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Introduction

This "guide" will give you tips on things I wish I knew when I started the game. There's a lot that have changed in the Enhanced Edition compared to the original game, and a lot of info available online doesn't work exactly the same in the Enhanced Edition. This guide is meant to shed some lights on what is really useful, what's a waste of time, give you some build guidelines and more. All while being as concise as possible..

Character Sheet

Level

If you do all the quests, you'll reach level 21 before the end of the game.

I've read online that you could maximize your XP and get up to level 23, but I doubt it's possible anymore in the Enhanced Edition. I've completed every single quests and barely made it to level 22 by killing the last boss, at which point another level doesn't matter... You might be able to get to level 22, but I would recommend you plan your builds around level 21 just to be sure.

At level 21 you'll have access to:

15 attribute points

52 ability points (69 with Lone Wolf talent)

7 talent points

On top of that, you'll also have access to:

2 books that give you 1 attribute point each

2 books that give you 3 ability points each

1 merchant that allow you to trade: 1 talent point for 1 ability point (can be useful if you don't need all your talent points) 3 ability points for 1 attribute (I don't recommend this, it's a very bad deal)



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Respec

It is only possible to respec your 2 main characters. Your companions and henchmen don't have access to this option so be careful when building them.

While it only cost 1000 gold, which is a ridiculously low fee, it comes with 2 very big disadvantages:

You will lose all your learned spells and skills. You'll have to purchase those spell/skill book again to relearn them and this is quite a considerable amount of gold... You unlock this possibility very far into the game, around level 13, so depending on how much you rush the main quest, you might be better starting from scratch instead

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Attributes

At level 21, you'll have access to 15 attribute points.

Each attribute starts at 5 and you're free to dump attribute points (up to 10) until it reaches a total of 15. Since you have access to 15 attribute points and you can only put 10 points in a single attribute at most, this means you'll have to spread those points over more than 1 attribute.

The cap at 15 for an attribute is a soft cap. While you can't get past 15 with attribute points alone, equipment and talents will allow you to boost an attribute past that soft cap.

I don't recommend you go past 23 in any "class" attribute (STR, DEX, INT) because you don't get better bonus past that point. While it looks cool to have 30 INT, it's totally wasted potential...

There are 6 attributes, 3 that affect specific "classes" (STR, DEX, INT) and 3 that affects every build (CON, SPD, PER). I recommend to focus on only 1 "class" attribute.

SPD is THE most useful attribute besides your "class" attribute. SPD must always be an odd number to get the full benefits since "Turn Action Points" starts with a value of 3.5 and the game is always rounding down.

If you're using the Glass Cannon talent, CON will need to be equal or at most 1 point lower than Speed. If you're not using that talent, CON can be left to around half your SPD. SPD and CON are linked by their effects on Action Points, so be sure to understand their effect on each other so you can adapt your build accordingly.

PER is not as useful as it looks like. There are a few occasion where a high PER is required, but equipment can take care of that. It is a useful attribute mostly for range Rogues.

Here's a list of what each attribute actually does:

Strength (STR)

Boosts Man-at-Arms skills

+20 Weight per point (base 10)

+6 Offense Rating per point for Strength-based Weapons

Dexterity (DEX)

Boosts Expert Marksman, Scoundrel skills

+5 Defense rating per point above 5? (base 4xLevel)

+6 Offense Rating per point for Dexterity-Based Weapons

Intelligence (INT)

Boosts Aerotheurge, Geomancer, Hydrosophist, Pyrokinetic, Witchcraft skills

Every 2 intelligence points after the spell "INT requirement" reduces the cooldown by 1 turn, up to 2 turns (So 4 INT better than requirement is all that you need)

+6 Offense Rating per point for Intelligence-Based Weapons

Constitution (CON)

+1 Maximum Action Points per point (base 7)

+6.2 Vitality per point and level (+7.13 in normal difficulty due to the +15% bonus)

Speed (SPD)

+0.1 Movement per point

+0.5 Initiative per point

+0.5 Start Action Points per point (base 2)

+0.5 Turn Action Points per point (base 3.5)

Perception (PER)

+1.0 Hearing per point

+0.5 Initiative per point

+0.5 Start Action Points per point (base 2)

+2% Critical Chance per point above 5

Ability to detect traps

Accuracy when shooting over distances

Every 0.2 meters from the target reduces chance to hit by 1%

Each point of Perception increases the distance before penalties due to range take effect by 0.4 meters

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Abilities

Ability Basics

At level 21, you'll have 52 ability points to spend (72 with Lone Wolf talent).

Each ability level cost its level in ability points. For example, level 1 cost 1 ability point while level 5 cost 5 ability points.

Depending on the ability and the build you're pursuing, it might be better to avoid maxing an ability.

Weapons

You don't have to invest in any of the weapon abilities to use any type of weapon. You can chose whatever weapon floats your boat and you'll be able to use it with any character.

Dual Wielding only affects basic attacks with your weapons, it doesn't affect the use of your skills.

Single-handed doesn't stack with Dual Wielding. If you invest here, you must use a single-handed weapon with a shield, no dual wielding otherwise you're wasting precious ability points.

