by GDEXXY » Aug 8, 2003 (4:58 pm)
This is part of a private reply that I thought you'd all like to see to help improve your ability to learn certain skills:
The chance to dodge, parry, or block an attack is completely random. We are still 100% based on an Armor Rating system and it's either hit or miss. If it's miss, we randomly determine why (parry? dodge? block?) and then add a little bit of skill XP for whichever happen. Then after a while, skill ranks are added into your armor rating directly, not as a side pool of dodge, parry, and block abilities. Therefor, two duplicate copies of yourself doing the exact same activites and having the exact same combat encounters with just slightly different outcomes can easily have varying differences in defensive combat skills, though overall, the sum of those skills should be about the same.
The following tips will *greatly* improve your ability to learn skills, even though there is some randomness involved:
Armor: wear your armor, fight difficult creatures, do not use a shield, do not use a weapon, try to avoid any bonuses that add to your armor rating. You want to get hit as frequently as possible so that you better understand how to use your armor to your advantage. Fight multiple creatures at a time if you can handle it, as it will help speed things along. You could also consider using a cheaper version of the armor type (Light, Medium, Heavy) that protects for less, to lower your overall armor rating and thus help you get hit more frequently.
Block: wear your armor, fight creatures easy enough for you to almost never get hit -- but that will still teach you skills, use your shield in your left hand, do not have a weapon in your right hand. Try to acquire any extra bonuses that add to your armor rating. You want to get hit as seldom as possible so that you are constantly either dodging or blocking attacks (randomly either). Without a weapon, you have a 0% chance to parry, thus helping your Block skill. Fight multiple creatures at a time if you can handle it, as it will help speed things along.
Parry: wear your armor, fight creatures easy enough for you to almost never get hit -- but that will still teach you skills, use your weapon in your right hand (and one in your left if you like, but it doesnt help your chances unless you're a Barbarian with the Parry feat/ability), do not use a shield. Try to acquire any extra bonuses that add to your armor rating. You want to get hit as seldom as possible so that you are constantly either dodging or parrying attacks (randomly either). Without a shield, you have a 0% chance to block, thus helping your Parry skill. Fight multiple creatures at a time if you can handle it, as it will help speed things along.
Dodge: wear your armor, fight creatures easy enough for you to almost never get hit -- but that will still teach you skills, do not use a weapon, do not use a shield. Try to acquire any extra bonuses that add to your armor rating. You want to get hit as seldom as possible so that you are constantly dodging attacks. Without a shield or weapon, you have a 0% chance to block or parry, thus helping your Dodge skill a lot. Fight multiple creatures at a time if you can handle it, as it will help speed things along.