Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Overpowered Scoundrel Guide

This guide is intended for scoundrels on tactician difficulty, whether lone wolf or not.

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Contents

Introduction
Stat Allocation
The Cat (Minor Spoiler)
Strategy

Introduction

All credit goes to Tarbal!

So you want to be an OP backstabbing badass? Look no further. While there is no question that the rogue does the most single target damage, you can find yourself in some sticky situations, which this guide will attempt to get you out of, regardless of difficulty or party composition. Preparation is key.

The main difficulties with the rogue are knockdowns and not being able to get behind your enemy. The former can be remedied by putting a point or two in strength, so that you can equip better armor for more physical shield, but this guide focuses on the latter. With a few utility deviations from scoundrel, we will be slaughtering our enemies in no time.

Stat Allocation

First off, pick human, so you have bonus initiative. Equip gear with initiative, even if other stats are inferior. You want to go first, so you can reduce the number of opponents you face. That being said, wits are a waste.

Go for finesse. No really, finesse. Actually, you may want one point in strength for better armor and a point or two eventually in memory for utility. If you have better armor from the point or two in strength, not only will you prevent knockdowns, but most likely, you won’t need points in constitution. If you feel too squishy though, constitution doesn’t hurt. Put as many points as possible in finesse though. If you find yourself with a tough choice, pick finesse anyway. Our strategy is to kill before we are killed, so +damage from finesse is key.

For skills, obviously intuitively, you’ll want to dump everything in scoundrel for +crit damage. Max it — no question. All of our attacks will be backstab crits, so increasing crit damage is key. However, that being said, at level two, you should have one point in huntsman and one point in warfare, in addition to your one point in scoundrel.

The point in warfare is for Battering Ram, so you can knockdown opponents you have weakened but can’t kill that turn. As you level up, this will occur less and less frequently, but the skill is invaluable at low level. However, Battering Ram doubles as a movement skill, which is crucial, even at higher levels. Plus, every point in warfare increases damage, so you get bang for your buck.

The point in huntsman is for First Aid. Some sort of healing at the beginning is generally a good idea. That, and it removes crippled, which can be a serious detriment, if your movement skills are on cooldown, or if you want to save them. At level 4, you’ll have access to tactical retreat, which requires two points in huntsman. Tactical retreat is really great for positioning your backstabs. A lone wolf will only need to put the one point in huntsman, since you get double.

This leads to talents. I’d recommend lone wolf, so your scoundrel really becomes OP. Also, as others have said, Executioner is really good. Definitely take Executioner. The extra AP is a godsend. Comeback kid is great also, but the point is to kill before getting killed, so only take it if you’re dying a lot, which you should not with this build. For the other talents and civil abilities, take whatever you want.

The Cat (Minor Spoiler)

Make sure you save the cat. Wut? Yeah, that’s right. Sure, the cat summon may seem useless, but the Swap Position skill the cat has is so great for the scoundrel, that it warrants it’s own section in this guide.

Summon your cat each fight, so you have an extra movement ability. If you have initiative, which you should from human and items, you’ll go first at the start of rounds. Delay your cat’s turn, so he goes last. Jump him behind the enemy, which avoids attacks of opportunity, and then Swap Position with him. Then, when your turn starts, you’re right where you need to be.

Strategy

Obviously, you’ll want to dual wield the best daggers you can get your filthy scoundrel hands on, but you may consider starting with a bow. You’re putting points in huntsman and finesse anyway at the beginning, so why not make your life easier while your damage is crap.

Once you have your major movement skills — Backlash, Cloak and Dagger, Battering Ram, Tactical Retreat, and Swap Position (from the cat), you will have a movement skill every turn. With executioner, you may be using more than one movement skill per turn anyway, so be mindful how you use these. However, your strategy is simple — use skills to get behind your enemies while avoiding attacks of opportunity and avoiding using AP for movement. You want all of that AP to be used for killing enemies. Either use basic attacks, flurry (you are dual-wielding, right?), or scoundrel damage abilities to kill your enemies — simple.

Backlash, Cloak and Dagger, and Tactical Retreat are fairly straightforward, and cat strat is covered above, but I’d like to comment on Battering Ram. It may be better to save this one for when you’re up against an enemy you can’t kill that turn. Take his armor down, and take the armor down of another enemy closeby, if possible. Then, knockdown as many enemies as possible with Battering Ram. This will really be your only CC.

Those teleport gloves are really good, especially if you are soloing or duoing. Teleport tanks far away, or teleport pesky archers/mages toward you, so you can kill them. Really, this doubles as another movement skill. I can’t stress enough that you want as much positioning/mobility as possible.

One last note — save adrenaline for when you need it, i.e., when it means the difference between a kill and no kill.

My skill loadout looks something like the following:

Adrenaline
Backlash
Cloak and Dagger
Sawtooth Knife
Daggers Drawn
Mortal Blow
First Aid (Huntsman)
Battering Ram (Warfare)
Tactical Retreat (Huntsman)
Teleport (item)
Haste (item)

I typed this up pretty quickly, and I’m sure it could be improved, but this build works really well for me in a duo with a friend (both lone wolves on tactician).