honestly this is stupid idea for beginers, as they would miss all other characters, which in my opinion you dont want to as new player, you want to see the game normaly
A four character build is not much use to a beginner who quits after a couple of hours. I think a two character setup is great for beginners, specially if they are messing around with co-op.
Pretty good guide. One thing i do disagree on is 1 in blacksmithing. I find, especially on a lone wolf playthrough as the incoming durability damage is coming in to two characters rather than four, its a massive quality of life boost. Saves so much time IMO.
This is horrible advice for new players. 4 player party is infinitely better than 2x lone wolf. You get more total AP and health, and you are less susceptible to crowd control as long as you don't stack all of your party members in one spot like a moron. Also, Leadership is much more effective in a large party. The only advantages of a lone wolf party are lower cost, since you have to learn half as many spells, and higher total skill points, since you can't really specialise in D:OS, so each party member has to have most spell/ability schools. However, the money is not an issue past lvl 7 because you can just buy 10 gold items which allow you to craft and resell for 300+ gold. The skill points are also a moot point, because a party that can recruit followers can use some of them as crafting/bartering monkeys, saving skill points on the main chars. Anyway, for anyone struggling to make an effective party: 1. For the first 15 levels, a massive source of damage and crowd control will be special arrows and grenades. Get Pinpoint and Slingshot on at least one of your main chars right away. Empty bottle + Oil barrel and Rope + Rope give you bottle with oil + fuse, which combine into a fire grenade. Arrowhead + ooze barrel give you poison arrowheads + arrow shaft gets you poison arrows. You can craft hundreds of those easily. Combining poison and fire creates an explosion. You get the idea. 2. Unlock the Hall of heroes by lvl 6, and hire Ellena, she is the best follower in the game due to having tons of skill points and decent stat allocation. Buy her a book of Drain willpower and give her a low lvl bow with low dex requirement. Craft stun arrows (tooth + knife for the arrowhead + shaft gives you the arrow, buy teeth at each levelup). Stack initiative items on her. At the beginning of each boss fight, cast Drain Willpower on the boss, followed by a stun arrow. Keep chaining stuns and the boss is trivial. 3. Like I said, after lvl 7 just craft swords (iron + anvil) and robes/leather armor (cloth/leather scraps + magical needle and thread, which is just needle and thread + pixie dust) to sell. You don't need crafting/blacksmithing on your main chars, get it on Bairdaughtr or the rogue since they are both terrible henchmen. Use bonuses from belts and gloves to always craft at skill lvl 5 for stat bonuses on items. Btw, crafted weapons are the best, craft a set for your party at each levelup. Keep the swords with +1 max AP attribute, the rest can be melted in the furnace and recrafted at the anvil. When asked which room to unlock (3rd crystal, I think), unlock the ice room. At every levelup, buy all of the water essences you can find (the ice elemental always sells them, but so do crafting and spell merchants sometimes). The point is that water essence + empty grenade (you can buy tons of those from crafting merchants) give you frost grenade, which is the best crowd control ability until lvl 15. Not only does it freeze in an aoe, it creates a surface that causes knockdown. 4. In order to buy/craft early game stuff, steal everything in Cyseal. Gold plates, gold cups and paintings can be sold, there are tons of special arrows lying around, steal all of the empty bottles for crafting grenades... In order to do this, one of your chars has to start with 1 in Scoundrel and Shadow step. 5. Get lvl 1 in each school except marksman and man at arms, since those depend on the kind of weapons you use. Put Witchcraft 2 on everyone for summon Skeletal decapitator, and put air and water spells to at least 4 on everyone. The reason is that you want to learn Hail and Storm on each char. After lvl 15, your turn should be Adrenaline -> Hail -> Storm with every char in non-boss fights, and in boss fights you also need Drain willpower on the boss, followed by melee/bow attacks from your main attacker. 6. One of your char needs lvl 5 Marksman skills. 1-2 chars should use dual wield dagger + sword/axe, with 3 Scoundrel (Daggers drawn) and 4 Man at arms (Flurry, Whirlwind). The rest should dual daggers with speed bonuses. Get decent int and dev on everyone, and get some str on the guys with man at arms. Don't invest much in spd/per/con since they can be boosted via items. 2x dagger can get you +3 spd, bows and helms give you per (you don't need it for melee) and you can craft rings that give you con. You can respec after unlocking some rooms, so experiment, but keep in mind that all of your spells will be deleted, so delay learning unique/expensive skills until you like your char. If you don't mind spending time/money on a respec, start one of your chars with light step and pet pal, to detect secrets and unlock extra quests. 7. Some of the dialogue options will give you bonuses depending on your attitude. Get the ones that give you immunities, most importantly to fear and charm! That should be all you need to know to do DA:O on tactician. Just keep everyone stunned, poisoned and on fire and you should have no problems.
I like most info in this video and actually liked the video, but I personally don't think 4 player parties are an issue for beginners. The biggest issue is not understanding how Attributes, Abilities, Traits and Talents are supposed to work and synergize together and by the time you figure it out it's already too late. Everyone I know that has played or is still playing this game has had to start over after a few hours, sometimes more than once. Simple things like not knowing how helpful making food is in the game. Combining a meal that gives the character only positive effects with the Five Star Dinner Talent makes that character self sustainable. That's one less character your mages need to heal and that is time best spent on causing status effects and damage to the enemy. Healing potions are expensive early game and latter on once you're able to craft them they still don't give that extra point (or two with Five Star Dinner) in your primary Attribute stat that can actually help you in battle. Food is very underrated in this game.
This is more of a "Do what I did..." or a specific build type... As I like to roleplay, I don't steal everything just for money, I wouldn't play a lone wolf, and what if I build a melee touch spell based mage?
No problem. As I said in the start of the video, this is if you are having trouble getting out of Cyceal; Or did you skip that part?; Sure, maybe I needed a different title, but I couldn't think of one; and if you had listened to the first part of the video where I explained why I made the video, then you shouldn't be asking this.; As for your question... If you don't steal everything for money, if you don't play lone wolf, if you play a touch based mage, ... if you get out of Cyceal without lowering the difficulty you must be an expert;at the game.; I tried that.; I wasn't an expert.; I couldn't do it.; I needed a smarter plan from square one.
I just bought the game! Now im watching this beginners guide, and I think its very nice and helpful. Personally id rather have a guide with a classic party of 4 instead of two guys with lonewolf, since its a beginners guide. But it was very helpful so thanks for the video
Thanks. I was thinking about it... My problem with 4 characters is that I keep running out of action points, anyone who doesn't stay at range takes too much damage, and magic is more flexible than archery. Fighters that move in will take too much damage and also interfere or get caught in my magic AOEs. So, those strategies would not be for beginners. For beginners, if you insist on having a 4-person party, I'd say two mages and recruit two mages. Then, all of my other advice regarding keeping at range. summoning, etc. would still apply. You'd have 4 summons. Your guys would not have the higher hit points, action points, or ability points, so you'd have to coordinate the castings very carefully. P.S. I did successfully complete the entire game with those two characters.
JD Wolf Thank you for the reply, I'm sure it's a valid strategy but at least for my first play through I'm enjoying the role playing aspect of having a team of four. I also like the minor comments and different personalities a bigger team brings. I'm beginning to get a hang of the game but it also took me roughly 12 hours :). I have two mages, a rogue and a tank and I'm playing on the second difficulty(can't remember the name of it) If I decide to play through it again I will try your doublemage strategy. Even though I'm a little worried about the squishyness :D. Guess those spiders do wonders
Thanks for making the guide. Me and friend started to play this game and having a hard time to level up and stay alive. We were about to dump this game but decided to look up a beginners guide and found yours. Anyone complain this is not helpful they don't know what they are talking about because they are not looking from a beginner perspective. I am sure there are many other way to build it but this will certainly help us to get through the bump and allow us to actually feel what the game is about. Now with the tips may be we can pick up on this game again. Thx
Hey dude, me and my buddy just started playing Divinity (classic version) and found that our party just kept getting destroyed at every encounter. Think I'm going to try convince him to restart with a group kinda like this and see how things turn out. Good video! Keep 'em coming!
hi guys, i started with game without knowing anything in Tactician mode (more enemies) i started with a knight and ranger. i want to restart again with new characters, do you know what is the best duo for you ?
What i appreciate about this game is that it is RSI friendly, no buttons mashing to have fun!!
honestly this is stupid idea for beginers, as they would miss all other characters, which in my opinion you dont want to as new player, you want to see the game normaly
A four character build is not much use to a beginner who quits after a couple of hours. I think a two character setup is great for beginners, specially if they are messing around with co-op.
