Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Help/Tips/Tricks End Game Iona

Just getting back after several months break - as a level 43 mage, vitality of 363, and after reading the three year old post on someone only able to beat Cornelius, I am having a real issue with Iona. It could be that I'm just rusty after so long a break but she seems to kill me in seconds. Strength is just 48 so my armor isn't all that great - only one slot I think - she has a shield spell that I just can't seem to break. Are there any magical methods (only other good weapon is my bow) that work better then others on her? She seems immune to freeze and the elemental cocktail spells plus her death knight is an another league then mine is.

I'm afraid I can't remember the tactics, just that it's definitely possible: so even if I can't offer actually useful help, I can offer encouragement! I'm tactically one of the worst players evar and I still made it to the end, which is proof that It Can Be Done™.

But I can't quite remember how, nor can I find my posts about it either.

Raze, we need your help!

Do you mean Josephine (I don't think Iona summons a death knight, but it has been a while)? If so, the 'shield' is actually Blind being cast on your character, so you can not directly target her. You can use a shadow potion to wait out the effect, or switch to area effect skills that do not need a target (like Hell Spikes, which do physical damage, so can not be resisted).

In any case, the techniques that work against Josephine should help with any strong opponent: Chasing Josie...

Do you have the survivor's Curse skill? A few repeated casts of that (even at level 1) can take care of her resistances.

The Burning Wall skill can be very effective, with good timing and coordination (for best effect, you need to cast the spell and run in a tight circle around a target, or group, and it can also be used to slow and damage opponents trying to follow you).

Nah, the fat little witch who I last met in the cemetery. There's a deathknight there - maybe she didn't do the summoning, though. Seems she mostly calls up some sort of fire zombie. Her knight cuts mine down in nano seconds.

I haven't tried burning wall - spikes didn't seem to do much but my level is likely low. I don't recall having survivor curse.

I'll try again. I remember I stopped there because I was having problems and wanted to research a bit - tried a few times last night and didn't get too far. I am rusty, though - thinking when I should be acting.

Did you try casting Aura of Command on Iona's death knight? That will turn the ones that Josephine summons to fight on your side, at least (presumably it wouldn't work if it isn't a summon).
Hell Spikes isn't very effective before level 4 or 5.

Have you cleared the wastelands? You could put off the boss fights and clear the rest of the Black Ring dungeon area first, to see if that gets you up another level (average end level range is from the mid 40s to the low 50s).
While you are doing that, you can periodically check back with Kroxy to see if he has any equipment upgrades or spell books, etc. There is the trader at the start of the wastelands, as well, though more expensive (IIRC gold charms were twice as much); you probably have plenty of gold, though.

OK, more to try; what I have certainly isn't working. She does have a deathknight; banish doesn't work on it. I haven't tried the aura thing; actually, I thought it only made my own summons follow me). I pretty much tried everything in my bag of tricks. I don't think her bubble can be destroyed at all. I managed a smidgen of damage on her but the bubble was still intact. I don't know if I cleared the wastelands - probably most of it. I'm about half way to the next level upgrade. I have certainly not cleared everything within the black ring dungeon, so maybe that's the ticket. I've never been one to grind and maximize and my builds are not due to reading what others have done so perhaps I'm not specialized enough in magic - most are level 3 with some like meteor strike at level 5. Quite a few are at level 1 like hell spikes. Well, my pyramid is at the door to the dungeon so I guess that's next. Pretty frustrated; might wait until tomorrow.

If it's Josephine, as Raze suggested (and who I was getting confused with) I think I used a combination of a sword with a suitable stun enchantment and lots of invisibility potions so I could sneak up on her and quickly disappear again once she had recovered. And lots of health and mana potions, of course. It was a bit of a grind but I got there in the end. She is a pain, though.

Haven't found Josephine yet. "remember me, divine one? The last time we met that damned cat saved you but I can assure you, this time I will kill you". No, it's definitely Iona, the witch from the castle and later the dungeon. The one from the graveyard after leaving the dungeon.

