DISCLAIMER: First off, this guide is not an Official Simutronics Document. Also, all the information gathered to make this guide is not just from me, but from many other two-handed warriors out there who ventured into the lands of Gemstone.
WELCOME!!
Well!! It seems that you got this guide to help you start out on a new two-handed warrior. I have experimented with two-handed warriors for all my time playing Gemstone (2 years) and found the right (and wrong) things to do with making and playing one. Before you decide make one, be warned of two dramatic weaknesses that a two-handed warrior has:
1. Bad DS to physical attacks at stance offensive and...
2. Even worse magic defense.
If you think these weaknesses are too much for you, go use a shield. If not, we shall begin.
Character Stats
Ok, you decided to be a two-handed warrior. First off to make a successful warrior that will last beyond Lordship is the stats. I can't begin to tell you how many times I tried and experimented on stats, only to end up starting all over around level 10 due to poor AS, high RT, etc. Below is where your rolls should go for.
stat ......... roll recommended
Constitution (CO): 60+
Dexterity (DE): 50+
Discipline (DI): 70+
Logic (LO): 40+
Intelligence (IN): 40+
Strength (ST): 90's
Reflexes (RE): high 80's- mid 90's
Charisma (CH): 30+
Wisdom (WI): 40+
Aura (AU): high 90's
These rolls are petty high. It'll take you maybe 30 minutes minimum to get these kinds of rolls, but it will be worth it. As you can see, I put a 90 at ST (for high AS), RE (to help with defense and your RT), and Aura (for mana). BUT I'M A WARRIOR?! Well, You need high aura for these reasons:
1. Aura affects both your physical AND mental training points.
2. If you join CoL, you'll need all that mana for casting those spells
later.
3. When you reach the Lord levels, and your group hunting you'll might need
to send some mana over to your fellow wizard or sorcerer to help finish
off that mein golem that just took out a good chunk of your health.
4. When you're getting massies, you might want to send more mana to the
caster to get that extra hour or so in.
I also put a pretty high roll in discipline since it also gives you both physical and mental points. Make sure you do not get anything under 20 or else you will need to reroll. Remember, all the stats will go up, each in their own pace. .
Character Race
For race, any of the races can do, except for Halflings. For a really good two-handed warrior though, go Human, Dwarf, or Giantman. They all have high health, good health gain per round, and have stat bonuses that will not hurt you in the needed stat areas. If you are doubtful of picking which race, being a human is the safe bet. .
Character Training
Now with the stats you have now, you should have around 45 physical and 30 mental training points to use. Before putting using training points anywhere, decide first if you will join Voln or Col, do lockpicking, do ambushing, and if you want to spells later in life. .
Type of training # of times you should train .
Armor Use 2 times, 3 if you can afford it.
Shield Use 1 train (just in case you change your mind and
having a shield around helps at certain times) .
Combat Maneuvers 2 times.
Edged Weapons 1 train (just in case you change your mind) .
Two-Handed Weapons 2 times .
Climbing train with this every other level till it reaches
20 minimum.
Swimming train with this in between climbing till it reaches
20 minimum.
Disarming Traps once per level (if you want to do lockpicking) .
Picking Locks once per level, twice if you can (if you want to do
lockpicking) .
Stalking and Hiding once per level (helps when going to icemule or
ambushing) .
Perception train once minimum, train to the maximum if you can.
Scroll Reading when you can (if you want to cast spells later in
the Lord levels) .
Mana Sharing train once per level when you are a lord.
Ambush train once (if you want to train in ambushing) .
Physical Training train 2 times per level.
First Aid once per level minimum.
Brawling train once (if you are going to join Voln) .
I know you can train in all of this if your stats are high enough and when you get older, there will be more and more training points to use. .
Like I said, you need to consider some of things here for the future of your character. If you want to go lockpick, start training once per level in lockpicking, disarming, and perception from the start and you can pick almost anything by the time you are a Lord. If you want to go ambush monsters, train once, twice if you can, on hiding and ambushing. .
Scroll reading will really help later in life, remember the high roll you put on aura? Well, you get to put some of that mana to some good use with all the scrolls you'll get. Besides, learning how to read scrolls is way easier than learning spells anyway. Also, once your character is old enough, start training in mana share so you can help out in massies, etc. .
Brawling is for Voln, so if you are doing to join Voln, at least train in brawling once per level. .
Also, even if you reach your maximum in health points, DON'T STOP TRAINING IN IT!! Once your health maxes, all training in the physical training skill will go to help in you gaining health per round. An old friend of mind was able to train enough to gain 25 health per round! So remember, keep on training there. .
Now about training in shield and edged weapons. There are some cases where having a shield is better. Also, most of the Lords I talked to who are two-handed warriors used a shield and an edged weapon once in their life to reach the Lord levels. So I highly advise on training once in shield and edged weapons. It will be very risky not to. .
Weapons and Armor
For the two-handed warriors, there are lots of new varieties thanks to the recent merchants and invasions. Make sure you can get one of these weapons when you have the money, since I believe that the standard two-handed sword is not that really good. .
Now then, here's a list of the basic weaponry out there for us: .
Weapon Type......Base RT.....Damage Factor.....typ AvD.....Damage Type
Flail.........................6....................4.....................42.......Blunt and Puncture
Great/Battle Ax........7....................5......................37.........Slashing and Blunt
2H Sword...............7....................5......................42............Slashing
Claidhmore.............7....................5......................42..............Slashing
Mattock..................6....................4.....................36.............Blunt.
