Is lone wolf + tactician viable for first playthrough?

[littlek0i]

I played a lot of CRPG's before, but I've never played Divinity series before. I did some research on forums and guides.

I like the idea of "Lone Wolf" in general, and I hate to micro-manage a lot of characters. 2 characters are just right for me. However, many people say that it makes the game too easy.

What if I start on highest difficulty from the beginning to mitigate this effect? Does it make any sense?

I am also worried about civil skills. Is it okay to max "Loremaster" and "Thievery" for the first run and ignore "Persuation" completely? I was planning to play as "villain" anyway. Am I going to miss something important with this approach?

Thanks!

[littlek0i]

Character-wise, I was thinking about Fane (summoner, probably respec later) and Lohse (rogue or shadowblade).

[Serendipitous]

I suggest playing on classic at least First chapter to get the gist of the mechanics and what you want to do with your party. "Easyness" of the game depends not on the Lone Wolf, but on how much you grasp the tactics of the game and which options and abilities are more powerful than other.

After first shapter there will be an option of unlimited respec of your characters, so don't think that if you did something suboptimal it will ruin your whole game.

Persuasion is important mostly because of the increased XP gain (you can use it to persuade someone, getting XP and then killing them getting another chunk of XP, for example) and getting options that you wouldn't be able to get before, doesn't matter wherever you are a black hat or white hat.

Loremaster is not as important for mainly physical damage party, like you are planning to create, since it is mostly useful for learning resistances of the enemies and there is like 2-3 enemies that have at least some resist to physical.

Thievery is good for getting gear and going through locked doors. I would suggest implementing it on Fane or any other undead, since they can lockpick without using lockpicks.

[Robert Zerker]

2 lonewolves characters, this really makes the game easier once you reach level 4-5 (so quite early) because every fight is going to be 'done' in 1 or 2 tunrs. Some likes it that way.

Higher difficulties mean enemies get some extra capacity/skills. Thing is, you won't let them use it, for your own safety (I mean, you will either use 'controls' effects or murder them as fast as you can)

You can ignore 'Persuassion' and go for an all-combat run, you might even gain more xp that way.

Also, summoner is also super easy to play.

[Vanquish]

I played a full party (4-man team) on my first playthrough on classic difficulty, following which, I then tried a 2-man team (lone wolves) on tactician difficulty.

Combat is so much more difficult on the 4-man team as compared to the 2-man team even though the difficulty has been increased for the 2-man team. Your greatest challenge playing the 2-man team will be the non-combat portion of the game, in which you have to juggle really limited non-combat skill points into areas such as persuasion, bartering, thievery, loremaster etc. You could potentially mitigate these by actively reskilling your characters as and when the situation requires it, but for the first playthough, it is very likely that you will not know what skills are required at certain parts of the game such as persuasion checks or thievery requirements.

TLDR: Yes, lone wolves on first playthrough even on Tactician difficulty is very much viable, but you have more "administrative" work to do out of combat.

[Darmaniac]

whats a lone wolve ? i thought that would mean play with only 1 character.. but you talk about 2.. this is too weird really

[Crankganker]

Originally posted by Darmaniac:

whats a lone wolve ? i thought that would mean play with only 1 character.. but you talk about 2.. this is too weird really

Lone wolf talent give you aa bonus if you only have at max 1 follower. So you can have two players with lone wolf that recieve the bonus. Any more than 2 and all bonus are lost. It so you can have a co-op playthrough without companions

[littlek0i]

Thanks to everyone! That's a lot of useful information!

Originally posted by Vanquish:

TLDR: Yes, lone wolves on first playthrough even on Tactician difficulty is very much viable, but you have more "administrative" work to do out of combat.

I thought it is be opposite for Lone Wolves. Less characters to manage, less inventory, less equipment and gold needed. I'll investigate it further.

[Zulagin]

I just finished my first play through with lonewolf/tact. Was really fun! Went DK and Summoner.

[Qiox]

I just finished a solo lone wolf run yesterday on Tactical difficulty. It was a two-handed melee build but sort of a hybrid as well so that he would not be too overpowered.

Finished with:
40 str
20 fin
25 int
40 con
30 mem
30 wit

Had points in Aero, Geo, Hydro, Pyro, Necro, Poly, Scoundrel, Huntsman and Warfare.

It was enjoyable.

[loopycheese]

Don't forget that you can play with a 4 man team with lone wolf. Your stats, and immediately noticabely your loot carry capacity will suddenly tank when you cycle them on. Just portal in your administrative help when you need them, then let them sit back when you need your space to fight.