After several playthroughs as Dexterity and Strength builds, I?m playing as an Intelligence build for the first time in Dark Souls, and I must say, I?m finding it a pretty underwhelming because of how limited your options are. Of the few catalysts there are, the best are all basically endgame. There are very few truly effective sorceries, but they?re all pretty much the same and eventually rendered obsolete when you find the stronger version of it (albeit with fewer casts,) and like the catalysts, the best ones are nigh end game. Few useful items scale with INT and many of the INT items are as crippling as they are useful, i.e.: the Dusk Crown ring grants additional casts, but halves your HP, Tin Crystallization Catalysts halves your casts, etc. The lack of being able to aim your spells without locking on means you have to get [usually] within aggro range which defeats the purpose of playing a ranged character and makes the application of the stronger spells (with longer cast times) mostly a fool?s errand.. The Intelligence build is basically just another flavor of a STR/DEX build with a couple added ranged attacks and not the completely different playstyle I was hoping to experience. Or perhaps it?s better suited to NG+ when you actually have a variety of powerful spells before the latter half of the game.