Do you need to be his apprentice for him to teach you? I am the hunter’s apprentice.
It seems to me you’ve spread your skills a little bit too much. I didn’t train anything relatd to missle weapons (dex and bow). I have a 11 or 12 level merc with 60 str and 50. I can bit regular orcs easily anougth one at a time.
Constantino seem happy to train anybody, once you know alchemy. I never even finished his quest – those herbs are worth a lot more than than 200 XP.
That’s what I decided, but I am still early in the game. I am a novice, but no one will teach me alchemy yet. Do I have to wait until I am magician to learn this from someone else?
Go to the port area in Khorinis and head left into the ‘slums’. You’ll encounter a blacksmith. If you look around some more you’ll find a guy who is testing out spells in one of the houses and will ask you to try out one of his products for him. IIRC he can teach you some alchemy skills once you’ve done that.
I had to learn 3 different healing potions before he gave me the option for strength, but Constantino came through. I only had 3 King’s sorrel, so that was good for +15 strength. I also trained for 5 st, so I’m a 59 now. I’m not having too myuch luck finding king’s sorrell. I found one near Lobart’s stone circle, another in the small graveyard near the mercenery farm, and bought one from the hermit alchemy lady.
I did take down 2 orcs (one at a time) once I realized they were all about charge and bash. I smack it on the way in, then back up. Repeat until orc dies or you accidentally back off a cliff (whoopsie).
Hey, when does my 40 armor get upgraded to something better? Or can I buy some better armor?
King’s sorrel is very rare (because its very powerful). There’s probably not more than 20 in the entire game. In later chapters you can buy it from a few people. The FAQ lists many of the locations.
Ignaz is the guy in the slums. It took me a couple tries to get his Oblivion to work, but its a cheaper way to learn Alchemy than Constantino.
Hey, when does my 40 armor get upgraded to something better? Or can I buy some better armor?
I think you can upgrade in chapter 2. Certainly when you become a Paladin.
There’s a few other ways to gain strength:
Pray at the small road-side shrines to Innos, donate $100, and you’ll get a random permanent stat boost. +1 strength is one possibility. Only works once a day, max of 10 times. I think it doubles the bonus if you do it as a full Paladin.
Eat 25 apples.
Rings, amulets.
Thekla’s stew (she’s the cook on Onar’s farm).
After puttering about a bit and giving some thought I trashed my militia guy, whom I really didn’t seem to be having any fun with. I went back to a save I had done just prior to apprenticing myself (losing probably 20 hours of game play), and have had a blast since, though my character is even more pathetic now, since he’s storing like 30 LPs for when he finally takes the plunge and gets his mage robes.
The big differences? One is picking locks. The difference between scrounging for existence and having the cash for good gear and stat boosts (1000 to Daren, 1000 to the mages, regular praying at shrines, etc.) is enormous. Did I say enormous? I meant enormous.
Second, I changed the way I fight a bit. I hadn’t really understood that there were different ways to fight before. A little experimenting has made it a lot harder for most monsters to wound me, since I can pre-empt a lot of their lunges. Even though my soon-to-be mage has only a paltry 10 weapon skill and a 40-something strength he seems better able to fight than my old guy. Question, though: Is it worth it to get in weapon skill training before I go mage? I undertand the points costs double once I sign on the line, but do mages really need that?
Last, how does this magic circle thing work? When do the mages decide it is time for you to get the opportunity to learn a new circle? I have a rune, but I’m afraid to use it (I ahve the flame arrow one from the quest), since they don’t seem to be something you can buy.
You are only allowed to learn one circle per chapter. Then you get different mages to train you in how to make different runes, BUT remember you still need the ingredients plus a blank stone plus a spell scroll for that spell. It is important to remember that there are very limited blank stones(about 15 IIRC) and even more limited high level scrolls, so do not use all the scrolls until you make at least one stone, then the scrolls can be used or sold and you set the rune to cast that spell from then on. The vendors will sell some blank runes and may restock later as well.
You will find the occasional premade runes but nothing very useful(except to transport), at least I did not. I suggest checking the manual for spells you would like to plan for,also the books in the library should be read. It you want some more tips I’ll let you know which spells I found most useful but you should definately save some blank runes for the 6th circle stuff.
Please, tips are welcome. One of the pratfalls of Gothic 2 (for me, anyway) is that it almost forces you to use the faq to get through good portions of it. Finishing the mage quest, for instance, considering the where of the final objective, is a place I’d be highly unlikely to ever find on my own without help. The other biggies are limited oppotunity for some quests (events make certain quests, like Thorben’s lockpick training, go away) and limited suppkies of some key things, like King’s Sorrel or Runestones. Goof early with these and you’ve heavily hurt the game from there on out.
So yes, advice is good!
