Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Rage needs to be nerfed

Rage should definitely be restricted to self-cast only. There should be a different (preferably Necromancy/Witchcraft) spell that serves the purpose of debuffing resistances. Rage's 1AP cost should not be increased to balance it, and I will explain why I feel this way.

I think the Rage's low AP cost being a problem is a byproduct of a much larger problem: it's too easy to gain AP. There's an abundance of AP generating skills (Haste, Adrenaline, Flesh Sacrifice, to a lesser extent Tactical Retreat) that are so dominant right now that there's really no reason for any of your characters to not dip into their respective schools to pick them up.

The most prominent example: Haste being a 0AP cost skill that gives you +1AP for subsequent rounds is incredibly powerful. A combination of Haste + Adrenaline completely eliminates the downside of Adrenaline and is a no-risk, high-reward option that excels on every character in every situation. Unless you want these two skills to be mandatory for every character to pick up this needs to be addressed, and this is without the consideration of Flesh Sacrifice on top of this combo.

In DOS:EE, Haste had a moderate cost (4AP) for a long-term benefit (+3AP for the next 2 Turns). This meant that you spent AP up front to gain more in the long run. It was a situational trade-off of immediate AP for the benefit of having more AP later. Likewise, Adrenaline in DOS:EE scaled with your total AP, rather than by a flat value (gain 50% of your Turn Action Points, but lose 75% of your total Action Points next turn). This scaling ensured that the benefit gained from the skill would always be proportionally relative with its downside. If you were hasted, haste's AP gain would play into the benefit and cost of Adrenaline, rather than nullify it's penalty completely.

In another topic here, Ellezard described how one could spend a total of 7 AP in one round as early as level 4. Not even 2 hours into the game, you can already spend more AP than your AP bank can hold at the start of combat (without banking any AP over from a previous round to save up) with no trade-off at all. If this character had Flesh Sacrifice, they would have a total of 8AP to spend in one round.

Of course these kind of skill combos feel rewarding to use, but they strain the balance of the game by redefining the standard "AP budget" characters have access to. This "AP inflation" will have to be balanced around (as we are seeing with the suggestion to increase the AP cost of Rage) until it is mandatory for every character to carry these skills in order to keep up.