First, sorry if I'm posting in the wrong area. Seemed like the best shot out of all of them given the topic.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello to those of you on the forums and try to get a feel for the community. I've only recently started playing CF and just now made it around to the forums. I've played various MMOs and MUDs off and on, and at the moment, I must say I'm pretty impressed with this one; I'll probably be here a while.

For the curious, I'm currently playing a cautious elf healer (sphere of healing, naturally) that values life highly, is a tad frightened of orcs, slightly dislikes the Tribunal, and is a little mistrustful of authority.

I'd welcome any interaction in game, though Lyeden may be less than thrilled about some things. I also welcome anyone that wants to say hello and, if you wish, introduce yourself or your characters. :-)

I think we've already met. Good luck!!

I get the sneaking suspicion that we have :P And thanks.

Welcome to the game!

Just a suggestion: you may not want to divulge IC character info on the forums lest people put two and two together and associate your "forum identity" with your character's "in-game identity".

Also, if you have any questions or concerns then don't hesitate to post them in the "New Player Q&A" forum. People are generally pretty helpful.

And don't get discouraged when you die. Often.

Hmm. Thanks for the heads up, though I guess it's too late for my first char. Heh. Might I ask why, though? My impression was that people would be able to keep the forums and the game separate for the most part--is that wrong, or is it something else? If anyone does make that mistake, don't think that I'm the same person here as my char is IG :P

As for dying, so I've been told. Somehow I've managed to avoid it for the most part thus far, though there've been some close calls.

>Hmm. Thanks for the heads up, though I guess it's too late
>for my first char. Heh. Might I ask why, though?

Some forum personalities carry baggage. For instance, someone might really, really dislike "Isildur" the forum poster, and let that color their interaction with whatever character I'm playing at the time. Or they might really like Isildur the forum poster, and pass up an opportunity to loot/kill/doublecross my character in-game that they might otherwise have taken.

>As for dying, so I've been told. Somehow I've managed to avoid
>it for the most part thus far, though there've been some close
>calls.

Good work. Let me run down my short list of ways-to-avoid-dying:

1. As a healer, never walk somewhere when you can gate. Never, ever walk out of your guild after having sat in it for any length of time. Ditto for cabal. And your deity's shrine.

2. Always, always carry multiple teleport potions in your inventory. Don't keep them in a sack. When blinded, you can still see potions in your inventory.

3. If you use a client, set an alias to "quaff teleportation" (or whatever teleport potion you use). I don't know about you, but I don't trust myself to type "quaff teleportation" in the heat of battle.

4. When possible, try to carry a "not insignificant" amount of gold on your person for sitautions where your own healing ability doesn't cut it.

5. Keep stuff like sanctuary, protection, flight, protective shield, and detect invisible active as often as you can.

6. If you use "word of recall" to escape someone, assume that he's heading to your recall point as quickly as possible. Ideally you want to be elsewhere when he arrives.

7. As you continue to rank, you'll find that healers are generally pretty hard to kill. But they have their achilles heels. A few of them are: assassinate, worldbind and dispel from a shaman (or paladin if you're an evil healer).

>Some forum personalities carry baggage. For instance, someone
>might really, really dislike "Isildur" the forum poster, and
>let that color their interaction with whatever character I'm
>playing at the time. Or they might really like Isildur the
>forum poster, and pass up an opportunity to
>loot/kill/doublecross my character in-game that they might
>otherwise have taken.

Fair point. Let me bug you with a few more questions, though

>Good work. Let me run down my short list of
>ways-to-avoid-dying:
>
>1. As a healer, never walk somewhere when you can gate.
>Never, ever walk out of your guild after having sat in it for
>any length of time. Ditto for cabal. And your deity's
>shrine.

Mmm, never had someone go through that much to try and take me out, but I'll keep that in mind. I imagine this stuff happens more in the higher levels?

>2. Always, always carry multiple teleport potions in your
>inventory. Don't keep them in a sack. When blinded, you can
>still see potions in your inventory.

>3. If you use a client, set an alias to "quaff teleportation"
> or whatever teleport potion you use). I don't know about
>you, but I don't trust myself to type "quaff teleportation" in
>the heat of battle.

Heh, I already have a bunch of aliases set up, I'll be sure to add this one. Can you use teleportation potions when you can't use the supplication?

>4. When possible, try to carry a "not insignificant" amount of
>gold on your person for sitautions where your own healing
>ability doesn't cut it.

