Caster build strat/Skill progression

[Zintzu KThol]

I need some tips on where to toss my points as a caster
is it betetr to max one skill Ie STONE or divvy them up?

also when should my Wizard progress to the next class? I want to end up as a Warlock and have the maximun amount ofhp/mana and most if not all spell schools open.

Currently Zta is level 10 as a wizard.. i been splittig his skill poitns between Sorcery Stone and Sun...

if there is a better way to maximise a chars development please let me know im more than willing to start him over and try again

[Zintzu KThol]

NM didnt search hard enough got a few possible answers [img]smile.gif[/img]

im gonan keep leveling my Wizard till 14 er so

then switch off to barb to get more HP and whatnot... then possibly goto samuri(or bard for moon magics) ->paladin->ranger-> zenmaster


now to play Zintzus build orders! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

I see you've found the Best Tips thread, if I read between the lines correctly...

General thoughts:

1. Get spell schools to level 7. You can train these in the guilds, so train there whenever possible. You can do that once per level.

2. Don't switch classes until you've got those level 7 spell skills, unless you really don't care about them. Other spell levels you can learn as other classes, but not level 7. Leastways, not until you're an advanced Zenmaster, that is... and by then, the game is practically over.

3. That barbarian massive hitpoint thing? It doesn't always work out...

4. If you've got two wizards, let one master in sun and the other in stone. They can pick up the other school later.

5. IF you have to pick one wizard school to start, make it stone. You can't learn that again until you're a zenmaster...

6. When possible, put skill points in skills that you can't train in at the guilds. And go for the skills near the end of the list first; they'll disappear in a bit, never to come back. Radek will argue with me, but I don't see the advantage to putting 'em in sorcery early on. And he knows best

That all being said, have fun! There's no right or wrong way to play, only choices you make...

[Zintzu KThol]

i get to start over
JUST got a new computer tonight

went from a 466 364 ram V3

to a

1.7ghz 512 ram and a Geforce 4 ti4400!!

forgot to back my guys up hehheh

[Radek]

1. There are skills that you can train in the guilds. There are other skills that you must train yourself because nobody in the guilds will help you. Therefore, do not invest your skill points in the skills trainable in guilds unless you feel that you cannot wait for the training.
All magic schools can be trained in the guilds pretty early in the game. Fire and Stone can be trained immediately in the Mages Guild. Vine and Spirit can be trained immediately in the Temple. Moon and Fiend can be trained in both thesse guilds starting from guild level 2. You can reach guild level 2 in the Temple almost immediately - after delivering Medakwa his potion.
Therefore, do not invest your skill points in the magic schools unless you feel that you cannot do anything else. Improve your stats so that you can join both the Mages Guild and the Temple ASAP by means of the "guild hopping" feature. Deliver the potion and use guild training. Expensive? Yes, but if you are unpatched then nothing is expensive for you...
So, what skill to train yourself? Sorcery, Gallantry, Prowess. There skills cannot be trained in the guilds. Gallantry and Prowess are near the end of the skill list so that they can vanish from the skill window if you have more than 20 skills. That's why Bungelau begins with these skills but I recommend starting with Sorcery and not allowing more than 20 skills per character Gallantry and Prowess can wait if you are cautious It's a completely different coffee casting spells at Sorcery 12 than casting spells at Sorcery 1.
Next skill you might train yoursef is Disarm Traps. This skill can be trained in the Thieves Guild at guild level 2 but there is no such guild in Valeia. The nearest Thieves Guild is in Ishad N'Ha. On the other hand, you will need the skill immediately. Train yourself to Disarm Traps 4 - it's enough for Valeia. You will continue training in Ishad N'Ha.

2. The magic skills. There is one trap which you can fall in right at the beginning of the game. All magic schools can be gained rather soon during the game run EXCEPT the Stone Magic. Let us note, that the guilds will train you in a particular magic school only if you already know the school. If you do not know the Stone Magic then the Mages Guild will not offer you the training.
How do you get the magic school? By changing role. For example, when you become a Paladin, you gain the Spirit Magic and the Heal spell (if you do not know the Spirit Magic and/or the Heal spell already). Now, you can train the Spirit Magic in the Temple.
Only a mage, a valkyrie, and a zenmaster are given the Stone Magic! As far as the mage is concerned, you must give him one Stone Magic spell yourself during creation, otherwise the mage will not know the Stone Magic and will have no chance to gain it later (unless he becomes a valkyrie or a zenmaster)! Therefore, either you give your mage one Stone Magic spell during creation or you will play without Stone Magic almost to the end of the game.

