Divinity Original Sin 2 Builds Guide

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Arron Kluz

Arron is an RPG all-rounder with a love for CRPGs in particular. Ever since he started playing games on his old SNES, he has been hooked ever since. He has a particular love for games like Pillars of Eternity, Skyrim, a variety of beloved indie titles, and also a few online shooters to serve as a means of avoiding open-world fatigue. Outside of gaming, he enjoys watching arthouse movies, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and writing fiction.

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 remains one of the best CRPGs ever and is one of my favorite games. Its intricate combat mechanics, well-balanced character building, and a bevy of choices for every player to make about their character make it unique.

However, the game can be tough to get into for newcomers. One of the main reasons for this is how difficult it can be to build a solid character. Without one, you’ll struggle when you start reaching late-game combat encounters, which makes the game feel unfair and frustrating. So, here are some guidelines for making a successful build with every starter class in Original Sin 2. 

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Builds Overview

When making builds in Divinity: Original Sin 2, it is pivotal to remain focused. Players don’t gain as many levels in Original Sin 2 as in other RPGs, so how you use each level is fundamental to be successful.

With this in mind, it is essential for builds not to stray from the role you are hoping to fulfill for your party. It is possible to get through the game with ridiculous or joke builds and party compositions, but I suggest leaving that until you’re more experienced. Generally, your four-character party should make sure to meet these criteria:

• One character that can take a lot of damage to tank for their allies.
• At least one character that offers support buffs and heals for their allies.
• A mixture of magical and physical damage so that you can always attack enemies with whichever is their weakest.
• The ability to capitalize on the game’s elemental interactions and triggers, such as igniting oil or electrifying water.
• Ranged damage options.

Fighter Builds

Best Role: Tank

The Fighter class is one of the most basic physical classes in Original Sin 2, so I suggest using it as a starting place if you aren’t comfortable with the game’s mechanics yet. The role of the tank is vital in Original Sin 2 because of how much damage enemies can deal to players, and making a fighter helps ensure your party will be covered in that regard.

Fighters start with the Geomancer and Warfare skills by default. It would be best if you focused on this great combination while building your Fighter. The Warfare skills will primarily be used to increase your character’s mobility and damage. So, if your character is performing well as a tank, feel free to invest in it further to let them help your party get some kills.

However, Warfare also has some skills that can help you stay alive, like Challenge and Deflective barriers, so make sure to pick those up when you find them. However, some of its best defensive skills require you to use a shield, so I highly recommend having one equipped to access them.

The Geomancer skills you should take are more focused on keeping your character alive by replenishing their physical armor. If you have a caster in your party that is particularly good at fire magic, you can also take skills that put oil down on the battlefield for them to ignite for some fun party synergy.

Fighter Attributes and Talents

Regarding the Fighter’s Attributes, you should primarily focus on Strength, Constitution, and Wits. However, focus on Strength and Constitution first to increase your damage and health. Then, putting some points in Wits will help you move first in combat to get into a good defensive position to support the party.

When picking your talents, you have to take Opportunist. I recommend every single melee combatant take Opportunist, as it gives the character the ability to take attacks of opportunity, free damage and crowd control.

After Opportunist, you should focus on talents that focus on building your survivability. Once you have at least six points invested in Warfare, the talent Picture of Health is a good one to grab. Otherwise, you can take Bigger and Better as well as All Skilled Up to increase your character’s raw attributes and skills.

Knight Builds

Best Role: Damage

The Knight is the damage-focused variant of the Fighter class. They can take a healthy amount of damage, but their real focus should be on killing enemies rather than protecting allies.

For skills, the Knight starts with points invested in Warfare and Two-Handed weaponry. This is an alright starting place, but I’ve found that the class functions best with some diversification in its skills. Warfare and Two-Handed work well to deal damage in their own right, especially if you keep enemies knocked down, so they are especially vulnerable.

So, when adding more to the Knight’s kit, I recommend adding a single skill so that you don’t spread the character too thin. There are two main options for a third skill, depending on what else you are running in your party.

If your Knight isn’t getting enough healing, I love using the Necromancer skill for self-healing. This will help you play your Knight more independently, which always feels great. If that isn’t a concern, I instead recommend picking up Polymorph. The Polymorph skill is excellent because it fits well with any other skill by granting access to buffs that help accentuate the character’s strengths and cover their weaknesses.

Knight Attributes and Talents

When you first create your Knight, I recommend redistributing all of your attribute points into Strength. This will maximize their damage, and you don’t need to worry about Constitution since you won’t use a shield. As you level up, you should invest in Strength, primarily with some Wits and Intelligence mixed in.

