Originally posted here, cross-post doesn’t work atm
I don’t usually play tabletop and DnD, so I’m a little bit overwhelmed by everything going on all at once a couple hours into the game. I’m having fun playing as Lae’zel, and kind of going with it and have played quite a bit of D:OS2 years back, but I can’t help but feel like I’m messing things up somehow and might need to reroll a character later on.
Any beginner tips or things that made the game more enjoyable for you? Anything that took you way too long to realize? Didn’t see another thread anywhere else, but apologies if this thread already exists.
Little to no spoilers please.
What I did was turn down the difficulty to explorer until I got the hang of battle. It makes it easier to learn stuff when you aren’t dying all the time lol.
Throw every skill, spell, and action you have at every foe. You can go back to camp anytime, and you get more than enough supplies to heal your guys.
Search every crate, sack, and box you come across. You get supplies for your camp and stuff to sell.
Don’t be afraid to experiment! See that bottle of grease in your inventory? Chuck it at a mob to see what happens! You’ll get the hang of everything in no time at all.
Thank you.
Throw every skill, spell, and action you have at every foe. You can go back to camp anytime, and you get more than enough supplies to heal your guys.
So you don’t really have to measure out and conserve your skills and spells for potential consecutive encounters? That’s one of the things I’m a bit concerned about, I’m saving some spells because there might be more baddies right after this fight.
Sometimes you might want to (there are areas where you can’t return to camp without leaving, and some of those areas you might not want/be able to leave before completing them), and you can be attacked in your camp, depending on decisions you make.
Generally though, yeah. If you feel like a scroll/potion/spell/resource/etc will help you in this fight, don’t be shy about spending it. Just maybe don’t go wandering too much, if you find yourself low on resources. :P
Other thing to note, is that combat will feel clunky before you hit level five. That’s where you start getting your heavy hitting spells, buffs and abilities, making additional attacks per round, etc. It’s hard to screw up a character in 5e (unless you’re multiclassing, then there are some trap choices), but everyone will feel a little weak early on.
I managed to get to level 5 with only long resting once per level and I play a bard. With that I can also say that my casters did feel pretty useless :)
The game gives the feeling of urgency and no time to rest but in fact there are just some quests that are time based. Take your time, use spells and rest every couple of encounters. Going all out every fight would make things really easy I think but having some restrictions to not do that and playing smart instead is something that at least I enjoy.
Nuke everything. The moment a hard fight is over, you can immediately camp if you need to. Rest, save, then head right back to where you were.
Contrary to what everyone else is saying, if you long rest at certain points some quests will progress without you. That doesn’t mean you can’t progress the story, it just means you may not get some rewards, or other cutscenes that you would have gotten otherwise. You are not always warned about it either.
Consumables I would suggest using aggressively, especially any that use a main action. They don’t really scale, and if you don’t use the ones you find early on, eventually you’ll get to a point where they won’t be better than your cantrips/low level spells/basic attacks.
- You can select multiple items at the same time by using the control and shift keys
- You can cheese most fights by shoving people off cliffs
- The classic well-rounded party consists of a tank, a healer, a utility, and a spellcaster (example: barbarian, cleric, rogue, and wizard)
- Bind your quicksave and quickload keys and save scum as much as you want on your first playthrough. Then go back and play for real a second time. You can even save and load mid-dialogue.
- If you are not having fun as your current class, a certain NPC in your camp will allow you to change your class for 100gp
Thank you.
Bind your quicksave and quickload keys
On PC these default to F5 and F8, respectively.
but I can’t help but feel like I’m messing things up somehow and might need to reroll a character later on.
If you haven’t already, explore the ruins near where you started the game. There’s one door on the beach, and an entrance up above. Slightly hidden in these ruins is a character named Withers, who will join you in your camp. Once there, you can pay him 100 gold at any time to “change your class”, which functionally allows you to full respec, changing your stat allocation, class, and choices in level up.
100 gold is honestly a pittance, so this feature functionally means there’s no such thing as messing up your character. You can safely not worry about “messing up” your character, as the only choice that grants power which can’t be reset is your race, and if you’re playing an origin character, like Lae’zel, that choice was made for you anyway.
Additionally, I see a lot of people telling you to blow resources and long-rest frequently? I think this is TERRIBLE advice. Many events in the game occur based on time passed since other events to determine outcomes/circumstances. As an easy, early, and relatively spoiler free example: killing certain faction leaders in act 1 doesn’t do anything to the state of the rest of the faction right away, but leaving and long-resting gives them time to discover the bodies, and the faction will now treat you as hostile and attack on-sight, disallowing access to certain NPCs and traders.
