I wanted to thank you for being the only person who has a guide for daggerfall unity that actually goes into detail about everything and not just what skills to tag
When making a free action spell, you can make it the weakest it possibly can be, because when you use free action it completely removes the paralysis effect from you no matter how long the duration of the spell is. This means that at a low level you can counter paralysis every time for only 5 magicka
@@StormyDGaming In a similar vein you can make a spell that casts water breathing and walking at the same time, I would also make your own levitate and a small heal spell all values in the spell marker set to 1 for all of them they last long enough once you hit about level 5 and are so cheap to cast that before then you can just recast as needed
As a new player to Daggerfall, this video has been a blessing! I started Daggerfall today and went blindly into this game. I had an extreme hard time finishing the first dungeon. But with this build it was much easier and better. This made the game way more enjoyable!
yes, Privateer's Hold is not a picnic, the 1st 4 or 5 times you try it! lol The skellies therein, added to the Imps, make it somewhat treacherous for a 1st level character. Which is why the greatly increased leveling speed is so important!!
3:06 - If i remember right, two MOST LEVELED major skills are taken into account of level formula. Same for one minor skill. It can be any of them as long as it is the highest one. Agility to-hit bonus have been fixed in Unity version, that's listed in changelog. Also agility has one more value - it is governing stat for both critical strike and long blade leveling speed, that you picked as primary skills for your character level progression.
This is correct. If you take a break to level up some underlevelled skills, you won't level up until/unless they become the highest skills in their group (2nd highest for majors).
Note though that in the current Beta version (pre-skill modding one, 0.13.4), your attributes do not contribute to the skill leveling speed, only your difficulty dagger. So yeah, if you want a dump stat, I'd recommend INT for non-mage classes and PER (just don't go below 40 for both for the purpose of various checks), and WIL as you'll probably just use Magic/Spell Resistance spell instead which is way more reliable. You only really need WIL if you're using mana regen mod as its speed scaled with that attribute. Heck, maybe even LUC can be a dump stat, if you're willing to cast or wear enhanced gear to buff it up.
Reptar | Argonian | Opportunist Primary: Short Blade | Restoration | Dodging Major: Archery | Thautermergy | Critical Strike Minor: Blunt Weapon | Mercantile | Etiquette | Streetwise | Mysticism | Illusion Lvl 1 Starting Attributes (w/races redone mod): Str: 85 Int: 95 Wil: 18 End: 85 Agi: 20 Per: 44 Spd: 95 Luc: 23 Max hp points set to 30 with the following advantages & disadvantages Advantages: - Athleticism - Expertise in Short Blade - Expertise in Missile Weapons - Expertise in Blunt Weapons - 3x Int Magery - Immunity to Paralysis - Spell Absorption General Disadvantages: - Low tolerance to poison (100% drop to 75% resistance) - Low tolerance to disease (50% drop to 25% resistance) - Damage in Holy Places - Limited Magic Regeneration in Daylight - Forbidden Weaponry Axe - Forbidden Weaponry Longblade The dagger meter ends up being just under the line
In my build i chose critical weakness to Fire, Frost, Shock and Paralysis, and mitigated them all with my High Elf and the "Absorb Spell General" special advantage, choosing Steel and Silver as forbidden material and taking Phobia to animals will give you enough points to get max hp per level, and get any special advantage you could ever want, especially if you replace phobia to animals with Elven as the forbidden material as it will give you even more points to spend on your special advantages!
As I shared previously, I'm not a big fan of Spell Absorption during character creation. It is too exploitable. You can literally create a mage character with Spell Absorption and Immunity to Magic that allows you to stun lock anything in the game by continuously casting a custom fireball/iceball/lightningball, etc at your feet right in front of the monster. But then the game has zero challenge at that point. My build is "optimized", NOT "most powerful." ;)
I am new to daggerfall and this really helps. It's just what I was looking for. Also, this is a very high quality video and you were concise with describing everything. You're good at making videos, don't stop
Slight correction on level up. It's not the first first two secondary and first minor. It's the two "highest" secondary and "highest" minor, and this can change as you play. It's looking for the highest values, not the placement of the skills during character creation. Your build is very similar to the "go to" OP fun build I've been using for years. Biggest difference is that I go Breton instead of High Elf with slightly different disadvantages, (Breton absorbing standard magic bolt style spells 80 percent of the time is pretty nice) and I shoot for 90 int, 60 str, 70 spd right out of the gate, relying a little more heavily on magic early game. When leveling I max int asap, equalize STR and SPD, then raise SPD and STR evenly until they're both 80. By the time you hit that, you've probably unlocked enchanting and can buff them both to almost 100 with enchanted jewelry, but I still like to max them out so I don't need to keep remaking magic rings (I refuse to toggle repairs on for magic items, haha. I figure they're busted, so they "should" be a big money sink).
I’m working my way backwards through the elder scrolls game and daggerfall has always been my brick wall cause I couldn’t figure out how to even make it outta the first dungeon, but this build helped me A LOT. Feel like I’m finally getting a good grasp of the game and the different mechanics!
I am using this guide as a Noob to Daggerfall. I have experience with Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. I missed out on a lot of the older PC games back in the day. So thanks for this guide!
just "rediscovered" Daggerfall and DL'd the Unity port. LONG ago forgot most of the mechanics of the game, so this was a WONDERFUL video to have come across my feed. TY for this!
im only about half way through but i gotta say what an awesome well made and informative guide i just picked up daggerfall for the first time yesterday after being a long time fan of TES and this helps a lot
I don't understand how regen or rapid healing are gamebreaking. Rapid healing only reduces resting time, and Regen only gives 15 HP per hour. They penalize you a lot on the dagger xp scale too. I thought both were bad options, especially with how much better casting restoration spells is. I agree spell absorbtion is busted though, regardless of whether its achieved through enchantment or special advantage.
Man doesn't just look like the Necromancer from Diablo, he's also as cunning, bloody hell this significantly made Daggerfall more enjoyable for me. I love it! Thanks bro!
@@StormyDGamingI really hope that the Unity version of this game fixes the combat mechanics and the stats. Because this makes very few builds viable as the game currently is.
@@TheKrensada sadly... because the core mechanics are effectively "baked into" the game, ALMOST all successful builds end up becoming variants of this style of build... essentially a battlemage or spellword. I still think you can have a ton of fun though!
Nice build! Was looking to play Daggerfall for the first time but knew it would be a learning curve especially from the era it is from. Will probably utilize this build in an initial play through to get used to the game and everything. Thank you!
If you really want to optimize stats, you're better off making sure that none of STR, AGI, END and SPD exceed 60 during character creation or leveling. This is because becoming a lycanthrope (werewolf or wereboar) gives you free +40 bonuses to all those stats (active even when not transformed), and this is something you can easily do very early in the game - theoretically at level 2 by getting the lycanthrope hunting quest from the Fighter's Guild, although in practice you'll likely level a few times before it without even trying. Since the Fighter's Guild quest can sometimes troll you by having the quest objective be a bear instead though, it might be easier to just use the werewolf in Cyndassa's main quest which is obtainable at level 5. In order to make it quicker and easier to contract lycantrophy, you may also want to consider taking the Critical Weakness: Disease "disadvantage" (and of course avoiding any disease resistance "advantages"), which lycantrophy will make 100% irrelevant anyway, as becoming a werewolf makes you 100% immune to diseases regardless and even cures any other diseases you have at the time when lycantrophy takes effect. There is practically no downside to becoming a lycanthrope in the game - only the occasional minor inconvenience of automatically transforming during full moons, and having to kill a random city NPC for sustenance (as far as I can tell, this has no significant impact on reputation, and you could even go to a different region to do it if you want). Even these occasional and minor inconveniences can eventually be removed by obtaining the Hircine Ring, which is also very easy and just requires a bunch of money (200000g) for summoning Hircine and doing an easy "kill a wereboar in a random dungeon" quest similar to the Fighter's Guild one except for the target always being a wereboar. By doing this, you'll potentially have STR, AGI, END and SPD maxed (or close to it) before or at level 5, and you can pump any remaining points while leveling into INT.
I appreciate your feedback, but I think it's unrealistic to expect all players to want to make their character a lycanthrope, especially considering that there is only a 0.6% chance you will actually contract lycanthropy while fighting were-creatures. Plus, some folks just want to play a normal character who is not a lycanthrope. I respect that this is the way you choose to play, and am grateful you chose to share this option, but it doesn't make sense in the context of my guide to suggest something that is a very specific "niche." My guide is intended for players to have a build that is optimized without being too OP. Enjoy your adventures!
@@StormyDGaming It's usually very quick and easy to contract it if you get the Critical Weakness: Disease "disadvantage", and if you have 30 HP per level and a healing spell, you can usually just stand and let the werewolf hit you for quite some time while just healing up, before you run out of spell points. Just save first, then let the werewolf hit you until you just about run out of mana and HP, finish the creature off and check if you got infected by resting for 24 hours or so and seeing if you get the "you dream of a man who is less than a man" cutscene. If it failed, just reload and try again. In most cases, it's only taken me a few attempts to get infected. The only time it's been a pain is on characters without the disease weakness, with low HP, or when using mods that make enemies hit harder, since that means you can't take many hits each attempt. Of course, if you for some reason want to avoid becoming a lycanthrope for RP or challenge run reasons, you'll not want to do it, but other than that, there's really no reason not to. It's just a ton of free attribute points.
@@forbjok If that's the way you want to do it, enjoy your gameplay your way. My character creation guide is for folks who want to make a solid and reliable character from the beginning, which also "optimizes" the level-up capability. It's also for folks who just want to play the game without having to resort to exploits that require tedious reloading for specific niche situations. Finally, my build also makes getting through Privateer's Hold much less frustrating for new players.
Hey Storm Sage, just wanted to say thank you, and I hope that life has been kind to you and your family. Although I'm not too concerned with optimization as I prepare for my first DFU playthrough, your video helped me a lot with understanding character creation and the nuances involved. At they very least, it will help me from accidentally creating a weak character!
Thank you so much for this explanation on leveling to start with. Within the first 5 minutes I found the value of a full video. I was so curious about which skills level easily and which ones matter for leveling. Looking forward to the rest of this👍👍
@@StormyDGaming I have finally made it on DaggerFall. I both managed to join Mage and Fighter Guild. looks like I am on the right direction. Skills I have invested: Critical Strike Restoration Illusion Tharmotolgy Destruction Streetwise Blunt Weapons Mercantile Running Swimming
I've been playing for a while and making custom classes...I just now learned from you that I can decrease and increase the attributes!!!! 😅 Thank you!!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked my content. I agree with you about being drawn back to it. There's something about the procedurally generated dungeons and monsters that makes the world feel more alive!
