Clerical Guide
Greetings and peace to you fellow Cleric!
First, let me welcome you to the cleric profession. You'll find it a challenging time, but also one of the most rewarding for you as a player. Since I don't know your GS III playing experience, some of this may seem very basic stuff to you. But I'm just putting it in to make sure you know where I'm at when I explain some things.
First things first, stats. You need to have the highest rolls possible. Rolls with 3 rolls in the 80s and one in the 90's or 4 80's and all other rolls above 40 is realistic and demanded. This may take a long time to roll, but is it worth it. With all the rolls added up, they should at least add up to 630 or even more.
Now, stat placement. This is an area of high discussion. I'll try to explain them here if I can. To help, I'll write in my stats, as they were several years ago. Remember, you get a +10 stat bonus to wisdom and logic just for choosing a Cleric.
Name: Lochinver Glancewielder Race: Giantman Profession: Cleric
Gender: Male Age: 33 Level: 1
Currently rolled stats
Constitution (CO): 42 41
Dexterity (DE): 42 42
Discipline (DI): 88 88
Logic (LO): 70 59
Intelligence (IN): 45 45
Strength (ST): 95 95
Reflexes (RE): 59 59
Charisma (CH): 26 25
Wisdom (WI): 99 89
Aura (AU): 89 89
Mana: 3 Silver: 202 TOTAL 632 spirit 9
So far, I'm generally happy with the placement. This recommendation goes like this, highest to lowest.
Strength, aura, wisdom, discipline, reflex, logic, intelligence, dexterity, constitution and charisma.
Another possible order goes, Aura, discipline, wisdom, strength, reflex, intelligence, logic, dexterity, constitution and charisma. Though, this order may put your reflexes a bit on the low side. By the time you get to placing the stat there, your possibly in your lower 50 rolls. I recommend keeping the reflex stat higher, about a 70 or more should do. As you may notice, I started with a 59 and I was having slight problems in getting hit often with that.
Here are you attributes and what they do for you.
STR: Determines base attack power (AS), and is part of the calculation in your beginning HP's. Not to mention dragging bodies and pushing on that dern gate at the Grave Yard.
AURA: Determines the amount of spirit points you'll start with. We need spirit points for rezzing. Additionally, this stat is calculated in both mental and physical training points. Now, don't think that you HAVE to have a high stat here to be able to be a sucessful rezzer. There are MANY good rezzers out there that have SP of 5 and even 4. With my stat, I started out at 9. Rezzing is explained later in this quide. So don't make a decision yet.
WISDOM: Determines the maximum mana points we can hold and obtain in a year, also determines your base casting strength (CS).
DISCIPLINE: Calculated in both physical and mental training points.
REFLEX: Determines base defense strength (DS). This is one stat I wish I had higher. My 59 gives me a base DS of 20 (at offensive stance). If I could change something, it would be that. So far it's the only thing I find that I would want to change.
LOGIC: Determines how quickly you absorb experience - how quickly the bucket of experience you build up in your head drains, if you want to think of it that way.
INTELLIGENCE: Determines the amount of experience your head can hold before you "must rest". The size of the bucket, if you will.
DEX: Helps in waving (AS) based wands and is calculated in some maneuver rolls.
CON: The other part of the calculation that determines the amount of HP's you are eligible for in the beginning of your career, also, determines what rank of damage will cause a critical hit on you and how you respond to poisons and diseases.
CHARISMA: This is a personal note here: I believe this has to do with how much the merchants like you. The higher this stat, the cheaper your prices at the first will be. But the change in prices is negligible, and not worth a high stat. I'll always put my lowest stat in charisma.
This is how stat placement was recommended to me. Like I said, if I could change something, it would be the reflex, but my roll left me little choice as my logic and my reflex stats were so close together.
Based on this, put your stats as you want em, how you want your character. It is your character anyway. Planning is essencial.
