Category:Black Circle Initiates

The Black Circle is a secretive cabal of lizard and Dragon-kin assassins under the service of the Great Dragon Kahbyss. The Circle teaches a small repertoire of psionic spells, including some unknown outside the circle. The Circle as a whole has a certain measure of Reputation, although individual Initiates cannot raise this, like an Assassin can. Like all Prestige Classes, they retain the original class's Prime Requisite, in this case, Dexterity. As a Psionic class, they possess a Psion's higher degree of success with spells such as deception. Joining the Circle is for life. Initiates cannot become Assassins or Berserkers like Rogues can. Rumor says the Circle maintains a base in warmer climes, where Masters can often be found.

Abbreviation: Bci.

Base Class: Rogue.

Prime Requisite: Dexterity.

BCIs in General

The Black Circle, much like the help file says, is a Rogue like assassin with some unique psionic abilities. BCI do not get a lot of arcane spells but they do gain some impressive psionics that only the Psi and Mnd can learn like overconfidence, anger management and death field. Also BCI can learn a couple skills unique only to the initiates like sense weakness and killer instinct.

BCI lose some very important hero spells like teleport, foci and awen so they become a bit tricky to play at low hero level so in groups you need to rely on groupmates to sanc you. Fortunately there are lots of great Maps and directions on this site to help you get around as well as get potions and brews to help you on your way. All in all, if you break apart foci and awen you only miss out on stone skin, protection evil, protection good and sanc. So grab some Gauntlets Of Protection or an Opal Encased In A Bronze Ring and a few sanc quaffs and you're ready to roll. With the introduction of (legal) spell-bots, this is less of an issue.

Once you get past the lack of arcane knowlege you can see how versatile the Circle can be. They are every bit as sneaky and eventually even a little more potent stabbers and BCI also get a bit of Reputation but not as much as assassins however though still noticable. And don't forget about your psionics. What else are you going to use all that mana for?

BCI Creation

BCI is a possible class option for troglodytes, draconians, firedrakes and lizardmen rogues. As far as remort options go, dragons, tuataurs and miraars can become BCI.

If you are interested in becoming a BCI you can see the Master at level 30 and see if you are eligible for membership into the Black Circle. The BCI master can be found at the bottom of The Valley of the Sun. One of the most important requirements besides race is your criminal record. It must be spotless before you join up.

Next, if you're cold blooded with a clean record, you will need to have 333 kills by level 50. With the new ability to become a prestige class up until hero level 100, a rogue will need to get more kills if attempting to become a BCI at hero level 1 or above (precise number unknown). Once you have your kill count up, the BCI master will give you your quest.

This is a ticket quest in Lord Audis' Villa where it is easy to get arrested so be careful. The aggie assassins there stab hard and fighting them in the presence of a guard will give you an outlaw flag. If the servant spots you there, you'll get an outlaw flag too, even without any fighting. Outlaws might find a reprieve from the Black Circle Master, but once you are arrested, he will ignore you forever. You are required to do this quest with the alt that wants to go BCI.

Once you give the master the ticket item and you are level 50 you can use the prestige command and join up.

Text:

A Black Circle Master says 'Yeah, maybe you do have what it takes. Maybe you could do a little job
for us, hrmm? Those two bunglers I sent on the Audis job are taking too long...'

From Lord Audis I went... w, d, s, s, u, e. In the second two last room there was a large mob with sanc and poison and stabbing. The item you're looking for is the audis family crest. It's on Nikoli.

BCIs at Hero Tier

Training

As with any character, train wisdom first and then intelligence this will help you practice skills quicker and give you more mana each level. Next train con for better hp gains then dex and str to taste.

Practicing

Once you got your intelligence maxed and inteligence gear on you can start practicing your new skills. Also you will need to re-adept your old skills because you can train you skills to 95% now instead of 90% at lowmort.

Some hero skills are clones so you do not need to practicing them all like invis and mask. Other skills like pass door which is a part of foci is not learnable by BCI but ectoplasmic form is. Some of the best lowhero skills to learn are the ones the are found in or can replace those found in Foci/Awen as well as astral, anger management, overconfidence, deception and the psionic attack spells.

Devoting

The best suited gods to worship for BCI are Tor and Shizaga. Your playing style will influence your choice for the best one suited for your needs. If you Spend your time soloing the extra damage from Tor will help as well as the hp regen bonus. Shizaga also grants a stab bonus as well as a psionic bonus. Spells cost less with Shizaga and more with Tor.

    Recap: Tor gives better melee and regen
           Shizaga gives better spells, lower spell cost and better mana gain
           Both give good hp gains and improve stabs
           Tor helps HP regen, Shz hurts it.

    Devoting: Tor grants +2 str and +1 con wich could give you greater damage and better
                  hp gains. He also won't let you raise your int and wis as high as it
                  you used to which could affect your mana gains and practice gains as 
                  well as the number of practices you need to adept a skill.
              Shizaga grants +1 dex with helps with your rogue skills and ac but reduces 
                      wis by 1 which could affect your practice gains.

Shizaga is great for smarter BCIs as it opens up DF soloing as a legitimate option. For the more brute BCIs, Tor is probably a better bet, since you'll rely more on melee damage then spell damage. At lord, your melee damage eclipses your spell damage by a good amount, so Tor is a good way to go.

Fighting

Killing is what Initiates do best

Soloing:

Soloing might be a bit tricky until after level 101. You will need to find gear or potions to make up for the lack of spells. To start out have a good mix of damage roll and ac gear. As time goes on you can slowly fase out the ac gear and eventually solo in full hit.

You might try the hound dogs in Shadow Keep. They flee easily which saves you hit points and is easy to walk to. Dream Steppes is good after 101 and be sure to avoid the riders and masked psionicists for a while.

Tanking:

BCI tank rather well with bs or vs to open up commbat. At low hero you will need full ac gear and then slowly blend in hit to suit your playing style. Be sure to include someone in the group who can portal and sanc.

Hitting:

BCI don't really start hitting well until level 39 when they get third attack. They just keep getting better after that with other various skills. At low hero be sure to use your psionic attacks or throw weapon for added damage. Also use sneak attack to target mobs.

BCIs at Lord Tier

BCIs continue to be powerful characters at the lord tier. Your nightcloak skill insure your continuing high stab rate, and IC regeneration can be nice. In addition, you can help the tanks/group get steel. The BCIs missed out on the recent addition of Slip but they can still stab and let another rogue or asn slip in for later damage.

Depending on your race, you can either Sense Weakness and Vital Shot midround, or Mindwipe the mobs for a nice little boost in damage. From what I've heard, with normal T1 DR gear, a lizard will average more or less the same damage, with Mindwipe giving a chance to stun the mob (and prevent them from casting) and Vital Shot being able to to blind and weaken the mob in other ways. If someone has a BCI with gear and has run damage counters, this would be a great place to let us know.

BCI Remort Options

BCI has no class remort options; BCI is for life.

Strong, otherwise non-sneaky races such as minotaurs, dragons and trolls make great remort choices for BCI, as the skill nightcloak allows them rarely miss their stab. Dragons do exceptionally well, with their mix of high racial damage and strong casting abilities, excelling at all aspects of BCI, and in addition, are able to become a BCI even if not originally BCI.