Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks DOS is Hard? Realy? ...Few tips for new players...

Hey everyone Since the game release i've been reading quite a lot of post/comments that this game is kicking players butts, and that enemies are too hard to kill.
Due to my experience with games like this (rpg's (BG, X-Com, ext...)) i thought the game is pretty easy, even on hardest difficulty, you just have to know how the game works.
Soooo, the point of this post is to help people who experience troubles with anything in battles. Incity troubles and hustle i leave for you (some munchkin like to grind city folk - doesn't count).

Tip 1: Build your party well.

It comes first because a fair amount of people who don't like the game, and those who do but they experience troubles going out of the city at level 2-3, fail at this Point.
-If you want to rock, forget about focusing on more than one main damage stat. It means that if you're a Warrior you put your points in Strength. You also need stats like Speed and Constitution but focus on boosting Primary damage stat (Int - for mages, Str - Warrior, Dex - for Rangers, rogues) on level ups. 7 base Speed is enough 6 base Con is enough. Perception is a stat to discuss but i didn't put anything in it at all.
-With previous being said, you better avoit classes like cleric, rogue-wizard, battlemage. Master of none is not a good option for this game (tried them and failed).
-Plan ahead distribution of your skillpoints. You can only master (5 points in it) 3 skills untill the end. Also avoid useless skills which you can get from items/traits (telekinesis, loremaster, bartering, sneaking, pickpocketing, ex...)
-Create classes that synergise each other. Earth-Fire, Water lightning. Create combos so nothing will survive (ex. Midnight oil + fire + boulder dash = Slow + burn + fire damage from ignition spell + boulder damage + poison damage + explosion of poisonous cloud = a nice early-game combo).
-Get useful traits. By useful i mean the ones you will have use for. RP choise is not that important, if instead you get imunity to fear or free leadership point))) -The same goes for perks.

Tip 2: Use initiative, items, skills, surrounding and synergies.

Fairly ovious. Direct damage is far less effective than combos or
the use of surounding.
-There's always something to blow up, or throw at enemies. If you're like me (hard mode player), then you will have to exploit every oportunity you get to make enemy HP lower. Use kegs with oil and poison. If there's none, create your own walls of fire and frost.
-Use CC (croud control). Tch, daaaa. Obvious.
-Use weather or create your own. Obvious.
-Summarising previous two points - use synergies. You will probably want two mages in your party. One that does fire-earth combos, and the other that does water lightning ones.
-Be first to strike. In most cases you can be the first one to hit (use sneaking) with your attack. Make it the one that counts. In most cases that will be a Mage attack. Fireball the croud near keg, or summon elemental and cast haste (fire spell) on you.
-Use summons as your walls. Elementals can sink a lot of damage. Not as much on Hard difficulty, but still... Using fire elemental and casting firefly that surround it with burning ground is a great move (since fire heals him) + casting fireballs on him afterwards.
-Carry kegs with oil or poison with you. Have 1 at each characters inventory, then place it in stealth mode where you need them, then BOOM.

Tip 3: Grind your items.

I'm not a fan of this one, But you can always reload lucrative chests (usually the ones that are locked, in the end of a dungeon or behind a boss) or bosses (before you deliver a killing blow). You will almost always get a different loot.

As an example, here is my party.

I play both protagonists as Wizards. (I like em, so that is that)
One is Pyro-geo mancer with 2 levels of lightning magic, the other is water-lightning mage with 2 levels of fire (early game fireball and summon is nice). Both of them do most of the work in batles when the other two just protect them. In my opinion both mages (main character or companion) have to have 3 scools to couter immunities (fire immunity is common) and cast the combo/item triger.
Triple mage + 2h warrior may sound borring so you will probably want 2 mages and 2 weapon users. Ranger + Warrior is a good call.

Build your characters your self. 3 points in main damage stat, 1 in Speed 1 in Con. Remove points from useless skills and put 2 points in something you will specialize in +1 support skill.


SO, let me know if it was useful to anyone. If you have any questions or comments i will be happy to reply.

P.S. I did not include gamebreaking skills like blind to ruin this great game. I don't recomend using witchcraft since the game becomes too easy.