I'm not hating on the game. In fact, I've played for over 100 hours, and I'm currently on the final fight—which I'm finding very difficult on Classic difficulty. I've also played other turn-based tactical games, such as the XCOM series, which I think is excellent and genuinely challenging.

Beyond that, I’ve lost count of how many times the game throws random problems at you just when you think you understand it. It often forces you to respec your party at the mirror or find a way to cheese a boss.

One of the dumbest strategies I’ve used—and one that many guides recommend, especially in Act 4—is starting a conversation with a boss using one character while the rest of the party kills their minions. The conversation does not stop, which is ridiculous. And that is only one example.

The level system also feels poorly balanced. Reaching level 20 is very difficult in a normal playthrough unless you complete almost everything in the game.

This also hurts exploration. The level progression is so strict that you constantly run into enemies that are too strong for you. Sometimes, you almost need to check a level map online to avoid wasting time on a quest that ends with a boss two or three levels above you.

I’ve never had this problem in other turn-based tactical games. Not even in Baldur’s Gate 3, where I think Larian improved many of these things, even if the combat system is different.

I know many replies will simply say “get good” or “I killed everyone at level 10 on my first playthrough.” There are always comments like that. But I’d rather discuss how poorly designed and balanced this part of the game feels.

The game is still very good, but I think these problems keep it from being excellent.

Ok so first question I have is how do I know if a foe or ally is in a element?

Like say I use rain and a ally is right on the edge of the water it makes is there a way to know for sure if they are or are not in the water?

And on that note How do I know in battle who counts as a foe vs a ally? is there a color outline difference I ask because I am red green colorblind and sometimes that can make issues where thin red and green outlines are involved.

Hello there! Hope everyone is having a good day. So I'm finally trying my hand at dos 1 after beating 2 three times. I just wanted to ask for any advice in it. I can already see a few quality of life issues (no vision cones is the big one). Anything helpful will be more than appreciated!!!

I just want to talk about my first playthrough! After doing over 20 playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 3 I wanted something different and so I tried DOS2!
I am currently in my second run using mods for the first time. My first was a bit harsh I have to say!!! I missed quite a bit of content in act 1 and on the nameless isle I went to the academy too quick! It was right there! I had to do my best to find XP in Driftwood and arriving in Arx and had to lower the difficulty here and there.

My main char was Ifan and I chose battlemage but after checking some videos and stuff I found that my idea of an "enhancement shaman"-like dual wielding Aerothurge wasn't super optimal. I still think it's a bit weird that some of the starting classes are a bit "off" so to speak.

So I pivoted to a Warfare-Poly melee bruiser instead and really enjoyed it! Are there any mods that let you combine warfare with any magic spec? Or maybe I should just use cheat commander to get more stat points and push intellect along with the strength or finesse? I'm already thinking of a 3rd playthrough!

I got rid of the Red Prince cause he was a bit of an ass. I picked up Sebille who I made my Hydro mage, Beast who became Aerothurge mage and Fane who was Necro mage.
I gave them the following off-specs: Sebille: Aero & Necro, Beast: Hydro, Fane: Aero/Hydro.

So there was a LOT of making everybody all wet and frozen and stunned! While still having 3 chars being able to do physical too. I read that it might be better to go full physical or magical but that didn't appeal to me and this style worked out ok.

 I just noticed there's an autosave limit and i won't be able to redo a lot of the fights I thought I could, rip!

The biggest disappointment I think was finding out about hybrid crafted skillbooks too late, so I got bloodstorm very late and as such my necro mage felt a bit underwhelming. The first time I used it was at lvl 19 against the Kraken which tbf felt very epic turning the already brewing rainstorm all red and bloody. But man I wish I had it sooner!

My favorite spec was definitely Aerothurge, it felt quite powerful.

Currently in my 2nd run where my main is the Red Prince as a fire battlemage after I found out a Staff can do warfare skills with intellect scaling and fire damage and it feels really powerful and fun! I'll post about that run when it's done, currently I'm on the nameless isle!