If you want to squeeze an extra level out - spread your skill points out for major and minor skills at character creation. Since leveling is based on the highest skills in the category, that gives you a bit more room to grow.
I've played and beaten Daggerfall (vanilla) back in 2017, have made a lot of other characters (though never got super far) and am now 30ish hours into a new character on Unity. I feel like I've learned a lot about this game by now, but I've still never really delved deep into the special advantages/disadvantages so that was interesting to see. The most I'll do is forbid myself from using leather, iron, bucklers and small shields since I know I'll NEVER use any of those things and give myself 3x magery (because omg, not having mana for spells is awful since I'm almost always a spellsword type build)
Thank you so much for this build. I am new to the game and I found this and it was a load of fun to play around. However I love Orcs in the ES series, so I had to check out the Orc Race mod. The native advantages Orcs get in this mod are resistance to disease and Athleticism. I tweaked this class a bit and turned it into an Orc "Warcryer". Changes were for balancing and/or immersion reasons. I followed your build with the following modifications: Skills: Axe instead of Long Blade Orcish and Alteration instead of Mercantile and Backstabbing Advantages: Expertise in Axe instead of Long Blade Rapid Healing In Daylight/Darkness/Water instead of Athleticism Resistance to Paralysis instead of Disease Disadvantages Forbidden Armor Type: Leather instead of Forbidden Weapon Type Axe Critical Weakness Disease instead of Paralysis Now I know you don't like Rapid Healing. However, with your build I found that 90% of the time I was resting after depleting mana from healing myself. I would agree that if Restoration were not the primary magic domain, then this Advantage is cheap in game. With Mana being the issue the increased speed really doesn't impact my playstyle and gave me the points I needed in the Class Builder lol. I don't know if Athleticism would stack but if it does you could just take that instead but it might be OP? Anyways thought I'd share. :)
What a great and fun build using a mod we have not tried yet! Thanks for sharing your detailed report. I think your build sounds great, and as long as you had fun, that's what matters most! Cheers!
Thank you for the guide! It was very helpful! I made over 50 characters and none of them are this well balanced! You definitely gained a subscriber. ⚔️💪
Thanks a lot for this superb guide. Followed it, and I can say I finally enjoy the game. 🎉 Before that all my chars were very frustrating to play for one reason or another. 😅
Indeed! I totally understand that feeling! Most RPG veterans try to build their first character with balanced stats across the board, and that works for most RPGs. Daggerfall's game mechanics are simply not designed with that in mind as it heavily favors STR, SPD and Intel. I'm glad I could help you enjoy the experience!
This is a great video. I modified your build a little since I like Dark Elves and Catfolk. I also spec in short blade as I go for the ebony dagger during character gen. I prefer thief/mage type builds and always forbid plate armor. Your tactic of lowering wis and agi by 25 and raising str and speed, as well as your take on the trash metals has been invaluable. With the ebony dagger, I can forbid any material which helps. I usually forbid steel, silver, elven. The weaker link in my modified build is that I usually have to lower the max HP number to 20ish in order to keep the leveling bar near the minimum. As a thief, that is fine. Leveling has been a breeze with your guidance and I use Ironman to keep it challenging.
9:15 Immunity to paralysis gives the high elf a 100% resistance, not 150. The critical weakness lowers it by 50. So the result is the same but I thought I'd write the correction here. Source = Interkarma himself on the dfworkshop forums. In any case, thanks for the helpful video.
Thanks for the feedback. I must have misinterpreted something I read on the internet long ago about Daggerfall high elves getting 150% resistance in order to have immunity.
In my opinion it's not the most optimized build - keep in mind that if you get the lycanthropy & hiracine ring (to avoid the downsides of this disease), then u don't need more than 60 Strength, Speed, Agility and Endurance (because it gives you +40 to these stats). Also, Lycanthropy gives you immunity to ALL DISEASES. So, as a Lycan you can easily achieve 100 points in every base stat (with help of some magic items). Also, if you choose hand-to-hand as your primary skill and u're a Lycanthrope, you can get over 250 h2h and defeat EVERY ENEMY using hands only (there are no monster's immunity to your fists and legs).
I appreciate your feedback, and I really love the concept of your "Ultimate Werewolf Monk"!!! I especially appreciate you sharing that enemies are never immune to your fists or feet! However, I believe we have a different perspective on what constitutes an "optimized" character build for new players. One: your build is very narrow focused as it requires you to play the game in a way to specifically work toward getting lycanthrope (which is not necessarily an easy thing to do) and the hircine ring quest (which new players would not know how to find). Two: your character means getting through Privateer's Hold and some of the first few dungeons without having been optimized for combat, which will be very difficult. Now, you could make the argument that your character is the "best" character you can create in the game, but my character concept is optimal for new players because of how balanced it is, and because it allows for a bit more freedom to customize different aspects of your character, while still being able to level up very fast! Thanks again for the comment!
@@StormyDGaming I agree with you - the beginning for char I described is not easy at all, that's for sure... and it require some grinding, BUT - with destruction as a main skill, fire immunity and a fireball it's not that bad :) Also I agree that getting lycanthropy is not a simple task - you need to find a Werewolf/Wereboar and pray that it will give you the disease - as far as I remember the chance for that is about 0.5% per hit :) Thanks for the reply and the clip! :)
@@jacekmisiak804 You're welcome! And thanks for sharing your interesting character idea. I will be sure to try and build it in one of my future Daggerfall Unity streams on Twitch! It sounds like a ton of fun!
Hand to hand is the strongest "weapon skill" in the game since: 1.It is the only skill that increases damage as well as hit chance. 2.It hits all enemies from the start ignoring their material resistance. 3.It has no durability so you never have to worry about weapon breaking in combat. 4.At 100 h2h you can deal 11-21 damage which is better than a daedric katana's 9-22. Only 4 weapons have better average damage but they are all two handed meaning you can not equip a shield with them. And since you can enchant to make the skill higher it has the highest DPS in all weapons. The only downside are 1 less enchanting slot compared to a one handed weapon and slightly lower damage at the beginning. But since enchantment slots are more than enough and weapon skills increase quite quickly these two are basically non issue.
Yup. What you said is definitely true, but I chose Bladed weapons for this guide because most folks who play an Elder Scrolls or Fantasy RPG prefer to use medieval weapons. It's really just a preference thing for most players, as it does not occur to most folks to make a Monk in Daggerfall. Still, your point is valid that if you want to eek out a bit more DPS (just for "maximum value"), then going Fisticuffs is the way to go. Thanks for suggesting it! I feel like this guide would work just fine for folks who want to slot Hand-to-Hand in as a replacement for the Bladed Weapons.
@@StormyDGaming Yeah hand to hand is most likely to be ignored since it may "seem" weak. However Bethesda is never someone who disregards it. Even in Skyrim there is Gloves of the Pugilist from which you can learn Fortify Unarmed Damage to punch enemies. Also this is not "a bit more" DPS. By enchanting all 24 pieces of equipments and get lycanthropy you can get to 53-105 damage with hand to hand which is 4.4 times of a Daedric Dai-Katana.
@@lywzcx663 Thanks for the tips. It's definitely a different focus for the character build. You have intrigued me enough that I might just do an Ultimate Monk build guide when I can find the time! Kudos!
@@StormyDGaming Cheers! If you really make the video, I would provide one suggestion. As it has been pointed out by others, there are some factual mistakes in this video. Although there are many guides on the internet, many of them are made using past inaccurate testing resulting in wrong conclusion, like agility affects bow more (It does not, both agility and luck affect all physical attacks by the same amount, luck in addition increases your chance to climb so luck is strictly better than agility. However luck does not affect loot or anything else). Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages or UESP currently has the most accurate and up to date information on daggerfall since it is still actively updated by those who are involved in testing for DFUnity. It also lists differences between Classic and Unity if applicable. If you are still uncertain about some conclusions checking the source code is always useful with some basic programming knowledge. My personal build now is a Spellcasting Monk. By enchanting only 1 item with fortify destruction etc., you can cast all spells however powerful in this school with 5 magicka. 6 schools and you can become a spell spamming machine who can decimate all with like 99-99 + 99-99 per level AoE spell and become immortal with 99-99 + 99-99 per level health for 60 + 60 per level duation regeneration spell. Quite cheating but also quite satisfying.
@@lywzcx663 I appreciate the feedback. For myself, I try not to completely remove any challenge from the game, so I avoid those types of exploits; however, you should always play however you have the most fun! Don't let anyone tell you that your way isn't valid. Follow your own bliss in gaming! :)
Great video! I’m new to Daggerfall, but im going to give it a try later. Thanks for the help in character creation. I like the advantage/disadvantage system. Wish more games did stuff like that.
Daggerfall Unity/Character Creation Differences Resistances and Immunities The ordinary Daggerfall Unity character has 50% resistance to all effects: Fire, Frost, Shock, Magic, Poison, Paralysis, and Disease. This can be altered during character creation as follows: Critical Weakness to something reduces resistance to 0%. Low Tolerance to something reduces resistance to 25%. Resistance to something raises resistance to 75%. Immunity to something raises resistance to 100%. As in Daggerfall, the Breton's additional 30% racial resistance to Magic and the Nord's additional 30% racial resistance to Frost are applied after any of the above changes. High Elves High Elves naturally have immunity to paralysis, but unlike Daggerfall, in Daggerfall Unity, this can be reduced through disadvantages. A High Elf with no weakness to paralysis will have full immunity to it. A High Elf with low tolerance to paralysis will have 75% resistance to it. A High Elf with critical weakness to paralysis will have 50% resistance to it. en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall_Mod:Daggerfall_Unity/Character_Creation_Differences
Happy to see similar, but not exact tips to other guides. I've played with the absorb magicka builds and yes, they make the game entirely too easy. Can't wait to try this build.
@@StormyDGaming I've been loving the build. Followed exactly to begin with, then slightly modified it on a new character. I can definitely feel the hit ratio improve when not dumping Agility. So my build is the same as yours except I don't dump Agility and only raise Strength to 75. After bonus my starting Strength was 99, so moving to Speed happened at first level up and maxed it out at level 6. I actually found myself not needing my magicka very often, so I rounded my other stats to the next 10's place before going to Intelligence. My Archon, Umbifaeus, is with the Temple of Kynereth, Dragon Knights and fighter's guild and is currently level 17. Higher than the character I first completed the main quest with. Thanks so much for the build! This has been one of the most enjoyable Daggerfall experiences I've had!
I'm not completely sold on gimping Agility. If I understand correctly, both luck and agility factor into the to-hit chance with the best scenario being an 18% increase. In this example, with Agility at 25 and luck at 50, the max chance would be 13%. The difference there is low, however Agility also formulates into your skill (in your case longblade) as well as critical strike. So those small stacks add up. Also, agility determines the ease of raising all agility based skills meaning that you can raise your longblade skill faster and getting an increase in the hit chance along the way. Agility also contributes to other skills, like stealth for example.
