The Drunken Lizard Pub

Hi everyone =] Grab your popcorn and gather round, for I present to you a work in progress guide of my own, hope you like it and/or find it useful.

A few notes first:
In this guide I will do my best to follow the storyline so that it also works as a bit of a walkthrough, I also plan to skip chests with randomly generated loot.
Also, I will be doing a little powergaming or perfectionism to not waste too much skill points and get a lot of our character's potential, however I shall try my best not to overkill this concept to avoid making things unnecessarily tedious/boring.
[Like swapping rings and equipment every 2 seconds]
My goal is also to make this guide as universal as possible to suite different playing styles.

Game mode: Easy - Food & Water requirement turned on, I advise to skip force consistent resaults because I shall be using a save/load trick when trying to get specific items at merchants. This is not a guide for max score and/or achievements.
Fun is the top priority =]

You are probably wondering what type of character I shall be playing as,
will it be a powerfull Mage? or maybe a noble Palladin?

I proudly present to you:

"The tales of a food merchant"

[Scratched vinyl record sound here] Wait..what??

Chapter I Character creation:

Stats:
STR 7+
DEX 7+
END 7+
SPE 7+
INT 14
WIS 13
PER 14
CON 7+

I know that rolling those 3 stats can take a while if you are not lucky but in my view it's really worth it.

Now - 20 points to assign - put all of them in Perception, this way we will have 83 mana at the start.

You can be either male or female.

Kessian is a must because it will boost our INT & WIS to 15 both, thus allowing full access to tier I spells of both Divine and Elemental.
[Don't panic this is not a 100% mage guide!]

I advise to take an Agnostic Healer because:
Atheistic - doesn't allow to use Bless spell, and it's a nice spell for anyone wielding a weapon.
Virtuous - Bless is a cheap spell and we shall be using Arcane Divine skill anyway.
Druidic - may seem tempting but with high perception you will be regenerating your mana points super fast anyway so it's really not worth the trouble in dungeons.
Nefarious - I don't choose this one because it changes the free skill we gain as a Healer.
Yes a Healer - it will boost our divine skill to 6 at the start and we do want to reach 11 fast.

Skills:
- Arcane Divine 5+1
- Merchantile 5
3 spare points left - save them for now.

Let us begin our adventure =]

Chapter VIII The Beginning.

[Save your game]

Once you wake up, check the container next to your bed to find a key, an apple [yum] and a journal. Eat the apple, read the journal [not the other way around!] and put it back in the drawer, we don't need to carry it around.
What we really want is the key - it will open the chest on the left that contains: 2 healing potions, 2 mana potions, 200gold and a scroll of fleshboil [if it's any other spell, re-load your game, we really want that spell]
Take all the items, learn the spell and ready it to cast at lvl 3.
In the next room you will find another container with a water skin, take it and go to the well behind your house to refill it and yourself.
Once you exit the house through the front door, you will notice a letter for
you from a man named Darus who want's to meet you, so let's make our way to the town. [Head West]
"Oh noes!" a pathetic Catacomb Rat stands in our path:
"You shall not pass"
Cast fleshboil on him and presto - a boiled rat meat - your breakfast.
[nom nom nom..burp]
Click at the town sign to unlock a quick travel marker.
Stop at the Blacksmith and ask if he has any tasks for you.
We could really use more money so accept his quest.
North of the blacksmith you will find a house of Constable Gammen.
The front door is locked to go around the house and enter through the back door. Now you can either scare him that you have come to take the sword, kill him [he has 80gold], or completely ignore him.
In the room with the chests there is a sword on the wall on your right, click on it and remove the sword from the rack. Now go back to the blacksmith and give him the sword - in return you get 100gold and 150exp.
On your way to the tavern stop by the magic shop and if there is one, buy a potion of invisibility I for 80gold. [if there isn't any you can buy it in Everdale when we get there, save the game before talking to the seller & load if there is none to buy]
Now go to "The Wayfarer's Jolly" in the middle of Eastwillow and talk with
Darus. Great, now look what you've done - if you haven's spoken with him he would still be alive...poor poor man..
Hey! free stuff Loot his body to find a Viewing Glass and an arrow.
[Accept the quest to find the assasin] For talking with Darus we gain 300exp. What we want to do now is talk with the town's priest - Father Tyrus and help him with his problem. After obtaining the quest and a key go towards the locked door where the well is, feel free to grab the 3 torches on the way, they will come in handy because - we are about to explore our first dungeon level of the game =] Join us then to see what happens next - will we advance to lvl 2? Will there be more tasty rats? And why is my shirt backwards? See you soon with more fantastic adventures of the food merchant.

