DragoFireheart said:
I'm going to buy PS:T later this weekend off of GoG and start playing. I know very little of the plot and haven't spoiled anything for myself. I don't like fighters and I heard the other choices are mage and thief. I'm leaning more towards being a thief: which would I like more? What patches/mods are recommended for a first timer playing this game?
The mage is the best choice really, but you can play with any class you want. There's no multiclassing in this game, you can actually switch over to each class at will. The only problem is XP, but if you are anal enough you can make enough under-sigil runs to level up all three classes to a sufficient degree where you can say you have explored each game style sufficiently. The only caveat is that you get special bonuses when you get to level 7 and 12 with a given class, but only the first time you get there. So if you get the thief bonus you will not get the fighter or the wizard bonus. Also, you only get the second bonus if you got the first bonus in the same class. So if you get the level 7 fighter bonus and then reach level 12 with a mage, you will only get the level 7 mage bonus, which is less then the level 12 mage bonus. So if you get to level 7 with a certain class, its best to reach level 12 with the same class. Here's a list of what you get with each class:
Fighter:
7th + 1 STR, able to have 4 proficiency in a weapon
12th + 1 STR, + 1 CON, + 3 HP, able to have 5 proficiency
Mage:
7th + 1 INT
12th + 2 INT, + 1 WIS, + 5 Lore
Thief:
7th + 1 DEX
12th + 2 DEX, + 1 Luck
You will also get special tatoos if you reach those levels with a certain class. And here's the total bonus points you get in the game for each stat:
Strength +4
Dexterity +1
Constitution +3
Intelligence +2
Wisdom +7
Charisma +3
AC +1
MaxHP +7
Not including the bonus class points. You also get an extra two points to a stat of choice by means of a special scroll.
Personally though, i wouldn't even worry about what class to play. The important thing is to raise your stats according to what gives you the most dialog choices. With that in mind, i would personally do the following:
STR 9, DEX 13, CON 9, INT 14, WIS 17, CHA 13.
The most important stat in the game is wisdom, but you get a total of seven bonus wisdom points through out the game (eight if you get the mage bonus). This means that if you start with 17 and then get the mage bonus you'll be 25 (which is the maximum) by the end of the game. You'll get the last three points very late, but if you are one of those people who like to design their class progression to perfection you may not want to go over 17 or 18 (you can also raise it with tatoos without wasting bonus points).
Other then that, you need at least 15 points of int, i think (i'm sure no higher then 17 points, at the most), and as high as 17 points of charisma to unlock all dialog options (you can raise charisma with tatoos or the friend spell though but the 17 stat check occurs very early so its best start with some points in charisma). 13 points of dex are also required to unlock a few extra dialog options. As far as i know, strength only influences your ability to intimidate people, while constitution doesn't have any effect on dialog.
Remember of course that you get a stat point every time you level. There's also a bug (or at least we assume its a bug, it may be by design) which allows you to keep your fighter proficiencies when you switch over to a different class. What you can do then is level as a fighter until level twelve, get the five proficiency points in your favored weapon (edged weapons are the best), and then switch over to your class of choice. Since you can distribute stat points at will as you level up, it doesn't really matter which bonus you get, either fighter, rogue or mage, as long as you get both bonuses with the same class. And you can still offset special tatoos with stat points. Thus, the most powergaming set up is to level up to level twelve as a fighter, switch to a mage and use your bonus stat points to pump your stats as you see fit.
BTW, the most broken combat stat is constitution. At high levels, you're regeneration rate will be so high you will probably never die, even as a mage.
