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Over the years I've had a lot of success with this style, and for what it's worth I've decided to share my opinions here on the Roundtable. After all that is why it was started, right?

Parry Riposte, much like Aimed Blows is a annoying style to run, mostly because of their high death rate. What's even worse is that a Parry Riposte with mediocre stats aren't worth the time and money running. Considering their tendency to die, this causes a great dilemma. You need to take one of your not so often sighted great roll-ups for it to even have a chance of winning, although you know it will most likely get killed. But this also adds to the enjoyability in running Parry Ripostes--it's a great feeling to finally succeed with one.

Designing PRs is interesting because they can look very differentely. I tend to design mine rather similar with the exception for SP, where I can vary.

STATS
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Strength:
Although it's a defensive style, ST can be a very crucial to the success of the PR in basic DM. With a too low strength, the ripper, after riposting an attack, will miss his opponent before finishing him, leaving her open for counterattacks (which PRs seem to have very little defense against.) I would go with 9-11. That enables the PR to use the SC which is probably the best weapon for PRs in basic. A 7 is ok if raised early on. I've run rippers with ST 13, with a lot of success, but this often hurts some other area, so I wouldn't recommend it unless your PR is very small.

Constitution:
Here is a tough area to give an opinion about because it has a lot to do with how gutsy you are as a manager. I like to give mine a CN in the range of 10 and 14. It will keep them a live and able to take a couple of hits before going down. Not too much to comment about in this area. It's mostly dependent on what you were given on the roll-up.

Size:
Small is good but you can get a lot of trouble with the damage doing ability if you run a low SZ Parry Riposte. 6-10 is ideal in my opinion but everything 13 and under works. Just be sure to shape your warrior in the other areas to compensate for high/low SZ.

Wit:
Very important. By far the most important stat to the PR, in my opinion. PRs need skills galore. They also need the Attack and defense. (although the style name, you're better off with a PR that dodges than one who parries.) Unfortunately this stat doesn't add very much to your PRs overall look, like the endurance, hit points etc. and you will need to make sure your ripper isn't just a skill god, but also has a good general design. This brings us to the next stat...

Will:
Any points here will do wonders to your PRs ability to win, and gives him a better potential to succeed in ADM, Primus and beyond. However, your base will not benefit too much from a high WL, so a good balance between WT and WL is the key to a good setting up of your ripper.

Speed:
Completely unnecessary in my opinion, yet it helps to have a high SP. Points added to SP are often better off on one of the three big ones (WT/WL/DF), though. So go with what you are given and don't add any points to it. The only time you'd want a little higher SP is if you're running a ripper with SZ over 12. Do not think that great rippers can't be designed with a high SP, though. I have run very successful PRs with high SP and they're often a great deal of fun to run, so my personal opinion is to go with a low SP, but I do realize good things come out from a high SP. 5 would be my recommendation.

Deftness:
This was always considered the ripper's most important stat but I doubt if anyone believes so anymore. Skills in this area is great but rather put points to WT than DF since this will improve your long-term potential. Don't go lower than 13 though, or your PR will suffer too much from the lack of skills in the areas crucial to the PRs. 21 DF is a total waste of points but can be fun to run if that's what you're given.

Examples:  8-13- 7-17-17- 5-17    Jeanne d'Arc
	   9-12- 5-17-15- 5-21    Touch
	  15- 9- 8-21-15- 3-13    Fates Warning 

RUNNING
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Armor:
APL/H is a great combo I tend to use always. Heavy enough to keep you going a few more hits, but light enough to be able to dodge the attacks thrown at you. You can go heavier if you want to scum early on in your career, but going lower seems dumb.

Weapon:
SC/HA, LO/DA are the best combinations in my experience. EP is too weak and not at all a good weapon in basic. If you have ST<9 SS and SH are probably what works best.

Tactic:
First minutes, go OE:4-6 AL:5-7 with no tactic. Later on, lower your AL gradually. In desperate you have to find out what suits your PR best since it varies a lot. Some like a slow parry tactic (3-1-3-P), some like dodging (6-8-5-Do), etc. MOD/MOD-HI in different combinations and with different tactics seems to be what works best for rippers so experiment in these ranges, and go outside them occasionally and see how he does. PRs adjust themself very well to various combinations but avoid using tactics other than parry and dodge.

Training:
Skills all the way unless you want to bump your strength, in order to get normal damage or suitability to the SC.

Challenge:
Mine like to pick apart scums and other slow defensive styles. You can scum lungers if you have decent damage taking ability. BAs are easy target but there are a few high-inits out there who will slaughter your PR so it can be dangerous to challenge them. PLs and PSs are good competition and will teach you well. Slow STs are easy but avoid all high init warriors--they are your worst match-ups. Don't challenge high, challenge for skills! Bartender