I just recently finished playing UU1, my character was a Fighter and I put no skill points at all into Mana or Casting (I relied only on magic items). This is perfectly viable in UU1 without adding undue difficulty.

I would like to try this strategy again for UU2, but I thought I'd ask here first to see if doing this would make the game needlessly hard/complicated? Thanks :).

Hello. I've played and beaten the first and have been playing quite far into UU2 so I think I can honestly say you can play without magical skills , but it is more difficult without magic then as in UU1. You'll want to collect several unique magical items , and you'll absolutely want to put points into pick locking, at least up to around 15 or so, though pumping up to 30 over the course of your game will let you unlock just about everything. Lock picks do break in this game so you'll want to get every last one you can find and barter for a few more if you want to rely on the skill.

Acrobat is also very important, at least to get about 16-20. Charisma is kind of eh, it will reduce prices in deals, and it's most important with a particular merchant who I won't spoil, but pumping points into that when you're trying to keep up with attack skills is a bit inefficient, better to leave it alone overall, unless you find a nice place to grind.

Overall magic isn't "necessary" but it really does help out a bit more in the sequel, alleviating the problems of some annoying puzzles, but if you're careful and persistent you can get past them, especially with some long held magical items, levitate being one of the more useful types to gather up, but be sure to try a puzzle as best you can before you waste an item on it, and needless to say, save fairly often.

There are lots more wands to be found in UU2 than in UU1, which helps if you lack magic skills. IIRC you can even pay to have them recharged.

Thanks for your advice :)! I actually dislike using magic at all when completing puzzles, it almost feels like cheating to me so I prefer to solve it them the hard way. In UU1 I don't think there was anything which required magic spells to complete it, although I do recall using the ring of jumping in a couple of areas to get around and the ring of levitation definitely made things go a bit easier (less backtracking). Dragonskin boots were of course critical too.

I would like to ask you more about the pick lock skill though. I did not take this skill at all in UU1, in that game there are keys for (almost) everywhere, and in any case you can bash most doors down if you want (I only did that with one door in the entire game). I take it from what you said that UU2 is different in that regard, picklock is more necessary? Thanks :). In UU1 I diligently collected all wands, but never ended up using a single one (except just once to see how they work). Same with the spell scrolls, although I did use Gate Travel from a scroll once to get the moonstone, but then I never used the spell again so it was actually not required :P.

Are the wands in UU2 of a more useful variety? In UU1 they are just long range combat spells, I always just ran in and attacked with my sword instead.

Yes, the UU2 wands are more useful, and have a wide range of spells.

Completing UW2 without magic is doable - I've done it.

Some doors require either lockpicking or magic to open, though none of them are plot-critical. There are certain places where being able to cast a spell will allow you to bypass a requirement, potentially saving you some work, and some areas where not having magic will mean that you need to prepare for them ahead of time, but everything can be done. Some noncombat skills may become more important than you'd otherwise expect, too.

That said, magic in both games is almost always better used for utility than combat, whether it's via wands/scrolls or direct casting.

Thank you :). Having rechargeable wands with utility spells will definitely help a lot! Thanks for your help :). I would definitely like to be able to open those locked doors, so I will need either Picklock skill or Mana/Casting...

I am still a bit divided on this issue. Mana/Casting will give me a lot more flexibility, and I've never played UU2 before so I have no idea what to expect. But on the other hand, I don't want the game to be too easy (which is why I preferred no to use no spells in UU1). I am leaning strongly towards the hard core playthrough. I know it will be much more enjoyable and satisfying for me in the end. I'm very glad I came here to ask about it first though, or I never would have known that Picklock skill is much more important in this game :)!

The skills I'm going to focus on are: Attack, Defence, Sword, Lore, Picklock.
Secondary skills (to mid level only): Acrobat, Search

Thanks for your input. It's a question of play style I think. In UU1 I liked Search so I don't miss secret doors (no need to click walls searching for one). I also didn't have Swim and never took any damage while swimming. But yeah, neither of them are really important.

Maybe it is just because I don't know how to use the skill, but how did Search reveal secret doors without clicking?

And to me, Swimming and Acrobat are in roughly the same pool: put a few points in to avoid damage in case the skill's situation comes up (like if you just happen to need to be in the water for a bit), but it isn't hugely important. Acrobat is better than Swimming, but a few points in both pretty much covers the need, especially if you don't have mana for water walk.

Though in this game, one world does invite more points than usual for Acrobat (compared to the first game). It will be pretty clear which one I'm talking about, once you get there and start moving around.

In UU1, with high enough Search skill (it's probably a secret check vs your skill) when you walk near a secret door it will appear on your automap as a door.

Yes, Acrobat certainly helped in UU1, I really noticed the difference once I put some ranks in there, l will be sure to allocate points to Acrobat for UU2 as well.

IIRC, passive Search would sometimes cause the door to automatically 'pop' as visible on the wall, similar to what happened after manually finding it.

In the case of UW2, I'd really recommend putting a couple of points into Swimming given the situations you'll come up against from time to time. It's not a huge investment and it'll greatly reduce the hassle involved.

Acrobatics remains important for avoiding incidental damage and in UW2's case (especially without magic) it can really help with mobility in certain areas.

Thanks, I'll throw a few points into Swim as well in that case :).

Regarding secret doors, perhaps they do 'pop' as well, but in all honesty I never noticed that, I only noticed that there was a new door on my automap.

In my own experience, there wasn't a great need of pick locking, though I did use a little bit and gradually worked it up, I had a tendency to use magical unlock, but there are many keys like in the first game to just about every important door and a few side doors. It is a useful skill, but I think it's better if it's built up early to help you get past some key-finding and past the few doors that have no keys to them, if you want to do some skipping to strong items or plot-critical items earlier, otherwise it's not terribly necessary.

I found myself using magical unlock fairly often, and the warp spell is fantastic once you get the moonstones, though it's use as before (In my view) is a little niche. Setting them up in specific spots to farm for example, maybe throwing one in a few spots can save you some headaches but you have to be cautious if you're throwing them over water or lava.

ho hum if i can still remember correctly, the only annoying part when using a fighter or low-mana/casting character(i used a paladin) in UW2 is when you need to buy a flameproof potion for a very important magic ritual.
SPOILERS maybe:
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the potion requires a fairly large amount of water bottles to buy. if you didn't hoard water bottles found in castle britan's cellar, you will find those water bottles all empty by the time you get to this ritual quest. the only other place with a large number of water bottles should be a certain ethereal void area. also if you crashed killorn keep too early or killed the guy who sold the flameproof potion, you're screwed.

otherwise there're many wands and staffs found in UW2 which more than make up for your lack of casting/mana. i think the most useful one is probably the enchant/repair item wand? unlike UW1, there's nobody to help you repair armor and weapons in this game. that's not really a big deal if you specialise in swords. there should be many magical bejewelled or black swords that are very durable. the same guy who sells potions will also recharge wands at a high cost, but earning gold is easy once you get the hang of murdering people in pits of carnage.