Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Questions about Witchcraft

Ill just say it bluntly, is witchcraft any good? I have made it decently far into the game and i don't really see the need for witchcraft spells. The party i am running is a mage focusing on air/fire but with points in water/earth as well (me), a ranger (my friend), Madora, and Cain for the Sword and Board tank... The rate at which we can take enemies down makes me wonder if the debuffs/buffs from witchcraft are any good? Maybe it is for a "super-hardcore" playthrough with two lone wolves but any thoughts or opinions you can offer are greatly appreciated... Thanks!

Oath of Desecration is a low level witchcraft spell that's very powerful, especially when used on a two-handed man-at-arms user who has whirlwind.

Otherwise I dunno it seems kind of underwhelming compared to other skills. I guess it's because it is supposed to be more unconventional?

You should be able to beat the game completely ignoring certain skills in your party because it's "classless, play how you want"

Yeah, i see Oath of Desecration and it sounds really powerful but i don't know if a buff makes burning one of my ability points justifiable

I like Witchcraft for the summons and for bloodletting + leech. But its uses overall are kind of subpar compared to other trees by itself. But it works well in combination of things.

Unless you've discarded it as too powerful (a valid opinion), I think Blind alone makes Witchcraft worth having. Oath of Desecration is of course powerful; I'd suggest Witchcraft does quite well with summons as well, both creating and killing them.

This game isn't hard if you're pretty comfortable with tactical TBS games, so if you're good, I suspect almost any character build will get you through the game. But I wouldn't call Witchcraft the weakest skill choice in the game.

I like blind. Its a low level spell, so blinding targets is guaranteed when you have high intelligence later in the game (unless using on a boss of course). Skeletons are good meatshields and offer good damage output and hitrate. And since I'm using a battlemage, I'm going to try deathpunch as well. Bloodletting is also good because I have leech.

Oath of Destruction (+50% damage) and Blind are very efficient (de)buffs. Other than that you have Bloodletting for chars with Leech. The Skeletons not only come with poison immunity (fighting against Spiders!), but also do non-elemental damage vs enemies that are immune to magic.
The 2 other spells that I keep using are Death Punch (very high non-elemental damage) and Enfeeble aka Soulsapp - among other things, this mother of all debuff spells gives -50% to all resistances (including non-elemental damage) and drastically reduces the targets saving throws, making it a good boss killer spell, since it stacks with Nullify Resistance.
Later in the game you can pick up Resurrection and Invulnerability, but I can't say I have used these much.

If you're looking for the typical Wizard type of stuff dishing out huge damage at range the Witchcraft isn't the place to go. So I wouldn't count on it as a primary DPS thing, although Death Punch is pretty awesome once you get to high levels.

Where Witchcraft shines is some amazing utility. Oath of Destruction, Blind, Mass Weakness, Enfeeble, Summon Undead... all very, very strong spells, just not really damage.

If you're going for an archetypal Wizard, I am not sure Witchcraft is always good idea, at least not until you have your damaging spells all lined up and working well. But if you're going for any type of hybrid - in other words, a caster with a weapon - then it almost elevates itself to must-have status.

I would say Witchcraft is mostly a utility skill, buffs, debuffs, summons, destroy summon, with some damage, the biggest one being Death Punch. Why yes, I would like to deal 1000 free physical damage to an enemy with one spell.

I admittedly didn't use witchcraft in my first playthrough, but after I specced Jahann in it, it definitely helped the party. Madora + haste + rage + oath of desecration + flurry = massive damage. I would say on it's own Witchcraft doesn't seem too strong as a source of direct damage, but the ability to buff allies and weaken enemies is incredibly useful. Give your assassin a damage boost to make his backstabs even more lethal, or make the enemy's damage dealers miss their attacks or deal less damage, turn the enemy tank's plate armor into little more than scrap.

Witchcraft is amazing. Bloodletting for DOT and Leech characters, Blind quickly gets 1 turn cooldown, Summoned Armoured Decapitator is tough and hits hard, OoD is great on everyone, many great debuffs and the best single target spell.