Okay, so you are confused. Understandable. Let me walk you through all you need to know then.
So, you make a character from scratch. Click Create Character.
Your first choices are races and gender. There is no difference between males and females besides difference in appearance. Chose what you feel
like.
Race has a big impact on play and look of your character. If you are playing the game without the expansions, your choices are between dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf, half-orc, human and plane-touched. And if you installed the expansions, you have Yuan-ti Pureblood and Gray Orc there as well. Let's talk races first of all.
1. Dwarves.Dwarves are pretty cool guys who are short in stature, but so physically capable they can keep up with taller races. Dwarves come in three flavors:
- Gold Dwarf - The dwarves that are more handsome than other dwarves, but have some crippling disability preventing them from being as fast as other dwarves. They are less suited for dexterity-based tasks such as sneaking and shooting bows than other dwarves.
- Gray Dwarf (Duergar) - The dwarves that are even uglier than other dwarves. Nobody likes duergars. They get some magical abilities, but nobody likes them even if they can do that. They are allergic to bright lights.
- Shield Dwarf - Your basic normal dwarf.
So, the thing about dwarves is that they all have some pretty neat eyes, allowing them to see in complete darkness without a torch, they are trained to kill orcs and goblins, have defensive training against giants, and they make extremely good fighters. Any class that favors physical effort dwarves excel at. They aren't too accepted in the magical community, but most dwarves just chose to ignore the classes that rely on their weaknesses.
2. Elves.Elves are tall lady-men who are either tall or short depending on their flavor. They are frail as sticks, but make up for it usually by being more flexible. Elves come in five colors:
- Dark Elf (Drow) - The shortest of the elf races, this race prides itself on a matriarchial society and loves to pretend they are supererior to everyone else, but everyone knows that having a level adjustment is the same as having a death sentence. They are smarter, more beautiful than your average elf, they can cast spells for free, they have a powerful resistance to magic, they are blind if you take them out of their dark holes and can see even better than normal elves in darkness. This color (black) makes for good wizards (or clerics, but if you are not female, prepare for some shocking experiences)
- Moon Elf - Your standard elf. Flexible, frail, can use swords and bows with no problem, recommended class is wizard, but they are honestly suited more for classes like the bard or the rogue. All elves unless noted have low-light vision, which makes them superior to humans.
- Sun Elf - The snootiest of elves, the sun elf is a peculiar race that is supposed to be rare, but pops up more often than not because they make better wizards than Moon elves because of their enhanced intelligence, making them far more suited at the role than the stupid moon elf. These elves are truly sticks.
- Wild Elf - Wild elves make up for their lack of being interesting by actually being tougher than most elves. They bully other elves and have to live on their own in the wild. They are as flexible as other elves, but tougher. And dumber. Just like your bullies. They make better sorcerers than wizards, but you should probably consider barbarian or something.
- Wood Elf - Wood elves are the strangest of them. While they are basically a copy-paste of the Moon Elf, they have a distinct feature of also having enhanced strength and reduced intelligence. Their favorite class is the ranger, but... Yeah, this is another good barbarian race.
3. Gnomes. Nobody plays gnomes. They are small and annoying. They are specialized against illusionists and make the best illusionists, while having a favored class that doesn't fit their background at all. Gnomes have one extra flavor called Deep Gnome or "Svirfneblin". No, I didn't just sneeze and write that down. They are even worse than regular gnomes. Much, much worse. Never play one.
4. Halflings. The short people. What I said about gnomes still holds true here, but unlike gnomes, halflings are based on Hobbits from Lord of the Rings and thus have some merit to them. They make superior rogues and can actually fight worth a damn for their size, but they make better support characters than main characters.
Halflings have two flavors, one which is lucky and one which has the ability to chose a feat (which you may then spend to make him lucky too) making it a weird decision to even make it two races.
There is a secret third halfling race, but its ability is mind communication, which everyone has for free.
5. Half Races.At some point in the past, your mom and your dad shacked up and had sex and produced you, the unwanted prodigy. Half-races come in a variety of tastes and I'll sum up the more normal ones first.
