Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Balanced or Specialist?

The game points out you can pick and choose skills rather than following a dedicated job path. I've seen forum posts arguing in favour of both the balanced and specialist routes. In Dragon Age if you wanted an excellent Archer you'd pump DEX, so I'm wondering doesn't creating a balanced character here mean putting precious points into Intelligence if say you want a Archer/Mage? Does it come down to having a good Ranger/Mage or having a very good Ranger or very good Mage? You'll notice I'm not a stand and trade kind of fighter! What would be the result, for example, of having some level 5 spells but having a low intelligence? Would that noticeably impact effectiveness, even if say accompanied with Destruction? I played through the demo 3 times and now the real game has arrived I'm keen to formulate a plan, less perish the thought I assign points "willy-nilly"

Well, in my second play on Nightmare difficulty, I play a mix of Ranger/Warrior. At first skills seemed unfitting (that charge skill + bow? That ain't right!), but then I saw this is kind of effective.

There are only a few skills in every class, which are worth upgrading, so you can become more or less, very good in two classes, especially with lot of skill points you can easily get in FoV part.

But beware, some skills become awesome only after being combined with other skills. Firewall is good, I admit, but without Destruction (the skill that increases damage of magic attacks?) and, especially, Way of the Mage, it's not used to it's full extent. Exploding Arrow becomes good after upgrading it with other skills, before that it's... not very impressive.

But I do kind of well on Nightmare with my strange mix of Warrior/Ranger, even if The Ranger part is the one I put more emphasis on.

Warrior is AFAIK the hardest, especially before you get awesome stuff. It's surprising, that at the start your typical sword is outdamaged by your typical bow, and bow doesn't even require you to get closer to the enemy! After you get awesome onehander like Blood Echelon Sword and mix it with awesome skill (the one that costs +100 mana, but deals a few hits), it changes though. Now my mix of Ranger/Warrior doesn't know what the hell he wants to do and which set he wants to wear.

Archer is easiest at the start, I'm now in the middle with my Warrior/Archer hybrid and it seems he starts slowly becoming the weaker part, probably it will change when I'll get my hands on some good bow.
Pure Mage is second easiest at the start, then gets harder, then with giantic upgrades of fireball/firewall gets mindlessly easy, even in FoV
Warrior is hard at start, but then only gets better. I don't think he ever beats the mage though, who gets most opponents down with one hit

I like to use a Warrior/Mage with two weapon fighting. I will soften up enemies with a Magic Missles or Fireballs then go in with two weapons while my summoned ghost backs me up with healing and fireballs.

I look for armor and accessories that compliment this style.

I also find a "one note" character to be boring. IMHO multi-charactering is the way to go.

For me too "multi-charactering" is the way I go
I like to start with a Ranger/Mage who also make use of melee fighting here and there (if necessary or just for fun!) ...

Question @GabeN :
can you give me some more information about "how" to make "Explosive Arrows" better? (which skills or stats are important?)

I personal find "Ranger Stealth" a nice skill (for a Ranger), also for a Mage when you use frequently "ranged" spells like Firebal, Magic Missiles, Magic Blast ...
(drawing a Bow and have Ranger Stealth ... it's great using "ranged" attacks and/or spells! )

AFAIK Way of the Ranger and that skill that increases bow damage both affect Explosive Arrows. Also I'm not sure, but sometimes Explosive Arrows does much more damage, which leads me to think that it may do Crits.