I understand your reservations, but here's a pro-tip: the greatest to hit percent chance increases you can get with melee weapons is affected more by Weapon Skill, Critical Strike and Strength. The way the game calculates your to hit chance in the back end, you will get a higher gain by diverting points from Agility to Strength. Melee weapons are not considered Agility based skills by Daggerfall, they are Str based skills. Agility has more of an affect on Bows than melee weapons. Finally, the Agility doesn't have a measurable affect on your Stealth in Daggerfall, as the actual skills themselves contribute more than any minor increases from ability scores. Furthermore, if you choose your Stealth skill as one of your Primary or top two Major skills, and use it frequently, it will level up very quickly, as the game also checks Stealth even when you are not actively using it. Just to be clear, there have been many folks before me to do exhaustive analysis on the way Daggerfall specifically calculates combat rolls, so the info I share in this comment and in my guide isn't just my anecdotal evidence. Once you try it out this way, you will be surprised at how powerful your character is, and how much easier Privateer's Hold is at the beginning.
@@StormyDGaming Thanks for the additional information. I rolled a new character last night for the sole purpose of previewing these attributes. I rolled with short blade as primary and archery as major since I have another character like this but with a focus on Agility to compare. I didn't feel a huge difference in short blade which is in itself telling, but I did notice a huge drop in my ability to hit with a bow... as you mentioned in reply. I picked up a longblade too and noticed a nice boost to speed compared to previous builds. I usually go for short blade for the attack speed. But I've been experimenting with attributes a lot lately and this has given me more to think about.
@@whanethewhip No problem! As an experiment, try building a character with either Long Blade or Blunt Weapon with this guide. You will notice a marked difference in Privateer's Hold and the other first dungeons you go in, as your ability to hit and deal damage will be noticeably better. The only real difficulty is when you have to start fight Harpies in dungeons after Privateer's Hold, and haven't found a Dwarven or better weapon yet. Enjoy your adventures!
Thanks for this video! I just wanted to say that my playthrough with this character build was actually easy. I was prepared to go into Daggerfall and suffer a bit, but I didn't suffer at all. I took my time with my development, made lots of side quests before really getting on to the main quest, and by the time I did it was a breeze, really. Leveling up happened quite quickly. So it's a very good guide, indeed, but I'd say it's one for beginners! Perhaps I should have trusted myself a bit more. Or, going forward, I should take this as an opportunity to do a second run with a custom build of my own, a harder one! Alas, I don't have the time for that. FWIW I finished the main quest at level 23.
exactly! now that you understand the mechanics of the game more, you can make it harder on yourself with different builds. I did that on stream for a couple of years. Enjoy your adventures!
I was in the process of getting ready to replay Daggerfall and was hunting around for character creation advice. This looks great, will give it a whirl. Thanks, subscribed.
Really annoying that there isn't a way to select what class archetype you want for your background creation. Trying to create a battlemage build and it keeps giving me thief questions.
It's definitely a different experience than Skyrim! They both have their pluses and minuses, but Daggerfall is definitely worth the experience with the Unity improvements! Enjoy you adventures!
Just started Daggerfall for the first time today, wanted to look up a character guide just to be sure I wouldn't hit any snags on my first playthrough, you know what older games can be like :D This guide was perfect and has set me up nicely, thanks a lot for taking the time to put it together, really appreciate it!!
@@StormyDGaming Yeah I melted them with fire magic, turns out it was a bad idea for the nymphs to go into battle without protection. Now my ebony blade cleaves all who stand before me and no bank in the land can contain my wealth. Lysandus shall be avenged, huzzar!!! But yeah I'm having a blast, not been able to put this game down the last few days, thanks again for the tutorial here, just wanted to drop a few comments in to help with the youtube algorithm and all that jazz, it's useful stuff so I hope more people can find it 👍
@@GES1985 I appreciate that you feel that way, but it's also nice to know that there are other options, in case others don't want to go through the entire character creation process again. :)
Thanks for the tip on the too good character. I have played games before where I got a character to be too good and it took the fun out of the game. Great guide, ty.
First off, thank you for making this easy to follow and concise guide. As a new player to Daggerfall, I can't help but feel very overwhelmed at how big of a game this is and I'm worried about making the wrong decisions, so this did help to alleviate some of those worries. I played Arena and have beaten it twice, the second time this week actually. So now the next logical step is for me to play and experience Daggerfall. Cutting to the chase a little bit - do you plan on making a guide on the background questions for character creation? I think I've seen only one video on the subject, but I sense you know a lot about the game and therefore wanted an expert opinion on the subject (not to discredit the other video I saw, of course). I think you are a criminally underrated channel by the way. I was pretty shocked to see the low subscriber count, and I hope you continue to grow. I noticed you have done a series on Daggerfall as well, so I will definitely check that out to gain more of an insight on how to play the game through the lens of an experienced player. Subscribed :)
Thank you so much for the praise and good wishes! The UA-cam algorithm is brutal to new content creators! In regards to your question, I hadn't thought to do a guide on the "background questions," in Daggerfall's character creation. It's an interesting idea, but I suspect that it would be very long, and not as useful as you might think. There are a ton of different questions, and some of them change randomly from one playthrough to another. Also, the UESP-wiki for Daggerfall breaks down every detail about the questions. Here's the link for you: en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Background. Thanks again for being such a great supporter and fan! Cheers!
@@StormyDGaming No problem, thanks a lot for your guide again. I just let the game choose my background in the end, because I think it chooses some of the answers based on your skills that you chose, If I'm not mistaken that is. And the rest it probably just randomises I assume.
@@IG7799-c4u Actually, if you go to that link I sent you, it shows you every possible outcome for every choice you can make regarding those questions. Some of those choices are definitely better than others. Just FYI. ;)
Thanks for the compliment! I had fun making it! That is correct, the Agility trait does not make as much of a difference as simply upgrading the Dodge skill naturally. Agility doesn't have enough of a value in the game to make up for just pouring points into the right skills. Str and Speed make much more of a difference in the long run.
One of the mods I use makes magical regeneration based on willpower, now making willpower not useless 😂 Apparently agility is fixed in unity too so I'll have to take that into account now that there aren't any throwaway skills now.
That is a cool mod! I tried one of those out previously and it felt like it made the game too easy, but it allow3ed me to play the game in a different way, which was fresh and novel.
I played Arena, Morrowing, Redguard (The beginning), Battlespire (Also just the beginning), Oblivion and Skyrim. Despite that i didn't touched Daggerfall until yesterday weirdly enough, even though it is an improved Arena. And Arena was my favorite TES game so far. Yesterday i had played an "Glasscannon" mage with some short blades skill in case i have no mana. I followed the instructions to the attributes provided in the manual. I pumped up Willpower to 75 because it seemed to make sense according to the manual. While playing i noticed that my character felt kinda... disappointing. I just checked now today some character creation tutorials out and learned about the issues with willpower. Not gonna lie, that is kinda frustrating for a new player that the manual has so completely wrong information in it. (As far as i read, it is not just an DF Unity issue but also in the original game) In any case, thanks for the tutorial. I will use it as template and look forward to an improved game experience with my Argonian Spellcaster version 2.0. EDIT: I kinda fell down into a character creation rabbit hole and do some more research on it. It is a bit weird to me that you can also use Luck instead of agility to increase hit chance. Does that mean you need to succeed a luck AND agility roll, luck OR agility roll or does the game use the higher stat of you or the lower stat of the target? That i couldn't figure out yet. And also that agility only increases hit chance by 10% for the full 100 points is also a bit weird. It is interesting how the calculation system works but it also has some quirks to it.
I think you are over-thinking it. This game's back-end mechanics are unlike any other game out there. Agility and Willpower basically do NOT work the way they should, and do NOT make enough of a difference in combat. Focus on Speed and Strength and you will do great! Enjoy!
@@StormyDGaming Thanks for the advice and ye, i played today a bit and you are correct. Strength and speed are way more valuable in practice. I have to say, the guide was pretty is pretty well made. The character plays really smooth and is pretty beginner friendly.
You may want to take critical weakness to Frost NOT Shock, as all enemies of level 2 and above wont have frost magic in their spell pool, All Mages, Sorcerers, Vampires and Litches dont have frost spells in their spell pool beyond level 2 making critical weakness frost a must for all builds with zero downsides, this is of course very exploitable especially if you are a High Elf, but if you dont plan on being a High Elf, then get Critical weakness to all Elements and take Spell Absorption General, It will completely nullify all your elemental weaknesses, keep in mind that you need to have spare depleted mana pool to absorb the incoming spell for it to work, otherwise you will probably die! Don't bother with Magic resistance as it only effects non elemental spells like Damage Health, Sleep and Silence! So if you dont pick Spell Absorption to mitigate Fire and Shock weaknesses, then your only other safe picks for Special Disadvantages are Phobia to Animals, as most Rats, Bats Bears and Tigers dont pose any threat at all. You may consider Damage from Holy Places as a special disadvantage, so just avoid Temples and it wont effect you. You can still enter Holy Places and have more then enough time to do whatever it is that you need to do and survive, the only other holy place is a single room withing the fighters guild that acts as a holy place so just avoid it or exploit it to level up your Restoration and Medical skills as you can sleep there for free as well! Contrary to popular belief Bonus to Hit effects damage per level NOT your chance to hit so its a good special advantage to take as well! Especially if you choose Humanoid or Unleaded! Bonus to hit Humanoid effects not just humans but all monsters as well, like harpies and giants centaurs and they will be majority of the enemies you will face in the entire game! The only other option is Bonus to hit Undead as they are some of the most powerful and nastiest enemies in the whole game so being effective and doing a ton of damage is very desirable!
Thanks for the lengthy comment! You are suggesting a completely different build idea. There's a bit too much to unpack here, but I will say that my guide is meant to avoid cheesy/broken abilities like Spell Absorption during character creation. Now, if you happen to find an item that has it during your Daggerfall travels... then fair game! haha!
I've been playing daggerfall unity using your guide and I gotta say It is fantastic even when starting out. My only concern is what attributes to focus on after maxing out strength, speed and intelligence. Do you have any suggestions?
I'm glad the guide is working for you! Thanks for reaching out to me. It honestly doesn't matter much after those 3 are maxed. You could focus on getting Endurance up so you have more HP, or increasing Agility or Luck to make it a tiny bit harder to hit you. It's whatever feels best for that character to you. Enjoy your adventures!