Wits will increase the number of critical hits the character gets, which is always suitable for a damage class. Meanwhile, Intelligence will improve their ability to use whichever third skill they decided to invest in, which will help round out their performance on the battlefield.

Since the Knight is a melee class, I insist you start with the Opportunist talent to get free attacks of opportunity. After that, I’ve found Executioner to work very well, as it gives you more action points to play around with after getting a kill, which your Knight should often do. Once you get to level 13, you should also pick up the Hothead talent, as by then, you can find good enough heavy armor to not worry about losing hit points.

Conjurer Builds

Best Roles: Damage, Support

The Conjurer class uses summoning to create minions and turrets to carry out its bidding. This allows it to work exceptionally well on an offensive level as well as a support one. If you are new to CRPGs and want to try Original Sin 2, this class is great to have at your first party. This is because running is straightforward but also tips battles in your favor by putting more units under your control.

When creating a Conjurer, you’ll only have points in the Summoning skill. This allows you to build the class in whichever direction you want, but for newer players, I recommend focusing on Summoning to maximize the effectiveness of your summons first. Then, you can also invest in Warfare, especially since you’ll start with a wand and a shield equipped.

For the character’s third skill, you can safely invest in any offensive magic skills depending on what else your party is capable of. However, I have found Hydrophist to have the broadest appeal since it allows the Conjurer to heal their allies and summons alike in battle.

Conjurer Attributes and Talents

For the attributes of your Conjurer, your priority should be their Intelligence. This will increase the effectiveness of all their spells, which will take up most of your action points. You should also invest heavily into Memory to increase the number of spells they can have ready. After that, I’ve found putting points into Constitution to be a good idea since you start with a shield equipped. Keeping just my healer alive has helped my parties make it through many battles they otherwise wouldn’t have finished.

When it comes to your Conjurer’s talents, you should change the starting one right out of the gate. Conjurers typically start with Pet Pal, which allows your character to speak to animals, but isn’t useful in battle. Instead, I recommend picking up Far Out Man to increase the distance of your spells so that you can put your summons in better positions. Then, as the character levels, I usually pick up Mnemonic, Elemental Affinity, and All Skilled Up.

Enchanter Builds

Best Role: Crowd Control, Damage

The Enchanter class excels at controlling enemy movement and crippling them with status effects. It also can deal a heft amount of damage on its own and is best used to manipulate elements and trigger interactions.

I’ve found the best way to do this is by focusing on Hydrophist and Aerotheurge for the Enchanter’s skills. They start with both of these when created, allowing them to create water surfaces to electrocute and stun enemies. At higher levels, they can teleport enemies where they want them and freeze them solid.

For a third skill, I usually use Dual Wield and equip two wands, one that deals water damage and another that deals electric damage. This will help you trigger interactions even if your spells are on cooldown and can be a great fallback.

Enchanter Attributes and Talents

For your attributes, you should focus on Intelligence to maximize your spell damage, followed by Memory to hold more spells. You’ll always want to have a spell ready that can create water and one that can stun, so having more ready will help you stay effective throughout fights. Once you pick up the Savage Sortilege talent, you can also start investing in Wits to get more critical hits.

For my Executioners, I usually keep Far Out Man’s starting talent so they can always land spells where they need to. From there, I pick up the Elemental Affinity talent, followed by Mnemonic and Savage Sortilege. Once you’re more comfortable with the game, you can take Torturer so that your status effects ignore magical armor.

Witch Builds

Best Role: Damage

The Witch class can be difficult to build for because it struggles to excel as well as other classes at its role. It is built to work best as a close magic combatant that dishes out physical damage. While they start with a wand, I usually switch them over to two daggers instead.

If that sounds fun, you should focus on the Necromancer and Scoundrel skills. If you have a Witch in your party, you should always start combat with a stealth attack from behind a vital enemy to weaken them early on. Then, you can use Scoundrel spells for most of your damage and use Necromancer to protect yourself and heal while damaging enemies.

The Witch also starts with points invested in Geomancy. This can be useful for more range options and building up your armor if you ever get caught in a bad situation. However, I wouldn’t invest in this skill too heavily and pick up Fortify and Magical Poison Dart.

Witch Attributes and Talents

For your Witch’s attributes, you should invest in Intelligence no matter what and Finesse if you follow my approach of giving them daggers. This will help keep your Witch effective regardless of whether you backstab a foe or cast a spell. On top of that, Wits is also helpful so that you go earlier in the initiative to strike high-value targets quickly.

