What classes should I pick if it's my first playthrough?

[discohijack]

Hey, couple of months ago I acquired the game through GOG (so I don't have it on Steam). I am kinda confused how to start. What mix of the classes should I pick so I will breeze through the game with almost no effort? Thanks!

[v0]

there're no classes. only attributes skills talents and items. you can pretty much try to build anything you want to. i'd mix melee and range and make sure you've all schools of skills covered except maybe pyro. each char can go deep in two areas and half deep in third one. certain areas/skills such as regeneration come very handy at lvl 1 already which only takes just one point.

[Finrod]

The class you begin with in the game are just builds, with talents, attribute points and 2 skills chosen pre-defined. In character creation you can modify those builds and in game you can buy at level up any skill or raise the attribute you want.
You can have a warrior character (high strength, high weapon ability and many men at arms skills) and spend 1 point in hydrosophyst to cast heal, but with low intelligence, hydro spells can be less effective.

In cyseal (first city) you will find an air/water mage, a rogue, a warrior and an archer.
Usually I recommend to create a witchcraft/Geo/pyro mage, the other characters can be a warrior, a mix of scoundrel and marksmen etc...

Also, I recommend that one of you characters with good dexterity starts with the "walk in the shadows" spell, which is invisibility, useful to steal people.

[LawZero]

I have a party of 2 Rangers (one with a bow and so many different arrows that can deal with almost any situation and one with a crossbow with high critical dmg), one mage (that can deal all elemental dmg) and one off tank (with the highest armor, health and melee dmg) and almost easily destroy everything that comes in my way on TACTICAL difficulty.
And it really depends on the attributes and skills u choose when you lvl up.

[discohijack]

Okay, so actually you don't get the classes in this game, just builds. got it.

Any build recommendations?

[Emerald Unicorn]

People have already given you some build ideas. Really it's just about what you want. Though having a decent spread of elemental abilities to account for enemy weaknesses/resistances is important. The last thing you want to do is be healing someone because their resistance to a specific element is so high your spells heal them lol.


With that said. I currently like having two characters with Hydrosophist for healing. One of them is my Paladin type knight, so they are balanced in Str and Int with Con being a tertiary attribute. The other is my witch, so naturally high Int.

It can help to get Aerothurge rank 1 on your melee so that they can use Thunder Jump to close the gap between them and enemies, which is helpful because heavier armors can make regular moving cost a lot of AP but the spells are a straight cost to use regardless of distance traveled (but they do have a max range). And Int only really affects the chance to stun and has no effect on you succeding and moving into position.
Rank 1 also lets you get the spell Teleport, which can be handly for melee in a fight if a ranged guy is too far to run to and you are waiting for Ram or Thunder Jump to get off CD. You can just pull them to you, even place them in an element around you that you have created that they are weak to.

Each person can only have one active summon at a time. So I have at least one spell/scroll on each person so they can summon something if I need fodder for the enemy to attack instead of me.

I recommend not putting too many points into things like Pickpocketing, Blacksmithing, or Crafting, and instead focus on getting a set of gear with bonuses and storing those sets in bags/containers in your inventory. When you want to do some crafting you just open the container and choose to equip the items from within the container and it will swap your gear out. Do it this way because trying to keep track of those sets if they are all jumbled with the rest of your inventory it can make trying to sell old gear a pain as you would constantly be making sure you aren't accidentally selling those gear sets.

When you get the chance I recommend at least 1 point in Bodybuilding for everyone because it will unlock access for buying the talent "Morning Person" which allows you to use resurrect scrolls on people and they come back with 100% health rather than 20%. It gets really annoying when you try to bring someone back and right away someone 1 shots that last 20% before you get a chance to heal them...
On that same note Res scrolls are actually pretty cheap, so I buy them whenever a vendor has them, and I make sure every character has at least 2-3 on them at all times.

For warriors that use Strength based gear, try to make sure your Strength attribute is higher than the minimum required for some weapons/gear. I found out the hard way in one area where enemies often used Strength draining abilities that it can suck when you are in the middle of a fight and suddenly you are missing some pieces of gear because your strength was reduced to below that minimum requirement and the gear automatically gets unequipped. I suppose that holds true with Dex and Int gear, as well, though I've only had trouble with Strength gear, myself.