Wands do stack with Dual Wielding. Not sure if it's an oversight or not, but at least they do less damage than single-handed weapons so it somewhat balance itself out. This is a very powerful combination if you want to go that route.

Tenebrium is a bit more complicated so I'll try to make it easy:

A free point will be awarded to all your party before you can do anything useful with Tenebrium. Avoid any investment in Tenebrium before that point.

Your crafter will need 3 points in Tenebrium to be able to smelt Tenebrium Ore into Tenebrium Bars.

Tenebrium weapons are weapons made of Tenebrium, they can only be purchased from specific merchants and will require a specific Tenebrium ability level to use. Tenebrium staves don't exist, but Tenebrium wands do.

Tenebrium infused weapons are normal weapons infused with Tenebrium Bars. The Tenebrium infused damage is less than pure Tenebrium Weapons, but with none of the disadvantages. You can't infuse Tenebrium on staves and wands.

Defense

Armour Specialist is only useful if you plan on using heavy armors.

Body Building is very useful on harder difficulties, not so much for Normal or lower.

Shield Specialist is only useful if you plan on using a shield.

Willpower is very useful on all difficulties. The harder the difficulty, the earlier you'll need to invest in this one.

Skills

The best overview I've seen for Skills can be found at http://divinityoriginalsin.wiki.fextralife.com/Skills.

Skills are categorized by tiers (Novice, Adept, Master) and their related Ability level unlock how many skills you can learn for each tiers:

Ability Level Maximum Nb of Skills you can learn 1 3 Novice Skills 2 5 Novice Skills, 2 Adept Skills 3 6 Novice Skills, 3 Adept Skills 4 6 Novice Skills, 4 Adept Skills, 1 Master Skill 5 6 Novice Skills, 4 Adept Skills, 2 Master Skills

This means before you can learn a skill, you need to invest an ability point it its governing ability, otherwise you'll only have access to your basic attacks.

You learn a new skill by reading its "skill book". Those books can be purchased from merchants or found in loot.

At any time, you can forget a skill to make room for a new one. All you need to do is go to the skill interface and click on the "forget" button beside the skill you want to remove.

Check Build Guidelines for an analysis on which skills to use for each ability here.

Personality

Bartering is worth investing 1 point in. The rest can easily be taken care of by equipment. Always use the character with the highest Bartering ability level to buy and sell to merchants. It's also wise to invest in Bartering only for 1 of the main characters.

Charisma is mostly used in mini-games to resolve arguments, which is a good source of XP. Ultimately, it's kind of useless since you can always quick reload and try again until you win the argument. Let your equipment boost it if you have nothing else to put on, don't invest a single point in it, it's not worth it.

Leadership is actually pretty good. The only downside is it only affects your teammate(s), not the character you invest points on. Equipment can usually take care of a good chunk of it, but there are ways to fully benefit from this depending on how you build your party (see Party Composition)

Lucky Charm is absolutely and utterly useless. Don't put a point in it, don't even use equipment to get it up. There are much better/faster ways to generate gold.

Craftsmanship

Blacksmithing is particularly useful for repairing your equipment and you only need 1 point for that. Blacksmithing level 5 is required for very few occasions and can be achieved by a combination of equipment, the Scientist talent and ability points (1 or 2, if needed). Only 1 character needs Blacksmithing. Repairing a piece of equipment can be done from any inventory, no need to move the equipment around.

Crafting is an absolute must as it will be your biggest source of income. Crafting level 5 is required and can be achieved by a combination of equipment, the Scientist talent and ability points (1 or 2, if needed). Only 1 character needs Crafting.

Loremaster is also a must and requires level 5. This can be achieved thru a combination of equipment and ability points (1 or 2, if needed). Only 1 character needs Loremaster. Identifying a piece of equipment can be done from any inventory, no need to move the equipment around.

Telekinesis is fun, but ultimately useless. There's not 1 point in the game where it's the only way to get or move something.

See Companions for a nice little trick about Blacksmithing, Crafting and Loremaster.

Nasty Deeds

Everything here is absolutely useless halfway into the game.

Lockpicking can be boosted by equipment and there are very few occasion where it's actually needed. Most of the time, if it can be unlocked by Lockpicking, you can bash thru it until it breaks.

Pickpocketing is fun for roleplay purposes, but takes too much time for little results.

Sneaking is actually pretty amazing for a Rogue. The problem is it costs too many action points at the start of the game to use it efficiently. When you finally get to a point where you could make efficient use of it, you get your hands on Shadow Essence which add +1 Sneaking to any equipment piece, rendering your investment absolutely useless. Finally, Sneaking is only useful for the damage multiplier, invisibility skills (Scoundrel and Aerotheurge) will take care of everything else in a much better way.

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Talents

At level 21, you'll have 7 talent points.

There are a few outstanding talents, but most of them are pretty bad.

I would stay away from Lone Wolf for your first game. On lower difficulties, it absolutely wreck things, but having 2 more companions wreck things even more. On higher difficulties, the health penalty is actually benefiting you, but missing 2 companions is making things a lot harder if you get a status effect.

My personal favorites are:

All Skilled Up

Arrow Recovery (range Rogues on higher difficulties only)

Back-Stabber (melee Rogues only)

Bigger and Better

Bully (melee Rogues and Warrior only)

Elemental Affinity (Mages only)

Elemental Ranger (range Rogues only)

Far Out Man (Mages only)

Glass Cannon (don't use on more than half of your characters)

Guerrilla (melee Rogues only)

Know-it-All (Mages only)

Leech (exceptional at start of the game, ok in late game)

Pet Pal (required by some quests, preferably on 1 of the main characters only)

Scientist (only for your "crafter")

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Traits

Traits are the personality of your main characters. They always come in pair and depending on how you answer in some situations, a "weight" is added on the corresponding side of the scale. When a scale tilt one side, that trait and its bonus is assigned to your character.

Of course, some traits are better than other:

Egotistical (+1 Bartering)

Spiritual (Immune to Fear)

Bold (+1 Initiative)

Forgiving (Immune to Curse)

Righteous (+1 Leadership)

Blunt (Immune to Charm)

It is never a good idea to be "neutral" (both side of the scale of equal weight) as you'll get no benefit.

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Other Stats

There are a couple other stats you need to check out.

Movement is very useful for all characters, the higher it is, the lower the cost to move around. It's obviously very useful for melee characters, but Mages are known to have a lot of spells with a 5m range. Range Rogues also benefit a lot more from Movement than they should, the terrain often blocks your line of sight so you need to move around quite a lot.

Initiative is also very useful for all characters. The higher it is, the better your chances are you'll be the one attacking first. If you can kill them before they hit you, it makes the game incredibly easier for you...

Action Points is derived from SPD, CON and PER. Remember how I said to concentrate on your "class" attribute then SPD and CON? This is the reason. Everything you do in combat (moving, casting, attacking, etc.) cost you action points, so the more you start with, the more you gain each turn and the maximum you can hold at 1 time are crucial to making you a powerhouse.

All resistances are pretty much essential too. It's quite easy to hit the 100% mark for all elemental sources, but I wouldn't count on it for Poison and Tenebrium.

It's actually possible to be immune to poison with the Zombie talent, I've never used it, but was always curious about it. There's great synergy to have when all poison heals you and mostly kill everything else. Although I've heard it's making a crucial part of the story much harder because a certain NPC doesn't understand what Zombie stands for. That NPC keeps trying to heal you with her spells during the battle, but since you're a zombie, it's killing you pretty fast!!! I'm sure it will be rectified at some point by Larian, it's way too bad to stay like this...

I've not encountered a lot of enemies using Tenebrium, maybe because I didn't play on harder difficulties, but I'm pretty sure there aren't enough to warrant having high resistance to the stuff.

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Party

Party Basics

Your party always has between 2 to 4 members.

You cannot remove the 2 main characters from the party.

The additional members can be either companions or henchmen.

The Lone Wolf talent reduces your maximum number of party members by 1. So if both your main characters have this talent, you won't be able to hire companions or henchmen.

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Main Characters

You get 2 main characters. No matter what you do, you're stuck with them.

During character creation, I suggest you tailor each of them to your particular needs. It makes the start of the game incredibly easier. See the "Build Guidelines" for my suggestions.

I would suggest 1 character with Hydrosophist for Rain and Regeneration. They're just way too useful at the start of the game and they keep being useful until the very end.

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Companions

You have access to 4 fully "voiced" companions with backstory and a personal quest attached to them.

Each of those companions can be found in Cyseal, the first city you visit when you finish the tutorial.

Madora is a typical Warrior found on the 1st floor of The King Crabs Tavern.

Bairdotr is a range Rogue found in a cage just in front of legion commander Aureus' office.

Jahan is a Mage found on the 2nd floor of mayor Cecil's office. He starts with Aerotheurge and Hydrosophist skills.

Wolgraff is a melee Rogue found in a tunnel below Cyseal's cemetery.

The first thing you need to do is hire them all as soon as possible.

They can be dismissed and hired at will, but it is possible for them to leave your party permanently. Companions will leave the party if you keep attacking them out of combat or if you go completely against them in their personal quests. If that happens, just reload and avoid the problem altogether.

Since you can't have more than 2 companions at a time in your active party, they level with you whether they're in your active party or not. This was done so you could change companions whenever you want.

So how can you take advantage of changing companions?

Each companion has a personal quest, so take them out to complete it for more XP Each companion has a different play style, so use them for the right situation Bartering, Blacksmithing, Crafting and Loremaster are abilities only needed in-between quests. Take this occasion to select 1 companion and assign him all those functions, thus liberating all the other characters from those tasks. You can easily let your "specialized" companion at home while adventuring and ask him to join the party when you need him to perform his duties... they'll love you nonetheless :)

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Henchmen

Soon into the main quest, you'll be acquiring a base of operation. The first room you'll unlock will allow you to hire henchmen.

Henchmen acts like "lesser" companions, they perform the same things, but with a few disadvantages:

They cost you something to hire (one-time fee) They don't level with you if they're not in your active party They don't have personal quests so no extra XP If you hire a level 10 henchmen, you won't have much to say on where it's points will have been assigned, included its skills. Thus, hire them as early as you need them if you go that route

The only advantage they have over companions is they can be used like cannon fodder without you feeling too bad about it.There's a limit number of them available (55?), so don't take them all for granted either...

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Party Composition

Party composition varies a lot depending on the difficulty and your preferences.

I suggest you use a balanced party (Warrior, Rogue, Mage). It's not at all necessary for the lower difficulties, but having 4 characters doing the same exact thing might become tedious over the long run...

Warriors are very good for their physical attacks and they can take a beating. There are a few situations where they're helpless and can only serves as tanks, but they save your Rogues and Mages by doing their duty. Warriors can take advantage of some form of hybrid Mage by using skills that don't require high Intelligence. They don't synergize well with Rogues at all.

Rogues are a bit messier in the sense that they benefit more from being hybrids than pure Rogues.

Melee Rogues synergize well with Man-At-Arms even if they're using daggers, but they can also do very well with Aerotheurge and to a lesser extent Witchcraft.

Range Rogues don't synergize well with anything. They're very powerful on their own, but they benefit more as "support" for your party (barter, blacksmithing, crafting, leadership, etc.).

Mages are very good for their elemental attacks and their crowd control. The effectiveness of their crowd control becomes essential on higher difficulties, but it takes a few levels before it can kick in adequately. I wouldn't try to build them as hybrids, they have access to the biggest amount of skills already, it would be a waste to dilute their power.

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Build Guidelines

Build Basics

"Pure" builds are NOT recommended because they only make you weaker. You have to stop thinking a Warrior can only do Warrior things. Using all the skills at your disposal makes your character much more efficient in all the different situations.

All powerful builds are hybrids, it's just a matter of how far you need to push the hybridization to be efficient.

Be careful though, pushing too far into hybridization will make you weaker since you need to invest in 2 "class" attributes. It's better to supplement your build with skills from another class than trying to achieve a 50/50 hybrid.

With that in mind, I'm gonna give you a rundown of the most useful abilities (in my opinion) for each type of builds. You can fill up the blanks with whatever float your boat.

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Warrior (hybrid with Rogue/Mage)

Attributes

STR 15 DEX 5 INT 5 SPD 7 CON 8 PER 5

Abilities

Weapons Dual Wielding 5 Defense Armor Specialist 3 Body Building 3 Willpower 3 Skills Man-At-Arms 4 Novice Battering Ram, Crushing Fist, Encourage Adept Barbed Wire, Whirlwind, Crippling Blow Master Flurry Scoundrel 1 Novice Adrenaline, Winged Feet or Fast Track, Walk in Shadows Aerotheurge 1 Novice Teleportation, Thunder Jump Witchcraft 1 Novice Oath of Desecration, Summon Undead Warrior, Vampiric Touch

* On your main character pick Winged Feet, otherwise take Fast Track

Talents



All Skilled Up Bigger and Better Bully Comeback Kid Opportunist Picture of Health

Notes

I use Dual Wielding because it boost so much more your attributes. Each single-handed weapon can give up to +3 on an attribute and can be imbued with a Tormented Soul for +2 STR and +2 DEX. A two-handed weapon would probably deal a bit more damage, but would also relinquish a 7 attribute point boost in the process. Honestly, you could go either way, both Dual Wielding and Two-handed are pretty good for a Warrior.

STR effects will cap at 23 so equip your Warrior accordingly. Given you have 2 single-handed weapons with +2 STR each from a Tormented Soul, you only need another +4 STR from equipment.

Equipment should mostly focus on boosting SPD and CON according to the formula given in Attributes. Some belts boost both Body Building and Dual Wielding on top of other things, it's a good idea to use them.

Since you use 2 single-handed weapons with +2 DEX each from Tormented Soul, you can benefit reliably of basic Scoundrel abilities. Adrenaline is amazing when you need it in a pinch and totally worth 1 point in Scoundrel just by itself. Winged Feet and Walk in Shadows are absolutely essential in all kind of puzzles, to get some otherwise inaccessible loot and even generate tons of gold. If the Warrior isn't your main character, replace Winged Feet by Fast Track.

Except for Oath of Desecration, all the spells have 100% chance of success. This is crucial in taking advantage of magic as a Warrior with low INT. Thunder Jump is extremely useful to close in with enemies, the small damage and chance of stun are secondary. Teleportation seems like an odd choice, but it's absolutely bloody wonderful to control the battlefield in reality. Oath of Desecration is simply amazing for your damage, while Vampiric Touch will benefit from you being in melee range most of the time to give you some healing abilities. I rounded up Witchcraft with Summon Undead Warrior since it's low cost, have a 100% success rate, can do acceptable damage but mostly serves as cannon fodder which is always extremely useful in protecting your party.

I'm not 100% sure Armor Specialist is that useful since the armor rating boost is too small to make a big difference and you can easily remove the negative movement on heavy armor with crafting.

