Paladin Build Advice

[Reyz]

Prepare for a storm of questions. Long story short - I tried playing the game on my own, I got totally rekt, found out that I messed up royally so I ended up trashing the save.

I'd appreciate if someone could sort of plan out how I'm supposed to build a paladin.
1.How much dexterity would I need for the thieving skills, since they seem pretty useful.Would I need to invest points into dexterity or use other means?
2.What "side-skills" should I invest into apart from the thief skills?I chose Hunter as my apprenticeship on my *initial playthrough* so I learned the skill from the bowyer guy.I'd assume I'd also need to learn the language skills from the water mage guy and alchemy.Anything else apart from what I listed above?
3.How am I supposed to invest into Strength and One-Handed? Do I boost strength first?At what level of strength do I start using tablets and potions?
4.The alchemist guy in the start asks for a bunch of weed, one of which is King's Sorrel.Do I just skip that quest altogether?Does he actually take the stuff from your inventory?
5.I've also heard paladins get magic runes or whatever, do I need to invest into mana or something for those?
6.How does praying to shrines and donating work?As I gathered I need to donate a total of 1k gold to the fire mage guy at the start in 50 gold sessions for a bunch of bonuses, and donate 100 gold to Innos shrines 10 times for a strength/dexterity bonus.
7.When's a good time to actually join the militia?Do I just join them ASAP or try to do other stuff first?

-Thanks in advance.

[Oneeyed]

These answers only apply if you play as a paladin:

1. You don't need to put any points into dex at all. Dex is only for using bows and for pickpocketing.

2. Learn pick locks and the 3 languages and of course skinning animals because otherwise you can't become Bospers apprentice. If you go for smithing you won't even need to spend the 5 skill points for skinning but I always become a hunter because smithing takes a while and is annoying but if you think otherwise go for smithing. Sneaking is useful too if you don't want to exploit the game engine because otherwise you can't loot all the houses. Alchemy is only good for the permanent strength and dex potions. So only learn 1 healing potion and then learn the permanent strength potion.

3. Increase your skill first because a critical hit does ten times the damage of a normal hit. So a critical hit with a 10 damage weapon does 100 damage plus you strenght value of 10 = 110 damage. While a normal hit with a 30 strength weapon does only 30 damage plus 30 for your strength = 60 damage. I recommend you go for 30 skill in your weapon of choice and then alternate between skill and strength.

4. Give the alchemist all the plants he wants and them buy them back later. You will swim in money later so don't care about money and spend it all.

5. After you become a paladin you can learn runes. In Gothic 2 gold it is not worth it imho. In the classic version of the game the paladin spells were quite useful but because of the increased armor of opponents in Gothic 2 gold all the paladin spells are most useless

6. Donate 1000 gold pieces to the Innos pries in Khorinis in 50 gold pieces steps. Besides that you can pray every day at a shrine of Innos and spend 10 gold for +1 hitpoint, 50 gold for +2 hitpoints and 20 times for +1 str/dex or mana depending on what faction you chose. Please note you have to sleep one time before it works.

7. If you join the milita it means you chose your path. I personally would do all the quests on Onars Farm first because after you have joined the milita they aren't available anymore.

Originally posted by Reyz:

Prepare for a storm of questions. Long story short - I tried playing the game on my own, I got totally rekt, found out that I messed up royally so I ended up trashing the save.

I'd appreciate if someone could sort of plan out how I'm supposed to build a paladin.
1.How much dexterity would I need for the thieving skills, since they seem pretty useful.Would I need to invest points into dexterity or use other means?
2.What "side-skills" should I invest into apart from the thief skills?I chose Hunter as my apprenticeship on my *initial playthrough* so I learned the skill from the bowyer guy.I'd assume I'd also need to learn the language skills from the water mage guy and alchemy.Anything else apart from what I listed above?
3.How am I supposed to invest into Strength and One-Handed? Do I boost strength first?At what level of strength do I start using tablets and potions?
4.The alchemist guy in the start asks for a bunch of weed, one of which is King's Sorrel.Do I just skip that quest altogether?Does he actually take the stuff from your inventory?
5.I've also heard paladins get magic runes or whatever, do I need to invest into mana or something for those?
6.How does praying to shrines and donating work?As I gathered I need to donate a total of 1k gold to the fire mage guy at the start in 50 gold sessions for a bunch of bonuses, and donate 100 gold to Innos shrines 10 times for a strength/dexterity bonus.
7.When's a good time to actually join the militia?Do I just join them ASAP or try to do other stuff first?

-Thanks in advance.