I'm subscribed! Following with interest.

Chapter II "Rats, darkness and no room service"

Open the locked door with the key Father Tyrus gave you and click on the well to enter the dungeon level. Light a torch to see better and follow the path, you will encounter 3x Catacomb Rats, kill them with fleshboil. Head west towards the locked gate, a nearby leaver will open the passage.
Ignore the locked door on your right and go through the remains of the door destroyed by rats, speaking of which - kill one on the way and go south, pull the leaver to open the next door. Further down there is a floor covered in tiles, if you step on one - the fate to explore further and the gate behind you will lock so avoid stepping on them and stand next to the leaver.
Once you pull it - 5 gates will open, letting out 5 ratsin total - kill them with fleshboil [if any of the rats step on a preassure plate, the gate will lock, in which case just pull the leaver again] Continue through the newly open passage way [feel free to rest to regain mana] you will notice another locked door. Go further, kill another 2 rats, ignore the dead body [trap]
there is another preassure plate next to a torch step on it to open a secret wall. Rest in the large room with a campfire if you havent already.
Talk to Julian in the nearby room, you can clearly see that he is mad and there is no hope for him - kill him, take his key and loot the container next to his bed for some food. Go back the way you came, now that we have the key we can open the door to the room we passed earlier, on the table there is a note, ink & quill [take it, it will help us with one quest] and a small ruby. Explore the nearby room. Congratulations! - you have found the first unique artifact of the game - the everlasting bucket of cockroaches - hunger will never be a problem again =]
Well..not yet but we are getting there.
Exit the dungeon by the way you came and inform Father Tyrus that you found Julian - 150gold, 500exp. and best of all our first lvl up
Add:
3points to Arcane Divine [6+3]
3points to Merchantile. [5+3]
3points to Perception. [34+3]
You should now have 91mana. Ready to cast fleshboil lvl5.

[note: I know I skip 2 rooms with chests (random loot) and the other part of the dungeon with more rats and a secret room with a chest (~100gold)
behind a blastable wall. I find it to not to have any significant effect on my strategy, fleshboil doesn't work on explosive barrels and the exp. from those rats doesn't affect my progress.]

Chapter III "A hat, a monocle and an unknown beef jerky"

