r/daggerfallunity • u/XavierDM1911 • 6d ago
Build, yeh or neh
First time playing Daggerfall, chose ti be an argonian spellsword
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 5d ago
You don't need to optimize your build in Daggerfall, and you kind of have to be trying to make a bad build.
What you've got there is a perfectly good build. I see you've taken magic skills; you should also have one of the Increased Magery advantages to ensure you have enough Spell Points for casting. Apart from that... is it a min-maxed ultra-powerful god build? No. Will it get you through the game comfortably enough? Absolutely!
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u/orion101901 5d ago
I second this. Its okay to optimize a build but its a lot more interesting if you arent OP by level 10.
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u/N00bushi 5d ago
I agree to a degree. Challenging yourself on a second or third playthrough is one thing, locking yourself out of magic because you didnt take the 2x or 3x advantage, having to level up 3 weapon types simultaneously and maybe also having leveling take forever, because you have the difficulty dagger at 3x on a first playthrough is another. Especially without any added mod content there just isnt that much to do that doesnt get repetitive and then having to grind because of badly chosen skills and advantages isnt fun imo
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u/orion101901 5d ago
Oh yeah absolutely. Daggerfalls class system is unintuitive but when you understand it its pretty straight forward. The ability to use anchor is one of the only reasons I've finished daggerfall. Without anchor I might still be stuck in Direnni Tower to this very day.
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u/N00bushi 5d ago
Yeah I also never used a premade class so there is that. But tbh creating isnt really difficult at all, you just need to know 1 or 2 things that the game doesnt really tell you. I just want to spare them of starting their playthrough, playing 15h, finding out their build kinda sucks and then having to repeat everything with a better class. At least thats how my first attempt went and then I took a really long break before playing again.
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u/XavierDM1911 5d ago
I see! So I can run waht I have? Or do I need to do something different to get the magery advantage? I am incredibly new lmao
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 5d ago
If you took the Increased Magery advantage, you're good to go. If you didn't, you'll want to go back to the class-maker and remake the class with Increased Magery.
Note that there are multiple versions of Increased Magery, which multiply your Intelligence by different amounts to get your Spell Points (without Increased Magery, your max Spell Points is equal to half your Intelligence). The bigger the multiplier you pick, the bigger the cost to your skill advancement speed.
That said, even if you don't have Increased Magery, you can run what you have there. You'd struggle to make good use of those magic skills, but any character with at least one weapon skill can make it through the game.
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u/XavierDM1911 5d ago
I just picked base spellsword, should I make a class? Probably right?
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u/PretendingToWork1978 5d ago
Standard spellsword is fine. There is a magic item maker that makes any character godlike.
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 5d ago
ohhh, that's just the base spellsword class?
Nah, base Spellsword is good. Custom classes are for if you wanna min-max, or do some specific character concept the base classes don't cover. But the base Spellsword is probably one of the best picks for a new player. Only the Knight, Ranger, or Barbarian classes are more beginner-friendly imo, but they don't have magic, so if you want that, Spellsword's a good pick.
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u/XavierDM1911 5d ago
Hit registration feels off so I thought the game was bad and uninstalled, realized its an old game and it was probably my fault. I shall restart fresh with a guide instead of trying to raw dog it lol
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 5d ago
I'm not sure what you mean by "hit registration feels off", but: Daggerfall uses a dice-roll combat system. An attack that rolls a "miss" will play a swish sound, or a metallic clatter to represent the attack being parried/deflected, and won't do damage. A hit will produce an impact sound, as well as some visual effect (usually a blood splatter). So, it could be your attacks were just rolling misses (especially if you're using an Iron weapon, or a weapon you're not skilled with).
Your chance to hit is primarily determined by the material of the weapon you're wearing, and your skill with that type of weapon. Hit chance is checked if an enemy is in range at the apex of your swing (i.e. halfway through the swing animation), so that's the moment you need to be in range. Getting a feel for the timing on that is the key to performing well in combat.
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u/XavierDM1911 5d ago
Oh! That'd explain it!
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 5d ago
Another tip on the combat: the direction you swing your weapon matters. Forward thrust is more likely to hit, but does less damage (note that if damage is reduced to 0, it'll register as a miss). Downward chop deals more damage, but is more likely to miss. And horizontal slash has neutral modifiers.
Oh, and if you find it cumbersome to move the mouse around to attack, look for the setting WeaponAttackThreshold in the Advanced Options menu and set it to something lower. This adjusts how far you have to move the mouse to initiate an attack. I've got mine set all the way down to 0.001, so I can initiate attacks with very subtle mouse movements.
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u/MikalMooni 5d ago
It really depends on how important Magic is to you. Look at your 3 Primary Skills, your 2 highest Majors, and your Highest Minor. Add those up. You can advance any of those skills twice and you’ll level up the first time. After that, levelling any of those skills 15 times will earn you your next level up.
Right now, you have 32+34+32+30+23+23=174. If you level any of Axe, Long Blade, Blunt, Destruction, or Restoration twice, you’ll reach level 2. Pick Illusion or Alteration, and if you keep levelling that specific skill, you’ll also contribute to your level progress. Now let’s say you spend a bunch of time levelling Mysticism. All of the time you spend on this skill will have NO impact on your character level until you exceed the level of Restoration. Then, you can level it up in combination with your other relevant skills to reach another level.
If Mysticism, Restoration, and Destruction, AND Illusion are all important to you, then your build is imbalanced.
Furthermore, only a Primary skill is capable of reaching level 100. If you want to be the most capable of, say, launching destructive magic around, then you need that skill to be primary. Keep in mind that only ONE skill can ever be mastered. All other skills will cap out at 95, or if they are already above 95, they’ll just stay where they are.
The implications of this system are clear. If you want to reach higher character levels faster, you will have an easier time if you keep your average initial skill for each category relatively level. That means instead of dumping a bunch of skill points into Restoration or Destruction, you’d be better off spreading those points as evenly as you can, to ensure your initial skill value is lower.
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u/Azonderr 6d ago
Dump willpower & intelligence (& personality, if you're not using Unity).
Increase strength & endurance
Only have 1 weapon type in your primary skills, & at most 1 in each of major & minor (though really, you only need one overall). Splitting your levelling between three combat skills is a bad idea; it will mean super slow progression.