Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Combat items (scrolls & potions) - TERRIBLE design

First off, I completely love this game. The turn based combat is one of the best I've played (and I've played just about all of them), as good as (and some parts better) than Baldur's Gate 1 & 2.

But, the way the usable combat items (such as scrolls and potions) work is terrible. I hardly ever use them.

You see, with items currently in game they have the same Action Point requirement as spells you cast (and potion use 3 points).

The the main point of combat items is they should have a advantage over normal spells and a disadvantage.

Advantage
The advantage should be that you can use them when you're low on mana (or in this game case Action Points). So if you really need to (IE the combat is going pear shaped) you can still do some impressive magic/effect but with the disadvantage of;

Disadvantage
When you use the item it disappears (or uses a charge in something like a wand).
Items should be fairly rare, so it hurts when you need to use them.

But as it stands now, their is no advantage (apart from allowing characters who don't have that spell to cast it).

Without this trade off, usable combat items (in my opinion, which is also based on just about every RPG I've ever played) are just not worth it.
Yes, I've given various scrolls to character which don't have those spells but they never use them, they have plenty of their own abilities.

Solution
Simple, reduce the Action Point cost for all scrolls and potions. In my opinion change them to AP 1 but make them more rare to find and make. But of course Larian would have to balance this.
And add some charge based items (wands etc..rare of course).

There is also the advantage of no cooldown.

The fact that you compared Original Sin to Baldur's Gate clues me into the fact that you're lying about having played "them all".

I'm "lying"? Please, let's not be rude aye?

But please, do humor me. Why shouldn't I compare the turn based combat of Baldur's Gate (which yes has a real time element but I certainly set it to play as turn based) and D:OS?

Hey Halcyon. Good point. That is another advantage but I still feel the action point reduction would make scrolls and potions more useful.

But, yes, I guess it's good to use scrolls for spells that usually has a high cooldown. So I can use a scroll on Spell A then cast the same Spell A spell from my spell book the next turn?

Thanks for the info.

And anyone can use them.

Or just the same spell in the same turn, if you have enough AP (and you might, with wildfire/glass cannon). Two teleports or fireballs in one turn is devastating.

I think you could argue that 3 AP for a potion is a bit high, but as it is I think there are enough advantages to scrolls that that don't need to be further balanced.

The problem is that scrolls and potions are just not necessary, especially in late game.

You don't need to know the spell to use the scroll.
Which is an advantage, a warrior with 0 in pyrokinetics can launch fireballs

What is? Not saying that as a smarty either...

What is a must have skill one needs at end game?

I agree having everything balanced so it always has usefulness is ideal. However another argument is if nothing is necessary, that is another way to look at balance to. So is there must have's in this game, late?

Nothing. Virtually anything you want to accomplish in this game, there's almost always an alternative way to achieve that goal.

That's a big design philosophy of these types of games: You are given options to achieve your end goal. Some options are better than others on the surface, but it's up to you to mix and match as you see fit to enjoy the experience and complete the objectives.

The problem is that potions potions almost never justify their AP costs. That's at least my experience.

Scrolls are, in my opinion, what makes a pure melee character viable. There aren't a lot of situations where you have nothing relevant to do, but the simple nature of having just the Man-at-Arms skills and a melee attack means you'll lack relevance at some point. Scrolls fix this; I see them as the melee equivalent to special arrows.

The only thing that's a little awkward is that the damage and chance-to-status on the damaging scrolls is kind of weak. I see a Freezing Touch scroll as a nice pull; I don't feel nearly the same way about a Blitz Bolt scroll.