Best starting class or build?

[Dr. DM]

Something strong to help through the early game? Thanks.

[Macro Tofu]

Hospitaller. Ditch religious training in early game. Unlock tier 2 mind magic for stunning touch and cleric weapon for stunning blow, then you can stun-lock anything to death. Body magic also has the best healing spells like lesser and greater regeneration.

[Pandasaur]

Officer is actually great. Inspiration on kill, and the inspiration + lesser haste ability is a huge help, so is stand your ground for entire combat defending bonus.

You can also do heavy armor + sword/shield for crazy good durability. My fav class so far.

[BATTLEMODE]

I'm playing with Officer on Normal, once I got my head around the combat mechanics I found the difficulty was pretty easy up until the last chapter, where it really ramps up.

[Neo007]

Originally posted by Dr. DM:

Something strong to help through the early game? Thanks.

hardest to mess up a build with is probably armsmaster typical "beat it with a stick" until its dead fighter then pummel it some more for good measure class while tanking the whole time with just your face...yeah its a pretty out of the box strong class. Has a built in heal with "second wind" and gets most dp points and hp/level out all warrior classes. You can then choose stun with maces or your variety of damage/defense utility sword/axe depending on the weapon type you put points or go ranged with bow but you need to worry about arrows if you do still very strong.

after that I'd say champion for similar fighter feats plus buffs and heals. Two handers are good (no scratch that - phenomenal) for damage strength builds, and shields and one handers are good for more tanky builds on both armsmaster and champion. Champions cant use bows though or axes and dont get the phenomal multiattack that lets you hit two times like the armsmaster does but they do get cleave that gets you another attack on killing an enemy. Note that cleave is unlimited as long as you get kills and enemies are in range. Once cleaved through something like 6 enemies in one go or maybe it was 5 - still very powerful.

[etalian]

A pure fighter (arms master) is safe bet since you pick up a ranger, thief and cleric members really early in the game. I prefer the Officer since some of the skills like inspire and a extra round of attacks are really great utility skills.

i'd recommend getting a mage merc to fill out the magic skill / crowd control until you get the mage character.

[andersonm]

Officer or Armsman, add 4 points to strength, 2 to agility. Put points into crafting and awareness.
You will struggle a little bit with the very earliest fights (level 1-2), but soon get stronk. take advantage of Kat backstab.
Fortitude looks strong for health, but the added points don't scale.

[Frostfeather]

Definitely Battlemagos. Best class in the game.

[Neo007]

Originally posted by night4:

Definitely Battlemagos. Best class in the game.

trollollololol

[Neodylliphan]

I'm a battlemagos :(

[Ghoul Hunter]

Battlemagos are good. Skill issue if they don't realize that.

[Mahoroa]

Battlemagos is trash. Brain issue if they don't realize that.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Mahoroa:

Battlemagos is trash. Brain issue if they don't realize that.

Brain issue if you think it is, when it's 98% as effective as a Guild Magos.

[Ghoul Hunter]

I'm doing a solo run on hard with a battlemagos, at the moment. Currently in the Horryn crypts.

Magic is actually a bit more interesting as a solo character. Summon magmite is nice for manipulating the AI, inferno spam is my end game. Gnats are still nice for 1v1 and economy, but I'm using more spells than I thought I would. Fire warrior is good for crappy weight limitations. Flaming fists and flame aura were used in some fights where I had to fight up close at a faster pace than gnats.

When I get evasive, it's going to be really nice. I'll be able to run and disengage freely.

Later: Finished the game. The hardest fight was the 5 polyps at the end. Managed to dupe their AI into using crappy spells on me by being close to them with a diamond skin potion active. Inferno spam is very viable at the end. Killed the dragon by spamming gnats and magmites to keep the enemies herded away from me.

Magic missile might actually be better than gnats. It does true damage, so nothing affects it. The dragon is resistant to gnats and fire. I would have liked to spam him with magic missiles. When I have 150 mp, the +2 mp cost of magic missile isn't anything to worry about.

[DeWitt]

Spoiler alert......

[Ghoul Hunter]

Bard passed the solo hard trial, too. Invisibility is really strong.