Rogue Lore
by Srynne
The Beginning
You are interested in becoming a Rogue, eh? The first thing you will want to do is speak with all of the Mundanes in Mileth and listen to all of their lectures, but do not increase your attributes you will receive with insight. After that, in order to become a follower the Path, you must find a Rogue willing to speak to Fiosachd on your behalf. Your initiator will guide you through the Temple of Choosing near the outskirts of Mileth, and hopefully set you on the track to success in Temuair. A word of caution when choosing your Initiator: make sure that you feel comfortable with this person and that they are truly willing to help you. Unfortunately, some Initiators are only interested in receiving the benefits of Guidance after you have reached your eleventh insight. I would also advise that you find a Mentor. Mentors need not be of your Path, but again, I would caution you to find one who seems genuinely interested in helping you reach maturity.
Clothes & Armor
Once you have become a Rogue, if your Initiator has not provided you with clothing, you must do a bit of traveling in order to find your armor. The first female armor is the Cotte, which is available from the Higgler in Rucesion for a modest fee. In order to get to Rucesion, travel from Mileth to Abel, and take the northern docks from Abel to Rucesion. In order to buy the male armor – the Scout Leather – you must continue from Rucesion to Loures, then from Loures to Piet, where you will find it at the bank. Males are able to buy their next set of armor, the Dwarven Leather, in Piet as well, but females will find their next set of armor, the Brigandine, at the armorer in Abel. Do not buy this armor now, however, for you will not be able to wear it until you have reached your eleventh insight.
A word on other armor: while it is true that Rogues are able to wear most of the other armor that Warriors can - necklaces, rings, boots, belts, shields, gauntlets, and greaves – I would advise that you steer clear of the last three items as they heavily drain mana and make it nearly impossible for it to regenerate. The Rogue’s main weapons are their traps. If you use the traps to your advantage, then you will not be close enough for creatures to hit you and so walking around heavily armored serves no purpose. Traps use mana to cast, so you will be able to either trap, or wear heavy armor and bash creatures.
Weapons
Now that you are properly attired, you will want to arm yourself because it is a dangerous world out there. *grin* Rogues have two types of weapons: Soori and Surigam. Soori are akin to daggers, and can be purchased from the weapon smith in Loures. Surigam resemble a kind of throwing star, but are not ranged weapons until you have learned the skill Throw Surigum. Surigam are more commonly known as secrets, and can be bought from the weapon smith in Suomi, if you feel up to the walk. The insight you must be to wield each weapon varies – secrets tend to require that your insight be higher in order to use them. Of course, there is also a whip that you will be able to use when you have reached your twenty-sixth insight, and it can be bought at the Higgler, or bank of Undine.
Secrets
"Armor? Check! Weapon? Check! I can go out and fight now, right?" Not quite. As I mentioned before, a Rogue’s main weapons are their traps. You will be able to learn many different kinds of traps from the Rogue trainers in Mileth, Rucesion, and Suomi. It would be a good idea to go and speak with each of these trainers as soon as they will speak to you and learn the attributes and items they require to teach you each secret so you can adjust your attributes accordingly.
Offensive Traps
Needle Trap: This is the first trap you will learn. It delivers a blow to the creature as it walks over and uses little mana to cast. It may require several traps to kill some of the stronger creatures.
Stiletto Trap: This trap is similar to Needle Trap, but it does a great deal more damage.
Coiled Bolt Trap: This trap is a great deal more powerful than either Stiletto or Needle, but you will not be able to get it until much later.
Bolt Trap: The final offensive trap you will get, Bolt Trap is the strongest attack trap that Rogues have available to them.
Poison Trap: As creatures walk over this trap, they are injected with a deadly poison that will not kill, but does weaken them, which makes them easier to finish off.
Defensive Traps
Sleep Trap: A fighter’s dream, this trap sends creatures into a shallow sleep. While they are asleep, they are unable to cast spells or retaliate in any way. It does not last long, and dispels sporadically. Some time it will barely last until you cast the next trap, and some times it will seem an eternity. It increases in duration as you improve at it.
Blind Trap: This trap temporarily blinds the creature. They are still able to cast, and spin in place to hit things surrounding it, but they are otherwise unable to move. This trap lasts a great deal longer than Sleep Trap and is ideal for immobilizing creatures when there are too many to handle.
