Divinity Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

[Mangoose]

New playthrough this time with beast and sebille because I left them out my first playthrough.

LOL I literally came here to ask whether to main Sebille or to main Beast as my second run-through (gonna lone wolf them).

I'm thinking maining Sebille so I don't have to worry about her killing random people (...my current party has slaughtered so hard lol, first thing I did in Act 4 was accidentally slaughter the Pilgrim Camp).

 

[sullynathan]

New playthrough this time with beast and sebille because I left them out my first playthrough.

LOL I literally came here to ask whether to main Sebille or to main Beast as my second run-through (gonna lone wolf them).

I'm thinking maining Sebille so I don't have to worry about her killing random people (...my current party has slaughtered so hard lol, first thing I did in Act 4 was accidentally slaughter the Pilgrim Camp).

My current party is rather strong but I don't know what I want to do with the beast. I'm building my party to be purposefully different from my last one.

Here Fane is a warrior not a mage and Ifan will have more points in summoning.

I like Sebille as an assassin, high damage but is a glass cabin at the very low level were in right now.

My only qualm is that I have 3 melee oriented characters and one range character. I want the beast to be a battle mage but so far, he's a bit too similar to my other characters. I'll probably just make changes as I go on.

 

[Mangoose]

Are there any decent overhaul mods that make this game worth playing, yet?

Yes: the base game.

I can't stand the armor system, it ruins the game frankly

and the itemization is a joke

https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/168

https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2definitiveedition/mods/7?tab=description (I recommend the minimum scaling option)

There's also Divinity Unleashed, which is by the same guy who did the Divine War overhaul. https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2definitiveedition/mods/244


Nevermind:

Not in the mood for cheese?: The game’s craziest exploits have been reined in for a tighter, more challenging experience. Telekinetic instant kills, infinite resurrection chains and sniping enemies miles away outside of combat have been scripted into oblivion. Get ready for a challenge!

Divinity with no cheese is not Divinity.

 

[Mangoose]

New playthrough this time with beast and sebille because I left them out my first playthrough.

LOL I literally came here to ask whether to main Sebille or to main Beast as my second run-through (gonna lone wolf them).

I'm thinking maining Sebille so I don't have to worry about her killing random people (...my current party has slaughtered so hard lol, first thing I did in Act 4 was accidentally slaughter the Pilgrim Camp).

My current party is rather strong but I don't know what I want to do with the beast. I'm building my party to be purposefully different from my last one.

Here Fane is a warrior not a mage and Ifan will have more points in summoning.

I like Sebille as an assassin, high damage but is a glass cabin at the very low level were in right now.

My only qualm is that I have 3 melee oriented characters and one range character. I want the beast to be a battle mage but so far, he's a bit too similar to my other characters. I'll probably just make changes as I go on.

Oh, I feel like making a 2-man party.

The annoying thing about that Debloat Mod in DE is that there were a few optional (necessary) fixes in the classic mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/mods/58?tab=files), namely the "magic potion and scaling fix" but they weren't ported over to DE.

However it's not too hard to unpak and pak files, and they're just a few lines of script calls.

Actually, here's my "edit" by adding in the lines from the classic version to the DE mod (unpaked):

This is the original Moderate Scaling, DE version:

key "VitalityStartingAmount","21"

key "VitalityExponentialGrowth","1.13"

key "VitalityLinearGrowth","9.091"

key "FirstVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "SecondVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "ThirdVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "FourthVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

This is the Magi Scaling Fix from Classic

key "SkillAbilityFireDamageBoostPerPoint","7"

key "SkillAbilityPoisonAndEarthDamageBoostPerPoint","7"

key "SkillAbilityAirDamageBoostPerPoint","7"

key "SkillAbilityWaterDamageBoostPerPoint","7"

From what I skimmed, those variables seem to remain constant in name, so I added those four "keys" into the previous txt that determined vitality scaling. Moreover both were Data.txt unpacked, and by intuition Data.txt is probably modded in every mod, so nothing wrong with throwing more shit in there as long as it's meant to be in Data.txt lol.

The potion part worked quite easily (changing the potions to percentages instead of a set numeric, since the debloat mod changes vitality numbers) and I just pretty much copypastad the potion.txt mod file with no problem. Well, at least I don't think.

 

[sullynathan]

I'm surprised by a few things I missed. Did you know that in the fight against knives, the meat puppets will attack the silent monks?

 

[Mangoose]

I'm surprised by a few things I missed. Did you know that in the fight against knives, the meat puppets will attack the silent monks?

Lol, I didn't have to fight Kniles. I pickpocketed him and then we had some small talk and then left.

In terms of cheese... I managed to teleport Ryker from within his room to outside on the lawn, and I did it from outside (managed get some line of sight). I even set up a box-in before I teleported him lol.

But there was one fight, I can't remember which, but I have 3 guys with Opportunist (geo-warrior-tank, scoundrel, and a battlemage) and I managed to surround the guy during the dialogue. The minute he moved, AoOs all over.

I feel like the one thing that's missing is spells triggering AoOs, like older versions of D&D. Actually even in 5e D&D you can still react to spells.

Then again, I'm not sure how useful that would be unless there were Concentration throws lol. Maybe it just feels awkward because I have 3 Opportunists lol

 

[sullynathan]

I'm surprised by a few things I missed. Did you know that in the fight against knives, the meat puppets will attack the silent monks?

Lol, I didn't have to fight Kniles. I pickpocketed him and then we had some small talk and then left.

In terms of cheese... I managed to teleport Ryker from within his room to outside on the lawn, and I did it from outside (managed get some line of sight). I even set up a box-in before I teleported him lol.

But there was one fight, I can't remember which, but I have 3 guys with Opportunist (geo-warrior-tank, scoundrel, and a battlemage) and I managed to surround the guy during the dialogue. The minute he moved, AoOs all over.

I feel like the one thing that's missing is spells triggering AoOs, like older versions of D&D. Actually even in 5e D&D you can still react to spells.

Then again, I'm not sure how useful that would be unless there were Concentration throws lol. Maybe it just feels awkward because I have 3 Opportunists lol

How did Kniles let you go? I'm pretty sure he forces the fight if you want to leave. I only went back to fight him because of XP, the main quests give the most xp but for me to reach level 8 before leaving fort joy, I did every side quest.

There's another fight that I never encountered in my first playthrough either, and it's the voidwoken deers. The one that's praying that transforms the other deers into voidwoken, but if you don't let them finished they won't transform and help. It was great having a 7 v 1 especially since the voidwoken had two levels above me.

The surrounding AOOs is great since I currently have 3 melee fighters, especially with the backstab bonus.

I gave up on Geo in my first playthrough and this one, I'm still not using it, but what is the strongest magic class? I really liked the 3 source storm skill that calls down lightning for 3 turns but it seems like Geomancer spells have the highest damage output.


How did you build your geo-warrior tank and battlemage? I've put my warrior fane to pretty much all strength and warfare since in my previous playthrough, I figured tht warfare adds more damage than single, two handed, etc. Sebille is pretty much dual wielding and only upgrading scoundrel when I need new skills. Then my Ifan has huge critical chance compared to my last playthrough. I don't know why I missed upgrading ranged more in my first playthrough, but I did so here.

I'm finding it annoying however that my beast is quite strong, but fizzles out on damage. Not enough physical damage to properly remove physical armor, not enough magic damage to remove magic armor so he's just an auxiliary buffer for my two main warriors.

God I found a glitch with the spider lady to get the auto-resurrection item for all my party members as opposed to two in my first playthrough and this time she upgraded strength, int & wits by 2 for all of them and each party member got 2000 gold too.

 

[sullynathan]

Which of the reduced bloat mods are the best?

 

[NJClaw]

I gave up on Geo in my first playthrough and this one, I'm still not using it, but what is the strongest magic class? I really liked the 3 source storm skill that calls down lightning for 3 turns but it seems like Geomancer spells have the highest damage output.

How did you build your geo-warrior tank and battlemage? I've put my warrior fane to pretty much all strength and warfare since in my previous playthrough, I figured tht warfare adds more damage than single, two handed, etc. Sebille is pretty much dual wielding and only upgrading scoundrel when I need new skills. Then my Ifan has huge critical chance compared to my last playthrough. I don't know why I missed upgrading ranged more in my first playthrough, but I did so here.

All magic schools are strong, but Pyrokinetic is the easiest one to break because, well, it has two skills that are broken by default: Throw Explosive Trap and Deploy Mass Traps. Apart from fire-immune enemies, I think I encountered only two creatures that managed to survive a Deploy Mass Traps. You just have to find a way to immediately detonate the traps, because otherwise they don't deal that much damage. The easiest ways are Glass Cannon (but that's a pain in the ass), Elemental Affinity (if you poison the ground with Poison Dart before the encounter starts, then you can set off the traps with a Fossil Strike) and the Time Warp skill.

