Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks Formation and Positioning! (???)

Update: I just checked right now and one of my mains is carrying 39k worth of Scrolls and Arrows!

Yeah I dont pickpocket at all, or I have not up til now. I may need to start robbing people I would just ignore normally, mostly because of the reasons Stabbey listed, it is a waste to steal an apple and 67 gold pieces and some pocket lint, or to fail and get in a fight over nothing worth stealing.

I am kind of facing a similar situation regarding skill/statbooks, she does restock somewhere between levels I just am not sure what the trigger or time envelope on it is,
at first I thought it was at 50% over the next lvl experience amount, then I thought well it must be that and a certain number of visits to her since I usually have to visit her a couple of times I think it was like 8 or ten times between level 11 and 12 before she restocked, wish I new exactly what triggers her restock, maybe it is just time passed in the game,I do not have a clue but eventually it always happens.

I think this particular imminent level up (to level 13) I may not be able to afford both sets of books, in which case it will be the stat book and it will go to the fighter, he is maxed on 2handed anyway level 4 in MaA, the only thing he needs skill points for is for armor specialization, body building and willpower. The mage is in pretty good shape ass well since skills are more important for her than stats and she usually gets the skillbook anyway, she is already level 5 crafting level 3 blacksmith, and level 3 in all the spell schools except lvl 2 in Geo and Witchcraft. But at this oint she really has no good spells she can learn until 16th level anyway so no real need to work on getting more spells or increasing the level in those schools, heck I may forgo even getting her to level 4 in Geo or Witchcraft this time around.

Wow loot this playthrough really is paltry, I am opening a lot of chests and finding items that are not only non-magical but not worth much in gold either. I am in Hiberheim and at the elemental forge entrance, that encounter should push me to lvl 13, so I am in Homestead trying to get the teller of secrets to restock before I level up to 13, I have visited her 3 times and so far not yet but as I said I think I had to leave and revist her like 8 or ten times before she restocked last time before a level up.

The fight with Braccus this time went better than it had ever gone before heck killing the twins with a battering ram and a whirlwind which also really chopped Braccus down to size and caused him to die in the 2nd or 3rd round, I think being really close to him made the difference (since I got an oppurtunity attack on him before he even hit me at all hey I think that is the first time anybody went to attack me and I wacked em first in an oppurtunity attack!) and oath of desecration helped a lot, his version of the Firefly spell where he conjures Lava under your party is pretty lethal and seems to work better than the parties version of that spell. I also usually cast rain ASAP in that fight, but did not get around to it this time I dont think. I have had it where I got one or both of my mains killed during the course of the whole fight and Wolgraff is resurrecting one of them in the middle of a battle, just to have the other get killed while running interference. I also do not like to reload and I dont usually savescum for better loot. I have not had an end of game fail where everyone died in quite a while.

First of all, you should put at least 3 skill points (lvl. 2) into Barter, so you can have 4 total with gear. This is a MUST. In fact, might as well do it in character creation. Just think, that with even 1 more skill book you can afford you get those 3 back already.

Mini-Guide for Pickpocketing:

Intro: Why pickpocket? Because it's fun!

1. Get invisibility. (Walk in Shadows) or the AL2 Aerothurge one.
2. If you don't have invisibility , get Make Invisible (AL 4)
3. If you don't have either of those, get them. - Why? It's gonna take 10x as long to make the rounds if you're gonna have to be distracting guards with conversations and stupid things like that every single time. If you seriously can't get it for some reason, then forget pickpocketing normal people and only focus on Merchants.
4. Never steal from a Wizard/Mage. They will kill you. That goes for Arhu, Evelyn, Theon or w/e and every other crazy cat in town. Exempt: the Withcraft Merchant in the Inn and in the Market are game.
5. Quick Save every now and then!!
5. Get pickpocketing level 3 minimum, 4 better, 5+ optimal. Anything below 3-4 isn't even worth the effort. Remember there's 2 pieces of gear that can get pickpocket.

