Geneforge is a very good series of roleplaying games. One of the best. However, it punishes those who don't specialize their character and throw their stat points into the right areas.

Specializing your character is very important for all characters in gene forge but moreso for agents and guardians. Shapers can get away with making a few bad decisions as they have an army with them but guardians and agents, especially in gene forge 1 and 2, cannot.

Guardians-Unlike a lot of rpgs, dexterity is not needed for dodging in melee fighters as they will want more towards points in strength, endurance, quick action and parry in g2-5. Endurance especially as you are geared towards surviving attacks and not dodging them with dexterity. Guardians are the powerhouse by the way in gene forge 2 as parry is broken in that game. You can also go another route of a ranged fighter which requires less parry and more dexterity.

Agents-Agents rely on pumping intelligence, battle magic, spell craft, a little blessing magic, and then can specialize in either a moderate or heavy amount of mental magic. Strength and quick action are not ignored as well to make your character able to take enemies out with blades once in a while. Agents are very powerful in late game and can destroy many enemies by themselves. You can put a point or two in endurance but don't go crazy as these characters are not supposed to get hit as often. If you put more points into endurance, play a guardian or heavily combat focused character instead as they are more suited towards that.

Shapers-These guys are usually good to play in any of the games as they are decent in all of the games regarding challenge. The way to these guys is position yourself so you don't get hit and assist your creations. Other than that, stats are intelligence, one or possibly 2 shaping arts, blessing magic, a little battle magic and mental magic.

Mechanics and Leadership-These two skills can make your game tough or incredibly easy from the start. Some games require more of these 2 skills than others. I would say leadership is the one that you require just a little less as you can get by certain areas without it. Mechanics on the other hand, is very needed. Don't go too crazy, but don't forget these two skills.

Remember, specializing is key. Specialize in a few key skills, and your character will be very powerful.

I have just purchased these games. Having never played them before, the info you have given will be very useful, thanks. :)

I just purchased these as well. Couldn't resist 5 games, made with love and care and intelligence, for such a bargain price. I've barely played Jeff Vogel's games but what I have seen I have thoroughly enjoyed. I know what I'll be doing this weekend :) I hope the rest of his games make it to GoG - yay for turn-based combat!

[url=]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Vogel[/url]

Thanks deathknight1728 for taking the time to pass on that information. I bet it saves a few from the frustration :) +rep

No problem. The first time i played geneforge 1, I veered away from the typical build and messed up my character bigtime to the point where I barely got through the game. (I had luck at 17!) When i played the other games up to 5 i followed the norm of each character and enjoyed the games much more. I still look back at my first character and laugh, but at the time, it was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had for a game.

Luck at 17? Lol reminds me when I first played Diablo 2 years ago and gimped by Barbarian by putting way too many points into the leap skills cause they looked cool.

I played a shaper in each Geneforge, my strategy was to spam saving and loading to make sure i have the right amount of mechanics or leadership for an area. Plenty of points into intelligence and saving before creating creations to see if they were better or not than the ones I had.. But I have a tendency to abuse saving and loading in most games. =) (maybe another reason why Diablo 2 annoyed me. lol) At least on normal with a shaper none of the required areas were that hard to me compared to old skool RPGs.

But as Deathknight says best off to work on the combat skills that the classes specializes in it seems.

Hello again. Even though Ive played through the game with a guardian and an agent both melee and magic in some way, ive never played through any of the games with a missile weapon focused char. Does anyone know if say a guardian that wields a baton is useful or do you just eventually run out of ammo?

Any info of this would be great as id really like to try something different.

Have you checked the Spiderweb forums? The only reason I ask, is that there are some postings about the viability of a missile shaper that may be of relevance. There is also discussions on whether or not it is better to invest in dexterity vs missile skills, etc.

As far as I am aware, at least with the first Geneforge, there is enough ammo that is either found or bought (one area alone you can get quite a bit of Reaper ammo from farming Reaper turrets that should last you from that portion of the game to the end).

My level 18 shaper has over 10 bundles of reaper ammo atm. I find that I am having to leave other ammo on the ground (damn limited item inventory system...grrr).

Good Luck!

After completing Geneforge 1 with an agent, I decided to go with a guardian for Geneforge 3 just the heck of it. It took me a while to adapt to the class but after trial and error, I figured out what makes them good.



Guardians-Its actually one skill really-Quick action. You see other than the fact that Guardians should have at least 1 or 2 creations, they need quick action to remove enemies in the least amount of time possible. Now Im sure you might be able to get a high enough strength and melee weapons skill, but that might take a long while.

Quick action is the best skill for them because it usually takes down creations and other enemies quite a bit of the way and allows your allies the chance to focus on new enemies which are usually always appearing.

Parry is very useful too, but less so in geneforge 3-5. I would say to get it to 8 or 10 when you can, usually early. Melee weapons and strength are obvious and I would say 12-14 for melee with strength at 10 or 12.

Endurance is a killer too, but is almost useless in early game unless this is g4 or g5. In g3, it takes a while for this to get a good return of extra health. I would say 8-10 is a good amount, though you can get more.

Luck is possible later on, though dont go crazy.

Mechanics and leadership are usually always good on setting at 6-8 or 9 max if you feel like it. I usually aim for 7 or 8 and get the rest with items.

Guardians dont usually have need of putting points into intelligence and shaping skills. Though I would recommend if you do, put them in intelligence, its more worthwhile.

You can usually leave shaping skills to skills found from items and canisters. Canisters are a guardians best friend, at least to me.

They are a lot of fun to play (especially early on) but difficult against enemies that run away a lot.

In late game, guardians are very powerful, able to take punishment at increased levels due to high health and armor. In games such as geneforge 5 (and maybe 4), you can get a guardian to 1000 health, not too bad if you ask me.

Im hoping to try a shocktrooper in Geneforge 4. I will update this as soon as I can.

I rember once playing a shaper who mainly used batons instead of magic. In the beging i did run out of ammo a few times but by the end i had way more then i could use