Let's follow the storyline a bit. Show the Viewing Glass to Elenaise in the magic shop [+100exp.] She will tell you to go see a fellow name Minus he might be able to tell us something about this misterious item.
Follow the road to the west to the next sector - Greenriven Lake.
[Save your game] Walk through the dam, two Blackmold monsters will cross your path, kill them with lvl5 fleshboil (they have a chance to resist the spell, but you shouldnt have problems with killing them), rest to regain mana as there will be 2 more of them when you continue along the path to the south west. Enter the house and talk with Minus. [+500exp.]
He will tell you to visit his friend in Port Kruudad. Go north past the dam again, fight 2 more blackmolds - you should now have your second lvl up.
Add:
+3points to Merchantile [8+3]
+3points to Perception. [37+3] (our mana regenerates very fast now when camping)
Go north to Western Kessian Basin untill you see a crossroad.
There is a shady looking character named Xed here that offers you 400gold if you kill the magic shop owner Harpen. Keep the offer in mind and the quest in your log. Follow the path east to Everdale, there will be a bandit Outlander on your way and a chest, easy to kill with 2x fleshboil lvl5. Continue east to Wolfenwood untill you notice a trail of blood. Talk with the dying man and accept to help, take the special potion. [Save your game] On your way east there will be 2x Red Wolfs (they also might resist fleshboil but it will kill them no problem, just keep your distance and keep casting from afar) Enter the next sector.
You are now in Everdale - click on the town sign to add a quicktravel location. [Save your game] Buy a Dealer's Hat from Ara (+2 Merchantile)
[Reload if there isn't any for sale] and a Create Food (if you have a hard time finding it, leave it for later once we get to Port Kruudad soon)
spell from Harpen.
While you are there tell him about Xed and you will have an option to kill him instead of Harpen. [Personally I think this second option is a lot better because you don't want to loose a magic shop] Go and kill Xed, take his ring as proof and go back to Everdale (quicktravel). If you quote a scene from Pulp Fiction movie to Harpen:
- What kind of motorcycle is this?
It's a chopper baby.
- Whoose chopper is this?
It's Xed's.
- Who's Xed?
Xed's dead baby..Xed's dead.
You will recieve 500exp and 500gold.
From Everdale go north and turn east at the crossroad sign to Port Kuudad.
The gate to this wonderful and rich city is locked and the unfriendly guard wont let you in unless you present a citizen writ or bribe him with 2000gold.
Remember our potion of invisibility? Now is the time to use it - stand right next to the guard [Potion of invisibility I lasts for 10 round so we want to be in and out fast] go forward, forward, up, flip the gate leaver, down forward, forward. Enter the city, in the middle of it there is a black monolith - click on it to unlock a quicktravel location.
Go to Lockston Hall Academica and talk with Saint Gilhelm. [+1000exp.,
+ Philosopher's pendant] Time for another lvl up.
Add:
3 points to Merchantile [11+3]
save the 3 stat points for another time.
Left of the Academy there is a small house of they sick boy and his mother, give her the special potion for 300exp.
You should have ~400gold left over, save your game and buy the following items:
- Create Food spell (if you haven't already in Everdale)
- Magica Divine book (sell it after you read it, it will boost our arcane divine skill to 11 and this allow us to cast lvl 6 divine spells of tier I)
- War of Merchantalism. (+2 Merchantile, sell after reading)
- Lore spell (to identify one of the food items that we will be creating soon)
Exit Port Kruudad and go north to The Forsaken Coast.
Ready fleshboil lvl6 spell [Save your game], the troll monsters here are a bit tough but even fleshboil lvl 6 can kill the as long as they are at least 7 tiles away from you and all the castings of the spell hit (trolls have a magic resistance). You want to kill at least 4 of them for 1000exp to lvl up.
If you go from the very far east side of the sector there will be 3 Trolls on your way to where we need to go anyway. Kill them one by one, from afar, rest to regain mana and save your game after each battle won.
(You should be able to survive to hits when they get too close, keep casting fleshboil and hope for the kill, if you are unlucky, reload your game and try again) Kill one more (3+1) and lvl up
Add:
+2point to Merchantile [14+2Book+2skill points] (+2Hat)
save the stat points.
Now we will be able to sell out food at full price! And belive me it is worth it.
[In theory we could be selling our food at half price (default) and save spending 16-18 skill points but belive me it takes too much time for too little profit to be motivated to do this]
We want to locate a secret entrance to a secret society - use the viewing glass you help you locate it. The entrance is hidden in a rock.
Enter the location and speak with the people there. You gain 2000exp points for finding this location and thus gain another level.[6]
You should have 9 stat points & 4 skill points saved.
How you spend them will depend on what type of character you want to play the game as.
Let's not advance to the 6th level just yet and focus on something that will benefin everyone no matter who you wish to play as.

Gold

Chapter IV "How to turn a fish into gold without the use of alchemy"

Ok guys this is what you have been waiting for =] We are starting to make money which is the core of this strategy guide.

