A couple of gameplay/mechanics questions...

[Gawain]

What's the benefit of using the Bash skill? Easier to learn or something?
Does non-metal armour still fall to pieces after a couple of hits?
If I want to learn as much types of Magic as possible AND use heavy armour & weapons, I think that Adept/Mage/Valkyrie is the way to go, correct? Probably finish off with War Angel for the weapon-heal.
What's a good second class for the Mage? (Ever since MMXII learning bonuses are gone, so I know that it's less important.)

Thanks in advance!

[Error3]

The bash skill improves your ability to brute force chests. This bypasses the lockpicking minigame. There is a "bash" button you can press when you activate a chest to do so. I leveled the skill to about 10 once and found that I could bash any chest faster than they could be picked, so it's a worthwhile skill if you want to get those chests open faster than your friends or don't like lockpicking.

Armor and weapons no longer disintegrate. They do have durability. When durability for armor reaches 0 you won't gain the armor bonus until it is repaired. Weapons will have their base damage reduced at a linear rate, but still do about 20%(estimate) of base + the bonus gained from your str, even when fully broken. You can also use repair kits while away from cities to repair your pieces while in a dungeon, etc.

As far as your class question, It depends on what you want to do. I don't recommend getting Adept if you intend to pick up Valkyrie. Valkyrie grants Celestial magic and can also be picked up as a fighter. By picking the fighter as your base class for Valkyrie you'll also have access to Rune magic. With your mage granting Arcane and Nether, you would have access to every school of magic! Also, the warrior charge ability is far more useful and satisfying than the Adept's special shield ability, which is too weak to be a big deal.

For your third class, it's a matter of preference. I'm not sure how much healing the War Angel ability does. I do know that health now scales into the thousands, so if Divine Mend doesn't scale at an equivalent rate it won't be good late game. I personally never had a big issue with getting killed by the time I got my 3rd tier class anyway, the armor values are quite good on the Green/Blue/Purple quality equipment.
If you want to do a lot of damage with spells, I'd recommend the Wizard as your third tier class. Their Spellfire ability adds a significant amount of potency to spells from all schools.
If you plan on doing a lot with melee damage I find the Lord (fighter) to be helpful as it allows Dual Wielding with a 2-handed weapon.
If you are stuck on going Adept/Mage, however, the Dragonlord and Kenjasai are 3rd tier options which provide a boost to melee damage through Speed and Fire, respectively, and may be of interest to you.

[Gawain]

Thanks. I'm not far in with my Adept (still in the sewers), so I can still change. I choose adept for the healing spell: I'm afraid that I won't make it if I have to rely solely on healing potions, but I could try. Fighters get Thrown Weapons, so ranged damage for the sewers is good, if I happen to find a thrown weapon. Otherwise, I'll have a big problem with the Ogre & Wyrm monsters...
I'd appreciate it if anyone could confirm that.
The more I think about it, the better your advice sounds!

Going for Fighter/Mage/Valkyrie/Shugenja/Kenjasai then.

If anyone could confirm if the War Angel health drain scales with health and/or damage, that'd be nice.
From what I remember, Scribe is not worth it.
Is Nether Magic any good?

[Error3]

Yep, fighters can use thrown weapons. You can find throwing daggers as drops from thieves in the starting zone.

So scribe had its effect changed from previous versions, it now reduces the chance that a scroll will be consumed. This isn't a bad idea, but I'm unsure of what the odds are. Scrolls often have no cooldowns, so I find it useful to keep scrolls of Blade of Baal or Blast Nova for my Melee and Magic users respectively and this ability saves me money by not having to replenish those supplies as often.

If you're a melee user, Nether Magic is great for Beserk and Blade of Baal. Beserk will buff your character with DOUBLE melee damage for a minute on a 2 minute CD. Blade of Baal is a 50% damage increasing weapon buff that also lasts for a minute, but with a 10 minute CD. While you can get potions that also grant Beserk, they have a CD of 3 minutes, so why not have both?
Even if you're not melee, Nether Magic brings numerous summons which can be used simultaneously as well as a large number of crowd control abilities. Furthermore, with the changes to Nether Katals it is very easy to use the spells as often as desired without running out of uses!

Let us know how the Kenjasai's ability works out for you, I'm curious about the amount of damage it will add.

[Gawain]

Thanks. I restarted with a Mage going on Fighter and clearing the sewers as a Mage was a breeze.

If anyone can confirm the War Angel's mend ability, that'd be great!

[buchecker]

I took the ability and it heals me about 7-12 Health per hit. So fast dual wield is kinda must. Skill is at level 8 right now.

[Gawain]

Alright, so it doesn't heal enough to be reliable in-combat healing. Thanks for clearing this up.
This game would be way more enjoyable with more information. :)

[Error3]

Originally posted by Gawain:

Alright, so it doesn't heal enough to be reliable in-combat healing. Thanks for clearing this up.
This game would be way more enjoyable with more information. :)

Another thing is the game has been changed so many times. 7-12 healing per hit would have been a lot more acceptable back when health totals were in the hundreds rather than in the thousands.

That being said, we can't say for sure if it wouldn't scale enough to become useful. If it had an exponential increase or scaled with health, player level, or the damage done on the hits it might still end up being substantial. I doubt that the devs paid that much attention to it though.

[Gawain]

I'm going War Angel anyway, the Heraldry seems to benefit my playstyle (melee with backup spells) a lot more. Kenjasai doesn't benefit me as much, and Dragonlord is no longer an option. (Mage/Fighter now.)
Just a bit sad that the Divine Mind won't benefit my Polearms as much.