Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[seireikhaan]

That was a rather amusing moment, I thought.

"Sandal! What in the world happened here?"
"ENCHANTMENT!"
I was a bit horrified when I first saw him there. I was genuinely scared that something terrible was going to happen. Plus, my first instinct was "Where's daddy...?" :inquisitive: I thought there was going to be another betrayal. :help:

[frogbeastegg]

I'm still in the grey warden quest area after the origin section. Part of the attitude came from Cailen with his patronising, ignorant comments about the alienages and his "Jolly good show, an elf trying to be a real warrior!" attitude. I didn't get that as a Dalish elf; in that origin he garbled on about their ancient traditions and honour in a respectful manner.

You know the bits of conversation you can overhear from NPCs? There's been the odd line like that too; random soldiers walking about and muttering things behind my back. From the comments here it looks like I shouldn't expect this to continue into the other areas :sigh:

I think Dalish elves get a bit more respect. They've got the mystical semi-legendary woodland folk thing going for them. City elves are one step above slaves, even the Dalish hold them in mild contempt as folk who surrendered their birthright to save thier skins.


Are you playing your city elf with evil/selfish dialog choices?
I'm no good at playing evil characters, I end up feeling guilty. My character's pragmatic and rather blunt in dialogue. I'll help but I don't want the 6 hour story and there'd better be a reward ... unless you're being oppressed by humans in which case I'm there for free. If the humans think this elf is going to bleed for their benefit then they're sadly mistaken.

Landsmeet and the ending will be fun. :devilish:


Or maybe it's tied to the non-Mage origin story for elves?
The mage will take precedence over the elf. Origin -> race.

[Kekvit Irae]

Personally, I find the Mage origin to be very excellent. It ties directly into what happened at Redcliff Castle, and teaches you that the only one you can trust in the game is yourself. I consider the Mage origin in my top three origin stories, next to Dwarf Noble (oh lawdy, I do loves me some political intrigue), and the City Elf (racial segregation and social class differences... among other things).

I consider the Human Noble to be the worst of the bunch that I've played (haven't done the Dwarf Commoner or Dalish Elf origins yet). Get betrayed in the middle of the night and kill your way out of the castle. BOOOORING. At least it makes up for it with an alternate ending choice.

In my Mage playthrough, I became a total jerk. I chose all the "bad" allies, but in doing so Leliana, Shale, and Wynne all went hostile and I had to put them down like the rabid dogs that they were. Except for Shale, they will not be missed.

[Mailman653]

I have to say, listening to what the Guardian had to say was quite interesting, I'm looking forward to my next playthrough with different characters.

Has anyone defated the dragon thats outside? I gave it a go and got squashed pretty quick, I think ranged attacks are the way to go. I don't really need to fight it anymore since I got the ashes, but it looks like quite the challenge, I wonder if you get anything for defeating it.

[Beskar]

Personally, I find the Mage origin to be very excellent. It ties directly into what happened at Redcliff Castle, and teaches you that the only one you can trust in the game is yourself. I consider the Mage origin in my top three origin stories, next to Dwarf Noble (oh lawdy, I do loves me some political intrigue), and the City Elf (racial segregation and social class differences... among other things).

I consider the Human Noble to be the worst of the bunch that I've played (haven't done the Dwarf Commoner or Dalish Elf origins yet). Get betrayed in the middle of the night and kill your way out of the castle. BOOOORING. At least it makes up for it with an alternate ending choice.

In my Mage playthrough, I became a total jerk. I chose all the "bad" allies, but in doing so Leliana, Shale, and Wynne all went hostile and I had to put them down like the rabid dogs that they were. Except for Shale, they will not be missed.
(spoilers for the mage origin - froggy)
I didn't go along with Jowan, I grassed them up to the First Enchanter, rofl.

[Kekvit Irae]

Has anyone defated the dragon thats outside? I gave it a go and got squashed pretty quick, I think ranged attacks are the way to go. I don't really need to fight it anymore since I got the ashes, but it looks like quite the challenge, I wonder if you get anything for defeating it.

Use a tank (preferably Alistair or Shale) that has Threaten on, and three ranged specialists (MC with bow or staff, Wynne, and Morrigan are my preferred group). Make sure that one or more of your mages have Force Shield and plenty of lyrium potions. Have your tank run in with Threaten on, and grab the attention of the dragon. Once you do, cast Force Shield on your tank. If you don't, your tank is vulnerable to the instant-kill attack by the dragon. Have your ranged specialists fire on the dragon (make sure your mages don't have any damage-dealing tactics, or you'll burn mana that's more needed for Force Shield). Once Force Shield is down, cast it again. If one of your mages (read: Morrigan) has Cone of Cold, use it. It will paralyze the dragon for a few seconds. Keep doing all of this until it is down, and you'll be able to get your reward: dragon scales (turn into Wade's Emporium for a very nice set of dragonbone armor) and an achievement.

[FactionHeir]

Dragon:

Have a warrior with shield wall and lots of healing potions. After a while the dragon goes down really.
Make sure you are always at least at 90% health, that way his grab attack won't kill you.
That is of course you have a decent level by the time you fight it. I did with 17-18.
My own party died instantly pretty much but my warrior 1v1'd it pretty easily.


Just finished all the origin stories. Pretty interesting overall, but human noble is still my favorite followed by dwarf noble and dalish elf (mainly for the dialogue). Mage and the other 3 weren't all that bad either. City elf just seemed to have endless fighting in it...

[frogbeastegg]

Ahem:



All spoilers must go into spoiler tags!
However small you think the spoiler is, show consideration for your fellow org members and use the tags!
Mark the spoiler with a brief spoiler free description so people can tell whether they have seen that part of the game yet!

[Monk]

Dragon:

Have a warrior with shield wall and lots of healing potions. After a while the dragon goes down really.
Make sure you are always at least at 90% health, that way his grab attack won't kill you.
That is of course you have a decent level by the time you fight it. I did with 17-18.
My own party died instantly pretty much but my warrior 1v1'd it pretty easily.


Just finished all the origin stories. Pretty interesting overall, but human noble is still my favorite followed by dwarf noble and dalish elf (mainly for the dialogue). Mage and the other 3 weren't all that bad either. City elf just seemed to have endless fighting in it...

I feel the same way about Dalish :laugh4:, but to each their own.

Nearing the end of my second playthrough.. have to say I am severely disappointed this go around.

Major plot spoilers on Denerim, the Landsmeet, Queen Anora and the potential ending of the game.
Ever since my first go through, the point where you rescue Anora really hooked me in. Her betrayal really made me wanna gut her, I just risked my hide, killed the Arl and sprung her - then gave her a chance to show Loghain's commander that her boss was into some crazy stuff and she betrays me!

As Zevron so elegantly put it in this go through "I'm still waiting for a reason not to slit her throat and dump her body in the river. I've yet to hear it, by the way." Even after I told her I'm not supporting her (as i did last time) She just gave me frowny face and said she'd back Alistair if it must come to that. Of course.. I have my doubts and fully expect her to betray me at the Landsmeet. I am.. sorely itching to give this woman what she truly deserves, but the game is just not letting me do so. Like it's standing there wagging its finger disapprovingly.

Can anyone tell me if I'm gonna have the chance to kill her? Please say yes. ~:(

[FactionHeir]

No, the best that can happen is her getting locked up in a tower. But that only works if Alistair also survives the archdemon

[Monk]

No, the best that can happen is her getting locked up in a tower. But that only works if Alistair also survives the archdemon


More on the adventures of an angry warden, Queen Anora and the Landsmeet!
Yes I seem to have passed the Landsmeet and see what you mean. I basically said something needs to be done and it sorta went like this.

Alistair: Do something? Like what? Kill her? I can't do that!
Me: I can!
Arl: She needs to be dealt with
Me: I can totally kill her guys, seriously. We can kill her together it'll be fun!
Arl: If she does not swear fealty to you Alistair she is a threat to the nation!
Me: Are you two listening? Come on you saw how easily I just killed Loghain.
Alistair: Lock her in the tower!
Me: ~:(

And wow. Alistair, man. Not cool! Spoilers on the ending of the Al romance path.
I failed the persuasion check and couldn't get on the throne, so Alistair dumped my girl warden in front of all our friends right before we left to fight the blight. What a :daisy: move :laugh4:

After a little research.. it looks like if you put Alistair forward as king and have a romance with him, unless you chose the "Human Noble" origin there's no way to rule beside him. More than a bit disappointing, but interesting to see plot threads altered due to what origin you chose

[Crandaeolon]

Re: High Dragon


Use a tank (preferably Alistair or Shale) that has Threaten on, and three ranged specialists (MC with bow or staff, Wynne, and Morrigan are my preferred group). Make sure that one or more of your mages have Force Shield and plenty of lyrium potions. Have your tank run in with Threaten on, and grab the attention of the dragon. Once you do, cast Force Shield on your tank. If you don't, your tank is vulnerable to the instant-kill attack by the dragon. Have your ranged specialists fire on the dragon (make sure your mages don't have any damage-dealing tactics, or you'll burn mana that's more needed for Force Shield). Once Force Shield is down, cast it again. If one of your mages (read: Morrigan) has Cone of Cold, use it. It will paralyze the dragon for a few seconds. Keep doing all of this until it is down, and you'll be able to get your reward: dragon scales (turn into Wade's Emporium for a very nice set of dragonbone armor) and an achievement.

I did the dragon with pretty much this exact strategy, although I couldn't keep the dragon's attention on Alistair all the time. Occasionally it would disengage and attack one of the damage dealers and I had to switch control and manually run the damage dealer out of harm's way, or cast Force Shield on him/her. Force Shielding the dragon is also a good move if you need a breather. Also, the dragon's grab attack isn't insta-kill; you can still Force Shield and save the target while the dragon is tossing it around.

My party was at level 10-11 when I did this, it was very very painful and took like half a dozen retries.

[Monk]

Second play-through finished, City Elf and Human Noble origins have been taken to the epilogue. I elected, after reading a spoiler earlier in the thread, to not take Alistair with me in the final battle.

Spoilers, Final battle, ect. Ending of the game. You know the drill.
The last time I did this I accepted Morrigan's offer, this time I refused and made Alistair in charge of the rear-guard so he couldn't hog the glory and kill himself. Honestly I didn't do it cuz i wanted my warden to die, I just didn't want that :daisy: Anora getting the throne back when he died. I took Shale (tank) Wynne and Leliana with me to the roof for the final battle and had my elf make the ultimate sacrifice. The ending that followed was... somehow much more complete and satisfying than making the deal and living.

Very dramatic, father made into a noble, Elves getting equal stake in society, all because of my warden's sacrifice who is getting a grand tomb erected for her at the fortress outside of Fereldan. (the main Warden HQ, i forget the name.) I even got a statue. :2thumbsup:

Now. What origin to play this time? :laugh4:

[Greyblades]

I would suggest Dwarven noble. It has been fun for me so far, better than the human noble in my opinion, Politics and family matters are interesting and you can order people to be assassinated/executed so thats a plus.

[Krusader]

Morrigan seems to tease and prod most party members. These two conversations with Sten are pretty fun and Sten seems to know how to make her quiet in a non-violent way.

Morrigan & Sten part 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFCEWymAc8g)
Morrigan & Sten part 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-hxHaebrOs)

Testing out two different rogues and a mage as well now. This playthrough I'm not taking Sten & Leliana along, and no Morrigan on Mage playthrough.

[rajpoot]

End game. Morrigan.
Took me a while to figure out that I had to use the ballista to kill the archdemon. But then, the ballista jammed. Barely made it out alive out of that fight.
Well, didn't actually, I chose to sacrifice the character. Liked the epilogue fine, save the bit about Morrigan. I had been hoping that they'll let out a little more about what happens with her.....I mean the romance ending with Morrigan is....just unsatisfactory.
Going to give it a rest now, for some days, before I begin a new game. Planning to try warrior once again, this time with dual wield.
Edit:
Loved the bit about Sten in the epilogue, could almost picture him saying it.

[Monk]

End game. Morrigan.
Took me a while to figure out that I had to use the ballista to kill the archdemon. But then, the ballista jammed. Barely made it out alive out of that fight.
Well, didn't actually, I chose to sacrifice the character. Liked the epilogue fine, save the bit about Morrigan. I had been hoping that they'll let out a little more about what happens with her.....I mean the romance ending with Morrigan is....just unsatisfactory.
Going to give it a rest now, for some days, before I begin a new game. Planning to try warrior once again, this time with dual wield.
Edit:
Loved the bit about Sten in the epilogue, could almost picture him saying it.


On Morrigan's ending and a few bits on Sten:
I smell a sequel! Or at least further DLC, perhaps a new campaign - It's just begging for it and nearly every DA forum i've looked at is already speculating about it.

As for Sten - I laughed when i first read his bit. I agree, very well done in his regard. :yes:

On an unrelated and less spoiltastic note, Dwarven Noble is amazing fun as an origin. I mean wow. It may have just stolen the top spot for me, and if it didn't it came very close.

[frogbeastegg]

On an unrelated and less spoiltastic note, Dwarven Noble is amazing fun as an origin.
Yup. It's nicely different to the run of the mill RPG conventions. Did you
speak to the noble and the scholar outside the palace doors, side with the scholar and then order the noble executed publicly for causing a scene?

[Monk]

Yup. It's nicely different to the run of the mill RPG conventions. Did you
speak to the noble and the scholar outside the palace doors, side with the scholar and then order the noble executed publicly for causing a scene?

:laugh4:

No. I actually took the 'compromise'.

I told the scholar that honor and the Paragons' reputation was far more important than whatever truths history might hold. He wasn't happy about it, but he was thankful for not getting killed in the streets.

[FactionHeir]

Stumbled by pure chance over the fact that 1.01b is out for the PC now. Not sure what the difference to 1.01a is but I installed it and it runs.

They really need a better system of informing people regarding updates, like having an autoupdater in the launcher or so.

Ran into a bug in a new playthrough btw:

Went to Lothering, but figured I should rpobably go to Denerim first before doing anything since I wanted the Archivist belt that increased XP from codex by 50%. So I just did some small quests and off I went to camp first. Bought some stuff and sold DLC items I didn't need. Then went to Denerim, did some minor things and returned to Lothering.
After finishing Lothering (except Sten, because I want to train my persuade up first) and going to Camp I found that Bodahn had the same wares as if I had never met him before. As in he even restocked that skill tome I bought! Also, all my companion convos in Camp suggested I was never in Camp. Total deja-vu!

[al Roumi]

Ran into a bug in a new playthrough btw:

Went to Lothering, but figured I should rpobably go to Denerim first before doing anything since I wanted the Archivist belt that increased XP from codex by 50%. So I just did some small quests and off I went to camp first. Bought some stuff and sold DLC items I didn't need. Then went to Denerim, did some minor things and returned to Lothering.
After finishing Lothering (except Sten, because I want to train my persuade up first) and going to Camp I found that Bodahn had the same wares as if I had never met him before. As in he even restocked that skill tome I bought! Also, all my companion convos in Camp suggested I was never in Camp. Total deja-vu!


Re: Sten

Be careful you don't do too much before going back to pick him up. I left it too late and Lothering had been destroyed by the blight -Sten too!

I had done the Redclife village, Redclife castle & circle of mages quest sections aswell as both Shale & Warden's keep DLC bits though. Not sure at what point it was deemed I'd left it too long, but I'm assuming the event trigger would be tied to main quest achievemnets... maybe even the CGI cutscenes.

Apparently (http://mycheats.1up.com/view/section/2019479/27856/dragon_age_origins/pc#Lothering), you can pick him up easily enough without persuade if you either:
1. Pick the lock (not sure how people in Lothering respond to that)
2. Have Leliana in the party (you may still need some persuade for this to work)

[Meneldil]

Finished the game. Overall I'm not sure whether I'm disappointed or not.

The game was advertised as the new Baldur's Gate, and well, it fails to deliver. Hard.
That, and the role playing part of the game is still very much Black&White (TM). Some dialogue options don't make sense at all.
Furthermore the whole "original fantasy setting inspired by G Martin's books" is a total fail. Sure, there are some original stuffs, such as the way dwarves and elves are regarded, but that's about it. At no point during the game I thought something like "Wow, that's cool" or "Really nice plot here". And the way the supposedly grimdark universe and useless gore are down on your throat is silly as hell. Please Bioware, do not do that anymore, ever.

But, the game looked so terribad in the trailers that I have to give it credit for being quite decent, or even good, despite many flaws. It still doesn't replace BG2 in my earth, but it was fun, though honestly less fun than NWN2+MotB.

