Schwab, fighter mage you say. thats the type of character i would want to play.

schwab, hagatha-- questions on character creation:

what elemental magic would you say is best--fire, lightning or ice.

what about weapons: one handed or two handed.

any suggestions for what skills, traits and perks to take or ones to avoid.

does the spirit you take make a big difference

Zanthia, I can't help much since I picked a pre-made character who doesn't use any magic other than tribal/protective spells. Plus I automatically got the Tribal spirit.

There aren't too many good/unique weapons in the game, you will come across a lot of the same types. Two-handed is what I use but it's been tough not being able to use a shield.

If you've played Fallout you know what the good perks are, but I'll tell you right now, Diplomacy is only useful early in the game.

I've heard archer/mages are really effective, apparently high archery skill causes a lot of damage (wish I knew that before).

Something else I wish I had was more magic resistance, you will come across some potent magic using enemies...

O.K. let's talk about those Dark Inquisitors shall
we? I have been trying for an hour to kill more
than one of them and getting clobbered.
I am using my poor one hand skills so I can use
my electrical shield, wearing my resistance to
elec/fire helmet and my mace with acid damage and
slow added. I have used exorcism, and celestial
might and righteous fury. No go
Suggestions?

I recall a quest you get from an inquisitor in some outdoor zone, is that the one you're at Debra?
I was confused by this one, the inquisitor joined as a companion but wouldn't follow me.
I went to the circle of evil inquisies and they went down rather quickly, I barely had to hit them and they went down. I think the good inquisitor was helping me from afar but I couldn't tell since he was still in his original position.

Magic using enemies are generally low on HP so I suggest using your best two handed weapon and any scrolls/potions of magic resistance you can buy.

schwab, after my horrible experience with archery in NWN, i don't think i want to deal with archery in lionheart.

it sems like a lot of you are running out of heal potions and from what i hear it takes a while to just sit there to regenerate health.

since the later part of the game is so combat oriented, i am thinking of using the demokin class with the vampire trait so every hit gives you health back but the down side is that health potions will not work as well.

That sounds like a good idea Zanthia, I've heard that Vampire trait is quite useful.

The merchants don't seem to have a lot of health potions on hand at any one time, and you don't get a lot of them off the ground, but one trick is to buy all available potions from merchants, leave the zone, re-enter, and they should have replenished their stock. Cheesy, but sometimes necessary.

I spend every nickle on health potients and spirit
potients. There is a trainer out now and I think
I'm going to adjust some of my character's weaknesses. I thought Icewind Dale's combat was
hard.....

Zanthia - from what I'm seeing, I would recommend Fire Magic, because ice magic takes up way too much mana. I have heard that later in the game there are fire-resistant enemies, but so far so good. I have used perks and amulets, etc to increase the power of my Fire damage. But my experience is based only on THought Magic. Some of the Combat and Tribal Magic skills look pretty useful, but you can really only focus on one or two if you want to get skilled enough to do real damage at higher levels.

You really need good one or two handed skills, I'm learning. And by good I mean 200+ towards the end of the game. At 145 in one-handed, my character is holding her own so far, but I am putting a lot more points in there as soon as I can. In the Crypts there is a one-handed weapon that truly evens the score against the hordes of undead. Also, because I am playing a thief, who is relatively low in strength (OK she's a weakling) having a high one-handed score really helps, especially with backstabbing.

Stealth has been one of the most useful skills I have.

SOme people are swearing by archery skills, but I've also heard that because the enemy attacks so quickly, archers get swarmed and thus the skill is less useful than it might be in another game. I use the Fire spells instead - my character has virtually no archery skills at all. It's just as easy to shoot a powerful Fireball spell at an enemy.

Evasions skills are a must. At 65 my character is able to evade 8% of the blows and has an increased armour of 13. I am going to raise this skill as much as I can, too.

Speech skills are also useful, giving you an alternative to fighting in some quests. And aparently if this skill is high enough you can avoid the final battle.

You can get perks that increase your healing rate so I don't actually spend a lot of time standing around. And even the lowest level healing spell is helpful in this regard. I think there are also perks that increase your mana regeneration as well.

Diablo in Alternate Europe.

Now that I'm warned, and know to play as a tank, perhaps I'll enjoy the game. But I'm also very disappointed in what I'm hearing.

Remember, Bioware was more responsible for Baldurs Gate than Black Isle. BI has done some great stuff, though, most notably Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale.

You don't actually need to play a tank. My little thief has strength 4 buffed to 5, and with a double backstab perk and a good one-handed skill plus good thief skills (and some fire magic)she's doing ok. Nobody has defeated me completely yet. It's taken me a looooong time to get through the Crypts, but I've levelled up so many times in there I'm still enjoying it, dreaded Revenants and all. I think I've gone from level 21 to level 28 and counting, and that's a lot of skill points! I would definitely recommend that whatever character you create, they have good one-handed (I think the weapons are better) and good evasion. Of course you can reputedly talk your way through a lot of the game, but what fun would that be? I forgot to mention intelligence earlier - high intelligence dictates the number of skill points you get each level up, so it's a good thing.

