Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks Sneaking into Combat

Hi everyone!

I am loving my ranger/rogue character! I have been having a difficult time understanding how sneaking into combat works with the initiative track and I would love it if someone could explain it to me/provide for me the best way to go about achieving what I want to do.

I have been going about combat with this particular party as follows... My ranger/rogue with high telekinesis sneaks in and places an elemental barrel or two right between or in front of the enemy depending on where there is to hide. While my rogue stays hidden, the rest of the party approaches initiating combat drawing all the attention of the enemy stopping them from walking and looking around. I then can sneak around with my rogue/ranger and set up to back stab one of the enemies that isn't in range of the barrel.

This is where my question comes in... ATM one of my wizards actually starts before my rogue on the initiative track so before I complete any combat activities with my wizard I can enter the combat with my rogue with a back stab on the enemy, then still get to complete a turn with that rogue. As my characters level up though, Imagine my rogue soon will get to do his turn first and I imagine this happening. I do everything the same, initiate combat with a back stab, and since the rogue gets placed first on the initiative track all the enemy gets a turn before I can use my rogue and run away.

So what is the best way to have my rogue jump into the battle as to not lose a turn with that character? Thanks!

You can stealth at the end of the rogue's turn and he will remain invisible to enemies during their turn, if that helps?

It's a cheesy way to play if overdone, though...

Interesting. I really feel like this is an area that could be improved as I'd like to sneak into combat. The problem still arises that either my rogue has to initiate the combat causing all enemies to face my rogue who is behind enemy lines, or my other characters have to initiate combat causing my rogue character's turn to get skipped.

One thing I was trying that almost worked was leaving my character's chain linked with my party while sneaking into battle. This almost works and my character is entered into the battle when everyone else is like he should except for when combat it started my character automatically walks back to whoever I am having lead the rest of the party into battle. Maybe in the developers provided a tick option next to a character as to whether or not they want them to follow the party leader?

Idea 2: Maybe if a character enters battle late, it could look at where they should fall on the initiative track and stick them into the highest possible spot that hasn't had a turn yet?

Idea 3: Maybe a character who is close enough to a battle but not detected by the enemy can have a window pop up notifying them that a battle has started and giving them the option of joining or not?

At the moment, it is still tons of fun to send a rogue behind enemy lines before combat starts and set them up to assassinate a wizard, but this does not work correctly currently because of how the initiative track works.

Any thoughts on this?

Unlink the rogue. Sneak in. Then wander in with the other characters.

When combat starts, the rogue won't be in the fight but if you click on them and backstab, they will be in the fight.

Yup I know this. The problem is with the initiative track. If I stab in, my rogue's picture still ends up first on the initiative track. This means his turn gets skipped and all the enemy gets a turn to damage him before he gets a turn like he should.



Edit: To clarify, if my Rogue would show up lower than for example, my wizard on the initiative track, then when I stab in with the rogue unchained his picture will fall into place on the track and he will get a turn like he should.

If he would show up first on the initiative track (as he usually would) and he stabs in after combat has been initiated by my other characters, then his turn gets skipped making the sneaking and stabbing in useless and far too dangerous as the enemy gets to take their turns before him even though he is higher on the initiative track.

Bump. Anyone have a good solution to this? Or just live with it?

I know what you mean, in Co-Op it was enough to engage at the same time, however while the fight is progressing you could delay the entrance of the rogue until the first turn is almost done. Just make sure you are in combat before the second turn starts.

The character with the highest initiative should start the attack so he/she does not miss a turn.

Alternatively, get gears with initiative to boost another character so that he/she will be the highest hence giving a chance to your rogue.

This probably isn't an elegant solution, but if you get Leadership on your rogue, you can improve the initiative of your other party members (+5 initiative with a single point of Leadership, +5 more at 4 (maybe 5? I forget) points in). +10 initiative for your other party members should really help make up for whatever initiative bonuses your rogue gets from stats.

Working on lowering the initiative of my other chars. has worked decently for me. I really see this being an easy fix though. Since the sneaking character will be placed into battle if they are chain linked with the party, some kind of toggle to prevent them from walking back to the party when combat has started while they are sneaking is all this needs.

You can unlink them before combat and they'll stay where they were.