Got around to downloading Daggerfall from Bethesda just a few moments ago. Sitting at character creation now. The installation was long, painful and done several times with lots of headdesking involved. And now, I am stuck already!

Egads there are so many creation options. Any suggestions? I'm going for a stealthy type. Thievery is optional, but killing ability is definite. So an assassin/thief of sorts. I'll rummage through the skills myself, but I'd like to hear what people think are good so I can make educated choices.

Also, yes, I intend to update this thread with my progress. I figure, so many topics asking for help and questions, why not toss in something humorous. As I'm sure it'll turn out to be.

Good! Welcome to a classical game of unrivaled scale and epic backstory Don't let yourself get frustrated by hour-long dungeons without the goal you entered for, this is an occasional bug which can be solved via cheatmode, but it is unlikely that you run into it

Keep us informed, I'm interested in how you experience the game

Even as a thief you are going to want (NEED) some basic spells most easily attainable as a member of the mages guild. To become a mage guild member you need 1 magic skill to be at least 22 which means that the skill should be a primary or major. I would recommend Mysticism to a thief. It contains the "open" and "teleport" spells, both very handy.

Illusion and archery are both good thief skills. It's tempting to pick stealth and dodging, but stealth is difficult to train without illusion, and dodging is very time consuming to train. Stealth isn't TOO bad, but it's best to pair with invisibility.

Backstabbing is good, but I'm not sure if it works with a bow. Probably does, but I've never used a lot of archery in Daggerfall.

Critical strike is good if you plan on using a weapon.

Thaumaturgy is extremely useful because of spell reflection. Most high level monsters, like Ancient Liches and Daedra Lords, cast spells that can easily one-hit-kill you.

Lockpicking is useful. Pickpocketing is NOT. You can't pickpocket anything useful in this game - trust me. The most you'll ever get is a few gold pieces or some lint (seriously.)

Thaumaturgy also gives you levitation I believe. That's not really a very pure thief thing to do, but it's less tedious than climbing and works in more places.

Backstabbing does indeed work with a bow. It's also stupidly easy to train if you like exploiting glitches.

Things like running, swimming and medical aren't worth choosing because they train up quickly if you use them at all, and you certainly will use running and medical (the latter when you rest).

Lockpicking is surprisingly useless. You get one try on any lock and I noticed when that skill goes up the dungeons seem to gain more magical locks taht you can't pick. Open spells are much nicer. The cheapest one you can make with the mages guild will open any city lock in one shot.

The language skills (named after various races) are not very useful. They are designed to decrease the chance you will have to fight a creature of teh given race. They have a very low success chance.

I haven't even begun playing yet, in all actuality. I made three or four characters but, unfortunately, I get stuck at a black screen after character creation but before the first movie. I have no idea why, but it hasn't failed to hang on that screen yet.

Lets see here... Going by what people here said:

Primary:
Short Blade
Backstabbing
Thaumaturgy

Major:
Critical Strike
Stealth
Mysticism

Minor:
Illusion
Dodging
Streetwise
Archery
Restoration
Alteration

Advantages:
Acute Hearing (It's pretty much free.)
Expertise In: Short Blade
(Lol, Immunity: Magic? xD)
Athleticism

Disadvantages:
Forbidden Armor Types: Plate
Forbidden Shield Types: Tower
Forbidden Weapon Types: Axe
Forbidden Weapon Types: Blunt

How's that looking? I got a bit stuck toward the end of my minor skills since I ran out of things to stuff in there, so I decided on a couple more magic skills. Also, Magic Immunity? That'd be a hoot.

For advantages, I strongly recommend picking increased magery. Magic is very important in this game.

Especially as a Khajiit, I assume, they don't scream "high magicka" to me.

Race doesn't really matter in Daggerfall when it comes to magicka(or any stats). It's all based on intelligence in combination with certain advantages/disadvantages. If you're going for increased magery, I also recommed x3. You might not need so much magicka, but it's fun to mess around with. I just made it impossible for myself to use any weapon types I wasn't going to use, anyway(everything except long blade).

