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

[factotum]

I had Sebille with me on my second playthrough. I made her rather less of a glass cannon by making her main skill Polymorph--you get a free stat point with every point you put into that, so I pumped her Constitution. You can also make good use of Flesh Sacrifice and Adrenaline to make sure she gets enough backstabs in to put down whatever enemy she's standing behind. Flurry is like the dual wielding equivalent of All In--don't bother using it unless you have exactly 3 action points left and no way to gain any more, because you'll do more damage with two regular attacks than with a single Flurry. I found myself using the actual skills granted by Polymorph less and less as the game went on, though, because she was just dealing so much more damage with backstabs that they were largely useless.

Oh, and I had a one-point drop into Warfare for her so she could learn Battle Stomp--it does ranged damage based on your weapon damage, and knocks down enemies with little or no physical armour, so it's enormously useful. Beast also had Battle Stomp, and he and the Incarnate also had Battering Ram, so they were great for crowd control!

[Avilan the Grey]

I did go another way with her (I will pump her CON some more): Necromancy, to boost health by doing damage.
As for a second playthrough... I am already dreading it a bit because I don't think I'll change my party. The two I left out are left out because I really don't find them interesting.

[Keltest]

I had Sebille with me on my second playthrough. I made her rather less of a glass cannon by making her main skill Polymorph--you get a free stat point with every point you put into that, so I pumped her Constitution. You can also make good use of Flesh Sacrifice and Adrenaline to make sure she gets enough backstabs in to put down whatever enemy she's standing behind. Flurry is like the dual wielding equivalent of All In--don't bother using it unless you have exactly 3 action points left and no way to gain any more, because you'll do more damage with two regular attacks than with a single Flurry. I found myself using the actual skills granted by Polymorph less and less as the game went on, though, because she was just dealing so much more damage with backstabs that they were largely useless.

Oh, and I had a one-point drop into Warfare for her so she could learn Battle Stomp--it does ranged damage based on your weapon damage, and knocks down enemies with little or no physical armour, so it's enormously useful. Beast also had Battle Stomp, and he and the Incarnate also had Battering Ram, so they were great for crowd control!

Flight and Tentacle Lash are useful to keep on your bar at all times. Atrophy is a debuff that cannot be underestimated, especially on an opening volley that has a pretty high possibility of burning through all their physical armor.

its one of the few times where using physical attacks against the melee fighters is as good as using spell attacks against them, because turning off all their attacks and skills is just too good to pass up.

[Avilan the Grey]

HUh. I just got the achivement "Apprentice - Use your first Source skill".
I am still in Fort Joy and still collared. Weird.

[factotum]

Flight and Tentacle Lash are useful to keep on your bar at all times.

Flight is less useful for Sebille because she can already get two effective short-range teleport skills--Backlash and Cloak and Dagger. I think Flight has longer range, but that's a problem less often than you'd think. Tentacle Lash only really works when the enemy's physical armour is down, and I would rather knock them over in that situation than remove their weapon--even a melee character can have some nasty spells in their arsenal, but they can't use weapons *or* spells when they're lying on the floor!

[Avilan the Grey]

Another dumb question:
Is something supposed to trigger with the Paladin arguing outside? I can walk in circles around them and they keep repeaiting dialogue forever.

[Keltest]

Flight is less useful for Sebille because she can already get two effective short-range teleport skills--Backlash and Cloak and Dagger. I think Flight has longer range, but that's a problem less often than you'd think. Tentacle Lash only really works when the enemy's physical armour is down, and I would rather knock them over in that situation than remove their weapon--even a melee character can have some nasty spells in their arsenal, but they can't use weapons *or* spells when they're lying on the floor!

Flight is nice because it makes you immune to those pesky surfaces, which tends to be one of the more troublesome things that get Sebille killed or otherwise more wounded than I really want her to be.

I also like it for exploration, because it has a much shorter cooldown than C&D, which mean less waiting around.

Another dumb question:
Is something supposed to trigger with the Paladin arguing outside? I can walk in circles around them and they keep repeaiting dialogue forever.

