Combining character templates, need some advice

[gregor]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice on combining all melee weapon templates into a single character (by using soulstones), and if there’s any reason this is a bad idea?

What I mean is, Ive been in and out of UO since 1999 but never really played a melee character. I’m back a few months from a long break and want to swing a sword. I do have a reasonably well scrolled archer I put together about a decade ago, and a swordsman who is GM skills but not scrolled at all. With the cost of scrolls today and since some of their abilities will overlap depending on template, I’m thinking about parking all of the swordsman skills on soulstones and just moving skills on and off the archer since he’s already got 120 tactics, bushido, chiv, etc.
Basically I’m trying to save the cost for now on scrolling two characters until I build some funding. Before I start down that path I’m asking for advice on whether there are any major red flags I should watch for, or that just wouldn’t work well between the two templates.
Thanks in advance.

 

[HippoRedux]

I do the same with my samurai w/heal swordsman and my chiv archer. The biggest potential problem is "ham handing" the soulstone transfer. Over the years I've lost a couple GM+ skills by transferring skills to a char that didn't have the open skill space so it lowered a skill I didn't know was set to the "arrow down" position. I now lock "lock" all skills on trained up chars to prevent that.

 

[Merlin]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice on combining all melee weapon templates into a single character (by using soulstones), and if there’s any reason this is a bad idea?

What I mean is, Ive been in and out of UO since 1999 but never really played a melee character. I’m back a few months from a long break and want to swing a sword. I do have a reasonably well scrolled archer I put together about a decade ago, and a swordsman who is GM skills but not scrolled at all. With the cost of scrolls today and since some of their abilities will overlap depending on template, I’m thinking about parking all of the swordsman skills on soulstones and just moving skills on and off the archer since he’s already got 120 tactics, bushido, chiv, etc.
Basically I’m trying to save the cost for now on scrolling two characters until I build some funding. Before I start down that path I’m asking for advice on whether there are any major red flags I should watch for, or that just wouldn’t work well between the two templates.
Thanks in advance.

What skills do you already have on this archer? Tactics, Bushido, Chivalry and what else?

Overall, you should be able to swap skills relatively easy. Some pair better with melee than ranged, and vice versa, but it shouldnt be out of the realm of possiblity to make it work without needing to revamp the whole template every time you swap a primary weapon skill.

 

[gregor]

What skills do you already have on this archer? Tactics, Bushido, Chivalry and what else?

Overall, you should be able to swap skills relatively easy. Some pair better with melee than ranged, and vice versa, but it shouldnt be out of the realm of possiblity to make it work without needing to revamp the whole template every time you swap a primary weapon skill.

Well archery (obv), but he’s also got healing at 115 and Anatomy at 120, not exactly sure what I’ll do with those since they aren’t a factor in any builds I’m planning. I’ll probably just stone them off in case I want to play with some builds that use them later.

 

[gregor]

I do the same with my samurai w/heal swordsman and my chiv archer. The biggest potential problem is "ham handing" the soulstone transfer. Over the years I've lost a couple GM+ skills by transferring skills to a char that didn't have the open skill space so it lowered a skill I didn't know was set to the "arrow down" position. I now lock "lock" all skills on trained up chars to prevent that.

Great point. I’ve already been moving skills back and forth across several crafter characters and almost had that happen with carpentry. Noticed it was pointing down as a I was doing my final check before pulling tailoring over.

 

[Merlin]

Well archery (obv), but he’s also got healing at 115 and Anatomy at 120, not exactly sure what I’ll do with those since they aren’t a factor in any builds I’m planning. I’ll probably just stone them off in case I want to play with some builds that use them later.

Anatomy contributes to damage calculations, so that's not a bad one to keep on there.

If you're going to be doing a melee fighter, not a bad idea to have some Parrying on there. If you're going to be spawning or fighting lots of casters, Resisting Spells is helpful.

 

[gregor]

As I pull skills in I’ll swap in parry, weapon skill, necromancy, etc depending how I want to play. Kind of why I want to do it this way so I have more freedom to experiment as I build.
Thanks for the replies. I think this is a plan I’ll stick with for now.