So, I'm awful. Advice please?

[Khaos]

So, turns out, I'm terrible at this game. I'm getting wasted on easy mode. I did fine up through to the Luskan sewers, but now things are just destroying me. Do I need to have the traditional setup of Tank, Heals, DPS? This is actually an important one, as I'm planning on a playthrough with a few friends, and it'd be nice to know if we need to plan a bit.

Is there a place to look up some character builds? Maybe I'm just building my guys incorrectly.

How good is the AI about healing/tanking? Should I be controlling the healer in battle or anything? Or is pausing as important in this as in, say, Bauldur's Gate?

Thanks in advance, and anything helpful to know that I didn't ask would be nice. I'm really enjoying this game, but I'm TERRIBLE at it.

[Amafrey]

Leveling seems a bit important in this game as im a level 20 ranger and I can "Tank" out most Boss battles solo on all difficulties. I got my friend to play this game but he doesnt like it because hes a level 1 wizard - giving him only 2-4 spells to cast and he dies in moments of starting an encounter on easy when i did a playtrough with him with my ranger and with a new level one rogue I made. I told him to try a new class but he's already turned off of this game. Build your character as you see fit and they'll come to as you level up. your constitution will increase your hp, strength for your rogues, fighters and paladins, dex for your rogues and rangers, Be sure you pick a fitting race for your character class as well. you may be picking a race that has modifiers that dont fit your class. hold your mouse over the race while creating a character to see what the modifiers are. Wisdom and Intellegence for your wizards and such. . .
Im sure Im missing some things but maybe I helped
Im a DM on tabletop and SCL so my advice may not be as well because the only time my nose is in the players handbook is so i can refferance rules - shops - and leveling of my players.

[Rexie77]

It can be a little tough getting started, so don't sweat it. I'd suggest a number of things to get started:

First, you do need a balanced setup in your party. One from each class is a good start, then as you get a handle on things, you can experiment a bit with future groupings and/or skill sets. Definitely need heals, and crowd control, and the ability to search & unlock, and DPS for starters. A simple sleep spell can save your day.

Next, the pause function is your friend! You need it quite often, as your party AI will try to do everything it's own special way, which can ruin your best laid plan of action. Pause, select a character, give them an order, move to the next character, etc. For low levels, potions will work until you get some gear drops. And, you can try to setup a quick one floor dungeon crawl (outside of the story mode) to get some cash. Just select a quest & reward scenario or two - and skip the boss type encounter...because it might just be more trouble than it is worth.

Alternately, you can run through the part you've already done on "easy" a step harder on "normal" to get some nicer loot, too. Just realize you will lose your progress because the save mechanic is so limited.

Build advice? I'd say you probably have the stats correct, just try to remember NO negative numbers in you initial build. Everything stacks, with even numbers being optimal.

And don't make your characters jacks-of-all-trades. Keep each one dialed in to their job, with options that make each capable under different circumstances. Each will contribute different things under different scenarios to cover your bases, NOT everyone trying to cover every possibility on thier own; they will be too watered down.

Happy hunting!

[Khaos]

Thanks guys, I will keep all that in mind as I move forward. I guess my next question would be, is there a more n00b-friendly class than others? I started as a ranger, and moved over to a rogue when the ranger started getting wrecked. How about a class that's not represented well in the companions you get?

As far as companions go, are there any I should watch out for as being, well, duds? Or do they all preform about the same?

[Zac Starfire]

Cleric is a good starter class and forces you to learn party mechanics. You can have 2 clerics for max healing power. Use a tanks to absorb damage as your front line fighters and heal them with your clerics with missile weapons in the back line. Later mix in magic users and other classes as you master the basic classes (fighter, cleric, thief) and party tactics.
USE PAUSE, every round if you need to (), until you've at least mastered your techniques. The pause feature has lots of options. Control each character until you trust the AI.
PULL monsters from their rooms to safe point, rather than rushing in is another good tactic to use.

