Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General One Man Army challenge

The challenge is to complete act 1 with only one character in your party throughout (meaning at no point do you have more than one character in your party, ever) in Classic mode.

The only other restrictions are that you can't Flee, and you can't block enemy paths with objects such as barrels and crates.

For extra points, take the Zombie talent at start. It makes things... interesting.

Post your initial build and general strategy here once completed.

Well, let's see. I've done this on a rogue, a warrior, a marskman, and a megamage. My favorite, and most recent, was the megamage.

I couldn't do the mage playthrough with only mage skills, though. It was just too hard. I had to put a point into huntsman, warfare and scoundrel for their self-teleport abilities, as well as battle stomp.

On the mage, I got All Skilled Up, Far Out Man, and Bigger and Better. Not ideal, I know, but it's what I wanted. I put all my ability points into memory, and spread my combat points around over everything that unlocked skills. For civil, I got thievery only, and got that up to 4. I started with Griff's quest, then went underground and fought the fire slugs with an ice wand I found. I snuck out of Fort Joy without fighting anyone, then went back in for the updated skill book selection. Went back to fight Kniles, get the houndmaster's crossbow, etc. Then, I fought the magisters in the prison, the ones in town, the crocs, got the gloves, killed Yarrow, got the key, got Teleport (used the book, but kept the gloves on), fought Orivand, saved Cork, blah blah blah blue dude was the hardest fight, but I eventually beat him by going around back.

No barrels, grenades or special arrows used, though I used both a bow and a staff. I had Snipe, the teleportation abilities, Steam Lance from Turner of the Tides (though, it was literally useless), and the usual hail strike, winter blast, electric discharge, battle stomp, etc. By far, the most useful skill I found was Tactical Retreat. I can tell you more about it if you'd like.

Edit: No fleeing, blood roses, barrels or sneaking used, either.

Since I've already done this, I'll go ahead and post my results.

I made a custom Dwarf Knight.
15 Strength
11 Willpower
1 Two-Handed
1 Warfare
1 Scoundrel (for Cloak and Dagger)
1 Persuasion
The Pawn

My strategy was to escape Fort Joy early so I could buy that legendary 2h cleaver the undead guy sells (he always has it), then just kill stuff for a while. The fight over by the shrine where you get Bless is really hard to one-man, so I used Cloak And Dagger to avoid the fight until later. For that fight, kill the air mage first. Everything else is super easy until the final battle. For the final battle, I abused flee, grenades, and the extreme predictability of the void worm (it doesn't have many things it can do).

I kept the Teleport gloves throughout the entire run, because Teleport is godlike, and I didn't want to spend points on Memory and Aerotheurge just to be able to upgrade my gloves. I would've upgraded them if I'd found ones good enough to justify spending those points, but I never did.

My second talent was Warlord. I went with The Pawn first because I figured I wouldn't be able to get one-hit kills early on, so I'd rather have the free movement. You get your second talent point pretty early, anyway. After that I went with Hothead which was a mistake (should've taken "Bigger and Better" or "Comeback Kid").

The reason I went with a dwarf instead of an elf was for the +2 strength. It's not nearly as much of a damage buff as Flesh Sacrifice, but considering that my attacks were missing ~30% of the time on an 87% chance to hit, the accuracy bonus from the strength was vital. I was killing most things in one hit, anyway, so I didn't really need more damage.

I did one playthrough with a mage, but that was before I knew about the blood rose potion bug, so I had like 100+ in every stat by the time I finished. So, I don't count that run. Everything up to the final fight would've been about the same, though. The final fight, though, would've been quite different if I hadn't had like 2000 vitality (Alexander hit me several times and I was just like "Psh! Whatever, dude.")

Good point about the barrels. I should make that a rule, as well. I don't use barrel tricks, either. Although, for me, they just don't seem worth the effort. It's faster to win without them.

Ah. Yeah, as a pure mage, the last fight is darn near impossible. Tacitcal Retreat and Phoenix Dive helped me out a ton!



