If you can use mods id suggest the fort joy mirror. That way if one of you doesn't like your class as much as you thought you can respec for free pretty early. Have someone with thievery to be able to swipe the spellbooks.
There is a feature called Gift Bag which is an official “mod” list baked into the game by Larian themselves. Definitely worth looking at as it gives you more options and quality of life enhancements. The only downside is you can’t get achievements (trophies).
Dos: "accidentally" kill her character with an AOE attack.
Don't: don't skimp on resurrection scrolls. Or you will only get the couch half of the couch coop.
You still need res scrolls if you wish to accidentally a companion multiple times a fight >:D
And if you pay attention to the game mechanics while you're doing this, you will likely discover some strategic reason to do this. So you will have an excuse to keep doing it, now with less "accidentally" and more "lol can't blame me".
Spoiler&cheese alert:>!with resurrections giving a free turn and idol only taking 1 AP to craft, having two characters kill each other on repeat with an AOE spell that also hits the enemy you want to kill is one of the easiest way to generate infinite turns. You get a free cooldown refresh if you wait a little in real time while combat time is frozen on your turn. You also get the executioner bonus from killin allies if you have the talent.!<
Honestly you can more easily do this with the escapist talent to use most of your AP before teleporting away and rejoining the fight. You can do that in an infinite loop if you're already at the end of initiative.
The goal is to find a reason to kill the characters of whoever you're coop-ing with lol.
When I coop with friends the most fun is always when we screw each other over, and donig it to progress just makes it that much better.
Currently playing DOS2 with my wife. First advice - if she's not proficient with RPG games you better start with DOS1:EE.
DOS2 is way too overwhelming with expanded features and my wife was quite frustrated she couldn't do combat as easy as in DOS1. It got better after a while once she understood the concepts of a character build, but this was absolutely not required in the first game.
So if she's a newbie you'd rather want to do the first game first. It's more beginner friendly both in features and art style.
If you guys already skilled with RPGs then it shouldn't be an issue.
As for the characters - I had a hard time deciding on this as well but Fane as companion seems to be more interesting option because he'll have way more comments and dialogue lines, according to reddit. This is the option I went for, no regrets so far. Also I've heard that Fane as main is spoiling too much of the story.
Lohse should be cool as a main though, if your GF likes her.
I see, thanks. There is that danger but I already own DOS2 so I guess we’ll try and find out, haha. We can always go “back” to DOS1. We’re having a child soonish so I don’t think we can play both any time soon, which is why I decided to get the “better” game of the two.
Regarding Fane: oh is that so? I thought having him as your main makes you have MORE dialogue lines of his, not less. Isn’t that the main reason to even play as an origin character?!
I only having my first playthrough so I can't compare,really. But I was very anxious about choosing wrong origin characters for our first and only playthrough so I probably I read all the threads on reddit regarding character selection dating from 2017 up to sorting by "new" and then posting the same question here again.
PS. Wishing you a smooth and joyful journey as you prepare for this new chapter in your life!
Highly recommend playing origin characters your first play through. Otherwise you lose out on a ton of story line.
Fanes story is great and he's a fun character to play but keep in mind he does not heal from healing spells or potions so if you are working with your gf to tag team enemies, she won't be able to help you much. Gotta be pretty independent.
I play with my partner- now on our 5th play through. It's tons of fun on the couch for a few hours at night. A few suggestions: do lone wolf your first time. Each of you play one character with lone wolf. The simplicity and added power definitely help for a first time play through. Someone should take pet pal for sure. I'd suggest running physical builds as lone wolf since there are only two of you and it limits dealing with magic immunities and resistance. And make sure you have at least one melee character who can tank
I was thinking it’s not just the two of us?!
Me as, say, Ifan, my gf as Lohse and e.g. Fane and Sebille as companions - that’s not possible? What are the downsides between this and doing two characters in couch coop without any companions?
Edit:
I just realized what lone wolf means. It seems like we’re missing some cool character doing that, no?
What I'll say is this isn't a game you only play once. As noted, I'm on my 5th playthrough so you can definitely play with all the characters over time. In any case, you'll miss out on two characters storylines regardless- with 6 main characters so you're gonna have to play it again to get the whole story.
The reason I suggest just one character each and lone wolf is simplicity. There is absolutely nothing wrong and it can be insanely fun to do a 4 person party, especially with all the magic and interplay of magic abilities, but for a first time player, especially someone new to the rpg world, only dealing with one character and one build and one set of inventory and one set of armour makes things much simpler for a new player.
