Appraisal skill

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Appraisal is a Lore skill with applications in a wide variety of systems. It can tell you the value, weight, and other qualities of items; the stats of your weapons and armor; the skills of your opponent; the mana capacity of cambrinth items; and more.

Spells and Abilities that Boost Appraisal

Spells and Abilities that Decrease Appraisal

None

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. This is also reported to be the threshold to begin learning appraisal from appraising creatures. You can successfully appraise a creature, albeit inaccurately, without experience gain at 10 ranks. It takes closer to around 100 ranks to get accurate information on items and creatures.

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. In addition they will appraise the monetary value of any item in all three currencies instead of just that of the current province.

You can also use APPRAISE to check an item's registration status. There is a line if it's registered indicating whether it's yours or someone else's:

Registered to you: The funny blade looks to bear your familiar marks of registration.
Registered to someone else: Unfamiliar marks of registration are evident on the blade.

Appraisal For Beginners

Weapon and Armor Appraisals

Choosing the right equipment for your character is one of the most important decisions a new combatant faces. Before making an informed decision, however, those wishing to enter combat should first be familiar with the basic terminology of combat. First, let us APPRAISE some weapons and armor to understand how to differentiate the value of one piece of equipment from another. Take, for example, this fictional weapon appraisal: 

A broadsword is a heavy edged melee-ranged weapon.
A broadsword trains the large edged skill.

You are certain that it could do:
  poor puncture damage
  severe slice damage
  moderate impact damage
  no fire damage
  no cold damage
  no electric damage

The broadsword is inadequately designed for improving the force of your attacks.

You are certain that the broadsword is fairly balanced and is soundly suited to gaining extra attack power from your strength.

You are certain that the broadsword is unusually resilient to damage, and is practically in mint condition.

The broadsword is made with metal.
You are certain that the broadsword weighs exactly 52 stones.
You are certain that the broadsword is worth exactly 445398 kronars.

Lets look at it line by line: 

A broadsword is a heavy edged melee-ranged weapon.

The first line indicates two things: the weapon class of the weapon being appraised and the range of the weapon. 

A broadsword trains the large edged skill.

The second line indicates which skill the weapon will train. The class is not the same as the skill. For example, both light edge, and medium edge teach the small edge skill. For the vast majority of cases, only the skill trained is important. 

You are certain that it could do:
  poor puncture damage
  severe slice damage
  moderate impact damage
  no fire damage
  no cold damage
  no electric damage

This section lists the type of damage it does. Based on this, you will want to tailor your attacks to utilize the highest damage. 

The broadsword is inadequately designed for improving the force of your attacks.

This is known as the Force of Impact (or FoI) stat. The higher this is, the higher the likelyhood of it causing a stun, unbalancing, or disarming an opponent. 

You are certain that the broadsword is fairly balanced and is soundly suited to gaining extra attack power from your strength.

Balance is a stat that determines two things. The first is how well it utilizes agility to bonus accuracy. It also determines how good a weapon is at parrying.

Suitability determines how well it uses strength to grant extra damage. 

You are certain that the broadsword is unusually resilient to damage, and is practically in mint condition.

This is a readout of how resistant to damage your weapon is, as well as it's current condition. 

The broadsword is made with metal.

For the most part, whether a weapon is metal or not only determines which repair shop it goes to, though occasionally it may matter for other reasons. 

You are certain that the broadsword weighs exactly 52 stones.

The heavier a weapon is, the slower it will swing, and the more fatigue it will sap on use. 

You are certain that the broadsword is worth exactly 445398 kronars.

This is the hard-coded value of the weapon. It's only major use is to determine the cost of having a shop repair an item, which will be a percent of the appraised cost. It should be noted this has nothing to do with what players value the weapon, which can fluctuate wildly and is completely unrelated.

Item appraisal

There are many ways to train the Appraisal skill. The first way is to appraise items. The quickest way to learn is to appraise an item that is very valuable or 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.

Appraise Focus

A specific type of item appraisal, APPRAISE FOCUS <OBJECT> allows players to focus on valid objects and begin a research project similar to magical research. This command requires a minimum of 200 ranks in the appraisal skill or a clockwork shark to do. Once completed, this appraisal project will award Appraisal skill experience, as well as giving a temporary boost to the amount of experience being drained in a target skill. Only one appraisal project may be active on a character at any given time, and the experience drain bonus does not stack with the bonus for an RPA. Valid targets for this ability range from yourself, which gives an evasion bonus, weapons, armor, and crafting books.