EDIT: I see you liked that name of the magic seller in the mining town of "Original Sin" too.

Aura of Command can work on enemy summons, as well (at least Josephine's death knights).
If you sided with the bees during the imp council member quest, and killed a lot of wasps without hitting any bees, the queen would have taught you a level.

Another skill that can be effective at level 1 is the survivor's Deadly Gift and scorpion traps (if you have been collecting trap material, or happen to have some in recent loot).

Currently in the wastelands killing everything that moves since I ran out of potions. There is one thing that I noticed while in the Black Ring dungeon that's just a curiosity thing: is there a difference between a deathknight and dreadknight or are the names just different so the player knows which one is his in a fight?

I may have to return here again later - a real pain since the pyramids don't work inside the dungeon - I went through some 55 super magic potions and about 25 each of restore and minor restore potions and only cleared half the dungeon (none of the bosses yet, of course). I have two other characters that I started - guess I'll have to be sure to clear the wastelands with them and maybe find a way into that house with the portable bed (is there any straw in the wastelands? I laid out my straw bed at the very beginning near the incontinent orc trader - having a bed in the black dungeon even without working pyramids would be useful).

I'm not sure if there is any difference, besides the name.

Don't use super mana potions; sell/trade them, or mix them with super health potions to make restoration potions (100% mana, rather than 80 mana).

Check back with Kroxy periodically for potions, and maybe the orc at the start of the wastelands. I don't recall if there is any hay/straw in the wastelands; there are a few beds you can use (including in Kroxy's house).

The pyramids should work in the Black Ring dungeon. I left one outside by Kroxy's house, where I set up a few chests that I brought to the wastelands (with gold, charms, potions, etc), and teleported back and forth to sell loot, check for charms or spell books, etc.

If you have any spare skill points you don't know what to do with, Survivor's Instinct gives a slow heal over time (not enough to be useful in combat, but it can top up minor damage while you are exploring / trading / sorting your inventory / etc).

There is a cheat to duplicate potions:

Interesting about the pyramids. When I try to used them in the black dungeon, my character says, "apparently they don't work here". Perhaps only certain portions of the dungeon do this? I'll have to try when I get back there. So many things that can be combined that I'd never dream of; never tried the super magic/super heal. Super heal still does significant repair for my character but I hardly ever need to use it as minor restore does nearly as much plus the magic restore. I'm not sure that I trained my mage to craft, though.

You may have gotten a level of Alchemy as a quest reward in the Dark Forest.

Free skills, and spell books you can buy.

Alchemy Spoiler Thread


If at least one of the pyramids is on the ground, the other should teleport you to it. I don't recall any locations or situations where they are disabled (after getting to the wastelands)...

I left my pyramid outside the Black Dungeon so haven't been able to try it inside again. Managed to get to level 49 before attacking the mini bosses. Four down. I was stumped for a minute or two when the path was still blocked but then remembered that there was a Cornelius too. His path is away from the others and hard to see - but I saved last night at his fortress.

Iona was still very tough but some 25 dreadknights later (and, I stand corrected - her's can be taken over with aura of command - I must have targeted my own dreadknight prior) she fell. Josephina took some three hours of repetitive actions to defeat. Many of the suggestions in the write up just plain don't work. What I ended up doing was using the spell "fade from sight" (level one is fine) moving away from her dreadknight then using (now level four) hell spikes and immediately fading from sight again. Repeat some 1000 times. While her hell spikes take out a 120 shield plus cause some damage, mine barely scratched her. I couldn't charge her and keep her busy with melee attacks - she casts three spells before I am halfway there plus my ability with the "sword of the gods" mustn't be very good as I miss most of the time. Banish did nothing with her dreadknight (probably too low a level at level 1). Polymorph, despite what the write up said, also did nothing. She seems to avoid level 1 firewall (which was helpful a few times in tight spots). Anyway, on to Cornelius and then the final battle. I suspect that one will take several sessions to complete based on the Josephina fight.