Go back to Eastwillow to your home and stand right next to the bed and the chest of drawers [empty]. For best resaults make sure that you can carry at least 40lbs of food, which shouldn't be a problem even at STR 7 (50lbs)
At lvl 5 (and the 6th level flashing green to upgrade whenever I want to)
I have 118mana, which allows me for 13 castings of lvl6 Create Food spell,
which means 26 food items created whenever my mana is full.
The 4 types of food that lvl 6 Create Food generates are:
- Salted Fish (3gold)
- Bread (3gold)
- Dried Meat (15gold!)[lvl6 Create Food only]
- Wild Potato (2 gold)
At 20 Merchantile (16skill points +2Book+2Hat) they are worth full price.
The goal each time is to keep casting the Create Food spell untill you have
100 Fish
100 Bread
100 Meat
[I don't count wild potato because we will be feeding on it, its worth 2 gold and weights the most]
This is worth 300+300+1500 = 2.100 gold!
And here is the best part - once you get the hang of it you can create all that food and sell it to merchants in...

5 minutes of real time.

I have two ways of doing it:
1. When I want to wait at least 7 days to pass for the shops to restock.
2. When I noticed some very nice item to buy but don't have enough money yet and because of that - don't want much time to pass. (And loose the chance to buy the item when the shops re-stock)

1. Make sure your hunger and water bars are full and that your water skin is filled to the max. Keep casting Create Food untill you run out of mana.
[Your right clicking speed should be a steady 1 click per second, you won't outrun the casting animation by clicking as fast as you can]
Click on the bed and press "Y" to confirm sleep. You wake up at 8am the next day with your mana full.
Repeat this process once.
On the third time - cast create food again as many times as mana allows
and then eat some wild potatos & drink water to fill both hunger and water bars to full or near full. Click on the bed and hit "Y" to confirm.
Basicly eat and drink every third day for whole days to pass.
[If you are not fed or hydrated well enough you will wake up earlier due to starvation or dehydration]

2. This is basicly the oposite - keep casting create food & resting and eat/drink only a little to be able to sleep. You will be waking up early.

If you run out of water for the water skin - just click on the well next to your house. If you are overburdened when you run out of water - simply click on the chest of drawers and put the potatos there to loose the weight.

Now, since the food generation is random, and we want to have exactly 100 of Meat/Bread/Fish for easier selling - keep casting the spell untill one of the 3 items reaches 100 and then put it in the chest of drawers.
Then keep casting untill you have 100 fish or bread - put the 100 in a drawer and finally untill the third food item also reaches 100 exactly.
Remember that once you are done - put the wild potatos in the drawer to loose the weight. Take your precious 100 Meat/Bread/Fish to your inventory and quick travel to Everdale.

Here are our buyers:
- Jarvik 360gold Eastwillow
[if you want to sell the potatos, can be skipped to save time]
- Travet 700gold Everdale
[sell him 100 Fish & Bread for 600]
- Marisa 1200gold Port Kuudad
[Sell her 80 Meat for 1200]
- Fanny 500gold Port Kuudad
[Sell her 20 Meat for 300]

Don't worry this may sound very borind but you get great amount of money in a short time which should easily motivate you.

To put it into perspective - doing two "sessions" of selling food [2100+2100]
is more than enough to but you training to lvl 8 (3600gold) and a book +2
And it takes about 10 minutes.
Not to mention all the awesome items & spells we can buy at much lower than the default price. [20 Merchantile discount]

Once you make your first 2100gold, go to Port Kruudad's magic shop
"The Darkest Arts Magic Supplies" [Save your game] and buy a Manaflow pendandt. It will add 20 to your mana so that you can cast even more Create Food spell at a time.

Next time we shall have a look at what to buy =]
[I'm still doing a bit of testing on this, but I'm hoping to make a list of the most tempting options]

Chapter V "How to turn alchemy into gold without the use of fish"

You may be wondering - what could possibly be better tham making 2100gold ?

