Practising in the Field
The case of practising in the field is relatively straightforward. The base chance (BCH) of success when practicing skills or attributes (game orders S1 and S2) is:
BCH = N * (22 – BL)
with
BL= current BASE skill/attribute level
and
N= 5% for Skills or Personal Combat,
N= 4% for Tactics,
N= 3.5% for Influence.
(Note the May/June update 1995 said Influence had 3%)
Being wounded or cursed reduces your chances of success (see the file on Blesses/Curses on this homepage). Blesses have no positive effect! That wounds and curses have an effects is not mentioned on p. 210 (but see p. 16 and p.216).
Taking things together, we get for practice in the field the following final chance:
CH = BCH – wounds% – curse% + random factor; that is in symbols:
CH = N * (22 – BL) – W% – C%
The chance of success (CH) is capped at 10% and 90% at the extremes. (Note the May/June update 1995 said the cap was at 95%.)
It seems likely to me that there is also a random factor (not mentioned on p. 210), of +/-10% like with S11 (which would come after the caps, see p. 216-217) – but set it at 0% if you prefer.
Note that the current BASE level of your Skill/Attribute are used in the above formula (so without the effects of titles, statusses and items). To determine this level, you can use order V5. This means that items that give you extra levels of something will not decrease your chances to practice that something, and also that it does not work to use cursed items to increase your ability to study.
Practising in a Guild
If you practice inside of the appropriate guild, the guild’s level G is added to your chance. Also when you are not spending any crowns . If there’s a supportive guild facility (see p. 38), you’ll get an extra bonus of GF=25%
CH = N * (22 – BL) + G*1% + GF% – W% – C%
The 10% cap is done at the end, AFTER guild bonuses have been taken into account. This basically means that the effect of guild bonuses erodes as your skill/attribute increases. So after reaching a certain skill/attribute level, you’re chances inside a certain guild get stuck at 10% (p. 210, and notably the example given on p. 211, suggests the cap is done after crowns bonusses).
Example: Enchanter in a 30 strength Magic Guild (no crowns spent), gets (22-20)*5 +30 = 40% at BL 20, 35% at BL 21, (22-22)* 5 + 30 = 30% at BL 22, (22-23)*5+30 = 25% at BL 23, 20% at BL 24, 15% at BL 25, 10% at BL 26 and higher.
It is easy to see, that in general, a guild of strength G’ is only interesting to practice in (if you have no crowns to spend), as long as your skill/attribute level is below BL’ = (N*22 – 10% + G’*1% + GF% – W% – C%)/N . At and above SL’, your chance is at 10%, and you could as well train in the field, unless you spend crowns in this guild, or move to another (higher level) guild. So for skills this is a skill level equal to (100 + G*1%)/5 (if we ignore wounds, curses, facilities).
Practising with Crowns
When you are in an appropriate guild, you can spend crowns to improve your chances of success. The rulebook, page 210, gives the guidelines:
– The maximum amount of crowns spent is limited to 10 times the guild strength.
– The maximum additional chance increase resulting from crowns is capped at 1/2 of your current chance, as defined by your base chance plus guild modifiers (p. 210).
So if
CR = effective crowns = smallest of real crowns spent and maximum crowns allowed (10*G)
then we would get:
CRB = effective crowns bonus = smallest of calculated bonus (1%*CR/BL) and maximum bonus (50%)
What is niet fully clear is whether the current basic chance in this case includes the facility bonus, and the wounds and curses. If the crowns bonus would be really the very last thing, then we would get for the final chance FCH:
FCH = {N * (22 – BL) + G*1% + GF% + – W% – C%}*[1+CRB/100]
If crown bonuses would only apply to basic chances before wounds and curses, then you get:
FCH = {N * (22 – BL) + G*1% + GF%}*[1+CRB/100%] – W% – C%
The latter seems most likely to me, seeing how the game tends to be programmed. Either way, FCH gets capped at 10% or 90%.
Note that the maximun amount of crowns a player should spend to get the highest possible bonus is 50*BL.
Note also that crowns can be spend in ANY guild (p. 39, 210), something that is easily overlooked.
Chance Classes
Doing actions in Legends have certain odds to get positive results. These chance tables have been printed down in the May ’95 Update p. 10.
Success Chances: One chance in seven hells SH = 0-4%,
Only a prayer OP = 5-14%,
One slim chance SC = 15-24%,
Poor P = 25-34%,
Below average BA= 35-44%,
So-so SS = 45-54%,
Above average AA = 55-64%,
Good G = 65-74%,
Very good VG = 75-84%,
Every advantage EA = 85-94%,
No problem whatsoever NP = 95%
Note that you can never do better than 95% chance.
If you take the above formula for base chances (outside guilds), one can find the following probabilities for succesful practice, when doing so from a certain current level:
Training Skill or PC: starting from current levels 1 to 3 has NP chance of rising a point, from level 4 to 5 EA, level 6-7 VG, 8-9 G, 10-11 AA, 12-13 SS, 14-15 BA, 16-17 P, 18-19 SC, from level 20 or higher has OP%.
Training Tactics: level 1 to 3 VG%, 4-5 G, 6-8 AA, 9-10 SS, 11-13 BA, 14-15 P, 16-18 SC, 19 or higher 20 OP.
Training Influence: level 1-3 AA, 4-7 SS, 8-10 BA, 11-13 P, 14-17 SC, 18 or higher has OP.
Obviously, in a lot of cases, ‘practicing by doing’ is preferable by Practicing with the orders.
* If your Influence rating has reached 10, definitely only ‘practice-by-doing’ instead of using Order S2, for when doing Diplomacy by order D2, there’s always a chance your attribute will rise a point – and a chance that you’ll get the character’s loyalty on top of that!
* When you’re duelling and battling, your fighting skills and attributes have a very good chance of rising – and you get all the treasures as well, instead of sitting in a dull guild!
* Even your arcane skill has a good chance of rising, if you cast a lot of (powerful) spells. (In my present game, my Hero in this way generates about +1 level every other month).