LOL

Classic Mode

Character Creation

Race: Elf
Class: Knight
Combat Abilities: 1 point - Warfare, 2 points - Two-Handed
Civil Ability: Bartering
Talent: Zombie
Attributes: 2 points - Strength, 1 point - Wits

- I went Elf specifically for the racial ability.
- Knight because of the amazingly strong starting skills.
- Two-Handed and Warfare for damage. (I planned to either put a point into Scoundrel as the game progressed but lucked out on a +1 Scoundrel dagger)
- I felt like my options were between Sneak, Telekinesis, maybe Loremaster -- but in the end I figured it wouldn't really make a difference because the way I planned to play.
- Zombie for the bonus points. (Level 2 I picked up Warlord and later Pawn)
- The starting Attributes I probably should have gone full Strength for the accuracy but I wanted to begin evenly distributing power and initiative immediately.

Level Progression

As I gained levels I would put 1 point into Strength/Wits, 1 point into Two-Handed, and pick up Warlord followed by Pawn. In regards to gear my prioritization was:

Initiative > Strength > Movement > Wits > Warfare (not much else mattered for my plan)

Gameplay

The start was a little rough since I didn't commit fully to Strength so I would occasionally miss -- this resulted in a couple of restarts. I eventually hit my stride at level 4 getting Dallis' Hammer (I skipped the initial event and came back later with barrels). Every fight consisted of me starting first and doing the most devastating combo of buffs/teleport/damage (just like Darxim I kept the teleport gloves) and fleeing if necessary.

Overall the run felt pretty much like my other runs just more annoying -- especially since I had to essentially provide my own leadership bonus with levels and gear.

* The only time barrels were used was for the Dallis the Hammer event at the start, but I could have just as easily pressed on with a crafted Two-Handed weapon until I picked up the Sundering Cleaver outside of the prison.

I am doing it with two characters at the moment to illustrate how too easy the encounters are right now. After this playthrough, I will try with one. Sounds fun.

Ah, I forgot to put that as a requirement. I've updated the OP.


Fortunately they'll have harder difficulties at release. Hopefully they'll be notably harder, rather than just a tiny bit like in DOS1.

Hopefully it will be harder, because some skill won't be as broken as they are now.

Did this once on a pure mage. It was pretty easy. I ended up killing the Houndmaster and his buddies at level 2 with just my 3 starting skills. Fun times.

First try at the final fight was going fine with Alexander fighting the worm and me killing everyone else. Once Alex finished off the worm he Phoenix dove next to me and one shot me with a 400+ damage melee hit.

Second try I had it go the same but backed off just as Alex killed the worm and ended the combat. I went back at him 1 on 1 and perma CC'd him. He only got 1 turn at the start but didn't jump next to me.

I did hit level 8 and took the One Man Army Talent.

It gave +65% Vitality and +2 Turn AP.

I look forward to when we can level up after taking it to see any changes to Attribute and Skill points per level.

Using an invisibility potion (Silence, the assassin sent by Griff to kill Stingtail) or using an invisibility scroll (you get one inside the chest from Mody's hiding spot) can make the transitions of the last fight a bit easier.

How were you able to get her hammer?

When you first arrive at the gates of Fort Joy you can actually skip the event by taking the ladder to the right of the stairs. You can come back later and fight Dallis, Alex, and everyone else present there -- so long as you don't escape Fort Joy. In my experience the hammer didn't always drop -- I'm not sure if it was because specific variables of the fight had to be met or if it was pure chance. (other times it just looks like the hammer drops through the ground)

If you are already level 4, the hammer already sucks?

The hammer gets phased out very quickly since you can pick up the Sundering Cleaver, but I do it for the EXP and sense of achievement.

Sounds more like an exploit that should destroy the plot, if you kill Alexander there, how can he be at the end?

How about you watch the video if you are curious

So, it is an option to defeat them, they even built and 'escape' but the fight also just proves, how broken warriors with Rage and Warlord are. This video is probably the best demonstration.

Did your elf already have Sundering Cleaver regarding the huge damage?

Well I used the blood rose elixir exploit in that video, but I definitely agree that warriors are pretty broken right now. Sundering Cleaver is outside of Fort Joy so without trying to do some kind of conversation lock I doubt I could get it (I settled for a crafted two-handed weapon).

You might be able to do the fight with no exploits. You really just need a high enough initiative to beat down Dallis so Alex isn't an issue and the rest of the fight is pretty normal. (new challenge )

It is pretty easy to get to the trader with Sundering Cleaver, just sneak into the fort and talk to han? Or kill the butcher? Or just go in the first floor and sneak over the bridge? If you were already level 4 you must have done quite some stuff?

I guess, the main problem with this challenge ist, there are to many exploits and to many broken skills at the moment to be a real challenge.