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TorilMUD Warrior Guide

By: Cherzra

Warrior Guide


Contents

  1. Starting Out
  2. Skills
  3. Zoning
  4. Tips & Tricks

1 - Starting OutGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

The Newbie Guide has a lot of information for starting players.

1.1 - Choosing a RaceGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

Characters of almost every race can choose to be a warrior, although many would be considered sub-par in comparison to others. The goodraces that have access to the warrior class are Humans, Barbarians, Dwarves, Grey Elves, Halflings and Gnomes. The evilraces are Ogres, Trolls, Duergar, Orcs, Drow and Yuan-ti.

Humans

Humans are the race to which all others are compared. Attribute wise, they have neither extreme strengths nor extreme weaknesses. As a result, they do not really stand out in the world of warriors, in which strength and constitution have a dominating role. However, they are able to 'notch' all of their attributes rather easily with equipment, which means they can increase e.g. their maximum constution and hitroll. Other races have a much harder time doing this, and it is often not worth the effort for them. Humans get no innates such as bodyslam, which several larger races do get. Human warriors would be playable to level 50, but they will never be as good as some other races. They start in Waterdeep (although Baldur's Gate and Calimport are also an option), the city of splendor, which is an advantage as this is where all good races converge.

Barbarians

Barbarians are a race that live to the north in Toril. They start in the town of Griffon's Nest located in the Spine of the World. Together with Dwarves, they are the best option for warriors available to the good races. Barbarians are strong and hearty, which means they get a higher damage roll and more hitpoints than smaller, weaker races. This in turn allows them to carry more, dual wield heavier weapons, and take more damage before they fall. They are however not particularly smart, and somewhat slower than humans. Because of their size, they get the innate bodyslam skill.

Dwarves

Dwarves, or Mountain Dwarves to be precise, hail from Mithril Hall. This city is nestled at the foot of the Spine of the World, which is in the northern part of Toril, where the Barbarians also live. Dwarves are short but incredibly strong and tough. They make fine warriors, who can wield the heaviest of weapons and take a great deal of damage. Like Barbarians, they are somewhat slow, although their craft with the forges has given them somewhat greater dexterity. Because of their short height, they do not have innate bodyslam like Barbarians. Spending a good deal of their lives beneath the earth has given them innate infravision, however. There are also several very powerful weapons which can only be wielded by dwarves.

Grey Elves

Grey Elves are a reclusive race which live in the city of Leuthilspar on the island of Evermeet. They are frail yet intelligent, which makes them less fit for the life of a warrior. They make fine rangers because of their agility and dexterity, but their strength and constitution are no match for that of a Human, let alone a Barbarian or Dwarf. Their high agility makes them more difficult to hit, but it does not make up for their fewer hitpoints. Although they occasionally get an extra attack because of their dex, their lower strength means that they cannot (dual) wield some of the heavier weapons. The only way to leave Leuthilspar to the mainland is through the Elf Gate. Not all elves can take this, as the strain requires them to be at least level 20. Because of this, they have to level up on Evermeet, often alone, which can sometimes be frustrating as most adventurers are near Waterdeep. Grey Elves get innate infravision.

Halflings

Halflings are a short race that hails from Beluir, which is nestled in the mountains to the northeast of Waterdeep. They are very dextrous and agile, but also weak and frail. One would say that they are weak warriors, but their high agility lets them dodge many blows that would land on the larger, slower races such as Barbarians and they have as many hitpoints as a Human. Because of their high dexterity, they very often get extra attacks, and they have an incredible natural hit roll. Due to their low strength they can not carry very much, and they are limited in the weapons they can use.

Gnomes

Gnomes hail from Ashrumite. Like Halflings, they are a small race, but they are very intelligent and agile. Also, despite their small dimensions, they are quite beefy and have the same hitpoints that humans do. This makes them arguably better than humans, if you prefer a good agility to a lower strength.

Ogres

Ogres are a huge race that live in the caverns of the Faang mountains, amidst the many bats. They are inordinately strong, easily twice as strong as a human, and are tough as a bull. However, they are also very slow and their intelligence is no match for even a human child. Because of their high strength, they have a very high natural damage roll, and they land critical blows much more often than other races. Their toughness gives them more hitpoints than any other race, and because of their size they get the innates bodyslam and doorbash. They also have innate infravision. Ogres make fine warriors, but their slow speed also makes them very vulnerable to enemy blows.

