Back before I quit MUDing, I was a dreamweaving hartstone, and a not that terrible 2nd tier fighter (or so I tell myself). I found it to be my favorite skillset RP and combatwise for Hartstone. So, speaking strictly about dreamweaving:
I found it absurdly fun to fight with, and for the RP-aspect of being literally a walker of the dreamscape. I also loved spying, though Ecology can be just as effective for that as well. As others have said, dreamweaving is only *really* useful for druids where combat is concerned, though Magi can take it as well. It just doesn't complement the rest of a magi's skills really as compared to psionics. From what I could tell, Druids need passive affliction support from their tertiary, whereas magi need active support and a kill method from theirs. On a side note, Druids and Magi seem to take the least amount of lessons to be extremely effective at combat.
If you're interested in being a druidic fighter, this post: http://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?show...c=12051&hl= lists a lesson plan that I used to recommend a year ago for druids who wanted to fight, but weren't creditrabbits.
Regarding dreamweaving itself, it's a great supplement to druidic combat due to druids reliance on a skill called "sap." When you sap someone, they effectively get permanent aeon until they rub a cleanse enchantment (except the delay between commands is only .5 seconds instead of the 1 second delay aeon causes). Druidic combat revolves around getting enough afflictions onto someone that they can't cure sap before you regain balance from sapping, and then proceeding to continue layering afflictions that keep them from curing it. While you do this, your demesne is hitting them with bleeding from an effect called thorns, and once they start bleeding in the thousands, they die rather fast.
Dreamweavers can supplement sap in several ways: with a lot of lessons, they learn to embed "motes" in a demesne room. Motes can cause one of the following afflictions: Epilepsy (periodic balance loss), daydreams (periodic eq loss), narcolepsy (insomnia doesn't work and you periodically go to sleep), amnesia (one of the next three commands does nothing), blackout for 1-2 seconds (fail to notice anything that happens to you and no prompt), peace (can't attack). There is also a mote that strips a defense, and another that causes an illusion. When you embed motes in a room, one of the motes hits all of your enemies in the room every 10 seconds. Thus, it's a passive addition to a demesne. Narcolepsy on someone who is sapped is GREAT, as are epilepsy and daydreams.
Dreamweavers can also put people to sleep (surprise!) with just a few lessons. Sleeplocking someone who is sapped can be really effective, and isn't hard to do. Once they're sapped, if you can get them to sleep and strip their kafe (not easy, but not impossible), you can keep them asleep. Every time your meld hits, sleep them again. Dreamweavers can also do something called Deepsleep, where for 15 power (which is a lot, it basically means this takes 50 seconds to do), you can make someone exhausted to the point where they keep falling asleep over and over again. This is nice, but also *expensive*. Dreamweavers also get a passive demesne effect that makes people more tired while in their demesne, which is nice in the long run. A year ago, it took 40 hits to get someone exhausted from that effect alone, which means 400 seconds, which is 7ish minutes, which isn't too bad for a protracted battle. Not sure if the numbers are still the same now though.
On a more RP note, dreamweavers can step out of their bodies while asleep and walk around in dreamform. You can even do this with 0 lessons spent on dreamweaving. This lets them spy on others, and (if you've put a lot of lessons into Dreamweaving) be absurdly annoying to others. What you have to understand though is that you cannot kill people this way. Technically, yes, you can, but without a large group of dreamweavers, it just isn't going to happen.
Dreamweaving also provides complete immunity to sleep rather early on. You never get more tired naturally, you are immune to sleep effects, and you are immune to effects that make you more tired (like deepsleep). However, it doesn't protect you from going to sleep due to stupidity, or someone FORCEing a sleep command (Wiccans can force passively in this game), so you still need to keep insomnia up.
The biggest downside to dreamweaving is, of course, the high willpower cost of everything you do. You'll have to get used to spending lots of time meditating, or find someone with a willpower recovery rune in their manse and a rocking chair, and recover there while getting food OOC or whatever
Regarding a race, for a druid, int doesn't matter much for fighting but it does for bashing. Druids are paper-thin, having few defensive skills, so a race with some con can be nice. Fast EQ is great for druids, so mugwumps are always a good choice. Dreamweavers, when in dreamform, can only be hurt by specific skills. For the most part, these skills cause magical damage. So, for a dreamweaving druid, furrikin is a GREAT race. You get a bit faster eq, and you get level 3 magic resistance. Lowish int though, so not always the best for bashing. The org-based races are usually a safe bet too - elfen for Hartstone, faeling for Blacktalon. If you want to min-max your racial selection though, mugwump or furrikin is the way to go.
**hopes that was at least somewhat helpful**
I found it absurdly fun to fight with, and for the RP-aspect of being literally a walker of the dreamscape. I also loved spying, though Ecology can be just as effective for that as well. As others have said, dreamweaving is only *really* useful for druids where combat is concerned, though Magi can take it as well. It just doesn't complement the rest of a magi's skills really as compared to psionics. From what I could tell, Druids need passive affliction support from their tertiary, whereas magi need active support and a kill method from theirs. On a side note, Druids and Magi seem to take the least amount of lessons to be extremely effective at combat.
If you're interested in being a druidic fighter, this post: http://forums.lusternia.com/index.php?show...c=12051&hl= lists a lesson plan that I used to recommend a year ago for druids who wanted to fight, but weren't creditrabbits.
