I’m sure you’ve heard about Divinity Original Sin 2 and how it’s related to D&D. Find out more in this detailed post!
Divinity Original Sin 2 (DOS2) is a new game developed by Larian Studios, an award-winning independent computer game developer located in Belgium, specializing in the development of epic computer roleplaying games.
“One of the finest role-playing epics of all time” – Gamespot
In DOS2, your choices are legion, do whatever you want and forge your own path. The game features:
- Choose your origin (race & class)
- Rich and compelling story
- Rewarding exploration
- Multiple ways to solve a problem
- Turn-based combat
- Up to 4-player co-op
- Player vs. Player Arena combat
- Pen & paper system (man, it’s friggin’ D&D!)
- GAMEMASTER MODE (create your own campaigns)
Features
The game features very rich graphics, ambient sounds, and options that will make the world feel alive. There are 5 races available (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Lizard, and Undead) and 14 classes (Battlemage, Cleric, Conjurer, Enchanter, Fighter, Inquisitor, Knight, Metamorph, Ranger, Rogue, Shadowblade, Wayfarer, Witch, and Wizard).
Each race and class will determine your dialogue options with NPCs and your capabilities combat-wise. There are 12 skills, many armor, shields, weapons, runes, and craftable items.
The game is unique. Is very detailed, complex, complete and has an almost infinite replayability value because you get different options depending on your character’s decisions.
It also offers a Gamemaster mode that lets you, well, be a game master. Create your world (actually, you can create it, populate it, place NPCs, set store prices and everything -and more- you can do in D&D). You can run a campaign with up to 4 players.
If you’re actually using Roll20 to run your game, you can switch over to DOS2 and make it a more realistic and complete experience.
Here’s a video with Matt Mercer as a GM running a campaign on DOS2
Interview
To get a more in-depth analysis, today I’ll be interviewing my friend Cesar. He’s a Videogame Developer and Computer Science student and that background gives him a better understanding of coding and all those crazy programming codes which are difficult for me to describe.
Cesar started playing videogames as soon as he turned 4 (literally, his parents gifted him a Nintendo 64 on his birthday). He’s always been a gamer and he loves all kind of gaming genres (including roleplaying games).
In 2014 he developed a special passion for game development and that’s why he decided how to focus his professional career. He’s played many games, from indies to triple-A-rated games, and he enjoyed them all.
Cesar is a current player on a D&D group I’m dungeonmastering (LotR themed campaign). His character is called Aldric, the ranger.
What is your experience on D&D and RPGs in general?
I started playing D&D like 3 to 4 years ago, although not seriously because my group at that time wasn’t so organized as my current one, which I joined around 2 years ago.
Having an organized group nourishes the experience so well it’s incredible, and I’ve gone through different DMs, some that work with surprise encounters and some that kind of let you sink into the lore.
For RPGs, I’ve gone through maybe every subgenre, and every single one has a different kind of playstyle to it, regardless if I consider it a bad or good RPG. RPGs are my favorite games, although that is sort of a broad statement.
What do you love about RPGs? What do you hate about RPGs?
This feels kind of a tricky question to me. RPG subgenres have so many different takes on them, and even for a single subgenre, there are things that make that RPG unique that would be terrible in another game of the same subgenre.
However, given that we’re talking about stuff related to D&D here, I’d say that the biggest sin a D&D inspired RPG can make is being devoid of option and consequences, and what I love about D&D inspired RPGs is the re-playability they have.
There’s a plethora of options and the fact that even if you’re reading a guide, you’re not going to 100% your game because the race and class and even stat distribution decides if you even get a particular option that can make you take a different route.
Apart from that, and I know this is a broad statement, as far as other kinds of RPGs go, I just like when they’re engaging, regardless of their gimmick.
Why did you start playing Divinity Original Sin 2?
Alright, well, I watch this guy on YouTube called Northernlion, and I know he started playing this like 2 months after it came out. I didn’t really see any videos, but I heard him talk so well about it that it got me interested, especially when he and his cohorts said it really felt like D&D.
So fast forward to Christmas, and my brother wanted to gift me a game on steam. I (being a rogue) was looking for a pricey-but-not-too-pricey game, so I told him to gift me DOS2, and that’s how I got started on it.
What do you love about Divinity Original Sin 2?
As I’ve said, it’s the plethora of options. But also it’s the effort they put into it, making it so not only the lore and paths and characters take you in, things you could find on other D&D inspired RPGs like Pillars of Eternity.
It’s also the scenery and the beautiful voice acting that actually touches you on an emotional level, and I don’t mean it like anything serious, but like something that actually has weight on how you make decisions, apart from the beautiful controls and the fluidity of the combat despite it being turn-based.
The high customization and possible builds characters have is also a great part of the game.
I haven’t tried the multiplayer yet, which will make the fact that I love this game already probably an understatement.
I do have to say, though, the game’s definitely not perfect, it has some bugs, it has some bad design decisions like some status effects and dialogue options that will make your characters instantly die, or the feeling of getting lost you get on the last act which is kind of a double-edged sword.
If you could add some element from DOS2 to D&D 5e, what would it be?
Gameplay wise, I think an extra resource that’s kind of hard to come by that’s used to cast powerful spells is a very good idea, “Source” is how it’s called in the game. Some of those powerful spells are also “soft-locked” because Source points have a limit until you progress through the story.
More than adding to D&D in the technical aspect, I think when you play Divinity you can learn a lot of stuff about how you could or should play D&D, both as a player and a DM.
As a player, you learn that there are some things that will inevitably happen regardless of what decision you take, you learn that there are some fights you can’t win, and you learn that every piece of information you can get is important.
As a DM, you learn that describing stuff to the slightest nourishes the experience a lot, you learn that you have to really study your player’s characters to build an engaging campaign based on their races and stat distributions, and you learn that poetic storytelling really gives a sense of immersion that makes every moment awesome.
Conclusion
Divinity Original Sin 2 is an awesome game and you should check it out. It’s a great game for all of us, RPG-lovers. It’s available on every modern console (besides Nintendo Switch) and will teach you many things that you can later implement in your D&D campaigns.
If you’re a dungeon master, it even provides more value since you can create, design and actually run or playtest your campaigns online with your friends (or random people!).
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