Current Events > Divinity: Original Sin, playing it right?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been enjoying this game and wanted to drum up some discussion on it. I noticed how after some of the initial fights I am not taking most battles head-on. I usually get wrecked if I do this. Instead I've been using as much cheese as possible to win.

For example the Source Abomination in the cave. This thing was killing my dudes really easily so I created a smoke cloud around it so I could move without detection, positioned everyone on the high ledge above it, then basically pelted it with ranged stuff till it died.

I'm curious though, is this like the intended way to play? Or am I doin' it wrong and should be able to win head-on encounters much more easily?
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That's exactly how it is supposed to be played. Great game. Wish I had a functioning PC to run the second one.
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Going head on with no concern for strategy will see you having your arse kicked 95% of the time past the early stages of the game from what I remember.
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it's one thing to not go head-on

it's another to fear melee

what i liked to do was have a fighter/thief/wizard/ranger team and use the fighter to engage enemies that make it past the damage zone fields the wizard creates, while the ranger provides sustained DPS and the thief ganks anything the fighter engages

one of the keys to success is crafting weapons, which are better than found weapons 99.9% of the time
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Darkman124 posted...

it's one thing to not go head-on

it's another to fear melee

what i liked to do was have a fighter/thief/wizard/ranger team and use the fighter to engage enemies that make it past the damage zone fields the wizard creates, while the ranger provides sustained DPS and the thief ganks anything the fighter engages

one of the keys to success is crafting weapons, which are better than found weapons 99.9% of the time

Yeah I definitely don't just stick to ranged battle. Both of my MCs are melee fighters and I have Wolgraff for backstabbin' when he isn't pelting people with explosive arrows.

I have been getting one of my MCs' crafting skills up, but I haven't found a ton of crafting recipes for weapons yet.
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you dont need recipes to do them

imo the game making recipes found items was one of its big mistakes since you can just experiment
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Oh neat, good to know.
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the fact that rage worked with ranged/thief attacks, most skills don't make attack rolls (nixing the penalty) and stunned enemies are always hit made it pretty easy to stack damage

rain + lightning staff ground attack + oath of desecration on ally

ally uses rage + barrage/spray/battering ram to backstab position + daggers drawn on enemy

enemy dies
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Highwind07 posted...

I forgot what point of the game that was but I found out that as I went on the physical classes became more powerful because they got access to Battering Ram, Crippling Blow, and Whirlwind.

I have all three of those on my male MC right now, and I'm still fairly early on. Battering ram -> Whirlwind is so fun when you're blitzing low HP enemies.
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Highwind07 posted...

I guess a tip though is to maybe find room to pack some items like oil barrel

that seems needless. just make arrows/molotovs with the crafting system. one oil/poison barrel is enough for infinite crafting of poison/flaming arrows.

one of the best things to do early game is take the perk that guarantees thrown items land where you target them
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yeah, what i did instead was manually carry one to my crafting zone and use it when i was also making armor, if i thought i needed more of a specific arrow type

by level 10ish you stop using them since your wizard can handle it and you're better off just having the ranger spam barrage to clear encounters asap. level 15ish status effects also don't matter since rage+oath+rain of arrows is an encounter ender
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Darkman124 posted...

Highwind07 posted...

I guess a tip though is to maybe find room to pack some items like oil barrel

that seems needless. just make arrows/molotovs with the crafting system. one oil/poison barrel is enough for infinite crafting of poison/flaming arrows.

one of the best things to do early game is take the perk that guarantees thrown items land where you target them

Sometimes I'll pick up a barrel in a dungeon to save an arrow. The game's very generous with carry weight so even though the barrels are heavy I still have plenty of inventory weight left over. I like teleporting them onto unsuspecting enemies :D
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i too tried to save arrows until i realized crafting was a source of infinite money

mine ore->make armor->sell armor
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Darkman124 posted...

i too tried to save arrows until i realized crafting was a source of infinite money

mine ore->make armor->sell armor

I've picked up a pick axe but I haven't noticed any mining spots. Are they more common once you get out of Cyseal?
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MC_BatCommander posted...

Darkman124 posted...

i too tried to save arrows until i realized crafting was a source of infinite money

mine ore->make armor->sell armor

I've picked up a pick axe but I haven't noticed any mining spots. Are they more common once you get out of Cyseal?

there's several in cyseal
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Darkman124 posted...

i too tried to save arrows until i realized crafting was a source of infinite money

mine ore->make armor->sell armor

You can even make pretty nice profits off buying materials like necklace materials, ore/bars and buff/health potion ingredients.
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Kinda.

Just FYI DOS2 is a lot better so you got that to look forward to.
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yeah, and you can steal from level 1 by simply taking the scoundrel skill that makes you invisible at creation
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I really want to like this game but it feels too slow sometimes. I just passed the Watcher statues in northwest Cyseal and my team is almost level 8. I like the lack of respawning enemies because every battle feels more important, but something about the pace feels too plodding.

I've never crafted anything because I have so few recipes, so maybe my gear is too weak.

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Darkman124 posted...

you dont need recipes to do them

imo the game making recipes found items was one of its big mistakes since you can just experiment

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Darkman124 posted...

yeah, and you can steal from level 1 by simply taking the scoundrel skill that makes you invisible at creation

I've been avoiding stealing for whatever reason, but it seems to be really easy to do and get away with so I should get on that.
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MC_BatCommander posted...

Darkman124 posted...

yeah, and you can steal from level 1 by simply taking the scoundrel skill that makes you invisible at creation

I've been avoiding stealing for whatever reason, but it seems to be really easy to do and get away with so I should get on that.

I"ve been trying to do a "good" playthrough but im always low on gold and stealing just solves it
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