One might argue, this belongs at the end, but I want my abbreviations to be clear ahead of time.

---

At this point I also want to give credit to three major sources that I have consulted during the 180ish hours of playtesting and refining this guide.

• this Reddit thread for the idea, essentially
  
• World of Gothic[www.worldofgothic.com] for their lists of spells and especially their maps which I also reference heavily in this guide
  
• https://mondgesaenge.de/ for being a huge Gothic database, even if I have to criticize that they do not list where individual scrolls can be found in their list of magic spells

Whenever this guide references a "see maps" or something like "dig spot #X", it directly references the maps from World of Gothic. Let's hope that website sticks around for a while, I'd hate to have to update the link to reference archive[dot]org instead.

• Learning Thresholds: When learning skills, train until threshold minus one (for example to 29), then take +5 for the lower cost that you get before the threshold. This can save some LP in the long run.
  
  • 1 LP until Skill 30
    
  • 2 LP until Skill 60
    
  • 3 LP until Skill 90
    
  • 4 LP until Skill 120
    
  • 5 LP afterwards
    
• Cassia's chest key: RRR L RRR L RLRL RR LLL RR L
  
• When repairing the Eye of Innos, talk to Pyrokar before sending Xardas off to the circle of the sun deep in the forest. If you do not, then you have to walk all the way up there when you need to talk to him.
  
• The thieves guild quests require Constantino's ring, 6 Blood Chalices (two of which can only be stolen using pickpocketed keys), a sextant in chapter 2, and picking the ultimate chest in chapter 3. After that, the thieves guild becomes disposable, unless you really need Cassia as a DEX trainer for some reason.
  
• You can use weapons with malus to trick trainers into leveling skills past their limits. For example, Cavalorn can train up 1H skill to 30%, but having 34% and equipping the Wind Servant reduces it to 24% thus allowing him to train you further (until your actual skill reaches 40%), but of course at the second threshold cost of 2 LP per 1% skill. In reverse, you may have to unequip weapons and Morgan's Ring that give skill bonuses in order to allow teachers to train you to their limit. In short: trainers check your current skill level (including equips) against their limits, training costs check your permanent skill level (your base stat including all permanent boosts, but without equips).
  -> Wind Servant -10% 1H; Storm Servant -10% 2H; Orc Warlord's Ring -20 STR
  
• Do not forget to check in with merchants every chapter, especially the potion and herb merchants: Constantino, Sagitta, Zuris, Salandril and Lutero. Coragon and especially Fisk are probably easy to overlook but sell apples.
  
• Smithing is considered a useless skill for the purpose of this guide, however, you could apprentice with Harad and abuse it to gain "infinite" money in chapter 1 instead of going with Bosper. Since you need to be able to take furs for several quests, anyway, Bosper is best in slot to apprentice with. You could, in theory, use some spare LP as a Dragonhunter if you really want a specific weapon, but that also requires learning the smithing basics, most forged swords are worse than ones you can buy or find, yet they cost a significant amount of LP to learn, in addition to the rare pieces of raw ore. The smithing basics cost 2 LP, craftable ore weapons are 4, 6, 8 and 10 LP at Bennet, respectively. There are always two of the same LP cost - one 1H and one 2H weapon - for each level of smithing, new levels unlock as the plot progresses, and you learn the 10 LP ore weapons for free after reading the almanach at the monastery as a Dragonhunter. Harad can also teach you some weapon recipes that should require no ore, I think. He only teaches 1H weapons and will buy them for a decent price - and he will also buy the same weapons off you if you have not crafted them but found them somewhere. The weapons he teaches are: Sword, Fine Sword, Fine Longsword, Ruby Blade and El Bastardo. The LP costs are 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 LP, respectively, and unlock in a fixed sequence.
  
• The ultimate Dragonhunter weapons are automatically learned without requiring prior smithing knowledge or LP after reading the Almanach in the hidden library in chapter 5. Due to the lack of Dragon Blood only one of the two can be crafted before Irdorath where you can gain a bit more blood (not that it would really be useful to have both, due to lack of training in one weapon category or the other).
  
• Harad will give his approval to apprentice with someone not only after bringing him an orc weapon. If you clear Hakon's quest to kill some bandits and report back to Hakon, Harad will have heard of your deeds and approve you. You can also talk to him about having to get an orc weapon and officially chicken out, he will then explicitly give you the task of routing out Hakon's bandits.
  
• Constantino is the only alchemist who teaches STR potions. You can either apprentice with him, or learn literally any other potion first, then ask him to teach you more. Since all builds in this guide that use STR potions also learn DEX potions to make use of the remaining King's Sorrels (you can only use half of them on STR potions due to limited Dragon Roots), you can easily learn DEX potions at Sagitta or Riordian and then return to Constantino to ask him for more recipes.
  
• It is not worthwhile for Paladins to go to Gomez's room in the valley before doing the addon quests just to save 1 LP for the bloodfly secretion, unless you really wish to continue the main plot before the addon or your build just does not have 1 LP to spare. However, mercenaries can also free Gorn and receive an almost free medium mercenary armour, and Mages can learn the 2. Circle of Magic from Milten even if the 1. Circle has been skipped.
  
• You can gain access to Jharkendar early by talking to Lord Hagen as a sheep. In order for Vatras to allow you to become a member of the Ring of Water, you - of course - have to have read Dexter's letter of orders from Raven, and you have to have gained the key to the Valley from Hagen, which starts Ch2. Being guildless in Ch2 (or being a Novice and not having gained the key to the library yet) may have various consequences due to scripts breaking and quests being unavailable. This can result in being softlocked, so make sure you keep a save before talking to Hagen. Also, transform into a sheep right in front of him so he can tell you that "he has heard a great deal about your heroic deeds, noble sheep" and more importantly: transform back (Enter-key on the keyboard) before leaving the house - the other paladins outside really hate sheep and will murder them.
  
