vultite falchion. I'd really like to see someone swinging that "gruesome imflass war mattock" or the "heavy tempered greataxe". I understand that role-playing is how we are to differentiate between all of these template warriors, but it isn't a bad thing to add variety to combat. :)
While this guide was written with the 2H warrior in mind, many points are equally applicable to all swingers. This is especially true for the pole arm and two-weapon warriors, as they have the same vulnerabilities.
MAGIC: ***The first thing to know is that as a 2H warrior you are at a severe disadvantage to other warriors with respect to magic defense.*** Understand this and accept it! Too many warriors get past the hill trolls and try titans only to find that they cannot handle magic. The combat system used in GSIII is heavily biased towards shield use, and those of us who don't use shields have a hard row to hoe. Shields add to your defense against most damage spells (e.g. non-spirit related), and with a little training a vultite shield will add more than 50 to your spell defense in full offense. On the other hand, magical helms, bracers, and greaves, which are available to 2H warriors, have no effect on your spell defense. As a result, a 2H warrior with good reflexes (90+) will have a spell defense in the range of 20, while a weapon and shield user will have a spell defense of ~70 or better (assuming a vultite shield). That's quite a difference.
2H warriors have two alternatives to try to increase their spell defense. The first, purchasing magical armor, is not really a viable option as enchanted armor is outrageously expensive. Yet another way in which 2H warriors are disadvantaged. The only thing which you can wear that increases your spell defense is beyond your price range (at least until you are ~12th level). The other option is to get a lot of spellcasting friends to help you out. Get those massies! Blurries and Guards III together add 35 to your DS/TD. If you are lucky enough to get Colors with it, that is another 10 to tack on to your DS/TD. And there are a whole host of other spells that are cast on individuals. (BTW, I would suggest that you build a mutually beneficial friendship with these spellcasters or you'll be re-rolling somewhere around 15th level. No one likes parasites. :) Bring them wands, learn to mana share, take them on hunts, etc... They'll often times be more than happy to help you out. At higher levels you will learn that this game requires teamwork, and warriors probably need help the most after 25th.)
WEAPONS: Now you need to learn a few things about the weapons. There are 4 primary stats for a weapon (in order of my perceived importance): Damage factor, RT, Damage Type, and AvD.
Damage factors are generally most important. Crits are determined off of base damage dealt by a blow, so your heavy hitters will do much more grievous crits than lighter weapons. For example, in order to inflict a rank 5 wound on a critter in chain hauberk, a rapier needs a total attack roll of ~465! A battle-axe, on the other hand, would get the same result with a total attack roll of only ~170. When weapons are relatively equal in damage dealt then other factors are considered.
At low levels round time (RT) is not really that important. Most 2H warriors are killing or stunning their opponents on the first swing so nothing ever gets to swing back. This is especially true in the rats/gnomes/hobgoblin areas. When there are 5 people waiting in a room, though, no one gets to swing more than once anyway so who cares if your RT is 12? ;) This is why there are so many 2H warriors at the low levels. They get the best crits and everyone likes to be the big damage dealing brute. Once you get to titans, though, you'll be in for a surprise. Titans shake off stuns and attack anyway, and frost giants are not able to be stunned (by weapons). Oops. At this point a fast RT becomes paramount. Getting the stance dance down -- Stance off, attack, stance def, wait for opponent to attack, repeat as necessary -- will keep you alive (this is also known as parry tagging). However, if you have a high RT you will die anyway because your opponent is faster than you. This is why there are so few high level 2H users. Between high RT and low DS/TD we get creamed. In fact, of all of the titled warriors that I adventure with, I only know of 4 that predominantly use 2H weapons. And I know over 50 that use shields.
RT is more important than damage dealing at mid levels (15-30). That Claidhmore is really nice IF you hit the titan in a vital spot. BUT, if you take off his left hand, you're either gonna eat his mattock or chew on a lightning bolt. A 6 second RT will save your life. Most 2H warriors are looking to be the biggest, battiest thing in seven counties, and so they go for the monstrous 2H weapons. Well, you may be surprised to find that there are several 2H weapons, and only most of them are the Conan-type weapons of massive damage and grievous wounds. These include the battle-axe, Claidhmore, and two-handed sword. These all do incredible damage and have great chances of doing crits, but they also all have 7 RT's. On the other hand, there are a few 2H weapons with 6 RT's. These are the flail and mattock. The 6 RT weapons do slightly less damage than the 7 RT weapons, but they are required against the faster creatures. At low levels I would stick with the Claidhmore or battle axe, as you're most likely going to stun or kill the creature anyway and there are a lot of slow creatures for you to fight.