I'll do that. I've noticed that, when curing others, sometimes it can take quite a few attempts to break it. What determins that, the skill of the inflicter, or...?

>5. Keep stuff like sanctuary, protection, flight, protective
>shield, and detect invisible active as often as you can.

My biggest issue here is mp--I tried this once, and I tend to burn through it quickly and most supplications don't seem to last too long. More on this in a bit. I do always keep detect invis, good, and evil up, and sometimes protection. The first three let me know if I need to run at a glance. Heh.

>6. If you use "word of recall" to escape someone, assume that
>he's heading to your recall point as quickly as possible.
>Ideally you want to be elsewhere when he arrives.

Only recently obtained this ability, I'll keep that in mind.

>7. As you continue to rank, you'll find that healers are
>generally pretty hard to kill. But they have their achilles
>heels. A few of them are: assassinate, worldbind and dispel
>from a shaman (or paladin if you're an evil healer).

That's good know. Looking through the abilities of a healer, it looks like there're some rather nice defenses down the road, and some now even. Could you elaborate a little on this, though? Never hurts to know one's weaknesses--e.g., what circumstances allow for a successful assassination, what does worldbind do, and such?

My biggest problem when someone attacks is usually that I don't have much mp to work with. e.g., if I'm with a group in a crypt and a necromancer decides to jump us, my biggest problem isn't that I can't undo whatever he does to the party, but that I only have 30% (though I try to keep it as high as possible...) or so to work with and, if a supplication fails, it can hurt a lot at that point. On the other hand, being with a group usually means I'm a bit safer, and given a healer's fighting ability, I do prefer that.

Any thoughts, or additional advice? And thanks for the tips you've given so far

>Mmm, never had someone go through that much to try and take me
>out, but I'll keep that in mind. I imagine this stuff happens
>more in the higher levels?

Yeah, I think that's fair to say, especially as you make friends/enemies or are caballed.

The good news: As a healer, you have more power than pretty much any single character to assist your allies and really swing the balance of cabal fighting.

The bad news: That can make you a big target.

>Heh, I already have a bunch of aliases set up, I'll be sure to
>add this one. Can you use teleportation potions when you can't
>use the supplication?

Sometimes; if you're in a place that's proof against teleportation, the potion's also no good. On the other hand, if someone's hit you with a forget or worldbind spell, you temporarily can't commune, but can still quaff a potion.

>I'll do that. I've noticed that, when curing others, sometimes
>it can take quite a few attempts to break it. What determins
>that, the skill of the inflicter, or...?

For things like poison/disease/blindness/curses, it's generally the level of the affect, which is often based on the level of the inflicter.

>>5. Keep stuff like sanctuary, protection, flight, protective
>>shield, and detect invisible active as often as you can.
>
>My biggest issue here is mp--I tried this once, and I tend to
>burn through it quickly and most supplications don't seem to
>last too long. More on this in a bit. I do always keep detect
>invis, good, and evil up, and sometimes protection. The first
>three let me know if I need to run at a glance. Heh.

The viability of this somewhat depends on your level. As you get to be higher level, you tend to have more mana and longer durations. Protection should be cheap/long enough to always keep up, though.

>That's good know. Looking through the abilities of a healer,
>it looks like there're some rather nice defenses down the
>road, and some now even. Could you elaborate a little on this,
>though? Never hurts to know one's weaknesses--e.g., what
>circumstances allow for a successful assassination, what does
>worldbind do, and such?

The helpfiles are a good start here, but in short:

- Assassinate requires that the assassin (level 35+) stalk you for a while first. This essentially means they need to be in the same area with you and unseen to you. Actually attempting the assassination will require that they be in the same room with you, like most attacks.

- Worldbind, in short, keeps you from communing for a while. You get a saving throw, and this spell may only be used to initiate combat.

>Mmm, never had someone go through that much to try and take me
>out, but I'll keep that in mind. I imagine this stuff happens
>more in the higher levels?

It depends. It's slightly less of an issue for you as an elf, since you have autosneak. If you were human, then whenever you enter a room that someone's in they get an echo to that effect. So they can just camp outside your guild with a trigger to assassinate/blackjack/etc. you whenever you walk into the room.

Even as an elf, though, you're not immune. If I'm an assassin with assassinate and I see you sitting in your guild, I might just sit there in town building up stalks, spamming "where" periodically so that I noticed when you start to leave. As soon as you do, I run out onto the road and try to get my assassinate attempt before you get too far away. By teleporting/wording/gating away, you avoid that problem entirely.

