Melee caster build?

[Bullett00th]

I have a thing for battlemages but I suck at building them.

Need advice in creating a melee caster, preferably Prince or Fane, considering the rest of the party:
Ifan - 2H melee DD with warfare/poly/necro;
Sebille - ranger with some warfare for necessary spear engagements and some non-dagger scoundrel skills;
Beast - not fully decided yet, but likely a summoner with an extra magic school or two for buffs.

I really like the idea of a terramancer since it fits the description and uses necro which I really want to explore, but I also feel like pyro skills would fit nicely into such build.

Heard about a spellsword thing where you get dual swords and enchant them with fire, which sounds amazing, but I would assume this takes knowledge and time to build and is very fragile.


Any thoughts?

[Neiker]

2 handed staffs scale with inteligence and you can use warfare skills with them. Getting a few poibts in strenght to wear good armour is probably a must though

[Flannastri]

Originally posted by Neiker:

2 handed staffs scale with inteligence and you can use warfare skills with them

Scale with 2H (obviously), scoundrel (crit multiplier) and elemental school (pyrokinetic if you use pyro staff) also.
Warfare skills like «whirlwind» with «sparking swings» or «master of sparks» will allow you to inflict huge damage.

Oh, and check this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1174316908
Its not truely «melee», but kinda tanky-style, maybe you can borrow a few ideas from it.

[Pookie The Krogan]

I use the red prince with a 2h sword or axe.
Warfare, pyro, and have some items for the hydro class. works out pretty well actaully.
my main is custom char, he has geo for buffs and same with hydro. freaking tanky as all get out, sword and shield with some warfare

[Pookie The Krogan]

Originally posted by Pookie The Krogan:

I use the red prince with a 2h sword or axe.
Warfare, pyro, and have some items for the hydro class. works out pretty well actaully.
my main is custom char, he has geo for buffs and same with hydro. freaking tanky as all get out, sword and shield with some warfare

correction prince has the air one, hydro helm for healing and frost armor

[Bullett00th]

thanks!

I'm willing to go with Geo for the armor buffs and CC since he will be in close proximity of enemies, just wondering if I can add an extra magic school on top of geo and necro

Originally posted by Flannastri:

Oh, and check this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1174316908
Its not truely «melee», but kinda tanky-style, maybe you can borrow a few ideas from it.

this is nice, I may use some of it, thank you!

Originally posted by Pookie The Krogan:

I use the red prince with a 2h sword or axe.
Warfare, pyro, and have some items for the hydro class. works out pretty well actaully.
my main is custom char, he has geo for buffs and same with hydro. freaking tanky as all get out, sword and shield with some warfare

This sounds like a primarily physical build with secondary magic damage. I kinda want to try and build the opposite

[Stabbey]

Obviously focus on Intelligence occasionally with some into Memory as needed, Staves are melee weapons which deal elemental damage, letting you use Warfare skills to deal magic damage.Warfare is only for skills and should not go higher than 2 or 3.at most.

Flaming swords sound nice, but the skill which does that is level 16, so you'll need something else until then.


Each magic school has at some melee-range magic attacks. Since it's a reasonably good idea to invest into two magic schools, Taking both Pyro and Geo would be a help, and you can also splash into Necro if you still want.

There are lots of useful skills, but I'll focus largely on the Melee-range skills which would work with your party:

Geomancer
Poison Wave
Corrosive Touch - Synergy with physical attackers. Requires Necro and Geo 1.
Corrosive Spray - Source Version of above. Requires Necro and Geo 2, 2 Memory 1 SP.
Oily Carapace - Consumes nearby oil and removes Slowed on self. Requires Warfare and Geo 1.

Pyrokinetic
Supernova
Flaming Tongues
Firebrand
Sparking Swings - Requires Warfare and Pyro 1.
Master of Sparks - Source Version of above. Requires Warfare and Pyro 2, 2 Memory 1 SP.

Necromancer
Decaying Touch - Extremely situational, limited application. Useful to prevent an enemy from using heals on themselves, or more rarely to combo with a healer for damage.
Silencing Stare
Bone Cage

Polymorph (Maybe if you have +1 into it from an item)
Medusa Head - Petrifying VIsage Aura, petrifies all without magic armor around you.

[KDubya]

Necro only needs like two points in it. Since it scales with intelligence which you are pumping anyway for your staff and spell damage, necro will give you a physical damage option that comes in handy as well as access to some healing from Mosquito Swarm and Blood Drinker. The passive heal from doing damage is helpful as well.

I really like Bull Rush as well for a nice movement AoE attack that can add bleeding and hit multiple targets. Battle Stomp and Bull Rush give you two knockdown AoE that can help keep the enemy standing in your fire and burning.

Since you'll have Elemental Affinity for reduced casting when standing in element for your fire casting, it'll also help with your necro if you move to blood. Likewise Torturer applies both burning and bleeding so you'll have access to both with a two point dip into Necro.

[Stabbey]

Originally posted by KDubya:

Necro only needs like two points in it. Since it scales with intelligence which you are pumping anyway

Right, good point. Unlike Pyro and Geo, Necro does not gain damage with more points invested into the Necro school, so it's safe to keep low.

[Bullett00th]

Great advice!

So I'll aim for 2 into necro and either pyro or some other element for skills, the rest into geo and warfare.

question is, does low point investment into a magic school affect non-damaging spells? like buffs and debuffs

[Slynx Jewel]

i guess you can build on this:
https://fextralife.com/divinity-original-sin-2-builds-battlemage/

[sdshadow]

I have made real good experience with a warfare/necromancer/air/water hybrid.