On the topic of claidhmores... These are exceptional weapons with unbelievable crit weighting, although they do impose a -10 AS penalty on the wielder. Their crit weighting is *twice* the maximum allowable for any other weapon, and will offset a heckuva lot of enchantments. (I didn't make the rules, and I don't like that one, but that's the system.) What is essential in any combat is that your RT is faster than your opponent's. If your opponent has an 8 or 9 second RT, then by all means try out the claid. Learn which opponents are fast and which are slow. The primary problem is that at higher levels virtually every creature is fast or medium speed (4-7 RT).
Damage type is not really very critical until 20th level or so. So far, only puncture weapons are penalized to any significant extent in the game. Only the flail is a puncturing weapon for 2H'ers, but I believe all of the polearms are puncture also. Creatures that are immune to puncture are: All golems, mammoth arachnids (but not giant spiders... ::stare::), dust and fog beetles, stone giants, and most 30th-50th level undead. If you don't plan to fight very much undead then puncture doesn't mean all that much to you. There are a lot better things for you to be fighting than golems and beetles. Even stone giants are a poor choice for 2H warriors, with their powerful attacks and 'full plate' hide. If you do plan to fight undead, any weapon other than a flail will do nicely. I have noticed that puncture criticals are *slightly* better than blunt criticals, but the difference is not significant enough to select a puncture weapon over a non-puncture weapon, in my opinion.
AvD stands for Attack vs Defense and is an indication of your attack type vs your opponent's defense. For example, rapiers tend to do very well vs unarmored opponents, and will have a high AvD. On the other hand, they are very poor vs armored opponents and will have a low AvD vs these foes. Your total attack strength is determined as follows: Attack = Weapon Skill + Strength Modifier + AvD + Magical Weapon Bonus + Magical Spell Bonus - Defender's DS. If your Total Attack is >100 then you will hit. AvD can outweigh enchanted metals in some cases. For example, a flail typically has a +6 AvD advantage over a mattock vs light armors, so a normal flail will hit more often than a mithril mattock. Remember that AvD is not nearly as important as damage factor, though. I consider AvD to be important at low levels when the warrior has troubles hitting his opponent. After 5th level or so, the 3-8 pt difference in AvD between some of the 2H weapons is really insignificant.
Weapon.....Dam. Rating.....Base RT.....Typ. AvD.....Damage Type
Battle-Axe........10...............7................39................Slash/Blunt
2H Sword.........9.7..............7................40...............Slash/Blunt
War Mattock.....9.6..............6................39..............Blunt
Flail.................8.3...............6................42.............Blunt/Puncture
Cudgel.............5.0...............6................20.............Blunt
* For reference, the damage rating for a morning star would be a 6.9, and a falchion would be a 6.4. They are great one handed weapons, but cannot compare with 2H weapons for damage. These ratings are based on each weapon's average damage factor vs each of the 5 armor groups, and then compared to the battle axe, which is the heaviest hitter overall.
** Base RT may is based on a Giantman Warrior with reasonably good Reflexes and Dexterity. Those with better attributes may experience much better RT's.
*** It appears that there is little rhyme or reason to the correlation of damage type and weapon type. I cannot explain how a mattock (a heavy-duty flat-bladed pick) does only blunt and no puncture damage, while a flail (a heavy ball attached by a chain to a handle, often times the ball being spiked) does puncture damage more often than blunt damage! Maybe the game designers got the two reversed when writing the code... And the large axes and swords do blunt damage in addition to slashing... Hmmm...
All two-handed weapons fall into one of the five weapon categories listed above. Claidhmores are two-handed swords with massive crit weighting. There are other special names for weapons, such as the flamberge, troll sword, massive hammer/sledge, and I even saw a lochaber axe one time, but the basic weapon remains the same. Typically, a weapon with a special name indicates special criticals.
