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(4.15) Swimming --------------- Some very light characters can swim without losing hit points occasionally ('drowning). The weight limit includes equipment, backpack and the character's weight itself. For example an elf has no problems swimming through deep water. The heavier a character gets, the more often he will get a 'tick' of drowning inflicted on him, reducing his hit points. This is a continuous process that scales from 'no damage at all' at very low total weight to serious drowning for really heavily packed characters. Undead characters take only half as much drowning damage. During swimming, you might get other negative side effects: - Inventory or equipment might take some water damage. Having a tarpaulin equipped will help your inventory, being immune to water prevents all damage. (Acquiring levitation is the simplest way of avoiding this, as you won't touch the water at all that way.) - If your Strength isn't sustained you might get it reduced sometimes due to exertion, depending on how well you can swim vs how heavy you and your backpack are. This STR drain is temporary and will automatically get restored after a while (same as from tier I stat drain traps basically). As a side note, even if your character has no special powers and is bad at swimming, drowning and exertion can still both be avoided if you happen to carry a massive piece of wood in your inventory. In this case you will be able to just cling to it with minimal effort. Carrying such a big wood block around with you is usually not a feasible way to go on dungeoneering though.... Most races are too heavy to be able to swim perfectly out of the box, and even low-weight races will run into trouble when they store things in their backpack or wear a couple of items. However, this is often not a big problem because even though a character may not be able to swim perfectly, it'll still be sufficient to cross large rivers without taking much of a dip in hit points, if he isn't carrying or wearing a load of heavy items. If you're really too heavy and want to operate in watery surroundings though? Here are ways to improve your swimming capabilities: ---------------------------------------------------- Constitution or being undead (includes mimicked monster forms) will reduce the hit point damage, but not the drowning tick frequency. Strength and dexterity will randomly reduce the tick frequency but are still no guarantee for perfect swimming. The 'Swimming' skill is the easiest choice to reduce tick frequency, and it does so to zero ie perfect swimming, when maxed. at 0.700 you will become able to swim very fast, which can be compared to 'running' through the water in terms of speed. However, this costs precious skill points, so it's not a very popular way of getting good at crossing water. Mimics and especially druids can use an aquatic form or a form that can swim easily, and they will be able to cross water in the same way, without ever drowning. Another way is to use a form that grants wraithform or simply a form that grants levitation, which is a rather common ability. Rangers learn how to swim at great skill at level 25, Martial Arts users will be able to swim easily at a Martial Arts skill of 30.000. Ents never drown since they're made of wood, while Draconians will actually gain intrinsic levitation at level 30. Characters training the magic 'Water' or 'Nature' school will acquire water-passing at 40.000, while 'Air' school grants levitation at 50.000. Other characters can rely on items that grant levitation, swimming (rare), or wraithform (by spell or item) to become able to cross water easily. Levitation is definitely the most popular choice, since you can 'fly' over water quickly. Wraithform is as good as levitation, but hard to acquire. In short: Obtaining levitation is probably the most popular way for crossing larger areas of water.
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