[Skill] Parry

[Selveem]

I'm curious if Parry is supposed to work well.

I am apprentice and I have parried twice since having trained it up to Apprentice (this is accurate, I actually searched through the entirety of my logs).

Since training it, I've spent the better part of my time catching up on all the different TV series I watch and randomly hitting 'kill mob.' This has amounted to almost a full OOC day's worth of training thanks to as many episodes as I am behind.

More than anything, I wanted to see Riposte work. Of course, I don't think I'll ever see Riposte skill work because I almost never see Parry work. I was curious if others are seeing this as well?

[Horace]

It's been toned down a lot.

I'm not privy to the reasoning. But the way I see it, is that it isn't a staple in pen and paper, and in my mind, therefore, unimportant. I don't think it's terrible for flavor seeing it now or then, but I don't think it should be as prevalent as it use to be. I remember parry being so often done that mundane weapons stunk because you'd parry them into oblivion.

I guess my point is, AC already reflects parry/dodge/shieldwork - and I'm not really heartbroken that they have been lessened with the advent of this new AC system that seems to work very well.

But yes. It ain't your daddy's parry!

[Selveem]

Hm, but the problem is it's almost impossible to train Riposte then.

[Horace]

With passive skills this, at least for me, is less of a concern than things like disarm. Where you literally have to work at it. I get what you're saying though.

[Erwyth]

I personally would not mind seeing dodge / parry removed. As stated, anything that has to do with defense in combat comes from armour class. It is considered all encompassing.

If its a balancing issue, perhaps we could find some small way to work around it?

[Harroghty]

I find that almost all of this category of skills (parry, dodge, shieldwork, riposte) work fine, but at a reduced chance of success then they might have previously functioned at. Riposte is the exception in my experience. I do not believe it to be case that a lack of successful parries limit your opportunity - I think it's just broken. (For a long time you riposted against yourself when an opponent parried.)
Contrary to Erwyth's opinion that these skills could be removed: If any change were to make sense for this category of skills ( again parry, dodge, shieldwork, riposte) it would be to change riposte away from a riposte (which applies, in this case, to only thrusting weapons) to counterattack. The traditional mantra of the German school of "historical armed combat" (this is what we're calling swordplay and the use of weapons from the Middle Ages and Renaissance these days) is attack, parry, counterattack. This is seen throughout the manuals by men like Hans Talhoffer and Johannes Liechtenauer. Skills like this contribute to balancing the classes by enhancing the melee combat abilities of those classes for whom they are available.

[Glim]

Shieldwork does nothing, as far as I have been told, since the update on defence and AC. Either you are using a shield, and it adds to your AC, or you aren't and it doesn't.

It would be nice to see a higher shieldwork skill giving you a higher bonus from shields.

[Horace]

It changed again recently (maybe 2 months?) where now you get blocked attacks again.

[Harroghty]

Yes, of late, shieldwork does work (you see the old "You take your opponents attack on your shield" echo).
It works at the decreased chance of success much like other defensive skills but it does work.

[Selveem]

The turn-out of this thread hasn't been anything like what I'd expected, but I guess that's fine all the same.

Re: Original question:

Does parry even work now?

Re: Skill removal:

If you take away parry and riposte (sub of parry) and add counter-attack, that'd be far stronger IMO. You really want a greatblade wielding Centaur or Wemic smacking you when you try to attack them? I don't know about you, but I don't. Ow. Personally speaking, I think people should concentrate less on the removal of things as a whole.

[Horace]

Does parry even work now?

Yes, it works. Just much slower than what you're use to.

[Nysan]

No reason to remove passive skills just because they were reduced in usage in response to the new AC system.

Parry does work, Gilain parried 3 times yesterday. *shrug*

[Harroghty]

For clarity: I do not want anything removed. And the suggestion to modify riposte is nothing anyone needs to focus on. That was just food for thought. I believe there to be many more important issues than this.

[Erwyth]

"Being the bad guy": I don't care if it stays or goes, I'm just going off of core rules. I was not seeking to get it removed. But, this goes back to the age old, FK vs FR rules. I joined this mud believing it was a D&D 3.5 mud, as stated on TMC.

Like I said, if parry, shieldwork, dodge are balances issues then what are we balancing against? Rogues vs Warriors vs Rangers ? The overwhelmingly powerful cleric also gets dodge / parry as well?

"On topic": Maybe parry could have a feat introduced? Improved statistics.

[Selveem]

I'm not so sure those two parry attempts I got were even from the skill.

I've noticed that it is possible to parry an attack even as a class without the skill.

Just today, my Cleric (who I should add doesn't have parry) parried an attack.

[Nysan]

I'm not so sure those two parry attempts I got were even from the skill.

I've noticed that it is possible to parry an attack even as a class without the skill.

Just today, my Cleric (who I should add doesn't have parry) parried an attack.

Unless I am totally off, all characters have basic ability to do several passive skills. They have a very, very, small percentage of success though. Parry, dodge, and haggle for example. *shrug*