Early on, your focus should be on putting 1 in Man-At-Arms, Scoundrel, Aerotheurge and Witchcraft. Then, increase Man-At-Arms to 4 as soon as possible. Skills are listed in order of importance for the build.

Since Dual Wielding requires a lot of investment before blooming, don't be shy to use a two-handed weapon at first to smooth out the difficulty. As long as you don't invest point in two-handed, you don't have to worry about gimping yourself in the long run. You should switch to 2 single-handed weapons only when the damage combined is higher than your two-handed weapon and you're comfortable with the attacks' action point cost.

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Rogue (melee hybrid with Warrior/Mage)

Attributes

STR 5 DEX 15 INT 5 SPD 7 CON 8 PER 5

Abilities

Weapons Dual Wielding 5 Skills Scoundrel 5 Novice Adrenaline, Fast Track, Lacerate, Walk in Shadows, Trip, Venomous Strike Adept Cloak and Dagger, Daggers Drawn, Eye Gouge, Precise Incision Master Coup de Grace, Shadow Step Man-At-Arms 2 Novice Battering Ram, Crushing Fist, Melee Power Stance Adept Whirlwind, Crippling Blow Master Flurry Aerotheurge 2 Novice Teleportation, Thunder Jump, Shocking Touch Adept Invisibility Pyrokinectic 1 Novice Wildfire, Burning Touch Witchcraft 2 Novice Oath of Desecration, Summon Undead Warrior, Vampiric Touch, Decaying Touch, Lower Resistances Adept Rapture

Talents



All Skilled Up Back-Stabber Bigger and Better Bully Guerrilla Opportunist

Notes

Since you're a fully fledged melee Rogue, Daggers are gonna be mandatory for your Scoundrel skills.

DEX effects will cap at 23 so equip your Rogue accordingly. Given you have 2 Daggers with +2 DEX each from a Tormented Soul, you only need another +4 DEX from equipment.

Equipment should mostly focus on boosting SPD and CON according to the formula given in Attributes. Some belts boost Dual Wielding on top of other things, it's a good idea to use one. Since you're using a couple spells that requires INT to be more effective and hit more reliably, I would recommend using 1 piece of equipment with +2 INT on it.

Be sure to infuse (Crafting) your end-game equipment with Shadow Essence for the +1 Sneaking. With a full set (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, boots, glove), you'll be +6 Sneaking without even having to invest in the skill. You can practically go into sneak mode while standing anywhere!

I went the Dual Wielding route because it boosts your attributes higher than what is possible with only 1 dagger. You'll lose a bit of damage on attacks, but you'll gain more Action Points and thus be able to use more skills.

As a melee Rogue, it's important to understand your strengths and weaknesses. You're no Warrior so you can't take too many hits and take danger head on. You're no Mage either so you can't control the whole battlefield and you're definitely not doing most of your damage with spells. What you do excel at is positioning, short range attacks and getting out of trouble.

For positioning, use Cloak and Dagger, Battering Ram, Thunder Jump and Teleportation.

For short range attacks, use Lacerate, Trip, Venomous Strike, Daggers Drawn, Eye Gouge, Precise Incision, Coup de Grace, Shadow Step, Whirlwind, Crippling Blow, Flurry, Shocking Touch, Burning Touch and Vampiric Touch. You can even use Melee Power Stance and Oath of Desecration to increase your damage significantly. Not to mention your regular attacks should be pretty amazing by combining Dual Wielding (2 hits), Sneaking, Back-Stabber, Bully and Guerrilla. Let's say, you have a lot of options.

For getting out of trouble, use Sneaking (from equipment, more details below), Adrenaline, Walk in Shadows, Invisibility, Summon Undead Warrior and Rapture.

Even with all that, you still have access to other skills like Fast Track and Wildfire to Haste you or Decaying Touch and Lower Resistance to help ease up the pressure on your teammates.

Early on, your focus should be on putting 2 in all your Skills except Dual Wielding (0 point) and Pyrokinetic (1 point). Follow with Scoundrel at 5 then round the rest however you like. You will have a lot of Ability points left so you can take the opportunity to go for Barter, Blacksmithing, Crafting, Hydrosophist (Freezing Touch and Regeneration) or whatever you fancy, just don't take Leadership. Leadership is all about "Leader in sight" and you're a sneaking/invisible Rogue while in combat so that doesn't synergize well together...

Since Dual Wielding requires a lot of investment before blooming, don't be shy to use a single dagger at first to smooth out the difficulty. As long as you don't invest point in single-handed, you don't have to worry about gimping yourself in the long run. You should switch to 2 daggers only when you're comfortable with the attacks' action point cost.

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Rogue (range)

Attributes

STR 5 DEX 15 INT 5 SPD 7 CON 8 PER 5

Abilities

Weapons Bow 5 Skills Expert Marksman 5 Novice Ricochet, Splintered Arrow, Ranged Precision Stance, Doctor Adept Barrage, Farseer, Infect Master Arrow Spray, Rain of Arrows Scoundrel 1 Novice Adrenaline, Fast Track, Walk in Shadows Pyrokinetic 1 Novice Wildfire, Firefly, Burn My Eyes Witchcraft 1 Novice Oath of Desecration, Summon Undead Warrior, Malediction Personality Leadership 5

Talents



All Skilled Up Arrow Recovery Bigger and Better Bully Elemental Ranger

Notes

I personally prefer bows over crossbows. Crossbows will do slightly more damage, but carries a big movement penalty. Ultimately, it's a matter of personal preference.

