Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[Monk]

Lastly, they really ought to allow you to click through dialogue rather than forcing you to wait through it all. Mainly for subsequent playthroughs.

You can. Press Esc.

[FactionHeir]

That's the only key I didn't try, thanks!

Re blood splatter, in the PC version you can turn the persistent splatters off in the options menu. Alternative is to re-equip armor.

Another peeve I've been experiencing is how only rogues can lockpick but everyone can pickpocket. I mean why can't I invest in open lock like a rogue can Just seems a bit silly to have to leave every chest out there locked (the initial henchie helped a bit at the camp, but he can't open several of those...)

[Zenicetus]

I understand people are interested in plot, story, and etc but what about depth? The thing I liked about switching from Paladin/fighter to rogue in DnD based games is the additional depth it offered. Instead of simply strapping on as much metal as possible and slogging through things I discovered how the use of diplomacy, stealth, ambush, and etc opened up far more possibilities. Now I'm more able to "lead" a group and obtain better rewards.

Does the base campaign in Origins offer this too?

Well, it's definitely a tactics-intensive game if you want to play it that way. And in some boss battles you really do have to play it that way. You'll party-wipe if you just charge in with swords and spells blazing. How deep you get into the combat depends on how much you want to micro-manage using the pause key.

Ambushes of a sort are possible. You can have party members hold position on one side of a doorway, then send a controlled character through to lead enemies back into the room where you're party is waiting. Outdoors is a little trickier because you go into combat mode at fairly long range, although that helps archers and spellcasters. One nice thing, although it's a bit of a cheat for the player, is that you can spot and target most enemies for a first strike, before they'll notice you. So it's possible to scout out the battle before it starts, and look for the best tactical position.

Remember with this type of game you can very easily swap control between the different party members. I'm playing as a mage because I think it's ideal for a tactical overview and control of the battles, but I'll often switch to the Rogue in the party (when there is one), for initial scouting, or to make the first strike and get things rolling.

There are opportunities to use diplomacy, in the form of threats or persuasion. I haven't paid much attention to how this works in terms of your stats (dialogs are always based around your main character as the leader), and it probably also depends on where you stand with all the various conflicts between factions. Anyway, I've been able to use diplomacy in dialog choices to avoid a fight, or achieve a goal through persuasion that could only be done that way.

[Zenicetus]

That's the only key I didn't try, thanks!

Re blood splatter, in the PC version you can turn the persistent splatters off in the options menu. Alternative is to re-equip armor.

Another peeve I've been experiencing is how only rogues can lockpick but everyone can pickpocket. I mean why can't I invest in open lock like a rogue can Just seems a bit silly to have to leave every chest out there locked (the initial henchie helped a bit at the camp, but he can't open several of those...)

Yeah, I understand the rationale for it (get a Rogue in your party!), but it's still frustrating. Even when you *do* have a Rogue in the party, you have to manually take control and have the Rogue open the crate. I remember another game (NWN? NWN2?) where if you tried to open something as a non-Rogue party leader, the Rogue would just push you aside and say "here, let me do that." Maybe it has something to do with encountering trapped chests later in the game? That auto-open design did get my Rogue zapped a few times in that earlier game.

Oh, and here's a possible bug. Or it could just be the way it's designed. Two of my current party members are turning on sustained spells during combat (bard song and threaten) and then not turning them off after combat is over. They'll walk around with the glowing effect, and the stamina bars partially depleted to run them, until I manually take control and turn off the effect. I suppose that might be useful in a situation like a dungeon crawl where you're moving quickly from one battle to the next. Maybe there's a tactical advantage in having something like Threaten running during the initial enemy aggro? I dunno. But it's annoying when we're just walking around and talking to NPC's between battles.

[Monk]

There are opportunities to use diplomacy, in the form of threats or persuasion. I haven't paid much attention to how this works in terms of your stats (dialogs are always based around your main character as the leader), and it probably also depends on where you stand with all the various conflicts between factions. Anyway, I've been able to use diplomacy in dialog choices to avoid a fight, or achieve a goal through persuasion that could only be done that way.

You'll need the Coercion skill which opens up the possibility of using Persuasion and Intimidation.