I like to do some roleplaying even when creating a character class and do it so my High Elf is kind of an elitist and won't touch iron because it's beneath him, and dwarven because of personal hangups. I know the choices don't give as many points in the level slider, but I don't like to level that fast anyway. Also, I tend to completely forget that you can move attributes around in the character creation screen and my character's have been starting really average.
I absolutely love incorporating role-playing and character building into the character creation process! I obviously didn't include anything like that for this build, since it was designed to be "optimized for survivability" when factoring the games mechanics; however, you can definitely make tweaks to the process to incorporate these kinds of changes! Enjoy your "nuanced" character!
Yeah. Sometimes that's a hard choice to make. There is a mod that might help you decide. If you really prefer "role-play" style builds then try out Language Skills Overhaul: www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/257. It actually lets you use those "RP" skills in a way the base game can't. Enjoy!
I can’t even get out of the first dungeon even with this build I’m terrible. Worst part was I didn’t know you had to save manually at the start so I died, and had to watch this again and completely remake the build 😂
@@StormyDGaming I’m figuring it out lol, I’m just having a hard time finding quests/where to go in general. I’ve just been wondering around doing these small little tombs
@@XZoidbergxXx Your best bet is to join the Mage's Guild and the Fighter's Guild to get some great quests. You can also join a Temple and do their quests so you can get disease healing. Good luck!
@@StormyDGaming what’s your suggestion on this build to focus stats on after you have 100 in str/int/spd? I recently got a daedric dai katana and I’m wrecking everything with it lol
@@XZoidbergxXx Congratz on enjoying being a "wrecking ball"! haha! Honestly after getting those three maxed to 100, it probably doesn't matter where to put points. Luck is a bit "nerfed" in the newest Unity builds, and Agility and Willpower have only a marginal impact on anything. I would just spread it around wherever you want to make things look "even", or just throw the points into Endurance so you can potentially get more HP during future levelups.
When I first made my char, I dumped Str and Maxed Agi as a long blade user because I thought Agi was the best stat to hit stuff. Maxed out luck next. I didn't realize that STR was better than both even with blades. Other than that, this build is pretty similar to what I ran skill wise.
Having taken a look at the DFU BIble on the UESP, it seems that Agility and Luck are fairly comparable in utility. Agility and Luck have the same formula for hit chance bonus, the only difference being that Agility governs a number of skills (many of which we use in this build) and Luck gives a bonus to climb chance. With this in mind, is it worth balancing our stats a little by draining some Luck? Or is the reasoning behind lowering Agility to lower the base values of the governed skills to facilitate additional levelling?
It is not worth balancing with Agility, but it doesn't have anything to do with additional leveling. The effect that Agility has on your combat effectiveness is exponentially lower overall than the stat boosts you will receive from ignoring it in favor of focusing on the ones I outlined. Thanks for the great question!
I had a feeling Stealth didn't require you to sneak to use it like it does in newer games. I frequently see it improving after rests even when I spent the whole time running around like a maniac.
@@StormyDGaming Add to that the way the game automatically checks to see if you "pacify" enemies if you walk around with your weapon sheathed and I imagine the late game can potentially be a steamroll in places, if both Stealth and all of your speech/language skills get high enough.
@@OneTrueNobody It's funny you say that, because I am currently playing a build on my Twitch livestream where we focused primarily on language skills, and we are trying to "befriend" everyone we meet. It's pretty hilarious. 😆
@@StormyDGaming Ah, well, the language skills can be helpful, but no matter what you do it's always going to be a random chance, and it only checks the skill the first time you walk into range of an enemy with your weapon sheathed, so. I can see it being a funny gimmick run, but it's not going to be anything approaching reliable until the skill level's pretty high.
@@OneTrueNobody Actually it's surprising how often it works, even at low skill level. Although you are correct that it is a bit of a gimmick, since we are using the language skills overhaul mod, we can recruit monsters to follow us around as party members. It's a lot of fun!
This will be my first character ever in Daggerfall, and seeing all the feedback is reassuring me you know your stuff. Question, do I have to select very high reflexes, or are the changes not noticeable or is there another reason?
Thanks for the comment and the question. You will have a more enjoyable experience at "Very High" reflexes because it will feel morenatural. I believe it has to do with reducing input lag, so you want it as high as possible. It doesn't mean you need to be a high speed gamer. Hope this helps!
So what about if you want to go a pure mage? And could you maby show how you made your spells set up? (new to Daggerfall spellmaking system) and what about a basic healing spell hehe? Considering you choice to focus on restoration?
Please keep in mind, my build is designed for levelup optimization, and to give you a lot of options and survivability in Daggerfall, especially in the early levels. You can definitely do a "pure mage" build, but they are either too diffuclt to play or too broken to play with the Daggerfall mechanics as they are. Feel free to experiment with what works for you.
Thank you for this guide. I really appriciate it. I only have one question. Why I don't have the same spells like you? I only have shock, chameleon and featherfall.
@@StormyDGaming Thank you for your comment. I watched your whole video twice and can't find any difference so I was really confused, but now I can start my adventure without any any worries. ^^
12:46 what does the "DAM +6" mean? My character can only roll -2,-1, or 0 it seems Edit: I realized it's tied to Strength but I'm still unsure how significant it is
Keep in mind that my guide is using a much older version of the Unity Remaster of Skyrim, so some of those numbers are not quite accurate. Since then, the newer versions more accurately reflect the actual bonus that is tied to that stat; however, it's not anything to worry about. As long as you get your STR up, and raise it as quickly as possible, you will be golden. Enjoy your travels in Tamriel!
I wanted to thank you for being the only person who has a guide for daggerfall unity that actually goes into detail about everything and not just what skills to tag
You're welcome! And thank you for taking the time to comment. I am glad my guide was useful for you! Have a grand adventure!
Every time I get an itch to dive back into Daggerfall I always come back to this video, thank you.
You are very welcome! I appreciate your kind words!
When making a free action spell, you can make it the weakest it possibly can be, because when you use free action it completely removes the paralysis effect from you no matter how long the duration of the spell is. This means that at a low level you can counter paralysis every time for only 5 magicka
That's a fantastic tip! I totally missed that, and will use it going forward. Thanks so much!
Wow...That is awesome!!!
@@StormyDGaming In a similar vein you can make a spell that casts water breathing and walking at the same time, I would also make your own levitate and a small heal spell all values in the spell marker set to 1 for all of them they last long enough once you hit about level 5 and are so cheap to cast that before then you can just recast as needed
@@algibson4269 Indeed! In our playthroughs on stream we do that with a few other spells as well. Goodonya for your great experimentation and results!
Sorry for the probably stupid question but how do you make a free action spell? Do you need particular skills or items?
As a new player to Daggerfall, this video has been a blessing! I started Daggerfall today and went blindly into this game. I had an extreme hard time finishing the first dungeon.
But with this build it was much easier and better. This made the game way more enjoyable!
Thank you so much for your comment! I am thrilled this helped you enjoy your experience with Daggerfall Unity more! Have a great adventure!
yes, Privateer's Hold is not a picnic, the 1st 4 or 5 times you try it! lol The skellies therein, added to the Imps, make it somewhat treacherous for a 1st level character. Which is why the greatly increased leveling speed is so important!!
i love how well thought and thorough this build is. It really displays a lot of knowledge of the game mechanics.
Thanks so much! Enjoy your adventures!
3:06 - If i remember right, two MOST LEVELED major skills are taken into account of level formula.
Same for one minor skill. It can be any of them as long as it is the highest one.
Agility to-hit bonus have been fixed in Unity version, that's listed in changelog.
Also agility has one more value - it is governing stat for both critical strike and long blade leveling speed, that you picked as primary skills for your character level progression.
Thanks for the info!
This is correct. If you take a break to level up some underlevelled skills, you won't level up until/unless they become the highest skills in their group (2nd highest for majors).
Note though that in the current Beta version (pre-skill modding one, 0.13.4), your attributes do not contribute to the skill leveling speed, only your difficulty dagger. So yeah, if you want a dump stat, I'd recommend INT for non-mage classes and PER (just don't go below 40 for both for the purpose of various checks), and WIL as you'll probably just use Magic/Spell Resistance spell instead which is way more reliable. You only really need WIL if you're using mana regen mod as its speed scaled with that attribute. Heck, maybe even LUC can be a dump stat, if you're willing to cast or wear enhanced gear to buff it up.
Reptar | Argonian | Opportunist
Primary:
Short Blade | Restoration | Dodging
Major:
Archery | Thautermergy | Critical Strike
Minor:
Blunt Weapon | Mercantile | Etiquette | Streetwise | Mysticism | Illusion
Lvl 1 Starting Attributes (w/races redone mod):
Str: 85
Int: 95
Wil: 18
End: 85
Agi: 20
Per: 44
Spd: 95
Luc: 23
Max hp points set to 30 with the following advantages & disadvantages
Advantages:
- Athleticism
- Expertise in Short Blade
- Expertise in Missile Weapons
- Expertise in Blunt Weapons
- 3x Int Magery
- Immunity to Paralysis
- Spell Absorption General
Disadvantages:
- Low tolerance to poison (100% drop to 75% resistance)
- Low tolerance to disease (50% drop to 25% resistance)
- Damage in Holy Places
- Limited Magic Regeneration in Daylight
- Forbidden Weaponry Axe
- Forbidden Weaponry Longblade
The dagger meter ends up being just under the line
noice!
This is hands down the best and most informative guide on UA-cam. I loved hearing the why behind picking attributes! Thanks so much for this!
Thanks so much! I am glad you found it helpful! Enjoy your adventures!
In my build i chose critical weakness to Fire, Frost, Shock and Paralysis, and mitigated them all with my High Elf and the "Absorb Spell General" special advantage, choosing Steel and Silver as forbidden material and taking Phobia to animals will give you enough points to get max hp per level, and get any special advantage you could ever want, especially if you replace phobia to animals with Elven as the forbidden material as it will give you even more points to spend on your special advantages!
As I shared previously, I'm not a big fan of Spell Absorption during character creation. It is too exploitable. You can literally create a mage character with Spell Absorption and Immunity to Magic that allows you to stun lock anything in the game by continuously casting a custom fireball/iceball/lightningball, etc at your feet right in front of the monster. But then the game has zero challenge at that point. My build is "optimized", NOT "most powerful." ;)
yeah, and here I thought _morrowind_ was broken.
@@SexyFace Haha! too true!
I am new to daggerfall and this really helps. It's just what I was looking for. Also, this is a very high quality video and you were concise with describing everything. You're good at making videos, don't stop
Thanks so much for your awesome feedback! I will keep up the work!
Slight correction on level up. It's not the first first two secondary and first minor. It's the two "highest" secondary and "highest" minor, and this can change as you play. It's looking for the highest values, not the placement of the skills during character creation.
