Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks Questions about a kind-of-paladin-type-guy-man

Hi, guys.
So I've already played this game for about 30 hours, mostly trying out different builds by slaughtering Fort Joy over and over again and I think I'll soon be ready to start the actual game with my actual guy (making informed decisions takes so much time in this game) and so I come to ask for your advice.

I'm trying to build a paladin-type human and I'd love to hear if what I'm about to write makes any sense at all. So there it goes:

I wanted to start with warfare/hydro (probably shield bounce, restoration and battle stomp) and use a mace/shield instead of a twohander, mostly for flavor, but also for shields up.

Then I plan to take some necro (for mosquitoes, decaying touch, blood sucker - to have another healing option and some ranged capabilities) AND geomancy for fortify (been also thinking about reflective armor and impalement cause it seems powerful when used against me)

But geo and necro would both be secondary abilities.
I'd focus on warfare (and later maybe take battering ram and crippling blow to keep enemies from disengaging)
And hydro (mostly healing spells and the ice shield, obviously)

As for the attributes - probably something like 50% into str, 40% into int and 10% into con.

I though about going polymorph too, but I'm not sure I like it.

The guy is supposed to be a tank that can deal some damage and to heal his friends. Typical pally.

The rest of my party would be Red as a 2H fighter, Lohse as a ranger and Fane as a wizard (pyro, aero and maybe some summoning)

Would this paladin guy work? Would he work well? Will his damage be terrible? Should I invest anything into 1-handed? What about the defensive stuff like retribution?
Oh god, and what about talents? Or am I spreading him too thin?

What would you guys recommend?
Plaz, halp.

I'm planning the same build for my next play through although I may go with a Dwarf.

My suggestion would be forget about Intelligence and have just enough Constitution to equip your shield. This guy will have so much armor and armor restoring options that your vitality will not be hit often and if it does, Necromancy will allow you to heal up from doing damage.

Necro spells do physical damage which will be boosted by warfare. Also you will want to use Decaying Touch to turn all your healing spells into damage spells. If you are using Hydro and Geo mostly for heals and armor restoring those spells get no boost from Intelligence (if you want damage spells from Hydro & Geo that's a different story).

Also a couple points in Polymorph is a good thing. I prefer Bull Rush over the warfare charge because it does armor piercing damage, Tentacle Lash is fantastic as it does physical damage boosted by strength and warfare plus sets atrophy, and chicken form with crippling strike combo is nice.

Sure 2-H will do more damage but this build still does very good damage and is nearly impossible to kill while keeping the rest of your party healed up and in full armor. Plus I like being a melee healer because Soothing Cold and Mend Metal are short range AOE.

Ignore defensive abilities, they are bad and you do not have the points to spare. Your attribute-splitting idea is atrocious. It will weaken your already poor damage score by lowering your STR to boost INT for absolutely no reason at all. CON is actually not good for a tank character if only because the AI targets the weakest characters first, plus since you're focusing on armor skills, And without points into Memory I can't imagine how you expect to support 4 skill schools.

Maybe eventually get INT up to 14 so you can wear mage armor (for the boosts to magical armor), but probably no more than that. With 4+ skill schools you'll want several points into Memory to actually make use of those skills.


Tanking is really questionable due to the way AI ignores high-armored targets.. His damage will definitely be weaker than Dual-wielding and 2H.

You should absolutely not take a wizard when the rest of your party is physical damage-focused. Your group will be completely ineffective at stripping off magical armor, your Wizard will still be uselessly nibbling away at it up until the moment the target is killed by a physical attack. A summoner/necro would be okay since they can default to wood totems and incarnates and Necro does Physical damage.

[quote=Stabbey]Ignore defensive abilities, they are bad and you do not have the points to spare. Your attribute-splitting idea is atrocious. It will weaken your already poor damage score by lowering your STR to boost INT for absolutely no reason at all. CON is actually not good for a tank character if only because the AI targets the weakest characters first, plus since you're focusing on armor skills, And without points into Memory I can't imagine how you expect to support 4 skill schools.

Maybe eventually get INT up to 14 so you can wear mage armor (for the boosts to magical armor), but probably no more than that. With 4+ skill schools you'll want several points into Memory to actually make use of those skills.


Tanking is really questionable due to the way AI ignores high-armored targets.. His damage will definitely be weaker than Dual-wielding and 2H.

