**The Dragon Age Origins Thread **

How do weapon work with arcane mage? Do you still have to put them away before you cast a spell?

Certain spells need 2 hands, some only need one. If you have a 2H weapon then yes, but if you've got a 1H you'll put it away for some spells like Tempest, but not for others, winter's grasp or cone of cold, for example. you can also get around it by switching weapon sets to an empty hand while paused, cuts out the entire weapon animation - a live-saver in some situations.
 
When you press hold, the party doesn't move.

But you can take control of each member and move them to where you want and they'll hold that position until you tell them otherwise.

Oh..so theres no way to set party member 1 and 2 to hold position and have 3 and 4 with free movement?
 
Loving this game. I've completed the Mage, Dalish and Redcliffe parts so far. My Level 14 Dual dagger wielding Rogue Assassin is getting really powerful now. Lots of quick backstabs soon take down most enemies.

The only problem I've got is the issue with Soldiers Keep disappearing that a lot of people have experienced. I've lost all the items I put in storage including the Horn that summons the High Dragon - was just about to go back and have a go as I've just killed my first dragon - Flemmeth - what a great battle! The bug also took my Starfang longsword from me which I'm a bit gutted about as I can't find another weapon that comes close to it :/
 
Completed the game already once with a rogue, on normal and had to drop down to easy on some fights. Halfway through it on hard mode with a mage and its easier than normal was with my rogue. Mages are easily the best class here. Unless I was doing somethin wrong in my first playthrough. :confused:
 
Is there any disadvantage to using large weapons in the main hand for a rogue (ie. longsword / dagger combo)? As far as I can see there isn't, the dps metre on your paperdoll goes up, but I'm wondering if you loose a backstab bonus or anything.

Mine does the backstab animation when he's behind people, but never seems to do significant damage with them.
 
For anyone who has disappearing objects issues:

When you boot up the game, count to ten before you load up your save. This seems to give my copy the time to load in the extras. If I don't do this and I load I'll find sometimes my warrior is missing his CE helmet and dragon armour etc. Once you've saved over a file without these items though, you're stuffed.
 
Is there any disadvantage to using large weapons in the main hand for a rogue (ie. longsword / dagger combo)? As far as I can see there isn't, the dps metre on your paperdoll goes up, but I'm wondering if you loose a backstab bonus or anything.

Mine does the backstab animation when he's behind people, but never seems to do significant damage with them.

Ever since I started using a sword + dagger combo i've found my chances to hit have been reduced. Still, when I get a backstab the damage is bloody good.
 
The fight in Redcliffe Village is one of about three so far where I've had to put the difficulty back to easy. It was just too hard without having to resort to cheap tactics.

Hang on - you don't want to use certain tactics because it feels like cheating, so you turn down the difficulty instead? I think I'd take the second option as being the cheating one ;)
 
Hang on - you don't want to use certain tactics because it feels like cheating, so you turn down the difficulty instead? I think I'd take the second option as being the cheating one ;)

Well kiting the buggers up and down the town was

a) time consuming
b) a bit of an immersion breaker
c) just a bit too much like a scene from Benny Hill :)
 
Oh..so theres no way to set party member 1 and 2 to hold position and have 3 and 4 with free movement?

Sadly not, you either stop them all or none at all, regardless of the behaviour set.

I haven't really experimented much with the whole movement stop thing, but maybe switching to the character you want to stop and then issuing the stop command might do it?
 
I think I need to spend a couple more hours playing with the various tactics options because I just cant seem to get it to do what I want.

I've tried using the hold position thing, but all that happened was the enemy ran up to and then ran past my tanks without my tanks stopping them, which was a bit daft. Want to have my 2 tanks, 2 abreast, across a pathway, with my mage behind and my ranged guy off slightly to the side. However..when a creature runs up to try and get past the 2 tanks, I want the tanks to stop them, not just watch them as they happily trot past my "wall" and engage my clothies. I want the tanks to have the common sense to block the creatures path.

Also, is there a way to make my ranged guy automatically move onto the next target? Essentially what I want to do is have my archer slightly off to the side and target a mob as it begins to approach, fire a few shots off to injure the mob, then when a 2nd/3rd/4th etc mob moves into range, realise that theres a fresh troop arriving and automatically switch targets to the new fresh target and begin injuring that one, whilst the original target will by now have reached my tank "wall" and be engaged with them. I dont want to have to repeatedly take "control" of him and point out to him that theres a new target in range now and its probably a good idea to get an arrow or two into them.

As it stands at the moment, I seem to be spending all my time in fights micromanaging my AI characters to do what should be elementary combat tactics rather than playing my role. Cant work out whether its a limitation of the AI or just that I really dont know what I am doing with the tactics menus :D
 
As it stands at the moment, I seem to be spending all my time in fights micromanaging my AI characters to do what should be elementary combat tactics rather than playing my role. Cant work out whether its a limitation of the AI or just that I really don't know what I am doing with the tactics menus :D

Not really you can do IF THEN...ELSE statements but give then limited number of tactical slots they not very efficient uses of your slots.

I changed most of my tactics slots to read "Enemy: Target of main character <do something>" that way they auto attack what I'm attacking. Also change the order so the most important spell are high up on the list.

Or you could have Morrigan set to "Enemy: Nearest visible" and Leliana to "Enemy: Target of Morrigan". That way Morrigan selects the nearest target and Leliana well also attack it.

Problem is then is when the lead char dies.
 
Not really you can do IF THEN...ELSE statements but give then limited number of tactical slots they not very efficient uses of your slots.

I changed most of my tactics slots to read "Enemy: Target of main character <do something>" that way they auto attack what I'm attacking. Also change the order so the most important spell are high up on the list.

Or you could have Morrigan set to "Enemy: Nearest visible" and Leliana to "Enemy: Target of Morrigan". That way Morrigan selects the nearest target and Leliana well also attack it.

Problem is then is when the lead char dies.

IF THEN... ELSE might be useful, I'll have to have a look and see what I can set up for it.

Alternatively, and more likely, I think what I will probably do is not use the tactics at all and just make heavy use of pause. Make it almost turn based. It might be the only way I can do it so that they attack what I want them to attack and when I want it attacked. Could be the only way to get it working in the manner I described above. (ie, the archer hitting the initial target with a couple of arrows, then swapping to the 2nd incoming target for the next couple of arrows, then swapping to the 3rd incoming target for the next couple of arrows... and the tanks blocking off fully approached mobs and preventing them from walking past to engage the clothies rather than letting them past)
 
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I've ended up mostly micromanaging. The only tactics I've set up are which attacks to use, and when to use mana / healing potions or cast heal spells.

I find it a bit annoying too that they make you spend development points on additional tactics slots.
 
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