My first game. Im a level 8 Survivor. I am enjoying the special skill that lets me sneak. I like being able to run away then hide, as that strategy can be used to split up groups of monsters that would be too tough for me to handle all at once. Of course, I bet a blast-um wizard or weapon-trained & spinning, warrior would have a much easier time than my survivor.
I was able to kill things around my level, or a bit higher, if I had enough foods to heal me up after 3 or 4 monsters. Early on, monsters like ghouls and orcs were nearly impossible to kill unless I used <pause> a lot to eat food and drink a couple potions in mid-battle.
The backstab skill does not seem very useful because double damage on a dagger that does around 15 points still isnt very impressive, and the stab only happens rarely. I trained it to level 2, but probably will not train it again.
I found a bow that can do over 50 points per hit as a level 6 character. I discovered it's very useful to stay out of harm's way, and kill from a distance. Monsters are slow enough (except orc chief) than I can fire twice, run away, then fire again. Elven Sight 1, ring of sight +1 and Bow of sight +2 probably helps a lot here. I am thinking the bow-related skills would be helpful, but my reluctance is I would be getting away from dagger + shield combo skills. I guess I am wrestling between a ranged-rogue and backstab-rogue strategy, and have not decided yet. It seems that bow is a lot more powerful though.
I am relucant to make the game too easy for me. I am experienced in games, and tend to powergame things too much unless I restrain myself. I was getting hurt bad early on, so I got the Freeze skill as soon as I could (recalling freeze effects in Diablo 2). YIKES! This skill seems too good. At level 5 I was freeze-killing level 10 orcs without much danger. Freezing, then chipping away with a dagger is fun, if a bit slow at 8 to 20 per swing. At level 7, I had zero chance of killing the Orc Drummers. When I stepped into weapon range, I would die too fast, having only 75 Vitality (or so). Using a bow, I could half kill the Drummer but then he would complete heal himself -- I killed him using Freeze 1 every few seconds plus bow, and it felt like cheating. Drummer was level 25 !? Heh.
The "boss" type monsters, like orc chief, have so many hit points, I cant imagine trying to melee them with a little dagger, especially since I miss more than half the time even with Dex 25. If I can freeze them, it becomes easy, but I've already ran into one big monster that wouldnt freeze (but at 11th level I bet I could).
I am thinking the Lifesteal spell (10% drain) would be very mana-efficient on these monsters with 300+ vitality. Against super-vitality monsters it might make the game too easy if I could drain away 20% of their life per click -- Anyone remember the Static Field area percent-damage of Diablo 2 ? It was almost required to kill bosses but also risked trivializing the challenge. That is what I am afraid of in Divine Divinity. I enjoy waxing monsters as much as the next guy, but I don't want to have it too easy just because some skills are more "broken" than others... Im guessing survivor is the hardest class to play though, so Im already challenging myself. It would seem too easy if I could swing-around-hit all monsters at once and warriors can learn magic too, so whats the restriction? But, I wouldn't have to pause the game much, and that real-time play does have its own arcade-style apeal. WArrior + mana items = a wizard with a lot more Vitality and killer melee ? Why be a wizard if you can rest, or drink a potion that restores 50% or 100% of your mana? Just be a warrior with spells. hehe
