Fairy Tips for Divinity - Original Sin Enhanced Edition

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Rynea
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Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:17 pm

Hi all,

I wanted to write down some tips and tricks that you may or (hopefully) may not know yet. I won't go into details what the game is, or any quests etc. Just mechanics, playstyle for encounters and general things to keep in mind how to build your characters.

As for the videos be aware that I will list bosses etc. here and include info that you might only find out after fighting enemies first. Some will see this as a spoiler. If thats the case only watch the specific videos (and the notes below) after having fought them already and requiring some additional infos.

Leveling
If you do most or all of the quests you should be around level 21 or 22 before the end of the game. I will therefore outline stat and ability distributions that focus on a maximum level of 21.

Party Builds and Tactics

Class Names
Class names are pure '***' and don't mean anything in the game other than visual starting gear. Everything depends on skills (including magic) and talents/traits that you pick as well as the statistics distribution. If you can, customize your characters before starting a game. While the base versions of the character picks are not necessarily bad, they rarely work very well together if you want to have your party in sync properly to support each other, as such you want to adapt it to your liking. I personally group class choices based on your main attribute and main play style with a character into three choices. Melee (strength based) with obviously melee weapons, Ranged and Rogue classes with ranged weapons (I throw melee rogues into melee) as well as Mage classes that use mainly magic attacks.

Healing

Healing Magic while very useful to have is not as powerful and fast acting in a combat situation as you might expect from other games. As such combat 'counter' healing in a battle situation and then attacking enemies head on with a healer behind tanks is rarely working very well. The incoming damage will nearly always be higher than the amount you can heal even with a dedicated healer while more than one healer often means that you cripple your damage and crowd control potential in larger fights.

Crowd Control, Kiting
Crowd Control and kiting are not only viable options for larger fights, but in many situations with higher difficulty nearly a requirement. Ice spells work very well to slow down a group of attacking enemies, while aerotheurge spells provide easy ways of additional mobility. Summons of all kinds eat up damage in a fire and forget way and even the numbers in many battles slightly more in your favor.

Melee & Ranged
While not impossible, melee characters have a harder time in the game than ranged characters, especially on harder difficulty levels where head on fights are hard to realize because of above mentioned healing situation as well as a lack of multi target spells that work well without harming your own party members.

Fights of attrition are great for other games, but unlike in other games you cannot turn your tank in an inpenetrable fortress and even the best defense will not prevent damage completely. Offense will nearly always be your best defense as offensive abilities and quickly finishing battles before it even started and crowd controlling enemies before they become a problem will help you more than dragged out battles that will deplete your ressources faster than you can gather them.

Pure & Hybrid Characters
It has become a lot harder in the enhanced edition game to focus purely on a single set of magic skills as the potency of higher level spells and abilities on their own are not synergizing well enough to survive with pure characters in higher difficulties. Also they made a change that you no longer all spells of a school but only a second master level spell after investing 5 points into the skill. The points are usually better spent having more variety instead.

Build a good mix of abilities and cherry pick what you want to work with and use it all together to further your tactics for your battles. Never forget that in DOS melee characters are not limited to a melee weapon heavy armor setup, neither are mages or rogues to their respective abilities that you might be used to from other games.

Some of the most powerful 'melee' class abilities actually work best for a mage, and the mobility potential of many aerotheurge skills is immensely helpful for a melee. Build your characters based on what abilities you want to take, not based on classes. To get the most out of it, cherry picking from magic trees is useful for nearly all builds.

Statistic Points
Statistics can be split into Main Statistics that are the focus for your class(es) like STR, DEX and INT as well as supportive Statistics CON, SPD, PER that are useful in more or less ways for all classes. With a total level of 21 you will get a total of 15 statistic point to distribute. You can put a maximum of 10 points into one attribute and each starts with a base of 5 points. This means your total you can get in any single attribute as base value will be 15.

What does every attribute provide?

