Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Loot still isn't that Exciting

Problems I've seen people raise in this regard concern balancing crafted items with RNG loot and found items. People also feel underwhelmed with the lack of reward for discovery and exploration in terms of gear.

As one man put it, Baldur's Gate 2 (BG2) did a good job with this by using both unique items placed around the world and extremely rare (ie placed in limited numbers around the world and/or so rare as drops as to be considered limited) unique crafting/blacksmithing consumables.

Then, using the above, the devs would generally balance "power" around an abstract listing of how gear of various types would fall along the spectrum from most powerful to least, in terms of stats:

**Assuming maxed out Crafting and Blacksmithing & maxed level

> uniquely upgraded uniquely crafted items
> uniquely upgraded unique items
> uniquely upgraded epic/rare/legendary randomized items
> upgraded uniquely crafted items
> upgraded unique items
> upgraded epic/rare/legendary randomized items
> uniquely crafted items
> unique items
> upgraded crafted items
> epic/rare/legendary randomized items
> upgraded normal randomized items
> crafted items
> normal randomized items

**Upgraded here means crafting better items by using ingredients (like essences in DOS1) to increase an item's stats and uniquely refers to using the rare/limited consumables in the crafting/blacksmithing process; either to upgrade something or to make something. Unique refers to hand-crafted/placed items that were put in by the devs for player discovery or reward.**

The above list is courtesy of LordCrash w/ my own slight additions concerning uniquely crafted items

As you can see RNG loot would still be relevant in the scales as far as rare/epic/legendary go and the hand placed pieces would only be out classed by someone using the limited resources that is unique consumables in the creation process (which would require maxed out abilities to even use).

Also, keep in mind that there's more than just numbers in order to differentiate the various types of items:

- Damage
- Reach
- Elemental Bonuses (added fire damage)
- Inherent Buffs/debuffs (set burning)
- Ability bonuses (added warfare skill points)
- Skills the item can give (vampirism on rings)
- Durability
- Requirements (crafting level, special quest, ect..)

My reasoning for placing uniquely crafted gear as one place above is because they force players to make strategic decisions of when and how to use the limited resource used for 'uniquely' doing something and each option should feel powerful in its own way. Do they spread it around so they have a number of more powerful unique items? Do they waste it on simple powerful RNG loot cause they can't find anything else or the specific bonuses are too desirable? Do they save as much of it as they can for making a couple of the most powerful gear they can and upgrading those? The limited resource would be powerful, but it costs both patience, investment in abilities, and strategic decision making to use.

On that note: How would you suggest mixing up the other "power" considerations?
> Should only legendary items unlock skills?
> Should handcrafted loot have some other, defining and special, attribute unique to themselves?
> Should uniquely crafted gear do more than have the biggest numbers and give players greater control over what they're getting?
> How exactly should uniquely upgraded gear be upgraded (bigger numbers, special abilities, unlocking skills, ect..) ?
> Should the handling of uniquely usable consumables require maxing both crafting skills or just the one related to what your using the item for?

Armor types of various classifications (ie scale, leather, plate, cloth, ect...) will not only have different bonuses (ex dodge chance on leather) and/or armour defense types in varying values (ie physical = 100 & magical = 30) to differentiate them, but also be divided into sub groups concerning how much of a given attack type a specific armor would absorb.

For example:
A 'light' leather set would have a given value of magical and physical armor and would also have a set ratio of how much of an attack is absorbed by the armor and how much is let through to target vitality based off an absorption attribute (ex absorb = 40% -> Armour absorbs only 40% of damage)

This would give HP purpose again, allow players to strategically decide how important CC defense is vs damage taken, and create greater differentiation among armours; making each armour class and sub classes unique enough to make player gearing of PCs different among different kinds of playthroughs and builds.

This could also indirectly make the Vitality, Magic Armour, and Physical Armour abilities more appealing depending on how they evolve with the system. They could effect the ratios, for instance, or, at minimum, increasing the bonuses they give would also make them more relevant.

Some follow up points:
> Some have also suggested that Damage Mitigation from D:OS should make a return
> By allowing some damage through armour, characters can retain their CC invulnerability for longer and prepare defensive spells easier when they notice they're armour types are breaking
> This done effectively, permanently solved 100% CC chance after armour is completely gone, but maybe players would prefer that overall
> This is by no means a perfect solution and I welcome points of criticism or ways to improve on my suggestion (ex Do you think skills/ablities should be included or changed to account for my proposed system?)
> The above suggestion is a focused evolution of the current system, while placing more power in player decision making. Therefore, keeping the strategic deterministic values players, who dislike RNG, prefer