Custom class creation

Thorough guide for custom class creation

Daggerfall Unity

For a much better and more modern playing experience, download and install Daggerfall Unity. There are many guides to do this on the internet. This guide is written with the assumption that you are using Unity but everything still applies if you are not. There are some exploits in character creation that Unity corrected which will be pointed out.

Race selection

copying and pasting this from the Daggerfall Unity forum:

Argonian: half slower breath meter while swimming (on average), no swimming fatigue
Breton: +30 save vs magic element
Dark Elves: +(Level/4) damage modifier, +(Level/4) chance to hit modifier with weapons
High Elves: 100 base save vs paralysis
Khajit: +30 climbing
Nords: +30 save vs frost element
Redguard: +(Level/3) damage modifier, +(Level/3) chance to hit modifier with weapons
WoodElf: +(Level/3) damage modifier, +(Level/3) chance to hit modifier with bows

High Elf is the most popular choice simply because Paralysis happens often and is fatal. However it is extremely easy to manage between spells, potions, and magic items. The other advantages have no noticeable effect in the game. By the time you level up enough for the chance to hit bonuses to matter you're not missing anyway. Any spellcasting ability means you're not climbing at all or swimming without magically enhanced swim speed.

Breton is a solid choice like all the later Elder Scrolls games.

Just choose what you want to look at. It does not matter in the slightest what race you are when you are swinging a Daedric 2hander with 100 strength, 100 speed, and chose the maximum hitpoints per round at character creation.

Hit points per level

After race selection and getting to the main character creation screen you will see your hit points per level at the top right. This is the single most important attribute. 30 is the max, 25 matches the stock barbarian, 20 matches the stock warrior. 20 is enough but 30 makes you almost unkillable at higher levels. The default is 8 which will get you one-shotted at lot.

Every 10 points in Endurance past 50 adds a bonus hit point gained at level up. So that makes Endurance important to boost to 60 or 70 at the beginning. Bonuses are not retroactive if you raise Endurance as you level.

The difficulty dagger

Every class has a difficulty dagger which represents the sum total of your advantages and disadvantages. Getting the dagger as far down as possible makes all skills tremendously easier to level. Besides hit points per level this is the most important attribute of your character.

All advantages chosen will raise the difficulty dagger - the amount depending on the relative strength of the advantage. Immunity to fire is very strong - difficulty dagger goes up a lot. Choosing 3x int mana bonus is very strong - difficulty dagger goes up a lot.

Disadvantages work the same way in the opposite direction.

The key to choosing disadvantages is recognizing what you can ignore with game mechanics. For example Paralysis is easily managed with the cheapest free action spell, plus magic items and potions. So Critical Weakness to Paralysis is something we actually WANT just to drop the difficulty dagger. Another example is banning the use of any Silver items because its an incredibly rare material and not relevant past the first dungeon. So banning it doesn't hurt you at all and drops the difficulty dagger a bit.

Stats

Strength - stat priority #3. Determines carrying capacity and gives you a slight bonus to damage per hit - 1 for every 10 points past 50. The damage is nice but dwarfed by the damage output that 100 speed gives you. Still important for everyone though.

Intelligence - stat priority #2. Determines maximum mana points. The default is 0.5 x int which is crap. You can choose 3x, 2x, 1.75x, 1.5x, or 1x int as advantages which are very important.

Willpower - gives you a slight magic resistance bonus. Not enough to level it. Not a priority.

Agility - gives you a slight bonus to hit and dodge as you level. Not enough to level it. Not a priority.

Endurance - gives you a hit point per level bonus for every 10 points past 50. Not retroactive if you increase it as you level. This is a priority only at character creation. Priority zero as you level unless you have like 57 and can make it 60 at level 2.

Speed - stat priority #1. Has a massive effect on movement speed and weapon attack speed.

Personality - dump stat #1. Does nothing but make generic townspeople npc's more likely to be polite. At the most someone wont give you your quest location and the next person you talk to will. Doesn't affect quest givers, guild officers or anyone important at all. Drop it to 10.

