RP 'Explorer' Character Template?

[Mark Stoneholme]

[OOC: Hey guys, I'm wanting to make an 'Explorer' citizen character for my guild to lead the men on treasure hunts. My guild restricts the use of magery which means no telekinesis, recall, gating, heal/greater heal/cure, and that rule won't be changing so please don't waste a post/wait for a response by asking why

Now, I'm mostly confused about the inclusion of Detect Hidden and Remove Trap. I understand Detect Hidden will allow you to reveal if a container is trapped or not, but if you presume every container is trapped and you always 'remove trap', do you need it? I read you need 50 detect hidden to start training remove trap; can you still train/use remove trap if you got rid of detect hidden after Remove Trap started raising?

This character is going to be just going out exploring, doing T-maps with the militia (hence lack of combat skills). But also, I'm thinking that the inclusion of hiding/stealth in the template will be important for sneaking around dungeons finding chests when I'm out exploring alone?

I'm thinking about the following template:

GM Hiding
GM Stealth
GM Cartography
GM Lockpicking
GM Detect Hidden
GM Remove Trap
GM Stealing (I read that you can use stealing to take items from chests in town, if this is profitable? Never had a thief.)

Alternative skills to consider would be:

Melee Skill
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Mining

Interested to see what anyone could come up with to help? I think as a rule we'll say:

• No magery - Just don't even go there; guild rule, can use boats to access islands, and t-map co-ords + sextant to find chests (v-fun!).
• Cartography & Lockpicking must feature in the template
• Remember the objective is to be leading guild members on these t-hunts (except sneaking through dungeons alone), so I'll have a number of warriors with me to attack spawn, so combat skills on the explorer himself isn't exactly necessary but could add another element of RP.)

Any and all help would be appreciated!]

[Shenanagins]

Well if you're going to be leading t-hunts you better pick up mining. Unless I'm mistaken, you need mining to dig up chests that are level 2+

[uofuntime]

^ Hmm, I asked about treasure hunting in another thread and no one seemed to mention mining as a necessity. Guides I've read only mention it as "useful" as it allows for higher dig area, so you did not need to dig in the exact tile of the chest.

[Mark Stoneholme]

[OOC: Thanks for you replies guys, but Shen - I understand mining only gives you a larger dig area; you don't NEED it; and I've experience back on OSI from obtaining a T-map co-ords from stratics, and finding a 1-tile reference with the help of a sextant, which just like sailing can actually be pretty fun!

That said, if I had mining on this chap it would serve a double purpose as well as allowing to me resource gather, saving me an extra craft-skill slot on my guild crafter.

I think I need to go on the test centre and find out for myself how stealth, detect hidden, and remove trap all interact with one another; because if they turn out to be pretty useless (I remember back on Europa we always made some poor recruit brave opening the chest, haha) then that's potentially a lot of skill points I could use elsewhere.

I also double-thought, stealing from chests in town ain't exactly what a Lawful Neutral Explorer, in the employ of the militia would do, so scrap that. I think anat/healing will be necessary - Maybe if I replace stealth/steal with them? Like I say though, I need to find out how useful stealth is, because I've heard I'd be able to sneak around a whole dungeon, detect, remove traps, and unlock chests all whilst stealthed?

Unfortunately I've just been on the Test Centre, and whilst I did look fantastic, there's no spawn, and no chests in any dungeons for me to test these skills on!]

[Pirul]

Alright, a few observations:

1.- If you're going to have DH above 60 skill points, you don't need to GM lockpicking (which is a pain, and I can't even imagine doing it without magery to gate/recall!!), so you can just macro...uh, practice with a GM tinkered box up to 95 and lock it there.

2.- Is barding (provo) allowed in your guild? If not, don't even bother getting lp and dh that high, cause you won't be doing lvl 5's. No matter how much manpower you have, no amount of broadswords and wooden shields will be able to take down a lvl 5 spawn without magic and/or provo. Hence you could probably end up with 85-90 lp and 55-60 dh freeing up around 50 very useful points.

3.- I'm not sure how remove trap works, but I'm not sure you need to GM it to do lvl's 1-3. Again, I would not suggest doing lvl 4 or 5 without at least provo or magic. This could probably free up some additional skill points.

4.- True, mining is only useful to broaden the dig radius, so no mining needed, unless you REALLY wanted to RP and not use a t-map database.

5.- Stealth is VERY useful to GM lockpicking, but since you probably won't be GMing LP (referr to 1.-), it is not necesarily useful for t-hunting, since digging up the chest, and looting the chest will reveal you. So you are better off using the points for something else.

6.- Hiding is convenient, but not really necesary, so if you REALLY want hiding, getting it up over 80-85 will give you a 90+% chance of hiding, so you can save some skill points there too.

7.- Again, if no provo is allowed, carto doesn't need to be GMed, so something like 85 carto should suffice.

With all of that taken into account, your template might look something like:

Lockpicking: 90
Detect Hidden: 60
Remove Trap: 80
Hiding: 85
Cartography: 85

And you still have 300 free points.