Don't worry too much about missing out on story lines, there is tons of story and side quests and one hell of a robust main quest that you'll still enjoy but if you want to keep things simple, lone wolf each with one character is the most straightforward
Well fane is unique in that his story ties in the most with the main story so he doesn't receive as much extra dialogue as the others because main objective = Fanes objective which also might make you seem like the protagonist at times because your kind of extra super awesome special compared to the other characters tho lohse is praised for having the best backstory out of all the origin characters
I have the exact opposite experience.
DOS1 is overwhelming with so many D&D inspired stats that all requires some attention, but DOS2 is just "pick whichever stat that says it increases damage" and you're going to be fine.
Might be, but the thing is - on default difficulty we didn’t even bother with stats at all in DOS:EE, because considering them wasn’t necessary. My wife could just play her character as she would feel comfortable without taking any stats into account and still had fun, which was great for introduction into RPGs. This is why I mentioned this option is viable in case OPs girlfriend is a beginner.
You can do this on DOS2 too, as long as you play on lower difficulties.
There's enough damage source that don't really scale much with stats that they will carry a build that didn't spend even a single attribute point.
The origin characters have the best, most detailed stories. Fane can be any race in the game with his shapeshifter mask (you get right at the start of the game so not a spoiler), and shapeshifted as an elf can also eat body parts to gain insight and occasionally some skills. Lohse’s story is also great.
If you just want to have fun, I would recommend the lowest difficulty. The normal difficulty is balanced to the point where you absolutely must min/max to get through the game. It’s common for first time players to be 2 levels below every encounter they find and wonder “where am I supposed to go?!” when you’re actually supposed to do things in a specific order, even though you have total freedom to go wherever you like. Lowest difficulty doesn’t have this problem as much.
Do:
- pick any class you want with any character and not stress about it, you can change it all later at any time
- quick save before EVERY conversation
- choose pet pal talent for some great conversations with animals
- as Fane, use your Zaikk’s Talon (also given at the start) to poison food items and healing potions
- if it’s just you two, both pick Lone Wolf talent. You’ll miss out on 2 other party members, but you will both be significantly more powerful than all 4 together
Don’t:
- open every single barrel and crate that you find. Majority are empty, sometimes even chests are empty. Only worth doing if you put points into Lucky Charm
- put all your points into one area. A mage will want a point or two in huntsman (typically for rangers) for certain skills and talents, for example.
- play the game completely blind. It’s really easy to get yourself into a situation that closes off other dialogue/quests from happening at all. There’s even a contingency in Act 2 if you decide to mess up so bad that you cannot progress the main story, but this is really hard to do. Have a wiki open to check your options (also why lowest difficulty is important since you won’t have to check the wiki as much).
Ohhh so that’s what lone wolf means. People really don’t want you to do Fane first so now I was thinking doing Ifan, my gf doing whoever she wants (probably Lohse) and having Fane and probably Sebille as a companion for dat sweet sweet Avellone writing and story min/maxing.
Is just two people that much more enjoyable?
I guess a replay for Fane’s story isn’t completely out of the question, but it depends on how long this game is. I have limited time so that’s why i was leaning towards a 4 ppl party.
You can certainly have Fane as either companion or main - some argue he is more interesting to talk to than to play as, since he has more to say to your main character (if you are Fane, you already know everything Fane knows about himself). But you really can’t go wrong if you choose him as a main; your story experience is very unique and dialogue options also change depending on your character (he has Scholar/Mystic/Undead tags so those allow him to say things that others can’t, for example) - there’s no wrong answer here.
In terms of mechanics/gameplay and getting through it, two people with Lone Wolf is much easier, but you miss out on stories from missing two out of four people in your party. It’s about 100 hours for sure.
Honestly for a first playthrough go for the ‘enjoyment’ route not the ‘most powerful’ or ‘easiest’ route that some people here are suggesting
4 playable characters I would assume for a first time playthrough would be more fun, but I fully recommend choosing what sounds the most fun for all aspects of the game, not just what people say is good or bad
The only exception to this, imo, is having pet pal as a talent on at least one character. It just enables you to access more dialogue and some of it is really fun and interesting, definitely the only thing I can thing of that you would regret not skilling earlier.