Luck - dump stat #2. Gives you a very slight bonus to hit and climbing. You can leave it alone or dump it all the way. Priority zero as you level.

Advantages that matter

Increased Magery - increases your max mana by 3x, 2x, 1.7x, 1.5x or 1x your INT score. 3x is the single most important advantage that can be chosen. 2x matches the stock Mage. Even 1.5 gives you something to work with.

Resistance/Immunity to Fire - Liches, Fire Daedra and Daedra lords will hit you like a truck with fireballs.

Resistance/Immunity to Shock - Vampire Ancients use a powerful touch Shock spell. *note* if you're not using Unity Vampire Ancients will melt you in your boots with rapid-fire Shock spells. You've been warned. :)

Resistance/Immunity to Magic - covers Mana Drain and Silence which are annoying and used frequently against you. Also covers damaging spells that use Magic as their element. *note* if you're not using Unity this will also make you immune to paralysis, poison and disease! This exploit is corrected in Unity.

Resistance/Immunity to Poison - poisons are brutal and deadly in Unity. You'll often try to rest and drop dead on the spot not even knowing you were poisoned.

Spell Absorption - Lets you absorb the mana from your own AOE damage spells giving you essentially unlimited mana while you Fireball everything at close range. Extremely overpowered but easily enchanted onto an item once you can access the Item Maker.

Bonus to hit Undead - Skeletons and Zombies are the most dangerous foes you'll face at low levels. Liches and Vampires (and their Ancient variants) are hard to hit and among your most dangerous enemies period. This gives you noticeable increase in your chance to hit.

Bonus to hit Daedra - All the high level Daedra are dangerous and hard hitting magic users. This gives you a noticeable increase in chance to hit.

Advantages that don't matter

Resistance/Immunity to Paralysis - easily managed with the cheapest 5 point Free Action spell, plus items and potions.

Resistance/Immunity to Disease - diseases are very rare and easily managed with spells and potions.

Acute Hearing - this makes it harder to rest in dungeons because you can hear monsters from farther away. This is actually terrible. Can be enchanted onto an item which makes it even worse to take at character creation.

Adrenaline Rush - gives you a small boost to something at low health. Irrelevant. Can be enchanted onto an item so no need to take it here.

Athleticism - gives a small bonus to fatigue loss while running around. Its noticeable but doesn't matter when you can restore fatigue with a 5 point spell. Can be enchanted onto an item so no need to take it here.

Bonus to hit Animals - Animals are your weakest foes anyway.

Bonus to hit Humanoids - Humanoids are easy loot pinatas anyway.

Rapid Healing/Regenerate Health - this will make resting to regain health faster but there are so many ways to heal anyway its just not worth the difficulty dagger penalty. Can be enchanted onto an item so no need to take it here.

Disadvantages that matter

Critical Weakness to Paralysis - easily managed with the cheapest free action spell and has a large effect on the difficulty dagger

Critical Weakness to Disease - rare, easily managed with potions and has a large effect on the difficulty dagger

Damage from Holy Places - assuming you're not level 1 you can take the damage hit and it doesn't take longer than a few seconds to go in a temple, grab your quest and leave

Darkness Powered Magery - Unable to use Magic in Daylight/Lower Magic ability in Daylight - these can both be taken together and have a large effect on the difficulty dagger. You do almost all your combat and leveling in Dungeons which is considered "in Darkness" so this works for everyone. *edit* Taking both has been patched out in Unity. Still worth taking one or the other.

Forbidden Armor type Leather/Chain - these have a small effect on the Difficulty dagger and don't hurt you past the first dungeon.

Forbidden Armor type Plate - this hurts a lot more than the other two, while having a larger effect on the difficulty dagger. However you can enchant chain to be as good as low level plate and with 30 hit points per level that's more than good enough.

Forbidden Shield type - these have a small effect on the difficulty dagger while not hurting you at all. Shields don't block anything just a small AC bonus to parts of the body. Most people use 2h weapons since there is no attack speed difference compared to 1h weapons.

Forbidden Material - Steel/Elven/Dwarven/Mithril/Adamantium - these have a large effect on the difficulty dagger. Can make things a little harder at low levels. Keep in mind you can start with an Ebony dagger and can wear chain indefinitely so all of these materials eventually become irrelevant.

