Well, now, this spotlight will be a little different than most Consortium spotlights as it is, in many ways, a direct response to a diplo from the mighty STYX, manager of Shadowborn. The spot also contains thoughts and ideas for any new-to-DM manager.
First, let me apologize. I am old school. If I refer to DM or Duelmasters, I really mean D2. It will always be DM to me. Three questions:
1. I'm new. (implied "help me") 2. How to design a knife fighter. 3. Can a basher APA/F, GS be done?Help is on the way. First, let me offer that there is some very good help available, which you should already have. Do you have the C.I.C. RSI freely provides newcomers with this very important document. If you do not, you need to request it pronto. This document is vital, filled with great and necessary info, which will answer many questions. If one does not have internet access, the C.I.C, is virtually a bible.
Another wonderful source of information is the DM93 newsletter. Both Assur and The Consortium Rep (Now it is me, Joe Jalopy.) provide spotlights and information, including how they designed their current team, design ideas for certain styles, strategy thoughts, how things work, and many other topics. The lower part of the newsletter has many older articles written about DM. These newsletters are priceless to a new manager. If one does not have internet access, (where all old newsletters can be accessed on the RSI site) then perhaps a manager could request manual copies of the most recent ones in DM93 from RSI.
If a manager has internet access, the best sites are the RSI site, Terrablood's site, and Assur's own site. Have at 'em.
As to comments to questions 2 and 3. My first thought is trying to design a specific type of fighter might be approaching it from the wrong direction. The Consortium recommends optimizing the design of the five warriors on the roll-up team and then choosing styles and strategies to best fit. (If you check the last two DM93 newsletters you will find The Consortium design theory and parameters posted in a spotlight.)
A knife fighter? I will define that as a warrior wielding a dagger. A dagger is a fine and quick weapon. It doesn't do as much damage as most all other weapons. It weighs very little and has quite minimal stat requirements. (This is where having that CIC or other info such as Terrablood comes in quite handy.) It is defined as poor or ineffective at ASM or higher armor. (However, in an aimed-blow warrior's hand, the dagger is far more effective for heavy armor.)
Another thing to consider is that the dagger is only fully suited to the striker or aimed-blow styles. (That info, and most other discussed here is available in that C.I.C.) Therefore, a Consortium Knife-Fighter would be a dagger-wielding striker or a dagger-wielding aimed-blow. (Note: However that dagger is a fine back-up weapon for most due to weight, and can be a decent off-hand weapon to those certain styles that sometimes decide to fight with two weapons.) There are many possible designs for such a fighter, (Again that Consortium Design Spotlight will help.) so I will offer two simple possibilities for each style:
11-10-12-17-9-14-11 striker 9-9-11-15-15-12-13 striker 9-10-9-10-15-10-21 aimed blow 11-11-8-17-15-5-17 aimed blowNow for that basher. Certainly an APA/F GS/- Basher is possible. Indeed, that would be considered a typical beefy-bully basher. (And perhaps Assur who is considered the Basher King in DM will offer his thoughts on this. His spotlight on bashers is also in past DM93 newsletters.) To design such a warrior that has no weapon/endurance/size/stat limitations, one needs to now those limitations. (Check that C.I.C.!) The Greatsword has certain limits. (9+ size; 15+ strength, 9+ wit, and 11+ deftness) One would have also to make sure this warrior had sufficient ability to carry all that armor and weapon weight; otherwise he would flop due to endurance. (Again the C.I.C. Comes in handy.) The GS has a weight of 6. The APA/F has a total weight of 18. (14 + 4), so this warrior must have a minimum carry of 24 or what is defined as C Carry. To fight well (meaning swing enough and stand up long enough as warriors can and do stop fighting and just stand there or fall down and give up due to lack of endurance) this fighter must have at least normal endurance and preferably good+. Doing the math, the design is limited as such:
ST = 15+ CN = 12+ SZ = 9+ WT = 9+ WL = 15+ SP = 3+ DF = 11+Adding those 7 minimums = 74 and subtracting from 84, leaves 10 stat points to play with. Therefore, we now have a basic design for an APA/F, GS wielding basher. And we have enough extra points for some variety of design. I will, then, offer two simple ideas:
17-12-9-15-17-3-11 15-14-12-11-15-6-11Well, that does it. This is a good place to emphasize to any newbies to D2 that DM93 is the place to ask questions and seek help. Both Assur and us Consortium Reps are here to help.
-- Joe Jalopy, C Cars (Consortium affiliated)