- Half-elves - Product of a human and one of the normal elven races, but probably not the wood elf. It's basically your sex fantasy come true, except you didn't get to live it, just the product of it.
- Half-drow - The second kind of product made by elf-coupling, half-drow draws attention to itself by having better eyes to see you with, just like the big bad wolf. It also probably involved your fetishism with whips and S&M.
- Half-orc - Product of a human and an orc. Implicates non-consensual reproduction. And god how awful you look. But it's the only way you can play an orc in a civilized society full of BDSM-ist elves and whatnot.
6. Humans. Vanilla. You get an extra skill point every level and an extra feat to chose from your first level. This race is your safe bet.
7. Planetouched. You thought your parents having sex with an orc was weird? Well... Most of the planetouched are not half-breeds. They are at most quarter-breeds or at lengthiest one-threehundreth breed. It implies lineage, that at some point in your past one of your grandparents had sex with a being from a different plane of existance. Not an orc. Not a dragon. But a being closer to the gods.
- Aasimar - The closest you get to angels. They are almost typically good boyscouts with an almost empowering sensation of being way more powerful than any of the others. They make great paladins, favored souls, clerics, sorcerers, bards and just about any class that doesn't want to suck too badly.
- Tiefling - The counterpart, this grandparent got naughty with a demon or a devil and you still cough up rotten eggs in your sleep. You get cool horns, some good ability score adjustment and a completely unexplainable penalty to your charisma. You make a dashing rogue, but I daresay that even a Warlock can make a good tiefling.
- Genasi - With an element of nature. Your parents were freaks, seriously. These races require you to more intricately understand the system and I can't in good conscience recommend them despite how cool they look. It takes effort to not corner yourself.
8. Yuan-ti Purebloods. This race looks pretty powerful and it kind of is, but that thing called level adjustment will make you feel less so. But yeah, you would basically be a snake person.
9. Gray Orcs. This is an excellent barbarian. Not too powerful, but its rare enough to make it stand out and feel like you are a warrior. If nothing else appeals to you, at least you didn't have human parents in this one.
Okay, that was a bit much, let it sink in a bit. If appearances don't matter anything to you, then maybe just choosing human to see what classes are available will help a bit.
Oh boy, there's a lot aren't there? Never fear, I can help sum it up a bit for you:
Fighter classes: These classes favor melee fighting and you'll be wading into the enemies with weapons drawn and doing damage via steel. Your skill-set is probably a bit low, but you play a very important and central part in your party.
Barbarian: Powerful damage dealer, the barbarian is also very much unmatched when it comes to surviving. A LOT of health and some very neat options that keeps the barbarian fighting the longest and charge in first.
Fighter: A good amount of survivability, the fighter is one of the higher damage dealers in this group, but his true colors is not in that, but in his flexibility. You can pretty much make a million different types of fighters, each doing their own thing and favoring their own set of weapons. They get the most options of all melee classes.
Monk: Monks have less attack ability and less survivability than the two previous, but the monk brings to the table a lot of damage in the form of fists. You also get extremely fast and get special abilities to mitigate your lack of armor and weapons. Some might say it is overpowering, but it's all in all a pretty survivable class. It's one of the few classes who might be the very last man standing in the final encounter.
Paladin: The Paladin shares similarities with the fighter, but what it lacks in options, it makes up for by being flexible. If you find yourself wanting to occasionally heal without relying on potions, Paladins can be your thing. They also have some advanced techniques that helps deal with undead, which there are a lot of, and evil people, which there are a lot of.
Ranger: The ranger is as the name suggests a bit more of a support type character. In reality, its both. The ranger specializes in allowing you to chose whether you want to rely on archery or if you wish to jump into the fray and become a fast-attacking dual-wielder. You get some minor spell-casting ability and some animals who can support you in this role as well, so if you chose ranged, you'll always have a buddy who will occupy the enemies for you.
Swashbuckler: The warrior of agility. Do you think that being in heavy armor seems overly boisterous to you and would you rather rely on fighting with low strength, but high dexterity? The swashbuckler does provide a good option for you who would rather wade in with no armor and still be in one piece on the other side.