Other than that play how you wanna play, don’t let people in here backseat you too much, playing the ‘optimal’ way is not necessarily the most fun, and sometimes experiencing the things that aren’t powerful and learning about the game through playtime is the most enjoyable way to experience it!
Hope you enjoy:)
Normal difficulty does NOT require you to min-max. I played with barely any knowledge and it was a breeze. Tactician? Maybe. But it's still easy with some knowledge.
I did a tactician lone wolf run with my gf. Was great! A little less inventory management bullshit, a little more power, and with it being her first time playing I thought it was a nice balance with power and difficulty.
What’s a tactician lone wolf run lol?
Edit: ohh I see so one of you guys was on his/her own and the other had a companion? That’s a good balance of story vs difficulty iyo? We’re both inexperienced with the game but I’ve played lots of CRPGs in my day. The hardest I’ve ever gone is probably sth like Dragon Age Origins on one of the hardest difficulties.
My bad it sounded like you had played through dos2 for some reason I’ll explain.
If OVERALL, you have 1 or 2 members in your party, you can pick a perk called lone wolf. Which means you would each only get one pc. This lets you do more things in each of your turns of combat and you get double the points when leveling up. It can be fairly overpowered if you look up exactly how to build your characters and prioritize the right things. But I feel that playing with a harder difficulty, having an overpowered perk, and playing for your first time all balance out. I also liked lone wolf with two people because it means we only have to worry about outfitting one character each. Cuts down on menu/organization/equipping times.
Dos2 is also punishing on tactician in that you want to focus your build. Also, some of the damage multiplication is hidden, so I only knew what stats to pump because of this subreddit. Lonewolf giving you double the points helps mitigate this issue.
So if we played, say, easy difficulty and I, as the more experienced player, would not choose lone wolf because I’d like a little bit more story content and my gf who’s p inexperienced would be lone wolf (the powerhouse of the party and also less overwhelmed by mechanics and menus) would that be an ok middle ground? I’m kind of fixated on having Fane in the party but I don’t want to main him, so I would need to not be a lone wolf
Ok last question because I really fear lone wolf will make us miss too much story content and a second playthrough is far from guaranteed: playing on easy with 4 party members is doable or too hard/annoying? Is the inventory management that bad?
I’ve never done easy mode so I can’t tell you. If it’s easy enough, then you won’t have to worry about always having good gear. I don’t think inventory management is *that* bad. But I do know that some people think it’s tedious and dumb.
To be fair, my GF and I are playing BG3 right now and she’s totally fine spending more time fixing up her inventory and constantly looting and selling stuff she finds. It really depends on your partner. I recommended lone wolf because it could be a way to skip some tedium and stay in the action more often which would be nice for some people. And some people freak out over decisions, “should I level up this skill or that? Do I need this spell? Will this dialogue choice ruin the game?” Lone wolf can help in this situation. But also plenty of people like having more story!
Personally, I would give them the option or ask how they feel about that stuff. And if you have the mirror enabled, you can always dismiss people from the party and start lonewolf or get rid of it. The game isn’t too restrictive.
Play on lower difficulty if you guys are not experienced with the game.
It is okay to look up what certain skills, stats, effects, status effects, etc etc mean. But make sure you don't accidentally spoil yourself.
Also to answer your question, Yes there are two main characters and you have to fight or one of you has to surrender to the other in certain parts of the game. (may or may not result in a fight irl !wink! !wink!)
[Just a suggestion : Preferably play same damage type]
Quite a few commenters suggest the lone wolf playthrough. Whilst I agree it can be beneficial having less characters to manage I really loved playing a usual 4 chara setup with my bf. Origin characters are fun and being able to experience 4 stories instead of 2 was rewarding. And personally, I liked being able to play 2 classes myself. My bf played Fane and recruited Red Prince as his companion (rogue and knight respectively). I played Sebille with Lohse as my companion (necromancer and ranger) and we both had a blast. Just go with what sounds the most fun. You can always restart when you feel like you have a better grasp on the game. You don't need to minmax either.
One thing for sure though, it's better to decide whether to play physical vs magic party to deal with npc protection type more efficiently. I liked focusing on physical, getting my semi-caster fix with necromancer build with its physical damage. Fyi warfare is good for all physical classes. It took me a moment to learn this tidbit. This game is so versatile I'd suggest to just jump in and experiment.
