Need Provocation Advice

Hey, folks.

I've enjoyed my time on UO:R very much so far! Thank you all for having created and maintained this community.

I'm posting here as part-journal, part-inquiry. I could use some advice/pointers.

I've been having a great time developing my first character through play and exploration. In other words, the 'naturalist' way: not running Razor, not running UOAM, and not gaining skills through automated macros/loops/whatever they are called.

So -- (deep breath) -- I'm looking for advice that keeps such a playstyle in mind! I'd like to gain skills at a decent pace *without* disrupting that gameplay.

My hope is that this character will wind up being a decent adventurer but also feature some additional utility.

Ideally, it'll build up a lot of money by collecting hides and oak, selling a good sum of them but saving most of them (and other resources) to build up my next character.

My most enjoyable experiences so far have been had via provocation. Goading an orcish lord to fight an orcish mage, helping the lord by taking my axe to the mage -- it's been awesome. Lately I've started playing tambourine/using anatomy while whiddling both down. That's helped my skill gains tremendously. Then, after the battle, a bit of looting and logging.

So. Much. Fun.

Anyway, I'm currently working towards the following build, but not opposed to changing it up:

Musicianship
Provocation
Swordsmanship
Lumberjacking
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing

Nothing too flashy. Just a PvM naturalist.

If memory serves, I'm at 69.1 musicianship and 56.5 provocation. My musicianship has been increasing much faster than my provocation. The character's a decent fighter in its own rite now, but struggles against casters.

So, where should I be hunting? I frequent orc forts, graveyards (esp. ones with mummies), and the Desert of Compassion.

My gains are decent, but I love exploring more than anything -- what places/monsters do y'all recommend for someone at my level?

You may want to try level one shame, earth elementals and scorpions. Or the top levels of despise for lizardmen (spined hides sell well) and ettins, earth eles. Also the harpy rooms in covetous would be good for gains, if you see a green one I'd probably run though.

Thanks, Holden! The harpy room was enjoyable. I found Gamyun. It was whipping up on me, but another player showed up at just the right time. We brought her down together!

I'll be sure to check out the others. I've recently found a spot full of ratmen by going through the orc fort at compassion. The cave leads to a forested area full of ratmen; those woods have been very good to me. Magic items, gold, skill gains, and spined leather!

Beware... something Wicked this way comes.

My kind of player! Welcome and glad to hear of your playing style. That's pretty much the same style as I prefer. I still play on my 'adventurer' all the time. I find that although there are other ways to make more gold per hour, I don't enjoy them as much as just exploring with my provoker swords mage.

And one of these days I will actually take up PVP…

I would agree on level one Shame as well as any of the dungeons at level one just exploring them as deep as you can with your current skill levels would be fun enough!

Of course beware of those murderous players. Bank early and bank often!

You are always going to struggle against casters since you dont have resist in your template.

That's a good point, Surfrats! But, I'm not entirely certain what to drop in its place. I've considered sacrificing Healing for Magery. My healing is 40, and Magery 50. Magery would, at least, allow me a quick escape... but I just love bandages. *shrug*

Ahh--! I knew I should have let that raw bird turn a few more times before eating it...

(stomach grumbles) urgg..

In this instance I would suggest dropping LJ for resist.

You can survive just fine in pvm with a non resist Provo char. You just need to go slow and always have the casters fighting something else. Keep in mind you have 15 available slots for characters, you can roll another Provo with resist if you choose. Lj is one of the hardest skills to raise, so don't be quick to drop it.

I veeery much enjoy killing things with spined leather and then doing some logging, and I also think that you're correct in eventually needing Resist.

What I *might* do is take Musicianship and Provocation up to a point, possibly grandmastered (or something like 75 each), and then begin slowly dropping them in favor of 100 Resist, 60 Magery and 40 *something*.

The Magery would be utilitarian, I suppose, mostly for Recall. If I take up Poisoning, would that amp up the effect of the Poison spell (and, if it does, would it be worth it?)?

I suppose that the final build for this character would then look like...

Lumberjacking
Swordsmanship
Tactics
Anatomy
Healing
Resisting Spells
60 Magery

40... Something:
Tracking?
Hiding?
Poisoning? (Is the dip worth it for the Poison spell, as well as applying poison?)
Alchemy (since I will be using regs predominantly for Recall and stat pots are generally nice, esp. if I take up balanced stats ie. >100 STR)?

Swinging so slowly, one of my problems with casters is that they heal themselves.

Cowards! *wink*

In any case, Poisoning -- even with low damage and easily cured poisons -- seems a good means for disrupting that healing (especially if Poisoning affects the poison spell as low as 40).

Could just switch to Magery... the damage add with LJ can be argued as it isn't as much as you'd think. Also, you wouldn't necessarily be sacrificing skill points for travel.

Lumberjacking
Musicianship
Provocation
Magery
Evaluate Intelligence
Meditation

Last skill is up to you... for example resisting spells, hiding, ... poisoning... ooo carpentry. Yeah, you'd be a very unique carpenter/woodsman/bard that's for sure.

As Holden stated, it comes down to how careful you can be. If you dont hunt magical mobs, then resist doesnt matter. Plenty of things you can hunt that dont cast spells.

If you *DO* decide to take your last 100 skillpoints to spread, I would only take 30 magery and do 70 hiding or something. 60 magery isnt really functionally different than 30, as you will really only be doing it for the recall. At 60 you will still fizzle 5th circle spells so you cant reliably count on it for that. The hiding could prove more useful. You wont be casting poison, as many of the higher level mobs would be resisting it anyway. You could have another character do poisoning and poison your weapons, but that will degrade their durability very quickly.