Other Secrets
Taunt: This allows you to annoy things from a distance and make them chase you.
Gem Polishing: One of the reasons why Rogues are so popular is that they follow the only Path able to polish gems. Polished gems are worth much more than uncut or flawed gems, and are necessary for other paths to learn some secrets. In order to use Gem Polishing, have the gem in your inventory, cast Gem Polishing, drop one coin beneath you, and begin. You can learn it at the bank in Piet.
Hide: A higher insight secret, Hide allows you to disappear from the view of Aislings and creatures alike. It will dispel if you attack, emote, or Taunt, but you are still able to cast traps and walk around unnoticed. Beware, however. Very high insight Rogues have a skill that allows them to see hidden things, and they will be able to tell who is causing the mischief. *grin*
Skills
Just when you thought you were finished learning… Rogue skills are both diverse and numerous. They can be learned from many different places, so your best bet is to go exploring the towns.
Attack Skills
Assail: This is the most basic of attacks. You hit the creature, and it gets hurt. Enough said.
Stab & Twist: Give ‘em the old one-two twist! This skill delivers a hefty blow to the creature, and you must have either a secret or a dagger equipped for it to work.
Throw Surigum: This skill lets you throw weapons from a distance at the creature. You catch it each time you throw, so you only need one weapon, and it must be either a secret or a dagger. You are able to throw over Aislings’ shoulders, and the range varies with your skill, I believe.
Throw Smoke Bomb: If you become skilled enough at Throwing, you can learn this skill. In order to use this skill, you will need to have a smoke bomb. Rogues can make smoke bombs using blue powder that Wizards produce from research. You can make them at the Higglers in Undine and Rucesion. When you throw the bomb, it will blind everything in your view, including Aislings not a part of your group.
Identifying Skills
In order to use these skills, place the item in the first slot of your inventory and cast.
Armor Lore: Gives much useful information about all kinds of armor, including what insight you must be to wear it.
Missile Lore: Identifies all Rogue weapons.
Appraise: Tells you the qualities and values of gems.
Miscellaneous Skills
Look: Find out exactly where you are, and what’s in front of you.
Study Creature: Gives information about the creature you’re staring at, if you dare get close enough.
Unlock: In the Mileth Crypt, there are many chests just begging to be picked. In order to do so, however, you must buy a set of lockpicks and have them equipped. Walk in front of the chest to start the process. A word of caution, however. When you open a chest, you will be poisoned. The poison will not kill you, but it will make you so weak that if a centipede looks at you oddly, you will die. Do NOT pick a chest if you are not in a group and have no Personaca Deum unless you are very fond of Sgrios. If you wish to pick a chest, have a friend along who has plenty of Beothaich Deum in the likely event that you will die. In addition, if you fail in your first attempt to pick a chest, under no circumstances should you try again immediately if you are ungrouped because you will die. There are a few ways to cure poison. One of them is simply to wait as it does wear off eventually. Another is to drink a Personaca Deum. Priests and monks can also cure poison with the spell Ao Puinsein.
Tailoring: Allows you to repair or craft better armor that will break on death.
Hairstyling: This skill allows you to change the color or style of an Aisling’s hair. You cannot change your own hair alone. You can learn this skill at the bank in Rucesion, and it is also where you practice it.
Weapon smith: When you reach your eleventh insight, you will be able to smith both swords and soori. Smithing a blade makes it better and allows it to do more damage, but it will break on death.
Ring smith: When you become skilled at gem smithing, you will be able to craft many kinds of rings. Speak with the armorer at Abel for more details.
A Note on Time
You will never have any. :) Seriously, smithing, polishing, hairstyling, and tailoring all take time. Some take more than others do – for example, if you style someone’s hair, you will more than likely be able to do little else for the day, so plan your activities carefully.
Hunting Strategies
Whoo hoo! Finally, we get to the killing! Heh.
