SKALD: Against the Black Priory

Getting started

• The easiest classes to play as for your first go-around are going to be the heirophant and the hospitaller. Early access to healing is very useful, since you will start with very little access to healing items, money, or vendors. Plenty of classes are good, but these two will give you the least frustration for your first time, even if you decide to start over after familiarizing yourself.

• For any of the skills, only one party member really needs to be good at it, as the game will let you select who performs certain actions (including special events, dialog, and purchases at vendors) or who is leading the party at any given time. If you need to sneak around, change to your thief.

• The Healing skill is the only skill that serves a more generalized purpose, but if you have a healer in your party it won't matter much outside of a couple of special events.

• Vendor prices vary depending on the active character's Diplomacy skill, so figure out what you're buying, then switch to the character with the best Diplomacy and make your purchases.

• Thievery is a good skill to focus on, and stealing from vendors is a valid strategy, but make more necessary purchases first before trying to steal things. Every time you steal, the vendor's suspicion of you will rise along with their prices.

• You cannot sell stolen items except to specific vendors.

• Abilities that boost your allies are very useful in this game, do not shy away from learning and using them.

• Fire magic becomes underpowered with too much collateral damage later in the game.

Once you're playing

• If your character is a caster, don't skip the library in the castle during the flashback. It is full of spellbooks (selected randomly each playthrough) and while you can't keep the books, you can learn some spells.

• The earliest allies you gain will be a thief and an armsmaster. The thief's backstab is fantastic. Level your armsmaster to have multiple attacks as soon as possible.

• You will get the opportunity to hire people into your party for a price. Doing so allows you to create a new character from the ground-up, matching your current level. Just remember you'll also have to outfit them, as they will come with no equipment other than some basic clothing.

• I recommend a guild-magos as early as possible, focused on high intellect, crafting and lore, with aura of flame, fireball and magic missile. Later opportunities will give you plenty of time to diversify, and you'll have a better feel for the game then as well.

• Having one character with high stealth, one with high communication, and one with high craft, will pay dividends.

• Injuries aren't the end of the world, and will heal after good rests (that is, sufficiently-fed rests).

• It can be a good idea to keep a list of the recipes you know written down, so you can know when you see one for sale if you need to purchase it. It can also be useful to keep a list of spells you intend to learn, in case you see them for sale.

• If you come up against a special event that looks dangerous,
  particularly when swimming in underground caves
  , save-scumming is a valid strategy.

• There's not really many places where you will need rope, and it will be plentiful by the time you might. If it closes a loop in your navigation, use it.

When resting

• Injured characters will not do their camp action.

• Especially early on, you'll want someone fletching arrows constantly to feed your archer(s). Bad arrows are much better than no arrows.

• If you are playing on a difficulty level with food requirements, make sure you have at least one character foraging at camps. They can find rations (10 food).