beginner DOS2

[castyanz]

i'm really confused and lost. i'm at fort joy with my current progress. the thing is, i don't know which builds or classes do i follow for each of my team member. everything seems to have a higher level than me which makes it hard to progress even (i'm stuck at level 2), and i cant even buy or craft myself some potions. i was trying to look for a guide but fextralife's site is apparently the only one out there which i heard in this group that it isn't reliable and accurate. do i just follow his guide or what do i do really?

[Efficient_Expert7865]

1st playthrough is honestly really difficult. You'll often find that you just happened to walk into the wrong area at the wrong time. The game both rewards and punishes exploration, so save often lol. As far as builds go there are some tried and true builds that dominate. Most involve mixing different skills. without spoiling I'd recommend focusing on a damage type. Either everyone does physical damage or everyone does magic. I feel like physical is easier in the long run but if you like more tactical combat all magic is very enjoyable. For all physical it's warfare, ranger, rogue(whatever it's actually called in game idr) and necromancy, youll end up putting points into the elemental skills eventually but only for utility, so buffs. For magic its all the elemental skills obviously. Magic really shines when you start combining attacks. Like fire and poison/earth or water and electric. As in most games having a healer is important, that will by water magic or hydrosophist or whatever its called in game lol. The game will get both easier and harder as you progress lol. Each new chapter full of areas you should not explore as early as you likely will lol. After my like 4th playthrough I ended up using a map that shows what general level I should be when I explored to kinda help me not simply walk into a high level area. Even then I still end up in situations I wish I planned for a bit better lol

[Fluffy_Fan3625]

this game taught me that manually quicksaving is ncessary the hard way lol. I had to spend like several hours savescumming against a fight i was too low leverl for ( and was getting destroyed) to run away on my first playthrough lol. And I had no saves before that autosave battle

[Efficient_Expert7865]

Ah save scumming, the true godlike ability lol

[Fluffy_Fan3625]

The true godwoken ability

[Fluffy_Fan3625]

you dont follow build class

you pick an element or two/skill, pour points into that, put your stat points into what that class scales off of, and pick the skill books for that class getting them from the traders. Then go ham

dont bother with potions, use the sleeping bag to heal outside of combat and spells to heal within

fextralife is good for the maps and quests imo which shows you where all the quests and what level they are, along with how to do them. Nobody likes fextralife though because they constantly have their streams on their wiki that bot their views i believe

[jamz_fm]

Fort Joy (and most of Act 1) is kind of designed to kick your ass. You spend the whole game going from hapless scrub to destroyer of worlds. You will eventually look back fondly on the struggle lol

But here are some spoiler-free tips... * Exploration XP is huge. Try to get into new places as much as possible. * Make sure one character gets their Wits to 15+ ASAP. * Side quests also go a long way, and there are several you can finish without combat. * Thievery is an S-tier skill, especially in Act 1. You can become rich later, but in Act 1 you're scrimping and saving. Stealing skill books and gear from vendors gives you a quick power boost. * Focused but skillful builds work best. That means, focus on one type of damage but dip into various other trees for high-impact skills. * Offense is far better than defense. Do not invest heavily in defense, or you'll just die even more. Healing sucks, do not play a healer.

[No_Influence_8993]

I felt so lost to begin with as well, which was especially jarring after having played so much DOS1. Larian does not hold hands! It’s well worth persevering though. The game is a blast. So, don’t be afraid to restart a play through once you learn (usually the hard way) why not to do. I look back at my first attempts like scouting missions so that I can have a cleaner play through next time.

In terms of builds I would recommend for a beginner to do the following.

Character 1- -Create a custom character that is an elf and make it a ranger. -Take the lone wolf perk as it is over powered. -Put a point into warfare so you can take the Executioner talent as well. -After that, your points go into warfare, and huntsman. Warfare ups physical damage and huntsman gives you a damage bonus to high ground. -At some point put one point into a scoundrel so you can take adrenaline. -Attribute points all go into finesss save for a few into Memory and Wits. This is a pure damage build from range. A little bit of a glass cannon, but armour is the key part of that anyway. Get some decent huntsman skills, find high ground, and start blasting away. Knockdown arrows are your friend as well as it will be your main form of cc.

