CHARACTER PROFILES
Highwayman
- Pickpocket
- Assassin
- Mass Murderer
Serial Killer - Evil
Mage - Mad
Scientist - Con
Artist - Spy
Zealot - Pirate
- Possessed Warrior
- Mad Bomber
Dark Ranger - Black
Knight - Burglar
- Prankster
- Leech
Rogue
Highwayman
Skills: Tactics - {Fighting Style} - Hiding
The highwayman is simply a hold-up artist. He waits for victims along busy
paths and stops them, demanding their gold or their life. One thing you can
do to make this character more interesting is coming up with a charming way
of asking for your victims money.
If you play this type, there are a few things you can do to help yourself.
First off, find a high traffic area where you can trap people. Bridges, narrow
mountain paths, even dungeon entrances are perfect. You can use crates, party
members, or NPC hirelings to block off the path while you cover their retreat
and demand their gold for freedom. Also, unles you have a terrible connection,
being on horseback guarantees you will be able to chase them down if they run.
Last, if you learn some basic magic, you can paralyze your victims before demaning
their money. Make sure not to stand to close to them after you cast so
their auto-defend doesn't start a fight before they've had a chance to surrender
^top^
Pickpocket
Skills: Stealing - Snooping - Hiding
The pickpocket is probably the most basic villian type in the game. This is
due to the fact that all but one of the "rogue" skills apply. Your
goal is distract your mark long enough to grab something worthwhile from their
pack without them noticing.
You can use a couple tricks to make this character more playable. First
off, try hiding in high traffic areas out in the wilderness. This avoids the
insta-kill guards in town. It does mean your victims might very well come after
you, but that's one of the risks you take. In town, you are going to die
often. Make sure you deposit all your valuables in the bank between thefts
so you don't loose them to looters.
Next, camping at the bank was fun back in beta, but it is a poor choice now.
Shops are much better. In fact, hiding next to the jeweler will net you more
gold from people selling off gems than you could ever make in the bank (this
applies to any shopkeeper players sell off excess equipment at). Simply
stand around in the shop acting like another NPC (dressing like an NPC helps).
As soon as a mark enters the shop, open their paperdoll and start trying to
snoop their backpack. Don't worry if you are too far away at first, eventually,
they will get close enough or you can move closer to them. Once it's
open, wait for the player to make the sale. As soon as you see the gold
drop into their pack, steal it. This keeps the player from burying it
all in second and third packs. After a successful grab, walk, not run,
out the door and once out of sight of your victim, run straight to the bank
and deposit your gold.
You can also use tricks like dressing as jester and telling jokes to distract
people. Pretending to be an NPC beggar to get close enough to them. Just about
anything other than running around in a death robe, standing right next to them,
and constantly trying to steal.
^top^
Assassin
Skills: Poisoning - Tracking - {Fighting Style} - Hiding - Alchemy
With the coming of bounty hunting, this player type is going to be a lot more
useful. As it stands, players often times have more gold than fighting
skill, so there is plenty of work for the murderer-for-hire. At the same time,
you don't need to be a great fighter to be effective. Just good enough
to make a couple good hits with a poisoned blade and maybe even tossing some
purple potions to take out your victim. Also, being able to track a target makes
finding your mark much easier.
This character has a lot of room to roleplay with. It is not a tank (fighter/mage)
killer which means you need to play smart. Trying to fight toe to toe is not
going to work. Inflicting greater poison on a target and then moving away so
they can't kill you followed up by ranged attacks and waiting for the poison
to do it's work is your best tactic. You can inflict that poison via a sharp
dagger or by being helpful and giving your mark some free food. Also,
because you are tracking a specific person to kill, there is a much greater
challenge and sense of accomplishment when you take out your victim. And of
course, a good assassin can earn a lot of money from rich players who want a
less than charitable solution to a conflict.
^top^
Mass Murderer
Skills: Tactics - {Fighting Style}
This character type is often confused with the Diablophiles who run around
killing newbies. The two have a lot in common, they kill people pretty
much indisciminantly, they kill for enjoyment, and they have little or no respect
for most of their targets. The one biggest difference is that mass murderers
want the killing to be challenging and Diablophiles want it easy. This means
that a mass murderer will start talking to a bunch of players trying to work
them into a fighting mood before lashing out in a blood bath. A Diablophile
will hide behind an object and use cheap exploits to make his kills.
One thing that makes a mass murderer more memorable is his ability to lull
his targets into a sense of security right before slaughtering them. Giving
them food, talking about life in general, even helping the target kill a difficult
monster and giving them all the loot can accomplish this. Then while they
are distracted, you lay into them.
^top^
Serial Killer
Skills: Tactics - {Fighting Style} - something completely unrelated to fighting
Serial killers have a couple major differences between themselves and mass
murderers. First off, they only kill people who fit a particular mold.
For example, red-haired females, bards, or people who wear orc-helms (I actually
think the last group deserves to die) would all be great victim classes.
