You still want some help with this? The thread seemed a little old to me, but I noticed you wrote in the other topic.
- I like my main character to be in the thick of things, going full-out melee. What stats to focus on?
Strength, Dexterity and Stamina, in that order. Dexterity increases your chances to get a 'critical hit', an instant kill in this game, so it's useful even for non-ranged characters.
For Melee? Potence and Fortitude are your friends, just like in Bloodlines. Other builds have been known to include one of the blood rituals, Prison of Ice, to immobilize creatures while you attack them. It can be effective, but requires you to spread out your attribute points out widely for the better part of the game. I don't think that's really worth it. Finally, I think it is possible to play the game without using disciplines (aside from heal), as long as your base attributes are in order. Something to consider (edit: certain enemies such as wraiths only take 'aggravated damage', which means you need either a weapon that can deal that kind of damage (hard to come by early in the game), or someone with the Protean discipline Feral Claws).
- Is it useful to develop Ranged Weapons?
I think the ranged weapons in the second half of the game are pretty satisfying.
You'll also encounter some pretty powerful ranged weapon users, but not before the second half of the game. Some will shoot wooden stakes at you, which will paralyze you before you can get within melee distance. Having a gun around to pick them off from a distance can be useful, especially if you don't have any ranged disciplines to cast at them.
Note that the AI is dumber than dumb. Groups won't react to one being attacked/killed as long as you are too far away from them. This means you can usually get out of any situation by being exceedingly careful with positioning your guys.
- How to develop companions?
I usually keep them melee in medieval times and ranged in modern times. Ranged weapons become much better later in the game, though I guess it really doesn't matter much either way. A matter of taste, mostly. I can think of at least one boss in the modern age that is easiest dealt with using ranged weapon, so you might want to consider having at least one of your companions get good at it.
I also like to develop one character in either time period with *only* high manipulation, nothing else, to sell and buy items with. Get stinking rich, deck out everyone with the best armors, early in the game (shops restock if you quit and reload a game).
Speaking of armors, only the medieval armors have strength requirements. If melee is not your goal, the points might be better spend elsewhere.
- I also remember never gaining a point of humanity, despite always choosing "Good" options. How come?
This isn't really the case, though the loss/gain messages can be a little bit subtle, or disappear entirely because the game loads a different map during a cutscene.
There are maybe 6 to 8 points in the game where you can lose or gain humanity, although you can always lose some by killing innocent civilians. These moments tend to stand out, sometimes so much that they almost break with Kristof's character ('I want to stay in bed for a month' / 'Nah, let's forget about Anezka').
Sometimes it isn't entirely clear though. Good christian humanists for example *don't* want you to euthanize Luther Black, which may confuse the odd player since he does seem to be suffering. The game again chooses to act strange when you face the boss in the Society of Leopold. He attacks you first and is clearly a bastard throughout the levels, but killing him somehow still results into a loss of humanity. The alternative is to (spoiler:
destroy the barrels of blood around him instead
).