I used Aerotheurge and Hydrosophist skills mainly to stun and freeze enemies, because they couldn't possibly keep up with the damage potential of Deploy Mass Traps.

On every Strength-Warfare character it's worth investing a couple of points into Polymorph, at least for Tentacle Lash (which deals an enormous quantity of damage), Chicken Claw and Spread your Wings. Higher level and source skills are also very good, but you have to build a little your character around them, while these three are completely free.

 

[Mangoose]

sullynathan Actually I should've said that he's a Geo-Poly-Warfare tank (as suggested by NJClaw). Also I admit I do some cheating and follow some online guides. My geo-warfare-tank is based on: https://fextralife.com/divinity-original-sin-2-builds-juggernaut/ The reason he is a sword & board tank is that there are some you can do with Geo with just Strength, without need for Intelligence. For example, there is Earthquake. I'm not gonna be doing huge damage with Earthquake, with my low Int. BUT. Earthquake is resisted by Physical. Thus Earthquake is quite usable for knockdown crowd-control.

Ironically, I can do a lot of Magic Damage... from Poly. Medusa Head's Petrifying Visage scales with Strength and is resisted by Magic Armor. That requires 2 points in Poly, in which case you might as well put in another point so you use Skin Graft.

Note that he's not a battlemage. He's "Geo" in that I do depend on a select few abilities. But not the entire skill line. The "Poly" part.. well... as NJClaw said, for a Strength character you should grab at least 1 point on Poly. So it's kinda redundant saying Poly Warrior haha. I pumped it to 2 for Medusa Head, and then to 3 for Skin Graft, but like Geo I'm not heavily invested in the skill line. That being said... I think I may decrease Geo a bit (instead of the 2:1 idea) as it's more for utility. Warfare maxed... Perhaps get some more life steal from Necro. Don't think I need 1 handed.

One thing I do differently than that guide is that I put some points in Necro and grabbed Living Armour and Torturer for several of my characters (granted the article was before DE came in with Torturer). Ironically I don't take Torturer on my Geo because there are so many fucking undead enemies, unless I have a crazy status weapon, no point in healing my enemies with Poison.

I do not remember how I handled Kniles. Too high to remember everything lol. If I try to recall, I might have revealed my undead-ness which piqued his curiosity and treated me as a colleague lol.

As for the debloating mod... I've actually never played without it so I can't say how it compares to vanilla balance. In any case, I chose the "Reduced Number Bloat" of the three. Anyways characters' Vitality - with no points in Constitution or Con gear or Picture of Health - are about 400HP. In terms of Armor, ranges between 200 to 400 for both types, the ratio depending on how I want it set up. I'm around 300/300 for my Finesse characters. I put a few points in Str for my Battlemage, so she's like 200/400 as I'm using a Staff rather than Shield (yes, I have Opportunist on her heh). My geo-poly-tank is probably 400/200 without a shield, but I do use one so it's a few hundred points higher each.

Haven't compared to the Minimal Scaling version but this "regular" version has been quite playable. Definitely challenging but not terribly frustrating - some battles can be easy to fail but usually it just takes a few 2-3 more attempts, trying different strategy/tactics.

Then again, I love Cheesing shit, so... some fights, if i can strip the Magic Armour of a strong character, I'll use Dominating Mind and and have him blast his minions while they blast him. That's not the full cheese though. The full cheese is when you have 3 characters with it. Equipment that provides Skin Graft is quite helpful, too. You just need 2 points in Summoning including gear. (Okay, and 1 pt in Memory).

 

[sullynathan]

at least for Tentacle Lash (which deals an enormous quantity of damage),

I found this out in my first playthrough when I got the polymorph armor. My warrior did 3 times as much damage with the tentacle than my fane mage that had it for almost the entire game so this playthrough I had it as one of my beginning skills.

 

[Mangoose]

at least for Tentacle Lash (which deals an enormous quantity of damage),

I found this out in my first playthrough when I got the polymorph armor. My warrior did 3 times as much damage with the tentacle than my fane mage that had it for almost the entire game so this playthrough I had it as one of my beginning skills.

Yes, Polymorph skills tend to scale with Strength.

Also I ended up using this to scale the weapons and magic properly (the game decreases magic damage more than it does weapon damage, when changing the scale, for some reason). And then, for some reason the key - which is correct - for Hydro spells stays at 5% on the UI. It could just be the UI. I dunno, someone else noticed also. But on Steam workshop, this guy decided to weaken the Weapon dmg per level instead.

