Still waiting to upgrade. Is it worth getting some attunement slots for magic? I dont have any yet
It's totally up to you if you wish to use the magic with this character. Of course, it is worth it, if you want to try different things and such. The cloak spell even allows you to turn into things in the environment...pretty trollin if you want to invade as a vase in Anor londo!!!
The only way leveling hurts you is if you wish to be in range of summons or multiplayer options. I do so I never take my character past 60-80 or so. My pure mage had base vitality and low endurance but had 4 attunement and 50 int. Only str was for moonlight greatsword min requirements. So the problem becomes, do I want to do damage to people with magic or just play around? Just playing around witht eh cloak spells etc you can do at 16 INT, but to hit hard you want to have the minimum for the better spells which iirc is at least 30. Fatih works this way as well, 18 gets you emit force, 20 or so gets you first level lightning bolts, and 30 gets you big bolts, it is unnecessary to go for 50 to get the really big bolts...as fun as it is to one shot silver knights with them, you have to get into NG+ to use the gwynn soul to get them (IIRC.)
The way I stay in range of multiplayer options is compromise....no one will agree with me, but I'm sorry, vitality has to stay low to keep it all together. I usually go for 30 faith and either STR or DEX, 40 dex with 30 faith is viable for assisting others with all the lordvessel bosses and even smough and orn. This is my favourite build ....get darkmoon blade buff your washing pole and slice stuff up.
So for your first character, unless you wan tot turn it into a specialty character, you can experiment raising your levels across the board, but if you start a new character, the most you can hope for and stay reasonably low, is choose either STR or DEX and either FAITH or MAGIC. Trippling up is too much and waters down your character and you will be useless to stop invaders from the coo-op people you try to help.
Tricks for keeping it low are :
who needs vitality if you don't get hit? Stay light, use buffs, roll your way to victory instead. Go to the pinwheel boss immediately after firelink by dropping down and hiring paladin Leroy to kill the skellies and pinwheel boss for you. You can raise your estus count and use firekeeper souls to heal more efficiently. Farm humanity and use as healing tool. Base vitality is enough.
endurance - pretty much need high 20's to 30. if you scrimp too far here you wont be able to roll and then swing combo's with middle weight weapons, nor tank any hits with shield in succession.
STR - unless you are hoping to go pure STR and get bonus off of it, only take as much as you need to TWO HAND the weapon. Most black knight weapons only require low 20's, washing pole even less IIRC. Even tank weapons can be held and two handed at lower than advertised STR levels. 36 pretty much lets you swing all but the heaviest weapon in the game.
Faith /magic - you want to get the cool sorcery and miracles, but there are a couple that you really want to ask yourself if you need. There is a white dragon breath sorcery that is cool indeed but required 50 INT...prolly better to go with 40 INT and double up on the spears. For faith, as mentioned above, the best lighting spears are likely not worth it...they do hit hard, but they are low in count, and you cant get hem until you kill gwynn.
