What is your party build?
What is your party build? If you used the origin characters in your party what were each of their builds?

First playthrough was a classic team :Red Prince/2h, Sebille/polyrogue, Lohse/cc mage, Fane summoner. That was my first try, so bad understanding of the game mechanics. It was a weak team overall.

Second playthrough (not finished) : solo 2h warfare necro Fane. Stromped Act 1.

Third playthrough (started) : duo lone wolves summoners Fane/Lohse. Stromped Act 1 with even more ease.

What does Poly do for a rogue exactly? I see people taking poly a lot, and I am wondering what Poly does that is so great?

Turn invisible - mobility (bull charge/fly) - cc (chicken transformation) etc

Ripped tendons + chicken is a good combo.

Other than that - wings for movement, since rogues can't get enough of that - if team otherwise uses magic damage, medusa's head is awesome for CC - Skin graft for some quite ridiculous turns.

The polymorph school is quite versatile.

First playthrough did a double lone wolf knight ranger combo. Was very boring and easy, was still fun though.

Second playthrough was a double lone wolf geo summoner with a pyro/hydro mage. This was much more fun to play, slightly more difficult than knight ranger but I don't think the game could be any easier with any other combo. Currently stuck on one part near the end of the game I have no way past though because I need to destroy these objects and they aren't damaged by magic, so they just kinda get rekt everytime I try it, it's very annoying.

Now I'm doing a 4 man party with a summoner/knight/ranger/rouge. Not really fun so far, 4 characters is just too annoying for me personally. Too much inventory management. Makes the game harder for me because I simply don't like doing it, but with 4 characters it feels like you have to where as lone wolf has more leeway because you can just give the gear you pick up to your 2 characters and generally be fine.

Solo Tactican Lone Wolf Fane Shadowblade, its just op.... its kinda needs you to abuse things but its powerful, if you play your invisibility/time warp/playing dead right you got 4 free rounds of attacking enemies when they cant even touch you.

Finished whole game like that on Tactican, maybe Adramalik got me little harder but other than that, easy piece of cake.

I've restarted the game a buncha times, sometimes due to bugs.

Our primary party:

-Fane (main): Summoner with a hint of Geomancer for self-healing and foe damaging.

-Red Prince: Started as a Shadowblade for thieving and invisibility. May change him later.

-Ifan: Started as a Shadowblade for thieving and invisibility. May change him later. Planned to swap him for Beast with a similar initial build but a final build to be determined.

-Lohse: Rain mage (Enchanter) to start for crowd control, healing, and support.

You can't destroy magic immune objects with a summoner ?
I always thought you could just summon lvl10+ base incarnate (or blood) for physical dps.

As main, elf male: rogue (Scoundrel/Warfare/Poly), respecced to it from onehanded/shield warrior after I switched from Classic to Tactician
Ifan: twohanded warrior (Warfare/Necro/Huntsman)
Sebille: ranger (Huntsman/Warfare)
Lohse: summoner/support (Summoner/Hydro/Geo)

Ok if you are on level, a bit boring if you are above level.

I made full mage build and it was quite straight forward.
- Main: Summoner + Aero - in late game I was only using aero skills
- Fane: Wizard - Focus on Pyro + necro for healing
- Red Lizard: Cleric - Focus on Hydro + necro for healing
- Ifan: Enchanter - Focus on Aero + Rain

Fane was quite out for synergy with rest of the team, but it was necessary for enemies resistant to water/wind.

Mane battle strategy was to make everything wet, then Ifan and my main stunned every enemy with Superconductor, Dazing Bolt and chainlightning.
Massive battles required Thunderstorm which is OP.


Currently I'm doing Lone Wolf Fane as electric warrior. Equipped with staff, focused on pure intelligence going to use Warfare + Aero + Necro (for healing).

Main: hydro summoner. More by accident than design. I get heal on the main char as I did in dos and summoner is because I thought the cat scaled with summon and I ended up with +6 summon on gear.
2nd is air/fire accidentally made them the same as main but branched out later into fire.
Then it's 2h warfare and earth for beast
Sebille has thief stuff and necro but switches to ranged bow if needed.

My second game will be better planned.

Coop

Scoundrel -Warfare
Summoner - Warfare
Huntsman - Poly
Necro-Poly

Any mix in geo, areo, hydro, pyro.

One thing with DOS's everyone can dabble in any school, too much sugar probably.
About 1/2 way through the first act, I wanted to make each more unique vs loading everyone up on my favs.