[FactionHeir]

Re: Sten

Be careful you don't do too much before going back to pick him up. I left it too late and Lothering had been destroyed by the blight -Sten too!

I had done the Redclife village, Redclife castle & circle of mages quest sections aswell as both Shale & Warden's keep DLC bits though. Not sure at what point it was deemed I'd left it too long, but I'm assuming the event trigger would be tied to main quest achievemnets... maybe even the CGI cutscenes.

Apparently (http://mycheats.1up.com/view/section/2019479/27856/dragon_age_origins/pc#Lothering), you can pick him up easily enough without persuade if you either:
1. Pick the lock (not sure how people in Lothering respond to that)
2. Have Leliana in the party (you may still need some persuade for this to work)


Yeah I think its doing 2 main quests that destroys Lothering.
I got him with Lel in my first playthrough, but I wanted my PC to be able to sway the Mother this time around, just to see how the dialogue differs ~:)

[TinCow]

The game was advertised as the new Baldur's Gate, and well, it fails to deliver. Hard.
That, and the role playing part of the game is still very much Black&White (TM). Some dialogue options don't make sense at all.
Furthermore the whole "original fantasy setting inspired by G Martin's books" is a total fail. Sure, there are some original stuffs, such as the way dwarves and elves are regarded, but that's about it. At no point during the game I thought something like "Wow, that's cool" or "Really nice plot here". And the way the supposedly grimdark universe and useless gore are down on your throat is silly as hell. Please Bioware, do not do that anymore, ever.

I'm not finished with the game yet, so I'll have to wait and see what the ending is like before commenting, but so far I do feel like DA:O is worthy of being ranked with Baldur's Gate in the RPG Hall of Fame. No, the game does not have quite the same number of dialog options as, say, PS:T or FO1/2, but I do feel it's on-par with the BG series. There are a lot of different sides to take, a lot of morally ambiguous choices to make, and the game allows you to justify your actions in ways which are far, far more varied than most RPGs ever allow.

I'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps. The game is very up-front about the former, and the adopted dwarf sidekick of the merchant in your camp is extremely visible for the latter. Not even PS:T or FO delved into these areas much at all. Even the high-controversial Mass Effect female-alien romance option was handled with gloves by saying the alien wasn't actual female, but was both genders. Bioware should be applauded, IMHO, for handling the romance options in DA:O the way they did.

The battles are very tactical in nature and remind me greatly of the BG series (I am doing a TON of reloading, and that's just in normal difficulty). The character classes can use a bit of polishing, but all in all its not too bad. The DA universe may not be George Martin, but it's certainly a nice change of pace from the usual Forgotten Realms setting, and I'm interested to see them explore it more. I'm also very impressed with the amount of dialog and backstory that we're provided with. This isn't a Bethsoft game, where every NPC reply is 5 words long. There are some meaty conversations in this game, and that doesn't even include the monstrous Codex entries, which are very interesting to read.

Again, I'm not done with the game yet, so this is still a 'tentative' review, but so far this game gets two thumbs up for me. If it continues the way it has been so far, I do expect to end up ranking this game up there with the BG series. Keep in mind that this is just the first game in a planned series. It would be inappropriate to compare DA:O to BG/TotSC/BG2/ToB. To get a proper comparison, you should compare DA:O to BG1 vanilla. On that level, I might even put DA:O over the top.

[frogbeastegg]

DA:O is the subject of this week's Zero Punctuation. I have to agree with a lot he says, including the part about playing for 25 hours and liking the game even though you're complaining a lot. "Dragon Age is not dark fantasy, nor is it light grey, caffeine free or avocado fantasy. It's just straight fantasy classic." :yes:

I'm going to take a break from DA for a bit. Assassin's Creed II should arrive tomorrow, and I could use a change of virtual scenery.

[Vladimir]

II'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps. The game is very up-front about the former, and the adopted dwarf sidekick of the merchant in your camp is extremely visible for the latter. Not even PS:T or FO delved into these areas much at all. Even the high-controversial Mass Effect female-alien romance option was handled with gloves by saying the alien wasn't actual female, but was both genders. Bioware should be applauded, IMHO, for handling the romance options in DA:O the way they did.

I guess you missed the anal sex scene in Final Fantasy VII.

Anyway, I believe this is more a result of their "dark" *yawn* motif. Incorporating realistic and morally flexible options. I hate to think that the incorporation of "controversial" content is a path designers will take to produce the next epic.

Besides, everyone knows elves are bi. :clown:

[TinCow]

DA:O is the subject of this week's Zero Punctuation. I have to agree with a lot he says, including the part about playing for 25 hours and liking the game even though you're complaining a lot. "Dragon Age is not dark fantasy, nor is it light grey, caffeine free or avocado fantasy. It's just straight fantasy classic." :yes:

My biggest complaint so far is the camera interface. On the PC version, there's a 'top down' camera angle, which is a nice throw-back to the IE games. It's a major improvement over NWN, but it still has some issues:

1) It doesn't zoom out quite far enough. Another few clicks of the mousewheel would have been nice.
2) There is no intermediate step between the furthest back 'third person' view and the top-down view. That shift is a huge one, and there are plenty of times when I wish I was somewhere in between.
3) The third person camera doesn't allow for easy pathfinding in a lot of places that high tight passageways. It's annoying to have to click all over the place just to find a spot that works.


Anyway, I believe this is more a result of their "dark" *yawn* motif. Incorporating realistic and morally flexible options. I hate to think that the incorporation of "controversial" content is a path designers will take to produce the next epic.

That alone does not make a good game, but dealing with mature subject matter in a mature manner certainly helps to make the game itself more mature. The somewhat extreme (for the time) nature of the Fallout games is one of the things most often cited when they are praised as paragons (HA!) of the RPG world. It would seem strange to give praise to FO for that, but deny it to DA:O for the same thing.

[Lemur]

Yeah I think its doing 2 main quests that destroys Lothering.
I got him with Lel in my first playthrough, but I wanted my PC to be able to sway the Mother this time around, just to see how the dialogue differs ~:)

I believe this is incorrect. Completing a single ally quest appears to destroy Lothering. That's what you get for going on a road trip in a blight, doofus.

[FactionHeir]

Lemur
This time around I have done just about all the locales except for the final part that triggers the alliance proper. So much for roadtrip :grin:


Got a problem with Leliana with my Dalish female elf this time though

For some reason I simply cannot get her personal quest to trigger (i.e. talk about bards/spies). I got her chantry talk and 2 romance talks and her influence on 92 and on adore, but no option to talk about bards...I can even get her to tell me stories.
Tried camping a lot. Doesn't do it either.

[Beskar]

Stumbled by pure chance over the fact that 1.01b is out for the PC now. Not sure what the difference to 1.01a is but I installed it and it runs.

They really need a better system of informing people regarding updates, like having an autoupdater in the launcher or so.


Steam?

[al Roumi]

I'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps. The game is very up-front about the former, and the adopted dwarf sidekick of the merchant in your camp is extremely visible for the latter. Not even PS:T or FO delved into these areas much at all. Even the high-controversial Mass Effect female-alien romance option was handled with gloves by saying the alien wasn't actual female, but was both genders. Bioware should be applauded, IMHO, for handling the romance options in DA:O the way they did.


My male dwarf commoner rogue er, enjoyed, a "massage" from Zevran last night. Worse, I got the "Easy Lover" achievement for it....

oh man, that is so corny.

Zevran is also the only NPC to have fallen for my diminutive avatar, depsite me pestering Morrigan and Leliana as much as possible.

I've had Morrigan in my party consistently (only just killed Flemeth though) and admitedely not ever used Leliana but I've been gifting them and exhausting all avenues of discussion -apparently to no avail.

Any hints?

[Greyblades]

Gifts? There are afew gifts in the game that some characters want more than the others. For example sten realy likes paintings for some reason.:inquisitive:

[Meneldil]

After spending more than one hour trying to improve my influence with all my party members, I left the game to discover that my gf had been spamming me over MSN for all that time.

Alistair approves (+4)
Girlfriend disapproves (-10) :laugh4:

I'm still somewhat baffled by the way influence works, especially with Morrigan. You can lose 10 influence by simply asking a question and then gain 7 or so even though it looks like you're annoying her.
As for Sten, he's so annoying I'm not sure I want to improve my relations with him during this second playthrough. I don't feel like going through half a billion of "No."'s once again. First time ever I feel like a video game character is making fun of me.

[FactionHeir]

Sten is quite interesting. At the start, you get mainly +1-+3, with chances of big minuses.
Once you get him to around 25 influence via gifts, you can raise his influence by 15+ with each dialogue.

[Beskar]

I'm still somewhat baffled by the way influence works, especially with Morrigan. You can lose 10 influence by simply asking a question and then gain 7 or so even though it looks like you're annoying her.

Because you are asking her why she is here and why won't she go. She sees it as an insult.

In short:
"Why are YOU here Meneldil? Don't you have some where else better to go?"

[Monk]

Sten is quite interesting. At the start, you get mainly +1-+3, with chances of big minuses.
Once you get him to around 25 influence via gifts, you can raise his influence by 15+ with each dialogue.

In the first two dialogues you have with him laugh at his "jokes", you get +8 each time. Also when he says he can't report back to his homeland tell him "Well, you can stay with us then" for a +12 boost. That should push you very close to the 25 mark, if not hit it.

An example:

What were you doing in that cage?
Sitting. As you observed.
Ha ha. Very funny.
Thank you.
Just give me an answer.
I did. We should move on.
Sten approves +8 ~D

[FactionHeir]

Yeah, I got the stay with us part, I never managed to get the sitting part right. I thought Haha very funny would alienate him :grin:

[Monk]

Yeah, I got the stay with us part, I never managed to get the sitting part right. I thought Haha very funny would alienate him :grin:


I thought that at first too, but apparently (where Sten is concerend) all the parts where you compliment his sense of humor are meant as serious. Or at least he takes them as serious comments, maybe he just doesn't understand Sarcasm? :laugh4:

Telling Sten he's funny is the best way to get his approval rating up, barring gifts and his companion quest.

[rajpoot]

I found Sten one of the most interesting characters....I mean he was done far better than the Krogan in ME.
Morrigan was nice and mysterious, but I found Sten better.

I can never forget what he liks most about Ferelden.....Cookies?! :laugh4:
"You have these small sweet things here, we have no name for it...."
"....Something must be done about that"
And the scene with the dog, at the camp. Sten was the only companion who actually took a fancy to the dog.


Edit :
Sequel-
Somehow I feel that the child they mentioned at the end, that Morrigan was carrying, will play a big part. Maybe the villen.....
And the brother, Fergus, I don't know why, but his coming back at the very end makes me think he'll be there too, again.

[Monk]

I found Sten one of the most interesting characters....I mean he was done far better than the Krogan in ME.
Morrigan was nice and mysterious, but I found Sten better.

I can never forget what he liks most about Ferelden.....Cookies?! :laugh4:
"You have these small sweet things here, we have no name for it...."
"....Something must be done about that"
And the scene with the dog, at the camp. Sten was the only companion who actually took a fancy to the dog.




I disagree, but I am heavily biased. Wrex is my all time favorite Bioware character, but I do like Sten.

He strikes me as Canderous (from KOTOR) without all the war stories, he's definitely a man out of place in Fereldan. The scene with Dog was priceless, however, I never would have expected Sten to bond with him. If you recover the Qunari's sword, they have more dialogue together.

As for Morrigan:
What is even more interesting is if you don't agree to the deal.
She leaves and heads to Orlais, managing to join the court of the Empress.
I think its safe to say no matter what ends up as the canonical ending for DA:O (or if they take a ME2 route, now THAT i'd love to see!) Morrigan will play a big role in the sequel.

[FactionHeir]

Morrigan

Huh Orlais? I thought that was Leliana? Morrigan (even without Ritual) always ends up seen somewhere and then disappearing with child. During that playthrough, my main was romantically involved with her and I tried both ritual and no ritual with same ending.

[rajpoot]

As for Morrigan:
What is even more interesting is if you don't agree to the deal.
She leaves and heads to Orlais, managing to join the court of the Empress.
I think its safe to say no matter what ends up as the canonical ending for DA:O (or if they take a ME2 route, now THAT i'd love to see!) Morrigan will play a big role in the sequel.


I did some relaoding of old saves, and Morrigan's ending is always the same. If you did not kill Flemeth, I think it says that Morrigan was killed or something. If you did kill Flemeth, it will always be that she went and vanished in the mountains and was never heard from again, though someone of her description was seen with a child, rumoured to be that of the Grey Warden himself.

Most mysteriously, at the very end, if you let Alister kill the dragon, you reach the court and are talking with all your companions and everything, then, right behind Sten, there is this fox kind of animal, looking ALOT like the thing into which Morrigan turns, as she leaves Redcliffe castle at night, once you refuse her offer......I tried to talk to it, but it seemed to just stand there and do nothing.....Did anyone else find out what that is?

[Meneldil]

New DLC announced.
You get to go back to Ostragar, find the (retard) King's armor, and the dog if you don't already have him. I hope it will be more exciting than WD :-(

[Monk]

Morrigan

Huh Orlais? I thought that was Leliana? Morrigan (even without Ritual) always ends up seen somewhere and then disappearing with child. During that playthrough, my main was romantically involved with her and I tried both ritual and no ritual with same ending.


No It wasn't Leliana, in my last play through Leli simply "disappeared". Probably because I didn't kill her old lover/boss, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's dead.

I coulda swore i saw an addendum to Morrigan's ending, having sacrificed myself as a female warden that said she ended up in the imperial courts. :shrug:

[FactionHeir]

Morrigan

I'll let you know how it goes this time then. Playing female dalish rogue.


Re DLC

Well the warmor wouldn't really be worth it I imagine with some many top armors already available and only 2 characters really needing it. Final part of the game is a pushover where you don't need any armor almost as just about everything dies in 1 hit or 2.

As for the dog, anyone already gets it, no? Human noble in origin, rest after Ostagar if you picked the flower.

[Monk]

Morrigan

I'll let you know how it goes this time then. Playing female dalish rogue.


Re DLC

Well the warmor wouldn't really be worth it I imagine with some many top armors already available and only 2 characters really needing it. Final part of the game is a pushover where you don't need any armor almost as just about everything dies in 1 hit or 2.

As for the dog, anyone already gets it, no? Human noble in origin, rest after Ostagar if you picked the flower.


Please do. It was 5 am afterall, maybe I was seeing things. If so I will gladly retract my statement! :dizzy2:

On the new DLC -

It's gonna be $5 for another loot crawl, probably shorter or on par with WK. Personally I think I will save my money and stear clear. Unless they release more DLC akin to "stone prisoner" i doubt i will be buying much Dragon Age DLC. A trip back to Ostagar? Yawn..

As someone on RPS said "A chance to get the King's armor? Yes, because his armor worked so well for him, why in the world would I want it?"

edit: also i feel like I am spamming up this thread, time to bury myself in l4d2 for a little bit. Sorry for rapid fire posting! :laugh4:

[frogbeastegg]

Have you Sven and Morrigon fans heard the pair of 'wandering around' banters where she (minor spoilers)
Makes a pass at him, and gets rejected. Then later on he changes his mind and starts listing all the armour she'd need and keeps warning her she's probably going to die, whereupon she loses interest and practically starts running in the opposite direction.

He's such a straightly played character that I couldn't decide if he was serious or not.


I coulda swore i saw an addendum to Morrigan's ending, having sacrificed myself as a female warden that said she ended up in the imperial courts. :shrug:
You aren't going mad; I saw that too. It's presence or absence must be determined by your character's gender and ending choice. My female character (ending spoilers)
rejected the offer and was forced to watch Alistair sacrifice himself because he was in love with my character and wouldn't let her die.

[Krusader]

Have you Sven and Morrigon fans heard the pair of 'wandering around' banters where she (minor spoilers)
Makes a pass at him, and gets rejected. Then later on he changes his mind and starts listing all the armour she'd need and keeps warning her she's probably going to die, whereupon she loses interest and practically starts running in the opposite direction.


I linked two Youtube videos showing that earlier in thread :wink:

Playing a Dalish Elf Rogue now and using Alistair as tank. Working like a charm.

[frogbeastegg]

I linked two Youtube videos showing that earlier in thread :wink:
Heh, is that what they were? I didn't watch them because I'd rather see things play out in-game.

[LeftEyeNine]

Am I just ignorant or is this the thread to smash the records of concealed content on teh interwebz ?

:smoking:

[Meneldil]

Quite likely.

[Meneldil]

Okay well. Playing as a bad guy is quite annoying.

