**The Dragon Age Origins Thread **

Surfer said:
hrmm planned on getting the stone prisoner dude tho? and add Morrigan and someone else (a healer would be good!)
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Shale (the golem) is a great character and one of the best melees you can get, morrigan is also an excellent spellcaster. That does indeed leave you with a massive hole in your team in the form of a healer as you've rightly pointed out but you can meet a character very early in the game who can do that.

So your main (shield tank), shale, morrigan and healer will result in a very strong combat team. The big issue then though is that you lack a rogue and therefore will be unable to pick any locked chests.

My lineup is me (shield tank), Morrigan (Damage dealing mage), Ranger (Bow with weakening/distracting attacks) and a healing mage and it works brilliantly. In fact i'm finding the game a little easy as i just use taunt with my tank so all the enemies attack him but do little damage while my healer keeps him ticking over. Morrigan then chips away at their health while the ranger keeps any particularly powerful foes under control.
 
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Just started playing the game - about 18 hours into it, 45%.

Loving it so far.
I've got the 2 mage chicks with me, i'm a mage, and the cheeky italian rogue.

I'm useless when it comes to working out which special features (ie. +2 spellcasting, magic etc etc) are better than others, but seems to be working so far!!
 
tres said:
I'm useless when it comes to working out which special features (ie. +2 spellcasting, magic etc etc) are better than others, but seems to be working so far!!
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So am i, so i let the developers tell me. When you want to compare two items, unequip them and compare the price that they'll sell for at a merchants. The developers have placed higher values on more useful attributes so the better items will be more expensive (with the exception of the DLC armour you get a code for, that's a low price as you have to buy it but it is in fact excellent).
 
bugger - the character creator keeps crashing. Was gonna create a quick character so i could equip the ring you get on my main tank. thats how stingy the item drops are lol.

Ok i guess ill get stone prisoner golem on my 2nd run through and get thief type on this run through the game.
 
Streeteh said:
My lineup is me (shield tank), Morrigan (Damage dealing mage), Ranger (Bow with weakening/distracting attacks) and a healing mage and it works brilliantly. In fact i'm finding the game a little easy as i just use taunt with my tank so all the enemies attack him but do little damage while my healer keeps him ticking over. Morrigan then chips away at their health while the ranger keeps any particularly powerful foes under control.
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Morrigan does my nut in, tend to keep Shale as tank, me as rogue dual wielder and alternate the other two spots between Morrigan/Wynne and Alastair/that dwarfy bloke who's name has just gone from my brain :p

Love the banter between Shale and Wynne though, makes up for losing out on the Alastair/Morrigan slagging matches some times.
 
Morrigans sarcasm and ripping of other party members is quite funny imo

I don't think i've dropped her from the party once
 
arghhh helluvaaa annoying! :mad:

Just had a mother of a fight with a big ogre chap. I screenshotted the entire fight. ( Epic drama!)

strategy consisted in melee engaging him whilst mage potshotted him. wait till we stun him then mage fireballs his ass. I had glorious pics to show you all... death fire and more death BUT ffs Dragon Age decides not to save any of the pics at all even though i know its taken with ss when i press prntscreen coz it paused for a bit.

bloody annoying :(

I almost had him but he walks through flames the mother... hardto melee coz then he just picks you up and beats the crap outta you.

bah :/

p.s. oh yeah i died
 
completed it on normal and found it quite challenging. tbh up until redcliffe castle (went there first) i just ran in head first into fights, but at redcliffe castle got my rear end owed my those dogs. Then i decided to fight using tactics (pulling mobs, pausing, etc, etc) and it became a lot more fun and managable. Enjoyed it so much decided to replay it on nightmare, now it may be because i've already completed it but finding it a lot easier then i expected. I upto the fade part in the circle (which i hated originally and still do) and havent really struggled (expcept that optional fight with the enthralled templar damn him and his holy smite). Can't wait to see what custom mods people make.
 
Just curious as to what levels people are finishing the whole game as?

