magic.
D1 Guide wind: The ability to guide the wind to flow in a certain direction. The specific spell is "slow", which is caused by the fact that you command the wind to blow your opponent in the face wherever he goes. This may not help a lot, but can allow you to run in tricky situations.
D2 Focus air: The air can now be focussed into a specific point and do damage. It will never do as much damage as fire, but it can perhaps be used to push a switch from a distance. However, that is the limit of what air can do. For advanced movement from afar, you need telekinisis. The specific spell is "wind arrow" which does damage if it hits.
D3 Liquify air: This has all kinds of neat purposes. You can actually fully guide the movement of air and not allow any movement in the opposite direction. The specific spell is "flight". By controlling the movement of air, you gain the ability to fly, simply because the air will guide your movement. The flight spell has the same limitations as natural flyers, except for the fact that you will still be able to fly in any kind of weather.
D4 Solidify air: More powerful than liquid air. You can create magic fists with a decent amount of damage. You can also use it to make artificial bridges of air (but you could use flight for that anyway). Another option is tying your enemies up with a pocket of solid air. The specific spell is "shielding". You can use solid air to throw between you and your enemies or any other danger. Only strong magic and the heaviest physical attacks will penetrate this shield. You can maintain it from some distance, giving you time to flee.
Earth magic.
D1 Disruption: This can disturb the unity and strenght of the element earth. The specific spell is "cracking", which can be used to cause damage, but is highly ineffective, because it requires to touch the target. It is far more useful to break small walls or other things that annoy you.
D2 Earth unity: This is the ability to strengthen the bonds in the element earth. Since most solid material has earth as a base, the ability has various applications. For example, to harden something you don't want broken. The specific spell is "stoneskin", in which you use the ability on yourself, increasing defense.
D3 Guide earth: Technically, you are causing sudden gravitational fluxuations. Can cause good harm to an opponent which is not influenced by any magic resistance, since the attack is physical in nature. Can also be used to cause rockslides. The specific spell is "disortion", which damages the opponent with gravity.
D4 Liquify Earth: You can make earth liquid, guide it and solidify it at any point in an eyeblink. That allows you to create shelter out of the ground, seal and hide an entrance and many more applications. The specific spell is "block", which means that you use the movement of liquid and solid earth to bind an enemy to the ground, making him completely immobile.
Water Magic.
*Note. Water magic is more potent when close to a source. You cannot guide what is not there.
D1 Summon water: Basically, you create water out of nowhere, which can be a live-saver in dry conditions. The amount of water summoned will usually be small, but more in humid conditions. The specific spell is "auqagenesis", which allows the summoning of a small amount of water, either for drinking or further magical use (or for showering, if you really want to).
D2 Solidify water: Notice that solidified water and ice are not the same thing. Ice is a crystal structure. Solidified water is simply water that refuses to move or change shape. If you really need a weapon, you can always try to summon water and solidify it into a dagger. The specific spell is "create boat", which creates a boat of solid air, which allows traveling over bodies of water fast and easy.
D3 Forced drain: In all living things and in most non-living things, there is at least some water. With this ability, you can seperate the water from the other elements, which has disastrous effect on living material. Usually, it will yield far more available water than summon water ability. The specific spell is "drainage", which is an attempt to drain the water from the victim, which can cause death or severe weakness and/or injuries. Since it requires highly specific elemental flows, the chance of success is less than most spells.
D4 Guide water: On land, this is the weakest of the L4 abilities, because you will hardly ever have enough water to really use the strenghts of this ability. But on or near a natural source of water (lake, river, sea), a wielder of this magic beats any other type. Should often be used in combination with the solidify water ability. The specific spell is "tsunami", which basically casts all the water in the presence over a target area, which is very destructive. On land, your best chance will be a "smother", which basically throws a heap of solidified water on the victim to cut of the oxygen supply.
The second group.
Physical Magic.
Physical Magic concentrates on the control of physical attributes of both living and not living material. It is the transfer phase between Elemental Magic and the Magic of Thought, because it deals with both living and non-living targets. For characters who depend a lot on their fighting and strength, this group of magic is a must, even in just basic forms.
Body Magic.
D1 Bodily disruption: This ability attempts to disturb the life forces and the way that mother nature build the body. It's mostly offensive, but can be useful to get a fishhook out of your skin. The specific spell is "wound", which is an offensive spell that directly targets the victim's body.