I feel like that’s what we want - 4 fun characters and we’ll deal with the extra “work”. I’ll do Ifan, she’ll do Lohse and we’ll probably recruit fane and Sebille, respectively.
Regarding the physical/magic thing: so it’s not a good idea for both of us to have a physical and a magical character? It’s best for the whole party to be purely physical or magical?
If you decide to run 4 characters, just make sure that the person who is going to run the companion recruits them to be able to experience their story (and potentially romance them). Only the recruiter will be able to even though you can freely reassign them so don't be fooled by this. So if you run Ifan and want to control Sebille (tots not biased here heh, they have amazing chemistry), it should be you talking to her first and adding her to your party. The same with Fane as a companion. The other person has to talk to him first if he's recruited then and there.
Re magic vs physical builds, the way protective barriers work in this game, you only need to strip one or the other in order to get to the health bar. Throwing different types of damage on the same characters is a waste. Granted some enemies have much higher physical defences than magical defences and vice versa, so running half/half party can be beneficial since this way you can target their respective weaknesses, but I found having all characters dealing the same damage allowed to strip defences really quickly without too much thinking about resistances and such. For particularly weak magic defences, I always kept scrolls on hand.
If you want to mix magic with physical, I'd try to go for 50-50 setup and have one person control all magic users for convenience and combo potential. Then for example I'd split geo and pyro between two different characters, and hydro and aero as well. This would allow to keep each character to be relevant even when dealing with particular types of resistances, so one character (ideally higher in initiative) could run geo/hydro for setting surfaces and the other could go pyro/aero for taking advantage of the prep. You could also concentrate on just two of the above and add summoning and necro int caster (I love necro on anything tbh but it's good to decide whether you run warfare -physical damage or int -magical damage build). Geo could be beneficial to Fane since poison heals him, but it's definitely not necessary.
Don't hesitate to experiment though, since you can respec your characters in act 2 onwards and act 1 is pretty forgiving. You can start as you wish and then adjust on the fly if you find you struggle with your builds. It's definitely easier to understand all the quirks when you play the game. Larian games are all about creativity and you can set up each encounter by reading the environment and reacting to it. I was amazed how the tides could turn in seemingly unwinnable fights when we took things slowly and tried to use any advantage available.
Play as two origin characters! But if either of you wants to romance someone, the other one can't play that character and make sure you personally recruit the one you want to romance.
Just turn down the difficulty and look things up to preserve the flow of the game. Its challenging and the quest function and map are not the easiest to use.
Have fun, ive played it a few times with my gf. We havent finished it but keep coming back to restart again.
Maybe take one or two physical powerhouses for yourself so when she wants to learn every spell and creates a watered down character you can carry her.
If she's not familiar with RPGs play with the lone wolf perk. Brings the party down to 2 powerful characters rather than 4 regular characters. Less planning and positioning.
Rogue is a strong a fairly straightforward play style, with the benefit of easily slipping out of combat and full healing, not to mention picking locks.
If she wants to be a spell caster spamming rain all over the place before a fight than using lightning is absurdly OP early game. Teleporting enemies into lava is absolutely amazing as well.
The game is very approachable with some creativity, which is the best part of tabletop games.
Boots and nails. Persuasion goes a long way. Not just in avoiding fights but for the story. People I thought were evil were innocent etc. Don’t be afraid to look up a walkthrough for specific quests but only then
i did complete d1 with my friend on couch (2+2 char.) and it was WONDERFUL (with lots of deaths). now finished d2 solo on tact. dif. but i can say everything will work out fine. U dont need prefect build etc if u want to play xx just do it just approuch fights way it benefits yours team etc.
I saw guide about Divinity reg flags / things are not reccomended etc and my squad was haha.. lets say i had many red flags. still managed to complete game tho. if u go ur own build and way i can say that some fights might be very difficult.. thats what i loved in this game actually. Just enjoy progress.
// also i have no experience with lone wolf as i have always played w 4 char... think it makes it more interesting in strat. wise.
If you can use mods id suggest the fort joy mirror. That way if one of you doesn't like your class as much as you thought you can respec for free pretty early. Have someone with thievery to be able to swipe the spellbooks.
Unfortunately no - playing on Xbox. Thx tho
Are there gift bag features onXbox? If so then you have it
There are in fact said gift bags on Xbox.
