Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Character Creation Guide

by Falagar / Articles, Divinity: Original Sin 2 / 12 Sep 2017

Whether you play alone or with other people, the first step is always character creation. In this game, you create by default only 1 character per player in the game at the start. Even though you can recruit other characters to join your party very early on the character(s) you create at the start of the game will be considered as the main one(s). You can control only your character(s) created during key moments of the plot related to your character(s) in particular and you can only interact as your external point of view to your companions’ stories. So choose very carefully what character you first create!

The first thing you decide for your character is whether you want it to be custom or to be an origin story. Custom characters are the name implies are characters you tailor yourself by choosing race, gender and their backstory while origin stories are fully fledged characters with a developed background and a past. Origin stories offer specific content related to their adventures throughout the game as they all pursue a specific goal. While you can help them achieve their goals as companions if you play them as your created character(s) you will have full control over your dialog options and your decisions.

Let’s start with the origin stories and then detail the customization options in general.

There are 6 different origin stories to choose from:

-Ifan ben-Mezd, a male human

-Lohse, a female human

-The Red Prince, a male lizard

-Sebille, a female elf

-Beast, a male dwarf

-Fane, a male undead eternal (an ancient race not existing in the world of Rivellon anymore)

You can customize both their appearance and skills entirely, only their back story and sex are pre-determined so your Lohse may look entirely different from another player’s Lohse!

So after choosing what type of character you want, you can choose the appearance of your character which has no impact on the gameplay, it is only cosmetic.

Then comes the choice of your preset. Each preset are pre-made archetypes to help you start the game with a somehow organized character. You can fully customize your starting attributes and skills and go entirely away from the preset if you want. I would still strongly recommend that you pick the preset closest to your desired character as the starting weapons are influenced by it.

You can then customize your starting attributes, abilities and skills.

Attributes are the typical stat points you find in most RPGs. There are 6 attributes in DOS2, here is the listing of the attributes and their effect:

-Strength: each point gives +5% for all strength-based weapons and skills and +2% of total physical armor

-Finesse: each point gives +5% for all finesse-based weapons and skills and +1% chance to dodge physical attacks

-Intelligence: each point gives +5% of all intelligence-based weapons and skills and +2% of total magical armor

-Constitution: each point improves your vitality (maximum health points) by 7%

-Memory: each point gives a new memory slot to learn new spells, the stronger the spell the more memory slots are required

-Wits: each point gives +1% of critical chance and +1 Initiative on top of giving a better chance to detect hidden traps and treasures

Attributes in this game are interesting because they are both rather easy to understand and pretty impactful. I recommend you focus mainly on one of the 4 first stats depending on what type of character you want to build and then add Memory and Wits whenever you need. If you start to feel you need to broaden your tactical range but don’t have enough memory slots then get enough Memory to do so and never forget that Wits affect your Initiative (which determines the turns order in battle, the highest initiative goes first). You don’t want to let the opposition control the battlefield before you can even play your first turn or you may get in trouble very quickly.

Some builds can balance a bit more Attributes but to begin with, I really suggest you try to focus your strategy for your character on one specific thing (depending on what you like to do).

You will get 2 Attributes points per level for the rest of the game.

Abilities determine what your character can do and are of two types: Combat Abilities and Civil abilities. You have two Combat Ability points and one Civil Ability point to spend when you create your character and can’t transfer points from one type of ability to another.

Combat Abilities can do two things:

-They can give you access to a skill school in the case of Skill Abilities (for example you need at least 1 point in Hydroshophist to learn Regeneration)

-They give you a bonus perk for each point spent no matter the type of Combat Ability (including skill abilities!). In our Hydrosophist example, each point spent gives +10% of healing effectiveness and +10% of magical armor given through the use of skills.

I recommend when you start the game to focus on only one type of weapon per character and begin with a maximum of 2 types of skills to build a cohesive strategy. You can later pick up other skill schools to get access to some specific spells that go well with your initial idea but it is best that you first focus on one articulated strategy for your character.
There is no true bad combinations of skill schools thanks to how the battles are handled but you need to know what your goal is for your character or you will end up going in all directions and be good at nothing.

Civil Abilities are used mostly outside of battle for your interactions with your environment whether it is having better prices when you trade, persuading others, stealing, etc. Overall you never want to have the same civil abilities on two different characters unless you have a very specific idea in mind. It is best to have one good loremaster, one good barterer, and so on. When you play in Multiplayer it is best that you make sure that you are working along with your comrades to avoid having 4 characters all very average in everything and not gaining any benefit from Civil Abilities (such as better prices in the shop, better items found in the wild, etc.).

Skills are pretty straightforward: you can pick up to 3 skills from the one or two skill schools you chose just before in your Combat Abilities. As always it is best to have an idea in mind as to what your character will be doing in battle. If you are meant to do a lot of physical damage try to pick skills that do physical damage and inflict effects when the physical armor of enemies is down.

You also automatically acquire two spells based on your race and your type of character. Each origin character gets its very own spell while all custom characters share the same. Those unique spells are Source spells (check the combat section for more info on what a source spell is) and therefore are not used as often as other spells but have stronger effects. Racial skills on the other hand are regular skills that can be used during every fight and are pretty decent. I still suggest you choose your character because you like it and not because of its special racial and story skills as they are not game changers and can be used on any build one way or another!

Talents are strong passive perks that can modify your character in many ways, be very careful when you pick those as you gain new talents very rarely during the game and some can have very drastic effects (Zombie for example transform any healing into damage and poison damage into healing).

Finally, Tags allow you to choose what type of background your character has in the case of a custom character (origin stories have predetermined ones) which leads to brand-new dialog options that can sometimes drastically change how people see you.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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