The character also has a traumatic even in their past that accounts for their
victim profile, perhaps as a child they watched their parents murdererd by a
band of orcs. This event left them twisted on the inside, although often, they
will appear in town to be completely normal. A player could be a nice, friendly
blacksmith who performs free repairs for people, but at night, he wanders outside
of town killing people in death robes.
In addtiion to having a specific victim type, the serial killer often has a
ritual involved with either the killing or dealing with the corpse. They might
use only a butcher knife in their fights or they might cut up the body and arrange
the pieces in a star pattern.
^top^
Evil Mage
Skills: Magery - Resisting Spells - Inscription
This is one of the classic villians of fantasy. The power-hungry wizard who
dreams of ruling the world (hell, it was the villian of the very first Ultima).
They use magic to defeat their enemies, often seeing fighters as weak-minded
barbarians who are not worthy to be in their presence.
A true megalomaniac mage would never stoop to hiding behind a house and ambushing
his victim. He prefers to stand in the open, gloating over his victims
as he prepares to barbeques them. If he has any allies, he treats them
with disdain and sees them as pawns in his conquest of the land. The mage's
one weakness is his own sense of superiority over others. This often leads
him to underestimate his foes or to overlook them the threat they posses to
him.
^top^
Mad Scientist
Skills: Alchemy - Item Identification - Poisoning - Taste Identification
The mad scientist has one goal in mind, to know everything. He has no regard
for anything other than his own quest for knowledge and is willing to do whatever
it takes to gain that knowledge. The crazed researcher's weapon of choice is
purple potions and magic wands (very good choices they are, too). They also
will carry a variety of potions and items on them for both experimentation as
well as defense.
The mad scientist values no life but his own. He will give people poisoned
food to see how long they can last. He might even hand them a cure potion after
they near death to see its effect on them. He might target an innocent peasant
with a wand of fireballs to see how effective at killing the wand is. At the
same time, he is not going to trust too many people. Either they are out to
steal his research or destroy him
^top^
Con Artist
Skills: Arms Lore - Item Identification
This player type has done more to destroy player trust than any other (which
is good for the rest of us villians). From the boring "HIT TAB AND DBL
CLICK ON ME FOR FREE GOLD" trick to posing as a blacksmith offering free
repairs and simply keeping the equipment, they have made people play smarter.
After all, they count on the ignorance and trust of others to pull of their
tricks. A smart player will never fall for their scams, but there are enough
people in the game who don't play with common sense to keep them in business
for the foreseeable future.
A good con artist can think on their feet and talk fast. They also need to
be very creative to come up with new tricks to have their victims willingly
hand over their gold. The best con artist can, in fact, have his victim
leave happy and not realize they've been had until much later.
^top^
Spy
Skills: Hiding - Tailoring - Spirit Speaking
Spies are some of the most creative characters you can play. They need to be
alert and know how to talk to people. A good spy can join as many player guilds
as his heart desires and sell information back and forth to all of them.
A good spy needs to be able to change his appearance often. He does this
with hair dye and clothing. Also, being able to speak to the dead has obvious
advantages since ghosts can walk through locked doors and move about undetected
in any situation. The best spy will even become a trusted member of multiple
guilds and be able to gain access to their most secure holdings. He can then
turn around and sell that access to the guild's enemies for a nice profit.
^top^
Zealot
Skills: Hidiing - Alchemy - {Fighting Style}
Zealots come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and motivatiors. They
are usually members of some organazation, but have taken they ideas of the oganzation
to the extreme and will do anything to force others to either join them or die.
Zealots also place more value in their beliefs than in their own life.
This makes them very dangerous.
A zealot can be anything from a ranger who kills anyone who harms an animal
in the forest, to a suicide bomber who runs into a group of his enemies with
nothing but a bag full of purple potions. The zealot spends a lot of time
preaching his ideals to others and is willing to die to force them to agree
with him This complete disregard for their own life means that they will
stoop to anything to take their enemies with them.
^top^
Pirate
Skills: Tactics - {Fighting Style} - Map Making - Archery - Hiding
Pirates are currently limited by the industructability of ships, but this does
not mean there is no way to be a pirate. At the most basic level, a pirate
is simply a seagoing highwayman.
Pirates work best in groups with more than one ship. If you can get three or
four ships to surround your target ship, you can trap them and force them to
hand over their gold or equipment in exchange for freedom of movement.
You can also ambush people along shorelines using your ships movement to quickly
surround them. Finally, you can hijack a boat by hiding nearby and waiting
for the owner to unlock it. Then quickly jump on board and order the ship
out to sea. Once outside the range of the guards, turn on the owners forcing
them to hand over their possession to survive.
^top^
Possessed Warrior
Skills: Tactics - {Fighting Style} - Spirit Speak
This type of killer is not inheirently evil. Instead, he is role-playing
being forced into killing people by some evil spirit or force. The easiest way
to do this is to emote the commands of the evil spirit while speaking your objections
to those commands.
