Posted January 03, 2013
Some character types "mature" more quickly than others, which can also make for a lopsided experience.
A gadgeteer, for example, is a fairly weak character in the beginning of the game, with a poor-quality ranged weapon and very few other tricks to call on. (The lightning rod is nice but uses up a horrendous amount of stamina at that point.) But unless you go out of your way to avoid assembling devices, he's a true terror in the late game with spammable AoE instant kills and a direct ranged attack that outclasses pretty much everything else.
The bishop, likewise, is a fairly weak caster in the early game because of his unfocused spellcasting, dabbling in a bit of everything. By the end of the game, he can easily leave all of the focused casters in the dust. Similarly, the strongly hybrid classes (melee/magic) can take longer to get going than the straightforward ones, like the fighter.
If your party consists mostly or entirely of "late bloomers" like this then the early going can be REALLY tough, especially if you don't take extra time to develop their skills in the easier areas.
Of note: while the game scales encounters to your party level, each zone has a level range. This might make it seem like going in a bit underleveled wouldn't be too daunting, but the way the game works it's actually a very bad idea in most regions: if you're underleveled, the encounter generator actually wraps around and spawns encounters appropriate to the upper end of its range (which can result in L30ish groups in Arnika if you arrive there at level 5ish or lower!
A gadgeteer, for example, is a fairly weak character in the beginning of the game, with a poor-quality ranged weapon and very few other tricks to call on. (The lightning rod is nice but uses up a horrendous amount of stamina at that point.) But unless you go out of your way to avoid assembling devices, he's a true terror in the late game with spammable AoE instant kills and a direct ranged attack that outclasses pretty much everything else.
The bishop, likewise, is a fairly weak caster in the early game because of his unfocused spellcasting, dabbling in a bit of everything. By the end of the game, he can easily leave all of the focused casters in the dust. Similarly, the strongly hybrid classes (melee/magic) can take longer to get going than the straightforward ones, like the fighter.
If your party consists mostly or entirely of "late bloomers" like this then the early going can be REALLY tough, especially if you don't take extra time to develop their skills in the easier areas.
Of note: while the game scales encounters to your party level, each zone has a level range. This might make it seem like going in a bit underleveled wouldn't be too daunting, but the way the game works it's actually a very bad idea in most regions: if you're underleveled, the encounter generator actually wraps around and spawns encounters appropriate to the upper end of its range (which can result in L30ish groups in Arnika if you arrive there at level 5ish or lower!
