Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Tanking, the forgotten role.

This game has a great RPG feel to it and I have nothing that I can think to complain about when it comes to the general mechanics of it. But the mechanics surrounding *building* a character are unfair and quite frankly neglect a few areas. Since I like tankier builds that is what I will focus on in this topic.

When building a character in D:OS you can easily go down the Holy Trinity route and do very well. You can specialize in healing and battlefield control in order to support your group, you can wield great two handed weapons, destructive magic or a bow (haven't tried bows much myself) and deal damage. But when it comes to the Tank, she is forced to sit in the corner or dabble in magic to be any good.

For starters a tank has to invest points into many more areas than the aforementioned variants. First of a tank wants to be able to avoid taking hits while still being targeted, this means Shield Spec and Reflexes. Second a tank needs the ability to negate Damage and position herself so that the enemies focus upon her. This means Con > Str every day, and Armor Spec to. And so far so good right? Well it gets messier, the Tank takes on a crucial role, letting the other members go for more simplistic defenses which in turn means that if the Tank fails then they all might go down. So you'll want to be taking Willpower as well to avoid any Mind control spells. So that's what, 4 Abilities just to tank, not counting *any* damage output related Abilities or Stats (Con does give more AP though which can translate to more damage).

And what does this mean for a tank? Well first off you can't hit a wall with a mace, and even if you did, all that would happen is your mace breaking. If you can even equip it? Since most of your points are going towards Con, you don't actually have the ability to even *use* most armor! So you end up with a meatwall, with no physical defenses, max 10% Elemental Defenses (you can't equip armor, remember?) and no damage. Yet you have spent all your points and in order to max your Abilities out you'd have to spend more points than any other Trinity option.

And I'm not done yet... There are very few Tank Skills in the game, Bull Rush could be considered a Tanking Skill, it offers mobility, some Control and a bit of damage, great! You also have the Stun Skill, allowing the Tank to disable targets that are getting to occupied with your softer party members. And then what? Intimidate? Forcing the enemy to run around in circles is the last thing you want to do! They will simply wander of and when they return you will have your hands full getting to hit *you* and not someone else. How about shield related Skills? Increase Block for 3 rounds? Or how about a long Cooldown Warrior Regeneration Skill? Or a Taunt?

So TL:DR The Warrior Tank has to spend to many points in the wrong things while getting very little to show for it but a little health and *some avoidance*. Couple this with few, almost non-existent Tank related Skills and you have sad Tanks running around in their first suit of armor wielding Branches.

Am I wrong? Do you think that Tanks should be forced to go for *some* Str as well as Con? Or do you think like me - that a build with so few points to spend should not be forced to spend them where they don't want to?

And finally some suggestions, as always when I suggest things I am looking to make things "better" not the "best". I am looking at numbers here but of course my *opinion* will come into play!

Go back! Having the Abilities dictate whether or not you could equip something seemed very reasonable to me, and with the coming update to Intelligence everyone will have an equal amount of points. This also makes sense from a freedom of creation view, Now you can make a two handed wielding warrior with health, not silly damage, and go your way instead of the "2h warrior must do this to even equip way". You can get real specific and start talking what should do what, does the Str grant accuracy or damage? And the weapon Ability, does it grant Damage and Accuracy? Maybe they do different things, maybe one Single Handed grants more accuracy and less damage, while 2H is the other way around? Maybe they grant -1 AP cost to attack per 5 levels with their respective weapon? I dunno.

You could also have Armor and shields require Con, this makes little sense from a role play perspective but it does make some sense from a mechanical one. It keeps some defensive values away from 2H-ers and encourages Tanks to stay away from Str, leaving them with less Damage.

Edit: I'd also like to suggest bringing Magic Resistance back! How much it should grant, if it should be Stat, Ability or Talent related I do not know. I'd suggest Ability related but Tanks are already spread so very thin. Adding it to Con (only stat that makes much sense) Would just be a free meal and as a Talent anyone could, and probably should, pick it up. That said Resistance are *needed* maybe there could be a Stance that increases Defenses + Resistances but lowers Damage and Movement?

I hope my wall of text has not bored you all to much, and that I get at least some things right. I've not "studied" this closely but I have thought a little about it. Finally I hope that this feedback can be of use to any who read it, either as a thought provoker for building a character or as an inspiration for creators. Thank you for reading!