• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Well. if you live your lfe on the steppes you start with tracking, pathfinding and spotting skills, and a bow. Start out as a merchant's sprog and you get trade bonuses and a sumpter horse. A noble's offspring gets a coat of arms and a banner, and a good horse...a courser I seem to recall. The last 2 started with crossbows when I tried them, which had to be quickly traded in for bows in the nasty world of noobiness....the crossbow is just too slow in anything other than a siege environment, in my humble opinion.
Try running a few test characters and I think you'll find it pretty logical, tho' the coat of arms came as a surprise..:)
 
the crossbow is just too slow in anything other than a siege environment, in my humble opinion.

Quite right. However, I think that bow's aren't much of an improvement. Unless, of course, they're just on your back for one of those, "just in case" scenarios...
 
Here's a complete list of the Character Creation:
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mount&Blade/Character_creation
Basically you start out with a 'base character' and your choices determine the extra points you get.
But in the end it has no real influence on the game (like in many RPG's), you can always change direction, so to speak.
It does however determine how difficult your first few days in the game will be.
 
Thank you Adorno it's exactly that I wanted!
But I’m not agree with you, I think some skill aren't useful in this end like trainer or Spotting. And so if you have put skills in your character is a little corrupted. For me, it's very boring to play with a corrupted character in a RPG, but that depend how you play.
 
Thank you Adorno it's exactly that I wanted!
But I’m not agree with you, I think some skill aren't useful in this end like trainer or Spotting. And so if you have put skills in your character is a little corrupted. For me, it's very boring to play with a corrupted character in a RPG, but that depend how you play.
no, trainer is useful. it is so cool when you run through some major battle (most often siege) and you have to get a lot of reinforcements it is pain in the ass to level them all up through combat (either you chase all the fast bandit groups or you pick fight with stronger opponents, which only means more casualities).
so never underestimate good trainer skill. it often means the difference between footman and horseman and this can save your life more then once
 
Quite right. However, I think that bow's aren't much of an improvement. Unless, of course, they're just on your back for one of those, "just in case" scenarios...

I'm having good fun with an archer right now. It helps to have a fast and maneuverable horse like a Steppe horse, and a backup melee. Against anything unmounted, you can just trot away, stop, fire, then trot again.

Crossbow, on the other hand, isn't useful on a horse, so I don't have much experience with it yet. Maybe my next character, if I can drag myself away from the goodness of mounted combat.
 
Unless, of course, they're just on your back for one of those, "just in case" scenarios...

Hmmm....my char still has a bow in the siege equipment box even as we approach endgame, and used one regularly until I looted good mail from the searaiders and found jousting lances in Walmart.
Siege technique in my band is to follow the shock troops (plate and bardiches) up the ladder then clear the side of the wall where the stormtroops don't go. Muster any archers coming up the ladder, swap axe for bow and erode the defenders till the line troops have won the ground war. Losing your assault commander in the meat-grinder after you get over the walls is such a waste of men and morale. And,of course, you have to start all over.
In the field 1/3 of the companions are still bow and sabre. The other 10 are full plate, couched lance, sabre and throwing-axe. I find the horse archer is such a versatile feature in this game, and I still haven't been able to afford plate for the lot of them.