Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Enhanced Edition Couple questions from a beginner

Hi,

I've picked up this game yesterday and have a couple questions :

- How to best use smoke grenades ? Since they also block your chars view of the situation (preventing them from targeting etc), I'm ahving trouble finding a use I'm happy with

- My current party has two ranged mages and two melee characters. One of my mage is a earth/fire build, which works well (earth tending to oil things, then fire damaging lighting it up). Problem is, I don't know how to best make use of my melee chars as they are susceptible to burning too. Even if I first oil, then ignite, then everything is burning for very long, meaning my melee chars are just idling, waiting for enemies to get out of the burning zone.

- How do you know what kind of mobs are going to relase poison clouds when hit by some effects, and under what conditions ? For example I've encountered a diseased dog (northwest of Cyseal) that when hit by Crushing Fist immediately releases a poison cloud, which makes him regenerate (didn't release such a cloud when hit by Boudler Bash) .

Thanks for the help

You can try popping smoke grenades on enemy ranged units so they're forced to use a turn exiting instead of shooting you. Bonus points if you surrounded them in fire first.
Also, if you hold "ctrl" you can shoot behind the cloud, but your hits will pass through hitting enemies inside.

A few suggestions for your melee problems:
Look into the skill Phoenix Dive, sold by the Warfare Lizard in the elf cave. It will be sold once your party is level 4. It grants the user temporary immunity to fire.
There is also a scoundrel skill that causes your character to float over ground effects, avoiding damage.
During the story, all characters will have an opportunity to learn Bless, which converts negative ground effects to positive ones.
You could also have your melee swap weapons temporarily to something ranged, (1 AP to swap a weapon in combat) or you could put a point into another skill skill with a few ranged abilities. For example, a point in Aerothurge could allow you to purchase Teleport and you could have your melee character pull an enemy to his location.

Generally zombies will release poison, and from any attack that would cause them to bleed, which is mostly any source of physical damage.

Edit: Didn't realize this was for DOS1 and wrote my response for DOS2

There is no elf cave or Bless spell in the Enhanced Edition.

Warriors can pick up some skills that don't rely too much on intelligence (like summons, buffs) or dexterity (that can be boosted later with equipment bonuses), or Divine Light also clears surfaces and clouds within its cone area of effect, in addition to the warm effect and bodybuilding / willpower debuff.

A point in Aerothurge would give access to Teleportation and Thunder Jump (the stun effect wouldn't trigger as much with a low intelligence, but it gives a relatively low AP way to get into the thick of battle, though wouldn't help for opponents in fire surfaces). A point in Geomancer would give Midnight Oil (slow opponents, or set up for fire surfaces and smoke clouds, or expand the fire surfaces you mage makes), Boulder Bash (no line of sight required) and the spider summon. The scoundrel skills Walk in Shadows (invisibility), Winged Feet (lets the character walk over surfaces unaffected) are useful in and out of combat, and Fast Track and Trip could be useful (more so after getting some dexterity bonuses); the adept skill Cloak and Dagger (teleport) can also be handy.