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"At the moment, my primary defense is shutting the enemy down first."

I agree and I also always go for this strategy wink !

BUT : in my previous playrounds I've experienced that if my party their Initiative is rather low there're many battles where the enemy is the FIRST to attack and many times rangers or mages shoot a spell that imediately take out (frozen/stunned/pertified/knock down/etc) one or more of my party for 3 rounds !
Then I spend ability points to willpower especially & to be honest : it was a big help ! Now almost always the spells of the enemies failled .

But on my current playround I have a ranger and mage with high(er) Initiative and so far (level 5/6) each battle I take the FIRST step(s), not the enemy laugh !
Having at least 2 of your party with a high Initiative is imo "one" of the tactical steps for
"Offense is the best Defense !"

Sometimes the battle is almost over before the enemies can do that much :hihi: Funny to look at !

Looking at the Battle of Stabbey's Inquisitor I don't have the impression that his party use any defensive spells like shields or "immune to ..." spells ? Please, correct me if I'm wrong !
Personally I don't like to use such defensive spells ... I've tried some of them .



On 7th of february 2015 : I start a new adventure in the Divinity world of Original Sin,
it's a Fantastic Freaking Fabulous Funny ... it's my All Time Favorite One !
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Stabbey Offline OP
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My Inquisitor is the only person in my party with any points into magic. The other members are Ralph, a single-classed fighter, Wolgraff, a single-classed Rogue, and Bairdotr, a single-classed Ranger. None have even a single point into any magic school.

Ralph has Leadership, which grants an Initiative boost to everyone else. I might boost that up more to get Initiative 4.

Wolgraff tends to act first in battles, and my Inquisitor acts second. My Inquisitor's initiative is high because of all those points into speed - another reason for preferring Speed instead of Glass Cannon.

My Inquisitor has "Fortify" and "Absorb Elements" and the healing spells, but that's about it for defensive spells.

Will this still work later on against level 14 and level 16 enemies? I don't know. I'll let people know when I get there.

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I really really Hope it works later on in the game,
it must work, it must wink !

Dear Stabbey, I'm patienly waiting for your next video and story of the Inquisitor !

Good luck,
and above all: enjoy Divinity : Original Sin !!
But I'm sure you do ...


On 7th of february 2015 : I start a new adventure in the Divinity world of Original Sin,
it's a Fantastic Freaking Fabulous Funny ... it's my All Time Favorite One !
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I tried a similar thing and it was a lot of fun! I gave mine a shield so that he could act as a tank as well (and did a reversed-role party by making my warrior the glass cannon). By the end he was enormously powerful and practically unkillable. It was really satisfying stunning, freezing and petrifying three people and then Death Punching a fourth :D

Sadly his damage never amounted to much because Death Punch's cooldown never got low enough to spam and it did less damage than a scythe hit for a whopping 9 AP. Only good for style points, really. He made up for it in status effects though - you have a 100% hit rate against enemies that can't move, so he would stun a couple people and then my stealthed glass cannon warrior would appear behind them and chop them to pieces with her scythe before slipping back into the shadows. I like to think of it as his own custom version of Death Punch ;)

My favorite spell was actually Explode - the AoE is fantastic and it only costs 3 AP, 2 with Elemental Affinity. The damage isn't spectacular but it's cheap, can be cast every round, provides easy healing with Fire Shield and is just fun to use. I imagine it'd be even better combined with a traditional poison-using mage. Still, his main contribution was status effects; I just like fire.

Elemental Affinity turned out to be a better pick than I expected. You tend to cast more spells than the usual mage because they're so cheap and you also run into more terrain than the usual mage, so it's easy to save an action point or two. If you can save one every round that's effectively 2 speed and 1 con! Between explode, haste and fire shield I saved a lot of AP. Also, blood is plentiful and counts for Witchcraft.

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Glasscanon warrior + Zombie + talent Morning person+focused speed + 2h specced --> Mage make Witchcraft + resurect spell. This will be my awesome party I plan after balance patch.

The warrior acts as permanent summoned Zombie. Once killed re-summon laugh

I wish we have different body shapes, the overmuscular one doesnt fit. Also some fancy skin colors like ... green would help.

Last edited by gGeo; 18/04/15 05:53 PM.
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The Resurrect Spell is only useful once per fight, scrolls don't come with a long and pointless cooldown. (And that post in general doesn't seem to have anything to do with the touch-range mage build.)

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My Knight is always Lone-wolfed and glass cannoned ( why wouldnt you glass cannon your fighter they have the most vitality anyway so nothing to lose?) and has the highest initiative of the party, he usually starts and ends the fight before anyone else can do a whole lot, under best case circumstances he will be hasted, oath of desecration in effect and using a battering ram move to get into the melee and a whirlwind/dust devil to kill multiple enemies, honestly most fights dont last 3 rounds, a lot dont even last one round, sometimes my second character gets to do nothing but do her nails.

Joram I have never used an immunity spell or a shield spell, anything that doesnt harm the enemy is helping them, wasting action points and attack opportunities is what helps the enemy, evertime I see an enemy move and/or heal instead of shoot, strike or cast a spell I am relieved!

This playthorugh I am doing 2 lone-wolf glass cannon fighter mages, one with 2-handed sword and one sword and shield, since both party members are quite often in close proximity to enemies I have been using touch range spells with the last few action points left in any turn, this really is working pretty good, putting a frozen touch or a shocking touch on still standing enemies at the end of a round after killing as many enemies as possible with melee weapons and fighter skill moves works well. I really was not a fan of the touch range spells but they definatley have a niche in melee's, with a 5 or 7 meter reach they can outrange any melee hand-arm and stun or frozen shuts an enemy down for a bit until you can kill em.

