Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition will allow you to build your class any way you choose, allocating Attributes and Abilities however you see fit. This is a double-edged sword: you can make some neat & powerful classes, but you can also gimp yourself pretty quick. Perhaps no class personifies this double-edged sword as well as the Battlemage. When planned out properly, the Battlemage can be a formidable class.

The power of the Battlemage lies not in outright damage (other classes that specialize will always do it better) but in its versatility. Combos are incredibly powerful in DOS: EE and in order to pull combos off, you need classes that can work well together. The Battlemage excels at having exactly what you need right when you need it; it is the MacGyver of classes and it will make all your other companions better.

In addition, toward the end of the game, this particular Battlemage build will be very powerful, able to withstand the most punishment while dealing melee damage nearly equal to that of a Knight.

Your character will earn 15 Attribute points from leveling. Another two points can be earned with the Talents Bigger & Better and Know-it-All, the latter of which goes to your INT score. This gives the player a total of 17 points to spend over the lifetime of your character. An 18th and final point can be earned by purchasing a book from a vendor later in the game. Your final stats will look like this.

STR: 10 (+5)
DEX: 5
INT: 11 (+6)
CON: 7 (+2)
SPD: 9 (+4)
PER: 5

If you purchase the book for the 18th Attribute point, I recommend putting it wherever you need it. By then, you will have a variety of stat-boosting gear and you may have a specific need for it that gear does not take boost.

When choosing equipment with stats, select INT and STR based boosts, as you will get the most benefit from these.

You should primarily put points into STR and INT as needed. You will pump these numbers up beyond 15 very easily with the gear you get toward the end of the game. That said, you want CON=7 and SPD=9 in order to give yourself maximum Action Points per turn.

Your maximum Action Points per turn will be [Constitution] + 7, so 7 + 7 = 14.

Your turn Action Points will be 3.5 + ([Speed] * 0.5), so 3.5 + (9 + 0.5) = 8. This gives you two full swings with your 2-hander if you do not move (which you often will not) and you are not hasted.

A Note on INT
One of the most powerful spells for this build is the Witchcraft Master Skill Invulnerability. You will need an INT score of 13 in order for Invulnerable to work at 100% success rate. Keep this in mind when choosing equipment, as you need to boost your INT to at least 13. This should not be difficult by the time you can select this Master Skill.

A Note on Weapon Choice: This is a STR & INT based build designed to take advantage of the myriad of Man-At-Arms skills that are available. This leaves you with the choice of selecting three weapons choices:

• 1-hand & shield
  
• Duel Wield
  
• 2-handed

A sword & shield is mostly a waste of time; the shield does not appear to block very frequently and the reduced damage from a single 1-handed weapons is simply not worth the style. Also, it suffers from the same range issues that duel-wielding suffers from.

It may seem enticing to opt for dual-wielding weapons given that you get an extra weapon with stats/effects. However, unless you're a Rogue using DEX and Daggers, it's not worth it because of the superior range of the 2-handed weapons. 1-handed swords, axes and clubs will almost always require you to spend 1AP moving closer to your target before you can swing your weapons, leaving you with ONE melee action per turn through the early and mid game stages. Your standard weapon swing with a 2-hander, and Crippling Blow, will cost 4AP, allowing you to pull off both in a single turn even when you don't have any AP saved from a previous turn. With 14 max AP per turn you can also pull off Flurry and Whirlwind. 2-handers are superior for these reasons.

Improving abilities requires a significant investment in precious Ability points. It is not a linear progression. Improving each abilitiy requires progressivly more points. A level-20 character at the end of the game will have earned 49 Ability points to spend. With that i mind, it pays to plan ahead.

The chart looks like this:

Ability Score => Total Points To Raise
1 => 1
2 => 3
3 => 6
4 => 10
5 => 15

As you can see, it gets costly to raise an ability beyond 3rd level. In addition, it pays to understand what each level grants you, in terms of known Skills.

Level 1 => 3 Novice Skills
Level 2 => 5 Novice Skills, 2 Adept Skills
Level 3 => 6 Novice Skills, 3 Adept Skills
Level 4 => 6 Novice Skills, 4 Adept Skills, 1 Master Skills
Level 5 => 6 Novice Skills, 4 Adept Skills, 2 Master Skills

So the only reason to even try and get a level 4 Ability is if there's a Master Skill worth taking. You cannot master everything. But, there are some masters worth taking, and we'll discuss those below.