IF you allow provo, then I'd suggest something like:

Musicianship: GM
Provocation: GM
Lockpicking: at least 95
Detect Hidden: at least 60
Remove Trap: GM
Cartography: GM

and you still have 145 points to put into hiding/mining, or just hiding and DH.

[Pirul]

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced, you HAVE to have provo to be able to do anything over a lvl 2 chest.

A level 3 without provo, even if you muster up 10+ very well equiped melee fighters would be very hard. The only posible scenario for success I see is luring the spawn to the coast and attacking from a ship with archery. In this scenario stealth would have to be a must, because you'd need to get back to the chest to open it without the mobs targeting you. You would still have to have all the spawn constantly attacking (targeting) those in the ship, because otherwise they will wander back to the chest, where you are.

The initial spawn of a lvl 3 will probably be 1 Ogre Lord, 3-4 assorted eles (fire and air seem popular), 1 or 2 lichs, and 1 dread spider...at least. While you loot the chest, expect at least another Ogre Lord, another Dread Spider, and a couple of liches. I'm not even going to get into what you might find in a lvl. 4.

Hell, if you have to go to the Valor Isles or Fire Isle for a lvl 1, just the natural spawn (silver serps, alligators, and giant serps) would be a task for 3-4 melee fighters w/o provo.

[Shenanagins]

ah well i'm glad i learned that about the mining thing =) good luck with everything

[Mark Stoneholme]

[OOC: Well, thanks very much for your replies, guys!]

[uofuntime]

I have an idea. How about Item ID? Seems like a good skill for an explorer and treasure hunter, don't ya think?

[Mark Stoneholme]

I have an idea. How about Item ID? Seems like a good skill for an explorer and treasure hunter, don't ya think?

[OOC: It's probably something for another character to have; as you can see we're struggling for template space as it is. Also seeing as my guild doesn't use magic items as they're "tainted", I'm still weighing up whether or not it's 'ethical' to take them to sell to blues to help the guild funds.]

[uofuntime]

^ Oh yeah forgot that you guys don't use magic items. You should definitely sell it! Times are hard as it is. Maybe have something like a Black Market, hehe. Or at least give em' to me! just kidding. =)

[Pirul]

I have an idea. How about Item ID? Seems like a good skill for an explorer and treasure hunter, don't ya think?

You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.

[uofuntime]

I have an idea. How about Item ID? Seems like a good skill for an explorer and treasure hunter, don't ya think?

You never count your chips while you're sitting at the table, they'll be time enough to count them when the deal is done.

Not really. I can imagine a treasure hunter opening a chest and having extensive knowledge of ancient relics, his eyes gleam at the sight of [specific item]. It's roleplay. And what makes you think I'm suggesting this skill so he can utilize it immediately? He can very well "count his chips" when the "deal is done".

Not the most practical skill if you're into power gaming, but on the RP level, it works.

[Pirul]

I see you created your 'Explorer', congatulations.

Just out of curiousity, what template are you considering? And what will you do with the magics found in chests?

[Hicha]

I'd personally go with this:

Cartography
Lockpicking
Hiding
Provocation
Magery
Musicianship
Meditation

You don't need detect hidden or remove trap for any trapped chest; simply lockpick the chest then do one of the following:

Treasure map chests: Take 4 steps away, use telekinesis, run back and loot
Dungeon chests: Take 1 step away, open chest

With dungeon chests and hiding, you can quickly run up to the chest and hide, pick it, take a step away and rehide, then open it and loot. At 1 tile away, you won't take any damage from the explosion. You can always tele-hide if you get aggro from a nearby mob. This means you can farm dungeon chests and never have to kill another mob again.

You don't need mining for treasure maps; simply look up your map here, then go visit one of the many treasure map libraries we have on UOSA. Recall to the map number, and dig exactly where you're standing. Some libraries might be a tile off, but thats nothing you can't adjust.

Hiding makes t-hunters a lot easier and manageable; you can insta-hide the moment the chest is dug up, and take your time dragging health bars matching mobs with mobs. The key is to make the mobs last so that as mobs spawn, you have something to provoke them onto. Again, telehide is your friend.

As a bard, you can kill anything in this game. It makes it easy-mode, and while areas like terathan keep might be challenging now due to the increased speed, you can still manage to provoke everything. It makes it more challenging, fun and rewarding. You can just roam dungeon to dungeon, kill whatever, and move on as you explorer Brittania and The Lost Lands.

You could also adjust your skill so its something like 80 meditation/20 eval, giving you a tad bit more boost to magery dmg without drastically hurting your meditation rate (although you don't want to dip below 25% mana or it'll be hard to actively med.) Or, just use EV/BS to finish off the last mobs.

Either way, I hope you enjoy whatever build you decide to come out with. Exploration is what got me hooked on UO, and while I spent 2 years actively playing on Atlantic, it was exploration that kept me there.