Original Sin 2 Skills

Periodic table of elements in Divinity: Original Sin II

Skills are actions that consist of using weapons or magic in order to achieve desired effect during and outside of combat in Divinity: Original Sin II game.

General Description

Fireball skill card

Skills are specific actions which any character (both Player and NPC) may take during and outside of combat itself. Each (player accessible) skill contains:

• Description of what they do (colored white)
• Number of Action Points (AP) and Source Points (SP) which they cost to cast
• Cooldown lenght (depicted by large single digit number on the right bottom corner)
• Damage scaling information (colored blue)
• Requirements, range and impact (colored white)
• Skill type (shown with a symbol and colored differently depending on type)

Character may cast any skill they want both during and outside of combat if they meet certain criteria. These criteria wary, not just in the amount of AP and SP but also depending on type of the ability they fall under. Additionally, many skills rely also on Attributes which determine how strong is going to be the effect of said skill.

Important thing to note is that all skills (with the exception of skills that provide set bonuses such as Haste, or change environment like Terrain Transmutation) do not receive any bonuses from attributes or level of the caster. Nearly all skills however, are affected by Talents of the caster.

Due to some skills providing bonuses to range, base damage dealt it is possible for skills themselves to affect each other. Furthermore, depending on the effects of the skills, some skills may be affected by multiple abilities of different categories. For example all damage dealing skills are affected by Necromancer ability which will restore the Vitality of the caster if they damage Vitality of their opponents. Essentialy this means that the effects of abilities can affect all skills the character has at their disposal if they meet the base criteria (ie. cause damage, are ranged etc.)

In case of Warfare, Scoundrel and Hunstman abilities, their skills are additionally affected by weapons which the caster has equipped (this is seen in the damage calculation formula, which is different for magic-based abilities). The damage, which is most often of physical type (and thus affected by Warfare ability) drastically affects damage done by skills. The higher damage the weapon deals, the greater damage will be done by the skill that requires weapons.

Following table shows all skill categories present in the game as well as attributes assigned to them (in terms of skills accessible to the Player character), alongside damage type the skills under that category do and what armour and resistances counter skills in said category.

Table of all Skill Types in the game

Ability	Attribute	Damage Type	Armour	Resistance
Aerotheurge	Intelligence	Air	Magic	Air
Geomancer	Intelligence	Earth	Magic	Earth
		Poison		Poison
Huntsman	Finesse	Physical (Weapon-Based)	Physical	Physical
Hydrosophist	Intelligence	Water	Magic	Water
		Physical	Physical	Physical
Necromancer	Intelligence	Physical	Physical	Physical
Polymorph	Strength	Physical	Physical	Physical
		Earth	Magic	Earth
Pyrokinetic	Intelligence	Fire	Magic	Fire
Scoundrel	Finesse	Physical Piercing (Weapon-Based)	Physical N/A	Physical N/A
Sourcery	N/A	N/A	Magic	N/A
Special	Intelligence	Air	Magic	Air
		Magic Armour		N/A
		Physical	Physical	Physical
Summoning	Intelligence	Physical	Physical	Physical
		Air Earth Fire Poison Water	Magic	Air Earth Fire Poison Water
Warfare	Finesse	Weapon-Based	Physical	Physical
	Strength		Physical	Physical
	Intelligence		Magic	Air Earth Fire Poison Water

Learning and Using Skills

Learning

Skills are actions which can be learnt either by reading Skillbooks (which can be found on Rivellon, which includes buying or stealing them from NPCs), completing certain quests, equipping specific type of weapon or by eating limbs. The last applies only to Elven characters as they possess racial Corpse Eater talent.

In order to learn desired skill from Skillbook, character must meet the required Ability points criteria and in order to use the skill, character must have at least 1 free Memory slot for it. Ability skills using Source require at minimum 2 Memory slots.

Some skills, most notably those of Polymorph category, are automatically learnt and available to the caster once specific skill has been cast. For example Polymorph skill Spread Your Wings will grant the caster skill Flight which can be used for as long as the skill Spread Your Wings is active.

Furthermore the Flight skill can be learnt and cast if character has unique chestplate called Kvyn's Heart equipped. Should the chestplate be equipped character will forget Flight skill. Note that skill learnt before equipping item that grants them are not unlearnt. The difference is that skills granted by items do not require Memory or Ability criteria to be met.

Crafting

Outside of quests and limbs, it is possible to craft skillbooks out of scrolls if they are combined with the correct tier of blank skillbook. All skills from Starter to Adept tier (from level 1 to 9 respectively) require base Blank Skillbook, while Expert and Master tier (from level 13 to 16) require High Tier Blank Skillbooks. For example it is possible to craft Fireball skillbook by combining Fireball Scroll with a Blank Fire Skillbook, but Epidemic of Fire skill requires Epidemic of Fire scroll in combination with High Tier Blank Fire Skillbook.

There are certain skills however, that can be learnt only by combining two different skillbooks. These skills can be found randomly across Rivellon, but they will never be sold by NPCs.

Casting

Skills are used by selecting them from the bottom hotbar. Skills that require a target to be selected (whether area, character or object) will cause character to enter a "casting" animation and prompt player to select desired target. Some skills such as Spread Your Wings will omit this action and immediately cast the skill as their only target is caster themselves.

