Four party tactician guide: mobility mage build (Original edition)

A thorough guide to a mobility and flexibility build that will work in tactician mode without using Lone Wolf or other cheese tactics. This build offers a lot of decisions and tactics to handle different enemies and situations.

NOTE: this guide was made for the original version of the game and NOT for Definitive edition. Definitive Edition's Tactician Mode is much more forgiving and requires a less rigid approach to party construction. This build will surely still work in Definitive Edition but if you find its systems too rigid, you can easily go with something far less constraining.

Tactician basics and concepts

If you're comfortable with Divinity's basic mechanics and have played it a bit, you can skip this section and go straight to party build etc.

A lot of players feel that the classic difficulty in Divinity 2 is a bit too easy while Tactician mode is too punishing. This guide is meant to give players who want to take on Tactician mode, but not spend 30+ hours figuring it out, an idea on how it can be done. Of course, this guide can't explain every decision or guard against a player making the wrong decisions in combat situations but it'll present a way where a decent tactical player can start to see how Tactician Mode may be defeated.

In tactician mode, the key is that you can't allow the AI to use its action points on dealing damage, ever. If an enemy unit is allowed to use a full round of action points on one of your characters to deal damage, you'll be close to losing the fight afterwards if you haven't already. In short, you do this through mobility and heavy, focused damage followed by control skills.

Breaking down the type of armor required for your characters to control enemeis within round one or two is key. There are two types of armor and damage in Divinity 2, physical and magical, and you need to take down one of them to allow the affiliated skill type to activate its control aspects. You need to have an enemy on 0 magic armor for an Aeruthurge skill to stun etc. This means that your party is usually best off focusing on either physical or magical damage and control skills so they can achieve synergy and not have potentially wasted action points. Having a fighter hit for 300 physical armor and a mage for 300 magic just means that one of those actions doesn't matter. You don't have time for that in tactician mode.

Basically, Divinity 2 is about trading action points in your favour, that means that any skill that takes away more action points than it uses is good. However, in tactician mode, it's also about defense - more than anything perhaps. If your defenses go down, you may never get another turn, that's how it works. That means that your characters must try and have enough armour, both physical and magical, to survive a few actions directed at them before they're controllable themselves. This guide also explains how to boost survivability.


So basically, this guide focuses on two things:

1. Controlling the enemy through movement, damage and skills.

2. Surviving damage througn movement and defenses.

Party construction

My party concept consists of four mages that win by targetting magic armour and defend well against both magical and physical damage. You can choose a lot of different combinations of mage types but I'll present my picks - I think it could be tuned to be stronger but this is strong enough to beat the game on tactician for sure. My four characters are:

1. Summoner
Summoning is insanely good so you should have a character that focuses on summoning until they reach 10 points in the Summoning skill. At 10 they can start summoning the big version of the Incarnate spell which is a huge deal. Any item you find that boosts summoning should go to this character until they have 10 Summoning and shouldn't easily be replaced with items that don't boost Summoning by the same amount. Getting to 10 Summoning early is very powerful. Only exception to this rule can be when dealing with a better shield which is arguably too important to be neglected for boosts to Summoning. If you can reach 10 Summoning early, you'll win fights for free just off the power of the Incarnate.

2. Fire mage
The fire mage wins fights, that's its job. Fire deals more damage more consistently than any other element. It takes down magic shields in one round and creates damage surfaces under the AI which is huge. Supernova is an amazing skill when used correctly and will help you take down even large magic shields in one round. I recommend giving the fire mage Adrenaline (not early but from when it has access to Supernova) from the Scoundrel line and to have an elf be the firemage for the 3 extra action points - this character gains from having big rounds where they unload a ton of high damage skills in one round on a group of enemies before they can disperse.


3. Healer/support
Healing hitpoints is only rarely good because once the shields are down, support units have to focus on getting those back up rather than to just heal hitpoints. Once a friendly unit's shields are down, they must be significantly boosted fast or the character removed from harm. Hydrosophists are important for their ability to boost and maintain magic shields - even with a party in full mage armor (which prioritises Magic Defense already), this is still the most important defense to boost. Melee characters can easily be held at bay or charmed/controlled early on while mages can whipe out entire groups once the magic shields fall. Once your magic shields are down, the party might just be controlled for the rest of the fight if no one does anything. Armor of Frost, Soothing Cold, Arcane Stitch, they can save an entire fight when used correctly.

4. Controller, zapper, support
I think the fourth character can be just about anything, really, but I had an Aeruthurge/Geomancer to deal damage with lightning (helps against enemies with high fire resistance) and restore physical armor effectively. I imagine one could also have another summoner or fire mage here but I think having the last two elements will help against highly resistant enemies along the way.

