I using a random generator to make my characters now. I have it set up so that I work off 2 primary trees and 2 secondary trees, but I have been leaning towards some other options. Which model would you advise for character creation:
2 primary - 2 secondary, or 2 primary - 3 secondary (or something else all together). I am trying to find the build with the most synergy because I am playing a dead is dead system.

This is off topic, and I don't mean this personally to you OP, but...

The word "toons" is so awful that it should be banned forever and subject to fines. Toons are shows you watch on TV as kids. Your video game character has a lot of appropriate nicknames: avatar, PC, character, guy, or almost any other word in any language besides "toon". Call him frank, nord, argonian, face, anything else.

Thank you for listening.

lol

Anybody know where this term "toon" came from in the first place?

Anyway, OP, I myself wouldn't plan too firmly. If you have a character type that you think is interesting, play him that way, and employ skills as you see fit in relation to that character. Now, in terms of keeping your skin intact with no new holes beyond the ones God put there to begin with, I recommend that you not neglect health and defenses. I'm sure dual-wielding is great, but it means you can't block, so you're kinda faced with a situation where you have to deal damage ultra-quickly so you can kill before you're killed.

Frankly, 1-handed + shield is a great way to do that - to kill before you're killed. Get good with block and you can interrupt enemies' attacks with shield bash before they swing, or before they cast spells, which can be a life-saver. Get good with that shield, split your levels between health and stamina, or maybe one health upgrade to every two stamina, and you can eventually take the shield bash perk. 1-handed + shield + heavy armor is a serious winning combination, although smithing really helps. You only need a little archery to help bring dragons down to land, and maybe one sneak perk to help you sneak when you're at low level and need every advantage you can get.

So if you wanna talk in terms of major and minor skills, concentrate (for a warrior) on 1-handed, block, heavy armor, and smithing, with just a little attention paid to archery and sneak. Forget everything else. Don't even bother with much alchemy; you'll probably find all the healing potions you'll need, but if you need to make a few just to boost your stock, you can make them well enough without spending perks.

Now, as far as non-warrior builds go, I don't know. I'm still on my first character, a level 43 Nord Warrior guy. I do use the basic Restoration healing spell at times, with only one perk in Restoration, but it isn't at all necessary. If you really wanna save some perks, only take the first smithing perk - Steel - but get your skill high. Well-improved steel armor can last you a long, long time.

Ya but man I am using a random method of assigning skill trees to my toons. I understand certain combos have a particular synergy that others don't that is not the problem. I am just looking for feedback on which model folks think provide a well rounded toon with a particular focus for short life.

As for the toon question, I guess the label caught on about 15-20 years ago and still lives with some of us old crusty gamers. I suppose I have no attachment to video game characters therefor I don't tend to try to humanize them. To each their own tho. If you enjoy calling them Bob Jim, or what not - go for it.



Kingdoms of Amalur < BUY IT!

Yeah im guilty of using the word toon.

I never used the word Toon for my character I don't even know where the wod came from.

It's part of the disease inflicted upon the WoW community. There is currently no known cure in existance.

Probably Cool World; but if not, then certainly Roger Rabbit.

The only time I've ever referred my characters as "toons" is back when I played MMO's. Even though there's nothing wrong with saying it inside offline gaming communities, descriptions like "toons", "grinding", "DPS" and "instances" needs to stay within the genera of MMO's... IMHO.

Terminology like that just brings me back to old memories that I'm trying hard to forget.

Don't understand where "random" and "most synergy" fit together. Seems like random would be the opposite of the above underlined statement. But anyway, I don't see a problem with either the 2/2 or 2/3 system. Wouldn't go much more than that.

My Avatars invariably end up with four skills that are the roleplay aspect, the skills that define them, and two or three 'must have because it's just sensible, you would not survive for long in a place like this doing what you do without this particular string to your bow' skills.

I don`t quite understand what he means by `toon`. I myself hate the term and don`t even think it`s been used correctly here anyway. But I guess he`s talking about his game character?

Ugh, that's even worse.

What happened to calling them characters or calling them by name?

Characters.

This is not a friggin' MMO.

Well, I've never played any MMO and have no real desire to do so, but I also don't have the visceral hate toward them that some seem to. I don't mind the term "grinding" since it does accurately communicate a concept that would otherwise take an entire clause to refer to, DPS is a concept used in games besides MMOs (it's used in some RTS games, even ones that aren't clickfests, and I can see its relevance to some battles in Skyrim) but "Toons" just seems a bit odd. "Avatar" strikes me as odd too. To me an avatar on a computer is your sig pic on a forum.

But yeah, I think maybe the OP needs to restate his question, because I don't think I or others understood what he was talking about.

On urban dictionary, "toon" goes back to 2004 which is when WoW came out. They don't have any etymology for it though, I guess it was just a word that became popular on the forums.

As for the original question, I have no advice because it is such a weird project. If you want to be effective then think about what works logically, if you don't care about power then just roll completely at random and take what you get.

After some experimentation I have decided to go 2 primary and 3 secondary skills. This creates a well rounded build without spreading the skills too thin, especially since these toons are short lived. If anyone else is looking for a challenge try developing a random character generator using a similar formula and btw dead is dead is the only way to make this game interesting. As 2 Pac once said, I see death around the corner.

The first time I heard the term "toon" was when I played Ultima Online & Asheron's Call - late 90s? But I am sure its origins predates that.

Yep, the term toon is just aweful.

Yeah, especially since Avatar came out. When someone says my avatar I imagine a blue cat sitting behind them. XD It's always been character in RPGs, but I suppose internet comes up with a lot of things, bad most of the times.