Divinity: Original Sin 2

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:37 pm

Are there any bedrolls in Fort Joy? Apparently there were some on the ship but I missed them and now it's too late.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Fri Sep 15, 2017 3:03 pm

ColdSteel wrote:Are there any bedrolls in Fort Joy? Apparently there were some on the ship but I missed them and now it's too late.

There is one on a small hill before you enter the fort joy town.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Fri Sep 15, 2017 3:36 pm

Jaymann wrote:Pro Tip: Nails are precious, combine them with boots for non-slip boots. I waited until I got some epic boots.

That was one of my favorite recipes in the Original. Oddly it required a pretty high crafting skill. Is that still the case? There is something funny about needing to be a master craftsmen to pound some nails through the bottoms of shoes.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Fri Sep 15, 2017 3:57 pm

Lordnine wrote:
Jaymann wrote:Pro Tip: Nails are precious, combine them with boots for non-slip boots. I waited until I got some epic boots.
That was one of my favorite recipes in the Original. Oddly it required a pretty high crafting skill. Is that still the case? There is something funny about needing to be a master craftsmen to pound some nails through the bottoms of shoes.

No, and I have not seen any kind of crafting skill tree. In the first game I dedicated one of the companions to crafting, and switched them in when I need to pound those nails.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Fri Sep 15, 2017 4:39 pm

I own the first one. I've played about 30 minutes. Then I get distracted. I'm two levels away from finishing Batman Arkham Knight, but I have the night alone and it would be a good time start up Divinity Original Sin as the only thing that's going interrupt me would be our 10 month old dog.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Sep 15, 2017 8:55 pm

Jaymann wrote:
ColdSteel wrote:Are there any bedrolls in Fort Joy? Apparently there were some on the ship but I missed them and now it's too late.
There is one on a small hill before you enter the fort joy town.

The one with the shovel nearby? I found that one, and another one south of town. Thanks.

My characters are almost to level 3. Kind of slow going leveling wise but it's a blast. I think they really nailed this. The combat is quite challenging and items are expensive to buy. Thank goodness for pickpocketing (although that's a lot harder to get away with than in the previous game). I did have to turn off the narrator voiceovers. That just sounded stupid. It works great with just the character voices and the narration as text though. And at least they let you turn it off.

wire · Post by **wire** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 11:51 am

Man...I'm having a hell of a time deciding on my party makeup. I'm playing as Lohse and have The Red Prince and Ifan but now can't decide on picking up Fane or Sebille, or both of them and dropping Ifan or Prince. I haven't even gotten to Beast yet. Damn choices...

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 12:28 pm

wire wrote:now can't decide on picking up Fane or Sebille, or both of them and dropping Ifan or Prince.

I picked Sebille because she has the unique flesh eating memory skill and I needed her to have someone with thieving level 2 from the start (pick Shadowblade if you want that, Rogue gives you stealth instead). I went with Ifan because he comes with Pet Pal (with his Wayfarer default class) and I had to have it. Plus, bartering 3 is nice to save cash.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 4:13 pm

Well, I need to restart...I had just assumed that the black cat had run away, but apparently it was killed by an archer and could have been a pet later. Oh well.. not that far in I guess

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:15 pm

This game seems hard. Is it hard or do I just suck?

Perhaps my party isn't very well balanced. 4 players doesn't seem like enough and I think I am too melee focused. My initial group is:
Ifan - Fighter (that's my character)
Red Prince - Archer
Sebille - Rogue
Lohse - Cleric

There doesn't really seem to be much of a cleric role in the game (cooldown on the basic heal is 4 turns?) so maybe Lohse as a Cleric was a mistake. Three melee is really too many because there are too many AoE attacks. Can someone tell me a good party setup for this game? I had Beast as some kind of arcane, but dropped him for a healer. Now that I have seen some of the world, I am thinking of taking Fane as my primary because who wouldn't want to?

Now that I know you can pick up the others as companions and re-class them, I will look at them more closely in the character selection screen.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:30 pm

In the first one, the archers and casters were definitely over-powered. As for healing, we didn't use it that much at the beginning. Potions worked pretty well. Are they still an option in 2?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:32 pm

TheMix wrote:In the first one, the archers and casters were definitely over-powered. As for healing, we didn't use it that much at the beginning. Potions worked pretty well. Are they still an option in 2?

Potions are available for healing (and a healing ring fairly early), but I worry about availability and survivability. I don't really remember the first one. It has been a while. I just know I need less melee.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:52 pm

Game is super-hard - in fact I wound up turning down the difficulty to the easiest setting because I kept getting stomped.

There's a skill in the Huntsman tree called First Aid that lets you heal from a distance - I've used it a few times to save people when they get low on HP.

I played most of the day yesterday and got to what appears to be the end of of Act I. Really enjoying it so far.

