Watchers are Avendar's bounty hunters, and as a result have a mixture of information-related skills, staff skills, and delaying tactics. They are most effective against other rogues (and secondarily, mentalists), and are particularly solid defensively. Dealing primarily in money and information on their opponents, watchers can make an effective addition to almost any hunting party, be it against monster or man. Watchers have some unique non-skill class features available to them, in addition to their typical skill list.
Skills and Features
| Level | Skill |
|---|---|
| Level 1: | Dagger, Hand to Hand, Haggle, Obscure Evidence, Sword, Staff |
| Level 2: | Night Vision, Peek |
| Level 3: | Listen |
| Level 4: | Parry |
| Level 5: | Pick Lock |
| Level 6: | Sneak |
| Level 7: | Pugil |
| Level 8: | Sixth Sense |
| Level 9: | Enhanced Damage |
| Level 10: | Second Attack |
| Level 11: | Trip |
| Level 12: | Dodge |
| Level 13: | Fast Healing |
| Level 14: | Detect Stealth |
| Level 15: | Dual Wield, Investigate |
| Level 16: | Blinding Dust |
| Level 17: | Endurance, Plant |
| Level 18: | Distract |
| Level 19: | Deflect, Disarm |
| Level 20: | Find Items, Third Attack |
| Level 21: | Dagger Trap |
| Level 22: | Meditation |
| Level 23: | Twirl |
| Level 24: | Agility |
| Level 25: | Inquire |
| Level 26: | Forgery |
| Level 27: | Bolo |
| Level 28: | Retreat |
| Level 29: | Pursuit |
| Level 30: | Sentry |
| Level 31: | Find Cover |
| Level 32: | Swift Staff |
| Level 34: | Cutoff |
| Level 35: | Contact Agents |
| Level 36: | Cover Tracks |
| Level 38: | Wariness |
| Level 40: | Submission Hold |
| Level | Class Feature |
|---|---|
| Level 1: | Light Sleep |
| Level 20: | Record |
| Level 40: | Bounty |
Tips
Watchers specialize in the staff and most of their skills depend on one. While wielding a staff, they will have up to four melee attacks per round, without counting in-round powers. In most PvE situations, a watcher will choose to deal more damage by using pugil, which deals damage of his weapon's type. When fighting in PK, the arsenal of watcher staff skills becomes more useful. Twirl is a lag skill which disregards defensive powers like protective shield and also deals damage (which makes it much like the bandit skill, pummel). Cutoff will prevent characters from escaping using flee.
Wariness and agility together are immensely powerful against other rogues or mentalists. Many common skills, like waylay, garrote, bash, throw, and bandit-specific unarmed attacks (such as jab) can be avoided while these two skills are active. As a result, a watcher will have advantages against many of these classes by eliminating some of their tricks. Detect stealth, as well, will make it obvious when others are trying to sneak up on a watcher or covertly plant or steal items. Submission hold makes for a potent opener, as it lowers the target's strength score; this could be particularly effective against scholars, weakening them into dropping their staff and no longer being able to parry.
Watchers have many money-draining abilities, and this money can be pulled from the character itself, or his bank account. Investigate allows a watcher to find out about items or corpses. When used on an item, it can find out the item's owners, duplicate the functionality of identify, and also show an item's lore. When used on a corpse, it can determine whose corpse it is (if disfigured), or who led to that person's death. Inquire will find out most routine information about the target, as well as information added by other watchers using the record command. Find items is a variation of locate object. Sentry allows you to monitor a room to know who comes and goes, while contact agents will track the target to their current area.
The bounty class feature, available at level 40, lets watchers put prices on other players' heads. The amount spent on a bounty continues to accrue as more bounties are placed upon the same person, and the killer is rewarded the entire sum if they kill the target. Bounties are visible at the watcher guild entrances to everyone.
