Welcome to Retromud, and to the Druid guild. To the universe, you will be an elite guardian of nature and a distinct enemy of anyone who destroys anything without a good reason to. To fellow players you party with, you are a middle-man, a person who can do a little bit of everything. To other members on the MUD, you can provide several other services to aid them and maybe yourself. In fact, a druid might be one of the most sought after guilds in the mud. This does not mean in any way that you will not have to work hard... but the rewards of being a Druid make the sacrifice entirely worthwhile. Retro is a party mud and your role as a Druid is one of the most dificult around. You will serve as the Jack of all Trades and a Master of None. One of the strengths of being a Druid is that you will have a tremendous amount of flexibility in what you choose to pursue after completing your training as a Druid. But while you pursue your career in the Druid guild, you will provide to a party a myriad of miscellaneous skills that will facilitate the killing of all types of monsters. Since Retro is a party mud, chances are you won't be doing much soloing, especially as a Druid. Druids receive dues (HELP GUILD DUES) from skinning hides of corpses of animals. You will need to return these hides to the druid guild north of the guild book. Once you are there you type "donate hide". Later on, as a lvl 16 player, you will receive the spell reincarnation (HELP REINCARNATION) which will gain you dues much faster than skinning hides. SOME OVERALL PLAYING TIPS. In RetroMUD, you are considered a newbie, or a new player to the game, until you exceed lvl 16. As a newbie, you will receive many advantages that higher level players do not have (HELP NEWBIE ADVANTAGES). When you are ready to rise to lvl 16, make sure you can play the game without these advantages, as there is no easy way to return to lvl 15. One of the most useful advantages of being a newbie is your newbie guide (HELP GUIDE). Use this helpful little creature where ever you are to teleport you to various places, give you some healing or light, or maybe just to keep you company. The first thing you should do in RetroMUD is EXPLORE! Exploring not only gets you familiar with the surrounding areas, but IT ALSO GIVES YOU EXPERIENCE POINTS. Explore your guild and the surrounding areas, newbie areas, and any nearby cities. That's not all though! You can travel to other planets as well (there are a total of 6) and explore plenty of areas there. Next of all, RetroMUD is a Party Mud. Parties are groups of players that travel together and fight together for an added effect against enemies. You will be partying quite a bit, and need to learn some of the tricks of the trade. You probably won't be able to take a lot of damage, so you'll most likely be working from "midrow", providing services to the party. These will include being a "blaster", invoking protection spells, and healing the frontrow member(s) of the party. Have a question? The best way to learn is to ask other real players, via the Mentor Channel. All you do is type "mentor Your question here" and other helpful players will answer it. You can also apprentice yourself to an established Druid [HELP APPRENTICESHIP]. In return, you receive bonuses to three spells of your choice and can have your Mentor train you to reduce the experience or gold cost. You will graduate from your apprenticeship at level 16. Another advantage to apprenticeship is having the attention of an established player to help you with questions and introducing you to other players so you can get acquainted with them and the mud in general. To "train" a skill, or "study" a spell, return to your guild hall, which is the room with the guild book in it, and type "list skills" and "list spells". Select the spell or skill you wish to train/study, and use "train" or "study". A newbie advantage is that you won't have to start paying gold to study your skills and spells right away. You can study and train gold free up to 70% for for spells/skills to level 10. Level 11 to 15 can be trained up to 60%, and for spells and skills from 16 to 20, the gold-free period is for the first 50%. Below is a list of suggested spells and skills useful to Druids and a brief description of each. Ultimately you should have all skills and spells trained up to one degree or another but concentrate on these first. USEFUL SKILLS UP TO LEVEL 15 ---------------------------- These skills should be the first on your list to train up to 60% or 70%. Preferably all skills should be trained that high before you level, but these should be attended to first. Attack (Level 1) - even though you won't be the main attacked in parties, this skill is essential for your playing career here. It increases your chance of hitting each time you attack. Consider Natural (Level 1) - This skill considers how strong a natural creature is compared to you. It is very useful when deciding whether or not to attack a creature you haven't fought before. Faerie Kiss (Level 1) - This will be your first source of healing, but in later levels it really will not do that much. It is more helpful for waking up unconcious players. Dagger (Level 3) - This automatic skill determines how well you use a knife in melee combat. Skin Hide (Level 3) - This skill is essential for your career as a druid. This is your first way to get dues, by skinning corpses using this skill. This spell requires an athame be used. If you don't have the spell points to summon one (HELP SPELL SUMMON DRUIDIC IMPLEMENT), ask on the druid channel, and another will likely be more than happy to help with this. Spirit Eye (Level 3) - This skill is automatically checked each time you invoke a spell. If you suceed it will show you how many rounds left before you finish invoking your spell using a certain amount of # signs. For every # you see it will take that many rounds. Example: Gaias Rage ### ---> this spell will be complete in 3 rounds. Gaias Rage ## ---> this spell will be complete in 2 rounds. Gaias Rage # ---> this spell will be complete next round. Fire Building (Level 8) - You create a campfire that will regenerate you and any other players (including party members, hint hint). This fire will eventually burn out. Using this skill while there is already a fire in the room will have you add wood to the fire, letting it burn longer. This skill is much easier when you have a tinderbox. Remedy (Level 9) - Your primary source of healing. Remedy will heal approximately 100-400 health points, and is very useful in any enviroment. For use in melee (battle) you need a herbal pack to use this skill. Voice of Gaia (Level 9) - This skill is