**Weapon Criticals** There are two major types of criticals: elemental crits, and damage/crit weighting. I consider the elemental crits to be 'glitz' crits. They look very snazzy when they flare, but usually don't have much bearing on the outcome of a combat. Elemental crits include fire crits (drake weapons), cold crits, lightning crits (feras), impact/blunt/earth crits (heavy vult falchions), poison crits, and supposedly plasma and acid crits. Usually these crits will flare every 7 swings or so. These flares generally cause an extra 5-15 pts of damage and some can stun the opponent, though the stun from these weapons becomes less important at higher levels since a 2H'er usually stuns anyway. In my opinion, the order of preference of these criticals is: lightning (chance of instant kills), fire (stuns, but some critters are immune), poison (very hard to find), impact, and cold (again, lots of immune critters). There are exceptions, though. I personally used one of the double-edged mein logging axes (impact criticals) and my very first flare was for 60 pts of damage! This may have been an anomaly, as the other four flares during my testing of the weapon were between 5 and 15 pts. I put it away in favor of my crit weighted weapons, but it appeared to be the best elementally critted weapon I have seen.
Damage weighted weapons add a set amount of damage to every hit. In effect, it is like having impact criticals that flare every hit. Typically, light damage weighting is in the 3-5 pts of damage range, heavy would be 6-8, and massive is 9+. For reference, Lord Breighton's last damage weighting values were 3, 6, and 9 for light, heavy, and massive damage weightings, respectively. Heavy and massive weighting can be useful, but are still inferior to crit weighting. We are warriors and we want stuns and kills, not just heavy damage.
Crit weighting is very powerful. In my personal opinion, heavy crit weighting offsets 2x ET bonus. So an ora weapon with heavy crits is roughly equivalent to a vultite weapon with no crits. This is somewhat debatable, but works well as a rule of thumb for comparing weapons. I will not delve into the different wound ranks and how damage is dealt in this guide, but I'll note a few points: Increasing the wound rank of a hit will significantly increase the damage dealt by a hit and will also increase the odds of a stun, severed limb, or instant kill. The additional damage inflicted by an increase in wound rank is sufficient to offset the damage afforded by damage weighting or elemental crits.
My personal thoughts on weapons for young warriors:
Level 1-2: Use any of the four main weapons, but don't use a Claidhmore. You are concerned with actually hitting the critter at these levels, and even light hits are usually sufficient to kill.
Level 3-9: Use a Claidhmore. Your AS is getting better, RT is not that important at these levels, and the additional crits are unbelievable.
Level 10+: Use a vultite axe, greatsword, or mattock (good luck finding one) against the light armored creatures. The +30 AS over a Claidhmore roughly balances out or exceeds the benefit of the massive crit weighting. (This isn't always the best option, but it holds true for probably 80% of your combats.) Against the chain and plate armors, use the claid over unenhanced vultite weapons. Enchanted claid's and heavily critted vultite axes or mattocks are the best weapons available.
ARMOR: Read the Armor Guide that was written by Lord Bruherd. It is listed somewhere in the AOL Library.
***A 2H warrior should never wear anything but plate armor.*** No, I don't mean you need to wear full plate, because you'll be even slower than a mummy. At first level I'd suggest metal breastplate. Unfortunately, the only critters I know of that use metal breastplates are the broadsword-wielding tomb wights... and their 2H sword swinging brothers are naaasty. It's a good idea to save a little cash from the first few gnomes or goblins you kill and buy metal breastplate at the armory. It will run you about 1000 coins. For you giantmen out there, you will have an RT of 9 or 10 in this breastplate but that isn't a problem. Just about nothing can touch you at these low levels except the claid and mattock wielding hobs. I took a 1st level warrior to the rapier wielding hobs a while ago and a 148 total roll to his head did a whopping 2 points of damage. The rapiers are as good as toothpicks against a breastplate.
As you train in armor, your RT will go down until you have a 5, 6, or 7 with the metal breastplate (depending on your Ref/Dex stats and weapon). At that point you are better off than any warrior in Brigandine. Eventually, you will work up to augmented breastplate, and after many, many levels, you'll be in full plate.
Understand that Bruherd's Armor Guide is not completely correct. Uncovered body parts are *not* considered unprotected. If an uncovered area is struck and the damage is sufficient to cause a rank 1 wound or greater, then the wound rank is increased by one. If you are wearing the metal breastplate, greaves and a helm will prevent the wound rank from increasing but will also add RT. I would suggest never wearing greaves or a helm, just wear the heaviest plate armor that does not severely hamper your movement.
