I’ll be trying a new format with this character build today, and hopefully it will look better.

Now then, I’m usually in the #tome channel on mIRC [we use Rizon server for those interested], and there are a lot of people that ask ‘how do I build a Reaver?’; and, here’s your answer. Now then, this build in particular is only one of several ways you can go. Notice that I don’t use the Bone or Hex trees at all. That’s mostly personal preference – but I’ve seen good use and arguments for Bone Spear and Bone Shield. I have not seen good arguments for Hexes yet, and it my opinion, the entirety of the Hex tree itself is rather terrible – though, I honestly don’t know the radius of their effects now, as they lack that in their descriptions.

Now then, here is a character dump of a level 50 Reaver with base equipment. Ruin is sustained, so Vim is lowered correctly. You’ll notice a few things here, such as stats, base hp/vim/ect. Take your time and look at the talent choices as well and see if you notice the combo involved.

I recommend a Higher as the race for one big reason really – the regeneration of the racial talent. Early in the game this will be what allows you to use blood sacrifice as you are ending combat without too much fear of a stray skeleton mage or archer killing you. As you wont’ be raising willpower with this build, the amount regenerated won’t scale, meaning you’ll probably only get an extra point or two as you progress due to your kit increasing willpower. This is fine, as you will always want to have at least one regeneration infusion inscribed on you, and probably level 20 or 30 you’ll want to put a second on.

 [Tome 4.00 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]

Sex : Male STR: 60
Race : Higher DEX: 12
Class : Reaver MAG: 60
Level : 50 WIL: 11
Exp : 0% CUN: 20
Gold : 10.00 CON: 60

Attack(Main Hand): 91 Life : 1684/1684Encumbrance : 8/148
Damage(Main Hand): 62 Difficulty : Normal
APR (Main Hand): 2
Crit (Main Hand): 6%
Speed (Main Hand): 1.00

                                Vim              :     256/256
                                

Attack (Off Hand): 91
Damage (Off Hand): 33
APR (Off Hand): 2
Crit (Off Hand): 6%
Speed (Off Hand): 1.00

Fatigue : 0% Spellpower : 60
Armor : 0 Spell Crit : 4%
Defense : 0.7 Spell Speed : 1
Ranged Defense : 0.7

Physical Save : 30
Spell Save : 17.75
Mental Save : 7.75

Number of NPC killed: 0
Most killed NPC: none (0)

  [Talents Chart]

- Technique / Combat training (mastery 1.30)

    Heavy Armour Training (generic)   1/5
    Massive Armour Training (generic) 5/5
    Health (generic)                  5/5
    Weapon Combat (generic)           10/10
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         5/10
    Knife Mastery (generic)           0/10

- Corruption / Sanguisuge (mastery 1.30)

    Blood Sacrifice (generic)         5/5
    Drain (generic)                   5/5
    Absorb Life (generic)             1/5
    Life Tap (generic)                5/5

- Corruption / Bone (mastery 1.30)

    Bone Spear (class)                0/5
    Bone Grab (class)                 0/5
    Bone Nova (class)                 0/5
    Bone Shield (class)               0/5

- Corruption / Curses (mastery 1.30)

    Curse of Defenselessness (class)  1/5
    Curse of Impotence (class)        5/5
    Curse of Death (class)            1/5
    Curse of Vulnerability (class)    5/5

- Corruption / Plage (mastery 1.40)

    Virulent Disease (class)          5/5
    Cyst Burst (class)                5/5
    Catalepsy (class)                 5/5
    Epidemic (class)                  0/5

- Corruption / Scourge (mastery 1.40)

    Rend (class)                      5/5
    Ruin (class)                      5/5
    Acid Strike (class)               5/5
    Dark Surprise (class)             5/5

- Corruption / Reaving combat (mastery 1.30)

    Corrupted Strength (class)        1/5
    Bloodlust (class)                 5/5
    Carrier (class)                   5/5
    Acid Blood (class)                5/5
 
 [Current Effects]

- Ruin

- Build focus -
Ranged DOT with supporting hard hitting and status causing melee abilities – that is about as detailed summary as you need for Reavers.

Raising magic first to help with EVERYTHING – that’s right, EVERYTHING you have scales off of magic [and thusly, spell power as well], then swapping between 10 points in str/con to help with overall damage/wear ability of items, and to allow rising of health at critical points. Survivability is hard as overall you are weaker than most enemies you will come across, but that is where VD and the various diseases and status effects you can inflict come in. You need to make your enemies weaker, way weaker, to be on an even field with them. But then, why only make it even? VD can put multiple diseases on a target at a time. Now, while the 3 diseases lower stats, they don’t disallow kit usage by npcs – BUT they do lower the effects of the stats. For instance, the str disease will lower the amount of damage that you take, especially at higher levels. The DOT you can inflict is great; it is large amounts of exotic damage types, with medium to long duration. You are able to inflict a wide variety of damage types as well, darkness, blight, acid, fire [if you go into hexes], along with physical, natively. Along with the various diseases and ways to spread them, you also are able to blind, cut, stun, lower damage all damage dealt, lower all resists, and if hit, thanks to acid blood – one of the best talents in the game – you can also lower ac [very good], and attack [even better] of npcs. Most all of these effects are at range, and at 10+ range as well. You also steal vim using 2 different talents and regenerate health through your racial, infusions, and increase your overall damage with life tap. This build focuses greatly on hitting from a distance, over duration, and then finishing them off with a hard hitting melee attack. You may want to not put 5 points into massive armor, and instead opt for only 1. If t his is the case, I’d recommend either putting them in Weapon mastery instead of absorb life. Absorb Life just isn’t very good, at all.

- Class Talents -
The order of which I recommend raising your class talents is going all out into VD first. This is really the first part of a really good combo, and the most important. The damage scales with your spell power [say hello to Bloodlust], it has good range and has a very short cool down. The stat penalties are also very good, with this dump it’s 18 stat point penalty. It doesn’t start that high, with the penalty only being 1 at the beginning, but you really want the DOT in the early game. Later, when VD is coupled with Cyst Burst and Catalepsy, you have one of the best combos in the game. First you disease someone, and then depending on if you want to spread the disease [meaning other npcs get inflicted], or if you want to stun the npc [Catalepsy], you can do so. Or of course you can simply let them come at you diseased, and then disease them again. That combination of three talents will cover your ranged assaults for the entire game, mostly.

As Ruin becomes available, I like to stop with VD and go directly and completely into Ruin. It does great damage, doesn’t drain your Vim like other project style talents such as Weapon of Light, and it’s an exotic damage type. Once you put a point into it, I’d sustain it, but if not, when you reach level 5 and raise it to tlvl 2, I greatly recommend sustaining it then. It will drastically help with your melee damage output.

Once Ruin and VD are maxed out, I like to race down to Acid Blood. Now, Acid Blood is by far one of the best talents in the game. 1) It’s passive ; 2) It deals damage, DOT style [which is VERY good for you {see Bloodlust}] ; 3) It’s a damage that really isn’t resisted all that often actually ; 4) It lowers the attack on enemies [which is VERY good news for you] ; 5) It lowers npc armor as well, which doesn’t mean a WHOLE lot as most npcs just resist damage instead of possessing armor, but you’ll notice it when it happens on the right enemies. Also, Acid Blood scales nicely in all aspects with tlvl, so I really believe it should be gotten to, and completed as soon as Ruin and VD are learned. Also, to get the talent learned, you only need 44 str, and that is easily reachable in a hurry. Depending on the comfort you have with dealing with pits, summoners, splitters, breeders, ect. you may want to invest a point [or 2 in the case of Cyst Burst, as it’s radius increases to 2 with 2 points] in Cyst Burst and Catalepsy before doing Acid Blood; and this is okay as well. Acid Blood is mostly picked up by me at this point because I like to finish off enemies in melee, to help preserve my Vim. Vim usage isn’t really an issue I find at any point other than the first 10 levels or so usually, unless I’m really in a bind and need to use a lot of the melee talents in succession.

In either case, after VD, Ruin, Acid Blood, and minimally a point in both Cyst Burst and Catalepsy, I like to finally invest a single point in both Acid Strike and Dark Surprise. Now, Acid Strike to me can be either really good or moderately bad, it really depends on the npcs you are fighting, and how tightly packed they are. Acid Blood’s key feature is that it splashes, a 1 radius burst in other words. This is your only melee style ball attack, and that makes it important, but not important enough to max out until late in the game. It functions fine at tlvl 1 most of the time – as only the base damage and splash damage scale with tlvl. Dark Surprise however is good pretty much the whole time. It deals 2 different damage types [to make it useful against a wider variety of enemies], the second hit auto crits if the first strike landed, and it BLINDS. Now, let me talk about the positive and negative aspects of Blind. The npcs that are immune to blind are probably the ones that you will want to blind the most, those being the undead enemies [like Dreads, Skeletons, Vampires, Ghasts, Ghouls, Wights, ect]. And the undead also have a bonus against you as they also typically resist darkness, blight, acid, ect in at least small amounts. However, not a single orc/dragon/natural enemy to my knowledge is immune to blind. That’s right, all those spell casters, berserkers, bears and dragons can be blinded. Just made you grin a little bit didn’t I? Unfortunately you are unable to spread blindness as you can diseases, but it does make melee life a lot easier once you have Dark Surprise.

