u/Dear_Afternoon_2600

New ish cause ive played a tiny bit of Deadfire and the OG. Far enough to get a full squad in each to remain spoiler free in post. I want to come back to it, I just dont know what character I want.

I know a little. I'm planning on being an Orlan and will be a "good guy" or as good as I can. I was thinking about rogue because I remember lacking one in my party but I did a little searching on here and it seemd like rogues are not best for new players.

I dont know if it matters, I dont know how many companions/followers there are in game. But im interested in Edèr, Durance, and a certain Dwarf Ranger ive never actually met but her character art is cool and so I'd like her in the party. Again dont know if that matters but figured I'd throw it out there.

To start off, yes im bad at the game. But I love it. So im looking for.... guidance.

I started a life cleric, mostly for RP purposes (halfling, follower of Yondalla) but I would be lying if I said I used ckerics correctly. What I mean is all I do with clerics (shadowheart till this point) is heal, attack with the weapon, and spawn spiritual weapon. I see on here and the other sub that clerics should only heal if they have nothing to do. But I am always in need of a healing. At least one character goes down in every big fight.

And ive also seen talks that guidance, a spell I always take out of the list, is actually really usefull. I dont particularly see how, but that is why im here. I imagine there have been a few spells ive turned my nose up to cause I didn't understand the description.

So my main question is what should I be doing? I've akways understood clerics as healers but they do have loads more spells than just heals.

Part of it is im underexploring so im under leveled, apparently level 4 in the underdark is a bit of a challange. Ill be exploring more this round.

Second part is probably party composition. I was rolling with Gale, Laz, Shadowheart, and me as a warlock (was aiming for a bardlock. I may continue with that character but inspiration is taking me elsewhere) I was thinking this run I would roll with Karlach, Laz, and Asterion (forgive me Gale) and leaning towards a martial group (besides me).

Those last two questions are optional, considering they are not tagged. Admittedly I tend to make groups out of characters I like but having characters that do not get along in a party is fun aswell (when they are not trying to kill each other)

Thanks for the help!

Quick disclaimer, I have yet to finish the game. I love it, hot halfway to act 2 but I took a break and now I want to start new. Also sorry if this post is a bit long.

I plan on doing a dark urge but good guy playthrough. Love bards, though only really have expirience with Valor cause I like the fluff of it (love roleplaying). And I think the contrast of being a fun bard while also having this looming dark urge would be fun. But as a roleplayer I wanted a darker twist to my bard and noticed both bards and warlocks use charisma.

Ive done some searching on the main sub and found some good advice, but there is also a lot so I was hoping to get a better understanding of the process with this post.

Essentially, you start as a warlock. But ive seen different opinions on how much warlock you need. I've seen peoole say you only need two levels and the rest bard. Then ive seen that you should go 5 warlock and then the rest bard school of the blade. But then people say if you are doing that you might as well be a warlock paladin.

So here is what I know. I plan on multiclassing warlock and bard. Not interested in the lore school. Not interested in duel weilding at the moment but can be convinced. And ill be a good dark urge.

I dont know what subclasses of each class I want. Or how many levels in each class would be best. Ive seen a lot of talk about respecting. I probably should mess with it to make some of my companions better but I think it costs money and im always broke so I forget it's a thing.

Oh, last question sorta unrelated, Dexterity. Ive seen people mention taking dex for armor. But, at least on my character, medium armor only allows a certain amount of dex to be used unless you take two feats in it. So to me atleast it doesn't make sense to have high dex with heavier armor. But maybe there is something im missing, only had the game for three weeks.

Thanks to everyone who comments. And I know there are a lot of bardlock posts so if this is clutterthe feed I can take it down as well.

Have a good day!