1. But once I'm done with all the thieves quests /in their favour/ wouldn't it be too late to go back and start doing all the paladin quests? How to go about it? Simply skip all talk to Andre about joining militia? Talk to him once Im done with joing TG?

And at what point shall i stop doing guild quests so that i accidentaly do not join them?

2. Say I want to be a Merc - so first all quests for TG in their favor, then paladin and mages - but to what point ? And merc lastly?
Or does there exist an optimal pattern / order to make the most of it and make my life easier ;)

I'm not really sure what you mean. Thieves are not a main guild, just like Ring of Water isn't. You may or may not join TG, but you have to join Ring of Water and one of the three main factions: the militia, the mages or the mercenaries. You can't proceed to Chapter 2 (legally) as guildless.

You can only finish two quests for TG in Chapter 1 - Constantino's Ring, a joining quest (and time-limited, so beware of that!), and The Blood Chalices. You can join any main guild after finishing Nagur's quest and noone will care.

For the militia, you can choose the "I'm ready to join the militia!" dialogue. If Andre is ready to accept you, he'll ask you one more time if you're sure. You can still say "I'm not quite sure yet..." and have time to reconsider (and join another guild).

You can really do quests for mages as independent, since once you enter the monastery (either with a sheep and money or with Daron's statue), you become a novice.

For the mercenaries, don't go negotiate your pay with Onar. Once you do that and tell Lee "I'm ready to join you!", he accepts you - no are-you-sure questions asked.

2nd and 5th paragrapjh of your reply perfectly answers my not very specific question ;) thx !

I just stumble across some graphic mods and i must say it makes the game look better.

what would u recommend? Something safe, that will not mess up the game / saves?

I personally do not use graphic mods for Gothics, so I can't say. Many people praise D3D11 and/or L'Hiver mods, but definitely at least L'Hiver adds new content, so saves wouldn't work.

So just to be on the safe side i will play the game as it is.

maybe when back home in a few days i will see if i can change this 4:3 800:600 16 bit to higher settings.

it looked easy and as something that doesnt mess up the game.

byw, i just checked out the vurt /?/ mod on utube that only changes textures. Cool.

cheers!

Ok, yet another question - to learn elixir of dex do i learn health potions or mana potions?

I have found contradicting info.

Neither AFAIR. You only need to learn HP tree for HP potions (including Elixir of Life) and MP tree for MP potions (including Elixir of Spirit).

I just made level 2 and a half ;) and entered the city for additional 500 exp from Lares. Got sneaking. Signed with Bosper and talked to Vatras (got the ornament).

I didnt talk to Andre yet - only Paladin waiting at the gate so the bery beginning of the game but up to this point all quests covered.

Now my question - how quickly can Lares take me to the water mages? I talked to him but refused any tours so that "lets go" option is there. Is there any particular point in game or caractet level advised to go there with him?

Since he'll go with you and you'll get experience from killed enemies, it's quite advisable to go with him early in the game, but it's your call. You'll have to kill just some giant rats and goblin skeletons in the ruins. However, after that you'll either have to walk back to Khorinis or use a teleporter stone in the ruins... and then flee from an angry orc warrior.

We took the trip but i failed to lure all mobs that i potentially could have but still he did some killing for me for nice exp :)

Ive yet anoter 3 questions :
- im dex based bow toon - is bow 34% enough and then just tablets and rest into dex or raise bow with LP slightly higher?

- language of the builders - all 3 tiers or stop at 2nd?

- when to start pickpocketing? I read the later the chapter the better exp? In ch1 or wait untill later?

Cheers!

For a <lvl30 character, it's way more than needed, but ultimately, no. There is only a total of 30% for bonuses to bows, so at least 50/60%+ skill is advisable if you want to be "a real archer".

All three, most definitely. The last tier alone (15LP), Language of the Priests, is going to earn you a lot of skill bonuses worth dozens of LPs if you are an avid explorer. More precisely, +6% to 1H, 2H, bows and crossbows, +12 STR, +6 DEX, +105 HP, +18 MP. Once again, Mondgesaenge / Stone tablets.

IIRC, XP bonuses for pickpocketing increase with the number of people pickpocketed, not with chapters. So the strategy is to pickpocket everybody you can. (Pickpocketing is heavily dependent on dexterity, though, so don't even try to pickpocket most people with low DEX.)

A bit of question. Around 30% in combat skill before 30 is 'more than needed'... that what's before it? Main attribute? And when one should start using the tablets? After getting optimal learning point for a skill, right? Cause I doubt game actually calculated if you 'reached' the treshold with items/quests, or just trained to that point.

Wrote it a few posts ago. As you can see, I don't train bows at all before ~lvl25, so that's why I think 30% is more than sufficient. I'm not saying this is the best nor the easiest character development route possible, but I find it effective. I saw people doing OLOGs, hardcores (no armor/clothing at all), minXP or even NoLP runs of G2A. You can finish it in almost any way imaginable, so just do what feels good for you.

I see... Well, I imagine there are people who played it with some insane conditions... but I must admit - this game is hard for me. Thus I always wonder - 'did I just done goofed?".

Then again - I also thought, almost, the same about Gothic 1. And now I have pretty neat knowledge about where to go, what to do, so with a bit of stubborness I can get most of the things I want there.