Played through it three more times; once siding with the Disfavored, once siding with the Rebels, and once Independent (betraying the Disfavored at the start of Act 2).
Your choices matter to an extent, but that extent is largely what areas/sidequests you gain access to and how many enemies you have to kill. Maps and main quests generally stay the same regardless of what path you take, with mainly just what opponents you may face changing or whether there’s a possibility of a peaceful solution. Sometimes you get to see a particular quest from different angles though, with the Act 1 assault on the Citadel and the Act 2 Brotherhood assault on Lethian’s Crossing having the most variety.
Out of the four the Disfavored path seems the most natural. The Chorus side has a lot of railroading, and both the Rebel and Independent options have a lot of contrivance (with the Rebels having their fair share of railroading as well). That said, the Rebels have the most fleshed-out third Act and the Independents are the only ones that get to visit all four of the main areas. So, ultimately, I end up having to endorse betraying the Disfavored/Chorus alliance the first chance you get in Act 2. Why Act 2? So you can grab the quests and items from their base locations which would otherwise be inaccessible.
For difficulty I would suggest playing on Normal. Story mode is so easy it makes leveling and finding loot practically worthless, and Hard just makes the enemy do annoying things like deliberately break engagement to chase after your ranged attackers.
As far as bugs go I didn’t run into anything particularly game-breaking, the biggest one being that the court summons you get about halfway through Act 2 to update Tunon on your progress regarding the Chorus/Disfavored paths does not trigger on the Rebel/Independent paths (when you show up in Act 3 he gains Wrath and berates you for not showing up to the summons that never triggered). More minor ones would be Spire Library/Forge progress not progressing until you’ve visited Lethian’s Crossing, and abilities getting stuck in the ‘on’ position if an enemy dies at the wrong time (this only rarely happened when Story difficulty and Fast Mode were activated at the same time; switching to a weapon set that wouldn’t work with the ability fixed it).
Combat-wise Lore is the name of the game. Magic is so good here that I ended up having flashbacks to Dragon Age: Origins. So you’ll want to build the Infirmary as soon as possible to get access to the master Lore trainer and pick up the Selfless Magic Sigil. You’ll then likely want both Lantry and Eb, with their Lore-teaching skills learned, in your party at all times. At that point just fill up your slots with disabling spells and cast them as much as possible to watch the experience counter surge (I made it halfway to level 22 on the Independent run).
As far as equipment goes there’s not really any reason whatsoever to wear heavy armor in your non-chest slots. The armor boost from those slots is so small that it’s easily outweighed by the accuracy/precision/deflection/recovery boost light armor gives. Concerning weapons, either 2-handed or unarmed is the way to go for melee thanks to the Material Force class of spells. The higher your base damage the more bonus damage they’ll give you, and with 2-handers you may eventually find yourself doing 300-400 damage on a critical hit and one-shotting Disfavored guards.
Lastly, I’ll close this with some area accessibility and spell information. Note that I only started recording Sigil locations on the last playthrough, so you may find some in easier to reach places depending on your alliance situation.
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Area Accessibility
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Chorus
– Lethian’s Crossing or Burning Library
– Library/Crossing or Blade Grave
– Stone Sea
Disfavored
– Blade Grave
– Crossing or Library
– Stone Sea
Rebel
– Crossing
– Blade Grave or Stone Sea
– Blade Grave or Stone Sea/Library
Independent (Betray Disfavored)
– Blade Grave
– Burning Library
– Crossing or Stone Sea
– Stone Sea or Crossing
Independent (Betray Chorus)
– Same as above?
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Notable Sigils
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Expressions
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Guarded Form (Disfavored Camp, Merchant Sterling Hagnon)
The Illusion and Force versions are powerful support spells.
Chaotic Decent (Twin Rivers Oldwalls Depths, Lantry Lore Spot)
When combined with Focused Rain you get a brutal multi-hit spell.
Material Force (Mountain Spire, Merchant Revos)
Great for 2-handers or, with the Lightning version, characters with high critical hit rates.
Influential Domain (Burning Library Lower Ruins, 65 Lore Spot)
The Fire and Frost versions cause some pretty great debuffs, and the Life version is a solid support spell.
Proximate Action (Edgering Ruins, 39 Subterfuge Locked Chest)
Has a couple niche uses.
