I'd like this thread to be a place where people can post about characters or parties they found fun or effective in Original Sin. Impart stats or bits or anecdotes about them, I've barely started so it would be my boon near as much as my curiosity to hear about them. I'm planning on a three person party consisting of an elemental wizard, a ranger and perhaps a battlemage or similar. Not sure how that will play so I'll probably update on some of my fumblings through that as well.

Hey, I just barely started my venture myself, only because CRPGs take months, if not years to complete... at least, for me.
:)
Bring this topic up again in the Summer of 2015 or in exactly one year from today and I can give more feedback.

Haha yeah, post not getting much love, maybe that's everybody's feeling on the matter. But if nothing else i'll be here to share bits of my experience as I progress, daunted as I may be.

I wanted to post too on the topic, but I'm not even halfway through and thought my input would be close to useless. I'm a slow player too, so you can imagine why I held back.

Anyway I will share my findings so far, even if they are totally off, just for solidarity's sake. :P

I have an ongoing game with 3 chars (warrior/mage, rogue/mage and Jahan as crafter&support) and the biggest problem I've found is attribute distribution, even more than ability points that was my first concern. This can be mitigated with equipment, but then you have to savescum quite a bit and it ends up feeling just a tad short of a cheat.

By the way that's my biggest gripe with the game. I think it's fantastic in every other respect, but the totally random nature of loot is by far the worst aspect of it. I really appreciate the feeling of reward when picking up a powerful item after a boss fight or figuring out a puzzle. But in DOS there is a very big chance to get a dud. And reloading I go. The flow of the game suffers greatly from that.

Probably I should have planned for more focused builds, I wouldn't need to rely on items that much then. But I have a weak spot for battlemages. :)

Thanks man, solidarity is most the fun anyway. But that sounds accurate from what i've read and experienced briefly. I see a lot of people delegating most party skills or crafting to additional (to the main two) characters. I'd like to know how that works out for everybody. I recycle extra bodies pretty quickly if they don't gel with the group so I try not to pump them full of stuff that i will need for the whole game. Or use them at all really. Has anybody tried to play with only two characters? Maybe a glass cannon style wizard and a ranger with some melee skills or a battlemage? But I agree with you in that a focused character might be more beneficial to the flow of the game, but roleplay is more important to me, especially for what might be the first real in depth rpg in quite a few years.

Are you talking about the Lone Wolf talent? 2-man party with Lone Wold/Glass Cannon is both very strong and equally common. You just have to take care of disables, either with immunities or good pet placement to force enemies to waste CC on them, and you almost make up for the smaller party size. That's the only vulnerability of duo LW/GC.

But if you mean just not hiring companions just for the sake of it, then... you must be looking for a challenge. :)
You will be vastly outnumbered as usual with nothing to make up for the fewer actions/turn. I guess that could be possible with good knowledge of the game and abuse of AI, don't know enough really.

As for delegating skills on companions, crafting is a sideshow anyway. Pretty useful and fun, for sure, but not something you can't play without. Besides the game's classless system allows for a great degree of adaptability. If you like a companion but not their choice in skills and abilities you will have plenty of levels to make up for it.

Cool, very helpful thanks. I suppose I was going to just leave off companions or just take one but the lw/gc combo sounds great. Any recommendations on building that character? I'd probably want to go for a wizard or predominantly magic character.

Are you playing on hard? If not then Glass Cannon is viable on everybody, just be aware that with 20 AP/turn on 4 characters there won't be much challenge at all. Otherwise Lone Wolf is essential to mitigate the HP penalty.

For a wizard LW/GC you could go full elemental (air/water/earth/fire). Checkout [url=http://divinity.wikia.com/wiki/Divinity:_Original_Sin_Skills]the wiki for skills[/url] that you like and prioritize what school you need to raise first.

Note: a high ability score allows you to scribe more spells in your spellbook and cast the higher level spells without penalty. It doesn't make skills stronger.
Then you could raise leadership to boost the physical damage members of your team and their initiative. Later down the road you could boost willpower and bodybuilding for better saving throws.

You don't have to raise all abilities to 5, just enough to get all the skills you want in each element. In a pure zap-from-the-backline wizard you don't need spells that put you close to enemies (touch spells, Lightning Strike, Self Immolation etc.), so you could save points to put into passive abilities.

In my case instead of earth in the above build I went man-at-arms. It's strong but since he needs to be good in *everything* I had to go with double leadership and juggle attributes to keep him viable on all fronts. The former build sounds smoother in retrospect. :)

That's a bit of a wallo'text already so I'll wrap it up with a new 2Pac song.

Haha "I'm not aliiiiiive! Thug liiiiife!"
But thanks man, exactly what i need to know. I'm going full elemental wizard lw/gc and his partner will be a ranger that acts as sort of a skills/support character. I'll probably see how i fare with just the two on normal. I'll stay posting on those character's progress and my take on their effectiveness.