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Tips on Rolling a New Char

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:51 am
by Jhorr
Basic Tips:

(1) Spending time rolling a character with good stats will increase your enjoyment of the game, since it will be a more powerful character. While you can roll a decent, playable character for most classes quite readily, be prepared to spend on the order of hours to roll a character with "elite" stats.

(2) Use an autoroller if you can find one on this site to work for you, or program your own in Zmud. This will greatly cut down the time required.

(3) Make sure your character has excellent agility -- no matter what class it is. This will be helpful at all levels since it will give you good innate armor class and you will be able to tank better. As you get higher in levels, if you aren't a tank, agility will become less important but will still save your ass in many situations even in the end game.

(4) Power is a stat that is mostly worthless as far as anyone can tell. Therefore, try to roll characters that actually have "bad" power. This will increase the average score of the remaining stats. Charisma is equally useless, unless you are a bard. Wisdom is almost equally useless for a mage. If your character doesn't need a stat to be good, your strategy should be to roll 'bad' for these stats.

(5) When you decide on a class and race, quickly roll some test characters and maximize one ability then enter game and type 'attr' to see what a '100', or 'perfect' in that ability means. Sometimes 'heroic' or 'mighty' will be as effective as 'perfect'. Roll other chars with different values in the same stats and compare them one by one. Delete these test chars in the inn once you've analyzed them. For example:

for Strength, look at Load Carried after you enter game and before you 'wear all'. All the beginning equipment will be in inventory and will be reflected in the Load Carried. Also, you can look at damage roll.

for Dexterity, type 'wear all' and then 'remove all'. Then count the number of items in your inventory. You will notice as Dex improves, you can carry more. In addition, your hit roll will change.

for Agility, look at Armor Class while wearing no eq. This will determine your best innate AC.

for Constitution, look at hit points. When con is 100, or 'perfect', your hps will be the best. This is important in classes that benefit from max_con, such as paladins or rangers. You ideally want to be able to wear just one piece of max_con eq to get this benefit.

for Intelligence, look at the time it takes to memorize a 1st circle spell.

for Wisdom, look at the time it takes to pray a 1st circle spell.

Once you know how your character would perform if s/he had all 'perfects', you can get an idea of what attributes don't need to be 'perfect'. For example, 'mighty' may represent the top notch in a certain class attribute (con in a mage for example). Therefore, you don't need to strive for a 'perfect' in that attribute.

(6) While no player really knows how the roller works, rumor has it that it creates characters that have average abilities somewhere around 75. Some chars are better, some are worse. This is why it pays to spend time trying to roll a char that actually has a higher average stat.

(7) When levelling, make sure 'con' is perfect when you actually gain a level. Either roll perfect con, or borrow some +con equipment to wear. This will ensure that when you level, you gain maximum hps. Once you are level 25, you will gain the same hps for subsequent levels no matter what your con is.

(8) Once you level, play it safe until you gain 25% in that level. If you die with less than 25% exp for your level, you will lose a level and lose the max number of hps for that level. When you regain the level back, you will again regain hps, but not necessarily the maximum unless you get lucky. Therefore, you will most likely wind up with a net loss of hps that you can never get back. If this happens repeatedly, your maximum hps potential at level 50 will be intolerably low and you should consider rerolling the character before wasting more time levelling a subpar character.

(9) Once you hit level 20, your stats will become number values. If you find that a key stat for your character class is underpowered, level 20 is when you should consider re-rolling. Painful as that may seem, it's better to redo levels 1-20 then get to level 41 and wish you had re-rolled.

(10) Most important stats to focus on, by class (stats that are not mentioned are USELESS and you want them to be 'bad'):

Warrior: Constitution>Agility>Strength>Dexterity.
All mages: Intelligence>Agility>Constitution>Dexterity>Strength.
Rogue: Agility>Dexterity>Strength>Constitution.
Bard: Charisma>Agility>Constitution>Dexterity>Strength.
Cleric: Wisdom>Agility>Constitution>Strength.

You should be able to achieve 1 'perfect', 2 'heroic', and 2 'mighty' stats, especially if the remaining ones are 'bad'. It might take you a while but it's definitely possible.

Input from other long-time players is definitely encouraged.

Good luck!

Re: Tips on Rolling a New Char

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:39 am
by alendar
Jhorr wrote:8) Once you level, play it safe until you gain 25% in that level. If you die with less than 25% exp for your level, you will lose a level and lose the max number of hps for that level. When you regain the level back, you will again regain hps, but not necessarily the maximum unless you get lucky. Therefore, you will most likely wind up with a net loss of hps that you can never get back. If this happens repeatedly, your maximum hps potential at level 50 will be intolerably low and you should consider rerolling the character before wasting more time levelling a subpar character.


they changed that i thought

Re: Tips on Rolling a New Char

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:51 pm
by Latreg
alendar wrote:
Jhorr wrote:8) Once you level, play it safe until you gain 25% in that level. If you die with less than 25% exp for your level, you will lose a level and lose the max number of hps for that level. When you regain the level back, you will again regain hps, but not necessarily the maximum unless you get lucky. Therefore, you will most likely wind up with a net loss of hps that you can never get back. If this happens repeatedly, your maximum hps potential at level 50 will be intolerably low and you should consider rerolling the character before wasting more time levelling a subpar character.


they changed that i thought


that is my understanding as well, that is has been changed.

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:01 pm
by Eilistraee
This is correct, for the most part.

You will still lose the maximum amount of hitpoints upon level loss, however upon regaining level you will recover the same amount of hitpoints. So the initial illusion is that you suffer a greater loss, but it is recovered later.

As an addendum to Jhorr's advice, Power is applicable for Illithid's, otherwise his analysis of that stat is accurate.

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:21 pm
by Dalar
None of you find it disturbing that you have to mention an autoroller in a new player help guide?

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:56 pm
by Eilistraee
Allow me to hijack a common phrase but still applicable...


That is being addressed :)

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 3:59 pm
by Shar
rofl. Eili stole Shevy's line. Now what is he going to say?!

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:10 pm
by Lilira
Contract Drew Carey! He's always asking..

"What's my line?"

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:06 pm
by Duna
I wouldn't say Intel is a useless stat for some of those classes you listed..
I know with a shaman or cleric type.. intel is used for spellcast abilities.. and it affects quick chant..
I also know intel is used to some rogue abilities.. can't remember which atm..
when i go to play a new class I look at what the help file says the class needs then I ask people who play the class what stats they recommend and then i ask about what ablilities go with what stats..

just a few things..

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 8:15 pm
by Arilin Nydelahar
Possibly sticky the thread? Make people pay attention to it.