Yes, but I think it might be broken. You can just shank one of the magisters and start combat, and the trigger will go on.

[Avilan the Grey]

Flight is nice because it makes you immune to those pesky surfaces, which tends to be one of the more troublesome things that get Sebille killed or otherwise more wounded than I really want her to be.

I also like it for exploration, because it has a much shorter cooldown than C&D, which mean less waiting around.



Yes, but I think it might be broken. You can just shank one of the magisters and start combat, and the trigger will go on.

Thanks.
I googled this for 20 minutes yesteday and didn't get a hit. Then I posted this, and immediately afterwards found one.
Yes it is broken, apparently the last patch bugged it out so the magisters were auto-hostile from get go (no dialogue, just fight). While fixing it they put in a temp block this way (apparently) so you can trigger it on your own terms, somehow.

[factotum]

Flight is nice because it makes you immune to those pesky surfaces, which tends to be one of the more troublesome things that get Sebille killed or otherwise more wounded than I really want her to be.

Admittedly, I've only ever played the game in Classic difficulty, but I've never found surfaces to be a big problem. The critical thing is not to go running through them--if you use teleportation abilities to move around, ranged attacks where possible, and otherwise stand still, you don't take much damage from them (so long as you have halfway decent magic armour, of course). The AI *does* tend to go running through them and thus takes far more damage than you ever do.

I found Sebille to be most vulnerable to physical attacks, because Finesse-based armour tends to be fairly evenly balanced between magical and physical armour and dual wielding leaves no room for a shield--that means she had by far the weakest physical armour of any of my four characters, making her very vulnerable to Battle Stomp, Overpower, Crippling Blow and the like.

[Keltest]

Admittedly, I've only ever played the game in Classic difficulty, but I've never found surfaces to be a big problem. The critical thing is not to go running through them--if you use teleportation abilities to move around, ranged attacks where possible, and otherwise stand still, you don't take much damage from them (so long as you have halfway decent magic armour, of course). The AI *does* tend to go running through them and thus takes far more damage than you ever do.

I found Sebille to be most vulnerable to physical attacks, because Finesse-based armour tends to be fairly evenly balanced between magical and physical armour and dual wielding leaves no room for a shield--that means she had by far the weakest physical armour of any of my four characters, making her very vulnerable to Battle Stomp, Overpower, Crippling Blow and the like.

Odd, ive never actually seen an enemy run through a surface they could avoid unless they were healed by it (or flying). That's part of why I like to have her able to avoid them: I tend to scatter them around the enemies so that they cant maneuver very well without taking damage or teleporting.

[Avilan the Grey]

I think the AI has a "No" on that UNLESS it has no choice.
I realized that yesterday when I blocked the access for the flesh golems then firebombed them. The monks and the golems kept retreating and then their pathfinding realized the only way to us was thru the barricade, so a turn or so later they ran back into the fire to attack it.

[Anteros]

I've seen the AI run through it before. Like, a group will split and half will come at me through the fire and the other half will go around. No idea why it happens.

[factotum]

In general, the AI will run through fire if it's the only way to get to you, and if you're stationary in the middle of a pool of fire, that's always going to be the case--hence why I said standing still was the best approach to dealing with surfaces.

[Keltest]

In general, the AI will run through fire if it's the only way to get to you, and if you're stationary in the middle of a pool of fire, that's always going to be the case--hence why I said standing still was the best approach to dealing with surfaces.

Well, personally I like to throw a lot of lightning around, so even just getting Shocked status can be exceptionally annoying on my rogue, because it means one less backstab AA.

[Avilan the Grey]

I absolutely adore Sebille; but then she follows... a pattern of sorts.
My two favorite female characters ever are Viconia and Jack. So...

[Avilan the Grey]

Okay. I have cleared the soul jar room, on purpose getting into fights. Now off to the Arena and then... end game for this area.
I will try to get some upgrades for my Summon.

Edit: I REALLY Like this game. It gives me the same feeling now as Baldur's Gate 2 gave me when it was new.

[factotum]

Okay. I have cleared the soul jar room, on purpose getting into fights. Now off to the Arena and then... end game for this area.