Persuasion is where you use your willy good looks and a Cunning check to smooth talk someone, while Intimidation is where you cross your arms, stare angrily and pass a Strength check to force someone to do what you want. Both can have the same outcome but with radically different effects. So if you've got a warrior as your party lead you'll probably be doing a lot of intimidating.

Yeah, I understand the rationale for it (get a Rogue in your party!), but it's still frustrating. Even when you *do* have a Rogue in the party, you have to manually take control and have the Rogue open the crate. I remember another game (NWN? NWN2?) where if you tried to open something as a non-Rogue party leader, the Rogue would just push you aside and say "here, let me do that." Maybe it has something to do with encountering trapped chests later in the game? That auto-open design did get my Rogue zapped a few times in that earlier game.

Yes, KOTOR had a similiar set up. If you ran into a locked door you had to manually switch to your security expert to slice through. I actually really loved how in Mass Effect you didn't have to switch, if you had the lock-picker in party you could just walk up and do it automatically. It's been a small annoyance.

Progress: 14 hours in game and I still am not even close to halfway done. I finally got my DLC to work and am enjoying that as I speak. I have to be honest, i was expecting the "60 hours of gameplay!" tag-line to be a bit of a joke. After playing this for 3 days I can safely say we're gonna need a bigger boat.

Discovered a possible bug with the Sten companion quest.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Smooth talk Sten and get him to trust in your leadership and he'll tell you about a lost sword. Problem is, I found the guy who took it from his camp but when he tells me where he sold it, the quest refuses to update. Very annoying. Maybe I need Sten in my party when i confront him?

[FactionHeir]

Found a bug with the Kennel quest

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If you tell the Kennel Master you want no reward, you don't even get a single point of XP.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm just about to enter the the tower of Ishal. Combat so far has been fairly easy and even though I was not prepared to the Shade in the Wilds, it went down pretty quick without anyone dying. And everyone except my main had 2 injuries at that point
The fights outside the tower have been a bit tougher as you have a weaker party, so I actually had to use a lesser healing poultice there. Annoying that my team keeps dying and I have to pick up the pieces *grumble*

Regarding people not turning off their passives, its to do with their tactics. Its usually set to make them enter a mode when something happens, but if you got space for another tactic, definitely have one at the very bottom reading if everything is clear, turn everything off or so. Not sure if that exists though.

[Monk]

18 hours in. Already surpassing every expectation i had (but.. seeing as I had very few going in, I guess that explains why I am so happy with the end result!). I'm thankful I have few plans this weekend so I can continue to hack at this game.

It's the conversations which are really getting me. Gone are the animated, dynamic conversations which made Mass Effect special. We're back to Bethesda style barely animated barbie doll heads paired with selectable lines of cringeworthy dialogue. I'm afraid I am skipping dialogue in all but the more important conversations; I read entire chunks of dialogue in the time it takes the mediocre actors to get three words out and there's no reason for me to sit and watch instead.

Really? I haven't felt that at all. Character models aren't as animated as Mass Effect but I wouldn't go so far as to deem them as bad as FO3's, where everyone uses the same two or three 'conversation animations' and it's hard to feel bad when you blow their head off. I've kept subtitles off for the most part since I know what it does to me, it makes me very impatient.

Edit: Retracted. They are stiff, I simply didn't notice until it was pointed out to me. Guess it doesn't bother me too much?

@froggy's spoiler

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Agree with you on Sloth, however. He reminded me of something from another game... but i can't put my finger on what.

@FactionHeir's second spoiler.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Tower is a tough battle, and it's very drawn out. You're in for a few surprises along the way and I wouldn't dare spoil it for you. Just make sure your party is pretty tough and you stock up on potions from the merchants there. Trust me, you'll need them!

[Vladimir]

Ahh excellent, thank you. One of the big selling points for me is the claim that in-character actions have a substantial affect on the game world.

Too bad there's no MP. Sounds like you guys could use a "troubleshooter."

[seireikhaan]

Well, I'm about 14 hours in, and things have opened up a bit.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm finally turning my character around from the default "goody goody" character to a nastier piece of work. Was absolutely psyched to get blood magic specialty, even though its big payoff spells are a ways down the line.

