Okay, I suppose I should introduce myself since several of you are probably wondering who the heck I am and why you should even bother with reading about how *I* design warriors. First and foremost, it's your game and you're the one playing it. You should play the game how you want and stuff what anyone else says. However, I have some experience in the game (I started playing back in '88) and what follows is a method that works for me. It won't always lead to a Primus god-warrior, but very few rollups have that potential anyway (and a significant portion of what goes into that you don't have much control over). So, on with the show:
Most articles you see have 3 features that bug me. First is that many of them are over 10 years old and contain a lot of out-dated information. Second is that they're almost always about trying to create some sort of godling warrior and if you look at the needed stats you'll see that 75-90% of most rollups can't meet the criteria. The third is they talk about how to make a rollup into a particular style. Realistically, style should be the last thing you look at when designing a warrior. You don't make the rollup fit the style, you pick a style that best fits the rollup you've got. So, with that in mind, I've decided to outline the process that I go though when I get a new rollup.
WIT and WILL
The first stats that I look at are Wit and Will. These are the two stats that govern your warrior's future development and as such are the most important in the game. Wit determines how many skills your warrior learns per fight and Will governs your warrior's chances of raising stats.
As a side note, many articles talk about "burning" skills via stat raises. This is due to a glitch in the game program that causes skills learned by raising stats to count against a warrior's maximum of 20 learned skills in each area. For example, if your warrior has learned 19 Attack skills and you raise Strength from 16 to 17, the program will count your warrior as having learned 20 attack skills; leaving you without any more to learn though skill training. However, if your warrior had already learned all 20 attack skills through skill training and then you raised Strength from 16 to 17, you warrior would have 21 attack skills. If your warrior makes it to Primus, however, it will be able to learn back these "burnt" skills so it's not as bad as it was before the implementation of Primus (actually Gateway, but Gateway doesn't exist anymore), but I'd still only burn sparingly. If you want to know what trains are safe, get one of the skill charts floating about. Check Terrablood's website (www.terrablood.com/) for this and many other useful charts.
Okay, back to the topic at hand. The first thing I do on any rollup is try to get both Wit and Will to the highest of 15, 17 or 21 (skill breakpoints tend to fall on odd-numbered stat levels with the exception of 19; see the skill charts at the site mentioned above). I try to get at least one of them to a 17+, but I will go with double 15s if at least 1 of the following conditions apply:
+ A total skill base of 55+ + Superior physicals: ENDURANCE, HIT POINTS and DAMAGE DOING all ranked above Normal with at least one ranked 2+ levels above Normal (charts available at the above reference). I will go lower than a 15 Wit only if *all* the following conditions are met: + A 15 Wit is impossible to reach + Will is 17+ (the warrior will have to train stats in order to stay competitive) + Any 2 of ENDURANCE, HIT POINTS and DAMAGE DOING are 2 or more levels above Normal. I will go lower than a 15 Will only if *all* the following conditions are met: + A 15 Will is impossible to reach + Wit is 17+ + A total skill base of 50+A number of managers will tell you not to use a Will of 10 to 14 because there are no skills to be gained at those levels. The problem I have with this reasoning is that skills are not the only factor in the game (though they are important). If it will get me to an ENDURANCE or HIT POINT breakpoint (see the above website), I will use a Will in this range if 15 is unreachable. Will also determines how soon your warrior will give up a fight and may play a roll in how likely they are to survive a trip to the infirmary.
I will *not* go below a 9 Will as all styles (even Strikers and Aimed Blows) will suffer greatly with Little ENDURANCE. Likewise, I will *not* go below 15 in both Wit and Will under any circumstances.
STRENGTH and DEFTNESS
Once I'm satisfied with my warrior's starting Wit and Will, I will then look at Strength and Deftness. I rate these two roughly equally because Strength is important for various physicals (DAMAGE DOING, CARRYING CAPACITY and ENDURANCE), Deftness is important to starting skill levels (more so than Strength) and both are important in weapon selection.
My usual minimum for Strength is 9 to get a good variety of weapon suitabilities, however an 11 will get you the LO and BS. If Size is low, I will raise Strength. If you don't have access to a damage chart, a rough rule of thumb is that Strength + Size = 20 will nearly always get you Good damage, and won't get you below Normal. Also, if Strength is close to an ENDURANCE breakpoint, I'll raise it a point or 2, but not at the cost of Wit or Will.
As for Deftness, I generally try for an 11 because it's a major skill breakpoint and a requirement for several weapons. I will go lower if one of the following conditions is met:
* A total skill base of 50+ * The warrior has high HIT POINTS to make up for the lowered Parry and Defense * The rollup starts with a high Speed (makes up for the loss of Defense and the Decisiveness bonus means your warrior might not have to defend as often).Finally, I don't worry too much about COORDINATION (Speed + Deftness) because I've had many *very* successful warriors that were clumsy. By very successful I mean graduating with 80%+ W/L records and still doing well in ADM.
