Divinity: Original Sin 2: Larian doesn't know what 'original' means

[factotum]

TBF, I think that has more to do with it being highly possible to be underleveled coming out of Fort Joy than it is the encounter being overleveled.

Is it? The final battle before leaving Fort Joy is a pretty tough one, can you really get past it while being very underlevelled? (I suppose, thinking about it, it's possible by random chance that the Voidwoken and the magisters will fight each other and ignore you, but I've done that fight about six times (twice successfully) and that's never come close to happening for me).

[Chen]

Is it? The final battle before leaving Fort Joy is a pretty tough one, can you really get past it while being very underlevelled? (I suppose, thinking about it, it's possible by random chance that the Voidwoken and the magisters will fight each other and ignore you, but I've done that fight about six times (twice successfully) and that's never come close to happening for me).

The fight is super easy if you come in from the left (west) side by teleporting on to the edge from the outside of the castle area. Basically start the fight right next to the caster on the high ground. The worm can't attack you and you have a ton of time to pepper everyone with ranged attacks while they get to you. Don't stand too close to the edge or Alexander will nether swap you with him though. Casting an elemental totem near the edge gets him to swap with that though and then you're surrounding him so he just dies.

[Sholos]

The fight is super easy if you come in from the left (west) side by teleporting on to the edge from the outside of the castle area. Basically start the fight right next to the caster on the high ground. The worm can't attack you and you have a ton of time to pepper everyone with ranged attacks while they get to you. Don't stand too close to the edge or Alexander will nether swap you with him though. Casting an elemental totem near the edge gets him to swap with that though and then you're surrounding him so he just dies.

A lot of the fights become easier once you know all the Twists that are gonna be thrown at you, I've found. In fact, some of them nearly depend on you being prepared for them (by reloading a save, generally). Though with this particular fight, it doesn't really matter where you come in from. The worm can and will still attack you. My friend and I had to run the fight multple times before lucking out on RNG target selection along with actually keeping completely out of the fight for a bit.

[Chen]

A lot of the fights become easier once you know all the Twists that are gonna be thrown at you, I've found. In fact, some of them nearly depend on you being prepared for them (by reloading a save, generally). Though with this particular fight, it doesn't really matter where you come in from. The worm can and will still attack you. My friend and I had to run the fight multple times before lucking out on RNG target selection along with actually keeping completely out of the fight for a bit.

The worm never burrowed onto the highest platform for me in multiple attempts and different runs. I think it's too small for it's model, at least when there are some people standing on it.

[mangosta71]

Both times I've done that fight, the worm attacked whomever was closest to it. All I had to do was maneuver so that the Magisters were between me and it. It took enough damage chewing through the Magisters (especially with me strategically applying damage to keep things balanced) that I was able to mop up easily.

[Anteros]

The worm has always made a straight line for my people, even if it has to teleport past the entire Magister team to do so. The Magisters usually target the worm for me though.

I always approach fights from the high ground if possible, so my strategy has always been to come in from the right side where all the shriekers were and create a sea of poison and fire for the enemy to trudge through to get at me. The worm will teleport on top of me, but I can kill it by the time most of the magisters walk to me, and they're half dead when they get there anyway.

This fight is also really easy to cheese if you just send in one character with stealth, or have them run away when the worm shows up...but that's no fun. I generally feel like approaching fights with "future knowledge" is cheating, even though this game almost encourages you to do it.

[Sholos]

This fight is also really easy to cheese if you just send in one character with stealth, or have them run away when the worm shows up...but that's no fun. I generally feel like approaching fights with "future knowledge" is cheating, even though this game almost encourages you to do it.

Considering how easy it is to die without future knowledge, it's hard not to "cheat".

[Anteros]

Considering how easy it is to die without future knowledge, it's hard not to "cheat".

True enough. I guess I just mean I try not to abuse it too bad and break the game entirely.

[Avilan the Grey]

Just turned 45 yrs old, and got more birthday money than I thought. SO, instead of Mashinky (which I will get soon enough, it looks wonderful) I could afford to buy this.
I never played the first Original Sin game despite having it, because somehow I never got past the character creation screen. I will do it some time of course.
Now the question is how much I will actually play this since I am also stuck in the Sims quagmire ATM. Oh well.

I was thinking of going with either of the women. Proably the human that is resisting a spirit of some sort. Though the elf design looks amazing. It kind of looks like a mix between the High elves from TOS, the elves from Dragon Age and a healthy pinch of some Na'vi in there.*
The undead guy looks dumb, sounds annoying and is well... a skeleton. Skeletons are for grinding down for XP.
The male human is well... a male human warrior (default), meaning he is a dime a dozen.
The red lizard? ...Eh. Maybe.
The Dwarf is a dwarf and therefore should be boycotted by all players with common sense. Because he's a dwarf. Duh.

