Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[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:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

• 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.

[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

I myself only use the Black Templar armour mod:

Black Templar armour screenshot

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.


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 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.

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.

[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.

[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

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.

[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!

[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!

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.

[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 12 playthroughs on you then!

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.