Last week I played D:OS for the first time. I'd been waiting since Winter for the patch which then became the EE. I played the first battle with three different pairs in Tactician mode. One took two tries, one took three, and one pair I was unable to get through the battle with at all. I then tried the battle once on Classic mode and got through it without taking a single point of damage.
My first impression: Where's hard mode? These seem like two extremes and I'm wondering where the middle ground is, but that isn't my point.
Anyway, if I play at all, it will be in Tactician mode, and my question involves character design. I don't like min-maxing. I play most games on the highest difficulty with deliberately subpar builds. I don't play MMOGs so I'm not competing with anyone and I do whatever I can to make games challenging. I don't intend to generalize my characters to the point of obscurity, but I would like to put points into fun stuff like telekenesis, speaking to animals, charisma, lockpicking, etc.
Is Tactician mode hardcore to the point that I can't screw around and hope to get through it? Do I have to invest in every skill according to its usefulness in battle? I only intend to play this game once, like any other game. I know I can't see it all in one playthrough no matter what, but by diversifying a bit I can probably see more of it than with pure combat builds. Assuming I'm a competent player (though one who absolutely won't be reading strategy guides or wikis to find tactics or exploits), can I play the way I'd like to?
I'm hoping to really start playing tomorrow and would be grateful for your opinions. No build suggestions, please, as I'm going in as blind as possible--I just want to avoid a restart if I find myself permanently stuck several hours into the game.
