So, all that talk about pures grabbing a claidhmore brings up the question related to:

<<5. What exactly are the gear restrictions?>>

There are three levels of Gear Passes (bronze, silver, and gold). A Bronze Gear Pass will allow a player to receive the benefit of gear up to +35 enchantment (7x) and heavily weighted/padded/sighted. A Silver Gear Pass will allow a player to receive the benefit of gear up to +40 enchantment (8x), very heavily weighted/padded/sighted, +25 TD enhancement, or +10 Defensive Bonus (DB). Gold Gear passes allow full benefits of any equipment's enchantment, weighting, padding, sighting, TD enhancement, or Defensive Bonus (DB), just like a paid subscriber. All passes are good for 30 days.

If a weapon is "naturally" weighted, will it be restricted in the same way? Can a F2P player use an unenchanted claidhmore picked up from a few various low-level critters (I think some still exist which can use claids) and swing it with the full potential of the incredible crit weighting? Or are they going to have to buy a "gold" pass just to use a weapon that is somewhat "ordinary" or common? I mean, there are Katanas that are naturally heavily crit weighted, claidhmores that are naturally crit weight, specific woods which are naturally crit weighted. Are these going to work for the new players?

I love the complicated mechanics that drive Gemstone - but are those very intricacies that make the game so interesting and deep going to play against the F2P model?

I hope so!

This page is presently orphaned (I didn't link it anywhere within the wiki), perhaps because I wanted a better name: https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Cheatyface_30_days

I made it during the beginner guide contest, though it might not be suitable for all beginners, I did notice some other professional guides offer similar advice.

Mostly I've been wondering, besides the page name, perhaps I should move my advice on backroom access to some more general article?

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"What Kaldonis does on his off time is totally Kaldonis's business, dude." ~Scribes

Personally, I've never had an issue with lower level characters having access to claidhmores. They almost have a glass cannon aspect at lower levels, since I think (not sure without checking) they're on the higher end of stat bonus requirements to work off the extra RT.

I feel like claidh use kind of resolves itself after a certain point, once the user realizes they can be quite limiting. Enchantment necessity for certain critters, blessings, and eventually having to contend with armored foes means other weapons might be better.

Under those circumstances, there's plenty of room for growth, both for a player and the RP of their character, to learn through experience as to what weapon or method is best suited to the job.

-AM