• Do not ask Thekla for stew before becoming a mercenary or fire mage, and that stew needs to be received before the others (so no beating up Bullco early, unless you plan to become a Paladin). You can only ask her once, then the dialogue option disappears for good and you miss out on the first stew if you have not met the requirements yet. Militia cannot get this first stew from her, anyway, so feel free to do whatever if that is going to be your path. Paladins would technically get this first stew, but you only become a Paladin after freeing Bennet which would then overwrite the stew you would get for freeing him, thus still being limited to 4 stews from her.
  
• You can only hand in Shadowbeast Horns to Buster once for EXP (during the Dragonhunter-exclusive quest for him). You will keep gaining more gold for any further horns, but those will give you +0 EXP. So gather up as many as possible before handing them in the first time. Handing them in must be done before the start of chapter 5, so before all four dragons are dead.
  
• Keep 9 Dragon Eggs as a Dragonhunter before going to Irdorath in order to brew Embarla Firgastro twice. This will give you +15 twice to your higher stat between STR and DEX.
  
• "Trick" Embarla Firgastro by equipping stat increasing items in order to get the Stat you want, since it only checks for which stat is currently higher. Works only if STR and DEX are close enough. Most builds would probably like to get +15 DEX at least one time for their ranged damage - the STR 2h + CB Dragonhunter (and similar high STR builds) requires dropping at least one Goblin Berry off a dead paladin, waiting with the potions brewed with the final 2 Dragon Roots in Irdorath and being careful with apples if you want to do this trick, however.
  
• If you get lucky drops of Dragon Roots and/or Goblin Berries, consider keeping 1-3 in order to brew potions in Irdorath. Reminder: you can get 2 Dragon Roots and 3 King's Sorrels in Irdorath for some last minute powering up.

There are plenty of teachers that can train your DEX, STR, 1H and Bow skills, so I will not bother listing them all. I will, however, point out a few convenient ones as well as their teaching caps. Teachers available in Irdorath will teach you there regardless of class, except for magic which is - obviously - only accessible to mages.

• Several weapons give a bonus for their weapon type skill up to +10%
  
• Morgan's Ring (+10% 1H)
  
• Rings of +5 DEX/STR/Mana
  
• Ring of +4 STR and +4 DEX
  
• Franco's Amulet (+40 Health, +4 STR, +4 DEX)
  
• Amulets of +10 DEX/STR/Mana (DEX amulet: Dar Ch4 or near Xardas Tower for Pal Ch2)
  
• Belts of +10 DEX/STR
  
• Set of "Priests" Rings and Amulets for +40 Mana

-> These are particularly important to raise DEX for pickpocketing on low-DEX builds, and for tricking Embarla Firgastro into giving you +15 of a temporarily enhanced stat.

All enhancements are listed here, but only the ones found before Irdorath will actually be considered for my suggested builds.
Tablets "I" give +2, "II" give +4 and "III" give +6 of their respective stat, except for tablets of life which give +5, +10 and +15, respectively.
They give +3 for STR and DEX, +5 for Mana, and +20 for Health.
You can gain up to 10 STR, 10 DEX and 20 Mana by praying at Innos shrines once per ingame day (except for the very first day) for 100 gold.
To note: Mages can only gain Mana, Mercenaries/DHs can only gain STR and DEX. So if you want these stats as a Mage, do all of the praying before becoming a Novice.

Some of these choices are objectively "the best" of each category, others may be more subjective.
The damage calculation formulas for melee weapons scale their damage with STR, even if the weapon has a DEX requirement to equip it.
Weapon range is not displayed ingame, I have taken those values from World of Gothic's weapon lists. Having lower or higher range is very noticeable, however, and I personally would not use the Berserker's Axe 2H weapon just because of its low range.
The Claw of Beliar has a chance for extra damage, which is unblockable and deadly flat 100 damage. Due to being deadly, I recommend equipping some other weapon if you do not want to kill your opponent.

---

The damage calculation formulas for ranged weapons scale their damage with DEX, even if the weapon has a STR requirement to equip it. This is generally considered to be a huge issue for crossbows: they require high STR investments to equip them, but also high DEX investments in order to increase their damage, and on top of that you can only gain +20% CB from tablets, further requiring higher investments into the skill itself. Bows, on the other hand, require DEX both to equip and to increase their damage, and you can gain +30% Bow from tablets.
The advantages of crossbows lie in two major points: firstly, they have higher innate damage than bows, making them great early on or for builds that do not gain much DEX. Secondly, they appear to be somewhat more accurate than bows, particularly at long range - do not expect miracles from them, though. The main disadvantage of crossbows is - rather obviously - that you are in for a long play if you use them, especially as a DH due to lack of CB teachers.
There are "magical" versions of bows and crossbows, but their ammo is extremely limited. Thus, they will not be considered in the guide.
All of these are sold at various merchants, for example Khaled at Onar's farm as early as Ch1.

These choices may be more subjective than the weapon choices above. In addition, I will also list runes you can find for free as well as the requirements to learn each Circle of magic.
Learning the Circles themselves requires 5 LP per circle, 30 LP total for all 6 Circles, unless you skip the 1. Circle by learning the 2. Circle directly from Milten in Ch2. He can somehow always teach you the 2. Circle if you are a Mage, even if you never learned the first one. You only have a relatively small window of time to learn from him, though, as he will move to Khorinis in Ch3.

