Greetings, all!

I'm new to Divinity: Original Sin. I've not left Cyseal yet. I plan to start over with a new party (go, go multiplayer!) with each of us playing on Hard using the Source Difficulty mod. We plan to play a duo of Wizards (Fire/Earth primarily and Air/Water primarily). Using companions is uncertain yet.

-=SKILL QUESTIONS=-
-How important is Charisma? It seems useful only in rock paper scissors and lowering shop prices. Charisma seems most useful early game for shop discounts, but generally 'meh' afterward.

-How important is Bartering? It seems like a short-term, early-game skill like Charisma.

-How important are Crafting and Blacksmithing? I generally avoid complicated item creation systems in games - which Crafting and Blacksmithing seem to be - but was considering making a companion a 'craft slave.' That is, he focuses all his points into Crafting and Blacksmithing and generally stays at home base when I don't need an item made.

-How important is Lucky Charm? I like the notion of getting better loot from chests. I also like being more powerful and character optimization in general.

-How important is Loremaster? It seems super useful at first, but I can pay to identify items and I can probably easily guess my foes' elemental resistances. Overall, with enough prior RPG experience, Lpremaster feels like a 'pass on it.'

-How important is maxing a school of magic that's important to me? For example, Geomancy (Earth magic) has Earthquake as its highest level ability, one that requires Geomancer5 to access. If I disregard Earthquake, how important is it to max Geomancy?

-How important are Bodybuilding and Willpower? The author of the Source Difficulty Mod recommends maxing these on my characters, but if I'm primarily in back with summons, ranged weapons, buffs, and crowd control, do I truly need more than one point in each? If so, how much?

-How important is Telekinesis? This seems like a talent for the explosive barrel-minded, and for those who enjoy making barricades and messing around.

-=SPELL QUESTIONS=-
I understand general spell tactics: Preferably, start each fight with high initiative, high AP, buffed, and with summons (plural). During fights, contain foes and use the environment to my advantage.

With that said, what spells do you especially recommend I take or avoid? (I have my proposed builds at the bottom.)

And, again, ­¡avoid spoilers!

-=TALENT QUESTIONS=-
-How important is Leech for a dual mage setup?

-How important is Pet Pal? It seems... amusing. Like Telekinesis, it also seems totally optional but fun for those who use it well.

-How helpful is Elemental Affinity? It seems only slightly helpful due to the Fire/Earth and Air/Water combo.

-If I pick up Lone Wolf after level 1, do I retroactively get the bonus points?

-Do you believe the talent Glass Cannon usually makes the game too easy? Why?

-=MISC QUESTIONS=-
-How important are fear and curse immunity? The Bolt talent and Spiritual trait give fear immunity and the Forgiving trait gives curse immunity.

-= | | BUILD: SCORCHED EARTH WIZARD (FIRE/EARTH PRIMARY, WITCHCRAFT SECONDARY) | | =-

-=ATTRIBUTES=-
Starting Attribute Array
5 STR
5 DEX
8 INT
5 CON
8 SPD
5 PER

Attributes to Boost
-INT to 13 as soon as practical.
-Add SPD, CON, and PER to taste.

-=SKILLS=-
Staring Skills
-Flare (Fire)
-Midnight Oil (Earth)
-Summon Spider (Earth)

Skills to Get: Earth (Level Requirement)
-Boulder Bash (L4)
-Earth Shield (L7)
-Magical Poison Arrow (L7)
-Summon Wolf (L10)
-Summon Bloodswarm (L13)
-Nature's Curse (L16)
-Summon Earth Elemental (L16)

Skills to Get: Fire (Level Requirement)
-WILDFIRE! (L1)
-Summon Fire Elemental (L4)
-Fire Shield (L10)
-Purifying Fire (L10)
-Infectious Flame (L16)
-Meteor Shower (L18)
-Lava Core (L20)

Skills to Get: Witchcraft (Level Requirement)
-BLOODLETTING! (L1)
-Oath of Desecration (L1)
-DRAIN WILLPOWER! (L10)

-=ABILITIES=-
Starting Abilities
-Bodybuilding 1
-Willpower 1
-Geomancer 1
-Pyrokinetic 1
-Leadership 1

Abilities to Get (Abilities to Get (Assume 43/49 Points Spent)
-Bodybuilding 1 (1 Point)
-Geomancer 4 (10 Points)
-Leadership 4 (10 Points)
-Pyrokinetic 5 (15 Points)
-Willpower 1 (1 Point)
-Witchcraft 3 (6 Points): Drain Willpower seems just that good.

-Aerotheurge? A rank gets me Minor Heal and Teleporation; two ranks gets me Become Air and Invisibility.
-Crafting? I wouldn't need a companion sucking up EXP.
-Hydrosophist? A rank gets me Rain, Minor Heal, and Slow Current/Water of Life.

-=TALENTS=-
Starting Talents
-Far Out Man
-Know-It-All

Talents to Get
-Leech

-Elemental Affinity? Seems kinda meh to me.
-Glass Cannon? I've heard it makes the game too easy.
-Lone Wolf? It's powerful but it prevents companions.
-Pet Pal? It seems like fun.
-Scientist? It can be useful if this character goes the crafting route.
-Weatherproof? It requires Geomancer 5, but it makes this character immune to weather effects.


-=BUILD: COLD, BLUSTERY ARCHMAGE (AIR/COLD/WITCHCRAFT)=-

-=ATTRIBUTES=-
Starting Attribute Array
5 STR
5 DEX
8 INT
5 CON
8 SPD
5 PER

Attributes to Boost
-INT to 13 as soon as practical.
-Add SPD, CON, and PER to taste.

