Divinity: Original Sin 2 [official site] is out of Early Access and fully released. Adam and John have both spent many, many hours with the alpha, and are now beginning to chew their way through the full version. That makes it an ideal time to get together to chat about their thoughts on the game so far, the experience of playing an RPG before it’s finished, and how to break the news of a death to a baby bear.
John: Adam – I just murdered a sad dog because he got cross when I fed him a human leg.
Adam: I hope you’re pleased with yourself. Last week, I found a shark that appeared to be stuck on a beach. I was going to return it to the sea but we had a bit of a chat and then I…well, I decided to sample some of the meat it had stuck between its teeth, John. I ate the meat from the shark’s mouth.
And that’s how I found out exactly who the shark had eaten and later that day, I broke the news to that person’s friends. The shark, as far as I know, is still rotting on the beach.
Divinity is quite odd, isn’t it?
John: It is. But somehow incredibly tightly choreographed for such a huge and adapting RPG.
Adam: It’s probably worth explaining how you knew the dog was cross and why we’re feeding legs to dogs and eating human remains in the first place. It’s because eating body parts gives elven characters access to the memories of the deceased and because there’s a talent called Pet Pal that lets you talk to animals.
As you say, it’s a game that adapts to the players’ actions and tries to accommodate every strange decision you make, and it does that by piling up all kinds of consequences for all kinds of actions. Essentially, Larian know you might decide to kill the person who gives you a vital quest so they figure they should ensure you can get the information you need by eating that person’s corpse, or talking to their ghost, or through some other means.
It’s a game that refuses to acknowledge the concept of ‘plot armour’, that pesky stuff that prevents Important People from dying, and so much of the strange rules of its world stem from that.
John: I could probably go back another step and ask, did you play the first Original Sin?
Adam: Think harder and you’ll remember my excellent and thorough review of it. I’m sure you said it deserved a Pulitzer at the time, or whatever award people hand out to the likes of us (it’s a Peperami and can of Tizer – ed).
It’s a very good game but Original Sin 2 is better in just about every way that matters. Part of that is budgetary, I think. Both were Kickstarted but that’s a fraction of the costs involved – with Original Sin 1 there are areas that feel undercooked, particularly toward the end. The sequel is much more confident. It seems strange to say given how successful it became, but the first was quite experimental. A big, systemic RPG that didn’t have much in common with either of the Bethesda or BioWare poles that loom over the landscape.
It’s a different beast to the Infinity Engine inspired games that have come along recently as well – the likes of Pillars of Eternity – and I wasn’t sure it’d find an audience. In the end it found a big enough audience for the sequel to have much more money behind it and I’m hoping that means it’s solid right through to the end. I still haven’t finished it though so I can’t say for sure just yet!
John: Adam! Adam, if you go into the cave with the Royal Fire Slug with Pet Pal as a skill, she starts barking on at you about her falling out with Braccus! They were going to get married! I mean, she wasn’t a fire slug then.
This really rather extraordinarily captures for me just how good this game is. I played it through before, and this cave offered me one of the toughest fights in the game (playing on Explorer mode in the alpha was considerably harder than it is in the released version – I’m about to raise the difficulty as the fights are a bit dull now). But this time it’s a gamble of wits as I try to bluff my way through a conversation with this monstrous creature, right now faced with a 50:50 guess over whether he was left or right handed. You don’t know if Braccus was left or right handed, do you? (It’s a trick question.)
Adam: The main thing I remember about Braccus is that you absolutely should freeze Braccus. Freeze him until he is so frozen that you might accidentally mistake him for a iced lolly and eat him on a hot day.
Let’s not get back to eating people though. Let’s just say that I agree with you about how great it is to compare notes with other people who are playing. You know that old Austin Powers gag, that’s probably been used in many other places, where the henchmen are shown to have their own live away from the evil headquarters? Original Sin 2 is full of moments like that – you clear out a dungeon and then talk to someone else who went through the same place and made friends with all the people in it. They were just faceless, voiceless minions to one player, but another one might know their entire backstory and their favourite colour and everything.
