How is the character creation like in comparison to Morrowind and Oblvions. Examples of your characters and how you did it will be appreciated!!!

The creation in Daggerfall is MUCH better than in Morrowind and Oblivion, in my opinion. You have four sets of skills in the order of "primary", "major", "minor", and "misc". This allows your character much more control over the skills setup than in the newer games. It also seems like there are more faces to choose from, but these are 2D images, not the complex 3D models used in the newer games. On top of that, there's the questionnaire that adds points to specific skills and generates a character background automatically, which is pretty good. What's more, is that you can edit your player's special advantages, disadvantages, forbidden materials, forbidden armor types, bonuses, and almost anything else you can imagine. Finally, you get to roll and reroll your attributes until you get them to a satisfactory level.

Overall, the Daggerfall character creation process if far more advanced than anything in Morrowind or Oblivion, but can produce some awesome characters for your individual play-style. Best character-creation I have used since the days of the text-based MUDs.

Think it's about the same number. Someone wanna go through and count?

Some of the advantages and disadvantages are odd. Day-powered magic, for instance, is sort of gimping, since most places you'll want to be using magic are in the dungeons.

That's kind of the point

But it's great to be able to have a char who cannot use iron or steel weapons or armor because of ... allergy? Then, you can use the points "saved" to make them heal faster or be immune to paralysis. I think the Daggerfall char creation is the best I've seen in any cRPG.

Also, for the record, Morrowind had fewer individual faces than Daggerfall (Six compared to like, ten), but in Morrowind, hair and head were seperate entities, and you had like, 36 possible combinations.

Anyway, it's possible to create completely nonviable characters in DF. Which is fascinating.

I always enjoy making characters who are severely gimped. Their flaws make them more interesting. Succeeding as an underdog is always more fun than succeeding as a super-powered god character. To me, at least.

I like that the gifts and curses can be mixed and matched so well in DF. The birthsigns they were replaced with are just pathetic. And being able to alter your starting attributes is wonderful. It's not like every dark elf is the same, which MW and OB seem to think.

Yes,
character creation system in Daggerfall is the best I have seen in any CRPG, except Darklands. It seems to be inspired by GURPS and offers true freedom to create any character you want to play.
BTW, I am tempted to create Linguist - but is it possible to finish the game with such character (Primary, Major, and Minor slots filled with Language skill + Etiquette and Streetwise)?
V.

One does not finish Daggerfall.
Can the Main Quest be completed by such a character is a question left up to you.
Rock on....

I should say that yes, it could be completed. It would be difficult to reach the minimum level requirements to start some of the quests, as you would need to improve your language skills, but provided you do a LOT of dungeon delving, you could probably get your miscellaneous combat and magic skills high enough for you to do some main questing.

Actually, thinking about it, it might even be easier, in a way, since you will be of a lwoer level than an ordinary player, and thus you will be less likely to run into, say, an Ancient Vampire.

I believe that you could win as a linguist easily. On m first run through the game, back in 1995 or 1996, I got to where I would go into dungeons and some types of monsters would just stand there! At the time I didn't grasp the concept of the languages and my player "convincing" them not to attack, but that was amusing. I'd walk up to a centaur who would stand there and make noises, but never attack. I originally thought it was a bug preventing monsters from fighting, to be honest.

With that in mind, a linguist with the ability to keep a majority of the monsters from fighting him could fly through some areas without ever raising a hand. That would be interesting to see.

A linguist might be theoretically possible, but a strict linguist -- all primary and major skills linguistic related, and all the other skills linguist or non-combat related -- shouldn't be capable of finishing the game. Almost every quest is ultimately combat related, and there's no real way around that.

What about this setup:

Primary: Etiquette, Mercantile, Streetwise
Major: Orcish, Centaur, Impish
Minor: Daedric, Dragon, Harpy, Nymph, Spriggan, Giantish

Such character - linguist/diplomat - would level up rather easily thanks to Primary stats. He should be able to talk out his way from starting dungeon thanks to languages in Major area. At the start, he should do some quests for merchants and nobles that do not involve too extensive dungeon crawling. He would spend earned money on language training. It is truth that sometimes combat cannot be avoided. Therefore, he should also train some weapon skill in Misc area.

What do you think about such character and what advantages/disadvantages would you recommend?
V.

It sounds like you don't understand how the languages work in DF. In this game, let's assume you come across a dragon. Your dragonish skill automatically attempts to reason with the dragon and if ti succeeds, the dragon won't attack you. So this whole theory of combat gets flushed. If all of your major skills are lingual, and you work on them in a safe manner and keep your primary attributes up, you won't have to do combat except in rare cases where running is generally an option.

One thing to note however, is that there is no skill to communicate with rats and spiders. I have had these creatures not attack before, but I am unsure as to why. You would need a way of dealing with creatures incapable of reasoning, or find a way around them until you get high enough so that they won't spawn.

A linguist will fair quite well in the Thieves Guild. No dungeons, and any combat is avoidable/optional.

How to survive as a linguist? Become a werewolf linguist

Except for the enemies without language skills.

By the way, I'm also not sure what skills like etiquette do. Do they affect how nobles deal with you or something? The way you address random townie NPCs doesn't seem to matter.

The Great Sephiroth, it is also possible that they remained immobile in your presence because of a high Stealth skill. Also, how I wish that there was an Ancient Vampirish skill.

Etiquette is used when you talk to somebody using "polite" as your tone of voice. Streetwise is used when you choose "blunt". As for stealthing, I rarely stealth at all, so I guess the thing was either bugged or just being retarded.

Right. I know that. I mean, blunt and polite seemed to give me the same responses as normal regardless of my skill in any of these skills. Did the actually different approaches change anything?

In my experience, I'd say they do nothing. The only noticeable difference is when asking townsfolk for rumours or directions - some will outright refuse to tell you depending on what tone you are using. However, since it isn't difficult to find another townie, I found that this did not impact my direction-finding.

I'd hazard a guess that they might affect the reactions you receive from certain people (i.e. maybe nobles do prefer people with higher Etiquette skills), and this might factor into your chances of being given a quest? Of course, that isn't really based on any evidence.

For me, etiquette and streetwise definitely works. I have both skills well developed with my current mage character, and I am able to assign proper names to majority of shops and taverns in any new town after only a few talks to NPCs.
Moreover, coversation mode (blunt, normal, polite), affects not only response you get, but also its wording.
V.

I do also find that the dialog skills do work. I find that the best clue as to which to use is by how they greet you: etiquette is best when someone greet you politely, streetwise when they greet you rudely. I think the reason you may not see any difference is because, for whatever reason, the first question you ask any one NPC will almost always be answered. It's subsequent questions that may take some skill to get. Of course, you can always just go find another NPC, they're everywhere.

Don't forget that etiquette and streetwise come into play in court when you debate or lie your way to freedom.

" and I am able to assign proper names to majority of shops and taverns in any new town after only a few talks to NPCs."

Yes, I can also do that without having my etiquette and streetwise skills developed at all or using the different tones.

If all of your major skills are lingual, and you work on them in a safe manner and keep your primary attributes up, you won't have to do combat except in rare cases where running is generally an option.

"[Work] on them in a safe manner" = "restore often when dragonlings kill you because you lack combat skills and your Dragonish is currently only at 40%"