Since your Witch will be in melee range of enemies, I insist on starting with the Opportunist talent. On top of that, I usually pick up Executioner, Far Out Man, and Parry Master. Executioner keeps them moving after a kill, Far Out Man increases their spell range, and Parry Master increases their dodge chance while dual wielding to help them stay alive.

Wizard Builds

Role: Damage

The Wizard is similar to the Enchanter but focuses on raw damage rather than stunning enemies. To do this, it focuses on the Pyrokinetic and Geomancer skills to set up oil fields and set them aflame, damaging any caught in them.

If you want to play a Wizard, I suggest sticking with Pyrokinetic and Geomancer for the first portion of the game until you have a good selection of options and understand the play style. Then, you should invest slightly into Polymorph to pick up skills like Chameleon Cloak and Skin Graft to help keep yourself alive.

Wizard Attributes and Talents

The most important attribute of a Wizard is their Intelligence. This impacts the damage of their spells, and raising it is always a solid option. After that, you should focus on Memory and Wits in that order. Memory is excellent to help you have more spells at your disposal, while Wits is good to get your oil fields set up early in the fight.

The wizards start with the Far Out Man talent, a solid option. However, I usually start with Torturer instead to light enemies on fire despite their magic armor. This is a slightly more dangerous approach but also carries a high reward. After that, I pick Far Out Man, Savage Sortilege, Demon, and Elemental Affinity.

Ranger Builds

Best Role: Damage

The Ranger class is all about ranged attacks and mobility. I highly recommend this class for new players because it is easy to get solid damage numbers and good survivability.

The class starts invested in the Huntsman and Warfare skills, which I have found the best to focus on for this class. When building your character, you should invest in both skills equally, as Hunstman has extraordinary ranged abilities, and higher Warfare will increase the damage you deal.

Once you’re comfortable with those skills, I’ve found that focusing on Polymorph works best. That skill has a load of abilities that will help your positioning and survivability on the battlefield.

Ranger Attributes and Talents

You’ll want to focus on Finesse for your Ranger’s attributes above all else. This will help maximize their effectiveness with their bow or crossbow. After Finesse, I’ve found Wits to be the most important to get consistent critical hits and get in position early on in fights. Memory is also an excellent option to help you have more abilities ready to go.

Rangers start with the Arrow Recovery talent, which is excellent so that you can hold onto elemental arrows. After that, I like to maximize the Ranger’s damage with Hothead, Executioner, All Skilled Up, and Elemental Ranger.

Rogue Builds

Best Role: Damage

The Rogue is a melee damage dealer that emphasizes positioning to stay behind targets for extra damage. It plays similarly to the Witch above but uses a high dodge chance rather than magic for survivability.

For the Rogue, I have found focusing on Warfare and Scoundrel to work the best. Warfare is a great way to increase the Rogue’s damage output, while Scoundrel works to help them get into optimal positions and punish enemies for allowing them to do so.

As you level up, I recommend focusing on Warfare before Scoundrel, but once they are both relatively high, you can improve your performance with Polymorph. Polymorph has a lot of excellent skills like Chameleon Cloak that are very useful to the Rogue and will make you a real threat for enemies to fear.

Rogue Attributes and Talents

The essential attributes for a Rogue build are Finesse and Wits. Finesse will increase their raw damage output, while higher Wits ensures they’ll get as many critical hits as possible. If you need to, you can invest a bit in Memory, especially once you start getting Polymorph abilities.

The first talent you should take for the Rogue is Parry Master to increase your dodge chance while dual wielding. It would be best if you also took Opportunist for attacks of opportunity. Then, pick up Executioner for extra movement after kills and Hothead to maximize your damage.

Battlemage Builds

Best Roles: Tank

The Battlemage is an interesting caster because it is a magical tank. This makes building a solid Battlemage slightly tricky, but it is possible if you’re up for a challenge.

The Battlemage class starts with an investment in Aerotheurge and Warfare. The Warfare works well for getting into position and protecting you if you bring a shield. Aerotheurge then compliments that with incredible abilities that can stun enemies to keep you safe from them and leave them vulnerable. Besides those two skills, you can invest in Geomancy for extra protection, Necromancy if you want to heal yourself, or Polymorph if you need more available options in battle.

Battlemage Attributes and Talents

I have found building the attributes for a battlemage to be pretty tricky because of how well they need to be balanced with one another. Therefore, I recommend investing in Constitution and Intelligence first to build up their survivability and skills. Then, with a shield and a wand, you’ll also be able to deal decent damage. Finally, you can invest in Memory if you have a lot of skills to use or Wits so that you can get in prime position early in the fight.

Since I usually equip Battlemages with a wand, I don’t use the Opportunist talent with them, despite their focus on being in close range to enemies. Instead, I start them off with a Picture of Health for some survivability. From there, I’ll pick up Living Armor, Elemental Affinity, and Savage Sortilege.

