The level of customization possible in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is staggering, whether you want to focus on a smooth-talking teleporter with a ton of skills, an undead soldier who knocks down all enemies, an archer who summons corpses, or nearly anything else you can imagine.

A brand-new class for Divinity: Original Sin 2, the Metamorph can change their shape to gain the abilities of other animals. The Polymorph skill set is unique in that every point you put into it.

In this guide, we're going to go over four epic Original Sin 2 builds with vastly different focuses, from a stealth assassin to a masochistic necromancer who revels in taking damage. With any of these builds, you could either co-op or even potentially solo your way through the game.

Rogue Assassin Build

With this build, you always want to be positioned behind an enemy for backstabbing and generally avoiding detection. On the attribute side, Finesse is probably a better idea than Strength. Don't discount Wits though, as you get a bonus to initiative and critical chance. For your ability points, you want to put your points into Scoundrel for the critical bonus, and of course Stealth for the sneaking.

On the skills, Adrenaline is a must for getting enough action points to kill with a backstab in one turn. Throwing Knife and Backlash also lets you deal backstab damage, while Chloroform can knock out an enemy at the end of your turn without breaking stealth.

If you go for a secondary ability beyond Scoundrel, oddly enough Polymorphing can be helpful, since it lets you fly around and avoid terrain or remove all negative status effects quickly. The Polymorphing skill Chamelon Cloak gives you two turns of pure invisibility without breaking stealth. Warfare isn't nearly as useful as you'd think, since many of the associated attacks aren't helpful for backstabbing and Scoundrel already gives you a bonus to Finesse-based attacks.

Pros

So long as you pick skills that don't break stealth and you have a weapon that benefits from the high Finesse, you can essentially cheese your way through any combat by staying hidden and then quickly backstabbing or knocking an enemy unconscious before they react. Getting items early that provide teleportation abilities will be a must so you have maximum mobility.

Cons

You will generally have lower armour ratings, since you are focused on staying hidden, meaning that status effects will hit you more often. The game is also a good deal slower and more tense if you are always sneaking and having to pay attention to line-of-sight cones.

Rogue Assassin Build

Solo Masochist Necromancer Build

Put either two points into the Necromancer skill, or one in Necromancer and one in Warfare for the bonus damage. When you level up, place your combat points into Retribution. For your weapon, you probably want a big two-handed weapon that does the most base damage possible with devastating criticals.

From the Necromancer side, you absolutely want the Bloodsucker ability, which lets you heal from the ever-present pools of blood on the ground. You may also want to invest in the Leech talent to automatically heal from blood sources if you aren't going the solo route. Mosquito Swarm is another one that both deals damage and heals. If you are mixing Necromancer and Warfare instead of straight necro, either Crippling Blow or Battle Stomp is the way to go.

Pros

Your idea here is to always be healing yourself while reflecting damage back to the enemy. Every point in Necromancer means you automatically heal damage when you deal it, and each point in Reflection increases the amount of damage you automatically deal back to anyone who hits you. In other words, just walking around getting damaged in combat lets you both kill and heal.

Cons

With the Necromancer skill, your vitality only heals when dealing damage directly to enemy vitality, so any enemy with high physical / magical armour will prevent you from healing.

It also takes several levels for the bonuses from Necromancer and Retribution to actually hit useful levels (starting at a measly 10% and 5% with only one point each at first level). However, this can be overcome by taking the Lone Wolf talent instead of Leech.

With Lone Wolf, each skill point is effectively doubled, which halves the amount of time for those skills to reach useful levels. Despite the name, Lone Wolf actually lets you bring along one companion in addition to your main character while still retaining all the benefits of the talent.

Necromancer Skills

Paladin Build

Your archetypal holy knight, this build revolves around battlefield control. You should be dealing out decent damage, knocking down opponents for control frequently, and then healing your party when necessary.

Hydrosophist and Warfare should be your ability picks, giving access to healing and armor boosting spells, in addition to the bonus to straight damage. For skills, your starting picks should be Restoration and Armour Of Frost (which removes negative status effects) -- and your Warfare pick should probably be Battle Stomp, since it gives battlefield control and doesn't affect allies like most area effect spells.

On the weapon front, either sword and shield combo or a two handed weapon focus compliment the build.

Pros

The Paladin build is excellent for your main character because it overcomes a lot of the weaknesses of the five other origin companions. While you won't be flinging fireballs and creating poison clouds, you can gain easy battlefield control and ensure the rest of the party doesn't go down in flames. There are a lot of combos you can do with other party members as well by first creating wet conditions using your Hydrosophist abilities and then creating electrified areas.

