Larian Studios has been one of the RPG developers who have essentially pushed the revival of isometric, old-school RPGs in recent years. Their successfully Kickstarter'd Divinity: Original Sin was a great and fun time, so needless to say, Larian is following it up with a sequel - Divinity: Original Sin 2. Their Kickstarter campaign for the sequel is once again getting plenty of support so the latest update centers around something RPG and series fans will be happy to see: character creation details.

For starters, character creation features a new Origin Story option. Players can choose one of several different pre-made origin stories, which determine that character's place in the game world and can affect how the world and its NPCs treat the player character. Though if something pre-made isn't good enough, players can use different Tags to generate a custom background. Tags include things like race, gender, background, interests, and so forth. Tags also accommodate for someone who is a complete blank slate. Perhaps more interesting, though, is a musical instrument option. Players can select an instrument which will be attributed to their character. When appropriate, that character's theme will blend with the game's music, making epic moments that much more personal or fun. Playable races include human, lizard, elf, dwarf, and undead. The world of Original Sin 2 is also meant to include differing attitudes towards members of different gender, apparently adding weight to being male or female in a way that's not just aesthetic. As before, skills do generally determine the type of class a character is, but the system is built to allow some self-determination.

In the realm of stats, there are some changes from the previous game as well. Memory is an all new stat which determines the number of skills a character has access to at a time in combat. Every character build should be increasing Memory to accommodate for new skills as higher tier skills will require more memory. That said, skills can still be switched out outside of combat. Melee fights and tanks benefit from Strength, as do warfare and relevant skills. Finesse is the typical rogue stat, improving bows, crossbows, and daggers. Finesse does also improve the chance to dodge, on top of improving hunting and rogue abilities. Mages will, as always, want to invest in Intelligence with its improvements to staffs, wands, and the majority of elemental skills. The HP-centric Constitution is back as well, which is something all classes will want if they like having more HP. Finally, Wits is another more rogue-minded stat but can benefit anyone with boosts to critical chance, secret and trap detection, and conversation buffs like persuasion. Perhaps more important than all that though, Wits doubles as speed and determines initiative or turn order in combat.

When it hits the fan, players will also want to mind their secondary attributes. These include Physical and Magic Armor. Each point of Physical Armor absorbs one point of physical damage. Interestingly, Physical Armor regenerates outside of combat. Given that, players may want to take a knee between encounters since as long as a character has more than zero Physical Armor - so any at all - they are immune to physical status affects like Knocked Down, Crippled, and Bleeding. This means Physical Armor, and its Magic counterpart, are almost as important to survival as HP. After all, Magic Armor protects from elemental damage, which is typically from spells. It applies the same way as Physical Armor does, so one point of Magic Armor will absorb one point of elemental damage and so on. Likewise, having any Magic Armor at all means virtual immunity to painful statues like Stun or Burning. Characters regenerate their Magic Armor outside of combat as well. This changes how status effect defense works from before, making the fight to debilitate your foes - and to stay able - a little more interesting.

See exciting coverage of all this and more in Larian's Update 25 video below or see it on Kickstarter here. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is currently tentatively slated for this Winter.

[embed width="696" height="392"]https://youtu.be/jUx8_GF9v94