summon eye balls

Oh yeah don't get me wrong maxxed drovian = scary I'm just saying they have to get to that point and they have to not get roflstomped in 2 hits by the warrior

I didn't play in 2006. And the thing is you -don't- stand at the table, as a shadow, I don't believe you can. What you do is follow someone who is at the table you wish to listen to. They implemented the listen change somewhere around 2010, I believe, that allows you to hear most anything someone you're following says at a table while you stand beside it. It was for pc guards and the like, mostly, I believe. So that they'd hear what was going on at a table they were 'right beside' but not sitting at.

this is not a practical situation to suggest.

you do not fight magic casters when they are prepared and ready or you will lose even to one as weak as drovs. if one walks in and starts to cast leave right away if you wait to emote they will kill you without emotes always.

it is why you wait for them to cast until exhausting their MPs and rest for plus damage on open or use magics to make themselves tender like send shadow. barrier will help keep you hidden from special magic sight while you hide ((it also lets you see psi hiding people)) i believe. i have sneak up on many witches who have magic sight and they do not see me until i strike so i think this works well or they are dumb not to turn eyes on.

blind does not matter all competent fighters and thieves get blind fight which is VERY good even at start level. in a room with lock as long as you have attacked before it is cast it will not save them but you have to wait for it to wear off to loot or escape which is bad.

barrier will protect from sleep and other spells that make you tender so practice it if you plan to kill witches. it will not protect from body locking spells elkans though and things that stop kryl poison does not work on body locking spells so do not count on them.

as long as you are having surprise and initiative you will win your fights with witches.

backstab is not good to use unless high skill for quick kill because of the long delay and often much waiting before autoswing engages leaving time for casting one hit death spells.

it is better to be friends with witches instead of fighting them but staff do not want witches to have friends or interactives so you have personal account risk. it is your prerogative to decide if you want karma points or friends with powers that increase your fun in the game.

This guy is giving bad advice, to be honest. He've killed a few young mages, I'll give him that. Fact is, seasoned mages do not expend their mana, because their spells are all branched and drovians 'will' see hidden characters, barrier is completely irrelevant in this case. Moreso, you cannot 'truly' sneak up on a drovian camp either, because he probably made it dark and you have to be carrying a light source.

My only advice on this is simple. If you're about to attack a mage and you think him easy prey, because he's this guild and not some other guild, you're already doing it wrong. You might succeed, you might even succeed easily. But eventually you're going to meet someone who is going to kill you in 3 melee hits.



PS: You cannot make others ethereal. Ethereal is a self casting spell.

time to dish

Vivaduans

anyone with a shield of mist is someone that you want to avoid.  sul shield of mist have five or six charges of invulnerability.  if you get hit and have a shield equipped invulnerability is automatically applied.  a prepared vivaduan is going to have one equipped and a couple more in their inventory.  with sanctuary active, damage that you are able to do after all the invulnerability is gone is halved.  if they get in trouble, they will calm you, which kicks you out of combat and are you unable to initiate combat.

the weakness of vivaduans is in being able to do damage to you.  inside, this isn't an issue as they will simply intoxicate you into unconciousness.  outside they will have to rely on drain, which is weak, or gate.

Rukkians

the defensive choice for rukkians is whether to go for damage reduction or speed.  you can't  have stoneskin and godspeed active at the same time.  no room delay can be very powerful for popping folks with a spell or getting away.  sleep may not be as powerful as before with recent changes, but they should be buffing their stength up then hitting you with a bludgeon after removing your helmet anyways, so good luck remaining concious even then.  barrier can prevent sleep, but as it drops during combat godspeed can be used to effectively sleep you with hit and run attacks if they really feel like it.  you could also be trying to fight off a gate through all of this.
 
the weakness of rukkian is that they typically need to work up their defense and offense in addition to their spells to be really effective, due to lack of good offense other than sleep.

Krathi

mon demonfire is a one shot kill.  empower can give a krathi really really buff stats, including a huge mana pool.  fire armor appears to have a chance to stop bash.  rain of fire with fire armor active isn't a bad way to do lots of damage to lots of folks at once, although the armor is more effective in one on one than one on group situations.  fire seed lets them hit you with damage from a room away before you are even aware they are there.

the weakness of krathis is their defense.  they don't have one, other than fire armor.  surprise is a good idea.  both for you killing them and them killing you.

Drovians

not great at combat from what i have seen.  it is more about escaping than it is about killing you.  unless they can blind and flee, in which case prepare yourself to fight a gate or two.  while cursed.

Elkrosian

anyone with energy shield active is someone that you want to avoid.  forget about the damage reflection, it allows them to use chain lightning with impunity and appears to have a chance to stop bash.  if there are multiple people in the room, lightning chain will jump 3-4 times between them, doing damage each time.  if there is just you, lightning storm will jump to you, 3-4 times.  two mon lightning storms are about enough to kill, or almost kill, two normal humans.  they almost certainly have quickening up, which not only gives run speed which is good for popping folks with a spell or running away.  it also massively boosts agility, which is a problem as relative combat attack speed is partly a contest of agility, so you won't be getting in your attacks as fast to frontload damage.  or keep them bashed.  if that wasn't enough, a quickened elkrosian with no room delay using paralyze is also not pretty.

the weakness of elkrosians is if you manage to catch them without quickening and energy shield.  otherwise, good luck.

Whiran

first, you need to be able to see them.  if you can, hope they don't have wind armor and try to kill them as soon as you can, as any smart whiran will simply go somewhere else and wait.  if you can't, be prepared to deal with a variety of nuisances, some more deadly than others.  guardians aren't that bad, as you can typically just move one room away.  if you can't, they aren't super powered but they can kill you, as a sul cast summons six of them.  if you attempt and fail, prepare for a lot of nuisance or death.  stalkers to randomly attack you wherever.  movement spells that take you to a place prepared beforehand to be disadventageous to you.  if you get a messenger, assume that the whiran knows where you are.

the weakness of whirans is if you can see them, they aren't really that tough straight up.  if you can't see them or they get away, their strength is in being able to annoy or kill you without ever really putting themselves at risk.

Umm, no. "Eyes" are different for each element that gets a detect spell, and only one--infravision, gives detect hidden. None of them are affected by barrier.

again all arguments suggest waiting for the witch to be prepared. i will say again you will lose to witches even weak drovs if you fight them when they are alerted for fighting.

if you are attacking prepared witches ((or ANYONE)) you are making poor choices for the fight. if you are not choosing the time and place and means of aggression you are at the disadvantage by your own impatient and inability in reason. i have killed very powerful chars including psionic with normal humans of average skill ranges. you may believe your witch chars to be unassailable or better than warrior or assassin. you will be wrong unless fighting dumb, dumb, dumb players.

_i_ will never fight your witches when they are ready. i would run directly away if faced with a situation of that danger unless playing a prideful or courage filled char. i will wait because ALL reasonable people have to let their guard down and be people sometimes. if you are never tender and spell protected at all times even in sleep and intimate privacy, it is unrealistic, so unless the player is faulty they will have times when they are tender. that is the time for action.

it is not my prerogative to make you believe the ease of making dead witches. i had more fun being friends with witches but i am not allowed to anymore if i want karma. so i have to be enemies or there can never be interaction and boring for all.

i am not happy with that situation but i have no way to change it. i would like to play a psionicist so i must adhere to unreasonable staff.

ps you do not need visible light to see drovs in their darkness places, a clever player will know the means.