[MoNKeZi]

Originally posted by Khaos (S'A):

Thanks guys, I will keep all that in mind as I move forward. I guess my next question would be, is there a more n00b-friendly class than others? I started as a ranger, and moved over to a rogue when the ranger started getting wrecked. How about a class that's not represented well in the companions you get?

As far as companions go, are there any I should watch out for as being, well, duds? Or do they all preform about the same?

Paladin is a good class that isn't represented by any other NPC until quite late in the campaign (if you choose the right path). Paladin at end game is probably the most powerful of all the melee classes if you choose the right skills and weapon combination (focusing on +radiant damage)

If you are struggling on easy, just remember to use pause, try to cast spells like Bless and Aid before you get into combat or in the first round. If you have a Fighter in the party, using Rally will boost the entire parties health by a significant amount and help keep them alive. If you have Hommet in the party, try to get him some crowd control spells first, Sleep, Hold Monster, Bigby's Crushing Grasp, Charm and Confusion really help you control the situation.

Another trap for new players is whether they have the party/single character select. This comes down to preference in a lot of cases, some people don't trust the companions AI and will want to control everything and pause as often as possible, while others are happy to let the AI waste valuable spells by dropping AOE on party members or casting hold monster on a creature that has already been affected by a sleep spell.

My ideal party make up will always use a Cleric for healing, a Wizard for control, a Rogue for search and disarm and then either a Fighter or a Paladin for handling the melee combat. Just remember to pause at the start of combat, precast your buffs, and focus fire on the troublesome monsters first

[Khaos]

Man, you guys are awesome. Thanks a million.

[wendigo211]

Originally posted by Khaos (S'A):

So, turns out, I'm terrible at this game. I'm getting wasted on easy mode. I did fine up through to the Luskan sewers, but now things are just destroying me. Do I need to have the traditional setup of Tank, Heals, DPS? This is actually an important one, as I'm planning on a playthrough with a few friends, and it'd be nice to know if we need to plan a bit.

Is there a place to look up some character builds? Maybe I'm just building my guys incorrectly.

How good is the AI about healing/tanking? Should I be controlling the healer in battle or anything? Or is pausing as important in this as in, say, Bauldur's Gate?

Thanks in advance, and anything helpful to know that I didn't ask would be nice. I'm really enjoying this game, but I'm TERRIBLE at it.

Hmmm... You're at the part of the game where things should be starting to get easier. You said you're playing a Rogue, what are your stats? Are you playing high dex and not using finessable weapons?

As a rogue, you should be focusing on stealth, sneak attack, expertise, search and disable device right now. Later on I would grab: trickster's implement, hunter's mark, endanger, dash, sleep, hold monster and confusion. Revelry and the healing abilities are also okay choices, although I find the Rogue healing abilities aren't as useful late game as they are early on.

The next big thing is that you should have a Fighter in your party with Rally maxed out. Rally gives you a +3 to AC (which will keep you from getting hit) and grants you advantage on all your attacks (sneak attacks). Basically, the best Rogue buff is a Fighter ability.

By now you should have an AC over 20. For most classes (wizards and clerics excluded to some degree), focusing on passives and buffs that improve your auto-attack are the easiest route to victory. CC abilities, debuffs and healing abilities are the other abilities you want to pick up.

[Rexie77]

Also, try to get some increase to your crit range on as many characters as you can. Stack it on your dps; 17-20 is good for most of your group, but your hittter you want as high as possible, like 12-20 (when you can get it there). Defeating baddies quickly can save you a lot of trouble, especially as you advance.

[Khaos]

Rogue stats are:
Level 3
Str - 10
Dex - 18
Con - 16
Int - 12
Wis - 10
Cha - 10

Hide II
Sneak Attack I
Disengage I
Misty Step I
Lockpicking/Search II

Also, yeah,I am using Dex-based weapons.

[wendigo211]

Your stats look okay. The skills are okay as well, I prefer Dash to Misty Step for the AC bonus, but Misty step does have a shorter cooldown.

[endurstonehelm]

As others said, a balanced party (mage, cleric, rogue/ranger, fighter/paladin).

Once you have a balanced party, stats are straight forward.

