Elden Ring has a slew of classes to choose from. While some of the classes are very specific to their respective styles, range, magic, strength, or dexterity, some classes are hybrid and are more open to experimentation with other types of gameplay. One of these types of a class is the Prisoner and we will be discussing all about it here.
This guide to Prisoner class will teach you what is the best way of playing this class and how should you build it. For people who are still new to From Software classes, this will be a great resource to learn from, and those players who are meaning to switch up their playstyle are welcomed too.
Prisoner Class Beginner’s Guide in Elden Ring
This class is a hybrid of mage and dexterity and is perfect for people who want to dabble in spells in Elden Ring and get in the action too. The Prisoner is an advanced class as compared to others due to their stat spread and the kind of playstyle it encourages. And for the Berserk fans out there this very much resembles Griffith.
This class demands to stay out of the action and use magic at range and for melee, it should strictly be used as a hit and run type playstyle, where you are mostly dodging and looking for opportunities to strike. Mixing these two kinds of approaches will yield the best results and enjoyment.
And don’t worry, you can always change up or focus on your style by dumping levels in your preferred stats, this class just provides the freedom of two different classes rather than one.
Related: Elden Ring Vagabond Class Guide: Starting Equipment, Stats, Tips
Prisoner: Starting Equipment
You start out with the following weapons:
- Magic Glintblade: A spell that creates a magic sword that tracks a target after a delay.
- Estoc: A straight sword that deals with thrust damage and is perfect for poking and running. This has a great Ash of War that thrusts you in the enemies from a distance perfect for closing small gaps and surprise attacks.
- Glintstone Staff: A basic staff to cast your spells with nothing too exciting.
- Rift Shield: A small shield that deflects most damage but not all, perfect for people who like parrying.
This class is weak in terms of defense as the armor is feeble and the only sturdy thing is that weird helmet. The whole armor set is designed to keep you in the medium load category so that your dodging and rolling are faster to get out of the fray.
- Prisoner Iron Mask
- Prisoner Clothing
- Prisoner Trousers
A Memory of Grace is there too, but that’s part of every other class. And for Keepsake item, you should always opt for Golden Seed as it gives you +1 charge to your healing/FP flask.
The whole equipment loadout synergizes with your fast-moving magic caster, perfect for staying out of the enemies immediate area and going in only when necessary.
Prisoner: Stats
As for the stats, the Prisoner starts at level 9 and have the highest Vigor in the game. Your Vigor is lower than most so keep out of close quarter trouble. Mind is high for encouraging spell casting. Endurance is high enough to take advantage of both casting and melee. Strength is average and nothing in this class is utilizing it. Dexterity is high for making use of advanced armament. Intelligence is high too to dabble in many types of sorceries early on. Faith and Arcane are weak.
This class starts with you focusing on the Dexterity and Intelligence stats. This will help you in equipping those light and intricate weaponry and better magic spells, staying true to this build style will diverse your play style throughout the game, especially when you unlock better weapons and spells.
Here is a quick stat breakdown in case you didn’t know what each stat does:
| Stat | Description |
| Vigor | Determines the overall HP of your character. This stat also affects your fire resistance and immunity as well. |
| Dexterity | This boosts the attack power of dexterity-scaling armaments, reduces the casting time of Spells, softens your fall damage, and makes it difficult to be knocked off your horse. It also allows you to wield Dexterity-based Armaments. |
| Mind | Mind is related to your character’s FP. Having high points in this stat means that you will have high FP and can cast more spells. |
| Intelligence | Attribute required to perform glintstone sorceries. It boosts the magic power of Intelligence-scaling Sorceries and improves Magic Resistance. |
| Endurance | The more Endurance you have, the more stamina your character will have. This allows you to attack more and dodge more as well. Plus, Endurance also affects the equip load of your character as well. |
| Faith | Faith is required to cast incantations. It also boosts your magic power as well. |
| Strength | This stat allows you to wield Strength-based Armaments and determine how much damage you deal with them. It also boosts your Physical Defense. |
| Arcane | Having high Arcane means that you will discover more items when you kill enemies. It also raises your defense against holy damage. |
Tips For Beginner’s
For people who are new to this whole hybrid build, you should utilize those spells as much as possible. Spells scale very effectively with Intelligence and are perfect for bombarding your enemies before going in for the kill. My advice would be to allocate more FP flasks so that you are more inclined towards using your magic and everything that uses FP like Ashes of War etc.
The whole criteria of choosing this class are to encourage a mix of melee and spells, do keep in mind at the start you are quite weak so be aware of enemy attacks as many of the big ones can 2-shot you easily. You can easily deal with lower-level mobs with your melee weapon of choice or even use your spells for every kind of enemy as mobs replenish your flasks, so don’t hold back saving for difficult enemies.
For melee, it is recommended that you put more stats in Dex to wield more advanced weaponry and use your shield to take advantage of the Guard Counter, successfully guard and attack and press heavy attack after that will deal a massive posture damaging strike. Keep using your nimble characteristics as much as possible with more dodging than blocking, also jumping heavy attacks are your best friend for higher damage.
And the best thing in your arsenal is that staff, try to find Pebble spell from Sorceress Sellen which is very quick-firing sorcery. Dump as much stats in Intelligence to cast better spells and Mind so that you can cast even more. Mix and match both styles of play to annihilate your opponents with ease. Stay on your toes though for charging enemies as your glass cannon build won’t bear many hits.
That’s everything you need to know about the Prisoner class in Elden Ring. We will be covering all the classes, so if your favorite class hasn’t been covered yet, let us know in the comments below. And for everything Elden Ring visit our site.