Most of the team members leave or keep disagreeing with your behaviour (even Morrigan and Sten complain). You miss out a lot of quests, plot and loot (though you occasionally discover new stuff), which makes the whole thing quite annoying.

The game definitely needs more evil characters, and more evil-oriented quests. BG2 and KoToR IMO offered more choices for evil characters than DA does, which is quite disappointing (though I admit it was also because characters weren't as fleshed out: most neutral characters didn't really care whether you were good or evil).

[Mailman653]

Funny bug

I was in the Fade killing the demons that protect the Sloth Demon. Well, I was saving Morrigan and saw her talk to the demon etc....well I killed it and took off its head. I then spoke to Morrigan and the dialogue with the demon started again, execept this time, the demon portraying Felemith had no head.

[Monk]

Funny bug

I was in the Fade killing the demons that protect the Sloth Demon. Well, I was saving Morrigan and saw her talk to the demon etc....well I killed it and took off its head. I then spoke to Morrigan and the dialogue with the demon started again, execept this time, the demon portraying Felemith had no head.

Yes.. that's a very strange bug I've noticed. If you engage in dialogue with your party member at that moment, the scene will repeat. To avoid it you have to wait. :dizzy2:

[Kekvit Irae]

Funny bug

I was in the Fade killing the demons that protect the Sloth Demon. Well, I was saving Morrigan and saw her talk to the demon etc....well I killed it and took off its head. I then spoke to Morrigan and the dialogue with the demon started again, execept this time, the demon portraying Felemith had no head.

That's because the game has some sort of memory leak in it. If you start it up fresh, you'll notice the corpses will drop loot immediately, and load times are almost instant. However, if you play for an hour or so, these will start to slow to a crawl. That bug is due to the enemy not registering as a corpse yet. Simply wait it out, or save before the battle and exit/reload Dragon Age.



And more tips on fighting the dragon(s):

In the Mage's Tower ally quest, you'll come across the common room with three statues. As the codex suggests, click on the statue with the bowl first, then the statue with the upheld sword, then the middle statue. Now head to the middle area (with the boss abomination) and click on the statue there after the battle. Now head down to the first floor to where the apprentices Wynne was guarding are and click on the locked door. Fight the demon that appears, and you'll get the Dragonslayer sword.

It's a nice two-handed sword that has a +10 damage against dragons. This REALLY helps when you have Oghren or Sten in your party when you fight the three dragons in the game. To further pump on the damage, add in a few runes and have your mages use Flaming/Frost Weapon spells.

[Greyblades]

Just got the golem DLC, I love Shale he's the most hilarious guy in my party.
Poor chicken:laugh4:.

[Kekvit Irae]

Just got the golem DLC, I love Shale he's the most hilarious guy in my party.
Poor chicken:laugh4:.

I love it how she just shrugs. It's like... "What happened?" "I dunno."



And to correct my previous post...

FOUR dragons, not three. I forgot about the one in the Orzimmar throne room.

[FactionHeir]

Dragon:

Well if you count the Throne Room "dragon" you have to count the one in the werewolf ruins too..

[Gregoshi]

I don't have this game but was interested the game comments for a potential future purchase. Alas, this thread has become completely unreadable since I'm avoiding the spoilers. :laugh4:

[Monk]

I don't have this game but was interested the game comments for a potential future purchase. Alas, this thread has become completely unreadable since I'm avoiding the spoilers. :laugh4:


You can enjoy the first 5 or so pages, we were pretty heavily into the technical and combat mechanics discussion there.

It's kinda shocking we've taken this to page 10, i fear we've nothing left to talk about except plot spoilers! :laugh4:

[Kekvit Irae]

Dragon:

Well if you count the Throne Room "dragon" you have to count the one in the werewolf ruins too..


Ok, five then. Archdemon, Urn of Sacred Ashes dragon (the only "true" dragon), Flemeth, throne room dragon, werewolf dragon.


You can enjoy the first 5 or so pages, we were pretty heavily into the technical and combat mechanics discussion there.

It's kinda shocking we've taken this to page 10, i fear we've nothing left to talk about except plot spoilers! :laugh4:

Yes, it sucks. I can understand hiding major plot spoilers, but the origin stories? Those are prologues! That's like using spoiler tags for talking about a game's trailer or opening cutscene. Coach uses a chainsaw against a smoker's tongue to free Ellis.

There is a large difference between "using spoiler tags to hide major plot devices" and "making a thread unreadable and unfun." This thread is now delving dangerously into the latter. But I am no longer a part of this board's moderation, so I have real no say in this matter.

[Mailman653]

I knew Zathrian's voice sounded familiar, it's Tim Russ from ST:Voyager.
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Zathrian

[Zenicetus]

The problem (IMO) isn't that it's degenerating into spoiler tags, per se. It's that people are posting spoiler tags without taking a few extra seconds to write clear text that identifies the general area the spoiler is covering.

Completely "blind" spoilers with no context are useless, unless you've finished the game. And maybe not even then, if they're about side paths that you might not see the first time through.

[Xiahou]

The problem (IMO) isn't that it's degenerating into spoiler tags, per se. It's that people are posting spoiler tags without taking a few extra seconds to write clear text that identifies the general area the spoiler is covering.

Completely "blind" spoilers with no context are useless, unless you've finished the game. And maybe not even then, if they're about side paths that you might not see the first time through.What he said. :yes:

[LeftEyeNine]

Better safe than sorry. I don't see the necessity to strike the perfect balance between the thread being fun and proper at the same time.

Be it proper, otherwise it will spoil any fun into it.

[Gregoshi]

Sorry, I didn't mean to derail the thread. I was just making an observation I found rather funny for me in my situation. Back to the spoiler tags!

[Monk]

I knew Zathrian's voice sounded familiar, it's Tim Russ from ST:Voyager.
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Zathrian

I knew it!

I looked that up on the first day I had the game, but IMDB hadn't been updated to reflect it and neither had the wikia.. but I knew.

Bioware really pulled out the stops with the Sci-fi actors lending voices. Tim Russ and Kate Mulgrew from Voyager and Claudia Black. Wonder how many others are hidden in the credits?

[Krusader]

I knew it!

I looked that up on the first day I had the game, but IMDB hadn't been updated to reflect it and neither had the wikia.. but I knew.

Bioware really pulled out the stops with the Sci-fi actors lending voices. Tim Russ and Kate Mulgrew from Voyager and Claudia Black. Wonder how many others are hidden in the credits?

Tim Curry is Arl Howe. Otherwise I think there are many from former Bioware games.

-------

One thing that annoyed me a lot. On my second playthrough now and this time I got Zevran at level 13. When I asked him why he would be good to have in a party, he replied "Because I'm good at killing, stealing and picking locks". When I checked his abilities though he no skill points at all in Stealing and no ability points in Deft Hands (used for picking locks and disarming traps), which kinda forced me to still use Leliana in my party (wanted to use Zevran this time around, as I had Leliana in my party last time as warrior). There should have been an option to undo skills & abilities when you gain certain party members or that they had preset skills/abilities chosen up until level 8.
Luckily on my third playthrough I'll be the Rogue myself, so no need to have Leliana or Zevran in party.

[Monk]

Tim Curry is Arl Howe. Otherwise I think there are many from former Bioware games.

:laugh4:

Arl Howe's fate.
Somehow knowing it's Tim Curry makes killing him all the more satisfying.



One thing that annoyed me a lot. On my second playthrough now and this time I got Zevran at level 13. When I asked him why he would be good to have in a party, he replied "Because I'm good at killing, stealing and picking locks". When I checked his abilities though he no skill points at all in Stealing and no ability points in Deft Hands (used for picking locks and disarming traps), which kinda forced me to still use Leliana in my party (wanted to use Zevran this time around, as I had Leliana in my party last time as warrior). There should have been an option to undo skills & abilities when you gain certain party members or that they had preset skills/abilities chosen up until level 8.
Luckily on my third playthrough I'll be the Rogue myself, so no need to have Leliana or Zevran in party.

Yeah I noticed that as well, it would seem he is not only an assassin but a liar as well. :smash:

[LeftEyeNine]

Sorry, I didn't mean to derail the thread. I was just making an observation I found rather funny for me in my situation. Back to the spoiler tags!

Greg-sama always speaks of wisdom. Not yer share, sensei. :smoking:

[Monk]

Playing through again as a Mage after dabbling with Dwarven Commoner. I was unsure on what to settle with for my third play-through but I think mage will do fine. I wasn't really sure until I found some armor mods that made mage armor a bit more aesthetically pleasing. Bioware should have included more interesting cloth types ala the Archon Robes, imho.

But I've found Mage to be pretty fun, though Warrior is still my favorite way to play. I've noticed that since I had heal + the heal over time, I hardly ever used potions in the first 4 hours of the game. Consequently i'm sitting on 30+ lesser healing potions , 20+ normals and around 7 greaters. :laugh4:

[seireikhaan]

2nd go through, still with the city elf. I think, this time through, I think I found the hardest boss the entire game. :dizzy2:

Gaxhang the Unbound.

Time for my tenth try at it... :furious3: :furious3: :furious3:

[FactionHeir]

How can you find Kangaxx difficult? :grin:
He was in BG2, but isn't quite that bad in DA:O

[al Roumi]

How can you find Kangaxx difficult? :grin:
He was in BG2, but isn't quite that bad in DA:O


I don't remember him seeing him yet (lagging behind you guys, still on 1st playthrough). Where is he to be found?

[FactionHeir]

Quaint hovel in one of the back alleys of denerim

[Krusader]

I don't remember him seeing him yet (lagging behind you guys, still on 1st playthrough). Where is he to be found?

As FactionHeir said, although I think you need to have killed 5 Revenants from various phylacteries around Ferelden, before you get the quest and thus the door becomes openable.

@Monk:
Third playthrough? You really love this game :grin:

I'm going Primal on my mage...Cone of Cold coupled with Stonefist can be awesome way to take out an enemy quickly. Plus the AoE spells can be nasty (Earthquake to keep mobs in one place and then Blizzard & Tempest to take em down...havent gotten Inferno yet). Oh, I got 60 Healing potions. Me healing and Shale tanking.

As Mage though be wary in Circle Tower. When I went first through a door I came up against a desire demon and four-five posessed templars...who all got the Holy Smite ability...my mage dropped to 5% health immediately before they even began running towards my party and I was taken out fast.

[al Roumi]

As FactionHeir said, although I think you need to have killed 5 Revenants from various phylacteries around Ferelden, before you get the quest and thus the door becomes openable.


Thanks!

Does killing him net you the ring of Gaxx?

His presence in DA:O is a fair old easter egg, wasn't he meant to be some inter-planar being or something? Hence why he can pop up in the Forgotten Realms and Ferelden...

[FactionHeir]

No, its not linked to the revenants across the map. Its linked to finding 3 dead adventurers (and their journals) and talking to a living adventurer in Orzammar.
And no ring of Gaxx, but other OK (not really useful) items.

[Monk]

@Monk:
Third playthrough? You really love this game :grin:

I'm going Primal on my mage...Cone of Cold coupled with Stonefist can be awesome way to take out an enemy quickly. Plus the AoE spells can be nasty (Earthquake to keep mobs in one place and then Blizzard & Tempest to take em down...havent gotten Inferno yet). Oh, I got 60 Healing potions. Me healing and Shale tanking.

Love would be Mass Effect, I've completed it over ten times. :2thumbsup:

I'm going a mix of Primal and healing spells until I can get the spirit healer specialization. I unlocked Blood Mage but the spells it gave me don't seem that impressive (except the top tier blood spell, that one looks handy).

[seireikhaan]

I'm going a mix of Primal and healing spells until I can get the spirit healer specialization. I unlocked Blood Mage but the spells it gave me don't seem that impressive (except the top tier blood spell, that one looks handy).
The top two are both very useful. The second to top is crowd control + damage + no friendly fire. :yes:

[frogbeastegg]

Ahem the second.


Mark the spoiler with a brief spoiler free description so people can tell whether they have seen that part of the game yet!

[Lemur]

Having dabbled a bit, experimenting with different races and classes, I've concluded the following:

You always want to have direct control of the offense mage, especially if s/he has area effects. Healer can be adequately programmed from the tactics menu, as can the warriors.
It's just mean and cruel that the devs didn't include a knock or unlock chest spell. I would love to have a two mage/two warriors party, but the need to include a $%#(&! useless rogue always trips me up.
There are more than twice as many warrior companions as rogues or mages. This is irritating. In my (incomplete) experience, companions are 56% warriors, 22% mages and 22% rogues.
There are places where your PC will be forced to go solo, or jumped in front by a dialogue, making him/her the prime target of every mob on the map. This means that mages and rogues are going to be forced to tank at times whether they want to or not.
That said, it's best to take control of your tank when opening doors or rounding corners. There are other factors, but the first/nearest person a mob sees tends to be the target.
I would happily do with two fewer warrior companions in exchange for more rogue/mage variety.

These is my thoughts.

[Mailman653]

2nd playthrough, city Elf, final thoughts:

I gave Alister his wish to not become king and take the throne myself unfortuntely the queen refused which made sense. I was disapointed though, had I know that would of happend, id of done it on my first playthrough as a human :laugh4: I supported her still instead of Alister who didn't take it well compared to my first playthrough which leads to my second point.

What's up with Logane being a PC? That just blew my mind when it happend, just when I thought things would end up similiar to my first playthrough as a human, the game surprised me big time.

I take it my Elf's bethroed died in slavery? She didn't appear after I freed the Alienage plus she never appeared in the throne room after the queen took the crown and what not.

I'm wondering who to make for my 3rd playthrough, I think I might try out a Human mage and hope that when I make to the end, I can carry out the plan my Elf failed to do:7king: I'm very glad to see that the Humans are not limited to being nobels and that mage's have their own background story.

Has anyone done Morrigan's bidding? I haven't so far and it worries me to see what the prologue might say lol.

[Meneldil]

Having dabbled a bit, experimenting with different races and classes, I've concluded the following:

You always want to have direct control of the offense mage, especially if s/he has area effects. Healer can be adequately programmed from the tactics menu, as can the warriors.
It's just mean and cruel that the devs didn't include a knock or unlock chest spell. I would love to have a two mage/two warriors party, but the need to include a $%#(&! useless rogue always trips me up.
There are more than twice as many warrior companions as rogues or mages. This is irritating. In my (incomplete) experience, companions are 56% warriors, 22% mages and 22% rogues.
There are places where your PC will be forced to go solo, or jumped in front by a dialogue, making him/her the prime target of every mob on the map. This means that mages and rogues are going to be forced to tank at times whether they want to or not.
That said, it's best to take control of your tank when opening doors or rounding corners. There are other factors, but the first/nearest person a mob sees tends to be the target.
I would happily do with two fewer warrior companions in exchange for more rogue/mage variety.

These is my thoughts.

I second your thoughts about the companions. Most of them are warriors, which make the whole thing quite meh (which is even made worse by the fact they're all human looking except for Shale, the Dog and the dwarf). I think the game seriously lacks more playable characters, though I understand they're more fleshed out than they used to be in BG or even NWN.

As for the main character being put in front after dialogues and cutscenes, it has been that way since the days of NWN1. And it's been annoying since then, for whoever plays a caster or ranged class. I wish they'd start thinking about it someday. I personnaly always take control of the tank (Alistair or Shale), because otherwise my mage would end up dying whenever he'd meet archers or casters.

[Krusader]

Having dabbled a bit, experimenting with different races and classes, I've concluded the following:

You always want to have direct control of the offense mage, especially if s/he has area effects. Healer can be adequately programmed from the tactics menu, as can the warriors.
It's just mean and cruel that the devs didn't include a knock or unlock chest spell. I would love to have a two mage/two warriors party, but the need to include a $%#(&! useless rogue always trips me up.
There are more than twice as many warrior companions as rogues or mages. This is irritating. In my (incomplete) experience, companions are 56% warriors, 22% mages and 22% rogues.
There are places where your PC will be forced to go solo, or jumped in front by a dialogue, making him/her the prime target of every mob on the map. This means that mages and rogues are going to be forced to tank at times whether they want to or not.
That said, it's best to take control of your tank when opening doors or rounding corners. There are other factors, but the first/nearest person a mob sees tends to be the target.
I would happily do with two fewer warrior companions in exchange for more rogue/mage variety.

These is my thoughts.

NWN had "bash open chest" skill/ability I recall. Would have been fine having that too, as I've been forced to drag Leliana along just to disarm traps & open locks. Got Zevran too late.

Yes. Can't really see the difference between Oghren & Sten, except that
Oghren can teach you Berserker. I'd love to have seen Drunken Fighting of some sorts with him, but they probably used that up in Jade Empire.

