Gothic 3 Charakter-development

Im thinking of starting a new Charakter. My last one was a twoblades hunter.

any good ideas on a fun new charakter?

oh, and if I end up with a mage? What wapon shold I chose? and who should I suport? Orcs? Rebels?

Thx

For the first time in the Gothic series I am playing a Jack of all trades - except magic.
And I have a lot of fun - there's no need for powerleveling.

I am level 39 now - and I am learning Alchemy, Thieving, Bow, One-Hand Combat and Hunting.

Thats basikly the same as my ould, exept for the thievering...

I see the following combinations:

Fighter
100% strength build, using 2h weapons and crossbows for range.

Mage
100% ancient knowledge build, using only spells to deal damage.

Hunter
100% hunting build, using only bows.

Paladin/Battlemage
Strength + Ancient Knowledge build, using either shield or 2h weapons.

2h Fighter
Strength + Hunter build, using 2h weapons and bows.

Smith is probably best for pure fighters and paladins.
Thief is benefiting for all professions.
Some alchemy is benefiting for all professions depending on how you play.

I'd go for a Paladin, mainly focusing on strength and long, 2h weapons like polearms and 2h swords. Get large weapons 3 and master crossbow, and roughly 400 strength. Also, get a little Innos magic and some AK to make things easier - get Light, Healing, Cure Poison, Cure Weakness and some mana.

Either that or a Battle Mage type, with main focus on getting 250AK for mana regeneration(best skill in the game), and 1h weapon + shield with some combat skills. This adds up to great armor(due to shield), fairly good combat skills with some strength, and enough magic to take out whatever you can't take out in melee(Example: You take out orcs in melee, and trolls with magic).

I've completed the game with both these builds and they work out great. The most fun I've had was a pure mage build though, with over 500 ancient knowledge, roughly 600 mana, and loads of spells, but this build has a really slow start(untill you get mana regeneration that is). Either that or you need alchemy and a whole lot of mana potions.

My last, and 4th game, was a hunter based character with dual-wield and a bow, focusing on getting 300str to get health regeneration and the rest in hunting. While this works, and is fun at times, it's also frustrating because dual-wield is not very effective - I do as much damage with 1h + shield, and take less damage obviously, as I do with dual-wield. The bow works out great, but.. well.. magic is better.

In my game I am a "ranger" - 1h weapon (but not dual wield) & bow mastery. But since there is so much experience & levels to be had, I had enough skill points left over to be a sort of mid-level mage as well. My hunting & strength are in the low 300s, HPs at 514, mana at 388.

At the outset my plan was to be a hunter only with just "good" 1h sword skills. I guess in the end I could have my cake and eat it too.

BTW, My Ancient Knowledge is at 125 and I have never trained it. I simply used the bonuses given by reading books and stone tables. On a related note, unless you want to fast-track your alchemy skills I recommend you never spend a point in it. There are enough reasonably accessible +5 Alchemy books in the game to get you enough points to do almost all the poitions & perks.

Cool... Ive desided to be a Mage with som fighing skill...

But I cant deside if I shoud go for Staff fighing or Sword+Shield...
The shield gives a god defence, but the staffs keeps the beast away and can become magical...

What do you guy's think?

Oh, and what God should I praise? Like, im not thinking of the spells, oh, i mean, that to but. im more thinking of who i shoud fight for? If im gonna praise Inos Ill fight for the rebels, and so on...

If you beleive in good and justice (as you should), then praise Innos!!!!

The problem with staffs, is COST!! Good ones are VERY expensive!! The one I like is something like 12500 GP!! I've never had half that amount. Since I've never seen any trader with a flame sword either, I'm still using old Orcslayer!!

Pure mage here. I only use weapons to incap people and then I use orcslayer.

Get 120 strength, a paladin shield and flaming sword. Both are easy to get, and will make you viable in combat even if you don't spend any more points in combat skills. If you are somewhat of a battle mage, be sure to get ice lance or ring of ice, as you can then avoid having to use magic to do all your damage - just freeze them, run up and whack what is left of their health.

In my opinion, staves are not really worth it right now. Like robes they are just there for "cool mage looks", but if you want a character who is as powerful as possible, you'll stick with a 1h+shield solution for surviveability(more armor) and better damage. A flaming sword has 100 damage, staves normally have 20-50.

There's nothing wrong with having both though - a good combat staff for keeping creatures on a distance, and 1h+shield for killing orcs and such. You can get to level 60-70 in this game so spending a few LPs here and there is not a problem.

I'd still love a flaming sword, but I haven't found anyone selling them anywhere!!! Inventories don't seem to change either; the same people are selling the exact same stuff they were when I first began playing!!

Dang that is tough luck, well it turns out I may have been right about the Blacksmith in Arden (sp) becasue all inventories are randomly generated.

So if you haven't found one yet and still have Weapon vendors to talk to Save before you speak to them, so you can reload, if you don't want to add one with Marvin.

Since its Random the idea you can't get one seems bad design, this is not my favorite way of ding things, the dang swords exist in the game and are very common, its much more like a bug to me.

Then Adanos is the way to enlightenment...

Ive just medt the Ranger between CapDun and Montara. Hes a nice guy, and I like the spells he can learn me... =D Should I learn to be a Druid as well?

I'm using a mage staff here. First of all. It gives lots of protection. Something like +15 to all the protection values. With it you can block magic attacks and melee attacks while keeping your spell ready all the time. Thats very usefull if you ask me When you have the mana regeneration ability, decent number of mana and a good staff you can basicly walk in a room full of shamans and not take a scratch

Also you can give a decent beating with it. I have had no trouble fighting in the arena with it. In addition to that I cleared gotha with gorn only using my staff as a melee weapon.. Skeletons and zombies stood no chance. Blunt damage is quite usefull against undeads and golems. And you can keep most of the other foes far away too.

It surely ain't the fastest weapon and the dmg melee value isn't the best either but the range is great and it can protect you against enemy casters. And don't forget the looks! Its just darn cool to be a fire mage and use real mage's staff
So far i haven't found a better staff, but i'm sure there are better ones...

I want one, I just can't afford one!!

The armor values on a staff can't compare to those having a shield strapped to your back - the best shield will give 45%(or so) to everything but magic. I suppose a magic staff is better against magic users, but there is a very limited number of those in the game(truth be told, they pose the biggest threat in most cases).

The 30 damage or whatever on a mage staff is actually lower than the weapon you begin with, and can't hold a candle to the flaming sword, which has over three times the damage per swing(100).

A mage staff definetly looks cooler for a mage though, just like robes do. I recommend getting those if you play a pure mage, but as a battle mage(fighter/mage) I still recommend the 1h+shield solution for better melee skills.