Hello all,

I have started playing DD for the first time and after a few hours I already saw what an interesting, open character customization system it has, as opposed to modern rpgs, where the player has almost no chance of experimenting after he has chosen the hero's basic build of warrior/mage/thief... So I have decided to start anew, taking the advantage of this free specing system and, adding a tinge of roleplaying, I have decided to make a warrior/mage hybrid, something along the lines of the Warrior Priest from the Warhammer universe.

So I want to make a hero, specializing on melee combat, but with great reliance on spells, mostly the ones that enhance his melee fighting, but not limited to those. I would prefer to play with a shield and a one-armed hammer.

I run into a bit of a problem on the first possible step, character creation, as I don't know, whether to choose a warrior or a mage. Unfortunately I don't have the time to go through the forum (though I have checked a few topics already, mostly about major bugs, about permanent +stat books/scrolls,...) or for another play through, so I would appreciate, if you could give me some tips and guidelines for my build, which spells and abilities are worth taking, which ones I should stay clear off so I don't waste my talent points and so forth.

Thanks in advance.

I'd probably go with a warrior for a battle mage type build, and look for equipment with mana bonuses.

For passive skills I never bothered with the warrior's elemental/poison damage bonuses (by the time I could learn them to a high enough level to have a significant chance of being triggered, I didn't need the extra damage boost), but found Stun was helpful. I boosted Augment Damage and Augment Defence, but more because I had lots of skill points than a particular need for either. Magic Barrier helps early in the game, but eventually you'll get most of your resistance from equipment bonuses. Survivor's Instinct is nice to top off your hit points when you go drop off loot or trade, but the healing isn't fast enough to make a difference during combat, so I'd only recommend it if you have skill points you don't know what to do with.

With my warrior I used Restoration, but few other mage skills: Firewall (learned from a book) came in handy a couple times early in the game, Aura of Guarding and SpellShield (both maxed from purchased books) were helpful mid-game (SpellShield being of particular help with opponents that do poison damage, as your character doesn't have their offensive abilities impeded by the effects of being poisoned as long as the shield lasts).


differences between classes (minor spoilers)

Early Starter Tips (NON-Spoiler Version) (contains much of the information in the above topic)


The game is fairly biased towards swords, especially with pre-placed items that are always in the game (though even these have random stats). I don't recall how often hammers show up in random loot or merchant inventories.

ARIC'S WARRIOR GUIDE

Kaan's Mage Guide / Playing a mage character...

Free skills, and spell books you can buy


Welcome to the forum.

I don't see many kind of Hammers and I'm afraid most hammers are Two-Handed weapons, not ?

Also a Hammer require lot's of Strength (and Agility) ...

I'm playing now a Mage that use mostly spells and a One-Handed weapon + shield (so far I know all kind of Spears are 1-handed, great!) So I use mostly a Dagger, Sword or Spear. At the moment I concentrate on finding weapons with the special "Mana Drain" or "Life Drain" feature, it's great to look how I can use almost infinitive the spell Frost against Orcs and slash the Mana drain(3) sword, eventually use Poison Weapon(1) on that sword because especially the Orcs are very vulnerable on poison ! That said I see my mana pool is sometimes filled up again to it's maximum using that sword ! If needed I can use Restoration to fill up my Vitality and go further with slashing Orcs ! *
Note: I believe not all kind of enemies give you Mana (like a snake, spider, bee).

Or, if you're a lucky one to find a weapon with poison dam + Mana drain together (I find such a Dagger doing poison & fire dam + life drain!).

I also draw now and then a bow to use Elemental Arrows (great against lot's of enemies!) and it use a very low pool of mana !

My Mage (I start a female Mage - Meteorestrike + Bless) is now level 28 and have around 10 free skillpoints I wait to invest in spells because I know I can find/buy spellbooks ... or gives as a reward for a quest (like Restoration!).

I buy charms to upgrade my Mana pool or Vitality. But if I find other kind of charms (like Strength/Intelligence/Agility/Constitution charms) and they're high enough to please me I use them, otherwise I sell them back. Now I'm Enchant Weapon L5 and search for good gear with a high charm quality !

Good Luck !

* or I use Heaven's Gift if I don't want to loose to many Mana using the Mana drain Sword while my Mana pool is at it's maximum whole the time I'm killing Orcs or whatever.

In short, play as a Warrior and add magic skills later. It will be much more effective than pickign a wizard and hitting things in melee - even with identical stats and skills.


The initial character choice affects a few things: The two skills you start out with, which attribute gets an extra 5 points, and the benefits putting points into your attributes has. A warrior will get more health per point of Constitution than a Wizard will, but a Wizard will get more Mana per point of Intelligence than a Warrior will, even if both have the same number of points in a skill.

Warriors get the biggest bonus to melee damage from Strength, Wizards don't really get anything.

Points into agility give Warriors a bonus to offense, Survivors a bonus to defense, while wizards get no bonuses.

Are you really sure ?
I don't think so ! Okay, the bonus is just a few point putting many points in agility, but I don't care about offense/defense or the among of damage my weapon can do ! The more damage the faster an enemy is killed, but less profit with special bonus "mana/life drain" !

I play in first place a Mage, but also use some warior & ranger/survivor skills & weapons. I like the freedom DD give me and in my case I start the female mage because I really use Meteorestrike & Bless .

Agility determines offence and defence for all character classes. I think what Stabbey meant is that warriors get more offence, survivors get more defence, while wizards get the same base amount for both.
A warrior's offence or survivor's defence is (0.8 * Agility), while all other values are (0.7 * Agility - 1).