Sidenote: I think it's not possible to gate from the inside of a guild. In that case you'd probably want to teleport out, or maybe word if you're not already in your hometown. Or just roll the dice and walk out: 9 times out of 10 nobody's there. It's other 1 time you have to worry about.

>Heh, I already have a bunch of aliases set up, I'll be sure to
>add this one. Can you use teleportation potions when you can't
>use the supplication?

Depends. If you can't use the supplication because you're worldbound, or because you're out of mana, then yes, you can still use a potion. If you can't teleport because you're in a cursed room...then the potion acts exactly as if you'd communed the supplication. Until you get close to perfecting teleport, quaffing a potion has a higher chance of success. Though, a recent change is that potions can fail as well, if the magic veil thingee is too weak (or strong- I forget the terminology).

>I'll do that. I've noticed that, when curing others, sometimes
>it can take quite a few attempts to break it. What determins
>that, the skill of the inflicter, or...?

The level of the curse spell or supplication that's affecting you vs. the level of the person communing remove curse. I had in mind the gold more for stuff like healing yourself when someone makes you bleed really bad, curing disease/poison, etc. It's not as important for you, as a healer, as it is for other classes.

>My biggest issue here is mp--I tried this once, and I tend to
>burn through it quickly and most supplications don't seem to
>last too long. More on this in a bit. I do always keep detect
>invis, good, and evil up, and sometimes protection. The first
>three let me know if I need to run at a glance. Heh.

Definitely keep protection up 24/7. It should last a while. Sanc and protective shield are more expensive, but they get cheaper (and last longer) as your character increases in rank.

>That's good know. Looking through the abilities of a healer,
>it looks like there're some rather nice defenses down the
>road, and some now even. Could you elaborate a little on this,
>though? Never hurts to know one's weaknesses--e.g., what
>circumstances allow for a successful assassination, what does
>worldbind do, and such?

There are helpfiles for these, so feel free to check them out. Briefly, assassinate kills you in a single strike. The assassin needs to "stalk" you first in order to have a decent chance of success. Worldbind is an anti-paladin spell that makes it so you can't commune at all. Dispel (from a shaman) is bad for you because most of your defense comes from supplications, and shaman dispel has the potential to remove all of those.

>My biggest problem when someone attacks is usually that I
>don't have much mp to work with. e.g., if I'm with a group in
>a crypt and a necromancer decides to jump us, my biggest
>problem isn't that I can't undo whatever he does to the party,

That's pretty normal for when you're ranking. One thing you can try doing is not assisting w/ the combat and just sleeping during the battles. Just wake when your party needs to move to the next mob, or when someone needs healing. This will make your mana last longer, but has the disadvantage of preventing you from learning melee-related skills (since you're not involved in the combat).

Thank you both for the excellent information. Few quick clarifications and followups:

Autosneak is very useful indead, one thing, though. If I leave the area, does the assassinations "stalk score" or whatever reset? (My impression is it does) Also, about teleportation: is the risk of ending up somewhere dangerous far less than if I just take a gamble and step outside? I've actually had someone try the whole 'wait for you to leave the guild' thing on me for the first time, but I escaped with barely a scratch. I can see how it would be more dangerous with some, but is the risk of ending up in a room full of undead that want to discuss the finer points of mortal transition with me worth it?

Gate can't be used from within the guild or a temple. Same with teleportation and similar abilities, isn't it?

As far as defenses go, recent experimentation shows that I can maintain them more easily now, thus I'll take your advice.

When ranking, I'm usually already resting during battles. But eh, them's the breaks.

>Thank you both for the excellent information. Few quick
>clarifications and followups:
>
>Autosneak is very useful indead, one thing, though. If I leave
>the area, does the assassinations "stalk score" or whatever
>reset?

Nope, doesn't reset. Bear in mind that much is this is speculation, since I haven't seen the code, but I think I have a "decent" handle on how it works. "Stalk" is a command the assassin can use once every two hours. In order to stalk you he has to be able to see you on "where", so he has to be in the same area to stalk. Being seen by you can reduce or eliminate his stalk total. It also decays with time. However, if he stalks you in town then he can still reap the benefit of those stalks right after you leave town (usually to assassinate you).

>is the risk of ending up somewhere dangerous far less than if
>I just take a gamble and step outside?