John: Talking of backstory, let me set this up for those who haven’t had the pleasure. At the start you pick a character, either pre-made, which strikes me as fairly essential what with all the background they all have, or your own custom build. You’re all Sourcerers, people with magic, and have been rounded up, collared with an anti-magic neckpiece, and are on a boat sailing to the island on which you’ll be imprisoned. Along with all the other pre-built characters you didn’t choose! So did you go pre-built?
Adam: Yeah. I am an aristrocatic lizard, which is just about as far from Actual Adam as it’s possible to get, me being a scruffy urchin of a primate. When I play RPGs I tend to play ‘as myself’, in that I’ll do what I think is right and always try to romance the strong, silent type rather than the quirky one. Divinity has been odd because I’m genuinely trying to roleplay as this snooty lizard prince and it’s kind of liberating. I’m being a bit of a dick, John, and it’s very entertaining.
John: Heh. Being an aristocratic lizard, this is too easy for me. So first time I was Sebille, the assassin elf, and this time (save games don’t transfer across, to my horror) I’ve gone with new character Fane, a skellington who wears ripped off faces to pass as not a walking skellington. He’s apparently a bit more challenging, as you’ll send the NPCs into panic if they ever accidentally see your bony visage.
Adam: I had a little go at being a skellywobble earlier and a man saw me and shouted, “THE DEAD ARE RISING”, so I killed him and was instantly annoyed that I’d sort of proved his point and probably made it much harder for every other undead person who wanted to integrated into society. I was part of the problem.
We should mention that we could be doing all of this together, in co-op. I talked about how much fun it is comparing notes with other players, but imagine if you had befriended a bunch of brigands who were more like Merry Men than pillagers and plunderers, and then I met up with you later that same day wearing the face of their leader and started bragging about how I’d wiped out “some real bad sorts”.
You’d be outraged!
John: Imagine knowing someone else and having enough overlapping time. Imagine such a world.
I need to share the strangeness of voices being added in this released version. The alpha had just text, which was odd at the very start, but then settled in to normality for me – indeed, even your Pillars and the like are only sporadically spoken. But now everything and everyone has a voice, and because I’ve already met them, THEY’VE ALL GOT THE WRONG VOICES. It’s such an odd experience, like watching a film of a book you read and their matching nothing of how you’d imagined it.
Adam: I’ll turn off the voices. I’ll take out my headphones and unplug the speakers if I have to. If voice acting isn’t absolutely top notch I’d rather go without it, and I have very exacting standards. And it’s not even just about quality, as you say, it’s that I already know a lot of these characters.
But there’s another level as well: the writing is brilliant. It’s witty and it’s clever and occasionally it’s even quite moving as you come to the end of some of the major plotlines that have their hooks deep into characters you’ve come to care about. But so much of that writing feels like it was constructed to be read from a page (or screen) rather than performed.
John: Yeah, it’s very pleasant to read, in a way RPGs really usually are not. It’s not turgid purple prose lore guff nonsense, but pleasing writing. I think it’s a bit less pleasing to listen to. Which isn’t a slight at (most of) the voice actors (the person who did the little girl elf’s voice can maybe not do that again please), but more that – I dunno – I don’t think I’d even consider switching it off if I hadn’t played the alpha. Still, clicking past it as I read right now.
Also, Adam, Sebille just learned first aid by eating a man’s head.
And oh no, I’m just remembering the time I broke it to a baby bear that his mummy was dead. I mean, this is a game in which I explained the concept of death to a dog, but the bear scene really stands out to me. Because it wasn’t part of something else. At one point I’d found a dead bear. At another, this cub. And I could choose to lie to the poor wee thing, or I could tell it the cold miserable truth. And you can’t lie to anyone about whether their mum’s dead or not. That’s just never ok. And this poor little creature. And that was that, the game didn’t refer to it again. It was just a deeply peculiar moment, not even accessible if you don’t have the right skill.
Adam: There’s an important lesson here. Sometimes a little tale to tell is its own reward. I don’t need every little thing to have consequences down the line or to be a Decision Moment that affects how people view my character or the ending that I get.
