The Skill System

Note the information on this page is incomplete

In Divinity there is no selection of classes as we know them from other RPG's. Divinity uses an, RTS-like, branching skill system, where improvements are added to the skill three.
The player can select to research skills. Every skill has a certain cost expressed in experience points attached to it. The player selects the skill he wants to research and when he has accumulated enough experience points he gains access to the skill, and gets the option to research a new skill. In addition to the way the player handles his primary statistics, the skill system is predominant in the area of character development.

Skills are divided into three paths which represent different character classes:

• Way of the Warrior
• Way of the Wizard
• Way of the Survivor

These initial paths are available to the player upon startup. The player can gain access to skills represented in the other ways, but at a severe experience cost. The experience cost corresponds to the cost of the next level up. So if a player wants access to all three of the ways from startup, the cost in experience points will be:

• 0 for the first way
• 2000 for the second way
• 6000 for the third way

If however the player is already a level 4 warrior character, and wants access to the way of the wizard, then the cost for access to the way of the wizard will be 20000 experience points. Therefore, the longer the player waits, the more expensive access to the other ways becomes. This basically expresses that it is hard to change profession.

Some arithmetic; each way contains 4 classes of skills. That means there are 12 skill classes the player can learn. Each skill class contains 8 skills. In total we therefore have 96 skills. Each skill is divided in 5 levels. The total amount of levels therefore is 480.

Way of the wizard

The way of the wizard represents the magic system of Divinity. The magic system makes a distinction between 4 classes of magic. These are:

• The powers of matter
• The powers of summoning
• The elemental powers
• The powers of body and spirit

Each class of magic contains eight spells, which are given below for each class.

Powers of matter are:

• Polymorph
  You can transform critters into rats, pigs, rabbits and frogs randomly, but never twice the same after each other.
• Telekinesis
  Moving objects without touching them. Examples: Move objects, open/close doors, push away critters, take weapon away.
• Lock/Unlock
  Lock/Unlock anything unlocked/locked.
• Magic wall
  Creates a magical wall, casting the spell on an existing magic wall removes it again.
• Spikes
  Materializes spikes under the target.
• Particle shower
• Magic attractor
  Attracts any magic in the vicinity.
• Cage

Powers of summoning are:

• Summon ratpack
  Summons rats that at higher levels actually do damage. At the highest level there's 10 of them, each doing poison damage, so it does hurt quite a lot.
• Summon skeletal minions
• Summons skeletons that assist you in battle
• Summon demonic aide
• Summon mimic
• Summon life
  Drains life from enemies.
• Resurrect
• Banish
  Banishes monsters which were magically summoned by other magicians (this includes monsters which are not supposed to walk where they are walking like skeletons)
• Summon dimensional portal
  Opens a dimensional portal that takes you somewhere else, but not always take the caster where he intended to go.

Powers over the elements are:

• Meteor strike
• Meteor shower
• Wall of smoke
• Poison cloud
• Lightning
• Sparks
• Elemental strike
  It starts with the average low end fire dart, and ends in a combination of elementals doing a lot of damage.
• Freeze

Powers over body and spirit are:

• Body shield
• Magic shield
• Invisibility
• View of gods
• Heal
• Fear
• Strength of the lion
• Hands of speed

This totals to 32 spells, where each spell contains 5 levels, totaling to 160 spell levels. To learn a spell, the player needs to research the spell. The effect of a spell depends strongly on the level. To advance in the level, he needs to research the next level of the spell. To learn a spell of a specific class, the player first needs to research the class. The player can also learn a spell or advance a level if he finds a book corresponding to that spell.

