Hello all,

Please forgive my ignorance... I'm as new as they come, but am so interested in the game that I thought I'd seek a little 'pre-creation' advice.

I am very interested, for rp purposes, in playing a very 'influence' based, minimal/non combat character.

My main question is one of RP/ necessity for such a character...

Are there any guilds/citys that would benefit from having such a character more than others?

Are there any guilds/cities that have a wealth of such characters, and making another would just make me another one of the glut?

Do the characters around here, for obvious rp drama, regularly cross-pollinate to counter guilds/cities? (ie - a trill aligning with Magna, and Illithoid hanging around Celest, etc... forgive me if my canon is off, but I think you get the gist). Along those lines, is it a terribly unusual sight to see , say a Lucidian, hanging with the folks of Magna?

Is there a decent race/guild combo that would best take advantage of my desire to be heavy 'influence' (removing any race that is overly furry (cough) ) ?

I think that I'm just looking for advice on this approach in general, and then possibly some specific race/guild combos that would make my character fairly unique, and available where he was most needed.

I would have no problem playing a bit of an underpowered character assuming it would serve a specific purpose in a guild (ie- Heavy influence in a city/guild that normally has none but would welcome it, etc). I'd rather be potential appreciated for doing a thankless job than just being 'another one'.

Anyway, I know that's about 20 different questions points in one, but I would appreciate any advice you may have :-)

Trill are welcomed everywhere, but Illithoid are shunned completely in Celest and Seren. As in, if you join as an illithoid, you change race, or are removed.

Faelings + any bard class will do you good for influence

Guardians are also decent at it, especially Celestines.

Heh. Play an illithoid character and join Celest.

PLEASE.

They won't be happy...

First off, welcome!

One thing about Lusternia, you can do it. There are also numerous different quests that you can do as well to gain experience that does not involve killing things. Between that and influencing, absolutely.

Lusternia is heavily based on rp and it is a constant battle between numerous factions. You could fit into each city and/or commune quite easily, depending on how you rp your character.

Most cities/communes do not have pacifists. If I had to guess I would say Celest/Serenwilde has more than Glomdoring/Magnagora.

Crossing political lines ... no. ( Most are usually attacked on sight, save for newbies ).

Depending on guild ... faeling would be a good choice for an influencing type character. Faeling druid or aquamancer, celestine or nihilists. For obvious reasons, shy away from monks, warriors ....

Dugan.

On a side not, and still wanting opinions on the original question, Am I assessing correctly that 'good' characters are more easily accepted in the 'darker' areas than vice versa? (hence the Trill being ok in a blighted area, but the Illithoid being stoned in a 'lighter' area?

Also,

Assuming I buck the good advice and dont go Fae (may have a hard time 'getting into it'), are Trill the next best choice? Most likely gonna go guardian over bard (is Mage even an option for what Im going after?) I kinda liked the idea of even a Lucidian, but will his comparatively low CHA kinda cripple the whole concept I'm going after?

Once again, please excuse the ignorance :-)

As of right now, Spiritsinger elfen, mostly because of Domoths, are the best influencers.

Also, all cities and communes shun certain races.

Illithoids are soulless creatures and have an inner worm which drains residue from corpses. That race does not really fit well in Celest. Neither does a Viscanti, since they are tainted beings and Celest is against the taint.

A Trill, no one has problems with ... they just have wings and down feathers on their head. They can go anywhere.

A good character cannot walk freely into Mag territory, no.

Dugan.

Thanks for all the responses so far. Much appreciated. Looking forward to more great info!

Missed your last question.

One thing about Lusternia, you could do a lucidian influencer ... it would just be a bit more difficult. You can raise his charisma with an enchantment and study dramatics to help you influence. You might want to consider being a human and keep the faster exp bonus and stat modificatiosn beginging at level 50.

Dugan.

Trill are birds, not "Angels"

Merians are the "Good" race of the game, and are looked down in mag

They're also both great with the right sauce.

faeling shadowbeat bard or w/e best influencer to my knowledge.

Not with Domoths. Beauty racial and guild go to elfen and spiritsingers for extra charisma and extra influencing power. Charisma ends up being the same with bardic presence, but the extra influence power helps them overall. Even moreso if they're Talnaras.

No, shadowsinger faeling definitely have the most potential to be the best influencers, in terms of charisma. Spiritsingers do have palebeauty and in summer naturerhythm, though.

They have the potential to, but the way things are stacked right now, wild elfen should be the best.

Shadowsinger faeling, base 17 charisma. Netzach (1), throne (2), bardicpresence (2), karmic beauty (2) and any positive lion sphere will give you 22 charisma. Without lion, you can get to 21 by yourself.

Wild elfen, base 16 charisma. Moonchilde (1), beauty domoth (2), karmic beauty (2), bardicpresence (2), netzach (1) is 21 charisma. Yes, it is easier to get to the wild elfen max of 21 than it is to get to shadowsinger max of 22, but it is quite easy to get to 21 for shadowsingers.

SS have palebeauty, which is +1 level of ego regen and in summer, naturerhythm, which does heal quite a bit.
Faelings have level 3 more healing from potions.

Of course, you should not decide what to play solely based on Charisma. It will help with influence yes, but as long as you have at least 13 charisma, you ought to be fine. All bards get BardicPresence, which increases charisma by two, and allows you to choose freely from Highmagic and Lowmagic. Compare Celestines/Nihilists who get Populus in Rituals and Netzach from forced Highmagic. Celestines do have an advantage in Amnesty and Parley influencing from Sacraments, but that doesn't come up often. Nihilists get a bonus to influence undead from Necromancy. There aren't too many undead creatures though.

Anyway, bottom line is Influencing is easy and can be done with most races and most guilds. You should look for what guild and city that will interest you.

As for what you "can't" play. Illithoid can't be in Celest or Serenwilde. Mag dislikes Elfen, Merian and Kephera. Viscanti aren't allowed inside Celest.

Though as for how "useful" you'll be... not very. Influencing in itself doesn't give your organization much, only any esteem that you donate to it. You can help Celest and Magnagora by empowering (a type of influencing) the Angels and Demons. Doing that will make them stronger against attacks from enemies, and give the city power. Don't know for communes though.

Final piece of advice is to not just choose a niche and work yourself into that. Instead, keep an open mind, listen and look around. Lusternia has a very small playerbase.

Wrong.

Right. It is called a Karmic Blessing of Beauty and is available to everyone.

But you have no idea how much each charisma actually helps, especially near the higher end.