A tad late maybe, but still-
1. I’d go for balanced if you care about tactical combat, when to use spells and abilities, leveling and equipping your characters well to make them effective (without needing to min/max or create a fancy OP milticlass build). Explorer is really for people who want to just enjoy the story without really worrying about all that.
2. If you’re likely to only play once, I’d recommend recruiting all or most of the characters. Most of them tie into the main story somehow. Some of them very significantly. Swap them out as much as you feel like. I think it’s fun to experiment with different party compositions for combat, banter and bringing the people who you think might be most interested or useful to whatever you are doing.
It used to be more of a pain, but now you can access inventories of anyone at camp if you dismiss someone and realise they still have a weapon or item you want to give to someone else. Ignore their little whinges about being left behind.
3a. Save often but try not save scum. Fights are more fun if you have to adjust tactics for bad misses, spells not working, etc. Failing dialogue checks can lead to interesting and sometime amusing outcomes. Try to reload only if a fight is a disaster or you’re really not happy with the result. eg failing to rescue Gale right at the beginning.
3b Get your head around actions, bonus actins, spell slots, concentration spells, class specific resources (like bardic inspiration), etc. as quickly as you can. Read the tool tips for spells and actions- what they do, how long they last, what resources they use, whether they need concentration, etc.
3c. Use “examine” on enemies to see their stats, abilities and resistances/vulnerabilities to different damage types.
3d. Try to avoid looking specific things up unless you get stuck. Many fights can be cheesed with various spells, actions, using the environment. It’s much more satisfying to discover these things yourself. Avoid story spoilers, and don’t worry about trying to get the “optimal” outcome for everything.
3e. Maybe do look up general tips, like good picks for leveling up.
3f. Try to get even numbers on attributes. 17 strength is no better than 16. You don’t need to respec the characters, unless you want to, but when you get a feat on leveling up (level 4) adding two points to attributes is a decent option for everyone.
Last edited by Dagless; 30/10/24 08:19 AM.
