I was thinking of playing as a fighter throughout the game, but the mage class seems to be the most popular amongst the community and everyone seems to recommend it.

So should I stay a fighter or roll mage?

You don't really need to stick to a class. You can change at any time by asking somone proficient in that class, and as you proceed through the game, you'll get party members who can teach you. A pretty non-spoiler example would be how Annah can train you in thievery. When you add in the fact that you get a stat point whenever you level up in your highest levelled class, and you're going to end up with stats well over 18 in most cases, you don't even need to design TNO for a particular class to begin with. Also, being different classes opens up different dialogue with NPCs and party members, so it's well worth changing it around every so often.

One reason that being a mage may be seen as best is that it's highly recommended that you give TNO a very high INT and WIS from the get-go. The reason is that these two stats help him unlock more memories - if these stats are too low you'll just get "That name rings a bell but you can't quite place it" type comments rather than discovering about his past. So since you'll want something like 17 or 18 in each of those stats right from the start, you're playing into the strengths of a mage automatically. There's no reason to have a STR or DEX outside of combat reasons really, so therefore you won't naturally be making a character who's as suited to being a thief or a warrior.

Wow, this is turning into a way bigger post than I expected... Anyway, to get the best ending (there are 3) you'll need a very high INT, WIS and CHA by the end of the game, we're talking 21 or more. If you're going to ignore a stat, I'd probably recommend having STR pretty low (you can boost it with spells or tattoos anyway) as well as CON. Keep DEX at an average to good kind of level since TNO naturally has a shit armour class.

There are only 3 enemies in the whole game that you have to fight - you don't even have to fight the final boss if you know what you're doing. In the Hive, most enemies give you less than 100 exp, fulfilling most quests gives you a few thousand, asking the right questions can even get you a few thousand. So you don't need to fight even to grind for exp, so combat-only stats can take a back seat.

Playing a fighter works well, no need to take a mage.
High wis is recommended because XP bonus, luck bonus and additional dialogue options and memories, but int and cha aren't very important.
To get what's considered the "best" (it's not very different from the others) ending 24 wis at the end including bonuses from equipment is sufficient, other mental stats aren't needed and you can even get it with lower wis if you've done certain things before in the game.

The least useful combat stat is dex, you have to invest many points to get a little combat benefit, there aren't very beneficial dex checks outside combat either, if you want to snap necks in the mortuary you need 11+.
Con is the most useful combat stat, it grants extra hit points and increases regeneration. If it's high enough you'll be invincible.
Don't use attribute points you get at level up or creation to raise it from 18 to 18/.., +1 str boosts from other sources let you jump directly from 18 to 19. If you play a fighter consider having 18 str before reaching level 7 to take advantage of this.
But it's also possible to play with 9 str and have it boosted with spells.

CHA and INT are important in the sense that they're two of the three stats needed for the best ending. INT is also used to determine what dialogue choices you get and is also required to solve many quests in the best way (for most exp) as well as to understand Dak'kon's Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon lessons (which you need to be a mage to do - and it's a great way to get a lot of easy exp, unique spells you can't get any other way and to learn more about Dak'kon and his people). I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I also think INT is used when it comes to recalling memories, like WIS.

I have to admit, outside of the ending, CHA isn't as useful but it does seem to be the thing that is rolled against to see if you get more money and better rewards when you ask for them at the end of a quest. However, the spell called Friends can add up to 8 to your CHA for something like 25 seconds per level of the mage that cast it. I'd also say that CON isn't that important in the sense that unless you get it over 20, it's not really going to give you a fast enough regen to actually matter in a tough fight. A high DEX may be more important since it directly affects how often you get hit.

I'm a little confused, but is it worth it to invest in weapon skills like Axe, Fists and Daggers if you're going to switch classes?

I did my playthrough and most of the game as a thief, only taking levels in fighter to gain weapon proficiency points and mage to become well rounded as per TNO's previous lives' profession.

EliasC, I think the more important question is how you want to play the game? Would you like many dialogue options? Would you like the max out your experiences and thus have more levels? Would you like to frontline?

If you'd like the most dialogue options, then choose high Intelligence, which goes hand in hand with being a mage.

If you'd like to max out your xp and thus have more levels, then have a high Wisdom; this translates well in whatever class you decide to play, and is excellent for recovering memories, and helps you see through people better when they're lying to you.

If you'd like to frontline, then I think its important that you either have a high Constitution or Dexterity, so you'd either have high hit points to take damage, or Armor Class bonuses, as there's no body armor for TNO to wear.

