Divinity: Original Sin II - Starter Guide
 

PC Gamer has some tips for Divinity: Original Sin II beginners:

More information.

They're right about picking an origin character giving extra dialogue options, I've run into a fair few in just the opening area with the elf character.

Importantest thing to know about this game: JUNKWARE

It also change some of their quest related interactions or after quest related interactions.

I did some Lohse as main and then Lohse as companion (with Sebille as main) and I ended up preferring Lohse as a companion because of it.

Aye I have been torn on the origin character. I just don't like playing pre-made characters as much. I like to make my own history and background. If I play it a second time I going to play Ifan though.

Even though the characters are pre-made, you can still customize almost everything, so personally I don't see a point in creating a character from scratch. Especially as you miss out on quite a bit without one of the pre-made characters.

I just started, and am now going to restart with an origin character … I guess I just default to 'roll your own', even if I don't really 'draw outside the lines' in character creation.

Arggggh … decisions :p

Thing is Ifan is my favorite by far but if I play him then he won't be a companion. I have no interest in playing any of the other origins because if I play a pre-made character I want one I can connect to and I can connect to Ifan. It is why I never got more than 20-30 hours into the Witcher 3. Couldn't connect to Geralt. I like many of the characters but as far as playing one - I need some bond to do that.

I kind of like Beast.

True, same here for Fane the dead human.

Let's see…

Pick an origin character - This is a good suggestion if you want to play with a character's skills/attribs preset. But you lock yourself out of some wild combinations - till you get to the point of respec in the game. You sure you want to do this?

Save money on lockpicks, get a skeleton - I'm playing as Fane. If I didn't I'd definetly have him around, he's OP and not just because of lockpicks. Oh yeah, up his thieving at least by 1.

Click on everything and everyone - Only the most ignorant gaming site can write this as a suggestion. People are not dumb, DOS2 is not MMOgamer's usual grindy MMO.

Talk to animals - Shall I rolleyes here too? Ifan is a mandatory party member because of OP xbows. Additionally he can… Well.

Protect the black cat - Unless you're playing as or have as party member Red Prince, don't bother with this. Black Cat is piss poor low HP familiar and you'll have teleport spell anyway.

Make liberal use of quicksave - Another rolleyes. Why is this even written? This ain't shallow MMO. And instead I'd say make separate manual savegames before entering an area.

Retreating is fine - No it's not fine. Actual retreating by 2-3 AP walks and not fleeing is a must! Gather boxes, chairs, paintings, barrels at a spot then lure trashmobs into your trap by retreating!

Environmental effects are handy and deadly - "A Necromancer, for instance, can make it rain blood", not really, blood rain needs something else besides necromancy, who wrote this? Necromancer can set decay on a living trashmob then you heal that character and they die. Also Necromancy level has a HP leach effect, etc. Back to env. effects - just make sure you don't get the party caught in friendly fire.

Grab a bedroll as soon as possible - Seriously?

Don’t forget to rotate the camera - Thank god they stopped with irrelevant clickbait article bullshit there.

Yea i was a bit disappointed with the article but not really worth critique.

Welcome to the age of "watch some streams and write a 'review', no purchase required"

I decided I didn't want to miss out and Ifan seems custom made for me anyhow - considering how much I love wolves and dogs … and he has his soul wolf.

Did customize a lot to bring in my own lore. Really like all the options you have. Went with a hard-hitting rogue with water/ice magic who has great wit, finesse, and intelligence. Pet pal of course.

Also a first impressions review for those curious from Kotaku (some small spoilers for the initial Fort Joy area):

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/09/15…-is-brilliant/

I'm playing on tactian mode and perhaps it was a mistake. Hate to start over but i worry that as the game progress i'll reach a point of just too painful. Part of the issue is that this is my first real game of D:OS-2 (in D:OS i wouldn't dare play below tactian but that's because I'm fluent in the game); and I haven't quite learn all the mechanics yet. All of my characters 'cept archer require a shield which really limits the hit power of my tank. shield are just too important (I think). Also i have no clue how necro et all will play out later in the game.
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I have beast, ifan, and the two ladies. So I guess no undead for me. If I start over I'll probably swap fan for sobel whom so far I find kind of lame.

You can change the difficulty via the menu at any time you know.

No you can't change difficulty if playing tactian.