Cons

Outside of combat the build isn't nearly as useful, since a simple bedroll you can grab directly at the beginning of game in the ship prevents the need for healing items outside of battle. You also won't be the stealthiest.

Building a Custom Paladin

Elemental Mage / Summoner

Taking the Lizard class for this fire build is a decent idea, since you get the Dragon's Blaze bonus ability to breathe fire. However, you may want to go with Undead instead, since they heal damage from poison, and you will frequently be creating poison clouds.

Your attributes should be focused on Intelligence for bonus spell damage and Memory so you have a broad range of spells to use and are never in a situation with all your skills in cool down. For abilities, of course you want Pyrokinetic and Geomancer.

On the skills, Ignition is less useful than you'd think because it does damage around you, which can hit allies and of course set off oil puddles and end up hurting yourself or other friendlies. Fossil Strike pairs well with Searing Daggers to create a fiery battlefield -- and for maximum map controlling damage, don't forget Poison Dart creates a poison cloud.

For a twist, instead of Pyrokinetic, switch over to Summoning but keep Geomancer. Now pick Conjure Incarnate instead of Searing Daggers. If you summon your Incarnate in a poison cloud, he will deal tons of poison damage to your enemies for you, essentially acting as a bonus free companion.

Pros

AoE is the name of the game here, as you set large swathes of the battlefield on fire or fill it with poisonous vapors. Dual-wielding elemental wands is a great idea so you can deal bonus damage to fleeing enemies who are on fire or poisoned. Even when you aren't hitting, you will still be dealing damage due to everything being on fire.

Cons

It's incredibly easy to end up damaging your own team here with all the area fire and poison effects, and you don't have much of anything in the way of healing or physical armour.

Undead Wizard

These are the four best Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds we've had the most luck with playing through the campaign and dominating in combat. What's your favorite build, and what combos would you recommend for getting through different acts of the game?

If you're looking for more tips on this huge fantasy game, be sure to checl out our full list of Divinity: Original Sin 2 guides to get the most out of your roleplay.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds are key to a succesful adventure, and thankfully the game’s character system is one of the most versatile out there. It allows for a huge amount of creativity: rather than being locked into class roles, you allocate skills however you want, creating your own builds and classes.

Related: the ultimate battle – Divinity: Original Sin 2 vs tabletop RPGs.

If that wasn’t enough, the Lady Vengeance – your character’s nautical base of operations – houses an infinitely usable magical mirror that lets you reallocate your party’s skill points. We have been doing just that, playing around with the Magic Respec Mirror in the lower deck for what must be hours. As a result, we offer you some interesting Divinity Original Sin 2 build ideas for your next playthrough of this brilliant RPG.

The Weather Machine

• Attribute priority – Intelligence, Memory, Constitution, Wits
• Main skill categories – Hydrosophist and Aerotheurge
• Key skills – Rain, Hail Strike/Global Cooling, Electrical Discharge, Pressure Spike,

Learning how to use status effects is a direct path to success in Divinity 2. The Weather Machine build is specifically designed to keep your opponents struggling to mobilise with lingering ailments, most prominently Frozen and Stunned.

Use Rain to get your enemies moist, then use Global Cooling or Electrical Discharge to either freeze them solid or zap them into submission. Pressure Spike provides cheap and useful AoE damage and a way to keep fires under control. Picking up some healing and shielding skills, like Restoration and Armour of Frost, will help keep your teammates safe from your status storms. Consider spending some points into Polymorph and Geomancy as well for some extra survivability.

Ranged teams with good magic armour and magic armour regeneration do well with this build in their lineup, as they can resist and avoid the harsh AoE status effects. Also consider taking a Pyromancer along to neutralise the deadly pools of electrified water and ice with a fireball once you are finished with them.

Late-game additions – Ice Breaker adds an extra step to your freezing combo, exploding icy surfaces to deal extra damage, and Closed Circuit creates electrified clouds in a circle around you, giving you more resources to play with.

The Armoured Masochist

• Attribute priority – Constitution, Strength, Memory, Intelligence
• Main skill categories – Warfare and Necromancer
• Key skills – Shackles of Pain, Death Wish, Provoke, Guardian Angel

Why hurt your enemies when they can hurt themselves… by hurting you? It makes sense when you try it, believe us. Shackles of Pain is the X-factor here – it marks a target, causing it to take all the damage that you do. Charge in, mark the biggest, nastiest foes, then use Provoke to get its attention – every meaty strike it lands takes a chunk out of its own vitality.

