Alright! I picked up Gothic 1 a few days ago for nostalgia's sake. You see,I used to own the CD's for Gothic 1,2,NotR,and 3. In my opinion,Gothic 3 sucked,but that's neither here nor there. Anyways. I've beaten Gothic 1 plenty of times before. But it's dawned upon me that I've only beaten the game as a Magician of Fire. So,I decided to go with a two handed warrior with a crossbow this time 'round.

So,I have a few questions for people who didn't take the path of Innos. What camp would be best to join for this kind of character,for easy access to trainers and merchants who stock decent two-handers/crossbows? I know you get access to the Old Camp's crossbow trainer,regardless of your allegiance,near the end of the game,but,aside from that,I don't know squat about being a mighty warrior. My mages always ran around with a mace and a crapload of mana potions. Not really a serious question mandating the special tag,methinks.

The easiest would probably be Old Camp, although ultimately there's nothing stopping you from joining any camp for a 2H warrior.

New Camp warriors mostly use Axes and Bows, while the Swamp Camp templars use 2H swords and creepy Sleeper magic.

In Gothic 2, Mercenaries will be the best choice.

There is not really a problem with any camp if you want to play a 2h warrior. So if you always had Fire Magician perhaps you should not take the old camp.
Swamp camp is nice and has good 2h swords, if you are fine with their strange ways and odd armor^^
New camp is also nice and there is the possibility to become a water mae or even a demon summoner (learning the sixth magic circle from Xardas)

To be honest, you should try both :D

IIRC, there is a slight advantage to the new camp because you can learn 2H from Lee without 1H req, saving a few xp.

He will not teach you 2H-ed weapons unless you learned 1H-ers first. The difference he will not ask you to be a master in 1Her combat, so yes, that's saving LPs for better use.

Very,VERY good to know,about Lee...Now,if memory serves,doesn't the New Camp also have the only trainer that can cap out your strength? This would be very handy,indeed...

That's Lee (iirc.) as well.
Also, please keep in mind that you should first train your STR up to 100, and only after that drink permanent potions or do Horatio quest.

I know proper stat potion procedures,Kojocel. Now...Are there any blunt two handers? Or am I gonna have to carry around a mace for any stone golems I find? I know I'll have to stockpile fire,lightning,and ice spell scrolls.

Useful 2H-ers are swords and axes only.
There's a two-handed mace wielded by orc temple guardians, if I remember correctly. Krush Karrak I think it was called, can't recall exactly. But by the time you get there, you'll find far more better weapons.

For stone golems just use your regular one-handed hammers.

Sorta sucks that two-hander training isn't available until AFTER I gut the Minecrawler Queen,but,what can you do? I have level 1 one-hander training so I'm actually worth something in a fight,and I've been pumping up my strength,so I can beat people silly. Except for Butch or Kirgo. But I'm working on that. Got all of the hunting skills too,besides taking bloodfly stingers,and pulling crawler mandibles. That stuff can make you RICH,man.

Anyways,making some headway in the Old and New camps. I can even kill Bloodhounds...If I can overcome their silly reach. I've been wandering around,depopulating the Colony's animal populations. Hey,at least there's plenty of good camping real-estate now,since all the bloodflies are dead...

I can only tell you this much: Scar's sword.

If you grab that 1H-er early in the game and learn master 1h-er, you'll never feel the need for another weapon, except for the last part of the The Temple of the Sleeper, where you regular weapons won't work.

Another thing about Scar's sword is that beside its huge damage, it has a long range.
The apocalyptic templars will kick your butt with their 2H-ers and there you'll truly come to appreciate the range of a melee weapon.

Of course, having best 1H-er this early breaks all the sense of progress, but if you want to have some fun, then by all means... :-)

I'm actually at chapter four,right now. Picked up the heavy mercenary armour from Lee,as well as mastering two-handers out of the gate the moment I became a mercenary. Now I've found Scorpio by Cavalorn's,and grabbed a Custodian Blade (sure as Hell beats that Orcish axe I've been using) and a Heavy Crossbow. After picking a fight with that pair of guards by one of the Orc Land entrances,I think I'm gonna wait until I can use that crossbow before I pick any fights with Old Campers...

Just get inside Old Camp through the back gate (the one leading to Swamp Camp) - you can bug it out and get inside - and kill everything you see, except Gomez. You'll get tons o LP.
Also, New Camp is another source of an excellent number of LPs - you don't have to kill them, just knock them down for the XP, and there you go.

Also, Old Mine is another great source of LPs. Even if they say it's collapsed, you still can get inside (at least this is how I remember it - it was quite a while since I last played G1).

Edit: if you hover your mouse over one of your posts, you'll see on the top right corner of the message "Edit" button.

The issue with trying to roll over the Old Camp is their crossbows. TWO Guards with crossbows dropped my ass. Now,imagine a whole damn camp of 'em trying to make me their new pincushion. I'm trying to avoid human enemies with ranged weapons and kill on sight tendencies,at the moment. I want to max out my strength (34 LP),and get enough dexterity to use that light crossbow I ganked off that guard by the South Gate Orc Land pass (15 LP,ish). I need the ranged option for dealing with the Old Camp and Free Mine,since those crossbows hurt. A lot. And I have a hunch Throus'll just look at me and I'll die.