Shattered Kingdoms

My first character was an elf priest. People said to "stay away from enmity," because it was apparently intense or something, but my advice is to take a deep, toothy bite out of the best this game has to offer.

Read up on the help files to understand the themes behind it all, then make a deep-elf ("drow") priest of Mira. Maximize your intelligence. You'll be so useful that people will probably willfully forget about all the hatred they're supposed to have for you.

As for the rest of what to do, it really isn't terribly important unless you plan on your first character being a min-maxed player-killing machine. The only people to actively player-kill are jaded veterans who exploit all facets of the game, though, so the barriers to entry really mean it isn't worth it. Just look up some information when you need it, use tools that everyone else does, ask around, and you'll be fine.

Drow in this game are the only race that can naturally maximize their intelligence scores, and bonuses aren't linear here. Going from Max-1 to Max is worth more than Min to Min+1, if you get my drift. That omniscient intelligence will afford you more concentration, meaning you can maintain more spells simultaneously. If you're new, you probably won't get into the scripted item game, so being able to actually use your buffs is valuable. Human priests cannot cast most of their spells at once, and half-elves are even worse. Drow, on the other hand, are little miracles.

You'll have to be evil, sure, but honestly, the community is pretty pathetic with evil. You won't have any problem playing a drow exactly how you want. Nosephthyki, a notable drow priestess for example, is fluffier than some lighties, and Maraigh, another drow, was pretty much a wet noodle wrapped around a troll.. yet both had scores of fans.

If you're taking your time to explore the game, you'll be leveling more slowly no matter what you play. Light aura characters get a bonus, but they also don't get any experience from fighting light aura'd monsters... and you won't be able to tell what is and isn't light aura easily for awhile. Most people forget about this because they have OOC knowledge of where to go.

Some don't's:

Don't play a half-elf priest. You'll basically be playing someone who can never achieve the potential they work for.

Don't bother with charisma. There's no point to having a quickly leveled character with limited potential; the only real argument for charisma, well, that brings me to the next issue...

Don't join a tribunal. Leadership is scarce frequently and the mechanics of tribunals are awful. You will die in your home city and potentially be attacked abroad relentlessly by scripted guards who magically know you're a target. It's just not worth it. Anyone who tells you otherwise wants to use you.

Don't go into a heavy armor faith. The benefits really just aren't there, and the roleplay isn't really any more special than anything else.

Don't assume people want to hear about your religion. Just because they're called priests doesn't mean they're supposed to be preaching.

Don't go Aludra. At the best, you'll be typecasted as a sex offender (irregardless of the truth of the matter) and at worst, you'll have to pretend you like listening to Tyler.

grep you said irregardless! oh noes! what just happened to the language master?

irregardless is a word
it means 'without lack of regard'

So with utmost respect to the fact that you mudsex, you're labeled a mudsex0r. . . . Probably not what you intended.

You're making out it to be more than it really is. There's so much more to the message than that!

Grep's first char was an elf priest. That explains a lot.

Mira has the best religious spell, and it is extremely useful both inside and outside the PVP arena.

As someone who generally rolls OP combos, I'll tell you that if I were to roll a priest, it would be a delf Miran for sure. In terms of what faction to join after that, I'd say a list from most OP to very OP looks like: MC, BH, cruxie, harlie.

Grep might be on to something. Playing a delf for your first character could be a lot of fun, as long as you know to expect instant conflict.

If I didn't want to go delf, I'd probably go halfling Miran. Then, I'm not sure . . . gnome and then centaur and then human, I guess. Maybe elf before human . . .

If you don't go Miran, I'd probably go Ain, especially if you will be PvPing. Ain's religion spell will instantly make you dangerous.

Ain - Scale is currently without a priest, actually

wow so many posts but nobody suggested Gnome

why gnome?

22 int is incredibly handy, faster improvement on skills/spells, more concentration is very vital to priest's life, able to hold more spells and still gate/resurrection saves so much trouble

last but not least, it is well established by now alchemy relies heavily on the wisdom score, gnome has 25, their brewing is more than 90%+ success rate, it is a huge difference compared to other races


for straight roleplaying reasons and first character, probably not an elf/griffon/deep-elf, but anything works

for straight player versus player reasons probably halfling

for fun and enjoyment, especially someone who plans to brew, gnome is easily one of the best choice

Gnome was my third choice, after delf, and halfling miran. I would go gnome before going halfling, unless it was miran. Gnome is an excellent choice. I don't think there is any denying the dominance that delves enjoy among all purely caster classes.