Hi all,

would anyone happen to know of a good character build in DF Unity? I'm interested in the questing, storylines, and exploration parts, but would like for combat to be a total cakewalk.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

For a first time player, the easiest choice is honestly to just select the premade "Ranger" class. Or the "Spellsword" if you want casting. The other premade classes ranges from okay-ish to terrible.

If you want to make your own class, this will generally produce a playable character:

Primary/Major: 1 melee weapon skill, dodging, critical strike. If you are doing a caster, Destruction, Restoration, Mysticism. If not, Archery and whatever you think sounds cool.

Minor skills: Whatever you think fit. If caster, the rest of the magic skills.

Attributes: If caster, a bunch of Intelligence. Other than that, you want Speed, Endurance and Strength.

Advantages: Expertise with your weapon. If caster you want Increased Magery. Do *not* go overboard and select a bunch of advantages

Disadvantages: Unable to use weapons, materials or armor types. Note: do *not* select "Unable to wear plate" unless you want a bad time.

Difficulty Dagger: You want this at the middle or a bit below. Select Disadvantages until it is quite a bit below the middle. Then add Hit Points to bring it back up.

And you're good to go.

Also note that no matter what character you make, if you manage to level up to around lvl8-ish the loot drops will get so good the game will become a cake walk almost no matter what build you have,

I stumbled upon this "character creation" tutorial that will help you make something that can level up quickly and kind of make combat bearable if you don't want too much of a challenge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL6MqsTTauw

To be clear this build guide doesn't use "broken" mechanics, but creates a char that levels up fast but still has some challenge. He is correct in that you find dwarven stuff rather quickly and Iron is mostly fine for some time. Also be sure to answer the questions on the char background, as if you have an opportunity to grab the ebony dagger it will be super helpful against enemies that are resistant to Iron until you can get some Dwarven stuff. So steer clear of lycanthropes until you get a dwarven weapon.

The spell list is pretty important aspect of this don't forget to buy them after you grind up enough money to do so. Having the Cure Poison, Cure Disease and Free Action is super important as enemies that paralyze you are probably the most challenging part of the game.

After you get a bit of a ways in you will probably find some "Unrestrainable" type magic items, at that point you can just tap "U" and use it when you get paralyzed. I have like 3 of them now in my inventory so I don't waste as many spell points o Free Action anymore. It's an expensive spell. I lucked out and found an "..of Magicka" magic wearable I could equip which basically absorbs magicka if you get hit by a spell, this helps GREATLY. The number one problem with having to use Free Action is the massive amount of magicka it burns, espeically early, which causes you to rest a lot.. which burns precious time on time based quests..

Though, combat in Daggerfall.. there's not really anything like a "difficult slider" to make it easy. It's going to be a challenge in the early part of the game no matter what you do. It will get a lot easier as you learn the game and get muscle memory up for the combat dance and get better equipment and level up your skills. Save often.. sometimes around every corner tap quick-save.. but also create 5-10 proper saves when you get main quests.. they are timed and if you screw up you can render the main quest unable to be completed and you are just a regular ole citizen running around the land at that point. I would imagine you can role play that as some other person is saving the world.. just not you.. :)