Could be another cool mod, that forces you into something like this vs player driven.

Given my lack of tactics and strategy, my party build is probably an example of how not to do it: it was fun to play, but probably not very effective. I suspect the lack of specialising may have been a key factor.

Vometia: battlemage, single-handed tanky character with some aerothurge thrown in for a laugh.
Lohse: healer and necromancer, perhaps inadvisedly.
Sebille: archer and pyromaniac.
Ifan: archer, geomancer and thief.

Right now I am level 13

Beast (Avatar) - Rogue

• Built for high evasion instead of high damage.
• With Parry master, Dual Wielding, and the Dwarf Racial talent, that is 20% Dodge just from that alone. Gear is heavily weighed towards +Dodging as well.
  Abilities:: Skill Loadout is Scoundrel / Aero / Poly, with a Splash into Huntsman for Duck Duck Goose I've been focusing less on the Poly side of it, though.

Red Prince - Knight

• A high-damage 2H weapon user
• Focused on Physical damage, with a splash into Summoner for ranged and utility, as well as Hydro for healing and armor restoration.

Lhose - Enchanter

• Healing and Magical Armor restoration with Necromancer and a Splash into Warfare for Bouncing Shield, and into Scoundrel for The Pawn and Cloak and Dagger
• Aero / Hydro / Necro

Sebille - Wizard

• High damage Wizard, specced for Earth and Fire, and Physical Armor restoration
• Hothead and Savage Sortelige for Crits. Is very weak to Physical attacks.

Ifan is a Cleric and only uses defensive Hydro skills.
Fane is a Wizard and dabbles in almost all of the schools.
Lohse is a Rogue/Ranger and destroys people from above
Sebille is a 2h Warrior

So far, the team works well. The only issues I have with them are more related to issues I have with how the game works.

Main: Leia female Lizzard as a Knight with greatsword + Persuasion
Lohse: Healer with 2handed staff + wind aagic
Ifan: Wayfarer with crossbow
Sebil: Rogue with 2 Dagers + sneak and thievery

Does turn invis work with mortal blow, or assassinate for rangers?

Stabbey - Don't you find that having half melee dps and half magic dps causing problems?

You essentially have 3 health bars to burn down, You end spending more time making more work for yourself, don't you?

I am not mocking - I am curious.

I too am curious and I am starting a 2nd game to test a new party which I haven't completely decided on yet.

Quote fail, who let the noob in here? Did I do something wrong, or is that a glitch?

It's a new user restriction; it's gone now.

Honestly my first instinct was to run with a Beast/Rogue, Red Prince/Knight, Lhose/Wayfarer, and Sebille/??? Something Physical team, but I was talked into trying a mixed party.

Indeed, I have noticed it causing problems. I am playing on Classic mode so it is possible to overcome them, but I have indeed noticed.

The big problem is that for some encounters which are heavily weighted towards one attack type, the other party members sometimes just didn't have any good options for targeting.

I was able to overcome the difficulties and continue, but it is not wrong to say that a mixed team has some flaws compared to a pure damage team.

First real, non restart playthrough was kind of random.

Elf - Summoner/Hydro/Geo
The Red Prince - Two-Handed Warrior with three in Necromancy
Ifran - Ranger
Fane - Pryo/Geo

It worked well enough, but The Red Prince didn't contribute much of anything for most of the game, and the Summoner was the real ace in this particular setup since it could either be physical, or elemental for those few encounters where enemies were actually weak against any given element.

Second full playthrough was:

Elf - Summoner/Ranger
Sebille - Ranger
Ifran - Ranger
Fane - Rogue

Current playthrough is:

Elf - Pyro/Geo
Fane - Pyro/Geo
Sebille - Hydro/Aero
The Red Prince - Aero/Hydro

So far this is by far the worst group of the three. The second group was the strongest and would have been even stronger had my custom elf just been a more focused Ranger (or Rogue) from the very start.



Rogues don't really get much out of Polymorph beyond Chameleon and Chicken (nerfed but still excellent CC) for a long while. They can use Tentacle Lash, but that's better suited on a Two-Handed Warrior, and they can just use Sleeping Arms.

Mobility wise, they actually have the least issues of the two melee and they don't need Spread Your Wings at all. Backlash already moves them 8m by default for 1 AP and also happens to backstab. This can be improved by 2m with Far Man Out. They also get Cloak and Dagger at rank two Scoundrel, and The Pawn should be the first talent you pick up with them. After the end of Act 1, you can also add Phoenix Dive, but as the game progresses, it will become not quite as mandatory as your general movement goes up. By the end of the game you can have an 11m - 12m movement per AP. The Pawn gives you one free movement AP per turn.

