Suggestion: Make Rescue a More Generic Skill

[Heroic Kank]

I imagine this won't go over so well, but here it is. I think rescue should be a more widely-available skill, one akin to cooking. The classes that currently get the skill should have the highest caps and the highest starting percentage, clearly, but I think, realistically, any schnook should be able to throw themselves in harm's way if need be.
Mostly, I request this because playing a character who doesn't have the skill, and is in a situation where he or she needs to use this skill, is incredibly awkward. I'm talking about training situations, primarily. You can have eight sergeants yelling at you and spamming 'teach', and one of the opponents not even fighting back, and you -still- won't be able to succeed in the rescue. It seems silly, especially when most of the instruction in rescue is "put your body in front of the other person". It feels very OOC, like being unable to wield an axe because you don't have 'hacking weapons' on your skill list, or something.
I mean, really, can't -anyone- take a bullet? I understand that everyone having uber-maxxed 'rescue' will make it harder to kill people, but this is mostly for realism purposes. I recognize that there is definitely a certain amount of skill involved in getting somebody out of harm's way, but when conditions are right, I think even a semi-retarded half-giant pickpocket should be able pull it off.
Maybe instead of giving everyone the rescue skill, a better solution might just be to give big bonuses to rescue attempts under certain conditions-
1. A big bonus to rescue if one of the combatants is 'disengaged'. That's one less pair of flying fists or weapons you have to worry about when moving in.
2. A big bonus to rescuing a severely injured person. An injured person would probably be moving slower, and would easier to step in front of.
3. Maybe add another "type" of failure to the skill, where the target is successfully rescued, but you do it so sloppily that your opponent gets a number of free attacks... four or five even. It seems realistic for those self-sacrificing scenarios, and since it would happen on a coded 'failure', it would be possible for even those without the skill to pull this off.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I could see this. It would have a low cap, like cooking does, but I could see this.

[mansa]

Meh.  I thought this was why people are rangers and warriors, and not merchants and pickpockets.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Well, in that case, we better take the ability to cook from everyone but house servants.

Seriously, I think the ability to jump in front of an attack doesn't take any skill. It's doing it well that takes skill.

So I say give it to all, at a crappy cap. The ones who currently have it should remain the masters, the best, but if a merchant wants to try to save his lover, he should be able to.

[mansa]

Well, there's nothing stopping you from assisting your buddy, and then having your buddy flee, and then come back...

[Synthesis]

Thumbs up.

Low cap for non-warriors/rangers/guards.

It's definitely needed in some situations, especially with not-so-recent changes to the mount code, since mounts will just stand dumbly and fight to the death.

[joyofdiscord]

I really like all of these ideas except perhaps the bonus for rescuing injured people.

[Dalmeth]

Being in a situation with my current character where everyone is expected to know rescue and not being able to, I can say that it really sucks having no capability to use it at all.

It's a simple enough ability.  Even guard can be occasionally effective if you don't have much skill in it, but rescue fails every time.  It would make characters pushed to extreme circumstances better able to adapt.

[mansa]

I'm sure if you trained how to do it for a while, and logged it, then the immortals may give you the skill.  We do have the request feature for that.

As Synthesis said, there's two guilds, and at least one subguild that have it as a skill.  I think if you wanted your combat character to have that skill, there's a lot of options open for you.

[Cale_Knight]

Rescuing isn't just stepping in front of a person. It pulls the target character out of combat entirely.

If you're playing a guild that doesn't have rescue, the odds are pretty good that you're a crappy enough fighter that you'd just be slapped away even if you could make the rescue. You might even trip up the person you're trying to help, inadvertantly causing them more harm.

Saying that rescue is just stepping in front of someone is like saying that kick is just knocking your foot up or shield use is just holding up something flat and heavy.

Everything changes when folks are trying to kill other folks.

[John]

I could see this. It would have a low cap, like cooking does, but I could see this.

Cooking has a low cap? Why?

[Hymwen]

There's a lot of skills that it doesn't make sense for everyone not to have. I guess it is that way to keep a certain difference and distance between guilds. Realistically, everyone should be capable of haggling, listening carefully, cutting a chunk of meat from a dead animal and lots of other things. Sometimes it annoys me when my character is physically incapable of something that everybody should be able to accomplish to some degree, but I suppose it is that way to keep guilds separated and to make them more individually interesting.

As for rescue, I can see why you would want everyone to be able to do that, but I can also see the logic behind giving it only to true fighting guilds and subguilds where it would make sense.

[Ghost]

I agree with Cale_Knight here.  A veteran fighter would know how to slap away an unexperienced rescuer and go for his real target.  Rescue is not just getting in the harms way, but drawing the attention on yourself.  Following the movements of the attacker and showing him that the only way to get to the real target his through the rescuer.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I could see this. It would have a low cap, like cooking does, but I could see this.

Cooking has a low cap? Why?

First of all, I am assuming it has a low cap for all but two classes and one subclass, and as to why? Why does everything else have a low cap in certian guilds? Because you are not supposed to be the world's most famous chef when you go out and drag down mekillots all day.

[Cyrian20]

Guard subguild, and I believe you can still attempt a rescue even without the skill, just like guard.

[Yang]

? Because you are not supposed to be the world's most famous chef when you go out and drag down mekillots all day.

Though you could be the best cooker of mekillot steak that goes out and drags down fresh mekillots all day. Ooooh! Touche!

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Get shot.