How does 4 player coop work?

[PhanracK]

Divinity Original Sin veteran here, planning on buying this game soon.

How does 4 player coop work in this game? I know in the first game you had 2 players + 2 companions. But if I play with 3 people now, will that be like 3 player created character + 1 companion, and with 4 no companions at all? Is someone stuck playing a pre-made companion instead of creating their own character?

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by PhanracK:

Divinity Original Sin veteran here, planning on buying this game soon.

How does 4 player coop work in this game? I know in the first game you had 2 players + 2 companions. But if I play with 3 people now, will that be like 3 player created character + 1 companion, and with 4 no companions at all? Is someone stuck playing a pre-made companion instead of creating their own character?

So, each player can create his character the way he wants which means picking an origin story or create an entirely new and custom character.
The origin stories aren't truly companions by default they just are characters with a background, but then they can be played as main character or companion depending on the situation.

So if you are 3 players you can if you wish to have a 4th character played as a companion, controlled by one of the 3 players. But you can also decide to never have a 4th party member if you prefer (it sounds suicidal but actually it also means having more money to spend on 3 characters instead of 4 among other things which is a good trade-off).

Overall the rule is that the maxium party size is 4 and that all characters created through the character creation screen at the beginning of the game will be "main" characters while all others will be companions, which change how conversations and origin story quests are handled (you have a lot more control over a main character compared to a companion during their specific quests).

[PhanracK]

Thanks for the thorough reply. Is the Lonewolf trait still a thing? Would be a decent compensation for playing with just 3 characters.

[Zorpen]

Originally posted by PhanracK:

Thanks for the thorough reply. Is the Lonewolf trait still a thing? Would be a decent compensation for playing with just 3 characters?

Lone wolf (or whatever it will be called) does nothing if you have 3 characters.

If you are alone you will get high boost, and it will degrade for each companion, till it does nothing at all with 3 ppl.

[Monocaine]

I believe it's One Man Army now and I think you get bonuses based on how small your party is, the best being if you're by yourself.

[Sombrero]

As stated above it is One man army and it doesn't work if you have more than 2 characters on your team. But again I strongly believe beating the game with 3 characters is possible, you will need to be more careful with your strategy but I'm convinced it will be possible. Some players managed to finish the first act with only one character without the talent that boost your stat when alone so