Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Help/Tips/Tricks The point of the Inquisitor preset class?

So, I saw the new Inquisitor preset class in EE, and I wanted to try it out pretty much as is, switching Aerotheurge for Geomancer.

However, soon I had a thought. What's the point of the dual wands on a mage with 3 schools? I mean, the dual wands do good damage, certainly, but they cost two whole skills, dual wield and wand. That is a huge investment. When would I get the opportunity to actually make use of the wands, later on, when I have 3 skill bars full of spells?

I've only played the original a while ago for a bit, so maybe I am wrong. In you experience, does a Glass Cannon 3 school mage actually ever have spare action points to use for staffs/wands? Or maybe the wands are actually so powerful as to make them better than spells for single targets?

It just seems much more useful to go with wand and shield, or simply staff... advice?

I was actually curious about that myself. I've been reading about the idea behind Inquisitor and its creation (props to Stabbey: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=564105). But what the whole question really comes down to is: what is the benefit of dual wands vs staves?

The way I see the dual-wield + wand thing is that in D:OS 1, it's unlikely that you'll be able to max all five of your starting skills anyway. I think Larian didn't want to make the Inquisitor a class with 5 skill schools, because that would seem unfocused (for good reason). I suppose they COULD have put Willpower in, but hey, they also wanted to show off their fancy new Wands and Dual Wielding, so why not throw those in.

Another point is that in vanilla, you only needed to get two schools up to 4 to get their ultimate close-range spells. (They were Frostbreath for Hydrosophist and Death Punch for Witchcraft.) You didn't need to spend the full 5 points to max a school out.

My EE Inquisitor might get Dual Wielding up to 2 or 3 eventually, but it probably won't be worrying about wand combat much.

I will say that the EE Inquisitor is already a lot easier to get started than it was in vanilla, where you only had Burning Touch until level 4, and some others needed level 7 or higher. From the start of the EE you can get Burning, Shocking and Vampiric touch.

I also would be quite wary of taking Glass Cannon on the Inquisitor, since they are a fairly close range class, and should probably be spending most of their attributes onto INT and SPD. My Inquisitor at level 18 has 21 INT and 19 speed, moves over 7 meters per AP, and can hit enemies with touch range spells from 5 meters away.

I think Shields require STR to use, and if that is the case, then it's not worthwhile enough to bother investing all the STR points you would need to use the decent ones.

Ok, good to know. Couple questions: Do you know if leveling Aero and/or INT increase the range of Thunder Jump? Also, would use suggest going straight to Death Punch first? Thanks.

1. Almost certainly not. But I can't be sure.

2. It can't really be done in vanilla, since Death Punch is a level 16 skill. Skills still have level requirements in EE, and I have no reason to suspect that Death Punch is any different. So there's no rush to get Death Punch.

I am building my current EE Inquisitor to get water, for Restoration and Freezing Touch. I already picked up Shocking Touch. In a few levels, when I can pick up Earth, I'll get Petrifying Touch to complete the elemental quartet. Just the fact that at level 2 I can (money permitting) have four touch-skills is a real testament to the design changes, since that just wasn't possible in vanilla.

I'm probably also going to spec into Scoundrel 2 for Swift Footed's movement bonus and pick up Avoid Opportunists as one of my later Talents.

But surely, if you are not bothering much with the wands, then you are much better of just playing a normal mage. 2 extra skills half invested are quite a handycap. I've started a mage myself and the best use I found for wands is basically as beefed up scrolls. Use their special abilities and then drop em.

It feels to me that the dual wand mage is supposed to be a different beast altogether, perhaps a mage who focuses only on one school, and uses his wands for the rest of the damage.

For mages that want to focus on the classic 3-4 schools, the wands feel like a waste of point that is only useful for the first area.

You are correct in that wands have nothing to do with the Inquisitor. I made an Inquisitor in vanilla, which obviously doesn't even have wands.

The difference between the Inquisitor and the traditional mage is that the close-range focus an Inquisitor has, investing heavily into Speed, getting close to enemies, and using touch-range and close range spells (which have short cooldowns and low AP costs).




So unallocate those points at character creation and put them into something else, problem solved.

Every single preset in the entire game (except the EE Rogue) starts out with 1 point into five abilities. Exactly ZERO (0), nada, zilch, none, zippo of them can possibly get the necessary 75 ability points they need to max out all five of those abilities through normal play. Those two extra points are going to "go to waste" regardless.

So I do not understand why you are so hung up about the wands when every single other class has the same problem.

Ooook then, not much up for discussion then? I am simply trying to figure out what to do as I keep remaking my character.

To me wands seem the defining element of the class, given that you will learn most spells from the other schools anyways. I did not really consider him starting with some punch spells that significant.

The inquisitor seemed to be "The mage that starts with a specialty in dual wand weapons", not "the mage that punches things". That is in the end what I am trying to discuss... Close range spells make sense as a backup to the wands, but clearly the wands are the new feature that makes a new archetype necessary in the game.

Mods, feel free to change the subject to "Is investing in dual wand attacks worth it on a full mage?"

I would be interested in knowing if:
1. Wands are viable mid to late game.
2. Can I create a Inquisitor that focuses on wands (at the cost of magic), and will he will be under-powered or downright un-viable?

Also, anyone have a build that they have tried for an Inquisitor? Whats the late game scenario with reference to distribution of points on wands versus the rest.