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I'm trying Bloodlines for the first time, but I am having a hard time figuring out what kind of character is going to be feasible. I'm thinking of making a Tremere that focuses on stealth but has some social skills to fall back on, but I'm not sure how viable that is. Can anyone offer any advice?
This question / problem has been solved by Sufyanimage
Try a Brujah for your first character. They are good generalists. Really though, any clan will do but you should save Nosferatu and Malkavian for a later playthrough as they are most unlike the other clans. In the case of the Malkavians, they don't make any sense at all in a first playthrough because they have an entirely unique set of dialogue options for the entire game.

Combat isn't very difficult early on and guns are incredibly shitty until the latter third of the game. For much of the game you will do well by slowly building up your Melee skill. Brawl is fine against human enemies which make up the bulk of your opponents but you don't need to put lots of points into it. Brujah start the game with an additional point which is going to last a long time. It is mostly used to force feed on enemies during combat (low brawl means they shrug off your feed attempts often).

You really only need one social skill, namely persuasion. Intimidation is not used to solve many quests, and while seduction is more commonly used it isn't nearly as useful as persuasion. Save these for future playthroughs. You can still put some points into seduction for fun even though you rely on persuasion, but skip intimidation entirely.

As for stealth, the actual stealth attribute is rather good despite how most guides are ragging on it as unnecessary. It is a passive modifier that makes enemies ridiculously bad at seeing you from more than a few feet away. You don't need it during character creation but you're not wasting points building it up to 4 or 5 early on.

Do also put points into Dodge fairly early on, it really helps with combat in general.

Your clan specific disciplines are all kinda pointless except under very specific circumstances. Don't worry that you're missing out if you're not spending points here. They are all active abilities and as a new player you may not recognise during which fights they are useful. The game is dead easy anyhow, it's not like you need them to stand a chance of beating the game. Some are quite useful when fighting other vampires, such as the Tremere blood shield, but you can still win those fights just with good footwork or with a good gun. Against human enemies (by far the most numerous)... well, you're a vampire, you can kick their ass without showing off clan disciplines anyhow.
There is not much to add to what Sufyan said.

Just go with a Brujah for your first playthrough and invest in your melee abilities. Also, when playing as Brujah, don't waste points to upgrade your gun skills, it's just not worth it.

Brujah are incredibly bad with firearms and you need to invest way too many points in order to make firearms useful. Later on, when your character is better developed, sure, why not. There is one exception, though, namely shotguns. You don't need many skillpoints to use them, since they are close combat weapons anyway, you can get a nice autoshotgun quite early in the game and they pack an incredibly punch.

Oh and... this is totally a question of personal taste and by no means required to finish the game, but I personally find it quite frustrating when you can't avoid certain situations; because you lack the skills to break a simple lock or to hack a computer. I always find it useful to invest in those skills as well. But again, this is really a question of personal play style.
I disagree with the advice you guys are giving. There's absolutely no reason to play a Brujah first over any other clan, except maybe Nosferatu and Malkavian. I don't even think there's any reason to shy away from those if they seem like the kind of character the player would like. I played a Nosferatu first and I don't regret it at all.

What makes a Bloodlines character viable? You need one good way to fight (guns, melee, hand-to-hand, or in the case of Tremere, blood magic), and one good social interaction skill (Persuasion, Intimidation, Seduction, Domination, or in the case of Malkavians, Dementation). It's also helpful to have one good burglary-type skill for lockpicking and/or hacking.

Just make sure you focus on the strengths of the clan you pick. For example, Gangrel are suited for hand-to-hand combat, while Toreadors are more suited for guns, Seduction, and Persuasion.
Post edited February 17, 2017 by UniversalWolf
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UniversalWolf: I disagree with the advice you guys are giving. There's absolutely no reason to play a Brujah first over any other clan, except maybe Nosferatu and Malkavian. I don't even think there's any reason to shy away from those if they seem like the kind of character the player would like. I played a Nosferatu first and I don't regret it at all.[...]
I actually said that any clan will do. I suggested Brujah specifically because they are set up to handle any fight up until the Warehouse mission right at character creation and can expand in any direction from there. Compare this to Ventrue or Toreador that are terrible at fighting unless you set them up right. I'm trying to get into the headspace of a complete newbie here. I keep thinking Brujah is a safe recommendation, you are good right from the start while you're still getting used to the game.

Nosferatu isn't much different from the other clans, but I think they are atypical enough of the "general" Bloodlines experience that the other choices is probably more representative.
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Sufyan: Nosferatu isn't much different from the other clans, but I think they are atypical enough of the "general" Bloodlines experience that the other choices is probably more representative.
But why should a player's first game be representative of the general Bloodlines experience? Mine wasn't, and it didn't negatively affect my appreciation for Bloodlines. All it meant was that I saw a huge number of things in my second game that I had missed in my first.
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UniversalWolf: But why should a player's first game be representative of the general Bloodlines experience? Mine wasn't, and it didn't negatively affect my appreciation for Bloodlines. All it meant was that I saw a huge number of things in my second game that I had missed in my first.
If one were to take a stranger to have their first ever ice cream without any foreknowledge of their likes and dislikes, I think most people would probably start the newcomer off with something generally accepted to be pleasing to most, such as vanilla or chocolate. That doesn't mean that all the other flavours of ice cream are worse, but that one needs to have a reasonably developed sense of what one likes or doesn't like before branching out into alternate flavours with any degree of confidence.

I would give similar advice against playing a low intelligence character in Fallout. It can be an amusing and rewarding play experience if you know what you are getting into, but it also means closing a lot of doors on what you can do in the game, and I wouldn't advise a stranger to go for that first. With particular friends that I know well, it might be a different case. But internet advice and tailored recommendations based on knowing someone well are two completely different things.
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paralipsis: ...internet advice and tailored recommendations based on knowing someone well are two completely different things.
Luckily Bloodlines has the quiz method of determining what kind of character the player wants, so neither you nor I need to make that determination for anyone else. You should stop deciding what kind of experience new Bloodlines players ought to have. It's not necessary to do that for anyone.

I know because I ignored this exact kind of advice, and I'm perfectly satisfied with the result.
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paralipsis: ...internet advice and tailored recommendations based on knowing someone well are two completely different things.
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UniversalWolf: Luckily Bloodlines has the quiz method of determining what kind of character the player wants, so neither you nor I need to make that determination for anyone else. You should stop deciding what kind of experience new Bloodlines players ought to have. It's not necessary to do that for anyone.

I know because I ignored this exact kind of advice, and I'm perfectly satisfied with the result.
I just let the game decide for me. It chose Nosferatu as the best fit on how I like to play so that was my first. Did a poor job, though - couldn't beat Ming. Gangrel was my pick next and it and Nosferatu are still my favorites. While I caution people against first run Malk (the lines are difficult to understand, etc) - As said, it is an easy game and Brujha probably is the most general but any clan can be made to do most anything one wants (gun vs melee vs stealth) and it's as much commom sense as anything.
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UniversalWolf: Luckily Bloodlines has the quiz method of determining what kind of character the player wants, so neither you nor I need to make that determination for anyone else. You should stop deciding what kind of experience new Bloodlines players ought to have. It's not necessary to do that for anyone.
I think you are confusing solicited and unsolicited advice. The OP was asking for character build advice, and it was given. You may or may not agree with it, but it's hard to argue that it was inappropriate to give it when it was explicitly requested.
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UniversalWolf: I know because I ignored this exact kind of advice, and I'm perfectly satisfied with the result.
It's good that you know yourself well enough to have made that choice and be gratified by it. But that doesn't mean that Sufyan's advice is any less worthwhile in a general sense just because similar advice given to you wasn't suitable in your specific case, any more than the advice that dressing warm in winter becomes bad general advice just because there are occasionally warm days in winter months.
Oh hey, by the way, Brujah characters have the Celerity discipline, one of the few that are generally useful and fun to use in combat. Slowing down time is an intuitive active power no matter how knowledgable you are of the game.

Toreador also have it but they are not as newbie friendly during character creation. Newbie in this case is someone who doesn't know how the story unfolds and what to expect. Once you know the game you can plan a character progression for any clan and make them great at anything. Learning where to pick up skill books and how the exploit them really levels the playing field for all clans, but you won't know this for your first playthrough.
Again, it's very presumptuous to assume everyone is going to play the game the same way you did. What if he plays Bloodlines once and never plays it again? What if he was thinking about playing a Toreador but now he doesn't because you told him it's not newbie friendly?

Apart from controls and technical aspects, there's really only one thing that seriously trips up first-time players, and that's the spiking difficulty of some of the fights at the end of the game.

Take the quiz and don't neglect combat skills. That's all that's needed.

Here's the OP's question:
I am having a hard time figuring out what kind of character is going to be feasible. I'm thinking of making a Tremere that focuses on stealth but has some social skills to fall back on, but I'm not sure how viable that is. Can anyone offer any advice?
Answer: yes, it's viable.

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paralipsis: ...that doesn't mean that Sufyan's advice is any less worthwhile in a general sense just because similar advice given to you wasn't suitable in your specific case...
I'm giving you an example of a case where it wasn't good advice. You're the one presuming to know it's good advice for everyone else, including the OP.
Post edited February 20, 2017 by UniversalWolf
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Sufyan: Toreador also have it but they are not as newbie friendly during character creation.
In my opinion Toreador are as newbie friendly as Brujah, only they are better suited for ranged weapons and Brujah for melee...
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wesp5: In my opinion Toreador are as newbie friendly as Brujah
I agree completely.
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Sufyan: Toreador also have it but they are not as newbie friendly during character creation.
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wesp5: In my opinion Toreador are as newbie friendly as Brujah, only they are better suited for ranged weapons and Brujah for melee...
This relies on using a combination of Auspex and Celerity, two disciplines which are active powers. This is both a high cost investment and relatively tricky to do in combat. Not knowing how skilled a gamer the OP is, I think a default Brujah character which starts out with competent fighting skills no matter if you try or not is the safer bet. Toreadors are not geared for combat at level 1, they are geared towards social interaction.

Again, I'm assuming the OP is coming into the game with no practical knowledge.