The only annoyance is that every time i launch it on my Win10 PC it prompts to install a version of .NET and opens a Windows update screen which just hangs. If I kill that and start the game everything works- has anyone else run into that issue?

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 3:01 pm

Exodor wrote:Game is super-hard - in fact I wound up turning down the difficulty to the easiest setting because I kept getting stomped.

The only annoyance is that every time i launch it on my Win10 PC it prompts to install a version of .NET and opens a Windows update screen which just hangs. If I kill that and start the game everything works- has anyone else run into that issue?

Not sure if its related, I get a "Problem has occurred" error when launching the game (via Steam). Apparently it is trying to connect to the devs servers, probably trying to harvest and send data. I think I read where if you run the game with admin privileges it does not get hung up. I just wait it out since I do not want to be connecting to their server anyway.

As for the difficulty, I prefer easy mode on these type of games but went with classic this time because I was familiar with the original and the Explorer mode sounded like they removed a lot of combat altogether (instead of just making enemies weaker). Is that the case? One thing I try to do is approach the battle on my terms when possible. Often by teleporting fringe ranged to my group first, making the rest come to me. I have noticed several encounters that have different approaches, which can make a lot of difference especially if one gives you a height advantage instead of disadvantage.

Also, there have been some fights i examine the enemies and just "noped" on out of there, coming back when i have upgraded gear or a level or two.

I went with Beast as my main, battle-mage spec but currently leaning more toward warfare (I think I am like 4 warfare/2 air, maybe 4/3. He has a big, two-hander, which does a pretty good job.
Red Prince - kept his main spec, mostly warfare with a little geomancer, using 1hander and shield. Not really paid off much yet, but hopefully will as time goes on.
Sebille - kept main recommended spec (all skill points in scoundrel and dual wield?). She is tearing it up, probably my favorite so far in terms of damage and utility.
Lohse - kept main spec (enchanter?), leaning slightly more toward water, but keeping air coming up behind. I might start adding some fire levels to her soon though. I messed up a little on skill books and left her a little too weak on offense at the moment, but working toward ramping that up a little.

My group is obviously melee-centric, but its working out well so far. I have had to use the Resurrection scroll a few times as I have lost 1 character here or there during a big battle. I prioritize enemies based on their physical armor, weakest first. Usually this is casters and ranged, so works out well. I teleport them into my melee group (where they lose some physical armor just from the teleport fall) and focus on knocking that down to 0 and then use one of my various knockdown moves (fighters have two each themselves) to keep them down as I butcher them. This will often take out one of their numbers before I take much damage at all.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 3:07 pm

Toe wrote:As for the difficulty, I prefer easy mode on these type of games but went with classic this time because I was familiar with the original and the Explorer mode sounded like they removed a lot of combat altogether (instead of just making enemies weaker). Is that the case?

Nope, the only difference as far as I can tell (and have read) is a very large HP boost to your party members and possibly a HP cut for enemies. I haven't noticed any other obvious difference -the large combats are still pretty intense and the CPU is still happy to fling environmental effects at my characters.

My party is around level 6 now and could probably handle combat at the default Classic level but I'm enjoying the game on Explorer. If things get too easy I'll bump it up.

My party is:

Exodor - custom character focusing on the Huntsman line. I stand in the back and shoot things
The Red Prince - he's my melee character although I've given him a bit of magic for when enemies are elevated or behind a wall of fire
Beast - specced as his default battle-mage. he's my summoner- his job is to put an incarnate on the battle field, preferably in a field of fire created by...
Fane - mage. he sets things on fire, mostly.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 3:44 pm

Toe wrote:Not sure if its related, I get a "Problem has occurred" error when launching the game (via Steam). Apparently it is trying to connect to the devs servers, probably trying to harvest and send data.

The game has sold 500,000 copies already and there are 85,000 concurrent players on Steam today playing it. Larian said the big sales took them by surprise and their servers weren't ready for that kind of load. They're working on beefing them up. The good news is that the game is a resounding success by any measure.

Suitably Ironic Moniker · Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:37 pm

I've been crashing to desktop as soon as I load a savegame. I've started a new game, and reinstalled a couple of times, and a few other tricks I googled. Unfortunately, I still invariably crash, so I've uninstalled and will hopefully be able to play once a few more patches come down the line.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 5:13 pm

I get the same issue as Toe. I wait through the timeout cycle to play. It gives me time to reflect on my plan.

Speaking of plans, what level did you all walk out of Fort Joy for the first time? Feel free to spoiler your responses if that seems appropriate. I feel like I am out of achievable content and need to level up before I take on more, but I am not sure. Do you leave and come back when you've leveled up more?