This character type is a lot of fun because you control the two major characters
in your role-play, the unwilling warrior and the diabolic spirit. This is the
type of depth that goes a long way to seperate a role player from a power-gamer.
Plus, since your character doesn't actually want to kill people, you can have
fun without ruining someone else's playing experience.
Finally, if you pair up with a friend and have him die to play the evil spirit,
you can expand on the possibilities for role-playing. Of course, if you
do this, make sure your character can understand ghosts.
^top^
Mad Bomber
Skills: Alchemy
This player type is often a type of zealot, but doesn't have to be. He might
simply be a disgruntled character who, because he is too weak to fight, has
chosen purple potions as a weapon.
There a couple ways you can use your bombs. First, you can be a suicide
bomber. Simply run into a group of players in the wilderness with nothing
but a pack full of purple potions. As quickly as you can, set them all
off and hope that you take of few of them with you into death. Or, if you value
your life a little more, you can toss the potions at people, running away to
make sure they don't slice you in half before you can finish blasting them into
eternitiy.
^top^
Dark Ranger
Skills: Tracking - Archery - {Fighting Style} - Camping
The dark ranger is a player who has chosen nature over humanity. They kill
people who harm nature's creatures, dig in her mountains, or chop down her trees.
The dark ranger disdains civilization and will not go into town unless absolutely
necessary. They are also masters at surviving in the wild and will cut
up and eat the monsters while leaving animals alone. The dark ranger also tend
to preach about the superiority of nature to civilization to anyone who will
listen. And if you don't seem to agree, they will often encourage your
belief with the end of their sword.
^top^
Black Knight
Skills: Tactics - {Fighting Style}
The black knight is simply a warrior who has twisted the ideals of chivalry
to his own purposes. He is often polite and well-mannered on the outside,
but inside, he is a power-hungry, selfish thug.
This character type will often attempt to insult his enemies to goad them into
attack. He also encourages them to duel honorably while he himself uses
poisoned weapons or magic to gain the upper hand. The black knight also attempts
to corrupt the ideals of virtue to his own ends. He will push a warrior
who is facing him to show Valor so he can kill him without his enemy fleeing.
He encourages people who have bested him to show Compassion, knowing he would
never do so if the roles were reversed. This charater encourages others
to trust him, even though he is completely unworthy of that trust.
^top^
Burglar
Skills: Lockpicking - Hiding - Stealing
This villian is also a basic character, again using built in "rogue"
skills. Unfortunately, the best places for a burglar to break into would be
other players houses, and those are unpickable. Perhaps when OSI fixes
NPC guards so they actually guard, they can change this...
In the meantime, you can hide near player buildings waiting for someone to
leave so you can rush in. This requires patience, but the rewards are
high. Also, there are locked chests and crates in some of the towns and
your lockpicking and stealing skills can make their contents yours. Finally,
you can join stronger fighters in dungeon exploration, using your lockpicking
skills to open the doors for the group.
^top^
Prankster
Skills: Hiding - Magery - Stealing - Snooping - {Bardic Skills}
This character is not necessarily evil, just annoying. They seek to pull
scams and tricks on player, not for monetary gain, but just for the fun of it.
In fact, they will often scam a person and promptly return whatever items or
money they just took.
Basically, this character uses his abilities to create chaos and havoc.
At the same time, you have to be careful not to push your victims to the point
where they attack you. You can snoop people's packs and follow them around
announcing the contents to passers-by. You can steal an item, then give
it back to them, simply to steal it again immediately. You can sit in
the training rooms and play music repeatedly till everyone in the room is insane.
Or, you can light lots of campfires in the center of the room so everyone's
camping skill goes up while they are trying to become better fighters.
^top^
Leech
Skills: Hiding - Magic Resistance
This character is also known as a looter, but unlike the majority, this is
a profession, not just an opportunity. Your basic job consists of wandering
around dangerous areas and hiding, waiting for some would-be hero to meet his
fate. You are going to need good hiding skills and are going to want good magic
restitance to avoid the wrath of other players, most of whom consider you lower
than pond muck.
^top^
Rogue
Skills: Any and all
Basically, you do whatever you want with no disregard for others. You
are only interested in yourself and things that make you happy, wealthy, and
powerful. This character type tends to be very flexible in action and can go
from spy, to highwayman, to con artist, to leech in a series of adventures.
In order to make this character truly memorable, you need to spend more time
interacting with your victims (in fact, this helps with all character types).
By taking a few moments to talk to them, you can easily ascertain if they are
good candidates for a quick scam, a holdup, or can be lured into an even more
profitable situation for you. A good rogue has qualities of all characters,
from the silver tongue of a con artist, to the fighting abilities of a warrior,
to the shiftiness of a spy. At the same time, making a rogue into a memorable
character requires a lot of committment to his background and behavior.
^top^
This list of villians is by no means complete, nor are the different possibilites
for each type the only way that type could be played. A good character
is limited only by the imagination of the player. And a good villian can
often times make their victims not only make for a memorable encounter, but
also an enjoyable one. Have fun!
^top^
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