DEX effects will cap at 23 so equip your range Rogue accordingly. Don't forget to use a Tormented Soul on your weapon for the +2 DEX, you'll still need another +6 DEX from equipment.

Equipment should mostly focus on boosting SPD and CON according to the formula given in Attributes. You might want to keep an eye for 1 good piece of equipment with +INT to ensure your spells fail rarely.

Since your character will have very high DEX, you'll have no problem casting Novice Scoundrel abilities from the start. Adrenaline is amazing when you need it in a pinch and totally worth 1 point in Scoundrel just by itself. Fast Track is great for more Action Points while Walk in Shadows can be very useful in combat. You'll notice I haven't pick Winged Feet, that's because other characters can fill the role and Fast Track will really benefit you more as a range Rogue.

As for the spells, my picks are about their range and enhancing your Rogue. Wildfire is a second Haste spell, Firefly can create fire surface at distance which can be combined with Elemental Ranger talent for great synergy and Burn My Eyes gives target a slight boost to Perception. Oath of Desecration can drastically boost your damage, Summon Undead Warrior is a low cost summon acting as a damage dealing cannon fodder and Malediction can greatly help you against powerful enemies.

You'll notice this build isn't fully fleshed out, you still have a couple ability and talent points to distribute. This is because the range Rogue doesn't synergize as well with other skills. I've taken the opportunity left by a lack of synergy to boost Leadership which will be tremendously helpful for your party. For the remaining points, I'd suggest getting Witchcraft to 2 and gaining access to Rapture. As for talents, you could go for Know-It-All (+1 INT) or Scientist (+1 Crafting, +1 Blacksmithing). Zombie might be a option since you'll be swimming in Poisoncloud arrows if you follow my recommendations in Crafting. Avoid Hyperopia since it's bugged and will weaken you.

Early on, your focus should be on putting 1 in all your abilities. Then, increase Expert Marksman to 5 as soon as possible and finish by alternating between Bow and Leadership. Skills are listed in order of importance for the build.

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Mage

Attributes

STR 5 DEX 5 INT 15 SPD 7 CON 7 PER 5

Abilities

Skills Aerotheurge 4 Novice Teleportation, Thunder Jump, Bitter Cold, Shocking Touch Adept Headvice, Tornado, Invisibility Master Storm Geomancer 4 Novice Boulder Bash, Summon Spider, Avatar of Poison Adept Magical Poison Dart, Tectonic Spray Master Summon Earth Elemental Hydrosophist 4 Novice Regeneration, Rain, Freezing Touch Adept Cleansing Water, Water of Life, Ice Wall Master Hail Attack Pyrokinetic 4 Novice Burning Touch, Wildfire, Burn My Eyes Adept Fireball, Explode, Purifying Fire Master Meteor Shower Scoundrel 1 Novice Adrenaline, Winged Feet or Fast Track, Walk in Shadows Witchcraft 4 Novice Oath of Desecration, Summon Undead Warrior, Vampiric Touch, Decaying Touch, Lower Resistances Adept Rapture, Mute, Destroy Summon Master Invulnerability

* On your main character pick Winged Feet, otherwise take Fast Track

Talents



All Skilled Up Bigger and Better Elemental Affinity Far Out Man Glass Cannon Know-It-All

Notes

Right now, you must be asking yourself why do I suggest going all over the place instead of specializing in 2 complementary magic skills like everyone suggest online?

Short answer: This is the Enhanced Edition of the game.

Longer answer...

Rules have changed a bit since most of the guides have been published. In the original game, having 5 in a given magic skill would allow you to learn all its spells. It's easy to understand that if you can chain 3 to 4 master spells from the same magic skill in a row, you're set for victory without much challenge. On top of that, you also had access to all Novice and Adept spells.

In the Enhanced Edition, spending 5 ability points in a given magic skill only allows you to learn a second master spell, nothing else. If you keep the count, that's 5 ability points for only 1 spell.

So instead of spending 5 ability points for 1 spell, you can spread those points to other abilities with a much lower cost and a much bigger return in versatility.

Now, Mages are the most complicated characters to master, but they're also the only ones with an answer to every situation. This build is very "advanced" and shines a lot more when applied to one of the main characters since they also benefit from Traits bonuses.

The good thing about Mages is that all their spells are INT based, so you only need to boost 1 "class" attribute to be incredibly efficient.

Next thing you want is be able to cast as many spells as possible. To that end, multiple things come into play:

Adrenaline (Scoundrel) will give you back half your Action Points. It's very useful when you need just a little boost to either finish the battle or put a status effect on an enemy to avoid damage.

Most of your equipment will focus on SPD for more Action Points. Since I've taken the Glass Cannon talent (more Action Points), equipment must also focus on CON according to the formula given in Attributes.