So my Data.txt (his is set at 0.07 but for me, at least, tweaking it got to 0.045, where ):

key "VitalityStartingAmount","21"

key "VitalityExponentialGrowth","1.13"

key "VitalityLinearGrowth","9.091"

key "FirstVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "SecondVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "ThirdVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "FourthVitalityLeapGrowth","1"

key "ExpectedDamageBoostFromWeaponAbilityPerLevel","0.045"

Just finished. Interesting endings. Spoilers incoming obviously. Actually I'm not even sure I played the game proper because I fled against Isbeil and she Deathfogged the place when I got in Arx at the start. Not sure if canon also but I ended up fighting both sides... Won that one (and the next) with Mass Explosive Traps. Of course my most built character (Ifan, the geo-poly-tank) I had to face and i just so happened to set his Initiative number 2... Using Khem's Deflector shield and scaled to 1600 physical armor, he runs at me, Reactive Armor, instant KO. Yeah, the AI plays my character better than do. Lohse dead the whole time because I was too vain to use a shield. That'll teach me about shields.

Now. Time for Lone Wolf.

I'm definitely playing Sebille and Beast, I don't care how crappy they are. (Unless there is a reason to main Ifan, Lohse, or Red Prince if I've already played them as companions?)

Question is, which to main, which to companion.

Edit: Actually, what happened was that the traps bounced off Deflector Shield and landed right next to me. So how do I activate them on my turn? Teleport him right next to me. Wo.

 

[Yosharian]

Sebille and Beast are crappy?

I prefer the blank slate character for my MC, personally

 

[Sharpedge]

I gave up on Geo in my first playthrough and this one, I'm still not using it, but what is the strongest magic class? I really liked the 3 source storm skill that calls down lightning for 3 turns but it seems like Geomancer spells have the highest damage output.

Magic classes tend to work well in tandem with each other. Geo + Pyro are strong together and Hydro + Aero are strong together. DOS 2 is mainly about power combinations and not so much about frontloaded damage unless you are relying on the broken stuff (any of the 3 source skills, traps, detonating corpses). If you plan to use that stuff, probably the most outright broken spellcaster is the late game warfare necromancer with Apotheosis+Blood Storm+Grasp, but that plays very poorly early on unless you level it up as a fighter and then make a switch.

 

[NJClaw]

Sebille and Beast are crappy?

I prefer the blank slate character for my MC, personally

The game is clearly intended to be played as Fane: the entire story revolves around him, while everyone else is more of a sidekick. Ifan also has an overarching revenge-seeking plot from beginning to end (and a personal motivation to seek divinity), but he is still less involved than Fane. Everyone else's personal quest reaches its conclusione before the final steps of the game.

 

[Yosharian]

I don't like being an undead dude though. And Fane's personality bothers me

 

[undecaf]

And Fane's personality bothers me

Fane, Sebille and The Red Prince... That's a party combo that really makes you want to get them all killed.

 

[sullynathan]

Level 14 party of mine beat Magister Reimond & the other magister that's level 16. I used about 7 oil barrels and exploded them in their face, afterwards, I exploited some love grenades to make them attack each other. Problem is that I still couldn't save the black ring in this playthrough. I tried using Sebille's special skill to break the shackles of pain on one of them, but it did nothing.

The oil voidlings are still absolute shit in this playthrough on tactician, Hannag's assisstant has shit AI, and keeps running into necrofire. I used up about 4 revives to keep my party alive at all times. This is still arguably the longest and shittiest fight in the entire game.

The new update has a few new quests with the tree growing armor, but so far the stats aren't too great. There are a bunch of quests I missed in my first game because I didn't keep on spirit vision. The Lone Wolves HQ has so many spirits that give quests, that I'm assuming you're supposed to do them beforehand so that you can find an easier time wiping out their colony. Let me guess beforehand, there should be some way to poison the drudane thing that the lizard smokes?

Sebille and Beast are crappy?

I prefer the blank slate character for my MC, personally

The game is clearly intended to be played as Fane: the entire story revolves around him, while everyone else is more of a sidekick. Ifan also has an overarching revenge-seeking plot from beginning to end (and a personal motivation to seek divinity), but he is still less involved than Fane. Everyone else's personal quest reaches its conclusione before the final steps of the game.