You should absolutely not take a wizard when the rest of your party is physical damage-focused. Your group will be completely ineffective at stripping off magical armor, your Wizard will still be uselessly nibbling away at it up until the moment the target is killed by a physical attack. A summoner/necro would be okay since they can default to wood totems and incarnates and Necro does Physical damage. [/quote]

This is some AWESOME feedback, thanks! I kind of suspected that my idea was too good to be true (a guy that would be survivable, could heal and deal okay damage - two characters melded into one, basically)

So, if I went with a necro/summoner Fane and warfare/hydro paladic-cleric-whatever guy, would that be better?

Also, I thought that int boosts healing, that's why I thought I needed it. As to ice shield and fortify, I wanted to use them mostly for cleansing.

So would 2H straight fighter/hydro warfare cleric / summon necro dude / ranger (with some scoundrel maybe? For cc) be viable?

Again - thanks for your help!

Healing spells are boosted by character level and Hydrosophist, not INT. I'm pretty sure magic shields are similarly not boosted by INT specifically to allow fighters to make use of them. That said, they don't seem to scale particularly well compared to enemy damage, and are often more useful to remove status effects after your armor gets inevitably broken.

That seems like a reasonable party configuration.

i tought of the same but i dont think its possible too go trough this gamewith only 1 char.

you will already weaken your stats that you need and in a scenario where you are 6v1 i doubt you survive after first cripple. beat the arena for me and i think about it.

it is possible though.
people already did it even on youtube. solo.

Hey, I've just finished my 2nd run on Normal and tried something like that on one of my char (4man team), here what I've learned and tested.

1) INT is useless on that archetype, it does not boost heal or armor spell. CON is a very subpar stat, sometimes welcomed on your gear but that's it. Focus on STR and WIT (you'll see why), with the MEM you'll need of course.

2) Does not expect to "tank" in the traditional sense of it, taunt exists and it's an ok skill for 1 AP, but most of the time it's better to use hard CC than taunt anyway. And as Stabbey said, the IA can be actually smart and most of the time focus the squishies in your group.

3) Instead it's more effective to be a support type of char. Invest 1 point in Pyro asap for Haste and PoM. Some points in Warfare for Shield Bounce and whatever you feel you need for physical damage support & phoenix dive (it can help a lot in some case). But of course focus a lot on Hydro & Geo to make your team very hard to kill.

4) Try to have to most Initiative in your group so you can setup things for the others. Haste on your main damage dealer + PoM for example. Maybe encourage if you're human. Maybe a shield bounce to work on that physical armur so your Knight or Rogue can CC / Kill in the first turn that priority target. Hence why WIT is important on that type of character, imo.

5) Generally good and obvious talents on support type are Mnemonic and Far Out Man.

Since your char will have a shield, it will be rarely focused and anyway can take a lot of punishment. It will be hard for the IA to kill / CC him and stop him for healing / armoring your team. You will help setup kills with some great starting buffs or support damage.
Depending on your team comp, you can of course create several variants of that build, like putting 2 points in Aero for even more support skills (Teleport of all sort, blind, aoe Haste) at the cost of warfare and STR (since you'll need even more MEM).

You can even go for an heavy Leadership build than is surprisingly effective especially in the mid-late game. Had 14-15 leadership value in the end on my support char in my 2nd run, it was quite insane how much resist & dodge it gives.

Thanks for all the input, guys!
I have some follow up questions but I'll start a second topic for that cause they're kind of another subject.

Pally I'd do Warefare-Hydro, Sword and Board and that is mainly it. You mentioning some Necro and the like, well that isn't Pally at all. I would only venture out of those schools for Pally like skills, Geo Fortify and/or Mend Metal type things.

I'm not sure what everyone's thoughts are here, but playing through... I wish I would have just gone one hero (even in coop) whoever has that, is the party leader for that run, does the vast majority of the talking. There are some synergies between hero's, but it is also a bit messy maintaining each, more quest lines when you already have plenty, knowing some NPC interactions can be different depending on who's talking, so you get caught in the situation where "ok I tried Fane, now lets try Red, maybe he'll get something different". Rarely they do, but sometimes yes, so I become a slave to that process and to me it is cumbersome. All runs after will be single hero runs for me I'm thinking. Gives me good reason to play more in the future. Thoughts here?