For merchants, you can begin right away at the start of your game, because they're loaded.
For normal people around town you should wait until level 10+ for them to have anything even worth stealing. You may see only 100-200 coins but usually there's an item also. MANY people have small healing potions too. It adds up. Grab a potion, some gear, scrolls they have have and their cash and it's a decent loot for 1 second of your time. Another thing is you often get things that seem to be of little worth but aren't. A special Arrowhead worth 60-120 is made into a special arrow of twice that value. Anyway, with invisibility, you can pickpocket like 5 people before next cooldown, and the cooldown is pretty quick. In fact, it must be even quicker for the Aerothurge one if you have high INT but I don't have that one so I'm not sure.

As for when the books restock: I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with actual time passing. It seems as you progress and achieve things, the merchants all over, including the Teller, will update their stock. Like let's say discovering the mining village, or like, when you first get to Hiberheim or something. It's after milestones of that type that I think it's worth seeing about a restock. Let me just advise this: Whenever you're going into something that you know is going to count as a big step in your progress, might be worth going back to check if you've done some stuff already as well.

Well I got caught stealing from the quartermaster so she made us kill her, cha-ching! LOL not what I intended but I must be a pretty lousy thief. Then I tried to steal from Conrad he also had the misfortune of picking a fight. Well let us say my monetary problems are for the moment over, but I have to say I rather would have stolen it all from them than just kill em. Strange thing is no one seems to mind and my rep did not go down.

Yeah the restocking is weird, I Killed a boss this morning found a starstone was right at 50% expe toward next level and went to the teller and lo and behold she had books first time I walked in.

I rarely put any points into Barter or Pickpocket or Lockpicking or sneaking, but for monetary gain in the future I may amend that.

But jeez the loot this time is really anemic, just crap items seems like everything is wasting slots on Telekinesis, Loremaster and Earth resistance, especially all the legendary items which are very few. I hope crafting becomes better or loot somehow is improved on the next patch, I am dying here.

What! No! Don't kill the Quartermaster! She's like my favorite of the less important NPCs!

I think what most people who do multiple playthroughs do is just kill the NPCs after a certain level and then, like you said, all money troubles would be gone.

How are you getting caught so much? Not using Invisi? Also when you grab money, don't adjust the slider. The slider is automatically set to the limit you can steal without getting caught. And um, when you're grabbing items, dont grab anything that has become greyed out because then also you get caught.

Lockpicking I dunno. I've used it like once, with only gear. I don't even get how it works. I have like 4 chests in my Homestead that I sent there and that still need opening =/


I dunno why your loot is bad but I know what you mean about Telekinesis and Loremaster lol. My entire team has 2-3 Telekinesis without even wanting it haha. Just FYI there's a belt that has both Blacksmithing+1 AND Crafting+1 on the same belt so wait to find one like that. Same goes for Bracers.

OH yeah I always keep the +1 craft/bllacksmith belt/bracers- saves points bigtime.

I just suck as a thief! I was invisible, but the pickpocket level was 3.

Actually lockpick is easy get some skill level in it and put some lockpicks in the quick-use bar and select the lockpick then touch a locked chest or door with the lock icon, it will either open or say lockpick level too low. THen just bash it open with an indestructible weeapon!

I didnt wanna kill the quartermaster or COnrad I like em both but they wouldnt let me steal and I do not like savescumming so I am a bit of a villain at least to theose two.

Haha, fair enough man. I know what you mean, I dont like reloading either. I had to do that enough in Thief: The Dark Project back in the day.

Also, maybe I'm a bit slow but I only recently realized you can tell exactly how much longer you'll be Invisible because it's on your character's status on the left and you can see that it's about to end.


Haha yeah I do that but some chests can't be broken man!!! With Loremaster i can see the resistance is 2,000 lol. Can't be done . I've been sending those to my Homestead for some eventual day of boredom.