D2 Mending: This ability can summon small amounts of life force and restore the body the way mother nature created it. This ability is a must for almost everyone. The specific spell is "Heal", which directly heals wounds and restores your hitpoints.
D3 Guide life force: This is the ability to guide the life forces in your own body and add to them at specific points, which is really useful for the fighter units. You can add extra forces to muscles in order to run faster or give harder blows. You can also filter out minor physical curses (like weakness) You can also summon extra forces to wounded parts to heal faster than usual. The specific spell is "regeneration", which allows fast healing of hitpoints over a certain amount of time.
D4 Control life force: This ability works basically the same as guide life force, but it a lot stronger. This ability will remove almost any physical curse. You can also get access to the life forces of someone else and drain them. In combination with Death Magic, you can develop vampiristic and sacrificial abilities, which are really powerful. The specific spell is "life drain", which is a strong spell that simply sucks the life forces out of everyone nearby. The life forces go lost and it requires Death Magic to use them.
Thermal Magic.
*Note, thermal magic deals with heat and cold and will sometimes look very similar to certain aspects of elemental magic.
D1 Change temperature: With this ability, you can create pockets of heat and cold for some several purposes. The specific spell is "shelter", which creates a pocket of a pleasant temperature to rest in while outside circumstances are not-that-pleasant.
D2 Energy drain: Sucks the thermal energy out of a specific object. The energy is lost, unless the character has higher level Thermal Magic or Fire magic above level 2 (in which you just add the thermal energy to the fire strenght). The specific spell is "freeze", in which you cause cold wounds to a victim.
D3 Create energy: You can use this ability to set fire to things if you don't have fire magic, but otherwise, it is fairly useless by itself. The main virtue of this ability is when you use it in combination with elemental spells. For some extra mana, you then drastically increase the damage or effectiveness, because you added pure energy to your spell. The specific spell is "ignite", which is an attempt to set fire to a specific object.
D4 Thermal shield: This allows you to create a much stronger mobile pocket of constant thermal energy. This acts a a shield against heat or cold, but you cannot have both at once and the shield slowly drains mana as long as you have it. The specific spells are "heat shield", which makes you immume to fire and burning spells and allows you to enter very hot places. "Cold shield", which makes you immume to ice and freezing attacks and allows you to explore very cold places and swim in freezing water.
The third group.
The Magic of Thought.
The Magic of Thought is a far more refined branch of magic and it uses the mind, soul and spirit of the caster to influence yourself, your opponents and sometimes, the outside environment. This is the part where you start to get real blesses and curses, instead of just crude changes of matter.
Mind Magic.
D1 Meditation: This is basically the focus in your own mind. Meditation is capable of increasing the effect of other spells and physical attacks (slightly) and clear the mind of minor mental curses. The specific spell is "precesion", which gives an increase in the accuracy of almost anything.
D2 Change feeling: This can be used on both yourself and an opponent. All curses of this level can be cleared with spells from this level as well. Among the possbilities are despair (which distracts the opponent), overly courageous (drop in defense) and fear. The specific spell is "fear", which will only work if there is some justification for it. No matter how much fear you use, a dragon is not going to run from a mouse.
D3 Mental shutdown: At this point, you are seriously harming the opponents mental capacities. You may attempt to block his spellcasting ability or make him unable to see you as an enemy. No mind magic will help against these conditions. You need Life Magic for that. Invisibility is also included, because you disallow anyones mind to notice you. The specific spell is "wastefullness", which causes the opponent to use multiple times the normal mana for spells.
D4 Penetration: With this ability, you can take over your opponent's mind and enslave him to your will. Once this succeeds, you can force him to suicide or to fight in your protection or for your cause. However, controlling a mind drains mana very quickly over time. The specific spell is "forced suicide", which forces the opponent to suicide at once. Chance of success is very small if the opponent is under condition of meditation.
Spirit Magic.
D1 Avatarism: The ability to let your spiritual part travel on it's own to explore the region. The spirit will not be able to do anything, but you will know what is around you. Take care, because you are vulnerable as long as your spiritual self is somewhere else. The specific spell is "Wizard's eye", which allows you to check the surrounding area for traps hidden doors, etc.