Forbidden Material- Iron/Silver/Ebony/Orcish - these have a small effect on the difficulty dagger. Would recommend leaving Ebony alone. Iron and Silver never matter even in the first dungeon. Orcish is literally 10 times rarer than Daedric.

Phobia - Animals/Humans - they're easy enough to kill anyway

Disadvantages that suck

Takes damage from sunlight - This will instantly kill you when you fast travel and arrive in daylight. Not good.

Light powered Magery - you don't want these because most of the game is in dungeons which is "in darkness". The exception is if you take all magic related disadvantages at once as well as forsaking any mana bonus - the total effect on the difficulty dagger is tremendous and can be traded for multiple immunities.

Inability to regen spell points - see above, otherwise this is crippling

Phobia Undead/Daedra - these are your tough enemies so no

Low tolerance - Fire/Frost/Shock/Magic/Poison/Paralysis/Disease - go all the way and take critical weakness to paralysis/disease, you don't want weakness to the others unless you like dying.

Critical weakness - same as above

Skills

Combat skills:


Long blade - chance to hit with longsword, cutlass, broadsword, claymore, katana, daikatana. Includes the widest variety of weapons as well as the best single weapon (daikatana). Used by Fighters Guild and all Knightly orders.

Long blade is considered the best weapon skill because it has the single best weapon, but the difference in damage between any 2 handed weapon of the same material isn't really noticeable. So Blunt and Axe are just as good, choose what you want to look at. Attack speed for all weapons is determined only by Speed.

Blunt weapon - chance to hit with maces, hammers, staves and flails. Used by Fighters Guild and several temples.

Axe - there are only two types, a 1handed and 2handed version. Used by Fighters Guild and several temples.

Short blade - daggers, short swords, wakizashis, tantos. All 1handed and damage per hit is relatively low. Levels up quickly because of relatively low damage per hit. Very lightweight. Used by the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and Temple of Julianos if you want access to those guilds. Not as good as long blade/blunt/axe in the long run because swing speed is the same for all melee weapons and determined only by your Speed stat. You can start with an Ebony Dagger if you choose it during the character creation questions. This is important for the early levels.

Archery - use of bows. Ammunition is limited and has to be bought, but is easily found in all weapon shops. Can be very strong. Used by Fighters Guild, Knightly orders and Dark Brotherhood. Slow to level.

Hand to hand - Requires no weapon and can hit all enemies that require a minimum material to hit. Terrible damage and chance to hit at low skill levels but gets competitive at high levels. Can instantly swap to a bow and vice versa. Levels up quickly because of the low damage per hit. *edit* This is the only combat skill that scales damage with your skill, so if you use the Item Maker to create items to pump up your hand to hand way past 100 the damage goes beyond what any weapon can do. So this can actually be the most powerful combat skill.

Critical strike - small increase to chance of hit. Slowly levels up on its own. Good choice for a minor skill for everyone. Used by Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood.

Dodging - small chance to dodge blows. Slowly levels up on its own. Good choice for a minor skill for everyone. Used by Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. Incredibly tedious to level with a high difficulty dagger. Doesn't work in Classic.


Magic skills:


Destruction - damage spells like Fireball. Spell absorption + AOE damage spells can be far more powerful than weapons.

Restoration - healing, restoring fatigue, cure poison, cure disease. Very important for all characters.

Alteration - utility spells like Water Breathing and shield spells. Useful but less important than Restoration and Thaumaturgy. Water walking without breathing is usually enough by itself, and shield spells aren't needed on a high HP character.

Thaumaturgy - movement spells like Levitate and Water Walking. Very important.

Illusion - Light, Shadow, Invisibility spells. Not very important.

Mysticism - includes Open and Recall. Some very important spell effects but not used often. Harder to grind up than the other magic skills because of higher casting costs. Better to put it as a Minor skill where it doesn't affect leveling.


Movement skills:


Running - affects running speed. Will gradually level over time. Good to put in your template since its going to raise anyway. Easy to level if difficulty dagger is low. Much harder to level in Unity compared to Classic.