OK man check this out, something you should know if youre still using a Ranger like you'd mentioned. First thing is that Strong Sinew can now be split into 2 Sinews so it's awesome. 2nd, I've gotten about 80% of my mats from non-merchants. So if you wanna make bows every few levels, or maybe even every level, then it might be worth making the rounds. Sometimes even dockworkers or random legionnaires are carrying Sinew! It's pretty crazy haha. I've seen so many threads about people despairing at a shortage of the stuff, and I'm guessing they only check the merchants.




Sigh, one of my mains got Rot lol it's so depressing. I mean the actual effect is pretty mild, 1hp Loss is easily mitigated by a Heal spell every couple minutes. Still, it makes me sad to see them purple with blood splashing out of them all the time man!

OK Rot is temporary (sort of) and it does suck, also dont sell Tenebrium items to people without the skill or they get rot too and can die from it, keep progressing the story. How did you get it?

Um you are not slow, it took me a bit before i understood what the status icons are and that they have timers, honestly I was having so much fun I just wasnt tracking it.

Yeah I knew about the sinew somebody posted that a few days ago in the crafting thread, I am a hoarder of the important ingredients mostly the stuff for weapons or armor, that is pretty much the only crafting I do. I recraft a 2handed sword and a bow pretty much every level for my Knight and Wolgraff. I improve armor whenever I find a really good suit, better than what I have.

Hmm never met a chest I couldnt break, pick or didnt have a key for...except the final chest in the homestead, maybe I am forgetting some.

There's 1 in black cove for example. Anyway it's probably not that important. I doubt there's anything amazing inside lol. I used the magic scroll spell on a chest in Baccus' room and I got shit loot worth like 1k tops lol. I shouldve used it for the warehouse down by the Harbor instead. But yeah I'm a horder too! I finally decided last night that I'm just not that interested in potion and scrolls crafting, or magic amulets and stuff, so I'm just gonna dump all those mats before my head explodes from looking at Jahan's inventory lol. I'm gonna stick to weapons like I've done in games in the past.


I dunno how I got the rot!! I was in Hiberheim fighting wolves and stuff. After the battle while collecting the loot my character got it!!!

Also I don't know what Tenebrium is yet. I mean I have sort of an idea based on what I've read from forums and reddits, but I haven't looked into it much yet because I wanna find out via the story. Right now I'm just trying to save the white witch, although maybe I shouldve gone to the tenebrium mines first? Also I feel quite overpowered with my characters at level 12... =/ Should I just stop using Special Arrows? they're ridiculously OP!!! Not to mention, I gave my Mage wayyy too much INT, he's getting his spells every turn and really mopping up haha.

Did you pick up a wand from an Immaculate woman's body?

Yeah I dont craft anything but weapons and improve armor, potions, arrows and scrolls just are not worth the time of a single use item. AMulets and rings I find plenty of and understand they cant get to Orange level so why bother?

I hardly use special arrows becasue my Archer does so much damage without them and shoots more often, also I do not like dealing with poison clouds, or other environmental effects they can cause when my Knight goes in to sort the enemy out.


SPOILER ALERT!!!!


Wand of shambling oak death! you had to have picked up the wand in Hiberheim after killing Hilda? Keep progressing the story.

Tenebrium...um think plutonium that is used to make actual hand arms, rot is radiation sickness pretty much...I never go to the mines before I get the Witch.


Save your magic unlock scrolls they come in handy later in the homestead when you unlock the Armory, where you will end up doing all your crafting after it opens. Pretty much.

Hm it's a possibility. I pick up everything! I've looked through my inventory but can't find one with Tenebrium on it though. I must've sold it... =/ I have dozens of wands. Does it clearly say Tenebrium?

NO it says "Shambling Oak death wand" but it is a tenebrium item, who ever you sold it too probably now has rot as well. I gave Bjorn rot once by accident...

Oh crap... So they're gonna die? WHO DID I SELL IT TO!? I hope Arhu, I hate that guy!

I guess I haVe to track it down now? lol
but if I find it ? and buy it I'll get rot again?????