Also, I'm wondering if I have to beef up Cunning past 16 for Persuasion attempts as Mage...haven't really seen any Mage-specific persuasion dialogue options.

[Mailman653]

Also, I'm wondering if I have to beef up Cunning past 16 for Persuasion attempts as Mage...haven't really seen any Mage-specific persuasion dialogue options.

Nothing like talking yourself out of a situation :2thumbsup:

[Crandaeolon]

I solved the party-forming problem (to get 2 or even 3 mages + rogue with enough tanking power) by making a tank mage with Spellpowered Arcane Shield, Rock Armor and Heroic Defense. 33 armor and 126 defense in spellcasting mode is nothing to sneer at, more than enough to survive putting up Storm of the Century, Force Field on self, and watching enemies get electrocuted.

And in Arcane Warrior mode... 63 armor, 153 defense, mental & physical resistance 100, others at 75%. Not bad for a flimsy little mageling. :grin: He doesn't have Taunt talents of course, but he's tough enough to get into the thick of it and whack away at things to generate threat, then you can send in the other dudes.

Still, playing a tank gets retarded pretty fast. I'd really like to shoot the guy who invented "threat" mechanics...

[Kekvit Irae]

Having dabbled a bit, experimenting with different races and classes, I've concluded the following:

It's just mean and cruel that the devs didn't include a knock or unlock chest spell. I would love to have a two mage/two warriors party, but the need to include a $%#(&! useless rogue always trips me up.

These is my thoughts.

Leliana, properly equipped and with the archery talents (notably Arrow of Slaying and Scattershot), is one of the best damage-dealing characters in the game. Not only that, but she has skill in lockpicking and disarming traps.
For my Arcane Warrior playthrough, I use Zevran. Momentum + Flaming Weapons + Frost Weapons + paralyze runes in each hand + backstabs = ouch.

Personally, I think the game does fine with just two mage companions. Three mages (two companions + you) can lock down any fight into a one-on-one battle. Six words: Force Shield, Crushing Prison, Blood Wound.

[Crandaeolon]

Agree wholeheartedly with Kek. Force Field, Crushing Prison, Blood Wound, Scattershot and AoS are among the best skills in the game. I'd probably rank FS the best.

[Krusader]

Got annoyed with having two rogues in party (Leliana was in solely because I needed her trap/locks skills) so downloaded the toolset and editted my Mage savegame. Swapped around on Zevran a bit so now he has Master Traps and Master Deft Hands (did not add any skills or talents, just removed some and added back, so Zevran has all the skills & abilities as a Level 14 Rogue). I would not call it cheating as Zevran himself said he was good with locks & traps (but as previously said, he didnt have a single point in eithre Trapmaking or Deft Hands when he joined my party)...but main reason is because I don't want Leliana in my party. Had her entire time last playthrough.

And annoying that it takes time to get Oghren too. Would have been nice with him on Carta cleanout quest. At least he is a straightforward warrior so he probably will have skills & talents pre-selected that are good.

Warden Commander Armor:
The set is actually leveled. If you get it at level 9 its tier4 armor stats, but at later levels on its higher. You can sell the armor to either Bodahn in party camp or Levi Dryden at Warden's Keep and then you can buy it back at higher tiers when you gain levels.

[Meneldil]

So, I actually had to use Morrigan's shapeshifting abilities today, which hadn't happened for quite some time (actually, since something like 10 hours in my first play through).

She turned into a bear (not yet dire bear), jumped on some mob, and hit it for...1. Slam hit for 8. Needless to say she got ran over.

Are the shapeshifting abilities tied to strenght and dexterity, or did I just happen to be fighting some heavily armored dude (though I'm pretty sure my other guys hit as strong as they used to)? That would really be a letdown for me, I'm not going to waste any point in these stats with Morrigan, or any other mage, for that matter.

[FactionHeir]

Never used them myself. Didn't seem worth investing in.

Regarding opening locks, after 1.5 playthroughs doing all sides, I can safely say that outside of a few rogue-main character only missions, you won't ever need a locksmith as there's nothing useful in locked crates outside of a few golds along the way and experience (which you get cheaply via elfroots/deep mushrooms).

Trap removal is more useful of course, but something anyone with a decent cunning score can do.

[seireikhaan]

Never used them myself. Didn't seem worth investing in.

Regarding opening locks, after 1.5 playthroughs doing all sides, I can safely say that outside of a few rogue-main character only missions, you won't ever need a locksmith as there's nothing useful in locked crates outside of a few golds along the way and experience (which you get cheaply via elfroots/deep mushrooms).

Trap removal is more useful of course, but something anyone with a decent cunning score can do.
I believe rogues are the only one's who can actually spot the traps, however. Personally, after not having a rogue the first playthrough, I have to say that having one the second go through has made things quite a bit easier, since I'm not bumbling into every trap laid out for me. :juggle2: Stealth, of course, helps disable the irritating buggers so you can safely disable any/all traps, then setting your own.

EDIT: Particularly fun moment when I bombed an emissary with flasks, slowly leading him away from his buddies and down a hallway as he chased a path of fruitlessness straight into a claw/soulrot/freeze trap combo for insta-death. :laugh4:

[al Roumi]

I believe rogues are the only one's who can actually spot the traps, however. Personally, after not having a rogue the first playthrough, I have to say that having one the second go through has made things quite a bit easier, since I'm not bumbling into every trap laid out for me. :juggle2: Stealth, of course, helps disable the irritating buggers so you can safely disable any/all traps, then setting your own.

EDIT: Particularly fun moment when I bombed an emissary with flasks, slowly leading him away from his buddies and down a hallway as he chased a path of fruitlessness straight into a claw/soulrot/freeze trap combo for insta-death. :laugh4:

AFAIK trap disabling is bundled with the lock-picking skill. I also read somewhere (on the interweb don'tcha know) that the lock pick/trap disable algorithm is based on a combination of both the skill level (1 to 4) and and the "cunning" attribute.

So this means that although a character of any class can train up to pick locks and disable traps, unless they invest in a suitable (not sure what level guarantees opening all chests) cunning score, they won't be that great at it. Of course, you also have to increase cunning to (afaik) 16 before you can unlock the tier 4 lockpick skill.

[rajpoot]

BTW has anyone managed to learn shape shifting from Morrigan yet? I had her disposition at 100 and even then she simply refused....

[Krusader]

BTW has anyone managed to learn shape shifting from Morrigan yet? I had her disposition at 100 and even then she simply refused....

I gave up and used my first character and bought the manual instead.

EDIT: For anyone interested Steam has 25% off Dragon Age: Origins (and lots of other games) now. Its only up for the next 26 hours.

[FactionHeir]

BTW has anyone managed to learn shape shifting from Morrigan yet? I had her disposition at 100 and even then she simply refused....

I got it when she was at warm. I think second time I asked her about it.
When you then ask her after that she will alwys refuse if she already taught you.

[frogbeastegg]

I got it when she was at warm.
Likewise.

[Beskar]

I bought the book. That is why she always refuses.

[Meneldil]

BTW has anyone managed to learn shape shifting from Morrigan yet? I had her disposition at 100 and even then she simply refused....

She's at 5 and taught me shapeshifting :inquisitive:

[Vladimir]

Well I finally got Easy Lover. Poor Liliana. My character is always sleeping around on her and she always gives me the 5 year old very stern look. Thank God for reloading.

Is anyone else having a problem suspending disbelief? I've gathered a good understanding of what goes for the passage of time in the game. I'm crawling through the Deep Roads thinking that the Darkspawn could have built a Sistine Chapel by now.

Again, there is no sense of urgency and the main plot quests detract from the main plot itself. In Morrowind the side quests and richness of the world detracted from the main plot but there was so much else.

[Meneldil]

Is anyone else having a problem suspending disbelief? I've gathered a good understanding of what goes for the passage of time in the game. I'm crawling through the Deep Roads thinking that the Darkspawn could have built a Sistine Chapel by now.

Again, there is no sense of urgency and the main plot quests detract from the main plot itself. In Morrowind the side quests and richness of the world detracted from the main plot but there was so much else.

I agree in a way. The fact that the player can leave Orzammar, go back to the Warden Keep to unload his inventory, then spend some time in the camp to chatter and cure his injuries, than travel all the way back to Orzammar and to the Deep Roads, while the world is supposedly about to collapse is an immersion killer.

But then, honestly, this is not something specific to DA:O. It felt just the same in NWN2 when you had to gather your allies before fighting the thing-that-is-strangely-similar-to-the-Blight-but-is-not-the-Blight.
BG2 : Holy crap, we have to rescue Imoen right now! Gods know what Irenicus might be doing to her. But first let's go on some sidequesting, dragon-killing and exploring.


Onto another topic:
Something that really bothers me with modern RPGs, and especially with Dragon Age, is that everything has a purpose. Longs are gone the days of BG1 and its dozen of useless map. I remember that exploring the world took quite some time in BG1. You could rush in for the main plot, or decide to wander around and explore everything, the several maps (some of them didn't even have a single sidequest), the dozens of houses and buildings.
Things changed with BG2 already, as every single map had a purpose (possibly with a whole subplot: you knew you'd find some guy handing you quests and what not).
Now, with DA:O, you don't even have subplot anymore. If you can open a door, it means that there's something to do inside the building. If you can talk to some guy, it means he's going to give you a quest (that's going to be completed while following the main plot) or a Codex entry. The only things similar to a subplot is the choice between good and evil you're given every once in a while (side with these guys or those guys) and the two DLC's (which are both subpar compared to BG1 or 2 subplots). And that's about it.

I understand a game could hardly offer as many "useless" areas nowadays as it did for BG1, mostly because it was easier to develop an area in 2D with poor graphics than it is to with 3D badassness. But I mean, what about a few of those? At least so I can get the feeling that the world is somewhat open.

[Vladimir]

:laugh4:

True. I still remember the surprise, excitement, and a bit of terror in the original Baldur's Gate when the main character was poisoned. There was a hard deadline and if you didn't make it and made a bad decision on saves, the game was over.

While the tactical quests are done well they don't fit well into the overall mosaic. Still, I'm having fun "vivisecting" rooms with my rogue. I've thought about using the XP exploit so I can wade through rooms of baddies on the hardest level.

Oh; does anyone else feel the sexual tension between Alister and Morganawhatshername? It would be nice to see NPC's hook up and develop a relationship.

[Mailman653]

Hmm....well I had Sten on my second playthrough, and Morrigan was deffintely coming on to him (eventhough she was with me) but Sten spooked her which is an accomplishment.

[Ja'chyra]

I got to admit, I got bored with the game very easy. A few things that bugged me are that you can't go back to areas once they are complete, the "There's no reason to go here" message was particularly annoying.

I also don't see the point of sex in computer games, that's just one step to far towards geek to me.

[Vladimir]

Hmm....well I had Sten on my second playthrough, and Morrigan was deffintely coming on to him (eventhough she was with me) but Sten spooked her which is an accomplishment.



Interesting. I will create a warrior/mage character soon, maybe before the first playthrough is ended, and won't have her next time.

IRL my heart would bleed for that woman.

[Meneldil]

Hmm....well I had Sten on my second playthrough, and Morrigan was deffintely coming on to him (eventhough she was with me) but Sten spooked her which is an accomplishment.


Orlhen : "Oh girl, what I would do with you"
Morrigan : "Eww, it's staring at me. Again."
Orlhen : "Oups, did I say that out loud?"
That's not the exact quote, but it was something like that.

[Vladimir]

(It's a slow day)

Has anyone found a use for the massive, slow weapons? When I see that old dwarf swing a massive axe I'm able to get in a yawn before he strikes. All that armor must really slow him down. I do love drakeskin armor, daggers, and backstab. You can land so many hits in such a short period of time. Alister is only there to take damage while I backstab. That big softie always dies and my faithful hound has carried me through many a fight.

[Chaotix]

That's not the exact quote, but it was something like that.

I got that conversation yesterday in Caridin's Cross. I also got one between Oghren and Leliana:

Oghren basically asks Leliana if the Chantry sisters wear any clothes under their robes. :laugh4:

I love this guy. He's so obsessed about his wife, and yet he's constantly making drunken remarks about all the other female party members.

[Monk]

Put Oghren and Wynne in a party together. You'd be surprised. :laugh4:

spoilers on their first conversation
Ohgren makes a special brew and demands Wynne try some, thinking it'll be too much for her. To his surprise, she loves it. Not only that but she can identify nearly every ingredient. Turns out drinking is almost a hobby of hers, of which Ohgren is quite surprised by.


"I'm gonna take you behind that rock there and..!"

[Vladimir]

That's not so much a surprise given what gifts she prefers.

[Zenicetus]

I understand a game could hardly offer as many "useless" areas nowadays as it did for BG1, mostly because it was easier to develop an area in 2D with poor graphics than it is to with 3D badassness. But I mean, what about a few of those? At least so I can get the feeling that the world is somewhat open.

For a recent game, I think Fallout 3 did a good job of offering an open world with plenty to do outside the main plot. You aren't told, fresh out of the Vault, that the fate of the entire World hangs on your shoulders, as in DA:O or Mass Effect. There was a building sense of urgency if you rushed down the main plot line, but it wasn't presented that way in the early stages. The main plot unfolded slowly, or not at all, if you wanted to spend time exploring the whole game world first.

(mild main plot spoiler if you haven't played F3):

In fact, the main plot in F3 has a curiously low-key goal for a game like this. You're just improving the local conditions a bit, to favor one side of a conflict between the power armor camps. It was so low-key that one of the DLC's was an attempt to give it a bit more weight, more of a wrap-up of that conflict. But it was still just a small scale thing compared to the grand scale of events in DA:O or Mass Effect. I think that's a good design for an RPG, actually. Not every game has to be about saving the world. There are interesting stories to tell on a smaller scale, although the main one in F3 wasn't very good (IMO), and mainly served as a way to introduce some eye candy at the main story line's conclusion.
The Witcher was like that too, although without as large a region to explore. The game's intro revealed a plot and purpose, but it unfolded slowly. It was more like a mystery novel than an urgent plot pushing at your back all the time, like in DA:O.

After finishing my first play through of DA:O I'm trying to decide if I have the patience for another play-through. I had fun with most of the game the first time through, but there some sequences that feel more like filler than real content... just grinding through endless enemies for the sake of a level-up. For example, most of the Deep Road, or the Mage Tower main quest. I'm not sure I'd have the patience to do all that again, just for the sake of trying out some different combat tactics. Maybe I'll just wait for the first DLC campaign, or user mod campaign.

[Beskar]

I also don't see the point of sex in computer games, that's just one step to far towards geek to me.

But sex in a film and sex in a book is ok? I am not even talking pornography here, just general mainstream. The "sex" part is part of the actual story. The scenes definitely aren't you whipping out your manhood and giving it a bash.

[Zenicetus]

I also don't see the point of sex in computer games, that's just one step to far towards geek to me.

I don't mind it, especially when it's in context within the story being told. If sex can be an intrinsic part of many of the world's great novels, then why shouldn't it be in a computer game that's trying to tell a great story? Even if you take a game like this as more of a "fantasy simulation," there would be obvious tensions and attractions between a party of adventurers like this, especially at the fairly young age most of the characters are represented as. Given the fantasy setting, the sexual attractions in DA:O between party members are probably the most realistic thing in the game.

Same thing in Mass Effect. Talk to anyone who's been at sea for any length of time, on a ship with a mixed sex crew. :beam: The only thing unrealistic about Mass Effect is how long it takes for those relationships to develop.

What I don't like though, is seeing it done in hideously bad 3D character animation like in DA:O. The animation in DA:O is optimized for the way characters look in combat. They don't have enough articulation for any believable sex scene, even ones that are just hinted at, with a PG rating like this. It's like watching someone play with Barbie and Ken dolls. The Witcher and Mass Effect both did it better, with carefully chosen camera angles and blurring to hide the inability of the 3D character models to look realistic in that mode.

[Meneldil]

What I don't like though, is seeing it done in hideously bad 3D character animation like in DA:O. The animation in DA:O is optimized for the way characters look in combat. They don't have enough articulation for any believable sex scene, even ones that are just hinted at, with a PG rating like this. It's like watching someone play with Barbie and Ken dolls. The Witcher and Mass Effect both did it better, with carefully chosen camera angles and blurring to hide the inability of the 3D character models to look realistic in that mode.

Agreed. Old games had sex too (BG2 for example), but you didn't have to watch them. Honestly, I could have done without seeing a poorly animated Alistair doing his poorly animated work.

