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Dueling for the Clueless


Panpiper

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Would anyone care to spill the beans on just what I need to do to be a successful duelist? Do I need to max out all four of my Duel skills or can I let one lag, and if so, which one? Should I be boosting my Wrestling and/or Brute Strength as well? Does it make any sense to cast defensive spells or should we just uncork with the biggest we can muster and hope our vitality can go the distance?

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Well, I have two students who persist in 'bullying' my character, which is an annoyance as I would like to keep stress at near zero so as to enjoy around ten bonuses I get then. I understand that if I vendetta those two and win a duel with each of them, they will leave me alone for the rest of the year.

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If you need to know how to start a duel and what is required for this there are other threads already but I dont know the infos right now.

But Declear Vendeta is at Schoolyard Education.

I personal try to get theyr healt down bevore the duel is set and then use a fast (mean vew Pheme) damage spell to get them down.

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I made a post of Mikka's grand advice for dueling (which wasn't very grand), but I can't remember where I posted it, so I'll sum it up here.

 

First: Duel is fundlementally worthless, in the grand scheme of things. I mean, if you pick up points in it, sure, why not, but it really doesn't get you anywhere. Demi-Tour 11 gets you Expanded Finesse, and Dueling Forms 11 will get you Demi-Tour 11, but that's the biggest bonus. Some of the higher level Duel abilities have some decent bonuses, and Demi-Tour will get you a +1 max to Traps and Danger-Sense along the raising, but... yeah, not that useful. It doesn't have much a place in duels, save for that Vincent W (and I believe he is the only one) will likely be able to use some of the higher ranked Duel actions/abilities against you.

 

Second: To duel, you don't need duel. You need Schoolyard Education 8 or 9 (I suggest Selective Focusing it- it's a STR based one, ugh), which gives you Declare Vendetta. You then choose your target (I believe they have to be -8 or less (first time I forgot the negative, heh) in relations). Once you do that, you'll notice them being likely a bit nastier then usual: your rival switches to adding their Vendetta AI in to their usual mix. Even the more 'nice' characters will start trying to add Slandered or Jinxed or increasing your stress: crueler ones will bully and steal and extort and generally be even more jerky then usual. That's why you should wait to declare until you're basically ready for them.

 

Third: After you Declare Vendetta, there's one more step you need to do before the duel starts- the challenge. Under your adventure list, you'll see something like 'Gentleman's Duel' or 'Strasberg Pasttime' or any other random style. Trigger it, and that'll start an adventure where you and your enemy work out the terms of your duel (School Survival high enough (9 or 10, I think) has the Duel (Action), according to the wiki- I have no idea how this works, or if it's even still there: I've never tried it that way). In practice, this means your enemy decides the terms of the duel and you get one lousy choice.

 

Fourth: These choices can matter a lot or matter not at all. I may have missed an option (is there any that allow you to select when the duel will take place?), if I have, poke me.

  • You can get to select the location, which is useless: just remember that it adds passive bonuses to both of you, not that those passive bonuses are likely to be useful.
  • You can get to choice the form of initative, which is a bit confusing: Challanger first means your actions are resolved first (at least on the first turn) and challenged first means your not-friend's are resolved first (as some duels have the other person challenging first, that means those two cases are reversed- if the description notes you want a challenge, that means you're allowing them to go first, if it doesn't, then you're the one who goes first- basically) and just plain 'initative' or 'initative, rounds' means... I honestly don't know.
  • You can choose the preliminaries, in which au moichoir can be incredibly useful if it's an option: unless you're fighting a high fitness/vit/athletics taking character, it's worth taking. Au Moichoir means that your characters wrists are tied together, and they can not get out of melee range. Thus, punching to death can start early and often. Then there's chance-encounter, which starts you at long range, which can be helpful for getting off a spell or two before the punching starts. The other options are salute-standard, salute-short, demi-tour long, and set-to. I have no idea what they mean, exactly... they mostly seem to determine how many times you have to press 'salute' before the duel starts, though hopefully the Legate can explain it better.
  • You can get to choose how you win, which is the best thing to be offered. The options are First Blood (...which is the first to do a point of damage, which can be very iffy choice: you'll notice that no student will challenge you to this (at least in my overview), you actually have to pick it), Wound (...which I assume means a certain amount of damage, but how much, I'm not certain), and then Quietus (which is until someone reaches 0 VIT and is knocked out, which you will thus always, always, always want to take: I'll explain why in a few sessions).

