Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General How does telekinesis work in combat?

I know you can use telekinesis to throw objects in combat. My understanding is that the object will do an amount of crush damage equal to its weight. And it apparently costs 2 AP to do this.

My questions, then, are basically about how increasing the telekinesis skill affects this tactic, and how good the tactic is.

As I understand it, the higher the character's telekinesis, the further he or she can throw something. Is that true? Also, more importantly, does telekinesis affect the weight of object one can throw in the first place? As in, if I have 1 in telekinesis, will I not be able to throw very heavy items, or will I just not be able to throw them far? Basically, I want to know whether I need to make sure to get telekinesis to 5 relatively early on for this build to work.

Also, can this get good damage later on? I am planning on having a strength focused character and getting Packmule. The goal is to create monster items (using chests I suppose) that are tremendously heavy and throw those. Given the strength/packmule, I will be able to carry such heavy items. I am just not sure that making items like that is possible. I am also not sure whether there is a cap on how heavy an item telekinesis can be used on. For instance, if it caps at something like 100 pounds, then later on that will not be good damage.


Obviously I COULD test these out myself, but it would take a fair bit of time to see the effect of leveling telekinesis super high or to see how the build works later in the game. So I was hoping someone who already has tried this could tell me.

Telekinesis definitely increases the weight and range of items you can pick up.

Weight definitely affects damage in combat.

TK definitely outclasses any other form of attacking, in early levels.

Can't help with your other questions.

As a public service announcement, I tried to make a character built around offensive use of telekinesis. It worked well, but I aborted the play-through because it felt very unsatisfying.

Combat consists of nudging a barrel or chest around near an enemy, who can't dodge or block, until they die.

The idea of a telekinetic warrior is really cool in theory, but wound up not being very fun to play, in my opinion.

Thanks!

One question though. I am not sure that telekinesis increases the weight of what you can throw around with it. I just quickly went to a saved game where I had a couple +1 telekinesis items. I then put a few barrels and other items into a backpack. It got up to 191 pounds. And with 2 telekinesis, I could move that backpack around. I could not move it as far as I could other items, so weight definitely affects how far you can throw. There seems to be a minimum and maximum length you can throw though. For instance, with 2 telekinesis, my character could throw a 191 pound backpack 3m. I imagine that must be the minimum for a character with 2 in telekinesis. It goes down to 2m if I only have 1 in telekinesis.

I had never considered putting barrels in a backpack. Telekinesis may be stronger than I first imagined.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I just tried it out on a level 3 character. I basically started a fight with the entire Cyseal market, which is a fight I have no business winning, since it's against like 12 people (and I hadn't even gotten the companions yet, so this was 12 v 2) and many of them were level 5. But I basically could one-shot, or close to one-shot, almost every enemy by dragging my barrel-filled backpack next to them. Sometimes I was able to hit two at once. There were a few random enemies that would not be damaged by the backpack of doom, so I killed them by somewhat normal means. I can see slinging around items with telekinesis getting old. There's not a whole lot to it.

However, I am trying to figure out if there are ways to make it interesting by using it semi-creatively. Here are a few ideas I have had.

- You might keep some crates or screens or something with you. For 2 AP, I think you could throw those (it seems that if you drop multiple items near each other, you can move them all at once) in strategic spots on the battlefield. For instance, you could use them to block an enemy archer/mage's view of you. The archer might move to get in view, but you could keep moving the cover.
- Similarly, you could use items to create chokepoints. Now, of course, you could do that before a battle without a telekinesis build, but battle situations can be dynamic, so you might want to create a chokepoint later. For instance, maybe you want to make sure the enemies closing in on you have to go through the wet patch you just Rained on or on your oil patch or poison cloud. If you have kept a few boxes in your inventory, you could just drop those for 0 AP, and then move them all at once for 2 AP.
- Another similar point: If there's a bridge or something, you could completely block it off for like 6 AP or so. Make the battle a ranged battle, and you are definitely more likely to win.
- This is a bit cheap, but it seems like with 12 AP, you can fairly easily position 6 boxes/barrels around you and make yourself completely inaccessible to melee attacks. Of course, this may seem silly for a strength-based character. I suppose, though, that you really only need the uber backpack to be somewhere on the battlefield within your range in order to use it. A different character in your party could carry it and just drop it near you at the beginning of a battle. This would allow you to be a mage or archer and be just as effective.
- You can use telekinesis to ignite stuff with candles. I think you could probably throw them far too, but at least this goes with the theme.
- You can throw around oil/ooze/water barrels of course. With a high enough telekinesis skill, I imagine you could drop a barrel, and then throw it far enough that you are outside its explosion radius and then explode it.