Well..making 8.000 gold

In Port Kuudad there is an alchemist called Becha, she has 3500gold every week. Luci from the magic shop has 2500gold.
What do those two ladies have in common?
They both buy alchemy reagents and we do want to get our greedy little hands on their gold ;]

Do two sessions of selling food to raise 4200gold, we want to invest that money in the skill of foraging. Quick travel to Everdale and pay a visit to Harpen's magic shop - we want to buy a green ring that adds +2 to forage.
There is a trainer for that skill in Wolfenwood - to get to her you have to follow the path untill you see a bucket - there is a hidden path through the trees into an area called "Fletcher's Grove".
Talk with the Hunter and spend 3600gold on 8 levels of foraging skill.

[Big thanks to Jedi_Learner for the list of trainers =] ]

Go back to Port Kuudad and look for a book called "Extreme wilderness survival" at the merchants - it will boost our new forage skill to 10.
Lastly visit the magic shop and look for a second green ring.
This will gives us a forage skill of 14 and it's worth every penny.

Now everytime we rest long enough we shall have 8 random alchemy reagents waiting for us in a bag when we wake up.
How long do we have to camp to get 8 items?

About 9 seconds [Based on my tests]

You don't even have to count it - all you have to do is eat and drink for your hunger and water bars to be full and observe the hunger bar closely.
Every 3 seconds you will loose like 1milimeter of food due to time progression while camping. Wait for it to happen 3 times amd calmly press the Esc button to end resting. Click on the bag of goodies that just popped up and collect 8 items.

Here is a list of all the reagents:
- Auriflax [150]
- Ectoplasm [130]
- Toadis Pollen [120]
- Black-Spotted Shroom [90]
- Wormleaf [85]
- Anise [80]
- Dried Brainstem [60]
- Dwarvish Meatloaf [55]
- Stinkroot [50]
- Ambergris [30]
- Mercury [25]
- Corpse Ash [25]
- Raven's Heart [25]
- Belladona [22]
- Willow Bark [20]
- Brimstone [12]
- Mandrake Root [10]
- Noximander Venom [10]
- Lamp Oil [10]
- Spider Silk [8]
- Sulfur [8]
- Cotton Wick [3]

Thats a total of 1028gold for all 22 items.
Since we want to gain 3500+2500gold from Becha & Luci just keep resting and gathering the reagents untill you have all 22 of them and then look for the smallest number you have in your inventory among them.
Thats how many thousands of gold you have for sure [since its all random].
Keep resting untill that number is 6 or if you are lucky and have lots of Auriflax or Ectoplasm, then sell it all for 6.000 gold

Where to camp easily and safely?
You can do so right next to the Alchemist's shop in Port Kuudad [on the left, near the city wall and the rocks]

It's hard to tell how long it will take you to get 6.000 worth of reagents
because it's all random. But it takes ~5 minutes of real time for your hunger bar to go from full to empty, in which time you can to the 9second rests about 30 times [~33 to be exact but you will run out of water first]
Which means ~240 reagents gathered in about 5 minutes.
Divide that by 22 and you have a rough number of 10 thousand gold's worth of items.

Here is a list of skills we can get with our all money at this point in the game:
Note: this is not a full list yet
[T-training, B-book, R-ring, A-amulet, G-gloves, H-hat, C-cloak, Be-belt]
- W.Bows 8T+2B+2A
- W.Thrown 8T+2G
- W.Swords 8T+2B+2A
- W.Cleaving 8T+2B+2A
- W.Blundgeoning 8T+2B+2A
- A.Elemental 8T+2B+2R+2R+2H
- A.Divine 8T+2B+2R+2R+2H
- Cartography 8T+2B+2A
- Alchemy 8T+2B+2R+2R
- Foraging 8T+2B+2R+2R
- Spot Hidden +1B+2R+2R
- Lore +1B+2R+2R
- Meditation +2C
- Medicine +2Be
- W. Brawling +1B+2R+2R

[Note: When you read a book for a skill in which you don't have any points invested (example: lack of trainer) you get +1 not +2 ]

[Later once we get to the thieves guild:]
- Hide in shadow 8T+2R+2R
- Move silently 8T+2B+2R+2R
- Lockpicking 8T+2G

[Later once we get to the dwarven town]
- Repair 8T+1G

Join me next time for more adventures =]

You do a decent job of explaining how to make money with Foraging and Create Food, but some of your advice is questionable.

