Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General AP and Initiative

Just some questions/suggestions here about AP and Initiative, as I can't seem to get either to a satisfactory level.

1. Are all characters deadlocked at base 4AP and 6 max right now? Is there no way to increase them in EA? I've read all the stats and none of them mod AP... maybe I'm just an idiot.

2. My high wit scoundrel is the only one so far that can do things before the enemy and it feels rather unbalanced. The initiative requirements are a bit too high imo, and I would like to see a system incorporated where if I attacked first whilst out of battle, my party gets boosted initiated because I initiated the fight. Conversely, If we walked right into a trap or just facewalk into an enemy, then they start at their base/boosted initiative.

1. That seems likely. It was a design decision and while tweaks here and there might be made, a massive change is unlikely without it being deemed unworkable or overwhelming feelings are expressed.

I think the current AP system itself is perfect (things like AP costs need a lil work; ice shard should either be 2 AP or have a 5 turn cool down). I think the initiative system could use some reworking, because almost every encounter I've had in DOS2 has led with most of, if not all, of the A.I going first, despite half of party specking wit.

I think this was done to curtail some of the OP builds from OS1. If you had enough AP, a single character with enough skills could flatten a smaller group of enemies, no sweat. With the set AP as now, they can also remove some bloat in AP costs. Instead of small scale abilities like Rain that don't really attack but can affect the battlefield costing 4-6 AP, they can now flat cost 1 for everyone. It opens up build paths, and, with gear that has +1 to different ability school, allows you to more easily use abilities in that school without being penalized. It also adds value to haste as a skill rather than just dumping points in a Speed stat and not needing such a spell.

Sadly, the low AP count also seriously harms melee enemies.
While the game loves putting you to enemies that are in 4 extremely different angles to your group, your melee almost always needs it's 4AP (and that's with pawn) to move around. And if it does a kill then, do that (or more) to reach anoter. Meanwhile your mages and rangers just whistle away at everyone they can look at, using that 4AP for 2 standard attacks, 2 skills, not just to actually get to the opponent (who pretty much always runs away making you spend probably 2AP again if you didn't kill it).

Increasing movement per AP isn't the sollution since that would also make it far easier on those mages and rangers when they can't actually hit their target for a change.
If the only way to really make melee viable is have them teleport all over the place, probably something is wrong there.

I agree that melee fighter classes seem to have too high AP skill cost compared to other classes, they're always lagging behind.

I do feel like with the scaled down AP, in addition to all of the elemental shit flying around, movement needs a buff. Maybe like increase move speed across the board by 15% or something. Then with Pawn and a movement spell or 2, melee characters are fine. But without those, straight up walk around melee is not viable.

I will admit i didn't even play a melee str based character on my play through, and the rogue was honestly just a pain in the ass until i got got 2 relocation abilities and Pawn on him

I actually don't get your problems. I play with two melee fighters (both without Pawn talent) and I rarely have any distance problems. They could use one additional AP, sure, but then again it's not that bad the way it is.

I run my guys through elemental effects without a care; I don't think the point of combat is for you to come out without having taken a scratch. I think, currently, the system is tolerable and more information is needed to see how it will pan out (itemization, further abilities, consumable economics, mob tooling, etc.)

On an anecdotal note I haven't had a single issue with my melee fighters (both rogue and 2H) considering they have high mobility through abilities and natural movement.

What's the upside? The upside is that you have to be more deliberate about picking your talents and investing your skill points as well as how you itemize your characters. By reducing the amount of AP you put more of a strain on other resources which is good.

Likewise, with the Red Prince and Ifan as my melee characters, I haven't found their mobility to be a serious hindrance. My issue is with enemies that attack five times in one turn.

Ifan is a killing machine with Adrenaline and movement boost and doesn't require any additional talents to be badass. Red Prince though is always last to act, slow to move until Phoenix Dive is acquired and uses fewer skills per turn.

Well, wands only take 1 AP to attack with, same as daggers, iirc.

Just give the Red Prince more initiative and he won't be the last to act anymore...

Well, generally my rogue and Red Prince start with 6AP a round due to bugs, which helps elevate the movement problems. I doubt those last, and even with them, the mage and ranger easily outclass them by not having to move at all.
Can't tell the amount of times my melee's slipped and got knocked down on ice I never saw.

Any one-handed weapon takes only 1 AP to attack if your other hand is empty.

So you were able to one round Alexander with just a single mage or ranger without any exploits? Care to share your build?