I haven’t used a FAQ yet, except the question I asked above about the trap. Almost all the info on where and what to do can be found if you talk to enough people. For the quest you mentioned, you are given a clue right at the start…and it works. It wasn’t easy to find, but I found it. What bothers me more is the lack of info on items and such. for example, I ate a bunch of the dark mushrooms and got +10 mana. However, I only ate them because I wanted health. I had NO clue that it would do that for me down the road. Shouldn’t I at least get the feeling I am growing along the way or something? Oh, and alchemy. I still don’t know if I should learn alchemy. Do I need it in order to make the elixirs? How many points will I end up spending? Can I just learn the essence of healing and then brew stuff with king’s sorrel, or will I end up spending LOTS of learning points to learn how to brew such potions? Is it worth it, or should I just spend the points improving my stats? These are questions I still don’t know the answer to.
I think you end up using a lot less points in alchemy than training atributes, especially if you do what I did which was to be a mage, but use potions to raise my non mage atributes, since xp is doubled for non class training.
I found all the circle 1-2 spells pretty useless. But circle 3 is where it gets good, I found Small Fire storm, Heal Medium Wounds,and Ice Block very useful the whole game, especially Ice Block, good for freezing stuff like Elite Orcs and Lizardmen, then closing and wailing on them.Destroy undead was pretty good. Large Fire Storm, Ball Lightning and Large Fireball were disappointing.
I’d invest in at least one summoning rune, useful for a distraction to strong opponents so they don’t just focus on you. Wave of Death and Shrink Monster were so good it was almost unfair but you get them very late in the game. There is also special spell you can learn if you explore and read everything. :)
Warning for mages: Don’t ignore your combat skills and strength completely, whether through training or potions, since some opponents like Dragons are very difficult to beat with just Magic.
Enjoy!!
Is there a way to improve combat skills without training? I don’t think there’s much to boost sword or bow skill out there (at least that I’ve seen).
quick question. I am starting my mage character over. Is there really any reason to train in 2-H weapons? Actually, that is a general question…what’s the point? They don’t seem that much more powerful and they are slower. As a mage do I have to use a staff? Can’t I still use a nice sword with one hand, train it up BEFORE becoming a novice and stick with it through the game?
I finished the game as a 6th Circle mage and one handed low Master, I think 2 handed went up to expert as a byproduct of training 1 H, but I only used one 2H weapon the whole game(for one quest).
Swords are fine for mages, no class restricted weapons, only stat restrictions.
Ok…I am LOVING this game. It really is the best PC game I have played this year, and I like it better than Morrowind, which I also enjoyed. I feel like I am missing out though because I didn’t play the first game. I do not plan to stop playing this one in order to play the first one, however. I don’t mean that I need the plot of the first one to understand this one better. I am fine in that regard. My real question is this: Should I play the first game after this one? Is it just as good? Are the controls the same? Does it have the same depth? Does it have all the little secrets and interconnected events, etc.? Bottom line…if I like Gothic 2, will I almost certainly like the first one?
Should I play the first game after this one? Is it just as good?
It’s basically the same gameplay, however,…
Are the controls the same?
They’re more complicated, almost irritating. For instance, you need something like CTRL+ forward (IIRC) to pick up an item. So, if you’re willing to invest the time to get used to the controls you’ll get to play a nice game. IMO. Also, there’s a number of players that like Gothic better than Gothic II in terms of atmosphere. (I’m not one of them though.)
I took a long break from Gothic 2 to play KotOR but I started again today and got my militia character to 11th level. My strength is now 50 but the blacksmith can’t train me any higher. Who can train str higher than 50?
Also, at what levels can a fighter start handling orcs because I still can’t. Not sure if it’s misspent skill points or that I’m not handling the controls well during combat. Any good combat tips? Seems like most of the fighting is just timing your attack to repeatedly strike the opponent when he’s at the outer edge of your weapon’s reach, but orcs and shadowspawn aren’t usually knocked back and kill me in 2-3 hits. I’m now in chapter 2 and I’ve wiped out practically everything on the main map, done a boatload of quests (or so it seems), but I’m not too confident I can handle the valley with those orcs around.
You can parry weapons by hitting back while targeting (if you are using the Gothic 1 controls of course…no idea how to parry with the newer scheme, since I was told to learn the old one…and I enjoy it). This will help with orcs. Two-handed weapons have better range and are better at knocking things back.
Yeah, fighting against orcs requires a lot of dodge/parry actions. Shoot twice or thrice with a bow/crossbow while the orc is approaching. (Or cast a spell.) Later in the game - don’t ask me about stat/spell strength here - you should be able to kill one of them before he comes into melee range that way. Usually their first attack can be avoided with a quick sidestep, followed by one or two strikes of yours. After that you need to try to keep some distance and watch their attacks in order to counter. Always sidestep his ‘vertical’ strike. With that tactic you can fight a single orc pretty early. However, going against three or more of them melee style does never get really easy (especially if there’s also some orc shaman somewhere in the background shooting fireballs at you in addition to all that.)
Well, just hit 12th level and I now have enough strength to wield Orc Slayer, a 1-handed sword that does 65 damage (my previous weapon did 40 dmg, so this is a nice step up). Got the experience by skirting around the orcs besieging the castle in the Valley of Mines, killing wolves, lurkers, snappers, bloodflies, etc. But the militia’s smith now appears bugged, though, because everytime I ask to train for strength I get a new journal entry on the screen yet the actual option to train is no longer available in the conversation tree. I probably should just put those points into my dexterity for better missling since it’s still around 15 or 20.