I got pretty burned out from playing the beta so I did not get back into Original Sin until mid-September. I am still partway through my first playthrough. At this point I have only reached Sacred Stone and am level 14.
Please do not post spoilers for anything past that, at least until after I mention reaching it.
This will sort-of act as a journal of my journey through the game. Not all of these are complaints, and there are lots of things I like which I do not always comment on, so do not take this as having an overwhelmingly negative attitude towards the game. I am having fun.
My party:
Sarienne the Shadowblade - In the beta I never played one, as I feared it would be spread too thin to be effective. I am glad to say that I was (somewhat) wrong. She is surprisingly versatile as a magic-using rogue. I am spread somewhat thin though. My primary stats are pretty low for a Rogue, and my armour rating is suffering because I am reluctant to ditch a set which is giving me good boosts to stats. But that is not such a big deal, as I have Become Air to resist physical damage, and Elemental Absorbtion for magic. In small fights, I can use my rogue abilities to backstab or CC enemies, and at times when things are more serious, I have a wide variety of buffs and debuffs at my disposal. I plan to get Sneak up to Rank 5 and Guerrilla at level 15 to improve her physical damage, which tends to lag behind her magic.
Keivan the Wizard - He is a fairly standard Fire + Earth wizard, but stronger on the Fire, and with some buffs. I gave him a couple points into Water to make him of some use against the undead fire enemies in Cyseal, but now I am more strongly focusing him towards Fire, and will get him to Rank 5 once I reach level 14.
Jahan - He is an Enchanter, of course, and I have focused on battlefield manipulation and healing. I gave him Witchcraft as a tertiary school, partly because debuffs fall under "battlefield control", and partly because my Shadowblade has Leech, and Jahan inflicting Bloodletting on her is a full heal on her turn. He is expanding more into Witchcraft to take advantage of other debuffs.
Madora - She is my tank and melee fighter. I expanded her Man-At-Arms to take advantage of Talents to boost her survivability, and extra points went into boosting her Armour Expertise, Bodybuilding, and Willpower. She is also the party repairer. She has max Two-Handed from items. I maxed out Man-At-Arms, after which I splurged on all the Warrior abilities I could find. She is gotten a couple +2 INT from her gear, and so I am spreading her into Fire. She already has a legendary ring granting her Flare, which came in handy in Hiberheim, but now my extra Wildfire and Explode skillbooks can work for her.
SKILLS1) Skill penalties "Attribute Too Low".
(I already mentioned this on the twitch devline stream.) Some of the skills suffer penalties if an attribute is too low (and bonuses if it is above the range). But the penalty is just in the form of -X percent chance for the effect to trigger- (at least as far as I know so far). That is fine in many cases, when the major point of the ability is for the effect to trigger.
BUT there are some cases when the penalty/bonus could do something else. For example, the Fortify skill. It grants +65 armour, regardless of your Intelligence. The only question is if you will fumble casting it at low INT. This is a good case for the penalty (or bonus) modifying the AMOUNT of armour you gain. The spell always has a 100 percent chance to go off, but your Intelligence level determines how much armour the target gains. If you cast it at 5 INT, for example, the target only gains 46 armour. If you cast it with 13 INT, the target gains 81 armour.
Oath of Desecration could work that way as well. With a -30 percent penalty, it could grant only +35 percent damage, with a 25 percent bonus, it could increase the damage bonus to +62.5 percent. I am sure there are other skills too. I note that direct damage spells do not seem
For some cases where a skills main purpose is to inflict a status, the penalty could be [shorter range], [smaller radius], or possibly [Longer cooldown] (well maybe not this last one). Those all affect the utility of a spell, and let it be used without a pass/fail.
What does the penalty do for summons? As a test, I gave Madora the Spider summon, cast it a dozen times, and it did not fumble, even though it has a [30 percent penalty]. I have no idea what that means, since I compared it to my wizards spider and it had the same HP. Here is a thought. Maybe if there is say, a 30 percent penalty for summoning, that is an 30 percent chance that it the summoner will lose control and it will be hostile to everything around (allies, enemies, neutral NPCs).
The alternative would be just stat boosts/penalties to the summons. Forktong suggested that in that case, the summon should be scaled smaller for a penalty and larger for a boost (but not too large to make it too unwieldy to actually use).
2) "Remove Petrification" Spell.What does Petrification do? Does something inflicted with it die if hit again? Has it got a very long or permanent duration? If not, then before getting Air Rank 5, I do not really have any motivation to spend a precious spell slot on a spell that only removes a minor nuisance of a status - especially one which rarely appears in the game. I have only seen one enemy that has inflicted it on me.
