Hello to everyone on the forum <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Just nearing the end of my first go at <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> and am curious to know what sort of tactics everyone else used. I played a warrior character and found my most effective tactic was a good one handed sword (noblemans sword) and shield, combined with sword expertise, shield expertise, reflect damage etc. Add to this the Restoration skill and I am pretty handy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />

I also played a sword warrior, starting off with a sword and shield, then switching to a 2 handed sword for much of the game, then back to 1 handed. I maxed Sword Expertise and Stun, but did not put anything in Shield Expertise or Reflect Damage. I put 1 skill point into Reflect Missile, which helped find and target archers and mages a little quicker.

I played as warrior (thrice - with sword, hammer, axe), mage (with dagger and staff) and survivor (with bows) - all feasible.
At last I wound up using a warrior character (because I found the whirl attack the most suitable special attack) and developped him into a mage <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

still apologizing for bad english (hope kiya or anyone else won't have to tanslate this post!)

it may be interesting to keep 4-6 skills' points untouched until lvl 18-21...
i had once a survivor who become an axewome with some knowledge of most powerful magic (with items/charms' help) like that... very efficient!!!

In the first time, I played an Archer Mage (as I witness the Character’s power and efficiency from other RPgames). I was ignorant and I had to invest widely on many skills (even I knew that several good ones is better than hundreds of mediocre ones). Just try and experience the skills. Dispite that foolish investment, I managed through the game with 193 maximum damage Watcher’s hunting bow (and without using Scorpion, well I only visited This Forum after I finished the first tour). Here are my statistics at the end of the first play (all is approximate):
Strenght (aprx) 120, Agility 140, Intelligent 70, Constitution 90, Vitality 550, Mana 720
I used hit and run tactic alot and get extremely boring and disgusted with this so in the second time I chose the Warrior. By my experience, I knew that very joy of the game lies in the excellent selection of weapons, therefore I decided to be a warrior to the extreme, skilled in Spear, Axe, and Sword (with wise investment on crucial skills and assidious magicbook-buying). At the earlier stage, I was a Spearman, but soon got bored, I switched to Axe. I have to confess that there are so many good Axes in DD that when I finally met Demon of Lies, the number in my axe collection is 6 (damn, all famous name: Axe of Maiming-poison, deathstrike, fire; Axe of Vampire-Mana and life drain; Slasher (I use this very one to kill the orc that requires it-7500 exp is trivial to lv 26) and the Stupendous Axe of a Hundred Crusades—150 max damage, Mana drain, Frost, Deathstrike...).

(to be continued) I also had a very fine collection of Swords, which you may already know. Beside the skillpoints I spent on those three specialist (15 max), I also max in Augment defence (I often had to sacrifice the shield for a magnificent two-handers). I didnt have to invest on stun since my weapons of choice always had Frost (thus also saved for me the skills I should have spent on Freeze—crucial in all respects). the rest of the Skillpoints I spent on Lockpick 5 (2 is free), Repair 2, Enchant Weapon 4 (I rarely saw any piece of equipment getting 5 charm quality), meteor 2 (economical at first), Restoration 5 (3 free, very good for a warrior who always finds his HP and Mana unbalanced) Leechlife 5 (crucial), Curse 4 (crucial), Hellspike 5 (exceptionally good both for power and mana saving- I did try elemental strike, powerful it may be yet too costly), Elven sight 4 (you will feel the pain if you are short-sighted), Divine Death 1 (just for killing Imp captains) and Heaven’s bless 4 (at the end, I was already very good fighter, this reserved only for boss fight—30 more Agility is needed to strike more accurately the Blackrings, then the Weapon froze them, then I whacked them until death (with Hellspike), such an easy go).

