Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Teleport: Analysis and Longterm Health of the Game

I think that argument could be applied to nearly all change requests.

Personally I'm not a brilliant strategic thinker so nerfing every advantage so the more hardcore players aren't tempted to abuse them rather ruins my fun too. And so on and so on. You can't please everyone, and I guess it's Larian's call how narrow a group they wish to cater to.

That's a fair point. Maybe some of these balance suggestions could be applied to Tactician mode only.

I think there is a difference in something that makes things easier and something that makes things trivial. Then again the source skills are so powerful that this might not matter what so ever in the long run.

At early levels it's pretty powerful to Port an enemy onto his aly, do damage to both, and make him miss a full turn just to get back to you, and possibly be allowed poisoned or burning. At higher levels when you're going twice in a row or dealing 500% damage with source it might be more of a loss using AP to teleport someone than a gain.

I don't know if anyone mentioned it but there is an ally-only teleport skill in DOS1 called 'featherfall' which would solve the OPs issues. You wouldn't have to nerf anything just implement featherfall early game, like on teleport gloves. Could solve Gawin quest and get chests.

Then implement the enemy teleport ability at higher level, when it would be more appropriate to have powerful ability. In DOS1 you could teleport enemies at level 1 that is OP.

Totally agree.

I agree that teleport is insanely broken. It's too powerful in too many ways. It has insane range, is cheap and does good damage. Though, most importantly of all, it allows you to freely reposition enemies in a massive area which is INSANELY powerful. With that in mind, it should cost more AP, do less damage and have less range.

I agree that it's mandatory and it doesn't feel like a great way to play the game. I'm also not a fan of "don't use the tools available to you - make your own challenge!"

Fuck that. A true challenge is in utilizing every tool made available to you in the most clever and efficient ways to overcome whatever the game throws your way. That's the kind of challenge I look for. If I'm being asked to not use certain abilities, not equip certain gear or anything of that nature, then the game's balance is shit and it will be far less satisfying to play. I want games to provide me with a meaningful challenge that forces me to use every tool available.

Teleport, however, is far too powerful a tool and I'd like to be challenged in a different way.

Though I'd also keep in mind that there will be a tactician mode. Larian made the game modes significantly different in OS:EE, so I'm hoping they might do the same here. I don't want to remove tools from casual players, but there is already an 'explorer' and 'classic' mode, with 'tactician' and maybe others soon to come.

I'd love for in tactician, or whatever the hardest mode may be, if certain abilities were nerfed to not just create a larger challenge, but to fundamentally change how combat plays out. Teleport, currently, is so staple to the game where you want literally every single party member to have it.

I don't think an ability is balanced if it's mandatory. At a point it becomes less about 'ruining the fun of players by nerfing an ability' and actually being responsible game designers and balancing abilities so that none are mandatory.

also a very good point

Honestly, I love teleport and don't want it nerfed. I did use it a lot, but the CD means you can't cheese it constantly. Hell, you can actually teleport Alexander once to fall on his ass without fight initiating which is awesome. Only Red Prince and Lohse had it, and even then, it only helped in fights. It did not win fights. You can't teleport people over pits nor can you spam it.

In fact with how much opponents use it, it was unbalanced if you could not do the same, Tactical Retreat, Netherswap, Void Shift all abilities the opponent used and can be utterly BS. But, still, I managed, because after playing CRPG for a long time. You get used to this nonsense.

Yeah I'm thinking people are exaggerating how powerful teleport is.

If you ALWAYS take teleport on every playthrough you do, then how do you know it's overpowered? How can you tell that it's teleport giving you the victories, and not just the fact that classic mode is pretty easy? I have played without using teleport after level 4, when I switched out the teleport gloves on my mage, and it was still pretty easy to cheese a lot of situations (mostly with slows from oil and a bunch of knockdowns).

I generally don't have teleport on more than one person in any playthrough; I'm not a huge fan of Aerothurge and the -1 lucky charm on the gloves irrationally bothers me even when I never use the person wearing it to open chests.

It is certainly easier with teleport, I'll give you that, but I think a simple increase to 2 ap or having armor/magic resist block it, or replacing it with something that can only be activated on allies for the early game would be more than enough for it.

For me the problem is not the teleport on the gloves. It is the teleport spell from Aerotheurge and the fact that any char in a group can possibly have it. Using the gloves gives you disadvantages in stats which grow bigger and bigger with increasing levels. They also look quite ugly on elves. The spell needs a memory slot and one attribute point, but otherwise?

Changing the range of teleport would be near impossible with the current game design. The damage could be changed for sure. Having it blocked by armor would make the Fortify spell, beloved by the AI, more or less meaningless. I would just restrict the teleport ability to one a group, maybe with some possibilities to increase the numbers coupled with disadavantages.

I love teleport, and don't want it to be changed because:

1) NPC can also use it against you.
2) there are different skills that self teleport at big range (1 for rogue, 1 for hunter, 1 for warrior), or small range (rogue again), or swap character that you can use or npc uses against you.
3) it is pretty usefull to TP out of dangerous surfaces
4) or to bring range npc next to your warriors
5) you can fortify against it.

so basically it is for me part of the whole combat mechanic.

The real problem in my view in the situation you described is that you can TP a npc on a platform from where he cannot move anymore. The issue for me is in the design of the zone, not the teleport spell in itselfs.

That or the dog that can't jump down a ledge.
Feels a bit more like cheating than smart play.

What is the point to playing a video game if not to have fun?

If you think its cheese, dont use it. I am fairly sure no one is balancing around it. It was cheese in DOS1 as well, yet at no point was it required. It did make for some fun situations which is, in my opinion, why it should be left alone. Besides, its fun to find tricks after you beat the game once or twice.

When enemies can oneshot combo you if they catch you unprepared...no it's a fine skill.

I've literally encountered plenty of enemies, say the toads for example, they hit oil, it explodes into fire, 4 man group is on fire, next one spits two poison globs for 30% of health of that character each. By the time my characters get to go, several if not all are below 50% health. Teleporting frog into fire would only cause the fire to become necrofire, which while my characters are standing in it, is a rilly bad idea.

It offers unique options that can be ridiculous at times, but ultimately it's not entirely unreasonable. "Oh no I can teleport away an enemy to an area they can't get down from or so far that they have to waste all of their points to get anywhere in range again" well yeah, there's also tactical retreat, chameleon, the ability to go stealth in the middle of combat by pressing 'c' (same button as usual, if you're not in a cone you can stealth), there's the ability to stun lock people, etc. The stun lock issue is being fixed by requiring double the applications to become effective, which is good as currently in game it's frustrating when a random character summons rain, and then an enemy that just so happens to be holding an air staff slaps one of your characters for a perma 4 man stun from the get go.

You can fly away to somewhere the enemy can't reach you, teleport the enemy or an ally away to such a location, take an object from a hidden location to you or put someone up there, or you can even leap to such places. I'm not saying teleport isn't strong, but it isn't necessarily all that ridiculous.

Since teleport is nerfed (reduced distance and cost 2ap), I think this is pretty ok.
Not sure if they nerf nether swap too, but it is a sweet sweet little spell.