Lament of Zors or vanilla for first run through?

[Nerevars Goat Univeron]

I haven't played the game since I was 13, so I may as well be playing this game for the first time. Should I play the vanilla version, or the lament of zors mod

[Zors]

Vanilla.

Try for all the achievements and if you enjoy the harder challenges then you'll enjoy the class and balance changes of the mod, even if some of the vanilla achievements are too hard for you.

The mod is more about a desire for harder challenges, content, and a different spin on progression than anything else.

[ghostmanone0h1]

lament of zors is just a few tweaks, thought I recomend vanilla

[gibbousmoon100]

Lament of Zors is awesome, but it has two issues that would prevent me recommending it for a first run:

1) Character balance is such that most of the character types are relatively undesirable compared to the two most powerful/profitable ones. And they are more powerful (Archmage) and profitable (Spelunker) by a very, very large amount.

2) It adds or changes a few traits which are (for me, personally) game-breakers. The chickens which kill you instantly. Acrophobia, which gives fall damage even after a standard single jump (wtf?). Vanilla Rogue Legacy already had a few of these, and I consider them detriments rather than enhancements to the game, because they don't offer meaningful choices but rather restrict choice.

Downsides paired with upsides, or which are opportunity costs, are good design imo, because they offer meaningful and interesting choices to players. But the two issues I just described interfere with that aspect of game design.

My recommendation is to play Vanilla first, enjoy it if you can, and if you are hungry for more after playing one or two NG+ and don't mind playing a somewhat broken game, switch over to Lament of Zors.