Hi. I have been gone for a long time, I think since around C2. I have a my old characters, one is red, Could anyone just lay down a basic understanding of what PKing is like nowadays? What I mean is the specifics of it, recalling, dropping items, any penalties that you may get. Explain it as if to someone just starting the game. I would greatly appreciate this, thanks in advance.
Point, click, kill.
If you are red and have 6 or more PKs then there is a chance of dropping items on death. Floran NPCs will talk/trade with red toons so you can go there to warehouse your stuff before washing. You can also send and receive freight in Floran.
The penalties for death changed recently in Chronicle 5. Here are the patch notes to explain the system:
The following changes have been made to death penalties of player characters.
<ul type="square"> Unchaotic character: No items are dropped at death. Chaotic character: Items are dropped at a lower rate than before. PK count still determines item drops, while Karma influences susceptibility to the combat penalty.When characters die, they will now receive a penalty of reduced combat capability at a certain rate (about the same rate as the previous item drop rate).
The penalty for death is applied cumulatively. If you die again after the penalty has been applied, the new penalty is applied on top of the existing penalty.
The penalty can be viewed in the Status window and it has a permanent duration.
You can recover your combat capability level by using Scroll: Recovery items. There are recovery scrolls for each level and each character must use one appropriate for his level (per expertise skill). Chaotic characters cannot use recovery scrolls.
You can also recover your combat capability level through Black Judge NPCs for a fee, including chaotic characters. The Black Judges are in Floran Village, the Wastelands, and Hardin's Academy.
Charms of Luck have been changed to have the effect of preventing this new penalty to combat capability.
No, charm of Luck pre-c5 was preventing you from droping items on death during a boss raid, post-c5 its preventing from gettin a deathpenalty during boss raids.
The scrolls for sieges are charm of courage (also called carebear scrolls), preventing you from loosing exp on a siege battlefield.
Both scrolls appear as a buff after activation, duration is 1 hour. You loose them if you die, even with blessing of nobless up.
Easy saying for the OP:
If you PK someone nowadays, nothin more happens then +1PK and karma just as before, but you dont need to trade away your stuff anymore if its your 1st-5th PK. Starting with your 6th PK you can drop stuff on death, but with a much much lower rate then before. There is also a quest now available, that lowers your PK count called "Repent your Sins". You get the quest from a NPC called Black Judge, there are 3 judges on the map. One is at the south entreance of the wastelands, one near Hardins Academy and I forgot where the 3rd is since Ill always use the Hardins guy.
New in C5 is also that you dont drop items if yyou die from mobs (if white or PK<=5), but you can get a debuff (death penalty) that lasts forever (you get the debuff the same rate as you would have droped stuff pre-c5). Buy some recovery scrolls from a magic shop, matching your grade.