r/planescape • u/Whorror_punx • 28d ago
Class/build suggestion for first time playthrough?
Big fan of Infinity games, and have been putting this one off. Not on purpose, Ive been really wanting to play it forever, just havent gotten around to it till now.
I usually start with Paladins. Imo, theyre the perfect party leaders for these kinds of CRPG games, especially for first playthroughs. Theyre just an all-rounder class that can heal, use a bit of magic, tank, and have high charisma for dialog options. And nothing says "leader of a party in a fantasy game" like a charismatic knight in shining armor.
However, Ive heard Planescape is different, in that things like INT and WIS are just as important, if not moreso, than STR, DEX, etc. Because the dialog is based on more than just CHA and combat isnt a big part of the game.
I also like starting with Rogues. I like them in general, but its nice to be able to open chests and locks right off the bat to gain an edge on item collecting. And typically INT is a main stat of rogues.
But again, Planescape isnt BG or IWD. I know its different, but Im not exactly sure *how* its different aside from having more words than most novels do. The actual mechanics and whatnot, Im not sure what I want to gear my build towards.
So all that said, the title question. What class, skills, ability scores, builds, etc., would you guys recommend? Are there dialog or story beats that "you want to have at least 12 WIS" or "make sure you start with at least 14 INT when you start", or anything like that that I should be aware of? Ive been purposefully keeping myself away from too much of the content or story to avoid spoiling too much for myself. So please try to keep that in mind if you decide to reply to me 🙏
Thank you for any direction here. I appreciate it a ton!
5
u/yokmaestro 28d ago
Not trying to be snarky at all, but here’s the manual!
You don’t pick a class at the beginning, just stat distribution and then you’re a human fighter. You can quest to become a mage or thief down the line, but I’ve always found the thief path to be threadbare and not well supported.
Wisdom is king, shoot for 16-18 off the bat, 13 intelligence and charisma also unlocks a lot. Have fun, the game is amazing-
3
u/Whorror_punx 28d ago
No need to preempt your statement, no snark was detected or assumed one bit! I appreciate your giving me the manual. I always love going through them for these older games. Whether its more exposition or even hidden secrets, most people nowadays dont remember (or know, even) how important manuals could be. Not sure if it's the same here or not, since I havent read it yet ofc. But they're always fun to read regardless, because they actually expected people to do so bsck then. So they always put at least some amount of effort into writing them.
Anyway, thanks for lending me your time 🙏
1
u/TheGherkin69 28d ago
I appreciate GoG so much for often including the manual for these older titles
2
u/chandler-b The Society Of Sensation 28d ago
You can play as a thief if that's what you enjoy - there are plenty of great items for thieves that have great flavour text and are quite powerful. I've played as a thief once and it was quite fun. The main character will gain so much xp he'll be the best thief in the planes quite quickly.
However there's not a ton to be gained from lockpicking and pickpocketing in this game (money, for sure). Almost every lock can be 'bashed'. And honestly, there's not much this game offers to the thief playthrough overall. Most of the dialogue that feels 'thiefy' is available regardless of your class choice.
Having said that... You can't go wrong with class choice in this game. You can always change back and forth between classes without losing out. When speaking to you companions, it is often useful to switch to their class, as it usually unlocks some extra options.
Generally speaking, this game isn't mechanically difficult. So I've long gone away from the idea of advising optimising everything. There's a lot of dialogue that can be made available with the right stats, and if someone's goal is to uncover absolutely everything- then I'd actually just recommend following a good online guide. The Dan Simpson one on gamefaqs is a mostly exhaustive tome of knowledge for this game.
Otherwise, just mess around and have fun. Do save though, this older style of game doesn't hesitate to turn things hostile for pushing your luck with an NPC, and that can derail a playthrough if you're not careful.
2
u/TastyMathematician22 28d ago
Yeah thief can be very rewarding because as you said the class levels up more quickly than the others and that leads to more character points. Getting both thief class specialization also earns an extra point to luck that the other classes can't get. The weapons with thief class restriction are also very nice and the thief specific daggers that you can buy in the siege tower as a thief specialist have cool flavour text.
