I wasn't sure to ask this here or in Strategies folder, but Strategies looks pretty dead, while at least a few people read this one.
OK, so I finally mastered all the guild skills except for LFM; and that's no biggie since my main focus is on combat. In order to master, I used the dinkiest opponents I could find for critter reps. Now I am wondering which of these have practical uses in real hunting situations.
Gambits are mainly RP skills, used for funsies, but I can see the occasional combat applications of some of the stealth maneuvers. Stealth kneel for example, if you snipe with a crossbow. If you get knocked down and thrown in RT you can use vanish to hide, and then stealth stand to get back up unnoticed. Stealth get to grab treasure.
The application of stun maneuver skills is pretty obvious, and needs little clarification. I am curious about using the Automatic setting however; does it choose the application at random? If I get stunned in offensive stance, for example, I might want to use stun move to leave the room entirely, while the Automatic setting might decide to opt for stance1 instead. How does it choose?
Sweep has the obvious purpose of knocking things down and throwing them into RT. The problem here is that it doesn't work on all critters; finding out which ones are or are not susceptible seems a matter of trial and error. Right now I am doing hidden plateau and Labyrinth. Yetis, for example, are pretty much impossible to sweep; presumably due to body mass. Dwellers, on the other hand, while being as tall and massive as yetis, sweep quite easily. Conversely, Dwellers, which are made of stone, are resistant to subdue and various cheapshots such as eyepoke, which work fine on yetis. I haven't done much in the Bowels yet, but I have the feeling that sweep use will be rather limited there, since everything there is humongously tall and heavy.
Subdue is interesting, since, unlike cheapshots, you can stack it. Alas, there are some things that are just immune to this maneuver. So far, the ones I have run into have been stone creatures with high crit resistance but I am sure there are others. Again, unless someone has made a list somewhere, finding out which these are will be a matter of trying it out. But I understand that there are times when you just need to drop a critter's DS first before you can ambush it. So, I guess this sort of serves the purpose of something like feint. 5 ranks of feint looks to be more reliable, but on the other hand, you need to use precious CM points to master it, while subdue comes free except for the time invested to learn it.
This leaves us with cheapshots. There's a lot of these, but it is unclear to me which of these are of real value. The descriptions are a bit vague as to the actual effects. Eyepoke, for example; does this reduce a critter's perception to let you rehide more easily? It sounds like it should, but nothing directly says this. If it does work this way, how does it compare to the effectiveness of dirtkick, which I also know. Nosetweak? Really? Does this have any effect other than showing contempt for your opponent? Does kneebash work to knock down critters that are immune to sweep? Lots of things are immune to templeshot, and what exactly are its effects anyway? Yesterday I finally mastered cheapshot and learned the final skill, swiftkick. What does this do? It looks like it angers the target and, like the Enrage type spells, forces them to assume offensive stance. Again, if true, this would be an alternative to feint. But, I must say, the effects don't seem to last very long. Log follows:
>>R>cheaps swiftk
[Roll result: 171 (open d100: 70) Penalties: 15]
You spin quickly behind a krag dweller and swiftly place your kick!
The krag dweller seems enraged!
Roundtime: 5 sec.
R>
A krag dweller stands up with a grunt.
>stance defen
> hide
You are now in a defensive stance.
>
Roundtime: 3 sec.
You attempt to blend with the surroundings, and feel confident that no one has noticed your doing so.
HR>stance offen
> punch left leg
You are now in an offensive stance.
H>
You leap from hiding to strike!
You make a precise attempt to punch a krag dweller!
Your attack is hindered by holding a glistening sea-blue buckler!
You have excellent positioning against a krag dweller.
UAF: 452 vs UDF: 327 = 1.382 * MM: 97 + d100: 97 = 231
... and hit for 54 points of damage!
Furious fast fist forces fibula fracture! Foot flies free, falling forward five feet forth!
A krag dweller crashes to the ground as its left leg is shattered into just so much rubble!
You feel the unnatural surge of necrotic power wane away.
Roundtime: 4 sec.
R>
A krag dweller calms down slightly, catching its breath.<<
Looks like a 9 second duration. Which isn't too bad except there will be a cooldown before you can use it again.