What is more difficult is which abilities to choose. Abilities that BUFF the party and DEBUFF or CONTROL the enemies are the strongest abilities. So, RALLY, AID, etc. are good for boosting your party. Causing Fear, Confusion, Paralysis, Sleep, etc. are great against the enemy.

Also, very important, SUMMONS. Mord's Sword. Animate Dead. Summon Dead. Summon Beast. Spiritual Hammer. etc.

Worry about Summons, Control, BUFFs and DEBUFFS first. Damage can come later.

[Sapper Woody]

One thing to make sure you do in the beginning is to not try and get your cleric a powerful healing spell. Instead, buy the first rank of all the healing spells. Since the game is totally cooldown based, the more heals you have the more healing you do. I've found that the AI cleric as actually pretty good as a healer.

You definitely need someone to be a trap monkey. A rogue gets some bonuses to this, but a ranger can work in a pinch, and is only slightly behind the rogue at higher levels. A bonus to the rogue though, is the extra d6 damage rolls he gets when he has combat advantage (up to 4d6 if i remember correctly), but the ranger gets a permanent companion to help make up for this.

Until and unless we get a druid, a cleric in the party is a must, IMO. The paladin can work as a tank and help with heals, but I personally wouldn't rely on the paladin solely for your heals.

Now, a decent set up is:

Cleric = healing and buffing
Paladin = tanking with a heal thrown in
Ranger = takes the place of a rogue, and even has a heal (goodberries)
Wizard = low dps compared to the other classes, but has some debuffs and ccs that can help in big fights

In a (hopfeully soon) future update, we will have the ability to make our entire party in the campaign, rather than using the npcs provided. So we will have a much greater control of our party's composition.

[Dorok]

I think there's two aspects, and three because of few combats:
- The main two aspect for a party design is solve the healing problem, and solve a partial tanking problem.
- The third aspect is only to manage much more easily some rude combats, paralyze magic (it's mainly Hold Monster and Bigby's Grasping Hand, but also Confusion and eventually Sleep).

1 - HEALING
At beginning the picture is a bit different but as you level up almost all classes/companion get two to three healing skills if not more.

At first your Rogue will be an exception but by achieving rogue companions quests the rogue get pretty goo healing.

For sure developing those healing skills will require give up on few other. But that way you can build many different parties and could give up use any Healer/Cleric (but I'd suggest then pick a Paladin).

Myself I played a good part of the game without the companion Cleric and with the companion Paladin, and those parts was rather fun combats.

2 - PARTIAL TANKING
It's not a pure tank system game, but there's definitely ton of opportunities to exploit a character tanking better.

Rogue isn't a good partial tank, until many level up and equipment improvement.
Wizard could be a good partial tank but I didn't investigated the subject plus if it's possible it's certainly not before many level up and equipment improvement.
I don't think Cleric is a good partial tank.

The good partial tanks are Warrior, Paladin, Ranger, from best to less best.

I don't think it's required to have a partial tank but it's just very helpful and a wiser choice for a first play.

3 - PARALYZE MAGIC
That third aspect is much less a requirement than the two other, but for a first play I would advise it strongly.

The most simple is use a Wizard and have him develop at least Hold Monster or Bigby's Grasping Hand or both.

A Rogue can ensure fairly well the role with Hold Monster, Confusion and Sleep, but you'll face the problem of the DC check. A Rogue will be less suited to develop INT quickly at high level. And if you don't do it you rogue will not fill this role well.

I have investigate enough, but I don't think any other class apply to this role.

EDIT:
Beside those keys combats topics, there's also Search and Picklock that a character of the party should develop, eventually it can be good to spread them on two characters.

4 - SEARCH
Cleric can support very well Search, because search is also based on Wisdom which is an attribute a Cleric will increase quickly. Rogue is also pretty good at it even without developing Wisdom but also by spending some points of few (2?) skills.

5 - PICKLOCK/DISARM TRAPS
For Picklock Rogue is the best suited, but if you don't want a Rogue in your party, if I remember well Ranger could develop this and his DEX will be a bonus.