---

• 1 from becoming a Fire Mage (Quest Reward "Path of Believers")
  
• 1 from Parlan after becoming a Fire Mage
  
• 6 total from Gorax (one per chapter plus one additional in Ch2)
  
• 1 from Milten in Ch2 after agreeing to see the mines
  
• 1 from Kervo in Ch2 (Quest Reward for killing Lurkers, near the ice region in the Valley)
  
• 1 from Lutero in Ch2/3 (Quest Reward "Snapper Claws")
  
• 1 from Fernando in Ch3 (Quest Reward "Fernando's Business")
  
• 1 from Talbin in Ch2 for taking him across the Valley pass
  
• 1 at Xardas' old tower
  
• 1 from Lutero in Ch5
  
• 1 in the water north west of Morgan's hut, past the skull
  
• 1 buried treasure in the canyon (dig spot #2)
  
• 1 from Fisk for delivering his package from Juan
  
• 5 total from Chronos in Ch2-5
  
• 1 from Milten in Irdorath

This results in a total of about 24 Rune Stones, which is enough to craft almost every rune in the game.

---

• If a rune can be found for free before you are hard required to craft it, no costs will be listed, only the location.
  
• Milten can teach you the 2. Circle for 5 LP in the Valley, even if you skipped the 1. Circle earlier. This can save you 5 LP for later.
  
• If you talk to Lord Hagen as a sheep transformation you can advance the story to Ch2, thus gaining access to both the Valley and Jharkendar (if you have cleared enough of the addon-quests, of course). Then you can grab the free Fire Arrow rune there, thereby removing the need to learn how to craft this particular spell.
  • Be aware that advancing the story to chapter 2 will break some scripts.
    
  • In particular, you cannot gain access to the library as a Mage anymore if you have not done the corresponding quests in Ch1 yet, which would softlock your game.
    
  • Sergio will also not be able to teach you his 2% 2H-knowledge anymore, if you care about that.
    
  • Furthermore, you do not get a wish after becoming a Mage; but Dyrian is not evicted, either - at least not immediately. Better not promise to use your wish on him, though, lest he attack you later for "breaking" your promise.
    
  • Of course, any class can access Jharkendar "early" that way, but only Mages really benefit from that due to saving these 5 LP for the rune. I also have not tested it with other classes, thus do not know if it would break anything for them. However, both as militia and mercenary you immediately gain access to Hagen in an intended way - I do not really see any particular need to rush into the addon-content for those classes.

Almost all ingredients for the above spells can be found in the world, without requiring hunting abilities.

• bloodfly wing: on Salandril's fireplace, at Innos statue in Valley
  
• heart of a stone golem: Lutero Ch4
  
• heart of a demon: Lutero Ch5
  
• black pearl: House of Healers, Sylvestro's mine, dead DH at Xardas' sunken tower Ch4, several merchants
  
• fire lizard tongue: orc tent closest to the ram in the Valley, Chronos Ch3, Gorax Ch3
  
• troll tusk: only from gathering teeth

---

These cost 5 LP per spell, except for the Tier 1 rune. You can gain the Tier 1 rune Light immediately for free, and the Tier 4 runes are unobtainable in NotR. They used to be drops off the Orc Colonel near Khorinis and Shadowlord Archol, respectively, but are not anymore.

• Tier 1: Light, free after becoming a Paladin
  
• Tier 2: Lesser Healing and Holy Arrow, after repairing the Eye of Innos
  
• Tier 3: Medium Healing and Harm Evil, in Chapter 5
  
• Tier 4: Greater Healing and Destroy Evil, unobtainable in NotR

The offensive Paladin Spells can only inflict damage on "evil" creatures, such as orcs, seekers and lizard men. Animals, no matter how ferocious, are unaffected.

A list of further skills I strongly recommend if not require for every one of my suggested builds. This includes the ability to brew potions for permanent enhancements.

---

My suggested builds expect you to apprentice with Bosper, thus learning how to take furs is hard required. If you do not learn the skill, you miss out on a lot of gold from furs as well as Bosper's approval quest and the black troll fur quest from Raoul. How to extract the secretion from bloodfly stingers is required to heal Fortuno, but you can learn how to do that for free in Gomez's room in the Valley and heal him later.
The additional hunting skills can be useful for certain classes, but are generally not worth learning otherwise as the items or gold you get out of it do not outweight the LP investment.

---

Some quest items can also be found without having learned the corresponding hunting skills:

All of the suggested builds below have a common "baseline" to which you can train, then make a save file before you make any permanent decisions such as joining a faction, and just continue playing from there without having to redo the initial slow dialogues and early game quests every time. This guide refers to this as "common training".

• Common Stat Training:
  • DEX to 34 -> will reach 120 DEX with equips which is required for the hardest pickpocketing
    
  • STR to 28 -> is enough STR to clear Rod's quest to hold his sword at the farm when using the +5 STR belt from Xardas' tower
• Common Skills
  • Take Furs (5 LP)
    
  • Sneaking (5 LP)
    
  • Lockpicking (10 LP)
    
  • Pickpocketing (10 LP)
    
  • Jharkendar Language (30 LP)

These Common Skills will be referenced in all of the builds below and lumped together into a 60 LP blob. Learning the Jharkendar Language this early is usually a bit of a waste of early LP, as you are better off training stats first.

---

• All builds assume you only find 50 apples and 250 Dark Mushrooms. This seems like a fairly reasonable amount and does not expect extensive searching; if you are thorough and/or lucky, getting 100 apples and 500 mushrooms in a single playthrough is definitely possible.
  
