Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Source skill discouraged use

Hi Larian and DOS2 lovers,

I've played DOS and loved it and now I continue my journey in DOS2. I've just finish the Act 1 today and the game is awesome and well done, Larian! Can't wait for the rest of the game to be out.

The graphics is definitely an upgrade, the stats tweak is generally acceptable and the combat is challenging.

The only part that I dislike currently is the Source Skill mechanic. The only time I used it is during the end boss fight. It's certainly very powerful but the current mechanic discourages me from using a source skill since source is so scarce and we don't know (through out the game) how many there are and when we'll get one. Furthermore, there are already too many resources type, e.g. memory, action point, cooldown and source point. I think Larian should let us use the source skill more freely (it's a skill meant to be used and not an antique to be kept, yes?) by altering the mechanic how we can acquire source point for combat use. Here's my humble suggestion:

1) Source point can be generated by accumulating certain action points, e.g. 6 action points or whatever Larian feel appropriate, follow by pressing a button to convert the action points to 1 source point. That will at least take a number of turns. This way, those source skill won't feel discouraged to use and add another layer of strategic battle consideration, e.g. it's difficult to beat this boss, so I need to power up but in the process I get stunned. So can't use it yet.
2) If Larian can let us use the skill more freely, those source skill can be rebalance. I killed the end boss with invisible + 1 mortal blow which did more than 400 damage. Tide changing! Awesome or awful? It's an end boss and it suppose to be epic battle right? 1 shotted? Awesome at the beginning but awful in after thought.

If the current mechanic stays, at least, consider changing how the source point is being stored at the moment. Source point is being stored individually (linked to a character) at the moment. That means only that character can spend the source. What if I wanted my Knight to use the source point to activate Overpower instead of my Rogue using Mortal Blow? Can source point be stored on a broader basis so that others can spend it whenever appropriate?

Source Skills are meant to be powerful as hell and hard to come by early on, with there being more ways to get them (Admittedly -evil- ways more than neutral or good ones - one example being trapping spirits in gems) later in the game.

i keep reading about source skills, i never experience i running out of points i use bless a lot.

I kind of feel the same. Source skills are a cool idea on paper, but I still worry that they were a bad idea in actual gameplay.

The issue with things that consume finite resources, wraps back around to the kind of stuff that tends to happen with consumable grenades and scrolls.

In videogames, lots of players tend to hoard consumable items and save them for a situation where "they really need it", especially if they are truly finite. But most of the time this turns into a case where players end up never using them because they are too afraid of wasting the finite resource.

Since it is a finite resource, I imagine many would simply redo an entire fight rather than accept the wasted source point if using a source skill ended with unfavorable results. If they were already using them sparingly, it may even encourage them to use the abilities even less.

On the other hand, it could also swing the other direction and be excessively rare early game, but way too easy and common to obtain later on, making the whole resource managing portion of it pointless.

In any situation, it is a system/gameplay mechanic that could very well end up as more effort, resources and time implementing and balancing than it was worth. The two other issues of it, are whether enemy encounters are truly strong enough to encourage players to use them. Yet at the same time the issue potentially changes then to whether the game is beatable without using the source skills as well.

When you add into account that the game is designed to be a multiplayer game where you can screw over your friends,it kinda makes sense that source points are so scarce, because you are given the choice to use them againts your friends/competitors to make their life hell.

The one thing I have yet to test is to see if Guerila works with magical attacks,before I can make any more coments on the myriad of ways you can screw someone over in this game.