DracoSpirit86

Bit of con not a bad idea on barb, extra health is extra time to beat the hell out of your target. The panic self heal use will likely depend on your party set up.. it's good in a pinch, but if you have loads of healers in party, you'll likely not need it.

Lore also lets you use scrolls, and they tend to be dam nasty pieces of kit, make them and save them for those boss fights that don't go too well >.< On skills, a big difference between this and DnD based stuff is that anyone can learn anything. Similar with equipment, anyone can use anything to a degree and your rogue isn't necessary the trap and lock guy. Tbh you likely want it on one of your front guys to make it easier to detect traps, depends how you play really. Athletic really is a everyone skill like said above, since even a fairly modest investment really helps. Something you do want to keep in mind is that tanks want to max defense and dps want to max attack speed and damage to a degree. Reach and ranged weapons can really help with your dps avoiding being splattered by the enemy because there wearing light or no armor, but always make sure you got at least one fighter with the skill called defender active. It draws enemy agro towards them and really makes life a lot more straight forwards. Also be wary in how you move around the map, you don't want you lightly armored reach weapon user being the first to engage!

So I've been playing a little while now and reading all the different builds on the threads on here. Why do people bias so heavy towards dps or tankyness on a build? I ask because while ideally your tanks should be taking all the damage and your dps giving it out, it doesn't always turn out that way, even with a defender fighter for tanking and reach weapons for dps. My quaterstaff barb gets hit and my tanky paladin is sometimes the last man standing. The main reason for this is the vast number of swarms in this game, the hardest fights in any area are usually huge ones, and sometimes you can't reach that choke point to easy. This result in your dps suddenly needing to tank. A side issue is how vastly more dangerous it is to disengage in this game compared to say BG, my mage has gone splat many times while trying too! >.< So am I missing something here or is going soft role bias more sensible than heavy role bias, and if so what the best level of bias for different classes and party roles?

Ok, so far I've installed the game and played to the first village, so I'm not that far into it. Played a lot of DnD based stuff, so the mechanical side of things isn't too unfamiliar (through dex and might took a little sink in). I've gathered the hired adventures are likely going to be dam good characters if built right, through I want a mix of npc and hirelings so I can enjoy there stories and comments.. so were likely talking about a 50/50 mix, with the npcs changing around quest from quest. So I'm thinking attacker, defender and support slot for each, with the MC being one of them. I also want the MC to be either a paladin or priest for funz with the rep system. My understanding of what should work is: The defender should have a big suit of armour, a big shield and lots of res and per. The attacker should be in light armour with a reach weapon with loads of might and dex. And support is more complicated affair based on class. So what kind of builds should I use? I also like to use guns to a lesser or greater degree, just because there something different! So how you get the most from them?