Bards might have abilities that get them killed, sure. But pre-10 would be the best time to learn this fact anyway, and lack of concealment is a problem for a ton of classes. Heck, invis isn't even really 'concealment' once you hit 20, and sometimes not even before that depending on who is hunting you and knows where even just crappy yellow flowers are.

I know one of the biggest things that confuses me to this day is taking a break for a month or two, and then forgetting all the nifty pieces of non-limited gear to go gear with as I advance into the higher ranks. Once the newbie even figures out that he can venture out on his own and find something considered 'half-decent', Identify and Lore are vastly more valuable to a newbie. Because, in the most extreme case, even people stacked with shiny limited stuff doing oblits in melee can be assassinated with a practice sword.


You're probably right about the Inn, but I think it still would be a good idea to send people, especially evils/neutrals, on quests to go kill popular regearing mobs and figure out what their gear is for. Reward the newbie with something tangible like food or a little more gold instead of 3 or 4k exp, and you don't compound your original problem. Regearing is the biggest hurdle, because the quicker you learn to get back on your feet, the less you care about dying. As compared to a vet, who have lost characters due to con loss and might be upset by a death or two for the death itself as well as having to spend a half hour wracking their brains for stuff.


Bards are generally useable solo through the low ranks just because second attack and enhanced damage don't help all that much compared to 15-20. Panhandling will be godly to a newbie who can figure out even just where the three protected cities are.

None of these suggestions get down to the nitty gritty though where we have to find a way to discourage at least the absolute greenest players from grouping, while not flat denying the group command to people in the low levels at all. I think the other problem is twofold:

Different people learn differently, this is both gearing toward walking around solo with a sack of food and water and loring random ####, as well as the guy that groups, chatters and then says, 'Hey, you do alot of damage, how can I gear to do that?'

Sometimes newbies don't know what questions to ask other players. The academy can only do so much, it can't educate people on who to ask about for further information, that pretty much implies that they need to pick the brains of whoever is walking around at faster than a snail's pace. Usually they'll be happy to answer, especially if they're a mage, because as long as they're killing things it doesn't change the speed of the conversation.

We should probably put a note somewhere that actually begging for free gear is rude, the same type of rudeness as asking who 'An Immortal' is. This might put a damper on idiots asking level 51 paladins to be their snow worm bitches when the paladin knows either the lowbie is a vet who is mooching, or a lowbie who will die horribly and be naked the next day if he's given that sweet hp + dam.

I wonder if we just agree on the majority but disagree on some of the minor points in how to go about it. I think you want to keep up the direction you've been going with edges, that is, every character is as customizable as a Rogue-type game and that should be what makes the game addictive at least to newbies until they get better at open combat and RP. There's a difference between revelling in versatility and planning to powergame, and most newbies don't plan 'combos'.


"I have to admit I hate pretty much all of these ideas. " - Nepenthe, on New Ranger Skills