Test (Fighter Feat)

Helpfile

Guild Level:  16
SP Cost:      40 - guild level
Skill:        Metallurgy
Syntax:       test <item> (against <item>)

Over years of experience, a fighter becomes familiar with many types of weapons and armor. They learn how things like balance, sharpness, weight and many others can affect the accuracy and damaging force of a weapon. Likewise, they can tell how protective armor is by its quality, method of attachments, balance, and overall state. Applying this knowledge, fighters are able to make very accurate estimates of the quality of weapons and armor.

These estimates are even more accurate when they can compare two weapons or two sets of armor between themselves. By evaluating both, the fighter can say which item is more accurate, damaging or protective very effectively.

Commentary

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When comparing items against other items, test will occasionally say one item is in some fashion more powerful than the other, when the Thieves' Guild trick assess reports the same message for both items. This means that either assess truncates the true value for the purpose of simplification (all gear must fit into a small set of categories), or that test introduces an error in its evaluations. Current thinking is the former - testing certain charmed armor against an uncharmed version of the same armor can give the same assess, but test shows the charmed version as better protection.

Note that assess is more accurate than test for a single item. For one thing, test uses an absolute scale for armor, so an amulet will never test high, regardless of how relatively awesome it is. Test has the following scale when used in the absence of a second item:

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