Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga New character help..

Hey all,

Just finished DKS and loved it, now i'm going to play through again on a harder difficulty as a different style of character. Just wanted your thoughts/tips as to which would be better, and the best way to build that character.

My first playthrough was as a strictly melee character, no bow, no magic, just the biggest sword i could find :')

I was thinking either a mage or ranger, but with dual wield just in case i get swamped. Mage would have magic missile, blast and firewall etc, and ranger would have....umm... exploding arrows (i've been told poison stun and splitting arrows are not worth the points..?)

Anyway, love to hear your thoughts on this,

Thanks, Tinman21

Poison Arrow is great at the start of the game; I have not tried Stun Arrows yet (wasn't really planning to), but others have reported quite positive results. At a higher level Explosive Arrows will likely replace everything else except Splitting Arrows (AFAIK this is quite effective, especially at close range, where most or all of the arrows will hit a single target).

I've posted comments about my level 2 ranger in the topic Who's playing DKS on nightmare difficulty ?


If you play a mage, you get the bonus from any magic damage enchantments to your weapons applied to your spells. Also, if you use magic based weapons, they get a boost from intelligence, so you can be relatively effective at melee combat if you need to be. You would not need to invest any skill points in Duel Wield Expertise to get the full magic damage bonus for your spells, since the off hand penalty isn't used for that.

So the intelligence stat determines the magic damage weapons do? So i could put points in INT and leave strength alone? And when, for instance, a ring give +5 magic damage, that is put on both weapons and spells? (sorry just want to be sure before i play)

If thats correct, then i'm deffinately going to build a mage. Thanks for your help

Tinman21

Just one more quick question, what do you guys think are the best skills to invest in for a mage?

I've heard firewall is a great AOE spell, but the rest i'm unsure about... any thoughts?

thanks, Tinman21

With weapons, any magic damage gets a boost from intelligence, while conventional damage gets a boost from strength. You can ignore strength, if you wish (though it does help your healing rate a bit), and focus on magic or balanced weapons.

In D2:ED you could not put damage enchantments on jewelry. I think in DKS they apply to weapons and spells.

For skills, from what I've read, you should go with Magic Missile and either Fireball or Magic Blast (probably don't need both) for combat, Firewall for close quarters fighting, plus Destruction and Mana Efficiency.

You can take a look at the D2:ED topic The official "ULTIMATE MAGE" guide, but some things have changed in DKS (especially the magic damage weapon enchantments being applied to spells).

ok, thanks, that's a big help. I'm off to set fire to some goblins...

Magic blast over missile. While you can spam the missile, it is not very powerful. Plus blast makes em flinch a couple of times allowing you to follow up the attack with say, an explosive arrow. I suggest mixing and matching instead of creating a rigid mage.

Oh, and firewall is awesome.

The problem with relying on Magic Blast or Magic Blast and Fireball is the long cooldown times of 15 seconds. That's what Magic Missile is for, although Explosive Arrow would certainly work well in that role as well.

Firewall is a great AOE spell, but you should know that the AOE is short-ranged and is centered around yourself, so you'll need to run up to the enemy to use it.

Fair enough. Thanks for the advice.

I erased all my skills on my previous lv. 34 character and learnt firewall, magic missile, explosive arrow and a few other things, just as a sort of sneak preview before starting again. I found quite an effective battle strategy: spam missile until swarmed, firewall the group, backflip out and explsive arrow into centre.. worked for me :')

I found magic blast good for tough enemies, but can't justify a spell that hits one enemy for large damge over a spell that hits multiples for moderate damage.. just my opinion.

Anyway, thanks again boys and girls,

Tinman21