Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an exceptional RPG, but that doesn’t mean mods can’t make it even better. With its robust editing tools and intuitive Game Master mode, expect to see lots of tweaks, new features and entire campaigns in the  future. We’ll be updating this list over time, but we’ve already found plenty of helpful mods. Here are the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 mods so far.

Free pet pal

Steam Workshop | Nexus

The pet pal talent is objectively and irrefutably the best ability in the game. Giving you the power to talk to critters, it’s an endless source of jokes, hints and hidden quests. By not picking it, you’d be missing out on many of the adventure’s greatest moments. This mod simply makes it a free ability, so you can use it straight away without being forced to pick between it and one of the many other handy talents. You’ll be able to blather away with Rivellon’s chatty animals to your heart’s content. An update to the mod also makes it affect everyone in your party, not just your character.

Expanded party size

Steam Workshop | Nexus

Original Sin 2’s companions are all worth bringing along on your journey, adding elaborate personal quests to your journal that span the game and providing plenty of roleplaying opportunities. Unfortunately, with the maximum party size of four, you’ll have to leave at least two of them behind. The expanded party size mod, not surprisingly, lets you take all of them with you. There are some minor UI and dialogue issues, but nothing game breaking. Combat will be a bit unbalanced, however, so you might want to consider a higher difficulty.

Infinite spirit vision

Steam Workshop

Spirit vision lets you strike up a conversation with ghosts, opening up new ways to solve quests. It’s basically pet pal with spectres. Unlike pet pal, however, it’s an ability you have to cast, and it doesn’t last forever. This makes it easy to forget that there could be several more characters floating about. Infinite spirit vision keeps it on all the time, effectively making it a passive ability. If you’re in an area that’s haunted, there’s no faffing required, and you’ll notice right away. The original mod has vanished from Steam and Nexus, but this newer one comes with an expanded radius so you’ll see ghosts that are further away. 

Origin and racial skill books

Steam Workshop | Nexus

Several skills in Original Sin 2 are exclusive to specific races and character origins. It’s one of the few restrictions in what is an otherwise very flexible, classless system. The origin and racial skill books mod makes these skills unlockable in the same way as all the others by turning them into skill books. This includes pet summons, so you’ll be able to make a custom character that can control Ifan’s wolf and the Red Prince’s dragonling, but it doesn’t include the abilities granted by Fane’s Shapeshifter’s Mask. The skill books can be found in specific book shelves. The mod is no longer being updated as of December 2017.

Artificer and Bard skills

Steam Workshop | Nexus 

This mod adds a whopping 50 new skills to the game. They can be mixed and matched with other skills or used to create Bard and Artificer characters. The Bard skills call to mind its D&D counterpart, revolving around buffing and debuffing, but the cherry on top is the weaponised lute you can get your hands on. Artificer skills are based around messing with items, like duplicating potions and cursing objects, handy both in and out of combat. Both of these skill sets are great for support characters.

Tempest skills

Steam Workshop

Spears are kind of weird in Original Sin 2. They’re finesse weapons, but unlike daggers and bows, they don’t have any skills specifically associated with them . Unless you download the Tempest skill pack, that is. This mod gives spears piercing damage, bypassing armour, and also introduces ten spear-based skills that run the gamut from simple jabs to summoning an intimidating barrage of spears.

Chronicles of Divinity map collection 

Steam Workshop | Nexus

If you’d rather kick off a campaign without building every single map yourself, the Chronicles of Divinity map collection adds 12 new maps for GMs to throw into their games or tweak to their heart’s content. The collection includes a dingy pirate’s cove, an ancient Elven forest and a prison filled with lava. More maps are being added, including an alternate version of Fort Joy. The maps all come from the in-development Chronicles of Divinity mod, an unofficial expansion to the main game that introduces new classes, quests and the ability to sail around in your very own ship. 

Combat sneak

Steam Workshop |Nexus

By reducing the AP cost of sneaking in the middle of a fight down to two, the combat sneak mod makes stealth a viable combat tactic. At 4 AP, it's normally too expensive to make it all that useful. You'll still need to watch out for archers who might spot you, of course, and you'll want to take advantage of cover and stay out of the red view radius while you're sneaking up on your targets or getting out of dangerous situations. This mod is particularly useful if you take the Guerilla perk, which increases damage by 40% when attacking from stealth.

JRavens GM Toolkit

Steam Workshop | Nexus

While the GM mode comes with a mountain of assets—everything from incidental props and window dressing to ships and castles— you can never have too many toys to play with when you're building your very own campaign. This toolkit expansion adds hundreds of items, both entirely new and stuff that Larian created but either didn't finish or left out of the final version. It also makes the maps larger and more customisable, letting you remove previously fixed elements like rocks and trees. Particularly handy are the empty maps that allow you to create custom areas for your campaign without the need to make them on the separate editor. The mod is still in development, but its creator has been fixing bugs. They recommend starting a new campaign rather than using it in a pre-existing one.

Void Knight

Steam Workshop | Nexus

Another new class mod, Void Knight introduces a slew of skills that combine martial and magical attacks that debuff any unfortunate enemies that get in their way. There are skills for strength-based warriors, including knockdowns, charges and leaps, but these are joined by magical abilities that summon shadows and transform the caster into a void dragon. It's a broad set of skills, but the void mark system lends the class some cohesion. Certain attacks apply a void mark on enemies, cursing them and reducing their resistances, and when the number of void marks on a target hits four it empowers that skill. You’ll be able to make a Void Knight in character creation, but you can also pick up the skills from a vendor in Fort Joy and, later, on the Lady Vengeance. 

Crafting overhaul

Steam Workshop| Nexus

If you’ve found the perfect set of armour but hate the colour, or if you desperately need to craft a sword in the middle of the woods, then the crafting overhaul mod has you covered. Along with more than 1600 new crafting recipes and over 550 new items, it introduces armour dyes, unique craftable gear, fancy elemental weapons and extra conveniences like portable crafting stations and bags. And you’ll also be able to get your hands on the grisly corpse harvester: a weapon that lets you harvest parts from the corpses of your fallen enemies. And why would you need body parts? To craft new items, of course. I suspect Fane’s a big fan of this nasty piece of kit.

Tabletop roleplaying is one of my favourite things that I almost never get to do. I struggle to even find the time to play through a single-player RPG outside of work, so arranging an evening of dice rolling and goblin slaying with equally busy people can be a bit of a nightmare. Divinity: Original Sin 2, then, is a blessing. With its co-op and Game Master modes, it’s not just a convenient alternative to a tabletop RPG, it’s occasionally an improvement. 

Co-op is straightforward, on the surface. You can play the entirety of the campaign with up to three other people and the rules are exactly the same as they are in single-player. But that means there are hardly any rules at all. Chaos and player agency reigns, with each individual choosing how to engage with the game. As I said in my review, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the type of Game Master that lets you attempt almost anything. 

That’s why one player might be buying new skill books, while the rest of their party are either following leads or getting into fights. The game sets up all these crises, events and quests, but it’s up to you how you you approach them, if you don’t ignore them entirely. You don’t need to follow everyone else. And you might even end up competing, since you’re all heading towards the same objective.

