Pre-release 8 now available

[Grey]

It's time to duel, ADOMers!

[BenMathiesen]

Heir gift:

Masterwork sabre of defense. Not bad, actually, for early game survival.

Very heavy biases in the weapon skill levels. All 1H weapons require 20% fewer marks (12 marks for L2); shields, unarmed and 2H weapons (including spears) require 140% more (36 marks for L2).

Missile weapons are ridiculously expensive to train--75 marks for L2.

I thought Healing was an odd skill choice at first, but if this class is supposed to defeat almost everything in melee then they really need it.

[szopin]

It's time to duel, ADOMers!

If that is call for duel to the death pre8, best timing, all will be discovering quirks. Wish to get sneaker for my run.

[Mobius]

Heir gift:
I thought Healing was an odd skill choice at first, but if this class is supposed to defeat almost everything in melee then they really need it.

If they're supposed to defeat everything in melee, they will need more than Healing, at least karmically speaking.

[BenMathiesen]

Died at L13 in animated forest. :-( Reached skill level 8 with a scourge.

When unburdened, in addition to the benefits mentioned in the class description, I often got penetration against some opponents. Not trees, and not golems, but most humanoids and animals. The message is "You find a weak spot in the defenses of <foo>". I'm not sure if this is just flavor text for the duelist's use of Find Weakness, or a separate undocumented class ability.

Prior to level 12, it was worth using the medium crystal shield I found on PC6 sometimes, despite losing the "weak spot" effect. Once I reached level 12, the DV benefit of going without a shield caught up and the extra PV was not so useful. This seems appropriate. I wouldn't have bothered to use a minor shield at all.

Missile weapons are still handy, despite the massive weapon mark penalty, since the class has high Dex.

I wonder what Concentration does for duelists? I believe for Archers it helps with shooting beyond the nominal range, and for Weaponsmiths it helps reduce smithing times. Come to think of it, I don't know what it does for Monks either.

Fun class so far!

[_Ln_]

Heir gift is actually masterwork -starting race weapon- of defense. Trolls start with trollish war clubs, ratlings with rapiers, mist elves with sabres (mithril one).
Duelist have armor-piercing chance right from the start, I got "find a weak spot" messages at clvl 4 or 5.

Just met a ratling fencer and 'c'hatted with him, he challenged me to a duel (was it in previous versions?).

One of the crowning gifts is Ironfist.

I must say level 40 class power sounds very nice (apart from typo). Level several classes to weapon skill level 9, get level 40 and - bam!- grand mastery!

Complete with level 6 class power GM skill gives you EP cost of 360! That is like archery, only in melee. Add insane to-hit and damage penetration and it's quite great overall, especially with something like Executor. Ultra endings will suck though.

I hope TB is going to add some neat whips in future prereleases, because DV is gonna totally suck without shields and polearms (only +30 with GM).

[Qui]

fencing gloves of fidelity [+3, +1] {Ch+9}

Too bad charisma isn't very useful, but still neat.

[Dogbreath]

Duelists appear to be completely ambidextrous. (you receive no penalties for fighting left-handed - which I always do)

[aerol]

Duelists can also crown with Executor.

[tootboot]

40 Winged Quarrels of Hunting are the Ratling Archer heir gift.