This ability uses the same base mechanics as magical research, so cannot be performed at the same time as a research project and will be interupted and prevented by many of the same things although it is not quite as restricted.

Example Messaging

Start of APPRAISE FOCUS
You carefully examine your deobar coffer, focusing beyond any individual details.  Instead you concentrate your efforts toward honing your knowledge of locksmithing based on its abstract.
Research is complete, Bonus begins
Breakthrough!
You've pored over the possibilities, weighed out the consequences, and dismissed a few flawed techniques.  Finally, you think that you've grasped a new approach for the subtleties of locksmithing inspired by its abstract.  All that's left is to put it into practice.
Bonus ends
Your focused insight of locksmithing has been fully explored.

Compatible Skills

Skill Skillset Game help text Notes
Asceticism Armor ? Placeholder skill, this is not yet implemented. (Paladin only)
Brigandine Armor Any piece of Brigandine Armor can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Chain Armor Armor Any piece of Chain Armor can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Defending Armor The term "Defense" can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept.
Light Armor Armor Any piece of Light Armor can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Plate Armor Armor Any piece of Heavy Armor can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Shield Usage Armor Any shield can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Alchemy Lore A crafting book from one of the Alchemy disciplines can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Appraisal Lore There are no methods to use APPRAISE FOCUS for Appraisal. This ability cannot boost itself.
Bardic Lore Lore ? the word "Recall" (Bard only)
Empathy Lore Other players and NPCs can be used as APPRAISAL FOCUS targets. Empath only
Enchanting Lore A crafting book from one of the Enchanting disciplines can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Engineering Lore A crafting book from one of the Engineering disciplines can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Forging Lore A crafting book from one of the Forging disciplines can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Mechanical Lore Lore There are no methods to use APPRAISE FOCUS for Mechanical Lore. This skill is not planned to exist much longer.
Outfitting Lore A crafting book from one of the Outfitting disciplines can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Performance Lore Any musical instrument can be used as an APPRAISAL FOCUS item.
Scholarship Lore The term "Logic" can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept.
Tactics Lore The term "Offense" can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept.
Trading Lore A typical ledger can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Trader only
Arcana Magic Any type of runestone can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Astrology Magic Any type of telescope can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Moon Mage only
Attunement Magic Any type of cambrinth item can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Augmentation Magic Any spell that primarily uses Augmentation can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. Both the full name and abbreviation work. APPRAISE FOCUS FORM for Barbarians
Debilitation Magic Any spell that primarily uses Debilitation can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. Both the full name and abbreviation work. APPRAISE FOCUS ROAR for Barbarians
Primary Magic Magic The term "Magic" can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. KHRI for Thieves, INNER FIRE for Barbarians
Sorcery Magic The term "Arcane" can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept.
Summoning Magic ? Talisman (Warrior Mage only)
Targeted Magic Magic Any spell that primarily uses Targeted Magic can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. Both the full name and abbreviation work.
Theurgy Magic Holy water can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Cleric only
Utility Magic Any spell that primarily uses Utility can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept Both the full name and abbreviation work.
Warding Magic Any spell that primarily uses Warding can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. Both the full name and abbreviation work. APPRAISE FOCUS MEDITATION for Barbarians
Athletics Survival Any ordinal direction, or "WATER", while in a swimming area can be an APPRAISE FOCUS concept.
Any climbing obstacle can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.		 Only ordinal directions that exist in the current room.
Backstab Survival Other players and NPCs can be used as APPRAISAL FOCUS targets. Thief only
Evasion Survival You can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Yourself
First Aid Survival Anatomy Charts and Compendiums can be APPRAISE FOCUS items.
Locksmithing Survival Any locked or trapped treasure container can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Outdoorsmanship Survival Foraged plants can be APPRAISE FOCUS items.
Perception Survival Any ordinal direction can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. Only ordinal directions that exist in the current room.
Scouting Survival ? Ranger Companion
Skinning Survival Any skinning knife or part can be a n APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Stealth Survival Any ordinal direction while hidden can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS concept. Only ordinal directions that exist in the current room.
Thanatology Survival A ritual knife can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Necromancer only
Thievery Survival Any coin on the ground can be an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Bows Weapon Any Bows type weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Brawling Weapon Any type of Brawling gear can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Not including parry sticks.
Crossbow Weapon Any Crossbow type weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Expertise Weapon ? Chakrel amulets (Barbarian only)
Heavy Thrown Weapon Any weapon that is primarily a Heavy Thrown weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Large Blunt Weapon Any Large Blunt weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Large Edged Weapon Any Large Edged weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Light Thrown Weapon Any weapon that is primarily a Light Thrown weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Melee Mastery Weapon Any swappable weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. e.g. bastard sword
Missile Mastery Weapon Any type of ammo can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Offhand Weapon Weapon Any melee weapon held in the left hand can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Parry Ability Weapon Parry sticks can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Polearms Weapon Any Polearms type weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Slings Weapon Any Slings type weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item.
Small Blunt Weapon Any Small Blunt weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Small Edged Weapon Any Small Edged weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Staves Weapon Any Staves type weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Twohanded Blunt Weapon Any Twohanded Blunt weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.
Twohanded Edged Weapon Any Twohanded Edged weapon can be used as an APPRAISE FOCUS item. Must not be a swappable weapon and must be held in the right hand.

