I didn’t sleep at all that night. I tossed and turned thinking about how that guy had disrespected me. How he’d attacked me and treated me like I was nothing. I was a total innocent stranger. It wasn’t even as if he had a grudge against me. He’d taken me because he knew I couldn’t defend myself. I gripped the sheets tight in my fists. I was useless.
I heaved a sigh and turned in my narrow bed. My mom was asleep next door, and I heard her snoring. It was 3 a.m.
But if I could get the Easter Egg and get the mega uber weapon, I would find out who he was, track him down and kick his sorry ass. I would torture him. I felt bad about thinking that, but I still wanted to. He'd tortured me. It was all he deserved.
It was dawn about 6 a.m. and I was up as soon as the grey fingers reached into my bedroom. I logged into my rig and read through the forums for the best Greenwood builds. I wanted to be someone that would kick this guy up and down the Greenwood and there were people out there with brains bigger than mine, so I figured rather than create a character by trial and error and get owned by a squirrel, I would find a winner build and copy it.
I looked at some Monk/Ranger crosses. Rangers get bonuses for double wielding and Monks get Flurry of Fists so you can get some awesome attack speeds. Then I looked at a splash of Paladin. Monks have good saves anyway and a good armor class from their WIS and DEX bonuses, but if you add 2 levels of Paladin, you benefit from their Divine Grace bonus to saves where they add their CHA bonus to all saves. Trouble with that is, you are spreading your stat points thin. You need high WIS, DEX, CHA and without CON you’ve got no health and without STR you don’t do any damage. Time to think again.
I wanted stealth skills. I imagined stalking this guy and stabbing him in the back before he even knew I was there. People have different styles - some like being mages, some tough guy warrior types, some healers, but me, I now wanted to be the perfect sneak. I hated to think that my assailant had inspired me, but he probably had. Stealth meant either a Thief or a Ranger. Rangers were the stealthiest in the outdoors, but Thieves were best in urban areas. Both got Poison skills, but rangers got Herb skills as well, giving them amazing self healing. Also the Ultimate skill for a ranger was transforming into a huge bear with fantastic strength and health bonuses, fantastic armor class - the perfect Tank.
But then did I want to be a Tank or a Stealth specialist? My head hurt. Rangers could also fast travel across the Greenwood by climbing and swinging between trees. That sounded cool.
But the thing that clinched it was that rangers get a wolf pet at Level 8. I imagined me holding my own against my unknown assassin, and my pet beating the shit out of him from behind. That made me feel good. Thieves didn’t get pets. I would be a ranger, and the thing that drove me to this decision was blood revenge. That and the thought of getting my greedy hands on the Easter Egg. Revenge and greed, two perfect emotions for a healthy human being.
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I signed back into The Greenwood and I was faced by a blinking message on my VR HUD. “Would you like to create a new account?”
What few possessions I’d had were gone when I’d deleted my last account. I had nothing to lose, so I thought: YES, and the Transcranial Receiver picked it up and started to roll me through character creation.
I chose the name I’d used in another game: Barcud. No one ever has that one but me. The game accepted it.
I didn’t care what I looked like so I took the defaults: shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes - then on an impulse I made the eyes green, because the best rangers all have green eyes. It goes with the leaves - better camouflage.
I hummed and hawed about stats, but I went with advice for the build called Shadow Ranger. Neutral Good in alignment. I like to think of myself as a good guy. Neutral because the woodland folk are more removed from urban ideas of good versus evil. Nature is neutral, I think.
Race Elf. I like elves. I figure they live in the woods so are natural rangers. Well wood elves live in the woods and I was a wood elf. I also like the ears. Also the elf maids are hot with their willowy figures, long straight hair and almond shaped eyes. Not that relationships were what I was going there for. I was going there for blood.
DEX is good for high reflex saves of course. It is also used to hit with a bow or a throwing knife. Rangers get a skill that allows them to add their DEX to standard longbow damage at Level 3. That meant I didn’t need to put a lot into STR and not spread my meager points too thin.
So I went:
STR: 8 (a danger of getting burdened, I know, but this is what the build said)
DEX: 20
CON: 14 (to boost my hp)
INT: 10 (not great but a tiny boost to my search & poisons skills)
WIS: 8 (mainly used for spells but also for herbs. Not comfortable with this being so low)
CHA: 8 (I guess I am butt ugly)
That gave me:
HP: 35, Mana: 0
Saves: Dodge 7, Toughness 4, Willpower Save: -1
I got access to the following Skill Trees by being a ranger:
Level 1 Stealth, I got Hide which allows me go unseen, calculated as (Level + DEX bonus + 1d6 (1-6 chance roll) + miscellaneous bonuses from gear) and Spot (Level + WIS bonus + 1d6+ miscellaneous bonuses from gear, if any.) If I hide anyone close by checks their Spot skill against my hide, and vice versa.
Under Ranger Skills, I got Camouflage, which adds 2 per level to my Hide roll in wilderness areas, and Blowpipe - allowing me to blowpipe poisons, which is fast.
Under Survival, I got Swimming, and Smoking (able to smoke healing herbs).
I didn’t take anything in Trapping at this point.
Herbs: I got Dandelion, and Comfrey, which I had before on my previous, now deleted, toon.
Poisons, I got Toadflax, a hallucinogen (no idea what this does, but I need it to build up progress in the Poisons skill tree) and Clamb (1-10 health damage)
And then I entered the Greenwood.