Total Points: Your character will earn 49 points through the game. You can earn an additional +2 points with the Talent All Skilled Up. Another +3 points can be earned by purchasing a book from a vendor late in the game. That gives you a total of 54 points. As Battlemage is the most point-demanding class in the game, I recommend you doing both. You're going to want the full 54 points at your disposal.

2-Handed: 2 (3 points spent)
The extra points in this help with Critical Chance and damage multiplier. It's your primary weapon and you're going to use it a lot.

Armor: 3 (6 points)
Dropped and sold armor have superior resists and immunities to the armor you can craft. In addition, these armors can still be augumented with additional resists with a ruby. However, the difference between dropped and crafted armor is that dropped armor will require 1 to 3 points in Armor Specialist. The armor will specify this on it and if you do not have the points you cannot wear it.

Man-At-Arms: 5 (15 points)
There are two Master Skills in this tree that are definitely worth it: Flurry and Shackles of Pain. Flurry is one of the single-most rewarding melee attacks to pull off. When buffed properly with Oath of Desecration, Bless and Rage, you will be +5% to hit and +90% damage. Shackles of Pain is one of the best ways to help kill boss mobs as it applies all of the damage you take to them as well. Expect to die using it. But the good new is, when you are raised from the dead, you can apply it again as all your Skills reset. When combined with the Talent Morning Person, which allows you to be raised with full health, this is a devastating combination. All of the other Man-at-Arms skilsl are very useful as well. Be sure to get Battering Ram, Crushing Fist, Rage, Helping Hand, Cure Wounds and Whirlwind.

Aerotheurge: 1 (1 point)
Only 1 point is necessary in Aero, but do not underestimate the importance of this Ability. These are critical skills: Teleport & Wind of Change (Removes Petrified, Slow or Stunned). Teleportation is incredibly powerful and has a ton of uses (send strong enemies away, bring weak enemies closer, drop barrels on enemies, toss your companion Source-Hunter over obstacles, etc.). Wind removes statuses from allies is critical, especially in the late game. I recommend Thunder Jump for the 3rd Skill because having mutliple ways to move around the battlefield is important.

Hydromancer: 1 (1 point)
You only need this for Regeneration and Freezing Touch.

Pyrokinetic: 4 (10 points)
Take four points and get the Master Skill Meteor Shower. Even if you don't play as a true Elemental Affinity Battlemage (see my other guide) this spell is still worth the points. Other great Skills: "Smokescreen", which is one of the most effective ways to get around the "Watcher Statues" that crop up later in the game. Fireball is nice to have early in the game and Purifying Fire comes in handy later on (Removes Burning, Frozen, Stun, Charm, Healing and Shields). Again, a huge part of your versatility is removing statuses from allies. Do not underestimate the importance of that role. For [Novice] spells, I recommend: Flare, Burning Touch, Wildfire (Haste) & Firefly. Explode is fun in the right situation.

Geomancer: 1 (1 point)
Necessary for the very good Novice skills: Summon Spider, Bless, Fortify. This gives you your first summoned ally which is significantly helpful at all stages of the game. Don't go any further in this tree as the Skills require too much investment in Geomancer in order to be any good.

Witchcraft: 5 (15 points)
And now we get to the good stuff. You want to max out Witchcraft. It is an incredibly strong Skill tree. Early on, the Novice skills of Oath of Desecration, Malediction and Summon Undead Warrior (your 2nd Summon) will help significantly in battles.

Later on you'll be able to take the upgraded summon skill [Adept] Summon Armoured Undead Decapitator. You'll want to make your other three [Adept] skills: Destroy Summoned, Drain Willpower and Rapture. Drain Willpower will reduce an enemy's WILL score by -5 (effectively reducing even the most willful to zero) where you can then guarantee Rapture will land (Charm). Charming enemies for two turns can be critical to managing the battlefield. In fact, Crowd Control in Divinity: Original Sin is incredibly imporant. Any time you can negate an enemy, you should.

Last, but not least, the excellent [Master] level skills: Invulnerability & Death Punch.

Invulnerability is the bees knees here. It buys you two full turns of invulnerability; enemies will beat on you and do no damage. In certain situations this is a life-saver, not just for your Battlemage, but for the entire party, as it can allow them to heal, finish off weaker enemies and reposition for boss mobs.

Death Punch is one of the best single-skill damage dealers in the game. As a bonus, it deals Crushing damage, which many creatures are vulnerable to. Given the lack of crushing weapons in the game, this is a nice bonus to have. Death Punch appears to scale with level and INT score, so the higher your INT (raise through gear) the better.