All skills require certain amount of Action Points or Source Points in order to be cast during combat. If this criteria is not met, character will not be able to cast desired skill. Note that in case of Magic based skills and few Weapon-based skills it is possible to prevent character from casting these by having them be afflicted with Silenced or Enraged status effects.

All skills can be cast only once per turn, with number on the bottom left of the screen indicating how many turns must the character wait before they can use the skill again. The cooldown lenght varies between skills. There are some skills such as Apotheosis or Time Warp which can be used only once per combat while others such as Staff of Magus can be used every turn.

List of Skills

Ability Skills

Ability skills are the most common type of skill the Player is going to encounter and learn in the game itself. These are the skills the Player may buy and steal from NPC Traders or loot from containers across the world. These skills are separated into 6 tiers, 5 of which are centered around the Level of the Player character.

• Starter Tier - Skills accessible from start of the game ie. Character Creation
• Novice Tier - Skills available from level 4 onward
• Adept Tier - Skills available from level 9 onward (potentially only once Player reaches Reaper's Coast)
• Expert Tier - Skills available from level 13 onward
• Master Tier - Skills available from level 16 onward

Skills which do not rely on character level are regarded as Tierless skill. These skills can be mostly learnt through crafting, completing quests, acquiring specific equipment or summoning creatures who can use said skills.

Special Skills

Special skills are Tierless skills which are automatically learnt by the Player Character and do not require any Ability or Memory slots. This category can be divided into 3 sub-categories:

• Origin - Special skills unique and exclusive to the Player Character. All of these require Source Points alongside Action Points.
• Racial - Special skills tied to the race of the Player Character.
• Weapon - Special skills automatically learnt and usable only when certain weapon is equipped.

Sourcery Skills

Sourcery skills are skills that rely solely on Source magic. They are acquired only through quests or by wearing unique equipment. Outside of the skill Bless (which requires 1 Memory slot) they do not require Memory Slots. Additionaly only Curse skill can be crafted in the form of a scroll.

Note that using Source Vampirism will make casting character unable to pass the Path of Blood.

Craftable Skills

Following table shows skills which cannot be bought from NPCs. Instead they are crafted by combining two different skillbooks. In order to use these, character must have sufficient Ability points in two Ability categories to which the original skillbooks belonged.

For example in order to craft the skill Breathing Bubble, character must combine non-source Aerotheurge and Warfare skillbooks. In order to learn and use it character must have at least 1 point into Aerotheurge and Warfare.

Other Skills

Following skills are Tierless skills which cannot be bought or crafted by the Player character like Ability skills from above.

The column Summon Skills shows skills which are available to summoned creatures in the base game. These skills are automatically learnt and usable by the summoned creatures and follow the same rules as base ability skills (Action Point requirement, Cooldown, Level scaling etc.) Note that the table shows skills exclusive to the Summoned creatures; Incarnate may learn ability skills such as Tactical Retreat if they are under the influence of Warp Infusion Summoning skill.

NPC column shows skills exclusive to the Non-Playable Characters and skills which are categorised as Monster skills in Game Master Mode (GM). Large part of these skills cannot be learnt and used by the Player Character on their own.

The last column Gift Bag Exclusive Skills shows skills which are exclusive to any of the Gift Bag features released by the Larian Studios. Most of these skills fall under Gift Bag: Order and Magic feature Pet Power (marked as PP in table) which allowed Player to cast Infusion skills unto all summoned creatures. These infusions in some cases unlocked unique skills unseen in the base game such as Deviant Blood. Lastly some skills have been added to the game as part of the final Gift Bag: Four Relics of Rivellon (marked as FRR in table) which centers around 4 unique sets of armour which some grant unique skills to the Player. For example the Contamination Armour Set grants the Player unique Geomancer skill called Trigger Spores.

Table of all Other Skills

Ability	Summon Skills	NPC Skills	Gift Bag Exclusive Skills
Aerotheurge	Gust	Blowback (GM) Lightning Cascade Shade Shift	—
Geomancer	Acid Spore		Swamp Golem (PP) Suicide (PP) Aura of Flesh Mutation (PP) Suicide (PP) Trigger Spores (FRR)
Huntsman	—	—	Acid Sparks (PP)
Hydrosophist	—	Freezing Touch Ice Shard	Suicide (PP)
Necromancer	Vile Burst Burrow Devour Corpse	Harbinger's Forgiveness Invulnerability (GM)	Deviant Blood (PP) Bloody Spittle (PP) Suicide (PP)
Polymorph	Feline Leap	Bull Rush Flight Petrifying Visage Spin Web	Accelerating Leap Entropic Bite (PP)
Pyrokinetic	Slug Rush	Burning Touch Flare Rain of Fire Scorch	Worse Than His Bark (PP)
Scoundrel	Vicious Bite	Levitate Scale-Portation	Go Fetch (PP)
Sourcery	—	Thirst of the Eternals	—
Special	Incarnate Ranged Attack Swap Places	Dragonfall Harbinger's Step Summon Parasitic Heart Void Glide	—
Summoning	Peck	Summon Poison Slug (GM)	—
Warfare	Wolf Howl	Barbed Wire (GM) Elemental Tortoise (GM)	Ice Rush (PP)