firstly, i have to thank larian for a superb game! though i generally hate to draw comparisons, divine divinity is everything diablo II wanted to be.
next, my utmost appreciation goes to raze and kiya. although there were others, these two provided the hints and help that succeeded in not only making my character a veritable tank, but one that was fun to play as well - all the while (at least until my post regarding hacking character names) with no knowledge i even existed. by providing to the community they see/saw (forum members), they also provided to countless others who chose to remain obscured. anonymous. simple voyeurs. you'll never know how many people you've helped. so
thank you from us all.
there are a ton of good walkthroughs and help FAQs out there. if you need them, read them.
some of the walkthroughs are listed in a somewhat linear fashion. others are listed by their quest name. This latter way allows you to find an answer without reading more than you want (spoilers), as long as you recognize the quest name. utilize the people in the forum. they seem more than happy to offer advice, opinions and help.
as you start the game you’ll be assaulted with choices. here are a couple i would suggest:
put only 2 points max in alchemy. all you really need is to be able to make potions from vegetable matter and then be able to combine them into restoration potions. when starting out, you don’t have enough hit points or mana to worry about, so leave them as separate health/mana potions. however, you’ll eventually want restore potions (probably) as these restore a lot more points! another thing about potions, you’ll never need a larger than ‘regular’ size restoration. sell anything larger. toward the end of the game my character had 1700+ hit points and 800+ mana. even if I was considerably low in both, a single potion got me back to full (this is where restoration becomes better than individual health and mana).
don’t bother with any more than 2 points in the restoration spell. by the time you’ll need more points back, you’ll already be using potions and saving that ‘skills’ slot for something more valuable.
items: i seldom if ever found anything of value (weapon, armor wise) in a ‘store’. however, the ability to have things repaired, sell items, and the purchase of potions, books and charms are vital. you’ll end up with far, far too much money. and until you find charms, nothing to spend it on. especially when you are starting out, don’t get caught up in the thing of having a slightly better weapon (purchase) if the one you are using is working fine. same with armor. if you’re not being hit hard, don’t waste your money on a slightly better shield (etc.). save your money for potions and repairs. you’ll find the better equipment.
put at least one point (but no more than 2) in repair. early on this will save you a lot of money.
my guess is that about 150 points in each resistance will allow you to wade through anything (not that you need that much).
you can see my character stats here, this is before the final battle without throwing a bless or taking strength (etc.) potions – just as she is –
http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/character-potions.jpgshe’s quite hard to damage.
you can also see the potions shown. for me, it was imperative that i be allowed more than the default (‘F’) hotkeys. you can see that the potions i might actually use are bound to the N,M,H and J keys. this allows fast drinking and also allows the F1-F12 keys for something else. ‘I’ is already inventory, ‘E’ equipment…why not have ‘P’ for picklock, ‘B’ for bless – or whatever works for you.
the way to accomplish this takes a wee bit of time, but it’s wonderfully worth it. assign potions (for example) to your function (ex. F7) hotkeys. jot down what potions you assigned to which keys. leave the game. open windows explorer and weave your way to the game directory (C:\Program Files\Divine Divinity\Run). once you get to ‘Run’ look for ‘keylist.txt’. open this (should open in notepad). this shows your list of hotkey assignments. go toward the bottom to find “# Floating icon keys :” under this heading you’ll see 4 number-plus codes for potions, etc.
‘ 2047 - f7 - ‘ all you need do is replace the ‘f7’ with a letter – example:
2047 - N - this is my choice for restoration potion (the ‘N’ key). please note, that while it shows in the saved keylist.txt file as a capitalized N, you need to replace the f7 with a lowercase n. if you capitalize it, it will not work. after replacing the function keys with letters, go to ‘file’ at the top and click ‘save’. when you restart the game, your new designations will be in place.
save your game A LOT!!!! i reassigned my quick save/loads to F1 and F2. much easier.
because you’ve saved a lot (or if you know you’re about to get something really good!), you’ll be able to quickly reload the game and try again if you don’t like what you’ve gotten (or are killed). while some may call this a cheat or cheap, i personally think it’s just good game play. items are random – take some small measure of control, but don’t become anal! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> i.e. don’t reload endlessly. you’re going to beat the game. you needn’t have the absolute best items.
