Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Enhanced Edition New player, can someone help me with my party?

Just bought this game and will be starting co-op mode.

2h warrior : max str, all ability points split between 2h, man at arms, bodybuilding, willpower, armour specialist. Talents are picture of health, thick skin, weather the storm. Not really sure what else is useful.. so probably just trade for ability points? Possibly glass cannon but I'll probably just go die too easy.

My wife wants to be a fire mage. No idea how to build that. Max int, all ability points split between pyro and maybe defensive things like willpower/bodybuilding? Is man at arms good on mages for the defensive talents like picture of health, thick skin, weather the storm? I thought maybe glass cannon would be good on the mages.

I'll also want a second mage via henchman. Probably water for healing. Again, no idea how to build a mage. I like mages.

Finally I was going to hire a ranger henchman. Max dex, ability points in bow, expert marksman, blacksmithing, crafting, loremaster, leadership? Basically the walking buff-bot. haha. Or do I need lockpicking/pickpocket/sneak on someone? In which case I need to put blacksmithing/crafting/loremaster/leadership on the mages? The 2h guy seems bloated already.


Thanks!

Opportunist is good on melee characters, as well as Bully. Glass Cannon can be good on mages. One of the main characters should take Pet Pal.

Earth spells go good with fire. Man At Arms is not useful for a mage; a couple points into other mage categories can open up other spells (witchcraft has some good buffs and debuffs, etc).

There is a water/air mage companion, as well as a ranger companion.

You really only need Lockpicking and Pickpocket for roleplaying purposes. They can come in handy for specific situations, and do allow alternate solutions for quests in limited cases, but they are not necessary.
Sneak is handy, but boosting the ability doesn't lower the action point cost (just increases speed and reduces NPCs' vision cones), so see how much you use it before deciding if a higher level would be worth it.

There are a lot of ways to play the game so don't worry! Later on you can also re-spec your skills.

Bow are good but don't dismiss the crossbow! With a 10%+ to crit chance if you put one point in crossbow skills and relatively higher damage, they are pretty solid. Downsides is the movement penalty and 5 AP per shot. It tends to make the marksman skills stronger though since they are a function of your weapons base damage.

Dual-wield is great since at about rank 4 you basically get one 'free' weapon attack. 3 AP for 2 attacks? Great for de-buffs from "chance on-hit effects" or hoping to get that critical hit (since some weapons have a natural crit chance bonus, you can get 2 of them for a moderate chance to crit hit)!

I've never really tried maxing out single weapon but maybe that plus shield specialization can work.

As an aside, the poison slug summon (geomancer level 4) is probably one of the tankiest summons I have seen. It actually SURVIVED a destroy summon spell cast by the enemy. Bad part is it leaves puddles of poison all over so it could be rough for your melee. You can try using a spear since you actually can attack further away to avoid puddles.

Anyways, you can usually fill out any weaknesses with magic to do crowd control or summons. The game is pretty flexible.