13.3 Weapons
Weapons in Aetolia may be crucially important or not-so-important, depending on your class. For instance, those of the monk class fight primarily with their hands and the power of their minds, and a weapon in their hands only inhibits the power of their martial arts skills. All classes may benefit from occassional use of a weapon. What follows is a discussion of weapons in Aetolia, and how they work. Using Weapons ------------- Using a weapon in a basic fashion is easy. Simply PROBE the weapon to get a list of commands that may be used with it, wield it, and then use one of the weapon's commands. For instance, if it is a sword, JAB <whatever> will work. In order to wield a weapon, simply type WIELD <weapon>. If you want to wield it in a specific hand, do WIELD RIGHT/LEFT <weapon>. UNWIELD <weapon> will unwield it. Weapon Statistics ----------------- All non-missile weapons in Aetolia possess three common factors that distinguish how well they work in combat. These are DAMAGE, PENETRATION, and SPEED. Bows are covered in the individual class-specific ability help files. The higher the damage number, the more damage you will do. The higher the speed number, the faster you will be at using the weapon, and the higher the penetration number, the more your attacks ignore armour. You may discover the statistics of a weapon once you have gained the WEAPONPROBE ability in Weaponry. This ability is fairly low in the skill, so if you intend to use weapons, it may be worth getting this ability as soon as possible. Now, these are not the only factors that affect how effective you are with a weapon. The other factors are covered in the HELP WEAPONRY file. Weapon Classes -------------- There is a total of five main weapon classes: * Small blades * Small bludgeons * Thrown weapons * Large blades * Large bludgeons Most weapons are grouped into one of these five main classes. A weapon's class affects how its primary stats translate into balance use and damage. For example, a 100 speed small blade is faster than a 100 speed large blade. The 100 translates into balance usage differently for each group. WEAPONPROBE will reveal the class of a weapon, although for the most part it should be fairly obvious without needing to look.
