Guide to Banditry

HOW TO SURVIVE:

You WILL need a polearm to negate the terrain slowdown of the bog, for speed is the single thing that will keep you alive. This includes wooden staffs, spears, billhooks, etc.

Get a battle buddy, pair up with your fellow bandit. Pairs of two are able to cover more ground because one is able to simply grab the other and run AND will help prevent you from getting absolutely destroyed by mobs. Mobs are deadly beyond reason and WILL rock your shit. Why else pairs of two? Because if that pair gets wiped off the face of the bog, it's not like the entire cohort of bandits is taken out in that fight.

Now the last thing you want to do is bum-rush the bog gate, but why? It's so much fun? For you maybe, but for the round not so much. A pile of dead bandits leaves the bog looking pretty boring and pretty lame for the other 2 hours of the round.

You have no round start capabilities to do advanced forms of medicine, so for example you get your arm cut off by a fencer because you thought it'd be smart to duel them over the 18 zennies in their pouch, you're pretty much fucked because you're not going to survive putting it back on let alone have the medical skill to do so. (Trust me, this happens more than you think)

What's all this moondust stuff Matthios is giving me piles of? Your new best friend. Target nose and snort that shit up for extra movement speed and half delay on weapon attacks. Absolutely devastating stuff and is how you will survive any serious encounter and come out on top. Now at the end you get a little bit of a debuff but that can be removed by snorting another pile or simply waiting it out. Many people are scared to use moondust because of the after, completely ignoring you can still waddle your ass off into the darkness or run.

Mages, something very fucking annoying to deal with and very tricky to take prisoner. Your generic fireball and the like can be instantly disabled by grabbing their mouth (mages typically are very weak strength wise so not a hard feat), without their mouth they can't cast most spells but one they can cast with only their hands is repulse which will knock you back, knock you onto the floor and disarm you. IF they surrender, you can chain them to disable their ability to repulse (I think...) and put a piece of cloth in their mouth to gag them so they can't fireball you. Though keep in mind if they ever escape their chains they will most likely tear the gag out and fireball you and your battle buddy to death.

Verevolfs (or WW/VV), every once in a blue moon will help out their local free men. However that is the exception to the rule, generically they will run up to you, instantly cut your leg off and then slice your throat in two. Their counter? Why it's staying together in a well lit place with at least 4 people. Don't let anyone stray from the cuddle pile at night lest they be dragged off and killed. Like you, their biggest strength is their speed which they will use to absolutely exterminate you if you try to run off and break cohesion.

Knights, paladins, templars and the occasional full plate validhunter; these are the tricky ones. All of them like to rush into the bog round start from time to time in hopes of catching some sick frags at the gate. Templars and paladins can heal otherwise lethal wounds on themselves and others. So just because you cut their throat doesn't mean they're going to give up like others will. But my dear free man, what do you have that they don't? SPEED. Run, draw them out and used ranged weapons or dogpiling if they split far enough from the group.

DEALING WITH WOUNDS AS A BANDIT:

If you get an arterial bleed it's not as bad as it used to be, assuming they didn't get your throat. When your battle buddy gets a bleed like that, you drag them the fuck outta the fight if they're not already retreating. If it's a throat bleed, they better be chugging red or water if they want a chance to live. Both give you blood and will buy you valuable time.

If you don't have either clean water or red, you will need to strip them of everything on their head, target mouth and touch with weak intent to perform CPR. CPR WILL keep them alive even if they have no blood in their body to speak of. Once it no longer allows you to do it, that's your two second window or so to do a round of stitching on the bleed. After you do that round get back to CPRing and repeat.

Poison arrows are typically VERY FUCKING LETHAL and shouldn't be taken lightly, so we won't. The counter to their poison is sticking a leech on yourself. I'm serious, if you get hit and get the message that the wound feels like a spreading burning sensation, slap a leech on or start chugging red and praying boy.

Now you might be asking how do I unfuck my broken ribs? Good question, you typically can't without proper supplies, finding someone who's up to help the cause or red. For red, you should sleep first to heal up then take a couple gulps at a time until your bone repairs itself.

Extra info:

Here's the most IMPORTANT feature of all when you take captives: there's a chest at the end of the road in Murderwood, it's purpose is to load people in, lock it and bring it through the path. Doing this makes it so they can't instantly run off and run back with a lynch mob to raid the place for they don't get to see the path when they're stuffed inside a box, simple as.

With that out of the way, as a bandit you fall under Matthios, the greatest thief to ever live for he was once man but after stealing fire from Astrata and maiming her in the process (which is why dae is so short) ascended to godhood. Your mechanical objective is to feed valuables to the idol in the camp, but that's not what we're here about. We're here because someone has to put the terror in the bog.

He however is also the god of peasant revolts and comradery. Your only objective isn't just stealing shit, it's also empowering the masses. The TL;DR is don't just fucking rob peasants and workers blind, they're not really enemies of a Matthios worshipper. Instead target the rich, noble and absolutely clergy. Not as if you're getting much out of those 20 zennies anyways.

That being said, straight up killing isn't optimal in the slightest unless it's legitimately your only option, one should aim to 'drub', or rather beat the utter piss out of someone who runs off per say, not cut off both their legs and watch them bleed to death. Remember, death folk can't tell any tales and that just isn't very interesting.