-=SKILLS=-
Staring Skills
--BLOODLETTING! (Witch)
-Minor Heal (Water)
-Teleporation (Air)

Skills to Get: Air (Level Requirement)
-Blitz Bolt (L1)
-Become Air (L4)
-Lightning Strike (L7)
-INVISIBILITY! (L7)
-Feather Drop (L10)
-Air Shield (L10)
-Summon Air Elemental (L13)
-Chain Lightning (L16)

Skills to Get: Fire (Level Requirement)
-Flare (L1)
-WILDFIRE! (L1)

-Summon Fire Elemental (L4)? This requires more points, but lets me summon something sooner.

Skills to Get: Water (Level Requirement)
-Rain (L1)
-Piercing Ice Shard (L7)
-Summon Ice Elemental (L7)
-Strong Regenerate (L7)
-Cleansing Water (L10)
-Ice Wall (L10)
-Mass Slow (L16)
-Winterblast (L16)
-Hail Attack (L18)

Skills to Get: Witchcraft (Level Requirement)
-Oath of Desecration (L1)
-Summon Undead Warrior (L7)
-DRAIN WILLPOWER! (L10)
-Summon Super Skeleton (L10)
-Soulsap (L16)

-=ABILITIES=-
Starting Abilities
-Aerotheurge 1
-Hydrosophist 1
-Leadership 1
-Willpower 1
-Witchcraft 1

Abilities to Get (Assume 48/49 Points Spent)
-Aerotheurge 4 (10 Points)
-Bodybuilding 1 (1 Point)
-Hydrosophist 5 (15 Points)
-Leadership 4 (10 Points)
-Pyrokinetic 1 (1 Point)
-Willpower 1 (1 Point)
-Witchcraft 4 (10 Points)

-=TALENTS=-
Starting Talents
-Far Out Man
-Know-It-All

Talents to Get
-Leech

-All Skilled Up? +2 Ability Points gets me more of my abilities sooner.
-Bigger and Better? +1 Attribute Point is a bonus to CON, INT, or SPD.
-Elemental Affinity? Seems kinda meh to me.
-Glass Cannon? I've heard it makes the game too easy.
-Lone Wolf? It's powerful but it prevents companions.
-Pet Pal? It seems like fun.

That's an awful lot to answer and I have no idea what the mod might do under the hood, but as far as the base game goes...


Charisma doesn't directly lower shop prices. It does improve NPC disposition, and they tend to offer better prices when they like you. That's in addition to the effects of Barter. One thing that is not directly stated is that some dialogue options simply aren't available or always produce a negative result unless the PC doing the talking has a certain minimum charisma. This doesn't happen often, but there are a few such cases throughout the game.

Crafting and Blacksmithing aren't critical but they are very useful (probably more so with higher difficulties). In addition to making things, they allow you to upgrade your existing gear with new properties or improved properties, and this can't be done by shopkeepers. If you bring Jahan along, his Science perk and 6 skill points spent will get him to 3 in each and you can use +skill gear to get them to rank 5 as needed.

Lucky Charm gives bonus loot from chests, and while this isn't going to be anything game breaking, it does allow you to accumulate wealth and supplies a little more quickly. It also gives a bonus to hit chance, so it's best taken on a weapon-wielding character of some sort.

Loremaster is actually quite important because resistances aren't always obvious, nor are some vulnerabilities. Beyond that, having to go back to town to identify things is a royal pain due to the number of things you'll pick up. Again though, you can generally get the character's base Loremaster to ~3 and use personality traits and/or skill gear to cover the rest.

For the most part, rank 4 is sufficient in a magic type. You can still learn the top-rank spells even without the 5th rank in the skill but they'll cost more APs to cast. Witchcraft (because it has a very strong direct attack), Air magic (for the stun immunity talent), and to a lesser extent Earth magic (for the Weatherproof perk) are sometimes worth pushing to 5. Rank 5 also gives you the benefit of being able to learn and know every spell of that type at once, which is a convenience.

You probably want a few points in these because each rank is a -10% to the likelihood of a status effect being applied AND a -10% to it sticking each turn thereafter.

Telekinesis is a utility effect but it isn't particularly powerful past the opening (where Palpatine Tossing of all the clutter lying around is a viable combat tactic).

Leech probably isn't worthwhile since it only works on your own turn (which is a big change from the early version). Elemental Affinity's use varies with the element. Witchcraft probably benefits from it the most UNLESS you have Leech, since blood counts for it.

I don't think Lone Wolf is retroactive but I may be misremembering that.

Glass Cannon doesn't necessarily make the game easy by itself. It was usually complained about in conjunction with Lone Wolf, but on its own it's merely a strong option. (Partly because many other talents are weak options for most character types.)

Those can both be important depending on who you're fighting and what other countermeasures you have in place. No Willpower? Better be fear immune!

1. -How important is Bartering & Charisma = very... but only on one character. A mage lives or dies by having the right spell on hand and that needs skill points. bartering gets these for you!
2. -How important are Crafting and Blacksmithing? = useful... have the peons spend points here to save you doing it and remember that the skills both come on gear as well.
3. -How important is Lucky Charm? = not something a mage needs... thief wants it however.
4. -How important is Loremaster? = useful... makes/ saves you money and again the skill is on gear.
5. -How important is maxing a school of magic that's important to me? very... in a two mage run it even more important but a backup mage who only heals and summons can get by with 4 points.