Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Witchcraft

I think I've managed to pinpoint my problem with Witchcraft: it's spectacularly lackluster.

The problem I see with Witchcraft is that for a school of debuffs, it's not really that impressive. The melee range of some the debuffs is virtually suicide for a non-melee mage, and for a school that seems to be built around the theme of death, undeath and entropy there's a spectacular lack of of undead-lockdown spells.

What I've seen of the higher tiers of Witchcraft doesn't really impress me. Death Punch does not pack the same amount of awe and mystique the elemental schools do. Compare Meteor and Earthquake, for example, with Death Punch, and you'll see what I mean. Despite the name, Death Punch does not actually kill, it just does crushing damage.

These are my suggestions for the Witchcraft school: improve the range of debuffs (or a least make the ranged versions available slightly early), improve the kind of utilities you want Witchcraft to bring to the table, and give Witchcraft more offensive spells. Bloodletting, in particular, is useless against anything undead, which are like 75% of the enemies in Cyseal.

Some spell suggestions:

Lifedrinker (Level 19, Int 14, AP cost really really high): You disrupt living foes with a blast of entropic shadow, forcing every enemy within the range of the spell to immediately suffer 50% of their HP as shadow damage. In addition, you and your companions are healed by half of the damage done.

Reaper's Bond (Level 8, Int 8, AP cost something): You forge a bond between two targets of your choice. Whenever one of the targets suffers damage, the other immediately suffers half the damage dealt.

Quench the Spirit (Level 14, Int 12, AP cost something): Your target immediately dies unless a Bodybuilding check is successful.

Disrupt Undeath (Level 3, Int 7, AP something): You attack the bonds holding a target undead together, weakening it and causing it to suffer x% more damage from attacks.

Command Undead (Level 5, Int 8, AP something): Unless the undead succeeds on a Willpower save, it falls under your control until the spell ends.

Entropic Hunger (Level 4, Int...you get the picture): The target suffers x-y shadow damage each turn for z turns. If the target dies before the spell ends, the hunger leaps to the closest target within 10m.

Those are just ideas, mind you, and can be adjusted. I'd just like to see Witchcraft be as impressive as the other mage schools...and maybe it should be renamed. There's already a 'Witch' preset, so maybe Witchcraft should be renamed Nethermancy/Umbral Magic/Entropy/Thanatology (study of death).