• All builds can be expected to be fully developed by chapter 4-5, and definitely done with training before the point of no return. Anything received in Irdorath is considered a nice bonus. The "exception" to that is training crossbows as a Dragonhunter, as you can not reach 100% in that before then. Paladins and Mages can both train at Ruga whose training limit is higher than the otherwise available teachers. Girion can help train to 100% in Irdorath - however, his limit is 90%. Thus, you would need to save 10% worth of CB skill tablets and leave your skill at 85% until he can train you to 90%, after which you can safely use your remaining CB skill tablets. Alternatively, you can ignore Bengar's request to hire some mercenaries for him and bring Wolf with you, who is the only teacher in the game who can train CB to 100% - only in Irdorath, however: in Khorinis he only trains Bow.
  
• The guide generally expects you to equip rings, belts, armours and amulets as you want to or are required to. Due to the Eye of Innos being required a lot, the guide refrains from "requiring" the amulet slot itself. The accessories listed in the "Gear" sections of the build are the "required" ones for each build that are integrated into the considerations that have gone into each build. For example, the STR Paladin build expects you to wear a +10 STR belt at endgame in order to reach the 150 STR required to equip the Dragon Hunter's Crossbow, thus lowering the amount of LP required to train STR by 20-50 LP (depending on when you were to train those 10 points of STR). Of course, Embarla Firgastro would also close that gap, but as stated above: these builds are intended to be fully developed by chapter 5 at the latest and nothing beyond that is factored in aside from rare, special exceptions.

Target Stats:

• 100 STR
  
• 160 DEX
  
• 90% 1H
  
• 100% Bow

Target Gear:

• Claw of Beliar / Betty / Wrath of Innos
  
• Dragon Bow
  
• Morgan's Ring

---

Free permanent enhancements:

• 61 STR (eat all Dragon Roots raw)
  • 11 from Dragon Roots + 9 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying + 4 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 2 from 50 apples
• 101 DEX (brew 17 DEX potions, choose the DEX potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 51 from brewed potions + 15 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying + 1 from Rengaru
• 31% 1H
  • 24 from tablets + 5 from reading + 2 from Wulfgar
• 30% Bow from tablets

---

Training:

• total required LP: 404 LP
  
• use spare LP to train 1H to 100% (up to 40 LP) and use a different ring of your choice

---

Special Notes:

• The "easiest" out of the builds listed here, as it can be finished training by level 41, which you should reach near the beginning of Ch4, and you can even skip training magic altogether and delay learning Life potions, allowing you to finish training at level 37. You will still be lacking some stats at that point due to lacking potion ingredients, though, as well as missing some of the endgame gear. However, the stats can be made up for by equippables, and the Dragon Bow - available to buy from Ch1 - will easily carry you there.
  
• Learning STR potions would cost 20 LP - however, you would only gain 10 additional STR from the potions you can brew, and there is no real benefit to that; even if you reduce the amount of STR trained directly by 10 points, you would only save 15 LP, thus resulting in a net loss of 5 LP when getting 10 STR through potions instead of training. Hence, learning Life Potions is a better use for the 5 remaining King's Sorrels (8, if you count Irdorath). If you insist on learning STR potions over Life Potions then consider saving 1 Dragon Root to brew into a potion in Irdorath unless you got a Goblin Berry as a lucky drop.

Target Stats:

• 140 STR
  
• 120 DEX
  
• 100% 2H
  
• 100% CB

Target Gear:

• Holy Executor
  
• Dragon Hunter's Crossbow
  
• +10 STR belt

---

Free permanent enhancements:

• 86 STR (brew 11 STR potions, choose the STR potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 33 from brewed potions + 12 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying + 4 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 2 from 50 apples
• 86 DEX (brew 11 DEX potions, eat 6 Goblin Berries raw or keep one until Irdorath)
  • 33 from brewed potions + 6 from Goblin Berries + 12 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying + 1 from Rengaru
• 25% 2H
  • 20 from tablets + 5 from reading
• 20% CB from tablets

---

Training:

• total required LP: 443 LP
  
• use spare LP for other spells (up to 15 LP) and heal/mana potions (10-20 LP) or train STR to 150 (up to 50 LP)

---

Special Notes:

• Brew 7 STR and DEX potions each with the first 14 King's Sorrels in Ch1 and 2, then brew the remaining 4 STR potions when you need them to equip the next crossbow, otherwise prioritise the remaining 4 DEX potions.

Target Stats:

• 150 STR
  
• 120 DEX
  
• 90% 2H
  
• 95% CB

Target Gear:

• Large Ore Dragon Slayer (gives +10% 2H, requires 5 Dragon Blood and 5 Ore)
  
• Dragon Hunter's Crossbow
  
• +10 STR belt

---

Free permanent enhancements:

• 84 STR (brew 11 STR potions, choose the STR potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 33 from brewed potions + 9 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying + 5 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 2 from 50 apples
• 86 DEX (brew 11 DEX potions, eat 6 Goblin Berries raw or keep one until Irdorath)
  • 33 from brewed potions + 6 from Goblin Berries + 12 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying + 1 from Rengaru
• 25% 2H
  • 20 from tablets + 5 from reading
• 20% CB from tablets

---

Training:

• total required LP: 424 (427) LP
  
• use spare LP to train 2H +10% and consider using the Dragon Slicer instead, save 15 LP to train CB from 85% to 90% in Irdorath (then use the remaining tablets to reach 100%), keep 9 Dragon Eggs for a second Embarla Firgastro (13 eggs in Khorinis and 1 in the Valley)

---

Special Notes:

• Learn Bloodfly Stinger Secretion from Gomez's room and get the medium mercenary armour from Gorn.
  