In the event that you don't take my advice , be intelligent in your selection of helms and greaves. Contrary to popular belief, *all helms and greaves provide the same protection*! The Gleaming Vultite Burgeonet is no better than a rotting leather helm... at least until breakage comes back. If you aren't wearing the accoutrements for RP reasons, don't wear them at all. Take the next step up in plate instead.
The total effect of wearing metal breastplate (rather than the lighter 'full body' armors) and working up through the plate armors as training allows? You'll take more weak hits in the 1-6 hp range, because your AvD is worse than brig or hauberk. But you'll take many less hits in the 30+ range and die from crits much, much less. When I look back on my career as a warrior, I have died over 75 times. Of these, less than 10 have been due to actual health loss -- all of the rest have been due to instant kill crits. It makes the decision to use plate a very simple one. :)
STATS: ***The most important stat to a 2H warrior is not Strength! It is Reflexes!*** Reflexes will help protect you against spells, increase your DS, and lower your round time. Your strength will increase quickly because you are a warrior, and if you start out with a 90 Str you should reach 100 sometime around 20th level. On the other hand, Reflexes increase slowly. They will go up 1 point every 3 to 4 levels. Don't expect to get much better at this. After Ref and Str, I think that Aura is most important. Aura affects your spirit points, mana, and spell defense against certain spells. It also is a double stat (along with Discipline) and adds to both physical and mental training points. The fourth and fifth most important stats are somewhat debatable, but I would put Dexterity fourth and Discipline fifth. I consider Dexterity more important because it affects two things that are *critical* to a 2H warrior: RT and dodging. It also affects MB for brawlers. Discipline affects both physical and mental training points, and I believe it affects rate of learning also (experience gain). For those that wish to become berserkers in the Guild, Discipline positively affects the chances of going berserk. After that it is anybody's call. I would go with Intelligence, Logic, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma, in that order. You can play around with it, depending on how you wish to play. If you want more health, Constitution is important. If you want to be a lockpicker, Wisdom helps. Intelligence and Logic affect experience gain.
My preferred order of placement: Reflexes 85+, Strength 90+ (after the +10 class adj.), Aura 80+, Dexterity 80+, Discipline, Intelligence, Logic, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma
CHARACTER RACE: The most common warrior races are Giantman, Dwarf, Half-elf, or Human. As a warrior, probably the 2 most important things to look at are these race's Strength and Reflexes modifiers. Giantmen are the strongest and will have a +15 to AS, but a -5 penalty to your DS. They also are able to have the most health points. Dwarves are next strongest with a +10 AS and a -5 DS, but they have the additional benefits of magical and poison resistance. These can be very handy at higher levels. Humans are also strong, giving a +5 AS with no DS penalty. Finally, Half-elves give no AS bonus at all, but give a +10 to your DS. Half-elves have low health maximums though. It is all up to your personal tastes in choosing your race, but I would suggest one of the stronger races. Smaller races have a hard time with large weapons and heavy armor.
TRAINING: Ok, so you know what toys you get to play with, and you know about stats and racial bonuses. So what should you train in? Of course, you double train in your 2H weapon and triple train in armor every level. Armor training will save your bacon many times. The training that you put into armor will not increase your DS in offensive stance, but it will allow you to wear the heavier armors with low RT's, and thereby reduce the chance that that wallop takes your head off. Combat maneuvers are also very important. I encourage you to sacrifice as much as you can to double train in combat maneuvers, though this may not be possible depending on what else you train in. At every level, train twice in a one handed weapon and at least once shield. I suggest double training in both, every level. You say, "But I'm a 2H warrior!". Well, there are many creatures that will eat you for lunch, regardless of how tough of a 2H warrior you are. Recall the magic thing? Toast. I wouldn't even think about going up against storm hounds without a shield. You will probably be ok without using your shield for many, many levels, but I know of no high level 2H warriors that do not use a shield at least some of the time. By the time you make the nobility you'll understand, and you'll be very thankful that you spent a few points to learn how to use that lil ol' shield. My AS with one handed weapons is a little over 10 pts lower than my 2H AS, but I pull out the ol' shield against most magic throwing critters.