To be clear, how many long-rests you’ve taken total doesn’t ever seen to be important, but taking too many (or sometimes, any) between starting an event and finishing an event can impact the state of the event and your potential outcomes. Mind you, none of the changes will prevent you from progressing or completing the game, but I wouldn’t get attached to any NPCs if you’re going to long-rest after every encounter. There’s even one late-game quest which will result in the death of a companion if you start a certain dungeon and long-rest before finishing it. It’s in act 3, and the game is pretty explicit about who and why, so don’t stress over it, but I want to emphasize how bad of an idea it can sometimes be to spam long-rests.
The long rest thing is an important balance. I managed to rush my way through the Grove on two whole long rests and missed a lot of important cutscenes and companion dialog that trigger only while you’re sleeping.
On the other hand, there are a few situations where ignoring a quest will result in it resolving without you!
Thank you. Looks like I missed the character that lets you respec, I chickened out of opening the coffins assuming that they’re all booby trapped, but I’m guessing he’s in one of them. Time to go back, thank you.Found him, I’ve been using your and everybody else’s tips and the game’s been legitimately more enjoyable.
Great tip about long resting and time passage. Man there’s so much this game!
I missed that place my first time (well more like I forgot to come back when I was confident I could beat the looters there) and Withers just appeared in my camp anyway. I don’t think he is missable except in the way you might not see his wrinkly butt in your camp.
You get 2 short rests that helps recover hit points and some spells on certain classes. Save anytime you feel you had a good result with some roll or before and after a fight.
I have been poor because I am selling everything I find and buying magic gear for my team. It is easy to pick up an old plate and mark it as wares. Then when you visit a merchant there is a option to sell all wears.
If I pick up a magic arrow I send it to my bow person so he has that ready for fights.
If you look back in this community there was a post on combat that I learned a lot watching. Let me find it.
Then when you visit a merchant there is a option to sell all wears.
It’s easy to miss this since the trade screen defaults to barter. But at the top of the screen, you need to switch from barter to trade in order to get the option to “Sell all wares”
- Don’t ever talk to Isobel until after you defeat a certain elf. Trust me.
- Don’t long rest in the Grymforge
- Drink the worm
1.???
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Bug?
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Its ewwwwww, whyy. As a paladin btw
I can’t explain 1 without major spoilers, and I know the spoiler tags don’t work for a lot of people.
Yes, bug.
I was not referring to the worm in your head, but an actual bar encounter.
Ah thanks
Btw.
My tip: Let volo help you with your little issue, even if it seems bad 😂
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Some stuff from my “I wish I knew/I did earlier” list:
- Bind frequently used actions on your Custom bar. You can hit the key for these no matter which of your bars are currently displayed. It will speed up your combat quite a bit. Universal actions like Jump and Hide can all be rebound too.
- Weapon skills or spells granted by gear will fall off the Custom bar entirely if you get disarmed or unequip them (not just grey out). Or other stuff will if you respec.
- The “Shrouded” attribute in gear simply refers the light level of the spot your character (or target) is standing in, not stealth or invis or anything complicated.
- Ritual spells don’t use any resources when cast out of combat.
- There are a maximum of four Inspiration points, any you get beyond that will be wasted. Use them if you get them.
- You’ll be able to respec your avatar and your companions pretty early on, so don’t be afraid to swap out of something that’s not working out due to bugs. I finally settled on the Thief sub-class with Astarion because Mage Hand wasn’t working correctly in Arcane Trickster and because I was rarely able to use Ambush or Alacrity in the Assassin kit due to some jank in how combat starts.
- Some feats/item enchantments (like the Lucky feat and gear with procs on attacks) aren’t working correctly, so keep an eye out for that. Feats can also be changed with respecs.
- Unless you’re committed to it for roleplaying reasons, respec Shadowheart out of the Trickery Domain, as it’s pretty bad. You might be able to come up with a clever use for Blessing of the Trickster since it’s a free, long-term Concentration spell.
Melee units are easier to grasp and are relatively strong early.
Spell casters feel a bit weird compared to a mana/action system. Outside of warlock with eldrich blast, everyone else is going to feel a bit limited early.
The game has respec, so I highly suggest getting your bearings right with a melee build at the beginning and then respecing into a spell caster once you have a better understanding of how limiting spell slots are.
