College Student
by Pirengle

Class: Any
Tag: None

Enrollment

This isn't a game--this is a learning experience! Welcome to the Diablo School of Higher education. All you need to do is create a new character and add -Student to the end of it. For this reason, names also be 7 letters long, no more, no less.

Pick a subject you want to major in. This will determine what kind of weapons, armor, prefixes, and suffixes you'll be using. They are Axe, Bow, Club and Hammer, Light Sword, Heavy Sword, and Staff. (Tip: These can be played with any character, but in playtesting, I found that rogues work best with bow and light sword, mages work best with club and hammer and staff, and warriors work best with axe and heavy sword. Or you can play any major with any char type and make it more challenging!)

Your goal is to "graduate" from each difficulty level (normal, nightmare, and hell) by wearing a weapon (2-handed or 1-handed and shield), armor, helm, amulet, and 2 rings that fit all of your course requirements, so to speak. (Suggestion--keep a copy of Jarulf's guide handy so you can look up the exact prefixes and suffixes you need.) You can't even venture into the higher difficulties to get experience. You must stay in normal until you get all the items you need. Then when you graduate to nightmare, sell all your items to Griz and start again.

Rules

You're a college student and you gotta pay tuition somehow. Therefore, whenever you come up from the dungeons, take half your cash from your inventory and give it to another player. Keep the rest. If you want, you can choose a spot to save your gold and bank it there, but every time you surface, you MUST cut your pile in half to pay tuition!

Items

A graduate student must fulfill all the item requirements of the major to a magical or unique ability. All of items must be magical (with prefix/suffix according to major) or unique. (A challenge: A char must have all the offered prefixes and suffixes of a major on their items before graduating!)

You cannot use any items that don't fit in with your major.
Example: If Madelin (a Bow Major) can't find a bow, she can't use anything but her rogue kicking ability until she finds one. If she can't find a cape or a skull cap, she must play without helm.

Magical items are more prized than regular items--however, to upgrade to a magic item, you must use the normal base item first.
Example: If Madelin found a composite bow of precision, she must use--i.e., kill one monster--with a normal composite bow before she can use it. Likewise with uniques. If Madelin found Deadly Hunter, she'd have to use a composite bow first before she can use DH.

Magic items and prefixes/suffixes also must match.
Example: While a blue bow of the moon is indeed a bow, the Bow major isn't allowed to have +lightning resistance or +all stat items. Therefore, that bow can't be used. A white bow of skill, however, can be used, since it's +magic resistance and +dex.

Here's a list of the six majors. Under each is the allowed weapons, armor, shields, helms, uniques, prefixes, and suffixes.

Axe Major

Armor
Studded leather (Gladiator's Bane), breast plate (Scavenger Carapace)

Helms
Full helm, great helm (Gotterdamerung)

Shields
Shields are incompatible with this major.

Weapons
Small axe (Aguinara's Hatchet), axe, large axe (The Mangler, Wicked Axe, Sharp Beak), broad axe (Bloodslayer, Stonecleaver), battle axe (The Celestial Axe, Hellslayer), great axe (Messerschmidt's Reaver)

Enchantments
(Pre) Fire Resistance, +To Hit
(Suf) Strength, Fire Damage, of the Bear

Bow Major

Armor
Cape (Nightscape), splint mail, gothic plate

Helms
Skull cap (Thinking Cap), crown (Royal Circlet)

Shields
Shields are incompatible with this major.

Weapons
Short bow (The Rift Bow, the Needler), long bow (the Blackoak Bow, Fleshstinger), hunter's bow (Flamedart), composite bow (Bow of the Dead, The Celestial Bow, Deadly Hunter), short battle bow, long battle bow (Eaglehorn), short war bow, long war bow (Windforce)

Enchantments (Pre) Magic Resistance, +Mana
(Suf) +Dex, -Damage From Enemies, Damages Target's Armor, of Thieves

Club and Hammer Major

Armor
Rags (Torn Flesh of Souls), hard leather, chain mail (Sparking Mail)

Helms
Helm (Fool's Crest, Helm of Sprits, Overlord's Helm), full helm

Shields (Not usable with mauls)
Buckler (Deflector, Split Skull Shield), small shield (Blackoak Shield), kite shield (Dragon's Breach)

Weapons
Club (Gnarled Root), spiked club (Gnarled Root), mace (Civerb's Cudgel, Dreamflange, Crackrust), flail (Celestial Star), morning star (Baranar's Star), war hammer (Schaeffer's Hammer), maul (Hammer of Jholm, Cranium Basher)

Enchantments
(Pre) Lightning Resistance, +Damage Done
(Suf) +Life, Lightning Damage, Weapon Speed

Light Sword Major

Armor
Cloak (Rainbow Cloak), ring mail, field plate

Helms
Cap, helm (Fool's Crest, Helm of Sprits, Overlord's Helm)

Shields
Buckler (Deflector, Split Skull Shield), large shield (Holy Defender), gothic shield (Stormshield)1

Weapons
Dagger (Black Razor, Wizardspike, Gonnagal's Dirk), sabre (the Defender, Lightsabre), short sword, blade, scimitar (the Falcon's Talon), falchion (Gryphon's Claw, the Executioner's Blade)

Enchantments
(Pre) Resist All
(Suf) +Vit, +Damage%, Life Steal

1: Stormshield can appear as a tower or gothic shield. Stormy's correct form must be found to satisfy the requirement. The Light Sword major may use Gothic Stormshield, but not Tower Stormshield. (Gothic has 80 str req, Tower 60. This can tell them apart.)

Heavy Sword Major

Armor
Leather (Leather of Aut), scale mail, full plate (Demonspike Coat)

Helms
Crown (Royal Circlet), great helm (Gotterdamerung)

Shields (Not usable with Two-Handed Swords and Great Swords, except G-Father)
Small shield (Blackoak Shield), large shield (Holy Defender), kite shield (Dragon's Breach), tower shield (Stormshield)2

Weapons
Claymore (Bonesaw), long sword (Inferno, Ice Shank), broad sword (Gibbous Moon, Shadowhawk), bastard sword (Doombringer), two-handed sword (the Grizzly), great sword (the Grandfather)

Enchantments
(Pre) +Armor Class%, +To Hit%/+Damage% (Sharp-King's series)
(Suf) +All, Enhanced Durability (Craftsmanship-Ages series), Fast/er/est Hit Recovery

2: As above, the correct form of Stormshield must be found for use. In this case, Tower.

Staff Major

Armor
Robe (Wisdom's Wrap), quilted armor, plate mail (Naj's Light Plate)

Helms
Cap, skull cap (Thinking Cap)

Shields
Shields are incompatible with this major.

Weapons
Short staff (Gleamsong, the Protector), long staff (Immolator, Staff of Shadows, Naj's Puzzler), composite staff (Thundercall), quarter staff (Mindcry), war staff (Storm Spire, Rod of Onan)

Enchantments
(Pre) Increased Spell Charges, +Spell Levels
(Suf) +Magic, +Light Radius