Trolls

Trolls are a foul evil race that live in swamps. In Toril, they hail from Ghore. Trolls are a tall and thin race, but their appearance belies their strength and speed. They are very quick, strong and tough, and they innately regenerate their wounds. Trolls are however very, very vulnerable to fire-based attacks, and often Troll warriors will die when an enemy casts, for example, Incendiary Cloud. They make fine warriors, and have innate infravision, regeneration and bodyslam. Trolls can be rough to start with, as there are several aggressive mobs on the way out of their hometown.

Duergar

Duergar, or Dark Dwarves, are the evil counterpart of Mountain Dwarves. Like their good cousins, they are very strong and tough, as well as being cruel and cunning. Their strength is even greater than that of Trolls, second only to that of Ogres. They are somewhat dextrous, but their agility is less than that of Humans, although far beyond that of Ogres. Duergar are an Underdark race, which means they get innate ultravision. They also get innate invisibility, enlarge and strength. Duergar make good warriors. The area around their hometown can be hard to get out of.

Drow

Drow are also known as Dark Elves. While they are an Underdark dwelling race, on Toril they live in a city called Dobluth Kyor, on the surface to the southeast of Calimport that is magically shrouded in darkness. Like Elves, they are frail and weak, though fast, intelligent and agile. Their agility lets them avoid blows, and their dexterity gives them occasional extra attacks. They get less hitpoints than Duergar, Trolls and Ogres, and cannot (dual) wield some heavier weapons. They tend to have shorter lives in fights because of their lower hitpoints. Drow get innate ultravision, levitation, underdark sneak, globe of darkness and faerie fire.

Orcs

Orcs can be seen as the evil counterpart to Humans. They do not stand out in several attributes such as other evil races, and are versatile in that they have no particular weaknesses. Because of this, it can be said they do not make as good warriors as other races. Orcs get innate summon horde.

Yuan-ti

Yuan-ti are a foul race that is part snake / part human. They have the lower body and head of snakes, and the upper body of humans. Yuan-ti are very cruel and smart, but they are not quite as strong or tough as Trolls and Duergar. As a matter of fact, these attributes are in the same region as those of Humans. They are not really suited for the life of warriors, even more so because their physical build limits them in what equipment they can wear. Yuan-ti get innate infravision, reptile mind, scale skin and befriend reptile. Their hometown is a veritable hell, easily the most difficult on the mud, and I do not recommend this race to anyone except experienced players.

My personal choice would be Dwarf or Barbarian for goods, and Troll or Duergar for evils.

1.2 - Rolling a WarriorGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

The autoroller will automatically roll warriors with the minimum required stats. These are: strength 75, agility 65, dexterity 65 and constitution 75. While this is enough to play with, it is wise to spend some time rolling longer to get a character that has a better roll. It would be too much to list the exact value every race needs for each attribute, but there is an easy way to find out. Before you roll your real character, roll some test characters. Every time, make sure it has perfect strength, agility, dexterity or constitution. Note your hit roll (influenced by dexterity), damage roll (strength), agility (agility) and hitpoints (constitution).

Now, roll another character, and instead of that attribute being perfect, get it to heroic. Enter the game, and see if your hitroll / damroll / etc is the same as before. If it is, then you do not need a perfect, but a heroic will do. Repeat, but roll a mighty this time. Once you know the minimum attributes required for a 'perfect' character, roll your real character. Try to get the four primary attributes to or near their targets. It will be nigh impossible to attain these stats, but you can certainly get near them if you spend some time.

Note: while the above works mostly, the 'heroic' range for attributes is 93-99. The exact notch (=place where the attribute causes you to be better at something) can be at 95, which means not all heroic rolls will result in you having 6 hitroll. Some may be 5 hitroll - but these are easily fixed with +attribute equipment.

If you do not want to spend a lot of time doing the above (which is only for power players, really), roll a character with the following attributes:

This character will most certainly be playable, no matter what race you choose. Remember, there is a lot of +attribute equipment out there, and you do not need perfects in every attribute.

Intelligence, wisdom, charisma and power are of no real importance to warriors. If you can manage however, good wisdom and intelligence certainly are useful.

It should be noted that for some races, the females are usually larger than the males. This is the case for trolls and ogres, and it means that there are a few mobs that are not bashable by males, but can be bashed by females. However, as there is easy to obtain equipment that adds weight and lets males bash the same mobs, this is not a deciding factor. Play the sex you want.

