Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Companion preset review: discussion focal point

Hey guys,I decided to make one more post in this title where I link all my previous posts within this 1 thread and explain why I judged the presets the way I did.
I've put a high emphasis on early level game play because I believe that in order to reach the late game,you need a functional party to get past though encounters like boss fights.

To have a functional party you need party members that are competent at the role/preset you assign to them and if by level 4 the chosen preset can't function the way they it says in the description, then I believe that preset should be looked at a bit. This is also why,I give more weight than most players to the +2 stat bonuses from racials ,because it is better to have stats that provide an imediate bonus to you imediately,rather having a +2 bonus in a stat that will remain unused/obscure to your companion's playstyle.

Thanks to D:OS 2's level up system you can change or add new roles to your character with ease, but it is harder to do so if the party member you want to upgrade is a dead weight in the sense that he can't do his currently asinged role properly, right?

This review series should serve as a source of inspiration to new players and serve as a discusion point for advanced players to help improve these presets. Intialy it was made to help out Larian balance out the presets...but it seems that all they need to do is update the description for fighter and inquisitor.

Before listing the links for each individual companion (except the undead one,that will take a couple of months to make) I would like to add my overview of the presets - they are great and more flexible than I imagined before I started this series.

However it should be noted that at the moment there are 2 presets that feature missleading description as to how they are supposed to be used - fighter and inquisitor. Inquisitor's playstyle fits the description of the fighter preset best, because having high inteligence synergizes with both necromancy and the weapon loadout fighters get (sword and board- more inteligence more magic armor from the board).

What is even more intriguing is the notion that Larian may have given the Contamination skill to the fighter preset as a junk skill which is to be removed ASAP for something more usefull (unless going for a full zombie party,where contamination is an aoe heal that doesn't target properly).

Please check out my companion preset review series as to how I believe those missleadingly described presets can/could be used.

Red Prince: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=604699#Post604699

Sebile: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=605016#Post605016

Beast: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=605162#Post605162

Loshe and Ifan: http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=605208&#Post605208

Two attribute points are hardly going to bring a character from optimized to dead weight. It's a 10% damage boost, hardly noticeable when you're dealing 10-30 damage. If you can't reach level 4 with two useless attributes for your class, than that's what explorer mode is for.

Just another reason that primary attributes (int/str/fin) are a bad way to differentiate races: no matter how small the bonus is, people will latch onto them.

Fighter should probably be a pure warfare build, and knight changed to warfare/hydrosophist. Fighter does not imply to most people a warrior/spellcaster mix.



Dunno why Larian would purposely give a preset a useless skill. Contamination is just poorly tuned (not enough damage for how risky it is, and should target zombie allies.)

I disagree with you on this because it is not just the racial alone,but the stats gained from the preset + the racials that helps make and brake some presets. Past level 4 some combinations which I find bad,can be made berable but it would take some more hassle compared to what I rated as good.

For instance inquisitor on a lizzard is complete mess until level 4 when you get a stat relevant in a physical melee weapon that is as high as your inteligence stat. Past levels 2,3 or 4 it won't be a dead weight with non magical melee weapon but things would have been a lot easier/enemies would have died a lot faster if you chose a non lizzard to act as the party's inquisitor.




It's like I said,so we can remove it for something else...so we don't have to invest in memory during the early levels. Also, I feel that fighter was desinged as it was to make it easier to transition towards a paladin like party member.

If that's Larian's logic, that would be dumb. Why not instead just give a USEFUL skill for free instead of forcing players to spend gold to replace a useless skill?

Well that will be the only logic until the Zombie talent is removed. While the zombie talent is in the game the fighter also dubs as the cleric preset for an all zombie party.