Your build is very similar to the "go to" OP fun build I've been using for years. Biggest difference is that I go Breton instead of High Elf with slightly different disadvantages, (Breton absorbing standard magic bolt style spells 80 percent of the time is pretty nice) and I shoot for 90 int, 60 str, 70 spd right out of the gate, relying a little more heavily on magic early game. When leveling I max int asap, equalize STR and SPD, then raise SPD and STR evenly until they're both 80. By the time you hit that, you've probably unlocked enchanting and can buff them both to almost 100 with enchanted jewelry, but I still like to max them out so I don't need to keep remaking magic rings (I refuse to toggle repairs on for magic items, haha. I figure they're busted, so they "should" be a big money sink).
Thanks for the input!
As an veteran Daggerfall player i still find getting Daggerfall tips from Raiden a blessing!
Haha! Thank you so much for the encouragement! I'm always glad to share the lightning. ;)
Lmao I was just scrolling down to mention the same thing
@@ahadsuleymanli9572 you guys are amazing! Thanks for the wonderful compliment!
I’m working my way backwards through the elder scrolls game and daggerfall has always been my brick wall cause I couldn’t figure out how to even make it outta the first dungeon, but this build helped me A LOT. Feel like I’m finally getting a good grasp of the game and the different mechanics!
I know exactly what you are feeling. I hit that "brick wall" too, long ago. I'm glad my guide could help you enjoy the game!
Dont forget, daggerfall let's you climb "brick walls"
when your rpg tutorial is given by an actual wizard
lol! what an amazing compliment! Thank you!
I am using this guide as a Noob to Daggerfall. I have experience with Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. I missed out on a lot of the older PC games back in the day. So thanks for this guide!
youre' welcome! sorry it took so long to respond. I overlooked this comment! Have a great adventure!
just "rediscovered" Daggerfall and DL'd the Unity port. LONG ago forgot most of the mechanics of the game, so this was a WONDERFUL video to have come across my feed. TY for this!
You're welcome! Enjoy your adventures!
im only about half way through but i gotta say what an awesome well made and informative guide i just picked up daggerfall for the first time yesterday after being a long time fan of TES and this helps a lot
Thanks so much for your comment! I'm glad it helped, and enjoy your adventures in Daggerfall!
I absolutely dominated the main questline with this character build. Thanks.
Awesome! Glad you found it successful! Cheers!
I don't understand how regen or rapid healing are gamebreaking. Rapid healing only reduces resting time, and Regen only gives 15 HP per hour. They penalize you a lot on the dagger xp scale too. I thought both were bad options, especially with how much better casting restoration spells is. I agree spell absorbtion is busted though, regardless of whether its achieved through enchantment or special advantage.
Daggerfall was so difficult 20 years ago, now its time to go back and finish this game with a better build
Thank you!
Thanks so much for your kind words! Have a grand adventure!
Man doesn't just look like the Necromancer from Diablo, he's also as cunning, bloody hell this significantly made Daggerfall more enjoyable for me. I love it! Thanks bro!
That's one of the coolest compliments I have received! Thanks a ton! Enjoy your adventures!
This guide helped me a ton. Thanks!
you're welcome! glad it helped. have a great adventure!
I just found your channel. played this video, and am immediately greeted by a wizard. at least you look like one.
haha! thank you! I'll take that as a compliment! I intend you enjoy the content!
@@StormyDGamingI really hope that the Unity version of this game fixes the combat mechanics and the stats. Because this makes very few builds viable as the game currently is.
@@TheKrensada sadly... because the core mechanics are effectively "baked into" the game, ALMOST all successful builds end up becoming variants of this style of build... essentially a battlemage or spellword. I still think you can have a ton of fun though!
Nice build! Was looking to play Daggerfall for the first time but knew it would be a learning curve especially from the era it is from. Will probably utilize this build in an initial play through to get used to the game and everything. Thank you!
You're welcome! Enjoy your adventures!
If you really want to optimize stats, you're better off making sure that none of STR, AGI, END and SPD exceed 60 during character creation or leveling. This is because becoming a lycanthrope (werewolf or wereboar) gives you free +40 bonuses to all those stats (active even when not transformed), and this is something you can easily do very early in the game - theoretically at level 2 by getting the lycanthrope hunting quest from the Fighter's Guild, although in practice you'll likely level a few times before it without even trying. Since the Fighter's Guild quest can sometimes troll you by having the quest objective be a bear instead though, it might be easier to just use the werewolf in Cyndassa's main quest which is obtainable at level 5. In order to make it quicker and easier to contract lycantrophy, you may also want to consider taking the Critical Weakness: Disease "disadvantage" (and of course avoiding any disease resistance "advantages"), which lycantrophy will make 100% irrelevant anyway, as becoming a werewolf makes you 100% immune to diseases regardless and even cures any other diseases you have at the time when lycantrophy takes effect.
There is practically no downside to becoming a lycanthrope in the game - only the occasional minor inconvenience of automatically transforming during full moons, and having to kill a random city NPC for sustenance (as far as I can tell, this has no significant impact on reputation, and you could even go to a different region to do it if you want). Even these occasional and minor inconveniences can eventually be removed by obtaining the Hircine Ring, which is also very easy and just requires a bunch of money (200000g) for summoning Hircine and doing an easy "kill a wereboar in a random dungeon" quest similar to the Fighter's Guild one except for the target always being a wereboar.
By doing this, you'll potentially have STR, AGI, END and SPD maxed (or close to it) before or at level 5, and you can pump any remaining points while leveling into INT.
I appreciate your feedback, but I think it's unrealistic to expect all players to want to make their character a lycanthrope, especially considering that there is only a 0.6% chance you will actually contract lycanthropy while fighting were-creatures. Plus, some folks just want to play a normal character who is not a lycanthrope. I respect that this is the way you choose to play, and am grateful you chose to share this option, but it doesn't make sense in the context of my guide to suggest something that is a very specific "niche." My guide is intended for players to have a build that is optimized without being too OP. Enjoy your adventures!
@@StormyDGaming It's usually very quick and easy to contract it if you get the Critical Weakness: Disease "disadvantage", and if you have 30 HP per level and a healing spell, you can usually just stand and let the werewolf hit you for quite some time while just healing up, before you run out of spell points. Just save first, then let the werewolf hit you until you just about run out of mana and HP, finish the creature off and check if you got infected by resting for 24 hours or so and seeing if you get the "you dream of a man who is less than a man" cutscene. If it failed, just reload and try again. In most cases, it's only taken me a few attempts to get infected. The only time it's been a pain is on characters without the disease weakness, with low HP, or when using mods that make enemies hit harder, since that means you can't take many hits each attempt.
Of course, if you for some reason want to avoid becoming a lycanthrope for RP or challenge run reasons, you'll not want to do it, but other than that, there's really no reason not to. It's just a ton of free attribute points.
@@forbjok If that's the way you want to do it, enjoy your gameplay your way. My character creation guide is for folks who want to make a solid and reliable character from the beginning, which also "optimizes" the level-up capability. It's also for folks who just want to play the game without having to resort to exploits that require tedious reloading for specific niche situations. Finally, my build also makes getting through Privateer's Hold much less frustrating for new players.
Hey Storm Sage, just wanted to say thank you, and I hope that life has been kind to you and your family. Although I'm not too concerned with optimization as I prepare for my first DFU playthrough, your video helped me a lot with understanding character creation and the nuances involved. At they very least, it will help me from accidentally creating a weak character!
Indeed! As long as I am helpful for you to have fun, that's what matters to me. Enjoy your adventures, and thanks for the comment!
Thank you so much for this explanation on leveling to start with. Within the first 5 minutes I found the value of a full video. I was so curious about which skills level easily and which ones matter for leveling.
Looking forward to the rest of this👍👍
So happy to hear you found value in my video! Have a great adventure!
I gotta say...
thank you for your clear explanation...
I was not having fun with DaggerFall Unity since I wasted so many hours.
You're welcome! And thank y ou for the praise!
@@StormyDGaming
I have finally made it on DaggerFall.
I both managed to join Mage and Fighter Guild.
looks like I am on the right direction.
Skills I have invested:
Critical Strike
Restoration
Illusion
Tharmotolgy
Destruction
Streetwise
Blunt Weapons
Mercantile
Running
Swimming
I've been playing for a while and making custom classes...I just now learned from you that I can decrease and increase the attributes!!!! 😅 Thank you!!
such a cool vid, thx! was barely alive when daggerfall came out, but i just cant stop coming back to it
Thank you! I'm glad you liked my content. I agree with you about being drawn back to it. There's something about the procedurally generated dungeons and monsters that makes the world feel more alive!
Great tutorial. Daggerfall is the kind of game that you can lose already on character creation, so I encourage newbies to pay attention to it.
If you want to squeeze an extra level out - spread your skill points out for major and minor skills at character creation. Since leveling is based on the highest skills in the category, that gives you a bit more room to grow.
Indeed! Thanks for the additional tip!
I've played and beaten Daggerfall (vanilla) back in 2017, have made a lot of other characters (though never got super far) and am now 30ish hours into a new character on Unity. I feel like I've learned a lot about this game by now, but I've still never really delved deep into the special advantages/disadvantages so that was interesting to see. The most I'll do is forbid myself from using leather, iron, bucklers and small shields since I know I'll NEVER use any of those things and give myself 3x magery (because omg, not having mana for spells is awful since I'm almost always a spellsword type build)
indeed! glad you are having fun with it and making it your own!
Thank you for this, about to start out in Daggerfall with my 1st playthrough as this build!
Fantastic! Have an amazing time!
Your videos are very helpful, I got DFU up and running with a nice build to start with now thanks to you.
Awesome! I'm glad I could help! Enjoy your adventures!
Thank you so much for this build. I am new to the game and I found this and it was a load of fun to play around. However I love Orcs in the ES series, so I had to check out the Orc Race mod. The native advantages Orcs get in this mod are resistance to disease and Athleticism. I tweaked this class a bit and turned it into an Orc "Warcryer". Changes were for balancing and/or immersion reasons. I followed your build with the following modifications:
Skills:
Axe instead of Long Blade
Orcish and Alteration instead of Mercantile and Backstabbing
Advantages:
Expertise in Axe instead of Long Blade
Rapid Healing In Daylight/Darkness/Water instead of Athleticism
Resistance to Paralysis instead of Disease
Disadvantages
Forbidden Armor Type: Leather instead of Forbidden Weapon Type Axe
Critical Weakness Disease instead of Paralysis
Now I know you don't like Rapid Healing. However, with your build I found that 90% of the time I was resting after depleting mana from healing myself. I would agree that if Restoration were not the primary magic domain, then this Advantage is cheap in game. With Mana being the issue the increased speed really doesn't impact my playstyle and gave me the points I needed in the Class Builder lol.