Agree
Pretty good guide. One thing i do disagree on is 1 in blacksmithing. I find, especially on a lone wolf playthrough as the incoming durability damage is coming in to two characters rather than four, its a massive quality of life boost. Saves so much time IMO.
This is horrible advice for new players. 4 player party is infinitely better than 2x lone wolf. You get more total AP and health, and you are less susceptible to crowd control as long as you don't stack all of your party members in one spot like a moron. Also, Leadership is much more effective in a large party. The only advantages of a lone wolf party are lower cost, since you have to learn half as many spells, and higher total skill points, since you can't really specialise in D:OS, so each party member has to have most spell/ability schools. However, the money is not an issue past lvl 7 because you can just buy 10 gold items which allow you to craft and resell for 300+ gold. The skill points are also a moot point, because a party that can recruit followers can use some of them as crafting/bartering monkeys, saving skill points on the main chars.
Anyway, for anyone struggling to make an effective party:
1. For the first 15 levels, a massive source of damage and crowd control will be special arrows and grenades. Get Pinpoint and Slingshot on at least one of your main chars right away. Empty bottle + Oil barrel and Rope + Rope give you bottle with oil + fuse, which combine into a fire grenade. Arrowhead + ooze barrel give you poison arrowheads + arrow shaft gets you poison arrows. You can craft hundreds of those easily. Combining poison and fire creates an explosion. You get the idea.
2. Unlock the Hall of heroes by lvl 6, and hire Ellena, she is the best follower in the game due to having tons of skill points and decent stat allocation. Buy her a book of Drain willpower and give her a low lvl bow with low dex requirement. Craft stun arrows (tooth + knife for the arrowhead + shaft gives you the arrow, buy teeth at each levelup). Stack initiative items on her. At the beginning of each boss fight, cast Drain Willpower on the boss, followed by a stun arrow. Keep chaining stuns and the boss is trivial.
3. Like I said, after lvl 7 just craft swords (iron + anvil) and robes/leather armor (cloth/leather scraps + magical needle and thread, which is just needle and thread + pixie dust) to sell. You don't need crafting/blacksmithing on your main chars, get it on Bairdaughtr or the rogue since they are both terrible henchmen. Use bonuses from belts and gloves to always craft at skill lvl 5 for stat bonuses on items. Btw, crafted weapons are the best, craft a set for your party at each levelup. Keep the swords with +1 max AP attribute, the rest can be melted in the furnace and recrafted at the anvil. When asked which room to unlock (3rd crystal, I think), unlock the ice room. At every levelup, buy all of the water essences you can find (the ice elemental always sells them, but so do crafting and spell merchants sometimes). The point is that water essence + empty grenade (you can buy tons of those from crafting merchants) give you frost grenade, which is the best crowd control ability until lvl 15. Not only does it freeze in an aoe, it creates a surface that causes knockdown.
4. In order to buy/craft early game stuff, steal everything in Cyseal. Gold plates, gold cups and paintings can be sold, there are tons of special arrows lying around, steal all of the empty bottles for crafting grenades... In order to do this, one of your chars has to start with 1 in Scoundrel and Shadow step.
5. Get lvl 1 in each school except marksman and man at arms, since those depend on the kind of weapons you use. Put Witchcraft 2 on everyone for summon Skeletal decapitator, and put air and water spells to at least 4 on everyone. The reason is that you want to learn Hail and Storm on each char. After lvl 15, your turn should be Adrenaline -> Hail -> Storm with every char in non-boss fights, and in boss fights you also need Drain willpower on the boss, followed by melee/bow attacks from your main attacker.
6. One of your char needs lvl 5 Marksman skills. 1-2 chars should use dual wield dagger + sword/axe, with 3 Scoundrel (Daggers drawn) and 4 Man at arms (Flurry, Whirlwind). The rest should dual daggers with speed bonuses. Get decent int and dev on everyone, and get some str on the guys with man at arms. Don't invest much in spd/per/con since they can be boosted via items. 2x dagger can get you +3 spd, bows and helms give you per (you don't need it for melee) and you can craft rings that give you con. You can respec after unlocking some rooms, so experiment, but keep in mind that all of your spells will be deleted, so delay learning unique/expensive skills until you like your char. If you don't mind spending time/money on a respec, start one of your chars with light step and pet pal, to detect secrets and unlock extra quests.
7. Some of the dialogue options will give you bonuses depending on your attitude. Get the ones that give you immunities, most importantly to fear and charm!