It’s when you’re reacting to what your fellow adventurers have done where co-op really feels like a tabletop romp, though. When I first arrived in the initial hub, Fort Joy, my co-op pal and I became embroiled in a confrontation between some thugs and their latest victim. My partner in adventuring decided to side with the thugs, and being right next to him, I ended up being dragged into a fight where I was clearly on the wrong side. Morally speaking. So I started attacking the thugs. And even my partner. 

Things didn’t end up going my way, lamentably, but nothing stopped me from trying to save the situation. Later, I got my revenge by trapping us in a fight with a pack of bloodthirsty, teleporting crocodiles. We both died. Twice. But I still felt really good about my decision.

Ultimately, the thing that holds co-op together and makes it a great tabletop facsimile is Larian’s design philosophy. Larian made the game, but it’s the players who are in charge. If you think you can do something, you probably can, and with four players all trying to see how far they can push things, the game becomes a beautiful mess. 

Create a campaign

It’s the Game Master mode, of course, that is the most obvious nod to tabletop roleplaying. Contained within it are myriad tools, from character creators to customisable maps, that allow you to craft your very own campaigns, designed to be run by a GM. These campaigns are made up of small areas—houses, marketplaces, dungeons—connected by a map and custom vignettes that can be filled with story beats and choices for players, complete with assets and art that’s been imported, drawn from Original Sin 2, or created using the accompanying mod tools.

One of the big appeals of the mode is that you don’t need any programming skills or the ability to create scripts. If you can come up with or simply run a tabletop campaign, then you’ve probably got everything you need already: imagination and creativity. The tools that let you design areas, set up encounters and create quests are largely intuitive. Larian has provided some area templates that you can customise if making your own seems too daunting, and there’s a lot you can do with them before you even start running a game.

Once you do start the game, more changes can be introduced on the fly. This might be obvious things like possessing an NPC or activating a battle, but there are more than a few subtle ways to bring an area to life. The atmosphere options are especially handy, letting you change the weather, music and sound effects to match the tone you want to convey. And since players will inevitably do things you’d never considered, it’s helpful to have such a robust toolkit to react with.   

Original Sin 2’s combat system is one of the best in the genre, but it’s elaborate and, in my experience, very hard to balance when you’re making your own encounters. That’s not a problem in a game with a GM. If the whole map is covered in fire and it’s stopped being fun for the players, just add some rain to help them out. Alternatively, you could always add a narrative twist—maybe one of the enemies is a turncoat, perhaps another hero hears the sound of battle and jumps in to help. The mode embraces the idea that GMs aren’t adversaries; they’re there to spin an adventure.  

This seems like a great place to start for players who are entirely new to tabletop games. It can be easy to forget that, even though games like D&D have been simplified over the years, there’s still a bit of a knowledge barrier. But in Original Sin 2, there are no complicated rules to remember and no need to refer to a manual. Nothing gets in the way of playing the game, and what’s left are the best parts.

One of the stretch goals for the Divinity 2 Kickstarter was adding undead to the game, and boy am I glad the backers made it happen. I always enjoy playing RPGs as races or characters that shake the game’s systems up a bit, and that’s exactly what being an undead does. There are some downsides, sure. It wouldn’t be any fun otherwise. But here are a few reasons why I think you should ignore them and embrace the void.

You’re a damn skeleton

How many times have you played as a human, an elf, or a dwarf in a fantasy RPG? And how many times have you played as a talking skeleton? Exactly. And this is the first reason to play as an undead in Divinity 2. Frankly, being a skeleton is cool as hell, especially when you can garnish your character with a fetching beard or some sparkling skull jewellry.

Of course, there’s a downside to this. Folk in Rivellon don’t take kindly to the undead, which means showing your face in public will result in people fleeing in terror and the guards aggressively attacking you. So you’ll have to keep that lovely grinning skull, as well as your bony arms and legs, covered up with armour when you’re visiting a town. A small price to pay.

You can steal faces

While a simple cowl or helm will do a good enough job of hiding your skeletal face from suspicious guards and townsfolk, undead characters can take things a step further. A charming device called a faceripper can be found early in the game in Fort Joy, which you can use to harvest people’s faces and—with a little help from a magic mask—shapeshift into them.

Being able to switch races on the fly like this has a few interesting applications. It lets you access race-specific dialogue that would otherwise be blocked off to your character. And you can even take on the skills of the race you’re masquerading as, such as an elf’s ability to relive past events by devouring old body parts. And they say the undead are weird.

You can still choose your race

Being undead doesn’t limit your character creation options. You can choose which variety of skeleton you want to be, and some of them look amazing—particularly the undead lizard. The same rules apply for all of them, but it’s nice that choosing this path doesn’t completely restrict how your character looks.

There’s an undead origin character

Conceived by legendary RPG scribe Chris Avellone, Fane is one of Divinity 2’s origin heroes. These premade characters get their own backstory, quests, and dialogue options, and although you can recruit them all while playing as a custom character, getting to play as one (especially Fane) is pretty cool.

Fane is, of course, undead, and he has an enjoyably cynical view of the fleshy world of the living. His unique dialogue options—combined with those gained from being undead and shapeshifting—mean he’s a great choice for any player chiefly interested in storytelling and talking to people.

You can pick locks with your finger 

When you play as an undead your finger becomes a literal skeleton key, and you can merrily pick locks without worrying about how many lockpicks you have left. Your thievery skill still needs to be high to unlock tougher doors, of course, but that’s one less consumable to worry about.

Poison heals you

Items and spells that would heal a normal character in Divinity 2 will damage an undead one. That isn’t ideal, admittedly. But you can actually heal yourself with poison—further proof that it’s the coolest race in the game. You can drink the stuff as you would a potion or cast something like Contamination, a geomancer skill, and soak up the lovely healing badness.

You get new dialogue options

If you love talking to people in RPGs, then here’s another reason to play as an undead. Your unique perspective on life (and your lack thereof) adds additional dialogue options to conversations that you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

Some are profound, like comforting a dying woman by telling her that death isn’t the end. But most are just funny, like warning someone you’re about to shake hands with that there isn’t much there to shake. Divinity is a light-hearted game, and being undead is the source of a lot of great gallows humour.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 doesn't include 'classes,' per se. When you make a character, you can choose a customizable class preset that gives you points in a couple combat abilities, and this determines the spells and special attacks you can start the game with. As you level up, you can continue putting points into those starting abilities, or branch out into any area of magic or fighting you like. 

Before you've found some skill books, it can be hard to know where you want to put points. What if you discover a great skill that requires a point in Huntsman, but you've put all your ability juice into Necromancer? Not knowing what's ahead can stifle early progress with indecision, so this guide will help you plan for multiclass builds that make for a synergistic party. 

Rather than breaking down your decisions by class preset, I've focused on the abilities themselves, as they can be mixed and matched however you want to build your own class. For each, I've given a brief preview of the sorts of skills you'll find, and suggestions for what to pair them with in the same character or others in your party. At the end of this article, I discuss weapon types and summarize the decisions you need to make as you progress.

Warfare

Effect: Increases all Physical Damage you deal.Class presets it's included in: Battlemage, Fighter, Inquisitor, KnightPrimary attribute: Strength (Intelligence for staves)Primary damage type: Physical (Magic with staves)

A point or two in Warfare will help out anyone who deals Physical Damage, which mostly happens through weaponry (see the weapon types section near the bottom of this article if you're using a magic staff). The related skills center around melee combat and shields, though, so while it's useful for archers, high Warfare levels are best for tanky brawlers. You'll get skills such as Battle Stomp, which knocks down opponents, and Phoenix Dive, which lets you leap into battle and create a fire surface beneath you. High level abilities such as Guardian Angel, which reflects 50% of nearby allied damage to you, expect you to be heavily armored.

Pairs well with: Hydrosophist, Necromancer, Polymorph, weapon abilities

If you want to whack things in the head, but also use magic, Warfare pairs fine with any other ability—hence why it's included in four class presets. 

For a warrior-healer Paladin type, Hydrosophist is a good pairing. With Warfare and Hydrosophist, you can focus on equipping physical armor, and use water spells to buff your magic armor when needed. You'll also be able to heal vitality, and freeze enemies for crowd control. The abilities Cleanse Wounds and Mass Cleanse Wounds, which restore vitality and remove many negative statuses, require points in both Warfare and Hydrosophist. If you want to avoid splitting your attribute points between Strength and Intelligence, use a water staff.

The Inquisitor preset pairs Warfare with Necromancer. Necromancer abilities deal Physical Damage, making Warfare immediately useful. The morbid arts also include healing abilities and a physical armor buff. Plus, tanky Necromancers can use Shackles of Pain to deal all damage they take to a target, and Last Rites to sacrifice themselves by taking damage to resurrect a target character. Buff Necromancers get the job done.

Another good pairing, Polymorph, includes several abilities that require you to get in close, as well as one that regenerates physical armor, so it works well with strong sword and shield characters. Its skills also deal Physical Damage, which Warfare boosts, and some rely on Strength, so it'll become more powerful at the same time as your Strength-based weapons. And who doesn't want to be a fighter who can turn their hair into snakes?

Huntsman

Effect: Increases the damage bonus when attacking from high ground.Class presets it's included in: Ranger, WayfarerPrimary attribute: FinessePrimary damage type:  Depends on class 

This is your classic ranger archetype, with skills that center around bow and arrow trick shots and staying the hell away from melee enemies. It includes one close-range healing ability, First Aid, arrow attacks such as Pin Down, a crippling shot, and Reactive Shot, which works like overwatch in XCOM, letting you take shots at moving enemies between turns. Two points in Huntsman is the prerequisite for a skill that's useful for any ranged character, Tactical Retreat, which applies haste and teleports you out of harm's way.

Pairs well with: Geomancer, Pyrokinetic, Aeurotheurge, Summoning, Ranged

If you're dropping points into Huntsman, you must be an archer, so you'll benefit from other ranged abilities. The two existing preset classes make for good combos. Wayfarer pairs Huntsman with Geomancer, giving you abilities such as Fossil Strike, which creates an oil puddle that slows enemies and can be lit with fire arrows. If you have points in both Huntsman and Geomancer, you can also learn Throw Dust, which blinds enemies. The Ranger class preset instead pairs Huntsman with Pyrokinetic for some ranged fire spells, as well as the ability to toss out explosive traps if you've put points into both.

If someone else in your party has Aeurotheurge, they can learn Teleportation (there's also a certain set of gloves that grants this ability) which is useful for getting ranged characters to high ground (unlike Tactical Retreat, it can't be used on yourself which is why it's best to equip a non-archer with it).

Scoundrel

Effect: Increases movement speed and boosts your Critical Modifier. Class presets it's included in: Rogue, Shadowblade, WitchPrimary attribute: FinessePrimary damage type:  Depends on class 

These are your roguish skills, and they require a dagger. Backlash leaps over enemies to backstab, Cloak and Dagger teleports you while sneaking, and various knife throwing abilities give you ranged attacks. If you're primarily using Scoundrel, you're using a dagger and sneaking to avoid too much damage from warrior-types.

Pairs well with: Polymorph, Necromancer, Aerotheurge, Dual Wielding

The Rogue class preset pairs Scoundrel with Sneaking and Dual Wielding, forgoing a second combat ability for a weapon ability. It's a fine choice if you want to start out as a classic rogue, though eventually you may want to invest points into a complementary set of abilities.  

The other two presets, Shadowblade and Witch, pair the Scoundrel skillset with Polymorph and Necromancer respectively. Both are good choices. Polymorph gives you close-quarters transformation magic that keeps you moving around the battlefield (plus you can turn people into chickens) and Necromancer keeps your health topped off while dealing Physical Damage, which compliments the  Physical Damage from your daggers. You don't have to, but focusing on one type of damage helps you get through one type of armor, rather than distributing your damage between Physical and Magic Armor, which will clear the way for you to apply negative status effects like bleeding more quickly.

For a non-default combo, you might try snagging a point or two of Aerotheurge. It includes abilities such as Evasive Aura, which increases your dodging chance and movement speed, and having points in both Scoundrel and Aerotheurge will allow you to learn Smoke Cover to help you hide from ranged attackers.

Pyrokinetic

Effect: Increases all fire damage you deal.Class presets it's included in: Ranger, WizardPrimary attribute: IntelligencePrimary damage type: Magic (fire)

Pyrokinetic abilities include Searing Daggers, which fires three flaming daggers (you can choose where each one goes) at range, dealing fire damage and creating fire surfaces. Later on, you'll get stuff like Corpse Explosion, which does what it says it does, Laser Ray, a beam of heat, and some close-quarters attacks such as Supernova, which causes you to explode in a burst of flame.

Pairs well with: Huntsman, Geomancer, Polymorph

The Wayfarer default pairs Pyrokinetic with Huntsman, which works well as mentioned in the Huntsman entry. Wizard pairs it with Geomancer, which is also a good choice, as many Geomancer abilities leave oil surfaces behind, ripe for exploding.

Polymorph is an interesting choice, if not perfectly complementary since it relies on Strength and deals Physical Damage instead of Intelligence and Magic Damage. But with two points in both Pyrokinetic and Polymorph, you'll be able to learn Flaming Skin, which gives you immunity to fire, meaning you can go nuts without worrying about standing in your own flames (the equivalent exists for ice, poison, and electricity, so it's not unique). Other Polymorph abilities such as Summon Oily Blob and Terrain Transmutation could help you create the surfaces you need to burn, however, if you haven't focused on Geomancer.

Hydrosophist

Effect: Increases all water damage you deal, and any vitality healing or magic armor restoration you cause.Class presets it's included in: Cleric, EnchanterPrimary attribute: IntelligencePrimary damage type: Magic (water), healing

Water, ice, and healing are the Hydrosophist's tools. Use it to remove status effects, heal vitality, restore magic armor, freeze enemies, and negate fire attacks. Later on, you'll unlock abilities like Global Cooling, which chills all enemies around you while dealing water damage.

Pairs well with: Aerotheurge, Huntsman, Warfare, Necromancer, Summoning

The obvious pairing, which is the default pairing in the Enchanter class, is Aerotheurge, which deals in air and lightning attacks. Focus on both, and your Rain spell can both freeze chilled characters or stun electrified characters. That obvious synergy aside, putting points into Hydrosophist will increase any vitality healing skill, including the Huntsman's First Aid, so consider dropping a point or two in if you're healing a lot (or using healing abilities to target the undead). And if you're going to be blasting enemies with ice from a distance, gaining the high ground damage bonus from Huntsman isn't a bad deal, either.

As I mention under Warfare, Hydrosophist can be used in a fighter-healer combo who strikes a balance between Physical and Magic Damage. For a more complicated combo, if your Hydrosophist or another character in your party has one point in both Geomancer and Polymorph, they can learn Turn to Oil, which turns water surfaces into oil. Combined with Rain, you can have all the oil you want for your pyro character to play with. 

Alternatively, or at the same time, a point in Hydrosophist and Necromancer will let you learn Raining Blood—roughly the same as rain, but with blood, which Turn to Oil also affects. Blood can be absorbed for vitality with the Necromancer's Blood Sucker ability, too, and can be frozen. So if you want to make the ultimate healer, with Magic and Physical Damage—this is the default Cleric class—consider a bit of a contradiction with Hydrosophist's gentle healing and Necromancer's gory life stealing.

Aerotheurge

Effect: Increases all air damage you deal.Class presets it's included in: Battlemage, EnchanterPrimary attribute: IntelligencePrimary damage type: Magic (air)

Aerotheurge is about all things air, including lightning. Your basic Electric Discharge attack fires a bolt of lightning which deals air damage and shocks characters—do it to a wet character and you may stun them. Later on, you'll find skills such as Vacuum Touch, which can suffocate and silence enemies, Nether Swap which causes two characters to switch places, and the RPG classic, Chain Lightning. One of our favorite skills, Teleportation, is also an Aerotheurge skill.

Pairs well with: Hydrosophist, Scoundrel, Necromancer, Huntsman

As previously mentioned, Scoundrel makes for a good pairing because of Aerothurge's evasion, movement speed, teleportation, and hiding abilities. And, of course, it works well with Hydrosophist if you want to be an elemental master, electrifying water puddles, or Necromancer if you want to do the same with blood. Huntsman isn't a bad choice either if you plan to attack from above, and a point in both Aerothurge and Huntsman will let you learn one of Original Sin 2's weirder abilities, Erratic Wisp, which will teleport a target character in a random direction every time they're attacked. In short, it's a pretty good bet that you aren't going wrong by dropping a point in Aerothurge, though it won't help you deal Physical Damage.

Geomancer

Effect: Increases all earth and poison damage you deal, and any physical armor restoration you cause.Class presets it's included in: Fighter, Wayfarer, WizardPrimary attribute: IntelligencePrimary damage type: Magic (earth, poison)

Rocks, oil, and poison are the Geomancer's tools. Contamination poisons surrounding enemies (while healing undead allies) and turns water, blood, and clouds toxic. Fossil Strike drops a big rock on your enemies and leaves an oil puddle. More advanced skills like Worm Tremor and Earthquake deal area damage.

Pairs well with: Warfare, Pyrokinetic, Scoundrel, Huntsman, Necromancer

Geomancers are the healers of the undead world, so if you've got Fane in your party or are undead yourself, it's good to have someone around who can poison you at will. There's not much Geomancer doesn't work well with. Since it's good for forming oil puddles, Pyrokinetic abilities are useful for lighting them. Huntsman-using archers will also appreciate the slowing effect of the oil, Scoundrel pairs thematically with poison attacks, and because it doesn't include any healing (except for undead), Necromancer abilities can fill that gap.

Necromancer

Effect: Heals you whenever you deal damage directly to vitality.Class presets it's included in: Cleric, Inquisitor, WitchPrimary attribute: IntelligencePrimary damage type: Physical

A favorite among Original Sin 2 players, Necromancers are powerful healers, summoners, and Physical Damage dealers. Early on, Mosquito Swarm deals damage while healing you, Blood Sucker heals anyone its cast on so long as there's blood nearby for them to soak up, and Raise Bloated Corpse turns a body into a gruesome ally. A couple of the advanced abilities are great for combos: Shackles of Pain causes a target to receive all the damage you receive, and Living on the Edge prevents a target's vitality from dropping below 1 for two turns. You can see the potential.

Pairs well with: Polymorph, Warfare, Aerothurge, Geomancer, Scoundrel, Hydrosophist, Summoning

The dead just go with everything, don't they? Because Necromancer provides some healing abilities as well as reliable Physical Damage, it's not unwise to grab a point. The focus on causing bleeding means it can pair nicely with any ability that deals with elements: Aerothurge can electrify blood, Hydrosophist can freeze it, and Geomancer (combined with Polymorph) can turn it into oil. The Cleric preset combines Necromancer and Hydrosophist, which makes for a good dedicated healer who can do serious damage to the undead.

Summoning allows you to use Soul Mate, which heals a target character for half of what you receive, which makes it a good pair for any healing skill (within the party, but not necessarily in the same character). 

Scoundrel and Warfare both benefit from the healing magic, and because Necromancer is one of the rare magics that deal Physical Damage instead of Magic Damage, you can pair Necromancer with a Strength or Finesse-based weapon to focus in on depleting Physical Armor. Get it out of the way, and Necromancers can start applying negative status effects sooner.

Summoning

Effect: Increases vitality, damage, physical and magic armor of your summons and totems.Class presets it's included in: ConjurerPrimary attribute: Ability points in Summoning increase the power of summonsPrimary damage type: Depends on summon abilities

You'll start by summoning elementals and totems to fight for you, and you'll want to put lots of points into Summoning to make them stronger. Later on, many Summoning abilities deal with giving these familiars skills from other disciplines, so that they can attack with water, fire, and other spells, heal and use invisibility. A well-kitted Summoner has an answer for everything, then.

Pairs well with: Aerothurge, Necromancer, Hydrosophist, Huntsman

If you're investing a lot of points in Summoning to buff your elementals, you probably aren't focusing too much on a weapon ability, though it's certainly possible to be a summoner and a fighter. Most Summoning skills rely on your Summoning level, not Intelligence, so you're free to focus on Strength and Constitution to make yourself hearty. That said, points you invest in increasing your Physical Damage won't affect your summons, which have their own stats, so the disciplines aren't quite complimentary.

If you're a slightly weaker summoner who likes to stay in the back while your creatures do all the work, you'll want a party member who has Aerothurge, as they can teleport you out of danger, or two points in Huntsman so you can use the Tactical Retreat ability. 

As for Necromancer and Hydrosophist, they both include healing abilities which pair with summoners' Soul Mate ability, which gives half the healing you receive to another character. Though, again, the summoner doesn't necessarily need to focus on these abilities, as they'll eventually be able to summon creatures with the abilities the moment calls for.

Polymorph

Effect: Provides one free attribute point per point invested.Class presets it's included in: Metamorph, ShadowbladePrimary attribute: StrengthPrimary damage type: Physical

This is the weirdest skillset, and my personal favorite. Starting abilities include a mid-range tentacle attack, the ability to grow bull horns and charge at enemies, and the power to turn your foes into chickens. Later, you can learn to fly, grow snakes out of your head, turn invisible, and gain immunities to elements. At high levels, you'll get momentum shifting powers like Forced Exchange, which swaps vitality percentages with a target character. 

Pairs well with: Warfare, Scoundrel, Necromancer

Most Polymorph abilities require getting in close, and attacks like Tentacle Lash deal Physical Damage and get bonuses from Strength, so Warfare is a strong complimentary choice. Scoundrel also helps you get face to face (or face to back) with enemies so that you can turn them into chickens, though its reliance on Finesse means it's not as synergistic. Necromancer also deals Physical Damage, and offers some healing skills to help make for a well-rounded character who can eat through physical armor and then apply status effects.

The importance of weapon types

Spells always deal the type of damage associated with the school of magic they're in, and always receive a bonus from Intelligence. For example, Aerothurge spells will always deal Air Damage and Necromancer spells will always deal Physical Damage, and both get bonuses from Intelligence. Skills from the Warfare, Scoundrel, and Huntsman abilities, however, vary in damage type and attribute bonuses depending on your equipped weapon.

For instance, if you've equipped a regular old sword, the Warfare skill Crippling Blow will deal Physical Damage and get a bonus from Strength. If, however, you've equipped an air staff, it will deal Air Damage and get a bonus from Intelligence. In general, you'll find the following damage types and attribute bonuses:

Swords, maces, clubs, and axes deal Physical Damage (with possible extra Magic Damage) and get a bonus from Strength.Wands and magic staves deal Magic Damage (type varies) and get a bonus from Intelligence. Staves count as melee weapons, but wands do not.Daggers, bows, and spears deal Physical Damage (with possible extra Magic Damage) and get a bonus from Finesse. Daggers can backstab.

There are exceptions and magic weapons come in all varieties. Some deal magic and physical damage, though in that case your skills typically still get a bonus from Strength or Finesse, not Intelligence. In the character creation screen, the Inquisitor is wielding a two-handed mace that deals Physical Damage but receives a bonus from Intelligence. I've never found a weapon like that, but apparently it's out there, so check each weapon to see what it's doing.

Staves are a somewhat special case, in that they can be used like melee weapons with Warfare skills, but deal only Magic Damage and get their bonus from Intelligence. If you're a magic user who's dumped a ton of points into Intelligence, using a staff means you can throw out melee attacks like Battle Stomp and Battering Ram without having to buff your Strength. However, note that adding points to the Warfare skill buffs Physical Damage, not Magic Damage, so after you've learned the skills you want, you're better off adding points to the school of magic your spells and staff belong to.

It's also worth mentioning that Warfare, Scoundrel, and Huntsman skills require specific weapons. For Warfare skills, you'll need a melee weapon, Huntsman skills require a bow, and Scoundrel requires one or more daggers. This is just to use these abilities' skills. You'll still get Warfare's bonus to Physical Damage, Huntsman's high ground bonus, and Scoundrel's critical chance and movement speed bonuses even if you aren't specifically using their skills.

Wherever possible, try to equip weapons that work in tandem with your favored abilities. For example, if you've dumped a bunch of points into Geomancer, which increases poison damage, you'll want a poison staff or wand. If you're a conjurer who specializes in Aerothurge but also has a few Warfare skills, you'll want an air staff. Fighters who are focused on Strength should of course avoid staves and wands altogether, as should Finesse-based characters who are better off with bows, daggers, and spears. In short, the thing to remember is that melee skills don't determine the damage type and attribute bonus, the weapon does.

And, of course, if you're focused on dealing damage with a weapon, you'll want to drop some points into Single-Handed, Two-Handed, Ranged, or Dual-Wielding depending on your preference. The Defense abilities are also strong, but for the purposes of this guide, I've only broken down the abilities that are going to allow you to learn new skills, as that's going to play the biggest role in your decision making.

Summary and reference

There's a lot here to process, but it can all be reduced to some short pieces of advice. For instance, decide if you want your character to deal one type of damage to take down one kind of armor, or if you'd prefer a balanced fighter who can handle fighters and mages alike.

Physical Damage: Warfare (except with staves), Necromancer, Huntsman, Scoundrel, Polymorph, and physical weapons (swords, maces, bows, etc)Magic Damage: Warfare (with staves), Geomancer, Aerothurge, Hydrosophist, Pyrokinetic, and magical weapons (staves and wands)

Of course there's some crossover—a Huntsman using a magic bow may be dealing Magic Damage, too. You also want to consider what attributes these abilities rely on. If you focus on abilities that are boosted by the same stat, you can improve both at the expense of losing balance between Physical and Magic Damage.

Intelligence: Warfare (staff), Geomancer, Aerothurge, Hydrosophist, Pyrokinetic, staves, wandsStrength: Warfare (non-magic melee weapon), Polymorph, swords, axes, maces, etcFinesse: Warfare (dagger or spear), Huntsman (bow), Scoundrel (daggers)

And then there's the odd one out: Summoning. Because Summoning mostly relies on your Summoning ability level, you can focus your attribute points wherever you like, so long as you keep plugging ability points into Summoning. Though as Xenzoku pointed out in the comments, you don't have to go all in on any one ability, Summoning included. There are plenty of utility skills it's worth having even if they lie outside of your focus.

Finally, you want to consider how your abilities interact with elements. Geomancers deal with oil and poison, which Pyrokinetic abilities can ignite. Water and blood can be frozen or electrified by Hydrosophists and Aerotheurges. Also, don't forget that healing abilities harm the undead: your cleric build isn't just a healer, but can cause serious damage to bony enemies.

It takes some experimentation to get builds you like, and if you're playing alone, you have four characters to worry about—so don't feel bad if you spend some ability points you regret. There'll be plenty of time to build and rebuild the characters you want. 

After restarting a couple times because I'm indecisive, my main character is a Warfare, Necromancer, Polymorph hybrid who fights with an axe and shield, and I have few complaints. All three disciplines deal Physical Damage, which my Warfare level buffs. My weapon and some Polymorph skills rely on Strength, and secondarily I'm focusing on Intelligence to improve my Necromancer skills.

The synergies pointed out here aren't the only interesting combos, of course, so let us know in the comments how you're dividing up your attribute and ability points.

Divinity: Original Sin is a game known for it's extremely flexible (and ridiculous) combat. After all, speedrunners routinely beat the final boss by filling a box with barrels until it's so heavy that simply dropping it on the beast instantly kills it. Fortunately, Original Sin 2 players are already finding equally absurd ways to kill enemies thanks to its much more refined combat. Sure, you could approach Original Sin 2's tough-as-nails fights in a serious manner, or you could turn your enemies into chickens and watch them murder themselves.

Right now, two popular methods involve a skill called Rupture Tendons. It's a Scoundrel skill purchased from Hilde in Fort Joy once you reach level four. Once an enemy is hit with Rupture Tendons, every step they take causes additional piercing damage. Normally you'd use it on an enemy and hope they'll take a step or two after, but some clever players have found a way to make Rupture Tendons deal incredible amounts of damage.

The first method is called the Chicken Combo. While you have to wait until level four to get Rupture Tendons, characters who specialize in Polymorph skills can pick up Chicken Claw from Doctor Leste in Fort Joy at any time (Shadowblade and Metamorph classes start with Chicken Claw, and can pick up Rupture Tendons later with two points in Scoundrel). This spell turns foes into squabbling chickens that run around aimlessly for two turns. Get the idea?

Reduce any physical armor an enemy has to zero, hit them with Rupture Tendons, follow up by turning them into a chicken, and let natural selection do its job. As the chicken flees (feel free to cast Haste to give your chicken foe a boost), it'll accrue massive amounts of piercing damage that will kill weaker characters almost instantly. The best part is that Rupture Tendons scales with your basic attack and Finesse values, so the higher level you are the more damage the chicken takes with each step.

This video shows exactly how it works (potential spoilers):

The Chicken Combo has quickly become a community favorite, but redditor Ulminati has taken the idea in a bizarre direction: What if you cast Rupture Tendons on yourself?

You'll need a character with Necromancer skills Shackles of Pain (sold by Mona in Fort Joy Ghetto at level four) and Living on the Edge (drops randomly around level 11 or is a starter skill for Witch mercenaries hired in act two). Shackles of Pain forges a link between the caster and a target enemy so that any damage the caster receives is transferred to the victim. Living on the Edge prevents a character's health from dropping below 1 HP for two rounds.

See where this is going?

Reduce the boss's armor points and have one character cast Shackles of Pain on it, then have your Scoundrel attack that character with Rupture Tendons and your Necromancer cast Living on the Edge so that they'll stay alive. Now, every step that character takes will do damage that is channeled directly to the boss.

When it's your turn again, have your character with Shackles of Pain run around like a headless chicken (preferably through fire and poison to transfer even more damage). If you can run them past other enemies, that'll provoke opportunity attacks that, again, will transfer to the boss. As Ulminati explains, "Your guy won't die, but it'll transfer an absolutely hideous amount of damage through Shackles of Pain, and probably kill the boss."

Again, you can cast Haste (sold by Stingtail in Fort Joy Ghetto) to give your shackled character some extra space to run around. The only thing is this combo will leave your character with just 1 HP, so be sure to have some healing ready to go once Shackles of Pain and Living on the Edge wears off.

It's a trickier combo to pull off, but Ulminati promises you can fell bosses in just a turn if done properly. And, better yet, this doesn't appear to be an exploit like the previous combo we wrote about that Larian is already planning on patching out.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has only been out for a week, so I can't wait to see what other kooky ideas people come up with. If you've discovered your own deadly combos (bonus points if they're as ridiculous as these ones) let us know in the comments. And be sure to check out our beginner's guide if you're having a little trouble getting started.

I was surprised yesterday when Divinity: Original Sin 2 producer David Walgrave told me that the damage loop seen in the video above would not be removed. "It appears that it is not a never-ending loop and you're not doing anything else while you're doing it," he wrote. 

As you can see in the video, however, the trick cycles through a feedback loop that drains a troll's entire health bar. (Head to yesterday's story for an explanation of how it works.) So even if it is within the confines of Original Sin 2's spell logic, it's just a tad OP.

I followed up with Larian, and today the developer informed me that after looking into the trick further, "the team determined that this is in fact an unintended bug, for which a patch will be issued ASAP."

Despite this particular instance of clever spell synergies being identified as a bug, Larian reiterated what it told me yesterday, saying that it "applauds creative approaches to the game" and only 'fixes' one if it "really breaks the fun of the game or something goes wrong at some point."

So while there are many, many allowable—and possibly very powerful—spell synergies accounted for, this was apparently one that slipped through testing undetected, and wasn't intentional. Personally, I didn't plan to pursue the trick, as wiping 6000 HP with a few spells doesn't feel quite like it's in the spirit of the tactical turn-based combat I've been enjoying so far. Though if you were enjoying the trick, I'm sorry to say it's on its way out.

With or without the Soul Mate loop trick, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of my favorite games of the year. Fraser digs in to why in his review.

Divinity: Original Sin 2’s first challenge is getting safely, or at least successfully, in and out of the Fort Joy prison camp. You may have noticed there are quite a few ways to crack that particular egg. Here’s every way to get in, and more importantly, back out of Fort Joy. You can mix and match to your heart’s content or pick up every quest along the way if you want. There are a few ways to escape without getting into a fight, but you’re going to have to handle some combat, one way or another, to get in.

To make it easy, we've described the set up and outcome of each relevant questline, so there are spoilers ahead for the early game.

Getting in

The Magister’s key

Magister Yarrow’s father is missing and if you can reunite the two you’ll be rewarded with Yarrow’s key to the fort. Either talk to Yarrow on the North wall of the fort to start the quest or find her father, Migo, on the Southeast beach. Migo is half out of his mind and eager to rip you in half when you find him. The only way to stay out of a fight is to talk to him armed with a Yarrow Flower. Fortunately, Yarrow flowers are all over the island (they're purple, and we found one near the man with the coffin). Give him one to remind him of his Yarrow Girl and he’ll give you his ring. Present the ring to Yarrow as proof her father still lives, follow her to the family reunion, and she’ll give you a key to help you escape before you turn into as sorry a sight as her father. The only problem is, the key goes to a door just south of the main fort gates on a catwalk whose ladder is propped up out of your reach. To put the Magister’s Key to use, you’ll need to teleport up to the catwalk with the Teleportation Gloves.

Lord Withermore

In the Strange Cave on the South beach is a small group of elves who’ve made a sort of hideaway from Griff and his bullies. The kids playing hide and seek off to the side can reveal a hidden passage if you talk to them. With high enough Wits, you can discover it yourself without their help. You'll need a shovel, and you can find one just outside the entrance to the Fort Joy slums (where you first approached from the beach), on top of a ruined wall where there's also a bedroll. Down the hatch is a long-undead Skeleton named Lord Withermore. If you agree to take on a quest for him in Fort Joy’s basement, he’ll reveal a hidden route into the dungeons. In the waypoint statue at the entrance of the camp is a switch revealing another secret door. If you climb inside, you’ll find yourself another waypoint and an entrance to the dungeons. A locked door blocks your way but if you look closely there is a lever nearby to open it.

From there, you'll find a locked door up some stairs. You'll either have to pick the lock, or get into a fight. Note that the key doesn't drop from one of the Magisters—it's sitting on a stool where you fight them.

The Teleportation Gloves

An enterprising human named Gawin who hangs out near the Northwest wall will tell you he has a teleportation scroll to help get out of the island. He needs an accomplice who also possesses the powers of teleportation. If you want to come along, you’ll have to find yourself the Teleportation Gloves. Don’t worry, Gawin informs you, they’re just in the stomach of a furious crocodilian. You’ll find them on the beach north of the boat where you first encounter Beast. Watch out, those crocs have a teleportation skill of their own. Why wouldn’t they, right? Once you pry the Teleportation Gloves out of their cold, dead jaws, you can go help Gawin with his scheme outside the North side of the fort walls. He claims that only one of you can come along but that isn’t entirely true. Gawin will double-cross you as soon as you send him across to the opposite ridge, leaving you in the dust. Send your party over after him with those gloves anyway. You’ll still be close enough to one another that you can send the gloves to the inventory of your party members on the opposite side. Teleport the last poor member of your crew over and get going. This path will lead you to the docks. If you’re alone and unable to follow Gawin, you can smash the trunk on the ridge to bits and fall down the hole to the beach. After that, a cave below the opposite ridge will take you into Fort Joy’s dungeons.

Freeing Amyro

The camp’s resident gang boss, Griff, has an elf named Amyro locked up in the kitchens. If you free Amyro, he’ll show clue you in on a secret passage into the fort. To free him, you’ll need to prove to Griff that the elf isn’t the one who stole a shipment of oranges. The real culprit, Stingtail, is on the Southwest beach. Be careful about approaching him because you can wind up putting a damper on two companion quests by accident. The Red Prince needs to speak to Stingtail and Sebille needs to kill him. Let them both do their thing, in that order, separately. Don’t worry about Stingtail winding up dead. You can grab the oranges out of a nearby crate and give them to Griff in exchange for Amyro’s freedom. The path Amyro shows you will eventually lead you to the dungeons, with some gags in between that I refuse to spoil. Suffice it to say, you’ll want to either bring a character with the Pet Pal perk or make sure to hug the east side walls and look for vines to climb to get through the passage safely.