Telekinesis is also handy for stealing items out in the open. You can steal stuff from right in front of enemies so long as you are sneaking in the shadows. Higher Telekinesis means you can be farther away from the item meaning easier to be in a place where they aren't looking at.

[RustyRed]

This game's strength isn't its story, but the gameplay. If you remove the fun behind the challenges of the game, then there's literally nothing of meaning left.

Barely any NPC's will have any relavence to the story and I just kill them off for easy EXP. What I do is complete quest, check online if that NPC has any other quest, if not, kill them with an explosion while no one else is nearby.

If you don't have enough damage to kill NPCs in 1 shot, use a hired merchenary from the vendor in "Hall of Heroes" to start fights with NPCs so it doesn't affect your main characters reputation. See this post on how to get to hall of heroes early -

Some must have spells are healing, teleport, and tornado - although the equivalent could be had with non-mages if you have the patience for crafting.

[v0]

Originally posted by Risk Galiant:

People have already given you some build ideas. Really it's just about what you want. Though having a decent spread of elemental abilities to account for enemy weaknesses/resistances is important. The last thing you want to do is be healing someone because their resistance to a specific element is so high your spells heal them lol.


With that said. I currently like having two characters with Hydrosophist for healing. One of them is my Paladin type knight, so they are balanced in Str and Int with Con being a tertiary attribute. The other is my witch, so naturally high Int.

It can help to get Aerothurge rank 1 on your melee so that they can use Thunder Jump to close the gap between them and enemies, which is helpful because heavier armors can make regular moving cost a lot of AP but the spells are a straight cost to use regardless of distance traveled (but they do have a max range). And Int only really affects the chance to stun and has no effect on you succeding and moving into position.
Rank 1 also lets you get the spell Teleport, which can be handly for melee in a fight if a ranged guy is too far to run to and you are waiting for Ram or Thunder Jump to get off CD. You can just pull them to you, even place them in an element around you that you have created that they are weak to.

Each person can only have one active summon at a time. So I have at least one spell/scroll on each person so they can summon something if I need fodder for the enemy to attack instead of me.

I recommend not putting too many points into things like Pickpocketing, Blacksmithing, or Crafting, and instead focus on getting a set of gear with bonuses and storing those sets in bags/containers in your inventory. When you want to do some crafting you just open the container and choose to equip the items from within the container and it will swap your gear out. Do it this way because trying to keep track of those sets if they are all jumbled with the rest of your inventory it can make trying to sell old gear a pain as you would constantly be making sure you aren't accidentally selling those gear sets.

When you get the chance I recommend at least 1 point in Bodybuilding for everyone because it will unlock access for buying the talent "Morning Person" which allows you to use resurrect scrolls on people and they come back with 100% health rather than 20%. It gets really annoying when you try to bring someone back and right away someone 1 shots that last 20% before you get a chance to heal them...
On that same note Res scrolls are actually pretty cheap, so I buy them whenever a vendor has them, and I make sure every character has at least 2-3 on them at all times.

For warriors that use Strength based gear, try to make sure your Strength attribute is higher than the minimum required for some weapons/gear. I found out the hard way in one area where enemies often used Strength draining abilities that it can suck when you are in the middle of a fight and suddenly you are missing some pieces of gear because your strength was reduced to below that minimum requirement and the gear automatically gets unequipped. I suppose that holds true with Dex and Int gear, as well, though I've only had trouble with Strength gear, myself.