• Brew a couple of DEX potions (about 7-9) using the first 14 King's Sorrels in Ch1 and 2, then brew all 11 STR potions before brewing the remaining 2-4 DEX potions.
  
• Try using at least one Embarla Firgastro to raise your DEX by bringing the stat above your STR with equips.
  
• 100% CB can only be reached in Irdorath; however, Girion's training limit is 90% - that means you need to save 10% worth of tablets until after he has trained you for the missing 5%.

Target Stats:

• 140 STR
  
• 160 DEX
  
• 80% 1H
  
• 100% Bow

Target Gear:

• Ore Dragon Slayer (gives +10% 1H, requires 5 Dragon Blood and 4 Ore)
  
• Dragon Bow
  
• Morgan's Ring

---

Free permanent enhancements:

• 76 STR (brew 7 STR potions, eat 4 Dragon Roots raw, choose the STR potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 21 from brewed potions + 4 from Dragon Roots + 9 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying + 5 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 2 from 50 apples
• 94 DEX (brew 15 DEX potions, eat 2 Goblin Berries raw or keep one until Irdorath)
  • 45 from brewed potions + 2 from Goblin Berries + 12 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying + 1 from Rengaru
• 31% 1H
  • 24 from tablets + 5 from reading + 2 from Wulfgar
• 30% Bow from tablets

---

Training:

• total required LP: 436 (439) LP
  
• use spare LP to train 1H +10% (20-30 LP) and use a different ring instead, and learn healing potions (10 LP) , keep 9 Dragon Eggs for a second Embarla Firgastro (13 eggs in Khorinis and 1 in the Valley)

---

Special Notes:

• Learn Bloodfly Stinger Secretion from Gomez's room and get the medium mercenary armour from Gorn.
  
• Prioritise brewing all 15 DEX potions before the 7 STR potions.

Target Stats:

• 140 STR
  
• 150 DEX
  
• 80% 1H
  
• 95% CB

Target Gear:

• Ore Dragon Slayer (gives +10% 1H, requires 5 Dragon Blood and 4 Ore)
  
• Dragon Hunter's Crossbow
  
• Morgan's Ring
  
• +10 STR belt

---

Free permanent enhancements:

• 80 STR (brew 9 STR potions, eat 2 Dragon Roots raw, choose the STR potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 27 from brewed potions + 2 from Dragon Roots + 9 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying + 5 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 2 from 50 apples
• 90 DEX (brew 13 DEX potions, eat 4 Goblin Berries raw or keep one until Irdorath)
  • 39 from brewed potions + 4 from Goblin Berries + 12 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying + 1 from Rengaru
• 31% 1H
  • 24 from tablets + 5 from reading + 2 from Wulfgar
• 20% CB from tablets

---

Training:

• total required LP: 429 (432) LP
  
• use spare LP to train 1H +10% (20-30 LP) and consider using a different ring instead, save 15 LP to train CB from 85% to 90% in Irdorath (then use the remaining tablets to reach 100%), keep 9 Dragon Eggs for a second Embarla Firgastro (13 eggs in Khorinis and 1 in the Valley)

---

Special Notes:

• Learn Bloodfly Stinger Secretion from Gomez's room and get the medium mercenary armour from Gorn.
  
• Prioritise brewing the 9 STR potions with the first 14 King's Sorrels in Ch1 and 2, then brew the 13 DEX potions with the rest.
  
• 100% CB can only be reached in Irdorath; however, Girion's training limit is 90% - that means you need to save 10% worth of tablets until after he has trained you for the missing 5%.

Before gaining access to magic, you should be able to defend yourself, and even later on having access to some weaponry is useful. But you are not going to be able to equip the strongest weapons nor are you going to have the STR or DEX to deal massive damage, so you have to rely on your magic more and more.

---

Target Stats:

• 300+ Mana
  
• 100 STR
  
• 110 DEX
  
• 80% 1H
  
• 54% CB

Target Gear:

• Master Sword (gives +10% 1H)
  
• War Crossbow
  
• Morgan's Ring

---

Free permanent enhancements:

• 260+ Mana (brew 22 permanent Mana increase potions, assumes you find at least 250 Dark Mushrooms and give 25 old stone tablets to Vatras)
  • 110 from brewed potions + 25 from found potions + 42 from tablets + 20 from praying + 2 from Coragon + 25-50 from Dark Mushrooms + 25 from Vatras (old tablets) + 2 from donating to Daron (before becoming a novice) + 3 from Essence in scholar library + 1 from Lou's Hammer + 2 from reading + 3 from Vatras after Raven
• 67 STR (eat all Dragon Roots raw, give 3 old stone tablets to Erol)
  • 11 from Dragon Roots + 9 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying (before becoming a mage) + 5 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 2 from eating apples + 5 from Innos' Tears
• 72 DEX (eat all Goblin Berries raw, choose the DEX potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 17 from Goblin Berries + 15 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying (before becoming a mage) + 1 from Rengaru + 5 from Innos' Tears
• 31% 1H
  • 24 from tablets + 5 from reading + 2 from Wulfgar
• 20% CB from tablets

---

Training:

• total required LP: 420 (469) LP
  
• use spare LP to learn heal potions (9 LP) and other spells, or train CB to 60-64% (12-20 LP)

---

Special Notes:

• Good luck against the dragons - mages have high AOE burst DPS using magic but have a hard time keeping it up long enough to kill the dragons with. The War Crossbow barely has enough DPS to outdamage their regeneration skill, so you may want to buy all Summon Demon scrolls you can find in order to get some assisstance, especially against the ice dragon. Summoning Zombies should work nicely as well, but having several summons active makes it more likely to accidentally hit them instead of the dragon.
  