Dual Wielding wands is a must for the amazing 4 to 6 attribute point boost per wand. Since none of your spell base their damage on your weapon and you won't use your wands to actually attack anything, you don't have to invest in Dual Wielding ability and won't suffer any downside from dual wielding wands.

With your INT at 23, all your spells cooldowns will be reduced by 2 turns, making some spells ready every other turn.

Remember, there's no benefit from going over 23 INT so focus your equipment elsewhere when that value is reached.

As for the spells, they all have their utility but some are more useful than others in battle:

Aerotheurge: Teleportation, Thunder Jump and Headvice are simply amazing for both damage and positioning.

Geomancer: Magic Poison Dart is pretty powerful for damage while Summon Earth Elemental is the best summon of the game

Hydrosophist: Regeneration for healing, Rain for removing burning and Hail Attack for probably the best AOE damage spell

Pyrokinetic: Wildfire for haste effect, Burning Touch and Explode (with 100% fire resist) are stellar for damage

Witchcraft: Oath of Desecration for damage, Summon Undead Warrior for cheap (and amazingly good) summon and Rapture to charm an enemy to fight for you (don't underestimate this last one)

A lot of equipment has +DEX bonuses, so it's gonna be easy to boost the reliability of your 3 Scoundrel skills. I'll never mention it enough, but Adrenaline is amazing and totally worth 1 point in Scoundrel just by itself. Winged Feet and Walk in Shadows are absolutely essential if the Mage is one of your main character. Both will be used often in all kind of puzzles, to get some otherwise inaccessible loot and even generate tons of gold.

The build order goes as follow:

Early on, your focus should be on investing 1 ability point in every skill to unlock them. This will allow you to take care of most situations and increase your versatility. You don't have enough power to make use of the higher tier spells anyway.

When that's done, you increase every magic skills to 2. Again, this is gonna give you a lot more versatility.

Now, you need to increase Aerotheurge and Pyrokinetic to 4 first because they're much more useful offensively.

Finish by bringing the remaining 3 magic abilities to 4 to complete your build.

Skills are listed in order of importance for the build. This is pretty essential so you have access to the right spells whenever you'll need them.

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Equipment

Equipment Basics

A successful build will always rely on the right equipment for the job.

As I keep repeating, the most important boost coming from equipment are SPD and CON attributes. You'll also notice I never advocate "class" attributes (STR, DEX, INT). I took that route to make it as simple and universal as possible. In every build guidelines, I max the associated "class" attribute so you don't have to look for equipment with that attribute boost. Most weapons and armors offer those kind of attribute boost already, so keeping an eye mostly for SPD and CON will meet the criteria for all your party members. That way, you can easily put your best piece of equipment on your favorite character then pass down the replaced piece to your second favorite character and so on.

But SPD and CON aren't the only thing available either. Better quality equipment will also provide other important boosts, which is the focus of this section.

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Boosting Resistances

Resistances are the most important boosts beside attributes.

They come in 2 forms: elemental resistances and immunities to certain effects.

Immunities are very useful as they nullify some effects completely. Knockdown, Charmed, Stunned are all incapacitating effects very annoying because you pass your turn in combat when under their influence. Be careful as some immunities aren't exactly what you'd expect. For example, immunity to burning will not prevent damage from fire, it will only prevent you from suffering from the "burning" effect. Poison immunity will also react the same way, stand in the middle of a poison cloud and you won't get poisoned, but you will suffer from poison damage every X seconds you stay there...

On the other hand, elemental immunities will prevent damage from elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Poison, Tenebrium), but won't prevent damage from "effects". For example, you can have 100% fire resistance but still get damaged by fire damage under the "burning" effect. The direct damage from fire spells will be nullified, but the burning effect will not...

Crafting will allow you to add resistances to helmets, armors, sarongs, belts and gloves.

Crafting Ingredients Result 5 Piece of equipment (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, glove) + Ruby (the quality doesn't seem to mater) +X% All Elemental Resist (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) 5 Piece of equipment (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, glove) + Air Essence +X% Air Resist 5 Piece of equipment (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, glove) + Earth Essence +X% Earth Resist 5 Piece of equipment (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, glove) + Fire Essence +X% Fire Resist 5 Piece of equipment (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, glove) + Water Essence +X% Water Resist

* Your character level will determine how big the boost is

There's no essence for Poison and Tenebrium so keep an eye out for equipment with innate resistance for those. Poison resistance is a lot more useful than Tenebrium, give priority to poison resistance if you can.

A piece of equipment with innate resistance to air, fire, water and/or earth will be additive to your crafting. This mean a belt with 20% earth resistance can be imbued with Earth Essence and offer 40% Earth Resistance. Same goes for all the elements.

Crafting should allow you to hit the 90-100% resistance mark for air, fire, water and earth.