I started as a custom character and after 2-3 hours in I restarted with Lohse as my main (and Red Prince, Sebille, and Fane as companions) and I'm glad I did. I changed my Lohse on creation to be a slightly altered battlemage, and have had all companions except Red Prince change somewhat as well.

Loving it so far, but still on the island.

Wait you can change to Tactian but not back? That's sound weird.

I don't know if you switch mid game to tactian (or if you can switch mid game to tactian) but if you start as tactian you can't change it. If you have the game just try it yourself.
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This isn't new it was the same way in D:OS.

I have one tank with shield and another with 2-handed weapon without a shield.
However, my necro undead also uses shield, just spot what it can add - double the protection of everything else:
https://s26.postimg.org/xv7du4byh/pic.jpg

61 magic armor where total is 129?
86 physical and total is 163?

OP? Not quite, it's just that staves suck and wand+shield is a much better option in challenging fights.

Oh yeah, as you can spot on the pic there my necro can also heal and basically babysit the 2handed shieldless tank. ;)
So in your next playthrough, add undead willya please. :D

Yep. I'm not sure if I'll do a full review of it just yet, but I'm about 30 hours in now, and your points are all in my notes (I do notes on the side in case I end up writing something).

The game is hard, much more tightly tuned than D: OS, and some fights are quite drawn out. It's still fun and all, but I feel almost "forced" to go with certain power builds. The shield thing is a good example: My casters all use wand + shield, simply because it offers such an amazing survival tool. I'd prefer dual wands or a staff, but that just won't cut it.

I also have the "glass cannon" perk on my archer, but that was a huge mistake. Avoid that perk like the plague, as it is much weaker than it was in D: OS.

Basically, I'm not sure I agree with their decision to let armor/magic protect against effects, as it centers too much of the combat and gearing around armor/magic. I had similar issues with Mass Effect 2 on higher difficulties, where every enemy was protected to the point where only Soldier was truly efficient. The others all had to just sit behind a container of some kind while waiting for Incinerate or Warp to come off cooldown.

Man, I owe you a beer.

Glass cannon has to be babysat by the crew. You'll need Fortify (geomancer 1) and Armor of Frost (hydrosophist 1). These spells you don't start with by default so if you want a glass cannon character, I suggest picking the perk only when your party can support it.
Adiitionally, Enraged (warfare 2) is nifty to prevent mind based status that happen later in the game.

Yeah, I know. I'm 30 hours in, level 14 or so. Still doesn't help, because those skills have cooldowns, so you only get to use the glass cannon character once every 3 turns or some such thing. It's nowhere near worth it for the two extra APs you get per turn, given that the character can barely act.

Edit: It's awesome on the first island though. Well worth it there. Might even be worth grabbing it early and then doing a respec on the ship later on.

The bedroll certainly makes the game much easier (on the normal difficulty, anyway) because clicking on it in your quickbar outside of combat instantly heals everyone in the party back up to max hp (including undead) and gives a well-rested bonus that adds a temporary point to some of your attributes. So for beginners who are struggling, it's certainly a handy tip.

The article title is starter guide. Not a guide for people who never played a RPG before.
I mean, a starter guide would discuss stuff we're talking about here. For example. How to deal with physical and magical protection efficiently, why summons seem underwhelming and why it's best not to kill anyone before every story sidekick talks to them (this is IMO a design flaw, they should have set it your unused sidekick appears, talks, then disappears away).

Or even better, how about noting which spells you should get as early as possible. Pyro's Haste+Clearmind for example kicks arse on your spellcasters. A point or two in Necromancy is nifty because of lifesteal, etc.

Instead, they've made an article that looks like addressing problems of 5 year old kids.

I'm aware of 4 turns cooldowns but you can have two characters with those spells.

You're way past my playthrough. So a question. Once we disembark to the next "island", can we return to the ship and respec again?
Hint: pyramid.

Going to restart on Classic Difficulty. Some nutty experiences at the start of the game plus tales of stat bloat have scared me off of Tactician.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
:'(



Me? I'm always playing first runs on normal dif.

You mean act 3? I haven't reached it yet. You can use a waypoint through all of act 2 at least.