If Petrification was a more threatening status, AND more enemies used it, then a specialized skill might be more worthwhile. I've only found like a couple scrolls that have this effect anyway.
3) Immune to X buffs don't remove said statusI guess that these spells are intended to be preventative only, but it is kind-of annoying how "Immune to X" status buffs do not REMOVE said status effect. I guess that's for balance reasons though, so I'm not going to protest it too hard.
I guess my issue is that buffs have a very short duration, so I feel like I don't want to cast things too early, especially since there's no way to know what an enemy will do next or who they'll target.
4) Helping Hand's cooldown is too longHelping Hand is a pretty situational spell, it clears Knocked Down and Burning, but the times when you DO need it, it is something you will probably need to use multiple times in quick succession. Why does it have a five turn cooldown? That seems is way too long. I think it should have a one or two turn cooldown at most.
At my current strength, it says it has a "30 percent boost", but what does that mean? The cooldown and AP cost is the same as it was at level 3, and it does not have a chance to fail. I would say reduce the cooldown on this spell to 1 or 2 turns, and up the AP cost to 4. That would make it a choice between attacking, or assisting a teammate.
5) Missing skill previews on dangerous skillsThe Scoundrel's "Wind Up Toy" summon has a Detonate skill. It technically has a preview. Unfortunately, that is NOT helpful at all, because the preview only appears if you click the button, by which point it is too late because the bomb is going off anyway. The Explode skill has the same F***ING issue. And I use that word because it is a simple thing to fix.
There are many examples of radius-around-caster skills which require you to click twice. The Whirlwind/Dust Devil ones for example. The first time shows you the radius the skill will affect. The second time casts it. That is all those need. A preview to let you decide if they are far enough away to safely blow stuff up.
It does not make sense to have a ally-harmless skill like Whirlwind require a preview, but an ally-harmful skill like Explode does not. (And I do NOT mean you should remove the Whirlwind preview.)
6) Casting invisibility attracts attentionThis is minor and a little nitpicky, but maybe the spell to cast invisibility should not scream like a banshee, alerting goblins for miles around. Just a thought.
I have Rank 4 or so Sneak, and while sneaking, I cast an Air: Invisibility spell. I think it probably should not attract the notice of goblins 20 meters away which have their backs turned! It is an invisibility spell, that is kind-of stupid!
7) Burn My Eyes should clear BlindThis seems like a good idea. It makes a rather specialized skill slightly more useful.
EDIT: Or alternatively, it could grant immunity to blind. Farsight could clear blind.
NEW SKILL IDEASSkill ranks, AP costs, cooldown times are guesstimates.
Water -
Rising Tide -
"A rising tide lifts all boats"Hydrosophist 3-4 // AP: 8 // Duration: Instant // Cooldown: 5-7 turns.
This skill is centered on the caster, and heals everyone
allied and enemy alike in a 10 meter radius for a large amount of health. Those with the Zombie talent will take damage from this. Possible animation, water surging from the ground all around, but animation is not needed.)
This skill's purpose is to provide a large emergency heal, with the downside that it will also assist the enemies as well. (Maybe make it a percentage-based heal so the enemies are healed for the same proportional amount?)
Witchcraft -
Eye for an Eye "Blood begets blood."Witchcraft: 2-3 // AP: 6 // Duration: 2 turns. // Cooldown: 4 turns.
This curse targets an enemy, and if it attacks the caster (or anyone on the player's team? It depends on if it's possible to know who the caster of the debuff is.) with a physical attack, they will take 2.5 times the amount of damage they dealt to the enemy. If this gets cast on one of your physical attackers, that'll throw a curve into your battle strategy.
Witchcraft -
Spirit Link -
"Share the pain" EDIT: Bad idea, never mind.
Witchcraft: 3-4 // AP: 8-9 // Duration: 2-3 turns. // Cooldown: 8-9 turns.
EDIT: I've realized that this skill is a bad idea, but I'm including it for completion's sake. This skill will leap from entity to entity. Any (physical-only, maybe?) damage taken by any linked entity will be spread equally among all entities. This can be cast on allies or enemies.
Example: A Source Hunter casts this on a member of their 4-man party. All 4 are close enough to be linked together. One of them takes a blow that would do 100 damage (before armour). All four each receive 25 damage (before armour).
Example 2: A Source Hunter casts this on a group of 7 angry imps. Madora lands a blow on one of them, doing 210 damage, but that is spread out to 30 on each imp.
