noobery (dumb questions)

[bron]

My two cents on smithing: as others have said, you can ignore it completely or invest heavily in it. Most of the middle ground doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But I will mention a couple of possibilities:

1) Take 2 points of Smithing and buy Weaponsmithing. This only costs 800 exp and so is a quite modest investment. At the first forge, make some gear: probably a longsword, a longbow, and a shovel. After that, take the "Flaming Arrows" skill, and forge arrows every chance you get. Even if you stay with just the 7 points in archery, you'll still hit reasonably often, and the Flaming Arrows will give you a nice boost to your offensive punch. For me, this works well with Fingolfin characters.

2) Some people swear by the "Artistry Start". I'm not a fan of it myself, but it has been discussed in a number of posts.

3)The "Enchantment Start". Invest enough points in Smithing to get up to 10 Smithing ability. Buy Armorsmithing and Enchantment. At the first forge, smith Gloves of the Forge +2 (note that this takes an extra 200 exp), and a round shield of deflection (+2,1d3). Debate rages about what the third thing should be: I like a Cloak of Protection (+1,1d1). At subsequent forges, you can make a variety of useful gear: a Dwarf mask of Defiance or of Brilliance, Boots of Free Action, or of Sprinting. I favor Leather Armor of Resilience: even if you don't have a Restoration herb, you can make it and put it on, and you aren't any worse off. And once you do restore, those extra HP are all to the good. You can carry this one step further (I do), and also eventually buy Jewelry, and make a Crown of Grace. If you are a Feanor (i.e. Smithing affinity), this isn't to expensive. The gloves and the crown bring you up to 13 smithing skill, and you can make +2 rings of Accuracy or of Evasion, or a Feanorian lamp if you have some mithril. I like to make a Horn of Blasting if I have some Restoration. And if you find an enchanted forge, you can make a Feanorian lamp of Brightness and an Amulet of Constitution.

[locus]

The Artistry start is good for newbies, not for a skilled player like yourself. It's basically training wheels. The thing about the Artistry start is that it's a large boost of power in the early game (1-2 extra dots of prot/evasion/accuracy on each of six pieces of armor goes a *long* way), but in the mid/late game you're finding masterwork armor on the ground anyway, and you haven't boosted yourself up to artifact-making levels of smithing skill like you can with enchantment and +3 gloves of the forge. So it's good if you are having trouble even making it to the mid/late game.

[Kneller]

The Artistry start is good for newbies, not for a skilled player like yourself.

Did you just call me a skilled player? I only got the game a week ago. :P I've been reading the manual inside and out, though.

I want to plan a stealth backstabber build, if that matters in terms of advice. I have another thread going regarding specific build elements, but I'm still trying to grasp the mechanics.

Because I'm planning to focus on Stealth, Melee, and Perception, I don't expect to have much left over for other areas. I figure I'll get Song of Silence (and Lorien if I can pull it off), and enough Smithing to cover some early game basics. I doubt I'll even have any points left over to dabble in Archery, Will, or Evasion. If I do, I think Evasion will take priority as I would need a backup plan in case Stealth ever fails me.

[BlueFish]

I tried getting a backstabber going when I first started playing, but never managed much. Had a few deep dives, and they are super-fun if you can get them off the ground, but they're hard. But maybe you'll be better at it than I was.

The usual way of learning the game is just to do a standard melee/evasion sort of build though.

[locus]

Did you just call me a skilled player? I only got the game a week ago. :P

Referring to bron, who can't understand why people recommend the Artistry start.

[Kneller]

Referring to bron, who can't understand why people recommend the Artistry start.

Well, I am dying a lot, which is par for the course on a RL, so I'm at least average.

The usual way of learning the game is just to do a standard melee/evasion sort of build though.

I played/succumbed to a few games with a smash and grab build, but now I want to do something with a little more finesse.

Since I'm looking towards the Finarfin house, I'm tempted to ignore smithing completely. Looking at the xp cost for just the basics, I think I have more important uses for that xp. It kind of kills me a little to let all those forges go to waste, though. Still, even if I were to put those smithing points in Song, it would probably take me farther.

[taptap]

I want to do something with a little more finesse.

There are many ways to build your char in Sil. So go for it. I just would not be too rigid about it too early and try to be everything at start. You will earn more experience later and it is possible to develop a certain ability of your char later in the game. So you can play an assassin without much fighting for the first 500 ft. and only then start to murder things or you can play a light weapon fighter for the first 500 ft. and only then increase stealth to morph into an assassin. One of the best archers in the ladder started with a bit of melee and charge for early game power and only increased archery afterwards. I have made 0 strength fencers that started with a heavy glaive (from the forge) until they had sufficient skills to switch to the almighty shortsword ...

[Scatha]

Re. passing in stealth mode: Yes, you get +7 rather than +5. You also pass at normal speed -- so the monsters don't get extra turns. This is to stop people switching out of stealth mode just when they want to pass, which might otherwise be optimal play but is annoying.