*Looking wise I never liked the Dragon Age elves, they were not anywhere, design wise. They were basically looking like big-handed teenagers (humans) with pointy ears in Origins, and like Vulcans in Inquisition.
I prefer my elves either like extremely beautiful humans (with pointy ears of course) or more alien. Like these.

Anyway, enough ranting.
Any tips for a noob? Please?

[Keltest]

Of the origins, I think Fane and Lohse are the most interesting ones. Fane is really good... for a second playthough, IMO, because a lot of the stuff he knows about are otherwise only revealed halfway through the game, and he wont share it with you if you aren't playing as him.

Even if you don't play as him though, I think he's worth bringing along. He's rather insightful and if you make him a rogue he doesn't need lockpicks.

The other origins can be interesting, but their stories can be experienced just as well by having them as companions, for the most part.

[Avilan the Grey]

Of the origins, I think Fane and Lohse are the most interesting ones. Fane is really good... for a second playthough, IMO, because a lot of the stuff he knows about are otherwise only revealed halfway through the game, and he wont share it with you if you aren't playing as him.

Even if you don't play as him though, I think he's worth bringing along. He's rather insightful and if you make him a rogue he doesn't need lockpicks.

The other origins can be interesting, but their stories can be experienced just as well by having them as companions, for the most part.

Lohse is the human mage woman right? Good.
Anything I need to look out for? I don't want spoilers, but are there anythings I definitely SHOULDN't do when building my character?

[Keltest]

Lohse is the human mage woman right? Good.
Anything I need to look out for? I don't want spoilers, but are there anythings I definitely SHOULDN't do when building my character?

Barring mods, you have 4 party slots. The standard D&D group of fighter, rogue, offense caster, support caster does very well. The class you pick doesn't actually do much to determine your class, its just a preset. Like Skyrim, you aren't bound by how you start.

Warfare is the fighter skill, and it usually does damage to and is blocked by physical armor. Scoundrel is the rogue skill, which does a mix of both kinds of damage with some debuffs thrown in; you can use huntsman if you prefer a bow to knives, but ultimately theyre both about hurting people with weapons. Hydrosophist is the primary healing and support school, restoring both health and magic armor, and dealing damage to the same. The offensive wizard slot has a couple different options, but Pyrokinetic offers the most raw damage to things without resistance to it.

Other than that... buff the crap out of your main damage stat. Memory when you need more ability slots, pick one character to put a few points into wits (but only one) so you can see hidden things, and con is a trap.

A few things to wrap up: Geomancy is a complimentary school to warfare and pyrokinetic, because it creates burnable surfaces and heals physical armor. Aerotheurge is likewise for hydrosophist because it can take advantage of all the water it leaves around. Necromancy sucks, don't put more than a point or two into it. Polymorph has a bunch of buffs, many of which are nice to have, but it doesn't have an obvious compliment like some of the other schools do. Summoning has a fair amount of flexibility, but needs a lot of effort to completely replace one of the primary schools at their job.

The defensive abilities are nice to have, but I struggle to put more than one or two points in them because that means fewer in my spellcasting skills. I never put anything in the weapon skills unless I'm super specializing in regular attack damage.

[Avilan the Grey]

Thank you!
Now let's see if I can scew that up

[Avilan the Grey]

...only had time to look at stuff a bit this morning.
How much do I gain or lose playing / not playing an Origin character?

[factotum]

Summoning has a fair amount of flexibility, but needs a lot of effort to completely replace one of the primary schools at their job.

However, Summoning is extremely powerful in its own right--a fully-buffed Incarnate can easily out-damage your specialist warriors, even in the late game, and you can have them deal physical or magic damage depending on what surface you conjure them in.

On an unrelated note, got something I encountered on my second playthrough I missed first time around:

Spoiler

Show

In the Academy of the Seven on the Nameless Isle the ghosts of the academy masters are still sitting in the room where they were killed. These guys will give you a buff if you speak to them that lowers one of your stats by 5 and increases another by 5. First question: why on earth do you need this when you can respec your attributes at the magic mirror on the Lady Vengeance? Secondly, it can cause real problems if you accept one of these "buffs", because I inadvertently lowered my main character's strength to 5. Respeccing your attributes *appears* to remove the boost, but it's still secretly there and invisible, so your character will find themselves randomly unable to move because of encumbrance even though this doesn't show up in their character description. So, overall, this is a buggier method of doing something you could have done anyway!