Jumping - what it says. Irrelevant if you have any magic ability. Levels up quickly if your difficulty dagger is low. Much harder to level in Unity compared to Classic.

Climbing - climbing walls. Irrelevant if you have any magic ability. Easier to level than weapon skills. Works much better in Unity. Barely usable in Classic.

Swimming - swimming speed. Irrelevant if you have any magic ability. Works much better in Unity. Barely usable in Classic.

Stealth - chance to have enemies turned away from you as you approach, setting up a backstab or letting you sneak by. Levels up on its own without any attention from you and very easy to level with a low difficulty dagger. Good for at least a minor in any template. Used by Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood if you're looking to join those guilds.


Stupid skills:

Backstabbing - Hit an unaware enemy from behind after passing a stealth check. Really slow to level because you have to pass a stealth check just to get the opportunity to use it once. You don't get one hit kills like Skyrim, it seems like you still hit them the same amount of times or close to it. Just doesn't matter much. The Skyrim one hit assassin doesn't exist in this game. Almost impossible to level without a very low difficulty dagger.

Lockpicking - All pickable locks can be bashed open. Torture to level up - only one skill check per door. Now pick every other locked door in town for one skill up. What a great use of your time. Can't open magic locks. The only thing it's good for is breaking into stores at night if you have no Open spell or item. Almost impossible to level without a very low difficulty dagger. Good to enchant onto a couple of items to be able to pick most doors in dungeons.

Pickpocketing - Gets you a tiny amount of gold while pissing off the town guards. Miserable to level up in Unity - one skill check per person. Now pickpocket 75 more people while running from 20 guards to get one skill up. Really sucks. In Classic you can just hammer it rapid fire on the same person 50 times.

Medical - has a small effect on healing speed while resting. Levels very slowly on it's own. If you go from like 5 to 10 it's noticeable and then completely unnoticeable after that. Waste of time. Almost impossible to level without a very low difficulty dagger.

Etiquette - can speak politely to a generic text dispenser townsperson and he might be nicer. The only reason you speak to a generic text dispenser townsperson is to get a location of someone for your current quest, so at the most you have to talk to the next generic text dispenser townsperson to get that info. That's literally all it does. Torture to level up - one skill check per person. Now go talk to 70 more people for your one skill up. What a great use of your time. Doesn't affect any quest giver or storyline npc. Almost impossible to level without a very low difficulty dagger. *edit* - In Unity this gives you a slight chance to pacify some human enemies like Knights. Since human enemies are easy loot pinatas and its a nightmare to level this is still stupid.

Streetwise - same as Etiquette but for Blunt speaking. *edit* - gives a slight chance to pacify Thief type human enemies. Still stupid for the same reasons as Etiquette.

Mercantile - small effect on shop prices. You'll be done with the game long before you get this to a high level. Good for a minor for anyone. Almost impossible to level without a very low difficulty dagger.

Dragonish/Giantish/Orcish/Spriggan/Centaur/Daedric Slight chance to pacify the related creature. Who cares, kill it. These are impossible to level. You might never see a Spriggan or Centaur the entire game. You clear a whole dungeon and might get one point in whatever. Trash.

Leveling

You gain a level by gaining a total of 15 points between your 3 Primary, 2 highest Major and highest Minor skill. Highest meaning only current skill values, not the order they're listed in.

All skills are gained by sheer repetition. The number of repetitions is massively affected by the difficulty dagger. To raise Restoration from 50 to 51 you're going to cast a spell that uses Restoration approximately 50 times (not the exact formula but you get the idea - also assuming your difficulty dagger is in the middle!) also 9 hours has to pass since your last skill gain. If the difficulty dagger is at its lowest it will be far fewer repetitions, if the difficulty dagger is high it will be more repetitions.

Skills should be chosen by usefulness, ease of leveling, and guilds you want to join.

