Basic Hints Divinity: OS Guide

Last update: 14 June 2016

1 - Basic Hints - Game Guide - Divinity: Original Sin Game Guide

Try to use healing potions, whenever your character may die. Resurrection scrolls are way more expensive than healing potions.
Look where you put your steps and what you do. For instance: a character, which is already burning, will cause a huge explosion by entering a pool of oil.
Breaking into houses and stealing various valuable items is a good way to earn a lot of gold, unless you've been discovered. You will be warned a few times, but if they caught you a few times, they will finally attack.
If you want to ease yourself during combat, find yourself two additional companions. Your team can be made out of a maximum of four characters. Those who will be swapped out of the party in the latter parts of the game, will wait for you in the End of Time, where you can enter by pressing the portal icon on the right side of the screen.
During combat, you can keep action points to be used in the next turn. This way, you will be able to use skills you couldn't in the first turn.
During the conversation, in the co-op- when the characters do not agree with each other, the system chooses the decision to be made. You can, of course, split up, and both of you will decide for themselves.
You can combine and manipulate the elements of magic. For instance, if you use an air magic spell, giving the "chilled" status on the target, who was already wet, you will have a high chance to freeze him.
Try to thoroughly analyze the battlefield. If there are some ooze / oil barrels on it, it's better for the enemies to be near them, when they explode. Obviously, the oil will require a little help of fire.
The number below each of your characters, is the attitude that a given character has to the character you are currently controlling. The lower it is, the less the characters like each other.
Remember, that you won't hit a target over an obstacle, even if you had a 100% chance to hit.
It's always a good idea to have a healer in your party. The combat is far less expensive this way, and this character can be equipped with the resurrection spell as well.
If you attack a fiery enemy with fire element, you will only heal him. The same mechanism works with each of the elements. Additionally, zombies are healed by their own ooze.
Each character has its own inventory - because of that, if the mission is about bringing an item to an NPC, the quest must be done by the character who has that item in his / her possession.
Counteraction is one of the most important elements of combat. During a fight with a fiery enemy, it's good to summon rain, because it decreases the chances of your character burning, while also weakening enemies with a fire affinity.
If an NPC is hostile towards you during your conversation, it can be because of three factors: you have your weapons drawn, you're talking with a companion character, instead of one of your two mains, or the attitude level towards you is low (after you've been discovered stealing, for instance) - you can offer an item (or a few of them) to this NPC to warm up your relations.
Try to trade with the residents - sometimes a seemingly random citizen can have a legendary item at his disposal.
Be careful when selling valuable items, especially quest-related - sometimes, after coming back to the merchant after a few days, you may find that he / she doesn't have this item anymore.
The number of abilities is limited, regardless of the level of a skill - you won't be able to learn all the available abilities from, for instance, a specific school of magic, and you will have to choose the ones you want the most (details can be found in the spells section of this guide)
Merchants are given new wares each time characters in your party advance to a higher level. If you can't find a skill book you're looking for, get back to the merchant when your party "hits" a higher level.
Try to have significant amounts of gold at your disposal at all times - sometimes you will find an extremely valuable, legendary item while trading with a random character, and it's almost guaranteed you won't find it later anymore.
Don't try to complete one mission at a time at all costs - a lot of quests are tied together tightly, and without finishing some of the secondary quests, you won't be able to complete the main one.
Remember to create a team of different characters, with different specializations - in the latter parts of the game, the enemies tend to be resistant to magic, or non-magical attacks.
Use grenades! It might seem that they lack in terms of damage, especially given the amount of it that a high-leveled warrior or ranger can dish out, but aside from damage they almost always cause an additional effect (like stunning the enemy, setting him on fire, or causing blindness), which are incomparably more important than raw damage.
Give grenades to the character that fights in melee range and lacks spells. A warrior focusing on close-ranged combat will benefit greatly from grenades, having the ability to throw an explosive at a group of enemies hidden behind (or inside of) a smokescreen, or when he/she simply can't reach a foe to attack. Grenades can also be given to mages and rangers, but they have plenty of their own abilities, so they should be given to a warrior.
Use Wands. They have their flaws (like a rather small chance to cause a critical hit, or the lack of any effect on the effectiveness of them through the Perception attribute), but those can save your life from time to time. A mage waiting for his abilities to come off cooldown will be several times more effective with wands, which can be used from a safe distance, instead of getting into melee range with his/her staff.
Remember about the charges in the Wands! The amount of them is extremely small, that's a fact, and they can't be replenished, but they often allow you to cast extremely powerful spells. It might come in handy when your spells are on cooldown, or when you need an ice spell, and your water mage is unable to cast it.
Create your own items. It applies to both potions, which are extremely easy to create (thanks to ubiquitous plants), as well as equipment. A character with the 5th level of Crafting skill will be able to create powerful weapons, a lot more effective than those that can be purchased from merchants (aside from a number of legendary items). Additionally, it's an extremely good source of income - you can process a lot of junk into valuable items and make a fortune selling them.
While playing on the "Tactician" difficulty level, you should unlock the Courageous talent for all your characters. The said talent gives immunity to fear, which will come in handy when dealing with most bosses in the game (as well as some smaller foes), which are able to terrify your whole team with a single ability. While playing on difficulty levels lower than Tactician, you should at least "equip" your warrior with it.

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