[Squall]

A few things i would like to expand on:

1. Disagree with the notion that it's "just pickpocketing", that thing brings a ton of xp and money, and you would miss out on quite a lot if you don't invest into it, or don't invest in DEX at all. The biggest amount you will need is 120 DEX to be able to pickpocket Diego, nobody is above him. But you don't need to raise it that high using skill points. If you're up for a challange you can get more than enough of DEX in chapter one, here is how to do it:
Use skill points to get to 34, then collect the goblin berries in Khorinis, total of 12 and 11 king's sorrels, since you need both of them to create potions of dexterity. That nets us 34 points of dex alone, since 11 potion x 3 and 1 berry x 1. So you have 68 already. There are two dex potions you can find as well, so that's 74. There is also a third one, but it is tied to a quest, so i won't count it, not to spoil things. You can get a ring for 5 dex, can't remember where, either bying from Bosper, or somewhere in the world, but it is in the first chapter 100%. Then there is the praying part to the Statue of Innos, you can get 10 DEX from that. That leaves us at 89 already. There are two stone tablets for +2 and +4 near Bengar, so now we have 95. A certain thief gives us +1 DEX. That's 96. That is more than enough. Since you will find gear that will boost your dexterity further and more tablets and potions later on in the game.
Granted it is tough to do if you are not ready to explore the majority of the map, which most likely you won't in chapter one. But you can get a general idea on things. Also you train to 34 DEX because if you train to 29, and then add +5, there won't be an increase in the point required.
Also, no need to worry about wasting king's sorrel on DEX potions instead of STR, there are total of 13 dragonroots, plants that are used for STR potions, in game and 25 of king's sorrels, so either way you won't be able to make 25 of them.

2. Agree with most of things. Except the healing potion, not to waste learning points just learn the dexterity potion recipe.

3. Regarding the question as to when to use the tablets and such. It depends. As I've wrote with DEX you could do it in chapter 1. Since you want a Paladin, they are a bit less STR dependant, granted the more you have, the more damage you do either way. At the very least i would go to 64 with a Paladin. IMO.

4. Agreed. Exp is much more valuable, if you do enough exploring and well... stealing, you will have a ton of money one way or another.

5. Should you invest in mana? No. You can get a ton of it simply by collecting tablets, and other things that give you an increase. You can also get it by eating 50 dark mushrooms since it gives you +5 mana, and it's not a single time effect.

6. Yep. Daron give HP bonuses for the most part, and the Statues give DEX/STR/MANA. Granted it may be a bit hard go cough up that much dough in chapter one. Not impossible though. Far from it.

7. Agreed. The more EXP the better. In theory you can get to lvl 21 without guild in chapter one. That will take a lot of time and effort. A lot. I got to lvl 20, but only because i had low DEX and couldn't pickpocket the rest of the NPCs. LVL20[tinypic.com]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

These answers only apply if you play as a paladin:

1. You don't need to put any points into dex at all. Dex is only for using bows and for pickpocketing.

2. Learn pick locks and the 3 languages and of course skinning animals because otherwise you can't become Bospers apprentice. If you go for smithing you won't even need to spend the 5 skill points for skinning but I always become a hunter because smithing takes a while and is annoying but if you think otherwise go for smithing. Sneaking is useful too if you don't want to exploit the game engine because otherwise you can't loot all the houses. Alchemy is only good for the permanent strength and dex potions. So only learn 1 healing potion and then learn the permanent strength potion.

3. Increase your skill first because a critical hit does ten times the damage of a normal hit. So a critical hit with a 10 damage weapon does 100 damage plus you strenght value of 10 = 110 damage. While a normal hit with a 30 strength weapon does only 30 damage plus 30 for your strength = 60 damage. I recommend you go for 30 skill in your weapon of choice and then alternate between skill and strength.

4. Give the alchemist all the plants he wants and them buy them back later. You will swim in money later so don't care about money and spend it all.

5. After you become a paladin you can learn runes. In Gothic 2 gold it is not worth it imho. In the classic version of the game the paladin spells were quite useful but because of the increased armor of opponents in Gothic 2 gold all the paladin spells are most useless

6. Donate 1000 gold pieces to the Innos pries in Khorinis in 50 gold pieces steps. Besides that you can pray every day at a shrine of Innos and spend 10 gold for +1 hitpoint, 50 gold for +2 hitpoints and 20 times for +1 str/dex or mana depending on what faction you chose. Please note you have to sleep one time before it works.

7. If you join the milita it means you chose your path. I personally would do all the quests on Onars Farm first because after you have joined the milita they aren't available anymore.

Originally posted by Reyz:

Prepare for a storm of questions. Long story short - I tried playing the game on my own, I got totally rekt, found out that I messed up royally so I ended up trashing the save.