Way of the warrior

The way of the warrior represents the weapons and armor system in Divinity. These are the four classes:

• Basic weapon skills
• Advanced weapon skills
• Master weapon skills
• Fighter's lore

Way of the survivor

The way of the survivor reflects all those skills which a smart and noncomplex person uses to survive in a hostile world. It focuses on gaining wealth, no matter how, discretion and knowledge. The way of the survivor is split in four classes:

• The path of the thief
• The path of lore
• The path of talents
• The path of the divine (a secret path)

The way of the survivor is an extremely interesting way to follow. For those of you who are not to keen on fighting, this way is strongly suggested. It contains some really nice skills, and though it is possible you'll progress slower through the game (as you need to use your wits quite a lot), you'll end up in some very nice situations.

Path of the thief:

• Hide in shadows
  Let's you sneak around.
• Pickpocket
  Allows you to steal from a person without being detected.
• Lockpick
  Either opens or locks a door.
• Rapid feet
  Causes less stamina consumption while running so you can run longer, a healthy skill for a thief who gets caught
• Backstab
  
• Detect traps
  Visualises traps to the thief and makes it possible to disarm them.
• Boobytrap
  Allows the thief to handle various sorts of traps. Different traps have different difficulties of mastery, and as you advance through the skill, you're able of handling increasingly more devious traps.
• Poison weapon
  You need poison in your inventory, and when you use it, the poison gets used to er...poison your weapon. Everytime you hit somebody some of the poison gets off until the poison has no more effect. Then, if you want to continue poisoning your weapon, you need to use new poison.

Path of lore:

• Necroshift
  Necroshifting is a rather special skill, located in the way of the survivor/path of lore. Basically it allows you to move your soul into a dead body, and control that body. While moving around in the dead body, your own body falls unconscious, and your stats are heaviliy modified so that they fit those of the dead body. There are a lot of actions you can't do while necroshifted, but walking around/fighting are available to you. However, if you die when necroshifted, death is permanent. To leave a necroshifted body, you need to find back your own body. It is possible that somebody found your own body while you were necroshifting, and killed it. In that case you're stuck for good... Obviously necroshifting allows you to roam around a dungeon and not be attacked. You can NOT take objects nor use objects while necroshifted.
• Alchemy
  Allows the player to create potions out of herbs, and mix other potions. Without this skill, the components are lost.
• Poisonous body
  The player can smear a poisonous salve on his body. Melee attacks on the player cause the attacker to be poisoned.
• Object Identification
  Allows the player to identify objects and see their attributes.
• True seeing
  Negates invisibility around the player.
• Monster Identification
  Allows the player to identify monsters and learn about their resistances.
• Curse
  Weakens an enemy for a certain amount of time- An enemy can only be cursed once.
• Blinding mirror
  Allows the player to blind an enemy .

Path of Talents:

• Merchant
  The player gets better prices.
• Survival
  Hitpoints regenerate.
• Charm monster
  The player manages to make a monster switch alignment.
• Leadership
  The player can recruit a npc. A recruited npc follows the player, but otherwise acts autonomous. Exp gained by recruited npc does not go to the player.
• Antimagic
  Player gains resistances to magic.
• Ranger sight
  The player can see further .
• Shapeshift
  The player can shapeshift into another form. In order to be able to shapeshift, the player needs a form totem (for instance, a bear totem). Using the totem allows the player to shapeshift into that totem.
• Wisdom
  The player gains bonus on exp points

Learning

It is made such that no skill is obsolete, and that one can finish the game using any variety of skills, depending on the preference levels. As for the five level thing, it should not be annoying as not all skills require prerequisite skills. For instance, from way of the warrior:

Sword skill leads to two handed sword skill leads to two handed weapon of frost skill and sword of fear, which is a system where there are dependencies, and you have to advance in the skill levels in order to reach the next skill. However, if we take the path of the charmer, then all skills are immediately available, so you don't have to learn skills which you aren't interested in.

Stats

The following primary stats exists:

• Strength
• Dexterity
• Intelligence
• Stamina

And the following secondary stats:

• Hitpoints
• Magic points
• Sight/Hearing
• Resistances
• Charisma
• Experience

And two combat related stats:

• Offense
• Defense