[ACStrider]

Double Dola...

I thought I would bounce my thoughts around since I was up.

Experience:
The experience factor is a bit of an issue, but it can be worked out in several ways. They recommend running errands until your character reaches a high enough level to sustain combat. I would suggest otherwise. Running errands will get you experience (most errands are in the government district unless you're lucky enough to run into a DM, which I havn't had that fortune). If you're having lag issues, it takes an insane amount of time. In addition, the errands are very dull. All you are doing is running from one building to the next and talking to people. This gets old very fast in my book and, while it may be a faster way of gathering experience, I would rather get it through fighting.

So if you decide that fighting is the way to go, there are several options available. I've found two places in the town area that are good training grounds. First there is the slums area. In the corners of the slums area, there is a respawning center for enemies. I believe you will find wererats in two of the corners and Goblins in the other two. It's easy to avoid the wererats corners, and Goblins are fairly easy picking for low-level characters. The slums area is also nice because a lot of the players for some reason don't frequent it there. The other area is the Crypt and the cemetary leading to the crypt. There is a lot of undead and the experience comes pretty quickly although the lower levels should only be frequented by stronger characters (or characters who can see hidden walls...don't get me started)

The second combat option is through critter-packs. I believe these can be purchased in the adventurers guild building for a reasonable price. You want to pick a pack that is the highest level difficulty that you can handle. Don't pick a pack that is out of your ball park. It isn't cool to see your entire team dead because you bite off more then you can chew. I learned that one the hard way.

The Team:
Ok, so we decide that we want to fight. Here's what I say you need. You need a few players who can tank, a few who can heal, and a few who are ranged/magic. Our greatest difficulty was that we were short a good healer and a good tank. The monk (especially early on) isn't exactly a tank, even though he is a front-line fighter. The Cleric can be a tank (if you decide that's the way you want to emphasise your character) but tanking and healing at the same time is very difficult. My character (bard) can heal, but that's not exactly her strong point. I'm also ranged/magic, but my role is more of support through buffs. My roommate is looking at being a rogue (not 100% on that). You can always use a rogue. I believe Blade said that he wanted to be a ranger. This will work well. KWhit being a figher would be very good to help round out the tank issues that our teams was facing, and if KWhit, Quik, and my roommate are the front line, Fritz could step back if he needs to to heal characters. It seems that all we would really need at this point is either a caster who heals and/or a combat caster or one who can do both. My character will try and throw out a healing spell or a combat spell, but don't expect much.

Combat Tactics:
As in warfare, concentration of force is a key. Fire scattered universally over an entire group is much less effective then fire centralized on one or two enemies at a time. Negation of an enemy trying to do the same is also key. So how does this work? When a fight starts, the front line must determine who the central focus should be. Most often, it's the closest enemy. The responsibility of the closest front line person is to choose the target. If we only have two front line, then the second front line must engage whoever threatens the first front line character. (I understand that sometimes this simply isn't feasible, but work with me a little). For example, a cleric, monk, or cleric, monk and rogue. the cleric is more of a tank (higher AC and hit points) then a rogue, so he will most likely be the tank of choice. In this scenario, the monk responsibility would be to ensure that the Cleric isn't double-teamed. If the rogue is in the picture, he's trying to get a sneak-attack in, but a rogue can never be counted on as a pure front-line character. Throw a fighter in and you now have a 2 target front. Also, if there is a 2-target front with the addition of another front-line fighter, the cleric can step back and focus on being primarily a healer if need be (and situation determining).

The second part is the ranged. The ranged plays the most pivital part of the concentration of firepower because ranged weapons are much easier to control then non-ranged. Simply put, the ranged characters are responsible for focusing the team fire on individual enemies.

General rules of thumb:
Front line characters should have cure potions while ranged characters should have heal kits. (While this is a general rule, all characters should at least have one of both). Reasoning...cure potions are for giving instant recovery while in combat. This is most needed by front-line fighters who are receiving the greatest pounding. Heal kits, however, can be used by a player on anyone (especially on a dying/dead individual) which is more often then not a front-line character.

Early on, healing is the most important factor in combat (level 1/2/3 characters have so few hitpoints) while later, spells and buffs play a greater role.

Teamwork is the name of the game. The longer a group can stay together, the more enjoyable the experience. Also, it seems that it is better to have a group of similiar experience levels. It's no fun being a tag-along or being the one doing all the work. If you can get a group together and keep it (as much as possible) it gives way to good role-play and makes the whole experience that much better.

Well, I'm sure that I've missed something...it is 4:30 in the morning after all. Yawn...I think I'm finally going to go to bed. If you have any comments/criticism/whatever, please post! I would like to hear what you have to say.