Shattered Kingdoms

Okay, I thought about it a little more - as of right now, herb lore would be just spoonfeeding. There's no point to it, since there's not that many herbs, the benefits are easily asecertained, and you can just get someone to id/lore them.

However. If a certain skill were given to scouts and shamans, (and I think this is more important than merely the ability to imbue items and weapons with the effects of herbs - or more so, a prelude to it) I would say herb lore would be EXTREMELY useful. What skill is this? Well, I'd call it "poultice".

Poultice is the ability to combine herbs of different types to produce pastes or liquids (this last one would require use of a vial) with stronger effects. Given time and experience, certain combinations can be made to refine the good effects of plants, and lessen or eliminate the bad effects. It can also be used to amplify the bad effects, and the paste (or liquid stored in a vial) can then be applied to a weapon.

Herb lore, would be something that didn't just tell what an herb DID, but what herbs are likely to have been used in creating a particular paste and serum, and what the serum (or pastes) effects are likely to be.

I'd ALSO like to see the poison/plague/detrimental effect system expanded, so that the various herbs have more or less effect on curing them. Herb lore could be used to appraise someone, and see what sort of herb might be best in curing their afflictions. Say, for example, a hellion's poison would be different from a snake's poison. One might be cured with mullein, the other might be cured by pointed green leaves, or yellow bark. Or, if the scout isn't sure which (due to a lack of herb lore or unfamiliarity with the poison), he can make a serum of all three poison curing types of plants.

Wow. Different poisons would kick [REDACTED].

I had ideas something like this before as well. So, I guess it goes without saying that I like them very much, especially for shamans. It just fits so well with the shaman RP.

Mixing herbs and making poisons gets suggested so much it hurts, but I don't know it'll ever get done!

it should get done and should be for a new class..

what class should it be ummmm

There should be an ingame reminder of some sort. Nothing fancy. You eat X herb and it does Y and Z. Your character should remember this, at least one would hope. Make an "herb" command that will pop up a list of herbs your character has eaten and what it did. This could be linked to one's intelligence score as to how many herbs they remember offhand and what they do. It would be easier to check a txt file or go through the in game book or memorizing it so that your favourite cheat code to mortal combat from 15 years ago is suddenly forgotten for remembering what butterfly weed does.

Goldlantern, if this was a college class or something similar. I would agree with your statement, but it is NOT. I am glad it isn't, too. It only makes IC sense for a scout to know what the heck they are picking up off the ground, even if it is the first time they pick something new up and it gives them the description:

"You walked by and you just realized that you have heard and/or seen this herb before.

this is the space where you put all of the info at."

I can't define this as anything but laziness. GL is right.

There's all kinds of info players are responsible for keeping track of, that characters should always know (and would NEVER logically forget), from an IC standpoint. It is NOT that hard to write something down! Is it so hard to copy/paste:

"You eat XXX.
You feel YYY!"

into a .txt?

Bah!

I don't think this is about laziness vs. ease of play so much as it is a case of logic and game believability. I guess in order for me to be convinced this would be bad for the game I would need someone to explain exactly what they think their character is learning to do when they train herbalism.

I'm starting to think the only reason people don't like this idea is because they went through and did "the work" of creating these lists and this book, and it would make them feel less elite if new scouts were "handed" this ability. While it is really funny to watch a scout try eating sleep herbs and such, but really, is it really too much to give scouts at least a small base of knowledge or an ability to recall herbs that they have already eaten or classified?

I don't think this is a monumental change that really deserves the argument that it is getting, and I think it is just that some egos might be hurt if one of these changes might go through. It reminds me of freshmen hazing with the mentality of "I went through it-you should too!"

The only reason I don't like this idea is because it's worthless. There's no "work" behind typing something into a .txt and saving it for future reference. That's nothing to feel elite about. The issue here is that valuable coding time would be spent on something entirely unnecessary.