new shard challenge -- design a fresh-start set of characters on a new shard

Rock

Design a new shard cooperative of 6 characters on one account. State the goal of your set of characters, and how their differing abilities would work together.  Mentioning a second account is okay -- for example, a big reason you have a spellweaver on this account might be to support your spellweaver on the other account with Arcane Circle.

Rock

In my set, I wanted resourcing by elves, all eight professions with BODs, and a limit of two crafters who will avoid fighting.  All other characters should hold their own in battle. GM+ crafters are to be able to make all items of their profession at full capability. I.e., Arms Lore is not an option for my guys if it will improve their goods. A second account would include tamer(s), bard(s), ninja(s), and other occupations to round out the full UO experience. My sixth character is more in that vein than supporting others.  But he's a Necromancer -- whatd'ya expect?

Let's start with my two dedicated craftsmen.  Note that only four GM+ BODding professions are covered.  They do, however also offer full-power Imbuing and Mining.

#1: Gargoyle, because of enhanced Imbuing
- - - - - -
120: Imbuing
100: Carpentry, Arms Lore
 80: Magery, Blacksmith
 75: Tailoring, Tinkering
 45: Music, Eval Int
+MR, +Eval Int
Note: 2nd source of high end BODs for Blacksmith, Tailoring, and Tinkering

#2: Elf, because of more colored ores and ingredients from mining
- - - -
120: Blacksmithing, Tailoring
100: Arms Lore, Mining, Tinkering
 70: Carpentry, Magery
 20: Eval Int, Meditation
+MR, +Eval Int
Note: 2nd source of high end BODs for Carpentry

#3: Elf, because more colored woods and ingredients from lumberjacking
- - - -
120: Swords, Tactics, Parry
100: Lumberjacking
100: Healing, Anatomy
 60: Chivalry
+MR, +SR, +Chivalry
Note: Chivalry basically included as QoL feature, but good for battle as well. The Lumberjacking skill not only allows for gathering wood and other resources, it buffs damage done by an axe.

#4: Human, because of greater carry capasity, JOAT, and +2 HPR
- - - - -
120: Archery, Tactics
100: Bowcraft, Arms Lore
100: Alchemy, Focus
 80: Chivalry
+MR, +Potion
Note: Using potions is a little awkward with bow, but can set up macro to handle disarming, use potion, and re-arming.

#5: Elf, becuase of 20 extra mana
- - - -
120: Magery, Eval Int
100: Meditation, Inscription, Anatomy, Cooking
 80: Spellweaving
+MR, +Spellweaving
Note: Someone's gotta cook, right? The Spellweaving provides some nice benefits such as Nature's Fury (up to 5 pets that seek out, distract, and damage foes).

#6: Human, because of greater carry capasity, JOAT, and +2 HPR
- - - - -
120: Fencing, Tactics
120: Necromancy, Spirit Speak
100: Meditation, Poisoning
 40: Anatomy
+DI, +Anatomy

Note: I'm not sure Poisoning should be considered a "craft", but it sue fits thematically with Necromantic evil.  Note that the build is "focused", allowing the Horrific Beast form to cast spells.

- - - - - -

My main criticism of this set is that 3 characters have Arms Lore,  I guess Bowcraft could be moved from #4 to #1, but to squeeze it in, the Carpenter would become highly dependent on a set of jewelry to make up skill points which had to be sacrificed to fit in Bowcraft.  #1 would eliminate Eavl Int to save 45 points, but he'd still need to shave 55 from other skills. The archer (#4) though, would then be able to become an "ABC" archer, adding Bushido and perhaps Poisoning to his set of skills.

Captain_Lucky

I did this on legend a few years back. To get power scrolls and the uber equipment floating around these days it's a lengthy task and to say it's grindy really doen't do it justice..

Sarkon

1.  Mage - Mystic/Mage/Weaver or Necro/Mage/Weaver.  Quick and easy and can do a reasonable amount of farming with the bare minimum of a 100 LRC suit.  Used to gather SSI jewelry for a sampire/thrower and imbuing mats.  I would use this character to grab a couple of Tangles from Navery early on.

2.  Mule - Blacksmith, Tailor, Arms Lore, Imbuing.  Rest of the skills trained as needed.  Mainly for Imbuing because it's neat, and useful for the mage and the warrior.  Reforging will take a bit to work effectively, but you can imbue some decent stuff from the start, modifying pieces as you get higher.  I don't like to craft, so I would probably just stick to the bare minimum to get by.

3.  Sampire/thrower - main soloer.  Built for spawns/peerless/bosses to gather artifacts and high end mats.  Start off with a basic imbued suit from character 2, then gradually work up to higher end things.  Initial suit would probably have Stam, HP, Mana/LMC.  Jewels would be looted SSI and imbue some HCI on them.  I would save appropriate slayers, farm SA for slayer mats that I want, and just hope EoO is enough to get by until then.

4.  Skill holder - for skills not useful all the time, like Mining, Lumberjacking, Alchemy.  Not really used for much, just to hold skills.  This is assuming we have access to a soulstone.

That's as self-sufficient as I would make it.  The last 2 would be just for fun characters that don't really go along with anyone else.

5-6. Tamer, Treasure Hunter, Archer, Bard, Stealther/Thief.  Those are just on the fun side, but each are nice to have in their own right.

Rock

@Captain_Lucky, I won't argue that building up a set of characters can feel "grindy", but I kind of like the process of getting to a goal template. "It's not the end-game, it's the journey."  Also, acquiring power scrolls on a lot of shards can be difficult, especially if one is not willing to pay real money to third party stores for them.

@Sarkon, that's a really nice set of characters with great rationale.  Yes, including a soulstone or two is allowed.  The challenge is mostly for vets, to have them think, "if I knew then what I know now...".  And I assume most vets would have no trouble acquire soulstone(s).  I used to have a character like your #4.  I named him "Zom B Bob".  I think he just sat around the house all day and ate bonbons.

Funny thing is, I didn't even know my chef could make bonbons.