Regarding unlocking the Curses tree, I like to hold off on that until my lvl 20 category point. You really want four inscribe slots at about your third dungeon with a Reaver so you can be absolutely sure you have enough healing to get by. The only curse you may want really early is Curse of Vulnerability. What this curse does is it lowers all damage resists on the target by x%. Those of you that have fought things immune to your damage type know exactly how useful this talent can be. The other useful Curse is really a toss up between Impotence and Death. Death is useful because it’s more DOT – but its core aspect is blocking healing for the npc. I … don’t know any npc that heals itself. So, Impotence gets my vote as it lowers all damage that the inflicted is capable of doing. It’s just like having – x% [damage], and that means you live longer. It’s really meant for things that have a lot of life, and/or are resistant to your damage types [not that I know of any other than Bone Giants and some bosses]. You’ll find the curses useful in some situations, but in most you’d rather disease/cut/stun/blind/ect them.

- Generic Talents –
Some what fortunately, you don’t have too many options for generic points. You only have one class tree that uses generics, and the most generic of the generic trees, Combat Training. Now everyone probably knows the drill by now when it comes to the Combat Training tree – raise con to use Health, raise str to unlock Massive Armor and in your off time upgrade Weapon Combat as needed. That all still applies to Reavers, to an extent. As a dual wielding class, you will want to raise Weapon Combat almost every chance you get to maximize the chance of getting both hits in every time. But then you run into a slight problem – Blood Sacrifice, the core talent of regaining your main energy source, deals you damage. Luckily, the amount of hp lost is static, but the amount of Vim regained scales quickly with tlvl and off of magic – so I recommend raising Weapon Combat every 4 levels, and Blood Sacrifice, and eventually Drain [which also scales with magic] every level other than that. Drain will do decent damage, and its range increases with tlvl, so you may wish to focus on that in particular more so than weapon combat, depending on how much you use your melee talents. Also, Drain can be used in every fight as a replacement for Blood Sacrifice, given that the amount of Vim recovered is directly based on the amount of damage Vim itself does. Life Tap can be very useful, or not at all. What it does is it drains some of your life, like Blood Sacrifice, but then it raises your damage, like an inverted Curse of Impotence. The duration at tlvl 5 is 7 turns, which is plenty long to get a couple of diseases going and spread, along with a cut. Yes, it even boots your DOT damage, which is really all its good for. Some people may find that some of the massive armors aren’t as useful for you as they would be for fighters/berserkers/sun paladins, and that’s fine. I do say put at least 1 point into the talent regardless as you never know what you’ll find; and 1 point is probably enough. In that case, go ahead and put the other 4 into Weapon Mastery [which really should be about the last thing you increase]. Weapon Mastery doesn’t scale very well with tlvl, same as Weapon Combat, but it does help you even more so than most other classes as you do attack more than once a turn.

- Dungeon Advancement –
Normally I would recommend melee capable classes of going into the Maze first as that is a very easy dungeon for melee combatants. The Reaver, while capable of devastating melee, isn’t one of them though – at least not until they have a few levels under their belt. So, the Old Forest is probably your best bet at easy adventuring with quick levels. The dungeon being fully lit and with large open areas work to your advantage with VD weakening the mobs or flat out killing them as they come at you. Even Wrathroot isn’t too much of an issue as long as you get to him at about level 3 or 4, as VD should deal a load of damage at that point, and you might even have a point in Health. The only real danger that Wrathroot possesses is freezing you and then coming in and not attacking the whole time you are frozen. The further away he is, the better it is for you, as the only damaging talent that he has at a range greater than 3 is Freeze. Once he gets in close he can do Tidal Wave and Ice Storm, both of which are no good for you. And, coming to him at such a low level, you most likely won’t have Ruin high enough, or Dark Surprise yet. So, Wrathroot = VD and walk backwards, then VD again.

Next I recommend the Maze as it will probably be easy as you might be as high as level 9 coming out of the OF. It’s pretty easy, usually 1v1 fights, 1 tile wide corridors, with some traps. The only npcs you might want to watch out for are the Minotaurs as they can confuse you [so you blind/cut/disease them before they get a chance to]. NOTE: The Minotaur of the Labyrinth can be blinded, which then makes him a push over. He can also be inflicted with whatever status effect you want, as he isn’t inherently resistant to any of them.

Next I usually tackle the original 2 dungeons, probably the Shaws first if I have found an artifact staff [for the apprentice quest], if not, then I do Kor’Pul first. Everyone knows about these two dungeons, and there isn’t much to say here so I’ll leave it at that.

I do the merchant quest whenever it shows, and the Cursed quest after my third dungeon [depending on if I’ve found a good weapon or not]. After all that, I do the Storming the City and Urkis quests, preferably with at least 25% lightning res.

Following all of these side marks, it’s pretty much a tossup between the Sandworm Lair and Daikara. If I have access to 40% or greater cold res, and 70% or greater stun res, and I have 2 regeneration infusions, and a teleport rune, then I usually do Daikara before the sandy pit. I also recommend to those that have trouble or have never been – have at least a phase door rune when going to the sandworm lair. Preferably a teleportation rune, but a PD would work fine.

The Ambush can be extremely difficult, or doable depending on how high of damage your VD does, along with the spread ratio of Cyst Burst, and the stun duration of Catalepsy. With all the orcs grouped so closely, you can disease stun about 3/4ths of them in 3 turns, and then work off the archers from there.

In regards to the order to do the western dungeons on the trip back, I say do Kor’Pul first, then the others in which ever order you want. Kor’Pul’s drop is custom made for you, and thus, it’s useful for you.

The prides in the east I like to leave until after I’ve done the Unknown Cave, and the Flooded Cave [remember your amulet of the fish!]. Depending on how bad I need a shop, I might even do the Spider Lair before starting up the quests to return west, or the prides.

The order that I recommend to do the pries really depends on what equipment you have. If you have a lot of fire/cold/lightning/acid/stun res, then Vor is a good start, if you only have good fire/cold then perhaps Gorbat instead. Grushnak, the warrior pride will probably be the roughest for you, with all the high damage melee crits and rushing in your face, you won’t be able to keep the enemy at bay. However, this pride is the ideal place for Acid Blood to show its worth. If Acid Blood and Ruin are maxed, and you have good armor and weapons, Grushnak might actually be the first tribe to try. Rak’shor is going to be your bane however, as you’ll be fighting hordes of yourself. Be prepared to fight of a LOT of DOT effects. Luckily, none of the Leaders of the Pride are all that difficult, as all can be inflicted with whatever the hell you want to throw at them.

- Equipment –
These are pretty much the items you should be striving for. Usually once you find one of these or a comparable item, even if it’s material lvl 1, you’ll probably use it for a good long while. Artifacts are capitalized, egos are not.

Weapon

    Razorblade, the Cursed War axe
    Wintertide
    Malediction
    elemental of corruption

Ring

    Glory of the Pride
    Ring of Dead
    Varg’s Redemption
    pearl ring

Amulet

    Vox
    Unflinching Eye
    teleportation

Lite

    Eldritch Pearl
    Wintertide Phial
    scorching of elbereth

Armor

    Spider-silk Robe
    Behemoth Hide
    Scale Mail of Kroltar

Cuirass of the Thronesmen

    impenetrable of the dragon

Cloak

    Ureslak's Molted Scales
    thick cloak of fog

Helmet

    Helm of Dwarven Kings
    Dragonskull Helm
    Crown of the Elements
    prismatic of precognition

Belt

    Girdle of Preservation
    Girdle of Calm Waters
    Blurring of resilience

Gloves

    Gloves of the Firm Hand
    powerful of iron grip

Boots

    Frost Treads
    Boots of Phasing

Digger

    delving

Infusions/Runes

    regeneration
    regeneration
    teleportation
    shield
    acid wave
    

- Ideal Endgame Equipment -
Pearl Ring/Vargs Redemtpion - Vox - Wintertide Phail - Ureslak's Molted Scales - Scale Mail of Kroltar - Helm of the Dwarven Kings - Gloves of the Frim Hand - Wintertide/Razorblade, the Cursed War Axe - Boots of Phasing - Girdle of Preservation

The reasoning is that this particular set up should, along with your talents, allow for more damage absorption as these grant a lot of broad resists without being too difficult to wield once found. Vox in particular should be the amulet you wear 100% of the time once obtained, as it raises your max vim, which is very nice but not utterly important, while also granting 80% silence resist, which is very important. Over all, there is no better amulet in the game for reavers and the same really goes for the Girdle of Preservation as well.

- Character Dump Talents –
These are what your talents will look like at level 50, with tlvls 5, and these stats. Keep in mind that they will in actuality be much greater in effect as you’ll be wearing a lot of things that increase your magic as you go.

Blood sacrifice - 139 vim recovery
Drain - 146 blight damage, 20% vim recovery of damage dealt
Life Tap - 19% damage all increase over 7 Turns – works with DOTs
Curse of Impotence - 27% damage decrease
Curse of Vulnerability - 42% resist all drop
VD - 32 blight over 6 turns with 18 stat drain [192 total]
Cyst Burst - 65 blight per disease 3 radius spread
Catalepsy - 5 turn stun dealing all remaining disease damage
Rend - 174% with 29 bleed damage over 5 turns
Ruin - 31 blight damage with each hit
Acid Strke - 174% acid damage – 96 acid damage 1 radius
Dark Surprise - 154% darkness – 154% blight with crit and blind 4 turns
Bloodlust - Maximum 6 spellpower increase a turn, with 39 spellpower reachable
Carrier - 100% disease resist with 20% chance to spread disease on melee
Acid Blood - 21 acid damage 5 duration, -25 attack, -29 armor

Hopefully this is a better character build guide, and that this one is even more helpful than the previous. This is part 2 of an unknown amount of character build guides, so expect many more.

