Character creation advice

[e11]

Are there any major pitfalls? Any really useless qualities, or any must-haves? I'm thinking of going with the warrior class.

[Iry]

Several skills give you additional dialog options.
So starting with the Learned trait is pretty nice.
Also, boosting Speed is probably better than boosting Might as a Glaive.
But you can't actually go wrong with almost any build.

The only genuinely bad choices would be... spending points in Endurance, and taking an inability in Concentration. Of course, you can beat the game either way. But it's kind of pointless to do those two things.

[Hawke]

I'd suggest to get Anamnesis and Perception, because there are some skill checks available for the protagonist only and those two skills provide some insight in dialogues.

[Zanteogo]

If you want to get the "most" out of the game, focus on the diolog perks as suggested above. Also put everything into intellect because it's by far the most checked skill.

Combat perks on your main are somewhat wasted because you don't have much forced combat until much more late into the game.

[Yaldabaoth]

Originally posted by Zanteogo:

If you want to get the "most" out of the game, focus on the diolog perks as suggested above. Also put everything into intellect because it's by far the most checked skill.

Unless you are also putting in edge, then don't overdo it. With 4 edge, you 100% almost everything automatically. The rest of the pool would only be useful for intellect combat skills.

[Aquillion]

The nano ability to read minds adds a lot of text, but is not necessary.

Perception and the Lore skills also all add a lot of text; and only your main character's skills apply for this particular thing. However, they can be gotten from bonded items and other bonuses during the game, so you don't need to start with them.

Don't worry too much about your pools. You can get free bonuses to them in various ways that will ensure you have plenty, and your allies can also help.

For almost everything else, you can use your ally's skills.

Concentration is nice, but not essential. Definitely avoid a penalty to it.

The game is more story-driven than plot or mechanics driven, so you can do fine with any character.

[Wizu]

What follows is a quick and dirty mildly spoilerish guide to get 99.37% on everything hidden.

Start by running to cliffs edge when you get into town, sell your oddities to buy from madmoiselle the bonded item archivists whatsamacallit that gives lore skills, then buy from the shady doc an artificial eye. Now run back to circus minor and talk to the scribe with the bonded item equipped and you get Jack's signature move, Flex. Apply flex in the beginning to mysticism and voila, with just one point spent to anamnesis first levelup/or in char creation (no there are no items that help) you have succesfully unlocked most hidden convos.

For nanos mindreading you gotta ether play a nano or buy it from halfway game from a vendor.

Skills that gate behind them hidden stuff;

Anamnesis
All the lores
Perception
Healing (minor stuff, requires actual point investment also)

Only one dot required for unlocking.

Two dots tell you extra stuff on a deeper level. Two dots for super blue playthrough.

The learned background is good for opening up item slots for more stuff than lores and healing. And games best armor becomes better with 2 dots in healing.

[Dorok]

Originally posted by e11:

Are there any major pitfalls? Any really useless qualities, or any must-haves? I'm thinking of going with the warrior class.

Not from my playing, but from multiple posts reading, pick a glaive and find a roleplay leading to more combats seems generate a more balanced first play so more satisfying for most players.

That don't make previous advices wrong, but it's an aspect to consider when creating a character for your first play.

[OnlyOffensive]

glaive isnt a better combatant than the other IMO. Jack has ridiciolus stealth passives ( pure damage from stealth with alot of bonus accuracy ), nano obv takes with alot of powerfull abilities.

Companions also cover any weaknesses you might feel, so try to build a character that you will enjoy the world. This game is mostly about interacting with world, even with alot of violent approaches they are in minority, i'd recommend jack or nano just to have more options to use for problem solving, who knows what might be tempting for you in different situations, or what insight anamnesis or perception might offer, i can say that they and lore skills quite often changed my opinion on situations, glaive isnt bad at those in this game, unlike warrior in planescape, but you will need to know precisely how to spend his little skill pool.

