5 Best Classes in Divinity: Original Sin 2

Human Made

Penned by Brandon Curran

Brandon is our resident RDR2 specialist and indie game reviewer. He studied the art of the written word in college.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Classes are something of a loose concept in Divinity: Original Sin II — after all, the game itself explicitly points out that your choice isn’t binding. Skills aren’t class-restricted, meaning that you can easily branch out into different skills down the road and end up with a completely different character than you started with. Because of this, uncovering the Divinity: Original Sin 2 best classes is a conversation full of technicalities. It’s far easier to outline the criteria that make the DOS2 classes worth playing.

Divinity Class Considerations

Firstly, you should consider how each class begins the game and whether its starting kit is a good fit for early encounters. Since you can alter your character as you play, it’s important to start with a strong foundation that can be built on as you level up. More experienced players may choose to customize their starting kit if they have a specific endgame build in mind, but beginners are better off choosing a template to start with.

Secondly (and a bit more nebulously), is the class fun to play? This is more a matter of personal taste, but we’re generally referring to whether or not the class has potential for exciting combos, flashy (or even funny) combat abilities, and engaging moment-to-moment play. The more fun a class is, the more likely you are to continue playing once the novelty has worn off.

Lastly, how useful is the class? The best classes will fill a solidly-defined role in the party and have a diverse set of skills that provide variability and tactical advantages in combat. Survivability is vital if you’re going to make it off Fort Joy, and some classes are a little hard to handle unless you have the right party composition — well-rounded choices or those that play well with others will be your best bet.

The Divinity: Original Sin 2 best starting classes will excel in all three of these categories, and we’ve tested each of the classes in DOS2 to evaluate their performance. With our established standards in mind, let’s jump into our list!

The 5 Best Classes in Divinity: Original Sin II

Starting at number five, let’s work our way through the Divinity: Original Sin II best classes

5. Metamorph

First in our Divinity: Original Sin 2 classes guide is the Metamorph.

Fun is where the Metamorph succeeds the most. While the novelty wears off eventually, it’s still hard not to smile every time some eldritch monstrosity gets unceremoniously turned into a chicken. Abilities like Bull Horns and Tentacle Lash give you both mobility and the opportunity to impose debilitating status effects on foes. Outside of combat, you get a point in Persuasion that allows for fun dialogue options in certain cases. All of this makes the Metamorph a blast to play, especially in the early game.

Its merits are perhaps best contrasted to the Shadowblade, the only other class with early access to the eternally-amusing (and often quite useful) Polymorph skill. Now, don’t get me wrong — the Shadowblade is a fun and interesting class on its own, but the Metamorph ultimately wins out when it comes to the early game. 

Both classes have access to Chicken Form (a transformation spell my friend and I referred to as “the Chickening” during our co-op campaign), but the Shadowblade takes on Chameleon Cloak as its other Polymorph ability. This is the crucial difference between the two — Chameleon Cloak can be tricky to use for beginners. Since many early fights feature enemy AOE, an early point investment into this particular skill can be quickly invalidated unless you’re anticipating the fight and have adequate time to prepare. Beyond that, the uses are largely situational.

The Metamorph, on the other hand, has more straightforward mechanics that are useful in the early game. They also have access to more Polymorph abilities that increase the aforementioned fun factor.

Functionality, however, proves to be something of a stumbling block. There are better damage-dealing classes (which is ostensibly the purpose of giving the Metamorph points into Two-Handed) that can provide more value in roles like Tank and Support. The Metamorph certainly isn’t a detriment to a party, but it’s rarely the best choice from a purely practical standpoint.

4. Fighter

While less flashy than the Metamorph, the Fighter is a shining beacon of utility and practicality. The starting kit is built for crowd control and tanking, and its abilities are generally multi-purposed and party-focused, making it perfect for early game encounters. You’re also encouraged to invest in Bartering, which makes adventures all the more lucrative for you and your crew.

That said, the Fighter isn’t exactly a thrill to play a good chunk of the time. It relies on straightforward sword-and-board tactics with a focus on pulling enemy fire away from your party and living to tell the tale. It’s a testament to Divinity‘s armor system and how it interacts with status effects, and I’ll admit that the Warfare skill makes martial classes like the Fighter considerably more dynamic than they might otherwise be in another fantasy RPG. Still, when compared to classes with elemental abilities, necromantic antics, and the all-important Chickening, the Fighter is somewhat lacking in flair.

Even so, the Fighter is a considerable tactical asset to any party. When showing up (considerably underleveled, I might add) to a fight with Kniles the Flenser, the only victory I managed to squeak out after multiple retries was the result of my Fighter’s supreme tankiness. When all others had fallen and hope seemed lost, my Dwarven warrior alone managed to withstand the tide of violence and destruction to emerge victorious.

3. Enchanter

Environmental interactions are the bread and butter of Divinity combat. DOS2 expands the mechanics of other skills to improve the system’s overall dynamics, but classes like the Enchanter and the Wizard still hold an important place mechanically. The Enchanter’s starting kit includes a solid array of Aerothurge and Hydrosophist abilities that can be paired for powerful combos. It’s a great class if you’re looking to acquaint yourself with the sorcerous side of things and get into the meat of DOS2‘s combat.

When it comes to entertainment and spectacle, the Enchanter doesn’t disappoint. Whether you’re disintegrating a foe with a bolt of lighting or freezing them solid so that the next blow shatters them to pieces, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to inflict dazzling destruction on the enemy. Even Rain, while seeming pedestrian at first glance, provide both defense and a chance to set up future combos. It can put out flames to rescue a party member or soak your enemies and make them vulnerable to more damaging spells like Hail Strike and Electric Discharge. Investing points into Hydrosophy also opens up valuable healing spells to support your friends and literally kill undead enemies with kindness.

It’s worth noting that Enchanters may not be ideal for every party composition. If your character lineup already includes Aerothurge and Hydrosophist, you might be better off with a Wizard — otherwise, parties that have gone with Geomancer and Pyrokinetic would welcome an Enchanter.

2. Wayfarer

With a starting kit equipped with status effects, environmental shenanigans, and loot maximization, the Wayfarer is among the best classes DOS2 has to offer. While its skills don’t generally result in anything particularly flashy or silly, it’s undeniably solid in terms of starting points (Barter, for example, gives you more resources to buy class-complementary gear like grenades and elemental arrows).

The Wayfarer is also good for racking up kill shots. In multiple games, I’ve had Ifan Ben-Mezd in my party as either a Wayfarer or a Ranger, and the man absolutely devastates the enemy. If you can claim a height advantage (which later Huntsman abilities can help with), you’re rewarded with massive damage output that makes the enemies drop like flies. Add in environmental interactions between Geomancer abilities and Elemental Arrowheads, and you’ve got yourself a continually engaging, powerful starting class.

Now, whether you pick Ranger or Wayfarer is again going to depend on your party composition. If you have a Fighter as a tank (which I’d recommend for beginners), it makes more sense to bring the Pyrokinetic-focused Ranger. Broadly speaking, however, the Wayfarer is the better class and has a skill set that will be more beneficial to you in the early game.

1. Witch

Combining cunning and deviousness, the Witch easily takes our top spot. As I mentioned at the start of this ranking, the best classes in Divinity: Original Sin 2 should be a good fit for the game’s early hours and offer both fun and functionality. The Witch’s starting abilities certainly fit all three criteria. Chloroform is a nice option for attacking magic armor and disabling foes, Mosquito Swarm simultaneously inflicts bleeding and provides self-healing, and Raise Bloated Corpse — well, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

My favorite Witch power is by far the ability to reanimate a corpse into a horrifying jumble of flesh and bone, a mess of gore and offal that slams into foes and explodes in a violent burst of damage. It’s particularly fun when the arena is already strewn with corpses — set dressing that once made your enemies seem fearsome is suddenly a tool in bringing about their annihilation. 

Now, if Raise Bloated Corpse were merely a grimly-amusing spectacle, I wouldn’t recommend it so highly. That being said, it actually turns the Witch into a solid damage-dealer with plenty of options on the battlefield. Exploding corpses provide powerful AOE, and you’re only given more fodder to work with as fights drag on. As you progress, Scoundrel abilities give you more mobility and increase Backstab damage, while Necromancy provides plenty of nasty status effects and even some off-healing when you need it.

Divinity Class Construction

I’d like to quickly bring up the Cleric as an honorable mention — it’s a highly-respectable workhorse that’s an asset to any party, but ultimately loses out to the mad glee of the Metamorph’s Chicken Form and the clutch saves and crowd control of the Fighter. That’s the problem with the variability of these classes — when weighing their merits, many of the factors ultimately boil down to personal taste. That said, it gives us a chance to celebrate how DOS2 manages to solve a longstanding problem with role-playing games. 

Older RPGs (and even some more recent ones) often force their players into making uninformed decisions when building their characters — they’re given a litany of options with no implicit understanding of their significance, resulting in unsatisfying builds down the line.

Divinity: Original Sin II replaces this dynamic with a detailed framework that allows you to carefully build and develop your characters over time. As I mentioned before, you can always go back and tweak your presets once you have a bit more experience and a vision for your ideal class. If I were more inclined toward cop-outs, I’d say that the best class in DOS2 is the one you make yourself.

Further Reading

We hope you enjoyed our guide to the Divinity: Original Sin 2 classes ranked! Feel free to share this article and leave a comment telling us about your favorite class in the game.

Happy gaming!

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