Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) General Mage and warrior practical in hardcore?

Simple question really... Is the human as a mage and deathknight as a warrior viable in hardcore difficulty? The human is closer to the main character so I want him to be my mage, though I know deathknight isn't necessarily the best melee character. I haven't finished the game before, only played a dozen or so hours a couple years ago, but I always play everything on the highest difficulty. I would feel as though I'm ripping myself off if I don't play gaining more experience and skill points.

[color:"orange"]Is the human as a mage and deathknight as a warrior viable in hardcore difficulty?[/color]

I have not played a mage character at all, so can not comment on this. I don't recall anyone posting about any particular problems with mages in hardcore difficulty.

The more powerful and mana efficient spells start to become available in act 2, so for the start of the game you may want to make sure both characters have at least some fighting abilities. Skills can be unlearned, and a mage is going to need some strength and agility for equipment requirements, etc.

The math appendix of the Beyond Divinity Strategy Guide contains a description of the effects of the primary stats, as well as some general suggestions on stat point distribution.


[color:"orange"]The human is closer to the main character so I want him to be my mage, though I know deathknight isn't necessarily the best melee character.[/color]

The DK works fine as a melee character. However, since the DK's armour class goes up with his character level, he will not need as much strength for armour requirements, and can concentrate more on intelligence (for a mage) or agility (for a bow archer). Having the DK use a strength based weapon negates this. Since the human will need to meet strength requirements for better armour anyway, this character is slightly better suited to be a melee warrior. This is a relatively minor difference, though, so a human mage / DK warrior combination is just as feasible.

I had no problems with a melee warrior DK and crossbow archer hero in tactical difficulty. Playing again, I would make the hero the warrior, and the DK a bow archer, so he could concentrate more on agility; with my hero archer, having to meet strength and agility requirements for armour and crossbows in addition to keeping constitution, speed and survival up enough was sometimes difficult.

Thanks for the tips. The stat issue with the DK is more important than the RP value I suppose, so I'm making the DK my mage with maybe some agility for archery. I just started out an hour or two ago, and I'm wondering how to make the DK more intelligent on AI... I don't have a bow yet, but I want the DK to primarily attack with magic until he runs out of mana, and then attack with melee for now. How can I do this without having to reset LMB every time I run out of mana? You can't assign regular attack to RMB, so he just stands still whenever he runs out of mana. Any solution?

There was a bow in one of the cells in the starting cell block (far left, centre), though if you have already jumped down the pit you will not be able to get back there for awhile (you will get access to the battlefield before then, and can check with the merchants there).

Unfortunately, there is no way to automatically switch attack types or weapons. While some games offer more AI control than BD, I don't think I've played a game yet with a mage in a party where I didn't have to control the mage myself to get acceptable mana use and (where applicable) spell selection.

Someone who has played a mage may add their comments, but I would suspect the best control method would be to have the standard attack on the LMB and during fights switch control to the mage to cast spells with the RMB. If you want to auto-attack with magic, you can assign hotkeys to switch attacks on the LMB, but I think you would still need to switch to the mage as the leader to use it (so if you wish to control the warrior, it would take 3 key presses to switch leaders, change attacks, and switch leaders back).

Once you get a bow you may want to just let your mage auto-attack with that for weaker opponents, and then manually switch to magic during tougher fights. For the majority of the first act there are lots of skeletons around, which are more vulnerable to crushing damage than piercing, so the lack of a bow isn't a big disadvantage. Until I reached the citadel I had my hero use crushing weapons (a club or 2 handed walking stick) most of the time and a bow for tougher fights, then I switched to archery full time. My DK continued to use slashing damage (1 or 2 handed swords).

At first I wasn't happy that both characters share hotkeys, but now I find it really helpful. When my activated character is the warrior, I can still switch from regular attack to spells with my mage, so that probably is solved. Very convenient.

Edit: The shared hotkey thing presents another problem... Switching my DK to regular attack also switches my warrior's primary to attack. I don't know if my regular attack will always be my warrior's LMB, but we'll see. Atleast I can easily switch from bow to spell on DK while using my warrior now.

[color:"orange"]At first I wasn't happy that both characters share hotkeys[/color]

Potion hotkeys are not shared, so to have your secondary character drink a potion using a hotkey, you would have to change them to lead. I just assumed the LMB hotkeys worked the same (I left both set to regular attack).