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:24 pm

Anyone else finding the map of Ft. Joy a little confusing to navigate? It's all very monochromatic with little to differentiate one area from another. At times it reminds me of the Escher painting of the staircases headed in various directions.

Maybe I'm just old.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:18 pm

Make sure you play hide and seek with the boy in the elven cave outside of town

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:01 pm

This isn't really spoiler-y but it does reference later parts of the game:

Spoiler:

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 9:31 am

IceBear wrote:Make sure you play hide and seek with the boy in the elven cave outside of town

Just ran into this this morning. I restarted and am getting close to where I left off, but this is something I missed the first time. So many little things that are so easy to miss that could be big things.

Fane is my new main character, as a Knight.
Red Prince as a Summoner
Ifan as his default Wayfarer
Sebille as her default Rogue

I will play around with these a bit and see how it goes. I feel like I need more elemental coverage, but the summoner definitely changes things up.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:04 pm

I am kicking around restarting myself. My party is not great at combat (of course D:OS parties rarely survive in the beginning before they get a new bag of tricks). My main of Ibn as an Inquisitor seems squishy, although the blood sucking Necromantic skills keep him better afloat. The Red Prince is my warrior, and his isn't "wowing" me by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he seems to be missing a bit too much. Fane does well as a fire mage, although I am still working on NOT blowing up and burning my own party (hard to do when enemies get close and Fane's default wands are poison). Lastly, Sebille is doing fine as a Rogue, but I am trying to get practice getting her into position without triggering attacks of opportunity.

What I am missing is a ranged combatant. This makes me think I should have specc'ed the Red Prince as a Wayfarer rather than a warrior. My Inquisitor has enough warfare capabilities to be dangerous. What I would likely do differently is make Ibn my main and have him either be a Knight or Cleric with a bit more focus on the warfare skills than the cleric skills. Having Restoration is nice, but it is pretty easy to pick up at early levels.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:11 pm

baelthazar wrote:Sebille is doing fine as a Rogue, but I am trying to get practice getting her into position without triggering attacks of opportunity. .

I briefly had her in my party but I was really unimpressed. The Red Prince is my only melee guy and I don't really see the need for a rogue-type - I'd rather have another guy who can summon and throw fire around.

I've specced Beast as my summoner with a splash of thievery. So far he's been able to open any locks and disarm any traps we've come across .

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:16 pm

Exodor wrote:
baelthazar wrote:Sebille is doing fine as a Rogue, but I am trying to get practice getting her into position without triggering attacks of opportunity. .
I briefly had her in my party but I was really unimpressed. The Red Prince is my only melee guy and I don't really see the need for a rogue-type - I'd rather have another guy who can summon and throw fire around.

I've specced Beast as my summoner with a splash of thievery. So far he's been able to open any locks and disarm any traps we've come across .

I am not really into her story as much either. I am tempted to drop her for Lohse and speccing her as Summoner or Wayfarer.

Of course, like a moron, I forgot Ibn could summon a wolf. So that might help in a fight.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:44 pm

I kind of want to drop her too but getting clues and skills from eating body parts seems kind of useful

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 3:15 pm

You guys really not liking Sebille?? She has two 1 AP teleports (one is an attack, one just movement) and insane movement speed, making her my most mobile party member. She can often move behind an enemy using 0 AP (where another character would use 1-2 AP to move the same distance). And she has two skills that give more AP. While they give penalties after, I found them well worth it when you just can not afford to have an enemy have 1 more turn. I just picked up another skill that does good damage and bypasses physical armor, which comes in real handy if I get an enemy down in magic armor but not physical yet.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 5:48 pm

Toe wrote:You guys really not liking Sebille?? She has two 1 AP teleports (one is an attack, one just movement) and insane movement speed, making her my most mobile party member. She can often move behind an enemy using 0 AP (where another character would use 1-2 AP to move the same distance). And she has two skills that give more AP. While they give penalties after, I found them well worth it when you just can not afford to have an enemy have 1 more turn. I just picked up another skill that does good damage and bypasses physical armor, which comes in real handy if I get an enemy down in magic armor but not physical yet.

Amen, brother. Preach it! I chose the Shadowblade preset for Sebille which comes with the above plus some insanely useful polymorph skills like invisibility and the ability to turn foes into chickens. And also the Thievery skill, which is really useful. I never had to buy a spell book in the prison area because she stole them all. She has fly and teleport now too which are both awesome. She also does a LOT of damage with backstabs now that she has some decent daggers.

My main is Fane as a deathknight. Which is Knight + Necromancy for the healing. He does a ton of damage and makes a great tank. Between him and Sebille they wreck face in melee. Most battles, Fane never even takes damage because the AI doesn't seem to want to mess with him. They're more interested in attacking my more squishy party members.