SPEED and CONSTITUTION
If you have any points left over at this point it's probably only 1 or 2. So, if 1 or 2 points on Constitution will get to a HIT POINT, ENDURANCE or CARRYING CAPACITY breakpoint, I'll put them there. Otherwise, leftovers go into Speed.
SIZE
You're stuck with what you get.
DARK ARENA
If a rollup won't conform to the above guidelines, I DA it. These requirements aren't that strict and anything less is going to have real trouble.
STYLE SELECTION
Okay, so you've got a set of stats. Now you need to pick a style. You can go by one of the many available style articles and pick one that your rollup meets the criteria for. My usual minimums for the various styles are as follows:
Aimed Blow: Deftness 17+ (ABs get a base Attack skill bonus that increases the higher their starting Deftness is), a starting Attack of 10+, Decisiveness + Attack of 18+ (they are an offensive style after all) and Defense 7+.
Basher: Strength 13+ (Almost all Bashing weapons need this), ENDURANCE of Normal or better, Good or better DAMAGE DOING, a starting Attack of 8+, a starting Decisiveness of 8+, Decisiveness + Attack of 18+ and Decisiveness + Initiative of 16+. I will go lower on ENDURANCE, but for every level below Normal, I want DAMAGE DOING to be one level above Good.
Lunger: Good or better ENDURANCE, Good or better DAMAGE DOING, a starting Attack of 8+, Decisiveness + Attack of 16+ and Defense 7+.
Parry-Lunger: Good or better ENDURANCE, normal or better HIT POINTS, Parry + Defense of 12+, Riposte 7+ and Attack 6+.
Parry-Riposte (personally, this is a style I don't run much because all they do well is riposte; they're average at best at attacking, parrying and dodging): Normal or better HIT POINTS, Parry + Defense of 12+ and Attack 6+.
Parry-Strike (a niche style good for certain purposes but inferior in most areas): normal or better HIT POINTS, Decisiveness 7+, Attack 6+, and Parry +Defense of 12+. Surprise your opponents by sometimes running offensive and other times defensive.
Slasher: Good or better ENDURANCE, Good or better DAMAGE DOING a Decisiveness 8+, Attack 8+, Decisiveness + Attack of 18+ and Decisiveness + Initiative of 16+. Like a Basher or Striker, these guys don't defend real well.
Striker: Good or better DAMAGE DOING a Decisiveness of 8+ and Attack 6+. While they do defend slightly better than Bashers and Slashers, their real strength is getting the jump on *everyone*.
Total Parry: Normal or better ENDURANCE, Normal or better HIT POINTS a starting Parry of 10+ (it's what you do best) and Parry + Defense of 15+. For each level of HIT POINTS above Normal, I'll drop the Parry requirement by 1 and the Parry + Defense requirement by 2.
Wall of Steel: Strength of 9+ (minimum for their lightest weapon, the Scimitar), Deftness 11+ (again for weapon selection), Good or better ENDURANCE, Normal or better HIT POINTS, a starting Parry of 8+, Parry + Defense of 14+, a starting Attack of 8+ and starting Riposte of 6+. These guys are very good at tiring out an offensive and then tearing them apart, or mercilessly pounding on a defensive. However they are slow to learn Riposte skills, so you want to start at a decent level.
Now, you'll probably find that many rollups will be viable for two or more styles. At this point, I look at the 2 or 3 most popular styles in the arena and make my final choice based on what style does well against the most common this warrior will be going up against. If you're new, a good general rule is if the arena has lots of offensives go with a Total Parry or Wall of Steel (the Parry-Whatevers are best run after you've had some experience), if there's lots of TPs go with a Striker or Basher (Aimed Blows are also great at beating up TPs but are a very quirky style best saved for when you have some experience) and if there's a lot of non-TP defensives go with a Lunger or Slasher. Another consideration is to pick a style that your team is currently lacking in. If your team is mostly offensive or defensive, go with the opposite. It will allow you more flexibility when you make challenges.
Another piece of general advice for new managers: Pick 3 or 4 styles that interest you: 1 or 2 defensive (TP & WS), 1 or 2 offensive (BA, LU, SL & ST) and maybe 1 'quirky' style (AB, PL, PR & PS) and concentrate on those styles. This way you'll have a solid mix of offense & defense on your team. Play those styles exclusively for a while so you can learn the quirks of the chosen styles. If you spread your attention between too many styles to start off, you can miss a lot of the nuances that go into running particular styles (especially with the quirky styles).
As for running your warriors, the various style articles have handled that fairly well. Be wary of articles that suggest counter-intuitive strategies (running TPs with a higher than 5 Offensive Effort, running Aimed Blows like a TP, running Parry-Ripostes like Lungers and so on) you're best off going with a style's strengths: Defensively for defensives, Offensively for offensives and mixed for Wall of Steels, Parry Lungers and Parry Strikers.
That's pretty much it (at 4 pages, that's enough). If you have any questions, I'm easiest to reach at Drake's Comics in arena 47.