Risen What's a good strength for a hybrid build?

I'm on my first play-through, and I always like to make a hybrid-type character to begin with so I can get a taste of all facets of the game.

I'm level 18 in Chapter 2 (taking my sweeeet time), and doing quite well, but I'm at the point where it's time to invest in strength and upgrade my sword (I've been using a str30 Fine Sword for a while now).

What I'd like to know is what final strength value I will need to use any of the best weapons in the game. Note that I don't want to know _what_ those weapons are, I'd just like an idea of a good number to shoot for, that won't make me feel short-changed when I get cool stuff towards the endgame. As long as I have the minimum strength to wield something, that's fine by me. I'll get additional damage output through archery and my Frost crystal magic.

I've got 11 Hero Crowns stockpiled, along with a couple strength potions I found, plus some nifty cooking recipes and about 10 bags of spices, so I could easily pump my strength up to 100+ right now without any more training. That's overkill for right now (the best weapon I have is Stormwind with a 56str requirement), but my LPs are now getting very scarce and I'd like to plan exactly how much more training I'm going to get (if any).

Thanks for any help!

80 DEX and 100 STR will let you use the best weapons.

Its not just about using weapons, strength also contributes significantly (perhaps even linearly) to damage output with melee weapons. If you only get strength up to 100 you will be doing significantly less damage against end game enemies in melee. That it is why it is recommended that for melee builds you train strength to 100 before using potions, allowing you to get very close or equal to the max 200. (Edit note: You can no longer train a stat once it is above 100, this is why you need to max the attribute before using perma potions)

I believe the same could be said for dex/ranged damage. This is why it is very hard to build an effective character that requires maximizing more than one stat. Also you are limited to creating like 20 max perma potions and they are mutually exclusive. So you could get +100 to str or dex but not both.

It actually seems easier to build a mage/melee hybrid as wisdom does not need to be trained and you can get away with less mana if you have good melee damage output.

If you were going to try to go both ranged and melee, I think it probably better to focus on one first and max it (perhaps swords to 7 (plus 2 +1 sword rings) and 100 str, then pots) and then ranged (crossbows likely better if max str) and dex. This would still be primarily a melee character though for the vast majority of the game. Particularly as I understand ranged skill perks are bugged until you max at 10.

Thanks for the help. I should have mentioned that I only care about strength for this run-through. I'm not worrying about dex, other than quaffing dex potions I find and eating any pixie hats I come across. I do like to use a crossbow to get in a first shot, and of course my L6 Frost crystal helps with crowd control.

I know that maxing strength is all the rage when your primary method of dispatch is melee, but doesn't strength only come into play on critical hits? ie, you always do your weapon's damage, except on critical hits when your strength is then added in? I thought that's how Gothic did it, and I thought I read that's how Risen works as well. Any confirmation on that?

Not that 200 strength wouldn't potentially pack a whollup, but I'm going by my previous Gothic experience where getting just enough strength to handle whatever weapon I wanted to use was always enough to be successful in combat. Hell, I figure if I can clear out all those skeletons on the way to the west coast in chapter 1 with a 16 strength and 18 damage weapon, I should do OK with 100 strength and a 100+ damage weapon.

My current situation is I'm level 18, with Frost Magic at level 6, my sword skill at level 3, strength at 30, alchemy at level 1, and 45 LPs to spend. I need to get my strength up to the 50-60 range to handle some mid-game weapons, and rather than spend 30 points on strength, I will likely spend 10 on alchemy, make and use 5-6 strength potions, and spend 20-30 on sword skill so I can use bastard swords 1-handed. I think that should hold me over for a few more levels, at which point I can train in strength a bit more if I want.

I mainly wanted to make sure that if I go this route, I won't be missing out on something that requires like 150 strength. Thanks for the confirmation that anything over 100 is a bonus; this helps my planning...

You'll be successful with 100 Strength, no doubt. As a magic hybrid, there's little point in trying to get more - I'd rather put those points into maxing Frost and getting some mana.