Skill guide

[sorear]

MadDasher did some informal testing and came to the conclusion that monsters significantly faster than you count multiple times for Courage checks, so even one monster can become a problem. With a large number of quickling queens and 0 courage at speed 10 to-hit was reduced to the -2500 range.

[Soirana]

10 characters

[Pumpernickel]

Not a feature of the two weapon combat skill, but rather of the combat stance: when fighting with two weapons, it _seems_ that you occasionally gain double experience for your kills. I suspect that this is either an artefact of the increased energy cost - or a freak flux of xp rewards. The latter would be somewhat surprising, though, since it occurred on D:50, and in games without twoweaponing the xp rewards there didn't vary significantly.

Survival skill might have some sort of impact on wilderness encounters - chance to evade, chance to avoid the 'you get ambushed' result? In any case, just travelling through the wilderness trains the skill.

Music: the skill rating affects both the chance to successfully operate the instrument _and_ the chance of actually getting a favourable effect when playing some melodies. There might be other influences - attributes, listening skill? I'd also be interested in knowing the 'range' of the skill - the maximum distance at which music can affect an animal. Non-calmable animals - arena opponents, inhabitants of the Druid level, angry hive creatures - can still be calmed/tamed by music, although arena animals must be 'ported out of the arena first.

[JellySlayer]

Not a feature of the two weapon combat skill, but rather of the combat stance: when fighting with two weapons, it _seems_ that you occasionally gain double experience for your kills. I suspect that this is either an artefact of the increased energy cost - or a freak flux of xp rewards. The latter would be somewhat surprising, though, since it occurred on D:50, and in games without twoweaponing the xp rewards there didn't vary significantly.

This seems very strange to me: Energy cost doesn't affect experience. Is it possible that you were slowed by a WMoPC when this happened on D:50?

Survival skill might have some sort of impact on wilderness encounters - chance to evade, chance to avoid the 'you get ambushed' result? In any case, just travelling through the wilderness trains the skill.

My understanding was that the skill did indeed have this effect. I haven't tested it explicitly, but from my experience that certainly seems to be the case.

[Molach]

They say skill increase dice is class dependant

They say that double training in a skill give higher score, but reduced increase dice (as if you had increased it yourself)

They say that a blessed pickaxe used with 100 skill will never break.

They say that high literacy gives more spell castings when reading a book.

They say that to use pick pockets without breaking the law, the monsters needs to hit (or miss) you in melee first. If they don't there is a chance of -alignment.

[sorear]

They say that a blessed pickaxe used with 100 skill will never break.

False. They break about once per 3-4 completely mined out levels. (I went rather crazy with smithing one game)

[sorear]

From extremely informal tests of my own, better clubs have a significant effect on smithing, to the point where it's worthwhile to put ~1/3 of your iron ingots into your hammer first. Can a better statistician than me confirm this?

[Soirana]

10 characters

[meh]

Stealth probably helps you stay undetected by shopkeepers when invisible. It might also help avoid wilderness encounters.

[Pumpernickel]

(occasionaly extra experience when twoweaponing?)

This seems very strange to me: Energy cost doesn't affect experience. Is it possible that you were slowed by a WMoPC when this happened on D:50?

I was really unsure primarily, because that _had_ happened on D:50, but i remembered that it also happened when no purple jellies were in sight. I've re-tested it in Darkforge, and it's still massively inconclusive, because stuff there isn't of same level all the time, either. However, some of the animated armours gave ~650 xp, while (numerous) others gave ~1250. Steel golems almost always gave normal experience, only one or two were doubled. Seeing how i was wielding a humanoid-slayer as first weapon (Skullcrusher) and a penetrating orcish knife as secondary, i suspect that the double-or-increased experience happened sometimes when the second weapon made the kill and never when the finishing blow was delivered with the primary weapon.

Or perhaps i have a very vivid imagination cooking up bogus explanations for random experience fluxes ...