This section will help you creating your Tamer character, getting started and offers examples for the different Tamer templates. It is not really a playguide on learning your first steps in UO, but kept as short and "on topic" as possible for the Tamer profession. If you feel you don't know enough about the game itself yet, browsing the Stratics Website, especially reading the Beginner's Guide is a good thing to do. However, on this page you will find basic information on skill and stat advancement as well as tips and tricks that will help you on your way to GM Taming.

Recommended Stats

Depending on your skill set of choice, your stats will change a lot from what you start out with. Magery-related skills will make yout INT go up quickly, Bardic Skills will cause your DEX to skyrocket. The hardest stat to raise is STR, period. In order to give yourself the best chance of survival, your starting skills should be:

• 60 STR
• 10 INT
• 10 DEX

Don't worry about the 10 INT instead of 11 needed to recall. You can gain this point very quickly just by using the Spirit Speak skill for a few moments.

Further Reference: The Stratics Guide on Character Creation

Skills - your Tamer Template

What Skills are needed for a Tamer? The only two skills required are Animal Taming and Animal Lore. What do you want your character to be? You can build up a mage/tamer, a bard/tamer, a warrior/tamer, whatever you like. Each skill set has it's advantages and disadvantages. If you just started playing UO, it's important to pick

• one skill that will help you make a living (Tailoring proabably being the best of them since you can always get lots of hides)
• one for defending yourself (weapon skill of your choice)
• either magery or healing/anatomy to keep yourself alive,
• and a way to heal and cure your pet (magery/meditation or veterinary/animal lore).

With skill locks implemented, you will be able to drop what you don't need later on. If you have other characters to support your tamer, you can go for the mage/tamer, since Magery is expensive to train. Or how about a bard/tamer? Peacemaking, Discordance or Provocation are powerful skills and suit a tamer extremely well. The best way to find out is to play on Test Center for a couple hours. There you can set your stats and skills by command and play around with different templates.

Recommended Starting Skills

Some skills are harder to raise than others, Taming and Animal Lore go up fairly easy. So unless you are very lazy and want to start with 50 taming and Lore, you can always buy them up to 30-35 from an NPC Animal Trainer at your local stable. Here are some suggestions on starting different tamer types and which skills to start out with in order to avoid a long training period in your secondary skills: