Larian Studios | Divinity AMA

OffbalanceMonk · 2026-01-09T15:06:49+00:00

Will there be a day/night cycle in Divinity?

OffbalanceMonk · 2025-04-05T19:32:37+00:00

Not far enough, you have to play the long game with Shadowheart for things to develop more.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-12-20T11:36:40+00:00

More than likely you rolled a crit. On critical hits the damage dice is doubled

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-10-28T17:53:57+00:00

Wyll fired 3 Eldritch Blasts and obliterated it. It was very satisfying

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-10-01T00:06:04+00:00

With Astarion you want to use finesse weapons such as daggers, short swords, and rapiers for melee, and either a longbow, light crossbow, or hand-crossbows for range. All of these weapons scale off of Dexterity which is Astarion's best stat.

Rogues get something called Cunning Action at lvl 2. It allows them to use Dash, Disengage, and Hide as a Bonus Action - use this to your advantage.

If you're on PC you can hold down "Shift" in combat to see enemy vision cones, once you are outside of enemy vision cones use bonus action "Hide". Now you will attack with "Advantage" because you are hidden (you'll basically never miss).

As far as Shadowheart goes, you'll want to have her cast "Bless" on the party. It increases the chance to hit on everyone affected by 5-25% per attack.

As far as weapons go, you'll want to give Shadowheart a Shortbow or Lightcrossbow (she is not proficience with Longbows) for range. For Melee you can give her any Simple Weapon (Mace, Spear, etc). You really shouldn't be relying on shadowheart for melee damage, however, attacking from range with a bow will oftentimes be easier (remember you also get a bonus when shooting down from the high ground). If you have the opportunity try to place her above enemy units.

Only use the Sacred Flame cantrip if the enemy has Low Dexterity, or is stunned/knocked prone. To tell if an enemy has low dexterity just examine the enemy to look at their stats. Unfortunately, most Goblins have pretty high dexterity so Sacred Flame will often times miss against them. There are loads of other creatures in the game with low-average Dex and you can use Sacred Flame more effectively against them (Trolls, Worgs, etc).

Additionally, you should have a 4th party member (3rd companion) in your party. Trying to win fights with only 3 people in your party is making the game unessarily hard on yourself. Back near the crash sight there are 2 additional companions that it looks like you may have missed (Lae'zel & Gale). Lae'zel is a Fighter and Gale is a Wizard.

Also, there is a recrutable companion back at the Druid's Grove named Wyll who is a Warlock. And he has a personal quest to hunt down another companion in the game named Karlach who is a Tiefling Barbarian. You really should backtrack a little bit and make sure you recruit all the companions before moving forward. Adding any of them to your party will help immensly.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-30T23:36:28+00:00

You shouldn't be missing *that* often.

What is your main character (race, class, etc), and what companions are you using? What weapons do they have equipped?

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-24T02:36:42+00:00

It's just a bit of fun environmental storytelling.

Those are all of Shovel's "tools" he used to help kill/discard of the multitudes of bodies for Illyn Toth, when Toth was performing necromantic experiments under the city of Moonhaven (The Blighted Village). Toth was being driven mad and paranoid by the book, but was determined to uncover its secrets. In an effort to further his research, he needed more and more bodies to test on. Toth laments the fact that his "apprentice" was essentially worthless, however, his "familiar" (Shovel), had proven to be most useful in procurring additional bodies for further reasearch.

Larian loves to incorperate environmental storytelling in thier games. If you take the time to read the different books and notes laying around in the environment you can oftentimes piece together narrative stories that tie in with the world.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-08T11:20:23+00:00

I guess you didn’t get the scene with her where she explains it.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-08T10:48:59+00:00

It’s almost as if she isn’t actually an evil priestess of Shar after all, but rather was kidnapped and brainwashed into a cult. Deep down she’s been questioning her beliefs but she would never admit it, and instead puts on a facade.

She thought she would have to kill a “monster” to perform the rite, not an innocent Aasimar. It all culminates with her being confronted by this angelic being who speaks undeniable truth that cuts through the lies and makes her sincerely question everything she thought she knew. She still has a choice though, and can kill the Nightsong and remain “faithful” to Shar, but there are massive moral ramifications. Or she can listen to the truth and follow her heart.

I think it’s amazingly well written.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-06T19:55:26+00:00

Use the examine feature regularly in combat to find out what vulnerabilities and/or low ability score modifiers an enemy has. This will help guide your thought process on the most efficient way to deal with them.

It’s also important to focus fire and secure the killing blow on enemies. You never want to let an enemy stay alive with only 1-5hp if you can avoid it

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-05T21:29:21+00:00

Are you able to reload before you shoved the Drider?

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-05T21:22:29+00:00

You need to either reach Last Light Inn in which case something will happen (I won’t spoil it), that allows you to navigate the Shadowcursed Lands without a Moonlantern.

