Good character build for a first character?

[Jnx]

So, I'm about to start the game with the expansion installed, and wanted to know if anyone has some input about what's a good character. I was thinking warrior, battlemage or burglar.

I'm open to whatever, I am just looking for input on what's worth playing, and if there are any characters that aren't very good (probably of three I mentioned). I gather you get a party of characters, so I'm looking for something that means I'll have a well-rounded party, and not end up with two of each, and miss an important archetype.

[Hindro_]

For the first run i would suggest a worrier.
I don't want to spoiler, but you will see that mage and burglar might not be the best choices.

[Jnx]

Alright, good stuff. I'll make the soldier then. Unless that's a bad choice, and I should make a warrior specifically?

[Corlain]

How many spoilers do you want? The NPCs can fill pretty much all roles and the game is beatable with any character, so you can use whatever you want.

There isn't that much difference between the various fighter types, especially if you edit the advantages and disadvantages. If I remember correctly, warriors specialize in 1h swords and soldiers in 2h swords. Many people prefer spears or axe/maces in these games because of their special moves, but you can certainly use swords too.

[Jnx]

I want exactly 0 spoilers. I'm simply looking for information on how to build a good fighter. What stats should I focus on, are there are pitfalls, or skills I should disregard and why, and so on.

I haven't edited anything in or out of the standard character. I just hit go, and I was off. I've only just arrived at the first city, so it wouldn't be too much effort to restart though.

Is it worth using 2-handers, or is it far better later on to go 1-hander with a shield, you think?

[Hindro_]

There are skills for any type of weapon.

Any type of worrios need strength and courage. And a good always increase willpower as it avoids wounds.

[rompier02]

The soldier is a good choice. Later on in the game you will find good 2 handed swords for him.Try to balance his social skills a bit to broaden his contributions to the team and ( this is just my opinion) get him a piercing weapon skill.

[Jnx]

I restarted as a warrior, and pumped points into axes instead of 2-handers and brawling, and a bit of etiquitte. I'm once again in the first city, but the fights seemed harder than with the 2-hander thus far. I didn't do nearly as much damage, and because the fights took longer, the enemies were able to put more damage in me, even though I had a shield to defend with.

Ah well, I'm not starting over again. Onwards from here I say.

[Marcos_DS]

IMO you will earn enough experience points to increase two weapon skills, so you can use 1h axe + shield and 2h axe as the situation requires, especially since 2h and 1h axe use the same special abilities anyway.

If you ever start a new game, elven warriors are also fun to play. They can use some support magic in fights (armor buff, speed+damage buff etc) and get a nice personal spear weapon that is upgradeable via quests.

[Jnx]

I've just defeated the first boss, and I have to say the 1-handed/shield is super underwhelming. But it's alright, the mage in the party is great, and I'm sure the others will be good too, so I'll just see if I can somehow make him a tank or whatever, and forget about him/me.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Jinxtah:

I've just defeated the first boss, and I have to say the 1-handed/shield is super underwhelming. But it's alright, the mage in the party is great, and I'm sure the others will be good too, so I'll just see if I can somehow make him a tank or whatever, and forget about him/me.

So put some points into 2h weapons. You really don't need to keep fighting 1h if thats no fun for you, you are not "locked" into skills in this game...

[Jnx]

Yeah I guess not. It's just that I have 2 points in 2handed, and 8 in 1handed axes & maces. But I might try it out to see if it's more enjoyable.

[NavFamG]

Most of the 1H axe's you have access to at the start just don't do a lot of damage. Forgrim's is the best I saw all through the game. Kind of the same with swords. Every time you leave the city, go do another zone and then come back the merchants get better gear.

My 2 main fighters both used 2H weapons, my other 2 used 1h and shields.

I tried a number of starting character combo's and both of the initial companions and on the whole I found the elf girl to work out better than the mage.

For your very first playthrough going with a strong fighter is never wrong.

For stat's; like it's been said Willpower is important, keep pumping points into it the higher the better, max out strength and constitution. Uping con will also up your vitality (amount of damage you can take). Sneak points CAN come in handy early in the game.

For trainable skills the dodge & armor use series help.

[Jnx]

I wish you had replied this before I started, but I'm pretty far into the game now. You are indeed right in that the 1-handed axe/mace hasn't gotten better than what I started with, which is super weird, but I have pumped so many points into the whole axe/mace stat that it would be a waste not to go with it.