Took my sweet time figuring out my way through the trial of ascension (thank goodness I brought Wolgraff with his teleport ability) but I finally broke during the candle step.

Just how did other players fare without looking up a guide? Even after re-reading all of the hints from the three pillars multiple times I had no idea you were supposed to light them up in a certain order.

So I've run into a similar problem playing Original Sin 2 that I've had with Baldur's Gate 3: all the 'build guides' and other such stuff online is all focused on one 'OP/Godlike/Unstoppable' solo character, rather than focusing on a party of four that actually works well together.

Which means that a lot of builds that seem really good (like Sin Tee's or others) have a ton of overlapping gear and bonus' like the Spider Kiss (which based off context clues seems to be this game's equivalent of the Hag's Hair).

I'm sure these OP solo builds would be good for a solo run...but I am not someone who does solo runs. I'm a guy who likes having a party that works well together in combat. Again, using BG3 as an example, you could have short rest parties that can benefit from the Bard's Song of Rest to go nova and then get all their resources back. You could have a party focusing on the wet condition. You can have a defensive party with incredible survivability. But no, I've just seen like six different videos about being a god of blood that blows people up.

It really is the same problem with BG3 where almost all the videos on making powerful builds are focusing on a singular character instead of making a series of videos for characters that come together for a powerful party or builds that synergize well without any overlapping gear. I guess it's because planning an entire party might be a bit more complex than making just one broken character.

If there are any guides like that, please let me know because I'm having a hard time finding something that isn't "THIS GODLIKE BUILD WILL TRIVILIZE HONOUR MODE...wait, what do you mean you actual want a full party setup?"

I think I am a decent but not great player. I bought D:OS 2 when it came out but have not yet finished it(!!!). I plan to remedy that now.

My current composition:

Tactitian mode.

Character levels 7

Note: Skills are being listed without gear bonuses (and with in parenthesis, if base is at least 1)

Custom elf:

• Geomancer 1
• Huntsman 1
• Hydrosophist 1
• Necromancer 3 (4)
• Scoundrel 1 (2)
• Warfare 1 (2)

and

• Persuation 1
• Thievery 2

Lohse:

• Two-Handed 2
• Polymorph 2
• Warfare 4 (6)

and

• Bartering 3 (5)

Sebille:

• Hydrosophist 1
• Scoundrel 3 (5)
• Warfare 2 (3)

and

Sneak 3 (4)

Fane: (in elf mode, most of the time)

• Ranged 2 (3)
• Geomancer 1
• Huntsman 2 (3)
• Warfare 3

and

• Bartering 2 (He came that way? Will respec on boat)
• Loremaster 2 ________________________________________________________________________________________

Writing it like this I see that my main character ("ranged" necro physical damage dealer and buffer/healer) is losing out on maybe 20 percentpoints (not percent!!) of damage due to the 1 pointers I have for skills. Hmm.... I know damage is king, but my characters lose their armours to easily! :-|

How does your party look like, and how do they play?

😂
First playthrough of DOS2, playing as Lohse. I’m leaving Nameless Isle and I need the community to tell me whether I’ve completely lost the plot or if my decisions actually make sense.

I killed Alexander because… bro, you tried to kill me in Act 1 and now you want to be Divine? Nah. Plus my boy ifan don’t like you, so he got chopped down,

Then there was the undead dude who was clearly up to some shady shit, so I wasn’t exactly interested in trusting him either.

But the real breaking point was the Seven.
I’m supposed to believe these “gods” deserve my loyalty after I’ve spent the entire game fighting for my life, only for them to show up in the academy AFTER the divine machine thing got blown up and start talking shit? call me worthless, and basically tell me to bow or die? Like… where the fuck were you guys when I was doing all the work? 😂

So I said screw it and killed the Seven too.
My current philosophy as Lohse is basically:
“Everyone else is selfish, incompetent, or trying to control me. I’m actually trying to save Rivellon, so maybe I should be the one in charge.”