Depends on a few things. Rank is one. A hero healer has a lot less to fear from a "bad" teleport than does a lower ranked healer. However, it's possible to teleport directly into death traps, so the hero healer can still die that way. Teleporting is somewhat less dangerous for healers compared to other classes because they get alot of built-in damage reduction and lag protection (i.e. fly and protective shield). So if you do teleport into some aggressive mob, you have a better chance than some other classes do of being able to word or flee/teleport away.

That said, you don't have a ton to fear from hiding classes outside of assassinate. If a thief jacks you, you can probably last long enough to word. Ditto with assassin. So in that sense, the risk is low. But the assassins know that too, so they will probably be trying for the assassinate.

I was exagerrating a little bit when I said, "never ever walk out of your guild". Another tip: keep "nofollow" up whenever you're not grouped.

>Gate can't be used from within the guild or a temple. Same
>with teleportation and similar abilities, isn't it?

You can teleport/word out of a guild. Not sure what you mean by temple. A shrine? In general, I think you can word/teleport of shrines as well.

>Depends on a few things. Rank is one. A hero healer has a
>lot less to fear from a "bad" teleport than does a lower
>ranked healer. However, it's possible to teleport directly
>into death traps, so the hero healer can still die that way.
>Teleporting is somewhat less dangerous for healers compared to
>other classes because they get alot of built-in damage
>reduction and lag protection (i.e. fly and protective shield).
> So if you do teleport into some aggressive mob, you
>have a better chance than some other classes do of being able
>to word or flee/teleport away.

I think I'll try to stick to more predictable methods of travel, at least for now. Or just gool old running. Heh. I did teleport to get out once, ended up being lost but safe at least.

>That said, you don't have a ton to fear from hiding classes
>outside of assassinate. If a thief jacks you, you can
>probably last long enough to word. Ditto with assassin. So
>in that sense, the risk is low. But the assassins know that
>too, so they will probably be trying for the assassinate.
>
>I was exagerrating a little bit when I said, "never ever walk
>out of your guild". Another tip: keep "nofollow" up whenever
>you're not grouped.

I rolled a 10. Only, I didn't even need to step out of my guild :P

Biggest problem is my hometown seems to be a popular spot to level. When recalling, I need to make sure I have every defense possible up, and even then, if people of a certain fighting technique are there, I can be finished in under 10 seconds :x

Speaking of which, is there /any/ place which is safe and I can let my guard down a bit? (Learned the hard and fast way the Inn isnt :P) It's kind of troublesome (and tiresome) to be paranoid every second and to maintain every level of defense possible at all times...

>You can teleport/word out of a guild. Not sure what you mean
>by temple. A shrine? In general, I think you can
>word/teleport of shrines as well.

Nah, meant temples, like the Temple of Galadon, for example. Can't seem to gate into or out of those. As it turns out, teleport and word both work though, as was mentioned.

One more question...This amount of dying has me thinking. What happens when you run out of training sessions and practices? Just have to take it unless you can convince an imm to run a vit quest? Or is there another way (that is, aside from ranking and converting from practices) to get trains or such and maintain con at a high level?

Of course, most people still can't seem to really hurt me, but there's one or two that are good at it and do ridiculous amounts of damage... and with the occasional death from ranking, my con falls from time to time...On the other hand maybe I can survive them now that I've learned absolutely nowhere is safe :P

>I did teleport to get out once, ended up being lost but safe at
>least.

That's actually sort of a nice bonus to teleporting as a new player. You get thrown into areas you've never seen before, and may not have found outside of a random teleport.

>Biggest problem is my hometown seems to be a popular spot to
>level. When recalling, I need to make sure I have every
>defense possible up, and even then, if people of a certain
>fighting technique are there, I can be finished in under 10
>seconds :x

Unless someone is waiting right at your pit, you should be able to recall and duck into your guild before they notice you're there and attack. That is, assuming you're able to enter the guild without having to wait for you adrenaline to settle.

>Speaking of which, is there /any/ place which is safe and I
>can let my guard down a bit?

In general, no. Some ideas:

1. If you're a healer, then in your guild. An enemy healer can come in and attack you, but healers don't have much to fear from other solo healers.

2. In the Inn of the Eternal Star. You can't be stalked there, and the bouncers will attack anyone who attacks you. That said, the bouncers aren't a huge deterrent for characters at higher levels.

3. In a protected city when there's a visible Tribunal on duty in that city. This will dissuade many people from attacking you, but not all.