WAIT NEVERMIND! I used that on some Guardian and he died! I'm guessing after that it disappeared right?

Maybe it does... and it does kill the Guardian.

Yeah Arhu is a bit of a tool! Just wait after Cyseal you havent seen the last of him...

I dont think you cna get rot more than once and it is incurable until certain things happen...

BRO, special arrows are EXTREMELY useful sometimes.

1. against mobs that have high piercing resistance, where you can do Elemental damage instead, + a smaller amount of your bow damage.

2. Against mobs with a really low chance to hit, or if your status has affected your aim. Special arrows are 100% accurate. For this I recommend the Cloud arrows because they do the most base damage. Forget about the actual effect.

3. Silver arrows. This one is HUGE. They destrou up to 50 Armor, but in what I've observed there's also a cap of 50% of the current armor. So let's say a mob has 40 armor, it will go down to 20. That may not sound like much but let's do some math

For a lv13. mob or character, 20 armor equates to 24% damage reduction. So that means for 1 arrows, all your other hits, and your Tank's melee hits, will essentially be spared a 24% damage reduction. I don't know how much damage your characters do, but as an example figure of 300 damage from your melee, and 4 attacks, that just increased your total damage in 1 turn by 288 for just the tank, and maybe again that much for your subsequent archer shots. It lasts 2-3 turns, so overall we're talking over 1k damage more thanks to 1 arrow! You can double that number for a mob that had 80 armor to begin with.


4. Knockdown and Slow Arrows are AMAZING. In fact if you're using Bully, you can basically serve yourself either a Slowed or Knocked Down (usually less likely to work) target to do 50% more damage to with every subsequent shot.

5. Last and easily most OP: Charming Arrow. No need if you have Rapture, but it's there for before I guess haha. And fetcha good price on the market.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE!!!!!!!!

NPCs can not die directly from rot; they just drop to 1 HP.

Bairdotr is immune to rot from the start, if you have her in your party.

Oh I know what the arrows do and are good for, I do use Silver Arrows ( this is my favorite arrow actually), Fire Arrows and Cold Arrows, but most of the rest its just better to shoot em and get more shots off or use Barrage or Ricochet, this is like my 7th playthrough. Yeah I am still occasionally finding something new to be fascinated with and learn how to do something better. Poison arrows are really more of a hindrance than a help, not a fan of poison even to set things on fire.

I am not knocking arrows I just rely on my knight and mage more since those are my mains and I prefer Greatswords and spells in this game, which is not my normal preference, since in Baldurs gates it was always an Elf Archer-Ranger with Longbow and arrows of biting, after I get tired of D:OS and Pillars of Eternity I need to go back and play Baldurs Gate 2 again and Icewind Dales...they are gonna feel very primitive I suspect. No Elves or Dwarves to play in Rivellon, Thats OK gives me a chance to play a Knight instead for a change. I never use Bully by the time I knock em down they are usually just dead.

as for damage well the Knight with Oath of Desecration and using a crafted Zweihander, with essence and sharpened, maintaining a 2-handed skill of 7 and a Leadership damage boost of 15% is per his sheet 233-464 before all the bonuses, at level 13, to which I can add melee power stance or Rage to increase it more. I usually also have a high crit chance as well so it doubles a lot. I
killed 5 cultists with one whirlwind this morning 500+ damage each or more. Battering rammed into the middle of em whirlwinded and all over, Creampuffs!

Flurry while under Oath of Desecration kills everything. I wish I could lower that cooldown to like 1 round! I love Battering-Ram, Flurry, Whirlwind and Dust-Devil and to a lesser degree Melee power stance and Rage. The rest of the attacks Crippling blow, eroding strike, etc etc I hardly ever use. I wish Rage was not so detrimental towards the user, thats why I use Power stance more often.

Rot doesnt kill NPC's? good to know ( but it can weaken them ) and yes I knew that Bairdotr has tenebrium 1 equivalent before the party has it, so she can pick up and use that wand without getting rot.

Thanks Raze.