2 - SkillsGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

Here is a brief explanation of a Warrior's skills (automatic skill means you cannot do this by command, it is done automatically):

1st Level
5th Level
8th Level
10th Level
15th Level
20th Level
22nd Level
40th Level

Remember to practice your skills often, both by using them and at your guildmaster. Some things such as bandage, mount and swimming are not worth practicing at your guild - notch them by using them.

3 - ZoningGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

The purpose of a warrior is simple: they keep the less hardy group members alive, by 'tanking'. 'Tanking' is being the enemy's target, which can be achieved in multiple ways:

Warriors also do some damage, but not as much as rogues, rangers or dire raiders, and certainly nowhere near as much as spellcasters.

In order to be a good tank, there are several things you need to remember:

3.1 - BashingGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

Sometimes you will be assigned a bash target by the group leader. Your target will mostly be a spellcasting mob or a rogue mob, and your job will be to prevent them from casting offensive spells at your group or fleeing out to backstab a random person.

To bash better, find a heavy shield. Polished bone shields and shields of polished obsidian are two good choices. If you are higher level with good skills, you can permit yourself to use a lighter shield - although it is still wise to use the heaviest possible shields (50+ weight) when you cannot permit mistakes.

If there are 3 orcs in the room, 'bash 1.orc' and 'bash orc' will bash the first, 'bash 2.orc' the second and 'bash 3.orc' the third. This works even if you are fighting something else. That means that you can type 'bash orc' to start fighting the first, and from then on you can type 'bash 2.orc'. You will then be engaged to both orcs, hitting the first, and bashing the second.

If you bash your target, it will be on the ground for three rounds. You will also be lagged, and unable to bash for another three rounds. This does not mean that you can just spam type 'bash <target>' in succession, because many times the mob will be stunned, bashed while it is on the ground, or something else will cause it to not stand within three rounds. Do not bash before it has stood again, or you yourself will most likely fall (and you take extra damage!).

The text that is shown is different. Normally mobs clamber- or rise to their feet, but often they will be stunned by a shaman and the message will be different. Look carefully.

I personally highlight the different texts that indicate mobs standing, so I do not miss it in the battle spam.

If other mobs with the same keyword are around, do not use 'bash <target>' during combat unless you are bashing something different than you are tanking. Another mob may walk in and you start bashing that one. E.g. you are alone fighting an orc - in combat, just type 'bash', not 'bash orc' as you will hit a new orc should it enter the room from nearby.

A special situation arises when you are assigned to bash 2.orc and another orc walks in. You then bash 3.orc, as your target is no longer 2.orc! This is usually done in groups where warriors are assigned 1.orc, 2.orc and 3.orc. If a new orc walks in, their targets change to 2.orc, 3.orc and 4.orc!

It is possible to bash without a shield, but you will fail often if you are dual wielding or wielding a 1-handed weapon. With a 2-handed weapon, you will fail less often. It seems to depend on the weapon's weight as well. However, you will still fail very often! 2-handed bashing is unreliable to say the least, and you should never use it in zones or against spellcasters if you are alone.

Some mobs are unbashable, because they are too tall, short, light or heavy in comparison to your own height and weight. For example, Humans and Dwarves cannot bash Ogres, whereas Ogres can bash them. However, Ogres cannot bash Halflings and other small races, whereas Humans can. It's all a tradeoff - some races can do what others can't. You will quickly learn what you can and cannot bash. Magical spells can enlarge or reduce your size, which will allow you to bash things that are normally beyond your reach! If something is unbashable, kicking or shieldpunching it is a good idea. It is also impossible to bash wraithforms, demons or dragons.

Some races get bodyslam innate. In essence, this is a bash that can only be used to initiate combat, and which has a slightly longer duration and a chance to stun. However, it is notoriously unreliable and should not be used if you have to succeed at knocking the target off his feet. It is excellent to use if another warrior (the tank) has started combat with a bash - bodyslam to your heart's content.

3.2 - RescuingGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

This is the most important skill a warrior has in zones. Rescuing means jumping between the mob and its target, taking the target's place as tank.

Rescuing has to be done because sometimes tanks die and the mob picks a new player to target, and because mobs with the warrior flag (mobs can be classed just as players are, and they can even be multiclassed) switch targets.

Another good time to rescue is if another warrior is tanking but he is almost dead. Rescue him, so that you take over the role as tank.

If you are with a spellcaster friend, you can just type 'rescue <friend>' to take his place as tank. However, you still need to type it, so at this point it helps to make a macro or alias to speed it up. See the mud client help section on the Toril Forums, and your own program's help files.