3. The skills in general. Another trap is luring there. Some skills are "natural" for a paricular role, some skills are not. If the skill is "natural" then you will be offered the skill during leveling up and you will be able to allocate the skill points to it even if you have a pure zero for the skill. If the skill isn't "natural", then the skill occurs on your skill list only if you have a nonzero skill value for it. Only then you will be able to improve the skill by means of your skill points. Examples:
a) Sorcery. Look out! TRAP! Suppose you begin as a warrior (the Sorcery isn't your skill, you have Sorcery 0) and then you switch to a paladin. Now, you would like to improve your sorcery but you won't be able! Sorcery seems to be a natural skill only for mages, warlocks, and perhaps priests (I don't know) and zenmasters (I don't know). It's not a paladin's skill. Because you have Sorcery 0, you won't see Sorcery on your skill list during leveling up. You are doomed to Sorcery 0 until you become a warlock.
Therefore, you'd better start all your future spellcasters as mages or priests. Improve their Sorcery to 1 and then change role. Now, the Sorcery will be always on your skill list and you will always be able to improve it.
b) Prowess and Gallantry. Look out! TRAP! These skills do not seem to improve by practice. You must improve them by your skill points. Now, only some classes are offered these skills. If you change role without improving them to at least 1, the skills are gone. Therefore, once you see Gallantry or Prowess on your skill list during leveling up, improve them to 1. That's enough. You will have access to them forever.
It's a general rule: Always improve an important skill to 1 if you don't know whether you can gain the skill somewhere in the guild.

4. Fast development of skills. It can be done by means of role changing and Reset Adventures. Let us note that Reset Adventures clears your role history so that you can gain a prefious role again and continue training in it.
You can find all guilds in Ishad N'Ha. Also, the creatures in Ishad N'Ha are enough "expensive in XP" so that you can level up reasonably fast. You can do the following:
a) Reset Adventures so that you get rid of your role history.
b) Go to Ishad N'ha. Use guild hopping and join all guilds. Reach guild level 5 in the Temple and in the Warrior's Guild. Reach level 4 in the Mages Guild.
d) Start changing roles. You will level up quickly and you will have bags of opportunities to train. Your skills will go up. Change role every time you gain all benefits you wanted to gain (high level spells, role specific traits) and if you see that next level is far away. You can take these roles: paladin, barbarian, ranger, ninja, samurai, and warlock. If you own the Assassin Dagger and if you aren't patched, then assassin. Be cautious with a bard, he gets the Music skill.

[bsftcs]

It is true that gaining new spells by way of invoking books does not yield a mana boost. However I do not think that will pose too much of a problem. when you have only one spellcaster you might of course consider bringing along a couple of mana potions, but you really should not get into much trouble with a lower mana level. I usually have my spellcasters learn new spells as fast as possible by invoking books, and that never caused me any problems with a low mana level. Perhaps one has to wait a little for the spellcaster to regain his or her mana before casting certain spells once or twice during the game, but I never found that irritating.

[Radek]

Right. Using books does not "spoil" the character at all. First of all, you get your mana points every time you add a spell to your spellbook no matter how many books you have used. Second, the game seems to control your mana points a similar way it controls your hitpoints. As a result, we get the following:
1. If you do everything possible for gaining as many mana points as possible in the beginning the game, then you will have to wait for high level mana point increases a long time. For example, up to level 50.
2. If you "spoil" the character by using books and bypassing the trick with collecting mana points by a barbarian, then you will be given high level mana point increases much sooner.
The resulting number of mana points is the same in the end. The only difference is that the "spoilt" character will have considerably less mana points temporarily. That's all.
An example from my investigation: A "heavily spoilt" character - about 990 mana points in each magic school at the end of the game. A carefully optimized character - 1028 mana points in each magic school at the end of the game.