[Monk]

Sten companion quest is bugged, but you can see it to completion regardless without the quest updating.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Simply follow the scavenger's instructions and head to Redcliff. Dwynn's house is on the waterfront, the sword is in a chest.

This game is very addicting, 21.5 hours in and I can safely say that nothing is ever simple in Dragon Age. There's always something in the way and by the time it's over I'm usually in no mood for mercy. I'm not evil, just tired!

Unfortunately the length of this game might have an unintended side-effect. I am wondering if I'll have the drive to play by the end, will I stand up once the ride is over and say "Again!" or cringe at the idea of spending so much time in the game again? I don't know. That was one thing I loved about Mass Effect. It was an amazing ride, great story and done in around 15 hours (or as few as six, depending on how fast you could go and how many side-quests you did). It was easy to jump back in.

Here I've done next to no side-quests, trying to see as much of the main story as I can as fast as I can. Companion quests, plot quests and DLC are all that get my attention.. and i've still got a lot left to go. Here's hoping i'm not a skeleton by the time I finish.

Orzammar spoilers.

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Just completed Orzammar, which I think has been the longest of the two (and a half - one is very annoying and takes a lot of location hopping) plot quests i've done so far. Very interesting to play the game of Dwarven politics and I have to say I jumped at the chance to fight in The Proving.

The end of the quest line really surprised me. I don't wanna say too much, even in spoiler tags, but wow. The game is really giving me a lot of power in shaping the world around me, I have a feeling the fate of Orzammar can be very different depending on not only who you support as King, but what you do in the final battle. Great stuff.

[Beskar]

I felt like crying.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He killed my father and my mother.

[FactionHeir]

Beskar

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I think that happens for every origin story. I was a bit taken aback during the Human Noble one as well

[Beskar]

It was akin to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAhrqKqK_cA

[al Roumi]

You'll need the Coercion skill which opens up the possibility of using Persuasion and Intimidation.

Persuasion is where you use your willy good looks and a Cunning check to smooth talk someone, while Intimidation is where you cross your arms, stare angrily and pass a Strength check to force someone to do what you want. Both can have the same outcome but with radically different effects. So if you've got a warrior as your party lead you'll probably be doing a lot of intimidating.

I am so glad they dumped Charisma as a stat. I have never, ever, majored investment in it in any rpg, through Baldur's gate to Fallout 3. In fact, i've always crippled the sociability of my characters in favour of their combat lethality.

I really liked the fact that in Fallout3 you had alternative conversation options based on other stats, skills or perks (how much time does Robotics expert save you in FO3!).

Maybe I've missed out on certain sides of games by not investing in charisma but I don't know if I would ever find it as satisfying to talk my way out of everything in a game -even if the rewards were equivalent...

Anyway, thanks for the updates guys, its great to find out about the game whilst waiting for my boxed copy to arrive from Amazon...

[Samurai Waki]

Beskar

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I think that happens for every origin story. I was a bit taken aback during the Human Noble one as well

mmm... not entirely true...

[Beskar]

I have to bring this up as this is the first thing I thought when I saw it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Is Arl Eamon related to Arch Daemon in any way?

[FactionHeir]

What do you mean by that?

Arl is a noble title and Eamon is one of the noble house's last names.

[Beskar]

Think about it. They rhyme.

Anyway, is there a way to see an overview of approval?

[Krusader]

Think about it. They rhyme.

Anyway, is there a way to see an overview of approval?

In the character screen. Should be below the character model.

[frogbeastegg]

10 hours in now; I ended up playing until 1am, then spending most of this morning playing too. It's gotten a lot better. I love the party banter and the characters I've acquired so far are brilliant, by far Bioware's best. The Alistare/Morrigan/dog combo is hilarious and by preference I'd have rolled with it to the end of the game if not for the need for a rogue. The plot's gotten more interesting, the world has opened up, and the game just feels like it has found its feet and its stride.

Reading the lore adds some flesh to the bones of the world. Leliana has some good historical stories once you get her to join.

However ... well, flies are in the soup and they're exasperating because they're so small and easily fixed, or because they're large and should never have been present. It's the large flaw which has prompted me to stop playing and hit the internet in the hopes of finding a way to mitigate it.