I don't know if Athleticism would stack but if it does you could just take that instead but it might be OP?
Anyways thought I'd share. :)
What a great and fun build using a mod we have not tried yet! Thanks for sharing your detailed report. I think your build sounds great, and as long as you had fun, that's what matters most! Cheers!
Thank you for the guide! It was very helpful! I made over 50 characters and none of them are this well balanced! You definitely gained a subscriber. ⚔️💪
You're welcome! Glad to have you join us! Enjoy the content!
Thank. Im playing first time and probably will change a thing or two but it gives a good idea what is useful and what is not and why.
You're welcome! I am glad it was useful for you. Have a great adventure in Daggerfall!
thanks for making this, new player here, first elder scrolls game was morrowind. Can't wait to experience all of Tamriel as a Breton Knight.
You're welcome! Enjoy your adventures!
WOW, just made a new character...crushed flying through the starter dungeon.
Awesome! Glad you blazing through and having fun!
Thanks a lot for this superb guide. Followed it, and I can say I finally enjoy the game. 🎉
Before that all my chars were very frustrating to play for one reason or another. 😅
Indeed! I totally understand that feeling! Most RPG veterans try to build their first character with balanced stats across the board, and that works for most RPGs. Daggerfall's game mechanics are simply not designed with that in mind as it heavily favors STR, SPD and Intel. I'm glad I could help you enjoy the experience!
This is a great video. I modified your build a little since I like Dark Elves and Catfolk. I also spec in short blade as I go for the ebony dagger during character gen. I prefer thief/mage type builds and always forbid plate armor. Your tactic of lowering wis and agi by 25 and raising str and speed, as well as your take on the trash metals has been invaluable. With the ebony dagger, I can forbid any material which helps. I usually forbid steel, silver, elven. The weaker link in my modified build is that I usually have to lower the max HP number to 20ish in order to keep the leveling bar near the minimum. As a thief, that is fine. Leveling has been a breeze with your guidance and I use Ironman to keep it challenging.
Fantastic! glad to hear yoru adventures are going well, and glad my guide helped you!
Thank you for this guide, as a Daggerfall noob this is much appreciated!
You're welcome!
9:15 Immunity to paralysis gives the high elf a 100% resistance, not 150. The critical weakness lowers it by 50. So the result is the same but I thought I'd write the correction here. Source = Interkarma himself on the dfworkshop forums. In any case, thanks for the helpful video.
Thanks for the feedback. I must have misinterpreted something I read on the internet long ago about Daggerfall high elves getting 150% resistance in order to have immunity.
@@StormyDGaming It was likie that in the original, but Unity changed it to 100%
@@gavin0703 Ahh! That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!
Battlemage and spellswords are some of my favorite classes
me too!
This is so good. Thanks for the guide. I'll be playing this class on my next Daggerfall run for sure.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it. Enjoy your adventures!
Wish I'd had this info when I was in 6th grade! Would have saved me some grief.
It's never too late to adventure in Daggerfall! haha!
Just installed Daggerfall. Gonna get started tomorrow. I’ll definitely be using this advice on my playthrough. Greatly appreciated!
Fantastic! Enjoy your adventures!
In my opinion it's not the most optimized build - keep in mind that if you get the lycanthropy & hiracine ring (to avoid the downsides of this disease), then u don't need more than 60 Strength, Speed, Agility and Endurance (because it gives you +40 to these stats). Also, Lycanthropy gives you immunity to ALL DISEASES. So, as a Lycan you can easily achieve 100 points in every base stat (with help of some magic items). Also, if you choose hand-to-hand as your primary skill and u're a Lycanthrope, you can get over 250 h2h and defeat EVERY ENEMY using hands only (there are no monster's immunity to your fists and legs).
I appreciate your feedback, and I really love the concept of your "Ultimate Werewolf Monk"!!! I especially appreciate you sharing that enemies are never immune to your fists or feet! However, I believe we have a different perspective on what constitutes an "optimized" character build for new players. One: your build is very narrow focused as it requires you to play the game in a way to specifically work toward getting lycanthrope (which is not necessarily an easy thing to do) and the hircine ring quest (which new players would not know how to find). Two: your character means getting through Privateer's Hold and some of the first few dungeons without having been optimized for combat, which will be very difficult. Now, you could make the argument that your character is the "best" character you can create in the game, but my character concept is optimal for new players because of how balanced it is, and because it allows for a bit more freedom to customize different aspects of your character, while still being able to level up very fast! Thanks again for the comment!
@@StormyDGaming I agree with you - the beginning for char I described is not easy at all, that's for sure... and it require some grinding, BUT - with destruction as a main skill, fire immunity and a fireball it's not that bad :) Also I agree that getting lycanthropy is not a simple task - you need to find a Werewolf/Wereboar and pray that it will give you the disease - as far as I remember the chance for that is about 0.5% per hit :) Thanks for the reply and the clip! :)
@@jacekmisiak804 You're welcome! And thanks for sharing your interesting character idea. I will be sure to try and build it in one of my future Daggerfall Unity streams on Twitch! It sounds like a ton of fun!
Hand to hand is the strongest "weapon skill" in the game since:
1.It is the only skill that increases damage as well as hit chance.
2.It hits all enemies from the start ignoring their material resistance.
3.It has no durability so you never have to worry about weapon breaking in combat.
4.At 100 h2h you can deal 11-21 damage which is better than a daedric katana's 9-22. Only 4 weapons have better average damage but they are all two handed meaning you can not equip a shield with them. And since you can enchant to make the skill higher it has the highest DPS in all weapons.
The only downside are 1 less enchanting slot compared to a one handed weapon and slightly lower damage at the beginning. But since enchantment slots are more than enough and weapon skills increase quite quickly these two are basically non issue.
Yup. What you said is definitely true, but I chose Bladed weapons for this guide because most folks who play an Elder Scrolls or Fantasy RPG prefer to use medieval weapons. It's really just a preference thing for most players, as it does not occur to most folks to make a Monk in Daggerfall. Still, your point is valid that if you want to eek out a bit more DPS (just for "maximum value"), then going Fisticuffs is the way to go. Thanks for suggesting it! I feel like this guide would work just fine for folks who want to slot Hand-to-Hand in as a replacement for the Bladed Weapons.
@@StormyDGaming Yeah hand to hand is most likely to be ignored since it may "seem" weak. However Bethesda is never someone who disregards it. Even in Skyrim there is Gloves of the Pugilist from which you can learn Fortify Unarmed Damage to punch enemies.
Also this is not "a bit more" DPS. By enchanting all 24 pieces of equipments and get lycanthropy you can get to 53-105 damage with hand to hand which is 4.4 times of a Daedric Dai-Katana.
@@lywzcx663 Thanks for the tips. It's definitely a different focus for the character build. You have intrigued me enough that I might just do an Ultimate Monk build guide when I can find the time! Kudos!
@@StormyDGaming Cheers! If you really make the video, I would provide one suggestion. As it has been pointed out by others, there are some factual mistakes in this video. Although there are many guides on the internet, many of them are made using past inaccurate testing resulting in wrong conclusion, like agility affects bow more (It does not, both agility and luck affect all physical attacks by the same amount, luck in addition increases your chance to climb so luck is strictly better than agility. However luck does not affect loot or anything else). Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages or UESP currently has the most accurate and up to date information on daggerfall since it is still actively updated by those who are involved in testing for DFUnity. It also lists differences between Classic and Unity if applicable. If you are still uncertain about some conclusions checking the source code is always useful with some basic programming knowledge.
My personal build now is a Spellcasting Monk. By enchanting only 1 item with fortify destruction etc., you can cast all spells however powerful in this school with 5 magicka. 6 schools and you can become a spell spamming machine who can decimate all with like 99-99 + 99-99 per level AoE spell and become immortal with 99-99 + 99-99 per level health for 60 + 60 per level duation regeneration spell. Quite cheating but also quite satisfying.
@@lywzcx663 I appreciate the feedback. For myself, I try not to completely remove any challenge from the game, so I avoid those types of exploits; however, you should always play however you have the most fun! Don't let anyone tell you that your way isn't valid. Follow your own bliss in gaming! :)
Excellent video, it explains a lot of things I didn't know about the character creator.
Thank you! Glad I could help.
HITS BLUNT: "I'ma make a daggerfall video."
Sounds good! Enjoy!
Great video! I’m new to Daggerfall, but im going to give it a try later. Thanks for the help in character creation. I like the advantage/disadvantage system. Wish more games did stuff like that.
You're welcome! And, I agree!
Just got Daggerfall Unity and this was so helpful! thanks so much!
Also I love your hair!
Awesome! I'm glad you are enjoying the game. Thanks for the compliment on my hair! :)
Daggerfall Unity/Character Creation Differences
Resistances and Immunities
The ordinary Daggerfall Unity character has 50% resistance to all effects: Fire, Frost, Shock, Magic, Poison, Paralysis, and Disease. This can be altered during character creation as follows:
Critical Weakness to something reduces resistance to 0%.
Low Tolerance to something reduces resistance to 25%.
Resistance to something raises resistance to 75%.
Immunity to something raises resistance to 100%.
As in Daggerfall, the Breton's additional 30% racial resistance to Magic and the Nord's additional 30% racial resistance to Frost are applied after any of the above changes.
High Elves
High Elves naturally have immunity to paralysis, but unlike Daggerfall, in Daggerfall Unity, this can be reduced through disadvantages.
A High Elf with no weakness to paralysis will have full immunity to it.
A High Elf with low tolerance to paralysis will have 75% resistance to it.
A High Elf with critical weakness to paralysis will have 50% resistance to it.
en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall_Mod:Daggerfall_Unity/Character_Creation_Differences
Indeed. this is correct.
Happy to see similar, but not exact tips to other guides. I've played with the absorb magicka builds and yes, they make the game entirely too easy.
Can't wait to try this build.
Indeed! I think you will find this build strikes a nice balance between power and challenge. Please let us know how your adventures go!
@@StormyDGaming I've been loving the build. Followed exactly to begin with, then slightly modified it on a new character. I can definitely feel the hit ratio improve when not dumping Agility.
So my build is the same as yours except I don't dump Agility and only raise Strength to 75. After bonus my starting Strength was 99, so moving to Speed happened at first level up and maxed it out at level 6. I actually found myself not needing my magicka very often, so I rounded my other stats to the next 10's place before going to Intelligence.
My Archon, Umbifaeus, is with the Temple of Kynereth, Dragon Knights and fighter's guild and is currently level 17. Higher than the character I first completed the main quest with.
Thanks so much for the build! This has been one of the most enjoyable Daggerfall experiences I've had!
@@Toddalotapodamus I love your variant! Nice build, and thanks for sharing it with us. I'm glad my ideas sparked your own creativity. Cheers!