[Vladimir]

Eighty-seven hours, thirty-one seconds. Yes, there were reloads but that's pretty much straight through.

I have really mixed feelings about this game. The gameplay itself wasn't very good but the voice acting, cinematics, and most other features were excellent. I just wish it wasn't so damn frustrating to play.

Oh, I'm officially in love with Morrigan. Were this Japan, I'd marry the girl (re: backroom thread). Claudia...oh yea. :love:

[Lemur]

It's nice to see a wingnut rag like WorldNetDaily noticing videogames (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=117131) now and then.


Players have dirty 'gay' sex in hit game

Trendy Christmas gift features characters naked, kissing in homosexual embrace

A popular role-playing combat video game featuring graphic homosexual sex between a man and an elf has hit store shelves just in time for Christmas.

"Dragon Age: Origins," released Nov. 3 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, depicts two men in various sex positions in a secret scene of homosexual seduction. [...]

The video cuts to a scene in which the two men are dirty, naked and kissing. They are depicted in various homosexual sex positions, and the clip concludes with the two nestling together and gazing into one another's eyes. [...]

[A] young boy possessed by a demon declares, "You'll never win! You'll never take him! He's mine!"

The child is slain, and a female demon with horns and a tail emerges from his corpse.

Isn't it fun when opinionators attempt to filter our pastime through their stupid-colored glasses? Two questions: Where's the "dirty" coming from? The only disfiguration of the characters are those outrageous blood splatters; there is no dirt on the models. And why is "gay" in quotes in the title? Are they saying it isn't gay?

[Vladimir]

Where did they get "secret" from? As I said, everyone knows elves are (at the very least) bisexual. Zevran was blatant.

As if the Mature rating wasn't enough. My playthrough was PG-13ish, as usual. I thought the scene was funny.

[Centurion1]

theres no requirement to have gay sex.... just ignore it. i do.

so anyone have problems with revenants? i do even at like level 12 and has anyone got all the silverite juggernaut armor from elves quest all i need is the chest armor...... and then sten has full silverite including weapon and shield.

please advise

[Xiahou]

so anyone have problems with revenants? i do even at like level 12 and has anyone got all the silverite juggernaut armor from elves quest all i need is the chest armor...... and then sten has full silverite including weapon and shield.

please advise
Yeah, I found the revenants to be some of the toughest fights thus far. What worked for me was to have one warrior tank them, I used Sten, while I cleaned up all of the miscellaneous undead that spawn. Afterwards, myself and the rest of the party switch to ranged weapons to attack the revenant. Revenants can hit multiple party members for big damage at melee range- your healers will never keep up. So the plan is the focus your healing on one party member while everyone else takes it apart at a safe distance.

[Lemur]

A slightly different take on revenants:
Blast them repeatedly with the cone of cold spell. Doesn't damage them much, but it roots 'em and prevents their l33t melee skills from wailing on your party. A single mage can keep the revenant under control for the entire encounter.

[seireikhaan]

A slightly different take on revenants:
Blast them repeatedly with the cone of cold spell. Doesn't damage them much, but it roots 'em and prevents their l33t melee skills from wailing on your party. A single mage can keep the revenant under control for the entire encounter.
Yup. Definitely the best strategy I've found. Of course, take out the rest of their undead buddies first, and just do your best to minimize the damage from the revenant.

[Meneldil]

If you have Shale, stock him up with fire items. Have a mage use Fire weapons (do not use Ice weapons).
As said, the best way to beat them is to chain cone of ice them. Ice spells don't harm revenants, but they still can froze them. Then, simply shoot at them while they're frozen. Having ranged characters is better, but you can still defeat them with three melees, as long as you have a mage than can chain freeze them.

Talking about that, am I the only one who find cone of ice to be completely and ridiculously overpowered? Back in BG, and in most RPG's I know, uber spells such as this one, power word: death and what not wouldn't work on bosses. In DA:O, you can use cone of ice against pretty much everyone, even dragons or ice based creatures (such as revenants), making most fights trivial if you have two mages.

[Monk]

If you have Shale, stock him up with fire items. Have a mage use Fire weapons (do not use Ice weapons).
As said, the best way to beat them is to chain cone of ice them. Ice spells don't harm revenants, but they still can froze them. Then, simply shoot at them while they're frozen. Having ranged characters is better, but you can still defeat them with three melees, as long as you have a mage than can chain freeze them.

Talking about that, am I the only one who find cone of ice to be completely and ridiculously overpowered? Back in BG, and in most RPG's I know, uber spells such as this one, power word: death and what not wouldn't work on bosses. In DA:O, you can use cone of ice against pretty much everyone, even dragons or ice based creatures (such as revenants), making most fights trivial if you have two mages.

Ive been thinking the same and it's almost made my mage playthrough boring. The amount of control in any given fight I have paired with Morrigan is absurd, I think i've only died once in the 17 or so hours i've done on my mage. After the second plot quest I let Morrigan hang around the camp instead of coming with me, it's just too powerful a combo. :no:

[al Roumi]

Talking about that, am I the only one who find cone of ice to be completely and ridiculously overpowered? Back in BG, and in most RPG's I know, uber spells such as this one, power word: death and what not wouldn't work on bosses. In DA:O, you can use cone of ice against pretty much everyone, even dragons or ice based creatures (such as revenants), making most fights trivial if you have two mages.


Ive been thinking the same and it's almost made my mage playthrough boring. The amount of control in any given fight I have paired with Morrigan is absurd, I think i've only died once in the 17 or so hours i've done on my mage. After the second plot quest I let Morrigan hang around the camp instead of coming with me, it's just too powerful a combo. :no:

BG had a much wider range of spells you could use -along with more tactical options due to the deeper classes and 6 characters (+Summoning) you could have in your party at any time. I remember fighting the shadow dragon and calling forth every creature i had access to -even giberlings!

"Orange" bosses in DA:O do have much higher resistance to all spells, which also covers how long they are affected by them. Fighting the archdemon or Flemeth, I remember CoC only lasting a heartbeat on them. Nonetheless, I agree that most corridor fights become a little too easy, that said I've only been playing on Medium/Normal. Maybe time to up the difficulty...

[FactionHeir]

Ah yes, disintegrate FTW! :grin:

[Centurion1]

about the juggernaout quest

but in the forest wheres the last piece of juggernaut armor? i found gauntlets and helm, and also the legs but wheres the chestplate? is there one?

[al Roumi]

about the juggernaout quest

but in the forest wheres the last piece of juggernaut armor? i found gauntlets and helm, and also the legs but wheres the chestplate? is there one?

AFAIK you can ask the trader/smith/crafter guy in the Dalish camp to make you either a bow or a breatplate from the Iron Bark he asks you to bring him, does that complete the set?

[Meneldil]

about the juggernaout quest

but in the forest wheres the last piece of juggernaut armor? i found gauntlets and helm, and also the legs but wheres the chestplate? is there one?

It's inside the ruins. You have to complete some quest to open a door. There you'll find the chest. Can't remember the quest itself though.

[Monk]

It's inside the ruins. You have to complete some quest to open a door. There you'll find the chest. Can't remember the quest itself though.

I believe it's this one (http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Elven_Ritual).

[rajpoot]

Yup, that is it.
Just follow the boy.....Mind you, he'll lead you past a Dragon...you'll hear roars or something before you get there though....At the very end, you'll come across a hall with this sarcophagus, guarded by an elven spirit once you finish her off the armour is yours.
Too bad they don't have some sort of key to the 'elvish' language.....would've loved to know what the woman screams before she attacks....
Her and those songs.....still can't find lyrics anywhere.....:wall:
On another not, IMO, Wade's superior Dragonbone Armour is better that the Juggernaut armour....I mean it makes the fire damage almost zero.....I equipped my warrior with it and turned on Indomitable....then got my mage to fire inferno and stuff.....game became a breeze there after.

[Centurion1]

yeah but i like having full sets of armor.


right now i have Alistair wearing the templar armor.... simply because it looks so awesome with that helmet.

oh i did the jug thing but i thought when you summoned the two shades that was it..... oh silly me that doesnt even make sense. was there a point in the mages circle to summoning the three creatures?

[Lemur]

Somebody with too much time on their hands discovered a way to have a foursome (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqPM1yKmn8) in DA. Yikes! Let's just be thankful that this plays out with no animation. I'm not sure my tender eyeballs are ready for a poorly animated FFFM encounter.

[Scienter]

Ive been thinking the same and it's almost made my mage playthrough boring. The amount of control in any given fight I have paired with Morrigan is absurd, I think i've only died once in the 17 or so hours i've done on my mage. After the second plot quest I let Morrigan hang around the camp instead of coming with me, it's just too powerful a combo. :no:

I'm playing a warrior and I didn't use Morrigan hardly at all after I got Wynne because my party needed a healer. But, once Morrigan leveled enough for me to give her Spirit Healer, I use her instead of Wynne. I can definitely see how Morrigan + PC mage could be overpowered.

[Mailman653]

Somebody with too much time on their hands discovered a way to have a foursome (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqPM1yKmn8) in DA. Yikes! Let's just be thankful that this plays out with no animation. I'm not sure my tender eyeballs are ready for a poorly animated FFFM encounter.

That video is hillarious, and look at Liliana, watching no less :laugh4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hkf2VM_CvU&feature=video_response
Another with Alistair proving he has more than just Darkspawn in the head.

[FactionHeir]

No animation involved in any of the Isabela scenes.

[TinCow]

Having finished the game, I definitely agree it doesn't qualify as 'dark.' Sure, there are plenty of morally ambiguous choices to make, but the game is so consistently humorous that it's hard to categorize it as dark at all. Alister, Shale, Oghren, and Zevran seem to be almost totally devoted to comic relief, and that's about half of your entire party right there. I can't even remember a single NPC-to-NPC banter that wasn't amusing in some manner. It's hard to be 'dark' when jokes are being cracked in nearly every dialog.

[Vladimir]

Hell! I even have a hard time getting laid in a computer game. :laugh4:

[Veho Nex]

lol

[Krusader]

I don't know what the hell happened, but now I got a new DLC called "The Edge" AND it screwed up Stone Prisoner at least. When I try to talk to Shale, I get the first two dialogue options up...Activate or Leave Golem. Otherwise works fine, but not knowing what got happen with Soldier's Peak too, so had to reload a savegame for 2 hours earlier. Bleh.

Also, there are so far 3-4 massive armor sets in the game (with DLCs), but only one for rogues and none for mages. Really wish Bioware could have added some good stuff for rogues & mages too.

[Vladimir]

Drakeskin armor. If you're a mage and want armor, choose spellsword.

[Scienter]

Hell! I even have a hard time getting laid in a computer game. :laugh4:

:laugh4: I had no problem getting laid, but I did get dumped.

[Meneldil]

Do you all use your bioware social account stuff at all? Maybe we could create a the Org group or something, though I'm not even sure what the use would be.

[al Roumi]

Having finished the game, I definitely agree it doesn't qualify as 'dark.' Sure, there are plenty of morally ambiguous choices to make, but the game is so consistently humorous that it's hard to categorize it as dark at all. Alister, Shale, Oghren, and Zevran seem to be almost totally devoted to comic relief, and that's about half of your entire party right there. I can't even remember a single NPC-to-NPC banter that wasn't amusing in some manner. It's hard to be 'dark' when jokes are being cracked in nearly every dialog.

I agree, the more serious momments almost clash with the general levity. And then it can be really hard to tell when NPCs are being sarcastic or serious -or when your responses are funny or not! Anyway, its not like you are fighting to save the world, just a measley rump of it: Ferelden. Who in Orlais (for example) gave a :daisy: about what was going on?

That said, brood mothers are a bit dark... but what's the deal with their tentacles?

[Monk]

Anyway, its not like you are fighting to save the world, just a measley rump of it: Ferelden. Who in Orlais (for example) gave a :daisy: about what was going on?

Aside from the Grey Wardens, likely no one. Not until well after Fereldan fell to the Blight and it becomes their problem would Orlais or any other nation truly care. The nation you're fighting to save doesn't have the best international relations. :book:

[al Roumi]

Aside from the Grey Wardens, likely no one. Not until well after Fereldan fell to the Blight and it becomes their problem would Orlais or any other nation truly care. The nation you're fighting to save doesn't have the best international relations. :book:

:doff: (can we have an emoticon which represents "doffing my hat" please?)

Fair enough, but I think there was some comment from Alastari after killing the Archdemon, along the lines of: "Great, we did it! And before it even spread further than Ferelden" -So all that was just for a minor blight? pah. I should just have thrown some old bread crusts on Shale if I wanted to face a real challenge.

[Vladimir]

Do you all use your bioware social account stuff at all? Maybe we could create a the Org group or something, though I'm not even sure what the use would be.

I don't because I find the forums difficult to read. However, if others here want to establish some kind of joint account there I'll reactivate my own. I'm quite impressed with my rogue.

[Mailman653]

:doff: (can we have an emoticon which represents "doffing my hat" please?)

Fair enough, but I think there was some comment from Alastari after killing the Archdemon, along the lines of: "Great, we did it! And before it even spread further than Ferelden" -So all that was just for a minor blight? pah. I should just have thrown some old bread crusts on Shale if I wanted to face a real challenge.

Well, there is supposed to be three more blights :yes: Although I think the time span from the last blight to the current blight was over century so if there ever was another (another game) things would look very different, who knows maybe the 5th? blight will cover a larger region.

[Meneldil]

:doff: (can we have an emoticon which represents "doffing my hat" please?)

Fair enough, but I think there was some comment from Alastari after killing the Archdemon, along the lines of: "Great, we did it! And before it even spread further than Ferelden" -So all that was just for a minor blight? pah. I should just have thrown some old bread crusts on Shale if I wanted to face a real challenge.

Blights are pretty badass. As I understood it when going through the Deep Roads, when Darkspawns reach the surface, it means thing are going pretty bad. The fact that this one started in Ferelden doesn't make it any less important I think.

Various factors make me thing this wasn't a small blight, or a blight-light:
- Orlais offered its help, or somehow was going to help, though we don't hear much about them after Ostragar.
- The Qunari (who AFAIK have never been defeated so far) sent a group of warriors to Ferelden to see what's going on.
- One of the two last dwarven taigs decide to send help to the surface.

Now, as discussed earlier, the game fails pretty much at creating any feeling of urgency or impending doom, but I think it's pretty clear that the Blight is not something to be underestimated, as Loghain is doing.

And yeah, the game kind of fail at being Dark (tm), despite having cadavres and blood all over the place. Every banter is indeed funny, and the only places that really made me feel sad were the Deep Roads. Apart from this part, Diablo I was darker and scarrier than DA:O.

[Zenicetus]

I'm playing a warrior and I didn't use Morrigan hardly at all after I got Wynne because my party needed a healer. But, once Morrigan leveled enough for me to give her Spirit Healer, I use her instead of Wynne. I can definitely see how Morrigan + PC mage could be overpowered.

It did feel that way in my first play-through as a mage, with Morrigan always in the party. It;s not just the spell power, it's the way mages aren't as squishy in this game as they typically are in D&D-based games, or games that follow those conventions. Aggro attraction is very low if you stick with mage robes and no armor. It's a useful dynamic for making sure a tank does what a tank is supposed to do (if you put maximum heavy armor on him), but it might be a little overbalanced in the other direction for mages wearing just robes.

There is still some aggro attraction from damage-dealing spells, but if a few extra points are put into dexterity and enough into willpower, you can nuke everything in sight and not get hit very often (or spells interrupted) even when surrounded by melee-type enemies. I was in countless situations in my first game where either I'd be surrounded by enemies, or Morrigan would be surrounded, with the tank busy elsewhere, and I'd figure... "okay, mage wipe in 3,2,1..." But it seldom happened. Mages are a little too tough in this game.

Now in my second playthrough as a Rogue, I still spend very little time running back to protect Morrigan or Wynn. It doesn't feel right. But then, I'm still carrying some D&D and WoW ideas about mages and priests into this game. I guess this is the way Bioware wants it to be.


Also, there are so far 3-4 massive armor sets in the game (with DLCs), but only one for rogues and none for mages. Really wish Bioware could have added some good stuff for rogues & mages too.

Agreed, although it isn't quite "none" for mages. There are two or three special robes and one special hat (AFAIK), but no boot/glove/hat/ sets with bonuses. I don't mind the lack of set bonuses that much; it's mainly just the lack of visual variety as you progress through a fairly long game like this. I got tired of seeing the same silly hats on my mage and Morrigan through the whole game.

