Beginnings of an empire

[Stashy]

I figured to distract myself from the mess than is this account migration (and the fact I still am stuck on a trial account, unable to upgrade), I'd come asking for suggestions! So without further adieu, the details!

I fully intend to make a vast assortment of characters in the end. I like crafting, I like fishing, I like murdering....err, "arranging accidents"...so what I'll end up playing in total isn't so much in question. What IS in question is what my first character should be: the linchpin, the cornerstone, the very core of my Ultima Online future! I thought at first it would be a Sampire, but the more I play and research, the more it seems that they are best left for when the money is rolling in and I know a bit more about the game.

Maybe a mage? They seem to have some utility in being able to mark, but are they quite nice at PvM? Maybe a template that is beneficial to the High Seas Booster? Whenever codes can be applied, I'll have that.

Anywho, ideas and suggestions on good templates to start off a newbie would be greatly loved and appreciated!

 

[Basara]

An easy character to start with will be taking the basic Blacksmith template (Smith/Tinker/Miner/Tailor) and adding combat skills to it. Once you get out of trial account status, you'll be able to mine colored ore.

At that time, try to have gargoyle pickaxes on hand. You can dig up ore elementals and train your combat skills on them (while getting more ore to work with).

Eventually, you can get a soulstone fragment, and use it to transfer some of the skills over to another character (either the combat skills, to become a pure crafter, or some of the crafting skills, to become a warrior).

My first character started that way, and actually didn't drop any skills, rather expanded them using equipment - I now use him to hunt ore elementals in Ilshenar....

 

[Stashy]

Thank you for the reply! I've noted that a lot of people say that Gargoyles make the best smiths; is that true? If so, would it be best if I waited until I can apply my Stygian Abyss code? I played long ago and I had an incomplete smith/fighter and loved him, so this sounds like a great path to start on!

 

[Basara]

There is nothing about a gargoyle that makes them better at anything other than Imbuing. There were rumors of some sort of enhancing bonus, but I've not seen any evidence to support it, other than as a misstatement or misinterpretation concerning their bonuses to Imbuing.

In fact, if one is to do your own mining, consider that a gargoyle cannot "save" their giant beetle or fire beetle from an attacking monster by mounting it (not being able to ride your beetle through high-spawn areas severely limits places to mine, especially if you mine in dungeons for niter/Saltpeter, once you get high seas), and that humans get a substantial bonus to their carrying capacity (about 1/6 more than a gargoyle or elf). Plus, there is no equivalent to Mining Gloves (that can raise your skill above 100 for smelting ore success and ingot return on recycling smith items) for Gargoyles.

 

[Stashy]

Very good reasons, I would have never thought of those! Thank you

 

[Silverbird]

A gargoyle gets a bonus to its enhancing chance when he is an imbuer, too. (Dont nail me on numbers, but it was something like 2 or 3% at GM imbuing and 1 additional % for each 10 skillpoints over GM.)
I prefer mining on an extra character (along with lumberjacking and other skills for a basic swordsfighter.) That way I would have no problems in making a gargoyle my main crafter. (Only that my old main crafter is so old that i dont want to chance his race for enhancing, which i really barely use.)
When I start fresh on a server, I usually go with a mage-fisher. In the long run I aim for GM Magery, Meditation, Evaluate Int (for fighting stuff that I fish up), Fishing, Inscription, Cooking, Alchemy. If you start with Inscription, you can buy reags + empty scrolls from NPCs and sell back the finished scrolls to those NPCs. It is a slow going but you earn enough gold that way to buy the most necessary things for a mage fisher: a full spellbook, a simple lrc suit, a boat.
Starting with a crafter is another possible way. My favourite place for a fresh miner + smith is a static gypsy camp near the compassion shrine in Ilshenar at the passage to the juka castle. You have there:
- a forge
- an anvil
- a npc for/with blacksmith bods
- access to your bankbox
- lots of mountains around
- very short ways between those
Just remember that you should start with 50 or better 49 tinkering to have a chance to craft your own shovels. (49 if you want to do the tinkering quest first in New Haven.) You earn your first money with this char by filling and turning in bods while you train your blacksmith skill. (At low skill levels bods were meant to support new players. You should get bods for items, which have a chance to give you skillgains.)

 

[Stashy]

That mage fisher template sounds exactly like what I'm looking for! Right now I've got my sampire, a smith character like Barasa mentioned, and I'll add the mage fisher soon! I think down the road I'll make the smith a full on crafter and have some form of a miner/lumberjack. One thing that's really cool about UO is those soulstones; I love the idea of being able to switch up a characters skills without losing precious progress forever!

Now if I can just get this crazy 30 day trial Mythic has me locked into, I could really get going! Thanks all!

 

[Basara]

I have a mage/fisher too, though she sometimes swaps out Inscription and tactics for some group hunts (then uses a mage weapon). I found I wasn't getting looting rights from combined spells/summons when I had to compete against tamers' greater Dragons, and Sampires (or mystic Sams adding their summons to their damage) in my own group, but I could do more DPS with summons + Mage weapon, with GM Tactics and enough chivalry to cast Enemy of One.
That template is
120 Fishing
120 Magery
120 Eval
100 Tactics or Inscription (depending on whether I'm gonna be going pure mage or chiv mage)
100 Med
90 Resist
70 Chivalry

Currently no skill bonuses to basic template from jewelry, (but that might change), with a spare set to swap into when I have Tactics on for archery purposes, with magery to counteract the MW on my bows (if I go melee, I have several artifact -0 MW SC weapons to choose from, so I don't change jewelry).

suit is nearly all 70s (just short of 70 in one resist - and overloaded in Physical to where I can be 70 with protection cast, if needed, at the cost of my FC bonuses), 2/6 casting (would be 3/6 if not for the cap), 100% LRC, 40% LMC, MR 11 or 12 (forget which), TWO items with casting focus, and 65% SDI when holding my Scrappers, before factoring in Inscription.

Using my Water Elemental Slayer Scrappers Compendium, I went to Ilshenar Justice to experiment, and was able to kill ALL SEVEN unhurt water elementals that I got to surround me, with one chain lightning, and with another chain lightning, one-shotted a PARAGON Water Elemental that was by itself.