Cleric Builds

Best Roles: Tank, Healer

Clerics are melee fighters who simultaneously fill a party’s tank and healer role. They do this by wearing heavy armor, healing themselves, and offering plenty of healing for others.

In Original Sin 2, Clerics start with points in Necromancy and Hydrophist. These work great for the class, but I recommend investing in Warfare early on. Warfare will allow you to get in position and help buff your survivability while a shield is equipped.

Necromancy will then be your primary skill when it comes to healing yourself. Not only will it heal you whenever you damage enemies, but it also has numerous skills that leech health from enemies. Finally, Hydrophist will be your way to heal allies and boost your magical armor.

Cleric Attributes and Talents

The Crystal Cleric focuses on Intelligence above all other Attributes to ensure their spells are effective. On top of that, players should invest in Constitution to help themselves stay alive and Strength so they can always wear heavy armor sets.

Clerics typically start with the Hothead talent, but I recommend switching that to Elemental Affinity. If you stand in water or blood, your spells will be cheaper to cast. I usually pick up The Pawn for unrestricted movement from there with Savage Sortelige and Living Armor to round it out.

Inquisitor Builds

Best Role: Damage

Inquisitors can be tough to build because they must balance investing in multiple skills to be effective. This is especially difficult for newer players to manage, so I don’t recommend playing one until you have some experience.

The Inquisitor class starts with dual-wielded wands and points in Warfare and Necromancy. However, the class fits better as a damage dealer than a tank. It manages to do this by using Warfare skills to knock down enemies and get into solid positions while dealing damage and staying alive with Necromancy skills.

To make the Inquisitor play well, you should invest in Polymorph, Aerotheurgy, and Dual Wield. It can be a lot to keep track of, but the result is an enjoyable class when done correctly.

Inquisitor Attributes and Talents

For your Inquisitor, you should invest heavily in Intelligence and Memory. This will keep your spells effective while also making sure you have all of them that you need ready to go. Then, you should focus your points on Wits so that you have a higher critical hit chance and go earlier on in combat.

The Inquisitor starts with the Executioner talent, which is a great place to start. Since you’ll be using wands, you can skip Opportunist. Instead, I usually grab Savage Sortelige second, followed by Living Armor, Mnemonic, and All Skilled Up.

Shadowblade Builds

Role: Damage

The Shadowblade blends the Rogue’s stealth-based approach with the Polymorph’s transformative properties. This enables them to go all in on their ambushes and tactics, which I find an absolute blast to play.

When you create a Shadowblade, they will have some points in Scoundrel and Polymorph. This is where you’ll be spending most of your points throughout the game. However, it is also helpful to invest points in Warfare to increase your damage and pick up skills like Phoenix Dive for extra positioning options.

Shadowblade Attributes and Talents

For your Shadowblade’s attributes, investing heavily in Finesse to maximize their damage output is best. You can then spend points in Intelligence to improve their Polymorph abilities and Wits to have a higher critical hit chance.

Shadowblades start with the Guerilla talent, but I suggest never taking that talent. This is because it is tough to stealth while in combat, making using it an absolute nightmare. Instead, take Opportunist to start, then All Skilled Up, Executioner, Mnemonic, and Parry Master.

Wayfarer Builds

Best Role: Damage

The Wayfarer class is a ranged physical class that emphasizes survivability and slower, more damaging attacks with heavy crossbows. This is a unique approach to combat in the game; I’ve found it builds for it to be tricky.

When you first may a Wayfarer, they will have the Huntsman and Geomancer skills. These are a decent place to start, but I don’t suggest investing too heavily in Geomancer. Instead, put a few points in to get some defensive abilities and then invest a lot in Huntsman. From there, you should also pick up skills from Warfare for damage and movement options and maybe a bit of Polymorph if you think you can spare the points.

Wayfarer Attributes and Talents

For your Wayfarer, keep a healthy balance between their Finesse and Wits. Both are pivotal to the class’ success. Then, you can also invest in Memory if you find yourself needing room for more skills.

Wayfarers start with the Pet Pal talent, which you should instead replace with Arrow Recovery. On top of that, I usually get Elemental Ranger, Hothead, All Skilled Up, and Living Armor to finish things off.

FAQS

Conclusion

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an amazing game. It has a range of high-quality content for players to see for a unique experience. Players need to learn the game’s systems to get there, and a large part of doing so is making solid builds. Hopefully, the above figures will get you started experiencing everything there is to see in Original Sin 2

Looking for more interesting readings? Please check out:

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