Quest IndexThe main prioroty in Quest is a strong group. It seems pointless to recruit 15 charecters in your first few turns only to have to dump them later.
The types of characters you choose is up to you, but it is advisable to have at least one of each class.
Choose Dwarves as fighters (for their toughness), Elves as Mages(for their dexterity), Halfbloods as thieves(for their awareness) and Humans as priests (for their charisma)
TopBuy the biggest weapons that you can afford. Stick to Axes, Swords, and Bows as these can all be upgraded to magical weapons(+1,+2,+3) frequently found hidden in Weapon shops in Towns Villages and Cities (do an I (shop no) order to locate them ). Contrary to belief daggers cannot be used to break open locks when robbing shops.
Armour is important, but it can be left for the first few turns. Equip your group with helmets and large shields for an armour class of 4 as this costs a lot less than a suit of expensive armour. For those with the means there is magical (+1,+2,+3) armour available. The best type (+3) gives an armour class of 18 and is weightless although you can expect to pay between 5,500 and 6,500 gold per suit.
Amongst other necessary equipment is the humble backpack. This can reduce the load of a character by 20%. Lockpicks are only useful if you intend Dungeon exploration as they are used to open Chests or other possible treasure containers. They will not help you rob Shops. A Spade & Shovel is used to unearth treasure or discarded items found in the wilderness. Magic items will have the word 'magic' in their title: A 'Magic Ring' is magical: A Mages Prism is not.
TopThe skill levels needed to rob shops is generally as follows
20-30 Food Stores, Inns, Gyms, Libraries, Disused Shops
30-40 General Stores, Journeys, Newspapers, Temples.
40-50 Weapon Shops, Armour Shops, Powder Shops.
50+ Jewellers, Banks,
These will vary slightly for each location. One factor is the number of other groups also attempting to steal from the same source as a shops defences will increase each time it is robbed, but left alone the defences will be relaxed. TopThese are very important, both as a way of gaining gold and, for gaining experience. Low level or beginner Quests include carrying a message to another settlement, travelling to another settlement and returning to your original location to claim your reward, or travelling to another location to buy an item or items, then return to your original location to sell the items at an agreed price (usually at a small profit)
High level Quests are offered by Temples and Libraries. They require your group to have 2,000 and 4,000 experience between them respectivly in order for your group to 'buy' the quest.
Temple Quests require you to track down and kill a group of monsters. You are given their last known location, so you travel there and issue a track order.
Library Quests require you to locate a particular piece of terrain. These Quests can be quite daunting unless you have a detailed map to help you. To complete this type of Quest you only have to move onto one section of the terrain and return to collect your reward. A good tip here is to buy a local newspaper as the battle reports give you the name of the area a batle was fought in.
With the new official Alliances there has been an outbreak of Alliance Quests set by your alliance leader. These could involve anything from mapping a given area, to combat with another group. Your leader should reward you with gold and information, it is a good idea to ask for the gold up front so that you can equip your group for the task ahead.
TopThere are many ways to inflict damage on your enemy. It is possible to damage a foe even without entering combat, simply by moving into their location and using you thief to rob them several times in a row.
For an anti-social group, the best way to initiate combat is to move around the outskirts of a settlement with a general attitude of hostile. You will then fight any group one sector from the settlement (except for the ones sporting the new NA order boo hiss). These are usually groups who have been kicked out of town following a failed rob order. If their thief is not very skilled then there is a good chance that the others are not that brilliant either - easy meat.
Move over a group several times with a hostile attitude. Even after they have reached their preset flee factor you will still cast spells and miracles at them, and have the opportunity to engage them in missile combat before they can retreat. If they have not reached their flee factor then you will engage them as normal.
If you have a Neutral attitude you can move to the sector where your victim is and issue multiple Engage orders for the same effect as above. This is useful if there are other groups present so that you don't attack them as well.
Providing you are certain of the location of your enemy it is sometimes worth waiting until either the end of the game week, or until you are awarded a catch up turn before you attack them. This way if you do not inflict the kind of damage that you'd hoped to the first turn, you can post another straight away and do it all over again.
Finally it is worth noting that when two groups are a different size then several of the characters in the larger group will be safe from being hit during combat, although they will still be able to cause damage themselves. Group members are targetted in the order of fighters, priests, thieves, and mages. So if a group has 9 members it will only attack the first 9 members of any group it fights. If they fight a group of 12 members, 3 of whom are mages, the mages will be safe.
TopCharacter skills can be increased in a variety of ways. For example if a thief succesfully robs a difficult target he not only gains experience, but will sometimes gain a point of skill too
Fighters only gain basic skill when they inflict a major blow in combat. When a fighter is in combat the fighting skill is added to the weapon skill and the total is used to determine whether they score hits. Lately fighters with a high general skill factor (45+) have been having two attacks per melee round and ,(+75) have been having three.
You can increase the Weapon Skill of any character at a cost of 250 gold+100 experience. General Weapon skill(608) will usually concentrate on increasing the skill of the melee weapon, although you can purchase Weapon skill in the form of Use Edged Weapon, Use Blunt Weapon, and Use Ranged Weapon which then is used only for that particular type of weapon. This is useful if you equipped a character with the wrong type of weapon in the beginning, and want to train him in the use of the new weapon before you discard the old one.
Priests can increase their skill by using the P0 order. One P0 order should work for all your priests, although on sometimes the skill will not increase beyond a certain point. You could then try a tithe , but this is not always effective. Priests can gain experience by casting miracles, use this for weapons training.
Mages must buy their skill from a Magic Cyrcle (found usually in Cities, but sometimes also in Towns) which sells Magic Skill. Not all Magic Cyrcle Shops do this now although they used to in the past, so you might have to search around for one. The training costs 500 gold + 400 experience for a skill increase of 5 points. You can buy a training with less experience, but the skill increase will be less as well.
Thieves can also purchase Skill through a Thieve's Guild or a Temple Of Novala at a cost of 250 gold+500 experience - your awareness will also be increased
Strength Skill can be purchased at 250 gold. It does not use up any awareness, and can lead to an increase of toughness of 1 to 6 points. Your Health will also be improved.
Little is known about the new Etiqutte Training due to our groups reluctance to be seen entering a Temple of Phyloqure during the daylight. It is rumoured to have an effect on a characters charisma at a cost of 250 gold. It is not known by how much your charisma will improve, or if experience has any effect.
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