Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General [IDEA] Stat system rework to allow more creativity

---PREFACE---
A lot of things about this game lend itself to being able to be creative with your character creation and change it up on the fly.

-There is no set class system, so you can create whatever character you want

-Allowing all spells to be learned with just one point in the required combat attribute lets you spread your points out more freely to get the bonuses you want while still having a ton of spell options

-Low number of memory slots but high number of spells learned allow you to try different builds for different battles

But unfortunately, the stat system limits all of this and pretty much pigeon holes every character into an archetype. If I want scoundrel or huntsman skills, I go finesse and have to use daggers or bows. If I want warfare skills, I go strength. If I want to cast spells, I go Intelligence. Mixing and matching is sub optimal. I would love it if it didn't feel like I was filling out an archetype!

What happens for me in particular is I actually DREAD spending points because I know it is setting me up for having to play a specific way for the rest of the game in order to not waste any points, so I better not F it up.


---SUGGESTION---
So my idea is that instead of the current system (STR increasing damage with STR weapons and warfare abilities, INT increasing spell damage, etc), what if each attribute helped with all abilities in a specific way, no matter the line

For instance:
STR- increase all damage by by 5% and decrease the movement penalty for armor by 25%

FIN- increase dodge by 5%, increase accuracy, increase chance of ability effect (such as stun/knockdown) penetrating armor

INT- increases AOE of all skills by 5%, decrease cooldown of all abilities by 5%

or whatever. The point is that you can build however you want to now. You can intentionally split INT and FIN for a big AOE CC character. But part way through you decide you want more damage and want to go more for a big bang boom character so you start pumping STR for those fireballs. But no matter how you change it up, your attribute points are never wasted, yet they still give your character definition. And the most important part, you are always choosing rather than filling out a predefined archetype.

I totally support this idea. While Constitution, Memory and Wit are already more generic attributes, I think the others indeed just limit one to a specific class, which does not go well with the otherwise open skill system.

Maybe strenght should be renamed to "force" or something if it also increases magic damage, but those are details.

One problem might however be items and armor. If there are no specific attributes for archers/melee fighters, what stops a mage from wearing heavy armor as well?
Maybe we could solve this issue by giving fitting free spells/abilities to the armor, or giving specific boni like magic dmg to cloth armour.

No no no! That is like giving a Surgeon a longsword.

Yeah sometimes you just want a HUGE blast... But more often then not your trying to BARELY hit the enemy without hurting your allies.

That's fair, but wouldn't it be just swell if you could scroll the mouse wheel to make the AOE smaller or larger to a minimum and maximum?

As far as armor, can't anyone wear any armor as it is? My understanding is that the movement penalty is what balances different sets of armor. I could be wrong on that though.

As far as weapons, that is kind of already handled with the combat attributes (two-handed, one-handed, bow, duel-wield), but it still inherently would lead to close to its current state because physical damage goes well with physical damage and magic damage goes well with magic damage because of the armor system.

And hell, I'd like to have a mace/shield character that can deal good damage with spells. *shrug*

You're looking for something like in Pillars of Eternity Attritube system

i like that idea.
Right now im struggling to think of a way to build a spear based fighter for example because the stat required are basically dump stats for a warrior, with that, that could work way better.

Interesting idea, but with 2/level, that's still not enough attribute points to spread around. You can have a warrior which does damage or can hit things: pick one.

Additionally, spells do friendly fire, so you do NOT want to blindly increase the AoE of them, that's counter-productive.

The different stats already have 2 generic effects, sure 3% more armor restoration is not.... ahem... that helpful but it's still something. You could make them more useful though. Potion heal %, more dmg % from flanking, more dmg resistance %, stuff like that everyone can use.

What about making talents require attributes?

So 'warlord' requires 14 in every attribute.
Opportunist might require 14 INT.
The free movement one might require 15 FIN.
etc.

That idea is extremely bad.