character creation

[Vider]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I've read quite a few of the more recent/stickied threads and haven't seen anything.

Regarding which former profession to pick when you start a character. It seems like all 4 get a total of 30 starting attribute points, and the differences lie in how these are distributed. However, with skill and weapon points there is a significant variation in the total number of points as well as their distribution. The squire starts out with the most weapon points, while the priest starts out with the most skill points.

In my understanding, the weapon points go up to a cap affected by str and weapon mastery. So, if a priest put enough points into str he could eventually have the same weapon skill as a squire, but he would also have more skills than the squire. It would just take him longer to get to the cap and he'd be a worse fighter starting out.

From a skill perspective, it seems it would be better to start with a high int and put points in str/agi as you level up rather than start with a higher str/agi but get fewer skills. I'm going to start a priest next to see if this is the case, but I thought I'd see what you experts think about the idea.

 

[octavian]

yeah once you are a few levels into the game your "former profession" no longer makes a difference, its just at the beginning were certain archtypes are easier to get started than others.

 

[Johnathan Andrews]

It seems like all 4 get a total of 30 starting attribute points, and the differences lie in how these are distributed.

You have answered your own question!

The priest gets more skill points as he has more intellect. Each INT point a charecter has increases the skill points by one.

The squire and hunter have more agility than other charecters. Each agility point you have increases weapon points by 5.

 

[CrazyEyes]

Indeed. Also, each charisma point gives you enough leadership to lead one more troop for free, and for every two strength points you gain one free hit point. You pretty much just completely described the priest profession - he has many skills and is very useful, but is a poor fighter at the start and needs some work. That's the check and balance. Squires are big hunks with swords n' stuff at the start, but they don't have much intellegence, and can't really invest in any non-combat skills. Same with hunters, except a mix between lack of strength and lack of intellegence (although they are a little more intellegent than squires). Merchants have high charisma, they can lead a good party at first.