Appraisal skill

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Appraisal can tell you the value of your items, the stats on your equipment, and skills of your opponent and much more.

Use

APPRAISE will give you an assessment of something's abilities. COMPARE will give you a relative assessment of two items' attributes.

Appraisal, at least for comparing creatures, is based on base skills rather than factoring Agility. However, it does take your current STANCE settings into account.

When comparing armor, it will give an assessment of the armor's overall maneuvering and stealth hindrance, as well as how hindering it is with everything your are currently wearing after factoring in the relevant armor skill.

Appraisal can also give you an idea of how well you can swim or climb something, and can even provide a bonus to the swim or climb contest on a particularly good appraisal success.

You will begin to see (at first very inaccurate) damage and protection appraisals at precisely 50 ranks.

You can appraise cambrinth items to determine their capacity. Appraisal is the primary factor, but arcana also contributes to the accuracy. As with weight, holding the cambrinth makes it easier to appraise its capacity.

Traders get a bonus to Appraisal.

Training

Item Appraisal

There are many ways to train this skill. The first way is to appraise items. The quickest way to learn is to appraise something very valuable that has many parts, like a full gem pouch, a really nice bundle, weapons, or armor. If you can't do this, the next best option is to appraise all of your inventory, the more valuable, the better.

Creature Appraisal

The second way to learn is to appraise critters. One can appraise a beast multiple times without regard for a delay between appraisals to quickly learn the ability. Besides being a good way to gain appraisal experience, this is a good habit to develop. It's useful to know in advance how a critter's skill compares to yours.

Barrier Appraisal

The third way, possibly of greatest use to new adventurers, is to appraise swimming locations. In a room where a swimming contest is necessary to exit, you can appraise water or direction. It's not clear how well this trains, as a new character can learn very little in the Crossing sewers but very well in the Arthe Dale swimming hole. It may be dependent on water depth and current. You can also appraise climbing barriers, but this seems to teach little or nothing at lower ranks. Successfully appraising a swim or a climb may give you a bonus ("You think you have determined the best route to take") to climbing or swimming the appraised barrier.

Item Creation

The fourth way to learn is through the creation process of several items. Usually when you are creating an item you will gain a little appraisal as well when you determine the quality of the item. For example, when braiding grass/vines, you will learn appraisal. Every time you braid you are automatically appraising the item to see the quality of the item. Another example is Moon Mage sigil scrolls, every time you read a scroll you appraise the quality of the scroll. This way is good for learning appraisal while also learning other skills. (In the case of Moon Mage sigil scrolls, you will learn appraisal faster than you will learn astrology or scholarship, but possibly might have a limit. I have tested with 267 in astrology, 241 in appraisal, and 324 in scholarhsip, I am locking appraisal first, then astrology, then scholarship).

Fine Art Appraisal

Adventurers have the ability to analyze one-of-a-kind stationary artifacts and receive more details than just your standard LOOK. Currently, the Raven's Court is the only place with this type of appraisal available. One must STUDY a piece in order to learn. STUDYing will teach appraisal and scholarship. There are a few levels of success. Everyone should be able to learn no matter what information they see. Naturally, with the highest level of success, the most information will be displayed. Bards and Traders have a bonus, so they should effectively be able to learn better and see more information earlier on.

Accuracy

The accuracy of your appraisal depends primarily upon the number of ranks that you have in appraisal. (Traders have a bonus.)

When appraising weapons or armor, the number of ranks that you have in that weapon or armor type affects the accuracy, at least for non-Traders. For example, if you were appraising a claymore, you find it easier to appraise if you had 200 ranks in twohanded edged weapons than if you had only 50 ranks.

Only when "you are certain" about some property can you be sure that your appraisal is an accurate assessment. Otherwise, the more confident you are about the accuracy, the closer your assessment is to the truth.

Accuracy Levels (from best to worst)

• are/feel certain that
• are/feel confident that
• think that
• believe that
• are pretty sure that
• think it is likely that
• estimate that
• guess that
• wonder if

Appraisal Values

Weapons

Damage	Min Value	Max Value
no	0	0
dismal	1	5
poor	5	10
low	10	15
somewhat fair	15	20
fair	20	25
somewhat moderate	25	30
moderate	30	35
somewhat heavy	35	40
heavy	40	45
very heavy	45	50
great	50	55
very great	55	60
severe	60	65
very severe	65	70
extreme	70	75
very extreme	75	??
mighty
very mighty
bone-crushing
very bone-crushing
devastating
very devastating
overwhelming
annihilating
obliterating
catastrophic

The numerical values for damage were derived from Copernicus' Storebought Guide. Copernicus derived the weapon values through an intensive process of comparing storebought weapons with forged weapons having known values of damage, balance, and power. Some information is still missing or incomplete.

Balance/Power	Min Value	Max Value
not	0	0
terribly	1	9
dismally	10	19
poorly	20	29
inadequately	30	39
fairly	40	49
decently	50	59
reasonably	60	69
soundly	70	79
well	80	89
excellently	90	99
superbly	100	?
incredibly	?	?
amazingly	?	?
unbelievably	?	?

The numerical values for balance/power were derived from Copernicus' Storebought Guide. Copernicus derived the weapon values through an intensive process of comparing storebought weapons with forged weapons having known values of damage, balance, and power. Some information is still missing or incomplete.

