Since I finished Ultima VI, I've been tempted to try one of the Underworld games, so I decided I should start with the first. I would like recommendations on how to create a good character (like the class, minimum stats, and abilities). There are many things to choose from and I'm not sure which would be best. Thanks in advance!

The most important stat is STR, since it governs how much you can carry and it's frustrating to have to leave too much stuff behind. So I suggest picking a class that can have the max (30) STR, and roll untill you get close to 30 STR and decent INT. Classes with high STR are Warrior, Paladin and Druid, and maybe a few more.
DEX is the least important stat (missile combat and thieving is too ineffectual anyway), so Druid is a good mix of might and magic. Druids can also start with Search and Lore skills, so they are my prefered class in UU.
I'm sure Jaana would agree.

On top of what was said above, there are some skills that are useless:

- thief skills like lockpicking or sneaking ar either of limited or no use or can be substituted by spells. Making a mage character instead of a thief character gives you the thief benefitz and you can cast spells on top of that.

- I found repairing to be useless as well, usually you'll find enough equipment in the dungeons and there is a mountainman smith who will repair equipment for gold.

- Pick only one weapon and use that, don't try investing in more weapons skills. It's better to be good with just swords than passable with swords, axes, maces slings and bows at the same time.

- Track, traps and charsima are useless as well.

- apprais can gie you better prices when bartering, but I didn't have any problems without. Plus, you are stuck in a dungeon, so all you gold is useless if no one wants to trade it.

. Swimming might seem like a handy skill, but I found it better to just avoid water altogether. Put a few points into it if you want to.


That said, Underworld is not a very hard game, so you can make a flawed character and still have fun. I rolled a paladin on my first playthrough and i didn't put many points in strength, forcing me to think very carefully what i would carry with me due to the weight limit. In a way playing a flawed character can ake the game more interesting. just roll a decent character, avoid useless skills and see how it plays out.

thanks for this advice - one of the few things i occasionally miss from ultima III is that there was sort of a point to Thief-types (only vaguely revisited in V with a high Dex regardless of class helpful for conserving Keys), and though i haven't played Underworld yet i was looking forward to Thief-ing it up; now i know better (always had a soft spot for spellcasting anyway - still can't stomach being a Fighter, Shepherd or even Tinker in U4...)

Strength 30 isn't really necessary. Below 20 is painful, and 24ish is a good starting point, but it's better to avoid encumbrance issues by simply not hauling around more than you actually need. This is particularly true if you intend to use magic as a substitute for other skills, since you'll also want a reasonable Int stat.

Regardless, one skill that every character strongly benefits from is Lore. While you can use magical means to identify the power of an item if your Lore isn't high enough, you have to have enough Lore to realize that the item is magical to begin with!

Getting a few points of Acrobatics is also helpful since it greatly reduces the amount of incidental damage you take from moving about in uneven areas.

Paladins are surprisingly weak, I don't know why but they are. RG hates cats, I don't know why that is either. LOL. Druids are more combat oriented even though in all the other games the Paladin is considered "a fighter with some magical capabilities". In this game, he is a fighting mage with some charisma(a totally useless stat I found no effect negotiating no matter the amount put into this skill) I'd put in two weapons, not just one, the sword and the mace, you can fight skeletons better and I think the damage resistance is present. there are a lot of enemies who will rush you ranged attacks are useless! use magic on the spellcasters. this game plays much like Arena(Elder Scrolls) in that regard. I just wish Paladins were more as they were in UW2 I also wish charisma and tracking were put to better use. I play fighters and druids. focusing on combat mostly then magic and spellcasting(spellcasting 3rd priority mana second).

UW1's character creation treats Paladins as a Dex/Int class instead of a Str/Int class - a pretty big blooper, but fortunately corrected in UW2.

I do advise putting a few (and only a few) points into Swimming and Acrobatics. It makes getting around much easier, there are some places where you can't really avoid the water, and you'll avoid taking incidental damage when jumping small distances, which is quite common.

If you want to have the best chances of doing anything in the game, keep creating characters until you get 20/20/20 for the stats (slight bias towards STR is ok). Reason being, you can easily max out your combat and spell casting skills with that setup and be able to pull off both with equal ability. Paladin class also has a bias towards those two abilities and seems to be the best of both worlds.

this could work for a lightly armoured paladin, if you want to wear heavy armour and carry around your stuff(and you aquire a lot stuff you can't sell important to the quest, you need a 24(an attainable for this class) but I would try a class with higher strength and sacrifice a bit of spell casting, personally though. druids are decent enough.

No you don't. You just need to find a good hiding spot on the map and be, and you don't even have to do this to a drastic degree, selective about what you carry. Towards the end of the game I had full armor, every slot with a backpack or sack pretty full, the black sword, 2 jeweled swords, food, and the 8 artifacts. And that's just what I carried with me.

He said if you want to carry your stuff. There aren't that many essential items to hang onto and going to fetch one when you need it is a pain. Better to just get a few more points of strength. Dexterity is pretty useless in both games anyway.

Basically the best class in Underworld 1 is Druid, and in Underword 2 the Paladin.

And wear heavy armor he also said. Both wrong on the condition he stated. Psh! The game has you running all over the place anyways, so I don't see how an extra trip now and then is a big deal. Then again, I can handle a little extra work. This is assuming you want to keep everything you come across anyways which is tantamount to hording behavior in a game. Note I stated to be selective about what you carry. A few extra points of strength maybe nets you the ability to carry an extra sword or two and do a tiny bit of extra damage. Whoop de doo!

Dex directly affects the chance at which you hit. It's definitely not useless.

More to the original point, there is no absolute objective best in the game. There's different factors that affect your preferred play style. This is the very thing that makes Underworld compelling. There's no one-size-fits-all approach. Merely considerations.

Dex is objectively the least important stat since it governs all the poorly implemented skills as well as missile combat. In actual play low Dex will not hurt, low Str will.

The game doesn't work the way you think it does. It's factored into all combat roles internally, not just the skills associated with that stat or ranged combat.

This is why you have to consider what approach you want to take in the game in advance. You're forced to weigh the priority of the various 3 stats since you only get so many points in each and can't adjust them later.

What I mean is that low STR will be very noticeable and quite frustrating when you can't wear the heaviest armour or can't carry enough useful stuff.
I haven't played a character with high DEX, though, so I don't know how different average DEX is to high DEX in practice, but I never was frustrated because my characters (Paladin and Druid) couldn't hit enemies.