If you wish to play as a mage, telekinesis can be use to do this.

The whole problem for a mage seems to be having the patience to wait until you get spells to duplicate the utility of skills. I appreciate how Risen and the Gothic games make you go through all sorts of hell before you get access to magic.

I have to say, I love gnomes. They're so irritating it's funny. I can't remember any other game where short, disgusting humanoids were so well characterized.

Yes I agree - with both points and I love how the gnomes fight. There is a certain charm in being pelted with books and raw fish - amongst other stuff :D

However, you can fast track your way to the Monastery at the start of the game. I've never done this so I can't be certain, but I've a feeling that if you wish to access all of the magic options in the game you need to get there via Harbour Town where there are quests you can do to demonstrate your suitability to become a Mage.

The bonus to taking your time to get to the Monastery is that you can boost your stats via quests that will not be available if you are taken straight there. Doing this does mean you can afford to place some skill points in areas outside of magic more easily.

What I don't know is whether you can fast track to the Monastery and then do the quests in Harbour Town to demonstrate your ability to train as a Mage, or whether escaping is an option. I might have to go, restart the game and check this out, but hopefully Summit will know the answers :)

Most quests in Harbour Town (allegiance quests to be exact) are unavailable to you once you join the order (get caught by the white robes). In short once you're in the monastery you cannot perform certain quests in harbour town and almost all quests in the don's camp. To maximize experience from quests the best way is to do all quests in the don's camp (that doesn't tie you to any faction), then harbour town and in the end the monastery. Unfortunately that means relying on melee in the first chapter and no magic untill second chapter.

Yes - I thought as much as that's how I tend to play the game. Taking this route does have it's advantages once you reach the Monastery as you can build strength, dexterity, sword and bow/crossbow skills on quests that are otherwise unavailable.


It would be interesting to hear how going straight to the Monastery affects the game in other directions. For instance; Is the choice to become a Mage still available to you, or do you have to become a Warrior? Also, are there any advantages to taking this route and learning at least some of the magic options early in the game?


These are 2 questions I don't know the answers to due to my preferred style of play and route through the first section of the game.

If you are forced to join the order, let yourself get caught, the choice to become a mage is unavailible. The only way to join the mages is to do a quest for Master Belshwur, to get his approval and of course siding with the order in allegiance quests in Harbour Town. There is no real advantage to skipping harbour town and don's camp and going straight into monastery. You'll deprive yourself of many experience points (from quests) and end up few levels behind in later chapters. Exp is a hard commodity in Risen.
One more thing: a difference between being a mage or warrior of the order is very slight. Both can use offensive magic . The only real difference is that mages can cast utility spells directly from runes (at greater mana cost) and warriors of the order have to rely on scrolls (which isn't really that inconvenient). The quests for mages are great though.

Four questions about factions, quests, skills and combat:

1. I'm currently roaming the island freely and working on the Bandit quests. I'm told that if I enter the city I can't just leave it again, and if I get caught and transferred to the Monastery, all ongoing quests from outside are cancelled. So do I have to make a choice for one of these three paths early on, or is there some way to postpone the decision and do as many different quests as possible first, in the swamp, the city AND the monastery? If so, is there a crucial order in which to do things (e.g. the bandit quests seem to be the least exclusive, so maybe I should first finish them before going to the city)?

2. Is it advisable not to solve quests before getting them, or does it not matter and I can do whatever I want in Risen? For example:

*MILD SPOILERS* While exploring the island, I've completed a quest by killing 8 grave moths near a farm, without knowing about the quest. I've read that some Bruce on the farm is giving out this quest, but so far I've stayed clear of the farm because the peasants attack me on sight, calling me a marauder. Should I reload the last save game and hold off on completing that quest before I actually get it (maybe at some point in the game, the peasants won't attack me anymore)? Or is it fine to kill the moths without a mission to do so, as I got the quest xp nevertheless? *SPOILER END*

3. How easy is it to mess up your character in Risen? And what are viable class combinations? If it was up to me, I'd love to learn every skill available and then decide spontaneously which ones are the most fun to use, but since in most RPGs you have to plan ahead and rule out certain skills in order to master others, how much leeway is there for bad choices? For example, so far I'm mostly a melee warrior, but I've also learned basic hunting and thieving skills, only to realise that something like basic sneaking probably isn't very useful on its own, since enemies still detect me before I can reach them. The same might apply to lockpicking - is it worth it to spend some points into this skill if I don't want to become a pure thief? Sneaking, magic and shooting can be fun in general, I but I guess a melee fighter is always a bit better off, if you take the whole playthrough into account (e.g. mages, thieves and hunters might be very powerful once they've maxed out their skills but also might have a harder time until they get there)?

