Character Idea: Since this is invariably where you start (besides connecting, but hopefully you figured that out before you started asking these questions) this seems a good place to begin. First off you must decide what type of character you intend to play. This can be as simple as “Mage” or “Fighter” or as complicated as “Like Legolas from Lord of the Rings!” Many people try to go too far in this baby step. Have a general idea, not a specific exactness in mind. This is a skill-based system and many people (myself included) start with one idea and eventually evolve into something completely different! That is one of the beauties of Ultima Online; the variety you can create. There are no true “levels” or “classes” here. However, skills will grow into certain titles denoting expertise and levels of advancement in them. You’ll find your title changing week to week as you explore new skills or simply begin mastering them. Try to be open minded in this idea to allow yourself room to grow. And, when in doubt, you can create up to five characters per account to give you room to explore many skill sets. However, you’ll soon find yourself with a “main” character you spend the most time with and one to four “minor” characters you create for certain skills you wanted to support or try out. It is completely up to you. One word of thought: Craft skills are fun and I personally get great joy in creating something that someone else can find useful. However, MOST main characters will be some kind of combat oriented character to fully interact with the UO world. A blacksmith is a great asset to any community, but spending hours upon hours making things and mining does get dull after a while. Having your main character with one or two moderate craft skills is smart. But when you are ready to grandmaster craft skills I recommend a craft character you can “take out” when you need and “put away” when you are done.
Character Creation: Yes, already you have to make some tough decisions. Who said this was easy? The main focus here is skill selection and stat placement. Both are very important. Never start with the professions available. It is much better to create your own and know where and why you have each skill. However a “mistake” here can be overcome with good play or good roleplaying. Much of this depends on your character idea. However when in doubt there are some good rules of thumb to consider. For any “main” character spell resistance is by far the hardest skill to gain and the most missed once magic starts flying. I have each of my new guild members start with 50 in this skill. I wish I’d thought of this when I made MY character (sigh). Let’s start with some basic character principles.
Melee combat character: Combat skills (swordsmanship, macefighting, tactics, parrying, anatomy, fencing, and wrestling) will grow exponentially no matter what level they start. Starting skill points can be put to 50 in them if you choose. This all depends if you are starting solo, or starting with friends. Solo, I’d actually recommend a small craft skill such as bowcrafting or tailoring here. Putting maybe 30 in a fight skill and 20 in a minor craft skill will help you be self-suffient at first. Example: a swordsman could start with 50 spell resist, 30 swordsmanship, 20 bowcrafting. As soon as he can acquire a hatchet he’ll be able to lumberjack (a good strength gainer as well) for logs. Then he can turn the logs into bows (or with feathers, arrows) and sell them for a profit. Soon he will be able to afford better armor and weapons and fight minor monsters for gain and to increase his skill. Over time, the crafting skill may become more and more important if you continue to use it, or it can be allowed to fall once you have no further need. With friends helping you start; you can be more specific at first. At this point I’d put 50 in spell resist, 49 in your combat skill, leaving 01 in parrying if you intend to use a shield, or healing if not. The 01 seems like nothing but you will gain a wooden shield or bandages to start with at least. With stat placement a melee characters greatest need is, of course, strength. With high strength you can start out wearing heavier armors and carry more loot back from encounters. Simply put I’d place my stats at 60/10/10 for a melee character.
Magic combat character: Magic oriented characters are more limited in what they can do. A high spell resist is still recommended and a high Magery is essential. That doesn’t leave much room. Magery is another hard (and expensive) skill to gain but can make some of the most powerful characters at the highest levels. Again it is a bit different if you are starting solo or with friends. Solo I’d recommend 40 spell resist, 40 magery, and 20 in bowcraft (or tailoring perhaps). You will have to train in meditation as soon as possible and work that skill as high as you can to keep alive in combat. Again, this is done to give you an income right away to afford the expensive reagents you’ll need to learn better spells. With friends you can specialize more. I’d recommend 50 resist and 50 magery while training in meditation as soon as possible. Stat placement would be more into intelligence than most others. However, strength to me is always a very much-needed stat. I’ve had my guild starting with 30 strength, 10 dexterity, and 40 intelligence. This allows you more survivability in hitpoints and let’s you wear at least studded leather and some ringmail armors early on. And this will allow you a decent chance to cast fourth circle spells immediately as there are some VERY useful spells at that level (Recall coming to mind here.)
Archery combat character: Archery characters are some of the most self-sufficient characters for starting. I always recommend 50 in archery, 49 in bowcraft, and 01 in lumberjacking. This covers all of the bases. A good archer starting out here will be able to gain plenty of strength lumberjacking for wood and be able to provide all of their own ammunition. They will also be able to make their own bows and can sell them for profit. While some archers try to roleplay it by wearing mainly leathers, I always say it never hurts to have the best armor you can afford on. Beware of wearing platemail, however, as it lowers your dexterity. Archers need dex more than any other character. A good set of chainmail will help when enemies get too close but won’t hinder you in trying to maintain your distance. My stat selection for archers is 35 str, 35 dex, 10 int.
Crafting characters: Crafters add quite a bit of fun and variety to UO and have as many strats as players. The only real suggestion I have with crafters is to pick related skills and remember what resources you are going to need. A good blacksmith mines his or her own ore. A good bowyer or carpenter chops his own wood. A tailor can use archery or a minor combat skill to provide himself with hides and leathers or at least find where the sheep to sheer are located (use a dagger on a sheep to get wool w/o killing it). An alchemist needs to know where he’s getting his reagents (though they are all over the ground outside of towns too). And a tinker needs wood AND ore. Many of us, when making a crafter, make one who has two or more crafting areas. Since they don’t have to fight (except tailors killing bunnies and goats) you can once again specialize in the skills and stats. 50 in your craft and 50 in a resource gathering skill is an easy placement. Strength is most important on many of them to be able to carry enough resources to speed things up. I think alchemy has something to do with int, but I haven’t noticed a difference. So, easy skills, easy stats 60/10/10 (perhaps 45/10/25 for alchemists).