[Rynjin]

As an Origin character you gain a preset background and unique skill (which is usually on par with or worse than the default custom character one, unless you're Fane), and lose out on the blank slate of the custom gen people.

I personally have preferred playing as an origin character for the unique dialogue and voice acting. Gameplay-wise they're identical to a pure custom character.

[Cozzer]

I found Necromancy pretty useful for my undead wizard. It has a few spells that target Physical amor, useful if I need to quickly coup-de-grace an enemy that's been targeted by my warriors. The most useful thing, though, is its passive bonus (the character heals himself whenever he hurts someone's vitality), since it's pretty hard to heal undeads.

[Avilan the Grey]

I still haven't decided if I go Origin and in that case as what.
On one hand yes, I enjoy good stories.
On the other hand I generally hate playing pre-made characters. The only one I have really enjoyed was Shepard and that's because Hale is awesome.

As I understand it you don't really miss out on their origin stories if you play a custom character, it's just like if you were playing Baldurs Gate or PoE. You lead a bunch of freaks around and help them with their quests.

Another issue is build. I think I'll go as some sort of mage if I play Lohse but what exactly? I don't want to play support really.

Edit: Anyone knows who does her voice? She sound very very familiar.

[Cozzer]

I've just finished a Lohse playthrough, and support + Summoning is very viable and fun (also, having her primary skill be Summoning sort of fits her backstory, I think). I went finesse-based, with Huntsman, Summoning and Hydrosophist, but going int-based with Geomancer, Hydrosophist and Summoning would be very effective, I think.

I think you don't lose anything by being a pre-made character, anyway. You still get all of the standard dialogue options, plus a few specific one for your character that you can ignore if they don't fit the way you see him/her.

[factotum]

Another issue is build. I think I'll go as some sort of mage if I play Lohse but what exactly? I don't want to play support really.

Edit: Anyone knows who does her voice? She sound very very familiar.

All magic schools have offensive abilities, even the ones that are primarily aimed at support like Hydrosophist--in fact, in some cases those offensive abilities will do better work than a Geomancer or Pyrokinetic, because you can find guys who are highly resistant to fire or earth damage but weak to Water, for instance. Also note that you are personally controlling all the characters in your party whatever happens, so at least one of them is going to primarily be support and you'll be playing them, or else you'll not get very far!

According to IMDB her voice is supplied by Tamaryn Payne, but I doubt she's who you're thinking of because she mostly appears to have acted in British soap operas. Apparently she voiced a "Pit Fighter" in the Telltale Games "Game of Thrones", so maybe you've heard of her from that?

[Keltest]

I still haven't decided if I go Origin and in that case as what.
On one hand yes, I enjoy good stories.
On the other hand I generally hate playing pre-made characters. The only one I have really enjoyed was Shepard and that's because Hale is awesome.

As I understand it you don't really miss out on their origin stories if you play a custom character, it's just like if you were playing Baldurs Gate or PoE. You lead a bunch of freaks around and help them with their quests.

Another issue is build. I think I'll go as some sort of mage if I play Lohse but what exactly? I don't want to play support really.

Edit: Anyone knows who does her voice? She sound very very familiar.

That would be why I recommended Lohse and Fane if you wanted to play an origin. More than any of the others, their origins have a lot of details hidden that you can only access if youre playing as them. There are a few conversations you have throughout the game with your racial god, for example, and its different for them than it would be for other humans, even Ifan.

[Avilan the Grey]

Thanks for all the input.
Now, wizard or enchanter? I think I have narrowed it down to one of those.

[factotum]

Thanks for all the input.
Now, wizard or enchanter? I think I have narrowed it down to one of those.

Well, bear in mind that the class you pick only affects your starting skills and talents (both of which can be changed using the magic mirror later in the game), so it doesn't really matter much. The enchanter is Hydrosophist/Aerotheurge which means they have all the support skills like Teleportation and Restoration, while the wizard is Geomancer/Pyrokinetic so is more about blasting now, blasting later and blasting all the bits in between as well. As I said earlier, though, you can still do the blasting thing as an enchanter, so I guess it really comes down to: do you prefer blasting someone with lighting and then freezing the sparking remnants into ice cubes (enchanter), or covering them with sticky oil and then setting it on fire (wizard)?

