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my char is a dwarven smith but I also want to become a fighter to use my skills. I have high perception and dexterity for smithing and 17 strength for lifting mining loads. but my agility is 8 and constitution is 10. Is that horribly bad for a fighter and should I even bother? I also plan on being heavily clad in dwarven state armor. So is this character useless for a great fighter or does the attributes affect so little I shouldn't care?

If you have bad fighting attributes it would barely be worth your time, but you should be able to fight.

One thing, seeing as your a dwarf, (Well, two) would be high strength anc constitution. Agility, no need to worry about (You're a dwarf!) and.. dexterity, seeing as your a crafter as well, is good to have high too.

Attributes don't make as huge a difference as skill, but they determine your potential, so yes, they are important.
My char is a crafter attribute wise and that shows. She has decent fighting skills, but every char who was actually made for it, can beat her at lower skill levels. Also skilling a low constitution char takes much longer and you will have to do it, knowing that your char will never be able to compete with the best fighters, no matter how much time and effort you put in.
Anyway, you might want to decide that from an IC perspective. If your dwarf wants to contribute to Silverbrand's defense for example, he should at least try it.

I know you can never be the best with substandard agility and constitution I was just wondering how much a difference it was, I was hoping it's slight and can be overcome in a few swirlies.

Attributes don't make a big as difference as skills? My mage char who has NO dexterity has a decent cooking level and still can't cook more then a halfling with maxed dexterity can without having ANY cooking skill.

My post was purely fighting related and compared a maxed fighter with one who has average attributes. Dexterity makes a really huge difference in any craft especially when you compare a 5 dex char with one who has 20.

It matters alot in fighting too, just as much if not more actualy.
You don't know how much it matters until you play a mage who likes to fight at close range.

Most crafters can fight well, since they usualy have strength and constitution.

Alright:

Attributes are important. What weapon/fighting style you choose, determines what attributes are important, and what is not. Not every style will work well. Some might work exceptionally well for you. More over, looking at the guide in the Wiki about fighting, will give you a general idea of what is important for each fighting style.

A crafter, most likely, will never stand up to a fully trained fighter, built for fighting. However, your attributes are set in a way that you could go with another style. Your issue, if I am looking at your post correctly, will be the amount of times you get the chance to swing. It won't be as fast as most others, and that will cause difficulty for you in the end.

All in all, your character will be a decent fighter, but you may require other things to become top notch. (Potions, gems, so forth.)

well If i'll be using dwarven axes and suits of armor, is 17 strength and 11 const. alright? I think it's pretty decent for self defence.