>>4070089
>Should I play DOS1 first? Or more importantly, do I lose anything if I don't?
You’ll lose a little bit of backstory and lore, but the games are a thousand years apart with almost totally different characters. You won’t miss much, they are basically stand alone games set in the same world. I played dos1 after dos2 and it was alright, dos2 is better though imo.
>Can you suggest Fane and the red prince cookie cutter builds?
In true Larian fashion all the characters suck balls. Make your own custom party with four heroes of your own devising.

>>4070104 (you)
Also, don't listen to outdated meme advice about "you MUST do an all physical party or an all magic party". Imo a hybrid party that blends some physical damage and magic damage is more fun. You'll be much more flexible, regardless of what you're fighting, and it's perfectly viable to beat the game on tactician difficulty.

>>4070089
>Should i play DOS 1 first
Yes and also try out Larian older games, or at least Ego Draconis.

>>4070104
>>4070109
>all the characters suck balls
I would not agree with this statement. All the premade characters have unique special skills that only they can get, Fane especially has one of the best because it gives him a free turn. Custom characters start with that shitty Dome of Protection ability. You could argue its not necessary and custom characters do just as well (which is true), but that's not really the point. Also Fane probably has the best story.

>>4070398
If I were to make a party of pre-made characters, who should be the MC? My planned party is Lohse/Sebille/Ifan/Red Prince, who would make the best MC? If it's anything like BG3, I guess the MC will lose their voice acting, and maybe other things.

>>4070089
Elfs are the uber race because AP (aka action economy) is your god in this game and elves get to cut their wrists for extra AP.
Subsequently it follows that two lone wolves are more powerful than a full party because they have more AP with which to do things like teleport themselves out of harm's way and finish combos.

There are way more ways to construct physical damage machines than magical, because Warfare applies to all physical, Poly is a strong phys tree, nothing like these on the magic side.

Defense: Hydro is worth the most skill point for point by repairing magical armor (very important so as to not get cc'd and heal HP (not so important) and CC in the form of ice.

The other most defensive skills are dome of protection with your source points, and simply getting the biggest shield you can and using the shield skill every time it's off cooldown.
Dome of protection isn't shit if you let it work as designed which is put all your party under it and let it regen phys/mag armor each turn.

If I were to design the most powerful flexible and fun casual party it'd be Sebille (best as warfare/huntsman/scoundrel archer, you can throw in a little necro too) and another custom elf (hydro/aero, summons or earth) I like Lohse for summoner on theme. Or Sebille and Red Prince, it's possible to build Red Prince to heal from fire damage with demon feat and gearing, and due to larian loving their fire surfaces He's probably best as Warfare/polymorph/light pyro) basic jump in whirlwind type warrior.

There are 1-2 point wonder skills galore like teleport from aero, haste and a buff from pyro, teleport/haste and first aid from huntsman, not to mention elemental arrowheads which work great on elves due to they buff their arrows with the blood from the ap skill)

Fane is good but the problem with undead becomes healing split if you put live characters in with them, now he wants to stand in poison, and the live characters want to avoid it.
I'd make two undead LWs

>>4070783
My favorite ways to play are either with two lone wolves à la dos1 (a paladin build and a cleric build, both custom origin humans), or a full party with all custom origins: human knight, dwarf cleric (warfare/hydro/earth), elven ranger, human mage (aero/pyro)
I like to reject the garbage random diablo item system and just collect uniques and use them all game

>>4070783
Breaking uber easy casual party down more:
Sebille take warfare to 10 first generally speaking , however start with huntsman 1-2 as early as you can for teleport and possible first aid, rogue 1 for extra ap, she can eat body parts for free skills including the rogue adrenalie ap skill very early on. You need enough skills to fill your bar each around to get back to the good ones on cooldown. Most rogue skills require daggers which is a waste when you use huntsman bow skills pumped up damage wise by warfare but adrenaline, rogue teleport, and chlorofom are good (chloroform devalued with a phys heavy group)

You need enough memory to support that also but no more. Otherwise main stat strength.

Red Prince
Warfare to ten, enough poly for supporting skills like the tentacle arm which hits hard at range.

If you have two duo lone wolves, you can take a little necromancer on them and the feat living armor which will restore magic armor via all their damage so you can avoid magical cc.

The main tactic on normie difficulties is alpha striking the map hard enough to where they can't retaliate. This breaks down if you get into harder modded difficulties where they have enough hp to return fire which is where I play and start using magical healing, summons to buffer for defense, cc etc. a lot. I think Larian does itself a disservice across this and BG3 by making things way too easy in general. They have a lot of tactical depth and fun to them which isn't ever exposed to the players when the enemy only lives 1-2 rounds.

>>4070809
Oh, and Red Prince (or custom lizard) take demon feat on him, gather some + fire resist gear, get his fire resist over 100 and now you have someone who heals by standing in fire for easy wins.

>>4070089
The most fun i had with it was going at it with just 2 characters, both hybrid summoners with the lone wolf talent but that was a long time ago...

>>4070805
All good stuff friend, I love two lws for sure, and cleric type builds are my favorite even if they go against the default alpha strike mentality. Mine is usually a Lohse summoner/hydro cleric with wand and shield. Or hydro goes on the frost paladin in front (nails in the boots of course)

The best summoner wand is a unique, and easier to avoid rng items now that you can upgrade uniques with the larian goodies (they're still idiots for turning off acheivements when you install their own content lol..wish they'd get over this)

Reminder that Lucian did nothing wrong.

>>4070630
I haven't played them all, but I heard Red Prince has one of the better stories. Also Ifan and Lohse have some of the worse (from what I remember people complaining about).

>>4070630
>>4070912
Also I think Fane is the best/makes the most sense as MC, because of some lore stuff going on.

>>4070398
the original Divine Divinity is really fun, Ego Draconis too although it's a very different game

>>4070089
>Should I play DOS1 first?
Yes, but you don't have to finish it. It was still quite fun for me.
I remember having played only up to around 85 to 90% with the help of a walkthrough. D:OS2 isn't very story-focused anyway, I.I.R.C..