Magic skills are by far the easiest to level. You can create cheap practice spells at the Mages Guild and sit at the Fighters Guild and spam them to increase your level. You can even combine effects - for example combining heal fatigue, water walking and water breathing into one spell will raise Restoration, Thaumaturgy and Alteration. If your difficulty dagger is low your level will fly up in minutes. This also works for stock classes with magic ability it just takes longer.

Weapon skills are very slow to level unless your difficulty dagger is very low because you can only use one at a time. You might want to focus on only one or even use a weaker weapon just to get more hits in. If your difficulty dagger is in the middle or higher its very likely you'll only master one weapon skill before you finish the game. Hand to hand and short blade level quicker because of the lower damage per hit and more hits landed per kill.

Movement skills like Jumping are very easy to level if your difficulty dagger is low, very slow otherwise.

All the thieving and speech skills are miserable to level as well as being useless. If you want to join the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood you can cover the requirements with Short Blade, Critical Strike and Stealth in your minors.

Any skill you do not choose goes into Miscellaneous skills. They will still level as they are used, just a bit slower than Minor skills and won't affect your level at all. This makes your choice of Minor skills not important beyond the one skill that will affect your level. Do what you want.

Templates

These are mostly overpowered builds with max HP and a low as possible difficulty dagger. If you want slower leveling and a more balanced build set HP per level to 15 and the difficulty dagger near the middle.

1. Battlemage (recommended)

30hp per level
increased magery 3x int

crit weakness: paralysis and disease
forbidden material: silver and steel

long blade
destruction
restoration

alteration
thaumaturgy
axe

illusion
mysticism
short blade
running
dodging
crit strike

The well known Battlemage class. Alternate throwing fireballs with hitting people in the face with an axe.

2. better Thief with armor restrictions

30 hp per level
increased magery 1.5x int
expertise in short blade

forbidden armor: plate and chain
crit weakness: paralysis and disease
forbidden material: iron
forbidden shield: tower

short blade
running
stealth

dodging
critical strike
climbing

lockpicking
jumping
swimming
pickpocketing
backstabbing
hand to hand

You can still raise magic skills to heal. Your slow to level thieving skills are placed in minors where they dont affect leveling. If you want to wear plate feel free to remove the armor restrictions.

3. Paladin (recommended)

30 hp per level
increased magery 3x int bonus
bonus to hit undead

crit weakness: paralysis and disease
darkness powered magery: both
forbidden material: iron and silver

long blade
restoration
alteration

blunt weapon
thaumaturgy
axe

mysticism
running
crit strike
dodging
medical
etiquette

Heavy melee with healing and utility spells.

4. Juggernaught (overpowered)

Nord
25 hp per level
immunity to fire
immunity to shock
immunity to magic
immunity to paralysis
immunity to poison
frost resist (nord)

inability to regen spell points
all light powered magery/darkness powered magery disadvantages
ban steel
ban elven

long blade
blunt
axe

running
jumping
climbing

crit strike
dodging
stealth
short blade
hand to hand
swimming

dump int since you cant cast anyway
dump willpower since you're immune to everything anyway
dump personality and luck since they suck anyway
max out strength, speed, endurance and agility at character creation

Join Temple of Julianos using short blade as your required skill - advance to where you can buy magic items to cast Heal, Levitate, etc.

This build forsakes all magic ability to be immune to almost everything and start with monstrous physical stats. Once you can buy healing items at Julianos you're an unkillable beast. Good if you just want to roflstomp the game.


5. better Monk with armor restrictions

30 hp per level
expertise in hand to hand
expertise in blunt
increased magery 1.5x int

forbidden armor: all
crit weakness to paralysis
darkness powered magery: both

hand to hand
dodging
blunt weapon

critical strike
running
restoration

short blade
alteration
thaumaturgy
climbing
swimming
mysticism

A wise man once said armor doesnt matter much if you have 30hp per level and a Daedric Warhammer being swung at 100 speed. I like the idea of a Monk from an RP perspective.

6. the Fighter/Mage/Thief or jack of all trades (recommended)

30 hp per level
increased magery: 3x int mana bonus

crit weakness to paralysis and disease
forbidden material: silver, iron, orcish
forbidden shield: tower

long blade
short blade
destruction

stealth
restoration
alteration

thaumaturgy
crit strike
hand to hand
running
archery
mysticism

Skills fit into all guilds. Many possible templates here by shuffling the order of skills around.