Warfare need only one point for the skill shield throw.
Necromancer only two points.
Then a little into memory and the rest at int.

He can make the type of damage you need and even has a lot of CC abilities and a few good buffs.
I would prefer water over air (air only till you can cast teleportation and then full water), because with the skill that reduces the AP cost (if you stand at the same element) you get the water spells 1 point cheaper for only 1 AP for casting rain under yourself at the start of the fight.

If you need more physical damage, you only have to stand at a puddle of blood to get the necromancy spells one point cheaper.

[Imyo]

If you want a real battlemage the only viable way is to go for sparkling swings build, you go for int and melee hits, or what you said, a terramancer, but the earth spells are going to be there just for some buffs and small cc, but those are ranged, the dmg you will be doing is physical if thats the case. If what you want is to be a sworsdsman with spells to aid you with damage, then just start crying because its not possible, the armor system gimps that kind of builds since you are going to be splitting your damage and for what i can see you wont have magic dmg in the rest of the characters. You can allways go for lone wolf and split attributes and be both thigns at the same time, a fighter and a mage, its viable and strong but again you wont be doing both damage types at the same time if you want to actually kill enemies. The beast one is quite op, summoning and buffs is easy and helpfull for the rest of the party, i did that for my first playthrough and it was amazing, you dont even need primary attributes, just some wits and memory, the rest into const, and you will be the tankiest dwarf ever, plus summons actually do really nice dmg.

The sparkling swings is pretty much what you want, fire dmg, you can even add some poison dmg with some geo, you will want a lot of crit chance and crit multi so scoundrel and wits are a must, sadly the only way to go rigth with that build is dual wield because it procs the fire dmg with each hit (two handed already has crit multi that would be amazing to have), there is a build posted around for that, still is quite easy, get sparkling swings and master of sparks, and hit things, grab any magic cc you can with the points you have in geo or fire or add some aero, but again you will be doing only magic dmg, and your whole party is physical (maybe not the summoner).

In short, FOR YOUR party comp the only viable option you have is terramancer, it works with physical and you can somewhat feel like you are doing some magic ♥♥♥♥ here and there.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Great advice!

So I'll aim for 2 into necro and either pyro or some other element for skills, the rest into geo and warfare.

question is, does low point investment into a magic school affect non-damaging spells? like buffs and debuffs

To my understanding, no. The few exceptions are Hydro and Geo, where Hydro skill points adds more healing and magic armor on magic armor buffs, and same deal for Geo and physical armor buffs.
The rest is stat(intelligence) based and have no additional scaling except your character level.

[KDubya]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Great advice!

So I'll aim for 2 into necro and either pyro or some other element for skills, the rest into geo and warfare.

question is, does low point investment into a magic school affect non-damaging spells? like buffs and debuffs

Are you going strength based or intelligence based?

Warfare only needs two for skill unlocks unless you are going physical strength based or going for damaging Necro spells which is more of a Blood Mage than a Battlemage.

Buffs scale off skill investment so more points in Geo improves Fortify's armor.

I've had good success with a max intelligence staff wielder. Max pyro for spells which also applies to the melee damage of my staff as long as its a fire staff. Two points in Necro to get some heals, armor and physical damage spells, two in Warfare for skill unlocks like Whirlwind, a few into Geo to grab a few spells like Impalement and Fortify, some in Polymorph as desired. Can add to Two Handed if you want more staff melee damage.

[KDubya]

Originally posted by Imyo:

If you want a real battlemage the only viable way is to go for sparkling swings build, you go for int and melee hits, or what you said, a terramancer, but the earth spells are going to be there just for some buffs and small cc, but those are ranged, the dmg you will be doing is physical if thats the case. If what you want is to be a sworsdsman with spells to aid you with damage, then just start crying because its not possible, the armor system gimps that kind of builds since you are going to be splitting your damage and for what i can see you wont have magic dmg in the rest of the characters. You can allways go for lone wolf and split attributes and be both thigns at the same time, a fighter and a mage, its viable and strong but again you wont be doing both damage types at the same time if you want to actually kill enemies. The beast one is quite op, summoning and buffs is easy and helpfull for the rest of the party, i did that for my first playthrough and it was amazing, you dont even need primary attributes, just some wits and memory, the rest into const, and you will be the tankiest dwarf ever, plus summons actually do really nice dmg.

The sparkling swings is pretty much what you want, fire dmg, you can even add some poison dmg with some geo, you will want a lot of crit chance and crit multi so scoundrel and wits are a must, sadly the only way to go rigth with that build is dual wield because it procs the fire dmg with each hit (two handed already has crit multi that would be amazing to have), there is a build posted around for that, still is quite easy, get sparkling swings and master of sparks, and hit things, grab any magic cc you can with the points you have in geo or fire or add some aero, but again you will be doing only magic dmg, and your whole party is physical (maybe not the summoner).

In short, FOR YOUR party comp the only viable option you have is terramancer, it works with physical and you can somewhat feel like you are doing some magic ♥♥♥♥ here and there.

With his party you have:

Ifan - Death Knight physical damage dealer. You can drop two points in Geo to get Fortify and Impalement which gives a ranged AoE that cripples when no physical armor and leaves a nice oil slick for the pyro to set on fire.

Sebille - Warden bow and spear user, mostly physical but can use crafted elemental arrows to add magic damage as needed.

Beast - Summoner can do either Physical when summoning on Blood or magic when summoning on some element.

Battlemage fire staff - does mainly magic but a few necro spells thrown in get you some physical damage that scales off your buffed inteligence.

The party looks pretty flexible and can adapt to different situations. I think fire battle mage would fit well.