Starting out. Need tips.

So I restarted the game as an Elementalist after being a little disappointed with the Rogue. I have a plan to have a full female team through the game and I think I need some tips.

PC - Mage, Healer, Social Talent expert, Staffs
Rhulana - 2H swords (or are saber+shields a must since she's the only tankish character in my group?), plant lore, animal lore
Gladys - Lockpicking, Disarm traps, Pickpocketing, Fencing weapons
Gwendala - Bowyer, what weapon is she suited for?
Forgrimm - Blacksmith (back in Ferdok)
Aurelia - Alchemist (back in Ferdok)

How does the skill distribution sound? Are staffs a good choice for elementalist? Is Rhulana as 2H sword tank doable? What spells should I focus on on my PC? What combat skills should I take for everyone? Defensive combat?

Thanks for the tips in advance.

You can use Rhulana as a tank, no problem. As for your mage, I would master one (one is enough) summoning spell and at least one combat spell such as Ignifaxius. Boosts are also important. Gwendala should also have some combat spells and spells that improve her archery. Don't forget that you can craft wonderful bows towards the end of the game.

I always used both defensive and offensive modes. Someimes I had everyone on defensive, when I wanted full control. Sometimes I set the fighters on offensive, when I wanted combat to be a bit quicker.

Originally Posted by Grandor Dragon
You can use Rhulana as a tank, no problem. As for your mage, I would master one (one is enough) summoning spell and at least one combat spell such as Ignifaxius. Boosts are also important. Gwendala should also have some combat spells and spells that improve her archery. Don't forget that you can craft wonderful bows towards the end of the game.

I always used both defensive and offensive modes. Someimes I had everyone on defensive, when I wanted full control. Sometimes I set the fighters on offensive, when I wanted combat to be a bit quicker.

I meant is it viable to have Rhulana use 2H swords and still use her as a tank or does she need shield for that, in which case I'll train her in sabres.

Of course it is a tradeoff - shields increase you probability to parry successfully, but can reduce your attack probability. Some shields are excellent, as your defense is improved much more than your attacks are impaired. Shields don't modify your armor class.

I used Forgrimm as a tank. He had a 2H-weapon, and always the best armor I could get. It worked pretty well.

Originally Posted by Grandor Dragon
Of course it is a tradeoff - shields increase you probability to parry successfully, but can reduce your attack probability. Some shields are excellent, as your defense is improved much more than your attacks are impaired. Shields don't modify your armor class.

I used Forgrimm as a tank. He had a 2H-weapon, and always the best armor I could get. It worked pretty well.

Ohkay, thanks. I'll probably get her a two handed sword skill then.

I would give Rhulana a shield. She has her own little backstory and gets special equipment in it. She is quite strong though. Only slightly weaker than a classic tank.

Two or three other chars are more suitable for a 2h tank. Obviously Forgrimm but there's at least one other too.

What you absolutely need is the skill which helps to ignore wounds. Plus you need one char with a strong healing spell.

Every char needs to be strong enough to inflict some kind of damage and survive a couple of combat rounds.

And ignore the Mother Ratzinsky quest until at least level 6, or better 7 or 8.

You should hack the walking speed or install Ergo's mod. AFAIR it increases the running speed too.

Originally Posted by Gorath
You should hack the walking speed or install Ergo's mod. AFAIR it increases the running speed too.

I believe he should find out first whether he likes the "un-hacked" speed or not.

While I don't really do Alrik's "sightseeing", I don't see what the big hassle with the movement speed is. I can get around plenty quickly. Sure, the occasional run across town probably takes a little longer than really necessary, but it's not really that big of an inconvenience to me. Maybe I just haven't gotten to some really big zone that requires a lot of back-n-forth yet.

I don't think hacking the run speed is necessary on your first walk through the game. You'll want it on subsequent runs, however, when you already know where everything is and just want to get stuff done, as Mike put it once.

Originally Posted by Arhu
I don't think hacking the run speed is necessary on your first walk through the game. You'll want it on subsequent runs, however, when you already know where everything is and just want to get stuff done, as Mike put it once.

I agree. When I played it, I didn't mind the speed for the most part. Yes, in some maps once it was explored and I just wanted to go to point B I would have liked it faster, but that's just 5% of the time. If I ever play it again I will use it with the Ergo pack for sure.

I hated the slow running speed immediately. I'm not sure it's the same speed on every PC though. Maybe they made a mistake standardsing it.