As always, if you have questions or comments, you can leave them here, in the blog, or in this thread, or you can always PM me on the forum, or catch me in #tome. Again, enjoy, and try it out.

FM

Coming in beta16, an awesome new feature to share your successes (and failures .. mostly failures :> ) as easily as possible: automatic online character sheets!

You can see an example here: http://te4.org/characters/68/tome/afb7da0e-0612-11e0-b16d-001cc000edf0
On the left pane of the site there is a list of the last 5 updated characters, to see what is going on.

How does this work?
Automagically!
Just make sure the game is logged on your online profile and any characters you create will be registered with te4.org and everytime you save the character sheet will be updated.
When you check the ingame charsheet (using 'C', or the menu) there will be a link (clickable too!) at the top of the window to your online char sheet.

Have fun!

{{}}

{{}}

Five years have passed since the death of the Istaris and the destruction of the Orc Pride. The orc presence in the Far East has greatly decreased with the loss of their leaders. The free people of the Sunwall now prosper and thrive on their land. The West is once again in peace... and most of its inhabitants did not even know they were on the verge of destruction.

Haldor is back from his journey on the seas. As always, Haleth and Morwen have been waiting for their father the whole morning, repeating in the garden the ultimate fight of their parents against the evil wizards. Aeryn is waiting inside the house. Since the fall of the Istaris and the relative quietness of the orcs, her duties as protector of the Gates of Morning leave her enough time for her family.

Even after settling down in the Far East, Haldor kept his taste for adventure... so he decided to put his talents to good use by escorting merchants through their journeys on land and sea. After the creation of portals between the West and the Far East, trade between the nations has grown flourishing. But now, it asks for more expansion. Rich patrons have invested a lot of money to build the biggest and fastest ships to explore the Great Sea to the east. And even if the orcs are quiet, there are still pirates roaming the sea, always looking for an easy prey...

Today, Haldor is back from one of those journeys across the Great Sea. Since he's been hired, no pirate has dared attacking his ship. And this last trip was very successful...

"You seem to be very satisfied with your journey..." says Aeryn.

"Indeed." replies Haldor. "This time we finally found what we were looking for... A new continent beyond the Great Sea, to the east. We were welcomed by peaceful people. Humans, elves... Their people call themselves with strange names, like we never heard before. And they wish to open a new trade route with our continent..."

"And what is the name of this new world?"

"Eyal... Maj'Eyal..."

This will turn into a multi-part series of character builds covering specific race/class combinations. First, I will cover Dwarf Fighters - one of my best and favorite.

Today I will be talking about how I build my fighters, why I choose dwarf fighters in particular, talent choices, when to raise what talents and stats, combat tactics, egos and artifacts to look for, dungeon completion order, and what to not do.

First, let me give a bit of a background on myself when it comes to dwarf fighters. As of this writing, I've made 42 Dwarf Fighters after profiles were created - and I've had 4 make it to the Far East, and 1 to the Final Battle. They are easily in my top three best played race/class combination, one of my favorites, and to me, the absolute easiest race/class combination to play.

Now then, why a dwarf when playing fighters? Well, for several reasons - they are naturally inclined to be fighters in the world of T4 - with good starting hp, along with strength and constitution bonuses, they cover two of the three more important stats for a fighter. Their racial in particular is probably the best for a fighter, as it will raise your armor [scaling very very nicely, about thirty or so armor], and huge boosts to two saves [something like sixty or so (however saves as of beta15b don't exactly do much - this is slated to change in beta16)]. Their penalty to magic doesn't matter at all anymore as scrolls/potions have been removed, and runes/infusions can scale off of any of the three stats you will most likely max.

I like to max out strength, dexterity and constitution, this will leave about fifteen or so points left after raising those three stats to the natural maximum of sixty. They go to either willpower or cunning, depending on the kit that I have available - and because I should be about level forty-five at this point, it's probably my final kit. I will raise the stats in particular by maxing out strength first, and once I start to reach the 'max per level' cap, the extra points will be going to constitution. Not only will this raise my hp [and allow me to get health], but it will also help the dwarf racial scale, and it scales very well.

My level fifty talent point distribution looks like this:

Class Lvl
Shield Pummel 4
Resposte 5
Overpower 1
Assault 5
Shield Wall 5
Shield Expertise5
Last Stand 5
Shattering Shout5
Second Wind 5
Battle Shout 5
Precise Strikes 1
Rush 5
Quick Recovery 5
Fast Metabolism 5

Generic Lvl
Disengage 5
Track 5
Massive Armor 5
Health 5
Weapon Combat 9
Weapon Mastery 10

Shield Pummel should be maxed because the stun duration is based off of the tlvl of Shield Pummel. Riposte now scales the counter hit chance better with points, and Assault is maxed out of pure lack of good things to put points in. Shield Wall should be your first priority to max out as it's your class defining talent, as should Shield Expertise as it directly effects Shield Pummel, Overpower and Assault. I really like Shattering Shout, especially for fighters as it's a massive cone of damage, and fighters lack AOE attacks entirely outside of this ability. It starts out at a low AOE, but I believe at lvl 5 it's radius caps at 5 - quite large, believe me. Second Wind is also useful for that quick boost to your stamina as at times you will run out stamina in cases that you would prefer not to. Battle Shout is useful for a quick boost to survivability as well. Disengage is your quick escape option, and is also very useful for dashing multiple tiles during the Mount Doom Dash - as is Rush. Rush is also important for chasing down those blasted mages - orc mages in particular. Track is your version of sense - sure it's not passive as Heightened Senses is, but it effects a greater area and scales with a stat you'll be raising anyway. And, of course you'll be maxing Massive Armor, Health, Weapon Combat and Weapon Mastery, because ... well, you're a FIGHTER. Some people will argue that 10 points in both weapon mastery and weapon combat is too much, and, they’re right. It is too many points, as both talents scale horribly with additional points. HOWEVER, other than if you somehow get a good amount of cunning, or you REALLY want to use the field control tree for some reason, there’s no other good options for generic point use. If you do wish to invest in these other tree’s further, take away from weapon mastery, not weapon combat. Attack is scaled off of both strength and dexterity evenly, so as a fighter you will have high attack, but you absolutely want to make sure that you can hit everything all the time. At lvl 50 and fighting things that are level 70/80/90, you WILL NEED attack as high as 200 to make certain that you will hit.

- Class Talents -
I like to save up class points so that I can raise each new class talent level at the same time, and so that I can max out shield wall as soon as possible. After that, I go for shield expertise, then shield pummel and the two regenerative talents.

- Generic Talents -
I put a point into Massive Armor so that I can wear it, and then raise weapon combat and disengage/track going back and forth. Health takes priority over this if I can raise it however. There's no real urgency to get any specific generic talents with fighters.

- Dungeons -
I like to do The Maze, Old Forest, Trollshaws, Kor’pul, Sandworm Lair, Daikara, Tol Falas, Iron Throne, Unknown Cavern, Underwater Cave [amulet of the fish required], Spider Lair, Grushnak, Rak'sor, Gorbat then Vor.

I like to do the maze first because it’s almost entirely 1v1 fighting with things that don’t hit very hard [only minotaurs, and you’ll probably fight only four or five of those]. Also, it doesn’t have escorts, and escorts level off of your level, so it will make doing all future escorts easier. If you would like to pretty much ensure all your escorts will live, after doing the maze, you could do the sandworm lair, but I find that that is unnecessary. OF I like to do second because it’s the next least frustrating and easier of the dungeons for a fighter, also, you might luck out and get some good escorts. Following the initial two dungeons, it’s pretty open actually as you should/could be at about level 12 now, which means you have shield wall and shield expertise maxed or close to it – and that means that you are pretty well settled.

Regarding the order of the prides – it’s mostly for the ease to do them/artifact you acquire. You really want the Glory of the Pride as it makes everything else much easier, thus, Grushnak first – and it’s also you against people built like you, so understanding what you’re up against is a nice thing. Grushnak also has a unique layout that really helps as a fighter, no mass open arena levels like the other prides. I like to save Vor for last as Vor can be one of the easiest or most dangerous depending on how you have your kit and what resists you have. If you have really good cold/fire/lightning resists then you could do Vor earlier. Rak’sor is also the same, it can be either pretty quick death or a relative walk in the park. With Rak’sor however, you’ll want poison/disease/hex/curse resistance/curing, along with blight/darkness/fire resistance. The specific status resistance will be hard/impossible to get, or get high, so a good temporary wild infusion will be fine here.

For the side quests, I would recommend doing them when you feel comfortable with them. Personally, I always do the merchant quest, save the Elven Ruins for right before the Iron Throne [be careful, you WILL be about eight levels under what you are supposed to be to come here], do the cursed once I’m about level 15, and the tempest quest at about level 15 as well, or once I have 50% lightning and cold resist constantly, along with about 500/600 hp. I do the heading back west quest after I do the Unknown Cave, Spider Lair and Underwater Cave mostly. Sometimes I put it off until after I’ve done Grushnak, but not always. Once back west, I do the dungeons again in the same order that I did them the first time.