With race choice, this is entirely up to you. I chose a giantman. A sylvankind elf or half elf would gain reflexes faster but then again, I can carry alot of stuff with no (RT) adding on. Giants can drag more, have stronger attacks in the begining, also, giants gain SPs (spirit points) back faster than a sylvankind. Not to mention that I can knock out the dents in my shield faster (just joking). Though I will recommend not having a Dark elf. Nothing against em personally, but they gain back sp's slowest of all the races.
Now, training. With my stats I got 41 physical and 39 mental training points per year. This is how I break em down.
Armor training- Try to get up to 8 trainings in this as soon as you can manage it. This is how we work off the RT that comes with the armor we wear. The more we train in it, the more we can wear including cloaks boots earrings and other such assessories. Stay as light as you can in the early years. Add on as you go. The armor to get up to and stay with is double leather. Double leather provides us with the most protections we can get and gives us a 0% spell hindrance. Anything higher and the chance of your spells failing increase. Personally, I like all my spells to work all the time. I trained up to 40 in this skill. That way I worked off any RT associated with the armor. As far as assesories, I've worn all I've wanted to and still, not until I had 3, 20 lbs boxes in my backpack, did i get a 6 RT on my attacks.
Shield train, every year. By doing this, you put in a higher multiple into the equation that determines your DS power and will increase your DS.
Combat Maneuvers, every year. This one took convincing for me, but seeing is believing. This skill seems to give you more of a chance of getting a critical hit on a beastie. Stunning them more often, and making em fall to the ground. Additionally, +1 to your (AS) for every 2 ranks of training.
Bladed/blunt weapons, +5 (AS) to attack every training. Make a decision between bladed and blunt and stick with it throughout your career. I go with bladed weapons because bladed weapons are more abundant in the lands. It's your choice though. Cut em to the bone or smash em to a pulp.
Spell training, double train every year, without fail. Myself, I am training this way. Minor spell circle, up to spell 103 and stopping there. Major spell circle all the way up along with the cleric circle. At year 11 I'm doubling major spirit to get the bravery spell. (+15 AS) So at year 12, I can double in Cleric circle again to get the Rezz spell. I'll repeat this at year 15 again go get the heroism spell as well.
Mana share, try to double train every year. Even for year 0 to 1. We need 102 skill in this by our 12th year so we can flawlessly rezz our comrades, anything below 102 and a rezz may fail and cost us our spirit points, cost our comrades their deed and he/she will still be dead. Not to mention, empaths love us if we can give em some mana when they're in a real pinch. After you have 102 in this skill, you don't have to keep on with it. Continued training will make up for others lack of skill and make shareing with younger folks easier. It's up to you if you keep on with it. My self, I'm up to 111 and staying there.
Now remember, everytime you choose a skill to get better in, that is a "training" in that particular skill. For training sessions 1-10 you get 5 added on to your skill. You get only 4 added to your stat for training's 11-20, and 3 added to your stat for training's 21-30. Lots of new folks don’t know the progression changes. This is a reason that some folks come up short of 102 in mana sharing by level 12. This does not just apply to mana sharing, but to all the skill areas.
Perception, get one in as you can. Lately, I've been told that some training in perception is need to find some openings and passages that will come up in the Lord and above years. I've just found this out, so my trainings have been lacking in this. I'm adding on my skill to this in the 10th year and up trainings, so my TPs allow it now. As a level 1 cleric, you'll find yourself strapped for TPs in the begining anyway.
Physical training, Single train every year without fail. I only single trained because the 12 phy points it cost for the second train took away from other things. Despite popular belief, more HP's does not a better hunter make. Smart hunting practices do. i.e. Stance dancing and knowing when the heck to get out of the fight and run for cover. I've only died once in my 16 year career and that was from a critical hit that cut my face off. (That was not pretty.) Once your reach your maximum HP's for your race, a bonus is added to your HP recovery rate and the RT that comes with healing from ingesting herbs decreases. Mabey a second off the RT every third training, thus, barely noticable. Overtraining in this is best left to empaths. Once I reach my maximum HPs, I'll quit there and use the points for other things.
