Fri Dec 30 22:34:32 2011

At 5 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 23rd of the Month of the Shadows
on the Theran calendar Etava perished, never to return.

Race:	arial
Class:	thief
Level:	49
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	TRIBUNAL, the Blood Tribunal
Age:	45
Hours:	273

My first thief, first trib: Binder (drag), trapper (burst) (devious versatility). I was truly a noob here--at level 49, I finally discovered why gentlewalk did absolutely nothing to protect me. I had thought it was automatic.

After playing a nexun trying to raid against Flaayin, I knew I wanted to try learning what this trap thing was all about. My vision was to drag someone off to someplace remote, and set up traps to seal the kill. It sounds good, but it was a story of frustration. Mastering binding & traps requires the patience of a saint and the bankroll of Midas, but in the end I found that binder/trapper/ Trib wasn't going to work for me.

Binders: a noob's perspective.
In the rare event I could get someone fully tied, there was almost always someone who would charge in and wake up the victim. I say rare because I found bind hands & legs failed with a regularity that made me ill. Garrotte was decently successful, maybe 40% of the time, assuming it wasn't an invoker with fireshield or a conjurer with certain familiars. Given that the whole binder skillset depends upon successful garrotte, I expected it to be a bit better, though. Polearms gave me nightmares, and I will throw in my normal complaint about shapeshifters being immune to damn near everything I could do as a binder. Can't drag mobs, which I think is crazy.

Trappers: a noob's perspective.
I had a LOT of fun playing a trapper and discovering just how those nasty things work. I found about 40 ingredients and got a handle on what they did through experimentation and note sharing with Otuerghad. Traps are great for defending, but it is a lot of work getting them set up and keeping them up since each trap has a timer. Knockout should be looked at--I had more catastrophic failures (knocking me out for six hours) than it knocked out people who wandered into it. For anyone who says traps are overpowered, I will say that they shine in a defense, but they are nearly worthless in other circumstances. Very few people died to my traps, compared to people getting munched by the hunt or a good pillar of lightning, bash+flurry, or rampaging demon.

Tribunal: a noob's perspective.
Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun, although I got sent to the oubliette because I flagged people for #### that I have been flagged for during my years of playing CF: flagging a villager waking up in the shapeshifter guild in Galadon & flagging an ap for taking something from the neutral pit in Galadon. The Tribunal is a kinder, gentler cabal than what it was. For all my flaws, at least I didn't attack a non-criminal in Galadon. It's good to be the king.

And yes, death-taboo sure does make it difficult to build a good set.

When you tried to backstab a wanted Salvamash and instead backstabbed some felar assassin whose name started with a Sal or whatever.

At least, that's how I remember it.

You are right. I did break the law there, or alternatively the assassin interfered in the apprehension of a criminal--I had Salvamesh garrotted when the assassin joined us in the room. He was obviously trying to gum things up. Smug little bastard.

I also did a thief in battle, a lousy poisoner.

Or you could bring out the, "I can break the law during pursuit clause"

I quit playing Trib when it was put it out there you no longer needed proof to flag someone. It quit being fun for me at that point.

But I think that if you get the flag wrong as a result, you should get demoted. Get another wrong, and get the boot.

So a magistrate who consistently makes the right calls without proof gets to continue to use their judgement, and those who don't, don't.

I was certain that I was toast when you dragged me away that time. Then the other time at the inn, I laughed my ass off! Hilarious! Eating oblits are painful. heh

Anyways good stuff.

No seriously you took 2 con off of me with your leet knockout skills. I swear you must have had a permanent alias to knock me out because in all my time playing this game nobody has been that brutally efficient at getting me asleep. Especially considering I have multiple options to render garotte useless and you still managed it.

My hat off to you sir.