In this next section, I won’t be using what material or item type because it doesn’t really matter that much as in beta15b and betas before it, egos don’t scale well, if at all, with what material level they are on. This is scheduled to change in beta16 however.
- Specific Egos and Artifacts -
Amulet:
Greater Telepathy
Teleportation
Vitalizing
Daneth's Neckguard
Garkul's Teeth
Choker of Dread

Ring:
Vargh Redemption
Ring of the Dead
Ring of the War Master
Glory of the Pride

Shield:

• element* of deflection

Fire Dragon Shield
Lunar Shield

Digger:
Delving

Cloak:
Thick/Oiled of fog
Serpentine Cloak
Ureslak's Molted Scales

Belt:
Blurring of the titan/life/resilience
Girdle of Preservation
Girdle of the Calm Waters

Gloves:
Powerful of iron grip
Gloves of the Firm Hand
Stone Gauntlets of Harkor'Zun

Lite:
Scorching of Elbereth
Eldritch Pearl
Wintertide Phial

Helm:
Prismatic/Shalorn of greater telepathy/precognition
Helm of the Dwarven Kings
Runed Skull
Crown of the Elements

Boots:
Stealthy/none of almost any
Shifting Boots
Frost Treads

Weapon:
Elemental of rage
Razorblade, the Cursed Waraxe
Wintertide
Malediction

Armor:
Impenetrable of the dragon
Radiant/Fortifying/Hardened of x
Behemoth Hide
Scale Mail of Kroltar
Plate Armor of the King

The reason that I like these egos/artifacts in particular [not counting the zone artifacts, I’ll add those in later], is because they help with survival the most. Trust me, you aren’t meant to deal damage, you are meant to absorb as much of it as possible. This makes fighters and sun paladins very similar, however, in my opinion, sun paladins have a much easier time. I like to go with as much resistance to as wide of damage types as possible – magic WILL kill you [unlike with paladins]. Your armor will soak up a vast majority of the physical attacks, so you don’t need to worry too much about that. Unlike sun paladins who have to fight back because of using active or triggered talents, fighters survivability is almost entirely non drain inducing sustains, and passives. Fighters simply outlive their opponents, and in order to do that, you need as much resistance and hp as possible.

This will probably be rewritten or at least reformatted as I go into more and more class builds; and decide on the best approach to display and write them. Thank you for your time, and you can expect a write up again in probably a week or two. I hope this helps, if you have any questions or comments, feel free and again, I’ll post another one up soon.

FM

FAR EAST

“This is all your fault!” Eden rattled the Orb of Many Ways frantically, but it offered no response.

Eden’s self-proclaimed stellar sense of direction had failed him in this strange new land. Despite his half-hearted wanderings, he hadn’t come across a single trace of civilisation (apart from a few orc patrols who angrily told him to ‘wait for the next beta’). For all his aspirations of becoming a loner in Middle-Earth, he soon found that being alone wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and his present isolation was making his brain behave in strange ways… the fact he had all-but-made an imaginary friend before becoming stranded didn’t help matters.

“Now are you sorry you abandoned me? If you were wearing me, you could have fled from Novan and not needed to use the farportal…”

“Quiet!”

“I hope those ballyhooed Frost Treads have sturdy soles… you’re going to be wandering for a long time…”

“Quiet I said! Quiet! I…” Eden’s initiation into the insanity club was postponed as he spied the telltale entrance to a cave mere yards away. Approaching the entrance he saw that the cavern was submerged.

“An underwater cave… Shouldn’t be too difficult to traverse. Right…”

Fortunately, the sound of approaching hoof falls brought Eden away from his premature death on the end of a naga’s trident. A patrol was approaching him, and not just any patrol – a patrol of humans and elves in shining armour. Sun paladins!

“By Eru’s knapsack, I’m saved!” The paladin patrol (or palatrol) came to a halt by Eden’s side as he gasped, “Thank you, thank you! I-I-I’ve been lost for days! I went through this portal and it dropped me in the middle of nowhere and I haven’t got a clue where I am! But now I’m saved, hahaha! Please, won’t you help me?”

GATES OF MORNING

“High Lady Aeryn. We found some vagabond not affiliated with the Sunwall out in the wilds. Probably a spy.” The pair of paladins that had dragged Eden’s bruised body the distance of the journey to the Gates of Morning dropped him unceremoniously, “Deal with him as you will.”

Eden got to his feet, tenderly feeling his many aches and pains as he did, “You’re the boss here? I’ve gotta tell you, I don’t think much of the hospitality around here. Would it hurt ya to roll out a red carpet for new arrivals? I just think that with this treatment I’ll…” Eden looked up, noticing who he was talking to for the first time, “… okay-I’ll-be-quiet.”

The woman who stood before Eden was glaring at him with such intensity that he imagined she was trying to melt him with imaginary heat vision. Not that it would’ve been necessary; the sheer gleaming of her armour was enough to give Eden a mild suntan just by standing there.

Eden waited as the woman perused him. When no greeting seemed imminent, he coughed and began, “Anyway, my names Ed--”

“I am High Sun Paladin Aeryn, ruler of the Sunwall.” The woman spoke over Eden, “Followers of the sun, who wield the power of the sun to punish the enemies of the sun.”

“Thanks for clearing that up. So, anyway--”

“Who are you, traveller?” Aeryn sniffed with distaste, “You have the smell of orcs about you.”

“I should imagine so! I’ve just fought through a whole dwarven-hallsworth of them, and I haven’t had the chance to fit a bath into my schedule. I don’t suppose you warriors of the sun have a bath house of the sun I can use… of the sun?”

An entirely humourless smile crossed Aeryn’s face, “You seem to be under the delusion that you are welcomed here, rogue. I, for one, doubt your story. We have heard of no dwarven halls in the surrounding lands, and I find it hard to believe someone as un-shiny as you could have performed such a feat anyway. I find the idea of you being an orcish spy far easier to believe…”

“How can I be an orcish spy?! They barely understand what they’re seeing half the time, let alone what others are seeing for them!”

“High Lady Aeryn!” A sun paladin approached Aeryn, who had entirely ignored Eden’s speech, “News of another spider attack reaches us. Scouts saw a group of the fiends dragging an anorithil into Ardhungol.”

“Anorithil?” Exclaimed Eden, “You mean like Beturin?”

“Indeed! That was her name!”

Aeryn scowled, “And how did you know that?” Drawing her sword, she advanced on Eden, “Not an orcish spy, but a spider spy? A spy-der?”

Eden drew his knives, “Oh, whatever. You’re obviously itching for a fight of the sun, lady of the sun. I’ll give you a fight, of the sun!”

“Eden?”

Both Aeryn and Eden turned to the sun paladin in confusion. Raising his visor, he was revealed to be Belebeth, the sun paladin Eden had assisted in the Trollshaws. “Is that you? Never thought I’d see you again! How fare you?”

“You know this knave?” Aeryn mumbled, sheathing her sword.

“Indeed. He was the rogue who helped me to my recall portal I told you about.” Belebeth turned to Eden and grinned, “Come quite a way from your home in Bree, haven’t you?”

“We cannot control our circumstances, only our responses…” Eden replied with humility, but not before shooting a smug look at Aeryn.

“So, you’re not a spy…” Aeryn muttered, “But then, how do you know Beturin?”

“Saved her too,” Smiled Eden, “She’d be fertiliser for Old Man Willow right now if it wasn’t for me.”

“Well then,” Aeryn displayed a smile as gleaming as her armour, “Why not rescue her again, from these spiders? Do that, and maybe we can talk further about your admittance here…”

“Deal! After all, how big can these giant spiders be?”

ARDHUNGOL 1

“WAAAAAH!”

Eden was hurled against the cavern wall, rolling to the floor in cloud of dust. Turning his head, he beheld the gigantic mandibles only inches away from piercing his neck. He swung his dagger, by luck hitting the scuttling horror in one of its many eyes. The pain was enough for it to flinch, giving Eden the opportunity to regain his footing and bring the creature down with a frantic flurry.

“That’s not a spider!” Shrieked Eden, “That’s… that’s two mumakil tied together!”

 Level 30!
 +3 Cunning
 +2 Precision
 +1 Cunning/Packing

This scenario repeated itself many times as Eden attempted to explore the caverns – far more times than he would’ve liked. Although adventuring was never truly safe, Eden felt a sense of peril that he hadn’t felt before. During one of the quiet moments between battles, he heard a sinister voice in his head that was not his own.

“Eden?” Arenji hissed, “Your time comes, and not a moment too soon.”

“You!” Eden spoke to thin air, “This little subconscious ploy shows just how desperate you are!”

“Fool yourself if you will, whelp.”

Eden moved on, ignoring the voice, when he noticed something peculiar. “Arenji… if I’m to die… why aren’t you happy?” Indeed, Arenji’s voice was bitter, “I thought you delighted in seeing people brought to their end.”

“In most cases, yes,” Arenji grumbled, “But there is a meddler in your affairs…”

“Meddler? What do you mean?”

Arenji was silent. All of a sudden, Eden felt a presence behind him. Spinning on the spot, he saw no one.

ARDHUNGOL 2

 Level 31!
 +3 Strength
 +1 Whirlwind
 +1 Efficient Packing

Eden fell back with exhaustion. He was fighting a group of dragon hatchlings, both red and white, that didn’t seem to be dwindling. He couldn’t help but hear the distinctive scuttling sounds of giant spiders blocking off his escape routes too. Only when it was too late did he perceive the source of the hatchlings; a pair of drakes, one red and one white. Eden couldn’t hope to face them, the main body of the hatchling horde stood directly between him and them. With his escape blocked by spiders, he had no choice but to read a scroll of phase door.

