Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General Suggestions for a newcomer

I just installed DD... read the background story. Please post any ideas/suggestions that you would have liked to know when you first started.

Early Starter Tips (NON-Spoiler Version)

There is a configuration file edit to skip the intro videos (see here).
With the latest game version, this will also eliminate the need for the Play CD, except for a couple cases: the blessing ceremony (after hitting the gong late in the game) and at the end of the game. These are the same limitations as with the no-CD hack (you will need to have the CD in a drive before these events, as the game expects the CD to be there and will not prompt for it).
The version number is shown in the bottom right corner of the main menu (latest is 1.0034A, otherwise you may need the patch). The DVD version has already been updated, while CD versions may or may not be, depending on when they were produced.


Welcome to the forum.

I remember seeing that before, but even though it doesn't get you much in the way of extra levels, it does help you reach each new level faster to get new skill points faster. This game has a lot of grinding out levels so it was definitely worth it to me to get each new level faster, even if only a little bit faster.

Spending 5 skill points to get 1 is a TERRIBLE investment.

Here's a tip, get Alchemy pretty quickly, then trade your loot in Aleroth for Health and Mana potions, and any Small Empty Flasks. Mix Health and Mana for Restoration potions. At level 9, get Alchemy level 2 so you can harvest herbs. You can get have 70 Restoration potions by the time you hit the second questing area.

Mages and those who find a good condition short bow can get a head start on levels by carefully investigating Aleroth and its houses, even before taking on any quests.

Know Creature is a good skill to invest in for most players, even those who have played before, it lets you prioritize threats and shows you enemy weaknesses.

Pressing or Holding the Control key auto-targets the nearest enemy.

Mages are actually one of the better classes to play. Mages can purchase free skill points at stores (spellbooks, although not all spells have a book). Yes, any class can do that, but Mages get a much bigger mana bonus from Intelligence then other classes.

Even better is that you can abuse quickloading to check bookshelves for a free chance of getting a spellbook.

If someone owns the shelf and would object to your helping yourself, just BYOC - Bring Your Own Container. Drag it next to the shelf or other container, open your container and the shelf and drag from the shelf into the container, and walk out with the container. The AI only cares if you take things from a container and put them into your inventory. Don't try dragging from shelf to your container, then from your container to your inventory if the victim is right there, they will consider that stealing.

Another benefit for being a mage is that no spells in the game have a casting delay. You can cast as fast as you right-click. Lightning is a good skill, because you need to manually aim it and it always hits. Hold the control key and right-click and you zap anything hostile on the screen, with no risk to anyone friendly.

There are certain unique named items in the world. The bonuses on those are random, but the important one is Charm Quality, because the highest quality charms can greatly outstrip the bonuses on the item.

It's not about how many extra levels you get. For me it's about being able to get to new levels faster, which means less time spent wandering around looking for bad guys to kill. Plus, there are also three different wisdom books you can find to boost the stat, if I remember correctly.

Thanks everyone for the tips, Ill let you know how it all works out.

I read that it was useful for a wizard to swap locations with merchants to get them out of their store; however, you cant see them. So how does this work, I tried using wizards sight so that I could see inside the buildings but you still cant see NPC's.

You can enter the shop far enough to see them, then swap places to get them to the door, and repeat the process once or twice to get them outside and out of the way.
There can sometimes be a small gap in the north west corner when two walls meet, which you may be able to see through if you stand at just the right place. If a gap exists, though, it may still be blocked by furniture, etc, in the inside corner. For example, there is such a gap in the mage Kistandalius shop in Ars Magicana, though it will not help to get him out of the shop; he will teleport you away from his back room whether he can see you or not.

There is an easier method to steal, though it is a bit of an exploit.

Do you have to have the skill pickpocket and pick lock to join thieves guild?

Yes, you need level 1 of Lockpick and Pickpocket to join the thieves guild. At least Pickpocket can show up on equipment as a bonus, so you may want to keep an eye out when trading or selling off loot, etc. I found an amulet with a Pickpocket bonus before heading to Verdistis, and a belt after that. I don't recall if Lockpick can be an equipment bonus; I maxed that skill (you can get 2 levels in the thieves guild), so would not have paid much attention to that bonus if I saw it after that.

If you want to cheat and just get these skills temporarily, iZakaroN's SaveEditor (or from Kiya's site, with description) can be used to unlearn skills (among other things).