automatically activated each time you invoke a spell. The higher this skill is trained, the more likely it is that the spell will be shortened by a round. Meditation (Level 9) - A VERY useful little skill which exchanges around 10-30 endurance points (EP) for approximately double that number of spell points (SP). Nature Entreaty (Level 14) - Whenever you invoke a nature spell, this skill is automatically checked, and may reduce up to half of the required invoking time. Much like Voice of Gaia, the higher you have this trained, the more likely you are to speed up your invocation. USEFUL SPELLS UP TO LEVEL 15 ---------------------------- These spells should be studied first to 60% or 70%, but like skills, it is better if all of your spells are trained to some degree before you level to lvl 16. Wrath of Gaia (Level 4) - Your first offensive spell. This spell deals a reasonable amount of damage for its small invoking cost and short required time. Faerie Fire (Level 5) - You can invoke this at yourself to give yourself a light orb. If you want dark orb, type "faerie flip" to make the orb emit darkness. Summon Druidic Implement (Level 5) - This spell allows you to summon implements that are necessary for many of your spells. These include the "athame", waterskins, and the druidic chalice. Geyser (Level 5) -This spell is especially useful at higher levels for putting out fires caused by fumbles. It is also useful for filling your waterskin when there are no nearby sources of clean water. It summons a wave of water to flow over the area. This spell is castable once in a single room. This spell requires an athame. Warp Wood (Level 6) -This spell breaks apart wooden objects. It is useful for breaking apart locked boxes or wooden doors. Restore (Level 9) -This can be used to restore players from various transformations back into their normal form. Fist of Stone (Level 9) -An offensive spell which turns your fist in to a stone which you punch the enemy with. It deals out a reasonably larger amount of damage than Wrath of Gaia. Note that you must not only successfully cast the spell, you must successfully hit your target in order damage your target. Eagle Wings (Level 10) - This gives a target player (including you) a pair of wings, effectively giving them the ability to fly. (HELP FLIGHT) Gaias Rage (Level 10) -An Area Offensive Spell, which does damge to all opponents 0 1 summoned creatures in the room. It does an effective amount of damage. Sunlight (Level 11) - This spell will be your best friend while on Sosel, where the Druid Guild resides. It opens up the Infinity Pods at any time of day, for your and others use. Summon Animal (Level 11) -This spell summons an animal from the wild which you serve you for a short amount of time. It goes along with the Control Animal spell. Control Animal (Level 11) -Use this spell at various commands such as "invoke control animal at follow" to order your ani minion to do various things for you. Casting control animal at attack/unattack, will cause your animal to attack things you do, or to not attack things you do, automatically. Brew Healing Drink (Level 12) -This is a very effective healing spell, healing up to 660HP. It requires the druidic implements athame, waterskin and chalice. It can be invoked any time, even in battle. Raise Cromlech (Level 13) -This raises a circle of Cromlechs (like Stonehenge), protecting and helping heal yourself and members of your party. This can only be used outside. Fey Shield (Level 14) -This spell gives an Armor Class bonus to your target and is helpful in parties. Call Lightning (Level 14) -This Offensive spell deals a devestating amount of electrical damage to its target. It can only be used outside. When you feel you are ready to fight, you can tackle some of these areas: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kanku Tree (On Sosel) -This is a newbie area (thus it can be accessed by a guide) and is found in the very SE corner of the world map. It is a good place to gain gold and experience from. Most of the Kanku here you can't attack, but of the ones you can, it is recommended only to try the young Kanku. Generally attacking shopkeepers (anyplace in the game) is a Bad Idea. Drum-Filled Jungle (On Sosel) -A lower level newbie will find some good creatures to test their abilities on. There are many animals to skin here well, but a fair amount are too weak for the guild to pass out dues for. This is also a newbie area. It is found slightly NW of the secluded grove which houses the Druid Guild area. Tsoda Pools (On Welstar) -This Newbie area is located in Keystone on Platin Street, and offers a large variety of human children who have plenty of candy and money. Utopia (On Crypt) -A newbie area which is a town full of "perfect" people. There are a few horses you can skin, but other then that, there are many human folk that walk about which at least some gold jingling in their pockets. It is found in the underground tunnel just NE of the city of Igneous. Monestary/Battlefield (On Perdow) -A newbie area found in the far Eastern mountains. It is usually best to use a guide to get to this area. There is plenty of gold and good-aligned people to attack here, and quite a few horses to skin as well. Wemic Valley (On Welstar) -Need dues? This is the perfect place for you! There are dozens of snakes, hawks, deer, bufflo, and other animals roaming the plains for you to skin. A group of Wemics camp here as well, and some of their members are a force to be reckoned with. But as long as you don't hurt them, they won't hurt you. This area is not a newbie area, but can be found 3 north of the North Gate of Keystone. The Gauntlet (On Welstar) -This newbie training ground can only be accessed by using your guide. You must fight your way past some tough opponents in order to get onto a field where mages are trying to hit you with magic missiles! You can type "druid who" to find out what other druids are in the game while you are. Ask on the druid channel for help, and it's likely somebody will respond. This concludes the druid help file for RetroMUD. RetroMUD is a very complicated MUD to learn, but once you learn the ropes, it will provide you with unlimited fun and challenges no matter what type of player you are. Once you reach lvl 20 in the Druid Guild (the maximum possible) the road splits into endless lanes of what to be next. By now, you should have been in multiple different parties, and realized what you lacked to help your fellow members. Try to choose your next guilds with the druid theme of "can do some of everything" in mind. The choice is up to you. -created by Shadowsworn -modified by Rayzam -further modified by Jowa | |