Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Durability/Repair feedback.

Stats go to 15 (And cap overcap) :P

I'm not objecting to additional benefits to Repair, certainly Loremaster has those. I'm not married to consumable hammers.

I can understand the logic behind "you need higher level repair to repair magic/rare/legendary/superawesome class items", that does make sense. I don't even know if I would object to that implementation, it depends on how Larian tweaks repair and repair costs, and how they tweak other abilities. My worry is that it doesn't take too long to accumulate a lot of magic and even rare items, so if you have to spend a lot of early ability points into Repair, it could limit the benefit you get from taking it. It depends on a bunch of things.

Right now, weapon specializations are dump abilities because they do basically nothing useful, so that is a place where I don't have to bother putting points, so they could go into Repair. But if (or hopefully WHEN) they become useful again, then that's another place competing for ability points.

Both true - as you say, a lot still depends on how Larian eventually tweaks other abilities as well as gold/equipment availability, if at all. But just to yet again repeat the point from the OP: as long as they ditch permanent durability loss, and don't make Repair more nerfed through some other compensating change, it'll be a big improvement over the beta implementation IMO. We'll see.

Loremaster offers combat advantages though. Actually, the addition of identification to Loremaster is new. Even back when it was just getting some stat information on opponents I was investing points into it because it was helpful.

Repair is just.. repair.

Whatever the solution is, I just want permanent durability loss to go away. I hate feeling like I need to take my best gear and lock it away in a protective vault until I come across a battle where it's really needed. It's not fun using fantastic gear when you know some trivial fight you're in is causing permanent damage to your equipment. I want to find great items *and* be excited about using them.

I have same opinion as Gyson repair should be hanged as i love to collect items and use them even items if ihave better ones if i acquired them in a special way (quest reward crafted and so on) and when i found that when you repair item its durability is going down I just was hart broken as i didn't wanted to destroy the weapon i had.

Don't know if someone suggested this because there is loads to read here but I think repair should work in a way that you need specific materials to repair it for example:

To repair Armour (depending on what type it is and what it is made out of) you will need Iron leather
To repair Weapons (depending on what type it is and what it is made out of) you will need Iron Steel


I also like the idea that the repair hammer durability will go down as well as the idea of the hammer have certain chance to repair the item and when its feils it can actually damage it and combined with it i think there coud be different qualities of repair hamer which will give you higher chance to repair item.

This will work that the repair hamer repair chance (depending on its quality) + repair level (which will add for example on level 1 5% level 2 10% and so on) will determine if you repered it successfully or feild

Honestly after playing the game awhile I've come to the opinion that I would rather just have durability and repair removed all together. They are just don't bring any fun or enjoyment to the game and just seem like a waste of resources and time.

"Repair hammers that wear out," was used in TES: Morrowind and Oblivion and was generally regarded as awful. People were hauling a hardware store's worth of hammers around to be able to put their gear back together after every fight, and has already been pointed out, it's not even doing anything meaningful or interesting, just adding more tedious micromanagement.

Repair is in an awkward place because it's sitting there alongside Crafting - so apparently I may be able to make a perfectly sharp sword from scratch, but once it gets dull my only solution is to make a new one because I'm incapable of sharpening it... uh huh - and the setting doesn't really feature enough mechanical/technological stuff to reasonably merge Repair with Lockpicking as a "Tinker" type skill.

The only possible way that I can see Repair being salvageable as a skill would be to shift the emphasis to world interactions, but that would still favor a merged "Tinkering" skill because unlike something like Fallout 1 and 2, there just isn't enough technological stuff for it to stand on its own. I suppose one option might be to have "broken" items pop up here and there that can be put back together with Repair, but even that isn't a great option because it either ends up as another "save some cash" skill (because you don't need to pay an NPC to do it) or ends up being essentially mandatory for the sake of gearing.


In the end I think that dropping the skill and removing item durability/decay is probably the best (and simplest) solution. It's never been an engaging mechanic or added anything beyond annoying 'busywork' in any in any game that's used it.

Unless repair can give an item a temporary buff by 'whetting the blade'. Repair and loremastery both feel like taxes at this point.

Really like that tinkering skill idea.


I mostly agree. However, oversimplification, or removing everythings that are not "usefull", can lead to chess or go being the quintessential of strategy games, which they are.
However, I agree, a feature should have a meaning, and at least provide some satisfaction at some point to the player. I wouldn't mind it being frustrating, if it ends up being satisfying in the end.
Maybe it could have been usefull for some added side effects, like earning money because you could mend some broken gear of some NPC at the forge or whatever, or it could be usefull in the wilderness, far from any support, and make the adventure/survival feeling more present. Or maybe provide some basic crafting options, like a basic creation skill to get some more components from broken parts. But well, not DOS focus so far.

I'm not really concerned about how it worked in other games or how it was regarded by the community there, as it's very much like comparing apples to oranges when going from one game to the next.

The point of the "repair hammers that wear out" was simply to: 1) move permanent durability damage away from player equipment and onto a consumable tool that can be easily purchased, and 2) to create a gold sink that is still preferable to not having the repair skill at all *while also costing the player less as they invest more points into their repair skill*.

I'm not sure if that can be considered more or less "tedious micromanagement" than we have with the current system in-game, but the suggestion does remove permanent durability loss from our beloved gear while keeping the importance of the repair skill and the spirit of repairing intact.. and that was the goal.

If I was just looking to make it as beneficial and painless to the player as possible, I would have just suggested removing durability from the game entirely. And death. And character development restrictions. And..

However, if you feel the developers will be excited about the suggestion to remove durability loss then, by all means, run with it. I would rather not have durability loss myself, but I'm assuming they spent time on this system because the idea of repair was important to them. And so my suggestion is trying to work within that unfortunate conundrum. It's the "what kind of request can we get away with" approach.

Haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but were any changes made to repair other than changing the name to "Blacksmithing" (which seems like a strange decision, considering there is also "Crafting", and Blacksmiths aren't really known for mending robes, leather hides, bows, and the like.)?

Just one: Maximum durability is no longer lowered by repairing. There still are "red lines" beyond which you need a higher level skill of repairing, but that seems okay now. Repair is now a skill worth investing in - at least 3 points.

It's not ideal, but it'll do - I'm just happy they got rid of permanent durability loss. I also don't understand the name change to "Blacksmithing" - I think "Repair" made a lot more sense.

I'm glad to see permanent durability loss gone, but (unfortunately) it has been done in a way that makes Lockpicking seem pointless. Why invest in Lockpicking and rely on lockpicks at all when you can invest those points in Repair (and purchase a single repair hammer) instead and solve durability problems and pesky locks with one skill?

That said, durability damage occurs too quickly. My weapons (which I did not abuse) required level 2-3 repair by the time I reached the first town. It is difficult enough to convince a new player to place even a single point in repair ("Blacksmithing") during character creation. It's made worse by the fact that a single point is worthless by the time you get your hands on a repair hammer.

From what I gather, the only point of durability in this game is to prevent people from bashing through any door and chest they run across (so that finding keys and lockpicking are actually useful).

Isn't the solution mind-bogglingly simple, then?

0. Armor does not lose durability.
1. Weapons only lose durability when attacking world objects, not enemies.
2. Re-instate maximum durability loss on repair.
3. Crafting is only for armors. Blacksmithing is used to make weapons and repair them (can only repair any weapons you can craft).

Now there is a decent reason in order to invest in Blacksmithing and repair maintains its function as laid out in the tutorial: "Our weapons are going to break if we bash through every obstacle we encounter."

Still leaves that spells can break through objects without penalty...