The scroll deposited Eden in a new cavern, but from the nearby sounds of roaring and scratching, he guessed that he wasn’t too far from his previous location.

A faint red glow came from the darkness beyond. In its light Eden could almost make out… an orc’s face?

“Hello, something seems to be happening down the--”

???

“I… I can’t move…”

“Good. That’d just make my work harder. Can you see me?”

Although Eden didn’t feel his eyes open, his vision slowly returned. Unable to move his head, Eden could only see from his current viewpoint that he was in a dark, underground chamber. The air was deathly cold.

“I’m freezing…”

“Ahh, quit complaining.” Came Grim’s response. Her familiar face appeared in Eden’s field of view, smiling as always, “You’re lucky I found ya in time.”

“Lucky?” Eden mumbled, “Lucky how?”

“Don’t you remember? You were attacked by this orcish pyromancer and his drakes, not to mention a whole heap of giant spiders. They totally surrounded you. You were in a right state; looked like a crimson jelly exploded.”

“Oh, yeah…” Eden moved to wipe his face, but found he couldn’t move his arms, “I remember that damned pyromancer now. Makes this cold a bit more bearable thinking about it. Where are we?”

Grim offered no response, too busy with something out of Eden’s field of view to reply. Eden asked another question, “How did you find me, anyway?”

“Uh? Oh…” Grim shrugged, “Turned out there was a second farportal to the east that didn’t need the Orb of Many Ways. It’s what all those sun paladins and anorithils were using to show up in the west. I went through it, found that Sunwall place, got told to go to Ardhungol by the scary lady, and found ya in a spider web. Simple. Ooh! I think I’ve got this figured out now…” Grim ducked out of view again. A few moments later, Eden felt the paralysis slowly fade from his limbs. “That better?”

“Yes. So… I’m going to be okay?”

“Right as rain,” Grim twinkled, “Just one thing. You kinda lost a rib. Hope you don’t mind.”

“One rib? Of course not.” Eden sighed. He felt safe, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time, “Looks like I owe you big-time, Grim. Still, I got pretty far for a punk from Bree, didn’t I? I wonder if the townspeople will accept me now, once they’ve seen all I’ve gone through…”

Grim made a long and hesitant noise, tugging the collar of her robe awkwardly, “Well, maybe… I mean, people are a little more accepting now than they were in the old days…”

In an instant, Eden was suspicious, “What do you mean? You have fixed me up properly, right? I’m not disfigured or anything? I have to say, I didn’t know you to be much of a doctor…”

“Doctor?! Nah, I’m hopeless at that stuff,” Grim giggled, “I ended up in prison when I tried to get that splinter out of old man Gardner’s finger once…”

“Then… what have you done? And what is that?!” For the first time, Eden beheld the tool Grim held in her hand – a bonesaw.

“I can hardly ply my trade without it, can I Eden?”

“Trade?!” Thoughts of dread were rapidly accumulating in Eden’s mind, “Why is it so cold?! How did you heal me?! And where are we?!”

Grim smiled, a picture of glee, “The Paths of the Dead, silly!”

You have died!

MINAS TIRITH

“Well well! If it isn’t the king of the sandworms! What business do you have with us here, your highness?”

“I have destroyed the Master, and have shocking news for your elder.”

“Hahahaa! You?! Destroy the Master?! I don’t suppose you have any proof?”

“Well… I drew this picture.”

“Aahahaahahaa!”

“And also, I have his head in a bag here. Look.”

“…! On you go.”

---

“Welcome, Bree-Man, to Minas Tirith.”

“Racialist,” Thought Eden in his head.

The town’s ancient elder shifted in his seat. Looking at his deeply tanned and wrinkled complexion, Eden couldn’t help but think of walnuts. “Traveller, please be quick as my time is precious.”

“Ignoring the fact that you were just sat there collecting cobwebs…” Eden muttered under his breath, before addressing the elder properly, “I have found a strange staff in my travels. It looked very old and powerful. I dared not use it.” Eden froze – why hadn’t he used it?! He could’ve left that Ukruk looking like a metroid victim…

The elder remained silent for a while, “… Indeed, you were right to come here. The staff you describe reminds me of an artefact of great power from ancient times. May I see it?”

Eden tugged his collar awkwardly, “I’m afraid I lost it…” He went on to describe his encounter with the orcs in detail, with only minor embellishments, “So, I was riding along on my tiger when I saw this group by the side of the road. ‘What’s all this?’ I thought, as I adjusted my diamond-rimmed eyeglasses…”

---

“… And that’s about it.”

The elder’s head was bowed in thought, his eyes closed. “Could I have that story without the nonsense, young man?”

Eden hung his head, “Found staff. Big orc. Head hurt. Gone.”

“Orcs?! In the west?! This is deeply alarming!”

Hah, Eden thought. Knew I was right, back in the Old Forest.

“We have not seen any for nearly eighty years. They must have come from the far east…”

“Excuse me? Far east?! What far--”

“But do not let me trouble you…”

“I’M TROUBLED--”

“Do not let me trouble you. You brought important news and you are lucky to be alive.”

Eden rolled his eyes, “Thank you, my lord.” How many vampire lords has he slain recently?

“We have heard rumours from the dwarves that there may still be an orc presence deep in the mines of Moria. I know you have been through a lot, but we need somebody to investigate and -- GET BACK HERE!”

Eden, who was already halfway to the door, reluctantly turned, “Are you cracked?! I’m not going into Moria!”

“I can see someone like you only exists for personal gain…” The elder mumbled to himself, “Lad, I suppose you know the story of Moria?”

“Yes. Dwarves, greedy, dug too deep, balrogs.”

“Indeed. They dug too deep. They dug too deep for their mithril, gold and jewels…”

“…”

“I understand that the balrog situation is now under control, but the depths of Moria largely remain open. If one wanted the wealth within its halls now, they wouldn’t have to dig too deep – they wouldn’t have to dig at all!”

“…”

“How does ‘walking too deep’ sound to you?”

WILDERNESS

As Eden made his way towards the western entrance of Moria his attention was taken by a structure that wasn’t on his map. An abandoned ruin, obviously of elven architecture, stood open and ready for an enterprising adventurer to explore.

“Meh,” Thought Eden, and continued on his way.

MORIA 1

Yep, this was definitely a dwarven hall. You could always tell when the bearded brethren of the mountains have had a hand in designing something. Long corridors branched around the entirety of the halls, many of them useless, simply ending in dead ends or curling around on themselves. Each and every wall was covered in engravings, the vast majority of which illustrated the various horrors and massacres the previous residents of Moria had suffered/caused. The air was thick with the smell of cat meat and mushrooms. Still, it beat the smell of…

“Orcs!”

The orcish battalion that fell upon Eden came as something of a shock. They had forgone their usual ‘drums in the deep’ routine; a few years ago the orcs realised that an orc playing a drum is an orc not beating somebody’s head open, so they banned the activity. While this choice certainly improved the stealth and manpower of many orcish groups, their strength still wasn’t enough to put Eden away presently.

Eden also noticed, with quiet irritation, that the orcish assassins he fought held rather mediocre daggers, despite ostensibly being part of one of the orcs’ largest forces in the west. Just how long would he have to amble along with dwarven-steel daggers for?

 Level 28!
 +2 Dexterity
 +1 Cunning
 +1 Precision
 +1 Knife Mastery

"Aah... Do you hear this noise? This is the end of knife mastery and weapon combat's tyranny over my generic skill points. I can finally specialise... anew."

MORIA 2

It had been a long time since Eden had fought trolls. The Trollshaws were a distant memory, but here he saw that the big and brutish race still had some tricks up their sleeves. With a mishmash of metal plates covering their hides to improve conduction, not to mention segments of carpet under their feet to generate electricity, the trollish thunderers were indeed dangerous opponents. Eden would have gladly traded in his Frost Treads for rubber treads while fighting them…

MORIA 3

Next up in the long parade of Eden’s enemies: Wyrmics. Two of Eden’s least favourite things – orcs and dragons – brought together in imperfect harmony. The main dangerous thing about fighting wyrmics was unpredictability; some wyrmics are genuinely mighty opponents, wielding forces draconic to deadly effect. Others were just orcs slightly touched in the head who liked dragons a little too much. After a while, Eden had discerned a fairly reliable system for judging wyrmic danger: If they’re wearing fake tails, take it easy.

On approaching the stairs leading to the lowest level of Moria, Eden couldn’t help but notice the heavy, hot and mephitic air that blew upwards from the depths below. Demons in Moria? No…

MORIA 4

The long and winding corridors finally coming to an end, Eden now entered a spacious hall, used by the previous dwarven occupants of Moria as a communal meeting hall. A rather different community resided here now, although it was a community Eden now knew all too well – orcs.

Eden pointed wildly, screaming at something over the orcs’ shoulders, “BALROG!”

By the time the orcs realised Eden was lying, they were already dead. “Only in Moria does a trick like that always work,” Eden chuckled, “To be honest, I am pretty surprised that there actually isn’t a balrog here.” It was at this point that a great scorching wind blew through the hall, displacing the many dwarf skeletons that were piled up around its perimeter.

