Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta [Feedback] Level locks ruin DoS as a RPG

DOS, at the moment, has three mechanics to prevent 'power creep' on characters:

1) Level locked items / spells
2) Skill locked items (spells do not appear to require a minimum skill, which is odd): mostly weapons, and even worse, the skill requirements are in no way balanced or uniform. e.g. spears - 1 point in 2H up to level 7, 2 points from level 8; compare to shields, where a bog standard, 10% block metal decoration shield requires level 4, both in level and skill level. Hint: Character level should never equal Skill level for requirements, ever in a RPG, for obvious reasons*.
3) Availability: player level determines the crafting level of items (i.e. level 8 char makes level 8-16 items, usually); shop keepers and so on appear to generate on player level <=> open trade window (tested on various NPCs; pro-tip, don't trade with the guy outside the Legionaire storeroom until level 8+, you can find some excellent magical weapons) and magical loot on boss drops is determined by mob level. In short, the RNG is heavily tied to character level behind the scenes, you're just not told about it.

2) and 3) are usual and to be expected; 1) totally kills DOS' as a true RPG, and kills any real desire for exploration / pushing the envelope, and in fact cuts down on viable casual builds but enforces cookie-cutter class builds.

I've been so irked by this, I fired up Risen (another German export), which is the archetype for low availability, skill locked items/weapons. For the uninitiated - the game follows 2)&3); there are relatively few weapons, armor is locked to faction / chapters, and you need serious investment in exploration to find powerful items. Risen does this right - even with relatively few choices / options (especially in the first chapter), there is a sense of freedom and player choice about builds. (Risen also does permanent loot with no RNG, but this is unimportant for this post).

DoS? Exactly the opposite. Worse, I can see no reason for level locks on any of the content, barring spells (where a skill requirement would amply suffice, as long as it was done correctly), simply because 3) and the RNG are so obviously in play. i.e. you simply cannot get higher tier items unless you really push the boat out**.

Worse than this, these three limits create artificial difficulty (especially in fighter characters), where the player is basically contesting with the RNG rather than the game to determine the difficulty of playing. A player not building a "pure build" (i.e. spending points across the board rather than single focus) is likely to shaft themselves, and there are very real bottle necks simply generated by the level locks combined with the RNG.


TL;DR

Level locks on items / spells are artificial, redundant due to the RNG already doing it behind the scenes, reduce immersion and are basically not fun. I cannot see the logic behind including them, nor can I see any advantages.

Discuss ~ but on weighing up my thoughts on DoS, it's this part of the mechanics that has tipped me towards a "Not worth £25.99" rather than anything else.


*A character gets ~4 SP / level, work out the math; at the moment, part of why the fighter class is so unbalanced is because 'sword & board' requires far more SP than a mage using even two schools
** Actually, apart from crafting, there's no way of getting much higher tier gear at this point, due to the RNG = level behind the scenes equations


(Oh, and the shitty RNG loot tables which aren't functioning atm, especially given the Risenesque permanent world where every chest counts, but those I expect to change before going gold. Yes, I'm looking at you, Miss "level 10 chests")