After 100 hours of play or so, I’ve noticed a consistent problem. It takes forever to get your characters geared up properly. The only real way forward is to become a thief and rob the town blind.

My party is level 6, and between the four of us, I’ve bought the following:
Scarlett (Rogue) – Nullify Resistances Skillbook, Level 5 Push Dagger (91 Gold)
Roderick (Earth/Fire Wizard) – Boulderdash Skillbook
Madora – Whirlwind Skillbook
Jahan – Resurrect Skillbook

Between us, we’ve gained 16 levels, but have only been able to acquire 4 new Skills. My characters are not progressing at a satisfactory rate.

I have 267 gold and some assorted loot remaining – most of which is crafting components that aren’t going to sell for much. I can get one new skill, but I have no idea what to get. I’ve been building Jahan as a Water/Air mage, but he has nothing but his starter Blitzbolt. Roderick is a Fire/Earth mage, and he has only been able to add one Earth spell to his starter skills. I require all four party members, but I simply cannot afford to buy skills for all four. I realized how screwed I was when I tried to do the Fabulous Five quest in the tunnel.


Problems
  • You start out with no money at all. None. This is especially a problem in a game where you need to purchase your skill books.
  • Crates and other containers are empty most of the time. When they’re not empty, they usually only have crafting components. That is great for crafting, but crafting is too complicated to be an ideal substitute for buying stuff. There are too many things possible to know what you can make. I can’t memorize the entire list. Crafting components sell for very little as well, so I can’t make money that way. I don’t WANT to have to spend a huge amount of time crafting things to make money.
  • Too often, enemies drop nothing. I’m not asking for fountains of magic items popping from every zombie and skeleton, but they don’t drop a lot of things to use or even sell. They do drop weapons and gear, but not enough that you can rely on that as income.
  • Larian knows this already, but weapons go up a LOT in effectiveness as their level increases. That level 5 Push Dagger I got is actually very effective, even on the Undead (with proper use of positioning and tactics). You need to upgrade your weapons often, and can’t rely on getting weapons from enemies, adding to the list of expenses.
  • There aren’t many places you can buy new gear. There’s Esmerelda’s shop, but she doesn’t like you, and she can go to jail. An arrow seller sells arrows and bits of them, and there’s Anna in the King Crab Inn, but she leaves after a while as well. You can’t make up the difference with random Citizen NPC’s that have one or two random things in their inventory. There are THREE food sellers in the market, two of which don’t even sell food - just random trinkets, like the oh-so-helpful “wooden spoon” and “broken bottle”. There’s no dedicated armour or weapon seller who is guaranteed to be in their store.
  • Vendors only sell one skillbook each. I bought the Resurrect Skillbook for Jahan, which means that no one else can learn it ever again. That’s a TERRIBLE idea for a game that claims to let you build your character however you want.



Suggestions
  • Each character needs at least 100 gold each to start out with, no less. More would be better.
  • I’ll leave suggestions on adjusting loot tables to Larian, they know the system better.
  • Increase the enemy drop rate a bit.
  • This’ll probably be adjusted over the course of the alpha/beta, but the power growth curve is pretty large and makes things difficult.
  • Another vendor or two is needed, preferably ones who don’t hate you and skip town.
  • Vendors should sell unlimited quantities of skillbooks.