Crafting the "perfect" mule

In planning for a carpenter on a new shard, it's UOGuide page says the following skills are necessary to be able to craft all of the skill's items at maximal quality:

100: Carpentry, Arms Lore
 80: Blacksmithy
 75: Tailoring, Tinkering, Magery, Imbuing
 45: Musicianship
---
625 skill points total

It's pretty clear that one character is not able to be a craftsman of all trades.  Just maxing out Blacksmithy, Tailoring, Tinkering, and Imbuing would take another 155 points, and he'd still not be a bowyer. However, one could depend on 5 points in something from jewelry, and then squeeze in 100 skill in Bowcraft and Fletching.  Or, even adding 40 more points to Blacksmithy would still not be optimal in that skill.  With no Mining, you would not be able to effectively smelt and recycle, making you inefficient.

I have come to the conclusion that a player who likes to craft will need at least two "mules". Squeeze in the 100 Bowcraft into this template, and have another character who maxes out Blacksmithy, Mining, Tinkering, Tailoring, Imbuing, and Arms Lore.

Maybe if you were able to swap skills using a soul stone, and had lots of +skill wearables and tools, it would be possible. In the long run, having two craftsmen seems a simpler approach if your account has the character slots on the shard.

Comments?

Blacksmith 120      Carp              100
Tailor          120      Fletch            100
Tink            100      Arms Lore     100
Arms Lore  100      Tink               100
Mining        100      Lumber Jack 100
Magery         60      Magery          
                   720      Imbuing         120
                                                     620
Add Jewels for magery or you can use soulstones.

Don't forget Inscription and Cooking.

Oh, and Alchemy.

and Alach

I went by what the OP was talking about so did not include the last 3.

Good points all.  Add in Inscription, Alchemy, and Cooking, and it is clear one character cannot do it all. (Should Poisoning be considered a craft skill?  While it increases poison effectiveness  for both magic and weapons fighters, it's original use was to poison weapons in the first place. They could then be used by anyone.) I'll remove Inscription from the list because it can easily be part of a 6x full mage template, and it even buffs various mage spells.  But it looks like a third craftsman might be necessary to cover Alchemy, Cooking, and possibly Poisoning. Or these skills could be spread out where they might fit well on adventurer templates.

You need 3 mules unless you use soulstones

As far as poisoning goes, you can also still build a Nox Mage, especially since Poisoning has a mastery.

Don't know how viable a Nox Mage is though.

I have one started, just haven't played it much yet.

(Also, sorry Bilbo, I was editing my previous post to include alchemy when you posted!)

I make some of my tamers/ mages and imbuers also mystic/mage  imbuers works outwell as i have the skills to obtain the stuff to unravell.

Bilbo said:

You need 3 mules unless you use soulstones

Yup. And I use book charges to get around.  3 Mules one has fishing.  My mystic garg is my imbuer.

Then you need a T Hunter. A beggar, a thief...

Get busy @Rock

Mule1:

120 blacksmith
120 tailor
120 imbuing
100 tinkering
100 carpentry
100 armslore
60 magery

Mule2:

100 bowcraft
100 armslore
100 alchemy
100 cooking
100 blacksmith
100 tailor
60 tinker
60 magery

Gatherer:

120 swords
120 tactics
100 anatomy
100 healing
80 chiv
100 mining
100 lumberjacking

I run inscription on a mage, and dont really care about unlocking all the carpentry stuff.

@North_LS, Thank you for the input. Why do you repeat at least GM Blacksmithy and Tailoring on both mules? Would it be advantageous to move Carpentry from Mule1 to Mule2 and move Mining from Gatherer to Mule1? You could then have Mule2 keep whatever lesser levels of Blacksmithy and/or Tailoring to support the Carpentry menu. Gatherer would also gain 100 points for Poisoning or some other adventuring skill.

The downside would be Mule1 could only mine in "safe" spots, since they have no defensive or offensive capability except the 60 Magery. At least they would be ready to take out any Greater Mongbats that come along.

MULE #2
100 bowcraft
100 armslore
100 alchemy
100 cooking
100 Lumberjack
100 carpentry
60 tinker
60 magery


MULE #1
120 blacksmith
120 tailor
120 imbuing
100 tinkering
100 mining
100 armslore
60 magery

Hey @Rock, mule 1 was made long before carp got the extra requirements, otherwise i probably would have adjusted things differently. i have smith and tailor on mule 2 again for BODs only. I need the mining on the gatherer primarily for farming gold ore from elementals, and i sort of like just wandering around mining ore and killing whatever i come across. its relaxing. the gatherer is actually one of my favorite characters to play.

@North_LS, Sounds like a good reason to keep your gatherer as is. 🙂 I've heard you only need 0.1 in a craft skill to enable BODs in that craft.  I kinda wish they were scaled to one's level, but as far as I can tell, they seem of random difficulty regardless of skill.

I run the following:

120 blacksmith
120 tailor
120 imbuing
100 tinker
100 carpentry
100 arms lore
60 magery + 40 from jewels and spellbook. 

Here's how I do mine

1. Dedicated Tailor/Smith/Miner/Arms Lore at 120/120/100/100 (rest of skills plus gear optimizing for combat, to allow collection of leather and mining with Gargoyle Pickaxes)

2. Inscription on a caster (its non-crafting elements are wasted on a mule, and its strengths such as crafting spellbooks with additional attributes are diminished if not on a 120 caster)

3. Mule
a. 70 Blacksmith (minimum for colored BODs; holds a +10 ASH or Hammer of Hesphaestus when needing the 80 Blacksmith for Carpentry)
b. 75 Tailor
c. 100 Alchemy
d. 100 Carpentry
e. 120 Imbuing
f. 100 Tinkering
g. 95 (+5 from Melisande's Hatchet for 100 when actually in use) Lumberjacking (this is an artifact of when you had to have GM carpentry to make all colored boards - I could put a different crafting skill on now)
h. 5 Music (real)**
i. 55 Magery (real)*

*Total of 115 Magery, via equipment. +15 spellbook from Treasures of Tokuno, +5 from Treatise on Alchemy Talisman, +20 Magery Bracelet, +20 Magery Ring. This is my default configuration. While I can't do direct damage worth a darn, I have a high success chance on casting 8th circle summons. Even with imbued items and a player-crafted spellbook, can easily reach 100 skill this way (+5 treatise Talisman, +15 ring, +15 Bracelet, +12 or +13 Magery Spellbook). Theoretically, if one got a Mark of Travesty, could even reach 120 Magery.

** Swaps out the following to get to 45. Singing Axe for Spellbook (+5 Music). Traveling Minstrel Talisman for Alchemy (+5 Music), +15 Ring & +15 Bracelet with Music instead of Magery (as they are in the same skill group). If I was an elf, I could have had 0 real skill in music, and only need the Talisman OR Axe (as I could wear the Song Woven Mantle leaf sleeves craftable from the ML Heartwood quests, for another +10 Music). Similarly, if I get jewelry items with +20 music in the future, I can start reducing the number of swaps, or put the +5 music into a different skill (such as magery or lumberjacking, where it was originally before ML)

Odd skills out: These are currently only trained on a different account, in my case

Cooking is either soulstoned, or kept on a secondary character that also has alchemy for potion use (that acts as my brewer).
Fletching is on my archer. I can do bow repairs in the field, and I can stone on arms lore when I want to actually craft a bow (doesn't happen often - I find far better stuff than I could craft, BODs don't need lore, and reforging doesn't need more than the base bow passed to my Imbuer).

Thank you for your detailed and knowledgeable breakdown, @Basara.