Variety in Rogue armor is also sadly missing, especially since they're combining the D&D Ranger idea with Rogues into a single class. You'd expect different needs in armor types and associated buffs for those two variants. I miss the cool black leather Ninja-type armor you could put on a Rogue in Neverwinter Night games. The light armor in DA:O just doesn't look like what my idea of a Rogue would wear... especially one spec'd for stealth. Too many clinking and clanking metal bits on the armor, for one thing.

I'd also agree with the earlier comments about comedy trumping any "dark" elements in the game. The closest Bioware came to any kind of dark story line was in the Orzimar/Deep Road quest line involving the extremely nasty way that golems are made. But the game only touched on it lightly, without taking it as far as they could have. That was a real blown opportunity, I think. Especially since they wrote Shale as comedy relief, without dealing with that aspect at all in Shale's back story.

[Monk]

Blights are pretty badass. As I understood it when going through the Deep Roads, when Darkspawns reach the surface, it means thing are going pretty bad. The fact that this one started in Ferelden doesn't make it any less important I think.

Various factors make me thing this wasn't a small blight, or a blight-light:
- Orlais offered its help, or somehow was going to help, though we don't hear much about them after Ostragar.
- The Qunari (who AFAIK have never been defeated so far) sent a group of warriors to Ferelden to see what's going on.
- One of the two last dwarven taigs decide to send help to the surface.

Now, as discussed earlier, the game fails pretty much at creating any feeling of urgency or impending doom, but I think it's pretty clear that the Blight is not something to be underestimated, as Loghain is doing.

I believe the point is, given time, a Blight grows to an unmanageable size and overruns nations by sheer weight of force. IMHO, Duncan gets lucky at the start of the game and stumbles upon evidence that Darksapwn are massing - giving Fereldan the chance at a pre-emptive strike.

The ending of the game, final mission:
Your assault on Denerim is practically suicidal. You're outnumbered 3-1 and your main objective is a quick-strike. Assassinate the Arch-demon and hope the Darkspawn lose their will and run.
This isn't a small Blight, Fereldan just gets very lucky imo.


On Orlais offering help.
Orlais offering help wasn't actually the government of Orlais, it was the Grey Wardens of orlais who were on the way to reinforce Duncan, but they are still distrusted thanks to their country of origin.

[rajpoot]

The one really serious conversation in the game,
...is the one with the Guardian I think......They did the mountain and the ruined temple bit very well.....
BTW in the deep roads, you can convince the leader of the Legion of the Dead, to help you fight the blight on the surface....or it's after the dwarven king is chosen, I think....don't exactly remember.....But does that make any difference? He said yes, but I did not see and special representative at the camp, or any special reinforcements at the end.....
And also in the battle of Denerim, of the five reinforcement slots, only four were filled.....

And how does one give the dwarven representative the gems, the Arl Eamon soldier the gold and the elves the raw material? They say it'll help in the war effort, but I never understood how to do it...?

[Monk]

The one really serious conversation in the game,
...is the one with the Guardian I think......They did the mountain and the ruined temple bit very well.....
BTW in the deep roads, you can convince the leader of the Legion of the Dead, to help you fight the blight on the surface....or it's after the dwarven king is chosen, I think....don't exactly remember.....But does that make any difference? He said yes, but I did not see and special representative at the camp, or any special reinforcements at the end.....
And also in the battle of Denerim, of the five reinforcement slots, only four were filled.....

And how does one give the dwarven representative the gems, the Arl Eamon soldier the gold and the elves the raw material? They say it'll help in the war effort, but I never understood how to do it...?


The legion in the final battle:

They come with the dwarves. You'll see them sprinkled through-out the dwarven units, one in every so many is a Legion of the Dead member holding a big 2-handed axe.

[Krusader]

The one really serious conversation in the game,
...is the one with the Guardian I think......They did the mountain and the ruined temple bit very well.....
BTW in the deep roads, you can convince the leader of the Legion of the Dead, to help you fight the blight on the surface....or it's after the dwarven king is chosen, I think....don't exactly remember.....But does that make any difference? He said yes, but I did not see and special representative at the camp, or any special reinforcements at the end.....
And also in the battle of Denerim, of the five reinforcement slots, only four were filled.....

And how does one give the dwarven representative the gems, the Arl Eamon soldier the gold and the elves the raw material? They say it'll help in the war effort, but I never understood how to do it...?


As I understood you hand them in at the Allied Supply Crate behind Leliana and Oghren (Emissaries from the elves, Eamon's mercenaries etc. stand right behind the crates again. Just interact with the crate and you can hand in stuff. As I understand it either gives more soldiers at final battle or makes them stronger or both. But you also get some xp out of it handing in resources. There is even a trick to get to level 25 by just handing in stuff for the Elves.

[Vladimir]

The legion in the final battle:

They come with the dwarves. You'll see them sprinkled through-out the dwarven units, one in every so many is a Legion of the Dead member holding a big 2-handed axe.

Interesting. I didn't use reinforcements much. The blight was so disappointing. On hard I killed all "white" named blight with a single arrow. I also love using the rogue/mage spotter/indirect fire combo.

[Mailman653]

:doff: (can we have an emoticon which represents "doffing my hat" please?)


http://forum.piratesahoy.net//public/style_emoticons/default/doff.gif

[Beskar]

Manged to be able tp play the DLC. However, it came across to one of my pet hates about the game, you cannot save anyone from the Desire Demon (except for that brat in main quest line).

[seireikhaan]

Manged to be able tp play the DLC. However, it came across to one of my pet hates about the game, you cannot save anyone from the Desire Demon (except for that brat in main quest line).
From what I've interpreted, each desire demon is different. They're a class of demon, just like there's classes of abominations and rages and so forth. Think of it not as "oh no, its the Desire Demon! Think of it as "Oh no, a desire demon!" :beam:

[Mailman653]

They say there are Pride demons but I don't think I've run into any, has anyone else?

[Monk]

They say there are Pride demons but I don't think I've run into any, has anyone else?

Pride demon location. Mage tower spoils
The final boss fight in the Mage Tower, Uldred is possessed by a Pride Demon.

[Meneldil]

There's another one in the Deep Roads. You'll have to find 3 body parts, and put them together on an altar found in one of the Thaigs.

A Pride Demon will appear. You'll be allowed to either let him go for 25 sovereigns (in which case you'll apparently hear from him again at some point), or to kill him for a semi-random piece of loot (it is said that you can get an Ice Sword, I killed him about 15 times and only got a basic dwarven massive armor).

[frogbeastegg]

It's been a little over one month since release. Most people here who wanted to play the game appear to have reached the end of their first games. With that being the case:


This thread may now return to standard arena spoiler policy. Hide anything big, surprising or special in tags, but otherwise feel free to discuss openly.



On the subject of demons, I wondered whether Loghain might have become the host of a pride demon or similar. Seems to be the only way to account for the massive descrepancy between what we're told he did and used to be, and what he is in the game.

[rajpoot]

Was just reading the wiki entry on Epilogues, and apparently,

There are so many different ending for each character that it's hard to consciously work to get a specific ending....
For instance one of the Morrigan ending confirms that she is actually a better person than she seems to be near the ending. If the player has the Surveyor equipped at endgame, you get the message saying that the warden could feel Morrigan's feelings of regret and sorrow, and goes searching for her.

[Lemur]

On the subject of demons, I wondered whether Loghain might have become the host of a pride demon or similar. Seems to be the only way to account for the massive descrepancy between what we're told he did and used to be, and what he is in the game.
Either that or he stopped taking his meds. Mebbe Loghain just needs a regular dose of lithium to keep the voices at bay.

[Greyblades]

On the subject of demons, I wondered whether Loghain might have become the host of a pride demon or similar. Seems to be the only way to account for the massive descrepancy between what we're told he did and used to be, and what he is in the game.
I somewhat doubt that, most demon posessions turn the recipient into an abomination and the only character that was possessed and didn't mutate or anything had moments when the original person broke through. Allthough on the other hand that was a desire demon so a more powerful pride demon might be better at suppressing the host's mind.

[Lemur]

I somewhat doubt that, most demon posessions turn the recipient into an abomination and the only character that was possessed and didn't mutate or anything had moments when the original person broke through.
Actually, there are two people you have dialogue with who are both possessed and sane. They are:
Wynne and Flemeth.

[Greyblades]

True but Wyne is more accompanied than possessed by a benevolent spirit and Its suggested that flemeth beat the demon inside her and added it to her power.

[Zenicetus]

I think Loghain was written as a classic military leader type: the once pure hero from humble origins (he was a farmer), turned to the dark side by obsession with victory and control. Basically a Mao Zedong type, with the Orlesians standing in for the Japanese. Or maybe Fidel Castro; there's that bit in the back story about how he joined Maric's rebels, lived in the wilds for a while, etc.

So I think basic human nature is enough to describe his motivations without demonic possession. I got the impression he was still trying to deal with the Blight and unify the kingdom, as long as it was done his way. A demon wouldn't have cared about any of that. Just my $.02 opinion... maybe we'll find out in a sequel that other things were involved.

[frogbeastegg]

There are examples in the game where the person didn't visibly deform, including a certain boy in the main plot and a certain soldier in a side quest in the mage tower main quest. IMO there were points in the story where Loghain's behaviour took a noticably different line. In particular

When defeated at the Landsmeet. In the blink of an eye he goes from suddenly doing everything he can to hang on to power and bull along on his own path to meekly standing there without any particular care while you execute him in front of his own daughter and allies. It's like whatever was manipulating him dropped the strings and he was left standing there with the realisation he'd destroyed everything he'd spent his life working to create.

His attitude towards his daughter was inconsistent too. Sometimes he's concerned, others he seems on the verge of harming - even killing - her. I know she's annoying but surely she's not that bad :winkg:

If he's been possessed then it must have happened quite some time ago. His plans aren't the sort you can put together and execute in a short time. Coupled with pride demons being the strongest variety, I wouldn't be that surprised if a less obvious variety of possession would be possible.

Course, the other explanation for Loghain is bad writing. That accounts for everything, from mood shifts to the lack of sync between stated personality and actions. Ordinarily I'd choose this option without second thought; the other characters in DA:O were done well enough that I'm not comfortable to do that.

I just don't find it believable that a man described repeatedly as extremely loyal and decent would spend half his life fighting to free his kingdom and set the rightful bloodline back on the throne only to turn about and blast it all to pieces in the face of a massive threat.

I can't see any of his actions as likely to help the kingdom. Destroy it, yes. Save it, nope.

[Monk]

Course, the other explanation for Loghain is bad writing. That accounts for everything, from mood shifts to the lack of sync between stated personality and actions. Ordinarily I'd choose this option without second thought; the other characters in DA:O were done well enough that I'm not comfortable to do that.



A wizard did it.

[Lemur]

There are examples in the game where the person didn't visibly deform, including a certain boy in the main plot and a certain soldier in a side quest in the mage tower main quest.
Weeeeelll, not to nitpick, but the soldier is lost in a make-believe world, and is just beginning his association with a certain scantily-clad demon. Who knows where it would go given a week or so? Same thing with the boy, we're given to understand that he's been possessed for just a couple of days, coinciding with the beasties attacking a certain village.

In terms of long-term possessed/visited/franchised NPCs, there are two who have been able to go long-term without physically deforming or going bat-guano crazy. In fact, there are very specific dialogue trees dealing with this phenomenon. "Aren't abomination usually insane horrors?" and "If you keep your humanity, then you can't be a real abomination," etc.

-edit-

Of course, there's a certain kitty-cat who's been possessed for Gah-knows-how-long, and it still looks like a kitty. Kind of throws a wrench in the long-term-possession-makes-you-deformed theory.

[Meneldil]

Only mages turn into abominations when possessed. I don't think there's any clue in game that would suggest your average guy does mutate as well.

Wynne and Flemeth both keep their form, so do the kid the soldier and the cat (possessed by Desire Demons) and Uldred (possessed by a Pride Demon).
AFAIK, the only possessed character who's not a mage and who looks mutated is the Warden Commander, but since she's been rotting in the Keep for decades, I'm tempted to say she's decayed more than mutated: her body is probably long dead (but then, what about the cat, who had been stuck in Onnoleath for many years too?).

Overall, I blame it on a lack of consistency. Ferelden and its universe are brand news, and as such, aren't completly polished out.

Talking about that, I must say that despite my original doubts, I find it pretty cool. Sure, it's not completely made of awesome sauce, but it's not that bad either. It lacks a bit of fantasy IMO, but since we've only visited what seems to be a pretty minor kingdom, I guess they can surprise us with the incoming games.

[Furunculus]

Talking about that, I must say that despite my original doubts, I find it pretty cool. Sure, it's not completely made of awesome sauce, but it's not that bad either. It lacks a bit of fantasy IMO, but since we've only visited what seems to be a pretty minor kingdom, I guess they can surprise us with the incoming games.

agree, bit of a flakey start, but provided you do ozrammaar last the end of the game pulls together nicely.

currently half way up the tower that will result in the last battle, about 45 minutes more to go.

[seireikhaan]

Patch 1.02 released:



Daggers now apply 0.5 points of damage per additional point in dexterity and 0.5 points of damage per additional point in strength, as originally intended. This increases dagger damage for high-dexterity characters.
During combat, mana or stamina reserves now correctly regenerate more quickly when reserves are low. This allows players to occasionally use an talent or spell in the later stages of lengthy fights.
When exploring, mana and stamina now regenerate more quickly at higher character levels. This reduces downtime between fights.
The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.
The cooldowns for several low-level sustained abilities are now shorter. This ensures that players are not penalized for accidentally deactivating them.
Certain battles were not scaling properly, resulting in excessively difficult fights. They now scale as intended.
Enemy corpses now drop health poultices and money more appropriately, resulting in less clutter in the player's inventory.
In rare cases, enemy corpses were selectable when they contained no loot. This no longer occurs.
Party members whose combat tactics were set to defensive behavior no longer stop attacking after using a spell or talent.
In rare cases, combat tactics conditions could fail to determine whether a character had enough mana or stamina to use an ability. This no longer occurs.
The Rally talent no longer repeats its audio effect if it is active during certain conversations.
The Rally talent no longer deactivates upon area transitions or conversations.
The Shimmering Shield spell now deactivates when the character is out of mana.
Controlling a summoned creature (like a ranger's pets) during certain special area transitions no longer results in odd behavior.
Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs.
In some cases, the class icon was set incorrectly for characters imported from the downloadable Character Creator. This no longer occurs.
The options menu now includes a setting to automatically download previously purchased content that is not currently installed.
After installing new downloadable content, the game now always reminds the user to restart the game.
The icons for some promotional downloadable content items were missing. They now appear correctly.
Various issues could occasionally cause uploads to the online player profile to fail unexpectedly. This no longer occurs.

[Xiahou]

"Creating a character in a custom module did not create a folder for saves. This could result in corruption of main campaign saves. This no longer occurs."

This raises an interesting question. Has any one looked at any custom modules? You'd think there must be some out there since they released a fix for them.....

[Meneldil]

So far, there's nothing really interesting available on the social site, except for the camp chest (which is bugged and shouldn't be used) and the respecialization mod.

There are a few modding websites flying around, but there's not much to be seen so far.

[Monk]

So far, there's nothing really interesting available on the social site, except for the camp chest (which is bugged and shouldn't be used) and the respecialization mod.

There are a few modding websites flying around, but there's not much to be seen so far.

Most of the mods I've seen have been item rebalances, new items or NPC armor for use (morrigan's robe for the player, ect ect) or God-Mode mods.

There are some HD texture mods and some things of that nature (reskins, ect) but nothing along the lines of new dungeons. :shame:

[Furunculus]

the respecialisation potion is essential.

[rajpoot]

Half way through my second play now;
Does anyone else feel that the Brecilian Forest is a little out of place? I mean game atmosphere-wise?
I remember when I first saw the Great Oak the first time around, I felt like I was playing some game from the Tolkien universe....
Not that I did not like it....it was nice as a change of atmosphere....lady of the woods and walking trees and all.......

[Krusader]

the respecialisation potion is essential.

I gave a potion to Zevran and suddenly he was no Assassin anymore...so remember to get specialization unlocks :grin:

I myself only use the Black Templar armour mod:

Black Templar armour screenshot (http://www.krusader.be/images/blacktemplar.jpg)

It has same stats as Warden's Commander armor at tier7. And yes the item models/textures are from pre-existing ones, that have just been darkened.

[Lemur]

the camp chest (which is bugged and shouldn't be used)
Ruh-roh.

[Xiahou]

Ruh-roh.I thought it was just the early versions of the camp chest that were bugged. I've been using it for a long time now with no problems. :shrug:


By "custom modules", I was thinking more like "custom campaigns" since the bug fix talked about creating separate save folders.

