Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks Fighter/Mage/Thief build - Questions

I don't think trying to spend the level-up points and points from books and so on you can find in the game across all the classes for a jack of all trades is doable....you'll just suck at everything rather than being proficient at one thing....

use a trainer and be done with it.

Hell I also think making a mage proficient in all five schools of magic is stupid because...well...you just won't have enough points to do that without sucking at all of them.

In terms of Ability Points, it's actually kind of amazing how effective you can be at spreading yourself thin. A lot of the best skills, like Tactical Retreat, Fast Track, Blind, Minor Heal, Rain, Teleportation... all level 1, and if you include level 2 the list more than doubles. With the way ability point investments work in the game, going jack-of-all trades as far as that goes is actually quite doable.

It's the Attribute Points which are a bit of a deal-killer. Getting enough Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence to use a skill (and the corresponding gear, for most non-spells) is rather tricky, and represents lost Constitution, Speed, or Perception. This means you might be able to do more different things, but you get to use less of them per turn.

I feel the one case where hybrid is justified (and even quite good) is Strength/Intelligence. You don't need AP to wear awesome plate armour or to block with a shield, so you're still getting something (defense!) out of the points you put in Strength, while having access to spells. So I don't think the core of your character concept is a bad one, honestly... although I'd be looking towards Explode and 120% Fire resistance if you're serious about the hybrid, which admittedly isn't a very, um, subtle combat strategy. (It does work great with Feather Fall, though!)

However, the thing I've found about Str/Int hybrids is that they tend to be "armoured casters" more than they are "spellcasting fighters." You can't really be dedicated to melee damage and spellcasting damage at the same time, and shields truly are a Str/Int hybrid's best friend. Two-handers are more of a pure fighter thing (with higher Strength requirements, too).

Well let's do the math: to take four skills to level four you have 4*10=40 points and then to take one skill to level five you need 15....that's 55 points out of 56 you get over 20 levels and your character would otherwise know absolutely nothing else....no bodybuilding or willpower to resist status effects and damage....it'd be a sponge for damage and too easily incapacitated....a pathetically easy kill at higher levels and the fact he/she has no other skills beyond magic it'd mean that all the non-combat abilities would need to be spread among the other three which would detract from their own ability to fight. Your jack of all trades would simply not be a match against specialized opponents either.

So yeah, you've got problems. That's not how you go about building characters. Like I said, either get a trainer or forget about it.

no bodybuilding or willpower to resist status effects and damage....it'd be a sponge for damage and too easily incapacitated....

It's a little amazing how good elemental resistances and blocking are when used as damage mitigation.

Still, in terms of Bodybuilding and Willpower, I feel that's one of the primary weaknesses of Lone Wolf. With a party of four characters, you can normally get one player statused and still do well enough, maybe use a status-curing skill to get that character back up again; Bodybuilding and Willpower are still good for some light investment, but you don't need to go heavily into them. But with Lone Wolf (especially double Lone Wolf), a single disabling status is backbreaking, even if you can recover it during your other character's next turn. It's almost like you need to dump all, or at least most, of those 20 extra points you get into saving throws in order to be viable.

That said, I think hybrid is still viable even without Lone Wolf. You don't need 5 in any of the spellcasting abilities for them to be good (the only unlocked talent worth anything is Lightning Rod); in most of them, you don't even need 4.

edit: He might have been using the Lone Wolf skill point distribution. Without Lone Wolf you get 49 points at level 20. I'm guessing he was aiming for some level below 20... or something.

WOW... thanks for such "wonderful" advice... So I have 2 options according to you.

1. Forget about it
2. Cheat and use a trainer

BTW: you completely miss the fact that I stated twice, that I want to try it with lone wolf, which gives you more skills points... but okay

Lone Wolf for those kinds of builds would be about the dumbest idea I've ever heard.

Still, in terms of Bodybuilding and Willpower, I feel that's one of the primary weaknesses of Lone Wolf. With a party of four characters, you can normally get one player statused and still do well enough, maybe use a status-curing skill to get that character back up again; Bodybuilding and Willpower are still good for some light investment, but you don't need to go heavily into them. But with Lone Wolf (especially double Lone Wolf), a single disabling status is backbreaking, even if you can recover it during your other character's next turn. It's almost like you need to dump all, or at least most, of those 20 extra points you get into saving throws in order to be viable.

Aren't you sort of forgetting about: blindness, frozen, petrified, stunned and you can be dropped to the floor by a number of abilities or spells and there's probably more I'm forgetting about....those mean you cannot attack or do mucch of anything at all. In terms of damage even if burning isn't a great deal due to fire resistance, what are you going to do about bleeding?

At least 4/4; if you plan on using a lot of buffs (Oath of Desecration, Wildfire and the like), 5/5. Like I said, you'd be dumping all those extra Lone Wolf ability points into saving throws. Statuses wreck Lone Wolves.