With Imbol being my only character for now, I've come up with the following.

Keeping Naturalist play/RP/PvM/resource harvesting in mind (and using Magery primarily for recall/1-4th circle utility), I think that I'm going to test the following build as I become more capable:

100.0 Healing
100.0 Anatomy
100.0 Resisting Spells
100.0 Tactics
100.0 Swordsmanship
85.0 Lumberjacking
70.0 Magery
45.0 Poisoning

I'd be using a double axe primarily, which cannot be poisoned. I suppose I'd have to carry around a few poisoned katanas, and that's fine.

I'll give up 3 points of bonus damage with sub-GM lumberjacking, but I still get to harvest oak. Sweet, sweet oak.

Throwing poison into the mix makes up for that lost damage, however, plus more: even crappy poison adds the same 2 or 3 damage when successfully applied, the damage seems to tick quicker than I swing, and the degen effect prevents healing. Pretty nice!

I considered the pitfalls of weaker poisons but, based on what that I've read, poison is just... a big problem to GM and not even that great when GMed. So, I think I'll embrace the "nag" effect of poison. I'll poison myself sometimes, but that just adds to the "nag" fun.

Regarding Magery, I've always stuck to the earlier circles. While the later ones pack a punch, I really enjoy the utility of the earlier spells versus the later spells (which seem to be more suited toward straight-up mages). Depending on the practicality of Mana Drain (one of two 4th circle spells I care about), I'm considering dropping Magery down to 60. I'd limit myself to 3rd circle spells and use scrolls for Recall, which is okay by me. The remaining 10 points would go in Poisoning. Since I'll be poisoning in the field/on the fly, the higher skill lending itself to a higher rate of success should help tremendously.

As far as stats go, I guess mine would have to be more balanced. I reckon I'll need 100 STR regardless, but I'm not sure how to distribute INT and DEX. I'd read that DEX affects bandaging time and I have a feeling that I'll eventually become reliant on having maybe like 45 or 50 INT, so I may drop Healing eventually.

If all this fails, I'll default to y'alls advice. But, I love experimenting and this seems like a fun bit of quirk.

Perhaps, one day, I'll have come up with a 'Samus' sort of build. I think that's what I'm going for here!

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful responses. ^_^

Experiment away, but remember that you can use up to 15 characters, and that it may be better to distribute these skills over a few chars rather than trying to put everything onto one.

The *most* important thing is having fun.

For sure! I'll get there eventually, with specialized characters and all.

But I have a feeling that this one will wind up being pretty fun. ^_^

Hi Imbol,

Your play style reminds me of the first year or so of UO. Walking everywhere and killing everything I could find!


It sounds like you have decided to take the hits yourself instead of barding monster to monster and going for a straight up LJ warrior..

If you don't mind, I have a few points to make out,

* At 85 LJ you will still fail a lot on oak
* 75 magery is so close but yet so far from being able to gate and gates are great for when you have collected too much lumber and need to get it to safety ( about 250 boards to too heavy)
* Casting poison might be a better use of time especially if you can use the skill elsewhere.


100.0 Healing
100.0 Anatomy
100.0 Resisting Spells
100.0 Tactics
100.0 Swordsmanship
100.0 Lumberjacking - maximize damage and logging
100.0 Magery - gate ability and possibly summon minions to help you take down large foe.


Stats 90/90/45 - use bless to summon.

Props for choosing this playstyle! I haven’t done it yet but I may do it in the future. The reason I did not op for this my first characters, is I did a lot of in high school and I just wanted to get my characters back to the way I had them and go from there .

Can't stress this enough.

Pleased to meet you, Nusir! I do think I'll wind up going 90/90/45.

According to the Compendium, 70 Magery confers an 84.75% chance of success at casting 7th level spells from a scroll. I'd considered 70 valuable because it guarantees success at casting 4th level spells from a book, and reliable success at casting 7th level spells from a scroll.

But, you've raised a good point! I've looked over the scroll chart more closely, and I see that 75.0 Magery confers a 97.25% chance of success. If it doesn't make too much of an impact, I'll lower Poisoning to 40 and increase Magery to 75.

In any case, I can carry a few scrolls with me -- my Jokers; gate travel, flamestrike, etc..

Regarding oak, thank you @Nusir and @Mexplosivo for the advice!

Do either of you know the success rates or what that scale generally looks like?

For instance,

85.0 = 50% success and 100.0 = 70% success?,
*or*
85.0 = 30% success and 100.0 = 100% success?, etc.

If there's only like a ~20% differential, I may just stay on the lower end, around 85. I couldn't find anything on the Compendium.

While I like the ability to harvest oak, I don't intend to be a forester. Yet, in that same vein, I don't want to wail uselessly at oak trees.

Finally, the Poison spell: it was my understanding that the spell would be resisted far more than the weapon would fail to successfully apply the poison. But, I may be wrong! I'm not sure. I'll certainly still cast the spell, but it sounded like the weapon would be pretty reliable by comparison.

Apologies to the mods if this is getting too far from the OP. Although this thread began as an inquiry related to barding, it's become an extremely helpful avenue for guidance that's allowed me to evolve this character.

This has all been really helpful advice. I'm happy that the community would produce such a show of good faith to a newcomer like myself. Thanks, again, to everyone -- all y'all! -- for your thoughts.

But, this is UO, and all good things must come to an end -- this experience has been so positive that I'm *sure* that 3 PKs lie right around the corner.