Speed

From LSWiki

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Revision as of 18:02, 31 May 2007

Speed

• Your character's speed controls how often you perform attacks in combat, how many actions you can take in a given period of time, and so on. You can view your speed in the character sheet displayed by 'show character' or by using 'show speed'.

• Your numeric speed value is the number of "activity points" you receive every round. (A round is about two seconds.) The "average" speed, at which a character with nothing altering its speed moves, is 20 points; the "base" amount that attacking in combat costs is 25 points, though for competent fighters the actual amount is usually lower than that. You can see the actual activity costs of your attacks with 'show attacks'. Other actions cost various amounts of activity depending on how long they take. You can perform one quick action each round without interfering with your attacks, but more involved actions can cause you to lose your attacks. Defending yourself in combat also takes activity, and your combat mode determines when you will choose to defend yourself and when you will save your activity for attacks; see 'help set combat mode'.

• In combat, your activity points can build up between rounds. The highest point they can build up to is your speed or the most expensive of your attacks, whichever is higher, plus 25 points. This is so that "extra" activity points you have can accumulate to give you additional attacks. Consider the simple case where your speed is 25 and you have one 20-activity-point attack: you will normally build up 5 extra activity points each round until, on the fourth

round, you will have 40 activity points, allowing you two attacks that round. If your speed were 30, you would have two attacks every other round, speed 35 would mean two attacks three rounds out of four, and so on. If your speed were only 10, then you would attack once every other round. Actual situations are generally more complex than this example, but it should suffice to illustrate the principle involved.

• Many different factors influence your speed. The most common factors that slow people down are tiredness and wounds. Individuals with high dexterity are a bit faster than others, as well as those trained in the quickness skill. Larger individuals are slowed down a bit, though this can easily be overcome by other factors, so take care not to assume a large opponent is slow. Your level of encumbrance can be a major consideration, and many races are naturally

faster or slower than others. Of course, a broad variety of spells, magical items, and other effects can also alter your speed.

Report Speed

• Usage: report speed

• Shows your speed level.

• See Also: show speed

Show Speed

• Usage: show speed

• Shows your speed level.

• See Also: report speed