Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General What is the best way to divide the elemental roles

This is my first playthrough. I have 2 mages, 1 warrior (my character), one bow woman. I have mage one dealing with water, air and then I have mage 2 dealing with earth and fire. So I was wondering, is this an efficient way of dividing the elemental roles? Would a better option would have mage 1 deal with earth and water, while mage 2 deals air and fire? I am thinking of this because it gives me a quick follow up to complement the element instead of waiting 1 turn.

I play Lonewolf so my mage has all four and witchcraft, but sure air and water and earth and fire is fine.

Fire is mostly offensive damage causing spells this is really important early on and vs undead. But in some ways is not the best college, burning as a status doesnt do that much damage and ooze/poison explodes when contacted with fire so be careful around poison and oil. Fireball is a great spell for hitting a whole group of closely grouped enemies, clearing mines and destroying obstacles.

Water College is healing and ice magic also the Rain spell which is very useful to put out fires, cool lava/ground fire-zones and wet enemies for follow up ice/elec attacks, and ice attacks freezing status is great when it works, Multiple improving heals is essential.

Air College has Teleport( other) spell great for putting enemies in the lava and sending any nearby unwanted enemy to somewhere else where they cant hit the poor mage with a big heavy weapon, Tornado which can clear Lava where your gonna need to walk, Invisibility spell better than sneaking, and Electrical bolt attacks which do good damage and can stun a target which is a great effect on enemies, also most enemies seem to have better resistances to all other attack forms than air. Featherfal is also good for a few area where teleporting someone gets a player somewhere they cannot walk.

Earth college uses poison attacks for its attacks which I am not a huge fan of since it can explode, can poison friendlies and doesnt do that much damage to some enemies ( heck it heals some) it is fine against normal people type enemies and orcs/goblins but lots of stuff is pretty resistant. But Earth does have really good summons Spider, wolf, Bloodswarm and Earth Elemental, spiderrfor a lone wolf party early in the game is virtually indispensible. Fortify is a decent defense buff. Boulder bash is a good spell it bashes and poisons, most things have little resistance ot bashing damage.

Witchcraft has my 2 favorite summons spells Undead warrior and undead Armored decapitator( especially). My favorite fighter buff spell Oath of Desecration ( your fighter on this spell is really deadly for 3 rounds) and the best short-range high damage spell of all, Death Punch.


All colleges are useful, but some spells are less or more useful depending on how the player operates

With two mages make one focus on 2 branches, second on 3. Dont limit yourself for elements only, One point of witchcraft could offer brutal buff - Oath, Handy cc -Blind, Gamechanger - Absorb elements. Absorb is from second level, but used at proper moment is worth of AP penalty.
Make sure you give both of them at leas one point from each branch.
All spells scales up with the caster level, so even "weak" 1st lvl spell is always powerfull enough.

Use look at :
http://divinity.wikia.com/wiki/Witchcraft_%28Divinity:_Original_Sin%29

Get notice, the 1 point to the skill allows you cast spells of 4 levels.
2 points for up to 8 level spell.
and so on.
Its confusing for the first, but has some meaning.
Also get notice:
first level needs 1 skill point gives you 3 spell slots
second level needs 2 skill point gives 2 spell slots only
5th level and 5 skill points gives you 2 spell slots and quicker access to 1 useles spells << --- genraly do not recomend invest 5 skill points, but Aero exception ---> for the Awesome Immune to Stun Talent.

Also consider to give your Warrior Geomancy 1 skill point.
Even Int-5 he can cast at 100% success and full spell power!!! these 3 amazing spells:
Summon Spider
Oil
Earth shield

Taking 5 levels in any magic college is only useful if you want to have all the spells available and it lowers AP cost on the highest level spells in the college as well, and as gGeo notes the top tier 18th level elemental spells are not ultimate weapons, if you use one of them get everyone else in the party to back it up with scrolls, arrows and other spells, if you hit a mob with 1 meteorstrike its hurtful but hitting a mob with 3 Meteorstrike's can be devastating, storm seems to do nothing occasionally and Hail can miss targets so using multiple spells is far more effective, think of those as artillery barrages, Earthquake I do not like because it can effect the friendlies in the party and leaves poison pools.

Oath of Desecration and Wildfire seem to be the best buff spells in the game.

Summon spider brings a loathsome ally to play, it is essential at early levels and for lone wolves.

Thanks, I am having one of my casters do some level of Witchcrafting as well.