Useful Knowledge

General Game Knowledge

A list of general information for new players.

Deities

The deity system here is robust with many options, however there are two deities which are super useful especially for new players: A'enari (good) and Vl'aresch (evil)

Deities require you to 'do stuff' to gain favor with them, mostly killing mobs and sacrificing corpses, but some other tasks for some deities. However, for A'enari and Vl'aresch it is much easier.

Simply visit the deity, and each time you walk into their room you gain favor. You can simply walk in/out/in/out of their room a bunch to reach "Praised" which is the favor level required to supplicate your corpse if you die (the deity brings you your corpse so you can get all your gear out of it). Upon dying, simply 'supplicate corpse' then run back to the deity in/out a bunch to refavor back to Praised and resume your gameplay.

I would advise new players to devote to A'enari or Vl'aresch basically immediately as soon as you know what you're doing.

Most new players find it easiest to level with Devout (good) align, so A'enari is your gal. Directions here:

https://rodpedia.realmsofdespair.info/wiki/A%27enari
https://rodpedia.realmsofdespair.info/wiki/Vl%27aresch

See 'help supplicate' for more information on what you can get from your deity besides corpse retrieval.

Game Fight Mechanics

Little is known about how things 'actually work'. Please closely read the help files for every character stat, hitroll/damroll/ac, saving throws (help saves), resistances/suceptabilities (help resist) for official information on how those work. Here are some theorized inner workings based on myth, rumor, and extremely old public SMAUG 1.8 code. Long story short... its like D&D so make some assumptions and it's basically the same type of system of rolls.

Hitroll: HR seems to impact melee damage. In SMAUG 1.8 code your hitroll was computed against a mobs AC, in a way that is basically straight out of D&D ala its "thac0" (To-Hit AC 0) system if you're familiar with that. For each X of HR you have, it negates Y mob AC. If your hitroll is sufficient to drop mob AC to 0 or less, then you will land a melee hit.

AC: Armor Class should theoretically work the same for players as it does for mobs, so this would roll against the mob's Hitroll. In the SMAUG 1.8 code, AC was also divided by 10 and rounded, so, there would be no difference between having 101 and 199 AC. Whether this is still how current game code works is unknown, but, its likely that AC and HR are still in some sense rolled against one another. High AC will prevent you from taking so much melee damage.

Damroll: DR is a theoretically a modifier of basic weapon/skill/spell damage. If your weapon hits for 10, your DR may get incorporated (somehow) onto that to determine how much damage you land on the mob. It is unknown if/how/when DR is used for offensive skill/spell damage modification, this likely is configured on a per-skill/spell basis. The quantity of damage landed on a mob impacts the XP you gain, so you do want to have high DR to maximize the XP you gain per hit where DR was a factor.

Saving Throws: Some equipment gives you "Saves". These are not visible in 'score' or anywhere in the game, you need to manually identify your items and add up your saving throws. These work just like in D&D as far as I can tell. When faced with incoming damage of a type for which you have some saving throw points, your character rolls a dice which is modified by your saving throw value. If you win the save, the damage you receive is reduced, likely by a percentage such as 1/4 or 1/2. Mobs also have saving throws. There did appear to be a 'cap' in the old code where above a certain value additional saving throw points did not have any further impact on the roll. I believe this was around -23, but I forget and suck at reading code, and that code is long outdated anyhow so who knows if that still applies at all. Long story short, 'the Ice Girth' is an item your AV characters will want if you are finding yourself stunned/paralyzed or your containers scrapping a lot.

Resistances/Susceptabilities: See 'aff by' for your list of current resistances/susceptibilities. The specific modification to damaged these result in is unknown, but see 'news 1168' for some additional information from Gonnil.

Practice Sessions

You will receive vastly more practice sessions than you need. You may find yourself short of sessions within the first 5 levels, but you'll quickly have way more than you need and will be able to practice EVERY skill/spell. Realms is not a game where you need to actually pick which skills/spells you want and miss out on other, you get them all. Feel free to blow all your practice session at every level to learn ever skill/spell.

When you reach AV you will have ~200 extra practice sessions. You can spend these re-practicing stuff to adept it even more (instead of actually using it in the game, just go practice it a bunch more and its % adept will rise)

Lowbie Attacks

As a lowbie, just use whatever you want (typically the highest level attack spell/skill you have access to). You get additional XP for learning the new thing, so that's nice. However, watch how much xp you gain as some skills/spells do get you more xp than others!

Current game code results in you getting far more xp from melee damage than any skills/spells. So, I suggest obtaining some EQ with good HR and DR to increase your chances of landing melee damage, and having it do as much damage as possible.

Alpha Attacks

At Avatar level, these will be your primary attacks.

I've included what is believed to be the primary modifier where known.

• Augurer: Spiral Blast (HP Based)
• Mage: Quantum Spike / Paradox Flux
• Nephandi: Qlippothic Shift
• Cleric (dev): Virtue (CHA Based)
• Fathomer: Vindur Gong
• Thief: Circle (DR Based)
• Paladin: Shieldbash (WIS Based)
• Ranger: Gash
• Warrior: Smash
• Barbarian: Rend
• Vampire: Grasp (INT & DR Based - See 'news 1149')
• Druid: Nadur Dorn (MANA Based - See 'news 1171')