Basically, I see it as being possibly more than just a semi-unsatisfying way to get uber high damage. Telekinesis could also be a way to dynamically manipulate the environment to your advantage. And this is an area where having high telekinesis might really matter because you would likely want to do this sort of stuff from afar.

Yeah, it seems that the only limit on telekinesis' damage is the amount of weight you can carry. With 15 strength and Packmule, I believe you can carry 410 pounds. Of course, some of that will be equipped on you, but basically you can get ~400 damage for a 2 AP attack that you can do at a decent range and can sometimes hit more than one enemy with. Any +strength items would increase this even more. I have not actually finished the game, so I am not sure what other builds can do at late levels. My impression is that that is only okay. You could always transition to being a normal 2-hander near the end of the game, though. You won't exactly have devoted much into telekinesis, so you won't really be gimped as a strength-based warrior.

For my playthrough, 400 damage for 2 AP attack which cannot miss and can sometimes hit multiple enemies is damn good, even endgame.

For reference my 2-handed warrior's attack damage was 300-600, on a 2-handed hammer (4AP).
Now I could often buff that up with Oath of Desecration, Enraged, Bully, etc, which I don't think would affect TK damage, but TK would sitll be an extremely solid source of damage.

Well I wasn't using a superbackpack, so I was getting more in the neighborhood of 100 damage per 2AP. Which isn't exactly horrible but it is something a lot of other builds can top.

The concept of the superbackpack changes everything.

I would just like to point out that this build is actually better than I even realized late game.

I originally said that with 15 strength and packmule, you'd be able to carry 410 pounds. That was because I thought Packmule raised carrying capacity by a flat 100 pounds (since it raised the character I tried it on from 110 to 210). It turns out that it actually doubles strength's bonus to carrying capacity (i.e. 40 points per strength point instead of 20).

That means that with 15 strength + Packmule, you'd be able to carry 610 pounds, not 410. So without any strength buffing beyond that, you can do 610 damage that does not miss, at a decent range, and can potentially hit more than one enemy. All for 2 AP and no cooldown. That's pretty good. Of course, I think buffs like Oath of Desecration do not work on telekinesis damage, so your absolute max damage is probably lower than many builds, but, I think it is still actually a pretty powerful damage build in the late game. And it is, of course, totally overpowered early on.

My favorite is to use the sheep's corpse and stuff it full of water barrels. If you find it too easy using telekinesis it makes for some fun game play throwing a 400 lb sheep on your enemies at close range. It won't break or burn and the idea of it returning with vengeance is satisfying.

This game's just crazy on those things. If you pack a crate within a crate - prepare for lulz when it cracks upon landing and unleash the dozens of crates on the field, literally blocking the dudes - preventing any movement.

They really should have introduced a whole skill set for the telekinesis thing. Imagine the possibilites. Double sheep swing. Barrel roll, rock skimming, pants face wrap, smelly socks of stun, bannna skin trap, skull bowling.

lol, sorry getting a bit carried away there.

Hahaha, it's so funny you say that because that is EXACTLY what I have been doing on this playthrough. Killing things with a sheep's corpse adds some hilarity to the whole thing, which definitely makes it more interesting.

Ore is kinda heavy and works well. But carrying around barrels and stuff, felt cheap so I stopped doing it.