Choose Your Starting Gift Wisely
Just like your starting class, the starting gift won’t affect too much outside of the early hours of the game. However, I strongly advise against choosing the Sovereignless Soul. You’re going to be accumulating thousands of souls throughout the course of the game, so picking up a few souls early on isn’t going to affect a whole lot.
Some good gifts to consider include the Firebombs, which are great for dealing extra damage to enemies from a range, or the Rusted Gold Coins and the Fire Gem. The Fire Gem can be a great gift to have early on since it allows you to infuse your weapon to make it deal fire damage. Your base physical damage will be lowered, but having a fire infused weapon can allow you to take advantage of enemies who are weak to fire.
I personally went with the Rusted Gold Coins simply because I wanted to get more drops from fallen enemies. Using the Coins increases the item drop rate from enemies until you die or rest at a bonfire. This means you have a higher chance of getting the gear and equipment that your enemies have on them. You’re not going to get a lot of high-end gear this way, but you just might find specific types of weapons or armor that suit your play style better than stuff you can get from merchants and chests.