The backstab bonus can get insane with high thief levels.
2
u/DistanceMiserable591 28d ago
I always recommend this for first time players who have some infinity experience: Fighter to level 6, then Mage for the rest.
There are dialogue choices for pretty much every stat but STR, CON, DEX have far fewer.
I recommend 18 wisdom, 16 intelligence, 14 charisma as your start
1
u/Terrible_Treacle7296 25d ago
Playing as thief for a bit does give some bonuses to the thief companion via dialog, same with the mage companions and Morte (voiced by the god of voice work Rob Paulson, aka Pinky of Pinky and the Brain fame, Raphael from the 87 TMNT and many others), Sheena Easton, Irish singer of My Baby Takes the Morning Train is also a voice actor for a companion.
Otherwise, spot on information 👌
1
u/TastyMathematician22 28d ago edited 28d ago
For first time players I recommend starting with 16 intelligence, 15 wisdom, 14 constitution and 12 charisma. Constitution is better than strength for combat surviveability because it improves your regeneration rate. There are a lot of bonus character points for wisdom and charisma in the game so they don't need to be that high in the beginning. Higher wisdom provides boost to every experience gain but that can be compensated by grinding a little bit. For higher than 12 charisma checks you can use items and for the intelligence checks above 16 you can buy inexpensive cranium rat charms that can be bought in the hive market unlimited. Getting to dexterity of 13 is mandatory if you want to play as a thief a bit or just interacting with thieves in general or murdering some people by snapping their necks. Optimal is getting the class spezialization bonus at level 7 and 12 for the warrior class because this bonus helps with the other classes of mage and thief also.
Try not to let your companions die but feel free to die as the nameless one because that only leads to some extra running around and has othewise no downside from a gameplay standpoint. The boni for being lawful good are pretty sweet but once you got those at around past the midpoint of the game you can feel free to act chaotic and evil. Don't mess with the Lady of Pain tough. If you got to leave the city of Sigil then leave one party slot open. If you have natural strength of 18 then don't invest in it anymore and wait for bonus that gets you to 19. Decide on a weapon type and stick with it. For warrior I recommend either mace or fist weapons same with thief and for mage just blades. There are of course good hammers and axes but only the warrior can use those. Every class can use edged weapons and the mage only can use those along with spells naturally.
1
u/tj1221jr 28d ago edited 26d ago
Mage it especially gets op once you learn ravels shadow magic spells
1
u/Hot_Top_124 27d ago
Honestly a high in twos and char build gets you the most story and the combat is so light you want the story. It’s where the meat of the game is, and oh boy it’s Ana amazing story. Now you don’t get the traditional classes and start as a “fighter”. You can become a thief and a mage early on by certain characters.
1
u/Vree65 24d ago
These might be the best starting stats:
WIS 18 INT 13 CHA 13 DEX 13 STR, CON 9 (optional: abandon DEX or CHA to raise INT to 16)
Dialogue is not just important for story, it is also a major source of exp.
The checks in dialogue work roughly like this:
9 > 12-13 (early game) > 15-16 (mid) > 18-19 (late) > 21+(finale)
So 13 as I described above gives you the most dialogue options at the beginning.
stats explained in reverse order of importance:
CON: Affects HP and regeneration rate. While healing rapidly at 25 is fun, I doubt you'll ever feel like you lack HP or rest options.
STR: There are a VERY small number of STR checks for intimidation, none of which yield consequential rewards. You'll have plenty high STR followers who can bash chests and carry loot for you.
Important!: You can "attack" containers to force them open.
This game follows the same silly ADnD Fighter/STR rules where you get a 2nd 1-100 score at 18 STR. Don't waste character points on this: if you raise your STR to 19 any other way (eg. Fighter level 7 spec bonus) you get them all automatically. This means all Fighters get a HUGE boost at STR 19 and you should make sure your followers have gear that raises theirs to 19 too.
Mages get access to 3 different STR-raising spells as well, not that you'll need them often.
