Built for Success: Divinity Original Sin 2 Classes Guide

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Classes play a pivotal role in Divinity: Original Sin 2. While a character’s build can be further customized as they level up, players shouldn’t expect to level up too many times throughout a playthrough. This makes it very important to make every level count and know how to take full advantage of one’s class by using it as a strong starting point to build on throughout a playthrough. With that in mind, here is everything you could need to know about the classes available in Divinity Original Sin 2.

divinity original sin 2

Key Info Up Front

  • Mage Classes: Conjurer, Enchanter, Witch, Wizard
  • Survivor Classes: Ranger, Rogue
  • Warrior Classes: Fighter, Knight
  • Hybrid Classes: Battlemage, Cleric, Inquisitor, Metamorph, Shadowblade, Wayfarer

Battlemage

  • Class Type: Hybrid
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Battering Ram, Blinding Radiance, Shocking Touch
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Intelligence, Strength
  • Primary Abilities: Aerotheurge, Persuasion, Warfare
  • Starting Talent: Comeback Kid

The Battlemage is a frontline magic class that deals extreme amounts of damage to enemies. To do so, it uses Aerotheurge to damage groups of enemies while using its Warfare abilities to keep itself alive at the center of combat encounters. They are typically equipped with a staff and are extremely capable of wearing down the magic armor of enemies. While they have some survivability, they are far from being a tank class, so don’t expect them to take too many hits for your party.

battlemage

How to Play a Battlemage

When it comes to playing a Battlemage, it is all about positioning and damage output. The class can be built to use any magic skill, but starting with Aerotheurge is easiest since it starts with a point already invested in it. Aerotheurge will also allow you to focus on capturing enemies in groups and punishing them with powerful area-of-effect spells. If you need to, you’ll even be able to teleport enemies around the battlefield, allowing you to force them into larger groups to be even more effective.

As Battlemage is a very versatile class, you should ensure not to invest in both Strength and Intelligence. Instead, you should pick one and build accordingly. Strength is helpful in making a melee-centric build, while Intelligence is required to make a magic-centric one. Regardless of which you choose, Constitution should be your second focus, allowing you to stay on your feet while on the enemy side of the battlefield.

As you level up, you’ll also need to pick numerous Talents. The Battlemage begins with Opportunist, which allows them to make attacks of opportunity whenever an enemy in melee range moves away from them. While leveling up, I have found traits like Know-It-All, Bigger and Better, and All Skilled Up to work excellently for this class.

They allow you to invest more into their Attributes and Skills, which are the meat of a successful Battlemage. If you can, you should also get Morning Person so that if your Battlemage does ever go down, they can be revived with total health and jump right back into the fight.

battlemage damage

Cleric

  • Class Type: Hybrid
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Blood Sucker, Decaying Touch, Restoration
  • Primary Attributes: Intelligence, Strength
  • Primary Abilities: Bartering, Hydrosophist, Necromancer
  • Starting Talent: Hot Head

The Cleric is a great magical melee class capable of supporting their allies through buffs and healing and working as strong tanks. They do this by utilizing heavy armor to block incoming damage, Necromancy spells to heal themselves, and Hydrosophist spells to help out their nearby allies.

cleric

How to Play a Cleric

When playing a Cleric, it is essential to focus on their core functions within your party. You should invest heavily into their Constitution and intelligence to help them stay alive longer and get the utmost out of their spells. There are ways to make Clerics deal some severe damage as well, but unless you are an expert player, it is best to leave that to the other party members, at least until higher levels.

On top of your Cleric’s Necromancer and Hydrosophist skills, I  recommend investing some points into Warfare to help round out their survivability. Warfare skills like Phoenix Dive, Deflective Barrier, and Challenge all work wonders to help Clerics get into position, maintain it for as long as possible, and retreat if needed.

You should also keep them equipped with gear that gives them high physical and magical armor to negate as much damage as possible. I recommend keeping them fitted with heavy armor, a giant shield, and a water wand.

