I went back to playing the Age of Decadence demo and just finished a playthrough with a sleazy, opportunistic diplomat/ranged fighter hybrid. Despite rather underwhelming stats, the character performed surprisingly well.
In combat I used mainly crossbows to take down enemies from afar, aiming for their legs to slow them down and keep them from closing in on me. In some fights against multiple enemies, I simply picked a tight spot where only one enemy could engage me at a time and then ignored him (and prayed for successful dodge rolls) while I took down the rest from behind my improvised cover. Poison definitely came in handy there.
Although I wanted to join the Imperial Guards, they wouldn't let me because I was too scrawny (though I think someone said a body count check might be possible in future versions, that would be swell for ranged characters). While it would have been easy to go the Commercium route and then switch to the Guards, I felt I wanted more of a challenge, so I joined the Boatmen instead and then betrayed them.
The screen above was taken right after the guild fight, which I found to be quite tricky at first. I managed to beat it by using neurostimulant vials to boost AP and throwing bolas at the enemies. As soon as Coltan was immobilised I ran up to him and used the steel dagger from Militades to take him out. After that, Agatai went down quickly as I switched between throwing bolas and firing the armour-piercing steel bolts at him.
Of course, this only really worked because the demo provides some free alchemical recipes and ingredients. Also, while 8 charisma was enough to gain important information from various characters, it was still too low to truly convince the preacher.
In the end, I brokered an alliance between Antidas and Carrinas only to outjew them both, planning to hand over their treaty document to the Aurelians. Great fun, though I imagine if I could keep playing, a lot of angry people would want my head on a pike (or worse).
