Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks How to buff up for fights

Hello,

Is there some way to stop or slow down time? I have the problem that when I try to prepare for a battle by casting some spells and drinking some potions, most of the effects on the first characters have already stopped again by the time that I've prepped the last one..


Thanks!

No, there isn't.

This is one of the reasons why attacks that do damage are better than buffs, because the buffs have short durations or are too specific. Haste is always useful though.

Casting before a fight begins just is not an option. You may get one off but they wil wear off in realtime before it goes turn based. Unless I am missing something, one spell and one spell only maybe a summons is the best bet I think...and it must be timed succinctly.

I also think that potions are pretty useless for the same reason. Healing is useful for sure, invisibility is a necessity ( but only in one part of the game) but the resistances are all too short of duration and too specific for just one attack type. Relying on something that is in finite and uncertain supply is poor planning. Spells and skills renew and can be used over and over without spending money on them. The resist all potions are good but again how often do I use them....rarely. Usually when I get to the point in a fight where the choice is to buff or use a potion to buff if I can attack in some way I do that instead or move.

Sell your potions and buy better items that enhance your characters, thats what I have been doing and I used to do the same with scrolls but not anymore, offensive scrolls and summoning and healing scrolls are great to make your fighter and rogue into Fighter-Magicusers or Rogue-Magicusers without spending any skill points on spell use. Yes it seems obvious but I can occcasionally be very dense and I suffer from 30 years of PnP roleplaying conventions and prejudices. My first 2 playthroughs I sold all scrolls.

I am sure others do it their way and it works and it could be exactly the opposite of what I do.

The big problem I feel is that buffs generally have too short a duration. When you factor in an AP cost to use them, some of them come up pretty short, because after casting the buff on yourself, you may not be able to do anything else useful for the rest of the turn, wasting one of the turns.

Food and Potions having the same short duration as spells also is a problem. Differentiating them by having items give a longer buff time might be a good step.

Yeah, potions are pretty useless since there is no chance in hell they'll last for even a full encounter, let alone drinking a potion before starting the engagement.

Food is even more useless, where I have to ask myself why food even grant bonuses. They're only good for healing between battles, and it's very odd to even suggest "Hey, eat a cheese wheel" in the middle of combat. It was odd in Skyrim, and it's even more odd in a game that's turn-based.

Potions need to have their durations increased, but food needs to have their durations increased by a factor of 10, at the very least, spreading their healing (or similar) effect out over the entire duration.

Yes potions dont last nearly long enough, and food is the same problem. I can see why a pause isnt implemented, because it is really balance breaking you pause and buff everyone to the eyeballs with magic armor, invisibility, resistances, strength, dexterity, and all of a sudden the 5th level enemy you ran into at the same level doesnt even stand a chance, and for no action points.

I do think healing potions are ok, the 3 AP left over at the end of a turn allows a heal if needed so thats not completely useless and costs less AP than any of the heal spells...pretty much the only time I use healing potions.

Luckmann- the idea, that the thought of "Hey, eat a cheese wheel" came to someone in the middle of an armed confrontation is hilarious! I mean who doesnt like cheese ( and bacon), but it is somewhat less of a priority than saving my own life...

The problem with healing potions is that they don't scale well at all as your level increases. As your level increases, your maximum health increases automatically, and healing potions get less and less effective. After level 10-12, healing potions are just not worthwhile anymore because enemies do more damage than healing potions can fix. It becomes a waste of AP.

I think that buffs in general - even ones from spells - should have longer durations, because the AP costs for some tend to be steep enough that when cast on yourself, you effectively lose any productive actions for the rest of your turn.

yes STabbey, you are 100% correct. I agree about the healing becoming less useful as you level thats really unfortunate that potions top out at 226? points for the pretty rare huge healing potion and the minor heals of 52 points are absolutely wasted except at like level 1-3.

and I just feel even more strongly about buffs, they just cant be counted on, they cost a lot of AP, they wear off quickly, they may improve something that turns out not to be even needed and debuffs are even worse to rely on. At best a gamble at worst a complete waste of AP points.

I would rather cause more damage.