| What kind of character to make for this game? Well, what's your favourite comic book character? Seriously. My favourite playthrough came when I tried to create as Magneto-esque a character as possible (a white-haired Lawful Evil Aasimar Cleric, with Air and Fire Domains for the offensive power, able to wear heavy armor and fight on the front lines). Sorcerer might have worked as well, but nope, Magneto's gotta be armored and helmeted.
A fighter can be fun in the game, especially when you take them down the weapon master route and start dishing out loads of damage on critical hits.
Warlocks can be... well, verdict is still out on that one, afaiac.
Creating a summoner-style character works well, summoned creatures are extremely effective in this game and you can find good strategies on these boards for using them in tough battles. I found it very rare - if ever - for them to be dispelled; not enough for me to remember anyway.
Sometimes you're limited to 4 NPCs, sometimes 5, sometimes you get even more for short periods, not gonna give you any spoilers. Think 4 for the first half of the game, 5 for the last half.
Influence matters in different ways for different NPCs. Some of what you suggested is correct on this topic.
XP: it isn't difficult to get to 20th level for non-xp penalized races (humans, half-elves, etc.). This transfers into a cap of 19th level for Aasimar/Tiefling, maybe 17th or 18th for Drow, etc...  |