Brawling Gear Damage	Min Value	Max Value
no	0	0
a little	?	?
some	?	?
quite a bit	?	?
a lot	?	?

There are two types of brawling damage.

• If the damage stat does not end in "increase," it replaces the standard stat-based damage and uses the brawling weapon scale.
• If the damage stat ends in "increase," the weapon adds a percentage-based bonus to the standard stat-based damage and uses the same scale as standard weapons. According to GM Kodius, this model is being phased out, because these weapons "don't seem to do much of anything."

Armor & Shield

Hindrance

The hindrance system is slated for rewrite with armor changes. The rank values are those required to work maneuvering hindrance down to the lowest level.

Note: Though they use the same adjectives and scaling, a trivially hindering piece of armor does not hinder the same as a trivially hindering shield. The armor has more hindrance.

• 4/15/09 - Minimally hindered is now within the range of Insignificant. Unhindered truly means unhindered by your armor.

Hindrance	Min Ranks	Max Ranks
no	?	?
insignificant	?	?
trivial	?	?
light	?	?
minor	?	?
fair	?	?
mild	?	?
moderate	?	?
noticeable	?	?
high	?	?
significant	?	?
great	?	?
extreme	?	?
debilitating	?	?
overwhelming	?	?
insane	?	?

Armor Protection

1. poor
2. low
3. fair
4. moderate
5. good
6. very good
7. high
8. very high
9. great
10. very great
11. extreme
12. exceptional
13. incredible
14. amazing
15. unbelievable

Absorption

1. very poor
2. poor
3. low
4. somewhat fair
5. fair
6. moderate
7. good
8. very good
9. high
10. very high
11. great
12. very great
13. extreme
14. exceptional
15. incredible
16. outstanding
17. amazing
18. unbelievable

Shield Protection

There are two tiers of armor perception, requiring skill to get more detailed information. Paladins always receive the more specific scale.

Tier I	Tier II
?	none
?	extremely terrible
?	terrible
?	dismal
?	very poor
?	poor
?	rather low
?	low
?	fair
?	better than fair
?	moderate
?	moderately good
?	good
?	very good
?	high
?	very high
?	great
?	very great
?	exceptional
?	very exceptional
?	impressive
?	very impressive
?	amazing
?	incredible
?	tremendous
?	unbelievable
?	god-like

Equipment Construction and Condition

1. extremely weak and easily damaged
2. very delicate and easily damaged
3. quite fragile and easily damaged
4. rather flimsy and easily damaged
5. particularly weak against damage
6. somewhat unsound against damage
7. appreciably susceptible to damage
8. marginally vulnerable to damage
9. of average construction
10. a bit safeguarded against damage
11. rather reinforced against damage
12. quite guarded against damage
13. highly protected against damage
14. very strong against damage
15. extremely resistant to damage
16. unusually resilient to damage
17. nearly impervious to damage
18. practically invulnerable to damage

Condition	Min Health	Max Health
in pristine condition	98%	100%
practically in mint condition	90%	97%
in good condition	80%	89%
rather scuffed up	70%	79%
some minor scratches	60%	69%
a few dents and dings	50%	59%
several unsightly notches	40%	49%
heavily scratched and notched	30%	39%
badly damaged	20%	29%
battered and practically destroyed	0%	19%

Creature

• Can start appraising creatures with 10 ranks of Appraisal.
• In order from low threat to high threat

Difficulty

Difficulty	Difference
completely beneath
wipe the floor with
tear to shreds
you'd kill quickly
harmless
very easy
well beneath
simple
easy
relatively easy
definitely less skilled
less skilled
slightly less skilled
worthy	Perfectly at range ??
something in your skill range
challenging
solid
difficult
rather difficult
quite difficult
very difficult
truly skilled
well above
couldn't hope to hurt
master that's well beyond
mythical being

Statistics

Strength	Min Difference	Max Difference		Agility / Reflex	Min Difference	Max Difference
				Great deal less	?	-30
				Significantly	-29	-25
				Quite a bit less	-24	-20
				Definitely less	-19	-15
				Rather less	-14	?
				Somewhat less	-10	-6
				Not quite	-5	-1
				About as	0	0
				A little more	1	5
				Somewhat more	6	10
				Definitely more	11	15
				Quite a bit more	16	20
				Significantly more	21	25
				Great deal more	30	?

Condition

• healthy
• slightly battered
• battered
• beat up
• very beat up
• extremely beat up
• bad shape
• very bad shape
• extremely bad shape
• death's door

Health		Injury
Dead		?

"Minor Wound" with bleeding injury "Major Wound" occurred with badly bleeding injury.

Cambrinth

Difficulty

Capacity	Verbal Description
4-20	very lttle mana
30-50	a little mana
<108	a moderate amount of mana

Climbing and Swimming

Scripts and Settings

• See 'n Say Appraisal (script): Genie script that appraises any weapon, shield, or armor and then echoes the appraisal in IC and OOC ways
• See 'n Say Comparison (script): Genie script that compares any weapon, shield, or armor and then echoes the comparison in an IC way.
• Numerical Appraisal Subs: Genie subs that add a numerical description to the verbal appraisal output for damage, balance/suitability, protection, hindrance, construction, and condition.

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