When it comes to Talents, Clerics start with Hot Head. This gives them a 10% increase in accuracy and critical hit chance while they have maximum health. As you level up, I recommend picking Talents like Living Armour to add 35% of received healing to magic armor, Savage Sortilege to extend your critical hit chance bonus from Hot Head to your spells, and The Pawn to have one free Action Point worth of movement per turn to maintain proper positioning.

cleric damage

Conjurer

  • Class Type: Mage
  • Combat Distance: Ranged
  • Starting Skills: Conjure Incarnate, Dimensional Bolt, Elemental Totem
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Intelligence
  • Primary Abilities: Leadership, Loremaster, Summoning
  • Starting Talent: Pet Pal

Conjurers are strong magic-wielders who summon elementals, demons, and totems to assist them in battle and carry out their bidding. It is a highly adaptable class capable of reacting to any encounter or group of enemies players can encounter during their adventures throughout the game. However, playing them optimally requires players to have a good handle on Divinity: Original Sin 2’s elemental effects and interactions, making them difficult for new players to start with.

conjurer

How to Play a Conjurer

Playing a Conjurer effectively can be a tricky balancing act. The Conjurer’s playstyle requires the player to maintain their summons by creating them on elemental surfaces, empowering them with abilities, and healing them whenever possible. To do this, players should invest heavily into Summoning until they cannot get it any higher.

Once that is done, I recommend investing three points into Pyrokinetic and two points into Warfare, Geomancy, and Scoundrel. This will allow you to get all the skills that will buff your summons on top of the Summoning buffs.

Summoning is also unique because any Attributes do not increase its damage output. This can leave Conjurers having a more challenging time at higher levels in the game but does leave them open to augmenting their playstyles however the player wishes to. I recommend taking up archery to increase your damage.

Conjurers start with the Pet Pal Talent, which allows them to speak to animals. I highly recommend focusing on the Talents Far Out Man to increase the range of your spells and All Skilled Up to help you have as many summons and buffs ready to go as soon as possible.

conjurer gameplay

Enchanter

  • Class Type: Mage
  • Combat Distance: Ranged
  • Starting Skills: Electric Discharge, Hail Strike, Restoration
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Intelligence
  • Primary Abilities: Aerotheurge, Hydrosophist, Loremaster
  • Starting Talent: Far Out Man

Enchanters are a ranged mage class specializing in controlling enemy movements and crippling them with debuffs. It does this primarily through Aerotheurge and Hydrosophist skills, allowing them to focus on status effects such as Stunned, Chilled, Shocked, and Frozen. These enable the Enchanter skip enemy turns entirely or to lower their dodge chance and movement, leaving them vulnerable to the Enchanter’s allies.

enchanter

How to Play an Enchanter

When first making an Enchanter, I highly recommend changing their starting Attributes to give you three points of Intelligence. This will maximize your damage immediately, especially as the class shouldn’t be getting hit enough to make investing in Constitution worthwhile. Combined with two dual-wielded wands, this will ensure that your Enchanter can keep enemies from doing just about anything from the start.

Once you start leveling your Enchanter, I recommend putting a single point into Polymorph to get the Chameleon Cloak spell for protection. Then, you can go back and forth, leveling up Aerotheurge and Hydrosophist until they are both maxed out. To make the class work, you’ll want to focus on controlling enemies while allowing your party members to finish them.

Enchanters also start with the Far Out Man Talent, which gives them a higher range when casting spells, which is a great starting place. As you level, you should pick up Mnemonic to have more spells readied at a time, Elemental Affinity to decrease your casting costs, and Glass Cannon to help you get your control elements in place as early as possible.

enchanter armor

Fighter

  • Class Type: Warrior
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Battle Stomp, Bouncing Shield, Fortify
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Strength
  • Primary Abilities: Bartering, Geomancer, Warfare
  • Starting Talent: Opportunist

The Fighter class is one of the most straightforward classes in Original Sin 2. It is a physical damage-focused melee class that works best as a stalwart tank. On top of taking damage, the Fighter also works very well in chasing down weakened or high-value enemies and finishing them off after the Fighter’s allies weaken them.

fighter

How to Play a Fighter

Fighters work best as tanks, although they can be built for various other functions if players want to challenge themselves. When making a tank Fighter, however, you should put a lot of attention toward getting a great shield to boost your armor. You should also focus on increasing your Strength and Constitution before all else, but you can also invest in Intelligence if you favor using Geomancer abilities.

