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I've noticed that a lot of new players seem to think they can only ascend their characters to one elite role. However, I think there's a lot to be gained in having your characters experience as many professions as they can. I agree with Sazerac that you shouldn't promote your magic users too early (learned at great cost, with my Warlock) but I think fighters should start enjoying the benefits of Elite roles as soon as they fulfil the criteria; my three specially-rolled warriors took the Barbarian quest as soon as I started the party.
Since the amount Experience points needed to rise to the next level greatly increases as the levels increase, by the time your character is level 15, it takes like 150,000++ XP to get to level 16 (depending on the role). Put it this way, since my two Samurai reached Level 15, my Ninja switched to Assassin and is a few hundred XP off Level 9 and, greatly impressed by the rapid gaining of skills, a little later the Bard gave up her singing career to experience life as a Ninja, and has just achieved Level 7. The Samurai, however, still need 97,000+ XP to achieve Level 16! Meanwhile the new Assassin and Ninja have have rapidly raised their Sword, Second Weapon and Sneak skills to 12 and have the best Bless and Enchant stats of any of my party.
The new Ninja had this progression: Warrior -> Barbarian (Lvl 5) -> Paladin (Lvl 12) -> Bard (Lvl 15) -> Ninja (Lvl 7). Because she got the Crusade trait while a Paladin, she's racking up those XP points very quickly in Skull Castle! They've had to go back to town every few minutes, it seems, to spend up on skills, traits, etc. each time she levels. She's trying to convince the Samurai to become Ninja, but they're reluctant to loose the XPs they've already gained at Lvl 15 and will only consider a change once they've achieved Lvl 16. They've become so self-righteous, those two!
The progressions of the Samurai have been:
1) Warrior -> Barbarian (Lvl 7) -> Paladin (Lvl 12) -> Samurai (Lvl 15)
2) Warrior -> Ranger (Lvl 10) -> Paladin (Lvl 11) -> Samurai (Lvl 15)
The new Assassin's progress: Rogue (Lvl 10) -> Ninja (Lvl 16) to Assassin (Lvl 8). She's experienced less roles than the others, due to not being able to join any guilds before Ishad N'Ha and then, because I'd installed the patch, the party spent ages arguing over who should take the Assassin's Dagger! Plus, she was having such a fine time as a Ninja (loves hiding in those shadows)! But, she's DEFINITELY loving every second of being an Assassin! Her one regret is that she didn't spend some time training as a Paladin so that she, too, could enjoy the benefits of the Crusade trait. Something to consider on the replay, I guess.
Anyway, part of why this game is so brilliant is that you can experiment endlessly in developing your characters but remember, you can't go back to a profession that you've already trained in.
Have fun experimenting!
[This message has been edited by Fantaghiro (edited 05-25-2001).]
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