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| | ===Background and Gender=== | | ===Background and Gender=== |
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| − | It is advised to start as a hearth-person, since it starts the character inside of the human fortress, close to weapons and armor stockpiles. Gender and deity worshiped are insignificant beyond aesthetics and roleplay. Of course, when building a killing machine of a character you'd most likely want him to worship a deity of war (or similar). | + | It is advised to start as a hearth-person, since your character will begin inside of the human fortress, close to weapons and armor stockpiles. Gender and deity worshiped are insignificant beyond aesthetics and roleplay. Of course, when building a killing machine of a character you'd most likely want him to worship a deity of war (or similar). |
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| | ===Appearance=== | | ===Appearance=== |
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| | Values and personality screen is the last obstacle, that separates you from starting the game. Press Enter to begin the adventure. | | Values and personality screen is the last obstacle, that separates you from starting the game. Press Enter to begin the adventure. |
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| − | === Weapon ===
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| − | The weapon you start out with will be based on which of these, plus the unarmed combat skills, is the highest. In other words, even if Swordsman is your highest weapon skill, you won't start with a sword if your Wrestler or Striker skills are better. Usually the best choice anyway is to specialize in just one melee weapon skill. Regardless of weapon skills, a '''large copper dagger''' will always be included in the starting equipment, which is handy for throwing at enemies that are just a step away or finishing off a foe pinned down by a stuck weapon. If you don't select any offensive skills, you will also start with a spear, just as an outsider would.
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| − | Not all races/civilizations can start with all of these skills. Dwarves can't start with Bowman, Pikeman, or Lasher. Elves can only use Swordsman, Bowman, and Spearman. Of the playable races, only humans have access to Pikeman and Lasher. Strangely, only outsiders can start with Knife User.
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| − | Note that different races have different names for their weapon skills. Axegoblin, Axedwarf etc.
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| − | Crossbowman is an exception. Dwarves call this skill Marksdwarf, although bow skill is referred to as Bow Dwarf as you'd expect. Elite Axe and Hammer dwarves are referred to as Lords.
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| − | *'''Axeman''': allows characters to use axes, great axes, and halberds more effectively. Useful for cleaving off limbs.
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| − | *'''Bowman''': skill allows characters to use bows more effectively. Useful for taking down enemies at a distance.
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| − | *'''Crossbowman''': allows characters to use crossbows more effectively. Useful for taking down enemies at a distance.
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| − | *'''Hammerman''': allows characters to use crossbows in melee, mauls, and war hammers more effectively. Useful for breaking limbs.
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| − | *'''Knife User''' - allows characters to use large daggers and knives more effectively. Useful for stabbing things.
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| − | *'''Lasher''' - allows characters to use whips and scourges more effectively. Very deadly weapons.
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| − | *'''Maceman''' - allows characters to use flails, maces, and morningstars more effectively. Similar to hammers.
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| − | *'''Pikeman''' - allows characters to use pikes more effectively. Like spears, but much bigger.
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| − | *'''Spearman''' - allows characters to use spears more effectively. Useful for stabbing things.
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| − | *'''Swordsman''' - allows characters to use blowguns and bows in melee, long swords, scimitars, short swords, and two-handed swords more effectively. Useful for cutting, stabbing, and whacking, but less effective than more dedicated weapons.
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| − | === General Combat ===
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| − | These two skills can be raised rather quickly in game and so you probably want to skip spending any points on them at the start.
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| − | *'''Fighter''' - This increases with, and contributes to, melee combat whether armed or unarmed. It appears that the purpose of it is to allow melee experience to contribute to melee combat in general regardless of weapon. Repeatedly wrestling (grabbing and releasing) even a small creature will raise this skill.
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| − | *'''Archer''' - This increases with, and contributes to, ranged combat including throwing. It works similarly to Fighter except for ranged attacks. It can be easily raised by repeatedly throwing rocks, making it advisable for archers to practice their marksmanship with rock throwing before using up the more finite and expensive forms of ammunition. Shooting at a wall with adjacent upward ramp one level below and picking back projectiles is also a good idea (such places often happen to be in keeps and fortresses). See the FAQ section on [[#How do I increase my skills and attributes?|increasing your skills and attributes]] for information on raising bowman/marksman skills.
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| − | === Defensive ===
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| − | These skills are critical for survival. Starting out with good ability in one (especially Shield User or Armor User) if not all is strongly advised.
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| − | *'''Shield User''' - Ability to block attacks with shields. Starting with even novice skill in this means that the adventurer will start with a shield. This is a no-brainer unless you're creating a two handed weapon user, and lack a broadness or height modifier on your character - necessary for one-handing any two-handed weapon, without penalty.
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| − | *'''Armor User''': A higher level of this skill reduces the encumbrance penalties of armour, allowing you to move faster when wearing it. It also affects how well armour protects you and this makes a huge difference. Unskilled armour users gain little protection. This is noticeable as you'll begin seeing far more combat reports about hits either striking you though armour, (you managed to use your armour to lessen the force of the blow) or being deflected by your armour (you used your armour to avoid the hit entirety) as your skill rises and you learn to actually use your armour to deflect hits. It is highly advised to train your armour skill before entering battle with it as the speed penalties of lower levels can be a serious handicap.