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Oh, I didn't go Lone Wolf. It makes a big difference - Lone Wolf/Glass Cannon is a net gain in HP, while Glass Cannon on its own puts you at 1/3 of your normal HP on hard mode (from 75% to 25%). I think my fighter had 60-odd HP when I picked it up. Now that's a glass cannon for you smile Stealth kept her out of trouble for the most part though. As far as I know fighters don't get any vitality bonuses, just heavier armor if you spec strength. And you're right, they are terrifying damage dealers!

As for shields and defensive spells, seems like I'm the only one here who loves them! I see them as a more efficient way of healing in combat. One heal might net you half your health over three turns, but a single shield gives you 100% of your health immediately no matter how much you're missing, extra resists, a status immunity AND a status effect when people hit you. And you don't even need high int.

Back on topic, I didn't get much of a chance to use the cone spells. I'd be interested to hear whether you find them effective. Winterblast, at least, looks pretty good on paper.

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Ah, cone spells! the shotgun of spells, shortranged but wide area and high damage. I would think Stabbey's Inquisitor would be using them as well since the motif is short ranged spell use and what a speed build on a mage is best for and getting in close.

Wish there was a cone of fire, call it Dragonsbreath and a cone of electricity call it Arcing-shock or something like that.

Not terrible in close combat, I hate the persistent poison effect though so dont use it as much as I use winterblast which I do like, trouble is with the high AP cost on it I can usually get another sword-slash in instead so I only use it occasionally for variety or if I need to hit more than one target of course.


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Cone Spells are indeed going to be part of the build, but there are only really two: Acid Breath, which I have (and used in the level 12 fight video), and Winterblast, which requires level 16, so I can't use it yet.

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Yes, I've seen your Inquisitor using Acid Breath, funny Cone Spell laugh

I suppose you only go for the Cone Spells of mages ? Because "Divine Light" is also a Cone Spell, no ? (for a warrior to weaken enemies)

Edit : but I suppose you want Cone Spells that do "damage" wink

Last edited by Joram; 21/04/15 06:50 AM.

On 7th of february 2015 : I start a new adventure in the Divinity world of Original Sin,
it's a Fantastic Freaking Fabulous Funny ... it's my All Time Favorite One !
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I have considered picking up Divine Light for the penalty to bodybuilding/willpower, but it has the same issue the dexterity-based spells have: my stats (STR) aren't high enough to make it reliable. So it's not something to worry about now.

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Divine Light isnt all that useful to me ( Stabbeys right I wouldnt waste points on it), it does no damage, has limited duration, range, and wasting a fighter on doing that is a misuse of the fighters action points when they could be inflicting mayhem and havoc in the enemies ranks by attacking which is usually far more productive.

I think I used it once and immediately was not enamored with it.


Would I rather kill an enemy ( or more than one usually) and/or inflict huge amounts of damage on one, or debuff their willpower and bodybuilding so my mage can put a temporary status effect on them which may not affect the fight much at all?


In truth that ability seems odd for a fighter even to have, reducing bodybuilding and willpower will help mages but nothing the fighter usually afflicts an enemy with will be aided by that. Okay so its for the people who use fighters to support mages ( a strange and backward use to me, but it takes all kinds and there is no accounting for taste), rather than people who use mages to support fighters. Mages are artillery for me.

Winterblast is my favorite cone spell though, I used it a few times in last couple of sessions and I like that it does damage and can freeze an enemy.

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Divine Light is kind of handy for removing surfaces and clouds outside of combat, though.

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Hadnt tried it on an environmental effect, this I did not know, does the spell description mention that? That makes it a tiny bit more useful.

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No, the skill description doesn't mention that, in the release version.

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Hmmm well I am gonna give that a try, wish I had known but if it isnt in the description I wouldnt have had a clue, I have only used it like once or twice purely out of curiosity to see the animation. Then shelved it since it is not incredibly useful ( up until now).

Thanks Raze.

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I had to use of it once. A certain person that you might like to kill at one point has a ridiculous amount of resistances both to melee and magical damage. I had to use all the tricks I could find to reduce his resistances and Divine Light was one of them. It made a huge difference since spells had a high chance of success after it was used. The first spells I needed to use was debuf spells before I could use damage spells and regular attack. So don't rule it out completely...

The person in question is the wizard Arhu.



Last edited by ivra; 21/04/15 09:54 PM.
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I've used Divine Light to defrost my own characters smile That was only once or twice though.

It seems like the penalty to willpower stacks with Drain Willpower. I'm not sure if any enemies besides the Void Dragon have enough willpower for that to matter (it won't drain into the negatives) but I can see it being useful with the Source mod. I'll have to try it out this playthrough.

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yeah Ivra sounds like good advice to keep in mind, but in truth I have not found anything that does respond well to a 2-handed-sword and oath of desecration, Flurry and maxed out weapon skill and leadership buff! Thats my method for cracking tough nuts or any nuts for that matter.

Oh yeah never really tried to kill HIM maybe I should just to see what a really really resistant enemy is all about.

Tomato Hi! defrost characters...do you mean it unfreezes characters cause thats something it does not list in the description either?

This spell is turning into the swiss-army-spell!

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