Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Suggestion: Fortify/Stand ground.

I've gone through a full playthrough of the alpha build in co-op (and had a blast). I've done my share of battles with different skill set-ups and a full group (the two main characters, Madora and Jahan) and came to the impression that something was missing in a turn based game.

The ability to fortify a character, have him stand ground, adopt a defensive posture. The way it works right now, if you end a turn early, is you get to save the surplus APs for next round (up to a limit). And that's a good feature. What would also be good, would be the possibility to end a turn early, NOT save the surplus APs, and instead use them right away to adopt a defensive stance, buffing armor, dodge, reducing flanking penalties, etc based on the number of APs left.

I came to this conclusion when Jahan joined the group. Winterbreath being what it is right now, Jahan often moved to the front line to use it, and then spent a lot of turns just casting a single lightning bolt and then pass for lack of other options. So what happened is that he stored his maximum of APs each turn, just throwing a lightning bolt and doing nothing else, usually getting some pounding while Winterbreath finished its cooldown.

I also had Madora phoenix strike behind enemy line only to discover more enemies and getting surrounded, denying the possibility of walking away without suffering a lot of opportunity attacks, and simply standing there and waiting to be able to phoenix away or use a fear, while taking a few swings here and there.

Being able to put a character in a defensive stance, ending his turn and providing some defensive bonuses at the price of not keeping the surplus APs for next turn seems like an interesting alternative. Perhaps it was discussed before, I couldn't find it. So there it is.

A defensive stance is a good idea, I'd like that. It seems to be needed given the high damage enemies do, especially when there's more than one attacking you.

Although if it eats up ALL your AP every time, then you'll get stuck in a cycle of not being able to build up AP to use high AP skills because you're defending every turn.

Well obviously it needs a little thought. It should have a limit, a maximum of APs converted to defensive bonuses, but I don't believe it should be combined with the ability to save APs. It should be one or the other. Getting stuck in a cycle of not being able to use high AP skills can be avoided by not fortifying. It's a strategic choice, fortify and improve survivability, or stay vulnerable as you prepare to use a powerful ability.

I don't think having both defensive stance AND AP conservation would make the ability balanced. If able to defend AND still save APs, then just throw away the option, and have "every AP saved improves defense until used" a regular feature. Not convinced it would add value to the combat system. Strategic depth is about choices, in my opinion.

I've been in that situation twice so far, I'd think something like save up a minimum of say 6ap for an 11% defense increase up to perhaps 9 for a maximum of 33% damage reduction from physical sources, perhaps a talent could have something added in to add magic damage reduction along with whatever current bonus it has, or perhaps just one more fresh one to pick from if you find that play style suits you. Or perhaps a flee talent/skill allowing people to run away without attacks of opportunity, then imposing a penalty on them when they are x spaces away from any enemies, x being estimated safe distance or proximity to an ally altered by the amount of moves they had to make to get there, the penalties could be varied or stacking for a bit, you get the idea.

If it goes the gives x% damage reduction upon use you could also have diminishing returns for repeated use allowing for greater depth of strategy.

The flee perk seems like a good idea, something in the line of greatly improving dodge and/or defense while suffering attacks of opportunity, or simply a flat immunity to it (although in such a state it might seem a little too strong and would become a no brainer must have quickly, which in my sense is never that good).

The defensive stance should use up all remaining APs but provide a scaling defensive bonus up to a certain amount, 5 or 6 as you suggest seems reasonable, with perhaps the possibility of making the stance stronger with perks and or abilities (such as increased physical protection in Way of the Warrior, increased magical protection in Sourcery and increased dodge in Way of the Ranger).

Let's say 2% physical damage reduction, 2% dodge, 2% magical protection for each AP used in defensive stance up to 5 points (max 10% each). Then perks or abilities might buff physical protection, dodge or magic protection so that each AP used will grant 4/6/8% instead of two. This way you get to choose when to use or not use the stance as well as choose what kind of defensive bonuses the stance provides. So you might have a warrior whose defensive stance will grant +40% physical damage reduction, +10% dodge and +20% magic protection (for 5 APs) and say an archer with +10% phys. prot. +20% dodge and +40% magic prot. (provided they spent their ability points correctly).

You can max each stat on each character, so they all have up to 40% protection on everything, but that would come at the price of not saving APs each turn, and having to spend points for these defensive buffs rather than something else.

Diminishing returns on the stance points out an interesting aspect, as to how to make this option limited in time in order to avoid maxing constitution and speed so that you can use low/medium cost skills every turn and still benefit from 5 AP defensive stance. I'm not sure diminishing returns would solve that. Perhaps make defensive stance available only if the character only moves during the turn, so that if you start using skills or attack monsters, you can't defend during the same turn.

Diminishing returns for people in bad situations where they find they can't run due to the attacks of opportunity they'd incur, it just gives them a way to live but not sit tight, they need to figure a way out fast from there. I like your idea's as well, I hope they give some time over to our thoughts being included.