You should focus on using Geomancer skills that increase your armor above using them for damage. It is also a good idea to invest in Warfare skills to help you get into positioning and stay alive better. Once you’re in combat, a Fighter should always be in the middle of combat and at the forefront of their party. It is their job to take the majority of blows from enemies so that their allies can survive and focus on dealing most of the damage.

Fighters start with Opportunist Talent, allowing them to perform opportunity attacks when enemies try to move away from them. Other Talents that work well are Comeback Kid to help you stay on your feet after a lethal blow, Duck Duck Goose to re-position, and Leech to give you free healing while standing in blood.

fighter damage

Inquisitor

  • Class Type: Hybrid
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Battering Ram, Crippling Bow, mosquito Swarm
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Intelligence
  • Primary Abilities: Necromancer, Telekinesis, Warfare
  • Starting Talent: Executioner

The Inquisitor is a damage-focused melee magic fighter focused on dealing incredible amounts of damage to enemies on top of crippling them with dark magic curses. The class starts weaker than others in the game, but they can be mighty once they catch their stride in the mid-game.

inquisitor

How to Play an Inquisitor

When playing an Inquisitor, it is essential to focus your Attribute investments on Strength and Intelligence. This allows the Inquisitor to deal tons of damage while also improving the spells they can use to heal themselves. For Skills, the Inquisitor will primarily use Warfare, Two-Handed Weapons, and Necromancy.

Your Inquisitor should always wield a two-handed weapon to maximize their physical damage. Investing in Necromancy also allows them to heal whenever they deal damage, and a well-built high-level Inquisitor can heal up to 20% of their health with each attack. You should also consider investing in Wits to maximize your critical hit chance.

For talents, the Inquisitor starts with Executioner, which gives them two Action Points once per turn after killing an enemy. This can be combined with Opportunist to get opportunity attacks and Big Man to help boost their health and keep them in the fight. It is essential, however, to not take the Leech Talent, as Necromancy should be your primary healing method and is much more efficient and consistent.

inquisitor battle

Knight

  • Class Type: Warrior
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Battering Ram, Crippling Blow, Rage
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Strength
  • Primary Abilities: Bartering, Two-Handed, Warfare
  • Starting Talent: Opportunist

The Knight is a damage-focused melee fighter that doesn’t come packaged with any magical abilities. This makes them very basic to play, but they can still bring serious damage numbers at the cost of survivability or adaptability.

knight

How to Play a Knight

Because the Knight is focused on damage above all else, you should keep them equipped with a two-handed weapon and invest heavily in their Strength. This will maximize their damage output, allowing them to deal high direct physical damage. You should also increase your Wits to increase the chance of getting critical hits while using Warfare abilities to augment your damage and chase down targets.

Since a Knight doesn’t have many protective abilities or survivability options, they require a lot of assistance from supportive allies like Clerics. They start with the Opportunist Talent to gain access to opportunity attacks, which you should follow up with the likes of Executioner, Big Man, and Living Armor to round their build out.

knight damage

Metamorph

metamorph

  • Class Type: Hybrid
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Bull Horns, Chicken Claw, Tentacle Lash
  • Primary Attributes: Finesse, Strength
  • Primary Abilities: Persuasion, Polymorph, Two-Handed
  • Starting Talent: Opportunist

The Metamorph is a magical melee class that functions similarly to the Knight. However, it used the magic abilities of the Polymorph Ability to augment their abilities. This grants them more range, adaptability, and mobility despite lacking general survivability.

How to Play a Metamorph

While playing a Metamorph character can be easy to invest your points poorly because of their hybrid nature. When playing a Metamorph, it is pivotal to focus on raising your Strength and Intelligence. This helps maximize your character’s physical damage as well as improve their Polymorph spells.

While playing a Metamorph, you should keep them equipped with a two-handed weapon, not a spear, since those require Finesse. You can then combine that with spells like Tentacle Lash and Bull Rush to cover gaps and chase down enemy targets. If you want, you can invest in Wits to increase critical hit chance and improve your Metamorph’s damage.

