What class will you play?

[fable]

If you've checked the Morrowind website or played Daggerfall, you likely know the kind of character you want to play. So what will it be? And what sort of outlook will it approach the new game with?

[Keshik]

I never played any of the previous Elder Scrolls games (too young for them ) butI'll most likely end up with a "jack-of-all-trades" kind of character (I always seem to make one EVERY rpg I play ). What about you Fable?

[T'lainya]

I'll probably start off playing an elf/darkelf custom class. I tend towards a variation of the spellsword or battle mage I found Daggerfall easier to play with some spellcasting ability. I hope they keep the recall spell

[fable]

Originally posted by Keshik
I never played any of the previous Elder Scrolls games (too young for them ) butI'll most likely end up with a "jack-of-all-trades" kind of character (I always seem to make one EVERY rpg I play ). What about you Fable?

That's kinda hard to do in context. There are over forty skills, so you have to narrow things down a bit just to make money and survive. If you spent time trying to become good at all, you'd end up looking for nothing but small insects and rats to kill forever.

I've started up a Breton mage (.5 multiplyer on Magicka) who was born under the Sign of the Mage (another .5 of the same). He's puny, but he's joined the Mage Guild in Balmora, and just been handed his first real assignment by the Guild Leader. (He'd been given a couple of easy tasks first by an apprentice.) His ultimate goal is to learn as much magic as he can, and join the sociopathic House Telvenni, even if he is a Breton rather than a Dark Elf.

I've also started up a spellsword, though I may switch that to a battlemage. There are 21 classes, though you can create your own class, too. And I want to create a Khayit, one of the extremely dextrous cat-based people, and have him or her join the Thieves Guild, or the Assassin's Guild. Probably the former.

[Keshik]

How well does switching "focuses" work in game? I mean, how easy can you decide you don't want bows, but want axes?

[fable]

When you start a character, you choose six skills that will rise very quickly with repeated use. Then there's another group you create that rises more slowly, and a very large group of skills that take still longer to improve.

So to an extent, those choices you make when creating a character govern how it can grow. However, you're free to develop it after that point, and there are plenty of opportunities to personalize. There are twenty-one pre-created character classes you can choose from, or you can build your own, but there are also quite a lot of factions and guilds within the game you can join who bring a variety of benefits (and some drawbacks, usually in the form of foes) to your character.

[fable]

There are three obvious guilds--Fighters, Thieves, and Mages--and four others that are harder to locate; plus three Great Houses who represent very different approaches to dealing with the world. When you put it all together, you have a very varied way of developing your character, towards any number of goals.

[Ned Flanders]

similiarities to arcanum

The creation/development/growth of the character sounds to have some similiarities to arcanum. Based on what I'm reading here, it sounds as if you have the full range of skills to choose from but would be wiser if you chose to excel in a few skills. This seems to provide for extensive replay ability as it seems you could have a different game each time should you choose to vary/change your character class. I haven't played too many games solo so I think I'd miss having NPC's around.

[fable]

I think the next game due out with party NPCs will be Bioware's Star Wars game for Lucasarts, and that probably won't show up until early next year. But there's a persistence to the Morrowind universe that's kind of nice: if you treat somebody well, word gets around. If you join a group, word quickly gets around to the rest of the group, and its enemies, as well. So you can build up a reputation, for better or worse. I've found that the occasional merchant for whom I've run tasks gets a much higher opinion of me, and that translates over time into lower prices for goods sold by her and higher ones for goods sold be me.

[Rheomyr]

I played all of the Elder Scrolls, they were all good except Battlespire. I was waiting for Morrowind for years. I usually play a custom-made class I call "adventurer". My char will be 70% fighter with a good sword and 30% magic-user (light, heal, levitate, teleport are the best spells if I remember correctly).

[Literatii]

...

Questions for Fable...

How does weapon switching work in MW? Let's say you're an archer/fighter hybrid. Is it easy to get a few shots in with a bow then switch to a melee weapon as the enemy closes?

And about the 5 primary skills... do they still go up quite quickly if you only use them say 50% of the time? I ask because I can imagine a melee character using a bow or ranged magic to pull an enemy, then finish him off at close-range. (50/50 use).

And finally, did you go with the unarmored skill? Does it seem better than going with a light armor skill?

--Lit

[wolfing]

well I have always liked the 'questions' suggested char since all the way back to Arena, I seriously tried to answer the question as I would have done, and played the suggested char for a few levels (to learn the ropes), then I would go and create a custom char (heh) according to what I saw worked best.
In Arena it was almost like cheating, using the spellmaker to create very cheap spells that did lots of damage
In Daggerfall, if you didn't use magic you were a cripple, don't remember spellmaker if it was as powerful as in Arena

[fable]

Re: ...

Originally posted by Literatii
Questions for Fable...

How does weapon switching work in MW? Let's say you're an archer/fighter hybrid. Is it easy to get a few shots in with a bow then switch to a melee weapon as the enemy closes?

Definitely. Right-clicking brings up inventory, spells, skill sets, map--whatever combination of those you care to move about, expand, etc. The game pauses at that point. You can switch out weapons, armor, etc, without a problem, then right-click to go back into the action.

And about the 5 primary skills... do they still go up quite quickly if you only use them say 50% of the time? I ask because I can imagine a melee character using a bow or ranged magic to pull an enemy, then finish him off at close-range. (50/50 use).

They increase quicker than the major skills, which in turn increase quicker than the minor ones. The amount they rise is based upon whether they succeed after considering the difficulty of use. Example: you're being attacked by a rat. At a low level, you may gain 10 or 15 points whenever you successfully block its bite, but as you increase levels and skills, blocking the rat with your shield will net you less each time you succeed. You'll need bigger prey to make it work.

I even discovered (if the preview code is accurate on this point) that skill increases can decrease or cease in the midst of a single skill level. For some reason, I was gaining very slight increments to enchanting while doing my initial successful alchemy experiments: 1/100th per potion made. That stopped when I hit 41/100ths. Since then, alchemy didn't increase enchanting, at all.

If you don't use a skill, it doesn't increase. This is why it seems such a bad idea (to me) to put a high level skill like enchanting in as primary or major. This refers not simply to getting an enchanted object from a mage in a guild, but to enchanting an object yourself, and that's so far along in the game that it really won't be used for a very long time. On the other hand, spells schools like destruction and restoration, armor and weapons skills, security (lockpicking, disarming) and stealth may come in handy from the start, depending upon your character configuration. Nobody can do it all, however. And it really doesn't help you to raise a minor skill. It won't hurt at all, but given the poorness of the rating and the fact that it doesn't count towards leveling, means that spending time seeking minor skill increases is pretty much a waste in itself.

And finally, did you go with the unarmored skill? Does it seem better than going with a light armor skill?[/QUOTE]

I didn't put it in my primary or majors--I went with light. Mind, you can actually increase *both* light and unarmored skills if you buy protection for only some parts of your body: yes, the game does track where an enemy lands hits, even if you're not told. Even three or four points of damage protection can mean a lot to a mage whose initial spells are (always, I found) touch-based. Personally, I'd rather have a fireball, but since I'm restricted to touch, and can't use a shield in that case...

[SloppyNuts]

Primary skills? what on earth are those? i know of major and minor skills, and your specialization (which as i understood it just adds 5 points to every skill in that specialization also probly making them slightly faster to level) but primary skills? did i miss something??