Just to add to Kira, if you want to play Lusternia, it is in your best interest to learn a little bit how to fight and function in a group.

Really.

If you want to be a pacifist, it's best to join a commune.

Once again, this is like gold to me! Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.

True. And really, the only way around that is just to suck so badly at it that people will be like, "Whatever you do, don't let So-and-so meld!"



Mages do get an ability that boosts their influencing a little in their demesnes though.

Bear in mind that you don't have to learn "much" in fighting. Just that, if you do become a Guardian, you are expected to help protect when those you guard are harmed. But just using Web or Sleep, which should be perfectly viable for a pacifist, is enough. Nobody is expecting you to fight regularily. Just... help when it is needed.

Most everything has already been said so I'll just throw in my random thoughts. Nariah is a viscanti and influences just fine, in fact, at my level 89 I am still getting exp faster when I influence (aetherbubbles) than when I bash (even with blessings, celerity etc). With a base charisma of 12 I get her to 16-17 usually with populus, netzach, lucky fortuna, lion astrology sphere, beauty blessing, throne etc. As for trills, we have a nihilist trill, Gavriel, who is great at influencing and is more or less a pacifist (although by choice of his connection, not his own), yet it does not stop him being Ashtorath's Prophet!

Bottom line, you can do it with almost any combination of classes and races, you do not necessarily have to be a bard or go for the high cha race. Trills for example get a boost to seduction battles, viscanti and, I think, illthoid to intimidating ones. I'd only suggest to stay away from mages like others said because indeed those are oft expected to be amidst battles, expected to set demesnes.

This is truth.

Play what would be interesting for you to play, not what is going to be seen as the extreme best influencer. You can influence ok with most things. Even as a knight, who tend to be of low cha races, and usually take a penalty to their charisma if they are specialized races (except Viscanti, but they have a low base to begin with), it is doable.

In addition, most of us are very helpful in the game, and would love to help you choose. As a novice, you can forget skills at no loss in lessons. What I suggest is that as soon as you join the game, ask around on the academy channel (CGT) and get some help. Get yourself a good mentor, and I mean a GOOD mentor. Most guilds have a helpscroll for choosing mentors.

The reason I'm mentioning mentors specifically is because with some of the newest changes, you learn more by studying under a mentor.

Most importantly though, have fun. That is all that matters.

Where did this come from? In all my time playing in Celest, I've never noticed this. I've been belittled and talked down to more for being an aquamancer than being a faeling.

Having said that much, I won't say being a pacifist or pseudo-pacifist mage is impossible, but especially at this time I would highly recommend against it. There's a great need for more combat oriented mages and you would likely get a lot of pushing to head in that direction. That and you'll need to be very patient and understanding of all your city mates.

As an example, when I was still pretty new to melding and stuff, there was a raid happening on Celestia and I was the only mage around. They wanted me to break, and break was all they told me I needed to do. They got me through the geo meld, they got someone to realitycheck, and they said "break here". I'd try to break over and over again, but I wouldn't be able to. Then people died, I'd need to run or die, I died several times, and we kept going back to try the same thing over and over again. People started yelling at me and questioning what I was doing wrong, or if I was doing it on purpose, treating me like an idiot in general, and finally, I ask "Are you sure that's a break point?", and they're all like "Yes, it is.".

Well, we never did break it, and the raiders eventually left when they got bored. Then they took me out to break it when no one was trying to stop it, and took me to the same room, and guess what? Once the heat was off and everyone could look at the situation without the stress that was there, they saw that IT WASN'T A FRIGGIN' BREAK POINT. At which point they're just like "Oh, oops", didn't apologize for anything they said or how they treated me (On either an IC or OOC basis), and left it at that.

Granted, this was before the in-game mapper existed, so it was more difficult for people who didn't have a feel for how melding works to visualize, but still: this is one of the realities of picking the mage archetype. Think carefully about it before you decide to take it up.

I'm at that point. I only have 10 INT as a Loboshigaru (12 with a Knowledge Blessing which I get... some of the time), so no one in their right mind would ask me to hold a meld if there were any other alternative. There's also the matter that I'm not a combatant, but neither am I a pacifist. Sometimes I go up and help defend against raids and things like that.

Mages and Druids WILL be expected to break, sometimes during combat and sometimes as clean-up, regardless of their inclination to combat.

Ok, just to put at least one point into stone:
Assuming I'm not into the whole 'Bard' thing ( a good assumption ;-) ) the 'best' way (and I know there any dozens of ways to do this with varying character types) to be able to pull this off yet still remain relatively pacifist (not being automatically expected to get into pure combat, with a few 'defending' exceptions) would be to go guardian? (ie - not Bard, Mage)

PS - MAN do I LOVE quotes & parenthesis! :-)

I'd say so. The only real thing a mage or druid has going for them is the bonus to influence while in their demesne, and druids lose out on the +1 CHA from Netzach.

I was just reading about the human bonus for stats based on archetype. Are those archetype-specific bonuses known, or are they semi-random?

Is there a listing somewhere that shows what those bonuses are?

Fixed.

If you choose bard or guardian, you can either get Majorsixth ( I think it is) in music, which will let you set a sort of waypoint in a spot, perhaps your favorite influencing spot, so you can get there quickly.

Or, in Tarot, you can get Hermit, which is about the same idea, more or less.

Thank you all so much once again for all your thoughts.

Ok, three final questions, then Im done... I swear!

1- Someone stated that the Trills are welcome in both Mags and Celest. Is this also true of Humans/Fae/Elven?

2- I do realize that the idea of pacifist/influence/taint-anti-taint is not going to be the most useful to everyone, but is there a city in which it would be slightly more welcome, due to a dearth of such a character? (or on the flip side, is there a city more likely to say "Dont do that because we already have a few characters like that."). Also interested in the same answer based on more interesting roleplay opportunities.

3- Does anyone know what the human racial bonuses would eventually be for a human guardian archetype? (If not exact numbers, at least what stats are generally affected... obviously curious about a CHA bonus)

Humans and faeling are welcome everywhere. Elfen are treated like scum in Magnagora.

Here's a quick rundown on treatment. Not sure how kephera/illithoid are treated, so I'll only put down the old ones (and, in Mag's case, the ones I know)

Anti-Race:

New Celest : Viscanti, Illithoid
Serenwilde : Illithoid
Glomdoring : Partially Kephera ( see Rika's post below)
Magnagora : Merian, Elfen, Kephera

If anyone posts updates, I'll update these too.

EDIT: Thanks, Rika

Serenwilde and Celest ban illithoids outright. Kephera in Glomdoring need to complete certain tasks before being given the full privileges of normal citizens.

Celest: Viscanti, Illithoid
Serenwilde: Illithoid, Viscanti
Glomdoring: None, if you're Kephera, you have to go on one group hunt.
Magnagora: Merian, Elfen and Kephera.

Magnagora allows Kephera. It's just the Ninjakari and Fain that doesn't like them.