Changes: User blog:Heartbeat-Sensei/New Players Guide to Divinity: Original Sin 2

Revision as of 11:41, 16 December 2019

The guide is not completed as of yet, however it should provide enough general information to get you started.

Terms

If you are new to RPGs or games in general really, here are some terms you may see used and what they mean if you don't know.

DPS = Damage per second. Anything using this term is relating to damage taken or dealt.
Tank = Character whose main focus is to absorb damage.
Caster = The character using an ability, also can refer to mage characters.
Hotbar = The bar at the bottom of your screen that has all the skills and items on it.
DOTs = Damage Over Time. Abilities that inflict damage over multiple turns or buffs that buff over several turns.
AOE = Area of Effect

Character Creation

Selecting a Character

The first thing you'll do when you start up a new game is choose who you'll play as; these character options come down to Sebille a female Elf, The Red Prince a male Lizard, Ifan ben-Mezd a male human, Lohse a female human, Beast a Male Dwarf, Fane a Human Male Undead (The use of human and undead is to say he is an undead that has the body of a human, undeads can also be the other races too.) and finally a blank slate character that is completely custom.

Each of them has their own unique backgrounds, stories, history and interactions with the world and it's inhabitants. Many of their stories will collide with each other's at certain points, like when interacting with an NPC they may debate on who will speak to the person first and sometimes depending on who talked to them first there may be consequences for the following speakers, so knowing their motives beforehand could be vital.

The custom character acts more like a make your own adventure and allows you choices that the pre-made characters may not have, it also allows for more customization than you'll get with a pre-made.

If you choose to play as one of the pre-made characters the remaining pre-mades will show up in your world as party members to recruit.

Race	Racial Ability	Racial Talents
Human	Encourage	Ingenious, Human Resolve
Lizard	Dragon's Blaze	Sophisticated, Spellsong
Dwarf	Petrifying Touch	Sturdy, Dwarven Guile
Elf	Flesh Sacrifice	Elegant, Corpse Eater
Undead	Play Dead	Undead, (2nd varies by race)

Choosing a race to play

Main article: Races (Original Sin 2)

Humans

Humans are an all around balanced race like in any game, they don't excel at anything, but are also good at everything. With their bonus in Leadership and their ability Encourage they make for good front or middle line supports/fighters/tanks.

Lizards

Lizards excel at caster roles such as Wizards, Witches and Enchanters due to their innate Intelligence boost due to Sophisticated, they also have Spellsong which grants them a free Persuasion point. The Lizard race has an ability called Dragon's Blaze which is a low cost, low damage, cone shaped fire surface.

Dwarves

Dwarves get an innate bonus to Strength and Sneaking, they make for powerful Fighters or Knights and along with their innate ability Metamorph, which allows them to turn a target into stone via Petrification

Dwarfs make for great warriors or tanks, they also get a sneaking bonus, but a warrior role seems better suited to them.

Elves

Elves are tall, lanky creatures that present themselves more as folks made of wood or forest materials rather than the common Elf you see in fantasy. They have strong abilities like Corpse Eater which allows them to consume specific body parts sometimes that grants them abilities for free. They also have Flesh Sacrifice which is a nice damage and AP boost at the cost of some Constitution.

Undead

The Undead are the last race to be revealed and present a unique challenge to players. Among those challenges are the fact that if you do not cover their bodies with armor of some type they will scare non-undeads and cause local law enforcement to attack you, non-guards will most likely just run from you, but it isn't worth risking it.

The other challenge they present is they cannot be healed in the typical way, healing potions and spells damage them instead and in their place poison heals them; so you can walk into a poison surface or gas or even chug a poisoned health potion and it'll heal you.

The Undeads gameplay changes the strategy of the whole game for the player using it and it is inadvisable to attempt to play them without having at least a minor understanding of the mechanics of the game, the game itself will even warn you that your experience will be dramatically different compared to playing as a humanoid race.

Class Selection

Now you will want to choose what class you want to play as, please know that classes are merely templates, with adding points elsewhere during leveling you can be anything you want, however classes do dictate starting stats and skills so you should pick something you will want to build into.

I will break down the classes here in an info box to help you get an idea of what they are and you can follow the links to learn more.