I had a satisfying playthrough, making my TNO a Thief w/very high Wisdom, Dexterity and Charisma, and moderately high Strength and Intelligence.


And keep in mind, Morte is a tremendous frontliner, Dak'kon has quality mage skills, and Annah is an awsome thief. Thus, you have party members who compliment you in however you choose to play, w/party members taking up for where you lack.

To put it simply, certain weapon types can only be used by fighters so are not as worth levelling up unless you plan to be a fighter at the final stages of the game. Axes and hammers fall under that definition. The fist proficiency and dagger proficiency (edge weapons? I'm doing this all off memory so it's a bit vague to me) cover weapons that can be used by all classes, so you get more out of your proficiency points that way. Pretty early in the game you get a great pair of punch daggers (fist proficiency) called something like Mordin's Daggers or something; they even raise your armour class. There are some rare exceptions, like a club you get that can only be used by thieves.

If you're confused about the stats, the general idea is that Torment is a very dialogue-based RPG. If you don't care about learning about the main character's history, and learning about the party members, you could make a killing machine by pouring everything into STR, CON and DEX and leaving the other skills at 8. However, you'd be missing so much content out by doing that. By prioritising WIS, then INT, then CHA (in that order), you're basically opening up the most dialogue options, chances of the main character recalling his past, lining yourself up for the best ending, making sure you get the most exp from every quest, conversation and battle, and making it so you can talk your way out of most situations.

That's wrong. 24 wis is sufficient.
You don't need those three stats. High wisdom alone is sufficient. There are two things you can do before in the game, if you've done of them you don't even need that. Int won't help there and pumping up cha while keeping the far more important wis stat low is not a good idea.
As a mage you can even get all charisma options without spending points for it, you can get 25 cha just by casting 2 friends spell in a row.
What's considered the "best" ending isn't very different from the others, the ending movies aren't different, you only can have an additional talk with your party members before.

Almost always you get an int or cha based option you'll get a wis based option which is at least as good. To understand all the circle of Zerthimon lessons you need 18+ int and 19+ wis, but you can just buy and eat cranium rat charms to raise your int from 9 to 18 for this (just like it's possible to switch to mage temporarily and back when you want to get the mage stuff).

Dex is far less useful than con in combat, 14 dex doesn't even make a difference compared to 9 dex and raising it will only add a little bonus to AC while 14 instead of 9 con let's you start with 50 percent more hitpoints and faster regeneration and raising it will yield tons of hitpoints and incredibly fast regeneration.


It's your decision which way you want to play. Ignoring con while pumping up int and cha can add a challenge by making your character a wimp hiding behind party members, the lower your physical stats, the more challenging combat will be and the more time you'll spend trying to survive combat, some players using a low con build complain about the difficulty or use a character editor near the endgame, but if you're skilled enough you can beat the game without.

I would say that Torment's combat really isn't that hard. I found Dragon Age: Origins incredibly hard at times, just on Normal, but I never had any problem with Torment. Spells like Cloudkill - or the Abyssal Pipes that you can use to cast it - make the latter stages of the game a lot easier. Not to mention that fact that aside from thugs randomly attacking you, you barely have to fight anyone at all. I agree that it takes a lot of DEX to get any armour class bonus, but I just found TNO gets hit almost constantly with low DEX and that his regen was never quick enough to keep him alive, only to heal him between battles, until you get CON really high at the end of the game. I know not everyone will, but if you play with the Tweak Pack, one of the recommended tweaks is to always get the max possible HP at level up (so that's 10 for TNO, regardless of class it seems) and so the HP bonus from CON loses its edge.

As another tip, you actually get bonus permanent stat boosts when you reach 7th and 12th levels with a class. You only get the bonus once - so reaching level 7 with a fighter means you won't get a permanent stat boost when you get to 7 with the other two classes. Also, say you take the level 7 bonus with the thief, but then reach level 12 first with a fighter, you won't get the level 12 bonus. You need to have already got the level 7 bonus in a class to get the level 12 one.

Fighter: 7th + 1 STR, able to have 4 proficiency in a weapon. 12th + 1 STR, + 1 CON, + 3 HP, able to have 5 proficiency.
Mage: 7th + 1 INT. 12th+ 2 INT, + 1 WIS, + 5 Lore.
Thief: 7th + 1 DEX. 12th + 2 DEX, + 1 Luck.