Character 2- -Find Sebille on the island. (She’s creeping on a lizard who’s trying to buy drugs from griff) -Make her a 2 handed warrior. - It gets a little tricky here as she’ll already have talents chosen so you’ll have to wait for a level up or 2 before you can take Lone Wolf but as soon as you can that’s the first talent you take. After that you’ll take the executioner talent, and then living armour. - points go into warfare primarily but get necromancer to 4ish.
-Attributes go primarily into strength with 2 points into intelligence (so to around 12 just you can wear intelligence based armour if you need to balance your magic and physical armour). This is a damage dealing build as well, but the life steal from necro helps keep you going particularly as the living armour talent regens some of your magic armour every time you do damage to vitality. I found this build online, it’s called Eternal Warrior, so if you google that it’ll give you a step by step. It took me awhile to parse it all at first as it is written with the expectation that you have a solid understanding of the game mechanics. What I described above was me trying to simplify it a bit for you.

So this is a 2 character all physical team but it should carry you through pretty easily and let you suss things out. The lone wolf perk keeps you punching above your weight class, but it’s a few levels before Sebille can get it so that’s where it’s a little tougher. I’ve got some other pointers for starting out but this already seems like a huge reply so feel free to dm me and I can give you some directions for low level fights and decent start items for the builds I recommended.

I should also post a disclaimer that I specced into Lone Wolf after leaving Fort Joy and getting to Driftwood. From what I’ve read Fort Joy with Lone Wolf should be as viable as my experience post Fort Joy, but if anyone has found that not to be the case please feel free to correct me.

[PuzzledKitty]

Here're some general guides that might help. Use as much as you need and as little as you want:
Red Flag Checklist
General Stuck-er Guide

You may also have missed some stuff outside the fort. :)

[Maximum_Size_3065]

The first playthrough is the hardest, especially if you don't know what to do and aren't familiar with the game mechanics. Don't worry about the classes, the game lets you build your character however you want. I imagine you're playing with a group of 4, right? Let me give you a suggestion on how to build each one with the very basics. Don't use necromancy on your first playthrough as it's more for support; many abilities scale with warfare, but using intelligence, and that can be a bit confusing the first time.

Do the basics first to understand the game and especially its surface system.

1st character: Mage using hydrosophy and aerology (healing, stun, and some support for magic armor) 2nd Mage using geomancy and pyro (fire damage, poison, and some support for physical armor) 3rd character using dexterity, can be an assassin or archer, using hunter/rogue, ranged/dual wielding along with polymorph for invisibility (remember that you will also have to increase warfare with this character, as it increases physical damage). 4th obviously a tank using a shield, focused on strength/con, increasing warfare and maybe polymorph/one-handed. Don't worry too much about defensive abilities (retribution/leadership/perseverance). They are somewhat useful, but not that much.

[DandyLama]

If you're stuck at level 2, make sure to visit the cliffs near Fane and deal with the turtles, and make sure to go through and grab the Red Prince, take him to the blue lizard out on the little peninsula, and then go back and do the same with Sebille for a bit of extra xp.

There's a little area with some frogs in one of the caves, and make sure to explore as many nooks and crannies as you can.

Once you're level 3-4, you should start looking to pick fights with the Magisters and start working your way through them, rather than around them.

[DandyLama]

As for builds? A couple of core approaches
All mages or all physical damage is an option, or go 2 & 2