Level progression: Skill and Talent selection

Attributes
When levelling up, generally you put one point in Intelligence, always, and one in either Constitution, Memory or Wits. The second choice is pretty tricky but remember you can always rerolll your choices later in the game once you're off Fort Joy (Google it if you don't know how). Constitution is always a safe choice and should probably be chosen every other level or if you feel your characters are too easy to one-shot kill. Memory should be the second focus until you reach 15-18 depending on the character. From then on, you can usually replace old skills with new skills but you'll need this much memory to have your tools available to you. Once you get Savage Sortilege as a talent for your mages, you can start putting points in Wits rather than Memory to deal more damage and break down the magic shields faster.

Skills
The summoner focuses on the Summoning skill pretty much as long as they can. They should get Farsight Infusion and Power Infusion to help the incarnate stay alive and also unlock very powerful offensive options. Dominate Mind is also insanely powerful and should be chosen - in fact at least one other character should probably have enough Summoning to get this skill too.

The fire mage (pyrokinetic) focuses on their main skill but should supplement with Aerothurge to help wtih control once shields are down and also to have a backup damage type when needed. Otherwise go with Supernova, Laser Ray, Summon Fire Slug, Meteor Shower (and others you like). Make sure this class has Adrenaline so they can set up huge damage rounds on groups of enemies where they basically break down all shields in one turn.

The support unit focuses on Hydrosophism but should also have some Aerothurge to help with control and some Geomancy to help build up armor. Arcane Stich, Soothing Cold, Armor of Frost are all good skills to help rebuild damaged shields while the party uses its mobility to extend the fight (see tactics guide).

Zapper/Aeruthurge/Geomancer
This class can do a lot of different things depending on how you like to build it. I focused on control skills, Aerothurge damage and Geomancy for armor support. Chain Lightning, Dazing Bolt, Electric Discharge and Shocking Touch are all key skills to help damage and control the fight.

Common skills
This party relies on everyone being able to do certain things well as explained in the Tactics section of the guide, therefor everyone must have these skills at their disposal:

Tactical Retreat: Easily the most powerful mobility skill in the game. It helps the group choose where to fight without having to move through nasty surfaces or through opportunist-zones (where the enemy auto-hits you as you pass). Use it wisely.

Teleport: controlling the fight is important and before armor is down this skill will help you keep fighters at bay or gather enemies into groups to damage them with area effect skills. Super-flexible and very important skill.

Fossil Strike: overpowered skill in early combat against non-flying enemies because it slows enemies through their magic armour. Dump down a lot of these if possible before a fight starts to control your enemies' options. It also sets up great choking points for the firemage with bonus damage from the oil exploding. Also helps give the summoner a surface early on to summon a useful incarnate though they may want to delay their summon to ensure a fire incarnate.

Fortify: rangers hit you, it's a fact. This skill will help add flexibility to resist them so that the focused upon character doesn't either die or become controlled. All characters should have this skill since they already have Geomancy for Fossil Strike and it's just all together good because it doesn't require any loss of armor to be used. It's oftentimes well used on the Incarnate as well.

Electric Discharge/Shocking Bolt: a lot of boss fights are won by taking out their armor and then chain stunning them until they finally die. You need to match the number of Aeruthurge skills to the cooldown progression on them to ensure an endless control chain - might as well just make sure everybody has these two skills and you're on the safe side.

But how...?
It's difficult to choose in which order you should get the books for everyone or who should get them first. Generally, Tactical Retreat should be nr. 1 priority along with Fossil Strike and then Teleport - from then be opportunistic about it. Remember that vendors respawn skill books after certain quests are handed in so keep an eye out. The party wins on mobility so focus on that.

Talent selection
Since you made a party of mages, they should all start out with Far Out Man which is fine though not super-important. One of them (or your main) can easily go with Pet Pal for funsies (it's a great talent!) and you're still fine.

On level 3, everyone - and I mean everyone - in the party chooses to gain 1 in Scoundrel and then chooses The Pawn. This is the backbone of this build and arguably the best Talent in the entire game. Once you have The Pawn, you can start to win fights, it's as easy as that. How, you ask? Look in the Tactics section.

Next I chose Mnemonic for everyone because they need an insane amount of skill slots early on. This helps them get there.

Then it was Savage Sortilege which adds crit damage to your skills - it's very powerful later on. From that point on, you can begin stacking up crit chance through Wits and gear to really finish fights early.

From there on out, it's kind of up to you what you want - the basics are in place and you should be fine.

Social skills
The party generally shares social skills so just make sure each character focuses on one of them. It's a good idea to have Persuasion combined with whatever character has Pet Pal, though. Always trade with the Barter character, obviously.