• Mages are pretty much the only class that can actually benefit from the Minecrawler Plate Armour since militia and mercenaries can gain Knight's or Dragonhunter's Armour (which are both significantly better) essentially right at the start of chapter 3 whereas you gain the High Robe of Fire only after the Eye of Innos is fixed.
  
• Take the +2 Mana from Daron after training 34+ Mana, gaining some Mana from praying before reaching 64 Mana is fine: that will be offset by eating Dark Mushrooms and will reduce the amount of LP invested into Mana by 2 per point gained.
  
• This build gets a decent amount of STR and DEX early on, so crossbows are amazing; can not equip the strongest ones, though.
  
• Talk to Lord Hagen as a sheep transformation and advance the story to Ch2 after becoming a Novice and having done all the quests to gain access to the library but before completing the Test of Fire. Then have Vatras send you to Jharkendar and grab the free Fire Arrow rune there. Be aware that advancing the story to chapter 2 will break some scripts. In particular, you cannot gain access to the library anymore if you have not done the corresponding quests in Ch1 yet, which would softlock your game. Furthermore, you do not get a wish after becoming a Mage, but Dyrian is not evicted, either - at least not immediately. Better not promise to use your wish on him, though.

The main spells used by the Fire Mage build are generally selected for their usefulness and power:

• Spells not mentioned below are selected just because they are good single target attacks or required by the plot. If you go to Jharkendar before becoming a Fire Mage, you are able to skip learning Fire Arrow as you can find that rune in the swamp there, far south east between Juan's cave and the House of Healers. Be aware that your game may end up softlocked if you do not have the key to the library yet, and other scripts will break as well, but it is entirely possible to present the free rune to complete Ulthar's challenge of the Test of Fire.
  
• Summons can distract targets, and higher level summons can actually do decent damage as well. Goblin Skeletons will work as a good distraction, especially since you can cast the spell multiple times in succession. The Claw of Beliar offers Summon Guardian and Summon Zombie which are then useful until you learn Summon Demon. Zombies are slow but can take a surprising amount of damage before expiring.
  • Except for Summon Demon, summoned creatures of one kind will attack a target together. Demons, however, will fight each other as priority targets, so you can only ever really have one. Summoned creatures will also attack you if you accidentally attack them, and you can gain your level times 10 in experience if they kill you. This is, of course, of limited usefulness, since you will be dead.
    
  • After crafting Summon Demon, you can hand the Claw of Beliar over to Saturas for 2000 EXP, since you now likely have all around better spells than the Claw can offer, unless you want to burn all your mana with Cry of the Dead on occasion or want to continue using Root Snare.
• Small Fire Storm has a short range area of effect that can be useful to take out groups.
  
• Ice Block can freeze even powerful enemies (Orc Elites, Dragonsnappers, Seekers). You may want to skip this one if you feel like immobilising enemies for ~20 seconds feels too easy and cheap. You really may want to skip it if you are using the 1st circle Claw of Beliar spell Root Snare instead, which is essentially the same spell. The differences between the two are: Root Snare is available significantly earlier, costs 10 more Mana, and is a bit less effective - particularly against Beliar's creatures. That last one essentially means that enemies which are trapped in a snare may be broken free once you start attacking them - frozen enemies will remain frozen for the entire duration.
  
• Wave of Death is stronger than Fire Rain (despite both claiming to do 500 Magic Damage; Wave of Death probably just hits multiple times) but Fire Rain is quicker to cast when surrounded. Learning a spell will add one scroll of that spell to Gorax's inventory, this includes Wave of Death, for which you can only find two other scrolls deep inside Irdorath. Storm is a lower level AOE spell like these other two, and a double cast can be just as effective, albeit more risky. If an enemy exits and reenters the AOE of Storm or Fire Rain, they will also be hit twice by the same spell.

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Low priority spells have rather niche uses:

• @Monk mentions (with video proof in the comments) that the Fear spell completely neuters dragons: it prevents them from attacking and cancels their regeneration. This seems a bit cheaty, however, which is why I am listing this as a low priority spell.
  
• Heal Light Wounds can be received for free fairly easily (eat a Snapper Weed to outrun the orcs at the pass, then round them up and light them up with a Rain of Fire scroll), until then you can heal with food and potions (at endgame, you would heal with fullheal potions, anyway) or use the 3rd circle heal rune found in Jharkendar (which is less mana-efficient).
  
• Waterfist is only slightly stronger than Ice Lance (should use the same element for weaknesses, hence the comparison) and seems kind of lackluster.
  
• Ice Wave costs a lot, and can, allegedly, not freeze some stronger monsters (unlike Ice Block. *Note from the Author: at least that is the rumor - I have personally frozen Dragonsnappers with it, though, so cannot confirm that the freezing effect is weaker); it is, however, potentially useful to clear out the siege ring in the valley in a safer fashion. You get access to 6th circle spells very shortly after 5th circle ones, however, so Ice Wave's usefulness would be rather short-lived. Among the low priority spells, Ice Wave is still probably best in slot after everything else has been learned.
  
• Shrink Monster is barely useful at the point you can learn it, you would need to have learned how to pull teeth to gain a troll tusk to craft the spell, and it costs 300 Mana to cast. Learning how to craft a spell adds one scroll of that spell to Gorax's inventory, however, so you could make use of that scroll instead of actually crafting the rune. There are a total of 3 Shrink Monster scrolls available in the game: 1 at Zuris from chapter 1, 1 at Gorax after learning the spell, and 1 in the puzzle room in Irdorath (which is useless because there are no more shrinkable enemies after it... at least I am pretty sure the final boss resists that spell...).