You can still use (or drop and use) a pyramid in the Black Ring dungeon if the other is on the ground in the wastelands.

You would have to use the survivor's Curse skill (possibly multiple times) to drop Josephine's spiritual resistance in order for Polymorph to not be blocked.

I built as a mage so didn't look at the survivor selections and didn't find a book so I don't have that one. I do have curse but it's only level 1.

My other pyramid is in the wastelands near the orc trader and a bed. I forgot to grab the one by the black dungeon door when I went in. I still have plenty of potions so I don't think I'll need to go back there.

Curse can be cast repeatedly on a target, so level 1 is fine. There are only books for mage skills; select warrior and survivor skills can be gotten as quest rewards, etc (such as after loosing the lockpicking bet in the thieves guild in Verdistis).
The mage's Withering Curse can be resisted, so is not nearly as effective.

This is more of a "general" thing but - I finally finished. The final fight didn't seem as difficult as two of the underbosses but I again found that the "fade from sight" was gold. With my "hell spikes" now ramped up I was able to take out the demon of lies fairly easily. Fire off several spikes, fade, run to next room if new shields are needed, fade, find as lonely a spot as possible and repeat. I still had some 80 restore potions left too. For my next adventure, I picked up where I left off with a ranger build about halfway through the first map. I can see why warriors can do repairs - I'd have to carry two to three good bows with me otherwise.

One thing for certain, this is one long game. I want to play a sword/ax warrior as well as a stealthy rogue type so it looks like it'll be quite a while until I get to "Beyond Divinity" and Divinity II (which appears to actually be four or more games for some reason).

One last (in the wrong area) question: The Dragon Knight series; does it play much different (or at all different) from the standard Divinity series? Note that my only experience is with Divine Divinity and Original Sin (Classic).

I was level 53 by the end of the game, so didn't have much trouble with any of the Black Ring bosses. I used 1 minor restoration potion for Moriendor, and 2 for the Demon of Lies.


For Divinity 2, the Developer's Cut is the most recent, up to date version.
In detail, there was the original release (Ego Draconis), then an add-on was made (Flames of Vengeance) and a combined release with the remastered original release and the add-on together (Dragon Knight Saga), which was released at the same time as the add-on. Finally, a slightly updated version of DKS was released (a free upgrade to anyone with D2:ED, FoV or DKS), with some extras (soundtrack, design videos, etc) and an added 'Developer Mode' cheat window (Developer's Cut).

Divinity 2 is a single character game, with real time combat, and a third person camera, rather than isometric (the angle and distance are linked in the PC version, so you can zoom out to an almost isometric perspective, zoom in to an over-the-shoulder perspective, or zoom further past the character to look up [occasionally useful when exploring or looting]).
The writing, music and atmosphere is similar. The humour is a step up from Divine Divinity (which was good to start with, IMO). Quest design is also a step up from DD (though it was quite good for the time), but not as elaborate as D:OS.
The world design is a lot less flat, with jumping being a mechanic during combat (optionally) and exploring (sometimes). A couple puzzles have moving platforms, but there aren't any required that are very difficult (some people have had trouble with a couple spots, but adjusting hotkeys or strategy generally helps, or a controller may make jumping easier and there is always the optional cheat window to teleport or morph into a flying creature).
World interaction is less in Divinity 2, though, given the camera controls. You can not collect chests to store things, rearrange furniture, drop items on the ground to retrieve later, etc, though part way through the game you get a storage chest.
Like DD, there are summons, and you can eventually get a creature 'sidekick' (starting about level 10-12 if you know where to go), which you can customize but not directly control.

One thing that struck me about Divinity II is that it was fairly conspicuous that it used the same Gamebyro engine as Oblivion for rendering the world: they have a very similar "feel" in a lot of ways (and some of the modding techniques can be similarly applied to both, conveniently).

I also thought that the voice acting was very much better in D2 and has much more in common with D:OS. I think that it carried the humour a lot better than it did in DD.