4. In the middle of nowhere. It's the old "security through obscurity" concept. If someone can't find you then he can't attack you.

5. Areas with restricted entrance. Maybe the only way into an area (or into a particular part of an area) is with a certain key, and you have the only instance of that key. There are a couple of places like this. Since you can locate objects, you can tell who else has an instance of the key needed to reach your location. (The chess board is like this.)

6. In your deity's shrine. Especially if you get tatoo'd and gain access to the inner sanctum. Though, realize that your deity will almost surely frown on you using the shrine as a place to hide from enemies.

>What happens when you run out of training sessions and practices?

When you're out you're out, short of being given extra CON or practices by an imm. There's a quest that's rumored to give extra trains, but my limited experience suggests it's ridiculously hard to figure out.

The best way to maintain high constitution is to not die very often and to save all your "extra" trains for the purpose of boosting CON instead of HP or another stat.

>Unless someone is waiting right at your pit, you should be
>able to recall and duck into your guild before they notice
>you're there and attack. That is, assuming you're able to
>enter the guild without having to wait for you adrenaline to
>settle.

Or if they've killed the guard and show up right on your tail :P

>In general, no. Some ideas:
>
>1. If you're a healer, then in your guild. An enemy healer
>can come in and attack you, but healers don't have much to
>fear from other solo healers.
>
>2. In the Inn of the Eternal Star. You can't be stalked
>there, and the bouncers will attack anyone who attacks you.
>That said, the bouncers aren't a huge deterrent for characters
>at higher levels.

Doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent to those that are 30+ and know what they're doing. Ditto to the guild.

>3. In a protected city when there's a visible Tribunal on duty
>in that city. This will dissuade many people from attacking
>you, but not all.

It's those one or two that don't care that I'm worried about. Call me paranoid, but it's happened already.

>4. In the middle of nowhere. It's the old "security through
>obscurity" concept. If someone can't find you then he can't
>attack you.

Works, only you still need to be vigilant in case someone does happen to find you.

>5. Areas with restricted entrance. Maybe the only way into an
>area (or into a particular part of an area) is with a certain
>key, and you have the only instance of that key. There are a
>couple of places like this. Since you can locate objects, you
>can tell who else has an instance of the key needed to reach
>your location. (The chess board is like this.)

Hmm. Abilities that allow one to pass through doors?

>6. In your deity's shrine. Especially if you get tatoo'd and
>gain access to the inner sanctum. Though, realize that your
>deity will almost surely frown on you using the shrine as a
>place to hide from enemies.

Not inclined to upset her, and it's in the middle of nowhere anyway :P

>When you're out you're out, short of being given extra CON or
>practices by an imm. There's a quest that's rumored to give
>extra trains, but my limited experience suggests it's
>ridiculously hard to figure out.
>
>The best way to maintain high constitution is to not die very
>often and to save all your "extra" trains for the purpose of
>boosting CON instead of HP or another stat.

Been saving them just for that purpose. Now I just need to figure out how to survive those one or two people that can kill me...

>Or if they've killed the guard and show up right on your tail.

Oh yeah. Forgot where you probably recall to. Hmm. In that case, just teleport if you word and see unfriendlies in town.

>Doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent to those that are 30+
>and know what they're doing. Ditto to the guild.

With the guild, the guildguard is just supposed to serve as a delay. Unless they tigerclaw/hurl throat you'll hear the guy yell, which is your cue to get out of dodge. This assumes the guildguard was actually there when you entered the guild.

>Works, only you still need to be vigilant in case someone does
>happen to find you.

True. There are some areas, though, where you could probably sit for hours and never encounter another PC.

>Hmm. Abilities that allow one to pass through doors?

Some doors can't be passed through w/ passdoor. Afaik chess board is one of them, but there are others as well.

What's this chessboard thing, exactly? :)

It's an area where people often rank in the 20-25 range.

Well, since this thread is already a barrage of questions, let me ask yet another :P

Is there a good way to get involved with people in a noncombative manner, aside from joining a cabal (considering this option, but a little hesitant with what I've heard)? There've been a few things here and there, but mostly it's 1) running from people that don't like healers and 2) grouping to rank, which is fine since I get new abilities, sometimes make a few friends, and don't have to worry about #1 as much, but gets a little old.