Metamorphs also come with the Opportunist Talent to get access to opportunity attacks. You should add Talents like Duck Duck Goose to increase your mobility, Executioner to keep turns going after getting a kill, and Unstable for some bonus damage if you find your character going down in combat a lot.

metamorph gameplay

Ranger

  • Class Type: Survivor
  • Combat Distance: Ranged
  • Starting Skills: Elemental Arrowheads, Peace of Mind, Ricochet
  • Primary Attributes: Finesse, Wits
  • Primary Abilities: Hunstman, Lucky Charm, Pyrokinetic
  • Starting Talent: Arrow Recovery

The Ranger is a ranged combatant that is a master of bows and crossbows while also dealing extra damage with Pyrokinetic spells. This makes them very strong ranged damage dealers that can target enemies with both physical and magic armor, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from the rest of the Ranger’s party.

ranger

How to Play a Ranger

When you play a Ranger, you should invest primarily in Finesse and Intelligence, with some points going into Wits. You should keep your distance from enemies during combat, so you shouldn’t take much damage. This allows you to invest heavily in maximizing your damage output while not worrying about survivability as much.

To do this, you should use either a bow or a crossbow to attack enemies weaker to physical damage and their Pyrokinetic spells to target those more vulnerable to magic injury. This helps them be very versatile and pair well with Geomancer allies that their abilities combo well.

Rangers start with the Arrow Recovery Talent that encourages them to use elemental arrows by giving players a chance to retrieve them upon use automatically. This pairs very well with Talents like Hothead to increase accuracy and critical hit chance, Savage Sortilege to make their spells more effective, and Far Out Man to ensure they can always use their spells.

ranger gameplay

Rogue

  • Class Type: Survivor
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Adrenaline, Backlash, Throwing Knife
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Finesse
  • Primary Abilities: Scoundrel, Sneaking, Thievery
  • Starting Talent: Guerrilla

The Rogue is a melee class that deals primarily with stealth combat and a lack of magical ability. They use secrecy and stealth to deal massive amounts of damage and target weaker members of enemy units that are high-value targets, such as healers. However, they require a unique playstyle as they are worthless outside of stealth.

rogue

How to Play a Rogue

When making a Rogue, you should focus on investing in Finesse above all else. This will increase their damage and allow them to sneak around the battlefield more effectively. On top of Finesse, you can also invest in Wits to improve your critical hit chance and maximize your damage even more.

Once you enter a fight, you should always have your Rogue immediately go into stealth if you couldn’t get them in position before the fight begins. You should get them close to vulnerable targets like healers or ranged fighters. Your Rogue will then be able to deal massive amounts of damage spread across multiple attacks made with dual-wielded daggers.

The Rogue starts with the Guerrilla Talent, which is perfect as it increases their damage out of stealth. The class can be further improved by taking the Executioner Talent to help them move after getting a kill, Opportunity to keep enemies from getting away from you, and Stench to help keep enemies from targeting you.

rogue gameplay

Shadowblade

  • Class Type: Hybrid
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Backlash, Chameleon Cloak, Chicken Claw
  • Primary Attributes: Finesse, Wits
  • Primary Abilities: Polymorph, Scoundrel, Thievery
  • Starting Talent: Guerrilla

The Shadowblade takes the Rogue class and injects it with Polymorph magical abilities. They fulfill a similar role on the battlefield as the Rogue class, but their magical abilities help them be more adaptable at the cost of some damage.

shadowblade

How to Play a Shadowblade

Shadowblades should approach combat similarly to Rogues by using stealth to get close to important enemy targets. Then, they can get an increase in damage by attacking out of stealth, followed by devastating combos of regular attacks and Polymorph abilities. One powerful combo is turning the enemy into a chicken to cripple them for more damage or to allow the Shadowblade to flee.

Like the Rogue, the Shadowblade starts with the Guerrilla Talent, boosting their damage when attacking out of stealth. This pairs very well with Talents like Executioner to help them continue their turn after getting a kill and Duck Duck Goose to help you avoid attacks of opportunity.

shadowblade gameplay

Wayfarer

  • Class Type: Hybrid
  • Combat Distance: Ranged
  • Starting Skills: Contamination, Fossil Strike, Marksman’s Fang
  • Primary Attributes: Finesse, Wits
  • Primary Abilities: Bartering, Geomancy, Huntsman
  • Starting Talent: Pet Pal

Wayfarers are ranged damage fighters that augment their abilities with Geomancy. This helps give them some extra options through spells that they can capitalize on with their solid damage output and elemental arrows. They play exceptionally well with a party of melee characters they can support.

wayfarer

How to Play a Wayfarer

When building a Wayfarer, you should focus on raising your Finesse, Intelligence, and Wits. This will increase their base ranged damage, give them a higher chance of scoring criticals, and boost their Geomancy abilities to support melee allies.