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Basic Accents
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Bounding Bolts II (Howling Rock, Upper-Right Hidden Cache)
Strength IV (Twin Rivers Oldwalls Brotherhood Camp, Lantry Lore Spot)
Timeless Form III (West Blade Grave Oldwalls, Lantry Lore Spot)
Cyclical Energies III (Twin Rivers Oldwalls Depths, Lantry Lore Spot)
Precise Action IV (Spire Library, Merchant)
Limitless Boundaries III (Spire Library, Merchant)
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Special Accents
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Selfless Magic (Spire Infirmary, Loot)
Drastically increases the power and duration of a spell in exchange for not being able to cast it on yourself.
Pride Magic (Gulfglow Runic Hall, Hidden Cache)
Drastically increases the power and duration of a spell in exchange for only being able to cast it on yourself.
Focused Rain (Spire Library, Merchant)
Massively increases the power of Chaotic Decent spells.
Stunning (Central Blade Grave Oldwalls, Lantry Lore Spot Beyond Lethian’s Crossing Torchlock)
Adds the Stun affliction to Lightning spells.
Volcanic Weapon (Lethian’s Crossing, Merchant Biotus)
Causes Material Force enhanced attacks to launch huge lines of flame every hit.
Killing Blows (Spire Library Research Scroll, Twin Rivers Oldwalls Depths)
Modifies Lightning and Terratus spells to do large amounts of damage to near-death enemies.
Frostfire (Tripnettle Wilderness, Center Hidden Cache)
Can be attached to a Fire or Frost spell to combine their damage types and afflictions.
Volleys (Sentinel Stand Hall of Regents, Hidden Cache)
Two Distant Impact castings for the price of slightly more than one.
Spell Surge (East Blade Grave Oldwalls, Lantry Lore Spot)
Reduces Recovery time. Best used on a Focused Intent spell combined with Strength IV.
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Notable Spells
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Lightning
– Character Creation; Edgering Ruins (Merchant)
Distant Impact: Inflicts Stun.
Channeled Strength: Increases Shock damage by a base of 50%. With Strength IV it’s 85%.
Material Force: Deals additional damage on a critical hit.
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Frost
– Character Creation; Disfavored Camp (Camp Merchant)
Distant Impact: Does a ton of base damage (21-32).
Channeled Strength: Has armor-piercing and multiple projectiles.
Influential Domain: Penalizes recovery rate and inflicts Prone.
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Vigor
– Character Creation; Scarlet Chorus Camp (Camp Merchant)
Channeled Strength: Base +30% damage. Strength IV bumps it up to a 51% increase.
Proximate Action: Adds Hit and Graze Precision.
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Atrophy
– Character Creation; Echocall Crossing (Lower-Left Hidden Cache)
Chaotic Decent: Inflicts Poison.
Directed Force: Inflicts Weaken and Silence.
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Fire
– Conquest Choice; Lethian’s Crossing (Merchants Harchiand Bronze & Biotus)
Chaotic Decent: Deals fire or crush damage.
Influential Domain: Inflicts Fatigue.
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Illusion
– Scarlet Chorus Camp (32 Lore Spot)
Channeled Strength: Base +30% Graze/Hit Deflection. Strength IV bumps it up to a 51% increase.
Distant Impact: Inflicts Prone.
Channeled Strength: Inflicts Stun.
Guarded Form: A base of +100 Dodge/Parry for 45 seconds. With Strength IV, Duration III, and Pride/Selfless it comes to +255 for nearly 2 minutes for the cost of 180 Lore.
Directed Force: Inflicts Blind and Confusion.
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Force
– Vendrien’s Well Citadel Interior (30 Lore Spot)
Guarded Form: A base 25% reduction to Recovery Speed for 45 seconds. With Duration III and Pride/Selfless it ends up a 63% reduction for nearly 2 minutes for the cost of 130 Lore.
Proximate Action: Immunity to Prone.
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Stone
– Iron Hearth (Merchant)
– Stone Sea Halfgate Settler’s House (Dialog Reward)
– Stone Sea Jagged Maw Shrine
Focused Intent: Inflicts Petrify.
Distant Impact: Interrupts.
Directed Force: Inflicts Prone.
Chaotic Decent: Does pierce damage and inflicts Bleeding.
Material Force: Inflicts Prone on a critical hit.
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Emotions
– Cacophony (Merchant)
– Central Blade Grave Oldwalls (Loot Spot, Need Lethian’s Crossing Torchkeys)
Distant Impact: Taunts.
Channeled Strength: Inflicts Fatigue.
Influential Domain: Inflicts Sleep.
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Life
– Lantry Dialog
Guarded Form: Regeneration.
Proximate Action: AOE regeneration.
Influential Domain: Removes hostile effects.
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Terratus
– Eb Dialog
Focused Intent: Inflicts Paralyze.
Proximate Action: Useful against Bane.