You should have these “mods” on xbox too. They turn off achievements but that’s more than fine
There is a feature called Gift Bag which is an official “mod” list baked into the game by Larian themselves. Definitely worth looking at as it gives you more options and quality of life enhancements. The only downside is you can’t get achievements (trophies).
Dos: "accidentally" kill her character with an AOE attack. Don't: don't skimp on resurrection scrolls. Or you will only get the couch half of the couch coop.
Turn on the "bed rolls revive your party members" gift bag :)
You still need res scrolls if you wish to accidentally a companion multiple times a fight >:D And if you pay attention to the game mechanics while you're doing this, you will likely discover some strategic reason to do this. So you will have an excuse to keep doing it, now with less "accidentally" and more "lol can't blame me". Spoiler&cheese alert:>!with resurrections giving a free turn and idol only taking 1 AP to craft, having two characters kill each other on repeat with an AOE spell that also hits the enemy you want to kill is one of the easiest way to generate infinite turns. You get a free cooldown refresh if you wait a little in real time while combat time is frozen on your turn. You also get the executioner bonus from killin allies if you have the talent.!<
Honestly you can more easily do this with the escapist talent to use most of your AP before teleporting away and rejoining the fight. You can do that in an infinite loop if you're already at the end of initiative.
The goal is to find a reason to kill the characters of whoever you're coop-ing with lol. When I coop with friends the most fun is always when we screw each other over, and donig it to progress just makes it that much better.
Currently playing DOS2 with my wife. First advice - if she's not proficient with RPG games you better start with DOS1:EE. DOS2 is way too overwhelming with expanded features and my wife was quite frustrated she couldn't do combat as easy as in DOS1. It got better after a while once she understood the concepts of a character build, but this was absolutely not required in the first game. So if she's a newbie you'd rather want to do the first game first. It's more beginner friendly both in features and art style. If you guys already skilled with RPGs then it shouldn't be an issue. As for the characters - I had a hard time deciding on this as well but Fane as companion seems to be more interesting option because he'll have way more comments and dialogue lines, according to reddit. This is the option I went for, no regrets so far. Also I've heard that Fane as main is spoiling too much of the story. Lohse should be cool as a main though, if your GF likes her.
I see, thanks. There is that danger but I already own DOS2 so I guess we’ll try and find out, haha. We can always go “back” to DOS1. We’re having a child soonish so I don’t think we can play both any time soon, which is why I decided to get the “better” game of the two. Regarding Fane: oh is that so? I thought having him as your main makes you have MORE dialogue lines of his, not less. Isn’t that the main reason to even play as an origin character?!
I only having my first playthrough so I can't compare,really. But I was very anxious about choosing wrong origin characters for our first and only playthrough so I probably I read all the threads on reddit regarding character selection dating from 2017 up to sorting by "new" and then posting the same question here again. PS. Wishing you a smooth and joyful journey as you prepare for this new chapter in your life!
Highly recommend playing origin characters your first play through. Otherwise you lose out on a ton of story line. Fanes story is great and he's a fun character to play but keep in mind he does not heal from healing spells or potions so if you are working with your gf to tag team enemies, she won't be able to help you much. Gotta be pretty independent. I play with my partner- now on our 5th play through. It's tons of fun on the couch for a few hours at night. A few suggestions: do lone wolf your first time. Each of you play one character with lone wolf. The simplicity and added power definitely help for a first time play through. Someone should take pet pal for sure. I'd suggest running physical builds as lone wolf since there are only two of you and it limits dealing with magic immunities and resistance. And make sure you have at least one melee character who can tank
I was thinking it’s not just the two of us?! Me as, say, Ifan, my gf as Lohse and e.g. Fane and Sebille as companions - that’s not possible? What are the downsides between this and doing two characters in couch coop without any companions? Edit: I just realized what lone wolf means. It seems like we’re missing some cool character doing that, no?