The Stats and Gear have been specifically selected in order to line up the LP route better early on, and to give you some extra protection later, if you want it.

Target Stats:

• 151 STR
  
• 119 DEX
  
• 100% 2H
  
• 100% CB

Target Gear:

• Dragon Slicer
  
• Dragon Hunter's Crossbow
  
• Aura of Innos / Eye of Innos
  
• Ring of Might (+4 DEX and STR, from Lutero Ch3)
  
• Ring of Strength (+5 STR, from Huno Ch2)
  
• Fire Mage Belt (for extra defense with Mage's Robes) / +10 DEX Belt (for more ranged damage)

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Free permanent enhancements:

• 93 STR (brew 11 STR potions, choose the STR potion for Hosh-Pak in Ch4)
  • 33 from brewed potions + 12 from found potions + 22 from tablets + 10 from praying + 5 from Thekla's stews + 2 from stews in bandit camp + 1 from Erol + 3 from 75 apples + 5 from Innos' Tears
• 90 DEX (brew 11 DEX potions, eat 5 Goblin Berries raw and keep one until Irdorath)
  • 33 from brewed potions + 5 from Goblin Berries + 12 from found potions + 24 from tablets + 10 from praying + 1 from Rengaru + 5 from Innos' Tears
• 150-175 Mana
  • 25 from found potions + 42 from tablets + 20 from praying + 2 from Coragon + 25-50 from Dark Mushrooms + 25 from Vatras (old tablets) + 2 from donating to Daron (before becoming a novice) + 3 from Essence in scholar library + 1 from Lou's Hammer + 2 from reading + 3 from Vatras after Raven
• 27% 2H
  • 20 from tablets + 5 from reading + 2 from Sergio
• 20% CB from tablets

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Training:

• total required LP: 441 LP
  
• use spare LP to learn the remaining magic Circles (20 LP) and have Pyrokar praise you for being the worst mage alive, maybe even learn Fire Rain or Wave of Death near the end (20 LP each) Explooosion~!
  
• Ice Block (3rd Circle, 10 LP) or Ice Wave (5th Circle, 20 LP) would suit this build better - as does the Root Snare rune (1st Circle, Beliar rune). If you are having trouble with Root Snare, consider spending 15 LP on the 3rd Circle and Ice Block in Ch3, as that spell is more effective at paralysing enemies for its full duration.
  
• If you choose to learn Wave of Death, then either get it before Irdorath so you can buy the scroll from Gorax, or be aware that you can only find 2 more scrolls of the spell: one at the shadow beast skeleton next to the final Shrink Monster scroll, and one in the inner temple that is full of Seekers in a side room. This means, you would have to make your way very close to the end before being able to craft the rune.
  
• The Fear spell is also worth considering, although you can find one in the "house" in the underpass near Hosh-Pak in the valley.

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Special Notes:

• Absolutely prioritise learning STR and DEX (92 LP) before joining the monastery, otherwise you miss out on praying or have to pay more LP for these later. Learning basic thieving skills (lockpicking, sneaking, pickpocketing) and taking furs is ok.
  
• This will require becoming level 13 before joining the monastery, so you can gain STR and DEX from praying after finishing training but before joining the monastery. With the spare 9 LP, you should put 4 towards 2H skill and 5 towards learning the Jharkendar language I. With the subsequent level ups, learn language II - in order to gain a variety of skills to handle things with while you work on your build - and DEX potions. This should give you enough DEX to finally wield the Rapier and soon after the Master Sword, which are going to be your best in slot weapons while training. Since you do not need a lot of gold as a Mage, do yourself a favour and buy the 2.4k Master Sword from Martin early on.
  
• Your next priority is levelling 2H to 34% before starting Ch2, and preferrably before becoming a Mage. Then get the 2% from Sergio. After this point, you are finally free to invest LP into the rest of your skills in whatever order you want. My personal recommendation: learn Jharkendar Language III first, then use 6 LP to get 2H to 39%, and use the remaining 4 LP of a level for CB. Learn permanent potions next: first DEX, if you have not already, then STR. Afterwards, focus mainly on CB until 34%, then bring 2H to 64% because wielding two handed weapons below that point is not very fun. Finally, finish learning one of the two, then focus the other.
  
• You have to pick up the quest "pray for the paladins" from Marduk before gaining access to the library, but you can pray at any shrine, not only the one next to Sergio. This is useful for two reasons: you can pray even when he is blocking the shrine (he prays a lot as well), and you may be able to avoid him until you have levelled up your 2H skill some more before you talk to him and receive his free 2%. There are two caveats about this, however: you can only get the black wolf quest with Isgaroth from him if you take the 2% while you are still a Novice, and he will not give you the free 2% at all after you start Ch2 (talking with Lord Hagen).
  
• Keep 1 Goblin Berry to use with a King's Sorrel in Irdorath. Use this to reach 122 DEX - then bridge the gap to your STR with accessories. This brings you to 151 STR and 152 DEX temporarily, making it possible to gain +15 DEX from Embarla Firgastro.
  
• This build is - due to its difficult LP route - intended to gain 3 STR from eating apples rather than 2, unlike the other suggestions for which any further apples are just a nice bonus on top. This is in order to increase the defense of the - relatively weak - High Mages Robes with a belt, since you would be in close quarters more often than a regular mage.
  
• Brew about 7-9 DEX potions with the first 14 King's Sorrels, then prioritise brewing the 11 STR potions before the remaining 2-4 DEX potions. If you brew 7 DEX potions initially, consider eating at least 1 Goblin Berry early so you reach 90 DEX for acrobatics using the 3 DEX tablets in SW Jharkendar and the +5 DEX ring from Bosper.
  