[e11]

Okay, I'm about to hit my second tier, and I'm wondering what to do. I'm finding that making Intelligence a dump stat is... not great, for this game. My stats are Might 6, Speed 10, and Intelligence 6. I want to raise Intelligence by 2, to make conversations easier. Can I afford to, or should I focus on making a good speed fighter?

Also, any advice on picking combat abilities?

[Doombringer]

Real basic party layout =
Have 1 member who maxes might edge and does all the might challenges
Have 1 member who maxes speed edge and does all the speed challenges
Have 1 member who maxes intellect edge and does all the intellect challenges
4th member can be whatever.

Figure out which companions you want to play with and get them as soon as possible
(otherwise they will miss out on xp)

It is possible to get through the game without ever killing anything.
(You are forced into several unavoidable crises, but you can complete objectives or run/sneak (or wait for the intro crisis))

Note that almost all weapons in the game are speed (the good heavy melee weapons are might)

Nanos should go intellect (don't really need to use weapons ever except for tier 1/2 Aligern)
Speed characters should take stealth focus

Speed glaive = pierce, successive attacks, limit of human capacity, missile weapons, medium or light weapons, probably stealth focus
Might glaive = melee weapons, heavy weapons, shockwave, limit of human capacity
note that fell swoop requires 2 speed and has an annoyingly tiny AoE :(

note that Erritis doesn't get shockwave or limit of human capacity and starts with might edge.

[Aquillion]

Originally posted by e11:

Okay, I'm about to hit my second tier, and I'm wondering what to do. I'm finding that making Intelligence a dump stat is... not great, for this game. My stats are Might 6, Speed 10, and Intelligence 6. I want to raise Intelligence by 2, to make conversations easier. Can I afford to, or should I focus on making a good speed fighter?

Assuming you're putting all your Edge in Speed, you can put your pool points wherever you want (and in fact putting them in something other than your "main" stat actually makes a lot of sense, because your Edge will eventually mean you barely spend anything out of your main stat pool.) A few points in your Intelligence pool are fine.

Also note that you can get a lot of pool boosts for free, and Intelligence has by far the most "free" boosts.

[Sidonus]

Originally posted by e11:

Okay, I'm about to hit my second tier, and I'm wondering what to do. I'm finding that making Intelligence a dump stat is... not great, for this game. My stats are Might 6, Speed 10, and Intelligence 6. I want to raise Intelligence by 2, to make conversations easier. Can I afford to, or should I focus on making a good speed fighter?

Also, any advice on picking combat abilities?

Man, im loving speed almost all the way, some still in intellect, and minimal in might. Playing a ranged glaive and she is...awesome...use stealth which atm has two blue and a green dot in it and unless it was free can't imagine it being much better. PLUS, at tier 3, you get successive attack...meaning...you get to attack twice in a row...glaive is the ONLY character that can do this in the game. Course, I AM trying to squeeze the most crises out of the game on first run as possible and I haven't left Sagus yet with a round about count of 12-15 crises so far....and I am not playing at the "total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ violent ♥♥♥♥♥" you might think, just gotta really explore every nook and cranny and talk to EVERYONE...multiple times..
I even find it amusing to talk to the npcs that dont have actual interactive dialogues...if you click them multiple times eventually they come to an end sentence they repeat, or.....sometimes something more amusing =D

[Sidonus]

Originally posted by Aquillion:

Originally posted by e11:

Okay, I'm about to hit my second tier, and I'm wondering what to do. I'm finding that making Intelligence a dump stat is... not great, for this game. My stats are Might 6, Speed 10, and Intelligence 6. I want to raise Intelligence by 2, to make conversations easier. Can I afford to, or should I focus on making a good speed fighter?

Assuming you're putting all your Edge in Speed, you can put your pool points wherever you want (and in fact putting them in something other than your "main" stat actually makes a lot of sense, because your Edge will eventually mean you barely spend anything out of your main stat pool.) A few points in your Intelligence pool are fine.

Also note that you can get a lot of pool boosts for free, and Intelligence has by far the most "free" boosts.

yeah, agreed, I put a lot in speed right off the bat, but I wouldn't go overboard bc it may be pretty much wasted points to some extent.