Newbie Cleric's Guide by Vainamoinen This guide is meant to be a quick introduction to the cleric 'class' and provide some insight to what a newbie cleric should practice. In the earlier versions of MUME, clerics were somewhere between warriors and mages in physical and mental power. MUME 7 however removed much of clerics' physical power and ability to practice weapon skills. While writing this, there are not as many clerics playing as there used to be. That is not to say that cleric is a bad choice, on the contrary. Clerics are still essential for many tasks and it's not hard to find a group that needs one. Chapter 1 - Why a cleric? Chapter 2 - What skills to learn first? Chapter 3 - Defensive spells and hit points Chapter 4 - Hit points and movement points Chapter 5 - Transportation spells Chapter 6 - Equipment Chapter 1 - Why a cleric? ========================= Clerics have the best mobility in the game. We can use the Breath of Briskness spell better than anyone else, and we can heal ourselves if we get hurt. Chapter 2 - What skills to learn first? ======================================= Before you learn anything else, you should go to a ranger and practice ride, swim and climb. Being a quite good rider makes it a lot easier to move around; the other two skills let you reach some places that would otherwise be inaccessible. It is not necessary to learn any weapon skill as a cleric. You can practice some parry at a warrior guild to improve your defense at low level, but later on, if you devote time to learning warrior or thief skills, your abilities as a cleric will be reduced. The following spells are more or less a must, and you can practice them at low levels: Shield (mage spell), Create food, Bless, Blindness, Strength, Sense life, Remove poison, Breath of Briskness. Once you master these you can be of great help for other classes while getting more levels. Blindness and Breath of briskness (bob) should be practised to maximum soon as you can, while others are fine at around 40-60%. Chapter 3 - Defensive spells and hit points =========================================== Spells that improve your defense are Armour, Shield and Bless. Armour, as the name suggests, adds to your absorbtion percentage so that when you get hit, it does not hurt quite as much as it would otherwise. Shield adds to your dodge bonus, which is very useful in completely avoiding some of the hits. Both of these spells can only be casted on yourself, and are taught at mage guilds. Bless is a cleric spell which can also be casted on others; it gives a small boost to your parry and offensive bonuses. Another way to survive longer is to practice Endurance in a warrior guild: this skill improves your hit point total and the rate at which you regain hit and movement points. Again, be careful not to destroy your clerical abilities by practicing too much in a warrior guild. Chapter 4 - Hit points and movement points ========================================== For offensive spells (to be practised after level 10) you have two choices. You can play a pure cleric with only clerical attack spells, Harm and Dispel evil, or you can mix them with one or more mage spells. Cleric spells are powerful enough to fight at high levels, so if you are not sure, it is a safe choice to only practice them. No matter what offensive spell you are going to get, make sure you practice it as high as you can. This is also true for other high level spells mentioned here: Dispel Evil, level 12 The damage from this spell depends on your alignment, the target's align, and the zone align. For maximum damage cast it on a very evil mobile in a very good zone while having very good align. Heal, level 14 This will heal a lot (150+ at high level) of hit points from anyone it is cast on. It is a must for all clerics. It will also heal the first wound listed on the target, not necessarily the worst. Use Cure Critical if you want to heal the worst wound. Harm, level 15 This is also used by almost all clerics. It is an offensive spell causing a great deal of damage. The funny thing about this spell is that it will never take hitpoints below 1, so it is impossible to kill anything with this spell alone. Sanctuary, level 18 This spell will protect you or someone else against the most damaging attacks; however, it does not affect small wounds. When you cast it at high level, it is very useful against big supermobs. The effect of this spell is better if you (the caster) have high wisdom, and the target has high willpower. Chapter 5 - Transportation spells ================================= If you don't know areas very well, you should practice Word of Recall. This spell will take you to the nearest "safe" place defined by the builder of the area. It can be handy when you get lost mapping a new area. Once you are high level and know your ways around, you really don't need any transport spells for yourself. At least, I don't. Get Transfer if you want to be helpful and transfer other people though. Chapter 6 - Equipment ===================== Clerics are usually stronger than mages, so they sometimes have two options when it comes to clothing. The most common one is to wear light leather equipment to get maximum dodge bonus, and the other one is to wear metal armour. I would not suggest using metals until you are experienced enough to acquire good metal equipment and know the benefits and losses you get with them. As for weaponry, you should use the heaviest weapon you are comfortable with. Longswords are a good choice - none of that nonsense about not shedding blood. One alternative for the traditional weaponry is to use bows. You don't need any additional skills to do it if you blind your opponents first. I have written a whole separate book on the subject, copies should be available in various libraries. If you have questions, feel free to write and ask.