Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Dear Larian...

After playing this game up to Boreas, I've got a few tiny points I'd like to make.

First, please add more ranged, damaging spells to Witchcraft. Almost all the damaging spells in that school are touch range, rendering the school only necessary for the undead decapitator, oath, absorb and weakness. Bloodletting is leagues worse than any other first level damaging spell, since by the time it actually becomes remotely useful (i.e. you're not fighting undead), you already have the direct upgrades for your first level spells (Flare -> Burning Blaze, Ice Shard -> Piercing Ice Shard and so on). Bloodletting doesn't have a higher level equivalent.

Secondly, more robe variety. The mage enemies you fight (the one at the beach before the tutorial, the Immaculate bunch) have nice looking robes, but it seems players are just stuck with the same model, if textured differently. I'd have gone with the higher level robes looking more and more elaborate, with a cloak and more decorations.

That said, this is an excellent game and now I'm going to go kill Boreas. :P

/agreed

I concur.

Bloodletting is always useful, however, if you also have leech.

Seems like valid points. I'm for more spells/skills in general. Not because there aren't enough, but I'm always grateful for more

I shouldn't need to blow a talent slot to make Bloodletting be useful, and that talent doesn't actually improve bloodletting, just gives it additional utility. I can have Johan use Minor Heal or Strong Regenerate, which accomplishes the same thing.

Bloodletting suffers from several problems.

First, it has a low base damage, Flare does approximately 1.5 to 2x more and has an upgrade as well that effectively doubles damage output for the same ap cost and cooldown. Compounding this is that Bloodletting is absolutely worthless for the early maps since undead laugh at it, and by the time it does become remotely useful you're already getting spells like Acid Breath and Lightning Strike. Heck, Zombie would be more beneficial for healing, since the poison arrow spells deal a lot of damage, and at higher levels Acid Breath and Deadly Spores stack poison damage like crazy.

Witchcraft's other damage dealing spells are also lackluster. Strong Regenerate heals more and lasts multiple turns compared to Vampiric Touch, and doesn't require the caster to be in melee range. Death Punch hits one opponent in melee range with a high amount of crushing damage. That's nice...except by that time you're knee deep in AoE spells that already provide secondary effects.

Witchcraft as a whole has this problem. The high level spells of the other schools are magnificent, from earthquakes to storms to meteor swarms, but Witchcraft is loaded with buffs and debuffs. That wouldn't be an issue, except that most of the debuffs are situational - touch range spells are hardly optimal for anything, and the debuffs are also applied by other spells. Headvice may not always blind, for example, but even if it doesn't it still deals respectable damage. Oath and Absorb are good, yes, but Madora is already a powerhouse with Rage. There's no real excitement in getting the higher level spells, 2 WC is enough for Absorb, Oath, Mass Weakness, Summon Undead Decapitator and whatever spell you want.

Even Resurrect loses its oomph when you're swimming in scrolls.

I'd suggest something like a full-blown death spell, an aoe life drain that deals medium damage only, a dot that jumps from victim to victim as whenever one dies and so on.