Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Cooldown and Action, redundant features ?

Hi there,
So, after ~30h in the beta, it struck me : is it really necessary to have cooldown mechanic when the main mechanic is about action points, and how much actions one character can do in one turn.

I mean, I understand the need to balance, to avoid big spells to be launched at the beginning of the combat, or to prevent people from spamming fireballs at enemy. But that kind of balancing is supposed to be handled by action points, isn't it ?
I know you can have, thanks to talent and speed points, lots of action points. But a spell costing 15AP should prevent any spam. And if you have enough AP to cast it at turn one, I don't see the issue here.

Take for instance, the small fireball: 9AP, 7 turns for the cooldown. Really ? 7 turns for the basic fireball ?
Most of basic lvl1 spells have a 3 turns cooldown.

Ok, so removing cooldowns may be a bit extreme, but if anything, I think the whole cooldown mechanic need to be more balanced, and tuned down. Reduced the cooldown, but raise the AP cost can be a good thing

What do you think ?

So, basically what you are proposing is that almost all spells should have such a high cost that you will have to wait several turns in order to accumulate enough APs in order to cast them? But wouldn't the fights become so very boring when you basically have to do nothing and just to wait through many turns in order to save APs? And what would happen if raising all the stats and having the super gear equipped you manage to get a character who has 15 APs every turn? Such a character would be way to overpowered and would be able to cast armagedon spells without any restrictions.

Let me just bring an example. I have now a witch (level 5) who has something like 7 APs. A wolf summon is very useful for distraction of enemies and deals a decent damage (plus bleeding status). A wolf summon is a level 1 spell, costs 4 AP and has a cooldown of 4 turns. This means, that basically only one wolf can exist at the same time during the fight (the old wolf is usually dead before my witch can summon a new one). So, now if the cooldown is gone, how high would you set the AP costs for a wolf? If it is less than 7 AP, then my warriors do not need to do a stroke since my witch can spam wolfs every turn. If it is slightly higher than 7 APs, ok, let me just go and check the merchant or just wait for the next level up so that I can increase my speed/constitution and we have the same problem as before. Should it be more than 10 APs? Probably not, since it is just a level 1 spell...

So, I think cooldowns are really needed as a restriction...

It's actually possible right from level 1. Raistlin, mate, Raistlin. And Lone wolf, too.



I put a point in constitution, maybe one in Perception. Can't remember if I boosted Speed, I don't think so. Mainly dumped my points in Dex to wield the crossbows.

So yeah, tweaking the starting stats of, say, a ranger, taking LW and Raistlin, you can get a LOT of ap per turn from the start.
Just giving even more weight to your point

It's odd it doubles the speed bonus, but not the lone wolf bonus... makes me think it's not intended, so you should have had 13, not 16.
Larian?

happens already, but you wait for cooldown, not APs (well, that happens to me a lot)


So ? what is the point of being a powerful mage if you can't rain armageddon on your ennemy ? As I said, I have not problem with a powerful character casting powerful spells. This is what it is about, in a "turn by turn/AP" system: the more AP you have, the more powerful you are in the end.
As for your example, restriction and balance may come from level restriction on gears or talent (for instance)





I agree that removing cooldown is a bit extreme. As I said, it's more a matter of balance between AP and cooldown. Please, you have to admit that sometimes it is just ridiculous to see a 5 turns cooldown for a buff spells, or 3 turns for a basic lvl1 spell. If the spell is too powerful: raise the cost or decrease power. Most of the time, 1 or 2 turns is enough concerning cooldown. And right now, if you want to specialise in pure dame dealer or support (buff/debuff), you can't What kind of mage can only cast a debuff every 5 turns ?
But it's just my opinion.

ps: talking a lot about mages here, because it is IMO more an isse for them. Warriors can always base attack, and I did not test rangers

Debuffs last a while, it makes no sense to, say, cast rain within the cooldown period of 6 turns. Since "wet" lasts 5 turns.
See the example of the wolf mentioned above.
Likewise for other buffs or debuffs. Haste is already OP, let stand if you can cast it every 2 turns on different teammates.