So I returned to SF since it released and want to plan an avatar

[HeathenSW]

Yeah, about that. Can someone give me some directions?
I want to do black magic death and necromancy and I can easily do that, so I can cast spells and watch my summons do the work, but do not die when someone comes at me with melee. Also I know that there is cool armor in heavy combat 9 and any combat skill 8 as well.
So I planned that after I go heavy combat 9 (no sub-skills) and black magic death/necro 12 I'd have 15 free skill points and 7 ability points. And that's not enough to do anything as I know.

So what do I do with these skillpoints? Elemental something up to level 7? Heavy combat blades/shields up to level 9?

Didn't play any expansion before, so I don't know what to expect from them. I get it there is some cool staff with the need of light combat 15 or heavy combat 15, and I'm not into light combat.
And I want to use that character in the Shadow of Phoenix expansion too, but don't know what to expect, since there I'll be very abily points starved as I understand.

[Tario]

Well in Breath of the winter it basicly whatever you want, its better to be a warrior there though.
Still, from story perspective best option is Heavy combat/blades/armor + Black magic death or necro. Kinda you will be behind in one or another but, well you cant have everything.
From meta gaming perspective its best to go for White magic + Heavy combat/blunt becouse there are many more good blunt weapons in expansion. If we talk about Shadow of the phoenix, well, there you have lvl 30 to 50 and i was only able to finish it with premade character longtime ago, so i cant help you much. But still, if its beatable with that kind of a hero, you can do it with nearly anyone.

Still, as a heavy warrior in BOW you should have adamantium armor, steel clad legs, and helmet of battle at the end becouse this is the best set you will be able to get, irony is that this set is starting set for premade warrior in SOTP.
And one more thing, Breath of winter forces you to farm a lot, becouse without that you wont be able to keep up with lvl. At 4 or 5 stages in game you have to farm something like 2 or 3 lvles. For instance i had to go from 15 to 18 to keep up. Then i had to from 20 to 22, and then do a few more levels, but it went easy becouse i just did not rushed the map.
My advice is, farm at every map a level by just fighting with waves of enemies, when you do that, go finish and propably get a next level.

There are few nice farm spots in BOW. First one is the kithars in early game in stormcleaver locks, but it takes forever, next spot on our list is Echo swamps and all of orcs/ogres camps that are sending wave after wave of minions to destroy your dark elf base.

Next one is in frostfall, crimson soldiers coming from the caves. Next is indefeteable spawn of Crimson soldiers in Mirraw thur.
Ghost spawn in Winterdeep.
Crypts at the northwest part of Tirganach, there you can farm till 20+ very good spot.
Lycans at southcentre of Tirganach there you can also farm till 20+
Of course Star city in Shal'dun.
And Ghosts in firefangs after you start rekindling the flame.

[HeathenSW]

Many thanks for the tips! Will try that out, didn't know that you have to farm there

[Tario]

Well, you have. When i played first time, at the moment when i aquired shadowblade in Firefangs i was like lvl 18 and it was just too tought, and not so much game left.

When i played know i just knew what has to be done and on the same map i was like lvl 23-25

Just dont forget, dont farm too much too early becouse you dont want to end at lvl 31+ becouse game wont let you import your character into SOTP expansion. For instance lvl 30.9 is okay, but 31 is not.
My character was lvl 29.5 when i ended like 20 minutes ago.

[.//slayer]

I wanna argue that you don't, in fact, HAVE to farm anything to beat the game. I soloed the entire trilogy with an elemental mage (with the exception of some tough boss fights), and while certain parts were troublesome, I never felt like something was completely impossible to do. So what if you have to finish Order of Dawn at level 28 instead of 30 - it never becomes relevant. The same goes for Breath of Winter. And I think you get to 50 in Phoenix no matter what you do.

A plain elementalist with Clay Feet + Blizzard/Firestorm combo decimates any army that the AI throws at you, and you can freeze many bosses with ice wave and just run around while regenerating your mana until they drop.

[HeathenSW]

Is it actually worth it to have earth magic? As far as I googled it - there is only one useful spell (Clay Feet), which you'll get pretty far down the road, and maybe Petrify as semi-useful. And according to planning program I found you can indeed have Death/Earth/Necromancy at 20 in the end and it's pretty OP at that. But to immobilize you can pretty much just use Ice and have something like that in the end:
Death/Necromancy 20, Ice 15, HC 8, LC 2, with 51 spare ability points.

I guess I've fallen into a trap of planning me some avatars :D

[Tario]

Originally posted by .//slayer:

I wanna argue that you don't, in fact, HAVE to farm anything to beat the game. I soloed the entire trilogy with an elemental mage (with the exception of some tough boss fights), and while certain parts were troublesome, I never felt like something was completely impossible to do. So what if you have to finish Order of Dawn at level 28 instead of 30 - it never becomes relevant. The same goes for Breath of Winter. And I think you get to 50 in Phoenix no matter what you do.

A plain elementalist with Clay Feet + Blizzard/Firestorm combo decimates any army that the AI throws at you, and you can freeze many bosses with ice wave and just run around while regenerating your mana until they drop.

Well, its true. But the thing is are you gonna play normally on normal and cheat by using that mechanic of ''enemies dont spawn till you start monument" or play like it should have been. Thing is, BOW is not that difficult but there are few difficult parts, and well, starting expansion on lvl 25 is not a best idea, especialy as Shadow warrior. Basicly in Order of the dawn you dont have and dont need to farm, you will get to lvl 27 without too much of a trouble.
But in bow you need to be at least 25 and it is possible to finish the game before you get to that lvl, and that is problematic.

[Tario]

Originally posted by HeathenSW:

Is it actually worth it to have earth magic? As far as I googled it - there is only one useful spell (Clay Feet), which you'll get pretty far down the road, and maybe Petrify as semi-useful. And according to planning program I found you can indeed have Death/Earth/Necromancy at 20 in the end and it's pretty OP at that. But to immobilize you can pretty much just use Ice and have something like that in the end:
Death/Necromancy 20, Ice 15, HC 8, LC 2, with 51 spare ability points.

I guess I've fallen into a trap of planning me some avatars :D

Well, its true but i would not go for Earth, it mostly suck, i mean more armor less dmg, but you can dmg everything nearly every time, not like with fire or ice.

Still, focus on one dmg ability, be it fighting, or be it fire/ice or magic, for me there is no point in going ice/death.
Still, with that setup you wil lget something like that

Black magic 20
Death - 20
Necromancy - 20
--------------------------
You have 60 skillpoints already
-----------------------------------
Elemental magic 15
Ice - 15
------------------------------
30 points
------------------------------------
90 total
-----------------------------------
hc + lc 10
100.

Where are those spare points you are talking about?
2 points per lvl with 50 lvl max. = 100 points.

----------------------------------------
ooooh, you talking about ability points, dont mind me, i just, well, written that too fast.

[Just Chill]

You may train also into mental magic > defensive.
At least if you can find the spell "Meditation" on a decent level.

This freakin' spell restores your mana almost in an instant, when you have it on high level.
Feel free to experiment with spells using my modded savegame:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=889332077

You can still look for the skill requirements by hovering over the chosen skills (tooltip text appears), so that might be helpful.
And as you already previously played Spellforce, I don't see anything bad with using such a savegame especially for testing purpose.

For myself, I recently started to replay it either, still being at TOoD.
Started with a female char having crossbow as default skill and now invested some points into white magic.
Rather some sort of support char.
Can't wait to get the shadow armor, for being a bit more of a blow. :D

[HeathenSW]

Thanks again for the input, will try that as well! :)