First aid, single train, or double train, depends on how far and how fast you want to get good at it. If an empath is not around, we may have to tend a wound to get a person rezzed and on their way. We'll be on rescue missions, and some empaths under the age of 15 can't be in the arch Wights and the so forth. There may be a time when we're on our own. Not to mention the relief you have when you stop a 4 per chest wound when you only have 10 hp's left and your along way from home.
Now this will eat up almost all your training points, but still try to sneak in a climbing and a swimming now and then. At least every other year. You'll need em to get to some areas in the Lord and above years. I've heard some other professions guides saying skill levels at 35 in both are good, some others say as much as 50. Myself, I'm up to 40 in both and holding there until I find problems.
Your TP's will increase as you get older and your stats rise. In time, you'll fit all this in comfortably and have some left over as spare. After 102 skill in mana share, you don't HAVE to keep on in it.
Now, you might ask, "Why not train in wands?"
The reason I don't train with wands is. 1. Eats up my training points. 2. Our dexterity doesn't give us good spell attacks (AS) 3. Wand attacks need spell aiming skills (even more TP usage) and our cleric and spirit circle spells don't need spell aiming skill, but again, this is all up to you.
Anyway, when I get a good wand, I like giving them to a lord or a lady. Gets you in good with them and then they may help you out too. Such as at a mass spell session. Plus you'll be making friends, and having friends in the game is a big part of this game. Not to mentions the added benefits of embedding times for you, enchanting armor and saving your butt when your dead. :::chuckle:::
Ok, now your out there, get to year one, train again, and now equip and hunt. This is how I did it. I went through years 1-4 like this (very quickly I might add). I hunted rats, kobs, nymphs, lesser shades, skeletons, lesser ghouls and phantoms. Anything you can kill, kill it. Get good and fried, (your mind can't take much more of this, you must rest!), then let yourself get to just numbed, run a message, now your at fried again. Clerics have this wonderful skill called meditation. This gives us the ability to gain exp twice as fast while in a noded area (tsc, front desk at the inn, treehouse, temple ect) Get to numbed again, run a message, repeat this until eventually you'll get to clear again. Kill more and repeat. Now, whenever you get a chance, go the Rageing Thrak inn and go to the west and then go through the curtain. In there you'll find the Raging Thrak Warrior. Listen to his babble, (ethics in the game) answer his very easy questions at the end. Get them all right and you get 3100 exp for it. You can only do this once and it must be done before year 5. Go in there while fried because his speech takes about 5 min, so why not be absorbing exp while waiting?
Remember meditation? The only bad part about it is that you can't do anything while meditating. You can't look at or talk to anyone. At anything for that matter. Can't sort your backpack. Nothing. You can check your exp, info and the such, but that is it. Interaction with others suffers, you don't make friends. Some think you rude. But, you go from fried to clear in about 10 min while their still sitting there at numbed. Once again, it's up to you.
Now, at year 3 you might be asking about societies (Voln and that other one) or joining houses and the so forth. That is all up to you and how you want your character to be. Want to be the vengeful undead killer?, wandering cleric of the lands?, paladin and defender of others? If you want, choose a god or gods. The powers clerics wield come from a deity or deities. It all adds to the role-play experience. I'll not advocate one society or one house. They all have their benefits. But I would say that if your going to join one, join it as early as possible to reap the full benefits and to advance quickly.
Years 4-10 are going to be your "Hunt like crazy years." Blessing weapons, Lk'ing (Life Keep spell 305) people and giving fellow clerics WOL (Well Of Life spell 308) earn you no exp. NONE. We do these things out of the goodness of our own hearts. All those things are appreciated and much in demand at times. If you have the mana and the time. Bless a weapon. Some will tip you for this. At year 8 you'll have WOL. This is a much appreciated thing to do for another Cleric rezzer. If you have nothing to do for awhile, sit at the north gate or TSC and watch the rezzers at their art. You won't need to tell them that your going to WOL them, they're happy to have it done. It'll earn you a hug and a smile with a hearty thanks at least. Lets you get known in the Cleric community as a helpful person to have around.
Year 9- You get the neutralize curse spell. There are some cursed items out there and this spell will also pop open the GY gate. I've even gotten some tips for popping the gate at times.
Year 12- Now, you've done it. This is a big step in your career and one that you must be very careful with. You now capable of raising those unfortunate enough do have died. And a whole new set of responsibilities are placed on you. Hopefully by now you have 102 in your mana sharing skill. With this you will have flawless rezzing. (The consequences I've already mentioned) With 312, you MUST have 75% of your targets Max spirit points (sp). You can find out of many spirit points a person has at anytime by APPRAISE . So, if your victim has a sp of 4, you in turn must have at least 3 spirit points to rezz him. If you don't have the necessary sp and go through with the rezz anyway, this is what will happen to you. It is called a 'spirit death' (sounds ominous doesn't it?) 1. You will die and decompose on the spot. No depart needs to be entered by you. 2. 2 deeds will be taken from you. 3. Most likely, by the time you get back to your stuff where you died. Grave robbers have grabbed it all and have gone off with it. Say bye-bye to your Vultite falchion and enchanted armor. Be very careful.
There was a SOP (standard operating procedure) set up a while back and it made sense, so I'll place it in here.
1. Lk the body.
2. Get to a safe place.
3. Appraise the body (to get the bodies sp count)
4. Check your sp.
5. Diagnose the body. (tend bleeders ect)
6. Check your mana.
7. Check your sp, check your sp, check your sp and then think about it 2 times over again.
8. Diagnose the body. Check for any leaking bleeders. If you rezz the person and they have a leaking bleeder, they'll die once again.
9. Rezz.
There are several small nuances that we rezzers have to go by when we deal with each other. They follow common courtesy and common sense mostly. It all follows pretty much the same thing. Don't take anothers rezz from someone. Such as you drag, you rezz. If you take the time to drag a person to a safe place to rezz him. That rezz is yours. If you come apon a dead body somewhere, see if there are any other rezzers about. Make yourself known in common and in guild speak. And if there are others around, offer your help. You can never hurt anything by letting yourself be known. If another rezzer comes in, guess what you do....(let yourself be known as a rezzer.)
Let's say that your in a really busy place such as north gate or TSC. Usually what could be called a "batting order" is arranged. That is to say, when your turn is up (a body comes into the room) that body is yours to deal with. The "batting order" does not apply to LK'ing however. To many bodies may decompose while some of the others may be in RT, low on mana or just missed it because of the busy goings on.
Personal note: If your rezzing these popular places. Try to throw in a quick statement for all the dead bodies to, "close their groups". There are body snatchers out there and they will grab up a dead body, drag it away and watch the poor soul depart. Then the fiend will grab up all the persons items and make off like a bandit. Alot of people know this, but in the heat of dying and worring about their character, they forget to close their groups. A gentle reminder may save them alot of grief.
Now with the Voln net and the Amunet and such, the thing that I've noticed is that the first person to say, "OMW (On My Way) to " is the one to get the rezz. It's a good idea to give responses to people that put out a call for help. Let's them breathe a little easier. And prevents 5 rezzers showing up on the scene and figuring out who does the rezz. But don't get to gung-ho with your rescues. I mean, don't go rushing in to Arch Wights on your first call. Rescue in areas that you know that you can survive in.
Personal tip: Since I'm AOL and use windows. I use the Wizard front end for the game. I highlight all the names of rezzers in a particular color. So if I see a body and a rezzer is in the area. I'm pretty sure they are in good hands.
This is pretty much as far as a quide for Clerics has to go. The rest is just the same as before. Plus by the time your 12, you understand the game quite well anyway. My only advice would to be to map out your hunting and spell strategy. Time and money is invested here, get your money's worth and plan well.
Well, I know this alot to absorb, heck, you should get 5000 exp just for reading and understanding this! I hope this helps you out. if you ever have questions. you know where I am and I'm willing to help out if you want. Take pride in your roll as a Cleric, your in one of the most challenging professions and one of the most helpful professions this game has to offer. Stay safe and have a good hunt.
Lochinver Glancewielder
Cleric of Eonak