• Talk to Lord Hagen as a sheep transformation and advance the story to Ch2 after becoming a Novice and having done all the quests to gain access to the library but before completing the Test of Fire. Then have Vatras send you to Jharkendar and grab the free Fire Arrow rune there. Be aware that advancing the story to chapter 2 will break some scripts. In particular, you cannot gain access to the library anymore if you have not done the corresponding quests in Ch1 yet, which would softlock your game. Furthermore, you do not get a wish after becoming a Mage, but Dyrian is not evicted, either - at least not immediately. Better not promise to use your wish on him, though.

The checklist in this section is complete. That means, if you are going to use it, you have to trim down the parts that are not relevant to your class and/or build. Personally, I prefer tracking my gathering of things process on paper, so enjoy writing down a format that suits you. You should also cross-reference the World-of-Gothic maps when enumerating the herbs.
The abbreviations K, J and M in the "Tablets"-section are short for Khorinis, Jharkendar and Mine Valley, respectively, and are used to indicate how many of each type of tablet can be found on which map. If you actually cross reference the World-of-Gothic maps then you will notice that they show two additional Life Tablets in the Valley that do not seem to be actually there. This can probably be traced back to a series of bugs causing the tablets to be below the ground or simple human error.

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• Goblin Berries: Khorinis: 1-12, Mine Valley: 1-2
  • 3 from Constantino (Chapter 3 and 4)
• Dragon Roots: Khorinis: 1-9
  • 1 at Sagitta (Chapter 3)
    
  • 1 at Constantino (Chapter 5)
    
  • (2 in Irdorath from Milten and in front of the Orc Colonel's room)
• King's Sorrel: Khorinis: 1-11, Jharkendar: 1-2
  • 1 from Vatras after his message to Isgaroth
    
  • 3 from Sagitta (Chapter 2, 4 and 5)
    
  • 4 from Constantino (Chapter 3, 4 and 5)
    
  • 1 from Lutero (Chapter 5)
    
  • (3 in Irdorath from Milten and Vatras)
• DEX Potions, Brewed: 0
  • 1 at farm, field raider cave
    
  • 1 in Cassia's chest in the sewers
    
  • 1 near bandits behind Sekob's farm, ledge on a hill next to a bow and scroll
    
  • 1 from Merchant Salandril, 3rd Chapter
    
  • 1 from Paladin Oric Quest Reward for Hosh-Pak (Choice)
• STR Potions, Brewed: 0
  • 1 from Zuris, 2nd Chapter
    
  • 1 on the Paladin Ship
    
  • 1 as Mage/Paladin Quest Reward from Fire Mage Neoras for a Dragon Egg
    
  • 1 from Paladin Oric Quest Reward for Hosh-Pak (Choice)
    
  • (1 in Irdorath, dark mage's room)
• Mana Potions, Brewed: 0
  • 1 at monastery after test of fire (becoming a Fire Mage)
    
  • 1 stolen from Milten (only in Chapter 2, valley), requires 80 DEX
    
  • 1 in stone circle in valley
    
  • 2 from Merchant Zuris (Chapter 3 and 4)
    
  • (1 in Irdorath, prison cell)
• Health Potions, Brewed: 0
  • 1 at Merchant Erol
    
  • 1 buried treasure in swamp (#12)
    
  • 1 from Merchant Zuris (Chapter 5)
    
  • (2 in Irdorath, prison cell)
• Praying: 0 STR, 0 DEX, 0 Mana
  
• STR from apples: 0
  
• Mana from Dark Mushrooms: 0
  
• Tablets
  
  Stat

  Total Gains

  I

  II

  III

  STR

  22

  2K + 1J

  1K

  2J

  DEX

  24

  1K + 3J + 1M

  1K + 1M

  1J

  Mana

  42

  5K + 1J

  2K + 1M

  2K + 1J

  1H

  24

  2K + 2J + 1M

  2K

  1J

  2H

  20

  1K + 2J

  1K + 1J

  1J

  Bow

  30

  2K + 2M

  3K + 1M

  1J

  CB

  20

  2K + 1M

  1K + 1M

  1J

  Life

  195

  7K + 1M

  3K + 1J + 1M

  4K + 3J
• Other Events
  • 4-5 STR from Thekla's Stew
    • after joining Mercenaries or Fire Mages (do not ask about her stew before!)
      
    • bringing herbs from Sagitta
      
    • beating Bullco
      
    • freeing Bennet
      
    • defeating all dragons
  • +1 STR from fire stew after bringing Lou's Hammer recipe to Snaf
    
  • +1 STR from stew by cooking bandit in digger's pants
    
  • +1 STR from Errol, after giving him 3 old stone tablets
    
  • +1 DEX showing thief's sign to Rengaru
    
  • +2 Mana and +1 LP after donating 20x50 gold to Daron
    
  • +2 Mana from Coragon's special beer: rewards for his silver and Lehmar's ledger
    
  • +25 Mana giving 25 old stone tablets to Vatras (see maps)
    
  • +3 Mana from Essence of Spirit in scholars' library in Jharkendar
    
  • +1 Mana from Lou's Hammer
    
  • +2 Mana from reading "Divine Power of the Stars"
    
  • +3 Mana from Vatras after freeing the missing people
    
  • +2 1H from Militia Wulfgar during 5-7 AM (may not work as mercenary)
    
  • +5 1H from reading "Southern Defense Art" (buy at Lutero Chapter 2)
    
  • +2 2H from Sergio after praying for the paladins (only as Novice/Mage)
    
  • +5 2H from reading "Double Blocks" (buy at Lutero Chapter 2)