I just started fresh after taking a hiatus for 5 years, and am debating the skill/stat balance for my new character. Here are my requirements:

1. Best Miner possible
2. Best Smith possible
3. Ability to make pickaxes and smith hammers
4. Ability to cast recall/greater heal reliably and mark without too much trouble
5. Ability to handle mid-level monsters I might run into while exploring/mining (lizardmen, orcs, etc)

Here's what I'm thinking for my skills:
1. 120 mining
2. 120 smithing (does arms lore help?)
3. 80 tinkering
4. 60? Magery (do I need eval int?) 20 med?
5. Swords/tactics/anat/heal/parry Which ones do I need?
Other:
Is focus useful?
A little bit of magic resistance?

What should I do for my stats? I assume max str, but int/dex balance?


Sorry for the many questions, but this is a nuanced (and important) topic.

Thanks

Staynalive

Your char is exactly what I want outa my miner and smith.

I have:

Durnik
120 Blacksmithy // needed for best smith
100 Carpentry //only if you like carpentry I will drop it when the new crafting skill comes with SA
100 Evaluate Intel //needed only for direct damage spells
100 Arms Lore //needed for best possible armor
100 Magery // recall gate and EV are doable
100 Mining // NOTE this is the max you can have NOT 120
100 Tinkering //needed to make shovels axes and golems
720


To be a decent warrior you need parry tactics weapon anatomy, unless you go archery which doesnt need parry. You can do PLENTY of damage with 100 magery and 100 Eval Int. And EVEN if you dont have eval int you can cast EV or eles to fighter your mid levels.

IF you go mage you want max STR and as max as you can Int.. Dex is not necessary. UNLESS you are a warrior then you NEED all 3!! So my moral is I would stay a mage its the easiest move for a miner.

the only thing I would add is choose your race carefully, each has distinct advantages. the elves find more gems while mining while the humans have better results when smelting (unless this has been changed) also human gets JOT (jack-of -all-trades) gives that 20 to med. could also drop magery or eval down and add med, replace these drops with items (such as +15 rings and bracelets).

An interesting choice also is the "stealth miner" which makes fighting avoidable

Making a mage miner would also free up weight from heavy armor. I'll have to think on that one quite a bit.

Weight from armor is not an issue no matter which route you go.

These are your base skills off of your "wants"

120 Blacksmithy
100 Mining
100 Arms Lore
100 Tinkering
60 Magery

Leaving you with 220-240 skills points.

You could go with

110 Weapon Skill
110 Tactics
Stats: 125 Str/80 Dex/Rest in Int

or

110 Magery
110 Eval
60 Med
Stats: 125 Str/10 Dex/Rest in Int

or

110 Magery
110 SpellWeaving
60 Med
Stats: 125 Str/10 Dex/Rest in Int

I'd go with this last one 'cause it gives you the most fire power for the amount of skill points you have left, and a lot of people underrate Mind Blast for PvM where it's quite useful/effective.

Also, there is no 120 mining. It is 100 max.

i go with the smith/mage template..but that's just me..helps ya get around better..can gate with new packies and stuff...plus can do a little adventuring as well with decent mage