So I'm finally playing this and I have some questions.

[Azyle17]

I'm playing on the "New to CRPG" difficulty and so far it's fun.

 

I'm level 3 and I made a rogue with dual sabers.  I have Aloth, Eder, that weird priest and I JUST got that chanter in my party.

 

Questions -

 

1 How often should I be leveling up my equipment? Should I be buying new stuff every level?

 

2 So my rogue with use sabers and maybe later I'll get dual pistols for range? Eder seems like a tank so I'll just do sword and board but what about my 3 ranged people? Staves? Rods? Wands? No idea. Also what armor should I give people? The game doesn't really explain how to build a character. 

 

3 Healing... I know there is the health bar and then the red in the portraits. Are there spells that heal HP or is that only at Inns and campfires?

 

4 Any other tips? I have never played  a CRPG before and I like this but I like to know im not doing anything stupid. I got a quest to kill Roderick but I think I should wait on that. I'm going to the fortress thing now. (Where the chanter is).

[draego]

1. I generally only enchant unique weapons / armors. You definitely will not be buying equipment every level. You will probably end up using lots of same gear over many levels and the main reason you will switch is mostly because the abilities on the weapons / armor better synergize with your party and not because the weapon is 'higher level'. by the end of the game you will be able to raise a few weapons or armors to the highest enchants possible. So its more about what weapon abilities you like. This isnt like an action rpg with leveled gear. There is enchanting that is kinda like leveling but like i said later on you can enchant a small number of select weapons all the way to the top meaning you could have found a cool weapon in the first town you really like and play the whole game with it.

 

 2. There is no dual pistols in POE1. 

 

2. Unless you are playing on the highest difficulties, the game doesnt punish to much your choices for builds. So pick the talents / armors you think are good and you are prob fine. You can make lots of builds / armor sets work. The simplest route is frontline melee give heavier armors and back line give lighter armors. There is a build section in this forums to point out specific build types to guide you if that is what you want. They are super min maxed but work just fine for companions and main characters that are not min max. Those builds are usually for POTD so take them with a grain of salt on lower levels if you use them. They will spoil gear you will find also later in the game. There is also a beginners guides to some of the mechanics here. 

 

3. There is two talents in the utility tree and one potion (combat use only) and one wizard spells (combat use only and only for that wizard not on others) that heal health. Health was meant as a gage for how much you need to rest. But yes most of the time you have to rest or go to inn.

 

4. a. You dont have to read the gold plated npcs they are backer stories that dont have anything to do with game story or world

    b. You dont have to do most quest when you find them. So you can try and if you are having trouble especially in the beginning, just move on,  level  up, get more characters and then come back. That is ok. You can do dungeons partially also. In fact the largest dungeon in the game is like that where you do a few levels and then get rolled so a level or few later you come back and start progressing. 

 c. Raedric is usually a tough early spike in difficulty at least on harder difficulties. So if you find it to tough just come back with full 6 person party later on 

Edited May 16, 2018 by draego

[Azyle17]

Thanks - I appreciate it. I really like the game and it's really all very new to me. Used to turn based RPGs or Western style open world games but I really like this one. I like the story and such.

[gkathellar]

1. Generally, you don't have to worry about buying equipment - most of the good stuff is found. There's exceptions to made for the unique pieces of gear at various merchants, but that's just a question of keeping your eye out for things you think look good.

 

2. Dual sabers are great and can easily carry you through the whole game.

 

4. Generally, just pay attention to your environment, talk to everyone with a name (other than the gold nameplate guys), and bear in mind that PoE offers a lot of strange or nonviolent solutions to problems.