GM Character Building

This is a walkthrough for how I created my most recent character. I've gotten tons of e-mails about how I advanced this character so fast. Here's how.

Preface
    Bear in mind before you read this that I have a very secure environment in which to macro and a lot of money. You need money to gain Magery - there is just no way around it. It's not THE most expensive skill, but it's in the top 3. Also, if you're opposed to macroing, you might want to stop reading now. Being a GM Character Builder doesn't mean sitting in front of the computer 20 hours a day. You almost have to have a house to safely macro the things I suggest. If you do it any other way, that's up to you.

Also, remember that the steps that I describe here are geared toward a PVP (Player vs Player) character. That means Magery, Archery, STR and INT are what is concentrated upon. If you don't want a "tank mage", then this isn't for you.
Starting Out
   Starting out stats are easy. Unless you have some weird agenda you ALWAYS want to start with 45 STR, 10 DEX, and 10 INT. STR is hard as hell to raise compared to the other two. Also, low STR means low hit points and that is very bad.

Starting skills for this type of character is normally also set in stone : 50 Magery and 50 Resist. Both are a bitch to get up and quite costly. However, with a bug that exists currently (10/13/98), you can get to 50 resist at almost no cost. So, I started with 50 Magery and 50 Hiding. Hiding is good, but DEX sucks - so to avoid as much DEX gain as possible, I started with high Hiding. If the resist bug doesn't still exist when you do this, then start with 50 Magery and 50 Resist.
What to Build and How
STR

  • Hit training dummies with sword, mace and wrestling until all those skills are at 25.
  • Trap a rabbit. Macro Taming and releasing it over and over. The skill caps at 26 or so from taming a rabbit, but the STR gains continue. I macro this while my mana is regenerating in my Magery macro.

INT

  • Macro Eval INT. Macro this on someone while you use your dummy training macro and you'll save a lot of time.
  • Item ID (useful and great for INT)

DEX

  • NOTHING - DEX goes up from damn near anything - don't concentrate on it.

Swords/Archery

(*No Longer Works*)

  • Trap a polar bear (you have to tame it to gate it, so get a friend with good Taming to gate it to you). Attack it with you weapon armed and then GO OUT OF WAR MODE. You'll stop doing damage and just stand there and get beat on. All you have to do is take a step back and heal when you're low on health.
  • This works best with at least 25 of the melee skill you're training (works for swords, mace, fencing and archery). If you didn't hit the dummies with your weapon, go do it. (It's easy to buy up your Archery from a bowyer for 300 gold)
  • You will be taking a LOT of damage. It takes several hours of getting the hell beaten out of you. The reason I mention this is because after a while, your armor isn't going to be worth shit. Before starting this, get like 5 sets of bone and keep them handy. When you see that you're below 20 AR (with plate gorget), change armor because you're healing too much for the skill you're gaining.

Magery

  • Step #1 : Get regs - a lot of them.
  • Macro 5th Circle to 65 Magery (Summon Creature)
  • Macro 6th Circle to 82 Magery (Invisibility)
  • Macro 7th Circle to 91 Magery (Flame Strike)
  • Macro 8th Circle to 100 Magery (Summon Air Elemental)

Resist

  • Do this to 53 skill. The bug is walking back and forth in Fire Fields. You will have to heal a lot, but you get resist quickly.

Tactics

  • Hit your trapped polar bear with a skinning knife (swds), a dagger (fencing) or a wand (maces). They do very little damage and raise both swords and tactics. Don't forget to heal both you and your bear since you're both taking damage. Killing the bear is not productive...
That's It
   I started my character a couple weeks before the first JoV event, so I wasn't just sitting around all day working on this character. I was out enjoying the game while I tried to progress him as quickly as possible. Do remember to ENJOY the game. :)

After three weeks, this is how he looked. I hope you have similar success.