“Perfect,” Eden thought, “I knew there had to be at least one -- brrr!”

Without warning, the scorching wind ceased, only to be replaced by a wind as chilling as those from the Icebay of Forochel. Confused by the dungeon literally ‘blowing hot and cold’, Eden only understood why as the leader of the orcs he had fought stepped into the hall. Eden found himself wishing that he didn’t understand now.

The orc was massive, easily the largest specimen Eden had the misfortune of facing, and the great multitude of scars that marked his flesh were displayed as trophies of the many battles he had endured. Eden noticed – with concern – the many scars on his chest he had received from daggers. If an assault like that wasn’t going to stop him he was in a bit of trouble, he thought. He also saw that said orc was a wyrmic, a skilled and powerful one indeed; one half of his body glowed with heat, licks of flames appearing occasionally, while the other half was frozen, with ice crystals constantly forming and reforming across his skin.

Eden stood uncertainly as the orc approached, mace in hand. The two stood before eachother momentarily, the orc silent, Eden waiting for the inevitable threats and boasting that all orcs employ. To say he was rather surprised when the orc’s mace met with the side of his head is an understatement.

Shaking off the initial blow, Eden and the orc began their fight proper. As it transpired, Eden’s fears were quite genuine; the orc was less than impressed by his knifeplay, and despite his bulk could easily match Eden’s agility. The orc’s minions didn’t help either, for while Eden could handle them easily enough they served their purpose of distracting him from his main foe, which only served to press the orc’s advantage home.

Eventually forced to phase door away to catch a momentary respite, Eden took stock of the situation. It was the fire and the ice he really couldn’t deal with; between this guy and Carn Dûm, Eden was cultivating a rather large rivalry with the elements in general. But that was when it hit him.

“Hey!” Eden shouted from his hiding place, “You… what’s your name?”

“Golbug!” The orc thundered.

“Golbug, hi. Which side of you is fiery again?”

“The left side! Daargh!” Golbug smacked himself in the head with his mace, “What am I doing?! Time to die, wretch!”

It certainly is, thought Eden as he slipped on his rings of fire and ice resistance, making sure to put the ring of fire resistance on his right hand…

With the elements the orc controlled dulled by Eden’s rings, not to mention the forces under his command all falling or fleeing, it wasn’t long before the battle turned in Eden’s favour, culminating in a killing blow straight at Golbug’s heart. The orc staggered, but before he fell he turned and slammed open the pair of wooden doors behind him. Beyond them was a small chamber in which a portal, like the recall portals Eden had seen before but much larger, took pride of place. Taking a large glass orb from his pocket, Golbug’s final action was to roll said orb towards the portal, dropping it as he fell. The orb fell short by a couple of feet.

 Level 29!
 +3 Constitution
 +1 Precision
 +1 Trap Detection

Eden approached the portal, holding up the strange orb. “Interesting trinket,” He thought, “I bet Minas Tirith would love to see this. Suppose I better go show them… at least there’s no chance of me being ambushed by orcs this time, seeing as…” Eden tapped Golbug’s body with his toe, “… you know.”

As Eden made to leave the hall, he almost ran into the courier that was headed in the other direction. Hiding his face, the courier offered a sealed scroll to Eden. “Here.”

Eden unsealed the scroll and read it, “Mmhm… our elders found… yadda yadda… orc hands… hmm… masters in the far east… yadda yadda yadda… should you find this Golbug… please investigate?”

“Investigate?” Eden repeated, “What do they mean by that? I mean, my knives have investigated most of his insides… what do they want me to do now?” Properly noticing the courier for the first time, Eden nodded and reached into his coin pouch, “Sorry, I forgot. How much do I owe ya? Five?”

Crack! Eden was floored by the courier’s kick. Before he could gather his thoughts he could already see that the courier now held a dagger and was ready to strike down at him. Rolling away from the strike, Eden got to his feet and spat, “Geez, okay, ten! What, are you… YOU!”

From beneath the courier’s hat, the face of Novan gave Eden a smile straight from the deepest reaches of the void, “Thought we’d forgotten about you, scum?”

“What are you doing?!” Eden shouted at his former colleague, “What are you doing in that courier get-up? Got a second job? Just being a horrible bastard can’t pay the bills by itself I guess…”

“The courier is dead,” Novan snarled – Eden noticed that the clothes Novan wore were bloodstained, “And you will be too. You took Melna. You took Melna from me!” Novan swung at Eden again, but this time he was ready to dodge.

“What do you care about Melna?” Eden retorted, “If you like mental patients so much, why don’t you go back to the madhouse you got her from and kidnap another?”

Novan had no more words for Eden, simply unsheathing his second dagger and running at him furiously. Eden brought his own daggers up to block, but Novan’s berserker charge was enough to knock him from his feet. Eden disentangled from Novan, who was already bearing down on him again. Bringing up his daggers in preparation for a flurry, Eden was dismayed as Novan effortlessly blocked the attack. “You always were worthless, Eden. I’m just about to show you how worthless!”

Eden knew he was fighting a losing battle. The memories of his losses to Novan while he was in the gang haunted him, and facing him in his present fury seemed a foolish choice. He couldn’t flee, either – Novan blocked the only exit. Or did he? Eden noticed that as their fight neared the portal the orb he had taken from Golbug began to resonate, the swirling mist inside it glowing brightly.

“Where will it take me?” Eden thought, “Does it matter? Any location is better than ‘on the end of this maniac’s knives’. Besides, it’s probably two-way.” Disengaging from Novan again, Eden fled into the portal chamber.

Within seconds his pursuer faced him again. Eden watched Novan pant and seethe from within the portal’s soft light. “Don’t think that fool glyph will save you from me, Eden! Any last words?!”

Eden didn’t have any last words, but he did have a last hand gesture. Suffice to say, it wasn’t a wave. With a pop, he vanished, leaving Novan to stare in horror.

“Coward!” Novan howled at the portal, “Fine! Run! You may be able to save your own hide, but can you say the same of those you care abo…” Novan was so invested in his raving that it took him a while to notice the excruciating pain that had appeared in his back, and was rapidly spreading to his chest.

Looking down, Novan only saw the scythe blade stuck through his chest for a second before it was brought upwards, effectively ripping his torso in two.

Pulling her scythe from Novan’s body, Grim stepped forward and regarded the faintly glowing portal with interest.

SANDWORM LAIR 1

At first, Eden resented the idea of travelling to the lair of the sandworms. By right he had already passed Angolwen’s test – it wasn’t his fault that his trophy was now several hundred feet out of the reach of his daggers.

However, his mood improved somewhat as he travelled to the lair. It appeared the head of Gunadek’s golem, last seen rolling down Carn Dûm, had created quite a giant snowball which had barrelled straight into the centre of Bree. Between the recent thunderstorms and the new layer of snow that now covered the town, Eden was quite gleefully pleased at the karma his hometown was receiving.

He was further pleased as he entered the lair – pleased and confused. He had been used to massive, labyrinthine dungeons. He had explored vast stretches of forest. The “lair” he found himself in was only slightly larger than his own bedroom, and it held no sandworms at all.

“… Sandworms?” Eden looked under a small rock, “Hello? Sandworms?” Standing straight, he frowned with confusion, “Is this it? Is this the lair? I don’t see how -- BARRRGH!”

Without warning, a huge sandworm, its mouth a grinding mass of razor-sharp teeth, burst through the wall of the chamber Eden stood in as if it was paper. Eden instinctively struck out at it, but his knives were woefully lost in the gargantuan mass of worm-flesh. Eden wailed, “Geez, what a crazy way to die!”

But Eden didn’t die. At least, not then, for the sandworm (which had barely noticed him at all) simply burrowed into the chamber’s wall once again and tunnelled out of sight. “Ahh, I get it…” Eden hummed, inspecting the new tunnel the burrower had created.

Placing one foot inside the tunnel, Eden leapt backwards as he heard an ominous rumbling. With a resounding crash the tunnel caved in, cast a blinding sheet of sand over Eden. Wiping the sand from his eyes, Eden regarded the chamber wall levelly.

“… I think I’ll wait for the next one.”

SANDWORM LAIR 2

Eden descended to the next level of the sandworm lair, only to find the passage to the next level after that was immediately next to him. “Thank Eru for small favours…”

SANDWORM LAIR 3

“If the spice is the life, I’d say that the sand must be the death.”

SANDWORM LAIR 4

“Some people say fear is the mindkiller. Me? I say sand.”

SANDWORM LAIR 5

“Walk without rhythm? These sandworms sure dig without rhythm…”

SANDWORM LAIR 6

“It is remarkably difficult to keep making Dune references when you haven’t even read the dang thing, or played the RTS.”

SANDWORM LAIR 7

By luck, Eden had descended straight into the midst of the sandworm queen’s nest, almost landing on its disgusting bulk as he fell into the chamber. True to what Eden had thought previously, the worms were no match for somebody who had fought dragons. Eden’s act of wormy regicide seemed all too simple; he considered naming his daggers ‘Magna’ and ‘Carta’ momentarily, but decided against it.

Now came the portion of the trip Eden had feared the most, more than the sand and certainly more than fighting the worms – extracting the sandworm queen’s heart.