You should only need to double train in physical fitness each level. The third training is too expensive for what you get, and has been my experience that I die to critical hits, not to damage anyway. I think I have died some 75 times in my career, and less than 10 of those were due to health point loss. All the rest were critical hits, pretty much every time to the head or neck. Even with only double training in fitness you should max out in your hp somewhere around 11th-13th level.
Every warrior should also learn ambushing. This is a *very* important skill at higher levels (25+), and is useful well before that. Depending on your training, you may not be able to spare much for ambushing at early levels. That is ok, just put the points into this as you can. If you aren't brawling or aren't too worried about other skills, I'd suggest training in ambushing every level. A 30th level warrior with good ambushing (~70) and a 2H weapon can handle just about any crittable creature in the area around the Landing. Even roa'ters are no problem if you can consistently hit them in the head. (But you might want to take a friend along for when you miss... ;) )
Something else to understand: because you are training in more than one weapon style you are not going to be able to diversify as much as the one-handed warriors. Stalking, brawling, swimming, climbing, perception, first aid, and ::gasp:: mana sharing are going to be more difficult for you. 2H-weapon training is very expensive and you will need to sacrifice some other skills to be good at it. At a very early level you need to choose two or three skills to concentrate on, and not waste your time training in other areas. Putting one slot into locks or traps every other level isn't going to get you very far unless you are looking beyond level 30. The creatures that you are fighting at that point have locks and traps so difficult that you probably still couldn't get them. If you're going to try being a rogue, do it all out and train as much as possible. I suggest training in swimming and climbing ten times each (skill 50). At that point you can swim or climb to just about anyplace you need to go, so you shouldn't really need to train much more. Brawling can be great but don't do it half-heartedly. Either double train in it every level, or put your points somewhere else.
I wouldn't even bother with mana sharing until you have about 40 mana. Otherwise you spend a lot of training points for several levels just to get to send 5 mana. But once you reach that 40 mana or so, start training. Mana sharing is almost required for high level warriors. Find yourself a few 35+ level warriors and ask them, they'll tell you over and over again how they wished that they had trained in mana sharing earlier. Those that can share well will seldom have problems with obtaining spells. And as a 2H warrior you either have spells or you push up daisies. My suggestion is to reach the 40 mana and then train in mana sharing every other level.
Oh, and for you crazy warriors that think you're going to learn a spell... forget it. That is something that 2H warriors will never get, as the extra weapon training takes up all of your spare points. Look at it this way: For 320 mental training points, you can either have Guards I (+5 DS/TD) and Presence (you are aware of hidden/invisible people in the room), or you can have a 58% mana share ability, and have other spell casters cast just about anything they know on you... Even a giantman can figure that one out. ;)
Trading is not worth the effort, and you shouldn't waste your points here. It is one of those skills to learn after 20th level when you really don't know what to train in any more. I have 14 trainings in trading and at the last Juggernaut I was receiving about a 13% discount on what I bought. Not really a big deal. And the special merchants have a wonderful ability to drop that 13% even more, so for all of those training points you may only get a 5% savings. Yippee! I personally feel that trading is one of the worst implemented skills in the game. The places where I'd really like to see trading work are Tykel's special orders (e.g. vultite weapons and shields) and the gem shop, but unfortunately the game system doesn't allow that. (I'd like to thump the GM that created this 'brilliant' skill ).
** Do not forget, if you want to train in something that costs more physical training points than you have remaining, you can still train in it at a cost of 2 mental = 1 physical. (This also works in reverse). You will need to take advantage of this as you are training in many different aspects of combat, and all of them require physical points. **
TACTICS: First, the basics: When you attack, you will generally want to be in stance offensive. This will give you the best chance to hit a creature. At *all* times other than when you are attacking you should be in stance defensive. Many times I have been inadvertently swung at, whether from people thinking I looked a lot like a critter, or from someone who hadn't switched gears from hunting and made an oops when trying to kiss me. ;) Stance defensive saves your skin.
You will need to learn how to stance dance, or parry tag. What this means is, when a creature walks into the room, let it swing first. This allows you the benefit of your full defense against its attack. Then immediately go to stance offensive and attack the creature. If you are fast enough, you will be able to switch back to stance defensive for the creature's next attack. If you learn to stance dance effectively then you will be able to handle creatures much higher than your level.