There’s also a lesson about the line between a white lie and a cold hard truth, but we won’t go into that. We should talk about combat instead. I love the combat but then I’m a sucker for almost anything turn-based, and all the elemental trickery delights me. You were finding it a bit cumbersome, I think?
John: Yeah, I’m not such a big fan. It’s better balanced now in this released version, but it still doesn’t have the right sweet spot between too easy, and just watching as the enemies get infinity turns in a row because all their attacks are disabling and it’s literally impossible to do anything other than sit there and watch as they murder you one by one. I think the game gives opponents way too many ways to steal turns, and it’s pretty boring when it does. So why do you lurrrrrve it?
Adam: I actually agree with you on the pacing. It can become a real pain when there are interrupts and steals all the time. It’s like a neat language with horrible grammar. But I like that there are so many possibilities, and that you can end up with a complete mess of a battleground because of all the different fluids that get spilled.
And as with the stories we’ve been telling, I like how daft it is. “Remember that time I made it rain knives and then electrified the blood of the people caught in the knife rain?” “Yes, and what about the time you blessed a fire so that it healed everyone and then somebody else made it rain actual water but the water was poison and we didn’t know what was hurting us or healing us anymore?”
Now that I’m thinking about it, I think all of the abilities – and there are so many, with craftable ones on top – might add a little too much noise and take away from the fun of the overlapping elements a bit. I’ll need to examine it all for another thirty hours to be sure.
John: It’s still far more interesting than the combat in the recent BioWare-alikes. And yes, it’s lots of fun to deliberate blow up a barrel of oil near where the enemy is standing, then set it on fire with your next character’s move. It feels much more involved, especially as those barrels never feel staged – they’re all over, and this is just where the fight’s happening. Although I do wish the otherwise amazing pathfinding (you can drop a marker the other side of the game map and have your crew make their way there on their own), during combat it’s a bit of a pain that they won’t run around oil or whatever, and so sacrifice action points to Slow, or get sick from Poison.
Adam: I should get back to playing the damn thing because apparently that is my job. It’s not a bad job, all told.
John: I’m playing it between typing sentences. I just chloroformed my own guy.
Adam: I’m so happy that you’re enjoying it. For a while back there I thought I was going to be levering it into our end of year calendar again, looking around for support and finding that NOBODY had time to play a sixty hour RPG. Outrageous.
And we’ll definitely have to play together at some point so that I can chloroform you and save you the effort of doing it to yourself.
John: Yes! Also, next week I’m going to explore the DM mode and try to make a little game for us all to play together.
Adam: Make sure there are plenty of woodland creatures and lovable pets for me to break bad news to. It’s the only way I can level up.
John: You will have to explain cancer to a kitten.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is out now for Windows, and is available from gog and Steam for £29.99.
Last updated on October 21st, 2018
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is in full swing, and one of the major issues players are having with the game is Builds. What Build do I use? What’s a good Build for a Warrior? Ranger? Mage? etc. Since the game is extremely difficult this has come much more into focus than one would expect. In this Build Guide were going to cover the hybrid: Ranger. Let’s jump into this Build and see just how it works.
Ranger – Archer/Summoner Build
The Ranger is a hybrid Build that focuses on ranged damage with a Bow or Crossbow and Summoning some form of “Pet”. The reason it is advised that you use a ranged character when Summoning is because Summoning tends to take up the bulk of your character’s AP per turn, which doesn’t leave much for Movement. Taking a ranged approach will allow you to both summon and attack in the same turn. Note: you can also make a magical version of this Build called a Druid, which I will get into in another Build Guide. For the purposes of the Ranger, Ifan ben-Mezd works the best as he comes with a pet Wolf, which works great with this Build because Summoning will increase its effectiveness. However, players can really use any Race or Origin for this Build if they wish.
The stats of a level 14 Ranger (mid game) that is about 50/50 into Ranged and Summoning. Your character sheet will look lower than a pure Archer, but you have a summon that will also shell out a good bit of damage.