If you have Fleshboil 5 on your way to Port Kuudad, you don't need an invisibility potion. You can easily pick up a Writ.

Why do you advise players to save their ability points? There is no advantage to be gained by doing so and it may well cost them HP/MP.

Why do you suggest selling food in groups of 100? You say something about easier selling, but it is just a slider. There is no difference between 100 and any other fairly large number.

Saving potatoes to eat later provides no benefit. When you get hungry, cast the spell once and eat whatever you get.

Your method for estimating the value of all the alchemy ingredients you have foraged makes no sense.

Your early posts were kind of a cute story and fun to read. In your later posts, you dropped the story and got far to specific in your advice. It's probably better to stick with explaining the general strategy rather than holding the reader's hand through every step, particularly when many of those steps are not really helpful.

Krafen wrote:You do a decent job of explaining how to make money with Foraging and Create Food, but some of your advice is questionable.

If you have Fleshboil 5 on your way to Port Kuudad, you don't need an invisibility potion. You can easily pick up a Writ.

I use the invisibility potion to get to Port Kudad because to me it is the simplest and fastest way.

Krafen wrote: Why do you advise players to save their ability points? There is no advantage to be gained by doing so and it may well cost them HP/MP.

I said not to level up from lvl 5 to 6 simply because im my view it would have no significant effect at that point and /or/ even be wasteful.
Once we start making money from food and reagents we can buy a lot of skills from trainers/books/rings and then boost the ones we choose with the saved skill points. The difference between 10 or 9 mana at lvl up doesn't make much difference in this guide so it won't hurt much to wait.

Krafen wrote: Why do you suggest selling food in groups of 100? You say something about easier selling, but it is just a slider. There is no difference between 100 and any other fairly large number.

I chose a 100 for because it is a nice, even number for good amount of money. I also based this number on the amount of money the merchants have at Port Kruudad. For me 100 is a large enough number to be motivated bu the money gain [1500gold from dried meat itself] and relatively small enough not to die of boredom in the process.

Krafen wrote: Saving potatoes to eat later provides no benefit. When you get hungry, cast the spell once and eat whatever you get.

I chose potatos because they weigh the most and are wort the least, true you can eat the fish/bread/meat you make but I think its better to save them since we want to sell those and just feed on the more useless item.

Krafen wrote: Your method for estimating the value of all the alchemy ingredients you have foraged makes no sense.

Well..it makes sense to me tell me or PM me what you don't understand about it exactly and I shall try to explain better.

Krafen wrote: Your early posts were kind of a cute story and fun to read. In your later posts, you dropped the story and got far to specific in your advice. It's probably better to stick with explaining the general strategy rather than holding the reader's hand through every step, particularly when many of those steps are not really helpful.

I dropped the story because this is the part of the guide where we spend most of our time in Port Kruudad, making money, buying things we need.
I will come back to the story I promise ^^ but before that I want to point out the options people have and prepare for the things that I know are ahead of me.

Perhaps I should point out a few things:
Everything I know about the game comes from the notes I make during my gaming time since I like a bit of tactical planning/thinking.
I was not a beta tester or part of the development team so my knowledge of the game is limited to what I learn during playthroughs.
This is the first guide I ever wrote and I do it for fun, hoping someone will get a occasional laugh, learn a new strategy or find something usefull.
Since I don't have as much free time as I would always like to have this is written a bit on the go - I play this character during my free time and share
what I would do.
Because of all this it's very hard for me to avoid things getting a "bit" hazy ;]

Really good! After the Rogue, i'll try this build with Macintosh Book II release

I really enjoy your guide and hope that you will continue. I stopped playing because I think the game is very hard so your work can get me going again.
Please do tell all the details so you help people like me. I think I will play the game with help from your guide and then replay on my own.
Happy gaming

