Is class important in this game?

[Zapallo]

So I'm probably gonna buy the game tomorrow, however. I have a hard time selecting a class even before I have the game lol. So far I'm liking wizard, battle mage, inquisitor, knight and methaporph. Are there any classes that are just bad or boring?

Also, are races gamechanging?

[ayrtep]

You build your own classes, its quite flexable. In game classes are mainly rubbish. Check here for ideas https://fextralife.com/divinity-original-sin-2-builds-tidalist/

[HidesHisFace]

Class is just the initial preset of skills and initial stat distribution.
You can fully customize this for your character. Companions - you chose a preset but you get to fully and freely from chapter 2 and on.

[Stabbey]

You can change anything about a preset class during character creation. The only fixed thing about a preset class is the weapons you start out with (well, the ones which appear in the "confiscated Items" chest).

Some of the preset classes definitely need tweaking. Any class which starts out with points into two of STR, INT, and FIN should have those reallocated so only one is chosen.

The Battlemage and Inquisitor preset classes in particular have highly questionable preset Talents. Battlemages have two distinctly different paths: A STR-focused build using normal weapons, with a lot of points into Warfare, and points into different magical schools to get buffs (not offensive spells), and an INT-focused build using a staff as a melee weapon, with points into elemental schools for close-range spells, and only enough into Warfare to get access to skills.

There is a reason why all front-line melee fighters have Opportunist as their Talent: front-line warriors are just awful to play without Opportunist. (Rogues should go for The Pawn first, Opportunist can wait).

Thieves want to take Thievery, not Sneak, and the Guerrilla Talent is pretty lousy.

[GarnetDivine]

After the initial "tutorial" area (which is about 20-30 hours of gameplay), you have the opportunity to completely redo your characters from the ground up, even the origin ones. If you didn't like them or wanted to fine tune a few things you can do that. Even their appearance (except for a few things like Red, you can't make him a different color).

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by VengeancExZero:

After the initial "tutorial" area (which is about 20-30 hours of gameplay), you have the opportunity to completely redo your characters from the ground up, even the origin ones. If you didn't like them or wanted to fine tune a few things you can do that. Even their appearance (except for a few things like Red, you can't make him a different color).

There's a caveat to this that fails to get mentioned, which is somewhat important: Skill Books are expensive.

If you want to completely revamp your character after you find the respec mirror - to the point where you're using a completely different set of skills - it's going to cost you. You're going to have to spend a lot of money to get new skill books. Oh, sure, you might have some of them on you from loot, if you don't sell any you find, but you're probably going to have to spend some bucks to get what you really need.

It's more advantageous to figure out your "classes" ahead of time. Which, granted, is pretty much impossible without playing the game through at least once. But there are guides and other players advice to help.

[GarnetDivine]

Originally posted by ColorsFade:

Originally posted by VengeancExZero:

After the initial "tutorial" area (which is about 20-30 hours of gameplay), you have the opportunity to completely redo your characters from the ground up, even the origin ones. If you didn't like them or wanted to fine tune a few things you can do that. Even their appearance (except for a few things like Red, you can't make him a different color).

There's a caveat to this that fails to get mentioned, which is somewhat important: Skill Books are expensive.

If you want to completely revamp your character after you find the respec mirror - to the point where you're using a completely different set of skills - it's going to cost you. You're going to have to spend a lot of money to get new skill books. Oh, sure, you might have some of them on you from loot, if you don't sell any you find, but you're probably going to have to spend some bucks to get what you really need.

It's more advantageous to figure out your "classes" ahead of time. Which, granted, is pretty much impossible without playing the game through at least once. But there are guides and other players advice to help.

You also forget that most merchants can in fact be killed and you can retrieve all of your spells that way as well.

Currently at level 6 in Fort Joy with my party I am sitting on 4k gold and haven't even found the encampment yet. All 4 of my characters are completely decked out in their respective abilities and only one tree (Huntsman) was obtained by looting them from the body.

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by VengeancExZero:

You also forget that most merchants can in fact be killed and you can retrieve all of your spells that way as well.

You can do that, yes, but then you can't buy any more spells from them and it might go against some people's roleplaying sensibilities. But yeah, you can do that.

Currently at level 6 in Fort Joy with my party I am sitting on 4k gold and haven't even found the encampment yet. All 4 of my characters are completely decked out in their respective abilities and only one tree (Huntsman) was obtained by looting them from the body.

That's where I am on my second play-through as well. I don't quite have all the skills I want at level 6 yet, because I tend to play all my characters with a lot of memory, but at the moment they're far more set than they were the first time I went through the game.