Character/party influence is proving to be a random feeling illogical headache. For each handful of points with a character I gain I seem to lose a larger amount with that same character plus a smattering with one or more others. That’s fine; I don’t mind it being hard to keep characters happy, and not being able to make everyone like me. The problem is that a around a third of those loses come from reasons which don’t quite make sense. I've seen (safely disguised from spoilers) "You agreed with me? I hate you!" "You disagreed with me? I hate you!" "You took my advice? I hate you!" "You asked me if I'm ok? I hate you!" "You tried to talk to me? I hate you!" "You did something I said I approve of? I hate you!" "You didn't do something I said I approve of? I hate you!" "You supported me in an argument? I hate you!" The dog's the only one who likes me, the rest are sulking around neutral and losing influence like a sieve loses water.

This is made worse by the conversations. Some of those lines of dialogue don't give the effect you'd expect from reading them and on multiple occasions things have gone a way I didn't want because I picked a line which meant something other than it appeared to.
"Would you like a drink?"
1. Yes please, I'm very thirsty. (Turns out to mean: Give me sixty bottles of your strongest because I'm going blotto and don't care if my entire party is disgusted by it :hiccough:!)
2. No, thank you. (Turns out to mean: I think everyone who touches alcohol is weak and feeble-minded and I don't care if I'm insulting the entire pub by saying it.)
The response I wanted would be closer to: “Give me a glass of whiskey and that’s all, thanks.”

:sigh: Both of these things are headaches because of the way they are presented. If the dialogue lines were vague like Mass Effects I wouldn't be so bothered by the unexpected results, and to be honest I never found ME's limited lead-ins to be misleading anyway. I have no problems at all with losing influence and being unable to keep every character happy, or with it being very hard to get people to like my character, just make it somewhat logical so I have a feel for what I'm doing.

Headache the third, aka the large flaw, is the combat AI. My party AI coped very well in the early fights. Now I have gone to ... let's say a village and a castle, and the system has shattered. I'm a mage. Low HP, low damage resistance, spells which get interrupted if I'm hit, no melee capability. So I need tanks to hold up the hordes and protect me. I've got 2 melee characters and one who can swap between ranged and melee. Used to work great; they kept the goons away from me while I cast. Doesn't work any more, for some reason it's completely stopped working. Enemies run right past my party and start beating me to death every single battle, and it's not one or two strays that get through, it's the majority of the enemy party. My companions ignore the situation and go after the couple of goons who aren't killing me.

Headache the third part 2 is the fact that once an enemy enters into an attack animation you're going to get hit no matter what, even if you've run away and are now on the other side of the screen. That means I can't even try to escape. The nemies move as quickly as my character does so hit and run is a no hope proposition.

Headache the third part 3 is that for some inexplicable reason there's no way to set the AI tactics to do anything useful if you're under attack. You can set it up as far as: "if [character] is under [attack type] then [?]" at which point it breaks down. There's no option for [attack that enemy], [heal [character]], [use distracting skill], or anything else which would draw the heat off or top up my health. Instead I've got options which make my party use special abilities on anyone and everyone who is not me. Or if then is a way to get them do help then the wording of the options is very misleading. "If [character] is under [attack type] then [use a health kit on yourself and wail in surprise as [character] dies in a spray of blood once again]"

So I'm currently casting one or two spells before running about being hit by melee attacks animating on the far side of the screen, frantically topping my health up and waiting for my party of idiots to snooze their way around to killing everything. It's boring. It's tedious. It's profoundly stupid. And I'm dying repeatedly for no good reason. It's so bad I'm gradually respeccing my mage into a close combat mage; I've got light armour now and aim to get a sword so I can at least hit back without being two-shotted.

I stopped playing in the hopes of finding AI settings on the internet which will get my party doing its job again. I can’t keep going like this; without the artillery and healing power of my spells each battle is tougher and tougher to scrape through and soon will come a point where it won't be possible. I barely managed to beat the first proper boss on my third attempt; I know I won't get past the second without my party pulling their weight.

And … um … well … the skills are boring. Each time I level up I struggle to find something that looks worth buying. The kind of effects I want I can’t buy (e.g. faster recharge time on my staple spells, or a healing spell which heals more than a tiny amount) or are limited to a single class (open locks!!!) or don’t seem to exist as discrete skills (locate and disarm traps)

Even when you *do* have a Rogue in the party, you have to manually take control and have the Rogue open the crate. I remember another game (NWN? NWN2?) where if you tried to open something as a non-Rogue party leader, the Rogue would just push you aside and say "here, let me do that."

