Character Creation in the Underworld Games

The Character Creation in Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II is, compared to the other games, a no-frills affair that is done by selecting options directly. However, the whole process is quite complex and can easily cause lots of grief later in the game when wrong choices come back to haunt the player.

Therefore the whole process is analyzed here in all details. Since there are, despite the fundamentally same mechanism, considerable differences between the two parts during the creation, both games are handles separately.

Ultima Underworld
The name and gender of the Avatar are purely a personal choice and have no consequence whatsoever on the further process.

It gets interesting after that. One of the eight professions has to be chosen. This is the most crucial choice, since each profession comes with a certain range of the three stats and certain abilities they start or can start with. A detailled analysis follows.

The Stats of the Professions
Each profession has a minimum proficency in each of the three stats of strength, dexterity and intelligence, which sadly in Ultima Underworld is not exactly known, being only described as "low", "medium" and "high". It's only known that the abslute minimum for any stat (which most likely is 'low") is 12. On that starting proficency, a number of bonus points are applied in a random fashion. That means of one doesn't like the numbers, they can re-try to get a different result, which however always can only be within the range set by the minimum numbers. Note that all thre stats together can never exceed 60 points.

Here an overview of said minimum proficencies

Of note is that in order to offset the low minimum proficencies, the Shepherd does have a much higher number of bonus points that are distributed, thus one can get much different results in each attempt.

The Skills
Additionally to that, each class has a unique skillset. Some skills are chosen automatically for the chosen profession, while others can be picked from a list of choices during the creation process. Which skills each class automatically gets and which they can chose follows in the table below. In it, each skill pick means, that one choice has to be made from that list. Of note is, that these skills undergo a roll as well, so the actual points the skill gets can very significantly between creation tries. For the actual usefulness of the various skills, see Skill System of Underworld I and II.

Conclusions
For each character class, there is a conclusion.

The Mage and the Druid suffer tremendously from their lack of any kind of weapon skill, making it very difficult for them to survive until reaching the shrine on the first level to get a minimum skill in a weapon of choice. Addtionally, the mage's low strength means that the inventory and armor are highly limited.

The Bard is pretty much a jack of all trades, who however should quickly decide which path to go. At creation, one has to make sure to get the STR as high as possible, so that the inventory and armor won't been too limited by the weight limit. At creation the difficult decision between weapon and casting skills exists.

While the Fighter won't have any troubles when it comes to the fighting arts, the low INT and the lack of any starting abilities in the magical arts or mana supply means, that the investment to learn them (needed!) is much higher than with other professions.

Interestingly, the Tinker is very much like the Fighter, only that the skill selection for practical skills is rather poor, since the skills offered are mostly useless for further progression in the game, as is the automatically gained repair skill.

For some reason the Paladin got burdened with a low STR, which makes this profession, which normally is a Fighter with magic, a joke here with highly limited inventory and armor. The starting skill of charm also is pretty much useless. For some reason, despite high INT, the Paladin does not have any magical skill to chose from.

The Ranger is a jack of all trades. Their stats are very much random due to the bonus points. Besides the useless automatic tracking skill, the Ranger can chose from pretty much all practical and battle skills, but does not have the choice of magical skills.

Finally, the Shepherd is a surprise character. While the basic stats ar low, the high bonus means, they can get any combination of stats. Also, they can chose from all skill categories, battle, magical and practical, thus making them very versatile when creating a character - just hope a a good roll with the stats.

Ultima Underworld II
In Ultima Underworld II the creation process got overhauled, in order to eliminate many of the shortcomings found in the first game.

The name and gender of the Avatar are purely a personal choice and have no consequence whatsoever on the further process.

It gets interesting after that. One of the eight professions has to be chosen. This is the most crucial choice, since each profession comes with a certain range of the three stats and certain abilities they start or can start with. A detailled analysis follows.

The Stats of the Professions
Each profession has a minimum proficency in each of the three stats of strength, dexterity and intelligence, which can be seen in the table below. On that starting proficency, a number of bonus points are applied in a random fashion. Each profession has a fixed number of points, as seen below. That means of one doesn't like the numbers, they can re-try to get a different result, which however always can only be within the range set by the minimum numbers. The number of total points (stats and bonus) is 60 for each profession, except the Shepherd with only 56, thus it is impossible to have all three stats at maximum.

Here an overview of said minimum proficencies

Of note is that in order to offset the low minimum proficencies, the Shepherd does have a much higher number of bonus points that are distributed, thus one can get much different results in each attempt. The Ranger also can have very different results, thus one can experiment there.

The Skills
Additionally to that, each class has a unique skillset. Some skills are chosen automatically for the chosen profession, while others can be picked from a list of choices during the creation process. Which skills each class automatically gets and which they can chose follows in the table below. In it, each skill pick means, that one choice has to be made from that list. Of note is that these skills undergo a roll as well, so the actual points the skill gets can very significantly between creation tries. For the actual usefulness of the various skills, see Skill System of Underworld I and II.

Conclusions
For each character class, there is a conclusion.

The Mage and the Druid suffer tremendously from their lack of any kind of weapon skill, making it neccassary to invest the initial training point for a minimum skill in a weapon of choice. Addtionally, the mage's low strength means that the inventory and armor are highly limited.

The Bard is pretty much a jack of all trades, who however should quickly decide which path to go. At creation, one has to make sure to get the STR as high as possible, so that the inventory and armor won't been too limited by the weight limit. At creation, the difficult decision between weapons and casting exists.

While the Fighter won't have any troubles when it comes to the fighting arts, the low INT and the lack of any starting abilities in the magical arts or mana supply means, that the investment to learn them (needed!) is much higher than with other professions.

Interestingly, the Tinker is very much like the Fighter, only that the skill selection for practical skills is rather poor, since the skills offered are mostly useless for further progression in the game, as is the automatically gained repair skill.

Thankfully, the Paladin got fixed compared to the previous game, now having the second-highest initial strength of all professions. Also, the skill selection now has magical skills available right from the start, allowing these to develop right from the start. This makes for a good fighter/mage combo.

The Ranger is a jack of all trades. Their stats are very much random due to the bonus points. Besides the useless automatic tracking skill, the Ranger can chose from pretty much all practical and battle skills, but does not have the choice of magical skills.

Finally, the Shepherd is a surprise character. While the basic stats are low, the high bonus means they can get any combination of stats. Also, they can chose from all skill categories, battle, magical and practical, thus making them very versatile when creating a character - just hope at a good roll with the stats.