I'm not completely sold on gimping Agility. If I understand correctly, both luck and agility factor into the to-hit chance with the best scenario being an 18% increase. In this example, with Agility at 25 and luck at 50, the max chance would be 13%. The difference there is low, however Agility also formulates into your skill (in your case longblade) as well as critical strike. So those small stacks add up. Also, agility determines the ease of raising all agility based skills meaning that you can raise your longblade skill faster and getting an increase in the hit chance along the way. Agility also contributes to other skills, like stealth for example.
I understand your reservations, but here's a pro-tip: the greatest to hit percent chance increases you can get with melee weapons is affected more by Weapon Skill, Critical Strike and Strength. The way the game calculates your to hit chance in the back end, you will get a higher gain by diverting points from Agility to Strength. Melee weapons are not considered Agility based skills by Daggerfall, they are Str based skills. Agility has more of an affect on Bows than melee weapons. Finally, the Agility doesn't have a measurable affect on your Stealth in Daggerfall, as the actual skills themselves contribute more than any minor increases from ability scores. Furthermore, if you choose your Stealth skill as one of your Primary or top two Major skills, and use it frequently, it will level up very quickly, as the game also checks Stealth even when you are not actively using it. Just to be clear, there have been many folks before me to do exhaustive analysis on the way Daggerfall specifically calculates combat rolls, so the info I share in this comment and in my guide isn't just my anecdotal evidence. Once you try it out this way, you will be surprised at how powerful your character is, and how much easier Privateer's Hold is at the beginning.
@@StormyDGaming Thanks for the additional information. I rolled a new character last night for the sole purpose of previewing these attributes. I rolled with short blade as primary and archery as major since I have another character like this but with a focus on Agility to compare. I didn't feel a huge difference in short blade which is in itself telling, but I did notice a huge drop in my ability to hit with a bow... as you mentioned in reply. I picked up a longblade too and noticed a nice boost to speed compared to previous builds. I usually go for short blade for the attack speed. But I've been experimenting with attributes a lot lately and this has given me more to think about.
@@whanethewhip No problem! As an experiment, try building a character with either Long Blade or Blunt Weapon with this guide. You will notice a marked difference in Privateer's Hold and the other first dungeons you go in, as your ability to hit and deal damage will be noticeably better. The only real difficulty is when you have to start fight Harpies in dungeons after Privateer's Hold, and haven't found a Dwarven or better weapon yet. Enjoy your adventures!
Thanks for this video! I just wanted to say that my playthrough with this character build was actually easy. I was prepared to go into Daggerfall and suffer a bit, but I didn't suffer at all. I took my time with my development, made lots of side quests before really getting on to the main quest, and by the time I did it was a breeze, really. Leveling up happened quite quickly. So it's a very good guide, indeed, but I'd say it's one for beginners! Perhaps I should have trusted myself a bit more. Or, going forward, I should take this as an opportunity to do a second run with a custom build of my own, a harder one! Alas, I don't have the time for that. FWIW I finished the main quest at level 23.
exactly! now that you understand the mechanics of the game more, you can make it harder on yourself with different builds. I did that on stream for a couple of years. Enjoy your adventures!
I'll likely be using this soon! Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome, and thanks for the comment! Enjoy your adventures!
I was in the process of getting ready to replay Daggerfall and was hunting around for character creation advice. This looks great, will give it a whirl. Thanks, subscribed.
Thanks so much! Enjoy your adventures!
Never used magic in the game... just wasn't my style. But thanks to this guide I'm going to give it a go!
Awesome! Let us know how you like it!
@Storm Saga Games damn reading your comments...you really know your shit on this game... i appreaciate people like you who make these great guides.
Thanks FriendlyKoala! I really appreciate the great feedback! I need to step up my UA-cam game and make some more guides! ;)
Managed to (very stubbornly) roll a 477. Started at 90 STR, 60 INT, 35 WIL, 34 AGI, 53 END, 60 PER, 85 SPD, 60 LUC
Wow! You had some patience to get those numbers! Gratz!
Really annoying that there isn't a way to select what class archetype you want for your background creation. Trying to create a battlemage build and it keeps giving me thief questions.
Yeah... that is one of the random silly things that we can't control... ah well... happy adventuring!
U made me want to play it now, just from the character creation it seems so much better than Skyrim
It's definitely a different experience than Skyrim! They both have their pluses and minuses, but Daggerfall is definitely worth the experience with the Unity improvements! Enjoy you adventures!
i prefer this before Skyrim movie
hey this was really helpful, thanks. im starting out with no clue about this game and the number of seemingly overlapping skills is really confusing.
You're very welcome! I am glad I could help. Good luck in your adventures!
Just started Daggerfall for the first time today, wanted to look up a character guide just to be sure I wouldn't hit any snags on my first playthrough, you know what older games can be like :D
This guide was perfect and has set me up nicely, thanks a lot for taking the time to put it together, really appreciate it!!
Thank you for taking the time to comment! I am glad it helped. Enjoy your adventures!
@@StormyDGaming I'm too powerful, enemies last like 2 seconds before my blade 🤣
@@alexmcgreal836 Don't worry, you may soon run into enemies that are not damaged by your weapon's metal type. The challenge will still be there. ;)
@@StormyDGaming Yeah I melted them with fire magic, turns out it was a bad idea for the nymphs to go into battle without protection.
Now my ebony blade cleaves all who stand before me and no bank in the land can contain my wealth.
Lysandus shall be avenged, huzzar!!!
But yeah I'm having a blast, not been able to put this game down the last few days, thanks again for the tutorial here, just wanted to drop a few comments in to help with the youtube algorithm and all that jazz, it's useful stuff so I hope more people can find it 👍
@@alexmcgreal836 Thanks again! you're awesome!
Can't believe I played this game for decades thinking agility was a super important stat. Lol
in most RPG games it is. Daggerfall's mechanics are... unique... lol
Helpful advice here, thanks. Although a High Elf that can't use Elven materials is too Lore breaking for me.
Remember that this is meant as a guide. Feel free to adjust to your taste for your character. Enjoy your adventures!
You can start with an ebony dagger with the right back ground choices. Makes the 1rst dungeon easy
Yes, that is an option, but that is not always 100%. Sometimes the question for the ebony dagger does not come up during the background phase.
@@StormyDGaming it's worth the reroll if it isn't presented as an option ;)
@@GES1985 I appreciate that you feel that way, but it's also nice to know that there are other options, in case others don't want to go through the entire character creation process again. :)
well...now i need to make a new character lol. Great video
Haha! At least it's fun to make characters! Thanks a ton, and glad you liked it!
I'm going to start my first time in daggerfall, thank you so much
You're welcome! Have a blast!
very nice guide I used the spell absorption character from Zhakaron before but if it makes the game too easy what's the point?
Exactly! That's why my optimized character is balanced for fun and power, so you can still feel a good challenge! Thanks for checking it out!
Thanks for the tip on the too good character. I have played games before where I got a character to be too good and it took the fun out of the game. Great guide, ty.
You'rre very welcome! Enjoy your adventures!
@@StormyDGamingSorry if I am a bit off here, but I am having trouble finding the Identify spell. Is there one to buy in the city?
@@ToddPartridge Great question! You can only make the Identify spell at the spellmaker in the Mage's Guild. Hope this helps!
First off, thank you for making this easy to follow and concise guide. As a new player to Daggerfall, I can't help but feel very overwhelmed at how big of a game this is and I'm worried about making the wrong decisions, so this did help to alleviate some of those worries. I played Arena and have beaten it twice, the second time this week actually. So now the next logical step is for me to play and experience Daggerfall. Cutting to the chase a little bit - do you plan on making a guide on the background questions for character creation? I think I've seen only one video on the subject, but I sense you know a lot about the game and therefore wanted an expert opinion on the subject (not to discredit the other video I saw, of course).
I think you are a criminally underrated channel by the way. I was pretty shocked to see the low subscriber count, and I hope you continue to grow. I noticed you have done a series on Daggerfall as well, so I will definitely check that out to gain more of an insight on how to play the game through the lens of an experienced player. Subscribed :)
Thank you so much for the praise and good wishes! The UA-cam algorithm is brutal to new content creators! In regards to your question, I hadn't thought to do a guide on the "background questions," in Daggerfall's character creation. It's an interesting idea, but I suspect that it would be very long, and not as useful as you might think. There are a ton of different questions, and some of them change randomly from one playthrough to another. Also, the UESP-wiki for Daggerfall breaks down every detail about the questions. Here's the link for you: en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Background.
Thanks again for being such a great supporter and fan! Cheers!
@@StormyDGaming No problem, thanks a lot for your guide again. I just let the game choose my background in the end, because I think it chooses some of the answers based on your skills that you chose, If I'm not mistaken that is. And the rest it probably just randomises I assume.
@@IG7799-c4u Actually, if you go to that link I sent you, it shows you every possible outcome for every choice you can make regarding those questions. Some of those choices are definitely better than others. Just FYI. ;)
@@StormyDGaming Yeah I see, thank you. So I’m guessing if you let the game choose for you it’s pure random?
@@IG7799-c4u Correct. It's not a great idea to let the game choose for you, as the pattern does have random elements.
This was really helpful, and to the point.
Thanks so much! Glad I could help!
Really excellent and insightful video. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words! Enjoy your exploration of Daggerfall!
Wait.. So does agility not actually effect your Dodge stat much at all? Awesome video by the way. Really good information. Thank you!
Thanks for the compliment! I had fun making it! That is correct, the Agility trait does not make as much of a difference as simply upgrading the Dodge skill naturally. Agility doesn't have enough of a value in the game to make up for just pouring points into the right skills. Str and Speed make much more of a difference in the long run.
Thia has been enlightening thank you so much. Subscribed!
You're welcome! Glad I could help!
Best video
Thank you so much! Have a great adventure!
One of the mods I use makes magical regeneration based on willpower, now making willpower not useless 😂
Apparently agility is fixed in unity too so I'll have to take that into account now that there aren't any throwaway skills now.
That is a cool mod! I tried one of those out previously and it felt like it made the game too easy, but it allow3ed me to play the game in a different way, which was fresh and novel.
Great guide, you deserve more subscribers for sure ! :)
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your compliment!
sounds cool but i think ill modify it slightly here and there ^^
Of course! It's just a guide to give you an optimized option. Feel free to customize it for your own preferences! Enjoy your adventures!
@@StormyDGaming thanks :)
I played Arena, Morrowing, Redguard (The beginning), Battlespire (Also just the beginning), Oblivion and Skyrim.
Despite that i didn't touched Daggerfall until yesterday weirdly enough, even though it is an improved Arena. And Arena was my favorite TES game so far.
