But yes, here it is. I'm fresh from Achaea, and I'm wanting a bit of help starting a character. I have some general, vague roleplay ideas...but I'm a bit ingrained into Achaean stuff, and I'd like some advice.

Firstly, which classes, if any, are better if you are NOT going to buy credits? My monthly budget doesn't really allow for even $20 here or there.

I'd like to eventually get into PK. I know that'll take time, considering the no buying credits thing, but I just wonder which classes would be better off without OOC creds.

Secondly, I've read the website about the various guilds and cities, but I also know that there's more meat on the bones than what the website has to offer. Sooo...if anyone is willing to give a quick synopsis about what the various guilds/cities/communes are actually LIKE, rather than the info on the site, I'd appreciate it.

Basically, I guess it boils down to this...I'd just like a bit of an insiders view to what's available before making my choices.

Thanks in advance for the help

Welcome to Lusternia,

First off, stay away from warriors since they rely heavily on large amount of gold, credits and time.

Next, Mages and Bards are good for quick kills, though they tend to be squishy unless you have the necessary skills to survive.

Guardians are good in PK so they say.

That's all, I'll let the others contribute their thoughts about this.

Moondancer is usually the guild/archetype of choice for people who don't want to buy OOC credits and still be effective in combat.

Err, is it? To be properly effective they need three transcendant skills (or two and a fabled), so as much as I love them as a guild I wouldn't recommend them for cheap and effective combat.

Monks only really need one trans, though! And they're getting balance issues sorted out.

Bards are, yes, supposed to be pretty good without tonnes of lessons.

That's what everyone tells me when I tell them not being able to buy OOC credits is hard for a warrior!

As for a synopsis on each of the organizations, I'm not sure what you're looking for but here's a quick run down:

1. New Celest - The city of Light. NOTHING like Shallam, so don't get that image in your head. Most of New Celest buys into the philosophy that the best way to love their enemies is to end their torturous lives. They (along with Magnagora) tend to be more militaristic than the two communes, and they are in a constant state of war with Magnagora. They have some rules against hunting sentient creatures, and they tend to have a few "snuggle-bunnies" who think they should just spread peace and kindness everywhere (i.e. Shallam-style), but they are usually quickly run over by the more militant citizens. They are NOT the city of "good" - they don't have a concept of "good" or "bad" except that everything related to the taint is "bad."

2. Magnagora - The city of the Taint. Again, nothing like Mhaldor. Mag is also pretty militaristic, and they're almost constantly either raiding Celest or defending against them. There's a chance they might end up at war with the Serenwilde in the near future, too, but I doubt that will happen. They follow the Demon Lords, and will do anything in the name of gaining strength. In Magnagora, might makes right. At lower ranks, you have basically no voice, while at higher ranks you can order around anyone below you. They stress respect, discipline, and strength, and tend to liberally apply corporal punishment to people who don't exhibit those traits.

3. Serenwilde - The pure forest. Like everything else, you can't think of Seren like Eleusis. Serenwilde is usually divided politically into two sides - the "snuggly" side (Seren seems to have the highest population of pacifists) and the militant side (which is currently in power). Because it is a relatively open democracy, there are pretty regular disagreements. There is a lot of potential for democratic politicking. Some Serens favor one city or another, but overall they see both cities as a scar against nature. They are in a constant state of war with the Glomdoring (which they see as a perversion of nature), but the hostilities are a lot more relaxed than the fights between the cities, partly because the Glomdoring population is drastically smaller. Serenwilde has the largest population of any of the organizations.

4. Glomdoring - The "wyrded" forest. You can read up on the history of Glomdoring on the website. I think it has the most interesting and robust history of any of the organizations. They are fanatical, and constantly chant the mantras "Glory be to Glomdoring" and "Nothing matters but the Glomdoring." They have the most potential for interesting RP, and while they have a few fighters they are not incredibly militant. Politically things get difficult; a couple of the leaders have been in power since the organization was founded (think someone like Covenant) and some people accuse them of being corrupted (both IC and OOC). There have been some problems with previous divine that worked with the Glomdoring, and things got off to a rocky start, but I've always had a lot of fun with every character I created there.


As for a class which doesn't require too many credits...monks are pretty good, as are mages. Bards don't seem to be horrible either - they can do a good bit of damage without learning much music; most of the offense seems to be in glamours. They are pretty squishy, though, so you might still have trouble unless you also learn some acrobatics.

No it isn't, wtf are you talking about? Moondancers are probably the WORST class to pick for someone who doesn't want to buy OOC credits as they absolutely need tritrans to fight.

Mages, Druids, Bards, and Monks are all good choices for low-credit characters.

My guess is that we're talking two different standards for "effective in combat": "able to be helpful and valuable" vs. "able to score kills" (which can be further refined into solo or not). Seems to me the OP should figure out which one is intended. I don't know moondancers well enough to know whether they can do the former with few credits, though it seems there's agreement they can't do the latter that way.

Celestines/Nihilists/Moondancers/Shadowdancers make horrible choices for someone who doesn't want to buy credits. They require extremely high amount of lessons to work well.

Warriors are also out, high credit investment to be as decent as other classes.

Mages are possible. But you be severely limited.

Druids ... not sure on these.

Monks are new and so relatively unknown at this moment.

Bards .... man glamours alone can kill :/

For Druids, you at least need Cudgel if you want to do anything relatively worthwhile. That's at 50% Fabled.

You're going to need about fabled-myth shofangi and fabled-myth glamours to get anywhere too, so that's not that far out of line.

From reading this thread, the non-credit buyer options look fairly glum.

Heh, the same thing occured to me.

Choose a guild that lets you take Lowmagic, and choose herbs as your Tradeskill, FTW.


EDIT: In other words, be a Druid.

Get some talent and win bardic and artisanal

I honestly think monks, with a bit of harmony and acrobatics end up on par with anything else, _at the least_

One skill cuts focus body time in half, your regular combos can paralyse, stun, you bash well, and acrobatics helps a lot with contort (fast writhe) and another free general skill, somersault (tumble).

<- is a non credit buyer.

I'd say if you want to stay away from OOC credits and need to make them IG, take something that is good for bashing so you can make gold. Perhaps also lowmagic for herbs. Sure it takes loads of time but it can bring you gold which in turn lets you buy more credits.

Eventually though if you want to get anywhere you'll need to explore other options of getting credits without buying them. As Achaean you probably know about those (ie guiding, building, mortal coding, bardic / artisanal mostly).

PS: A rule of thumb: What you are not going to put into your character with rl money you'll need to make up for with time spend online and doing stuff if you want to get somehwere in terms of skills.

You also have a few other reliable options for procuring credits, Aesyra. The average player does not.

I didn't for a long time when I started, it was just gold from bashing then. You can still earn quite a few cr per rl day if you bash a lot (and you'll get demigod on top of it.. happened to me that way too ). Eventually though you'll need to look for other options as well (which I listed too).

I used to think this was only possible with characters that were already high (if not trans) in their guild skills, but I was able to buy 15 4.8-5k credits with gold earned yesterday with only Expert Shofangi. That's a hell of a lot better than I can usually do with my other (trans) characters, so monks ftw, I guess.

EDIT: And 5 more today, I guess. Didn't realized I earned 25k more already, heh. Monks are such great bashers.