I ended up going Barbarian. I like the carnage ability (very cool to get crits off those hits too) and I like using the greatsword and also for my main character they benefit from intellect which I like to have for dialogue and stuff. With a greatsword my human female barbarian is pretty awesome so far and I like how the abilities are looking later on.

I made a monk and rogue companion ASAP and really like those classes too. But happy with my main character after starting over three times.

@thomasnash: I believe it's supposed to be gain focus per hit, not related to damage. I wonder though if you gain slightly less for grazing hits compared to normal ones. You don't need to worry about two handers though. I've been running with a slow crossbow, I picked the talents that give extra focus per hit and higher max - rarely a problem.

I did that, but seeing it written out just makes the stupid mechanic that more obvious. Thankfully I'm not the most dedicated 'roleplayer' in most RPGs anyway unless I'm given meaningful decisions that change the course of the story. If PoE has those, it hasn't advertised them very well.

Elven Rogue, I basically steal everything I can

Cipher. Their spells skip the whole per-encounter/per-rest mechanic, which is a nice bit of flexibility to have, especially in the early game. I'm planning to use more inn followers for my next playthrough, experiment with other classes more. Really looking forward to it.

Dispositions being displayed in dialogue was turned off by default for me. Is that not normal? I didn't even realize they were a thing until more than halfway through the game.

Hmm maybe I said that wrong. What I am saying is you can go into the options and change things so that all conversation options just look normal. If it is "rational" it won't be flagged that way it will just look like a normal choice. If it requires a Lore 8 it won't say "Lore 8" it would just look like a normal dialogue choice and if you don't have the stats then well you don't get the response you were hoping for maybe. The only way to know after the fact if you are building up a certain rep is to go to the character screen and check there.

@hayt said:

Ok finally got my character rolled after pouring over the Almanac and Collector's Book (literally at least 2 hours played in the creator)

I wanted my character to be someone relatively young and well-read but wanting to see the world he's learnt a lot about but not really experienced.

He's ethnically Thyrtan (Meadow Folk) and his parents we born and raised in Old Vailia. With that nation's decline and descent into war his parents immigrated from bygone Old Vailia to the relatively young colonies of Rauatai to start a new life and family in a place ripe with opportunity. This is where Hadrian was born and raised. Although surrounded by the peoples and culture of Rauatai his parent's stories of Old Vaila's past instilled in Hadrian an boundless interest in the world beyond his doorstep. He fed this interest with books and became a scholar of history and a practitioner of magic. Eventually Hadrian set out from Rauatai to see the world he had come to know so well and experience it first hand.

I settled on the name Hadrian because Vailian names are based in Italian roots mainly I figured Old Vaila was the root of the Valian Republic I went to the root of Italian and used a Latin name.

Wow, you put so much thought into this! Very impressive; wish I was that creative and focused. Also, really cool touch researching a fitting name. Nice stuff.

Thanks for sharing.

@noblenerf: Thanks man! In RPGs with real nice fluff I like to make characters that feel a part of the world. It helps that I get to DM my pen and paper rpg group so I get to do a lot of trying to come up with characters and such within existing settings. For this game they really gave me a leg up by putting out 100+ pages of tasty lore to peruse alongside the game haha.

Oh, okay, so the opposite of what I thought you meant. Yes, I agree that this is the ideal way to play the game. However, as a priest, choosing incorrectly for your faith leads to your character being less powerful (in a minor way).

Human Rogue, got stuck due to a bug during my first attempt (Ah Obsidian...), so I've gone back and started on path of the damned mode, and it's a blast.

With invisibility unlocked, dual stiletto (picked up a weapon specialization talent, really notice the extra accuracy) wearing the lightest armor sets, and just moving round the battle doing insane damage. Really awesome. Thank fuck this game exists <3

After starting and making like 3-4 characters I went with a Nature Godlike Druid that turns into a giant walking bear. Then I make a Fire Godlike Monk the racial bonus seems good with a monk that wants to be hurt. The Druid seems cool a mix between magic an melee.

I started as a rogue but rerolled as a Paladin. My rogue was getting wrecked in melee so I wanted something more durable, even dps specked with a two handed sword my paladin can still take some hits, and he's got some great support like group wide accuracy increase, and every time he kills something it heals everyone around him, which is useful.

I made a Rogue because I thought I read in a thread that you get no rogue companions, then the second dude I got was a rogue. Thinking of rerolling, but now I'm wondering if there's any shortage of a certain class(or all the characters of that class are shitty people that I won't want in my party). Or will I be fine if I just pick whatever I want and won't find myself 20 hours in going "man, sure wish I had a cipher."?

Don't reroll, just keep your rogue and play past the introductory dungeon. What you read was correct.

Regarding shortage of classes: there is none, because If you don't like the Obsidian companions or want different classes you can just create and hire your own adventurers at the various inns (you can create 8 of them).

I've never played a CRPG before, so I was a little lost when starting out. That character creation screen can be a little intimidating!

After a reading around a bit I figured out what I wanted to be, frontline fighter with two weapons and I think I'm doing ok so far (though I am playing on easy).

I picked a Death Godlike because the I really liked the look of the character, also felt it would be fun to play an outsider. Kind of the the same reason I went with an aristocratic background, I like the idea of a high born family hiding away their Godlike daughter from the world.

Looking for something to do last night, to take my mind of some things, I remembered I had this game. I backed it, and have had my digital and physical editions sitting for a while. But just never got around to it. So I figured why not check it out. And man did it hook me. Been a while since I played this kind of game. Loving it. I started as a female Death Godlike Cipher. I spent about two hours trying to find a combo I liked. And eventually ended up rolling this.

Using a two weapon style, and my cipher abilities for crowd control. Also created two party members. A pure rogue, and another female godlike who is a hunter. She is the one that does healing to the party, forget its name. I rolled the rouge for traps and locks. Since I wasn't finding things I should have been, and not able to get into certain things. Also got tired of not seeing traps and dying all the time.