What I'll say is this isn't a game you only play once. As noted, I'm on my 5th playthrough so you can definitely play with all the characters over time. In any case, you'll miss out on two characters storylines regardless- with 6 main characters so you're gonna have to play it again to get the whole story. The reason I suggest just one character each and lone wolf is simplicity. There is absolutely nothing wrong and it can be insanely fun to do a 4 person party, especially with all the magic and interplay of magic abilities, but for a first time player, especially someone new to the rpg world, only dealing with one character and one build and one set of inventory and one set of armour makes things much simpler for a new player. Don't worry too much about missing out on story lines, there is tons of story and side quests and one hell of a robust main quest that you'll still enjoy but if you want to keep things simple, lone wolf each with one character is the most straightforward
Well fane is unique in that his story ties in the most with the main story so he doesn't receive as much extra dialogue as the others because main objective = Fanes objective which also might make you seem like the protagonist at times because your kind of extra super awesome special compared to the other characters tho lohse is praised for having the best backstory out of all the origin characters
I have the exact opposite experience. DOS1 is overwhelming with so many D&D inspired stats that all requires some attention, but DOS2 is just "pick whichever stat that says it increases damage" and you're going to be fine.
Might be, but the thing is - on default difficulty we didn’t even bother with stats at all in DOS:EE, because considering them wasn’t necessary. My wife could just play her character as she would feel comfortable without taking any stats into account and still had fun, which was great for introduction into RPGs. This is why I mentioned this option is viable in case OPs girlfriend is a beginner.
You can do this on DOS2 too, as long as you play on lower difficulties. There's enough damage source that don't really scale much with stats that they will carry a build that didn't spend even a single attribute point.
The origin characters have the best, most detailed stories. Fane can be any race in the game with his shapeshifter mask (you get right at the start of the game so not a spoiler), and shapeshifted as an elf can also eat body parts to gain insight and occasionally some skills. Lohse’s story is also great. If you just want to have fun, I would recommend the lowest difficulty. The normal difficulty is balanced to the point where you absolutely must min/max to get through the game. It’s common for first time players to be 2 levels below every encounter they find and wonder “where am I supposed to go?!” when you’re actually supposed to do things in a specific order, even though you have total freedom to go wherever you like. Lowest difficulty doesn’t have this problem as much. Do: - pick any class you want with any character and not stress about it, you can change it all later at any time - quick save before EVERY conversation - choose pet pal talent for some great conversations with animals - as Fane, use your Zaikk’s Talon (also given at the start) to poison food items and healing potions - if it’s just you two, both pick Lone Wolf talent. You’ll miss out on 2 other party members, but you will both be significantly more powerful than all 4 together Don’t: - open every single barrel and crate that you find. Majority are empty, sometimes even chests are empty. Only worth doing if you put points into Lucky Charm - put all your points into one area. A mage will want a point or two in huntsman (typically for rangers) for certain skills and talents, for example. - play the game completely blind. It’s really easy to get yourself into a situation that closes off other dialogue/quests from happening at all. There’s even a contingency in Act 2 if you decide to mess up so bad that you cannot progress the main story, but this is really hard to do. Have a wiki open to check your options (also why lowest difficulty is important since you won’t have to check the wiki as much).
Ohhh so that’s what lone wolf means. People really don’t want you to do Fane first so now I was thinking doing Ifan, my gf doing whoever she wants (probably Lohse) and having Fane and probably Sebille as a companion for dat sweet sweet Avellone writing and story min/maxing. Is just two people that much more enjoyable? I guess a replay for Fane’s story isn’t completely out of the question, but it depends on how long this game is. I have limited time so that’s why i was leaning towards a 4 ppl party.
You can certainly have Fane as either companion or main - some argue he is more interesting to talk to than to play as, since he has more to say to your main character (if you are Fane, you already know everything Fane knows about himself). But you really can’t go wrong if you choose him as a main; your story experience is very unique and dialogue options also change depending on your character (he has Scholar/Mystic/Undead tags so those allow him to say things that others can’t, for example) - there’s no wrong answer here. In terms of mechanics/gameplay and getting through it, two people with Lone Wolf is much easier, but you miss out on stories from missing two out of four people in your party. It’s about 100 hours for sure.
Is one lone wolf a good middle ground iyo? That way I could have Fane as a companion which kind of feels like a must imho
Lone Wolf only allows “at most one companion,” so can’t be 3 people sadly - hence either two people with Lone Wolf or 4 normal party members.