Yesterday i had played an "Glasscannon" mage with some short blades skill in case i have no mana. I followed the instructions to the attributes provided in the manual. I pumped up Willpower to 75 because it seemed to make sense according to the manual. While playing i noticed that my character felt kinda... disappointing. I just checked now today some character creation tutorials out and learned about the issues with willpower. Not gonna lie, that is kinda frustrating for a new player that the manual has so completely wrong information in it.
(As far as i read, it is not just an DF Unity issue but also in the original game)
In any case, thanks for the tutorial. I will use it as template and look forward to an improved game experience with my Argonian Spellcaster version 2.0.
EDIT: I kinda fell down into a character creation rabbit hole and do some more research on it. It is a bit weird to me that you can also use Luck instead of agility to increase hit chance. Does that mean you need to succeed a luck AND agility roll, luck OR agility roll or does the game use the higher stat of you or the lower stat of the target? That i couldn't figure out yet.
And also that agility only increases hit chance by 10% for the full 100 points is also a bit weird. It is interesting how the calculation system works but it also has some quirks to it.
I think you are over-thinking it. This game's back-end mechanics are unlike any other game out there. Agility and Willpower basically do NOT work the way they should, and do NOT make enough of a difference in combat. Focus on Speed and Strength and you will do great! Enjoy!
@@StormyDGaming Thanks for the advice and ye, i played today a bit and you are correct. Strength and speed are way more valuable in practice.
I have to say, the guide was pretty is pretty well made.
The character plays really smooth and is pretty beginner friendly.
wish I had seen this before I started playing xD great video!
Thank you! Enjoy your adventures!
You may want to take critical weakness to Frost NOT Shock, as all enemies of level 2 and above wont have frost magic in their spell pool, All Mages, Sorcerers, Vampires and Litches dont have frost spells in their spell pool beyond level 2 making critical weakness frost a must for all builds with zero downsides, this is of course very exploitable especially if you are a High Elf, but if you dont plan on being a High Elf, then get Critical weakness to all Elements and take Spell Absorption General, It will completely nullify all your elemental weaknesses, keep in mind that you need to have spare depleted mana pool to absorb the incoming spell for it to work, otherwise you will probably die!
Don't bother with Magic resistance as it only effects non elemental spells like Damage Health, Sleep and Silence! So if you dont pick Spell Absorption to mitigate Fire and Shock weaknesses, then your only other safe picks for Special Disadvantages are Phobia to Animals, as most Rats, Bats Bears and Tigers dont pose any threat at all.
You may consider Damage from Holy Places as a special disadvantage, so just avoid Temples and it wont effect you. You can still enter Holy Places and have more then enough time to do whatever it is that you need to do and survive, the only other holy place is a single room withing the fighters guild that acts as a holy place so just avoid it or exploit it to level up your Restoration and Medical skills as you can sleep there for free as well!
Contrary to popular belief Bonus to Hit effects damage per level NOT your chance to hit so its a good special advantage to take as well! Especially if you choose Humanoid or Unleaded!
Bonus to hit Humanoid effects not just humans but all monsters as well, like harpies and giants centaurs and they will be majority of the enemies you will face in the entire game! The only other option is Bonus to hit Undead as they are some of the most powerful and nastiest enemies in the whole game so being effective and doing a ton of damage is very desirable!
Thanks for the lengthy comment! You are suggesting a completely different build idea. There's a bit too much to unpack here, but I will say that my guide is meant to avoid cheesy/broken abilities like Spell Absorption during character creation. Now, if you happen to find an item that has it during your Daggerfall travels... then fair game! haha!
I've been playing daggerfall unity using your guide and I gotta say It is fantastic even when starting out. My only concern is what attributes to focus on after maxing out strength, speed and intelligence. Do you have any suggestions?
I'm glad the guide is working for you! Thanks for reaching out to me. It honestly doesn't matter much after those 3 are maxed. You could focus on getting Endurance up so you have more HP, or increasing Agility or Luck to make it a tiny bit harder to hit you. It's whatever feels best for that character to you. Enjoy your adventures!
@@StormyDGaming thank you so much for replying and godspeed.
@@Enclavefakesoldier Thank you for commenting! I'm happy I could help!
I like to do some roleplaying even when creating a character class and do it so my High Elf is kind of an elitist and won't touch iron because it's beneath him, and dwarven because of personal hangups. I know the choices don't give as many points in the level slider, but I don't like to level that fast anyway.
Also, I tend to completely forget that you can move attributes around in the character creation screen and my character's have been starting really average.
I absolutely love incorporating role-playing and character building into the character creation process! I obviously didn't include anything like that for this build, since it was designed to be "optimized for survivability" when factoring the games mechanics; however, you can definitely make tweaks to the process to incorporate these kinds of changes! Enjoy your "nuanced" character!
Great guide. I'm still torn on making an rp build, with skills like etiquette.
Yeah. Sometimes that's a hard choice to make. There is a mod that might help you decide. If you really prefer "role-play" style builds then try out Language Skills Overhaul: www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/257. It actually lets you use those "RP" skills in a way the base game can't. Enjoy!
@@StormyDGaming Thanks Ill check it out!
@@hithere8753 You're welcome!
I can’t even get out of the first dungeon even with this build I’m terrible. Worst part was I didn’t know you had to save manually at the start so I died, and had to watch this again and completely remake the build 😂
You'll make it eventually! I believe in you, and I know this build makes the first dungeon much easier if you are careful. Enjoy!
@@StormyDGaming I’m figuring it out lol, I’m just having a hard time finding quests/where to go in general. I’ve just been wondering around doing these small little tombs
@@XZoidbergxXx Your best bet is to join the Mage's Guild and the Fighter's Guild to get some great quests. You can also join a Temple and do their quests so you can get disease healing. Good luck!
@@StormyDGaming what’s your suggestion on this build to focus stats on after you have 100 in str/int/spd? I recently got a daedric dai katana and I’m wrecking everything with it lol
@@XZoidbergxXx Congratz on enjoying being a "wrecking ball"! haha! Honestly after getting those three maxed to 100, it probably doesn't matter where to put points. Luck is a bit "nerfed" in the newest Unity builds, and Agility and Willpower have only a marginal impact on anything. I would just spread it around wherever you want to make things look "even", or just throw the points into Endurance so you can potentially get more HP during future levelups.
When I first made my char, I dumped Str and Maxed Agi as a long blade user because I thought Agi was the best stat to hit stuff. Maxed out luck next. I didn't realize that STR was better than both even with blades. Other than that, this build is pretty similar to what I ran skill wise.
Having taken a look at the DFU BIble on the UESP, it seems that Agility and Luck are fairly comparable in utility. Agility and Luck have the same formula for hit chance bonus, the only difference being that Agility governs a number of skills (many of which we use in this build) and Luck gives a bonus to climb chance. With this in mind, is it worth balancing our stats a little by draining some Luck? Or is the reasoning behind lowering Agility to lower the base values of the governed skills to facilitate additional levelling?
It is not worth balancing with Agility, but it doesn't have anything to do with additional leveling. The effect that Agility has on your combat effectiveness is exponentially lower overall than the stat boosts you will receive from ignoring it in favor of focusing on the ones I outlined. Thanks for the great question!
Awesome video!! Thankyou!!
Thank you! And, you're welcome!
I had a feeling Stealth didn't require you to sneak to use it like it does in newer games. I frequently see it improving after rests even when I spent the whole time running around like a maniac.
Yep.. once you get your stealth high enough, you will frequently just walk up on monsters with their backs turned and one shot them.
@@StormyDGaming Add to that the way the game automatically checks to see if you "pacify" enemies if you walk around with your weapon sheathed and I imagine the late game can potentially be a steamroll in places, if both Stealth and all of your speech/language skills get high enough.
@@OneTrueNobody It's funny you say that, because I am currently playing a build on my Twitch livestream where we focused primarily on language skills, and we are trying to "befriend" everyone we meet. It's pretty hilarious. 😆
@@StormyDGaming Ah, well, the language skills can be helpful, but no matter what you do it's always going to be a random chance, and it only checks the skill the first time you walk into range of an enemy with your weapon sheathed, so. I can see it being a funny gimmick run, but it's not going to be anything approaching reliable until the skill level's pretty high.
@@OneTrueNobody Actually it's surprising how often it works, even at low skill level. Although you are correct that it is a bit of a gimmick, since we are using the language skills overhaul mod, we can recruit monsters to follow us around as party members. It's a lot of fun!
This will be my first character ever in Daggerfall, and seeing all the feedback is reassuring me you know your stuff. Question, do I have to select very high reflexes, or are the changes not noticeable or is there another reason?
Thanks for the comment and the question. You will have a more enjoyable experience at "Very High" reflexes because it will feel morenatural. I believe it has to do with reducing input lag, so you want it as high as possible. It doesn't mean you need to be a high speed gamer. Hope this helps!
@@StormyDGaming Thank you, I gave it a shot and it felt quite smooth and well paced. I died to the first imp, trial and error I suppose.
@@fallingonion4165 Yeah, the key is to get the other monsters to fight the imp for you or use magic on it and run away. lol
So what about if you want to go a pure mage? And could you maby show how you made your spells set up? (new to Daggerfall spellmaking system) and what about a basic healing spell hehe? Considering you choice to focus on restoration?
Please keep in mind, my build is designed for levelup optimization, and to give you a lot of options and survivability in Daggerfall, especially in the early levels. You can definitely do a "pure mage" build, but they are either too diffuclt to play or too broken to play with the Daggerfall mechanics as they are. Feel free to experiment with what works for you.
Great build. My daggerfall is only just installing, I have yet to start. Any advice for dark Elf?
Good luck on your quests, and be sure to have some potions of free action, cure poison, and cure disease on hand if you don't also have those spells!
Thank you for this guide. I really appriciate it. I only have one question. Why I don't have the same spells like you? I only have shock, chameleon and featherfall.
Thanks for the question. You need to purchase the spells at the Mage's Guild. Hope this helps!
@@StormyDGaming Thank you for your comment. I watched your whole video twice and can't find any difference so I was really confused, but now I can start my adventure without any any worries. ^^
@@xDonLucax Enjoy your adventures!
12:46 what does the "DAM +6" mean? My character can only roll -2,-1, or 0 it seems
Edit: I realized it's tied to Strength but I'm still unsure how significant it is
Keep in mind that my guide is using a much older version of the Unity Remaster of Skyrim, so some of those numbers are not quite accurate. Since then, the newer versions more accurately reflect the actual bonus that is tied to that stat; however, it's not anything to worry about. As long as you get your STR up, and raise it as quickly as possible, you will be golden. Enjoy your travels in Tamriel!
Nice video ! Thanks
You're wlecome! Thank you for watching!