It may seem tempting to take Resurrection or Soulsap, but a word of caution: Resurrection has a cooldown timer on it. Resurrection scrolls do not. By late game, when you can get these Skills, you will have a lot of money. Just stay stocked on scrolls instead. As for Soulsap, it is awesome against boss mobs, so put it on another

Scoundrel: 1
This is necessary for two skills: Winged Feet and Fast Track. Fast track is a Haste skill that gives you an additional 2AP. Winged Feet lets you walk over surfaces, like lava, without taking damage, which is essential for some puzzles in the game.

Bodybuilding: 1
You need a point in this for the Talent "Morning Person", which allows you to be resurrected at full health by a companion.

With these Ability points in mind, lets see how it adds up:

2-handed: 2 => 3 points
Armor: 3 -> 6
Aero: 1 => 1
Hydro: 1 => 1
Pyro: 4 => 10
Geo: 1 => 1
Witchcraft: 5 => 15
Scoundrel: 1 => 1
Man-at-Arms: 5 => 15
Bodybuilding => 1

Total Points: 54

You'll receive 7 Talent points by the end of the game, at level 20. I recommend the following:

• Starting: Opportunist
  
• Starting: Know-It-All. Grants you an extra INT at the expense of reputation. Your other Source-Hunter character should do the talking (and preferably have Leadership anyway)
  
• Bigger and Better (gives you an Attribute point)
  
• All Skilled Up (gives you a couple more Ability points to spend; jump-starts your progression)
  
• Morning Person [Requires Bodybuilding=1] When you are Resurrected, you have full health. This goes well in any circumstance, but works especially well with Shackles of Pain.
  
• Picture-of-Health [Requires Man-At-Arms=2] (because more hit points are never bad)
  
• Far-Out-Man (increases distance on spells)

** Alternatively, instead of taking Far Out Man and Picture of Health you can take Elemental Affinity and Demon, which reduces the cost of Skills by 1AP when you are standing on a surface of the same type. So, if you're standing in Fire and cast Fireball, it costs 1AP less. This becomes more of an Elemental Affinity Battlemage build, which is a bit more specialized. I've written another guide for that build if that's the way you want to roll. It's not much different from this, but it requires a slightly different mindset to play.

• Man-At-Arms (Battering Ram)
  
• Hydro (Regeneration)
  
• Aero (Teleport)
  
• Weapon Type: 2-handed (see earlier in this guide)
  
• Bodybuilding (you're going to have to put a point in it sometime, and resisting knockdown early the game is a good thing)

You're free to start any way you want, but these are the three skills I've found to be the most helpful in the early game. Teleport is incredibly useful for moving enemies away, pulling squishy enemies to you to kill fast (always kill the Priest first) or for dropping Oil barrels on enemies and then lighting them afire. Regeneration should be a no-brainer, and Battering-Ram is a safe default choice for all fighter types (and again, moving around the battlefield quickly is often important).

As previously stated, the key to the Battlemage is versatility. You will make frequent use of spells like Teleport, Regeneration, summons, and your Man-At-Arms skills. You will find yourself buffing allies (a Knight, or other melee, if not yourself) and healing when necessary.

Many of your other skills will be situational; you may not find yourself removing statuses very often, but when you do, you'll be happy you had those skills as you're curing Blind, Stun, etc. from your allies and allow them to finish off battles.

For the most part, treat yourself as a front line fighter, like a Knight. You're going to wear heavy armor and carry a 2-handed weapon. Your gear, later in the game, should be split between INT and STR. You want just enough STR gear to allow you to equip a weapon appropriate to your level, or just a level below you, and then the rest of your gear should be INT-based so that your skills have quick cooldowns.

I've run this build through the game twice now, with my other Source-Hunter being a Knight, and then taking a rogue and an elementalist. This character won't do as much direct melee damage as the Knight due to not being able to put as many points into STR and thus not being able to wield quite as good of a weapon, but she does probably 85% of the melee damage of my Knight and has WAY more versatility. She's also saved my group's bacon quite a few times by Resurrecting allies and using Invulnerable to stave off enemies.

A note on summons

Summoning creatures to aid you is probably one of the easiest things you can do to help even the odds in every battle from level 1 to level 20. This class build will end up with three summons. It should go without saying, but... If your other Source Hunter is NOT a mage, they should get Nick, so the two of you can each summon at the start of a fight. Most enemies will attack the nearest member of your party, and that goes for summoned creatures as well. If you have Jahan or another mage-like companion with you, they should also be able to summon something. The more the merrier.

If you play this build and enjoy it, please drop a comment.