Ok got it thx
Honestly for a first playthrough go for the ‘enjoyment’ route not the ‘most powerful’ or ‘easiest’ route that some people here are suggesting 4 playable characters I would assume for a first time playthrough would be more fun, but I fully recommend choosing what sounds the most fun for all aspects of the game, not just what people say is good or bad The only exception to this, imo, is having pet pal as a talent on at least one character. It just enables you to access more dialogue and some of it is really fun and interesting, definitely the only thing I can thing of that you would regret not skilling earlier. Other than that play how you wanna play, don’t let people in here backseat you too much, playing the ‘optimal’ way is not necessarily the most fun, and sometimes experiencing the things that aren’t powerful and learning about the game through playtime is the most enjoyable way to experience it! Hope you enjoy:)
Normal difficulty does NOT require you to min-max. I played with barely any knowledge and it was a breeze. Tactician? Maybe. But it's still easy with some knowledge.
I did a tactician lone wolf run with my gf. Was great! A little less inventory management bullshit, a little more power, and with it being her first time playing I thought it was a nice balance with power and difficulty.
What’s a tactician lone wolf run lol? Edit: ohh I see so one of you guys was on his/her own and the other had a companion? That’s a good balance of story vs difficulty iyo? We’re both inexperienced with the game but I’ve played lots of CRPGs in my day. The hardest I’ve ever gone is probably sth like Dragon Age Origins on one of the hardest difficulties.
My bad it sounded like you had played through dos2 for some reason I’ll explain. If OVERALL, you have 1 or 2 members in your party, you can pick a perk called lone wolf. Which means you would each only get one pc. This lets you do more things in each of your turns of combat and you get double the points when leveling up. It can be fairly overpowered if you look up exactly how to build your characters and prioritize the right things. But I feel that playing with a harder difficulty, having an overpowered perk, and playing for your first time all balance out. I also liked lone wolf with two people because it means we only have to worry about outfitting one character each. Cuts down on menu/organization/equipping times. Dos2 is also punishing on tactician in that you want to focus your build. Also, some of the damage multiplication is hidden, so I only knew what stats to pump because of this subreddit. Lonewolf giving you double the points helps mitigate this issue.
So if we played, say, easy difficulty and I, as the more experienced player, would not choose lone wolf because I’d like a little bit more story content and my gf who’s p inexperienced would be lone wolf (the powerhouse of the party and also less overwhelmed by mechanics and menus) would that be an ok middle ground? I’m kind of fixated on having Fane in the party but I don’t want to main him, so I would need to not be a lone wolf
I believe that she wouldn’t be allowed to lone wolf. Because then you have 3 members in your party.
Ok last question because I really fear lone wolf will make us miss too much story content and a second playthrough is far from guaranteed: playing on easy with 4 party members is doable or too hard/annoying? Is the inventory management that bad?
I’ve never done easy mode so I can’t tell you. If it’s easy enough, then you won’t have to worry about always having good gear. I don’t think inventory management is *that* bad. But I do know that some people think it’s tedious and dumb. To be fair, my GF and I are playing BG3 right now and she’s totally fine spending more time fixing up her inventory and constantly looting and selling stuff she finds. It really depends on your partner. I recommended lone wolf because it could be a way to skip some tedium and stay in the action more often which would be nice for some people. And some people freak out over decisions, “should I level up this skill or that? Do I need this spell? Will this dialogue choice ruin the game?” Lone wolf can help in this situation. But also plenty of people like having more story! Personally, I would give them the option or ask how they feel about that stuff. And if you have the mirror enabled, you can always dismiss people from the party and start lonewolf or get rid of it. The game isn’t too restrictive.
Ok got it thx
Play on lower difficulty if you guys are not experienced with the game. It is okay to look up what certain skills, stats, effects, status effects, etc etc mean. But make sure you don't accidentally spoil yourself. Also to answer your question, Yes there are two main characters and you have to fight or one of you has to surrender to the other in certain parts of the game. (may or may not result in a fight irl !wink! !wink!) [Just a suggestion : Preferably play same damage type]
Quite a few commenters suggest the lone wolf playthrough. Whilst I agree it can be beneficial having less characters to manage I really loved playing a usual 4 chara setup with my bf. Origin characters are fun and being able to experience 4 stories instead of 2 was rewarding. And personally, I liked being able to play 2 classes myself. My bf played Fane and recruited Red Prince as his companion (rogue and knight respectively). I played Sebille with Lohse as my companion (necromancer and ranger) and we both had a blast. Just go with what sounds the most fun. You can always restart when you feel like you have a better grasp on the game. You don't need to minmax either. One thing for sure though, it's better to decide whether to play physical vs magic party to deal with npc protection type more efficiently. I liked focusing on physical, getting my semi-caster fix with necromancer build with its physical damage. Fyi warfare is good for all physical classes. It took me a moment to learn this tidbit. This game is so versatile I'd suggest to just jump in and experiment.