Guardian Angel boosts this even more, as allies redirect their damage onto you, which gets redirected again onto your marked target. Death Wish makes use of your subsequent lost health with a massive damage boost.

For increased survivability, pick up Living on the Edge (you can’t be killed for two turns) and Blood Sucker (blood surfaces heal you – this can be made even better by picking up Raining Blood, which does what you would expect). Also consider throwing some points into Geomancer, Hydrosophist, or Polymorph for extra healing and armour regeneration.

The Armoured Masochist is best in a lineup of mostly ranged characters, so that it can command the attention of enemy melee units unopposed.

Late-game additions – Last Rites provides a last-ditch resurrection spell at the cost of a chunk of your vitality, and Overpower allows you to strip an opponent of their physical armour.

The One Mage Army

• Attribute priority – Intelligence, Memory, Strength, Wits
• Main skill categories – Summoning, and a bit of Necro, Geo, Hydro, Pyro, and Aero
• Key skills – Conjure Incarnate, Elemental Totem, Dominate Mind, Rallying Cry

This Divinity Original Sin 2 build gets by with a little help from its friends. One character suddenly becomes five, as Conjure Incarnate, Elemental Totem, and Raise Bloated Corpse create a small army of handy minions. Add in Dominate Mind to turn one of your enemies into an ally for a while and you have quite the devastating force.

Conjure Incarnate and Elemental Totem get an extra skill and elemental damage if you summon them in a corresponding surface, so picking up at least one skill from each elemental magic school gives you a great deal of versatility. Rallying Cry and Cannibalise allow the mage to heal themselves using their nearby minions, so a close-range melee build works well here.

With a finger in every magic school, it is well worth picking up useful low-level skills. Favourable Wind (Aero) and Haste (Pyro) help close the distance and increase your AP pool. Restoration and Armour of Frost (Hydro) increase survivability, as does Fortify (Geo).

This build is effective in pretty much any party composition – in fact, a full team of summoners can command an absurd number of loyal magical foot soldiers.

Late-game additions – Door to Eternity prevents your creations from dying for a full two turns, and Totems of the Necromancer spawns a new minion with physical ranged attacks next to every enemy (living or dead).

The Master Trapper

• Attribute priority – Finesse, Constitution, Memory, Wits
• Main skill categories – Huntsman and Geomancer
• Key skills – Pin Down, Reactive Shot, Impalement, Worm Tremor

This Divinity build specialises in controlling a specific area, shutting down movement and dealing damage to all foes within it. Impalement and Worm Tremor keep your foes confined to a specific area of the map by either Crippling or Entangling them, and Reactive Shot lets you take automatic shots at any enemies rude enough to leave that area. Pin Down is a high-damage, single-target movement shutdown that’s handy when a melee enemy is causing problems.

For close-range survivability, Earthquake is the ultimate last ditch escape tool. It knocks down surrounding enemies and creates pools of slowing oil. Tactical Retreat is a quick and easy escape teleport, and applies haste to boot, increasing your AP on the next turn.

This build works well in almost any team comp, but you will need to be careful when applying your area control – the pools of oil they leave behind do slow your party down.

Late-game additions – Arrow Storm provides an AoE damage follow-up to your area control, and Living Wall can shut off enemy paths, forcing them to walk through your dangerous AoE effects.

The Neutraliser

• Attribute priority – Finesse, Wits, Constitution, Memory
• Main skill categories – Scoundrel and Polymorph
• Key skills – Tentacle Lash, Chicken Claw, Gag Order, Sleeping Arms

This build is all about shutting down your enemies’ offence. Tentacle Lash and Sleeping Arms apply Atrophy, which prevents foes from using their weapons. Gag Order destroys Magic Armour and applies Silence, preventing mages from casting spells. Chicken Claw turns your adversary into a chicken, which is as funny as it is useful.

Manoeuvrability and stealth are vital for this build, so make sure to take Chameleon Skin (gives invisibility), Spider Legs/Spread Your Wings, and Cloak and Dagger.

Late-game additions – Mortal Blow provides good old-fashioned massive damage, Flay Skin destroys Magic Armour and slashes resistances, and Apotheosis massively reduces the cost of Source magic. A powerful Divinity Original Sin 2 build, we are sure you will agree.

Those are our picks of the best Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds. Got any other ideas? Let us know what Divinity classes and builds you’ve used in the comments.