I'd appreciate if someone could sort of plan out how I'm supposed to build a paladin.
1.How much dexterity would I need for the thieving skills, since they seem pretty useful.Would I need to invest points into dexterity or use other means?
2.What "side-skills" should I invest into apart from the thief skills?I chose Hunter as my apprenticeship on my *initial playthrough* so I learned the skill from the bowyer guy.I'd assume I'd also need to learn the language skills from the water mage guy and alchemy.Anything else apart from what I listed above?
3.How am I supposed to invest into Strength and One-Handed? Do I boost strength first?At what level of strength do I start using tablets and potions?
4.The alchemist guy in the start asks for a bunch of weed, one of which is King's Sorrel.Do I just skip that quest altogether?Does he actually take the stuff from your inventory?
5.I've also heard paladins get magic runes or whatever, do I need to invest into mana or something for those?
6.How does praying to shrines and donating work?As I gathered I need to donate a total of 1k gold to the fire mage guy at the start in 50 gold sessions for a bunch of bonuses, and donate 100 gold to Innos shrines 10 times for a strength/dexterity bonus.
7.When's a good time to actually join the militia?Do I just join them ASAP or try to do other stuff first?

-Thanks in advance.

[Oneeyed]

I agree with all of it and thank you for your input. You clearly thought about it and it's rare that someone on steam take the effort to make a comment like you have. I reallly appreciate it.

Remember it's not you playing the game. Someone else asking a question how to minmax the game. At least that's how I understood his questions. I always go for dex 120 simply because I want to pickpocket everyone. But he asked for a paladin skilled advice. And many players just want to go through the game and not robbing everyone blind - like me. In addition is it really worth it to go to 120 only to pickpocket 3 NPCs? The money you get from them by pickpocketing isn't that much. I do it because I really want to rob them but is it really efficient to put all the points into that only in order to rob 3 people?

Regarding alchemy recipes: in order to learn either dex or str permanent potions you have to learn at least one normal alchemy recipe. Unless I didn't miss something there is no other way. And since he plays as a paladin I presumed he wants strength as high as possible. And for that you have to learn permanent health potions.

Level 3 in languages is necessary if you want to read all the stone tablets. And 20 Learning Points are not much because you learn +6 str and +6 dex for it just from stone tablets. Not even mentioning the level 3 stone tablets for bows/crossbows/mana/hitpoints. Later in the game +6 str is worth 30 learning points (and 30 learning points for +6 dex) after you have reached 120 strength (and dex) because of the increasing costs for strength/dex

My points of view are strictly made out of efficiency views. I usually don't minmax at all because it's not necessary to beat the game but I thought he wanted some minmaxing advice for doing it as efficiant as possible. For me the best thing is going through the game without minmaxing because then you have the most fun because all opponents are still somewhat hard.

Originally posted by John:

A few things i would like to expand on:

1. Disagree with the notion that it's "just pickpocketing", that thing brings a ton of xp and money, and you would miss out on quite a lot if you don't invest into it, or don't invest in DEX at all. The biggest amount you will need is 120 DEX to be able to pickpocket Diego, nobody is above him. But you don't need to raise it that high using skill points. If you're up for a challange you can get more than enough of DEX in chapter one, here is how to do it:
Use skill points to get to 34, then collect the goblin berries in Khorinis, total of 12 and 11 king's sorrels, since you need both of them to create potions of dexterity. That nets us 34 points of dex alone, since 11 potion x 3 and 1 berry x 1. So you have 68 already. There are two dex potions you can find as well, so that's 74. There is also a third one, but it is tied to a quest, so i won't count it, not to spoil things. You can get a ring for 5 dex, can't remember where, either bying from Bosper, or somewhere in the world, but it is in the first chapter 100%. Then there is the praying part to the Statue of Innos, you can get 10 DEX from that. That leaves us at 89 already. There are two stone tablets for +2 and +4 near Bengar, so now we have 95. A certain thief gives us +1 DEX. That's 96. That is more than enough. Since you will find gear that will boost your dexterity further and more tablets and potions later on in the game.
Granted it is tough to do if you are not ready to explore the majority of the map, which most likely you won't in chapter one. But you can get a general idea on things. Also you train to 34 DEX because if you train to 29, and then add +5, there won't be an increase in the point required.
Also, no need to worry about wasting king's sorrel on DEX potions instead of STR, there are total of 13 dragonroots, plants that are used for STR potions, in game and 25 of king's sorrels, so either way you won't be able to make 25 of them.

2. Agree with most of things. Except the healing potion, not to waste learning points just learn the dexterity potion recipe.

3. Regarding the question as to when to use the tablets and such. It depends. As I've wrote with DEX you could do it in chapter 1. Since you want a Paladin, they are a bit less STR dependant, granted the more you have, the more damage you do either way. At the very least i would go to 64 with a Paladin. IMO.

4. Agreed. Exp is much more valuable, if you do enough exploring and well... stealing, you will have a ton of money one way or another.

5. Should you invest in mana? No. You can get a ton of it simply by collecting tablets, and other things that give you an increase. You can also get it by eating 50 dark mushrooms since it gives you +5 mana, and it's not a single time effect.