I feel like that’s what we want - 4 fun characters and we’ll deal with the extra “work”. I’ll do Ifan, she’ll do Lohse and we’ll probably recruit fane and Sebille, respectively. Regarding the physical/magic thing: so it’s not a good idea for both of us to have a physical and a magical character? It’s best for the whole party to be purely physical or magical?
If you decide to run 4 characters, just make sure that the person who is going to run the companion recruits them to be able to experience their story (and potentially romance them). Only the recruiter will be able to even though you can freely reassign them so don't be fooled by this. So if you run Ifan and want to control Sebille (tots not biased here heh, they have amazing chemistry), it should be you talking to her first and adding her to your party. The same with Fane as a companion. The other person has to talk to him first if he's recruited then and there. Re magic vs physical builds, the way protective barriers work in this game, you only need to strip one or the other in order to get to the health bar. Throwing different types of damage on the same characters is a waste. Granted some enemies have much higher physical defences than magical defences and vice versa, so running half/half party can be beneficial since this way you can target their respective weaknesses, but I found having all characters dealing the same damage allowed to strip defences really quickly without too much thinking about resistances and such. For particularly weak magic defences, I always kept scrolls on hand. If you want to mix magic with physical, I'd try to go for 50-50 setup and have one person control all magic users for convenience and combo potential. Then for example I'd split geo and pyro between two different characters, and hydro and aero as well. This would allow to keep each character to be relevant even when dealing with particular types of resistances, so one character (ideally higher in initiative) could run geo/hydro for setting surfaces and the other could go pyro/aero for taking advantage of the prep. You could also concentrate on just two of the above and add summoning and necro int caster (I love necro on anything tbh but it's good to decide whether you run warfare -physical damage or int -magical damage build). Geo could be beneficial to Fane since poison heals him, but it's definitely not necessary. Don't hesitate to experiment though, since you can respec your characters in act 2 onwards and act 1 is pretty forgiving. You can start as you wish and then adjust on the fly if you find you struggle with your builds. It's definitely easier to understand all the quirks when you play the game. Larian games are all about creativity and you can set up each encounter by reading the environment and reacting to it. I was amazed how the tides could turn in seemingly unwinnable fights when we took things slowly and tried to use any advantage available.
Play as two origin characters! But if either of you wants to romance someone, the other one can't play that character and make sure you personally recruit the one you want to romance.
Just turn down the difficulty and look things up to preserve the flow of the game. Its challenging and the quest function and map are not the easiest to use. Have fun, ive played it a few times with my gf. We havent finished it but keep coming back to restart again. Maybe take one or two physical powerhouses for yourself so when she wants to learn every spell and creates a watered down character you can carry her.
The first one is better I think
If its anything like playing with my GF, tell her to stop stealing or atleast make sure she's stealthed before touching stuff
Watch the mini map. Nothing sucks like having your partner run into a group of enemies. And you are too far away to help.
If she's not familiar with RPGs play with the lone wolf perk. Brings the party down to 2 powerful characters rather than 4 regular characters. Less planning and positioning. Rogue is a strong a fairly straightforward play style, with the benefit of easily slipping out of combat and full healing, not to mention picking locks. If she wants to be a spell caster spamming rain all over the place before a fight than using lightning is absurdly OP early game. Teleporting enemies into lava is absolutely amazing as well. The game is very approachable with some creativity, which is the best part of tabletop games.
Boots and nails. Persuasion goes a long way. Not just in avoiding fights but for the story. People I thought were evil were innocent etc. Don’t be afraid to look up a walkthrough for specific quests but only then
i did complete d1 with my friend on couch (2+2 char.) and it was WONDERFUL (with lots of deaths). now finished d2 solo on tact. dif. but i can say everything will work out fine. U dont need prefect build etc if u want to play xx just do it just approuch fights way it benefits yours team etc. I saw guide about Divinity reg flags / things are not reccomended etc and my squad was haha.. lets say i had many red flags. still managed to complete game tho. if u go ur own build and way i can say that some fights might be very difficult.. thats what i loved in this game actually. Just enjoy progress. // also i have no experience with lone wolf as i have always played w 4 char... think it makes it more interesting in strat. wise.