That should be all you need to know to do DA:O on tactician. Just keep everyone stunned, poisoned and on fire and you should have no problems.
I like most info in this video and actually liked the video, but I personally don't think 4 player parties are an issue for beginners. The biggest issue is not understanding how Attributes, Abilities, Traits and Talents are supposed to work and synergize together and by the time you figure it out it's already too late. Everyone I know that has played or is still playing this game has had to start over after a few hours, sometimes more than once. Simple things like not knowing how helpful making food is in the game. Combining a meal that gives the character only positive effects with the Five Star Dinner Talent makes that character self sustainable. That's one less character your mages need to heal and that is time best spent on causing status effects and damage to the enemy. Healing potions are expensive early game and latter on once you're able to craft them they still don't give that extra point (or two with Five Star Dinner) in your primary Attribute stat that can actually help you in battle. Food is very underrated in this game.
This is more of a "Do what I did..." or a specific build type... As I like to roleplay, I don't steal everything just for money, I wouldn't play a lone wolf, and what if I build a melee touch spell based mage?
No problem. As I said in the start of the video, this is if you are having trouble getting out of Cyceal; Or did you skip that part?; Sure, maybe I needed a different title, but I couldn't think of one; and if you had listened to the first part of the video where I explained why I made the video, then you shouldn't be asking this.; As for your question...
If you don't steal everything for money, if you don't play lone wolf, if you play a touch based mage, ... if you get out of Cyceal without lowering the difficulty you must be an expert;at the game.; I tried that.; I wasn't an expert.; I couldn't do it.; I needed a smarter plan from square one.
man this looks pretty cool. I'll defiantly try this, thanks man great video!
Lot's a great information here. Well done!
Love this guide! help full and with great commentary... I Enjoyed watching this video has helped me a lot thanks. Liked and Subscribed.
I just bought the game! Now im watching this beginners guide, and I think its very nice and helpful. Personally id rather have a guide with a classic party of 4 instead of two guys with lonewolf, since its a beginners guide.
But it was very helpful so thanks for the video
Thanks.
I was thinking about it... My problem with 4 characters is that I keep running out of action points, anyone who doesn't stay at range takes too much damage, and magic is more flexible than archery. Fighters that move in will take too much damage and also interfere or get caught in my magic AOEs. So, those strategies would not be for beginners. For beginners, if you insist on having a 4-person party, I'd say two mages and recruit two mages. Then, all of my other advice regarding keeping at range. summoning, etc. would still apply. You'd have 4 summons. Your guys would not have the higher hit points, action points, or ability points, so you'd have to coordinate the castings very carefully.
P.S. I did successfully complete the entire game with those two characters.
JD Wolf Thank you for the reply, I'm sure it's a valid strategy but at least for my first play through I'm enjoying the role playing aspect of having a team of four. I also like the minor comments and different personalities a bigger team brings. I'm beginning to get a hang of the game but it also took me roughly 12 hours :). I have two mages, a rogue and a tank and I'm playing on the second difficulty(can't remember the name of it)
If I decide to play through it again I will try your doublemage strategy. Even though I'm a little worried about the squishyness :D. Guess those spiders do wonders
How about to use those 2 mages together with 2 archers? Let the summons take the damage and the damage will increase a lot!
This game is hard asf.... I find myself running around not knowing what to do. How do you know what you should be doing?
Hey JD Wolf, you still around?
Thanks for making the guide. Me and friend started to play this game and having a hard time to level up and stay alive. We were about to dump this game but decided to look up a beginners guide and found yours. Anyone complain this is not helpful they don't know what they are talking about because they are not looking from a beginner perspective. I am sure there are many other way to build it but this will certainly help us to get through the bump and allow us to actually feel what the game is about. Now with the tips may be we can pick up on this game again. Thx
Awesome! Good luck!
Awesome guide, because of this video I decided to start a new game, because I suck at my last playthrough. I play on PS4
I dont have Far out Man on my Talent List?
Hey dude, me and my buddy just started playing Divinity (classic version) and found that our party just kept getting destroyed at every encounter. Think I'm going to try convince him to restart with a group kinda like this and see how things turn out. Good video! Keep 'em coming!
hi guys, i started with game without knowing anything in Tactician mode (more enemies)
i started with a knight and ranger.
i want to restart again with new characters, do you know what is the best duo for you ?
Knight and ranger sounds awesome. Pick up Jahan for sure.
so can you just not play a warrior in this game cause that really sucks