[Keltest]

Well, bear in mind that the class you pick only affects your starting skills and talents (both of which can be changed using the magic mirror later in the game), so it doesn't really matter much. The enchanter is Hydrosophist/Aerotheurge which means they have all the support skills like Teleportation and Restoration, while the wizard is Geomancer/Pyrokinetic so is more about blasting now, blasting later and blasting all the bits in between as well. As I said earlier, though, you can still do the blasting thing as an enchanter, so I guess it really comes down to: do you prefer blasting someone with lighting and then freezing the sparking remnants into ice cubes (enchanter), or covering them with sticky oil and then setting it on fire (wizard)?

And heck, during character creation you can even switch out which skills you start with, so the name is largely meaningless. Pick which you like and run with it.

[Avilan the Grey]

I want the rain / ice / electricity combo but I would also like some summoning...

[factotum]

I want the rain / ice / electricity combo but I would also like some summoning...

I'm not sure that attempting to cram three skills into one character is worth it, to be honest. Skills max out at level 10 (ignoring bonuses from gear) and you'll not be much beyond level 20 when you finish the entire game, so there isn't really room to fully develop three. However, don't forget that you have recruitable party members (after the prologue, at any rate) and you can specify what skills you want them to have when you recruit them, so don't think you have to get all the good stuff onto your main character--choose a pair of skills that combo nicely for them and put the third skill onto one of your companions.

[Keltest]

I'm not sure that attempting to cram three skills into one character is worth it, to be honest. Skills max out at level 10 (ignoring bonuses from gear) and you'll not be much beyond level 20 when you finish the entire game, so there isn't really room to fully develop three. However, don't forget that you have recruitable party members (after the prologue, at any rate) and you can specify what skills you want them to have when you recruit them, so don't think you have to get all the good stuff onto your main character--choose a pair of skills that combo nicely for them and put the third skill onto one of your companions.

Its possible if you pick the Lone Wolf feat, but that restricts you to at most two party members (who presumably both have Lone Wolf), which becomes rather challenging since the bonus to armor types from the feat doesn't really compare to just having a second character not being CC'd or targeted.

[Avilan the Grey]

I'm not sure that attempting to cram three skills into one character is worth it, to be honest. Skills max out at level 10 (ignoring bonuses from gear) and you'll not be much beyond level 20 when you finish the entire game, so there isn't really room to fully develop three. However, don't forget that you have recruitable party members (after the prologue, at any rate) and you can specify what skills you want them to have when you recruit them, so don't think you have to get all the good stuff onto your main character--choose a pair of skills that combo nicely for them and put the third skill onto one of your companions.

See, this is a different philosophy than what I have when playing these kinds of games.
It doesn't matter if the game is party based; I always treat the "player character" as the main character and the others are there to support him or her and make sure he or she doesn't die. This means that the main character will have the best gear and coolest skills, because unless a piece of equipment is tailored to someone else, my character will wear it.*

Basically the main character is "me". The others not so much.

As for skills... don't you always start with three anyway? I guess a rain / hale / Wind combo is better by default, though, than a wind / hale / summoning combo.

*This is alsy why I dislike games like Icewind Dale, where you custom build all characters. I want a clear "me".

[factotum]

As for skills... don't you always start with three anyway? I guess a rain / hale / Wind combo is better by default, though, than a wind / hale / summoning combo.

You don't start with three skills in the way you're thinking--you generally start with two combat skills and one non-combat skill (the latter being stuff like Thievery and Loremaster). Combat skills and non-combat skills are entirely separate and have separate progression, so you can't put non-combat skill points into combat skills and vice versa.

As for the note about equipment, all equipment has a minimum requirement in Strength, Finesse, Intelligence or Constitution. These requirements aren't too onerous (I don't think they go above 14, when you start at 10) but you'd still need to waste points in a non-core stat for your character to be able to literally wear anything.

[Cozzer]

Personally, I gave three "main" skills to a couple characters and I had no problems. If you want a summoner/mage you should put most of the points into Summoning, since that's not influenced by Attributes, and then put a lot of attribute points into Int to balance your lowish magic skills. And then, of course, do everything you can to get yourself some items that give you relevant bonuses.

By the end of the game, for example, I had about 7 natural Summoning, 4 in the other two main skills (Hydrosophist and Huntsman), and 4 in my damage skill (Ranged). Thanks to items, my actual Summoning score was never below 10, which let me summon Master Incarnates, which are freaking powerhouses if properly buffed. If you are a mage, you can ignore damage skills and you'll have more points to play with.

(My Fane, for example, spread his skill points more or less evenly between Necro, Pyro, Aero and Geo. Maybe his spells were less powerful than they could have been, but he could always target a weakness, or at least avoid resistances. And he had a few useful buffs too. It depends on whether you like having a few really powerful attacks, or lots of versatility).