Support classes:By this I don't mean support like healing or magic, but classes with skills that can benefit outside of just combat.
Bard: The bard is a weird jack of all trades, stuck without a good ability to fight, without an ability to remove traps or undo locks and very little in the way of spellcasting that a sorcerer or wizard couldn't do better. The bards forté is in knowing the classes strengths and using his buffs to not only make the bard himself invulnerable, but to make his entire team a train of wreckage upon your enemies. The secret is in his inspirations. If nothing else, a bard can do some good illusionary spells like a wizard, some healing like a cleric and some fighting like a fighter and use some of the skills a rogue can use. Clever planning allows you to fill in the spots your party doesn't have cover for.
Ranger: Hey, didn't I already address this class? Yes, I did. But it can be both a melee fighter and a support character.
Rogue: The rogue isn't a powerful melee combatant, but he could be. His main use is either wading in between enemies and picking targets that are distracted fighting someone stronger and then land some powerful sneak attacks. Support-wise, a rogue is almost necessary to pick locks, find and remove traps, getting best deals in shops, and fast-talking your way out of tight spots. As an added bonus, you can steal from people, tumble through enemies and "Use Magic Devices" which turns your rogue into a truly fearsome opponent, since it allows you to wear gear that are normally class-restricted otherwise.
Divine Casters:Divine casters or as they are known in the community as, CoDzilla. CoD is short for "Cleric or Druid" and the -zilla suffix indicates how terrible these two classes are in terms of balance. The Divine casters are unique in that they don't need to learn spells: They know all the spells they need. They need to chose them however, carefully. But when they've got their spells, and cast them, they are unstoppable.
Cleric: Clerics have high hit points, good physical condition, a small weapon selection and can wear the best armor in the game. Their speciality is support magic. They can heal, hurt and buff their allies. Or themselves. If they target themselves for buffing, they can actually become more powerful than the fighter they could be buffing. As if that wasn't bad enough, they don't need to chose between healing or buffing. They can prepare only buff spells and cast them as healing spells whenever they want to. They are the most flexible powerful class.
Druid: Druids similar to the clerics have high hit points, good physical condition, but a small weapon selection and smaller armor selection. Druids don't have the flexibility of choosing between whether to cast buffing spells or healing spells, but they can still put out a pretty powerful selection. Their true colors lie in using Wild Shape and becoming animals that can tear your enemies apart.
Favored Soul: Favored Soul. The cleric, made more like a sorcerer. This class is more melee oriented and could be much more powerful than the cleric, but sadly, there's a lack of prestige classes to make good use of this. The Favored Soul also locks itself in more than the regular cleric does, since a major favor for the cleric is their ability to access their entire spellbook at any day.
Spirit Shaman: Like the druid, but more hippie. This class is all about passing smokes and seeing hallucinations of things that aren't there.
Arcane Casters: Arcane casters are those spellcasters who dish out the most damage with their spells. If the cleric is god-like, an arcane caster is god. They have a lot of power and very little restraining that power. All they need to do is find the keys and assemble.
Bard: Yes, a bard is an arcane caster. But a bad one.
Sorcerer: The sorcerer is a charisma-based caster. What this means is that her looks determines how powerful she is. And we're talking power unhinged here. She starts off slow, a bit slower than the wizard even, but then she can cast spells until her target dies. No such thing as "I didn't prepare the right spell today". You can't afford something like that, rather. You need to chose the most powerful that can carry you through to the next level so you can get even more power. So, its a difficult class to start with, but you learn your mistakes fast with this class.
Warlock: The sorcerer had lot of power, but the warlock literally made a pact with the devil to get his power. As such, he's a bit more endurable than the other two main arcane casters, but comparing him to the bard isn't quite fair. The bard is a jack of all trades, but the warlock is very much a caster. But he can cast his spell unlimited times per day and thus doesn't need to rest a whole lot. He can also modify his attack to do special devilish or demonic things and is a very respectable class in the right hands.
