Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Sourcery Skills

only "more powerfull than normal skills" do not seem very iconic or "sourcery-ish" to me. they are simply uber-skills ... kinda. sometimes not even that.

instead of those "sourcery skills" we could use sourcery points to empower "normal" skill, eg. per point XX% more damage, duration, range, reduction of cooldown, faster casting whatever.

to be honest, that idea also sounds rather boring and/or cheap. but is IMHO still better than some random high damage skills.

and to be really honest: if sourcery points were removed and "sourcery skills" just fine tuned DOS2 would not be worse. the sourcery points system does not add much to the game apart from a little bit more unnecessary complexity

ps.: also see this thread: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=597063#Post597063

I'm also no fan of the source concept itself tbh. But it's more about the missing flexibility of the base system than the resulting skills, imho.

Dedicated source skills adds unnecessary complexity.

Flat bonus like :
Source point allows cast a spell or action for Zero AP and even a spell on cool down can be cast by a source point.

Its clean, its powerful.
I think the current system need to be made more readable, and such a change in source usage would help.

Interesting concept, but I don't think it's quite the right flavor for source. The skills actually do a pretty good job of making you understand why it's such dangerous magic.

I do think the ability to cast skills that are on cooldown for a cost of health like in shadowrun would be a nice addition, though perhaps only as a talent. I'm talking like, 50% of your health to cast skills that are on cooldown. Probably way to difficult to balance, still, but would be fun.

What if source skills could be designed in a way to allow for optional source point usage?

So, for example, what if chain lightning was the source-infused version of electric discharge? At it's normal form it has normal effects, but you can optionally pour source into your casting to make it devastating.

One advantage is that you don't feel like you're wasting your memory points by having a source skill memorized, since the base skill is useful when you're not investing source. To counteract this, maybe make spells that cost have a source version take up more memory? Or even have a single "infuse with source" skill that takes up one memory and can be used to... well... infuse with source. Cast it on yourself to make your next "sourcable" skill be its source version, or cast it on an object to do the source things that you sometimes spend a source point on out of combat, or even cast it on an ally to donate a source point.

Maybe you can even cast it on the ground, to create your own source puddle, or make something on the ground erupt into an explosion of magical energy, like fire damage to everything in a flames zone or poison damage to everyone in a poison zone.

Lots of possibilities, I think.

Its about readability of skills. Game mechanics. Not about sourcery lore. A system of skills which contains a lot of spells you use once or even non is not readable. A player will always has a feeling that there is something wierd or bugged or not balanced.

My proposed solution is aimed at lowering number of skill. Generally, less steep learning curve for player.

Look at darkest dungeon. 7 skills per class. 4 skills in a battle. Every skill has 5 levels of power.

Clear readable system. Try to describe DOS2 skill system in a 3 sentences. That is the core design thing which should be fixed. Hopefully it is not too late.

Darkest dungeon is a rogue like game where everyone as one specific class and D:OS an kind of open world adventure game RPG with no class restrictions. I think comparing them is like comparing an apple with a strawberry? D:OS has mostly distinctive skill trees, one exception probably would be Phoenix Dive, wich really should be a fire skill. Every thing in Warfare is about physical close combat, but Phoenix Dive is fire related, it totally not fits into Warfare in my opinion.

I guess my main problem with source is: all those skills were source free in D:OS1, why do they now cost source? Did mages become so much less capable since D:OS1?

Indeed. And once your fire immunity has expired (after one turn) you start burning from the fire you started yourself.

Gareth also gets the hump (as he does with most things) and decides you are an enemy if you use Phoenix dive next to him (while you help him) even though he does it every single turn.

It is an odd one that skill - others like Electric Fence don't infect you with the thing you started yourself as the immunity and effect end at the same time... F8 seems to work for me in that situation though.

Once again Pheonix Dive is likely meant to be a skill craft skill.

That is why it is so "fire magic-esk"

If it were a skill craft skill, it would not be available for buying? Also from what would you craft it? It's kind of movement is more similar to scoundrel or hunter skills. So even then Warfare seems pretty odd. And even if it were crafted it would be more fitting to remain a fire skill, if crafted skills have one class only.

Because it has fire involved?

Skill crafting is a combination of two skills and if it worked that way... then skills would always result in using the mage skills :P