Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Help/Tips/Tricks several newbie questions

I don't know if the developers read this section of the forum, but I think Beyond Divinity is a great game. It reminds me of all those classic RPGs I used to play on the Amiga.

Anyway, I've just started playing the game on the easiest difficulty so I chose a basic set-up: Death Knight with 2-H slashing and Hero with crushing/shield. I'll no doubt try other strategies later, but first I wanted to play the game and get a feel for things.

I noticed from the other threads that 2-handed weapons are prefered. Why is this? Granted I'm only level 10 (or 9, I can't remember off-hand) and in act 1, but so far it seems that the benefits for 2-handed weapons over weapon/shield are minimal. My DK has 2-H Slashing (acuracy 1, damage 6) and sharpen 4; my hero has 1-H Crushing w/shield (accuracy 1, damage 6) and shield 4. With a magical 2-handed axe that I found in battlefields (and sharpend), my DK does on average 165 damage; while the hero does 123 average with a non-magical maul (sharpened). None of them have trouble hitting or killing. Obviously its a little early to be making judgements, but I'm wondering what the big advantage with 2-handed weapons is.

Another thing I was wondering about is who makes the best warrior. At first I though it would be the hero, because the DK can then be a mage/archer/etc. without having to worry about strength for armour. This was further reinforced by the fact that my hero seems to have a much higher armour rating, even without factoring in his shield. Does this change later?

However, two things cause me to question that idea. Firstly, the DK has vastly superior hitpoints, even though they both have the same constitution. Is the DK naturally tougher or am I just ignoring some bonuses from items? Secondly, the DK's armour does not result in penalties to agility, accuray, etc. So although his armour is weaker, his evasion and other abilities are higher. I'm not sure how useful this is in practice though.

I had one idea for another character combination, but I don't know if it would work. Have the hero a fighter with either 2-handed or weapon/shield; and the DK a fighter/mage. I saw that willow (or was it bark?) had a high damage rating, and that it used intelligence rather than strength to add damage. Would it be possible to create a low-strength DK, like a fighter only instead with good intelligence, and use him as a back-up warrior using wands and spells? Is there a skill that boosts damage and accuracy of spiritual weapons? Also, I havn't tried magic yet, but I hear the hammer spell is good. If anyone has tried this sort of character, I'd like to hear your thoughts and oppinions.

Ah yes, the old Amiga... I finally threw my Amiga 100 away last month after keeping it all these years. That was very hard to do <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

OK, let's talk basics here: You are the Hero, you have an involuntary appendage attacked to you (the DK). Don't forget that you are the Hero, and you should build your strength there. The DK should be used for your support in the manner you feel will be best. If you look at the DK as your main strength, and your Hero as the support character, then you will be sorry as the game progresses.

Why 2-H over 1-H? Quite simply it is for the added damage. Many times it will be imperative that you take down several enemies as quickly as possible (my 2-H damage is 259-385). Granted the Shield Blocking may have some advantage, I have not played that skill yet. But I can tell you that in my first game (Tactical difficulty) I had enormous problems in the final battle with 1-H and Shield. Once I switched to 2-H in that battle I could handle the big guy (bearly, but after killing him several times I have his number now).

Remember that in some situations if you do not take the enemies down quickly you will take massive melee and magic damage from hordes that will attack you You will understand better when you meet Earth Elementals or Clerics).

Most people like to play a game the first time as a Melee character, then try other combos later. I can assure you that in this game a Melee character will have the most difficult final battle of any class, you will just have to wait and judge that for yourself.

I would step up the difficulty level though. If you are playing Very Easy, you might want to go to Action or even Tactical if you are an experienced gamer.

Hope that helps.

There are two troubles with one handed plus shield (it works quite well in act 1 as you correctly note but less well later in the game).

One - the shield slows you down so it isn't exactly free defense. Not a huge deal but that negative to accuracy, speed and initiative IMO outweighs the benefit of another item that you can have charms in.

Two - you will face more and more enemies that attack in non-physical ways so the shield blocking gets less and less useful. Nice to have but as noted in the prior post some of the magic damage they do is serious and you need to take them out as quickly as possible - doing 2H damage is nice.

1H with shield works but I agree that 2H is better.

I find the 1 hand with shield concept far superior to the two hand. Though the two hand looks rather cool. But later in the game your are
1. likely to find shields that may infact improve your speed and initiative.
2. You have the option to charm, so if you use a number of ydra charms you can get lots of strenght based damage.
3. at high levels the damage difference between a good onehand axe and a twohand sword is limited.
4. Shield protection is infact a clear advangtage when you run into the above mentioned priests ( it still works when you get hammered)

My suggestion is to spend only 1 point in damage for your one hand weapon and concentrate all your efforts on shield blocking (and sharpen obviously but that skill can be unlearned)
Anyway there is a constant ongoing discussion on these matters on this forum so if you are interested you should use the search option to look for posts related to the topic. And dont forget to bring your bow <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Just go with what ya like better. I perfer 2H but you can always unlearn the skill if you want to switch to another!