20 hours in and I'm only a lowly level 10 dalish ranger, cruising along at a leisurely pace, wondering how many talents I'll end up with.
 
My first playthrough - Level 23, 68 hours, 55% complete (!), 93% explored.

Although I did go afk for a few long periods when real life interrupted :), so actual time spent playing was probably more like 50 hours.

Almost finshed gathering allies in my second playthrough and total complete has only moved up to 59% :(
 
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Streeteh said:
Oooohhhhh, i thought that was just a sustained spell? Lame, it was barely useful as it was, now that i know it's the one soaking up mana it's getting ditched.

Stupid spell, what a waste of a skill point.
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Yeah I agree. I put a point in there last night and it has to be the most pointless skill in the game.
 
saguy said:
Yeah I agree. I put a point in there last night and it has to be the most pointless skill in the game.
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It heals injuries too though. Just a few pulses of it and everyone (except the caster unfortunately) is good to go. I find it a huge help in the deep roads at the moment, when hardly a fight goes by without someone collapsing at some point.
 
Theres no point taking Spirit Healer further than Revival imo. Lifeward seems utterly useless too (i've used it several times and nothing seems to happen...) whereas all Cleansing Aura does is drain your mana dry in seconds for seemingly nothing.

Finished my first playthrough last night as an Elf Mage on Normal. Got upto level 22, took about 55-60 hours but some of that was me being stupid and taking far too long for some quests. My main party was me as a Primal Mage, Wynne for a little crowd control and healing, Zevran for all out dual wield damage and Shale or Alistair for some tanking + damage.
 
Sleepery said:
It heals injuries too though. Just a few pulses of it and everyone (except the caster unfortunately) is good to go. I find it a huge help in the deep roads at the moment, when hardly a fight goes by without someone collapsing at some point.
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Yup - I use it after a fight to "restore" everyone. Its probably not essential TBH, because as long as you keep enough Injury Kits you'll never need to use it, and as pointed it, its pretty useless in a fight.

Lifeward is quite handy - I stick it on my tank in tough fights, and a blow that would normally kill you (or come close to it) bumps you upto about 25% health.
 
Meh, i can't see it being that much use. Either the enemies do so little damage that you can easily deal with it through pots and a Heal+Group Heal. I've mostly been using it to counter Crushing Prison but it never seems to activate. In the end i just got Wynne Glyph of Neutralization, even though it drains all mana if my main needed it at least it gets rid of the damn thing.

I'll probably take a bit more care in my next run through, i just started my Human Rogue (i'm in the process of systematically stealing from every sucker in the castle... i don't know why since its all worthless junk ><) so i'll probably be more wary of crowd control and maybe attempt to use traps too. Not sure why though since the hardest fights in the game are always against foes you have a dialogue for which puts you in a stupid position.
 
Good point, re: traps. I've given up using them, as the required "setup time" isn't worth the result.

I've occasionally used them as my archer, laying a trap then "pulling" one mob into it, but I still don't think the required effort is worth the minor damage/stun that it gives. Won't bother with them next time.

Is anyone using poisons? Are any of those worthwhile putting skill points into?
 
I've not used them much no. I know Zevran comes with full poison (at least he did for me) which was helpful since a Dual Wielder is probably the best for them. If i recall the wiki, the 'Elemental Coating' only adds +2 damage per attack (+3 for Shock), which if its true makes them utterly worthless as when i'm using Flame/Frost Weapon on my mage i was usually getting +10-20 per attack late game. The other poisons do have there merits i think, if you can be bothered to use them. And by that i mean the Stamina/Mana drain and the Stun/Slow ones, but you'd have to really be dedicated to using them frequently and its probably not worth it outside large fights where you need the extra 'kick'.

The Bombs can be useful for when you need that little kick of damage vs a balled up mob so its definatly worth getting Rank 2 for them if you intend to use them imo. But if you think the points would have more benefit elsewhere its no big loss.
 
I think I'd put three points into poisons, but stopped using them completely once my mages had flame / frost weapon spells.

Found them useful for the occasional times you'd find yourself alone, but not really worth the points otherwise.
 
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