“Ugh… this is so gross…!” Eden cringed as he tentatively searched for the organ in question. On finding it he immediately fled, wiping his gloves feverishly, “Yuck! Plegh! Funny, I always thought these giant, underground worms had three hearts.” (and a THOUSAND internet cookies if you get that reference)

ANGOLWEN

Eden once again found himself in the city of mages. On entering the city’s main plaza, he found that the area was abuzz with activity – it appeared some manner of construction work was going on. Eden only had time to watch briefly before his attention was taken by the woman before him. Said woman was obviously a heavy-duty mage; the type that have enough auras whirling around them to make them look like lanterns. Eden glanced at his auras from Beturin and Belebeth’s training, and felt a twinge of aura-envy.

“And you are?” The woman asked.

“Eden,” He replied, “And you?”

“Linaniil, new ruler of Angolwen.” The woman bowed in mock humility, “This fair city has recently come under new management. May I help you, rogue?”

Eden presented Linaniil the sandworm queen’s heart, the disgusting organ wrapped in one of his old cloaks, “I got you mages a little something. I hear that delivery of this disgusting worm-bit is enough to allow me full access here?”

Linaniil peeked inside the old cloak briefly before returning her gaze to Eden. A strange smile played on her face, “Interesting… I suppose you know that there’s one final part of the test? It’s not much; you don’t even have to leave Angolwen to complete it.”

“Oh? Sounds good…”

---

Eden dry-heaved. Before him, the pulsing, oozing heart of the sandworm queen lay on a plate. The grins of the mages surrounding him – and the glass of potion of cure disease that stood beside the plate – didn’t fill him with confidence.

“Now, eat it.” Linaniil commanded.

“… Is this a joke? Jokes are meant to be funny.”

Linaniil’s expression was now a picture of seriousness, “Eden. Do you believe magic is something we just… acquire? Through luck? We have all undergone extreme trials here. Only through suffusing our body with dangerous substances such as this do we truly touch the arcane. If you wish to join us, you must do the same.”

Eden looked at the sandworm queen’s heart again, “So, you’re saying… I’ll become a mage if I eat this? Able to tear the earth asunder with a snap of the fingers? Able to rip the threads of time and space like a temporal kitten?”

“Sure, why not?”

Eden thought to himself deeply. Should he eat it? “Oh, you know you’re going to, you cretin,” A voice in the back of his mind sighed, “Just tell me when, so I can turn off your taste buds, okay?”

Eden raised a knife and fork, cut away a section of the heart (ooze, ooze, ooze) and held it to his mouth…

WILDERNESS

 Sandworm Goodness!
 +3 Constitution
 +1 Precise Strikes
 +1 Health

Eden woke up in a ditch, his head spinning, the phrase “ZIGURANTH LOVER” messily daubed across his forehead in ink. Half-expecting to feel the mother and father of all hangovers, Eden was surprised to find he felt rather good. The heart had given him a sense of hardiness and constitution that didn’t appear to be fading. “This can’t be right,” He mused, “There must be a downside to this… I’ll go back to Angolwen and ask… ask… uh-oh.”

Eden could feel a hole in his memory; the distinctive feeling of knowing you’ve forgotten something, but not being sure what it was. The mages had erased his knowledge of the location of Angolwen!

MINAS TIRITH

Trolls, Bree, Angolwen, snow giants, dragons… Eden’s enemies list was becoming rather crowded. It would soon find a new member, though: As Eden approached the gates of Minas Tirith, he saw that the guards moved to block him, halberds at the ready.

“Leave us, you insane fool,” One of the guards yelled.

“What?!” Eden yelled back, “I haven’t even been here yet!”

The guards conferred for a moment, one of their number finally stamping towards Eden. “Haven’t been here?!” He shouted, “Then tell me – who was that mind-addled imbecile who showed up last night, screaming that he was king of the sandworms, raving about liches living in the town library, shouting about thunderlords to that rock over there?!”

“What?!”

“And then you run off with our elder’s hat, bellowing about crushing the menace that resides in Tol Falas! As if! You’re lucky I haven’t run you through now, troublemaker! Leave!”

WILDERNESS

Bree was closed to Eden thanks to the general unpleasantness of its population, Angolwen was denied to him too, and now he had been forbidden from entering Minas Tirith thanks to a bout of sandworm madness. What was he to do now?

“One thing that guard told me puzzles me,” Eden thought to himself, “I talked about a menace in Tol Falas? I haven’t even heard of a menace in Tol Falas… so… maybe that part of my raving was true?”

Eden formulated a plan… they would allow a madman into Minas Tirith if it was a madman who kept his promises.

TOL FALAS 1

“Some assistance, please?”

Eden was pleasantly surprised – a warrior had hailed him without the slagheap of bluster they commonly employ. Indeed, this fighter appeared quite calm and levelheaded. He was still wounded however.

“I’m… Boryrab… recall… over there… help… escort?” He panted, “Man, those skeletons pack a wallop!”

“Very well,” Eden nodded, “But you say tally ho once and I’m leaving you to fend for yourself.”

Eden was further pleased as he and Boryrab made their way through the first floor of the tower, and indeed came to appreciate how devastatingly effective a fighter is when they use tact; given the right preparation, a warrior could weather punishment that would reduce an archmage to a bloodstain.

“There’s your portal,” Eden indicated the familiar sight of an etched circle in the ground, “Just ignore that skeleton warrior over there and get outta here. I’ll deal with it.”

Boryrab froze, turning to stare at Eden with shock, “Leave… the skeleton warrior? I’m to… just run… and not fight?”

Eden’s face iced. He knew exactly what was coming, “Oh no. No no no! Don’t you dare! DON’T YOU DARE--”

“Ha-ho! Come, face me, you wretch! A-ha! Rapscallion! I’ll see your skull above my -- whaa! Where’d you get that mace from?! I -- no -- ack -- GRAAGH!”

And so passed the last remaining brother of the Grinymnir family… Eden hoped.

TOL FALAS 2

 Level 23!
 +2 Dexterity
 +1 Cunning
 +1 Rush
 +1 Knife Mastery

Eden faced a new breed of foe here – a demon. A lithe and ferocious figure, clad in heavy armour and wielding a vicious knife, tore towards him. Eden smacked it with the pommel of one of his daggers the moment before it struck, sending it flying backwards, its body evaporating, leaving its armour to hit the tower wall with a clatter.

“Should’ve spent a bit more time in the Item World, demon,” Eden mocked, “Item World… I want to go to Item World. I bet Eden’s Guile World would be awesome, full of parties.”

TOL FALAS 3

Eden dropped the empty potion of cure disease with a clatter, shuddering, “These ghouls really need to learn proper dental hygiene.”

TOL FALAS 4

Dangerous foes dwelled on this level of the tower. Eden almost believed the maulotaur he found to be the master of Tol Falas, as it swung its giant greatmaul through the air, barking orders at the pack of dragon hatchlings it commanded. These hatchlings were strange – their scales shone with a scintillating myriad of colours. Eden felt a multitude of energies burn through his arm as he struck them; you’d think your arm getting simultaneously chilled and heated would mean that it wouldn’t do anything at all, BUT YOU’D BE WRONG.

Once his foes had been felled, Eden noticed that they had been gathered around a large, wooden signpost. On said signpost there was a message, written (ostensibly) in blood in a large, menacing hand:

“MINIONS: Be aware. I, your great Master have found an item. It is of extreme power, but not yet complete, at least for my purposes.

All hail your brilliant Master. Would you like to walk in the sun? Would you like to be free to roam green meadows and crush innocent children? Such are my wishes also. The reward to anyone who brings me any item that will help me bend this sta... item to my will shall be stupendous.

Also, any new minions who have magical research skills are wanted. Recruit them and you shall be rewarded. Though if they steal my secrets, your blood will be my wine and your heart my appetizer.”

“Whoa,” Eden thought, “He actually wrote out his mistake on the second paragraph there. I’m guessing this guy’s a vampire, from the haemophiliac special he outlines at the end…” Looking down, Eden noticed a small message carved into the wood of the signpost beneath the parchment:

“Unded Unyion #610 UNYTE!”

Fight the power, ghouls. Just learn to spell first.

TOL FALAS 5

Affixed to a second signpost, Eden found a new missive from Tol Falas' supposed master.

“MINIONS: Perhaps you are minor dens of foulness because you have nothing to aspire to? Perhaps you could be greater if you had a worse example before you? Consider me! I began my long unlife as a foolish pipsqueak such as yourself. Why, there was a time before I had conquered even a pit let alone a level or a dungeon. Now, behold all that is mine.

You must have aspirations. I am not content with just the rule of Tol Falas. No, soon I shall have more. Much more. My boots shall tread the surface of the earth! I shall explore and destroy the most beautiful mountains. All shall be mine once I can walk in the sun once more. Where will you be? Do you wish to be more than the wight I stepped on yesterday? I shall need great leaders to guide my armies across the land.”

Eden frowned with thought, “This guy sounds like he means business. Not sure about the great leaders part – most undead have enough trouble stopping their brains from falling out, let alone using them.”

 Level 24!
 +1 Dexterity
 +2 Cunning
 +1 Weapon Combat
 +1 Dirty Fighting

TOL FALAS 6

Strangely enough, this level was almost deserted. Perhaps it was a strike? “Looks like Undead Union #610 finally grew a backbone.”

TOL FALAS 7

Eden walked along the tower’s passageways, as happy as you like, when suddenly he found himself sent sprawled to the floor, grievously wounded. His mind was on fire! “Gaaaak! What… the heck’s… happening…?!”