No, I mean, is is possible on the second island return to the ship and respec again and again and again… ;)

I'm sure they (Larian) are taking in all the feedback and they will make adjustments. If some of these comments are typical experiences, its pretty silly that they are almost forcing all characters to have a shield - gimme a break. And likewise with encouraging power gaming type builds, I'm not a power gamer type at all. I would really resent if I'm forced to play that way because of excessive game difficulty. The game on medium difficulty should allow a freedom of many different play styles, and not limit options such as requiring certain builds.

Man…

It's staves that are underwhelming, that's the only reason I went wand+shield on a spellcaster. Dualwield wands is also an option for a spellcaster especially if these up INT plus whatever school you're using because your damage output will be enormous.

As for shield on a warrior I told you one of mine partymembers is using a twohander. No shield whatsoever. Another one has a shield, but also has a taunt skill because of being that tanky.
However before charging in the eye of a storm, my twohanded melee sidekick uses haste (pyro 1) and fortify (geo 1) to compensate.

It's not powergaming, you just grab what you believe is the most useable for a setup you're planing. Aka, don't waste all new points on every level up. Keep a few to adapt.

Oh and by your logic noone would take a bow user with them, right? In all honesty, Ifan, who is default ranger, has a better damage output in my game than anyone else. And doesn't use any shield. Just "pathetic" bows/xbows. Gives what?

Okay, I can understand you if you just want to play a character that wields a staff. You'll be very disappointed how bad those are (at least on the first island).
But it's not a reason to hate shields.

2h wielders, archers and regular dual wielders are viable. However, all casters should use shields, and it's not just because staves are crap - it's also because their default, int-based armor lacks actual armor, which means a single arrow is all it takes to remove their protection vs knock downs etc. A shield increases their survivability by an incredible amount.

Yep. You get a waypoint to the ship. Can respec as much as you like. Well, I haven't tried doing it loads of times, but I haven't seen anything preventing me from doing it.

Oh, this is just joxer being joxer. When he likes something he is ready to forgive (almost) everything. And if he dislikes something, nothing is forgiven :)

I am using "stupid" builds because I wanted to test the game for 1 or 2 hours and finally had such fun than I went on playing with my misfits.
Beast is an Inquisitor so 2H, Lohse was meant to tank so she is some kind of fighter with a Shield and 1H but she never really actually tanks. She keeps around Sebille who is my spell caster.
My main is custom made because I did not know you could customize Origin guys at the time. I thought they were set in stone like in all the other games. He is a Battlemage and dual-wielding.

So only one is using a Shield, long range weapons are sold on sight. Only my spellcaster is dedicated to long range actually. All the other ones have spells but mostly buff/debuff or the near and personal persuasion, like touch spells or such.

I play in Tactician mode because fights are fun and I am certainly not a powergamer: If the fights in a game are less fun than the exploration or the story I have no qualm in playing at a low risk mode. I did for example in POE after the middle of the game.

Thanks.
Eh?
Enthusiasm doesn't mean I'm blind. I'm not forgiving staves at all - I wanted Fane to use them but it's just a bad option.

If you believe my opinion is that the game is perfect - it's not. It's fun, but quite a few things are annoying and I believe I've already said this inventory system, adapted to mushrooms, is inferior to the spectacle we had in the first game.

A cherry I can't get from the top, doesn't mean I'll refuse the cake this rich with variety.

Lighten up man. I was just teasing you!

I admit this is exactly why I play on easier modes. I can't begin to say how much I dislike being forced to play X way to survive. Simply no fun. I want to create a character the way I would want them to be not in a way that I have to just to get through the game. Plus I can also live with some mistakes in choices I make which I also prefer.

Again, I disagree. The game is hard. They have used my group to clean the floor enough times for me to know that. But, I am using a group not having any kind of special build or shields or whatever.
My only dedicated spell caster walks around with 2 wands and the other 3 of my guys are close and personal people with only 1 shield between the 3 of them. I play Tactician and I feel even less constrained than in the first one where I had to use a dedicated healer since I am using them exactly as I built them.

In any case, I'm not trying to come off as overly harsh. I haven't played the game yet. And mods will be forthcoming sooner or later that will probably allow the player to tweak many of these things to individual taste. Personally, it just sounds odd to me from some of the early impressions that shields are so important. I won't have any shields on my wizards, lol, no way. I'm a strict traditionalist that way. :biggrin: