Since its been ages sine I last played the game I would kindly like to pose a few more questions ;)

What would be the best guild option for dex based bow toon?

1. I want to be ranged bow dex based toon - paladin - and also join the thieves. How to go about the two guilds in the most efficient way? afair, there was some interference between the two - militia wanted me to turn in some thieves...*scratch head* Can I join tieves first?

1a What is the optimal way of doing quests for the guilds? Once you join the other options are closed for you? The exp would be nice so I do not want to close these options for myself too early in the game.

2. where can I quickly get a good bow for my toon?

3. and finally - Master sword (nice one, dex based - this I can remember well) - there is a guy (Martin?) in the starting town that can sell it but how can I get the money for it? The sword quickly disappears from his inventory, i guess he equips it? I remember I was grinding for the money selling some beer (drinks, kegs...in the starting town but it was tedious - I was in a conversation with a guy in the market and he wouldl keep giving me beer and I kept selling...)

4. and I guess i only take base skinning (I will kill animals anyway) and this skill of potion making. skinning base but how far do I take the alchemy and who do u recommend as my alchemist?

5. And of course lockpicking, pickpocketing - but what about sneaking?

Thx :)

Doesn't matter. Archer is probably the easiest G2 build and you can finish the game with any guild using it. You can join both and it doesn't really matter, but be sure to complete Nagur's quest before joining militia. You can't get his quest as a novice/member of the militia and it effectively forbids you from joining thieves peacefully. For all practical purposes, it's safer and easier to join the thieves first and then choose/join a guild. Yes. Do all the quests you can while guildless for max XP. Don't join anyone until you're quite sure you're done with Chapter 1. You can buy both the best bow (1600 gold) and crossbow (2500 gold) in the game from Khaled on Onar's farm since Chapter 1, but your stats probably won't allow you to equip them. (or the [url=http://mondgesaenge.de/G2ADB/EN]EN version) is a great source of info like this. Read the Weapons and Merchants sections to find the best weapon for you and where to find/buy it.
Also, I think you need to talk to Khaled as guildless first in order to trade with him. Many merchants (including Martin and Khaled) equip the best weapons they can (= they have the stats for) after closing their trading screen for the first time, so if you want to buy some high-end weaponry from them, be sure to have the money before initiating a trade. Skinning animals, extracting the secretion from bloodfly stingers (which you can learn by reading a book in the VoM), removing minecrawler plates (for the Crawler Plate Armor), dragon blood (for forging [Large] Ore Dragon Slayer) and dragon plates (for Medium Dragon Hunter's Armor) are the only hunting skills that really matter. That's about ~15LPs. The other skills are mainly just means of making money. Since I usually become an apprentice of Bosper, I learn all the hunting skills, but that's just for the sake of roleplaying.
Of course, you can finish the game without learning any hunting skills.

Learning alchemy, especially brewing permanent potions, can save you a lot of LPs, so I usually do that. The combination of Ignaz, Sagitta and Constantino can teach you everything. Riordian (Ch. 2+) and Vatras (Ch. 6) later in the game also teach most of the potions. Lockpicking and pickpocketing are a must. I personally do learn sneaking, even though you can simulate the effects of sneaking by side-stepping/strafing (A/D) - this is a bug in the game mechanics.

Thank you!

This is a great info and cool links :)

I like to do some search first and maybe ask around a little as nowadays I have too little time to learn the hard way and restart all over again.

cheers!

Btw,

I will focus on dex build.

How long should I wait wth praying / consuming dex potions to permanently increase my dex? I believe it is better to wait a little rather then consume / pray right at the beginningof the game.

Like I wrote in the thread I linked here before, you can easily get 100+ DEX just from bonuses if you're a completionist. Since learning one stat point costs 4LPs when you're over 90, it's not really cost-effective anymore, so all in all, learning DEX to 90 is more than enough. The game probably wouldn't be much harder even if you had with less DEX.

For some more info about praying, read this post.

It was very thorough - thanx.

And one more thing - the distribution of LP early in the game - start with dex to be able equip better bow and sword quickly? Or right from the strat put some LP into base skinning alchemy and abcient languages to be able to read the tablets?

I usually try to get DEX to 59, skinning, basic forging (two swords) and all thieving skills by level 10 (for any character build).