Equipment and shopping guide

Wands and shields for everyone!
Everyone in the party wields a wand and a shield, period. Mages deal all their damage with spells (from level 5 and up) and they don't care about the basic damage of their wands. Furthermore, in tactician mode you need to guard against being one-shot or one-hit-controlled and shields do that for you. That simple.


Let's shield up, boys
Shields are super-powerful in this game and tactician mode especially. They easily double the physical armor of all your mages and help them absorb a couple of hits that would otherwise kill them or control them. They're not even that expensive compared to main armor. So... always buy shields, even standard shields are often worth it. Also, the Shield Up ability helps give all characters a way to heal up their defenses which is very strong in long fights. Generally, unless you're feeling rich, just buy standard on-level shields whenever you level up - then later, when all the skill book expenses are done with (or most of them at least) - start buying the fancier shields.

The rest
Buy cheap armor items and belts (belts add physical armor again, very good for mages). You only need to look at the stats of your wands so get ones with Intelligence, crit change, other useful stats. Ignore base damage and spend your money on pretty much everything else first.

Keep in mind that you change equipment every 1-3 levels per slot so don't spend a ton on an expensive but super-cool item unless you're swimming in gold.

Tactics Guide: how to win

Generally speaking, this build is focused on choices and options. With Teleport, Tactical Retreat, Summoning and access to all four elements available to you, there are a lot of choice to make every single turn. So take your time and don't just choose the most obvious one at your disposal.

Brave brave Sir Robin...
Generally this party moves backwards until it's already won and then it moves in to kill. It abuses the The Pawn talent to take away 1½ action points (AP from now on) on average from each enemy at 0 cost to their own AP pool. Every turn, the Pawn allows you one free AP of movement and if you go backwards, the AI will spend 1-2 APs catching up and getting within range. If they're slowed from oil, they lose their entire turn trying to get to you. So in most fights, move backwards while firing, summoning, healing/restoring, creating surfaces in front of you. This also usually makes the AI split his forces into the ones chasing you and the ones who can't find a way to do it which is a tremendous advantage.

But no one comes...
Sometimes the enemy doesn't follow you but that's fine, you always win that situation and here's how: you simply get your entire party together, healed, fortified, whatever you need and with 6 APs for the turn, you postpone all actions and then move into range of the enemy. Once in range, teleport one of them out and jump back to the group so you have a four vs one situation. Then you slay the lone teleportee and keep doing that until the AI comes for you or dies. Your party is outrageously strong if not pushed so you're fine if no one comes for you.

Summon cannon fodder
It's a classic for a reason: go backwards, keep summons in front of you. They create choking points, they cost action points to destroy and a fully buffed Incarnate is very hard to kill. Also put down a lot of totems in front of you if you can. Basically they put the AI in a difficult position: either spend 2 AP to remove a 2 AP totem (totems can be summoned with a cooldown of just 1 turn) that already fired and dealt damage, which is a losing strategy, or ignore them and take endless amounts of damage while you move towards a faster enemy (The Pawn rules).

Stick Together, guys!
Even though standing together weakens the group to area of effect skills (AoE from now on), it also helps them support each other (Mending, Soothing Cold, Rallying Cry, Favourable Wind, Aura of Evasion) and it's generally better than finding one character isolated and being focused down by the entire enemy group. Use Tactical Retreat and Teleport to make sure you are able to move together in the direction that's best for you.

Preperation, preperation, preperation.
If you can prepare for a fight, do it, thoroughly. That means set up oil puddles to control melee pathways and it means stealthing your party when you can. The best way to start a fight is to stealth the group, engage with one character and then move the other members close enough to use one skill as they enter combat. This will give you an initiative problem because all AIs will get a turn against your one exposed unit before your last thre guys get to act, but it'll give you 6-12 AP for free in return. It's often worth it. If you feel like that's cheesing, just don't do it - you should be fine without it. Keep in mind though, that the AI will set up ambushes by luring you into conversation in the middle of the enemy group so it's not like it fights fair anyway.

It's a trap!
The most difficult fights are the ones you don't start - socalled ambushes. The AI springs it on you and you're usually in the middle of a big group ready to turn you into shish kebab. Use your mobility to get the hell out, never fight where the ambush starts. Use Tactical Retreat and The Pawn to get far away for 2 AP and heal/buff/put down oil/summon for the last 2 APs, then fight next round. Teleport characters out if necessary.