There are some central areas people go to RP. The Inn is a main one, though I think the Herald population is a little slim right now. Heralds, btw, have cabal abilities that allow them to protect the bar, tossing combatents out and such. While joining a cabal like Fortress does throw you in the middle of PK and raiding situations, it also opens up a LOT of RP opportunities for you. Suddenly you have 30 some friends who instantly know you're an ally and a friend. Also, getting some sort of title (such as Acolyte of the Golden Sun) draws a lot of RP to you as people will come to you for help and such often.

That raises an interesting question...What's the approximate population of each cabal?

Also, what sort of help? If people want to know where to quest/rank/whatever, I might not be the best source :P

>Also, what sort of help? If people want to know where to
>quest/rank/whatever, I might not be the best source :P

Its often:
Help I am stuck [in a deathtrap|behind a locked door|in an
unknown area] with [mobs|evils] nearby and will soon die due
to [starvation|thirst|bleeding|alcohol poisoning] because I
[took the wrong turn|had a bad teleport|had a mean ranking
group]...
Please help me!

Or something like that. :p

I certainly enjoyed these encounters with my healer back then.
Actually I was always hoping to get more of them. ;)

Hmm, that I could go for if I could gate to the person--I can
find my way to most cities and Rayihn's shrine but not much
more than that, heh heh. For now, anyway...

I'd heartily recommend joining a cabal if one seems appropriate for your character.

Downside: You will get killed a lot more than you would as an independent. I won't sugar-coat that.

Upside: You'll also learn a lot more/faster, for various reasons. You'll see a lot more conflict, which is a good teacher. You'll have a lot of like-minded and often more experienced players around that you can ask questions, and generally people will be inclined to help you out some. You'll need to help other people (either in the classic "I'm stuck in an avalanche in the Jade Mountains and I sure could use your help" sense and in the "I'm a member of your cabal and I need help doing X" sense). In all these things, if you keep your eyes open, you'll learn a lot.

I grant you, you can learn a lot with an intentionally independent character, too, but I think you'll benefit more from that once you've seen the inside of a cabal and have a better idea what kinds of questions you should be asking, if that makes any sense.

>1. As a healer, never walk somewhere when you can gate.
>Never, ever walk out of your guild after having sat in it for
>any length of time. Ditto for cabal. And your deity's
>shrine.

It is good to remember the keywords for the low level mobs in locations where you want to go to. Note that you can also use multiple keywords for defining the gating target, for example 'co gate box turtle' is handy for going to Azreth wood, while 'co gate white hare' takes you to Forest of Prosimy.

It's also worth noting that you can gate in combat. This probably shouldn't ever be your first plan of escape, since gate is a lot of mana and any target, even a low level NPC, potentially could make its saving throw to resist the gate, but sometimes it's the only choice.

I've got an old, old log somewhere on another computer, of playing a healer and trying to fight an assassin/warrior/A-P group, only to be hit with curse, entwine, and blindness (dust) in the first round of combat. I survived that by alternating healing myself as much as necessary to stay alive with trying to cure the blindness until I could gate out of there. There's not a lot of characters that have even the potential to survive a situation like that (short of just being tough enough to beat all three away), but a healer definitely can.

Also keep in mind that people can summon your gate mobs to a nasty place and wait there (with friends) for you to gate to them.

Yeah but how would they know what mob you're gating to?

Often you really wouldn't know. It's more a concern of the paranoid.

On the other hand, if you keep seeing an out of place chicken on the road in Imperial Lands or outside the Fortress or whatever, people have been known to put two and two together.

There are some pretty commonly used mobs for various cities. Also, someone might have witnessed you gating to a mob in the past. Perhaps while hidden. So then they get a summoner pal, go find a locked room, and summon *all* the camels, happy drunks, snow badgers, etc. into the room with them. Then wait.

Amusing mental image.

Huh. Very good to know. I thought you could only gate to players. I'll keep those words of caution in mind, though.

Edit: Can you gate with curse, or does that need to be removed as well?

Pretty sure you can. Shouldn't be that hard to test- just get another healer to curse you.

Gating to mobs is perhaps the most useful aspect of that commune. Though, you want to choose low-level mobs since you fail a lot less often. And you want them to be as uniquely named as possible. "co gate boy" probably isn't going to take you to the "boy" you intended.

It also works well with summoners. If you wan to be able to get somewhere quick, but there aren't any low-level mobs nearby, just have the summoner guy summon something. The flip side of that is that enemy summoners can try to summon your gate mobs out of their normal locations in order to set up a trap.

You can gate cursed.

However, since you need to see what you're gating to, you can't gate blind, in the general case.