The arena of Fort Joy

The fighting ring beneath the kitchens is another tough fight. If you plan to take this one on, I recommend starting each of the other quests to get the experience first. Not only that, but if you do choose to play for a win in the arena, your reward will be having your collar removed, which the Magisters will promptly throw you in the dungeon for. This will force you to exit the fort by fighting your way out of the dungeons, so wrap any other matters of interest up first.

Getting out

If you took an entry route that leads to the dungeons, prepare to fight your way out. When you do, you’ll exit from a staircase that takes you to the main floor of the Fort. Otherwise, you’ll have found yourself on the main or second floor of the fort with all of the following escape routes:

The drawbridge

The drawbridge at the back of the fort can simply be lowered with a lever nearby. To reach it, you may have to fight a few Magisters on the north side walls. You can reach this area either by walking up the outer stairs within the fort’s courtyard or by entering the second floor and walking out the North door where Paladin Cork is already confronting them. Alternatively, you can sneak out the back door of the same room, lower the drawbridge unnoticed, and get gone fast.

The broken ladder

On the second floor, East of the Hall of Penitence where High Judge Orivand is lecturing some poor prisoner, there’s a small, circular room that looks like a guard tower. There are some barrels blocking your exit onto a wooden catwalk. Simply move the barrels out of your way and you’re home-free. At the end of the platform is a broken ladder. You’ll land on your rear, but that isn’t so bad as far as escape attempts go.

The docks

If you painstakingly teleported your party across the cliffs where Gawin so thoughtlessly abandoned you, the docks will be your escape route. When you arrive, Gawin is getting what he had coming at the hands of the Magisters on the docks. You can either take out this group yourself and simply walk out or do some sneaking. It is possible to sneak behind the main dock area and teleport your party one-by-one onto the beach below. It takes time, but was worth it for a coward like me.

Han the Ferryboy 

If you got onto the second-story catwalk of the fort but don’t have the Magister’s Key, you can climb down the ladder inside the courtyard while sneaking and enter the main fort doors. Conveniently, those aren’t locked. Once inside, head immediately to your right to confront two Magisters harassing a young boy named Han. The kid was sent in to rescue someone else who, if you explored the dungeons, you can tell him won’t be making it. After taking out the Magisters, Han will help you escape in his boat.

Sewer grate

Also on the main floor of the fort is a torture area. Instead of heading for the docks where Han is waiting, take a left and make your way back. You can fight Kniles the Flenser if you really want to, but be warned that the Silent Monks in the room, who are passive elsewhere, will join him. Instead, you can sneak around the left side of his room and out an unlocked gate leading to the sewer drainage pipe. Freedom!

Update 2: After further review, Larian has decided that this is in fact a bug, and plans to remove it "ASAP." 

Update: Divinity: Original Sin 2 producer David Walgrave tells me that Larian doesn't plan to patch out this technique because it's "part of the system." 

"It appears that it is not a never-ending loop and you're not doing anything else while you're doing it," wrote Walgrave. "It's not like you're damaging anything for free without spending action points. If I understand this trick, it's still within the purposeful synergies of our skills and usually these are accounted for."

That's true: you can't do anything while the loop runs its course. Though, based on the video, which shows a troll losing 6048 HP like it's nothing, it's obviously quite a loop, technically 'never-ending' or not, and I've asked for further clarification. For now, rather than 'fix' the combo, Walgrave says they "applaud" it. Examples of techniques that would be patched out include anything that "breaks the fun" or is actually a bug. "If this would tick in realtime, it would be a bug," wrote Walgrave. "And if this does not cost AP/skills and/or is not blocked by cooldown/consuming a scroll/... then we look into it."

Otherwise, "If you glitch the system, congratulations," concludes Walgrave. So there you have it, feel free to combo trolls to hell all you want. The original story and explanation of the trick follows.

Original story: One of the magical things about Divinity: Original Sin and now its sequel, Original Sin 2, is how complex and liberal their combat systems are. Whether by design or by accident, the glut of spell and physics interactions sometimes lets you get away with ridiculously OP moves. In the first game, for instance, players leveled up telekinesis, made absurdly heavy objects by stacking containers, and then dropped them on enemies for unreasonable amounts of damage. Original Sin 2 now has its own trick, courtesy of Ashandis on Reddit (and others), except this one appears to deal unlimited damage to a single enemy.

You can see the trick in action in the video above. How it works relies on several complimentary spells, as well as a quirk particular to undead characters: they take damage from healing spells. 

So here's the trick. You have one party member cast Soul Mate on an undead party member. This spell will cause the undead character to receive half of any healing the caster receives, which will actually damage them. But that's OK, because you've already had the undead character cast Living on the Edge, which will prevent them from dying for two turns, no matter how much damage they take. 

The caster of Soul Mate must have a passive ability called Life Leech, which will heal them every time they deal damage. And that's how you get the loop. Say I'm the original caster of Soul Mate: I now cast a healing spell on myself, the undead character takes half that healing as damage (Soul Mate), I receive more healing because I damaged the undead character (Life Leech), they receive more damage because I was healed again, and on and on it goes. 

Of course, that doesn't help you, as you're just dealing unending damage to one of your party members. So there's another ingredient: the undead party member uses Shackles of Pain to deal all the damage they take to an enemy. 

According to Ashandis, the loop doesn't prevent you from taking turns, so it can be ended by letting Soul Mate wear off. I'm not at a place where I can try it myself, but the abilities are all real, and the methodology makes sense.

There's no word on whether Larian intends to patch out the loop, or if it even considers it an exploit—there are lots of ways to 'break' Divinity's systems, and some are intentional, as Fraser discusses in our glowing review. This one may be a bit too OP to keep around, but you never know. I've reached out to Larian for comment.

Thanks, Kotaku.

The first big patch for Divinity: Original Sin 2 released earlier today, promising reams of fixes and changes. If you want to avoid any hints about quests to come, you may want to avoid reading the patch notes, which reference late game characters and fights—though not having gotten very far myself yet, most don't have any meaning to me. 

And with all of Original Sin 2's complexity and weirdness, this first patch has some amazing entries, some of which I think are worthy of our strangest patch notes list. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Fixed an issue where players could be eternally Wet
• Fixed Cloisterwood Waypoint possibly killing party members due to lava placement
• Fixed blood puzzle getting stuck if you start the flow of blood before Blessing it
• Fixed eating Alexandar’s head triggering an incorrect achievement

Hours ago, Fraser awarded Divinity: Original Sin 2 a 92% in our review, calling it "one of the best RPGs ever made." I haven't played nearly as long as Fraser, but so far I'm inclined to agree. 

The rest of the world seems to agree, too: As of a few days ago, Original Sin 2 had already sold nearly 500,000 copies . "Lots of players means lots of support issues coming in and we're trying to service them as fast as we can," said Larian boss Swen Vincke at that time. "After that, it'll be a long, well-deserved break for the team and then we'll boot up our machines again to work on the next things."

I haven't personally encountered any bugs yet, but I'll let you know if I ever stay eternally Wet even after this patch.

