Now that I know the game a little I plan to restart it tonight and... well I played it strictly with weapons so I would love to give magic a serious go so I know if im missing out on much so I have some super newbie questions in that regard:

There does not appear to be much penalty to using magic obviously other than you will have less attribute points to spend on STR and DEX so you wont be able to clobber bad guys as effectively but this still seems to come down to what weapon you are using above all else, so If I choose to play a caster with heavy knight armor the only down side is I wont be able to move/dodge as quickly right?

Secondly.. I started a Pyromancer just to test it but I didn't have time to go any further then finishing the starting area, throwing them fireballs seems awkward to me lol do you really have to lock on every time to effectively hit the small mobs? I mean it appears that I am otherwise aiming with my camera and without a cursor this is hilariously inaccurate and seems really awkward as I have to tilt it to face the sky if I am trying to hit something a bit further or above. Any tips on this would be awesome

Also do I need to first find specific weapons to try specific magics or to make them effective? so a staff to cast soul magic, some kind of talisman for fire stuff and something else for miracles? sorry I am still confused about all that coz on my previous play through I just picked up sharp things and tried every possible way of hitting bad guys with them up until now.

Stats wise: Is it wise to mix it up and have int and str so I can fall back on using my weapon if I run out of magics? or is it generally more viable to try and stack mostly magic stats and just try and find powerful weapons to help.

Lastly: what do you suggest and prefer? Soul magics? Fire Splosions or Miracles? Or should I aim to try and collect all the different caster weapons and spells!

Wow, rly hope someone has the patience to reply to all this I am sorry I made it so long didn't mean to :P I just really like this game. THANKS!!!

Aww, knew this was too long. I am reading about it now guess i'll figure it out over time xD

There are three types of "magic"

Sorcery, which scales off of Intellect. You need a catalyst to cast it.

Miracles, which scale off of Faith. You need a talisman to cast it.

Pyromancy, which does NOT scale off of your stats. It DOES, however, scale off of the level of the flame you need to cast it.

They're all useful, but you should really focus on one due to having to build for it. Sorceries are, without a doubt, the most potentially powerful, and have some utility. Miracles are less powerful on the top-end, but have some very good utility in healing not dependant on Estus flasks. Pyromancies are INCREDIBLY melee friendly, because you just have to upgrade your flame with Laurentius/Quelana/Eingyi. It has absolutely NO utility, and instead is focused ENTIRELY on damage.

Personally, I prefer Pyromancy, because Combustion.

Also, magic runs off of the old-school D&D style, where you only have a specific number of casts before you need to rest at a bonfire. The casts amount is specific per spell, but you can get more slots by putting points into Attunement. I recommend putting points to 16 so you get 4 slots.

If you are doing a magic only build you should get attunement to 34 so you have 8 slots (the max is 10, but that means you have to level it up to 50). This will also allow you to double on on spells, as you can buy more than one copy for a few sellers. Meaning for example you can buy two Great Soul Arrow which have a use of 20 each, bringing your total up to 40.

Its also a good idea to get a magic or enchanted weapon as soon as possible. That way your melee damage is based off your magic stat and not STR or DEX.

Thanks! Based on what you have said I think I will try to play a balanced character with 16 in Attunement and 14 in faith (potentially more later on) which should allow me to cast pyromancies and heals as well as leaving me tons of stats to build up defenses and strength for weapons!

Maybe someday further down the track I will try a pure intelligence Sorcerer but I dont think i am ready for an intelligence character xD

So based on the build I just mentioned I should never need to put any points in intelligence?

If you are just using Miracles and Pryo, no. Just faith for your miracles.

Thanks! Based on what you have said I think I will try to play a balanced character with 16 in Attunement and 14 in faith (potentially more later on) which should allow me to cast pyromancies and heals as well as leaving me tons of stats to build up defenses and strength for weapons!

Maybe someday further down the track I will try a pure intelligence Sorcerer but I dont think i am ready for an intelligence character xD

So based on the build I just mentioned I should never need to put any points in intelligence?

Great thanks for all that, with the Pyromancer's hand... that's all you ever need to cast all pyromancies? Also I simply treat it as a weapon and upgrade it at the smith to increase the damage of the 'splosions? The other thing I don't really remember noticing is finding a shop early on that sells pyromancies, so far I am familiar with Firelink shrine and surrounding areas (up to catacombs, up to ghosts and up to blighttown) tho mostly I know undead burg and the Parish, perhaps the male undead vendor had them I cant remember coz I accidentally killed him early on :S

You rescue a dude in the sewer area who teaches pyromancey before Blightown

@xaLieNxGrEyx said:

You rescue a dude in the sewer area who teaches pyromancey before Blightown

He's a bit easy to miss - he's stuck in a barrel in a back room somewhere near the butcher. Unless you accidentally killed him, in which case... WHOOPS.

@Terramagi: flash sweat = utility hehe

@Bassario: try it out , pyro fits melee better , plus currently chaos pyromancies are even more damaging than they used to be , miracles are good just for the utility , i guess if you go lightning spear etc it can be useful for damage but i would general rely on weapons , if you have high enough faith you can use some pretty nice faith scaling weapons or divine/occult to good effect. sorcery is ok , they have nerfed the overall damage from sorceries now , at least the homing soulmasses , i personally prefer to just use 15 int and stick to great magic weapon , and then pump str or dex as my primary stat instead.

magic is more complicated to fit well into your build , rather than just going for heavy armor or smacking doods with a giant sword , it will take longer to get used to what you like about the certain styles too , because the best spells for all the schools tend to be pretty far into the game.

but yeah .. to each his own.