Preloaded and ready to go.
I'd really like to do a DEX/FTH or DEX/INT build but I wonder how viable they'd be.
Probably extremely viable, if you're primarily going towards a melee + buff build, and aren't looking at it as a DEX for casting speed + offensive spells. We don't know what the highest casting speed caps are yet, but apparently the impact of DEX in that regard is minimal and not worth being a consideration if you weren't already using the stat for weapons.
If you're thinking offensive miracles or sorcery, right now that's considered "hard mode" during the earlier levels until it gets adjusted through a patch. Late game it's supposed to be "fine", but who wants to struggle until late game? Also, the starting staff and chime were supposed to be the only casting tools that were scaling correctly, and those you found later were busted.
Speaking of crystal lizards, they're NEVER placed in such ways that they're very hard to kill. They basically never manage to flee away in this game.
The lizard in Harvest Valley and the one in Doors of Pharros sucked so much. You basically had to wait until you either had a bow updraded to the point it could one-shot, or have a high level spell that could do it. Sometimes you had to just skip them until later.