character creation.

[miggles]

At th3e start of the game -- character creation -- is it better to increase attributes or skills. I created a elf female fighter -- I want access to magic and sisterhood classes later -- but i don't know how best to use the advancement points.

[Mars]

attributes for me is better, skill raise when the weapon/armor or wherever have penalties when you wear it

[lparnell]

I think it really depends on what you really want.

I tend to increase my intelligence to a high level (compared to the others) first, this will reduce the cost of the skills. Also, if I am about to complete a character class quest and therefore get some bonuses, I will wait to bump those skills up until after the bonuses - they will be much cheaper.

And as Mars says, if you have a good weapon/armor that you want to use, then I will bump up my skills to be able to use it without penalties.

I like all of my attributes to be a high as possible - duh. But I do increase intelligence first because it saves in the skills area. The others I add as needed or can.

[ferncliff]

My 2 cents. What the others are saying is true but, if you are starting as a fighter (possibly anything else too) you need to have 1 or 2 skill points on light weapon, light shield and armor. Otherwise you'll start out with major penalties and/ or no armor or shield. Try just 1 point in each and start your char and see if you have a penalty if you do go back and restart and adjust. Then as you progress and pick up new armor and weapons add points as needed never exceding what is needed to remove penalties. The only exception being that it is nice to get light weapon over 5 so you get the combo strike which is double damage. D

[Aritusa]

ferncliff's got the right idea. a good balance of both to start out then only raise skills as needed. I wasted a lot of points with my first character raising weapons and armor only to end up wearing cool looking armor and doing mostly minimum damage with good weapons. Also I found that when I needed to raise a particular skill and needed several hundred thousand points to do it I could spend about an hour killing wandering monsters in forbidden lands get all the points I needed good luck whichever way you go

[Hounder]

My normal strategy is to raise intelligence til around 20-30, depending on the race. There are some shacks in the starter area that are great to do this in. Once you have that, then it is no problem raising up the skills you need, as well as raising the attributes that you want there as well. Then my goal is to get through the sewers and theatre as fast as possible, so I can get to town. The next best area, IMO is the slums and Custard Mansion areas. You can gain all you need to basically destroy the catacombs.

Personally, it is best to concentrate on attributes first, with only putting points into skills as you must have them.

[Wraithawk]

Or, you can be really hardcore and put points in whatever skill/attribute is cheapest. I did this and got up to lvl 62!!! Check out my character on the fifth page of the post your char w/stats thread.