Well, I finally got it to work after reinstalling for the third or fourth time. Sat in the starting spot for a few minutes getting a feel for the controls and ultimately ended up changing them all around to what I'm used to. Accidentally took her shirt off trying to equip a dagger, too. Fairly surprising to not find a bra under that shirt. :hubbahubba:

But, yeah, went with that build up above, added Immunity: Magic and Increased Magery x2. Pumped up my Agility and Intelligence a bit, and now I'm on my way through the little dungeon. Killed a rat dead, too.

Note that "magic" there is just one of the damage/spell types, not a blanket immunity to all spells.

I figured, it'd be somewhat overpowering to be completely immune to all forms of magic. Though it's easy to get that way in more recent games.

For an update, got further into Privateer's Hold, killed a few more monsters, and got killed by an assassin (I assume). It was disappointing. I forgot she was there, but I knew something bad was at the bottom of that particular staircase. Turned to the left as soon as I got down there... Well, at least I got to see a lot of cleavage before I died. Assassins these days.

The thing with immunity to magic is that paralysis, poison and disease are all checked against your magic resistance. Therefore, if you're immune to magic, you can still easily get fried by spells (don't think you won't!) but you'll almost never be paralyzed, poisoned, or diseased.

Yea, they use the element of surprise, and then the element of distraction.

As for your build, you may find limiting yourself from plate to be very difficult, especially for a first character. There is only 1 kind of leather armor and only 1 kind of mail, and they both svck. Plate armor is the only kind that comes in other materials, such as silver and dwarven and daedric. Just because it's plate doesn't mean it's heavy, as some materials (like elven and ebony) are extremely lightweight.

Either way, welcome to the game

ALWAYS get into Mages Guild unless you WANT to make your life a living hell. Restore health AND fatigue, water walking AND breathing, teleportation, levitation, you're gonna need those.

I, personally took the inability to regen mana and threw away the spellbook. But it's my Nth character ; )

Glad to hear that im not the only one who is 14 years late. I just started playing Daggerfall myself and i have to say its rather difficult to get my hands off this game. It has most of the qualities that perfect game would have (There are alot of bugs but thats what happens if game is just so massive). I gotta say that Graphics look AMAZING for 1996 game, i mean DAMN! They are outdated now tough but who cares right? Gameplay is what matters.

ANYWAYS!

I made myself an Warrior just for testing the game out right? Anyways since i really dont know anything about this game i need some advice. What i would like to play as an Warrior type of character. Since my first Character was for testing i'll make new one. So basically what do i need to know about this class and what build i should choose for it? I've readed somewhere that magic is essential for Warriors. I dont want to use magic, maybe an healing spell or something but that would be it.

If you're going to just be testing with the character, you don't really need magic at all. You can also play without magic anyhow, it's just more challenging.

But...
You need a weapon skill (stating the obvious). Long blade is probably the best to start with since they're very easy to find and effective.
Speed is an especially good stat since it also increases your actual attack speed greatly. Strength is also important since gold has weight.
Critical strike is good.
Please don't forbid plate armor unless it's for roleplaying purposes - although I don't see that happening on a Warrior.
You mentioned healing spells. That's Restoration. Restoration is good, because you can also use cure disease. Diseases are especially deadly in Daggerfall.
Mysticism and Thaumaturgy are also good - mysticism for Recall & Thaumaturgy for Reflect and Levitate.

Other:
The different attacks have different effects.
Stab/thrust - mouse down to up - less damage & more accuracy.
Sideways slashes - mouse side to side - balanced damage & accuracy.
Chop/overhead attack - mouse up to down -more damage & less accuracy. Kind-of difficult to pull off.

It'd be good to take some extra hitpoints per level when creating your character, unless you plan on using a lot of restoration. IF you plan on using a lot of restoration/magic you might take increased magery, it really helps.

You can bash open locked doors as a Warrior by attacking them, no worries about lockpicking or open spells.

Feel free to send any questions in PM.