They have changed a lot of stuff since I posted how I created my main character about a month ago. I still suggest you read that because you still build skills the same way - it's stat building that has changed.
| OSI has tried to get rid of people raising skills purely to affect stats. They didn't want people to have Spirit Speak just because it gave INT. The way they did this was to make it so that skills really affected their corresponding stats only as the skill gets really high. For example, when I was using Fencing to try to gain STR and DEX, I didn't gain anything from 0 skill up to about 56 skill. After I got my first STR, it was another 10 skill points before I saw another. But, once I was in the 90's in Fencing, my STR and DEX started climbing like crazy - and even better over 95 skill. The point is this, if the skills you want for your character don't affect the stats you want, then you're probably gonna have to build something you don't want pretty high (master level) to get the desired effect from it. Anyhow, my newest character has 85 STR, 100 INT and 40 DEX. He's a pk, so that's just the way I wanted him. If you want something different, just apply my stat building techniques below to your liking. Just remember : a skill won't drastically affect it's corresponding stat until the skill is master level or so.
That's easy. There's a huge Master Skills Listing at uoss.stratics.com. It shows the name of every skill and what stats they affect. Use this list as a guide to planning what skills/stats you want your character to have. | Plan ahead. Use that chart and remember not to plan for more than 700 points of skills (don't count camping and stuff - just what you're building) to distribute. If you want be a Fencing Thief Mage, you're going to have a lot of trouble keeping your INT high because the majority of the skills you need are DEX (stealing, snooping, and fencing) and STR (fencing) related. Just something to consider.
STR |
The four melee skills (fencing, swordsmanship, maces and wrestling) are the best STR gainers for one easy reason - you need them anyhow. Fencing and Swordsmanship both affect STR and DEX while Maces just does STR. The downside about maces is that they're slow and can't be poisoned. So, you may want to train up Maces for STR and then let it atrophy away for another melee skill. That's up to you.
What I did was get GM Maces (from polar bears) and then go to Deceit and kill the newbie skeletons. Just using the skill over and over again (when you have a high skill level) will make your stats change accordingly. You don't have to fight something that's hard for stats to be effected - it's how much you swing and how high your skill that matters.
If you don't like Maces, there's another way. Taming. Trap a rabbit in your house (with locked down chests, of course) and tame/release it all night. You'll eventually have 100 STR.
I've heard people say that Arms Lore and Taste ID still work well, but I haven't tested them. Judging by the way that other skills work, you'd have to get super high in those skills before you started to see an effect. But, since it worked for some people, I'm mentioning it as something to try if you get stuck.
INT
If you're macroing Magery up, that will help your INT, but it won't give you gains by leaps and bounds. My suggestion is to bite the bullet and macro up Evaluating Intelligence right off the bat. You can macro it on a trapped animal and it makes INT skyrocket. If you want drop Eval Int later, that's fine because your magery use should be enough to keep your INT at a reasonable level. Meditation also works wonders for INT and makes macroing Magery VERY quick. If you don't want Meditation, at least get it for macroing Magery for your first week of macroing. You'll thank me later.
As was mentioned in the STR section, Taste ID supposedly still works. It hits STR 2% and INT 8%, so if it works, it'll also work for INT. My suggestion would be to keep a little Eval Int for when it starts hurting opponents resist, but that's up to you. I'd rather have a useful skill to macro than a non-useful skill.
DEX
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd have to macro something for DEX. By the time I got done building my character with Eval Int, Anatomy, Healing, Maces, Fencing, Hiding, Magery and Resist I only had 19 DEX. Well, if you have 19 DEX and you put on a full set of plate and/or push your way through someone - you're going to find yourself not moving. So, I built up a little DEX by snooping an NPC Minter for an hour. I got 70 snooping (ack!) and 20 DEX. If you do this early in your character building, you can let those skill points atrophy away and you'll be golden.
I macroed up to 65 Hiding and I think I gained 1 DEX out of it. It was very strange. On another character I actually gained a STR and lost a DEX when I hid one time. I dunno what they're doing to stats, but don't depend on Hiding for all your DEX needs. Think about DEX early so you don't get stuck with unwanted skills (if, in fact, they're unwanted).
|