Telekinesis is also handy for stealing items out in the open. You can steal stuff from right in front of enemies so long as you are sneaking in the shadows. Higher Telekinesis means you can be farther away from the item meaning easier to be in a place where they aren't looking at.

i'd only add another way's to jack up speed attr to get tons of ap. armor move penalties can be much reduced via "crafting" more precisely on anvils. unfortunately you cant do anything about crossbow penalties afair. keep special item sets also for telekinesis on at least one char. and carry one lit candle in inventory so that you can remove certain surfaces or clouds via interaction with fire (candle survives those). one high str char also recommended because str controls how much weight one can carry. pay attention to skill success rates eg sentences in skill description like -20% penalty due to low dexterity or low int or low str and so on. imo best cheap aoe such as mass charm poison cloud mass heal comes from grenades which you can purchase or craft (you mostly need to experiment to find out how though some recipes're also in books) so i'd my grenadier take talent for pinpoint accuracy and extra range. experimentation's good and luckily there're no crafting failures in this game.

[Dragon]

Originally posted by discohijack:

. What mix of the classes should I pick so I will breeze through the game with almost no effort?

If you want to do that, then the best way is to just start a game on "Explorer" difficulty mode (the easiest one). What classes you choose doesn't matter.

But I'm not sure why you want to breeze through the game with almost no effort. The game will be a lot less fulfilling that way. If you have to struggle to overcome the challenges, then your progress will feel much more rewarding.

I played this game on Tactician mode but when I was at levels 20 and 21, I still had enemies left to fight that were levels 17-18, and I smashed them all easily with no effort. Being so overpowered like that killed at least 75% of the game's fun. I wished that there was an in-game setting to instantly increase their level to mine so that I'd have the challenge & fun back.

[Finrod]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Originally posted by discohijack:

. What mix of the classes should I pick so I will breeze through the game with almost no effort?

If you want to do that, then the best way is to just start a game on "Explorer" difficulty mode (the easiest one). What classes you choose doesn't matter.

But I'm not sure why you want to breeze through the game with almost no effort. The game will be a lot less fulfilling that way. If you have to struggle to overcome the challenges, then your progress will feel much more rewarding.

I played this game on Tactician mode but when I was at levels 20 and 21, I still had enemies left to fight that were levels 17-18, and I smashed them all easily with no effort. Being so overpowered like that killed at least 75% of the game's fun. I wished that there was an in-game setting to instantly increase their level to mine so that I'd have the challenge & fun back.

If you need extra challenge, you can use the mod xp encounter?

I think people can enjoy the game (or any game) even in easy mode. Everyone is not a hardcore gamer and fan of dark souls, every game experience is unique. Some gamers just want to complete their steam library or other don't like play games more than once.

In D:OS, the build is less crucial than in other games (dragon age, Baldur Gate) as you can re-do your build with the homestead demon. But I understand beginners who don't know the game, they don't want to miss the good or optimum abilities

[Dragon]

Originally posted by Finrod:

Everyone is not a hardcore gamer and fan of dark souls, every game experience is unique.

Sure, but that is why for non-hardcore gamers, Classic mode would most likely be the best choice for most players. I am assume Classic is not anywhere near Dark Souls level of difficulty (although Tactician and Honour modes are).

[jeminizero]

I've written a guide especially for beginners:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1311458980

If you are playing on Tactician, I recommend starting off with a Ranger and Mage for beginners.

[Finrod]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Originally posted by Finrod:

Everyone is not a hardcore gamer and fan of dark souls, every game experience is unique.

Sure, but that is why for non-hardcore gamers, Classic mode would most likely be the best choice for most players. I am assume Classic is not anywhere near Dark Souls level of difficulty (although Tactician and Honour modes are).

I don't say that classic is difficult as a soul game, but that everyone approaches every game in its own way, and everyone enjoy games as they prefer. The difficulty setting of a game is not the only thing to look at.

For a C-RPG, I prefer to read some advice before starting the game to have a better start. The other way, I would begin the game, see what is better, wrong , what works etc and begin the game again, it would be a waste of time. ( I don't like to reload every minute, usually I play in the normal difficulty. Playing a bad character build in easy, is not what I want). And no, reading in Internet which is a good class to start doesn't ruin my game experience, au contraire.

And for the games I play in higher difficulty, a good build is crucial

As you said, for most players classic is the best, and if the build is not optimal, we can switch to explorer during a specific encounter. (Again, there are some people who don't like to switch the difficulty setting to easy, like me 80% of time)