Here are the other useful crafting recipe for equipment:

Crafting Ingredients Result 0 Boots + Nine Inch Nails Immunity to slipping 0 Sinew + Sinew Bowstring 2 "Sharp" metal weapon (dagger, sword, axe, etc.) + Whetstone wheel Increase damage 4 (B) Tenebrium Ore + Furnace Tenebrium Bar 4 Drudanae Plant + Arrowhead Charming Arrowhead 4 Bow + Bowstring Increase damage 5 Crossbow + Bowstring Increase damage 5 Any weapon (except staves & wands) + Tormented Soul +2 STR, +2 DEX 5 Any weapon (except staves & wands) + Tenebrium bar Add Tenebrium damage 5 Any weapon (except staves & wands) + Air Essence Add Air damage 5 Any weapon (except staves & wands) + Earth Essence Add Earth damage 5 Any weapon (except staves & wands) + Fire Essence Add Fire damage 5 Any weapon (except staves & wands) + Water Essence Add Water damage 5 Leather armor (DEX based) + Mobile Kitchen Increase armor rating 5 Heavy armor (STR based) + Anvil Removes movement penalty 5 Heavy armor (STR based) + Scales Scraps Increase armor rating

* (B) indicate that it uses Blacksmithing instead of Crafting

* Keep every Nine Inch Nails you find and only use them for crafting the "Immunity to slipping" recipe

* Only 1 elemental damage type can be present at a time. Adding a new elemental damage type will replace the previous one

* Your character level might have an effect on how big the boost is



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Boosting Abilities

Ability boosts allow you to increase your level in certain abilities without investing any ability points.

Ability boosts don't affect the "base" cost in ability points either so there's no downsides. For example, let's say your level of Leadership is 0 and equip 2 pieces of equipment with +1 Leadership. Your "actual" Leadership is now at 2, but your "base" Leadership is still 0. If you want to increase your Leadership level, it will cost you only 1 ability point, not 3, because the cost is calculated from the "base" number, in this case 0. With that ability point invested, you "actual" Leadership will now be 3 (1 base + 2 from equipment).

Any ability boost is good to have as long as it benefits your build.

Leadership is particularly good if your party has 4 members. Each point will give an additional boost to all other party members. Since Leadership doesn't affect the character having it, it is a good idea to put Leadership boosts on 2 party members. Leadership boosts will greatly complement characters who invest in Leadership as part of their build. Later bonuses from Leadership includes Immunity to Fear (lvl 4), +1 Willpower (lvl 5), +1 Body Building (lvl 6).

Crafting will also allow you to max your Sneaking easily:

Crafting Ingredients Result 5 Piece of equipment (helmet, armor, sarong, belt, glove, boots) + Shadow Essence +1 Sneaking

* Shadow Essence is relatively rare (around 15 for a whole game) so only use it when really needed, mostly for late-game gear

Sneaking boosts are awesome for melee Rogues, but not very useful for anything else. It's also what makes Sneaking ability completely useless since you can craft yourself the best sneaking character ever without ever investing a single point in that ability...

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Boosts Unlocking Spells/Skills

During your adventures, you'll come across some equipment that unlocks spells or skills you can use. They will allow either limited or unlimited uses of that spell/skill.

Boosts for limited uses of a spell/skill are not really useful and usually found on wands and staves. Don't go out of your way to get that kind of boost, but if a piece of equipment you use happens to have it, don't hesitate to use that spell/skill either, it won't reduce it's selling price.

Boosts for unlimited uses of a spell/skill on the other hand, can be very useful and can be found on various types of equipment.

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Boosting Stats

Initiative and Movement boosts are always good to have since they can drastically change the outcome of battle. On the other hand, I wouldn't prioritize getting equipment that boosts them either. See Other Stats for more information.

Some piece of equipment will have Turn Action Point boosts. Those are relatively rare and what they actually do is increase the number of Action Points you get per turn. This doesn't affect the starting turn, only the subsequent ones. It's a very good boost, but since we're focusing a lot on SPD and CON (both boosting Action Points), it's not overly important either.

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Tenebrium

Tenebrium is a material you'll come across around mid game. It acts as "elemental" damage and very few enemies have resistances to it.

You'll be able to buy weapons made of Tenebrium and infuse (Crafting) normal weapons with it. Tenebrium staves don't exist, but Tenebrium wands do, neither staves or wands can be infused with Tenebrium.

I've read online that Tenebrium is essential to damage some enemies (they're immune to everything else), but I'm not sure this applies the Enhanced Edition. On lower difficulties, I came across only 1 occasion where Tenebrium was absolutely necessary and it was for story purpose only.

My suggestion is thus to always use your best weapon and carry a Tenebrium replacement just in case you need it.

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Merchants

There are a few merchant in every location (map) that will sell you equipment.

Most of their stock will be Common, Uncommon and Rare equipment. Once you level enough, you'll see Epic, Legendary and Divine equipment make their appearance. Of course, the higher the quality, the rarer it is.

For end game equipment (Legendary and Divine), you should for look those merchants:

Name Location Charla Cyseal (western beach, only appear later) Hortun Hunter's Edge (at the entry of the town) Interdimensional Trader Homestead (unlocks during main quest)

Merchants will restock their equipment each time you level up, so it's a good idea to visit them when it happens.

Don't by shy at spending gold for equipment. It shouldn't be a problem if you do your "duties" (see Gold).

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