Originally Posted by Gorath
I hated the slow running speed immediately. I'm not sure it's the same speed on every PC though. Maybe they made a mistake standardsing it.

Running speed is the exactly same for 95% of the creatures and all pcs. Only some big monsters may have a different speed. My fixpack increases the running speed by +25%, which helps IMO quite a bit.

I think he meant "personal computer" and not "player character".

Originally Posted by Ergonpandilus
Running speed is the exactly same for 95% of the creatures and all pcs. Only some big monsters may have a different speed. My fixpack increases the running speed by +25%, which helps IMO quite a bit.

Not true. By default Dranor runs a bit faster than the rest, it might be a bug but that's how it is. And yes, I changed the running speed a bit faster (to around 4.5. Not a lot but, still noticeable). I also changed my characters voice and model. Goddamn I hate the human female voice. Thankfully the elf voice is much more pleasing. So how about those combat skills? Should I take Roundhouse for Rhulana eventhough I would be required to raise her ST by one? Also when should I raise my VI and AE?

No offence to Ergo, but I don't really want to play with all the gameplay and difficulty changes that his "fix"pack makes. I can just edit the game's database myself if needed.

Regarding vitality as astral energy, I can only tell you about my experience. I didn't invest too many points directly into vitality, at least in the beginning. Keep in mind that both VI and AE can rise when you level up your attributes, so I'd focus on talents and them first. Being good at parrying and dodging can be much more effective than having more vitality points. also, since you regenerate very quickly, it usually suffices to survive one battle. For the next, your characters will have full VI and AE most of the time.

This does not mean that I didn't invest any points directly. I did, especially in AE. But it was not my priority.

Fortunately Drakensang is not a very difficult game. You get enough experience points to be a extremely powerful character towards the end, even if you make a couple of bad investments.

Originally Posted by Grandor Dragon
Regarding vitality as astral energy, I can only tell you about my experience. I didn't invest too many points directly into vitality, at least in the beginning. Keep in mind that both VI and AE can rise when you level up your attributes, so I'd focus on talents and them first. Being good at parrying and dodging can be much more effective than having more vitality points. also, since you regenerate very quickly, it usually suffices to survive one battle. For the next, your characters will have full VI and AE most of the time.

This does not mean that I didn't invest any points directly. I did, especially in AE. But it was not my priority.

Fortunately Drakensang is not a very difficult game. You get enough experience points to be a extremely powerful character towards the end, even if you make a couple of bad investments.

Ok, what about staffs? Are they a good weapon of choice for my elementalist? I heard that there aren't too many of them but she's not going to melee much anyway.

A staff is the traditional thing for any mage - in Aventuria, that is. Other groups dont use it that much - although it is possible, of course.

The problem for Aventurian mages is that there exists some kind of Codex which more or less forbids other weapons to them - plus, they can't use magic when they wear or use anything made of metal …

In the *real* TDE rules, the staff of a Magician is his very own tool and weapon at the same time. There are several so-called "staff-spells" available, which you might already know from the Realms Of Arcania series. The first one makes the staff unbreakable, others make the staff able to turn itself into a rope, or be used as some kind of light source without consuming it.

I don't know, however, how much has changed with the newer 4.0 - 4.1 TDE rules regarding the staff, but the whole magic system has been massively overhauled since the 3rd edition of the rules system, so I almost assume that this might have changed, too - although not implemented in Drakensang itself - but I can't really say. I haven't read enough of the 4.0 / 4.1 magic system, which appears to be quite complicated to me.

As far as I know these spells still exist in pen&paper. They do not in TDE. The staff is nevertheless a decent weapon for a mage. You pick up some VERY nice staves later in the game, and some can only be used by characters with decent mage skills. As a mage, I would not waste a single experience point on other weapons.

Yes but, you can't use a staff when you use a shield - "the" shield can only be used by the main character, if a mage is your main character and want to use the sheild (which 'dazzles' and considerably lowers the oponents stats) then you will have to become adept with a shield matching weapon.
I was quite surprised by this and had to 'change horses in midstream' - a completely different tack, by having some exp' points spare i upgraded my healing mage main character from using staves to using a one-handed weapon, i never looked back, it was the best choice i had made for now my healing mage could sustain much longer in battle than Rhulana with her special kit. My gentle humble female healing mage main character became almost invincible.

I didn't use "the" shield. But you can get "the" staff, which can also only be used by the main character. And it does very sweet damage (1D+9). However it is possible that the combination of shield and single-handed weapon works better. Which did you use?