If you read the help file for the skill carefully, you'll see that it is
intended for warriors. Old news, that. However, consider also that discipline
is a defnesive skill, like parry and combat sense. True, avoiding skill breaks
can be considered offensive since you're doing more damage, but so does
riposte.

Now, I can't speak for every guild coder nor for the entire history of BatMUD,
but I can tell you why I assigned discipline the way I did for the guilds I
oversee/meddle with when nobody's looking.
-- guilds that are supposed to be in the front row get more than those
supposed to be in the back row.
-- guilds focussed on defense should have more than guilds focussed on
offense.
-- guilds that focus on weapons and armour get more than those that work with
magic (why? part of it involves the front row thing, true, but there's also an
old-school mentality of weapons being physical and spells being mental, and
being hit is definitely physical)
-- and I admit, part of it is RPG based on the name, "discipline".

As such, knights got the skill to a high percent. A squire/knight or
squire/cav/knight has no business being in the back row, definitely works with
armour and weapons, and is about as "disciplined" as you get. True, he has
some spels, but they are cast quite rarely. Reavers were lucky to get the 50%
they did, being offensive, disorganized, and spellcasters. Of course, giving
them 0% would have been really bad for balance as well. Druids, alchies, and
channellers don't get any.

Does this mean I wouldn't change any other guilds? Probably not, but I
understand their points of view. If bards were mine, I might give them a
discipline % boost, but Amarth has been here a lot longer than I have and I
trust his judgement. Besides, I don't see someone singing a song they're still
memorizing very well when they get conked on the head. I might also be tempted
to lower barbarians discipline, but I can also envision barbarians in a frenzy
ignoring the pain of a hit and continuing their skills. I don't see tigers
doing that.

As for the seperate skill for skillbreaks/spellbreaks, I assure you, you don't
want it. It'll cost you even more exp and I promise such a tune would have the
same game effect anyhow.

If you're convinced a specific guild requires a bit more discip^H^H^H^Hdiscipli
ne (man, I need to learn to spell) percent than it has, contact that guild's
coder/maintainer by the usual routes (ideatrack being the best). Inactive
guilds/unmaintained guild questions can probably be addressed to me, I guess,
or any other arch. But come with a valid argument. "I think locs should have
150% discipline" will be met with a two-word responce.

Shinarae Lluminus

P.S. Funny how this topic didn't come up until the nimbus was fixed.