Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Is the wizard indispensable?

I agree that every class can Work, so no you don't need a caster. However magic has a lot of viability in different areas so it is a good thing to have.

My current party consists of a Ranger combined with Earth, Witch, and Water magic and a Knight combined with Fire and Air magic. Combatwise it works really well as both are durable and have great ranged attacks.

My theorycrafting for release so far is to plan for that kind of setup, so potentially at level 10 I would have these kind of setups:

1) Pure ranged rogue/mage type character:
Focus is to provide buffs, debuffs, and support mainly. Also works as my frontman when adventuring (trap detecter etc.)

Skills: total of 19 available
Ranger(2), Witch(2), Water(2), Earth(2), Sneak(2), Pickpocket(2), Lockpicking(2)

*21 points used, so requires the talent All Skilled Up (+2 ability pts.)
*Skill level 2 requires 3 points allocated

Essential talents: total of 6 available
Light Stepper, Arrow Recovery, All Skilled Up

Attributes: total of 10 available
Dex +3, Int +3, Con +1, Spe +1, Per +2

2) Heavy melee with aggressive casting
Main damage dealer and "tank". If unable to charge into melee, he/she can deal good damage from afar

Skills: total of 19 available
Men at Arms(2), Fire(2), Air(2), Blacksmithing(2), Crafting(2)

*4 points left, currently I am thinking of Charisma and Leadership making this character into the "leader" of the party and the one talking to people in town. But increased Armor and Weapon damage just might be the way to go as Charisma really doesn't change much

Essential talents: total of 6 available
Opportunist, Scientist, Thick Skin, Picture of Health

Attributes: total of 10 available
Str +3, Int +3, Con +2, Spe +1, Per +1

The challenge of the setup:
The challenge so far with this kind of character setup is how to distribute Attribute points for the heavy melee. The reason here being that for some reason heavy armor and strength based weapons require higher attribute than dex or int based weapons.

E.g. an axe of item level 3 might require 8 strength whereas a bow of equal item level and rarity only requires 6 dexterity, thus making warriors increasingly difficult to multiclass as the game progress due to the fact that this problem seems to increase as well, at level 9 I found a level 8 two handed weapon requiring strength of 11. At level 10 within current beta content all dex and int based weapons and armor require a maximum of 8 in their respective attribute.

Basically the consequence is that a multiclass warrior have to wait 1-2 levels before ever being able to use any of the weapons or armor that drop from the enemies you fight whereas int and dex based character can use all dropped items immediately. Something I am hoping they change before release, as it really should be equal opportunity for all character classes.

Two other challenges with this setup are:
a) No main character has Loremaster, but I usually just put that on a follower anyway
b) You spend a lot of points early on to build the character setup, meaning you will have very few ability points if any left to put into increased weapon damage, armor, body building, and willpower. It makes for more difficult early game, but should be easier later

While I play the game for the story, I do try and min/max my experience from a mechanics point of view. I would love to hear what you guys plan to play and why.