Hunting in groups is a very wise tactic for a 2H warrior. First of all, it spreads the attention of the creatures. Rather than every attack coming your way, many attacks will go against other members of your party. A 2H warrior with a group including an Empath can hunt very effectively.
Aimed attacks (ambushing, but not from hiding) can be invaluable to any warrior, and can make you a welcome member of any group. They can also make you the leper of any group. As a warrior, you will probably be one of the best in the group at aiming your shots. Aiming for a critter's legs will keep the party safe while allowing other members a chance to get their blows in also. Aiming for the arms will remove the attack threat and help protect everyone again. But if you become greedy for kills, you will be ostracized quickly. Never aim for the high fatality locations when you are in a group. This means no head, neck, eye, or chest shots. Go for the legs and arms and you'll make friends.
When you are solo hunting you will find that stance offensive my make you too vulnerable. Contrary to what many warriors believe, there *are* stances other than offensive and defensive. Stancing down to advance or forward stance will help your defense immensely. And if you are wielding a Claidhmore, you don't really need a monstrous attack anyway. The blade takes care of a lot.
When solo hunting it is important to learn about your foe. 2H warriors pretty much need creatures that can be stunned or critted easily. If you can't stun a creature, it will nail you on its retaliatory strike. So pay careful attention to the status of your opponent. A generally good tactic is to attack the creature until it is stunned, then ambush its legs, knocking it to the ground. At that point it is easy to ambush its head or neck and get the kill. For those who do not have the training points to learn ambushing until later years, don't fight creatures that you can't stun unless you are a lot faster than they are. Zombies, titans, and giants will eat you up if you are slow.
Finally, an effective combat technique for combating certain spell casting creatures involves your shield. When fighting wraiths or other creatures, which forecast their spells, wield both your 2H weapon and a shield. As soon as the creature casts, sling the shield over your shoulder and attack. This tactic is very useful when combating single creatures, spell-casting or not, and should even allow low level warriors to combat medium level slow creatures. What does this do? Well, you will not get the defensive bonus from your 2H weapon, because you need both hands free for that. But that is okay, because your weapon can not parry spells. The shield, on the other hand, can parry spells and will greatly add to your defense against direct damage magic. Please note that this tactic does *not* work well against creatures which do not forecast their spells, nor does it work well against creatures which swarm. I will caution against thinking that this tactic will replace the need for a single weapon and shield combat style, as it has been my experience that most high level spell casting creatures do not forecast their spells.
There are other creatures out there that I don't really know a lot about. Aephir has been burning the midnight oil creating new critters left and right, so be prepared to experience all sorts of interesting fauna.
WARRIOR'S GUILD: I don't consider the Guild to be very critical to a warrior's training. As Giacomo has stated several times, the Guild skills were made as role-playing additions and as interesting little fluffy perks to the warrior class, but were never meant to 'balance' the class out or to be 'required' as part of any successful warrior's training.
My thoughts on the skills are that two of them are not very valuable to 2H'ers, while the others can be nice at times. (These are all my opinion, and I know that other experienced 2H warriors disagree :) )
Berserk is not a good skill for 2H'ers. This skill forces a warrior into offensive stance, allows to swing with a 5 RT (even during lag), and at higher ranks will increase the warrior's AS. Additionally, the warrior can leap up from a prone position, and can shake off stuns and webs. For 3+ minutes after the berserk, the warrior has a -20% penalty to his AS. And it looks great! :) Well... not considering lag, I can already attack with a 5 RT, so that isn't any help. The AS increase is not that critical since 2H warriors seem to have plenty of AS but are severely lacking in DS. And how many times are we stunned or webbed? Heck, I can't remember the last time I was stunned, and I've only been webbed once in the last 3 months. (Other than by friends... ) What I really don't like about the skill is how vulnerable the berserking warrior is. A 2H'er needs to stance dance or he dies. With berserk, you'd better kill whatever you're berserking quickly or his buddy is going to drill you. From an RP point of view, this skill fails miserably, in my opinion. The times when a warrior would be most prone to go berserk are the exact situations in which this skill will cause him to die. Historically, berserkers did not go berserk on solo opponents, they went berserk in battles where they were heavily outnumbered. With the current rules for berserking, an outnumbered berserker is a dead berserker.
