Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Beginner's help

A friend and I have just begun our Divinity Original Sin 2 adventure. We're enjoying ourselves so far except in combat. We seem to lose almost every battle. We're still only on our 2nd-ish hour but we're a little bit confused on what we're doing wrong. Do we just need to continue the story more to earn more gear/skills? Or is there a specific strategy that we should follow? And if we should just keep following the story, how do we know what place is the story? Thanks in advance! (P.S. I'm a wizard and he's a knight.)

I just wrote up some general tips in here

http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=641814#Post641814

also, I would suggest adding another char each -- there's a bunch of npc you can control

edit: as for following the story, keep an eye on your log (L) for updates on your progress
world is pretty open, so don't worry too much about what you're 'supposed' to do -- I'd say just explore around and talk to ppl as much as possible

It's pretty impossible to know what you're doing wrong without knowing what you're doing at all. Maybe you should post a video of one of your fights.

Four simple cents I can give you.

One.
You need a lot of crowd control. These days I just join random people's games to give a hand and I notice that a lot of them just don't have enough cc available in their books. Even if you're a wizard, train yourself in warfare and get as much knockdown skills as possible.

Two.
Be versatile with the damage types you're dealing. If you're a wizard and your friend is a knight, you need some sort of physical damage output. Necromancy spells and warfare skills like shield toss will help you focus the damage. The same goes true for your friend. It's good for him to have some ways to do magic damage(scrolls or grenades or spells), even if monsters are resistant to it, in some cases it's quicker to go through magic armour than physical armour and then cc with spells.

Three.
You can't ignore shopping in this game. It progressively gets more and more important to keep your party's gear up to date and you and your friend will need to dedicate a fair amount of time on looting and generally acquiring as much as possible without fighting: thieving(if you can), stealing(from stealth), crafting(to sell), bartering(again, if you can) and lucky charming. The armour and damage bonuses you get from equipment your level quickly become vital.

Four.
Try going around Fort Joy and getting as much of the stuff lying around without engaging in combat. Try exploring as much as you can to boost your XP without going into fights. There are a few things you can do without bothering to fight and pretty much the only vital encounter you will need are the crocodiles, for obvious reasons.