I'm still having trouble figuring out what's important for the mage, but so far he really blows. The only thing he has been good for so far is buffing my other characters up with strength before a fight, and then maybe using a debuff if he gets a chance. Other than that, he's quite useless, but I haven't gotten to the point where I have an elf girl yet.

*Spoilers below:*

I just dealt with the pirates at the elf camp, and they've taken ardo in. I've literally just entered that cave thing which the weird mage character said I are running experiments on greed or whatever, and I'm to collect some things from the ruins below.

I regret I didn't just stick with the 2-handed fighter I made to begin with instead of listening to the rather terrible advice about starting with a warrior.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Jinxtah:

I wish you had replied this before I started, but I'm pretty far into the game now. You are indeed right in that the 1-handed axe/mace hasn't gotten better than what I started with, which is super weird, but I have pumped so many points into the whole axe/mace stat that it would be a waste not to go with it.

Switching is easy, and considering you are at the elf camp, i doubt you have reached the really expensive skill levels. For example, buying endurance III costs 450 AP and gives you 6 more endurance (compared to endurance II). Or raising a stat from 15 to 16 also costs 450 AP. For the same price, you can raise 2h weapons from 0 to 13! Buying skills really is the least expensive part of building a good warrior, and the more important special abilities like mighty blow and strike of wrath etc. are the same for 2h and 1h.

I'm still having trouble figuring out what's important for the mage, but so far he really blows. The only thing he has been good for so far is buffing my other characters up with strength before a fight, and then maybe using a debuff if he gets a chance. Other than that, he's quite useless,

Well, the most effective combat contribution of the mage are his summons. Fire elementals are decent, but i prefer the summon undead line (undead mage/undead warrior) - however the spell is only aviable after healing Ardo unless you are a mage and start the game with it. Djinns are ok, but have no armor (so undead are better imo). The shadow summon isn't that great compared to the others imo. Paralysis is great for battlefield control (basially takes an enemy out of the fight), and attributo: strength is a good pre-fight buff. Other than that, the occasional heal can be useful, especially since it also cures wounds in higher levels. For offensive magic, high level Ignifaxius deals great single target damage (but costs too much mana imo), fireball is a good spell to start combat, however friendly fire makes it hard to use after that. Kulminato lightning deals single target d20+5 damage, but costs 20 mana minus skill level points - so on higher levels, it costs almost nothing.

but I haven't gotten to the point where I have an elf girl yet.

if you have the mage, you won't get the elf girl (cause she died in Nadoret, you can only save one of them)

One of the most important things, do you use trainers to get new spells, skills and special abilities ? Thats quite important, an axe/mace user without mighty blow, knock down and (later) strike of wrath is rather bad, and just increasing your starting skills won't get you far. If you want to keep 1h + shields, also buy shield fighting I to III. Also, if you use the thief, train him in lunge and mortal blow. The special ability are what makes or breaks any fighters combat ability, and a pure fighter can easily max 2 combat skills as long as they have matching special abilities (e.g. 1h fencing + 2h spears use the same, same for 1h and 2h blunt)

Last tip, if you really want to focus on 1h blunt only, a Gruufhai from the orc camp is decent, but if you have the money (possible with crafting/selling) you could buy the amazing and somewhat overpowered Rumgatral (nadoret weapon seller, 460D). 1h and 2h blunt also are best with high strength, so casting an attributo: strength on those chars helps a lot more. E.g. Rumgatral deals 2d6+4 with str 10, but 2d6+9 with str 20 (easy with attributo). At high level with magic items str 30 (and more) is possible and results in 2d6+14 - which would get tripled with strike of wrath!

[Jnx]

Fair enough, my chosen weapon skill is only 13, but I've wasted enough already trying to get a bit of social skills and wasted points on various things I then regretted. I might try out 2-handed before deeply investing in it, though having said that I just found a 1-handed sword called Keenblade which has a 25% chance to cause wounds, and makes me invulnerable to wounds myself which is just all kinds of great, so I think I might be using that one on my main character, and just switch to a 2-handed on thorgrimm or whatever for a while without boosting their stats too much in the respective categories before I see what the difference is.

As for the summons, yeah the only one I have access to so far is the burning man thing, which is just always 1-shotted by whatever mob. As soon as I get better versions, I'll switch.

I've trained whatever skills I could so far, but there haven't been any trainers for warriors past the captain in nandoret and he won't teach me a lot. I take it he, and the rest, upgrade what they offer the further I get into the game?