I do think that the game should be a bit less combat-oriented, though. It could have been great and instead is merely enjoyable. But while the professional naysayers on the Official forum would have everyone believe that the game developers should be hung, drawn and quartered, I feel like I got pretty much what the package said I would be getting.

thanks Hagatha for all that info.

I'm in the Druid Castle and I've had to resort to
god mode. I would never make it through. They should have had an easy combat choice instead of
just nightmare mode.
Even in god mode you have to stand toe to toe and
just solidly duke it out for 5 minutes on those
English captains.

Debra,

are you using a trainer for god mode, if so which one? i believe there are 2 out for the game. as much as i hate to use cheats for an rpg i have a feeling the latter part of this game i will need one.

The English are a shock after the Crypt because all of a sudden you're surrounded by enemies that are much harder than you are generally accustomed to! Also, my Sneak abilities don't work quite as well, which is no problem since I have bracers that up my Sneak by 20. But I had got to the point where I could meet the enemies in the Crypt pretty much head on, after a Sneak backstab, and the English were another kettle of fish entirely. The English soldiers also apparently have no souls, apparently...wonder if that was a little joke?...so mana was scarcer. But the old backstab, Fire circle and run technique works wonders and I have those Limeys on the run. I've been working on Barcelona for a while.

I had heard that a generalist character would not work but in reality that's what I have. So far I'm doing OK but time will tell - those Druids sound pretty nasty.

Does anyone know where the last 2 Green Ways Crystals are? I hope I haven't missed one. Those are essential for the character bonuses they provide, plus I hate those unfinished quests.

Hagatha, I found one of those big crystals in the Druid Shrine, but it doesn't sound like you're there yet.

Wow Debra, you are going very fast, soon you will be where I am (just hit the desert) but then again I haven't been playing more than an hour or so at a time before I get bored.

That's good. I was hoping I'd find them all since I didn't find all of the books.

I'm in the Druid Keep right now. I can't believe how quickly the level ups happen in here. Just when I think my character isn't sneaky enough or doesn't have enough fire power, along comes another level or perk. I only hope that 210 in one-handed and 125 in Fire Magic is enough to handle whatever is coming down the turnpike. I've given up on diplomacy - it wasn't any use in the middle part of the game and so got neglected. There is a perk that will give me another 15 or 20 points in speech and I think I have a pair of braces that give 10. That will get me up to about 160. Hope that's enough.

Just hit another of the green crystals in the second zone of the desert...didn't do me much good but you should be happy with the bonuses Hagatha...

My fighter has 235 two-handed, 160 evasion, 70 Tribal magic and assorted points in thief skills and this is at level 37. I wish now that I didn't waste points in the thief skills since none of the locked chests had anything of real value.

I have to do the old "lure and run" with the scorpions, they are very dangerous...

Sounds good.

I wish I had put more points into evasion and sneak and less into lockpicking and Ice Magic. 145 in lockpick is obviously more than you need, especially with all those potions around. The only time I have ever used ice magic is against Fire Trolls and Fire Golems, and I didn't need 90 points in it for that! I can think of about 150 skill points I would have put elsewhere if I had known.

what skills would you have put those points into?

Here's the link to the trainer I am using. It
alters mana, skill points, healing rate and gold.
http://www.avault.com/cheats_new/cheat_temp.asp?source=lionheart&type=trn1

If you have really high diplomacy you don't have
to fight the big monsters.
Those English captains have Druid swords that increase their healing rates. It's almost as if
they have god mode too.

thanks debra for the link for the trainer that you used.

Okay, guys, I'm ready to start Lionheart. Will have to reread this thread to get some ideas, but will no doubt be crying for help.

Btw, Tomb Raider II was so much fun, did it all.

Re what skills would I have put those points into - Sneak, for a start - at 120 my thief is getting caught a lot since I finished the Crypt. Even with the bracers of Stealthy Cunning, which as another 20 points. Since Backstab is a personal favourite, that would have been smart. But I didn't know my skill wasn't high enough until I finished the Crypt and then all of a sudden it just wasn't good enough any more. Still, yer basic fire magic spell takes the sting out of getting caught.

I would also have put more into Fire Magic, which is great at higher levels (I'm at 55% knockdown on the Fireball) and some into Evasion as well.

Actually Ice magic isn't totally useless as there are lots of those nasty Fire Golems, and they are pretty much immune to Fire, as you would guess.

Don't know if I would put more in Diplomacy, which is at 110 right now. I know that won't be enough to avoid the final showdown, but for most of the last half of the game there isn't much to say, so I'm probably better off putting those points into one-handed (and that combined with 100 backstab takes out most of the non-magical enemies around and causes some grief even to Golems).

Oh yes - bear in mind that many of the perks give you 15 or 20 points in a particular skill as well, and so they are very useful. And also bear in mind that at a certain point the higher level skill takes two and even three skill points for every point gained - somewhere around 125 points, I think.