Character Building: Tough Decision.

[Falenthal]

The reason I wanted the sword is because I intend to, at times, throw his spear as a ranged attack, and then follow up in hand-to-hand with his secondary weapon.

Then use Sword, by all means (normal one, neither Short nor Long).

Question for which I've never seen a good answer:

-In between Opening Volleys and initial round of combat, can a hero switch from his bow to weapon and shield? Does the game assume you can switch weapons?

-Likewise for switching weapon loads between individual rounds?

I've always imagined taking a "round" to re-arm yourself, but that might be a D&D concept holdover which doesn't apply here.

The game doesn't say anything about skipping rounds for rearming, switching weapons and such. I understand that, like other things in the game, you are not counting how many seconds it takes to fulfill every action. Companions can change weapons from one round to the other, without losing their attack.

As I understand it, you can also change stance every round: theoretically, a hero could be fighting in forward stance in round 1, and firing with a bow in round 2 from rearward stance (if other companions engage his first foe).

[Rocmistro]

Rocmistro,

we all agree that flavour beats crunch in these choices, yet...
since we are crunching numbers, how many creation points have you left over?
You got the starting 16, spent 6 to raise (Spears) to 3, and then you wrote about having Valour 3 frm the previous incarnation of the character.
Do you have 10 points? Or less?

I think High Elves and Rangers are great characters, but need more attention at building, since they are slower at correcting eventual errors.

Corvo:

You are absolutely right about this! High Elves and Rangers cannot afford to make any mistakes.

So, my Wisdom and Valour are both 3.
Valour: Keen and Fell Spear.
Wisdom: Artificer and Might of the Firstborn

with the 16 points, here is what I currently have (but I still have time to change it as the build is not "final"):
Spear: 2>3 (6 points)
Longsword: 1>2 (4 points)
Search: 0>2 (3 points)
Courtesy: 1>2 (2 points)
+1 XP that I used to buy the "enhance weapons" spell from artificer.

But nothing about that is set in stone (except for Spear 2>3)

[Majestic]

One of our Mirkwood Elves has used the spear for both ranged and melee, though he only occasionally throws one of his two. I think part of why he's steered clear is because it is so cliché. But then the spear has a great Edge rating, so is a pretty awesome weapon!

Question for which I've never seen a good answer:

-In between Opening Volleys and initial round of combat, can a hero switch from his bow to weapon and shield? Does the game assume you can switch weapons?

-Likewise for switching weapon loads between individual rounds?

I've always imagined taking a "round" to re-arm yourself, but that might be a D&D concept holdover which doesn't apply here.

I've always allowed characters to switch between weapons as they wish, without assigning any sort of penalty or taking their action.

[Blubbo Baggins]

Uhh man, carry two Spears!

One for throwing, one for well, spearing.

Don't spend any points on Longsword, then you've got 4 more XP to spend on skills, upgrading Artificer, or on Bow if you decide to go that route, or spend it on Dagger and throw a Dagger as your opening volley!

[Glorelendil]

Skip the Volley, imo. Shield & Spear. (Yeah, you could carry two spears but I just have trouble picturing that...)

[Corvo]

(...)
Corvo:

You are absolutely right about this! High Elves and Rangers cannot afford to make any mistakes.

So, my Wisdom and Valour are both 3.
Valour: Keen and Fell Spear.
Wisdom: Artificer and Might of the Firstborn

with the 16 points, here is what I currently have (but I still have time to change it as the build is not "final"):
Spear: 2>3 (6 points)
Longsword: 1>2 (4 points)
Search: 0>2 (3 points)
Courtesy: 1>2 (2 points)
+1 XP that I used to buy the "enhance weapons" spell from artificer.

But nothing about that is set in stone (except for Spear 2>3)

Ok Rocmistro, I thought a bit about it.

I think your hypothesis here is really sound. I like especially the 2 xp spent to raise Courtesy: I would be embarassed to play a rude High Elf

Maybe, to follow your line of thought in the thread, it would be possible to drop the second point in Search, and shift these 2 XP to buy a first level in Sword, so you can raise Sword at 2 instead of the more encumbering Long Sword.
But really, I cannot advise it. As many wrote, having two weapon skills is luxury for a relatively "young" Hero (xp-wise, obviously). Going for Spear and ditching any sword is a sensible choice.

Now, we come to the extreme choice . Put all 16 points in Spears 4.
Extreme, as I said, but you are spending 16 xp now to NOT spend 23 xp later.
I can understand that one can be afraid to be called munchkin or power-player, but -as a Loremaster, 'cause it's years since I was a player- I feel the High Elves are characters faced with a really dangerous path. A short path, often. Given their Shadow economics and xp-tax, you need to make hard choices, system-wise.
An high weapon skill let you spare Hope Points in combat while being appropriately majestic (because HE are supposed to be majestic, after all). Once in play use Ap and Xp to later shore up all the character's deficiencies, and let that weapon skill at 4 forever.
Speak about it with the LM and see how he feel about it, but I feel the High Elves and Rangers need some head start to really come in their own.
[Edit: by the way, Spears 4 fit the Vengeful Kin/Slayer background/calling]

[zedturtle]

Incidentally, the character has a magic ring, which provides a Blessing to Search. So Roc's trying to leverage that as well.

[Majestic]

An high weapon skill let you spare Hope Points in combat while being appropriately majestic (because HE are supposed to be majestic, after all).

High Elves may be majestic, but Majestic ain't no High Elf!