Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - Enhanced Edition Enhanced Edition - The new MinMax builds?

You can't go wrong min-maxing any build as long as it's not a Rogue. Rogues are useless for a good majority of the game, and spend a lot of their turns moving into position or waiting to strike instead of actually getting stuff done. They also make your other three characters take more damage, since the Rogue will be in Sneak most of the time. They simply don't do enough damage and don't attack often enough to make up for what you're sacrificing to have a Rogue on the team. Also, most of the Scoundrel skills are terrible.

Mages will want to get Intelligence to around 15, then focus on Speed and Constitution. Jahan is great as a crowd control mage with Aero and Hydro, and he gets stupidly overpowered late-game with the master skills in those categories. Storm, Chain Lightning, and Hail Attack come to mind. I also typically put one point into Man at Arms so he can use Helping Hand, because it is not dependent on Strength like the other Man at Arms skills. Since he's only mastering two schools of magic, you can put two points into Geo for the Magic Poison Dart skill (although the Petrify skills are also handy, and have Willpower saving throws instead of Bodybuilding). I usually give him some points in Blacksmithing and Crafting, but at this point, Crafting is much more important than Blacksmithing. The Rank 5 Blacksmithing weapons aren't anywhere near as good as found or bought weapons, but you can make some great stuff (skillbooks, charm arrows, etc) with Rank 5 Crafting. Give him a point in Blacksmithing for repairs and three points in Crafting, but keep a couple Crafting wearables in his backpack to boost it to Rank 5 when needed.

If you're going to make your own mage, I'd go with Pyro, Geo, and Witchcraft, with some Loremaster thrown in. All four characters having the Zombie talent will save your life countless times, and the Magic Poison Dart spell from Geo is a better Zombie healing spell than any actual Hydro healing spell. It heals instantly, puts a heal-over-time on the character, and you can use it every turn. You should have it on both of your mages. Until you get this skill, you should have Summon Spider and just bleed his poison after battles to heal your party. Witchcraft is great for the Undead Decapitator, Charm, Drain Willpower, and Soulsap. With enough Speed, you can use Drain Willpower and either Charm or Soulsap in the same turn, guaranteeing the Charm or Soulsap. Pyro is good for buffs and defensive spells like Wildfire, Smokescreen, Burn My Eyes, and Purifying Fire, but I honestly hardly ever use it offensively unless it's the Meteor Strike skill that you get late-game.

You can't go wrong with a fighter, as long as they use two-handed weapons. Sword-and-shield characters just aren't effective enough at tanking damage (with only one Taunt skill in the game) to sacrifice the damage you get from two-handers. Get Strength to 15 and buff Speed and Constitution as needed. With Zombie and high fire resistance, this character can pretty much do whatever they want. Throw some Pyro skills in there for some extra fun, such as walking around in your own self-immolation without taking any damage at all!

Bairdotr is great as an archer, and is the only character I feel comfortable having Glass Cannon. I always give her crossbows instead of longbows because the crits are where her damage is at. It's easy for Jahan to make plenty of special arrows for her, and I usually carry around 50-100 Poisoncloud Arrows because everyone has the Zombie talent. Just pick up an ooze barrel when you leave Cyseal to the west and combine the ooze barrel with arrowheads to create Poison Arrowheads, then combine the Poison Arrowheads together to make Poisonclouds. I also use the ooze barrel to make plenty of Large Poison Potions to distribute throughout the team. The Shrapnel Scatter master skill is kind of nice if you want her to be a bit of a loose cannon, but the Arrow Spray master skill is a must-have. You can one-shot many of the game's bosses with it if you're close enough, and it pairs nicely with Jahan's air elemental as long as he casts it on his first turn, because it can featherdrop Bairdotr into Arrow Spray distance of any enemy on the field. Give her some Scoundrel skills because she doesn't have anything else to put the points into.

The most effective min-maxed team makeup I've found is:

Geo-Pyro-Witchcraft Mage
Two-handed fighter
Jahan
Bairdotr

To answer some of your other questions, the only really "overpowered" skills I've encountered are the master magic skills, such as Meteor Strike, Earthquake, Storm, and Hail Attack, although Arrow Spray is also pretty OP. Most of the good talents got nerfed in the Enhanced Edition, so things like Leech and Guerilla aren't very helpful anymore. Zombie is a very underrated talent, and allows you to cheese a good deal of the game. Don't underestimate it. There are a lot of poison traps in the game, and during the Braccus Rex fight, the Lighthouse Ghoul can heal your entire party practically every round if you keep him alive til the end.

Lone Wolf is not viable. It's only helpful if you don't like managing four characters.