Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Teller of Secrets ability/attribute books

I heard that these books respawning every levelup was done away with, but that is not the case. My impression is that this is rather OP. On my first play-through with my girlfriend we used them twice that decided not to buy anymore of them.

Is it intentional? Is is OP at all? What do you think?

I think they used to respawn on every character's level up, so you could get 4 books per level in a party of 4. Now they only respawn once per level up of the highest level character. I've played after it was fixed so I'm not entirely sure.

If the books spawn only once, then you will have no reason to visit the Hall of Secrets more than once. It will stand out as the only Homestead room (aside from the useless Observatory) that players would have no possible reason to visit more than once.

I think a better approach would be to make the books levelled and scale the gold price with level. If the books started out with 15k per book at level 10 and peaked out at 100k per book at level 20, then players finishing the game with over 300k in spare gold would not be nearly as common. In fact, I don't think anyone would be able to afford to buy the books every level from 10 to 20(22)

Actually, they used to respawn every few hours, then they patched it to respawn only on level up. People keep saying it's still bugged, but I tend to think this is what Larian intended originally, it was just the initial implementation that was glitched.

In vanilla game this option is definitely OP, but if you use Source Difficulty mod (especially hardcore version), these books will be absolutely necessary to gain some Constitution for your Glass-Cannon chars.

So if you get to the Teller at lvl 10 (I imagine you could get her way earlier too) and play till lvl 20, one character could have 79 instead of 49 ability points (or 98 instead of 68 on Lonewoolf)
25 attribute increases instead of 15
Wow, that's a game changer.

I can understand this could be called for in a game modded for difficulty, but the Teller of secrets is vanilla and most people don't mod their game. Personally, I find this pretty uncalled for

Is it intentional?

Yes, all vendor inventories are updated after the character with the highest experience gains a new level. Therefore it is safe to assume that the vendor known as teller of secrets works in the exact same way as other vendors and therefore is no anomality.


Do I personally consider this "OP"?

No, players are not obligated to buy those books, so people who do want the extra ability points and/or attribute points can spend their gold. People who think it is overpowered can just leave that particular vendor alone. Assuming you play with 2 lonewolves in multiplayer mode and get to the teller of secrets in the normal gamepace you will be level 10 on average. That means each character gets roughly 5 extra attribute points and 15 ability points. If you do 4 player multiplayer then it comes down to 2-3 attribute points and 6-9 ability points per player. Ofcourse in single player mode you can stack it all on 1 character and attribute wise that is better, ability wise more does not equal better. If people choose to play single player and rush to the teller of secrets I fail to see how it would negatively affect anyone else. So yeah they will get 1 really strong character if they choose to do so, if they divide it over 2-4 characters it is no longer a huge benefit. In multiplayer people will normally divide those things among 2 or 4 players and won't be a huge benefit either.

Now what I am curious about is the following:

In your first post, you get right to the conclusion of your opinion without giving any explanation at all. Then in your last post that same explanation is still lacking. Other then the fact you have observed that 25 is more then 15 and 79 is more then 49 it is not backed in any way shape or form. And that is only if you actually use all those tomes on 1 character.

I myself can also see that 25 is higher then 15 and therefore better in a game like D:OS, the amount of different outcomes is pretty high, which makes it hard to accurately measure how much better it would be. The problem I have with the whole thesis of: "tomes are op" is that people tend to look at it from a very narrow perspective. Yes if you put it all on 1 character you will have a god amongst men. (pun intended) However you have upto four characters in your party, if you divide the whole thing by 4 then the gain is pretty marginal and when you divide it by 2 I would say it is balances out pretty well. Aside from that it is not that you're able to start the game with those extra points, they are gained over the course of the last 10-ish levels. The reason why I think people are calling it OP is because they tend to stack it on 1 character that also has glass cannon and while min/maxing their build, they also trade in their talents and ability points for attribute points and then they have 1 insanely powerful character that just does everything and basicly makes the other 1-3 characters obsolete support. The fact you there is a teller of secrets and a demon that let's you trade stuff makes the game more versatile because with this knowledge you can safely build all kinds of hybrids without having to worry if it will work or not. Thus making the game more appealing to a larger audience and also adding value to the replayability of the game. This also means that people who do make very focused builds and use min/maxing will get rewarded as they will end up with very powerful characters. However that is kind of the maingoal of min/maxing.

So based on all this, I personally do not think that it is overpowered. Mainly because it is a single player game, other people are unaffected by the choises of others. If they really want to, they can mod their game and get as much stats as they want. My sencond point that extra attributes and ability points add to versatility in character builds. Not every gamer is a powergamer and people who choose to play a very elaborate hybrid character are also rewarded for doing so, because eventually they get those "needed" extra attributes/ability points. This versatility leads to a larger audience buying the game and means more income for the company which has chances to lead to: free content patches, expansions, sequels.

As usual I was unable to make a short post...

With kind regards,

Rashar.