Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks Party composition - any feedback?

Hi everyone,

To prepare for the 14th I've been reading/thinking about a good party composition to play with some friends. We haven't played the early access version at all as we didn't want to spoil anything yet.

We're all competitive gamers and want to play on the highest difficulty. Other than that, it would be cool to set up the party so that it uses all of the available ability groups (except for summoning, which from what I've read is pretty bad).

I've looked at the available information on attributes/abilities/talents etc.. and came up with the following party. Would very much appreciate feedback!

Role: Tank / CC
Race: Dwarf or Elf
Primary attribute(s): Strength / Finesse
Secondary attribute(s): Constitution / Memory
Primary Combat Ability(s): One-handed (with dagger) / Polymorph
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Scroundrel / Retribution
Civil Ability: Sneak
Talents: Opportunist / All Skilled Up / Back-stabber

Role: Melee Damage Dealer
Race: Dwarf
Primary attribute(s): Strength
Secondary attribute(s): Intelligence / Constitution
Primary Combat Ability(s): Two-Handed / Necromancy / Warfare
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Hydrosophist
Civil Ability: Telekinesis
Talents: Warlord / Leech / Opportunist

Role: Support Mage / Healer
Race: Lizard
Primary attribute(s): Intelligence
Secondary attribute(s): Wits / Constitution
Primary Combat Ability(s): Pyrokinetic / Geomancer / Hydrosophist
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Dual-wield (wands) / maybe 1-hand (wand & shield)
Civil Ability: Persuasion
Talents: Pet Pal / Glass Cannon / Far Out Man

Role: Ranged Damage Dealer
Race: Elf
Primary attribute(s): Finesse / Wits
Secondary attribute(s): Intelligence
Primary Combat Ability(s): / Huntsman / Ranged
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Aerothurge
Civil Ability: Loremaster
Talents: Glass Cannon / Bigger & Better / Hothead /

Interresting, since I am going to play with a friend we agreed on roleplaying without preplanning, as 2 strangers that met on that boat.

I will be playing mostly as a summoner, yes that build is weaker than most other skills as of the last version but it still has its advantages.

For my team if I would have played solo it would have been:

Role: Tank
Race: Human
Primary attribute(s): Constitution
Secondary attribute(s): Memory / Strengh / Wits
Primary Combat Ability(s): Polymorph / Warfare
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Retribution / Perseverance
Civil Ability: Loremaster (would allways be the first of the team to move so he/she can place himself/herself)
Talents: Opportunist / Picture of health / Leech

Role: Healer
Race: Lizard
Primary attribute(s): Intelligence / Constitution
Secondary attribute(s): Memory / Wits
Primary Combat Ability(s): Hydrophist / Necromancer
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Dual weilding (Wands) / Aerotheurge
Civil Ability: Telekinesis (Will stay close to the tank, this will help moving barrels away in a surprise fight)
Talents: Comeback kid / Walk it off / Mnemonic

Role: Physical damage dealer
Race: Dwarf
Primary attribute(s): Strengh / Finesse
Secondary attribute(s): Constitution / Memory
Primary Combat Ability(s): Scoundrel / Dual weilding (Dagues)
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Leadership
Civil Ability: Thievery (RP)
Talents: Back-stabber / Opportunist / Parry master

Role: Magical damage dealer
Race: Lizard
Primary attribute(s): Intelligence / Memory
Secondary attribute(s): Wits
Primary Combat Ability(s): Pyrokinetic / Geomancer
Secondary Combat Ability(s): Aerotheurge
Civil Ability: Persuasion (Nothing better than a Lizard for that)
Talents: Far out man / Glass cannon / Savage sortilege

Every character will have at least 2 CC spells exept the physical damage dealer, I don't think a specialised CC would be useful.

Little edit to add: There will be more races at launch and most class may be reworked, I will surely make an other team after I have played it once with my friend.

An other edit after seeing the last update video: I wonder if it would be better to make a 4 undead team, give Geomancer to my healer instead of Hydrophist... or even make my magical damage dealer as a hybrid Damage / Healer and make a Marksman...

In case you missed it: https://youtu.be/7B5rJ_VG7Lw

It's a bit difficult to say meaningful things, as the release will be a different from the EA and you can only play Classic as higher difficulty in the EA, which I would translate as normal difficulty.

From the EA perspective, I would say the parties lack a bit, mainly because you have to get rid of the physical or magical armor to deal damage to health and set cc. So having only one party member as damage dealer for both damages is not the most effective way, you diminish both armors parallely without getting to the health/cc quickly.

But in the release there will allegedly be a taunt skill, so a tank becomes more viable than it is in the EA. Then you might get more time to deal with the enemies' armors and more group diversity is not only possible but also viable.

For the first post of the TS that may mean however that a Scoundrel/Finesse based tank build might be bad choice; I think the taunt skill will be in the Warfare school.

Aerothurge should be your primary ability for a magic damage dealer, since it increases damage made to magic armor.