I honestly don't have any problems with my character. She(damn right it's she!) is strong and has no problem with the enemies. Just like any other people who are playing this game, if I encounter a hard enemy, I just back up and go to other places or just farm souls.

At first, my character started as a warrior and as I played through, she had a pretty balance stat spread across strength, endurance, vitality and dex. Now, since I have the Fury Sword, I focus on dex and str. Still, no problems what so ever.

But I did not put any points on magic. In fact, I do not even know what stat makes character a mage either. I kinda got worried at first and put a couple of points on attune... something but I realized that it actually takes a lot of investment to increase the magic slots(I have only one slot and I still think it was a waste of points).

People who say "Blighttown is really hard without magic," I did not understand where he was coming from.

My character is level 65 right now and does not know how to use a single magic spell. I'm totally okay with that. But my concern is that what if I need to use magic in the future? I'm going through Tom of the Giants right now and realized that place is super easy if you have Cast Light spell. I know it is not impossible to go through without magic but, again, I'm a little worried if something like that happens again in the future.

So... Do you have to have some magic or is it perfectly fine to through without magic? Again, I have never felt "crap, I cannot go through this part without magic" so far.

Have enough faith to learn the Heal miracle at the very least, which requires 12 faith.  There are other options for tomb of giants other than call light, though that is the easiest to obtain.  The dungeon itself gives you a light source and wearing a sunlight maggot obtained from Lost Izalith also works.

@Turambar: Okay, I have to ask, what is a sunlight maggot and where is Lost Izalith? -_-;;;

@Turambar: Okay, I have to ask, what is a sunlight maggot and where is Lost Izalith? -_-;;;

@Turambar:

@Marz:

Are you guys talking about where the reskin Capra Demons are?

Or is there a path that I'm totally missing?

@nohthink: Yeah if you need a light source in there, just go through Lost Izalith first and do what Turambar says... honestly that's the only time I can think of where magic would be nice (but the maggot is still better). If you really want to build up some kind of castable skill, just go the pyromancy route (there's a guy near the entrance of the sewers who will give you a free pyro glove if you save him). Pyro is not based on any skills, all you have to do to make it better is buy upgrades to the glove or better spells, and it's a nice backup if you want to hang back from melee range.

Honestly though, if you're comfortable with melee, there's really no place where you should need any magic at all.

@Turambar:

@Marz:

Are you guys talking about where the reskin Capra Demons are?

Or is there a path that I'm totally missing?

You Defeated!

I went through the whole game using only the Heal magic and Iron Flesh. Iron Flesh is pyromancy so it doesn't need any skill investment aside from some attunement. Heal, as said above is only 12 faith. You could always put some points into attunement and level up your pyromancy flame a good amount and you will have really powerful magic as an option.

you can play fine without magic .. just magic is realllly good .. and even if you dont wanna invest ANY stats , you can pick up pyromancy and get some great use out of it .. mainly damage , as sorceries and miracles have the better "utility" spells .

as for Ranged damage , bows can easily be better than magic , if not just alot more reliable , as you cant hit much beyond a certain range with magic , and bows go 3x as far .

I personally use the dragonslayer greatbow , which has AMAZING range , the arrows (javelins not arrows) hardly even drop in their arc , and with 40str 50dex , the bow DECIMATES anything at close range and still does great damage from further ranges , with an added knockback ... so honestly this bow is alot more useful than my magic spells which i cant aim reliably without locking on .

so no you DONT have to have magic , but theres no reason not to pick up some pyromancy spells , for that one fight where you just cant land a hit and need some pew pew damage

Beat the game with no magic, and hardly any archery.

I had the 'heal' miracle, which just makes life a little easier because you don't have to extra-kindle the bonfires if you don't want to. Also, I picked up the pyromancy 'iron skin' before the boss fight at the end after watching my brother fight him w/o it. But no proper spells, and nothing but melee for real combat.

I played an Int character in Demon's Souls, and did the same thing in Dark Souls.

Sorceries require a large soul investment, but they're absurdly powerful. Being able to do 1000+ damage at range (with Dragoncrest ring of course) is immensely useful. I started as Sorc which has 3 attunement slots, and added a 4th with points. I can load up on 120 regular soul arrows, or a mixture of say, 40 greater soul arrows, 30 reg. soul arrows, and 8 greater heavy soul arrows.

However, spells aside, playing a high Int character has a great melee option too. I leveled my favorite weapon (regular shortsword) into a Magic Shortsword, which does magic dmg and scales with your Int stat. From Magic +5, I turned it into an Enchanted weapon, which reduces the base physical damage, but increases how much it scales with your Int stat.

I can one-shot most enemies in the Duke's Archive with a melee attack. To basic undead enemies, I do about 420dmg per attack at SL60.

Basically, playing as a sorcerer, you rely heavily on your magic to get you through tough battles. However, once you can make the Magic weapon, melee becomes a much more viable option.

The best thing to know is that a pure mage will not really ever run out of magic attacks. Since you can buy the same spell multiple times, as long as you have the attunement, you can stack them together.

Eventually, you get the Crystal Soul Spear (requires like, 44 intelligence or something), which is absurdly powerful. It one-shots most bosses in NG with only 30 int. With my >50 int, I can do substantial melee damage, and the sorceries become unstoppable.

@Turambar: Why didn't you tell me I need to go through Centipede Demon before I go to Lost Izalith....

@Turambar: Why didn't you tell me I need to go through Centipede Demon before I go to Lost Izalith....

@Turambar: If I'm correct, I think you're referring to a room on the right before the boss room. I went in there and it was a tunnel and there was a tree that was a path to go down to the tunnel, which I did. I went down, walked straight and saw a door. It had a tree carved on it. Like you said, there were some bugs and they did not give me anything. Maybe I should farm them. I do not have any humanities to offer to the daughter of chaos to strengthen my covenant. i could wait for someone to summon me and kill the boss together I guess... And all these efforts are for the damn Tome of the Giants... sigh...

@Turambar: If I'm correct, I think you're referring to a room on the right before the boss room. I went in there and it was a tunnel and there was a tree that was a path to go down to the tunnel, which I did. I went down, walked straight and saw a door. It had a tree carved on it. Like you said, there were some bugs and they did not give me anything. Maybe I should farm them. I do not have any humanities to offer to the daughter of chaos to strengthen my covenant. i could wait for someone to summon me and kill the boss together I guess... And all these efforts are for the damn Tome of the Giants... sigh...

After reading this I'm going magic next playthrough.

You should try Pyromancy, as it doesn't require any significant stat spend, apart from attunement slots. Absolutely destroys everything on first playthrough. 500-odd damage for the lowest level spells.

So you can play your melee character without sacrificing any stats, and still get a nice taste of some 'magic'.

Unless you are a formidable player, by all means you need magic in order to survive. If I were you, from now on I would do some crazy soul farming and improve the attunement stats so that you can equip at least three magic spells. Pyromancy for powerful close combat hits, or Sorceries for weaker but ranged attacks, it's your choice.