Hmmm Looking even only at my thought experiment, it seems clear that it is incredibly powerful on the Source Hunters, but incredibly weak on enemies. Okay, well, never mind, I guess this is a bad idea.
Witchcraft -
Sacrificial Gift -
"Give of thyself freely."Witchcraft: 4 // AP: 8 // Duration: Instant. // Cooldown: 4 turns (minimum).
The witch sacrifices 50% of their maximum health to heal a targeted ally for half that amount. If the witch is under 50% health when casting it, either they die, or are reduced to 1 health (either way is fine by me). If the witch is under 50% health, the target is only healed to 50% of the Witch's CURRENT HP.
Example 1: A Witch has 552/552 health. They cast this spell on an ally, and the witch loses 276 health, and the ally is healed for 138 heath. Both effects are instant.
Example 2: A Witch has 300/552 health. They cast this spell on an ally, and the witch loses 276 health - reducing them to 24 health - and the ally is healed for 138 heath. Both effects are instant.
Example 3: A Witch has 140/400 health. They cast this spell on an ally. But because the witch is under 200 health, the witch loses 139 health - reducing them to 1 health - and the ally is healed for only 70 heath. Both effects are instant.
Earth -
Boulderdash -
"Line 'em up and knock 'em down."Earth: 3 // AP: 7 // Duration: Instant. // Cooldown: 7 turns.
This one was in the beta, but I think this was removed from the full game. I can understand why Boulder Drop took its place, but I still found some use for Boulderdash.
Earth -
Skipping Stone -
"It's easy, just give it a flick of your wrist."Earth: 1 // AP: 4 // Duration: Instant. // Cooldown: 5 turns.
Yes, I still want this one in the game. A low-damage, low-level earth-damage spell that works like the Ranger's Ricochet, bouncing from enemy to enemy. This could be good in the enemy's hands as well.
Earth -
Stalagmite -
"Impale them with the fury of the earth".Earth: 4 // AP: 9 // Duration: Instant. // Cooldown: 11 turns.
I still want this one too. A single-target, relatively high-damage spell. Could also be devastating in enemy hands.
If I remember right, the reasoning behind few Earth damage spells was because Earth gets buffs and summons, but I never found that a persuasive argument, because ALL schools get buffs of some kind, and most schools get a summon... which reminds me:
Man-At-Arms -
Shadow Warrior -
"It is said that a master warrior can fight with the speed of two people."Man-At-Arms: 5 // AP: 8 // Duration: 5 Turns. // Cooldown: 8 turns.
This summoning skill creates a shadowy clone of the caster. They have the caster's stats, but probably reduced by 20% (or maybe more). They either have a selection of the same warrior skills that the caster has, or maybe a random selection of the warrior skills.
But not every school needs a summon.
TALENTS8) More Talents are needed.
You can only get seven all game (2 to start, and 5 the rest of the game), and I'm still not really wowed by them. It should be a matter of making hard choices between which of the really GOOD Talents you want to take, instead of unenthusiastically taking some uninspiring one which is good enough.
Please see
my thread on why some Talents are bad. (Demon and Ice King are terrible and have no business being Rank 5-requiring Talents)
Slippery Eel - This talent was mentioned long ago as something that let you evade attacks of opportunity. That seemed like a really useful one. Why isn't it in the game? It should require a base of Speed 8-9 to take, but no Ability requirements.
Crafting Rank 4-5 lets you take the Talent "Scavenger", which gives you a 33 percent chance to receive an extra drop from the crafting materials table upon a kill by someone with the perk, or upon opening a container. When it goes off you get an "Item Scavenged!" message like the "Lucky Find" one.
Scavenger Table:
75 percent chance to get a common crafting item.
15 percent chance to get a slightly less common and useful item
8 percent chance to get a rarer item.
2 percent chance to get a very rare and expensive crafting item.
That is a less than one percent chance to get a rare crafting item from a container, and it only works with a BASE of 4-5 points into that skill, +Crafting from items does not count.
9) Talents available below Rank 5 in School XThis is a untapped goldmine of potential opportunity for making good Talents. In terms of Skill requirement talents, the magic skill talents only work with rank 5, so if you want those elemental-school Talents, it's either max the skill or get nothing.
Rank 5 is a long way off from level 1, and it's a wasted opportunity to only have Talents for Rank 5.
There is certainly lots and lots of room for different talents you can use at lower levels. Plus, once you start adding in additional magic-skill-X-required talents, you can reshuffle some of them and put the better ones at the top.
