Today, using the CIC (I am sure you all have requested and received your copies from RSI by now.) we will take a real life example to predict and determine starting skills.
"Chronic Pain" 32-4593 of team Disillusioned was designed from 5-6-18-10-8-10-13 to be a 9-6-18-15-9-10-17 striker. First, we will predict his skill base. Then we will observe his initial warrior profile. Lastly, we will summarize what we know about any skill bonuses he might have.
For the purposes of this lecture, we will use the following code: for stats-- ST = strength, CN = con, SZ = size, WT = wit, WL = will, SP = speed, and DF = deftness; for skills - I = initiative, R = riposte, A = attack, P = parry, F = defense, and D =decisiveness.
Using the BAGMAN2 SKILL CHART from the CIC, we see that: 9 ST provides 2 A and 2 P 6 CN provides no skills 18 SZ provides 2 I and negative/minus 2 P and 2 F 15 WT provides 9 I, 3 R, 7 A, 7 F, and 2 D 9 WL provides 2 A, 2 P, 2 F, 3 D 10 SP provides 2 I, 3 R, 2 F 4 D 17 DF provides 6 I, 7 R, 8 A, 8 P, 8 FTotaling this created skills of 17,13,19,10,17,9 (always speak I,R,A,P,F,D in that order)
Sounds pretty awesome so far! But next we must apply the style modifications, from the STYLE MODIFIER CHART in the CIC. This warrior is a STRIKER, and the chart indicates that striker skill mods are -7, -4, -12, -9, -12, -1. (Again, always using the order, I,R,A,P,F,D.) A different style would have quite different modifiers, all of which are zero or negative modifiers.
Combining(adding) the skills from BAGMAN2 and STYLE MODIFIER indicates that Chronic Pain would expect starting skills of 10I ,9R ,7A,1P ,5F ,8D. One note to this is that on the Terrablood website is a module which allows one to input the stat numbers and the starting skills and the expected warrior profile is provided.
But,today, we are learning "long hand."
Okay, now, let's check to see if we can predict any wit statements. (Wit statements, if any, always appear on the warrior profile just below the intelligence / wit level.) These are key to determining skill bonuses or hoses. Using the HIGH WIT STATEMENT chart, checking first initiative (I), we see that at 15WT (In this example, we will always use the 15WT line on each skill because the warrior in question has 15WT.), and low order, 10-12 skills should provide a "With a very aggressive and clever fighting skill" statement. Continuing to riposte, we have nine skills which is lower that the low order requirement of 10, so we should expect no riposte statement. Our expected 7 attack skills do, however, indicate that we should get the "Has an unusual fighting style that confuses many opponents" statement. Our one parry skill will not get us a statement as 6 skills are required to get anything. And lastly, our 5 defense skills should get us the low order (3-6 base skills required) defense statement of "avoids blows well." To summarize we expect three wit statements, one each for I, A, and F.
Using the CIC, we can also predict endurance, punishment level (hit points), carry, and damage-doing, so let's also do that. Endurance = WLx(ST+CN) = 9x(9+6) =135, which indicates "very little" on the CIC. Hit points are 3.75CN+(1.1SZ+0.4WL) = 3.75x6 + (1.1x18 + 0.4X9) = 22.5+19.8+3.6 = 45.9 = "Cannot take a lot." Carry (per the encumbrance chart) for 9ST and 6 CN = "A carry", which is very little or 9 points carry max. And lastly, damage-doing, per the damage chart, for 9ST and 18SZ = "great."
We have concluded our "predictions" or "expectations", and when we get the warrior profile, we will know what the warrior truly has, and whether or not he is hosed or bonused anywhere. So let's see what the actual Chronic Pain warrior profile said.
CHRONIC PAIN Fights using the STRIKING ATTACK style Is AMBIDEXTROUS Is INTELLIGENT nothing short of a genius at keeping his foes off balance and in trouble has an unusual fighting style that confuses many opponents avoids blows well has POOR ENDURANCE CANNOT take a LOT of PUNISHMENT Can only carry a VERY LITTLE WEIGHT in armor and weapons Does GREAT DAMAGE STRENGTH = 9 CONSTITUTION = 6 SIZE = 18 WIT = 15 WILL = 9 SPEED = 10 DEFTNESS = 17So what does this profile tell us about the warrior. First, accept that the profile is "true." We may have been calculating and predicting from charts and data before, but what is on the profile is the warrior in fact.
Notice first, the ambidextrous bonus. This is special. Being left or right handed is merely a statement, but being ambidextrous adds one attack skill to the warrior's base. Had we known the warrior was going to be ambi, we would have added one attack skill to our prediction, making his predicted base attack at 8. (But, of course, we didn't/couldn't.)
The warrior has three statements under wit/intelligence. The first is the Initiative statement, but not the one we predicted. If you look on the HIGH WIT chart, you will see that the "nothing short of genius..." is a high order statement, indicating 13+ Init skills! Great! We predicted 10! He as 13I+. Therefore, he is bonused +3 or +4. As to riposte, we expected no statement at 9 skills, and he got none. Hence, we could consider that he is mode, but, in actuality, we only truly know he has less than 10 R skills since he received no statement. He could, then, be less than 9. Therefore, we know he is mode to -4 R. (+ or - 4 is the most blessing / hosing possible.) Moving on to attack, where we expect the low order statement for 7-9 A skills. This is even after we added the one A to our calculated 7 base for the ambi condition. Surely enough, we received the "has an unusual fighting..." we expected, so we know this warrior has 7-9 A skills. We expect 8, so he could be from -1 to +1A. There is no wit statement for parry, nor did we expect one as his expected 1P is less than the low wit minimum of three. What we know, then, is that he could have 2P and be +1, or he could have two less than we calculated and be hosed. (It is probably important to state at this time that, depending on style, warriors are sometimes limited to which skills can be hosed or bonused. But that is a lecture for another day.) Last, then comes defense, where our calculated 5F indicated that we should get the low wit statement of "avoids blows well" and this warrior did get it. We now know he has 3 to 6 F skills so he could be -2 hosed to +1 bonused. There is no wit statement for decisiveness.
One last offering, you can know even more about your warrior's starting skills if he were to start with a rating (e.g. expert attack) as you would then know that your warrior has between 16-19 skills in that category. There are a few very fine warriors that even start with an Advanced Expert in a skill. (20 skills+)
Let's make a final check of endurance and damage-doing. The charts predicted very little endurance, and the warrior received poor. He may be slightly bonused. The warrior received the great damage-doing our charts predicted, so he is probably mode.
There you have it. Your real-life example of evaluating the warrior's starting skill base. Learn it. Have the charts available. You will definitely be tested on this subject day-in-day-out in D2 arena life.
Doctor Dehydrate (Who says, "Drink plenty of water daily.")