Disarm is also a poor skill for 2H warriors. With this skill you try to knock an opponent's weapon from his hand, and the better the attempt, the longer it takes for him to recover (15+ RT's, which are usually fatal). Again, to be effective with this skill a warrior needs to be in offensive stance. He also is *severely* penalized for encumbrance (read this as armor). So all of that time you've put into learning how to be effective in your full plate actually works *against* you when trying to disarm. Besides, who ever became a 2H warrior to finesse a critter? We wanna beat its brains in. :)
Tackle is similar to disarm, but is a better option. You are trying to knock a creature to the ground, and better attempts cause greater recovery times (similar to Disarm). It works well against those critters with good armor and it is fun to boot. From a role-playing perspective it fits nicely with most 2H'ers attitudes about being aggressive. Knocking a critter prone and then chopping it in half with our battle axes tends to make us grin happily and howl a couple of times.
Warcries is the most versatile skill, as it effectively gives a warrior 'spells'. The warrior can cause a critter to pause (gives them RT), cause them to become aggressive (forcing them into offensive stance), and frighten them (giving them a -50 DS above and beyond other considerations). Additionally, the warrior can boost the morale of his comrades, adding 5, 15, or 20 to their AS. I feel that this is the best overall skill, as the various yells can be *very* effective, especially in concert. Forcing a critter into RT, and then forcing them into offensive stance will take care of just about anything.
Battering is a wonderful skill, and every warrior should gain at least 1 rank here. Whether or not you decide to continue on is up to you, but one training will allow you to batter the weaker boxes fairly well and batter the graveyard gate. Additional trainings will help you batter better, doing more damage and helping you to be more 'delicate' with your battering so you don't break brittle items in your treasure boxes.
MAGICAL ITEMS: There are several magical items out there that you will want to keep. Small statues are great. They cast "Alkar" which adds 25 to your DS and TD for about 30 seconds per level. White crystals add 15 to your AS for about the same length of time, with the additional benefit of reducing RT for heavy packs. I have had over 100 lbs in my pack with no RT modifier with these little rocks. :) Blue crystals are great for one shot emergencies, as they add 75 to your AS for one swing. Good for invasions and turtled opponents. Pure potions are expensive, but they are great! They add +15 to your AS for about 30 seconds per level. Or you can have a cleric pour them on your uncritted magical weapons for a blessing. And then there are embeddable items. Spellcasters can put just about any spell they know into special rods, wands, amulets, and jewelry. Having a spare Blur or Guards II never hurt anyone. I know at least one of my titled 2H peers pretty much lives off of embedded trinkets.
Well, that is about all you really need to know, I would think. A few points to keep in mind as a 2H warrior...
1. ALWAYS tip your healer well. You will be seeing them a lot. :)
2. Get lots of deeds. It's bound to happen that you just went full offensive and hacked at the hill troll when another ambles in. That 2-handed sword he swings will lop your head off quite easily, and we'll all see *[You] just bit the dust. I suggest using the temple instead of Hearthstone. Even at high levels (25+), you should be able to get a deed with only a golden topaz (~400 silver value) or similar gem, while Hearthstone requires much more. The only benefit to HS is that it allows you to ditch your unwanted trinkets as deed payment.
3. If you find what you think is a great hunting spot because no one is ever there, there is most likely a good reason for it. Grey orcs, Fire Guardians, Darkwoodes... All of these cast powerful magic and with no shield you'll be dead in no time at all. Anything that can cast a gas cloud is a good creature to avoid unless you are teamed up with breezers. I don't know how many times I've dragged whole parties of deaders out of grey orcs, but it is quite a few.
4. When you are starting out, don't worry about running messages unless you are just sitting in town waiting for your head to clear. Messages are how spellcasters gain levels at first, as they are too weak to actually hunt anything tougher than rats. You will do much better with hunting since you can get more than just coins and you get fame for killing creatures. And who ever played a 2H warrior just so they could run messages for their first 3 levels anyway? ;)
5. If you are 5th level or less, go to the Raging Thrak Inn and talk to Raging Thrak himself. He has a lot of good things to teach you, and you might like what you learn. :)
If anyone would like to discuss 2H combat, combat in general, or has comments on the above, please feel free to e-mail me at Dagonet@aol.com.
Dagonet
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