Merchants and Weapons

[Yam]

There's no unarmed skill. Just raw offense and defense which every guild can max out.

[Jihelu]

Protector/merchant is good fam. Just do that.

[AdamBlue]

There -should- be an unarmed skill.
Please see: An example of someone with Master Unarmed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Cb2d0ZUVs

[Jihelu]

Heres the thing about unarmed.
You'd have to figure out how much damage it will do to fully armored opponents.
You'll be fighting people who have what you have in unarmed in, say, spear.
You'll be fighting people in armor.

[Miradus]

I don't know about an unarmed skill, but I'd like to see subdue broken down into wrestling components.

So instead of just one skill check, magic grapple subdue you have disarm them, make multiple grapples to lock up their limbs, then take them down. Some sort of submission hold would be required.

[Reiloth]

I'd be fine with an unarmed skill, as long as it is next to useless against anyone wearing significant armor. The last thing i'd like to see are a bunch of kung fu assholes running around wrecking people who are beefs wearing obsidian armor.

[Miradus]

I'd be fine with an unarmed skill, as long as it is next to useless against anyone wearing significant armor. The last thing i'd like to see are a bunch of kung fu assholes running around wrecking people who are beefs wearing obsidian armor.

Yeah, that's my take on it.

You punched me in my chitin-plated chest? I scoff.

You disarmed me, made a grapple check against my arm, wrenched it behind my back and forced me to the ground? Okay then! Here's your sid.

[AdamBlue]

What, make a skill like, 'grappling' that branches at journeyman subdue that Burglars start with and that warriors branch?
Also, it's pointless to say, 'oh, but unarmed is useless against people with armor'. As the unarmed code is currently, it's quite feasible to beat an armed and armored character while unarmed if you're -really- good. (Disarm also helps)

[BrokenRomance]

What about blunt? I can feasibly see a merchant thwacking Bandit Amos upside the head skillfully with a chunk of wood.

[Inks]

I don't really like merchants getting piercing as it invalidates assassins since they only get two weapon skills. There are 0 karma subs with combat skills as well as extended.

[Hauwke]

The guy in the video is either a necker with AI agi. Or a maxed ranger stump. Nuff said.

[Jihelu]

Giving merchants like, jman bludge would be alright for me.

[Miradus]

I'm for whatever level lets me survive a little better. I don't want to be a desert badass. I just don't want to die in the 3-4 rounds it takes me to escape from a single gortok.

[Hauwke]

Honestly if you need jman bludg to run from a gortok you are doing it wrong. Hitting it to death isnt running away thats fighting it.
However, I would like to see every class given the same universal weapon skill that goes to maybe, just maybe jman. A brand new blanket skill for all something akin to bludgeoning but it would need to be basically a crap version. Improvised weapons basically if you dont have that weapon skill the weapon uses you get this in place to substitute for it with a moderate penalty given because well... Swinging a sword like a club is only mostly useless.

[Jihelu]

Improvised weapon might be a skill that applies to weapons you don't have a skill for, or something.
And it basically is half as effective as using a regular weapon and can only go up to jman or some shit idk.
Polearm wielding merchants when

[Hauwke]

Didnt think about that with advanced weapons... Could make those not count I guess.

[Chettaman]

I once had an old merchant / linguist elf (from tuluk, if that matters (the pansies)) and he regularly went out and hunted and of course he wore no armor.
This was back when I didn't know how dangerous everything in the world was. He ended up dying to dehydration because I had to go to work and it sucked.

Merchants really aren't as useless in combat as the majority seems to think. And now that I imagine that I understand most of the game mechanics, I'm pretty sure they're really not useless at all in combat. They suck, that's true enough, but not useless.

[Jihelu]

I'd rather not have the merchant elf with no armor thats barely managing to kill chalton in my group.

[nauta]

I'd rather not have the merchant elf with no armor thats barely managing to kill chalton in my group.

Code Select Expand


steal horn jihelu
craft horn into needle


But more seriously, it was mentioned above that (a) not having combat skills on your sheet isn't the entire end of the world and (b) you can pick a subguild that grants you combat skills as a merchant, if that's the sort of merchant you want to pursue.

[Jihelu]

Now, no one said anything about the merchant protector. I love that guy.

I just wouldn't go hunting big/dangerous game with the person I oocly know is just a regular merchant/(something I don't care about subguild here)

[valeria]

I think this "merchants can't fight" idea is a self-fulfilling prophecy to a large extent. Most characters aren't that great at fighting right out of the box, and if you don't put time in (like if you think you won't ever git good), you'll continue to be bad.

[Quell]

Half-giant merchants can fight.

[Miradus]

I've had merchants who had no trouble with shik and skeet. That's all I'd realistically expect to fight with a non-combat character.

For me, it all goes back to the lack of flee or any defensive skills.

[nauta]

For me, it all goes back to the lack of flee or any defensive skills.

Just FYI, 'flee' is also one of those commands you can still execute even if it isn't on your character sheet (AFAIK).

[Jihelu]

If Flee isn't on your sheet it is like trying to climb as someone who doesn't have the climb skill.
It sucks.
Only with climbing you usually don't die because you fall 1 room. With flee you hit it 19 thousand times and you are still stuck fighting those 15 gortoks.