Notice that the Flail and Mattock have lower RT than the others. Try to get them since a lower RT leads to faster attacking.
.
If you want to get a sword that has an AS bonus, go find a black alloy bone hilted sword. They add +12 and are inexpensive. If you are more into elemental crits, go find a massive vultite zweihander. Not only will it give you +20 to your AS, but also it has permanent lightning crits! .
Now we'll go to my favorite type of weapon, the Claidhmore. They allow you to do major crit damage. All you need is a total roll of 115 to hack off a limb. Anything over will turn your enemy to pulp. They are also inexpensive, only 4000 about silvers after you get backroom access to the weapon shop. The bad news is that a regular claid will give you a -10 in AS. Get one once your AS is at 70 without the claid or else you will be missing all the time. Good news there are claidhmores that have -5 (a mithril serrated claid), no negative AS bonus (a Krolvin claid), and one with +10 (the one and only Iorake claid, only 4 of them). Problem with them is that they cost A LOT (150k for a mithril serrated claid, 200k for a Krolvin claid, and over 3 MILLION on the Iorake claid). .
For armor, stick to armor which cover your entire body, and make sure you get all those leg greaves, helmets, etc. to help your AvD. Remember about me talking about how our DS really sucks? The answer to that is getting enchanted armor. Try to find a x2 one so you can get a +10 bonus. Like the good claids, enchanted armor is very expensive, so start saving that money!! .
Orders and the Warriors Guild
First off, let's talk about the two orders in Gemstone (I think). Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. .
The Voln order was made to help warriors fight the undead (such as that last invasion). Voln has some cool spells that help tremendously. Also, the spells don't require mana. There is also something called Voln Fu that allows you to fight undead with your bare hands so you don't need to carry that extra blessed weapon around. The disadvantage here is that to get these cool spells is that you need to kill a certain amount of undead monster, and perform a task before acquiring the next spell. .
The Order of the Circle of Light was made up for wizards, but is better for us two-handers. They have spells that allow you to beef up your AS and DS. Their shortcoming is that you need mana to cast the spells (good thing you put that high roll in mana eh?) and that to get these spells, you need to get some items to get each spell, which is a little better than the Voln requirements. .
For the sake of exploring the world of Gemstone on your own, I will not tell how to get in these two orders (hey I won't make it easy on you!). .
Once you reach level 15, you are invited to the Warrior's Guild. Make sure you accept the invitation. In the guild, there are some cool new commands at your disposal. Make sure you do accept or you will miss out on something big. .
What to do
This part relies that you start off at Landing. If you happen to start off at Icemule, pay off your debt, go get killed by and monster and depart, you will be sent directly to the temple at Landing. .
Level 0-3.
Ok, now you're all set to face the world. Get your first level by visiting all the shops and places under the dir command. After reaching your next level, check in at the inn and get your next level. After that go hunt Hobs till your mind is at full. Get back to town and run some messages for the clerk so that you can get money and exp off it. Keep doing this till level 3. Make sure you go talk to Raging Thrak himself in his inn. .
Level 4-12.
Once at level 4, you can go try to hunt other monsters. What I recommend is to go hunt Manticores and Thraks. They spawn really quick, but their AS are HIGH. Be sure to get some massies and hunt in groups.
And make sure you kill the Thraks first!! They have the higher AS and can make mince meat out of you if you don't hunt in groups. By level 8 or so you can hunt them solo. This will keep you busy for the rest of you first 12 years of so. Also, by this time you should be joining one of the orders. .
Level 13-20.
Now you should be tired of hunting Thraks and Manticores by now. Now it's time to hunt Krolvin Warriors and Mercenaries. Your AS should be around 150 now and you should be joining the Warrior's Guild and about completed whatever order you are in. From this point on is Lordship and I congratulate you if you do make it (I yet to have get the title Lord in any of my characters) and you are on your own. .
Tips of the Trade
Make sure you visit Raging Thrak in the inn. He'll give you the basic do's and don'ts of the lands, make sure you listen to everything! .
Make sure you learn how to stance dance. That's when you go stance
up, attack, then stance down. It helps save your life if you have at least a 6 second RT, so carry light and train in armor a lot. .
Get lots of Deeds!! We are the group that will usually die to a
major crit attack rather than a death of no health. Keep at least a minimum of at least 5 deeds and buy them early in life when they cost a whole lot cheaper. .
If you plan to be a lockpicker, buy an alum lockpick when you can. It will triple your lockpicking skill and if it breaks, it can be repaired upstairs at the locksmith. .
Make sure you get massies before you go hunt, they will save your life and insure you can hunt longer. If you can get the usual massies, you can get a +25-30 in DS, and with Col Spells, that goes up to the +60s or so. .
Finish doing all the tasks in the order you get into early so that you can take advantage of them early. .
If a merchant comes into town, go check it out and see if anything there is good, even if you can't use it. You can sell it for at least 3 times it's buying cost over the net and make profit. .
Finally, have fun with the game! Be nice to all you meet and you will go far. Be a little pain and others will hunt you down. .
If you have any comments or know something I didn't put in here, E-mail me at LFTobias2@aol.com .