Fane, Ifan and to a lesser extent Lohse are the most "important" characters to the main story.

I don't like being an undead dude though. And Fane's personality bothers me

Play Fane because he has the time rewind spell that gives an instant second turn. That stuff is great with Apothesis combo.

 

[NJClaw]

The oil voidlings are still absolute shit in this playthrough on tactician, Hannag's assisstant has shit AI, and keeps running into necrofire. I used up about 4 revives to keep my party alive at all times. This is still arguably the longest and shittiest fight in the entire game.

Jesus Christ that guy. Just freeze him or something. I kept him alive only thanks to an intense Cryogenic Statis spamming.

 

[sullynathan]

The oil voidlings are still absolute shit in this playthrough on tactician, Hannag's assisstant has shit AI, and keeps running into necrofire. I used up about 4 revives to keep my party alive at all times. This is still arguably the longest and shittiest fight in the entire game.

Jesus Christ that guy. Just freeze him or something. I kept him alive only thanks to an intense Cryogenic Statis spamming.

The good thing is that I have two members with frost armor spell so I was able to cast it a few times, but I am incredibly annoyed that the game is purposefully making things catch on fire even when my characters and enemies aren't on fire.

Two, there's this shitty glitch in the game that has still not been patched that skips turns.

 

[Sharpedge]

The oil voidlings are still absolute shit in this playthrough on tactician, Hannag's assisstant has shit AI, and keeps running into necrofire. I used up about 4 revives to keep my party alive at all times. This is still arguably the longest and shittiest fight in the entire game.

Jesus Christ that guy. Just freeze him or something. I kept him alive only thanks to an intense Cryogenic Statis spamming.

I just used teleport on him and threw him 5000 miles away outside of combat. The field of view you have from the top of the platform makes teleport glorious.

 

[sullynathan]

The oil voidlings are still absolute shit in this playthrough on tactician, Hannag's assisstant has shit AI, and keeps running into necrofire. I used up about 4 revives to keep my party alive at all times. This is still arguably the longest and shittiest fight in the entire game.

Jesus Christ that guy. Just freeze him or something. I kept him alive only thanks to an intense Cryogenic Statis spamming.

I just used teleport on him and threw him 5000 miles away outside of combat. The field of view you have from the top of the platform makes teleport glorious.

I actually tried doing that in my first playthrough and he just ended up staying in combat and dying. I don't think there's anywhere too far in combat that the voidlings don't reach

 

[Sharpedge]

The oil voidlings are still absolute shit in this playthrough on tactician, Hannag's assisstant has shit AI, and keeps running into necrofire. I used up about 4 revives to keep my party alive at all times. This is still arguably the longest and shittiest fight in the entire game.

Jesus Christ that guy. Just freeze him or something. I kept him alive only thanks to an intense Cryogenic Statis spamming.

I just used teleport on him and threw him 5000 miles away outside of combat. The field of view you have from the top of the platform makes teleport glorious.

I actually tried doing that in my first playthrough and he just ended up staying in combat and dying. I don't think there's anywhere too far in combat that the voidlings don't reach

If you position just right on the platform, you can throw him out near the door to the caves. He is still in combat and they can move towards him, but it takes them roughly 3 (?) turns to get there, during which you can keep killing oozes. If the character with Teleport also has Nether swap (they probably do, they are both Aero spells) you can then swap with him again once the oozes get close, once again putting him far out of reach.

 

[undecaf]

Is the Trompody (or what ever the name was) fight in the bridge maze supposed to be so damn tedious?

Is there are quick way through it?

I had to stop and reload because I just couldn't take it anymore, I got so bored. The fight wasn't difficult, but it dragged on and on with no ending in sight, and once you got the mooks somewhat down on their armors and HP, another batch of similiar armor hogs rushed in and the whole things was just a fucking mess. I admit I made some mistakes building my party, so it is not "optimal", but still...

 

[Sharpedge]

Is the Trompody (or what ever the name was) fight in the bridge maze supposed to be so damn tedious?

Is there are quick way through it?

I had to stop and reload because I just couldn't take it anymore, I got so bored. The fight wasn't difficult, but it dragged on and on with no ending in sight, and once you got the mooks somewhat down on their armors and HP, another batch of similiar armor hogs rushed in and the whole things was just a fucking mess. I admit I made some mistakes building my party, so it is not "optimal", but still...

If you kill the "real" Trompdoy the fight ends immediately. I think it is the one with the staff.