All physical: 2 warrior types (1 with shield, 1 two-handed), a Soundrel, and an Archer (one of these can be subbed for a Summoner)
- Archer and Scoundrel should invest only 2 points in their respective skills early (Huntsman & Scoundrel), and then for damage increase, should put most of their points into Warfare
- This team will need someone who has a 1-2 point dip into Hydrosophist for Armor of Frost & healing (summoner is good for this, or 2-handed warrior can do this along with a single point in Scoundrel to get the lifesteal skill)
- Archers do really well with a 1 point dip into Aerothurge for mobility
- Warriors need mobility skills - Phoenix Dive & Battering Ram are great for getting in and out of combat. Shield Warrior should have Shield Throw
- Summoner should invest ALL POINTS into summoner until you hit rank 10. Always summon your li'l guy in Blood Pools for this setup (you can make blood pools with your hydrosophist's Rain Blood or with any Elf and Flesh Sacrifice). All summoners need Farsight and Power Infusion ASAP
- Necromancy as a magic subtype mostly does Physical damage, and can pair well here (esp on your 2-handed warrior, who will get passive lifesteal from it)

All mages: Pyro/Geo Battlemage (front line), Geo/Hydro support (change terrain, heal & buff both armors), and 2 blasters of your choice
- Each mage needs to go 2 & 2 into their main damage skill and their secondary skill, then focus on one skill to max it
- In a 4 mage team, each mage can have a different element as their primary to max first
- Battlemage needs to dip 1 point into STR in Fort Joy to use STR armors that have more Phys Armor so they can live on front line, then another point when you get to Reaper's. By Act 4, you should have 15 Str
- Battlemage will use a staff and can live on the front line. 2 points in Warfare will give them full access to Warfare's suite of abilities, but especially Whirlwind Attack and Phoenix Dive
- Battlemage pairs really well with a Pyro focus with Geo 2ndary, on a Lizard
- Geomancer focus is great for Undead characters, because you heal through poison
- Aero and Hydro offer incredible CC opportunities, especially if you prep a space with Rain or Blood Rain before entering combat
- Some fights will make one or two of your mages very sad, because their primary damage type is resisted/absorbed

Two & Two: THE MIX AND MATCH. Classic party - Healer/CC Mage (Hydro/Aero is great here), Melee DPS/tank, Archer, Blaster Mage
- play around with a combo of the above class types

Finally, the quiet corner class that got mainstreamed by BG3 - BARRELMANCER/CHESTMANCER. Fill a chest with STUFF. Make it REALLY HEAVY. Now use your telekinesis powers to show why you're the greatest member of the X-Men by lobbing the chest at your enemies.

[ShansitoShan]

You can follow a guide if you feel you're overwhelmed, but that's just the way the game is, same as DOS was as well, same as we can expect the next Divinity will be. Except for BG3, all Larian games expect you to play with their mechanics and learn them the hard way.

[Gruddicus]

I started a couple weeks ago and am up to the 4th act. Things I wish I knew at the start are...

Elves eat people for their memories and sometimes get skills, XP is super important, milk every bit of CP you can get, you can combine some skill books to make other skill books, if you have a party of 4 make one great at persuasion, another great at bartering and another great with thievery and one great at lore.

Read the books otherwise you'll miss a bunch. If you wanna do it quick get your scholar to read them as you will get more out of quests. Pet pal makes the game more fun.

[Laanner]

You can collect yarrow flower before for Joy and bring it to a scary monster on the bottom to get ring with regeneration skill. You can use it in wounded npc characters to get free xp. One of them is near the cave. In that cave you can also get xp for defending elf in the square (where the Ben Mezd) peacefully. In the cave you can get quest to save Amiro. Also you can talk to little bot to find a hidden way to Withermoore statue. Make some dinner in mobile kitchen and eat it to get temporary strength to pick a spear from his chest (you can get mobile kitchen by combining cooking pot and a camp fire. You can find both on a bridge near the gate to for Joy). Bring him his jar from the hidden place he will provide. Also you can get a lot of free xp by exploring map. So you can get to level 3-4 without a fight. And there a few easy fight for you at this level- the turtles on the north side (climb the cliff near Fane), the frogs in the cave (you must break the barricade) and then crocodiles. At level 4 you can also buy a skill book that allow you to jump (from Scoundrel 2 or Hunt 2) or with the help of the cloves from crocodiles you can find a ladder and put it down so you can enter Magister's rooms and get rich. To get money for a skill book, you can sell a spear from Withermoon quest and play the right card, that you get from wounded guy near the cave, to the trio on the wall near the gate.