I was surprised yesterday when Divinity: Original Sin 2 producer David Walgrave told me that the damage loop seen in the video above would not be removed. "It appears that it is not a never-ending loop and you're not doing anything else while you're doing it," he wrote.
As you can see in the video, however, the trick cycles through a feedback loop that drains a troll's entire health bar. (Head to yesterday's story for an explanation of how it works.) So even if it is within the confines of Original Sin 2's spell logic, it's just a tad OP.
I followed up with Larian, and today the developer informed me that after looking into the trick further, "the team determined that this is in fact an unintended bug, for which a patch will be issued ASAP."
Despite this particular instance of clever spell synergies being identified as a bug, Larian reiterated what it told me yesterday, saying that it "applauds creative approaches to the game" and only 'fixes' one if it "really breaks the fun of the game or something goes wrong at some point."
So while there are many, many allowable—and possibly very powerful—spell synergies accounted for, this was apparently one that slipped through testing undetected, and wasn't intentional. Personally, I didn't plan to pursue the trick, as wiping 6000 HP with a few spells doesn't feel quite like it's in the spirit of the tactical turn-based combat I've been enjoying so far. Though if you were enjoying the trick, I'm sorry to say it's on its way out.
With or without the Soul Mate loop trick, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of my favorite games of the year. Fraser digs in to why in his review.