Ranger Attributes and Equipment
Ranger’s are going to focus on Finesse and Wits as their primary Attributes with a bit of Constitution. Finesse will increase your damage with Bows and Crossbows. Wits will increase your Critical Chance and Initiative. Constitution will help keep you alive. There is not an Attribute that increases the damage of “Pets” so there is no need to focus on that here. I would distribute points on a 2:1:1 ratio here.
Finesse is your go to for damage, with Wits following up for Critical and Initiative. There is not Attribute that improves Summoning, so you are free to determine what sort of Summoner you will play.
As a Ranger you’ll be using Armour that requires Finesse, which gives a balance of Magic and Physical Armour. That’s great for this type of play because you won’t have really any way to buff your Armour unless you place points into other Abilities. Because you’ll have rather high Wits, you should get to go close to first in combat often, which will allow you to use Skills to position yourself high and away from melee enemies, making your only real danger other archers and casters.
When it comes to Weapons you’ll want either a Bow or Crossbow. The difference between the two, is that Crossbows deal more damage at the same level, but reduces Movement by 1. Since you won’t be moving much, a Crossbow is recommended here, but be sure to take whatever does the most damage from what is available.
You can see the damage difference on Bow and Crossbow here. Both level 13 rare. Crossbows will always do slightly more damage, but they will always reduce Movement.
Ranger Abilities and Talents
One of the hardest parts about making a Build in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is getting your Abilities distribution correct. It’s easy to get spread too thin, and often people make the mistake of not spreading points around enough. The bonuses you gain from Abilities in this game are somewhat different than the original, so it’s easy to see why people can get confused. Let’s take a look at what Abilities and Talents you need for a Ranger.
For a Ranger Build you will be focusing on Ranged and Summoning. You’ll want to get both Ranged and Summoning to 10, Huntsman at 3 and then dump any leftover points into Warfare to increase your physical damage. However, I do recommend placing one point into Warfare early on, so that you can take the Executioner Talent. The order in which you place points into Ranged and Summoning will really depend on how you like to play. Do you want to deal more damage with your Crossbow with sort of a pet as and after thought? Do you want to split the points evenly? Or do you want a really powerful pet while you use your Crossbow to not be completely useless? It’s all really up to you, and you can always respec if you don’t like the decision you have made after Act 1. If you’re not sure, I’d recommend splitting them until you get a feel for it.
As far as Talents go I’d recommend the following:
Far Out Man – This will increase the range of your attacks by 2 meters (basic attacks included). Since you won’t be moving a lot, being able to hit from as far away as possible is excellent.
Elemental Ranger – This Talent will add 40% damage to your attacks of the element that your target is standing in. This is additional damage, on top of your normal damage.
Executioner – Archers have some the best long range damage in the game, and as a result they frequently get kills. Taking this Talent will give you 2 more AP if you get a kill, however, it doesn’t trigger more than once per turn.
Arrow Recovery – Gives you a 33% chance to recover special arrows you fire at enemies. You won’t be using these as much as the first game, and that’s why it is prioritized less here. Still more useful than most Talents for a Ranger though.
Pet Pal – What kind of Ranger would you be without being able to converse with animals? If chose Ifan ben-Mezd during Character Creation, then you will come with this Talent already.
Hothead – An excellent way to increase your Critical Chance and Accuracy, which are both important to a Ranger. Since you will have high Initiative, you should be able to get some good use out of this Talent.
Ranger Skills
Now that you’ve decided which Talents and Abilities you want, you’ll need to identify just which Skills work best with this kind of setup. Rangers are one of the more simple Builds to play, and you can really use just about any Skills from Huntsman or Summoning you want, but we’ll cover the important ones here. Since Builds evolve over the course of the game, I’m going to put the Skills in order from earliest obtainable to latest, because you won’t be able to get them all right way.
Huntsman Skills
First Aid – This skill is just frankly wicked good. Heals you or a party member and removes many different Status Effects. All Rangers should have this skill, regardless of what sort they play.
Ricochet – Not the greatest Huntsman skill, but you should learn it early in order to have some attack other than just your basic one. Consider unslotting it later in the game when you have more access to Skills.
