Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Help/Tips/Tricks Help a new player out?

So the game finished downloading and I have started playing it. Lvl 4 right now and I can say I have after a few reloads effectively beat some Zombie Jack for 10k EXP by putting his wives flowers on his grave at lvl 2. Quite a feat if I do say so myself. Anyways, I came to you guys for help on allocating my skills and stats. ^^; And also any tips (Like how to get Deadly Gift) would be nice too. d:

Starting as female Mage/Witch:

Right now I have been pumping INT up, so it's at 30 while everything else remains at 10. As you know, I am not a big fan of raising Vit until I am comfortable with my damage dealing. ^^; I am at lvl 4 currently with one skill point to use. For my skills I have taken Hell Spikes which I have noticed slows down the mob who gets affected by it. Has a decent AoE also. Once I am able to respec, Freeze will definiately take it's place, but I don't have access to it yet, so~ And Alchemy, which was one of the main reasons for posting here was to see if you guys think it's wise to increase it further than 1?

Anything you guys can provide me with help wise or just anything in general I'm open to. I DO NOT care about spoilers because I end up researching the hell out of the game anyways. If you guys tell me, that's just less work for me. Thank you! (:

It is possible to kill Jake on level 1 with a bow and a lot of running (this would give enough experience to reach level 3). He can be killed again in the basement of his house (the one just south of the cemetery); the cellar hatch is covered by a stack of boxes or packages. Killing him on level 3 would bring you to level 4. On level 4 I don't know if you could get to level 5, but it would still be a nice chunk of experience. The mage's MeteorStrike spell has a bit of a stunning effect and can be cast quickly, so makes killing Jake fairly easy, as long as your mana holds out (use potions or chicken).

Hell Spikes is much more effective at higher levels, and since it does physical damage it can not be resisted. Arguably the toughest opponent in the game uses a Blind + Hell Spikes combination.

The survivor's Curse skill is much better than the mage's Withering Curse, since it can not be resisted, and can be quickly cast multiple times on the same target (follow with any elemental attack).

You can learn the first level of Deadly Gift (in the survivor's Path of the Thief) on character level 5. You also need specific trap material for each of the three types of traps you can use.

You can not respec your skills within the game. However, iZakaroN's SaveEditor (or from Kiya's site, with description) can be used to do so. I don't know if anyone has tried it with the download version of the game, but I'd expect it to still work.

You can get a level of Alchemy as a quest reward, but I'd put one skill point in myself, to start using restoration potions once they start becoming more effective than health or mana potions. I'm not sure there would be much need to learn more than level 2, though (I did playing a warrior, and made larger sized potions, but minor potions were all I needed in the game).


Alchemy Spoiler Thread

Free skills, and spell books you can buy


differences between classes (minor spoilers)

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


Kaan's Mage Guide

Playing a mage character...

What would I do without you, omg. <3

And if you've more questions, ask

I like the alchemy in DD, so I invest at least 2 points in Alchemy & learning 1 point via a quest in Dark Forest ... and searching by trader's for an equipment item with alchemy + 1 !
I don't invest in the beginning to much points in the Mage skills since you can find/buy skillbooks of the Mage skilltree (ONLY of the Mage, not of the Survivor or Warrior skilltree!)
But if you like trading a lot (invest in Trader's Tongue for better prizes!), you will find for sure equipment items with a Skillpoint !

In my last started play (female Survivor), now level 13, I buy 2 skillbooks at the Rivertown Marketplace (there're some good trader's!) : Freeze & Meteorestrike . I must say I'm a lucky one because I had the wish to invest more in both skills, so now I have 2 or 3 skillpoints left because of that

This time I don't want to invest a point in Repair but look out for a equipment with + 1 to Repair to have it on my way in case of emergency ... to repair my broken gear ...
I've already find Legging with Indentify + 1, a shield with Lockpick + 1 and more ...

You can find somewhere nearby the Dwarven Village a skillbook "Meteorestrike".
But beware of many snakes there ...
Meteorestrike is my favorite spell in the very first beginning ... after that it's Freeze & Poison Weapon (Survivor skill) ... the 'poison' via Poison Weapon is stronger than other kind of poison (like a weapon that have poison damage or the skill Poison Arrows ...)
Combined Freeze + Poison Weapon is great to kill many Orcs very fast

I just finished the first "main quest" I guess you could say in the catacombs and the fight was challenging at first, I reloading once because I tried to use the scorpion trap but it didn't work. I'm puzzled on how to use it now... So I pretty much stood there getting hit while using something that didn't work. Afterwards I used the Hell Spikes (2) and took everything out. ^^; INT is at 50 now. I'm scared because of my low Hp, so I hope I start finding charms to combat that immediately. I read about the Alchemy in the forest, so I put one point in there (And what a grand idea it was) and I'm waiting to get to that part. Lvl 7 I think right now. C: I have 2 free skill points that I have no idea what I want to invest in. I could put them in Wisdom, but honestly, I feel that is a waste of skill points in this game since you can't [normally] respec, as to where in DKS, Wisdom is a good idea up until Battle Tower, where you should spend the points elsewhere. Make sense? Then there's Lockpick, but I have only come across 1 locked chest, so I don't see me putting anything there until later in the game when things like that become more common. And because I am always running, I end up running on top of mobs and killing them fast, so the "sight" skills aren't a good idea for me, though I will be on the lookout for items with that enchant. And I don't want to upgrade the Fireball spell because I read later in the game it's resisted by a lot of things, as to where Hell Spikes isn't and it's AoE, so I'm just sticking with Hell Spikes as my main spell, while Fireball will remain at 1 and be used when I'm low on Mp. I'm waiting on things mentioned above like Curse and such, but I don't want these 2 points to go to waste, though if there isn't anything of value, then I'd rather not waste them. (:

I'm trying to find that Orc's axe right now, then I will go back to the town and grab the Restoration spell I forgot to get before venturing into the catacombs for solving the soldier's cure quest. Magic Mirrors are interesting. <3 Great game. Cannot wait to see what else it holds.

EDIT: I think I'm going to put the 2 skill points into Identify, is that good or no? I am hesitant since it can be done by an NPC, so it's kinda wasting the points and since you can just save/reload to see if the ID was profiting or making a loss. Nvm, not doing it.

I honestly have no idea...

Wisdom - is it worth the skill points?

Do you have scorpion traps in your inventory? When you select Deadly Gift as your secondary skill, it should bring up a menu where you can select which type of trap you wish to use; after left clicking on an available icon, you can left click on the ground to create a trap. You need eggs for spidermines, something else for trail bombs and a caged scorpion for scorpion traps. These can be found as random loot (scorpions being fairly rare at the start of the game), but may be able to be purchased once you finish Aleroth and make your way to Ars Magicana or Verdistis.

Elven Sight is much more effective than Ranger Sight. I put a couple points in Elven Sight so I cleared the fog of war over most of the screen. There are sight bonuses on equipment, as well, which I eventually had to start avoiding, so I didn't clear too much more than was shown on the screen (the fog of war helped indicate where I had explored).

I put 3 points into Identify, got 1 as a quest reward and found an item with that skill bonus, so I could always identify items right away. There are several unique swords in the game, as well as the dragon armour set pieces, etc, where I saved before hitting alt nearby or mousing over them and reloaded a few times. Had I needed to return to a trader each time, that would be a longer process, and there are a couple areas where there may not be a trader handy.
You don't need to make sure you get the best stats on equipment, but it is possible to get pretty crappy dragon armour pieces, etc.

In Divine Divinity, you will definitely want to raise your other stats, especially Strength, so you can wear decent gear. Unlike Divinity 2, you do NOT get health and mana increases upon levelling up.

Mages don't get a lot of value for points into Constitution, so try and find items with bonuses directly to health and mana. However, 50 INT and 10 everything else at the end of the first dungeon is dangerously unbalanced, you could run into trouble unless you start to put points into Strength or Vitality NOW.


You will want 2 or 3 points into Alchemy. One will let you mix red health and blue mana potions to give you white restoration potions. The health and mana potions heal a fixed number of points, but the white potions heal a percentage of your maximum health - even the small ones heal 50%. Harvest the herbs outside Aleroth and make as many of those as you can.

Freeze, I believe, is only effective when an enemy's spiritual resistance is below a certain amount. It'll work fine on humans and orcs, but other enemies might not be affected at all.

Hell Spikes is a good spell, though, it is physical damage, so resistances to elemental attacks don't matter.

Wisdom is worthless in DD, avoid spending points there. You will want 3 points into Identify at some point, although you can get one from a quest reward. It might be better to put those points towards combat-useful skills first instead of identify.

Max out "Know enemy" asap, so you can view enemy weaknesses. Some seemingly very powerful enemies like dragon riders sometimes have low spiritual resistance and they can be transmuted, making a fight with them trivial.

All Orcs are very weak to elemental damage, freeze them. A certain type of Lizardman is also weak to transmute.

Transmute is more a gimmick, but I like to play with my enemies a bit rather than just spam Hellspikes and own everything.