This is annoying me as well. Especially as it's often paired with two lines of dialogue, the first being "I can do that!" when I select the locked item, followed by "I can't do that!" when Leliana gives it a go. Salt and wound.

I don't understand traps either. There doesn't appear to be any way to get her to detect them, and then there was no way to disarm or even locate visually the single trap she did pick up on her own. "There's a trap ahead!" - great, where is it and what am I supposed to do about it? The only answer I found was to blunder about until I stepped on it, same as all the ones no one detected.



Has anyone else noticed that the prompt to leave for the world map is a nod to Baldur's Gate's famous "You must gather your party before venturing forth."?

[Vladimir]

Has anyone else noticed that the prompt to leave for the world map is a nod to Baldur's Gate's famous "You must gather your party before venturing forth."?

Oh God, please no. Painful memories.

[FactionHeir]

Re traps, they might be like those Chasind trail signs where they are pretty much invisible outside of being marked on your map and unless you have your mouse in the right spot (and a very tiny spot too) it won't change your cursor. I noticed that starting with the books in the origin story and how they were difficult to pick up because of that. They really need to bring back the item outline thats all clickable and lit up.

[frogbeastegg]

Re traps, they might be like those Chasind trail signs where they are pretty much invisible outside of being marked on your map and unless you have your mouse in the right spot (and a very tiny spot too) it won't change your cursor. I noticed that starting with the books in the origin story and how they were difficult to pick up because of that. They really need to bring back the item outline thats all clickable and lit up.

Good idea. Unfortunately I can confirm it doesn't work like that. On the console version items you can interact with have small gold sparkles coming out of them and they get highlighted with white text labels if you're standing near them and looking in their direction.

I miss the days of manuals which went into exhaustive detail about everything. The Infinity Engine games came with such massive books ...

[Monk]

Last night I was close (or i thought) to finishing my third plot quest, I looked at the clock and it was 1 am. I told myself I'd finish this quest and go to bed, when i looked at the clock again it was 5 am. Nothing is ever simple.

Spoilers on Dragons. Tactics and their difficulty.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

These are the hardest boss fights i've seen. Much more tough than anything else the game has thrown me.

Dragons are rare but Bioware wasn't kidding when they said they are the toughest fights in the game. My advice is to use nearly all ranged attacks and keep only your tank in melee. Have plenty of healing potions which only the tank is allowed to use and keep him healed up and topped off. If he dips below 50% you're risking a lot since the dragon has a grab move that can stop him from taking potions.

If you stick to ranged damage, no one in the party will take a single point of damage except the tank.

Found some quirky and buggy behavior in AI path finding, allied especially, in very narrow corridors. Your party has a tendency to get stuck or stop following you for a few seconds too long before they realize they should be behind you. It hasn't cost me death yet, but it's been enough to get me to sigh.

Moving forward with the influence system and I've got pretty much everyone liking me except Zevron.. who I hate, but will likely need if I want to finish a certain quest. It took a while to really get the hang of what characters expect from you and it can get rather confusing unless you know exactly what each of them expect. Morrigan, for instance, I had pegged for an evil character. When in truth she normally just hates it when you do things she sees as wasting time, or missing a chance at a powerful object. Allistar and Leliana are much easily predictable in their responses.

[Beskar]

Remember to press tab (if on PC version)

[Beskar]

Found a big bug in the PC version for me at least, I will put it in spoilers and if anyone who has done the Circle related stuff, did you get the same bug:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Golem form won't break down the doors, it just does a hurl animation which does absolutely nothing.

Edit: Fixed it by restarting the client. Weird.

[FactionHeir]

Only got to first world map locale after world map unlock.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I was wondering if there's any benefit to giving the little boy a silver and helping the sister vs the merchant?
Boy just disappears and thanks you. With the sister, if you help her, you get -3 influence with morrigan. If you help the merchant, you get -3 with alistair, +2 with morrigan and 1 gold. Merchant price and selection is the same as far as I can tell.