Tactical Retreat – This is another must have skill for any Ranger, as it will allow you to move much further than you possibly could for 1 AP. Use this skill to get up high, get bonus damage from elevation and get out of harm’s way.
Sky Shot – This skill is good for getting extra damage when you can’t be elevated. It’s got a quick cooldown, and it only costs 2 AP. You might find this skill less useful later on when you find you are more tactical than at the beginning.
Ballistic Shot – Better than Sky Shot because you can be elevated and still get extra damage from this skill. Get up high using Tactical Retreat and then launch this for massive damage.
Marksman’s Fang – Great for penetrating Armour and hitting multiple targets. Even better when used in conjunction with Ifan’s Soul Wolf, because it’s special attack Vicious Bite pierces Armour as well.
Arrow Spray – This skill deals amazing damage if you are close enough to hit your target with all 16 arrows and will essentially deal 6.5x the damage of a basic attack. A great boss killer!
Summoning Skills
Conjure Incarnate – This is your go-to summon for the better part of the game. Can be infused with elements to change damage types and Skills. Get this one early and always cast at the beginning of combat.
Farsight Infusion – Grants your Incarnate Magic Armour and a ranged attack. A great skill to use if you’re facing a lot of mage type enemies, or if the battlefield is a shit show and your Incarnate can’t really move without dying.
Power Infusion – Grants your Incarnate Physical Armour and an AoE as well as a knockdown. Just a great all around skill, that can help you take one turn away from the opponent.
Soul Mate – This skill clears many Status Effects and creates a connection that gives half of your healing and Armour restoration to the target. This is a great way to help keep your pet alive.
Dominate Mind – Control target enemy for 2 turns. This is resisted by Magic Armour, which isn’t the greatest for this sort of Build. However, this skill is too good not to slot, as you can always cast on targets damaged by your Mage.
Final Tips
Consider adding some points into Necromancer and taking the talent Living Armour if you find yourself using Soul Mate often. This will ensure you get the most from this skill and having a few points into Necromancer is always good for any character anyway. This will also provide you access to the summons of the Necromancer line as well, though you shouldn’t need them.
The only way to buff damage of summoned characters, besides putting points into Summoning, is by increasing the actual Attributes of the summoned character with buffs. Encourage can give your “Pets” around a 10% damage increase, which isn’t a lot, but Encourage hits multiple targets so it’s very useful. Make sure at least one member in your party has this skill.
Since Rangers often need to spend a lot of AP on the first turn to get out their summons and get into position, consider putting 1 point into Scoundrel to get the Adrenaline skill. This will give you 2 extra AP to get what you need done at the cost of some AP next turn. Also, if you don’t want to pick Ifan ben-Mezd, I strongly suggest picking an Elf for the Flesh Sacrifice skill, which will also give you 1 additional AP to get you going. Flesh Sacrifice also has great synergy with Elemental Arrowheads, as you will gain a physical damage bonus from the blood you will create, so be sure to slot this if you play as an Elf.
You can get the skill Summon Cat Familiar if the Black Cat chooses your character, and you help it escape Fort Joy. You can get Summon Condor from Featherfall in Stonegarden (Act 2). You will need Pet Pal and some Persuasion in order to get this skill. You can get the skill Summon Dragonling much later in the game in the Dream Portal in Arx if you have The Red Prince in your party. None of these are required for this Build, but if you’d like to try out some different summons, these are some you could choose from. Note: you can only have one active summons at a time per character.
Lastly, if you don’t mind putting a point into Pyrokinetic, Haste is a really good skill for a Ranger. You can either use it on yourself or on your “Pet”, but the Movement won’t do you a lot of good. Your Incarnate, Wolf, Condor or what have you can make good use of it though getting where they need to go without spending much AP. It also only costs 1 AP, which isn’t much.
Check out our other Build Guides and good luck Sourcerers, Rivellon is counting on you!
By Chris Pereira | @TheSmokingManX and Jean-Luc Seipke on
Divinity: Original Sin II is a game full of choices: You have to decide where to go, who to talk to, what to say, and whose house to ransack after you kill the owner and use a tool to rip their face off to create a mask for an undead creature. But before getting into any of the real action, you'll have choices of a different sort to make--namely, what class and race to play.