There are also quite a lot of other ways to get permanent stat boosts, outside of simply levelling up. I'd post the list here but it arguably contains spoilers (characters and locations, mainly). You can find it in this FAQ by searching for Mortuary, Starting Level. Also, in the same FAQ, you can search for CRTNGN to see a description of the various stats and the kind of uses they have.

I'm actually using that FAQ to guide me along. I'll probably just mix it up between the two.

Thanks guys!

I played with fighter and find it quite easy. If you dont have graphic glitches like i, i SERIOUSLY recommend mage as the effect of casting the spells are MIND BLOWING

One pro fighter thing to consider.

You'll find a bunch of interesting special weapons on your playthrough, and you won't find anyone who can use them unless you use them yourself as a fighter. Morte and Dakkon are fine fighters, but like everybody else, they'll only use their own special equipment that's not usable by anyone else. Not that a mage really needs those nice axes and stuff, but as the Nameless has regeneration built in, he makes a tremendous frontliner.

I spent the first half of my playthrough as a mage stabbing folks left and right with various daggers. Then switched to a fighter.

Mage probably makes the stronger character, but the process is much smoother with a fighter when you don't need to rest all the time.

Yeah, there are loads of great unique weapons only for fighters - and because of how Morte and Dak'kon work - that means "Only for TNO".

Mages may be the strongest character, but to be honest because of the way magic works in DnD-type RPGs, you have a blaze of glory as you cast your limited spells and then basically become a shitty fighter when you've run out. It's true you can generally keep sleeping to get them back, but that feels a bit cheap. On the other hand, at least so far, TNO seems to get a higher armour class as a mage, thanks to that Mage's Guard item. There's one that sets it to 6 and another in the Lower Ward that sets it to 4. I haven't seen anything that good for thieves or fighters.

It´s more fun to play as a mague but more hard.

The thing is, if you wanted hack and slash you would be playing a prettier and newer game with more balanced classes and less convoluted system. People want to experience the awesome single player storyline of planescape torment. The dialog is HEAVILY limited by your mental stats, this means that any point you put into a physical limits your dialog and enjoyment of the game.

You can, and will, switch between classes. you start as a fighter, unlock rogue and mage, and you switch between them. The first time you gain a level you also get an attribute point (so, fighter 4 gives you an attribute point, then mage 4 and theif 4 will not. if you then get theif 5 and an attribute point, then mage 5 and fighter 5 do not).

If you want to explore the most the game has to offer you should invest heavily in intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. This makes you an excellent mage and a poor fighter/thief. dex has one or two unique but short dialog options (catch a theif's hand, brutalize them for a memory, snap a guards neck before they raise an alarm for a memory of doing it before... that is pretty much it).
Con and str are just for fighting. Any points that go towards those is wasted. Any point beyond 25 is also wasted.

Even if you want to play as a fighter it is best to get the first 2 specialization bonuses in mage for the extra int and wisdom.

Being a mage means a focus on cerebral skills, cerebral skills unlock much better dialog choices and let you experience a lot more of the game. Moreover, a lot of development specifically requires that you be a mage. For example, exploring the circle of zerthimon.

Besides, everyone else is going to be hitting things most of the time for you, and be really good at it. Mort is amazingly powerful melee character and the others are also not bad.

And mages are just stronger in dnd.
The recommended path is thus:
1. get fighter level 6. DO NOT LEVEL BEYOND 6.
2. get mage, its your primary, get it up to 7 asap.
3. once your mage hits 7 or so, get theif, get it up to six via dialog with Annah followed by killing a few black abishai or doing a few quests. Your aim is to get your theif skills to 50% each. this will let you train her which gives her a permanent boost. DO NOT LEVEL THEIF BEYOND 6.
4. level mage to 12. You should now be mage 12, fighter 6, thief 6. At this point you are allowed to level up thief and fighter more, it actually doesn't matter what you level at this point anymore... although mage is still the best, you might need another level of thief to finish annah's training.

For your starting attributes a good selection is wis 18, int 16, and rest in cha. leave str, dex, and con at 9. just let your allies be the front linemen and enjoy the oodles of XP and power you gain from using your brain.
Also, in regards to XP:
almost anything that you can kill for xp you can also usually use your brains to solve for more XP and rewards.
wisdom gives a percent bonus to your XP gain. You will boost mostly cha at first, use tatoos and perm boosts to raise your 3 mental stats to 25 then put points in your choice of physical stats.

even as a mage with 9 in all physical stats you can do decent damage with a good knife and level 3 training in it. So don't be afraid to melee with your mage.