[Meneldil]

Last I checked, the chest still disappears when the camp is attacked. But since I have WK, I admit I haven't looked the official page for a few days.

[Kekvit Irae]

On the subject of Loghain, I personally believe he is very paranoid, but not possessed or insane. After seeing your mother raped and killed by Orlesian soldiers, you too would have your mental state questioned. Everything he has done in the game, including leaving the King to die, has been to consolidate power for someone for fitting to rule (re: his daughter).

Cailen was an idiot. His petty fantasies of glory is what got him killed in the first place. That, and suggesting an alliance with Orlais is what drove Loghain to decide that the boy was no longer fit to fill Maric's shoes. Honestly, I would have done the same thing if I was in Loghain's place.

If you spare Loghain and speak with him at lengths afterwards, he will mention that he never intended to kill his daughter. In fact, Anora herself fabricated those lies to secure your trust. This is evident when you try to escape Arl Howe's manor with her and mention that she was kidnapped when speaking to Ser Cauthrien. The little :hairpin1: betrays you, forcing you to fight Cauthrien.

As noted by one of the game's features, there are no easy choices. The obvious choice of slaying Loghain for what he has done may seem right at first, but if you let him live you will hear Loghain's story first hand of why he did what he did. After hearing his background, I've decided that it would be best to keep him alive through all future playthroughs. Plus, he starts out as a Champion, which is infinitely better than Alistair's Templar specialization.

EDIT: And on the subject of the patch...


The spells Force Field, Crushing Prison, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard now have shorter durations and/or longer cooldowns. This ensures that combatants can no longer stun-lock each other by repeatedly casting the same spell.

:wall:

It's a good thing I completed my I'm Kind of a Big Deal achievement with my Arcane Warrior.

[Mailman653]

No throne for my third play through as a mage, looks like I'll have to play as a human noble again.
:no:

[Meneldil]

Plus, he starts out as a Champion, which is infinitely better than Alistair's Templar specialization.



Templar turns every fight against casters into cakewalk. And the AoE stun comes as quite handy even against non-casters.

As for Loghain, there's really no excuse. He sucks, almost caused the downfall of Ferelden and betrayed his king, which he apparently considered as his own son at some point.
I can understand that Cailin was an idiot, and that allying with Orlais was a pretty bad move, but betraying your country, your king and then blaming the Grey Wardens is ridiculous.

As Froggy pointed out, I'm tempted to say it's bad writing. As we don't hear of any rational reason as to why Loghain (who is always described as a former noble, honorable, intelligent, loyal and brave patriot) turns into a psychotic and paranoid killer, I see no other way to explain his recent behavior.
Maybe Bioware will develop on that in some DLC/Expension/Comic book/Novel, but so far, it's quite of a weak link in the whole plot.

On the topic of Ser Cauthrien, did anyone manage to beat her? I have little issues taking down the dragons or Gakxang the unbound, but I simply can't defeat her. She hits Alistair for 100-150, and I simply can't heal through that with my mage PC and health poultices.

[Monk]

On the topic of Ser Cauthrien, did anyone manage to beat her? I have little issues taking down the dragons or Gakxang the unbound, but I simply can't defeat her. She hits Alistair for 100-150, and I simply can't heal through that with my mage PC and health poultices.

Only on easy could I ever beat her. Anything above that and she just rips your face off. :help:

[FactionHeir]

Cauthrien is easy if you lure her away from her troops, i.e. run back through the hallway you entered from.

I even 1v1 her with my lvl25 rogue (I only took Leliana for this mission and she kinda died in the main room to a few scattershots). Well not exactly 1v1, she had a few soldiers backup :grin:

With a full party prolly even simpler (my warrior beat her handily in my first playthrough)

I'm kind of a big deal I got from my warrior playthrough too. Just reload the game when you die. Its not exactly linked to ever dying.

[Scienter]

On the topic of Ser Cauthrien, did anyone manage to beat her? I have little issues taking down the dragons or Gakxang the unbound, but I simply can't defeat her. She hits Alistair for 100-150, and I simply can't heal through that with my mage PC and health poultices.

I couldn't beat her. I was a dual wielding warrior and she killed me pretty quickly. Then she killed Shale, and while Alistair lasted the longest, he could barely hurt her before he got killed, too. I had Wynne with me for healing Ser Cauthrien still killed everyone.

[Kekvit Irae]

I couldn't beat her. I was a dual wielding warrior and she killed me pretty quickly. Then she killed Shale, and while Alistair lasted the longest, he could barely hurt her before he got killed, too. I had Wynne with me for healing Ser Cauthrien still killed everyone.

Easy fight if you have a Blood Mage in your party. Use Blood Wound on the archers (the REAL killers) and focus your attacks on them. Alternatively, Mass Paralyze works well too, without the damage-over-time effect. Once they go down, Ser Cauthrien becomes a pansy.
If you don't have a Blood Mage in your party, or Leliana doesn't have Scattershot, just surrender. It's not worth the effort.

[seireikhaan]

I used force field and cone of cold over and over on her with Morrigan so she would sit there doing nothing while I eliminated the rest of the soldiers. The, four on one, she wasted three of my party members and only a lucky shot with Quiet Death poison from my rogue finally got the killing blow on her. :dizzy2:

[Krusader]

I ran into sideroom when facing Cauthrien and fought her alone...but she is insanely tough compared to other foes and well while it is a game, I'd expect her not to be that tough compared to other fights, when looking at the setting and characters. Had Morrigan healing (and only healing) with me as tank (level 24) and Sten & Leliana doing their thing.

On Loghain:
I would also say this is bad writing on Bioware's part or lack of more depth to his character. If you take the novel into account as well it is clear Loghain is very suspicious of anything Orlesian and as it is stated elsewhere, there are large numbers of Grey Wardens in Orlais so it might mean that has colored his opinions on them (along with Orlesian mage-coup). And it is clear Cailan is an idiot, so Loghain must have thought getting rid off him would be in Ferelden's best interests. And some NPC also suggests that Arl Rendon Howe might have had a bad influence on Loghain as well and seeing as Howe was doing all sorts of things on the side that is true. Add in that Loghain doesn't have the banns' support when returning so his paranoia just increases.

[TinCow]

On the topic of Ser Cauthrien, did anyone manage to beat her? I have little issues taking down the dragons or Gakxang the unbound, but I simply can't defeat her. She hits Alistair for 100-150, and I simply can't heal through that with my mage PC and health poultices.

I beat her playing as a blood/healer mage. It took me about half a dozen reloads (I never even tried to pick any of the surrender options, I didn't even realize that not fighting was an actual option), but I did it. The tactic that eventually worked was to use the tier 3 blood mage spell (the mass paralyze w/ damage) to disable most of the room immediately. I then followed this up with a fireball and an inferno, which I was able to get off before the paralyze wore off. As soon as that had been launched, I retreated back down the corridor, with Cauthrien and one other soldier being the only enemies to follow me. Everyone else was still paralyzed when I broke LOS, so they didn't follow. My mage used stun and imprisonment to disable Cuathrien as much as possible while the rest battered her down. When team health got low, I would use the invulnerability imprisonment spell to buy time to heal/revive my team. It probably took a good 10 minutes to take her down, and even then there were some close calls and I probably had a total of 4-5 deaths, with my mage being the only one that never dropped. After she was dead, I waited and revived and healed my entire party before returning to the main room. When I got there though, I found that all but 1 of the others had died from the paralyze, inferno, and fireball... so there wasn't really anything left to do but loot. I probably could have just hung out in that room and fought her there without it making a difference.

[frogbeastegg]

For the Sir Cauthrien fight I had the most success by putting my party on hold position near the door of the room which leads into that antechamber, then standing behind them while I filled the room with every AOE spell I had, chugging mana potions and casting buffs/heals in the recharge time. Most of the archers couldn't line up a shot with my party, and the melee people could only enter in limited numbers.

It was very close. I was the last member of the party standing and my health was mostly gone by the time the last soldier dropped. Managed it on my first go - I thought you had to win.


As Froggy pointed out, I'm tempted to say it's bad writing. As we don't hear of any rational reason as to why Loghain (who is always described as a former noble, honorable, intelligent, loyal and brave patriot) turns into a psychotic and paranoid killer, I see no other way to explain his recent behavior.
Maybe Bioware will develop on that in some DLC/Expension/Comic book/Novel, but so far, it's quite of a weak link in the whole plot.
Agreed. Considering the character further, I'm changing my vote to bad writing. He's a terrible villain and quite nonsensical. Not a patch on Irenicus.

Loghain spent his young life fighting to free his motherland and to put the rightful bloodline back on the throne. He loved his king's wife, Cailen's mother, and he was close friends with the king himself.

Then, years later, he throws away a certain victory against a horde which was threatening the kingdom. He walks away leaving the main army to be slaughtered, leaving the kingdom practically defenceless. Somehow he expects his own army will not realise what they have done, and will not talk about it so it will remain a secret. He lets the only child of two people he loved, his daughter's husband, and the last member of that royal bloodline he fought so hard to re-establish - die just because. The grey wardens were the blight fighting experts and he let them all die too, wiping out (as far as he knew) the only native wardens in the process. On returning to the capital he begins alienating those whose support he most needs and lets his sidekicks run wild. He openly bullies, threatens and pushes around his daughter, in whose name he rules, and we see him doing this in the cutscenes. He openly becomes obsessive with hunting down the last two grey wardens when he learns of their survival. He upsets potential allies like the dwarves with his rude emissaries. When the whole kingdom is collapsing around him and being overrun by the darkspawn what does he do? Send out more parties to hunt for the two grey wardens.

We're supposed to believe he does all of this because Cailen suggested allying with the Orlesians to fight the blight?

And his daughter, ugh! She might have well have "I'm a liar!" textured on her forehead. So very obviously untrustworthy right from the word go. I suppose they were aiming for shrewd politician and ended up with a reject from the House of Lords. She is not going to be happy with the outcome of my city elf playthrough.

[Monk]

It was very close. I was the last member of the party standing and my health was mostly gone by the time the last soldier dropped. Managed it on my first go - I thought you had to win.

Call me a defeatist then because after 10 failed attempts I was convinced that you were supposed to lose! I remember reloading as my last party member was about to die over and over, until finally I had enough and just let her win. To my surprise.. you don't die should you fail!

It wasn't until my mage play-through that I actually found a way to win.

Edit!


And his daughter, ugh! She might have well have "I'm a liar!" textured on her forehead. So very obviously untrustworthy right from the word go. I suppose they were aiming for shrewd politician and ended up with a reject from the House of Lords. She is not going to be happy with the outcome of my city elf playthrough.

I am still angry I could not simply kill her and be done with it. I agreed with Zevron from the get-go. Still waiting for a reason why I shouldn't slit her throat and dump her in the river.

[Mailman653]

I beat her playing as a blood/healer mage.

Malificar!
:hide:

[Vladimir]

I tried leaving Loghain alive, once. Alister threw a hissy fit and walked away with my best armor...I cut his head off myself.

The deal with Loghain was poor writing...contrived. I was also mad at the designers for the Alister bit. Persuade was maxed out, cunning was high, and my relations with him were maxed out. Alister is little more than a meat shield but was still better than Loghain.

[TinCow]

Malificar!
:hide:

I was actually very disappointed that my blatant use of blood magic was never even mentioned in the game. Given the way the game goes out of is way to emphasize just how horrible it is and how blood mages are essentially 'kill on sight,' a lot of NPCs should have had a problem with me practicing it. It also makes no sense that Wynne can be given blood magic as her second specialization. It's very odd that Bioware chose to just ignore that as a trigger for NPC reactions, considering how thorough they were on a lot of other stuff.

[Monk]

I was actually very disappointed that my blatant use of blood magic was never even mentioned in the game. Given the way the game goes out of is way to emphasize just how horrible it is and how blood mages are essentially 'kill on sight,' a lot of NPCs should have had a problem with me practicing it. It also makes no sense that Wynne can be given blood magic as her second specialization. It's very odd that Bioware chose to just ignore that as a trigger for NPC reactions, considering how thorough they were on a lot of other stuff.

Bioware got really lazy with a number of things, especially the last two hours of the game. The frustrations expressed above could have been easily avoided with some better writing and more thoughtful character development. I still enjoy the game but I can't help but feel Bioware dropped the ball. :no:

[Krusader]

Bioware got really lazy with a number of things, especially the last two hours of the game. The frustrations expressed above could have been easily avoided with some better writing and more thoughtful character development. I still enjoy the game but I can't help but feel Bioware dropped the ball. :no:

No 12 playthroughs on you then! :beam:

But I agree. That was also why I did not drink the potion Avernus made in Warden's Keep. And Loghain's motives and reasons should have been made more clear or explained better in addition to many small things. Plus looking at Dragon Age Wiki it seems many of the descriptions of spells&talents are poor or way off, good examples being some Spirit Healer spells (Cleansing Aura particularly) and Berserker talents.

I assumed that if I'd pick Blood Mage spells, Wynne & Alistair both would refuse to be in party with me or outright try to kill me (not to mention Templars here and there), compared to what they say and what you are told about Ferelden.

[rajpoot]

I think that none of the regular rules apply to the player character, since he/she is a Grey Warden. I think there's something Riordan says about everyone from a thief to a king being allowed to be a Grey Warden, during the landsmeet bit.

[TinCow]

I think that none of the regular rules apply to the player character, since he/she is a Grey Warden. I think there's something Riordan says about everyone from a thief to a king being allowed to be a Grey Warden, during the landsmeet bit.

Yet there are still a lot of actions that the PC can take to alienate the NPCs and even make them try to kill the PC. It's just seems odd that no one even thinks it's worth a raised eyebrow and a -1 to your influence for having the PC be a blood mage. Putting it into context, during the Landsmeet, Loghain had countered my arguments against him with "This Grey Warden is a Blood Mage!" it would have made a lot of sense if that swayed some of the nobles to his side. Given that Blood Mages were the original cause of the blights in the first place, I can't see the nobility reacting well to it in a power struggle.

I can understand no negative consequences for the Ravager (or whatever the 'evil' warrior specialization is called), since it's never really discussed much in the game. However, Bioware put a TON of content into the game about Blood Mages, and almost all of it is about just how extremely bad it is and how Blood Mages are considered outright evil by most of the kingdom.

[Lemur]

Bioware put a TON of content into the game about Blood Mages, and almost all of it is about just how extremely bad it is and how Blood Mages are considered outright evil by most of the kingdom.
And here we also hit a game balance absurdity; as we see in the mage origin story, a single low-level blood mage can take out an entire squad of Templars, but when you try it out for yourself, it's a pretty average spec. So in NPCs blood magery is uber and forbidden, but for the PC it's tepid and unremarkable.

Methinks it would have made more sense to not allow the PC to dabble as a blood mage at all.

[Kekvit Irae]

but when you try it out for yourself, it's a pretty average spec

Until you get Blood Wound, which is what I suspect Jowan used.

Also, in a certain conversation in the game (I believe Warden's Keep), the main character makes a point that Blood Magic is not forbidden to Grey Wardens. So perhaps they are immune to the wrath of the Templars?

[Europe]

I'm particularly impressed as well with how this game has handled two subjects that have been almost totally taboo in gaming: homosexuality and mental handicaps.

Tiax rules all! You are but the grease for the wheels of his rule. Silent the squeaking of those that protest, he rules all! :laugh4:

[TinCow]

Tiax rules all! You are but the grease for the wheels of his rule. Silent the squeaking of those that protest, he rules all! :laugh4:

Tiax is not handicapped! Tiax is superior!

[Vladimir]

When they combine those two with midgets I'll be impressed. Not a moment sooner.

[rajpoot]

Incase anyone's interested, I finally managed to find the lyrics for Leliana's song....Had been looking for them high and low since the first time I heard it ingame.....
Turns out the lyrics do appear in you codex entries, with a translation after reading the 'song book'....it just doesn't seem like it because in the actual song, she pronounces the words very differently than you'd expect. I felt silly when I realised it.

The 'elven' lyrics are -
Hahren na melana sahlin
emma ir abelas
souver'inan isala hamin
vhenan him dor'felas
in uthenera na revas

vir sulahn'nehn
vir dirthera
vir samahl la numin
vir lath sa'vunin --> [2]

It translates as -
Elder your time is come
now I am filled with sorrow
weary eyes need resting
heart has become grey and slow
in waking sleep is freedom

we sing, rejoice
we tell the tales
we laugh and cry
we love one more day

BTW can anyone recognise the language now? It most certainly isn't the 'elvish' Tolkien used....Or maybe they just made it up themselves?