(to be continued) My statistics at the end of the second play (all aproxi-without heaven’s bless):
Strength 180, Agility 195, Intelligence 15, Constitution 35. Look at my stupidity and my fragility! It is just a fake. My Vitality was 975, and Mana 700. Quite a joke? The problem is with Charms because inn the 1st play I couldnot distinct between Charm of very large Intelligence (60 mana) and Charm of very large Mana (120). the same is with Constitute. I just cared for it a little bit more than Int just because of Stamina. And my armour is 340 (remember still two-handed).
As conclusion, besides some fine peaceful go-through quests (my Reputation is 53), I am still satisfied to memorize some finest moments as a pure warrior, dashing against 20 imps, wiping each with a blow and got out scratchless or dealing with three Dragonriders at the sametime, finishing them off in less than ten second. Ahem quite a moment. I think I am through. I may do the third tour in the next two months.
(sorry for repetition, it seems that my com is experiencing some promblems).

I'm on my first time through, level 26 and have only done about 60% of the first map, haven't gone off the main map yet, just completing all the quests I can and covering the area as I can. Playin archer mage with just working the following skills right now:
Bow expertise - 5
repair - 1
enchant weapon - 5
blind - 5
elven stamina - 5
magic barrier - 5
elven sight - 5
Any points I have to spare end-game will prolly go to capping spells.
Not using any special moves.
my current stat are highest agility, then int, then str, then lowest con (at 10)

I haven't spent 1 point on con, and don't plan too, spells i'm going on what I can buy, have found about 9 (mostly from guards), but like I said, haven't actually ventured to the npcs who normally spawn books yet. I have meteor lvl 2, and lvl 1: fire wall, drain life, bless, heal, wizards sight, elemental strike, freeze (or there equivalents can't remember exact names off top of my head). Things are a little tough in places, but I'm doing ok, I did the abbey at lvl 13 then went and cleared all he elite orc camps/orc quests SE corner of the map, that was all last night and I'm up to 26 now. I'm thinking it'll still be a little tough but I should be really strong in the end-game. I'm really tedious in my play to pick up all the quests, search every square inch of the map, and horde items. I've found a good strategy so far is to keep items I won't use that go for 3,000+ for trade, and everything lower I sell to various NPCs or trade to the 100% admiring wizard in alaroth for super potions since he gives em to you for a base price of 500 and they can be traded away for at the lowest 475 and reall don't weigh much. During mob hunting it's all freeze spell then hit with bow on the tough orcs, or mana dumping meteor strike/elemental hail when there's hordes of mobs, and heal/strike with weaker mobs. I have items I can put on for lockpick +2, which has worked on most things, and what it doesn't I take back home and store, all iding I have done from the wizard in alaroth for 100 gold a pop, and always recycle my gold back by sellin the crappy magic piece.

When i play i almost always invest 2 points in constitution and 3 in depending what class i choose e.g warrior then 3 strength.

The rest i bother with when i have charms.

I just beat the game for the first time. Started with a warrior using a 1-handed [nocando] sword doing max 106 damage with the Dragon armor. I made the Holy Amulet as the Holy Sword wouldn't come close to matching my max damage with the sword I did have.

I ended up at lvl 49, just shy of 50. My stats were:

w/Heaven's Blessing(4)
Strength 175 209
Agility 158 190
Intelligence 10 11
Constitution 114 145
Vitality 1364 1550
Mana 507 510
Attack 135 161
Defense 125 147
Damage 147-195 160-208
Armor 340
L.Res. 106
F.Res. 133
P.Res. 120
S.Res. 120

(EDIT: Oops, formatting problems. First number of normal, second is enhanced with Heaven's Blessing lvl 4)

The following skills were maxed:

Sword Mastery
Shield Mastery
Augment Damage
Augment Defense
Enchant Weapon
Spiritual Damage
Identify Item
Wisdom
Magic Barrier (thanks to Dragon Armor)
Lightning (never used, just found/bought 5 books)
Lockpick (thanks to Dragon Armor)

With this character, only the bosses at the end were any challenge, and even those really weren't with the exception of Josephina. She kept disappearing on me and was really giving me a hard time. I finally realized that just becauase I couldn't see her, didn't mean I couldn't kill her. I couldn't target her but she was still actually there and so could be hit. Thus, I engaged the Whirlwind attack (and a number of Super Stamina potions) and proceeded to whirl my way to her death. By the time the battle was over, there must have been 20-30 summoned Deathknight corpses in the battle area who also fell while I was trying to get her. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, the game was a lot of fun. Might retry it with a mage at some point.

Warren