Class	Type	Extra Info.
Battlemage	Hybrid, Melee + Magic	Dual wielding melee caster
Cleric	Hybrid, Melee + Magic	Frontline support caster
Enchanter	Magic	Support spell caster
Fighter	Melee	Frontline fighter
Inquisitor	Magic	Heavy hitting melee caster
Knight	Melee	Close range 2-Handed
Ranger	Ranged	Long range bow user
Rogue	Melee	Close range stealthy backstabber
Shadowblade	Hybrid, Melee + Magic	Close range, stealthy, can cast spells and do melee damage
Wayfarer	Hybrid, Ranged + Magic	Long range crossbow user, has earth and poison spells
Witch	Magic	Casts earth, poison and necromancy spells
Wizard	Magic	Fire and earth mage, big AoE damage dealer

Stat Adjustment

DoS2 uses a fairly simple stat system made up of the following categories.

Strength, Finesse, Intelligence, Constitution, Memory and Wits. For more details click the stat to go to the stat's page.

For the shorter version here is how the stats work.

Strength - Determines damage dealt with Strength weapons such as Greatswords, Hammers, Axes, Swords and provides a bonus to Physical Armor.

Finesse - Determines damage dealt with Finesse weapons such as Daggers, Bows and Crossbows, also provides a bonus to Dodging.

Intelligence - Determines magical damage and bonus to Magical Armor.

Constitution - How much health aka Vitality you have.

Memory - How many spells/abilities you can store in your memory. Spells that aren't stored cannot be cast, but can freely be swapped outside battle.

Wits - Critical chance and initiative, also helps detect traps and treasure.

Abilities

Abilities are broken into two categories Combat and Civil.

Combat abilities determines your proficiency in any given stat relating to combat, such as Ranged or Two-Handed. Raising them will give you bonuses like more damage with weapons related to that type or a bonus to dodge.

Civil abilities determine your ability to interact with NPCs using Persuasion and Bartering; Lucky Charm can increase the rarity of loot you find; Loremaster allows you to identify items; Telekinesis allows you to grab things from a distance; Sneak makes it easier to move unnoticed by NPCs and Thievery lets you steal more items from NPCs along with pick locked doors and chests.

You are awarded Combat points every level and Civil points every (currently unknown) level.

Learn more about Attributes and Abilities here.

Talent Selection

Talents are varied in their effects, some give you more resistances while lowering others, some introduce new mechanics to think about when engaging combat situations.

The list of talents is fairly large.

Gathering your party

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has 6 companions.

Check out their individual pages for specific locations and other information.

Note that as of v3.0.31.292 on 2/2/2017 we may now select what class the companions should be upon recruitment of them, thus you should pick the companions you want because you like them and not because of necessity, this also allows more flexibility when creating your own character as you will not run into the problem of missing out on a key role.

Combat and using the environment to your advantage

Combat in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a simple turn based system where each character will be placed in order against the enemy depending on their Wits, the higher Wits is the better chance you will move before the enemies can.

You have a limited number of moves per turn depending on your Action Points, these can be seen at the bottom of the screen and will have a max of 6, you will almost always start with 4. These can be modified using certain abilities like Haste.

Abilities have a required amount of Action Points that it will cost to use them during that turn and after their usage they will be placed on cooldown, meaning they cannot be used again until that timer is up. Having filler skills for the downtime of your big hitter skills is important.

Status Effects

Status effects are much like they are in most games, however, in DoS2 inspecting your environment and making use of status inducing abilities are one of the key aspects of combat compared to the usual one stun and burst down. Below you can see a list of statuses, what causes them and how they interact with other things.