this leads to just what ARE the best items. and this is of course subjective. is it better to have more attributes? more charms? more damage? more armor? more resists? more skills?
this is how i came to look at it (let’s take a helmet for example): number one, i wanted charms – if it had 3 – 5 i was happy. why? because of this. there are only TWO things that can’t be adjusted on the helm. the armor and the skills. so find a helmet with less attributes, but great armor and USABLE skills (and charms) and you’re set. i can adjust with charms the amount of resistance, the strength bonus, the extra mana…but i can do NOTHING about raising the armor class or adding skills.
the same idea holds true with a sword, etc. as long as it’s charm-able, find the skills that will kick butt and cause the most damage possible. charm the rest.
this is why i highly suggest going for the amulet when given the choice between sword, amulet and dagger in the holy quest. this is your ONE chance at a great amulet. it may not seem as dramatic or romantic, but this is a great item!!
http://www.speakeasy.org/~legolas357/amulet.jpgthere are a lot of great swords and daggers, i found nothing even close to this amulet.
armor vs. defense. to me, both defense and armor were important. i don’t want to be hit, but if i am hit, i want to take the least amount damage as possible. defense and offense are controlled by dexterity (as well as some small amount with items).
when you open your character sheet, you see all your attributes displayed. passing your cursor over your attributes gives you information about them. look at offense. you’ll see a % chance to hit an equal level monster (defense will show a % chance to BE hit by equal level monster). if you never added to your dexterity, this number would change as your % chance to hit would go down the higher level you became. Having said that, there is a maximum % to hit attainable however (per level you are). The greatest chance to hit is 94 and the least chance of being hit is 19. so if you’re there or about there, don’t waste points in dex and upping your offense and defense numbers (or even looking for items with 10 defense ratings)!!!
intelligence seems pointless (just my opinion). there are plenty of mana enhancing items, and i wasn’t trying to be a magic user. undoubtedly your opinion will vary if a mage!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
strength controls damage and carrying ability.
constitution controls hit points and stamina.
as you can tell from the above screenie, i put virtually nothing in intelligence, but still have 800+ mana. charms are great!
there are 10 different charms – one for each resist, one for each attribute (strength etc.) and one each for mana and hit points.
at he end of this game, i had 37 charm slots (33 max usable at one time). that is a whole lot of resistance, hit points, mana and attributes!
DON’T wait until the end of the game (or it’s even in sight!) to charm items. i finished just about EVERYTHING there was to do and finished at 51st level. i was about 44th(?) when i struck the gong (you gain about 3-4 levels upon hitting it)…so once going to the wastelands, i only gained 3(?) additional levels. i definitely waited too long to use my charms. i didn’t charm anything until i got to the wastelands. once I did it (charm), everything became much easier!! don’t give in to the ‘fear’ of charming something and then finding a ‘better’ item and having ‘wasted’ your charm. use them.
i hope someone finds this useful. i’ll contribute more if I think of anything.
of course, any additions or contrary opinions are welcome too.
and once again, a huge
THANK YOU to kiya and raze. You guys rock.
raze has informed me that a character gains 5 levels upon striking the gong/entering wasteland. i was 41st hitting, 46th on arrival and gained 5 levels travelling through.
raze (once again!) has pointed something out where my feeling may not have been clear. this involves charms and not waiting to use them - once you find the orc in the wastelands, he has more gold charms than you could possibly use. granted, i started with a good collection, but i 'charmed' 37 slots and still finished the game with 21 gold charms unused (so 58 total, all but 2 gold, and passed on a lot) - more than enough to not feel i'd 'wasted' anything. BUT - there are plenty of places around showing pics of and explaining the 'good' quality equipment. these are the pieces to use your gold and silver charms on. even if you have to wait to fill it completely (don't waste slots on poor charms). it's those other, lesser pieces you're pretty sure you'll be replacing that i would not hesitate to charm with the blue and red charms. you're going to find better charms for the better pieces...so use the mediocre charms on mediocre equipment. make better sense?