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.
A normal or QUICK appraise will gauge how much vitality and fatigue a critter currently has, how your stats compare to theirs, and an overall comparison of your offense and defense to theirs.
Appraising CAREFUL will also tell you how the critter will train by brawling, parrying, evading, blocking, beguile with tactics, and targeting. If you are holding a weapon, it will also tell you how will it will train, and if you were to throw it, how it would teach thrown.

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.

  • It's worth noting that climbing barriers can be more difficult than the appraisal lets on.

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.

Item weight detection

3.0 changed detecting numerical weights in stones to not occur until higher ranks. For a non-trader, expect not to begin to get numerical weight return on appraisals for any item until 170 ranks at minimum. As you increase in skill, weight detection will become more common and more accurate. At 400 ranks you receive a fairly accurate weight estimate most of the time. At 500 ranks, expect perfect weight results every time with the standard 8 second roundtime. As an aside, at 500 ranks, quick appraisals continue to be clumsy regarding weight, but will be exact in all other regards, probably the equivalent of a standard appraisal at 250-300 ranks.

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

Order Damage Min Value Max Value
0 no 0 0
1 dismal 1 5
2 poor 5 10
3 low 10 15
4 somewhat fair 15 20
5 fair 20 25
6 somewhat moderate 25 30
7 moderate 30 35
8 somewhat heavy 35 40
9 heavy 40 45
10 very heavy 45 50
11 great 50 55
12 very great 55 60
13 severe 60 65
14 very severe 65 70
15 extreme 70 75
16 very extreme 75 ??
17 mighty
18 very mighty
19 bone-crushing
20 very bone-crushing
21 devastating
22 very devastating
23 overwhelming
24 annihilating
25 obliterating
26 demolishing
27 catastrophic
Order Balance/Power/FOI Min Value Max Value
0 not
1 terribly
2 dismally
3 poorly
4 inadequately
5 fairly
6 decently
7 reasonably
8 soundly
9 well
10 very well
11 extremely well
12 exellently
13 superbly
14 incredibly
15 amazingly
16 unbelievably
17 perfectly

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.

Draw Strength Shortbow Longbow Composite Bow
extremely low
very low
somewhat low
average 3 4 5
somewhat high
very high
exceptionally high
extremely high
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 order, 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.
Base Item Hindrance
Order Hindrance
0 no
1 insignificant
2 trivial
3 light
4 minor
5 fair
6 mild
7 moderate
8 noticeable
9 high
10 significant
11 great
12 extreme
13 debilitating
14 overwhelming
15 insane
Skill Hindrance
Order Hindrance
0 unhindered
1 barely hindered
2 minimally hindered
3 insignificantly hindered
4 lightly hindered
5 fairly hindered
6 somewhat hindered
7 moderately hindered
8 rather hindered
9 very hindered
10 highly hindered
11 greatly hindered
12 extremely hindered
13 overwhelmingly hindered
14 insanely hindered

Armor protection and absorption

Order Protection
0 no
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
Order Absorbance
0 no
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.

The message "Your experience with shields allows a better appraisal of the protection capabilities." means you have received the more detailed appraisal.

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

Equipment construction and condition

Construction

  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

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.

Training

  1. exceptionally well, but you probably won't be landing many blows.
  2. very well
  3. rather well
  4. acceptably
  5. somewhat poorly
  6. very poorly
  7. quite badly

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.

See also

Related Forum Posts

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