For example, the Bandit's Knife (Thief starting equipment) has the rating E/B/-/. You can see the scaling rating by looking at the description in the game. bows, most daggers) and some with your Strength (axes, clubs, hammers). With weapons, some will mainly increase damage with your Dexterity (eg. To increase Sorcery magic damage, increase Intelligence. Your choice of stat to level up depends very much on your play style, and the weapon you are using. Even with magic though, you will still need to use melee combat. My choice would be the Sorcerer, since the Soul Arrow spell has a much greater range than the Pyromancer's Fireball.
Both start with ranged magic, which can help in the beginning stages of the game. The Sorcerer or the Pyromancer are good classes for beginners. This is because, in order to do heavy damage, you need to either parry/riposte or backstab, and neither of these moves are easy for the beginner player to perform. I would not consider the Thief class to be suited to a new player. Due to this, I highly recommended a dexterity build over a strength build. Not only does it let you dispatch enemies before they get to you, but also allows you to dispose of archers as soon as you see them, instead of being forced to dodge their arrows as you fight your way to them. I cannot emphasis how helpful this will be throughout the game. Due to this you can easily dispatch enemies from a distance with your bow. Although all bows scale with strength, it is very low, whereas all bows have very high scaling with dexterity. However, there is one thing to consider: bows. In general, there aren't any huge differences between the two as far as damage output goes, and is just a matter of personal preference. Strength favours weapons like Axes, long swords, and great swords where as Dexterity favours spears, katanas, and curved swords.
The key difference between Strength and Dexterity is the type of weapons you use. If you decide to make an int or faith based character, you can safely ignore this section. The last thing I want to touch on is deciding between making a Dexterity or Strength character. I would suggest dexterity myself, since a bow makes the game a lot easier. Since his starting strength and dexterity are equally, you have the choice of going with either a dexterity or strength build. You shouldn't run into too many problems early in the game.
Warrior: The warrior starts with well-rounded stats, and good equipment. The biggest problems a Sorcerer faces is that they are very fragile (you'll usually die in 1-2 hits), and there non-magic damage is very low (although there are only a handful of magic resistant enemies in the game). The second copy will allow you to cast Soul Arrow 60 times, which enough to ensure you'll never run out. You will only start with 30 casts of Soul arrow, which really isn't a lot, but you can buy another copy of Soul Arrow from Rickert of Vinheim as soon as you exit the Undead Asylum. Sorcerer: The sorcerer starts with the Soul Arrow spell, which deals high damage early on, allowing you to safely kill enemies from a distance (including some of the early bosses).
However, it shouldn't take you long to replace your armor, and it will only take a few levels to boost your dexterity. The largest problem with the cleric is that its starting armor and dexterity are not that great (although if you plan to go with a strength or faith build, the low dexterity doesn't matter). This will grant you five extra heals at the start of the game, which is immensely helpful (especially for a new player), since it gives you more room for error. However, the most important thing about the cleric is that it starts with the healing miracle. There are three classes I would suggest for a new player:Ĭleric: The cleric starts with good stats all around, so you shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with early enemies.