[Vladimir]

Semitic, Sanscrit?? I have no idea. Great find though! :2thumbsup:

[Meneldil]

Pretty sure they invented their own language. First, they want to create their own original background (which is kind of a failure), and secondly, taking Tolkien's elvish (or D&D's) for instance would create legal issues.

[al Roumi]

When they combine those two with midgets I'll be impressed. Not a moment sooner.

Ahem, while you can't engage in that sort of thing with the er, enchanted dwarf, should you wish to play as a dwarf you can get some appalingly rendered Dwarf-on-Elf Zevran action. I still shudder at the thought.

Lol, that would be like Gimli and Legolas going at it in the ridden mark.

[rajpoot]

Well they did a good job of inventing it then....it sounds quite....real, in the song.
Now for the lyrics of the other one, the last song, 'I am the One' :beam: Maybe I'll find them in the third playthrough.

And that dwarf Sandal, I sure would like to see some DLC or something, maybe a story in a new novel or the next game, as to what really is the deal with him. He's pretty creepy standing there all alone, near the end, saying nothing but 'Enchantment!' all the time.....

Edit: Not sanskrit :laugh4:...they as good as force us to study that for five years in school here.....

[Durallan]

Epic Awesome Epic game and I looooooved every minute I played of it!

[Lemur]

Lol, that would be like Gimli and Legolas going at it in the ridden mark.
I'm pretty sure there's an entire genre of Legolas/Gimli fan-made porn out there. And no, I'm not going to Google it, and neither should you.

[johnhughthom]

I'm pretty sure there's an entire genre of Legolas/Gimli fan-made porn out there. And no, I'm not going to Google it again, and neither should you..

The internet is a scary place.

[Vladimir]

Playing with the patch is incredibly easy. I'll take the frustration of the random scambush over a low maximum difficulty.

[Meneldil]

Return to Ostagar will be released the 24th or 29th, don't remember exactly.

[Mailman653]

Dragon Age Expansion Confirmed, DLC Delayed (http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/dragon-age/1058246p1.html)

Doesn't the price tag seem excessive? I've read on the Xbox360 forums that new expansion adds 15+hrs of game play.

[TinCow]

$40 for a real expansion pack is fine, but 15 hours isn't a real expansion pack.

[Mailman653]

Dragon Age: Origins Expansion Announced
Written Tuesday, January 05, 2010 by Richard Walker


According to (what appears to be) a press release from EA and BioWare, the two companies are finally laying rumours to rest in announcing Dragon Age: Origins - Awakenings, a tasty new expansion pack for - you guessed it - Dragon Age: Origins.

The pack, which will retail in the US for the princely sum of $39.99, will hits shops this spring and sees you adopting the role of a Grey Warden following the events of Dragon Age: Origins in the land of Amarthine.

Your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to rebuild the order of legendary warriors while dealing with such new threats as the fearsome Inferno Golem and scary-sounding Spectral Dragon as well as the mysterious 'Architect'.

You'll also discover new secrets of the Darkspawn, but not before taking advantage of being able to port over and customise your existing Dragon Age character (if you want to that is).

Awakenings also raises the level cap as well as adding new items, abilities and spells to your repertoire. Throw in the inclusion of a new Grey Warden character from the land of Orlais and five new party members to recruit and you have what should prove to be a very enticing package indeed.

Details about the size of the expansion are yet to be revealed, but for the price we think it'd be fair to say that we expect a fair chunk of bang for our buck.

Over to Dr. Ray Muzyka to sum up, "Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening shows BioWare's commitment to our fans by delivering new story-driven experiences which enrich the dark heroic fantasy universe our fans have come to know and love. The vibrant worldwide community of Dragon Age fans will relish uncovering the secret motivations of the darkspawn, revealing how the darkspawn continue to infest the world despite the defeat of the Archdemon."

Amen, sir. Amen.
-xbox360achievements.org

http://forums.xbox.com/30629547/ShowPost.aspx

[Scienter]

Concerns re: playing this expansion with a character that has already completed the main quest:

Morrigan leaves after you kill the Archdemon, so if you want her in your party, do you have to do the expansion before finishing the main quest? Also, if you pick Alistair as king, does that mean you can’t use him in the expansion?

[seireikhaan]

Forty dollars? For what? An add-on campaign? Er.... I might have to pass on that, at least until a proper sale comes 'round.

[Meneldil]

Not surprised the new character is from Orlais, though it's retard if it's another plate wearing dude (which is more than likely if he's orlaisian). The game has already enough plate characters as it is.

As for the fact it's going to cost as much as a regular game, that is indeed retard as hell. Since it's no multiplayer game, I'll probably wait for the sales aswell.

[rajpoot]

I don't think having anyone from the vanilla (save the elf and the dog) in the party would be possible. Morrigan for on leaves the party no matter what. Everyone goes one way or the other, save the elf, who is the only character who I think asks if he can follow the warden (in the celebration party at the end, when you talk to him)
Considering that the xpack is set chronologically after the game, while I think we may see some of the old companions here and there but most of them would be new. Else what the epilogue in the game says, it won't make sense any longer.

15 hours is short for an expansion, and I have a feeling that is might be more like a very large DLC than an expansion. Maybe that is why they delayed Return to Ostagar so that they could bunch it up with the 'expansion' to provide more content.

Anyhow, I'll still be getting it. I finished the book, the Calling a week back, and I can't wait to see what the Architect is upto 20 years later......

And let's hope that this series keeps going strong till 'DA:3' atleast...can't get enough of the game.

[Krusader]

40 $ for 15 hours...I think I'll pass as well, until Steam has it on sale for what...20 €.

Then again people paid same amount for Medal of Honour addons didn't they and those only had 5-6 hours of content...longer than Modern Warfare 2 actually.

[AggonyDuck]

Bioware's estimations of hours of gameplay tend to be a bit lower than they actually are.

[Greyblades]

I'm still getting used to full games costing over £35 that much for an expansion is pretty steep.

[Beskar]

Concerns re: playing this expansion with a character that has already completed the main quest:

Morrigan leaves after you kill the Archdemon, so if you want her in your party, do you have to do the expansion before finishing the main quest? Also, if you pick Alistair as king, does that mean you can’t use him in the expansion?

by the looks of it, the expansion is more like a sequel in expansion form. You basically will not be using the same character you used in the main-game todate, though you can port them over to carry on using them. (in gameplay terms, you are just a graywarden who just happens to have the same equipment, name and looks. But a different person)


As for the "15 hours" wasn't Dragon Age only meant to be like "20 hours" or similar? Even though it took 36 hours for me for one playthrough on my first character?

[Krusader]

by the looks of it, the expansion is more like a sequel in expansion form. You basically will not be using the same character you used in the main-game todate, though you can port them over to carry on using them. (in gameplay terms, you are just a graywarden who just happens to have the same equipment, name and looks. But a different person)


As for the "15 hours" wasn't Dragon Age only meant to be like "20 hours" or similar? Even though it took 36 hours for me for one playthrough on my first character?

Ive read 100 hours, 80 hours and whatnot.

[Beskar]

Was it? My mistake then. I thought it was around 20-30 hour mark.

[Mailman653]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/dlc-debut-dragon-age/60438
Trailer

Talking Darkspawn!

Something that got me thinking after watching that is if your choices in the game will carry over into the expansion like in ME1-2.

For example what if you keep Logain in your party in the end and sacrifice yourself, does that mean he will be around in the expansion?

15 hrs seems so little though.....I'm sure on my first day with DO I must of easily logged in seven hours or more, I was completely hooked on it. Finishing a $40 expansion in two days sounds like a bad investment if you want to get the most out of your money.

But, it's still awesome and I'm sure I'll get it sooner or later either at that price or less, Bioware appears to be a developer which you can trust to put out quality work.

[Ironside]

Official homepage for the expansion is up. http://dragonage.bioware.com/awakening

Alistair certainly seems back. If he's the returning party member or just king isn't explained in the trailer (1 old and 5 new party members).

[Vladimir]

Official homepage for the expansion is up. http://dragonage.bioware.com/awakening

Alistair certainly seems back. If he's the returning party member or just king isn't explained in the trailer (1 old and 5 new party members).

That whiny little :daisy:! The main reason I wanted him to be king is so that I could take the throne from him. :furious3:

[Beskar]

In the trailer, definitely looks like Alistair is the King, which also helps in fighting the Darkspawn.

As for the talking Darkspawn, for some reason, I got the feeling it used to be an ex-warden, hence how it is powerful.

[Scienter]

That whiny little :daisy:! The main reason I wanted him to be king is so that I could take the throne from him. :furious3:

Heh, I really liked him as a tank. Usually a big battle involved my party all dying (even Shale!) and then Alistair killing everything by himself.

[Meneldil]

I don't think Alistair is the one coming back in the party. He's either dead or king.

My bets are for Morrigan, because all players love her. Men think she's hot and funny, and women would like to be her.

[Beskar]

I don't think Alistair is the one coming back in the party. He's either dead or king.

My bets are for Morrigan, because all players love her. Men think she's hot and funny, and women would like to be her.

I highly doubt it will be Morrigan because she runs off and disappears with the ancient god child in her womb.

It is a shame there aren't more return characters, or even a chance for the different characters to meet eachother

[rajpoot]

I don't think Alistair is the one coming back in the party. He's either dead or king.



I think the description said that you can see the returning party member in the video....And the only familiar face I saw was Alistair.....Plus at one point in the video he says something along the lines of, "I was beginning to miss killing all the darkspawn".......

[Vladimir]

Heh, I really liked him as a tank. Usually a big battle involved my party all dying (even Shale!) and then Alistair killing everything by himself.

He always ended up dying on me. All those points I had to add to strength took away from his stamina. With the chaotic fight difficulty my dog was often the only one left. He didn't need to the strength so was the healthiest.

I really don't like how the dog character joined a non-human noble party. It seemed too contrived but made great sense if you started off as a human noble.

[Scienter]

I really don't like how the dog character joined a non-human noble party. It seemed too contrived but made great sense if you started off as a human noble.

I played a human noble, how does the dog join if you play as something else? I liked the dog, and used him a lot until I got other warrior NPCs. If Alistair can't join my party in the expansion, hopefully I can have Oghren. I kept him in my party because he was so amusing.

[Beskar]

I played a human noble, how does the dog join if you play as something else? I liked the dog, and used him a lot until I got other warrior NPCs. If Alistair can't join my party in the expansion, hopefully I can have Oghren. I kept him in my party because he was so amusing.

You remember when your greywarden companions hears about the quest about the sick dogs and recommends you take back the leaves? When you are not a Human Noble, you pick up the quest directly from the hound keeper, and you get to see this sick dog, and you can assist him by getting him the leaves. Once you done the quest and gave the leaves, the man and the dog thanks you. After when you fought those darkspawn, and get saved by Flemmeth, and head off with Alistaire and Morrigan, you stop at one of those incidences and a bunch of Dark Spawn attack you, and the dog joins in the help save the day. Then after killing them, you can keep the dog and name him, etc.

[Meneldil]

I played a human noble, how does the dog join if you play as something else? I liked the dog, and used him a lot until I got other warrior NPCs. If Alistair can't join my party in the expansion, hopefully I can have Oghren. I kept him in my party because he was so amusing.

All warriors characters are complete rubbish AFAIK. Orghren and Sten don't dish out half the damages of a mage or of a rogue. Too slow, too quickly out of stamina. My level 8 rogue's already better than my level 20 Sten from the previous playthrough.

As for Alistair, he's simply subpar when compared to Shale.

[Vladimir]

All warriors characters are complete rubbish AFAIK. Orghren and Sten don't dish out half the damages of a mage or of a rogue. Too slow, too quickly out of stamina. My level 8 rogue's already better than my level 20 Sten from the previous playthrough.

So true. Get a rogue in light armor with daggers and quick strike, or whatever that skill is called, and a few ways to stun the opponent, and the rogue is sooo powerful.

Put the dwarf in heavy armor with a two-handed weapon and the rogue can get in half a dozen strikes in the time it takes the dwarf to miss with one.

[Zenicetus]

All warriors characters are complete rubbish AFAIK. Orghren and Sten don't dish out half the damages of a mage or of a rogue. Too slow, too quickly out of stamina. My level 8 rogue's already better than my level 20 Sten from the previous playthrough.

Warriors in this game are not there for causing maximum damage. Similar to other party-based games like WoW, they're for attracting and holding aggro, and surviving while the other party members do the damage. If a warrior in heavy plate could cause the kind of damage an offense-spec'd mage or a rogue could do, there wouldn't be any reason to play the other classes. It's a defensive, crowd control class.

I never had a problem with Alastair or other tanks dying too soon, as long as I had either A) lots of health pots in inventory and the tactics set for warriors to drink 'em, or B) Wynne in the party as a healer.

And yeah... Shale is the ultimate hybrid tank/damage dealer, but I enjoyed my second playthrough with Alistair instead of Shale, mainly because I could actually use the heavy armor and weapons in the game that were useless with Shale as a tank.

[rajpoot]

I beg to disagree. A two handed warrior in good quality medium armour with more points in willpower and constitution than strength can deal amazing amounts of damage.
Two handed weapons are specifically for damage dealing. Had the warrior meant to be played simply as a tank a shield would have sufficed.
Accessorising the warrior properly is important though, rings and pendants which improve physical resistance/defense or increase strength etc....

Edit: A warrior in massive armour though, that is useless for damage dealing, and only serves the function of a tank.......kind of senseless that king Cailan was shown carrying that big sword and wearing big armour.

[Beskar]

I beg to disagree. A two handed warrior in good quality medium armour with more points in willpower and constitution than strength can deal amazing amounts of damage.


You sure that is correct?

[rajpoot]

:yes: First character I played was a two handed warrior.....
Lower strength means that normal damage is low, but high willpower means that you can use the talents again and again.....Plus there are quite a few trinkets in game that increase strength.....

Ofcourse one needs to have access to the nice talents so that means that in the lower levels it's not all that good.....But in the later part of the game with higher tier armour and stuff two handed warrior is pretty good.

BTW is there any way to create a stamina potion using deep mushrooms?

I play at normal difficulty level by the way.

[Beskar]

:yes: First character I played was a two handed warrior.....
Lower strength means that normal damage is low, but high willpower means that you can use the talents again and again.....Plus there are quite a few trinkets in game that increase strength.....


Hah, I did as well, but I literially piled everything into Strength.

Though, I got to the point where I wore Massive Armour for the looks, as I was that powerful, along with doing similar with all my characters.

[Meneldil]

Warriors in this game are not there for causing maximum damage. Similar to other party-based games like WoW, they're for attracting and holding aggro, and surviving while the other party members do the damage. If a warrior in heavy plate could cause the kind of damage an offense-spec'd mage or a rogue could do, there wouldn't be any reason to play the other classes. It's a defensive, crowd control class.

I never had a problem with Alastair or other tanks dying too soon, as long as I had either A) lots of health pots in inventory and the tactics set for warriors to drink 'em, or B) Wynne in the party as a healer.

And yeah... Shale is the ultimate hybrid tank/damage dealer, but I enjoyed my second playthrough with Alistair instead of Shale, mainly because I could actually use the heavy armor and weapons in the game that were useless with Shale as a tank.

Huh, simply no. Sword and shield warriors (such as Alistair) are meant to be played as tanks, true. But dual weilding or two handed warriors are meant as DPS class. They actually have less crowd control than a rogue, and if you play them right, they won't wear a heavy armor anyway.

Oghren and Sten are the worst characters in game. Low DPS, low survavibility, slow attack, high miss rates... A full Dex rogue can tank much better than them (by avoiding litterally all attacks), will dish out way more DPS (thanks to Momentum and backstabs) and provide more utility if needed (disarming traps, unlocking chests). Heck, even ranged Leliana is more effective than them once she gets the right talents (but a warrior could get those too). And I'm not even talking about Mages, who are so overpowered it's not even funny.
Dual wielding warriors aren't nearly as bad as two handed ones, but are still nowhere near as good as a DPS mage or a rogue.

To be honest, I think DA:O gameplay and game balance are subpar. Some mecanics are so overpowered it looks like none has tested them before release. That doesn't make the game bad, but sometimes you look at stuff and you're like "Wow, how comes no one realized chaining mana pots is retard?".

[Beskar]

What is amazing is how you are saying rogues are better than warriors and that is only because of patches. They used to hit for nothing and required a large investment in hit to get any damage out of them.

Mages are really powerful though, no one can deny that. Though you do need a tank as otherwise, they can tend to be squishy (unless you go arcane warrior, then that imba just flies out the window)