chapter 9 "Skills, teachers, and trainers" %^CYAN%^General stuff%^RESET%^ Stats are the physical attributes that let you do things. Skills are those things you do. "blunt attack", for example, is the skill that determines how good you are at using blunt weapons in combat...while "blunt defense" is how good you are at *avoiding* damage from such weapons. "melee attack" and "melee defense" determine your proficiency at unarmed combat, etc. It is very rare for players who are not fighters to be able to physically fight without weapons, by the way. If the "skills" command does not list a particular skill that means you don't have it at all, and whatever it is, you are very, very bad at it. Mages, for example, usually lack "blade attack" and "blade defense" entirely...meaning they are utterly awful at fighting with swords and avoiding swords in combat. Some skills seem useless but are actually quite important. For example, mages can cast a spell called "whip" which summons up an energy weapon whose power can be devastating if the mage is high-level. However, if the mage's conjuring skill is low, the whip does not last long...meaning she will have to keep casting this expensive spell frequently. Skill levels, like stat levels, increase when a player's player level is promoted, depending on the skill class. For a fighter, "blunt attack" is a major priority, and so their skill class for this is 1. For another class, it may differ. If the skill class is a high priority, then the skill improves more often when your player level increases. There is no "deviation" command to manipulate skill class. Emphasis on skill classes is what player classes (like "fighter", "cleric", etc) are for. %^CYAN%^Trainers%^RESET%^ Trainers are folks that can help you improve your skills. When your player level goes up, you are awarded "training points". You use these training points by asking trainers to train you on some specific skill. For example, a mage can go to Radagast (east, south, up, from the town clocktower) and: %^GREEN%^ask radagast to train magic attack%^RESET%^ If you're a fighter, Radagast will not be able to help you, since you do not already posess that skill. Trainers can only train you in skills you already have some knowledge of. Instead, a fighter might go to Roshd Burlyneck (down, south, west, north, of the Ylsrim tower top) and: %^GREEN%^ask roshd to train knife defense%^RESET%^ At this point, a human player might run into a problem. Roshd is an orc, you see, and speaks Tangetto. He can't train you if you don't understand that language. This is where a different kind of instruction comes in... %^CYAN%^Teachers%^RESET%^ Teachers are a special kind of trainer than can also teach you things you did not already know. Typically this would be a language teacher (like Bugg: east, east, east, north, of the village clocktower), or a spell teacher (Herkimer: south, west, south, of the village clocktower). %^RED%^PROTIP%^RESET%^: You don't have to be a mage in order to have Herkimer teach you a spell. As long as you have some magical ability, and have the money, he will teach you some simple spells whether you are a mage or not. Mages get to learn them free, however, and Herkimer saves some spells for mages only. Trainers and teachers are where having a high intelligence stat can really pay off. It takes fewer lessons to improve your language or your skills if you have high intelligence.