Just seems to me that there should be some reward for choosing a good path rather than reward only those who are evil and rob all.

Also, I was wondering if there's any use for standard gems? They are starting to really fill up my inventory and I don't know if they can be used for anything.

Btw, your dog can be quite useful

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I let mine run loose over 20 times outside Flameth's hut and he brought all kinds of gift type items of some worth. Including soiled golden pantalons....BG reference to the tavern anyone? Note that once in a while he will return with nothing but just keep letting him run loose and you get more. Seems a bit of a cheap way to get lots of items and thus gold? Any limitation at some point? Do particular areas give different finds at all?

Speaking of gifts, when can you use them at all? Can't seem to gift them or at least I haven't figured out how. And how do you gift a soiled and chewed on cake for instance?

[frogbeastegg]

Several hours later and I've got some answers. This game needed a better manual.

Traps: You can spot and disarm traps, and it's dependant on the trap making skill. Levels 2 and 4 of the skill to be specific. Level 2 gives you the ability to spot and remove basic traps and level 4 more complex ones. When the trap is spotted it should appear as visible like any other item on the map. That makes me suspect that I was the unwitting victim of some misleading incidental dialogue earlier, and that Leliana engaged in general "I think we're walking into a trap." rather than one placed on the map.

Combat AI: I have a whole list of settings to try out. Seems like you have to be very specific in setting up tactics for each character; give them a narrow role on each overall tactics set and then create multiple tactics sets to swap between at the drop of a hat. Expecting them to multitask doesn't work. For example, have Alistair set up to heal himself at 50% as the top priority, then threaten, then taunt, then one of his defensive skills. That will keep him attracting enemies and staying alive and doing nothing else aside from the occasional swipe with his sword. If you need him to do something different, such as take down some mages with his anti-magic abilities, then you'll have to hop in the menu and change to the right set of tactics. Still no way to get AI members to come to your aid via scripts though.

There's also a control setting on the console version which makes it possible to set up and execute multicharacter commands. Helpfully it is off by default! Only one order per character per 'pause', but it should make a lot of difference.

Skills: The in-game descriptions are dull and lacking in the information you need in order to decide that something is going to be pretty darned good. Having read some player sourced descriptions I've now got a bundle of ones I want to acquire.

Conversations and influence ... I suspect I might be witnessing a bug. As far as I've been able to tell (I've been sifting for information while avoiding plot and character spoilers) my judgement of each character's personality is spot on, and what I expect to be the result should be the result. Thinking about it, most of my point gains have come when there's been voiced dialogue. The loss of points is nearly always when there's no acted response from the character and the result is given in text on the bottom of the screen, [Character] disapproves -X or [Character] approves +X. So while I gain influence with a certain character by [insert action here] when the response is voiced, I lose influence with that same character by making a very similar decision when it's not voiced. I also realised that it's only something I was seeing today after I'd downloaded my free DLC, so I'm going to try clearing the console's cache and see if that helps.

Morrigan, for instance, I had pegged for an evil character. When in truth she normally just hates it when you do things she sees as wasting time, or missing a chance at a powerful object.

She's pretty much a less childish version of Nynaeve from the Wheel of Time so I had that figured out before she joined my party. It's part of why I like her. Looking forward to playing as a male rogue so I can have her and Alistair in my party for the entire game. Ah, the bickering!

Also, I was wondering if there's any use for standard gems? They are starting to really fill up my inventory and I don't know if they can be used for anything.

According to my reading they're there to be sold.

To use a gift you tab through your characters on the inventory screen until the one you want to give it to is selected and then click the left stick button. Not sure what the PC equivalent is I'm afraid; the only hint I can give it that it's a button that probably isn't tied to any other function.

[Beskar]

You won't believe what happened, I was just casually talking to Morrigan in the camp, then something completely unexpected happened.

If you want that spoiler, you have to PM me.

[FactionHeir]

Something funny with gifts. It seems I can gift anyone anything and the first gift always gives +5 and the next one 1 less until every gift gives only +1? Morrigan was very happy to get the chewed cake

Something else that's been a bit of a nuisance: All your companions seem to start at a decent level but 0 xp. So when I just got the rogue addition, she had 0/5000. Seems like it will take a long while to level her up.