A woman with lank, black hair and a strangely flattened face peeked around the corner at Eden. Eden was confused at first, but this confusion soon gave way to horror as the woman rounded the corner proper, revealing the huge, trailing serpentine body that followed her. “Psyren…!” Eden attempted to croak, but no noise escaped his lips – he had been silenced.

“Walker…” The naga hissed, “If a huorn falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it… does it make a sound?”

“Get out of my head!” Eden wheezed mutely.

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

The psyren’s mouth curled into a grin as she slithered towards him, intent on finishing the job; she had a riddle about grain, chickens and foxes that she had been dying to test out. Eden found that he was thinking better now his constant running commentary had been silenced. If nothing could come from his mouth, he’d have to put something in, and he had just the thing.

“If you had a boat that could only hold three things, including yourself… hey, where did you go?!”

The invisibility the potion had granted Eden had given him enough time to flee, and he now hid against a wall, frantically chugging as many healing potions as he possibly could. The psyren found him before he had finished, so he could only manage a choked, “Glmfph! Mmplhf! Flurrmpfhy!” as he swung a dagger out at her. Eden’s voice returned only after the psyren had fallen, “Psionics: Like magic, but more smug about it.”

 Level 25!
 +1 Dexterity
 +2 Constitution
 +1 Sweep
 +1 Knife Mastery

With peril comes plunder, however, and Eden soon found himself the proud new owner of a dwarven lantern and a cloak of the Shire. The cloak looked rather silly; it was very small, and when Eden put it on it looked like he was wearing a large napkin backwards, but he couldn’t fault its boosts to his dexterity and cunning.

TOL FALAS 8

“MINIONS: To my newest vampire: Burn, foolish adventurer, burn! I bet you are sorry for that flame spell now, aren't you? Suffer as I revisit it upon you.

To the rest of you, there will be punishment. An adventurer got down to my bedroom and surprised me. I, myself, was hurt and almost had to use my special power. All is well now and I am as dangerous as ever, but you shall suffer for letting him get so low. The next minion I see shall be toasted with my marshmallows. Where then were the special pits of doom I organized? Where was the poison of my wights or the diseases of my ghouls? Indeed, I should slaughter all of you and I would, but those who were most foully remiss were already slaughtered by the adventurer. The rest of you? Beware my wrath.”

“Beware my wrath,” Eden echoed sarcastically, “I wonder what this guy’s special power is. It’s probably quite impressive, but I’d laugh if it was just slapfighting or something.”

TOL FALAS 9

 Level 26!
 +2 Dexterity
 +1 Cunning
 +1 Sweep
 +1 Knife Mastery

Eden marched into the tower's throne room. Before him, his greatsword resting on his lap, the Master regarded him with quiet fury.

“So what’s it to be?” The dark figure spoke quietly, “Will you join the unity, or will you die here?” Without warning the vampire leapt to his feet, whirling his greatsword in a frenzy, slashing tapestries and shattering pots, “Join! Die! Join! Die!” He screamed.

Eden pursed his lips, shaking his head, “Do you really want the last thing you say to be a hokey reference? Wouldn’t you prefer to quote some great thinker or something?”

The vampire sat in his throne again, seething, “You’re remarkably confident for somebody ten seconds from becoming a corpse, and don’t think that dying will keep me from you. It is no exaggeration to say that an eternity of suffering begins for you here. MINIONS!” The Master howled, “TAKE HIM!”

Silence.

“To be honest,” Eden smirked, theatrically picking his fingernails with one of his knives, “I don’t enjoy using enemy detection or magic mapping scrolls – I feel it’s detrimental to my sense of direction – but I must admit they were splendidly helpful here. This entire level is as empty as a death mold’s soul, except for you and me…”

The Master snarled, brandishing his greatsword; he was so used to the praise he forced his minions to heap upon him that Eden’s sass bordered on heresy, “FOOL! You actually believe you are a threat to me! The greatest blades of the warriors and the most powerful spells of the mages have failed to destroy me! What can you do?! Stealth me to death, rogue?!”

“There’s more to rogues than stealth, vampire,” Eden and the Master circled eachother slowly, “They can steal, perform great feats of agility, set traps – well, not in this beta – and of course, they can fight dirty!”

** WHUMP! **

The Master stumbled backwards from Eden’s sudden (and rather below-the-belt) kick. Initially pleased with the reaction his dirty fighting received, Eden’s face fell as he realised the Master wasn’t hunched up in pain, but laughter.

“That’s it?!” He cackled, “A child could give me a greater challenge! I believe I shall have some fun with you; torture is an art, after all. Won’t you be my canvas…?!”

“Tch, that’s what I get for trying to mix up my strategy,” Eden rolled his eyes, “Back to the ol’ grind: FLURRYFLURRYFLURRYFLURRYFLURRY”

The Master’s body fell, soundly perforated. It was Eden’s turn to exclaim, “That’s it?! Seriously, if these guys keep falling this easily, it’s just going to get harder and harder to describe these battles.”

“Hmhmhmhmhm… FOOL!”

Lifted back onto his feet by dark and unstoppable forces unknown, the Master was resurrected, his strength completely restored. “Do you see your folly now?” He sneered, “I can will myself back to life as many times as I wish… s-seriously. If you wish to flee now, I shall understand completely, and… hm?”

Eden was missing. All that remained was a hastily written note by the Master’s feet. Taking it up, he read, “Sorry I didn’t hang around for your post-resurrection boasting. Teleported away to warm up my stabbing arm. Flurries take a lot out of it, you know. Back in ten turns or so, Eden.”

“Turns,” The Master growled, stalking out of his throne room in pursuit of Eden, “What inanity, what insolence, what --”

“FLURRYFLURRYFLURRYFLURRYFLURRY”

The Master’s body fell again, even more soundly perforated than before. “A double-flurry job,” Eden thought, regarding the Master’s body, which was not resurrecting again, “You were indeed a mighty foe. Now, I’ll just loot your mighty body, if I may…”

The first item of import Eden found on the Master’s body was his black choker. Grim would kill for that, Eden thought; necromancer chic was pretty much like goth chic, except less eyeliner… usually. Still, its ability to prevent blindness and the total uselessness of Eden’s previous amulet meant that it was going around his neck for the duration.

The second item both enthralled and repulsed Eden simultaneously. Even someone as… differently magical as Eden could tell that this was the staff. He knew that mages would salivate over this bit of magical wood like an Ent would over an Entwife. “Forget gaining access to Angolwen,” Eden smiled, hastily identifying the staff as he took it up, “Staff of Absorption… when I show up with this bad boy… they’ll make me its king!”

 Level 27!
 +1 Dexterity
 +2 Cunning
 +1 Precision
 +1 Weapon Combat

TOL FALAS 3

Eden was so thrilled with his recent acquisition that he almost ran into the skeleton mage that stood before the stairs he descended. On instinctively turning and fleeing from the undead manathrust machine to safer ground, he then ran into another one. It was at this point that a skeleton warrior got a lucky hit in on him as well, stunning him as the mages surrounded him.

Eden survived, but barely. “So, that’ll be three minions taking it to me more than the grand high boss of this place did. Yep. Normal service resumes…”

WILDERNESS

Ukruk, nursing both many scars and a grudge, stormed to the entrance of Tol Falas, a new and more powerful warband in tow. “I had to kill ten patrols of sun paladins to earn this new squad,” He growled, “They are not going to waste.”

“Brothers!” Ukruk stood before his new band, on the steps of the tower, “The time has come to retrieve the staff from this insolent vampire’s lair! Do you remember the plan?”

The orcs were silent. Planning wasn’t one of their strong suits.

“Very well,” Ukruk grumbled, “Essentially, it’ll be like most other orc incursions into the west. We’ll send in a bunch of grunts, let the Master get complacent in slaughtering them, then surprise him with an out-of-depth corruptor. You ready, G’nel?”

G’nel, the team corruptor, clicked his blighted fingers at Ukruk and winked. He loved his job.

“For the glory!” Ukruk raised his axe, then turned and almost bumped into Eden as he was leaving the tower, Staff of Absorption still in his hands. The two parties stared at eachother.

Eden coughed quietly, “… I don’t suppose any of you know the way to Ang--”

---

Eden awoke minutes later, both without the staff and thoroughly stamped into the ground. “You… you just can’t get the staff these days,” He burbled, before spitting out a tooth and passing out again.

---

As if things weren’t bad enough – exiled from Bree, exiled from Angolwen, exiled from Minas Tirith, recently impositioned by a bunch of orcs – Eden was now further aggravated by his conscience gland acting up. Orcs in numbers such as this, stealing staves from innocent travellers, was news important enough for the rulers of Minas Tirith to hear.

He would have to travel there to tell them, but first he had to make a detour.

BREE

“Heya Eden. Did something happen down south? I keep hearing stories about groups of the undead roving around, cheering and burning payslips.”

“Yeah, about that…” Eden twisted the tip of his beard reluctantly, “I kinda destroyed this guy called the Master, a head honcho vampire operating out of Tol Falas.”

“The Master?!” Grim, who always kept up-to-date with the latest affairs of the differently-alive, keened with delight, “You took down the Master?! That’s amazing! That’s… why are you so sad?”

Eden paced awkwardly, “That’s just it. I destroyed the Master. Without any trouble. The only offence he got out was a single manathrust. Not only is it completely out of character for me, but also it’s a total anticlimax! Can you help me?”

Grim tapped her nose, “Just leave it to ol’ Grimmy.”

---

"Perfect."