When building a loadout for your Wayfarer, you can use either bows or crossbows, depending on your personal preferences. Then, you should try to stay as far out of combat as possible while reaching high areas to rain arrows down on enemies below. You can use Geomancy to augment your damage by putting down oil and lighting it on fire, but it will frequently be best used to support allies and replenish their armor.

The Wayfarer starts with the Pet Pal Talent, allowing them to speak to animals. As you level, I recommend taking Talents like Arrow Recovery to retrieve elemental arrows, Far Out Man if you enjoy using your spells, and Hothead to increase your stats while you have maximum hit points.

wayfarer gameplay

Witch

  • Class Type: Mage
  • Combat Distance: Melee
  • Starting Skills: Blood Rain, Contamination, Magical Poison Dart
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Intelligence
  • Primary Abilities: Geomancy, Necromancer, Persuasion
  • Starting Talent: Leech

The Witch is a melee caster that uses spells from Geomancy and Necromancy to deal damage and keep themselves alive. This combination is powerful because it allows them to heal themselves and buff their armor while damaging and crippling enemies. They play very similarly to the Inquisitor above. However, they put less emphasis on their physical damage capabilities.

witch

How to Play a Witch

When building a Witch, I highly recommend focusing on Geomancy, Necromancy, and the Scoundrel skill to increase your survivability through stealth. These three together will allow you to debuff enemies, keep yourself alive, and maximize your damage output.

To help your Witch’s Skills be as effective as possible, you should equip a spear or two daggers while investing in Finesse and Intelligence. You’ll then want to target enemies that are weak to physical damage above others, as you’ll be able to widdle them down extremely quickly.

Unfortunately, the Witch starts with the Leech Talent, which isn’t very useful, considering their Necromancy spells are better. Instead, you should take Talents such s Guerilla to increase your stealth damage, Duck Duck Goose to avoid attacks of opportunity, and Executioner to help you keep moving after getting a kill.

witch gameplay

Wizard

  • Class Type: Mage
  • Combat Distance: Ranged
  • Starting Skills: Fossil Strike, Ignition, Searing Daggers
  • Primary Attributes: Constitution, Intelligence
  • Primary Abilities: Geomancer, Loremaster, Pyrokinetic
  • Starting Talent: Far Out Man

Wizards are the most accurate ranged mage class that emphasizes combining elemental effects to their fullest effect. They can be tricky to use, as balancing their spells can be challenging, but they are highly effective once you manage to. While Wizards start with Pyrokinetic and Geomancer spells, it is very reasonable to invest more as you develop your character.

wizard

How to Play a Wizard

When playing a Wizard, you should focus on investing in Intelligence to improve your spells. The versatility of the Wizard also allows them to fill the elemental gaps of their party or pick ones that combo well with their allies. While playing as a Wizard, you should stay as far back in combat as possible to protect yourself and maximize your opportunities to damage enemies with powerful spells and elemental combos.

The Wizard starts with the Far Out Man Talent, which is excellent. You should try to get the Mnemonic Talent as early as possible and to have more skills readied. The Hothead Talent also increases your accuracy, the Glass Cannon to help you get your elemental combinations ready as quickly as possible, and All Skilled Up to level up your magical abilities.

wizard gameplay

FAQs

Question: What is the best magic class in Divinity: Original Sin 2?

Answer: The most robust magic-focused class is the Conjurer because of their ability to fill the battlefield with summoned creatures, effectively expanding their party.

Question: What is a good starting class in Divinity: Original Sin 2?

Answer: A good starting class is the Ranger. It is a very powerful class that is simple to use effectively while still having a massive impact on the battlefield.

Question: Can you change your class in Divinity: Original Sin 2?

Answer: Players can change the classes of their party members once they reach act two of the main quest in Divinity: Original Sin 2 whenever they are at their main base.

divinity original sin II

Conclusion

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of the market’s most rewarding and profound RPG experiences. Its intricate combat allows players to explore the possibilities and find their approaches. Classes play a significant role in helping guide players on how to tackle the game’s combat and provide an excellent framework for players to build on.

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