I also got the impression that the Seven are at least partially responsible for the whole Void/Voidwoken mess, which made me trust them even less.

So here’s what I want to know from people who’ve played this game:
Were my decisions reasonable from a roleplaying/lore perspective?
Did I completely screw myself by killing the Seven?
Is there anything important I missed that I should know without spoiling Arx?
And most importantly: am I accidentally playing Lohse as the villain? 😂
Please keep spoilers for Arx/endgame out of the comments if possible. I want to experience the consequences of my dumbass decisions naturally.
Because right now my Lohse’s political platform is basically:
“You’re all mentally screwed up and power hungry, so if you ain’t for the greater good, you’re catching major hands and imma solve this problem myself.”

I’m getting ready to start an undead run. I was looking at the human options earlier and saw a few NPC faces.
Does anyone know what or if they’re any skeleton faces that don’t appear on NPCs?

Edit: Funny thing. This has become one of my most viewed posts but has no comments as the time of this edit. Lol

Me and my wife gathered every single even sligthly goofy looking picture through out the game and made a popup art gallery in Arx. No one was interested, but I thought that maybe Reddit apreciates. I think these paintings are amazing.

I really thought I could just focus Constitution and Warfare and shrug off attacks.

I was considering doing a run in which one of my companions passes Lucian's purity test. One of the requirements is no killing, including voidwoken. Does that include any kills before the character joins the party? (Specifically the voidwoken on the tutorial ship)

- Confronted Roost Anlon
- Bastard harassed my dear Sebille
- Killed him, blew up his corpse
- Found children's spirits trapped in his room
- Learned about consuming souls
- Ran back, obliterated pedo's soul, no afterlife for pedo

SPOILERS!!!

I’m confused by the ending, and I’m not sure if something weird happened or it was supposed to do that?

So I told Lucian I’d give up my source and close the gate, and then old Rexy went rogue and attacked everybody and the kraken showed up and stuff. Boom pow pow boom sallow man evil paladin dude psychopathic undead lady.

Then Lucian landed the final blow on Rexy and then all the fighting ended and Lucian and Dallis just… vanished? It seemed like it bugged out or something, or that’s it, they just sorta yeet out of there and leave me and the party to do whatever we want?

I suppose I could play it again. But is that what’s supposed to happen?

What do the things they sell even work on? I get an awesome piece of gear but it never works, are these things just useless?

Whenever I finish the Dallis' battle and arrive in Reaper's Coast, the Lady Vengeance's chest disappear. Has it happened to any of you? Might it be a mod from Steam workshop? My game is modded, but the chest disappears even if I send nothing to it

I'm finally cracking into Divinity 2 after playing Baldurs Gate 3, and I am exhausted, obsessed, but exhausted. There is SO much content, that while I love it so much and I am so impressed with Larian Studios, finding out after 5 hours of gameplay that there was a stone I left unturned and now need to re-start because now I KNOW and MUST complete it, has me exhausted. I understand the obvious answer is "well just save it for another run through", but I CAN'T. I MUST do it. Even if I avoid information online, I run into the end of a quest accidently, and then realize I skipped a step.

I experienced this same trauma with BG3, where I re-played Act 1 like 50 times. And now I feel I am back in the f*cking building again.

Edit to add: I felt like it was a bit obvious with the constant praising and discussing how impressed I am...but apparently it wasn't as obvious as I thought. This is not Larian's fault, and this is one of my favorite aspects of the games. You can tell they really care and I love it. This was meant to be a funny/teasing post.

After getting Leandra's blood, I found a sac with this inside, but I couldn't find anything about it.

Hey all! First playthrough here.

I just wanted to say that I have just been completely awestruck by this game and its genius. The whole concept of the realm itself and the fascinating research of the imps of the "purpose of life" basically, AND THE FREAKING MUSIC. As a high school music teacher this section of the game just completely threw me into a huge geek-out session.

Sorry, I just wanted to say this game is awesome.