New Player Tips and Recommendations: The Dark Side

Was wondering if the more experienced Players would offer tips and advice in a new thread more for the Drow, Vampires, and other Shadow kin of Aenea. Even as a long time Player, I have little idea of how to guide those seeking refuge from the Sun; let alone where and what to purchase equipment that will aid survival. I have chosen not to play such races, and really never noticed much.

We had a new Player pop on the server earlier today with a Drow, and I was hard pressed to be a proper guide. Thanks for any help!

Yeah I think we have tips scattered around in various threads...

I think rusty is our best resource for this when he has the time. If I get a chance I can probably put something very basic together.

Tips for those adverse to the sun.... yeah I can do that....
TIP 1 : DO NOT GO OUT IN THE SUNLIGHT......
.. yep that pretty much sums up all you need to know....





... but on a more serious note here are a few more things to consider;
I've not played a vampire so I can't really speak for that particular subrace, but most of these tips will apply to them as well. I have extensively played both a shadowchild (since day1) and a drow (although my drow was a monk and in truth rarely ever caught outside for more then a few moments!.. she could always run to shade!).....

If you hover your mouse over the compass you'll get a quick update on the time. You can get more detailed time-info by typing ;;t into the chatbar.... Sunrise is at 6am, sunset is at 6pm. The sun will hurt you unless it is raining, stormy or snowing outside. Keep an eye on the time and the weather... and always check the time before leaving a building/cave/etc...

Drow lose 1hp per ROUND in the sun, so most outdoor adventures are easily doable if you have enough hp to spare... remember this and plan your trips out.

Shadowchildren lose 5% of MAX hp per round. As a percentage you will always lose the same proportion of your health, you can also work out if a trip outdoors is doable or not. (for Vampires this is 25%, so you have four rounds to find shelter!)....

Now onto finding shelter... this can be highly increased with good memory and by turning on the shelter option ( ;;option sunshelter) wwhich will make the entrances to any indoor area's glow all sparkly when near them, this can be a lifesaver. There are some spots which are coded to be in shadow (namely inside walkable tents or under large static shadows) and the path (and only the path!) from the Vale Asis' shrine to the front door of the SDI is also in the shade as is the entire Leaf Market area! This is a good thing to remember.

The darkness spell will (or did!) provide shade, so even if you can't see in it at least you won't get killed whilst under it (good as all drow get this spell for free)... Also the clergy of borzig can change the weather to raining to provide relief and I believe clergy of Prizimal can just outright change the day/night cycle (might have to get to back me on that last point, I'm not sure my memory is working 100%).....

OK, so now we know to avoid sunlight and to get to shelter ASAP. So what to do if we're in the middle of Calithia?... Try to carry at least one Escape potion at all times and have it on a quickslot. You never know when your going to need it!! Also there are two very special merchants for the sunhaters, one is in Vales graveyard (and CAN be reached by an underground tunnel from the SDI). He sells potions of "shadowy escape" (correct name eludes me at the current time), that will teleport you to him, always good as a cheaper alternative to the common escape potion. The other guy can be found by his !shaded! tent on the main road. He only comes out at night and sells a variety of useful items for sunhaters.

Now useful items... useful items.... Other then the potions mentioned you also want to get some regeneration items, these can give that precious extra hp just when you need it, enough to down a potion. Even better if your weapon is a vamp regen as well, more hp whilst killing in the daylight to negate what the sun is burning away...
It also doesn't hurt to carry an umbrella... there are two types, the standard umbrella will do little to stop the sun but can help... then the sunblocker (a black one, keep an eye out for it!) will massively reduce the sun damage but still won't fully negate it. To completely negate sun damage a sunhater will want to store and keep a Cloak of the Shadows (or a Shadowcloak, there are two very similar named cloaks, the description will let you know which one it is that I'm talking about!!), which will when donned cloak you in darkness visually... be warned the cloak has a "timer", when all the charges are gone the cloak goes bye-bye. (You can get a sceptre of magical re-investment to keep "charging up" a cloak, great to load up a scepter then re-charge a cloak just as it's about to expire!)....

And that is about all I can think of from the top of my head. I can't get to my PC at the moment to check on some things that I'd like to clarify but this should do for a quick guide for new and old players alike. Not quite as informative or well presented as one of Dave or MJ's guides but I hope it will do for most of you

From a RP point of view (or my understanding of affairs in Aenea); most drow of Aenea worship Sorgath (the goddess of lies and assassins), live in the underdark and don't really hate any of the other races in particular(except maybe illithids/mind flayers).. they don't really like them either. They want to be left alone to scheme and backstab in their own communities. Most PC drow will be the exceptions to the norm by some choice (normally deity) or event (personal history) that forced them to do something else. They generally use the Snake of Sorgath as a symbol instead of the Loth Spider...

Most shadowchildren are normally "created" from some event. A magical mishap or other magical explosion of mystical energy. It is a rare occurrence for an Aenean shadowchild to actually be from the shadowplane though it is known to happen (rare because it is not actually stated anywhere that Aenea HAS a shadowplane!).. most shadowchildren prefer to not be noticed and observe the solid world around them, but will influence it when they can. It takes great mental effort to "hold" themselves together or to manifest a partial visual representation for the solid world to interact with. It is unknown how many shadowchildren are left in the world but they are generally believed to be a dying race... they are in a long running "nightwar" with the vampires for dominion of the night. The vampires are/were winning. The wolfbloods and the were-creatures are a third "neutral" force in this war. Although a shadowchild can still reason and accept that not all vampires need to be exterminated.

Most vampires are really, really, really, really old. They have been hanging around for "eons" before venturing out "once again" into the world for whatever reason they desire to. They don't have to obey their sire but most will remember the day they were turned as the "first" day of their life (un-life?)... few vampires are born in Aenea but it does happen. There are tales of one or two wealthy families that have not aged a day. These families normally have stately homes in the most commonly wanted locales in Aenea and hold great sway over the area around their estate without actually being in charge. They are in a long running "nightwar" with shadowchildren, though there are many vampires that simply don't care about the war any more or believe that they have already won. Most just carry out their own agenda.

The RP points above ,I'll say it again, are from MY understanding of these races in Aenea.... just a few RP tips, not to be taken as full Aenea cannon, but are close based on 5years worth of observations and elaborations of the main webpage... take the RP tips with a large pinch of salt and use if want to......



Oh!! And if you happen to be anywhere near Mistborne you can either a) dive into the swamp land for shade or b) visit the House of the Rising Sun (my player house) which is always open for people to sleep out the day...

Oh!! and I think I forgot to mention rule number 1; STAY OUT OF THE SUN !!

Thanks Rusty!

Feel free to expand on this thread if you have advice on how to play socially challenged PC's, too. Drow not only sizzle, but are seemingly shunned by merchants and NPC's based on penalties.

Yeah, a good point there.... erm, find a friend to sell your loot to or act as a go-between to get you the best price for buying new equipment and selling stuff. The -10odd Appraise will really kick a drow and mean that most of the merchants in Aenea will not be favorable. That is to be expected though, most drow in Aenea a) worship sorgath and b) are murderous backstabbing b***ards... so expect the populace to behave accordingly. I think there are a few merchants that don't care, but I haven't got a clue which ones, sorry. Try Philoneous the charred in Calithia (get a boat or go by wanderers portal it's safer then walking).... he is a drow so he shouldn't be too bothered that you are too... ? I'm purely guessing here... ...unless no one is talking to you because your evil too... then I'm not really sure what to do, I've only got Good and Neutral PC's (although one is borderline evil!)..... ....