Fifth: No matter what it says in the box, the computer chooses when the duel starts. This can be any time- Prudence asks for a duel the next day, while Vuillaume asks for four weeks, for example. There are a few students to watch out for, though (SPOILERRRRS!): going backwards, Vincent W, Noemia, Neso (watch out for the timid ones!), Mairgrete, Magsa, Joana, and Els. (I wish this board had the transparent tag.) All those students challenge for an immediate duel. This is actually the best for you, as it means no chance of a random encounter you weren't prepared for dropping you three vitality the day before, and allows you to make it so students are in Vendetta mode for only one day, limiting the damage they can do. However, if you're not expecting it, you can get creamed, especially against Joana and Vincent W (Magsa, too, actually). So expect it!

 

Sixth: Yes, you should cast spells before the duel. Especially spells that have a lot of phemes (if you intend to add more then four, definitely) or spells that are difficult for you to cast (you don't want to fizzle in a duel). Or spells that are only two phemes, too. Spells that limit the character (by decreasing them in stats) for say, three days (rather then 'until rested') are good as well. Use spells that stick them in annoying states, like Stenchatastic or Shivering or whatever so suits you. And if all that fails, a spell that does damage is important.

 

Seventh: More important then hurting them is in helping yourself, though. The easiest way to win a duel is for it to be Quietus. Why? Because you can max your Vitality much, much higher then any NPC can. Eat at the Roses and Eat at the Privateer, Massage Muscles and Eat some Roots, cast your healing vit spells and use First Aid, Transcend your Limits the step before, dump as many Fitness boosting phemes on every spell you cast as you can and then rest with all those plus Vitality Max effects on you so your Vit shoots in to the 40's. Even the students who are high fitness types rarely will boost theirs over 20. Which means no matter how many damage spells they know, you'll outlast them.

 

Eighth: The actual duel generally is more about punching then spellcasting. To note: in a duel, you need to bind phemes to palettes in order to cast (each bindingtakes 0.25, which means you can bind eight phemes each duel stage/round, which is obviously '2' (Punching takes 1, meaning you can punc twice)). This means you need to know what phemes go in to what spell- the duel interface does not allow you to go check, nor does it tell you how easy or hard a spell is to cast until you are about to cast it. You need to have that memorized or to have the wiki or modtools nearby. Many spells (and damaging abilities) can also only be cast once a duel (check the duriation of them before hand). In practice, this means you want spells with four phemes in them that do two damage and another useful effect, or do three (plus) damage. Or, you want spells with eight phemes in them that do at least three damage and effect, or four (plus) damage. Otherwise, you are better off using the Punch action for guarenteed two damage each duel 'round'. A spell with three phemes in it, for instance, leaves you with that extra .25 just... chillin'. That's a bad sort of chillin'. Try to use up all points for the greatest effeciancy. And don't forget to have your familar ready to help you counter (though the familar really is only that useful if he or she has the Battle Angel background, sadly, as other familar skills tend to be added to you, not to the familar). This really goes for all actions. You want cast spells and use abilities that are more effeciant then doing two damage a round. (The Sword of K and the sword you get in the Vernin adventure are pretty good, for instance.) Also! If you have the ability, don't forget to slick. You don't want to be caught in a grapple, as any PnP game will tell you.

 

Nineth: Whether you win or lose the duel, it's over. You can no longer take hostile actions against the jerk, and they can no longer take them against you. This is usually what you want, but there is one person to take note of- Isabeau. There are a couple students who will try and take your items, but she generally has the best chance of success and is the most likely to attempt it. If she takes an item from you, take it back (through Bully or Slight-of-Hand... I also believe there's a spell somewhere) before starting the duel, or the item is gone forever. She can only do this on common items, but still, it may be a common item you're fond of. Keep an eye on it.

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  • 10 months later...

The game originally have the feature of encountering monster randomly with your 'explore' related action, which dueling is the only way to resolve it.

 

First year students can't encounter monsters, huh? Curious. Perhaps this means that Year Two is going to have an event near the start of the term where the First-Year-Protection enchantment fizzles out, and the Academagia faculty warn you that the environment is going to be more dangerous without the FYP spell.

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  • 5 months later...

There are two more things for Duel

 

1. An easy adventure to expand a few of your Duel SS, sorta like a tutorial adventures for it. 2 time slot, teach 8SS for 4 subskills. That way people is more inclined to take it.

 

2. A duel-type adventure to force player use all activities related to that: duel SS, Field medicine, tactic, strategy, acrobatics, running, climbing, etc... A non-magical Strength-only 8-stage adventure for player who want to concentrate on physical and warlike class.

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