Hello, I'm MoltenMuffin. I've played quite a bit of the Div 2 early access on steam (~65 Hours). I must say I love this game and want nothing other than to try and give my feedback so that the game may be the best it possibly can. Today, I have some feedback on the Elf Racials, as I feel they can simply outshine the other races - more so than simply feeling like a bonus, I get the feeling of being in a disadvantage when I try other races.
+2 to finesse is a hit or miss (heh), but the extra dodge is never bad, this is fine and generally not too great of an importance as all +2 attribute racials are, mostly nice if they work with the build you're going, but not too strong to not play a build around another primary stat.
Blood Sacrifice 10% damage and 1 ap for a scaling constitution debuff. It used to be 25% damage before it was changed, as it was too powerful, but I still feel It is very powerful - not necessarily because of the % damage, but the 1 ap.
1 AP enables so many things, like backlash into two backstabs, where any other race would only get 1 backstab. It enables you to not only haste yourself as you normally do, but also use the skill Peace of Mind before attacking twice as a ranger - where you'll benefit from both the +10% damage and increased primary attributes.
Even strength warfare characters would want to be an elf - the 10% damage and 1 ap Is just that valuable - especially when considering the Enrage/Adrenaline/Warlord build.
So you'd think that since elves have the "best" offensive racial they would be lacking in utility, but that is not the case.
While other races have trivial stuff like +1 to bartering or sneaking, elves have something much better.
Corpse eater
While I do believe corpse eater does little for offense focused builds that doesn't want to invest in memory - It Is simply amazing for utility focused characters.
Take an enchanter for example, you can get First Aid and Fortify without investing a point in geomancy or huntsman, coupled with one point in summoning for the heal, you get a ton of utility and healing with minimal point investment.
Other skills you can get from corpse eater (so far) are: Arctic armor, Levitate and even Peace of Mind. Thats essentially 5 skill points worth of requirements skipped over. Compared to +1 in bartering or persuasion, this is huge.
The negatives of elves is simply that only one character per game can get these skills from corpse eater, however, you'd likely not have several elves filling the same role, so some of the skills could be shared easily, or just given to a support elf, as the other may be doing a damage focused build and use all the AP it can to snowball with Warlord or simply take out a key target.
The scaling constitution debuff is something to consider - but usually only on rogues or warriors - as rangers are relatively safe. And even when used in the hands of rogues or warriors, If you can kill a target (Or simply use the one extra AP to CC via things like Battering Ram or Chloroform) you've prevented more than the constitution would have been worth.
The Human racial is nice, and something you'd want to have in your party - around 1-2 Humans fit nicely to have more uptime, though the AP cost can make offensive builds feel It is less fitting, as you'd rather have another character spend resources on buffs. This coupled with the +2 Wits giving more Initiative so you can buff allies before they deal damage - humans stands as a good supportive race (or ranger, but again not compared to elf), though they won't have the "free" skills that comes with elves that add more utility with minimal cost.
Dwarves are hard to place. They have strength and that is nice, their racial active ability is interesting, It can be used as CC or defensively to remove debuffs and give an ally physical armor. Though, when It is used either way, you feel like you work against your team just a little bit, - much more than any elf using flesh sacrifice would - as you'd either petrify your teammate or give the target you CC physical armor.
Lizards feels fine. Intelligence and having a fire surface makes them seem like perfect mages or intelligence based combo characters using said surface. Lizard, In its own niche, I feel competes more easily to Elf, though having 10% damage (which is what the +2 intelligence gives to lizards) they do have the +1 AP and access to more utility skills if they choose.
Elves simply feel good no matter what, while other races are more specialized. Specialized races feel fine, until you see that elves simply can do it all.
Something to consider would be to give other races a passive racial "on par" with Corpse eater, as Spellsong, Dwarven Guile and Thrifty feel nice thematically, they do however, not feel unique or interesting in gameplay. What if Spellsong was a version of stench from Divinity: Original sin 1? which made enemies less likely to attack you? Would fit nice for a mage. (though less so red prince, but you do choose yourself what role he fills). Humans could have something along the lines of an extra ability or attribute point. While dwarves could have the opposite of stench, bringing them into a role of tank. Just something that would make a person feel "That is interesting!" over "Oh, this'll be the civil ability I'll use." Something to make you consider different roles or builds. Something other than +2 in a stat and an ability to adapt into your character.
I do not know the best solutions, and I really resonate with the elf fantasy of eating corpses and having a "flesh sacrifice" ability. They feel thematically fitting, but in gameplay they do not exactly fit next to each other. This is more of a small grievance I have with the game's racial fantasy.
