Appraisal skill
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- Need info on creature strength, other stats, health and injuries
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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 hindrances, 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.
Training
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.
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.
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.
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).
Traders get a bonus to Appraisal.
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 Balance/Power Min Value Max Value None 0.0 0.0 Not Suited 0.0 0.0 Poor 1.0 9.9 Dismally 1.0 19.9 Low 10.0 19.9 Poorly 20.0 39.9 Fair 20.0 29.9 Fairly 40.0 59.9 Moderate 30.0 39.9 Reasonably 60.0 79.9 Heavy 40.0 54.9 Well 80.0 99.9 Great 55.0 69.9 Excellently 100.0 119.9 Severe 70.0 84.9 Superbly 120.0 139.9 Bone-Crushing 85.0 94.9 Incredibly 140.0 159.9 Devastating 95.0 99.9 Unbelievably 160.0 ? God-like 100 ?
Some brawling weapons appraise as "some" or "quite a bit of" damage. My guess is that "some" ranks between low and fair, and "quite a bit of" ranks between moderate and heavy.
Armor & Shield
The Hindrance system is slated for rewrite with armor changes. Values are current range to work hindrance to lowest value.
- 4/15/09 - Minimally hindered is now within the range of Insignificant. Unhindered truly means unhindered by your armor.
Protection Absorption Hindrance Min Ranks Max Ranks None None Unhindered 0 4 Poor Poor Insignificant 5 9 Low Low Lightly 10 19 Fair Fair Fairly 20 29 Moderate Moderate Somewhat 30 39 Good Good Moderate 40 49 High High Very 50 59 Great Great Highly 60 69 Impressive Extreme Greatly 70 79 Tremendous Extreme Extremely 80 90 Incredible Incredible Overwhelming 90 99 God-like God-like Insanely 100 ?
Equipment Construction
- extremely weak
- flimsy
- somewhat flimsy
- of average strength
- fairly sturdy
- moderately strong
- well-constructed
- very strong
- quite hard
- incredibly hard
- unbelievably strong
Creature
- 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 slightly less skilled worthy Perfectly at range ?? something in your skill range challenging solid difficult rather difficult definitely 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
- Dead or horrible injury to perfect health
Health Injury Dead ?
"Minor Wound" with bleeding injury "Major Wound" occurred with badly bleeding injury.
See Also
- See 'n Say Appraisal (script): Genie script that appraises any weapon, shield, or armor and then echoes the appraisal in an IC way.
- See 'n Say Appraisal - OOC (script): Genie script that appraises any weapon, shield, or armor and then echoes the appraisal in an OOC way.
- See 'n Say Comparison (script): Genie script that compares any weapon, shield, or armor and then echoes the comparison in an IC way.