4. Something quite annoying that I've also noticed in Gothic 2: Sometimes my character won't react to the commands I give him in combat and he won't hit even though I press the left mouse button. In Risen it happens on occasion when I'm holding up the shield by keeping the right mouse button pressed and then press the left mouse button to attack. The character will keep holding up the shield and do nothing else, even if I let go of both mouse buttons. He shouldn't keep holding up the shield for a second or so if I don't press the right mouse button anymore, should he? And normally he doesn't. So is this a bug or by design, because if it's the latter I don't understand how it's supposed to work. Maybe it's something about the way the auto-targeting is handled?

Hmm, I played as a bandit and didn't get attacked by the farmers. However, I did encounter a number of times in the game where I completed a quest that I wasn't yet given. You'll still get the exp, but you might miss some as you usually get a bit more exp and sometimes a reward when you go back to the quest giver. If you're able to find the quest giver afterwards and the dialog ends up giving you the quest, just talk to them again to get any remaining reward for the completion of it.

I finished nearly all of the quests at the swamp that I could, and then went to Harbour Town. I didn't bother leaving the town until I had completed as many quests as I could there (you can work both sides of the quest lines in there until you come to choices that force you to pick one side over the other, the dialog choices will indicate these ones in parenthesis). You CAN leave the town if you want by jumping over the wall in certain areas, although there's little reason to do so. I think you have to pay 100gp to the guard to get back in if you do this.

Watch out with your skills. You're not going to be able to be a "master of all" in this game. Focus on one particular weapon type instead of trying to level sword, axe, and bow (dex). You can pretty freely add points to the "extras" like lockpick and smith. Sneak is very handy for looting residences in this game, although you can get a ring that gives you that ability if you don't want to spend 5LP on it. Same goes for acrobatics, there's a ring for that. Most guides only recommend 2 levels of lockpick since you get get scrolls of Open Lock, but I found those scrolls to be pretty rare, so I'd say go for 3 levels. I didn't put any points into any of the magic skills.

I never had the issue where the shield would stay up after letting go of the mouse button. Using a wireless mouse? Maybe check the batteries.

If we're talking about the same farm, that's weird ... Just to be sure, I don't mean the one where you can get help to enter the town, those farmers are neutral towards me. But not so the ones on the farm that's described as the main collecting point for the Inquisition, and that's where the roaming grave moths are. I think there was also a guy near the farm who warned me to go there since there's one of the Inquisitor's men overseeing the work. When I get near, I'm attacked by the farmers (and arrested, I suppose).

Nope, a wired one. But who knows, maybe there is some problem with the mouse button; I can't tell. I didn't notice anything strange in other games though.

Anyway, thanks for the advice! I wasn't planning on wasting skill points and money on different melee weapons, but it's good to know that I can combine melee and thieving skills.

Oh, you're referring to the farm run by Severin, the inquisition guy. I thought you were referring to the one run by Tristan.

Check that one after you pick a side in Harbour Town. None of the inquisition tries to press-gang you after you've joined a group, so that's probably what's happened to you. I didn't visit that area until after I completed Harbour Town.

Yes, that makes sense, thanks!

My advice for new players is this: after you first wake up on the beach, be sure to wade out into the surf until you get close to the deep water.

I played Risen 1 twice, once on box release, the other on the GOG release. Loved the game. Played as a Mage with Level 10 Fireball and Level 7 Swords. Level 10 Fireball is strong as heck and takes down almost anything in the game with a few shots. The Tier IV rune Inferno might sound cool but it's basically useless compared to Level 10 Fireball which costs only 8 mana compared to 80 mana and does as much dmg. Level 6 swords lets you wield Bastard Swords, which the mage can use since they get to train up to Level 7 Swords. I fireball anything and melee those who come close, with a good bastard sword they don't stand a chance. Sometimes, I just go into melee for the heck of it, the melee combat in Risen 1 is satisfying compared to 2. If things get heated up, summon Fred.

I have lockpicking up to 2 for the early locks. Eventually you get to unlock everything with magic as a mage. Smithing also up to 2 for the bastard swords. Never took Archery for my mage, didn't see the point with my spells.

Leroux

1. If you enter the city you cannot leave it legally. However there are illegal ways to do it, like jumping from a certain point on the city wall. The quests that tie you to any faction are all in Harbour town, therefore it's advisable to do swamp quests first, then Harbour town and finally you're free to explore the island without having to worry about being dragged to the monastery against your will.

2. It is advisable to pick up quests before you solve them. There are two reasons: First, you'll get some more dialogue options from the questgiver, and second those dialogue options often give you exp points (not always though).
And if i were you i would reload to a previous save and avoid any encounters with the order, peasants from that certain farm included.

3. If you are really careful with your exp points and try to min/max (which is impossible on your first playthrough) you can get as high as level 30 (i actually managed to get to 31 on my recent playthrough). In your case getting to 27 level is what you can expect. Which means you'll have about 230-250 LP at your disposal in parts of the game when it really matters. That means you wont be able to learn even half at what game has to offer.

Tomorrow i'll give you some tips and general builds which should be very helpful. Right now i have to go to bed. There's work in the morning. Bye