Cheating at Dummies for Dummies

[Wids]

On a wild hair, I sent several of my characters to Llorkh to test the boundaries of the Taunting Dummies there, specifically as to what a dummy considers to be cheating.

Attacking it with a melee weapon: Not Cheating

Attacking it with unarmed strikes: Cheating

Attacking it with a ranged weapon: Cheating

Attacking it with damaging spells: Cheating

Attacking it with a melee weapon while polymorphed: Not Cheating

Attacking it with unarmed strikes while polymorphed: Cheating

Attacking it with a breath weapon while polymorphed:  I don't know, honestly.  Maralah's breath weapons don't affect the Taunting Dummies in any way, for whatever reason.

So the nitty-gritty is that melee weapon = not cheating, and everything else = cheating.  Granted, you still get the same 10 Experience if you destroy the dummy (whether you're cheating or not), but why aren't unarmed attacks considered "honest" training as well?  Just curious.

[hungrycrow]

Isn't it obvious? The dummies have been provided by Llorkh's Guild of weapon manufacturers and retailers. Hence you must use a weapon to utilize them.

[Wids]

Seems legit.

Now we need the Mages Guild (or equivalent) to produce a series of BLAMMO! spellfire training dummies. The limited Fisten Series has a 1-in-20 chance of retaliating with a Fireball spell when blasted.

[Wids]

At the end of the day, dwarfy dummies whine just as much as humie dummies whine when they're attacked by wild animals.  

[Wids]

Commanding a pet to engage the dummies in armed melee: Not Cheating.



Commanding a pet to engage the dummies at range: Cheating.



Commanding an unarmed pet to engage the dummies in melee: Cheating.

But oddly enough, whether it was because of Lilibeza siccing her skeleton warrior on the dummies or because she helped the skeleton along by dropping a Negative Energy Burst on the skeleton and the dummies alike (thus strengthening the skeleton but not affecting the dummies in any way because Negative Energy damage has little to no effect on inanimate objects), Lilibeza's direct damage spells — including Burning Hands and Aganazzar's Scorcher — suddenly transmogrified from "Cheating" to "Not Cheating".

...but that's probably not worth a Bug Report, is it? 

That's just about it for this post.  In closing:

Cry "Cheater" now, you hoochie fools!