Status	What can cause this?	Effects and How these interact with other things?
Chilled	Being hit with ice damage	Water on the ground freezes into ice which can cause knockdown, being Wet can near guarantee Frozen if hit with an ice spell.
Frozen	Being hit with ice damage while already being chilled	Freezes characters making them unable to take action
Stunned	Aerothurge spells and other misc ones	Water and blood pools can be electrified to stun in large areas, being Wet also increases, if not guarantees Stunned.
Knocked Down	Spells like Battering Ram or slippery surfaces like Ice	Ice surfaces can knock you down when you try moving in them.
Bleeding	Necromancy spells, enchanted weapon damage	Bleeds for damage every turn, can create blood pools that can be electrified, blessed, cursed or frozen.
Burning	Pyro spells, fire bombs, fire being contacted by oil or poison	Fire can light oil surfaces aflame, torches and the light sources can also light oil on fire. Poison surfaces + fire cause explosions. Can also melt frozen and warm chilled.
Poisoned	Earth spells, poison bombs and arrows	Poison surfaces can be exploded by fire surfaces/effects
Disease	Necromancy spells, enemies, bad food	Reduces stats temporarily
Wet	Water and ice spells, bombs, balloons, water barrels	Puts out fires in environment and on characters, boosts chance to be frozen or stunned if not guarantees it.
Warm	Some fire spells, approaching light sources like fire	Being Warm can help negate ice spells by reducing the chance to get frozen or chilled or stopping them completely. Being chilled removes Warm however.
Slowed	Oil, earth spells, oil kegs	Can be lit on fire with any fire source, slows characters movement inside and causes you to start with less AP every turn. One of the most brutal environment effects.

Environmental Effects

Environmental effects cover a wide range of things.

There are a great many ways to create, clear and make use of environmental effects in DoS2, many of which are from spells and consumable equipment like bombs and arrows.

To gloss over a few we have Fire surfaces, Water surfaces, Poison surfaces, Oil surfaces, Ice surfaces, Smoke surfaces, etc. and each with their own special properties, uses and sources.

Lets go over some of the most common you will encounter.

Fire surfaces in my opinion are the most common as they are produced by basically anything that has a fire effect. They cause burning on targets and interact very nastily with Poison and Oil surfaces by creating massive explosions (poison surfaces) or spreading rapidly into a large area with Oil surface. They can be put out by a Water surface, spells like Rain or ice spells can put them out.

Water surfaces, the second most common, created by spells like Rain or water kegs being destroyed. These water surfaces can put out fire surfaces and spread water surfaces, but at the cost of soaking everything nearby turning the surface into an electric playground. Casting most Aerothurge spells at anything inside the water surface will cause an Electrified surface which stuns anything inside of it until the surface is destroyed. This applies to weapons with an electric damage type, like wand's basic attacks.

Oil surfaces will slow any characters inside raising the AP cost of moving dramatically and most importantly setting up a prime area for a massive Fire surface which can decimate your party or the enemies, very quickly.

Poison surfaces alone are not the most deadly, the poison is more an irritant, but in combination with a Fire surface it is, if only barely, the second most deadly surface combination. Fire and Poison create an explosion that can wipe out a whole party in one sweep and if it doesn't kill them in one go it will Poison and set them aflame with hardly a sliver of Hitpoints left.

Kegs

You'll often come across kegs laying around some places, on most occasions they indicate an encounter is possible or likely in the area and they are there for you or your enemy to make use of. These can vary in what they contain, but the most often you'll see are Oil, Water and Poison.

Keg	What it does
Oil	Spreads a puddle of oil that can be lit on fire. Acts as any other oil surface does.
Water	Spreads a puddle of water that can be frozen, electrified or turned into steam. Also puts out fire surfaces and burning.
Poison	Spreads a puddle of poison that will inflict poison damage on anything that isn't immune to it, can also be lit on fire for a combo explosion causing severe damage.

As of the AI 2.0 patch enemies now clearly recognize and seek to use kegs against the player's party, with this in mind you should stop and analyze what barrels are where and decide to eliminate them before the fight, re-position them for your benefit or remove them from battle completely.

Kegs can turn the tide of fights for or against you and should never be ignored under any circumstance. They can also be taken with you and used at a later time, although they weigh around 60 kg and can take up to a quarter of a characters carrying weight.

Elevation

Being higher up than an enemy can grant benefits like increased damage and longer range for spells and abilities. Enemies may also not be able to get to you or have to spend their turn to get to you.

Being lower than the opposition can also block pathing for spells and attacks, it also decreases the damage by 20%.

You can raise your range and damage by investing into Huntsman.

Example of line of sight being broken.

Example of low ground.

Example of high ground.