If you are with more people or are in big fights, this quickly becomes confusing. You will start to want to rescue automatically, without even having to type aliases or shortcuts. What you then do, is make a trigger. You have to identify the text that is shown when mobs switch targets, and have your mud client automatically send 'rescue A;rescue B;rescue C'. Another set of triggers is to identify the different types of hits, and if these land on a spellcaster in your group, to rescue him. Example: your mud client checks all occurrences of 'hits (%w) very hard' to see if %w is a spellcaster. You have made a list of spellcasters in an array, and if %w is part of this array, you rescue him automatically!

See the mud client help section for some complete triggers - the above are just fundamentals.

Rescuing lags both you and (mostly) the recipient, so use it with care if there are also bashes involved. If you are a more advanced player, you'll notice that it is wise to rescue other warriors right after they bash, as they will be reoriented from being rescued in time for bashing again. If you rescue them right before they are going to bash, they will be lagged for some rounds and unable to bash. Their target will cast its spell.

Sometimes it may NOT be desirable to rescue! For example on mobs that roar, such as dragons or rhemorazes in the Jotunheim zone, when there are other mobs around. Your group leader usually mentions this though.

3.3 - ShieldpunchingGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

Shieldpunching is a skill which has only one real use in zones: to lag unbashable targets so they can't cast spells or switching targets.

Shieldpunching does not seem to rely on the weight of the shield such as with bashing. However, shields with the keyword 'spiked' do double damage. There are only a few of these, but you can always carry one with you in your bags.

To shieldpunch, type 'shieldpunch <targetname>'. Like bashing, you can target other mobs with the same keyword by adding a numeric prefix, e.g. 'shieldpunch 2.orc'.

Shieldpunching lags you for about two rounds. It seems to lag mobs less, so the real use of shieldpunching lies in doing it with multiple warriors on a single mob. It also fails a lot, which is another reason it's less useful. It is not wise to shieldpunch if you are the only warrior, as you may fail and be lagged for two rounds while the mob switches to and starts beating down your spellcaster friend.

Like with bash, some mobs cannot be shieldpunched. Wraithforms and dragons are some examples.

4 - Tips & TricksGuides | Maps | Top | Contents

Practise your skills, and then practise them again! Rescue, bash and defensive skills are pivotal to both you and your group's survival. There are places where you can fight lots of low level mobs for a long time, which helps greatly in advancing yourskills - ask around when you are level 40ish, as this is the level around which you will start zoning and your skills need to be good.

Hitpoint gear is good. Remember, the more hitpoints you have, the better your chances of surviving are. This does not mean you should dress like a spellcaster, but for certain slots there are some really nice +hp items available (such as fingers). It is also nice to carry around a set of equipment with as much hit/dam as possible, so you can feel good about doing more damage. That is, when someone else is tanking.

Remove your weapon if you are tanking a fire/ice shielded mob and do not have the globe of invulnerability spell, it will reduce the rate at which your stoneskin or dragonscales wear off.

Carry around armor potions, as they help when soloing, especially at lower levels.

Remove weapons that don't float when fighting over water. If in doubt, drop a copper coin to check.

Never curse your weapons, as this lowers their dice. Aim for weapons that are already cursed by the area makers, as these are actually good to have (you cannot fumble them).

Have a heavy shield for bashing, and another in your bag that gives you spellsaves, extra hit/dam or whatever you like.

Wimpy is good when soloing, but always turn it off in zones.

When soloing, ask around if there is a fast healing room nearby - go there to rest up and regain moves.

Kick is an underrated skill. It can do a good amount of damage, and I use it often. When soloing, it is definitely better than shieldpunch, which is useless alone (unless fighting !bash casters, which is unlikely if you are alone anyway). Headbutt does even more damage, and can stun, but has restricted targets.

It is smart to have different weapons that do different things. As a newbie, you will only have one or two normal weapons, but as you get higher level you will obtain other, proccing, weapons. For example, I use a sword that blinds the enemy but has low damage dice. When it has procced blind (and served its purpose), I remove it and wield another one that has better damage dice.

Wear spellsave when fighting casting mobs, especially if you are a troll, and breathsave when fighting dragons. Do not fight dragons without all prots on, either from a spell or from equipment!

For a warrior, the minimum hitroll you need to still land your attacks most of the time is 25 or 26. Others may disagree with me, but in my view it is better to land your attacks with a slightly lower damageroll, than to miss them all with an enormous damageroll.

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Last Updated: October 5, 2003
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