10) Talents that grant Special SkillsLarian has very thoughtfully made an eight category of Skills that don't fit anything else: Special. A simple-but-effective idea is for Talents that grant some Special Skills if you have a base of X in a skill. So all of these will require you to take their respective Talents.
Examples:
Expert Marksman Rank 5's "Elemental Ranger" passive talent would be an ideal candidate for this: Instead of giving it a passive chance for a normal shot to add elemental damage to an enemy standing in an elemental surface, it instead grants you the skill Stance: Elemental Shot, which has a 100% chance for the normal shot to add elemental damage to an enemy standing in an elemental surface, BUT IT CAN BE TOGGLED ON AND OFF, so you can control the use of it, instead of unwillingly healing enemies standing in a surface they absorb.
Blacksmithing Rank 3 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Armour Break". When cast on an enemy, this reduces their armour protection by 50 percent for 3 turns.
Armour Specialist Rank 4 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Armourers Insight". When cast on an ally, this increases their armour protection by 40 percent for three turns.
Telekinesis Rank 3 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Crush Windpipe", which does crushing damage with a chance to mute for 3 turns.
Telekinesis 5 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Aneurysm", which does a large amount of crushing damage and sets Bleeding status. Anything without a brain, like Undead, mechanisms, and elementals are immune and take no damage. Admittedly that sounds like it could be a pain to code. It's just an example.
Loremaster Rank 5 lets you take a Talent that grants you the Special skill "Bore", an AoE sleep spell. (Sleep status just means the target misses a turn. Willpower saves.)
USER INTERFACE / LOG11) I have to constantly re-sort my inventory(I already mentioned this on the twitch devline stream.) The sort-by options are nice but a problem with the way they are implemented is that it is only a one-time sort I can sort by whatever, but as soon as I pick up something new, it is added to the bottom of the inventory, meaning I have to keep re-sorting every so often. It's often difficult to know what category an item is, so I end up usually defaulting to "All" and "Recently Added".
I suppose if you do that though, it means you could not manually arrange things how you want, so that is a trickier thing to solve.
12) "Secrets" section of journal should confirm if you have already found said secret.The Secrets section has the appearance of a quest log. I think it should update to note that you have uncovered the treasure or whatever, if ONLY so you can rule out what you have already found. I tried buying stuff from the Keeper of Secrets, but for a lot of it, I have no idea if I have already found the secret it is referring to. If the log would tell me if I had found it, that would make me more interested in looking for the stuff I haven't found yet.
BALANCE13) Encumbrance has no combat penaltyWhen you are encumbered, you are unable to run. Okay, but that has no combat effect. I have tried it. Encumbrance should give you a big movement penalty, At least -1.00 Movement. This will encourage better inventory management, and make the "Pack Mule" Talent more appealing.
14) Add penalty for damaged itemsI did say at one point in the beta that Repair was too obnoxious before, but I think that now, damaged items are not quite obnoxious enough. Durability is pretty harmless/pointless on anything which can be repaired.
Since repairing items is so simple, and there is a brand new HUD indicator warning you about low durability, I would not mind if weapons with lower durability had a significant damage penalty, and armour a protection penalty.
15) Potions also lose effectivenessThe Devline thing talked about food sucking, but I think that is missing the whole scope of the problem. It is not just food sucking, but also potions. Item-based healing sucks because player health and the power of magical healing increases as your level does (plus magic healing is further boosted by stats and abilities). Item-based healing is only a fixed amount, which gets less and less useful as you continue.
There was talk about making food percentage based, but I am changing my view on that. Potions should heal for a percentage-based amount. That would keep them useful and justify their high purchase price. Small potions heal for 15 or 20 percent, Medium ones would heal for 30 or 40 percent, large ones would heal for 45 or 60 percent.
The downside is that would make very early-game healing tougher, because 52 health at levels 1-4 is a good chunk, but a percentage base would not be so good... but food based items with their fixed amounts would be better.
Hmmm... making potions percentage based would definitely be an issue in the early game. Perhaps the Source Hunters could start with provisions for healing?
Maybe food items could heal a fixed amount each turn for three turns, but you could not eat another food item until the first one is done?
27) Party Members stats are hidden without Loremaster.For some reason, you need Loremaster to see party members stats when you Ctrl + hover. That is silly - ESPECIALLY FOR A CO-OP GAME.
You should always be able to see the Loremaster 5 equivalent of ALL your party members and summons stats when Ctrl + hovering over them, even with ZERO Loremaster. There is absolutely no reason to hide the information on your ALLIES, and it makes no sense to do so.
This could help in co-op games as well.