Update: Another patch has just released, adding "enhanced German, French and Russian translations." It also updates the ending movies, fixes the reward panel in Gamemaster mode, and rolls back a runeslot change that was "released too soon" in the earlier patch.

Playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 is uncannily like playing a tabletop RPG. The way that Larian’s sequel embraces player creativity immediately conjures up memories of days spent sitting around a table, asking the Dungeon Master if I can attempt the last stupid idea that floated into my head. And like a good DM, Original Sin 2 usually answers that question with “Yes, you can attempt it.” 

My plans don’t always succeed, of course, but embarrassing failures, like the time I froze my entire party during a fight with some demons, can be just as entertaining. That freedom to experiment and to make mistakes is present right from the get-go, when you make your would-be hero. Or villain.   

You can play everything from an undead Dwarf who loves nothing more than swinging his two-handed axe and throwing rocks to a sneaky Elven wizard who can talk to animals and get visions by chowing on corpses. There are pre-made classes and characters with rich backgrounds and personal quests, but it’s also possible to create something that’s entirely your own, constructing a persona and custom class out of a series of origin tags, attributes and skills. 

I do recommend picking a pre-made origin character, though. You can still customise their appearance and skills, but it’s their quests that are important. Each is blessed with a long mission that runs parallel to the main quest, fleshing it out and making the stakes all the more personal. They also tend to get the best lines, especially the undead Eternal, Fane, whose biting sarcasm keeps me warm at night. The origin characters you don’t pick, however, become companions that you can recruit, letting you still experience their stories. 

With so many different potential paths, it’s handy to have a party that covers all the bases. Conveniently, companions—you can bring three along with you—can be customised the moment you meet them, and any mistakes made can be undone by respeccing via a mirror you’ll get access to around 15 to 20 hours in. Given the broad range of skills and multitude of opportunities to mess up, it’s a major boon.   

When there are limitations, they’re always hidden well, and Larian has done a phenomenal job at anticipating what players might want to do, even how they might try to break the game. Take the teleport skill. You can get your hands on this early on, and it essentially provides a shortcut through a lot of obstacles and quests. It almost feels like cheating, using it, but not only does Original Sin 2 support it, it offers up the idea in the first place. 

These neat tricks don’t mean the quests are simple. Larian loves its headscratchers, populating Rivellon with riddles, moral conundrums and ancient mysteries. They’re great, fat with unexpected turns and rewarding character moments, but keeping track of them is hard work. The journal quickly becomes impossible to parse, and directions from NPCs can be vague, but it’s another otherwise welcome feature that really complicates things: the connected nature of the world.  

Many of the NPCs you’ll meet have relationships and allegiances that affect more than one quest, and seemingly unrelated events can collide, cutting adventures short. These ripples of consequence result in a world that feels alive, and even give NPCs agency, but they also inspire hesitation when decisiveness is required out of the fear that one or more of these choices will kill another quest. It’s daunting, but it’s also a fair price to pay for the weight it gives to decisions.

One of the first places I hit up in any new RPG village is the local watering hole, so when I arrived in Driftwood during the game’s third chapter, I immediately headed to the Black Bull. Its owner was an affable, chatty woman and proud mother. As she gushed about her son, it dawned on me, I knew this guy. He was a monster of a man I’d met hours ago. I’d killed him. And there was his mother, boasting about how good he is, how clever he is, and how much she loves him. I never told her, though I could have, and nothing came of the conversation, but it did matter, making the fight retroactively more memorable. And there are more of these moments than I could reasonably count.

Original Sin 2’s main quest calls to mind Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, both being races to godhood. The world’s a mess, you see, with monstrous beasties rampaging wherever there’s source magic. And you just so happen you be a sourcerer with a divine calling, born with the ability to wield this powerful magic, talk to the dead and feast on souls. So of course you’ve been hauled off to jail by the corrupt Magisters—the game’s fanatical villains—ostensibly to stop you from ruining the world. What starts off as mission to escape prison spirals into an quest involving gods competing for survival and an evil poised to swallow up the world. 

What could have been your typical, high-stakes fantasy quest is elevated by strong writing and voice acting that effortlessly jumps between whimsical and brutally grim. It can be surprisingly touching, too. As tempting as it can be to play the evil arsehole in a game that offers this much freedom, there are a lot of heartfelt moments that you’ll only see if you’re not an arse. That’s why I keep Lohse around. Out of my three companions, she’s the good cop, talking to people like a thoughtful human being instead of an evil undead necromancer. 

Larian has also subverted the party dynamic quite a bit. Companions not only assist you while undertaking their own personal quests, they are ultimately your competition, each the chosen hero for their respective divine sponsor. This has an even greater impact in co-op, with each player capable of screwing over their three allies. While you’re shopping or fighting, they might be growing in power, waiting to betray you.

In my own co-op campaign, I’ve been mostly content with blowing everything up. Literally and figuratively. My pal wants to chat to an NPC? I throw a massive boulder at them. He wants to avoid what will clearly be a fatal fight with some teleporting crocodiles? I run up to them and set them on fire. Obviously you should never play with me, but I’m having a blast.

Beyond the co-op, there’s a Game Master mode, letting you use the game’s assets (or your own) to craft tabletop-style adventures. The tools are simple enough to use, but flexible enough so that you can create brief 20 minute campaigns or massive roleplaying romps that will take your group days to finish. Unfortunately I’m still yet to make something as impressive as Larian CEO Swen Vincke’s recreation of the start of UItima 7.

When you want to blow off some steam, there’s also the Arena mode, pitting players against each other in structured PvP. What might have been a simple diversion is instead a really great reason to keep playing once you’re finished the campaign. The deep and often chaotic tactical combat is a high point, and the opportunity to get into more scraps is very welcome. 

Rivellon is a violent world, and while many of the turn-based fights can be avoided, you’re still going to spend a lot of time brawling. These battles consistently take place in tactically interesting places, filled with choke points, explosive barrels and multiple levels, which is especially impressive considering you can start a fight with any NPC. But like the rest of the game, it’s the vast number of choices you can make in each encounter that make them so compelling.

A classless system means that you can create a mind-boggling array of weird heroes, from warriors who can sprout wings, horns and spider legs, to preternaturally gifted archers who can command the weather. Some skills confer flight. Others make enemies bleed fire. Battlefields are really laboratories primed for madcap experiments, where magical and martial skills can be combined with the environment to create anything from a wall of fire that heals to demonic imps made out of pools of blood.

They’re tough, though. Fights are brutal and the broad range of skills makes it hard to create plans until after you’ve already lost once. They’re puzzles that you need to keep working at, attempting to come at them from different angles, learning enemy patterns, pinpointing the major threats. You can lose yourself in these burning, bloodsoaked arenas. It’s easily one of the best RPG combat systems, but there’s no denying that it requires more patience and practice than most.

That’s true of the game in general. Its scope can be intimidating, but not overwhelming, and there’s usually a way to fix a mistake. If you murder someone you need to talk to for a quest, for instance, there’s a good chance that looting their corpse will send you in the right direction. So it can be punishing, certainly, but never cruel.

And it’s that intimidating, ambitious scope, that dedication to player freedom, that makes Divinity: Original Sin 2 so impressive. There isn’t another RPG that lets you do so much. Larian promised a lot, and it has absolutely followed through, crafting a singular game that juggles a bounty of complex, immersive systems, and never drops them.