Wizard: The wizard is a power-house in several ways and not a bad starting class if you want to do lots and lots of magic. Your casting is based on how intelligent you are and more is better. More means bigger variety and variety is key to being prepared for any situation. You may need to rest more often, but you can learn spells even between levels, which is a very useful feature indeed.
Alright, so you might have picked a class by now. Chose something you'd like to play, something you think would fit your playing style.
Alignment:Alignment may seem important, but it is verysimple in how it affects the game. Some classes are locked into certain alignments:
Barbarians and bards cannot be lawful good, lawful neutral or lawful evil. If they are, they lose access to some of their abilities.
Monks must be lawful good, lawful neutral or lawful evil. They can go up and down the axis, but they cannot stray from lawful alignments.
The Druid must be an alignment with "Neutral" in it. They cannot be Lawful Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil.
Warlocks have to be either chaotic or evil or both. They cannot be Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral or Neutral.
Paladins can ONLY be Lawful Good.
Deity:Chosing a deity is more a matter of roleplay than having any tangible effect on gameplay. Read up a bit on their portfolios and chose one you feel fit. Or none.
Ability Scores:This sets up your character for the rest of the game. This is high important. I recommend you hit the recommend button and look where the most points go into. Make note of where the fewest points are. They are scores you don't need to care about. Make note of where most of the points are. That's probably your class' main focus.
With that in mind:
Strength - Attacks, inventory capacity, damage. Good for fighters, barbarians, paladins, monks.
Dexterity - Bows, Armor class outside of armor, reflex. Good for rogues, bards, monks, swashbucklers, rangers, warlocks.
Constitution - Increases your hit points and physical resistance. Good for ALL classes.
Intelligence - Increases skill points per level. Main attribute for wizards' spellcasting. Good for rogues, bards, swashbucklers.
Wisdom - Will power. Main attribute for most divine spellcasters, like the cleric, druid, paladin, ranger, spirit shaman and favored soul. Good for monks as well.
Charisma - Looks. Charisma is pretty vital for several class abilities however. The Turn Undead ability uses this, which the cleric and paladin have, bards and paladins have other abilities that use this stat and bards, sorcerers, favored souls, spirit shamans and warlocks are almost dependent upon this ability for spellcasting.
Backgrounds:Small variety of bonuses. Adds some flavor to early play as well.
Packages:This page might trip you up a bit. This page contains packages, which give your character his first skill points, feats and spells without consulting you. You can read about them a bit, but I recommend not clicking next no matter what. Instead, hit customize on the package closest to what you want to get with your class.
Skills:This page probably upsets most people.
Teal text means it is a skill your class is very good at.Grey text means it is a skill your class isn't especially trained in.Red text means it is a skill your class can't learn or does not have access to.We refer to the first type as a class-skill, the second as a cross-class skill. For now, just click "RECOMMEND" and take what you get. It's usually not too bad.
Feats:This is sort of like choosing your best ability. The left-most window is what you can chose from and the middle window is what you already have, and the right-most window will tell you in detail what a feat does.
Each feat menu is separated into nice chunks of order, so you can just click the minus sign on a general tab and hide feats if you aren't looking for anything in that category. For instance, you probably don't need a proficiency feat at your first level, so you can close that one and scroll past it to look at other options. For first level I can recommend going down to the very bottom and look at "Background traits" which are feats you only can chose at your first level. Read them to see if there is anything that might suit your fancy.
Failing that, it is rather overwhelming, hit the recommend button to see what the computer suggests. Don't agree? Click the white arrow on the feats it chose (they should be brighter than the other arrows) and you get to chose anew.
Various:If you made a caster, you now get to chose your Domains/Spell School/Spells. Hit recommended if you don't know, or pick the flavor you want. Just be aware that choosing a Spell School also locks you out from another spell school of magic, which might make it more fun or harder to play. Generalist is a good way to start if nothing else.
Finish:Chose your name(s), write your character a background, define an age and give her a voice and you are done.
I hope this was helpful.
Modifié par Mordaedil, 07 janvier 2011 - 04:12 .