Do you mean "end game for Fort Joy"? Because there's a lot of stuff to do on the rest of the island, and the Arena is something you generally do around level 3 or 4--I'd expect you to be at least level 7 before you leave the entire island.

[Anteros]

I usually wipe out Griff's gang and all the magisters too before I leave the fort.

[factotum]

I was thinking more of High Judge Orivand and the magisters who are fighting Paladin Cork--I don't usually kill Griff and his gang because they're just as much prisoners as everyone else, however unpleasant he is personally. Heck, if the game gave me the option to do so I'd free all the Fort Joy prisoners before leaving the island!

[mangosta71]

I usually get caught stealing and have to murder everyone in Fort Joy.

[Anteros]

I was thinking more of High Judge Orivand and the magisters who are fighting Paladin Cork--I don't usually kill Griff and his gang because they're just as much prisoners as everyone else, however unpleasant he is personally. Heck, if the game gave me the option to do so I'd free all the Fort Joy prisoners before leaving the island!

I kill Griff and his gang because they threaten to kill me at least 3 times, and I catch them in the act of murdering someone else at least once. I do spare Butters or w/e her name is though since you can get her on your side.

[Avilan the Grey]

Do you mean "end game for Fort Joy"? Because there's a lot of stuff to do on the rest of the island, and the Arena is something you generally do around level 3 or 4--I'd expect you to be at least level 7 before you leave the entire island.

End game for the slums.

[Cozzer]

I didn't want to kill Griff, but he attacked me when I refused to do something he ordered me to do and well, that's now how one behaves to the main characters. (I actually reloaded a couple times and tried to find a way to convince him, but couldn't find it)

[Chen]

I didn't want to kill Griff, but he attacked me when I refused to do something he ordered me to do and well, that's now how one behaves to the main characters. (I actually reloaded a couple times and tried to find a way to convince him, but couldn't find it)

Regarding Griff and the thief

Spoiler

Show

If it's for turning in Stingtail, you can give Stingtail up and then high tail it over to where he's sleeping and kill the assassin before they kill Stingtail. That's the most "good" way of doing that part I think

[Anteros]

Regarding Griff and the thief

Spoiler

Show

If it's for turning in Stingtail, you can give Stingtail up and then high tail it over to where he's sleeping and kill the assassin before they kill Stingtail. That's the most "good" way of doing that part I think

This is what I do. I also go back and Kill Griff and his gang after though. They were willing to murder the elf girl as soon as you enter the fort. They were willing to murder me at the card game if I didn't pay them. They were willing to murder me again if I don't turn in Stingtail. Then, they send an assassin after Stingtail. I've interacted with these people for all of an hour and they've been involved in something like 4 murder attempts. It's time for them to go.

[Avilan the Grey]

This is what I do. I also go back and Kill Griff and his gang after though. They were willing to murder the elf girl as soon as you enter the fort. They were willing to murder me at the card game if I didn't pay them. They were willing to murder me again if I don't turn in Stingtail. Then, they send an assassin after Stingtail. I've interacted with these people for all of an hour and they've been involved in something like 4 murder attempts. It's time for them to go.

I just want to be sure I don't need to buy anything more from those people before killing them...
...that said... Who's this "Stingtail" person? Are you talking about the blue needle feed that's been rotting on the beach for days now?

[factotum]

Hmmm. Guessing you spoke to him with Sebille in tow, Avilan?

[Avilan the Grey]

Hmmm. Guessing you spoke to him with Sebille in tow, Avilan?

The second time, yes. I saw Sebille on the ledge, walked past her to let the Prince talk to him first (didn't know if they would interfere with eachother) then went up, talked to her (at that time she had moved down the beach, almost to us), invited her to join and let her do her thing. As Lohse (me) pointed out afterwards: If he had done that to ME, I would have done the same thing.

[Anteros]

There's a short quest line involving him that you missed. It's no big deal.

[Chen]

There's a short quest line involving him that you missed. It's no big deal.

You can still do the quest if you meet him first with Sebille. Check the crate near Stingtail. Not sure if you have to bring the orange back to Griff.