This is one of those games that really does reward you for going through it multiple times.

[17]

The class basically just gives you a suggestion and starting weapons in a chest on the Ship at the start of the game. But you can literally change everything about the class at the start that you want to.

Also, races greatly effect the game and all bring something to the plate.
1. Undead cannot bleed or be killed by deathfog. They are healed by poison and damaged by normal heals. They also can use their finger bones as infinite lockpicks but have to hide their bodies from the living.
2. elves get +1 to lore, can eat body parts to gain memories and sacrifice a little Con temporarily to gain 10% damage for a handful of rounds and 1 ap on the round they do it.
3. lizards gain a fire breath attack plus 10% resist to poison and fire and +1 persuasion
4. human gets a group stat buff, +1 barter and 5% to critical
5. dwarf gets a petrify attack, +1 sneak and something else maybe, i forget lol

my advise is to not play undead unless you want to constantly get empty potion bottles to make poison potions to heal yourself, also, thieving is an excellent Civil Skill, very versatile. I save thousands on Skill books with it lol

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by 17:

5. dwarf gets a petrify attack, +1 sneak and something else maybe, i forget lol

Iirc +10%con for dwarfs

[ColorsFade]

Originally posted by 17:

The class basically just gives you a suggestion and starting weapons in a chest on the Ship at the start of the game. But you can literally change everything about the class at the start that you want to.

Also, races greatly effect the game and all bring something to the plate.
1. Undead cannot bleed or be killed by deathfog. They are healed by poison and damaged by normal heals. They also can use their finger bones as infinite lockpicks but have to hide their bodies from the living.
2. elves get +1 to lore, can eat body parts to gain memories and sacrifice a little Con temporarily to gain 10% damage for a handful of rounds and 1 ap on the round they do it.
3. lizards gain a fire breath attack plus 10% resist to poison and fire and +1 persuasion
4. human gets a group stat buff, +1 barter and 5% to critical
5. dwarf gets a petrify attack, +1 sneak and something else maybe, i forget lol

my advise is to not play undead unless you want to constantly get empty potion bottles to make poison potions to heal yourself, also, thieving is an excellent Civil Skill, very versatile. I save thousands on Skill books with it lol

And Fane, at least, if he turns into an Elf with the mask, can also eat flesh for the memories and the bonus Skills. If you're not going to play an Elf or take Sebille, it's a good way to acquire a couple nice freebies (Adrenaline, Wings and First Aid).

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by VengeancExZero:

Originally posted by ColorsFade:

There's a caveat to this that fails to get mentioned, which is somewhat important: Skill Books are expensive.

If you want to completely revamp your character after you find the respec mirror - to the point where you're using a completely different set of skills - it's going to cost you. You're going to have to spend a lot of money to get new skill books. Oh, sure, you might have some of them on you from loot, if you don't sell any you find, but you're probably going to have to spend some bucks to get what you really need.

It's more advantageous to figure out your "classes" ahead of time. Which, granted, is pretty much impossible without playing the game through at least once. But there are guides and other players advice to help.

You also forget that most merchants can in fact be killed and you can retrieve all of your spells that way as well.

Currently at level 6 in Fort Joy with my party I am sitting on 4k gold and haven't even found the encampment yet. All 4 of my characters are completely decked out in their respective abilities and only one tree (Huntsman) was obtained by looting them from the body.

I generally leave act one with every skill I want learned as well as 2-6 copies of every available skillbook in the act as well as enough gold to buy everything for two characters from the ground up. So while it can take time, lacking the skillbooks isn’t much of a barrier.

[Chaoslink]

To get an idea of how significant class is, I’ve left my starter class on fighter and manually edited the stats to that of a wizard or enchanter. The only significance of class is when you pick up companions as you only get to choose from the presets and if that preset comes with a skill you don’t like or need, you can’t change that until act two.

Otherwise, it is completely irrelevant beyond giving people around the forum a basic idea of your character build.

[Zapallo]

What would be the best start for a dps/utility character? I saw some teleporting abilities, really liked those

[GarnetDivine]

Originally posted by Spooky Boi:

What would be the best start for a dps/utility character? I saw some teleporting abilities, really liked those

Right now I have a human using a crossbow with Huntsman and Polymorph and she hits like a train. She can avoid ground effects with her flight, teleport to high ground, go invisible for repositioning and hit low ground enemies for around 60-90 damage at level 6.

[Zapallo]

Probably going for a dwarf, like in every MMO I play where they're available