7. Crusader/Cleric/Priest/Templar/Healer

30 hp per level
increased magery: 3x int mana bonus

crit weakness to paralysis and disease
ban silver
ban iron
ban swords
whatever gets the dagger down - damage from holy places might be dumb here

blunt
restoration
alteration

thaumaturgy
destruction
mysticism

crit strike
dodging
running
swimming
hand to hand
illusion

Like a battlemage build but more holy. Tell enemies "the gods curse thee" before you kill them. Make custom spells with names like Prayer, Benediction, Penance, Holy Shield. Borrow spell names from World of Warcraft.

8: Archer

increased magery: 3x int
expertise in missle weapon
expertise in hand to hand

crit weakness: paralysis and disease
darkness powered magery: both
forbidden material: iron

hand to hand (you can swap from hand to hand to your bow instantly)
archery
long blade

restoration
alteration
thaumaturgy

short blade
dodging
crit strike
running
swimming
mysticism

9. better Warrior

increased magery: 2x int
expertise in long blade
expertise in blunt
expertise in axe

crit weakness: paralysis and disease
darkness powered magery: both
forbidden material: iron

long blade
axe
blunt

running
jumping
climbing

short blade
swimming
dodging
crit strike
restoration
thaumaturgy

You'll have some mana to heal/levitate with but magic skills arent in a place to affect your level much. Just get out there and crush heads. You'll still level easily with a low difficulty dagger.

Final questions

The final part of character creation is a series of questions. You can let the game decide for you (don't do that) or answer them yourself.

Most of the questions will give you a minor skill or reputation bonus. These are pretty obvious. If you want to use Blunt choose that when you're asked what is your favorite weapon.

There are 3 questions that are very important:

1. If you have Blunt as a primary skill you should get an option to start with an upgraded Flail. Definitely do that, it will get you through the first few levels.

2. Most characters will get an option to receive an Ebony Dagger as a reward. This is incredibly important. Your other starting weapons are likely to be iron and you won't even be able to kill the 2nd enemy in the game. (an imp) There are also many other enemies that require a minimum weapon material - Ebony can hit all of them. The Ebony Dagger and a minor in short blade makes the first few levels a lot smoother.

3. One of the final questions is to give you a disadvantage. You don't want to be weaker to magic or disease or poison. You definitely don't want to be easily tired - I made that mistake once and I was constantly running out of stamina. Choose the one where you don't get along well with others. Who cares. You have a big sword.

[The Great Cornholio]

Bold comment when you obviously know nothing about the game. You start with an ebony dagger, dwarven appears at level 3/4, with 25hp per level you barely need any armor and you can train at the Fighters Guild to a level where Daedric appears in stores before you even set foot in a dungeon. Low levels don't matter.

[Tech-Priest]

Thats a bold choice to call a class that bans most of the available weapons and armor at lower levels overpowered.

[The Great Cornholio]

you cant do it only on weapons

[AtlasLST]

is the ban on steel and elven in the juggernaut template on everything or only on weapons?

[Dagrond]

I've been trying for two days straight to get out of the first cave. Multiple settings. Multiple characters. Many Many different settings. THESE WORK!

Thanks so much.

[The Great Cornholio]

some templates are outdated because you can't stack the lesser/no magic in daylight/darkness any more, but you get the idea

[Frozium]

Aight, thanks

[The Great Cornholio]

Put leftover points where you want. It doesnt matter if the dagger is still above average. You're immune to all spells, have a ton of hitpoints and no armor restriction. You only need to be level 10 to finish the main quest and you can train to that point at the fighters guild. You dont need to be max level.

[Frozium]

I'm confused about the Juggernaut build. Dumping INT, WIL, PER and LUC while maxing out the rest will still leave me with 60 points left to work with. Also, even with those disadvantages the dagger is still above average.

[NewCenturyCenturion]

very cool guide! plz accept my advice and add it to the guide: adamantium and mithril have the same stats, so you can easly forbid one