I know in some games it can permanently screw up your character's base stats or somesuch. Just wondering if there's any penalty for choosing an AC at 11, 12, 13, etc over 10.

No penalty other than leveling for a while as half a class.

You already have 10 levels to make up your mind between the two

 

...but no, I don't think there's any problem there.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Sir_Roderick

One would think not having class defining skills or talent trees would be penalty enough, but other than that no.

It's kinda like playing a healing Priest on WoW without picking Discipline or Holy; you're kinda screwing yourself over since you miss out on talents and new abilities/spells that you get from your tree that REALLY give you that oomph that makes it easier to get by.

The early skills are not that strong.

 

1-3% more damage dealt or less damage taken wont win or lose a fight for you.

But these tiny things add up in the long run.

I thought I had a problem when I couldn't get my AC choice window back on one character. It was a trooper I wasn't sure about. I was relieved when I saw a PENDING quest.

 

Actually, vanilla classes are viable for quite a while. You can still train levels in the base skills and you will get new class skills whether you pick an AC or not. They're also much simpler to play than an AC.