I've also never found Skin Graft to be much use at all either. At least not on Fane. Time Warp is more useful, and source per encounter is limited.

lohse hydro necromancer
red prince sword and board
custom lizard 2 hander
ifan crossbow

(Possible spoilers)

My party is
Jjohnn, custom fighter Dual wield Axes & single sword/axe & shield;
Ifan, Ranger w/crossbows and bows;
Sebille, Rogue, dual-wielding daggers;
Fane, Wizard with distance wands/shield.

I tested several different variations in Fort Joy, including the Red Prince & Beast & Lohse and I honestly cannot recall who else I might've tried--but I dismissed several and then went back to pick these up more than once--and settled on these for my initial party. Now in Act II a goodly way through (70 + hours of play so far) with just two source points per, but preparing to pick up another shortly after my successful trip to the Black-Pit mines--just finishing up there now. Making full use of Source orbs and Runes and skills out of the Yin-yang--lots of points to Memory, although biggest boost there was from *a talent* the name of which I'll not divulge here, Ha-ha. Armor per character is ~500-700 physical; ~400-600 + magic. I have spent a lot of time adjusting inventory per character--lots of fun! Everyone is, I think, level 13 or thereabouts. Mostly I am kicking the tar out of the bad guys...;)...but I still encounter fights I have to come back to..!...because I can't win atm--which is very nice--love the variety and the challenge. (Have to come back to the BP Mines later for one such fight!) Lots of fights boil down to the use of strategy and making good use of skills for all characters, as I am sure everyone in this thread knows...;)

Next play through I will choose all new characters if possible! Fantasmagorical game! Definitely Game of the Year by anyone's standards!

Currently at the end of Act 1.
I use:

Fane (MC) - Summoner(8)/Aerotheurge (3) -> gonna redistribute a bit more to the latter though
- Abilities: Leadership (2), Persuasion (3), Lucky Charm (1) (gear), Thievery (1)(gear)
-- Talents: Ingenious, Undead, Mnemonic, Leech

Red Prince - Warfare(2)/Necromancer(3)/Hydrosophist(1) -> the latter for Blood Rain
- Abilities: Perseverance (1), Two-Handed (1), Telikenesis (2), Persuation (1) (gear)
-- Talents: Executioner, Leech, Sophisticated, Spellsong

Ifan - Warfare(4)(+1fromgear)/Geomancer (2)/Hydrosophist(1)(gear)/Polymorph(1) (by mistake)
- Abilities: Single-Handed(2) (+1fgear), Retribution (2) (+1fgear), Bartering (4)
-- Talents: Ingenious, Leech, Opportunist, Pet Pal, Thrifty

Lohse - Hydrosophist(5)/Pyrokinetic(2)/Aerotheurge(2)(/Huntsman(2)(gear))
--> Probably gonna shift talents from Aerotheurge to Pyro/Hydro when possible
- Abilities: Bartering(1), Lucky Charm(1) (gear), Loremaster(3)
-- Talents: Far Out Man, Leech, Ingenious, Thrifty

So far I have little problems. There have been a couple of fights I had to reload (Main Fight in Fort Joy where they create the Silent Monks, Voidvoken beast in Hollow Marshes, Witch that enslaved our Icy friend), but aside from that I had fun.

Didn't make the most efficient choices, sure, but I will be able to change that down the line I heard.
I have a strong focus on Magic because I like that. Summoning and Necromancy are a real joy to play IMO. Game still has the same problem as Divinity OS1 - namely that everything ultimately ends up being on fire - but that's not really an issue, it's almost like an inside joke of the universe to me at that point.

Party 1

Beast - 2h str melee with warfare, polymorph and a bit of necro
Ifan - crossbow ranger with warfare and enough huntsman for skills
Fane - Summoner with a bit of necro, pyro, geo, aero, hydro for infuses and support abilities like haste, teleport, armor skills and death ward
Custom elf - mage with all elemental schools and poly for apotheosis/skin graft focusing on spamming source skills later in the game (with time warp and adrenaline for good measure)

Party 2
Sebille - rogue with warfare, scoundrel and a bit of poly
Red prince - strength based tank summoner with warfare for physical cc, summoning and a bit of necro, using shield
Ifan - ranger, same as party 1
Lohse - strength based cleric, focusing on hydro, necro and warfare, with some dabbling in aero for teleport