Much likes its predecessor, Original Sin II lets you choose a pre-made character or completely customize one. It's important to realize that, no matter decisions you make at the outset of your journey, you'll be able to reshape your character over the course of the game. You'll also at one point have the opportunity to rebuild your character from scratch if you regret your decisions.
But that doesn't mean the choices you make at the start don't matter. Original Sin II can be a very difficult game from the get-go, and you'll want to be sure you have a capable character to play with. Choosing from one of the default options and then molding it in the opening hours is a safer path than building one completely from scratch.
And while you are free to create a custom character, you can also opt for an Origin character (whose class and skills you can adjust). These will present you with an established backstory and is thus an excellent way to initially play through the game, though these Origin characters can be encountered and added to your party no matter what you create.
In the gallery ahead, we examine each of the default classes and potential skills you may want to substitute before providing an overview of every Origin character and race. You can also check out our video guide to picking the right Divinity: Original Sin II class for you.
For more on how to better play Divinity: Original Sin II, check out our roundup of glass guides, tips, and walkthroughs.
Divinity: Original Sin IIYou're Good to Go!
We'll begin emailing you updates about %gameName%.
Divinity: Original Sin IIDeveloper(s)Platform(s)
Divinity: Original Sin II is an isometric, single-player and cooperative multiplayer fantasy RPG with tactical turn-based combat, and a highly interactive world. The main upgrades from the original game involve lots of choices and consequences, specifically in regards to your origin story and how that affects gameplay.
Thanks to all of the Kickstarter stretch goals being funded, the game will ship with a powerful editor that is 'as intuitive as possible,' allowing anyone to create their own single-player and multiplayer adventures, and publish them online. Even more impressive is that there will be a Game Master mode that allows control of the game while you are playing.
Other games in the series include Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity, Divinity II: Ego Draconis, Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance, Divinity: Dragon Commander, and Divinity: Original Sin (and its Enhanced Edition). Divinity: Original Sin II is a sequel to Divinity: Original Sin, taking place after many generations have passed.
Larian Studios launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter on 26 August 2015, which ended up raising over $2,000,000 (including PayPal pledges) on 30 September 2015. The game was released on 14 September 2017.
StoryEdit
From the Kickstarter campaign :
Generations after the events of Divinity: Original Sin, the upstart Bishop Alexandar the Innocent has declared Source the sole preserve of the Divine Order. Sourcerers are now criminals, and those suspected of having Source powers are hunted, apprehended, and forcibly purged of their powers -- leaving only empty bodies, devoid of emotion or free will, behind.
Four burgeoning Sourcerers from around the realm are each a victim of Alexandar’s pogrom. There’s a bounty on your head. Divine Order magisters are hunting you. You don’t know who to trust, and the world is anything but your friend.
To save yourself, you'll need to take on the greatest Sourcerer the world has ever known. You'll have to negotiate betrayal and deceit, the politics of a world tearing itself apart, and deal with your own Source powers.
Travelling through majestic cities, dangerous wastelands, lost temples, and war-torn battlefields, you will be looking for a way to defeat Alexandar, discovering that the only way lies deep within yourself.
It will be, without a doubt, the journey of a lifetime.
Features EditOriginsEdit
The SourceEdit
More SkillsEdit
RelationshipsEdit
CharactersEdit
The game will feature 1200 characters, and will be fully voice acted, with over 74,000 lines of dialogue. Around 80 voice actors were hired for the game.[1]
Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive EditionEdit
Divinity; Original Sin II Definitive Edition was developed as a remaster of Divinity: Original Sin II and released on August 31, 2018. Players who owned the original on PC received the remaster as a free update. The new game is also available on PlayStation 4, and XBox One.
In addition to the updated graphics and performance improvements, the new game also rewrites much of the original dialogue and includes new areas, fights, and a new Story difficulty level that allows players to enjoy the lore more and worry about combat less. The character Beast has been rewritten with more dialogue and given a deeper, more enhanced story. The game mechanics in the sewers were also enhanced with additional traps and dangers.