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| − | *'''Dodger''' - Ability to dodge out of the way of attacks. Dodger is incredibly important and will allow you to avoid many, many hits that would have otherwise injured you. Especially important when you are fighting unarmoured and can't afford a battle axe in the chest. Boost this to talented or at least close to it.
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| − | === Unarmed Combat and Improvised Weapons ===
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| − | While some of them come in handy at times, they can generally be raised fairly easily in game, especially Wrestler and Thrower.
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| − | *'''Wrestler''' - Ability to grapple, restrain, take-down, throw opponents, etc. Higher skill means all of these moves succeed more often. See [[#Wrestling and Unarmed Attacks]] for details. Can be raised very easily in game.
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| − | *'''Striker''' - Punching ability. Turns handy when weapons get stuck and there is no time to wrest them back.
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| − | *'''Kicker''' - Kicking ability. Same as Striker. Kicks are slower but more deadly than punches; heavy kicks are particularly good at crushing and exploding heads.
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| − | *'''Biter''' - Biting ability. Biting is surprisingly effective even with non animal races as after biting you can shake opponents around by your teeth, causing great damage and possibly ripping off body parts, although with sapient races this tends to lean more towards fingers or toes, perhaps the occasional hand or foot.
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| − | *'''Thrower''' - Throwing any miscellaneous object including rocks, knives, axes, swords, heads, etc. Skill affects accuracy and damage caused.
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| − | *'''Misc. Object User''' - Ability to beat things to death with anything that comes at hand, from bags to coins to their own severed body parts. Also somewhat more commonly used for shield bashing. This skill affects combat with any object, from a rock to a beehive. There are no separate skills for different items. Items actually intended to be weapons, like swords or axes, are unaffected by this skill.
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| − | A well written article on martial arts "Kisat Dur" can be found on the forums [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=148015.0 here].
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| − | === Movement and Awareness ===
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| − | *'''[[Observer]]''' - Helps one to notice things like ambushes, enemies who are "sneaking" (stealth movement), and traps. Detection range increases with skill, but up to a maximum of 3 tiles away. Higher levels give more information regarding opponents. Hard to train. Adding some points here is advisable.
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| − | *'''[[Swimmer]]''' - Allows movement through water without drowning. A Novice swimmer can swim but will revert to being unable to swim if stunned, which happens when falling even 1 z-level into the water, or possibly after an unfriendly encounter with a creature in the water. An Adequate swimmer can swim normally (not drown) while stunned. For this reason, ''starting out as an Adequate swimmer is advisable.'' If you don't, at least start as Novice and go get some swimming practice right away.
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| − | *'''[[Ambusher]]''' - The skill of {{K|S}}neaking around unobserved. This can be raised fairly easily by sneaking around while traveling from place to place when speed is not important. Enemies will have "sight ranges" from where they can detect a sneaking adventurer. The red zone of sight is where they will see you immediately and begin chasing you; the yellow is where they might see you. Staying out of sight will allow you to silently assassinate your foes, as they rarely seem to notice a knife in their back in time.
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| − | *'''[[Climber]]''' - The skill of climbing up walls, into trees, and around the edges of gorges. Higher levels reduce the chance of falling and increase the speed of a climbing character.
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| − | *'''[[Tracker]]''' - The skill of tracking your quarry, whether it be animals or goblins. Higher levels will let you spot more tracks and help you distinguish different tracks.
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| − | *'''[[Crutch-walker]]''' - The skill of standing and walking with a crutch for support. This skill only becomes available when attempting to move with a crutch in inventory, and can be developed with or without legs. At Legendary levels, a crutch walker walks with no speed reduction, and simply keeping it in hand will continue to increase attributes.
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| − | === Crafting ===
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| − | These allow your character to create things. There is only one skill currently available in an unmodified game.
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| − | *'''[[Knapper]]''' - The fine art of sharpening rocks by banging them together in a clever manner. The resulting rocks become sharp rocks which do more damage when thrown and can be used for things requiring a sharp edge like butchering. Easy to raise in game and doing so helps with Kinesthetic and Spatial Sense.
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| − | === Other ===
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| − | *'''[[Reader]]''' - Allows you to read books, signs, and writing in Adventurer mode. Novice level is required in order to become a [[Necromancer]]. There is no way to increase this skill. Adding more points is a waste, as novice allows you to read anything.
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| − | *'''[[Butcher]]''' - The art of turning corpses into piles of delicious prepared brains and meat for food. Butchering also makes corpses and body parts less useful to enemy necromancers. You cannot allocate points here during character creation, but that's OK since skill doesn't really affect anything anyway. Except the taste, of course.
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| | = Gameplay = | | = Gameplay = |