Set up them AoEs and watch them BURN!
This section is about a specific round of actions that is key to the strategy of this group. I'll explain it in detail for the same reason. The round does require a skill like Supernova and/or Laser Ray so you shouldn't try it before the fire mage has enough of its very powerful AoE skills. Once ready, the round roughly goes like this:

Use teleport and delaying turns to set up choking points and cram large groups of enemies together within range of your fire mage (who obviously still must have its action points left). This not only enables your fire mage but also your Chain Lightning and other similar skills. However, the fire mage is key to this turn, especially later in the game (lvl 12+ or so). Once you have 3-4 enemies in a clump, then comes the big fire mage turn which goes like this:

1. The fire mage should be elven and have Adrenaline which together with The Pawn gives it 8 AP for the entire turn even if it started with just 4 (4 + 2 + 1 +1) because of Blood Sacrifice.

2. Spend 2 AP getting in close to the group and back out when the turn is over.

3. Spend 3 AP on Supernova which easily deals 50-150% of opponent Magic Armor in damage... to all of them. On level 15, for example, that's easily 3-5000 damage or the same as 10 single cast damage spells.

4. Summon a Fire Slug for 1 AP which uses Laser Ray in its turn.

5. Cast Fireball for 2 AP or something like that.

This entire round will remove any armor from non-bosses (and even some bosses) or super-magic-focused enemies and even kill some melee units from full. It allows the party to hit with chain lightnings, Dominate Mind etc in the next round. In a lot of scenarios, this one round wins the fight or allows you to at least switch from defense to offense. Of course not all turns will be exactly like this, you might need to spend 3 movement poins and so not summon a slug or something, but this is the idea. Mastering this turn is crucial and on something like lvl 15, it can deal 10k damage in one turn if everything comes together. That's ridiculous.

Don't underestimate support and healing
If the party is not under immediate threat or a character doesn't have a very powerful offensive action available to them, never underestimate a good Fortify or Shields Up to simply negate pressure. If the party is moving backwards towards safety, it has time to heal back up and take complete control. If a character dies, you're likely to lose the fight and you must do whatever you can to avoid this. Character death often loses one round of 4 AP and you spend 3 AP to resurrect it and THEN the character probably has to receive 2-4 AP of healing/support to be safe again. It's a disaster - make sure it doesn't happen and restore/boost defenses often.

How to lose
You get greedy. You don't feel like you have to move backwards when you actually do, you let yourself get cornered or let one character get focused down because you wanted that juicy damage. Play it safe, you're a control party at heart and you don't like risks.

The early levels

Basic Fort Joy Survival Guide
The first 3-5 levels are the most difficult in the game. You're terribly equipped and you haven't made many choices in your party construction which means you haven't been able to equalize the difficulty level's advantage through good character choices. So here's how to make it through those difficult first fights:

First up, get to level 3. As mentioned before, you get The Pawn here and that means you're ready to fight with the basics of the party setup. Also, almost all enemies are level 3 or above and you never really want to face an enemy above your level. So what to do? You get to level 2 pretty much automatically after you land on the island and then you explore and gather your party. Look up online where your companions can be found, if you want, but get all of them and choose three friends. Then you go explore - you can get a lot of XP just by entering an area and walking back out so do that, a lot. There are many hidden areas you can get access to quickly that I won't spoil here but you can get to lvl 3 without fighting anything above your level. There's a gambling-related brawl on lvl 2 and a fight with some turtles, do those. If you can't make it with that done, go fight the alligators. They're annoying but beatable and they give you access to Teleport which is important. This is always your first serious fight.

I won't spoil exactly how to find the fights or areas mentioned here but it's easy to google from what is written here.

Once level 3, you start doing quests, buying books and choosing your fights carefully. Get shields for everyone, trade wisely and try to never engage above-level opponents on their terms. Get the hell out of ambushes and remember that you don't have to walk into an ambush to talk to them if you're sure they're evil - just attack them on your terms. Otheriwse, you use oil, teleport, summoning to win a few fights until you get to level 4 and so on and so forth. You focus on buying skill books and shields but you don't have to murder innoncents at all to harvest XP. There's no need to break immersion to beat Tactician Mode, anyone who says otherwise is lying.

A good strategy in hard fights is to use stealth to teleport a straggler away from a group and maybe kill them before taking on the rest. You can consider buying a few Chloroform skills on level 3 because you already chose 1 Scoundrel to get The Pawn for each character - it's a great 1 AP control skill that works once magic armour is down but doesn't really damage. It doesn't work on things on fire so it's not as good later.

Be thorough, do all quests and fights. Get a bit ahead on XP here, it'll help you survive until you leave Fort Joy.

[Combat Wombat]

Glad you liked it, Austin!

[Austin]

Good guide my dude, very helpful.

[Combat Wombat]

Glad you could use it for something!

[粮草征收人]

useful