Solo
As a rogue, you are able to hunt on your own quite well, if you so choose. As a new rogue, you will want to confine your efforts to the first two levels of the crypt and the Wasteland and Enchanted Garden in the woods. Past that, creatures begin to cast spells that can kill in one blow when you are young. In order to trap, you will want to set a chant so that you are able to judge how much time it will take for the trap to finish casting. ((Set a chant by right clicking on the secret, inputting text, and hitting OK.)) Part of being a Rogue is being wily and creative… you must be both of these things in order to use traps effectively as you cannot see them once they are cast, and neither can anyone else. Traps have no effect on Aislings, but do plenty of damage to creatures. The key thing to remember when trapping is that in order for your trap to hurt the creature, it *MUST* walk over your trap, which is why you need to pay close attention to where you set them. You also need for something to be chasing you. Rats and spiders ignore you until provoked, though centipedes are always hostile in the shallow depths of the crypt. You can make a spider or rat annoyed at you by taunting it, or smacking it a few times with your soori. Preferably, make sure there are no hostiles in the area before you attack a nonhostile… After you have chosen a target, walk a few paces in front of it and begin laying your trap. You must stand still until you are done chanting. After the trap is set, walk forward a few paces and lay another, unless you *know* it only takes one trap to kill, which seldom is the case. Observe how the creatures follow you, as you will need to learn how to manipulate their behavior to trap around corners, posts, and other creatures.
When you get Blind Trap and Sleep Trap later, soloing becomes even easier, as you can lay a Blind Trap, and keep it immobile while you set more traps ahead of it. You get to run less. :) Once you notice that your sleeping beauty has awakened, lay another Sleep Trap or Blind Trap to keep it off your back and buy time for you to lay more traps. Using this strategy, you will notice that you seldom get hit, because nothing has a chance to get close enough to you. A Rogue’s main concern is not being bludgeoned to death, but having a wolf or five decide to cast Sal, Srad, Athar, or Creag, on them a few times. Spells are the only real danger to Rogues, other than being swarmed by too many creatures at once. Keep a scroll handy at all times for a quick escape when things become too rowdy. He, who traps and runs away, lives to trap another day. *grin* I would advise sticking to the shallow levels of the crypt and the Wasteland and Enchanted Garden to hunt until you are able to venture to Dubhaim Castle. The creatures of Dubhaim are considerably stronger, but they are unable to cast spells, and are therefore easy targets for Rogues. Many an insight can be gained there, with patience. A great deal of patience.
Group Hunting
First off, you will want to gently explain to your group members that creatures must walk over traps in order for them to work. When hunting with only a priest, you can trap to your heart’s content. However, when there are other people with you, trapping become a great deal more difficult. People tend to wander onto your line of traps, knocking the creature off course, or cast a spell that will distract the creature enough that it decides to chase the caster instead. It happens. So you can either take the opportunity to get better at Assail and just bash things like a warrior, or you can Taunt surrounding things, shout "Mine!" and try to trap whatever is not getting beaten upon. This changes when you get Sleep Trap and Blind Trap. If you are fighting with only one other fighter, you are set. Lay Sleep Traps behind the fighter, and tell him to walk backwards over them, leading the creature over it so that it falls asleep. Continue to lay traps, and when it wakes up, have the fighter walk backwards again. If more than one hostile approaches, it’s your duty to keep it occupied. Taunt it to get its attention, or smack it if it’s being stubborn. Walk a few paces, and lay a Blind Trap. This will buy time for the fighter to finish what he’s doing. If you are hunting with only wizards, do not bother with Sleep Trap, only lay Blind Traps because they last longer and Wizards aren’t standing right next to the creature, so they don’t get hit. It gets more complicated if you are hunting with a mix of fighters and wizards, or if there is more than one fighter. In a mix of fighters and wizards, your best bet is to annoy everything that’s not being beaten upon and is hostile, then lay Blind Traps to keep them stationary until your group members are done with whatever they are killing. Fancy footwork is required, because it’s not easy being a target. *grin* You play defensive crowd control, which is a key role at higher levels because creatures like to throw parties wher e you and your group are the intended entrée. When fighting with more than one fighter, pick a fighter and lay traps behind him. Have him lead over the traps, which means that if the creature is upset with the other person, the other person will either have to back off and let the first get it’s attention, or try and lead it over the traps himself. It is to everyone’s advantage that you keep enemies blinded or asleep. If something is asleep, it cannot attack, which means lower repair bills for fighters. If something is blind, priests can run away and get back to healing without worrying about getting beaten upon. You will have to experiment to see what strategies will work best with you, and above all… be patient. Very patient. Hunting with people unaccustomed to traps is a learning experience for all involved, and can be quite frustrating if there is no communication. Have fun, and good hunting!