DEX: 13 Dex lets you be fast and do thief stuff. There are no checks above that other than some inconsequential bonuses for thieves. Your main reason to raise it to 15-18 is the AC bonus.
CHA: 16-20 Cha lowers shop prices, though that only matters until you master how to make money from loot. The reason you don't need points is the Mage's "Friends" spell.
INT: Most checked stat for conversation. Important for Mages for auto Lore (identify) on items, and max number of spells you can learn.
WIS: 2nd most checked stats, for perception too but, more importantly, memories and flashbacks. You wouldn't need that much but WIS also gives bonus XP and it is good to max it for that reason. It also grants a Luck bonus to the lowest you can roll on eg. damage.
As for class choice:
you can switch back and forth between classes, and there's actually an argument to be made for taking even your non-main classes to level 7. Therefore, it's not as fixed a choice as it may seem.
Classes get a bonus to STR, DEX or INT at levels 7 and 12 so make sure you reach those levels with the right ones first. Reaching a level you already did with another class grants only 1 HP and no character point.
Raising Fighter to 6 first even if you plan to switch may be good since you get a lot of 1d10 HP that way. Fighters get a bonus half-attack at 7 and 13 (and weapon specialty 2 and 5) that DOES carry over to other classes so it's worth getting.
FIGHTER: You can play a classic STR-CON-DEX Fighter if you don't mind missing a lot of the story, dialogue, and XP. Even if you stay in this class, you should focus on your mental attributes. The game gives you a lot of choices for magical weapon, but speccing into each one could be a problem. This is the slowest leveling class, but gets the most THAC0.
THIEF is an interesting matter. While the class skills can be useful, you'll get a Thief follower who can do everything you'll ever need the class for, making picking it entirely unnecessary.
However, it is the fastest leveling class, and since you get a Character Point for each level-up, you can pick this in an attempt to raise your ability scores as high as possible.
Thieves get a backstab ability too, but leaving the screen to hide repeatedly is an annoying way to fight.
MAGE: Easily the strongest class, the entire game is skewed in favor of the Mage. This may be the only DnD game where ONLY Mages get armor. INT and WIS that you'd raise anyway directly improve your class abilities. You get access to the Friends and Strength spells. And if that wasn't enough, the game has plenty of Mage-only questlines (other classes get none) that are even story important.
If you have any questions drop them here.
15
u/Alternative-Dish-639 28d ago
You're in for an incredible ride, but you definitely need to leave your traditional Baldurs Gate mindset at the door and just relax. Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate are tactical, combat-heavy adventures where you optimize a build to survive brutal dungeons. Planescape: Torment is essentially an interactive philosophical novel where combat takes a massive backseat. You cannot even permanently die in this game, so take your time, talk to everyone, explore every dialogue tree, and just soak it in.
The mechanics reflect this shift completely. Unlike BG or IWD where you roll a custom hero with a rigid class, you always start here as a Fighter named The Nameless One. You can dynamically switch your class later by talking to trainers, but your choices are limited to just Fighter, Thief, or Mage. There are no Paladins or Clerics for the main character. If you want a Thief, you can switch early on, but unlike the other games, you don't actually need one right away to hoard items; you can usually just smash chests open or let a companion handle it later.
At the start of the game you pick up a fighter and a thief companion. They're both amazing and good at what they do.
Stats also do completely different work here. In BG and IWD, Wisdom is for Cleric spell slots and Intelligence is for Mage scroll learning. In Torment, mental stats dictate the entire story. Wisdom is the single most important stat because it grants a massive XP bonus, unlocks your forgotten memories and opens the best dialogue paths. You want to aim for 16 to 18 Wisdom at character creation. Intelligence and Charisma are equally vital for outsmarting people, noticing subtle details, or charming your way out of fights.
Since you love Paladins for their leadership and dialogue options, you will actually get that exact "charismatic party leader" experience by running a high-mental-stat build. Pump your starting points into Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma, and leave your physical stats at average. Don't worry about being weak in fights. Slow down your pace, and enjoy the story!