Regarding dreamweaving itself, it's a great supplement to druidic combat due to druids reliance on a skill called "sap." When you sap someone, they effectively get permanent aeon until they rub a cleanse enchantment (except the delay between commands is only .5 seconds instead of the 1 second delay aeon causes). Druidic combat revolves around getting enough afflictions onto someone that they can't cure sap before you regain balance from sapping, and then proceeding to continue layering afflictions that keep them from curing it. While you do this, your demesne is hitting them with bleeding from an effect called thorns, and once they start bleeding in the thousands, they die rather fast.
Dreamweavers can supplement sap in several ways: with a lot of lessons, they learn to embed "motes" in a demesne room. Motes can cause one of the following afflictions: Epilepsy (periodic balance loss), daydreams (periodic eq loss), narcolepsy (insomnia doesn't work and you periodically go to sleep), amnesia (one of the next three commands does nothing), blackout for 1-2 seconds (fail to notice anything that happens to you and no prompt), peace (can't attack). There is also a mote that strips a defense, and another that causes an illusion. When you embed motes in a room, one of the motes hits all of your enemies in the room every 10 seconds. Thus, it's a passive addition to a demesne. Narcolepsy on someone who is sapped is GREAT, as are epilepsy and daydreams.
Dreamweavers can also put people to sleep (surprise!) with just a few lessons. Sleeplocking someone who is sapped can be really effective, and isn't hard to do. Once they're sapped, if you can get them to sleep and strip their kafe (not easy, but not impossible), you can keep them asleep. Every time your meld hits, sleep them again. Dreamweavers can also do something called Deepsleep, where for 15 power (which is a lot, it basically means this takes 50 seconds to do), you can make someone exhausted to the point where they keep falling asleep over and over again. This is nice, but also *expensive*. Dreamweavers also get a passive demesne effect that makes people more tired while in their demesne, which is nice in the long run. A year ago, it took 40 hits to get someone exhausted from that effect alone, which means 400 seconds, which is 7ish minutes, which isn't too bad for a protracted battle. Not sure if the numbers are still the same now though.
On a more RP note, dreamweavers can step out of their bodies while asleep and walk around in dreamform. You can even do this with 0 lessons spent on dreamweaving. This lets them spy on others, and (if you've put a lot of lessons into Dreamweaving) be absurdly annoying to others. What you have to understand though is that you cannot kill people this way. Technically, yes, you can, but without a large group of dreamweavers, it just isn't going to happen.
Dreamweaving also provides complete immunity to sleep rather early on. You never get more tired naturally, you are immune to sleep effects, and you are immune to effects that make you more tired (like deepsleep). However, it doesn't protect you from going to sleep due to stupidity, or someone FORCEing a sleep command (Wiccans can force passively in this game), so you still need to keep insomnia up.
The biggest downside to dreamweaving is, of course, the high willpower cost of everything you do. You'll have to get used to spending lots of time meditating, or find someone with a willpower recovery rune in their manse and a rocking chair, and recover there while getting food OOC or whatever
Regarding a race, for a druid, int doesn't matter much for fighting but it does for bashing. Druids are paper-thin, having few defensive skills, so a race with some con can be nice. Fast EQ is great for druids, so mugwumps are always a good choice. Dreamweavers, when in dreamform, can only be hurt by specific skills. For the most part, these skills cause magical damage. So, for a dreamweaving druid, furrikin is a GREAT race. You get a bit faster eq, and you get level 3 magic resistance. Lowish int though, so not always the best for bashing. The org-based races are usually a safe bet too - elfen for Hartstone, faeling for Blacktalon. If you want to min-max your racial selection though, mugwump or furrikin is the way to go.
**hopes that was at least somewhat helpful**
Hey, Alban, I vaguely remember you 
And it's 1715 lessons to trans in this game. Credits are worth 8.5 lessons each for the first ton of them due to the bonus, so it's 202 credits to trans a skill. There are no mini skills in this game (nor is there avoidance). Instead, the Lusternian equivalents are:
Resilience: grants resistance to the cutting/blunt/poison damage types (used to be 25% at trans) and a chance to shrug poisons (33% at trans). Also effects endurance regen.
Magic: grants resistance to the magic damage type (used to be 25% at trans) and reduces the effects of certain skills, such as the mana drain from Succumb, the duration you're a toad when Toadcursed, the duration of Bubble and Fleshstone.
Discipline: grants faster Focusbody time (the way you cure paralysis in this game, which is a delayed cure that takes 4-1 seconds based on your discipline), faster willpower regen, and lets power go from reserves to available faster (9 seconds or so per point at trans, dunno what it is at inept). Discipline also includes a few skills.
These all take the same number of lessons to trans as any other skill in this game.
http://www.avaerin.com/scryingpool is an old wiki loaded with skill lists, by the way.
And it's 1715 lessons to trans in this game. Credits are worth 8.5 lessons each for the first ton of them due to the bonus, so it's 202 credits to trans a skill. There are no mini skills in this game (nor is there avoidance). Instead, the Lusternian equivalents are:
Resilience: grants resistance to the cutting/blunt/poison damage types (used to be 25% at trans) and a chance to shrug poisons (33% at trans). Also effects endurance regen.
Magic: grants resistance to the magic damage type (used to be 25% at trans) and reduces the effects of certain skills, such as the mana drain from Succumb, the duration you're a toad when Toadcursed, the duration of Bubble and Fleshstone.
Discipline: grants faster Focusbody time (the way you cure paralysis in this game, which is a delayed cure that takes 4-1 seconds based on your discipline), faster willpower regen, and lets power go from reserves to available faster (9 seconds or so per point at trans, dunno what it is at inept). Discipline also includes a few skills.
These all take the same number of lessons to trans as any other skill in this game.
http://www.avaerin.com/scryingpool is an old wiki loaded with skill lists, by the way.