Strength (STR)
Boosts Man-at-Arms skills
+20 Weight per point (base 10)
+6 Offense Rating per point for Strength-based Weapons

Dexterity (DEX)
Boosts Expert Marksman, Scoundrel skills
+5 Defense rating per point above 5? (base 4xLevel)
+6 Offense Rating per point for Dexterity-Based Weapons

Intelligence (INT)
Boosts Aerotheurge, Geomancer, Hydrosophist, Pyrokinetic, Witchcraft skills
Every 2 intelligence points after the spell "INT requirement" reduces the cooldown by 1 turn, up to 2 turns (So 4 INT better than requirement is all that you need)+6 Offense Rating per point for Intelligence-Based Weapons

Constitution (CON)
+1 Maximum Action Points per point (base 7)
+6.2 Vitality per point and level (+7.13 in normal difficulty due to the +15% bonus)

Speed (SPD)
+0.1 Movement per point
+0.5 Initiative per point
+0.5 Start Action Points per point (base 2)
+0.5 Turn Action Points per point (base 3.5)

Perception (PER)
+1.0 Hearing per point
+0.5 Initiative per point
+0.5 Start Action Points per point (base 2)
+2% Critical Chance per point above 5
Ability to detect traps
Accuracy when shooting over distances
Every 0.2 meters from the target reduces chance to hit by 1%
Each point of Perception increases the distance before penalties due to range take effect by 0.4 meters

Statistic Distribution
Usually the best distribution is to go for one main stat attribute for your character, based on your main attack type and then go for SPD and CON for everything else. PER is mostly useful for ranged characters like ranged rogues and archers (and even then can nearly always be covered with items), but not very useful for everyone else as the range bonus does not affect magic spells or melee and the other values can easily be raised by items in mid game and later.

As for the action point limits and its usefulness, using the glass cannon trait you should keep CON at about the same values at SPD or slightly lower, while for non glass cannon builds having CON at half of the SPD value should be fine for gaining maximum Action point benefits. Keep SPD at uneven numbers if you can to benefit the most out of it.

Base stat recommendations for various classes at end level (21):
Mage Type: STR 5, DEX 5, INT 15, SPD 7, CON 7, PER 5, 1 Free to distribute as you like
Melee Warrior/Mage: STR 15, DEX 5, INT 5, SPD 7, CON 8, PER 5
Ranged Rogue/Archer/Mage: STR 5, DEX 15, INT 5, SPD 7, CON 7, PER 6, Gear for some PER
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Rynea
Posts: 411
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Location: Vienna, Austria
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Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:17 pm

Example Starting Group

Wizard 5 STR 5 DEX 8 INT 5 CON 7 SPD 5 PER
Aero 1 Geom 1 Hydro 1 Pyro 1 Leader 1
Far Out Man, Elemental Affinity
Bitter Cold (Aero), Regeneration (Hydro) Summon Spider (Geo)

Ranger 5 STR 8 DEX 5 INT 5 CON 7 SPD 5 PER
Bow 1 Expert Marksman 1 Scoundrel 1 Sneaking 1 Witchcraft 1
Arrow Recovery, Bully
Malediction, Ricochet, Walk in Shadows

I am making some battle encounter vids as examples. All vids are on tactician difficulty. It's been a long time since I've played last time so battles might not be exactly perfect, but they should give you an idea of what to do with certain combinations and how to act in battle. If you have your own versions that might feature totally different combinations and/or show some better approach, feel free to let me know and I add them along with your credits.

First Encounter - Outside the first Training Dungeon
[MEDIA=youtube]1V65TwdRg0c[/MEDIA]

Some pointers:
-) Use some kiting to get away from the main group
-) Use summons to re-focus the targets away from you and to gather them in one place
-) Use toxic grenades, or use the enemies poison cloud skill to trigger an explosion with any fire spell or your staff with fire if you get a good chance to hit most/all without being in melee combat yourself

Ragequin - First Dungeon
[MEDIA=youtube]OadPNr69ko8[/MEDIA]

Some pointers:
-) Ragequin 'spaws' a Ghost of himself after death, essentially giving him two lives, plan ressources accordingly
-) Ragequin creates zones that will explode for a grenade like AoE effect after 1 turn
-) Archers have a high chance of stunning, try to stay out of range, have a summon buffer or get them down before they can stunlock your characters.
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Rynea
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Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:25 pm

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MavenOfMisfortune
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Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:26 am

I'd like to really emphasize Rynea's point about Crowd Control. Unlike most RPGs, tougher enemies, optional challenges, and even main story bosses are not 100% immune to most or all status effects. In fact, most enemies and bosses are actually reasonably vulnerable to them assuming you're intelligent! This is a game where spells that reduce Willpower, Body Building, or other stats are actually highly versatile and useful, where taking a chance on applying a highly potent status effect can save your life, and where weird arrows or unique items can turn the tide of battle.

Trust in the potency of your buffs, debuffs, and status effects. Crowd control can sometimes win you a battle by itself if you're smart. And don't be discouraged by the early game. Your full toolset doesn't come in usually until you're already a decent way through the first zone.
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