6. Yep. Daron give HP bonuses for the most part, and the Statues give DEX/STR/MANA. Granted it may be a bit hard go cough up that much dough in chapter one. Not impossible though. Far from it.

7. Agreed. The more EXP the better. In theory you can get to lvl 21 without guild in chapter one. That will take a lot of time and effort. A lot. I got to lvl 20, but only because i had low DEX and couldn't pickpocket the rest of the NPCs. LVL20[tinypic.com]

Originally posted by Oneeyed:

These answers only apply if you play as a paladin:

1. You don't need to put any points into dex at all. Dex is only for using bows and for pickpocketing.

2. Learn pick locks and the 3 languages and of course skinning animals because otherwise you can't become Bospers apprentice. If you go for smithing you won't even need to spend the 5 skill points for skinning but I always become a hunter because smithing takes a while and is annoying but if you think otherwise go for smithing. Sneaking is useful too if you don't want to exploit the game engine because otherwise you can't loot all the houses. Alchemy is only good for the permanent strength and dex potions. So only learn 1 healing potion and then learn the permanent strength potion.

3. Increase your skill first because a critical hit does ten times the damage of a normal hit. So a critical hit with a 10 damage weapon does 100 damage plus you strenght value of 10 = 110 damage. While a normal hit with a 30 strength weapon does only 30 damage plus 30 for your strength = 60 damage. I recommend you go for 30 skill in your weapon of choice and then alternate between skill and strength.

4. Give the alchemist all the plants he wants and them buy them back later. You will swim in money later so don't care about money and spend it all.

5. After you become a paladin you can learn runes. In Gothic 2 gold it is not worth it imho. In the classic version of the game the paladin spells were quite useful but because of the increased armor of opponents in Gothic 2 gold all the paladin spells are most useless

6. Donate 1000 gold pieces to the Innos pries in Khorinis in 50 gold pieces steps. Besides that you can pray every day at a shrine of Innos and spend 10 gold for +1 hitpoint, 50 gold for +2 hitpoints and 20 times for +1 str/dex or mana depending on what faction you chose. Please note you have to sleep one time before it works.

7. If you join the milita it means you chose your path. I personally would do all the quests on Onars Farm first because after you have joined the milita they aren't available anymore.

[Squall]

Fair enough. I agree that it's not me playing, hence why i pointed out that doing it my way is hard and not that worth it. At least for relatively new players, but i wanted to point out that there are plenty of space for mistakes and experimenting and exploring, and thus it's hard to give a definitive answer.

As for the game being hard, i don't find that to be the point for me. I've beat it more than once and I know what to expect, I enjoy the aspect of finding new things that you unveil with each playthrough. Like new dialouge options, or extra 50 xp from a quest. At one russian forum the guys were trying to figure out a way to beat the game with the least possible lvl. I myself won't ever do it, but that aspect of exploration and calculating is the drive to replay the game for me. Be it minmaxing, or simply being the most effective.

As for DEX potions, Sagitta teaches you them off the bat after you finish her quest with Sun Aloe, and then you can ask Constantino to teach you the STR potion. And the 3rd level language is 15 points, not 20. And yes it is worth it. EXP is everything. IMO. :P

[Oneeyed]

If you know the game and all the power-ups then you are absolutely right.

But if you don't then the game is much harder because then you don't get most of the power-ups. Even the knowledge that you can buy unlimited hitpoints at Innos shrines decreases the game difficulty a lot in the beginning.

And yes you are right regarding Sagitta. But if you go for a pure strength build then the 20 learning points you have to spend for the dex permanent potions are totally wasted and you are better off learning one healing potion and then learn permanent str potions.

I personally rarely go the pure strength route just because I like robbing everyone but a pure strength build is a powerful thing and is very satisfying as well.

Regarding the minimum level which you can play through is 6 afaik. Someone already did it and you can watch the videos here. It's absolutely amazing how he avoids to kill the dragons himself so he don't get any XP for it:

https://www.worldofgothic.de/dl/download_207.htm

[Reyz]

Thanks for all the help, you're all fooken awesome.
Boosting up One-Handed has solved my issue of dealing a pixel of damage at a time, lol.

[neste]

Nice tips :P

[VinDiCsoN...]

If u just started the game . the best advice u can get : i think after u talk to vatras he sent u to lares and lares ask u which guild u want to join alwys chose fire magicien it will give u the chance to easy become a novice ( even if u become novice u still can become militia or mercenary) . well then lares will tell u to talk to vatras about it and u will have a quwst to find a statue of innos for a firemage in the city cant remember his name ( the statue is in a cave near the tavern on ur way to onar farm) after this task u become novice complete all the task to become fire mage / but dont become a firemage , if u do so u will not wast any exp in the game if u want more tips on game and the story u can contact me
I hope i was useful