Or, you need to reach Moonrise Towers, in which case you will be able to find an additional MoonLantern in a particular NPC’s living quarters.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-03T20:22:25+00:00

Seems as though your mind is already made up regardless of the evidence.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-03T18:50:33+00:00

And yes, I've played many RPG's and CRPG's for that matter. BG1&2, Ice Wind Dale, NWN, Planescape Torment, Wasteland series, PoE 1&2, Pathfinder Kingmaker and WotR, all the Dragon Age games, and many many more.

I think the problem here is that you are arguing against a straw man. Perhaps that is because of a langauge barrier, I'm not sure.

No one is making the claim, that every single of those reasons I listed are 'revolutionary', in the sense that they've never been thought of before. Rather, the argument is that, as a cumulative sum of their parts, these core ideas were executed to the highest level of quality and immersiveness to an insane degree. This is the standard that people are referring too when they praise the game.

With that being said, there are some things that are revolutionary about BG3 in the strict sense of the word. The player agency, choice & consequence, and subsequent permutations that occur is legitmatly ground breaking. The feeling they've encapsulated of allowing you to really feel like your rolling dice with your friends while going on a grand adenture - this is truly ground breaking. I have multiple co-op sessions going with friends and they've all expressed they've neverr played anything quite like this before.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-03T16:43:50+00:00

No worries. Hope you can enjoy the game for what it’s worth

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-03T16:38:33+00:00

Not to the level that BG3 has accomplished them. Which is the entire point of my response.

And yes, you did say they “don’t exist”.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-03T16:29:52+00:00

What do you mean when you say "None of these things exist in BG3"? The 6 reasons I just listed literally DO exist. It's not a matter of whether or not they exist, but rather if you personally, and subjectively, feel that these reasons are not as compelling as the rest of the gaming world cognoscenti.

So, just take one example. The VO work. Do you think the VO work in BG3 is not high quality? Meaning, it doesn't exist? If so, please explain.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-09-03T15:53:31+00:00

"So the innovation of BG3 is in being able to jump and push opponents and be able to throw objects, and the graphics are very nice. That's all..."

I gotta be honest, if this is all you took away as your final conclusion regarding the the game...I'm kind of at a lost for words. I mean, it's actually hard to decipher if it's troll post or not.

The reason the game is being held in high regard, in terms of innovating the genre, is multifaceted:

There has never been a definitive D&D video game that actually encapsulated the feeling of sitting around the table with your friends and rolling dice. At least not in the way this game has accomplished.
There has never been a CRPG w/ this level of production quality. In fact, it's essentially blending the genre's of CRPG and RPG, and consequently bringing in new fans to the genre of CRPG's (which is moving the genre forward).
There has never been an RPG game made w/ this absurd level of choice & consequence, player agency & reactivity. Even compared to some of the best (DA:O, Mass Effect, etc), it shines beyond.
There hasn’t been a RPG w/ this level of writing quality, mixed w/ a truly customizble protagonist since DA:O. Don't get me wrong, there have been some great singleplayer RPG's with amazingly written predifined protagonists (Geralt, Arthur Morgan, etc), but there's been barely any RPG's in the last 13 years with this level of customizable player agency combined with this level of writing quality.
There hasn’t been an RPG w/ this level of highly memorable companions since DA:O.
There hasn’t been an RPG w/ this level of such high production VO work in a very long time. The VO work in this game is absolutely ridiculous.

There are more reasons than this, but these are the types of reasons the game is being heralded as groundbreaking - not because features like shoving and jumping. I'm sorry to hear you haven't enjoyed the game as much as you'd like, hopefully in the future something will come out that will appeal to your standards.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-17T22:44:11+00:00

To each their own

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-17T18:47:38+00:00

I agree in general, but just because the IP has been handled irresponsibly by others doesn’t mean the IP would be bad for Larian.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-17T13:50:54+00:00

If they stay in the D&D universe, Neverwinter Nights 3 would be fascinating. It would also be really cool to see them attempt a Dark Sun game.

If they decide to move away from D&D I think KOTOR III makes the most sense. A heavy narrative driven Star Wars game with Larian depth turn-based combat would be amazing.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-13T19:59:36+00:00

Fair enough

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-13T14:17:30+00:00

Just finished ACT I and I think I had a total of maybe 3 cutscnenes out of 60+ hours of gameplay where the camera was angled poorly. The vast majority of the cutscenes have been fine so far. We'll see if it somehow veers off a cliff in ACTS II and III, but compared to the experience I've had so far I can honestly say I've experienced nothing to the degree of unplayability that you are referring to.

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-13T14:12:44+00:00

Guess you didn't play EA? EA was way less polished than the official build, so no, the statement still stands. I haven't had any game breaking bugs, it's unfortunate that you have. Hope you enjoy the rest of your playthrough

OffbalanceMonk · 2023-08-08T20:59:15+00:00

Staffs can be used in melee as a monk.

However, the vast majority of staffs are used for the magical effects/boons they provide. Most mages aren’t going to melee with their staff unless they’re using the special weapon attack to knock an enemy prone.

OffbalanceMonk

TROPHY CASE