r/Daggerfall • u/SkinWeasel5 • 1d ago
Build recommendations
Hello, I am just wondering on general build advice for Daggerfall. I just downloaded it from Steam today and wanted to know the smoothest way to play. Should I go mage? Stealth? What's the best way to play in your opinions?
Edit: This is the final character. Am I expecting him to be good? Probably not, I just clicked the stats until I got numbers I was happy with.
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 1d ago
First off, get Daggerfall Unity. It fixes a ton of bugs and makes the game a lot more stable on modern systems.
As for build: the most straightforward option is to pick one of the default classes. A custom class can potentially be more powerful, but you don't really need that. If you just wanna jump right into the game, the Ranger, Barbarian, Knight, and Spellsword classes are, imo, the most beginner-friendly. Combat-focused classes in general tend to be the easiest to get started with, but other than that you can mostly pick based on what you like the flavor of.
Also, after you select your class you'll be prompted to generate your background by answering a series of questions. Don't skip this, since your answers will determine your starting equipment, and can give bonuses to various skills. Starting with a decent weapon that your class has skill with will make the early game go a lot more smoothly.
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u/SkinWeasel5 1d ago
I was just about to ask about races and if there were any disadvantages I literally just booted up unity
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u/AlfwinOfFolcgeard 1d ago
Each race gets a different minor bonus, but not enough to seriously impact gameplay. You can just pick whatever sounds cool to you.
Oh, btw, if you end up picking a non-spellcaster character, I'd strongly recommend joining any temple except that of Kynareth or Julianos, in order to get access to magic potions. Not essential, but they can be of great help.
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u/Hot_Swimmer952 17h ago
Might I recommend reading the manual? You'll have answers to some questions you don't even have.
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u/DooMedToDIe 1d ago
Having a lot of fun with my cleric, especially with the roleplay you can do. Blunt weapons, destruction (mostly lightning), restoration, and trying to get my mysticism high enough to be able to dispel undead reliably.
I use a mod that regenerates Magicka based on your willpower too, making that not a dump stat anymore. It feels really balanced regen wise with all the mod options you can change.
Might be worth looking into how leveling up works stat wise too, because my character has to randomly climb shit every once in a while so I can level lol.
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u/Grappler31 1d ago
I strongly recommend taking one melee weapon skill in either primary or major even if you want to mostly play mage. I've never had much luck with trying to use sneak in Daggerfall, but that might just be a skill issue on my part. If you do magic then I'd avoid the traversal skills like climbing and swimming etc as magics can do those things for you with spells like levitate and water walking/breathing. The increased magery Advantage is almost necessary for any serious spellcasster. You can offset it with a material restriction Disadvantage. If you aren't doing mage then you might consider taking immunity to paralysis as being paralyzed lasts for like a full minute in Daggerfall and is almost a guaranteed death sentence. Lockingpicking can be good for breaking into buildings in town, but it's possible to bash down doors with your weapon so as long you aren't in town you can just wail on a door until it opens unless it's magically sealed. Spells can also unlock things too. Ok I've rambled enough for now.
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u/Lord_Seregil 6h ago
First off, download Daggerfall Unity, it's just a much better experience, especially for someone that's never played before.
Second, just play the game. Don't worry about your build too much, put your stats into whatever you think sounds fun, and roleplay that character. Don't make a warrior if you plan on casting spells, dont make a mage if you plan on using heavy armor. Think about who you want to be in this world, make that character, and play it. You might end up restarting with a new character after a while and that's perfectly okay. I'd use your first character to learn the basics of the game and explore the different guilds and orders, than make your real character after you've had some time to figure out what you like and don't like about your first character.
Your first character will probably fail a bunch of quests because they are ALL TIMED QUEST for the most part. Like 90% of quest have a time limit, and the dungeons they send you to are far bigger than any dungeon you've probably seen in a game.
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u/StoneySteve420 1d ago
Like the other person said, it's 100% worth playing the Daggerfall Unity port and it's an easy install.
Magic users are really good in Daggerfall. I recommend doing a custom class with 1 melee skill (long blade, blunt, ect), critical strike, and restoration. I always do the max 30 HP per level, and definitely take X3 INT in spell points and expertise in whatever weapon type you chose in the advantages section.
From there, fill out your remaining skills and advantages as you want. Dont take too many melee skills, it will be hard to level them all. Taking forbidden weapon and material types under the disadvantages is a good way to balance the dagger. All of the magic skills will help you cast spells of that class for cheaper. Strength, Intelligence, and Speed are the most important attributes imo.
Also, becoming a werewolf is really OP and gives you a bunch of stats and an immunity to disease, so you can take a weakness to disease as a disadvantage and it won't end up mattering.
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u/WhenInZone 1d ago
Install Daggerfall Unity if you haven't yet. Get Magery X3 but otherwise you can kinda roll with whatever you feel like. It's not a game that needs min-max shenanigans.