Can anyone please tell me how I join the thieve's guild, and also where their guild building is?

Apparently there is a statue of Belair inside, where you can exchange HP for gold..

Also, I think I want to join the Militia. Can I still join the Water Mages after that? And is it better to join the Paladins or the Water mages?

I had joined the Paladins in Gothic 2 vanilla, (which I had not completely finished) but the Water Mages seem a lot more involved in the NOTR plot?

The Thief guild is a bit complicatated, but worth it if you want training in the thiefly arts. Obviously you don't want to turn the Thieves in to the Militia. There are two or three quests that can get you access, depending on how you play them, and obviously you should favour the Thieves whenever you can. Getting into the Guild can take a while. The first quest is this:



The Water Mages will lead you to the expansion part of the game, so you can join them no matter which guild you choose.

As to which guild choice is best, it's really a matter of preference. Fighter types are easier to play early in the game, whereas mages can shine later on. If you're not an experienced Gothic player, mages are a tough go. All of the fighter classes are good, but Paladins get a little magic along the way.

Hmmm- I had heard that the Thieves are a good place to make money, and money you need, for better armour and weapons. Lares did tell me of a trick to get better armour, so I might try that, in any case.

Well, I did ok combat-wise , etc. in G1 and the large amount of G3 that I had covered, but NOTR seems a bird of an altogether more challenging feather (than even G2 vanilla). The quests in G1 seemed more clear, and in G3 not quite so interwoven; - well I knew beforehand in G3 about the "reputation" system, so I knew not to mess it up.

A pity one has only 20 save slots with NOTR, because it seems to be a game where you can easily close options for yourself. I guess I'll have to resign myself to restarting it, at least from earlier gamesaves, -if not from the very beginning, to see how the options play out.

Thanks for your input, hagatha!

The Thieves are worth the effort. Lockpicking is a must -- and high-level Pickpocketing is not only profitable, it gets you massive experience points. Sneaking is also very handy.

Don't worry too much about closing options. The signals are pretty obvious along the way. You can do quests for the other factions until it's actually time to commit to one group, and that point will be unmistakeable. The Militia/Paladin route is easy to do, and as a bonus you can be a Thief and belong to any of the other factions at the same time.

Thanks for your valuable input, Hagatha! I'll let you know when I finally beat the game... (Might be a zombie myself by then)

Hi Moondancer,
If you really want to keep some of those early saved games you can move them over to a different folder under My Documents or some such. Then you will have more room and will be able to access the early ones if you should want to backtrack. It is a little difficult to remember what they all are though.

When you do one of the quests for the Thieves Guild leader, be sure to check back in with her periodically. I had done most or all of what she wanted me to do but I didn't report in on time or something. As a result she and her merry band attacked me and killed me dead!

The combat in NotR is tougher than the original Gothic 2 game was. The programers must of bumped the difficulty up a notch or two, I think.

The combat is definitely more difficult. It's much more important to decide early on if you want to be a fighter type or a mage, and make skill choices accordingly. Even so, by the time I finished NOTR for the second time my archer/mage was a holy terror. But even as an experienced Gothic 2 player, I had to augment my character's magic skills at the beginning of the game just to get through the first two chapters.

Fighter types will find it easier, of course.

On the upside, the game with the NOTR expansion added has the stone tablets.

Thanks, you both. I think for now I'll stick to being an archer, with some one-hander skills, and stick with a fighter's build.

The next time around I'll try for a mage (fighters are solid, but mages are so much more fun, don't you think?)

I read a bit on the differences between NOTR and original G2, and apparently the monsters are tougher in NOTR, and it's harder to level up. I've already started collecting the stone tablets for Vatras, but apparently I need to learn a "builder's language" to be able to benefit from them myself.



Thanks for the gamesave tip - that is an excellent idea, and I'm going to do that right now.