Players who pre-ordered Divinity: Original Sin Definitive Edition on console will be able to recruit Sir Lora - a mini-companion complete with his own storyline, look and animations. In this new story - Sir Lora, a Squirrel Knight, is being chased by the Knights of Drey, an apocalyptic order of furry knights who believe in the coming of the Great Acorn[2] By playing through his story, players will unlock new recipes and uncover the mystery surrounding the Great Acorn.
VideosEdit
Divinity Original Sin 2 - Story Trailer PS4 and Xbox One
ReferencesEdit
The level of customization possible in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is staggering, whether you want to focus on a smooth-talking teleporter with a ton of skills, an undead soldier who knocks down all enemies, an archer who summons corpses, or nearly anything else you can imagine.
In this guide, we're going to go over four epic Original Sin 2 builds with vastly different focuses, from a stealth assassin to a masochistic necromancer who revels in taking damage. With any of these builds, you could either co-op or even potentially solo your way through the game.
Rogue Assassin Build
With this build, you always want to be positioned behind an enemy for backstabbing and generally avoiding detection. On the attribute side, Finesse is probably a better idea than Strength. Don't discount Wits though, as you get a bonus to initiative and critical chance. For your ability points, you want to put your points into Scoundrel for the critical bonus, and of course Stealth for the sneaking.
On the skills, Adrenaline is a must for getting enough action points to kill with a backstab in one turn. Throwing Knife and Backlash also lets you deal backstab damage, while Chloroform can knock out an enemy at the end of your turn without breaking stealth.
If you go for a secondary ability beyond Scoundrel, oddly enough Polymorphing can be helpful, since it lets you fly around and avoid terrain or remove all negative status effects quickly. The Polymorphing skill Chamelon Cloak gives you two turns of pure invisibility without breaking stealth. Warfare isn't nearly as useful as you'd think, since many of the associated attacks aren't helpful for backstabbing and Scoundrel already gives you a bonus to Finesse-based attacks.
Pros
So long as you pick skills that don't break stealth and you have a weapon that benefits from the high Finesse, you can essentially cheese your way through any combat by staying hidden and then quickly backstabbing or knocking an enemy unconscious before they react. Getting items early that provide teleportation abilities will be a must so you have maximum mobility.
Cons
You will generally have lower armour ratings, since you are focused on staying hidden, meaning that status effects will hit you more often. The game is also a good deal slower and more tense if you are always sneaking and having to pay attention to line-of-sight cones.
Rogue Assassin Build
Solo Masochist Necromancer Build
Put either two points into the Necromancer skill, or one in Necromancer and one in Warfare for the bonus damage. When you level up, place your combat points into Retribution. For your weapon, you probably want a big two-handed weapon that does the most base damage possible with devastating criticals.
From the Necromancer side, you absolutely want the Bloodsucker ability, which lets you heal from the ever-present pools of blood on the ground. You may also want to invest in the Leech talent to automatically heal from blood sources if you aren't going the solo route. Mosquito Swarm is another one that both deals damage and heals. If you are mixing Necromancer and Warfare instead of straight necro, either Crippling Blow or Battle Stomp is the way to go.
Pros
Your idea here is to always be healing yourself while reflecting damage back to the enemy. Every point in Necromancer means you automatically heal damage when you deal it, and each point in Reflection increases the amount of damage you automatically deal back to anyone who hits you. In other words, just walking around getting damaged in combat lets you both kill and heal.
Cons
With the Necromancer skill, your vitality only heals when dealing damage directly to enemy vitality, so any enemy with high physical / magical armour will prevent you from healing.
It also takes several levels for the bonuses from Necromancer and Retribution to actually hit useful levels (starting at a measly 10% and 5% with only one point each at first level). However, this can be overcome by taking the Lone Wolf talent instead of Leech.
With Lone Wolf, each skill point is effectively doubled, which halves the amount of time for those skills to reach useful levels. Despite the name, Lone Wolf actually lets you bring along one companion in addition to your main character while still retaining all the benefits of the talent.