D2 Spirit warrior: The ability to let your spiritual self fight the other's mind and spirit. This can do all kinds of things, from direct damage, to insanity to various mind curses. The damage will never match against elemental or physical damage, but the spirit warrior can be a good helper, because you can fight perfectly while being seperated from it (as long as your mind is in working order). The specific spell is "spirit lash", which does direct damage. It does relative little damage, but negates any resistance and armour that the opponent may have.
D3 Access spirit: At this point, you can actually access and attack the other's spirit and attempt to destroy the soul by doing so. You can also use this skill to do more advanced spirit control. The specific spell is "destroy spirit", which can do quite some damage and is the spell to use against ghosts, specters and natural spirits, because their spirits are bare to the caster. Meditation offers some protection against it.
D4 Soul bond: Your spirit acts as a very strong tie between body and soul, which keeps you alive. This is one of the strongest protections available and with a the bonding spirit is also capable of curing almost all non-physical curses. The specific spell is "soul guardian", which hold on to the soul even after death. The soul can then return to the body after the event. Normally, you will have to hope that the body will be healed by someone else before this can work. In combination with high Body Magic, you can assure that it will be done by itself. In combination with Life Magic, the effects can even be stronger.
The fourth group.
Mirror Magic.
Mirror Magic is the most potent magic of all. The two sides are Life and Death magic. They both deal with the bond between body and soul, which is the defenition of life. Life magic attempts to preserve, strengthen and use this bond. Death magic attempts to break it and use the results for your own benefits. Death magic can also be healing and protective, but always at the cost of other life. Both of them also deal with higher powers and both of them allow access to ressurection, although in different ways. Any character can only have one of these. The good path is restricted to Life, the evil path restricted to Death, the neutral path can choose.
Life magic.
D1 Blessings: A harmonious bond between body and soul can bestow all kinds of small blessings and abilities that others do not have. The variaties here are endless and blessings can have all kinds of effects. You do need to specify whether the blessing is physical or spiritual in nature. For example, strength would be physical in nature, while bless would be spiritual in nature. There are many spells that require nothing but Level 1 life.
D2 Addition: Add to something and create things out of nothing. You can make yourself bigger with it (not permanently). You can also create food out of nothing or even try to create gold or precious metals out of nothing (which would require a lot of skill and mana). Mana regeneration can also be practised with this ability.
D3 Protection: Now you are truly using the forces of life to help you in battles and let you and others live. This includes very heavy magical and physical protection. Any condition, except for the fatalities, can be healed with this level of skill. You can use these abilities on both yourself and your allies, if you can pay the high costs in mana.
D4 Divine powers: You are now fully connected to the powers of the light in Lotrim and have reached as good as godly status. This allows you to call heavenly wrath on the armies of those who serve evil. You can cure fatalities on any ally (as long as you have the appropriate other skills) and in combination with the soul bond, you can also cure fatalities on yourself (again, with the appropriate other skills). The fatalities are: death, stoned, iced and eradicated.
Death magic:
D1 Curses: All kinds of things can happen when the bond between the body and the soul is weakened and with a bit of skill, you can decide what. This skill level involves all kinds of curses. Again, you need to specify whether the curse is physical or spiritual in nature, as they may require different skills to heal. For example, weakness is physical, while curse is spiritual. There are many variaties in this level of skill.
D2 Necromancy: After the body has lost connection to the soul, you may replace that bond with your own power. These are the basics of necromancy. The skill of necromancy by itself will only allow the raising of corpses which are dictated in their movement by the necromancer, without any thought or feeling for themselves and quite slow. For more advanced results, additional skills are needed.
D3 Offense: This is the point where you start to throw the real powers of death and darkness around. It includes heavy attacks on both body and soul, which rival the strongest elemental destruction. In combination with level 4 Body Magic, you can drain the forces of life from your victims to heal yourself and your minions at a destructive rate. You can also cripple your opponents with much heavier curses than the level 1's or use the level 1's in a mass manner.
D4 Dark powers: You have now been filled with darkness and are a wielder of the forces of death. Entire armies can fall before your death waves and you can cut unprotected souls from their bodies like straws. Note, by the time you get this level, most other players will have reached levels at which they can protect themselves. You are also connected to the gods of death and you can sacrifice souls to them in order to be granted immortality and to be resend to earth in the case of death. The sacrifice of souls does require a decent bit of Spirit Magic, though, and you have to do it often in order to keep the protection.
3.3 Miscellanious skills
Normal adventuring and miscellanious skills:
Body Building:
Skill adds one hitpoint per point of endurance. So at skill level one, you gain 16 HP per endurance, at skill level five, 20 HP per endurance, etc.
Meditation:
Skill adds one spell point per point of both personality and intelligence.
Unlocking:
Skill adds to the accuracy and is compared to the difficulty of the lock.
Disarming:
Skill adds to the intelligence and is compared to the difficulty of the lock.
Percerption:
Skill adds to the accuracy and is compared to the difficulty of the thing to spot. I will make the throw for you and tell nothing if it fails.
Merchant:
Normally, you get 30% of the worth when selling and 250% of the worth when buying (except at the ME Superstore in the beginning). Per point of skill, you get 7% more when selling and pay 15% less when buying. The skill cannot be more than 2 higher than the personality statistic and is capped at 10.
Understanding:
You will come across instructions in symbols or ancient languages. This skill is added to your intelligence and compared to the difficulty of the script.
Bashing:
When unlocking fails (or you don't have it), you can try to bash the lock. This skill is added to the strength skill and compared to the difficulty of the lock and/or door. Using this makes any stealth worthless and the noise will bring anything in the neighbourhood towards you.
Diplomacy:
People may give you extra things or more information when you have this skill. I will apply this skill automatically to see if it works. Skill is added to personality.
Warding:
Skill added to all magic resistances. Half effect for the physical resistance.
Wardbreaker:
Skill added to the spell attack throw.
Special skills:
Teleporting (good):
Ability to teleport 1 DU per skill. You can teleport over walls (as long as they don't have wards) up high cliffs and past monsters, but you cannot go directly through solid material, so if you can't open the entrance to the cave, you won't get in. Doing this costs 10 SP
Shadowform (neutral):
The ability to almost reduce yourself to a shadow, which makes no sound and can hardly be seen moving. You make a throw, adding twice your skill against the opponent's mind resistance. Doing this costs 20 SP.
Dimension door (evil):
The ability to teleport youself to a random point (where you could normally go by just walking) on another map. At skill level 1, you can teleport to an adjactent map. At skill level 4, to a map that is two maps away, at skill level 7, three maps away, etc. Doing this costs 30 SP. It's a good way of fleeing a tough combat.
Basic charm: Adds one to personality.
Advanced charm: Adds two to personality.
Basic toughness: Adds one to endurance.
Advanced toughness: Adds two to endurance.
Basic brawling: Adds one to strength.
Advanced brawling: Adds two to strength.
Basic study: Adds one to intelligence.
Advanced study: Adds two to intelligence.
Basic concentration: Adds one to accuracy.
Advanced concentration: Adds two to accuracy.
Basic swiftness: Adds one to speed.
Advanced swiftness: Adds two to speed.
Weaponry: Substracts one point from speed penalty.
Basic warding: Adds two points to all magic resistances (3 for barbarians).
Advanced warding: Adds four points to all magic resistances (5 for barbarians).
Expert warding: Adds six points to all magic resistances (8 for barbarians).
Sharpshooter: Adds three points to ranged weapon attack bonus.
Thievery: Adds one skill point to both disarm and unlock.
Wardbreaker: Adds three points to the magic attack throw.
Attention: Adds two to the perception skill.
Blur: Adds two to the dodge skill.
Specialization: Adds two to the attack bonus of specialized weapon. Only one weapon type allowed.
Darkvision: Suffer no penalties in the dark.
Mirror ward: Adds another three points of resistance against mirror magic.
Fleetfoot: Adds two to the hit-and-run throw.
Heat acceptance: No resting penalty on warm terrain, add 2 to fire resistance.
Cold acceptance: No resting penalty on cold terrain, add 2 to cold resistance.
5.1 A short description
About you all. You are a bunch of adventurers of all kinds who have come to Goblet Island to visit the many teachers there. Goblet Island is a reserve of wisdom, because it falls under the direct gaze of Marelt Ekiran, the omnicient, omnipotent, all-powerfull being who is not going to interfere with anything (except for being the gamemaster).
The world you live on is called Lotrim. Lotrim is one big continent with a number of islands around it. You will also find really big lakes and rivers in the inland parts. Because it stretches so far, you will find any kind of landscape if you travel far enough.
None of you has ever cared for geography and no one in the world has bothered putting it all on a big map. So there is very little that you know about the actual structure of the world. What you do know is that Goblet Island lies in a bay, close to the mainland. On the mainland lies the second city of the world, called Himatar city. But you have no clue what is beyond that. Only, that somewhere lies the capital, called Fastuin.
The world has some knowledge of mechanics, but magic and medieval weaponry are still prevailent. There is no monarch, but the place is run by a number of lords and ladies, who do what they have to do in their own terretories and cooperate with the other lords and ladies to govern the whole world.
I don't bother with this world, but there are others who do. In the heavenly realms are the angels, who guide and protect the peoples of Lotrim. The darkness demons live in the deep pits of the earth, from where they punish the mortals who sin and dwell in darkness. The angels and darkness demons have always lived as enemies, but they concentrate their forces on the mortals, rather than on each other. While they are far more powerful than mortals, they are not omnipotent. There are tales of both angels and demons being slain by ultimate mortal and undead heroes.
People have wispered that there are more planes of existance beyond those two realms, but it seems that this is just a story. No one has ever seen these planes and even if they exist, then they are locked away firmly.
The story starts on a night on Goblet Island...
5.2 Features and extra information
Death:
If your hitpoints drop to zero or below, you are technically dead. If you are dead, you will be meeting the god of the underworld (=me). Since I like seeing you all run around and have fun, I'm not going to keep you, but I will let you go at the cost of half the gold that you had at that point and 50XP per level. You will start on your starting point on Goblet Island. You can also ask me to transport you to the entrance of the map where you died, which will cost you all the gold that you had at the moment. If you want to keep large amounts of money save, put it on the bank.
You can bind your spirit with high level spirit magic and even ressurrect yourself with high level life magic. There is also a possibility of a pact with the death forces (my minions) to let you go, which is described in the death magic description.
Allies:
You can make alliances between player characters, which is up to you. Some tasks may be easier to do with more than one person. You will all gain the experience, but you will share any material rewards. If an artifact is offered as reward, I'll let you fight out who gets it.
You can also have NPC allies. They will be controlled by me and they have their own will and purposes. Usually, they will follow your lead, but often, they have their own morals and won't stray from them. Usually, NPC's will become allies after certain events. As a rule, NPC allies are always one level lower than you are and if you level up, so will they. I will determine how they level up, which may not always be the skills that you would like.
You can cast blessings on your ally and your ally may cast blessings on you. That is why all blessings also have a DU range. As a rule, you can only have one NPC ally at the time. A group of players can also have only one NPC ally. This is just to avoid too many characters together.
If you die before your ally, your ally will be waiting for you on your starting point on Goblet Island (courtesy of Marelt Ekiran teleporting services).
Connected to this, I made an extra spell for Mind Magic of the third degree. It is called "mindreader" and it allows you to read the mind of any non-hostile creature. It is not considered an offensive move and the target will not notice. You add 20 to your mind skill and compare to the target's mind resistance to see if it works. If it works, I will give you the main thought of the character at the time.
Love and Hate:
It is possible to declare love or hate towards another player character. For the sake of simplicity, we'll assume that love only works male-female. You are free to choose your gender in the beginning. When in love with another character, you will attack any enemy that directs an attack to that character with +3 accuracy and +2 strength. Spells will do 20% more damage. However, you will lose 1 personality and 5 points of mind resistance when this character is on a different map. This penalty is doubled when the other character dies, until you meet him/her again.
Hate is directed to another player character as well. You will attack that character with +3 accuracy, +2 speed and 20% more spell power, but any conversation is impossible.
Declaration and breaking of love and hate are public. Note that once one of the feelings is broken, it cannot be reassumed again unless there is a specific reason (to be decided by me, saving another or betrayel may be valid reasons).
You can also declare love towards an NPC ally. It's perfectly possible to end the game with you being happily married to your loved one, who you found during your travels.
There are a few complications to this. NPC's have morals and may refuse to follow you if you stray too much from them. You will suffer from the normal penalties if a loved one is on a different map than you are. And here is the big one... NPC's who die will not return. If the NPC dies, and you cannot bring him or her back to life with magic (ressurrection or soul bond), you will go into a period of mourning, during which you will suffer the normal double penalties, until I decide to release you. There is one way to return the NPC otherwise. Use a potion of preservation on the body (you should always have some in stock) and bring it to the temple of Fastuin as fast as possible. The clerics there can ressurrect the body, but they have a large prize.
Eternal love:
If you feel that your loved one is truly the one that you want to stay with forever, then you can declare eternal love, with Marelt Ekiran as witness. This declaration of love cannot be broken and can only be done if both sides agree.
When two characters are under eternal love, they cannot disagree on the path that they are going to take (good, neutral or evil). Except for that, eternal love is not different from normal love.
The advantage is that you are absolutely certain that there can be no hostile move or betrayal from the other. Another thing is that Marelt Ekiran will not break a love that was vowed in his name. If the NPC dies, then the player has to go to sleep (rest) at first opportunity and pray in his or her sleep to Marelt Ekiran and the soul of the loved one. When waking up, the NPC will have returned from death. As a payment, Marelt Ekiran will set your XP back to the lowest value of your current level. For example, at level 2, it would be set back to 500, no matter what it was first.
In any case, the easiest is just not to let the NPC die or have ressurrection or soul bond spells ready.
Hate restrictions:
Hate can only be declared towards a player character (otherwise, you could just hate all your opponents). If there is hate between characters and they meet, combat situation will be started at once, without any chance of conversation.
Vowing:
You can promise whatever you want and break it whenever you want, which may influence the way that people think about you. There is just one exception here. If you vow something by calling Marelt Ekiran as your witness, then you are bound to it. If you break that vow, I will smite you on the spot and you won't be coming back to life (in other words, you can't). If you want to try a word trick and twist the meaning of the vow, then you will have to contact me by private message and give a justification. I will decide whether the justification is good enough. In any case, I will not tell anything to the other players.
Banks:
You can put a part of your money on a bank, where it will stay safe, no matter what happens to you. This is a good thing in case you die or are captured. However, there are only two banks on this world (they are connected). One in Himatar City, the other in Fastuin. A few shops, here and there accept bank credits, but they will charge 25% extra if you do that. Most people and shops only accept cash.
Shops:
There are a lot of shops in this world, but they can be divided into a few categories. There are shops that sell weapons, shops that sell armour and shops that sell other items. A combination is possible and there are shops that sell everything, called "wholesales". They tend to have only a small selection of substandard items, though. Individuals can also sell items that you may need for specific tasks.
Items and artifacts:
The best artifacts can be found on specific locations and are often only accessible by killing lots of monsters or applying lots of skills. Normal equipment can either be bought or found. If you have more than you need, you can always sell things in shops. Note that shops only buy things which they also sell. Whenever an artifact is uncovered or seen in a shop, it will be added to the artifact page. More information about artifacts and items there.
Taverns:
Taverns are spread throughout the land. Almost every town has one and you may find them in the open land. Taverns sell food and allow you to rest without any penalty or disturbance (which can be really usefull in hostile territory).
Food:
You have to eat in order to survive. I'm giving you six portions of food to begin with. You have to buy or seek the rest for yourself. Every rest costs you two portions (I may ask for more, depending on situation). Taverns sell food and you have a chance of finding food in areas with a lot of plants and trees.
Opponents:
Whenever you meet a new creature, the statistics will be revealed and added to the creature page. More about creatures there.
Primary statistics:
Don't neglect any of your primary statistics, because I may do a comparison with any of them at any time in a lot of situations. For example, you are confronted by a duper in a city, who will trick you out of your money unless you have a high enough personality. Goblins may ambush you and throw a net, which you can break with enough strength.
Quests:
You will get a lot of quests. They may be part of the main storyline or not (most of them not). When you complete them you will always get experience and often gold or another reward. I will put open quests on your character sheets and tell you what to do and where to go once finished. You will not get your XP or reward before you get there.
Leveling up:
Expect to level up fairly quickly, because I will give lots of experience for quests and creatures. You will gain higher levels at 500, 1500, 3000, 5000, 7500, 10500, etc. (you get the sequence). What you get when gaining levels is:
- One primary statistic point.
- Five skill points for skills at level 1-5, six at level 6-10, seven at level 11-15, etc.
- Two magic resistance points (added at choice).
- One attribute every even level (2,4,6,8,etc.)