Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General New to DD and have some questions.

Back in December I dropped a few hints about this game, so my wife got it for me for Christmas. Just now getting to it, because I move slow.

Anyway, my copy of Divine Divinity is on 3CDs, version 1.34. I've solved the first big quest and am now able to leave the starting town. I've been playing as a warrior, sword and shield, and have tinkered some with a bow. There has been a learning curve but I am really enjoying this game so far.

Now on to the questions... thanks in advance.

1.) Should I get the GOG version? I hear it is the most up to date version of the game. I don't mind buying this one again since the price is right, and I don't mind starting over either, as I am a little bit wiser now and would pick a few different skills.

2.) Sword Specialist- this covers all swords, but not daggers, right? I am guessing that since there is no Dagger Specialist, then Assassin's Kiss is the skill of choice for dagger users?

3.) Are there two handed swords in this game? As in swords so large, you can't use a shield?

4.) I'm having trouble finding merchants who have enough money to buy my loot, so for now I'm just storing some extra gear in a chest in Joram's house. Will I meet wealthier merchants later on, or am I missing something? Like maybe I can trade an old sword for health potions or something? Plus, is it true that by selling a $50 item for $40, that merchant will like me more?

Have a feeling that I will grab the GOG version, as I like how it fixes True Sight, Bow and Crossbow Expertise, and tones down the Scorpion Traps. But are weapons that have the freeze effect still overpowered?

I really like the character system in this game. How you can take whatever skills you want, no matter what class. Feels pretty free and open, and I like that. DD also has a classic CRPG feel, and reminds me of some of my old favorites, like Baldur's Gate. Detailed graphics, too.

If you want to play at higher resolutions or need widescreen support, then get the download version. If not there isn't huge difference between the disk and download versions, but either way it is up to you.
I don't know if the Freeze skill on a weapon still ignores the target's resistances in the download version (it wasn't mentioned in the change log). My first game I only noticed that bonus a couple times, so avoiding it (after trying it briefly) didn't put any significant restrictions on my selection of weapons.

You are correct about the Sword Expertise and Assassin's Kiss skills. Even with Assassin's Kiss maxed, you would do more damage with a decent sword.
Unlike with swords, there are only a couple potentially good quality daggers consistently in the game. If you want to play a thief/assassin type build you can certainly do so, though.

There are 2 handed swords. You can get a two handed bastard sword from a knight in an encounter near Stormfist castle, with the right dialog options. Earlier merchants may not have 2 handed swords, but later ones will (and they should start showing up in random loot or dropped by opponents).

If you head east of the farmlands and the castle, you will reach Ars Magicana, a market square with wealthier merchants.

You can trade crappy loot for potions, etc, and better quality loot for more expensive items. In the trade window, click on any items you wish to sell/trade, click on any of the merchant's items you want to buy, then click on the balance icon for whichever side is less, to make up the difference in gold (if available). I almost always used loot when trading, and kept chests in my base with crappy loot, equipment that needed to be repaired, and full durability equipment ready to be sold (repairing an item with less than full durability increases its value).

New Money Trick found - once you explore the dwarven halls in the Dark Forest

You can give merchants stuff to increase their opinion of you, but the merchants you trade with frequently are going to get to 100 in any case, so there is not much point in doing so.


differences between classes (minor spoilers)

Early Starter Tips (NON-Spoiler Version) (contains much of the information in the above topic)


Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the info. That pretty much takes care of all my questions. I'm eager to get back to this one. I've been in a rut and it's been a while since I had a game I was really excited about.

My first attempt at getting the game through GOG was denied. A three dollar online purchase, turned down. Odd. Called my bank and it was due to GOG being based out of the US. We talked, the bank OK'd the purchase, and I downloaded the game last night.

Really looking forward to re-starting this one and making some better character decisions.

Normally in RPGs I try to get the more boring utility skills out of the way first, like Identify, Lockpick, Alchemy, etc. My first character got to level 8, and I used Lockpick once, so I think I'll grab that one a little later in the game. Having Alchemy at level 2 is really nice though. Identify and Repair look to be real money savers.

Yes, Indentify is a real money saver, repair too, but mostly I make a character what used Indetify, but don't use Repair skill. If I found an equipment with +1 to Repair, that's great and then I use it .
1 point in repair is for me enough. Alchemy I really love it to make my own potions!
There are so many nice skills

JR-Orion, enjoy this game!! Success!

Identify and Repair are indeed big-time money savers, but they aren't required. Look for items which have them. You only need one point into Repair.

There is a free point in Identify available from a quest.

if i were to replay my started game, i'd skip Identify completely and go lvl5 repair instead. Both are money savers. But it has been my observation that the cost for Id is fixed (100-150gp) while cost for repairing goes up with item value(had to pay 400gp to repair a crappy shield 60%>100%). Also, so far every merchant i met can Id. and very few can actually repair.

id:free + rep:400=400
vs
id:100gp + rep:free=100

i can imagine the difference will be more and more with higher loot value.

Hi Nicknick,

Yes, you're right: it can save a lot of money if you repair your weapons and armor on you own
On the other hand: money isn't a problem (maybe only in the first beginning) at all in DD.

So for me it is just a pure personal thing to choose for these Skills (Repair and Identify).
Most of the time I choose first 1 point (or 2 points) in Identify so I can identify the most of equipment I can wear directly ... Later on I go for maximum 1 point in Repair (except if I find an equipment with +1 to Repair early in the game).

Mostly I find it fun to do things on my own (repair, identify, making potions...)

Don't bother putting more than 3 points into Identify (ideally, this includes the free point you can learn). There are only a handful of items in the game which have an Item Quality of 4 or more. It is extremely rare to see a random item with an ID level or 4 or 5 drop, so 3 points into Identify will ID 85% of all the items which drop.

That said, if you don't mind reloading to get good items, there are a few unique items with an ID level of 5, so having items with +Identify on them could be useful to keep around.


I wouldn't put more than one point into Repair because Repair rank 1 repairs an item to 60% durability. An item at 2% durability is just as effective as one at 100% durability, so there's no need to spend more skill points into Repair.

Warriors tend to have plenty of free skill points, especially if they rely on purchased or found spell books for any mage skills they may want to use.

I put 3 points into Identify (plus one from a quest and another from an item bonus) and 2 into Repair (found 3 items throughout the game with a Repair bonus, that I could equip to repair a bunch of stuff at a time to sell/trade for the highest value). If you are not going to repair loot before selling, then one level is enough.


Free skills, and spell books you can buy

Or instead of them even aim for lvl5 in Trader's Tongue. Thats 15% discount, assuming everyone else get 2 free points there. Not sure if it will outweight the benefits of a highlvl rep/id. I find it increasingly annoying that with lowlvl repair and identify, stuff i actually want to use must be Id'ed in a shop anyway. And things where repairing would make a profit difference are expensive to repair. Kinda funny.

Say that merchant Kistandalius sells 4 gems for a total sum of 3*38k+1*18k=132000gp. 15% of that would be 20000gp. Thats the cost of 200 Id'ed items, and only for that transaction.

O yeah, very intresting thing Nicknick!!
Your study of these kind of skills is fine to know, thanks you share your thoughts with all forummembers!

I think, next time I play DD, I go also for Trader's Tongue (and Repair, Identify) and so I collect a lot of money so I can go to the Wastelands and buy there many high charms and strong weapons and armor
I wish to play on "Hard", so I think I will need! Only finished DD on "Easy"!!

Strike that, testing showed that Trader's Tongue has a caveat. The good thing is that TT affects selling prices. Since 99% of all money comes through selling stuff TT has actually its effect doubled( ie 50% more gain). Sell for 25% more. Buy for 25% less. The bad thing is that prices are capped @100% derivation _and merchant disposition affects selling as well. Long story short @100 merchant disposition, TT is worthless, as its effects are cut off. No matter how much TT it isnt possible to sell say a red charm for more than 10'000gp or buy a small healing potion for less than 50gp. However its great as long as merchant doesnt totally admire you. Wild shopping done right.

So I see: I can best play on "Hard" difficulty because in that case your "Reputation" going not so fast higher like by playing on "Easy" (right?).

What I experienced also: when you let shopkeepers (they can repair!) repair your gear, your reputation go fast higher! I think th esame with "Identify" gear by shopkeepers.

So I think, if I wish to have the best out of "Trader's Tongue", I must also go for both skills: "Repair" and "Identify".

Thanks for your insights Nicknick

With TT lvl5 it is possible to sell items for maximum value to anyone with 22+ disposition. Thats pretty cool, considering the default reputation can go that high(everyone buys at max)

With merchant disposition of 42+ they also sell at cheapest possible price. Thats pretty cool too considering i think reputation can go as far as well. Everyone will sell and buy for max.

With best prices, sell price=buy price. buy for 10k, sell for 10k. One can borrow things from merchants, and return at zero cost later.

it appears this money overflow is what is causing merchants disposition to raise. Free money they get from each transaction. Its probably cheaper to give them free money first, and buy things later at a reduced price. Havent done the math on that though.

Kistandalius has a hidden tax. His items are 25% more expensive.

So Kistandalius give also 25% less gold for items I sell?

nah he buys at regular price, just charges more for his items. (buys Red Example Charm for 10k as everyone else, but sells for 12500) There could be more merchants like him, so far he is the only one i met(ofc i havent played through the game yet completely..)

Even without repairing stuff before I sold it, I picked up and sold all my loot and I reached the last part of the game with 1.3 MILLION gold pieces. Combined with the additional loot in the last part of the game, that was more than enough to outfit every single piece of gear I had (all of which had 5 charm slots, so 55 charms) with Gold Charms which cost 50,000 gold each.

Yes, after the beginning of the game you don't really need to worry very much about gold. Before hitting the gong, I had 6 gold charms, and 29 stacks of 50k gold. By the end of the game I spent all my gold, and got an additional 60 gold charms (about half of which were found).

Had a look at Repair (with Geoff). Repair cost does not care about TT. But does care about disposition and gets cheaper and cheaper.

@100 disposition, repairing adds as much value as repair cost. Less than 100 and reparing is a monetary loss.

So paying money for repairing is never profitable. At best its pointless. At least with Geoff.

100 disposition: Dagger cost 3850@60%+ repair cost 1100= 4950. Fully repaired dagger selling value is also 4950. With less repair cost goes up, but selling cost stays same, as its capped.


As for money being useless. Well not as for lvl20. Severely underfunded here. Also things change quite a bit for those who have completed the game whether they want it or not. You know what gameend items are, and when and where to get them. So you only pay once. Say i would want to get 55 silver charms. So far this thing only dropped once, but long has been available in stores. @20k per piece, thats around 1million, and im financially ruined. Why do this? Well why not, as the regular player doesnt have the knowledge when the game is ending or what to expect. Redundancy is bound to happen here. So far invested points in Enchant Weapon were a complete waste, with no funds to purchase useful Charms. Or say ill get a golden Charm and put it in an item which soon will be replaced by a powerful unique. Thats kinda like paying insurance only once. Right before the accident.