Necromancer Skills
Paladin Build
Your archetypal holy knight, this build revolves around battlefield control. You should be dealing out decent damage, knocking down opponents for control frequently, and then healing your party when necessary.
Hydrosophist and Warfare should be your ability picks, giving access to healing and armor boosting spells, in addition to the bonus to straight damage. For skills, your starting picks should be Restoration and Armour Of Frost (which removes negative status effects) -- and your Warfare pick should probably be Battle Stomp, since it gives battlefield control and doesn't affect allies like most area effect spells.
On the weapon front, either sword and shield combo or a two handed weapon focus compliment the build.
Pros
The Paladin build is excellent for your main character because it overcomes a lot of the weaknesses of the five other origin companions. While you won't be flinging fireballs and creating poison clouds, you can gain easy battlefield control and ensure the rest of the party doesn't go down in flames. There are a lot of combos you can do with other party members as well by first creating wet conditions using your Hydrosophist abilities and then creating electrified areas.
ConsDivinity Original Sin 2 Walkthrough
Outside of combat the build isn't nearly as useful, since a simple bedroll you can grab directly at the beginning of game in the ship prevents the need for healing items outside of battle. You also won't be the stealthiest.
Building a Custom Paladin
Divinity Original Sin Ii RomanceElemental Mage / Summoner
Taking the Lizard class for this fire build is a decent idea, since you get the Dragon's Blaze bonus ability to breathe fire. However, you may want to go with Undead instead, since they heal damage from poison, and you will frequently be creating poison clouds.
Your attributes should be focused on Intelligence for bonus spell damage and Memory so you have a broad range of spells to use and are never in a situation with all your skills in cool down. For abilities, of course you want Pyrokinetic and Geomancer.
On the skills, Ignition is less useful than you'd think because it does damage around you, which can hit allies and of course set off oil puddles and end up hurting yourself or other friendlies. Fossil Strike pairs well with Searing Daggers to create a fiery battlefield -- and for maximum map controlling damage, don't forget Poison Dart creates a poison cloud.
For a twist, instead of Pyrokinetic, switch over to Summoning but keep Geomancer. Now pick Conjure Incarnate instead of Searing Daggers. If you summon your Incarnate in a poison cloud, he will deal tons of poison damage to your enemies for you, essentially acting as a bonus free companion.
Mingle2.com is a 100% free dating service. Meet thousands of single men and women from Andalucia for FREE. Stop paying for online dating! Join our site today and meet fun men and women near you looking to meet quality singles from Andalucia. Click on any of the cities in Andalucia below to meet members looking to chat with you. Spain's best FREE dating site! 100% Free Online Dating for Spain Singles at Mingle2.com. Our free personal ads are full of single women and men in Spain looking for serious relationships, a little online flirtation, or new friends to go out with. Start meeting singles in Spain today with our free online personals and free Spain chat! Western Europe Dating:: Spain Dating:: Andalucia Dating:: Andalucia Dating. Andalucia Dating For Free. Connecting Singles is a 100% FREE Andalucia dating site where you can make friends and meet Andalucia singles. Find an activity partner, new friends, a cool date or a soulmate, for a casual or long term relationship. Spain dating site free.
Divinity Original Sin 2 Best PartyPros
AoE is the name of the game here, as you set large swathes of the battlefield on fire or fill it with poisonous vapors. Dual-wielding elemental wands is a great idea so you can deal bonus damage to fleeing enemies who are on fire or poisoned. Even when you aren't hitting, you will still be dealing damage due to everything being on fire.
Cons
It's incredibly easy to end up damaging your own team here with all the area fire and poison effects, and you don't have much of anything in the way of healing or physical armour.
Undead Wizard
These are the four best Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds we've had the most luck with playing through the campaign and dominating in combat. What's your favorite build, and what combos would you recommend for getting through different acts of the game?
If you're looking for more tips on this huge fantasy game, be sure to checl out our full list of Divinity: Original Sin 2 guides to get the most out of your roleplay.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |