To start off with, I'll have a talk with two other far more famous fellows.
Fezzik: I just feared you would give me so much trouble.
Man in black: Why is that, do you think?
Fezzik: Well, I haven't fought just one person for so long...I've been specializing in groups, fighting gangs for local charities...that kind of thing.
Man in black: Why should that make such a [crash! pause] difference?
Fezzik: [slowing down] You see, you use different moves when you're fighting half a dozen people, than when you only have to worry about one.
[Fezzik falls unconscious]
Now, down to business. In Elanthia, there are nearly as many different fighting styles as there are adventurers. We have everything from ambushing Rogues to vine-tossing Rangers to the occassional really wonko thrown weapon using brawling sorceror. Many adventurers prefer to have a series of different ways to defeat the savage critters (or other adventurers) which haunt our lands, invade our lands, and just generally keep us from getting more experience in our lands. I myself am something of a fanatic on the fighting styles issue. I am a fighter, and I have no less then five different ways to attack an enemy. One of them is to, as I call it, swashbuckle, and swing at it many times in rapid succession, or to swing at a whole group of enemies in one strike.
I learned these two nifty abilities from adapting something that most of our trainers teach, called Multi-Opponent Combat.
We all know the basics....or at least most of us do. For every 5 times our trainer teaches us Multi-Opponent combat courses, we can swing at an additional opponent in one fell swoop, or swell foop, or big silly looking spin. Most of us also know that for every twenty times our trainers teach us this skill, we can focus on one enemy in an eerie dance macabre (sometimes for us, mind) and take an additional attack at it in one swipe.
With this aside, we can get into some of the deeper issues.
First off, here's the rub. The more you train in this skill, the more you are obliged to use it. If you've trained sixty times and focus yourself on one creature (or player) you are going to swing three times, no if's and's but's or maybe's. This often takes a while. At least eight seconds, considering the weapons most folks typically swing. If you've trained that same sixty times, and there's twelve creatures in a room, and you swing....you're not going to hit two, or six, but all twelve. This might take you a couple minutes, depending on your natural talents and weapon swung.
This leaves you VERY vulnerable to a single tough (or quick) creature (witness Fezzik's trouble with the man in black).
Say you've trained for nigh a hundred years in Multi-Opponent combat. You can swing ten times at one creature....then its mother or sister....or five cousins wander into the room. Oh....you've certainly obliterated the one creature.....but...all of its relatives are going to be dining on adventurer tonight.
Similar situation in a duel. Say....you swing ten times....and miss...you're going to be quite thoroughly "owned" (I believe the proper phrase is) by your opponent. (More on dueling later)
So, how much is enough?
It varies by race, armor training, and weapon used. Some testing will show yah.
For most non pure spellcasting folks, swinging a one handed weapon,
I'd reccommend training up to 40 or 60 ranks of multi-opponent combat.
This gives you either
two or three swings on a single opponent, and 8 or 12 strikes on many
opponents. This is more than enough for any situation.
If you're swinging a two handed weapon (particularly a claidh, in my opinion the only crit weighted weapon worth its salt) though, let's face it, your defense is going to be pretty lousy to begin with. You should feel free to go crazy with Multi-Opponent Combat. You have two paths ahead of you. Stick to the 40 or 60 rank limit I reccommend for one handed weapon users, and actually stance dance.....or.....go crazy.....double for life, or until your swing time shoots up to around a minute or so. You'll obliterate most anything in your path.....you might not live very long in swarms....but you'll potentially have the ability to fry on one invasion swing and do more damage than anything in the lands. This may be more and more important as destroying your opponents blood replaces critical strikes as the most important way of death in the lands.
For pure casters (who aren't sorcs), I recommend 5 ranks of multi-opponent
combat. Why? It'll maybe help when swarm effects become a regular part
of the game.
If you're feeling brave, go higher. Multi-Opponent Combat may affect
Cone of Lightning in the future, for Wizards.
For sorcs, train as much as yah want to for helping your spells reach more critters. Unfocused Implosion is your friend. You could really care less about weapon swingtime, couldn't you? And it always makes an impressive trick to show the cute and innocent young members of the opposite (or same) gender.
For Bards, I'd also cautiously recommend training Multi-Opponent as much as possible. You have enough spells to layer on your defensive skill so that flat out swashbuckling may be a longterm future option. Add a touch of stancing, and you could be frightening.
Duellists are different. If you're looking to be a physical duellist, I'd suggest you be trained in ambush enough to be able to hunt solely with it. Then, I'd suggest you train Multi-Opponent till the cows come home. Then I'd suggest you learn to be VERY Strategic with its use. Done right, nothing will stand in your way. Also....claidhs are good...but if yer dagger or staff lets you swing 45 seconds faster....it might be worth it.
Now, for weapon types. For one handed swashbucklers who are training only up to 40 or 60 ranks, I'd recommend that you go for weapons with the highest damage factor. Morning stars and waraxes/falchions are probably the best for you folks. Estocs are handy for breaking through the many critters that wear chain armor, and swinging quickly. The all around best weapon for many one handed situations is the longsword, as it swings fairly quickly while damaging fairly well. Its one downside (or upside for some occasions) is that it punctures fairly often. If you're planning on keeping training Multi-Opponent, I'd reccommend a good rapier or dagger (the problem with these being terrible damage factor and breakage). These will let you swing much more quickly than most anything else out there if you're swinging above three times.
Most of you all will want weapons with special abilities on em. Crit weighting and damage weighting are nice, but not something to kill yourself over. Over the long term, they will add the most damage out of any special abilities. Still, the only really grossly significant crit weighted weapon is the claidhmore. With 40 CR, it adds a whole lot more than the typical heavy crit weighted weapon which adds 10. Damage weighting is nice. It is not as directly devastating for a multi opponent swashbuckling combatant, but in the future, with crit weighting changing or vanishing, and more of a focus on blood loss, may be the way to go. Flares help, but are more important when one is using lighter weapons. It is best to find a flaring weapon that flares often as opposed to rarely.....the tarnished rolaren longswords are a good example, flaring every 3 or 4 hits, as opposed to most stock flaring weapons which flare every 10 to 13. Weapons with flares added by merchants are generally very nice in this regard. Feras is the best flaring solution (or steady plasma if you can afford it), but really only appropriate for younger folks or duellists. Poison flares are very nice for duels as well, but one really needs to swing two weapons and mstrike to make them flare often enough.
Myself, I generally swing a four enchant blessable waraxe and a four enchant crit weighted katana. I dabble in weighted weapons occasionally, but I'm a member of the Order of Voln. Actually killing the creatures I am supposed to is of paramount importance. I am not a duellist. If I were, I'd still be double training multi opponent combat.
Hope some folks find this useful.
Jacinto Quetzal, no one of importance.