When playing with an archer build, I continue with STR to ~49 by lvl17 (and then I use all the STR bonuses). After that I start with 1H (to 39% by lvl21) and learn all the languages of the Builders (and read all stone tablets except for DEX and bows). Then I train bows and other hunting trophies (especially minecrawler plates for the armor ASAP) until level ~30, when I read stone tablets for bows, and then I just continue with DEX until I get bored of it and eat/drink/use/read all of the remaining bonuses.

Sometimes I skip a point or two in STR so I can get the minecrawler plates skill sooner.

TBH, I copied and slightly edited this strategy a couple years ago from another player and I found it to be very effective indeed.

"I usually try to get DEX to 59, skinning, basic forging (two swords) and all thieving skills by level 10 (for any character build). " - this is what I had in mind :)

Why str? is it some kind of prerequisite for the minecrawler armour?

at 60 dex you can equip Master sword - I remember selling beer for a longish period of time at the very beginning of the game to buy the sword and getting dex to 60 asap to equip it.

Would be there an easier way at the very beginning to get gold for The Sword ;) and a decent bow? Or maybe I shall try to snatch them from their locations (as pointed out in the link you provided - mondgesaende web page)?

No, armor/clothing has no requirements in G2. Strength is added to melee weapon damage, so it's quite important to train it at least a bit. After all, at the beginning of the game it's much easier to fight with melee weapons. With melee weapons, proficiency also influences combos and animations, which are very important and not just aesthetic.

The point with learning STR early? The sooner you have high enough STR (while also remaining cost-effective), the sooner you can use bonuses. And using bonuses at the right time does make a difference.

Honestly, I've never worried about gold too much. There's one trick that comes to my mind, though - borrow some money from Lehmar, go to Lares and ask him for some money (or was it the other way round?) and then go pay your debt to Lehmar. You'll only get as much as 200 gold from it, though (don't even bother asking for 1000, as he'll only give you 100).

About finding/stealing weapons - well, if you can. You'll only get Master Sword by defeating Cassia/Ramirez or by finding it in Xardas' old tower, which is in the VoM (Chapter 2+), though. Buying it is the safest/quickest way.

It just hit me - I will join thieves first but is it ok to do all their tasks in their favour and not in favour of the militia? Is there any particular order or pattern?

Yes. In fact, you're only going to get a bit of gold for reporting Rengaru, Halvor and Nagur, while if you'll finish all the tasks in their favor, Ramirez, Cassia and Jesper are going to teach you for half the price or completely free. Not to mention the benefits of completing the tasks themselves.

The only things you're going to get from the "Destroy the Thieves' Guild" quest are gold and XP. Finishing all the quests for thieves (I think that Ramirez gives you the last one in Chapter 3 or 4) is better (money- and XP-wise) than reporting them to Andre or killing them.

The only advantage of reporting/destroying them is that completing this route is an alternative way of getting to militia if you aren't / don't want to become a citizen/apprentice. Since NotR introduced a much faster and easier route, though, this one has become fairly obsolete and noone I know uses it.

This is what I will do - all quest for TG and later join a guild, im actually thinking of mercenaries now.

Btw, if i install g2 on asus with win 10 and msi with win7 is it ok to play on both machines and just copy paste save games?

Just so you know, there are actually only three quests (and one pseudo-quest) for TG: Constantino's Ring (Cassia, ch. 1), The Blood Chalices (Cassia, ch. 1), Sextant (Ramirez, ch. 2) and Finger's Chest (Jesper, ch. 3). Other than that, yes, this method is the usual one.

Never tried it, but theoretically yes (assuming the versions of G2 are absolutely identical, of course). Always copy (and backup) the whole Saves folder, though.

This will be exactly the same ver - the one i got from here.

btw, this english / german g2 page u linked is awesome :)

I just checked out bows tablets and all the stuff.

and paladin armour is strong and cheap while mercenary's cost a lot and require dragonscales :(

But somehow bowman in paladin armour doesnt tickle my fancy...

And this paladin vs merc thing that still gets to me- healing issues.

paladin can have some healing spells while merc has to rely solely on potions, right?

In the long run, healing-wise, wouldnt paladin be a better option or those healing potions i brew throughout the game shall suffice?

Many people consider MIL/PAL the easiest guild in G2A. You can become a skilled melee or ranged fighter quite easily and you have a few (severely limited, but still more than usable) support spells that require not too much mana to cast. (Yes, including some healing spells.)
On the other hand, you can find/buy enough scrolls to last for the entire game, so SLD/DJG doesn't have to worry too much, either.

I never brew any non-permanent potions and it's still more than enough for me to finish the game.