I also have Ifan as a Wayfarer and I really like his ranged skills and utility added to the melee troops above. Lohse is my all purpose mage that does a lot of different things. Heal, CC, damage, summon, support (with bloodrain), she does it all. I'm really happy with my party mix. I've hit level 6 and just found the sanctuary. I still have most of the island outside the prison section to explore.

Edit: Also, Sebille has learned 4 skills from eating body parts. Useful skills.

wire · Post by **wire** » Tue Sep 19, 2017 6:58 pm

I just left Ft. Joy and cleared the entire fort of non-source collared NPC's before leaving.

My party:
Sebille - Ranger (my main)
Red Prince - Fighter (default)
Ifan - Rogue
Fane - Summoner

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:46 am

wire wrote:I just left Ft. Joy and cleared the entire fort of non-source collared NPC's before leaving.

It appears I will need to do this as well. I am not sure exactly what I did, but the Magisters attack me on sight now. *shrug. Die Magisters Die... though looking at Coldsteel's comments I am thinking about restarting yet again. Crowd control is pretty damn critical here. I am still learning what skills are useful.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:59 am

coopasonic wrote:Crowd control is pretty damn critical here.

That polymorph chicken skill is one of the best level 1 skills in the game. As soon as you take out the AI's armor you can turn them into a chicken for 2 turns. Great CC. Even better, the chicken always runs away (a looong way) so if you use the level 2 polymorph rupture tendons skill on them after you turn them into a chicken, they will run away and take terrific damage with every step. They basically kill themselves. It's an awesome combo so I hope it doesn't get nerfed. I've got level one polymorph on several characters, just for the chicken.

Edit: The Magisters start attacking you on sight after you escape and then come back. Kill them all for the XP and goodies they carry.

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 1:20 pm

I'm still waiting to receive my package. For some reason they shipped it from Germany to the US. Its taking forever.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 1:57 pm

coopasonic wrote:
wire wrote:I just left Ft. Joy and cleared the entire fort of non-source collared NPC's before leaving.
It appears I will need to do this as well. I am not sure exactly what I did, but the Magisters attack me on sight now. *shrug. Die Magisters Die... though looking at Coldsteel's comments I am thinking about restarting yet again. Crowd control is pretty damn critical here. I am still learning what skills are useful.

If you remove your collar through the arena or leave fort joy you become kos.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:00 pm

Yeah I left, but I thought I did it surreptitiously. Those damn silent monks...

That settles it. The magisters die.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:12 pm

Here is my favorite party:
Dwarf tank with two-handed and Warfare.
Elf Rogue dual wielding knives.
Lizard "cleric" with hydro, aero, and dual wielding swords.
Elf Ranger.

All 4 have heal (3 through items).
Later gave the cleric Warfare for the knockdown (and found an item with knockdown for my Rogue).
Cleric has teleport plus Ranger has the teleport gloves.

My go to strategy is sneak up to within range of teleport, pull one baddie (others will usually agro) and dogpile on removing physical armor until I can knockdown. Finish off that first guy then run from combat if needed. 3 of 4 have self teleport to get out of combat range. I try to avoid spells that cause friendly fire damage.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:20 pm

If I leave Ft. Joy before recruiting up to a full party of 4, do the other characters reappear so I can recruit them later?

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:47 pm

tgb wrote:If I leave Ft. Joy before recruiting up to a full party of 4, do the other characters reappear so I can recruit them later?

Yes.

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:24 pm

Jaymann wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
wire wrote:I just left Ft. Joy and cleared the entire fort of non-source collared NPC's before leaving.
It appears I will need to do this as well. I am not sure exactly what I did, but the Magisters attack me on sight now. *shrug. Die Magisters Die... though looking at Coldsteel's comments I am thinking about restarting yet again. Crowd control is pretty damn critical here. I am still learning what skills are useful.
If you remove your collar through the arena or leave fort joy you become kos.

Hmm, I think I removed my main's collar from the arena quest and, even though the tinkerer said the magisters would not be too happy, they did not turn agro. They only turned agro after I left the prison via the sewer and came back (with 3 character's collars still on).

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:37 pm

The damn black cat and my OCD is ruining the game for me. I keep trying to keep it alive and it either gets killed during a battle or disappears for no reason. I keep reloading but each time I eventually lose it, get pissed and stop wanting to play.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:41 pm

Tao wrote:The damn black cat and my OCD is ruining the game for me. I keep trying to keep it alive and it either gets killed during a battle or disappears for no reason. I keep reloading but each time I eventually lose it, get pissed and stop wanting to play.

That is really weird. I made no effort at all to keep the black cat alive. He never got killed once and I never had to reload. He would always just stay out of the way during combat so I never even thought of it. I'm glad he made it because his spell is super handy for my melee character.

If he just disappears, don't worry about that. He always shows up again as long as he wasn't outright killed. If you don't see his body then I wouldn't worry.