Thanks mamachi =] No worries - I will continue the guide (next chapter is on its way)
The combat can be hard depending on what kind of character you play [a mage with both divine and elemental has the easiest game in my view, while a warrior with no magic is a lot harder especially when you have to fight 3 foes at close range] and what tactic you use,
[The Sir Robin the Brave tactic works well - keep casting/attacking untill you kill a foe then bravely run away to make a camp and regenerate.] having an option to use magic and having lots of money as opposed to buying everything at twice the price (as default with no merchantile skill) really makes the game easier.
It's always a good idea to finish the game once so that you have a better understaning of it/know what to ecpect and thus have even more fun when you replay it because you can plan things better snice you know what was useful and what could be changed.
Don't be afraid to start as a bit of a mage like in this guide - this is just the basis that will make your game easier [more spells means more choices] and you still can play as whatever class you choose. [unless of course you want to play with no magic whatsoever]
So far we have invested 9 points in divine [divine heal spell at lvl 6 will benefit everyone, Bless will help every fighter, create food gives us money and stops hunger, lore will identify every item we come upon]
16 points in Merchantile.
That's 25 points invested. And the 10 levels of weapon skill of choice that we didn't choose at the begining of the game we simply buy at the trainers and books.
15 skill points used which is just the first easy 5 levels of the game and we have lots of benefits thanks to that.
[Plus the damage we loose for not ivesting those 15 ponts in a wepons skill
we get back from Bless lvl 6 spell and Enkindeled Weapon]
It's really worth it in my opinion.

On a side note: 500 Views
Thanks to everyone who enjoys reading my guide =]

That's a quite interesting guide.
I never thought that merchantile could be such a handy skill.

You guide does work, but I think it could spoil gaming fun.
From the role playing view it's a little bit strange too.

Imagine, one fine day you get a strange massage.
You visit the man who wrote that massage.
At that very moment when you talk to him, he gets killed.
Fine, let's go home and produce several weeks food to sell ...

I don't what to embarrass you, but I mean, that's a little bit of powergaming.
It's like cheating money with a hex editor.
Most of the skills you get for free.
For me it reduces game fun.

Nevertheless, your guide is very interesting.
With my next char I will level alike, but I will not powersell food.

JoeSlow wrote:That's a quite interesting guide.
I never thought that merchantile could be such a handy skill.

You guide does work, but I think it could spoil gaming fun.
From the role playing view it's a little bit strange too.

Imagine, one fine day you get a strange massage.
You visit the man who wrote that massage.
At that very moment when you talk to him, he gets killed.
Fine, let's go home and produce several weeks food to sell ...

I don't what to embarrass you, but I mean, that's a little bit of powergaming.
It's like cheating money with a hex editor.
Most of the skills you get for free.
For me it reduces game fun.

Nevertheless, your guide is very interesting.
With my next char I will level alike, but I will not powersell food.

Hey you forgot the
"lets jump inside a well and boil a man for the church"
I was thinking - should I make this guide in a roleplay way [atmosphere, rpg feeling like pen and paper sessions] getting in character and so on, but since I like making people laugh I decided to make it the way I did.
I did warn about the powergaming part ^^
I wouldn't agree that it's just like cheating with a hex editor -
you work to make the food [invest time] and then sell it well because you are a successfull merchant [high merchanting skill]
So you are using the game mechanics fair and square, abusing it a bit? perhaps - but you did work for it and there for earned it.
I don't get the skills for free - I pay for them ^^
I choose to do do so because we get 3 skill points per level which is not a whole lot when you look at the number of skills, and since I don't "waste"' them on skills that I can train in, I can put them to a much better use.
I can understand that it reducess the fun for some people but at the same time others may find it fun [not having money problems, having a powerful and a universal character etc.]
This is not your typical guide/walkthrough - it only shows my example of doing it - you don't have to agree with everything I post here, you don't even have to play an exact or similar hero, but you may learn or find something interesting in my guide or just have a pleasure of reading it =]
Oh and I know that my wierd mathematic descriptions or methods I use can be painfull to read/understand, but if I have an idea I want to present here I just try to explain it well or in a bigger picture.
Stay tuned for more if you like - next chapter is in the making.

Sorry, I didn't mean to disesteem your work.
I just wanted to tell my thoughts.