Dragon Age Origins help!

agnes

agnes

agnes

Soldato
Joined
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Amsterdam, NL
Afternoon chaps,

I am playing this on the 360 but thought the OCUK fan base might be bigger for it in the PC section.

I have a few questions, as I have only just started playing the game.

I am 13 hours in, give or take, level 11 and only just realised and started to dabble in the tactics section...

I am a elf mage, arcane warrior (fun :D), but am finding my party is dieing a lot... Playing on normal setting. I normally run in my party, the female rogue, the female mage and Alistair... Seeing as it has been my first playthrough I let the auto level up system do it's job on my party members.

(Alistair is a great character, very funny, specially when we enter the smithy when he is drunk "I think someone has been drinkingggggg" lol)

But I have started to face a problem, healing... As a Arcane Warrior, my mana pool is mearly a puddle once I have all my sustainables up. And the other mage is a shapeshifter mainly. Will I encounter another mage along my travels that will be able to heal?

Also, what should be the most vital things in the tactic section for each party member? I really have no idea where to go from there.

Any guides around at all?

As for the game... I have no idea how I let it slip my net, being a HUGE fan of KOTOR, this is perfect... Although, as I have read very little into the game, I have no idea how many levels I will get in the playthrough, how close I am to the end or anything! lol. So if someone could shed a light on that, it would be nice. The last 2 main quests I did were getting the elves to honor the treaty and now I am chasing after the Urn after I dealt with that brat.

ags
 
go to the mage tower where xxx (can't remember here name lol) will join your party and she's a spirit healer. you should have gone there first but i did the same on my first play through :D
 
dr_volki said:
go to the mage tower where xxx (can't remember here name lol) will join your party and she's a spirit healer. you should have gone there first but i did the same on my first play through :D
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Go to Redcliffe 1st. Do the quest chain there and you end up getting sent to the mages tower as part of that quest.
 
Right, so off to redcliffe I go... The urn can wait :D Once I have got her, I have a ton of sidequests to do...

ags
 
I know it sounds like a complete cop-out, but I got fed up with dying so dropped the difficulty to easy - and now I'm actually enjoying the game - I was finding it a real grind before

I still haven't properly understood the tactics bit - if I give Alistair a bow for the second weapons kit, he wanders round with his sword and shield, rushes into melee and before he strikes the first blow, decides that using a bow might be better..grrrrrr. So he's been a naughty boy, and I've taken his bow and arrow kit off him and he's not getting it back. I've checked the tactics bit but nowhere does it say swap to ranged weapons in melee
 
wordy said:
Go to Redcliffe 1st. Do the quest chain there and you end up getting sent to the mages tower as part of that quest.
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Sure but the 'defence' can be pretty damn hard on a first playthrough, even more so if you don't have a healer. I also went Redcliffe first and its really not a nice fight. Once you get used to it and have a respec mod around so Morrigan can have a useful secondary you can blitz it pretty easily (think i did it without losing a single NPC).

If you had to go anywhere... go Mage Tower. Wynne is a great addition and you get plenty of free stat points which can't be overlooked either.
 
Pipe & Slippers said:
I know it sounds like a complete cop-out, but I got fed up with dying so dropped the difficulty to easy - and now I'm actually enjoying the game - I was finding it a real grind before

I still haven't properly understood the tactics bit - if I give Alistair a bow for the second weapons kit, he wanders round with his sword and shield, rushes into melee and before he strikes the first blow, decides that using a bow might be better..grrrrrr. So he's been a naughty boy, and I've taken his bow and arrow kit off him and he's not getting it back. I've checked the tactics bit but nowhere does it say swap to ranged weapons in melee
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The bow was definitely bugged, although I can't recall the details as to what, or whether it's been fixed. Not touched it because of this.
IMHO Alistair works much better as a tank though if you want to use him. Level up with max strenght and a bit of cunning etc, and then equip with full plate and greatsword.

Personally, I'm running this as a base party (~20 hours):
1. Main- Arcane warrior, but using mid-level armour. Combine this with a decent number of mana pots, and then you can run quite nicely.
2. Wynne- Healing & basic ranged.
3. Zevran- Rouge, basically bounces around stealthed.
4. Morrigan- Final mage, have leveled up in the corruption set mostly.

-Leezer-
 
Evilsod said:
Sure but the 'defence' can be pretty damn hard on a first playthrough, even more so if you don't have a healer. I also went Redcliffe first and its really not a nice fight. Once you get used to it and have a respec mod around so Morrigan can have a useful secondary you can blitz it pretty easily (think i did it without losing a single NPC).

If you had to go anywhere... go Mage Tower. Wynne is a great addition and you get plenty of free stat points which can't be overlooked either.
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I'm playing on normal and didn't have any problems with it to be honest. Lost a couple of the townsfolk in the 2nd stage but that was it.
 
wordy said:
I'm playing on normal and didn't have any problems with it to be honest. Lost a couple of the townsfolk in the 2nd stage but that was it.
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I find it hard to believe you went there first on your first playthrough and didn't lose the majority/all of the townsfolk when you simply don't have the ability to keep them alive with heals or protect them effectively when you're own lack of equipment and skills makes it hard enough on yourself...
 
Oh, I'm stupid... I think I have done redcliffe lol, last night in the early hours of the morning! The first lot of enemy waves were a breeze, just laid down a fire aoe spell as they came down the path then finished them off, and the second lot of waves at the gates was pretty easy. Didn't lose anyone.

I will just go to mages tower as I am currently in a part where the main quests have spat me out again, I have to go chase the urn down... nothing specific. So will just pop to mage tower, get the char and spend some time setting up the party :)

ags

edit: can anyone tell me how far along I am in the game then?
 
I would suggest the same as the above really. Wynne is a huge help to any party and playthrough style and the extra stat points available in the Mage's Tower are a huge help when accumilated together.

I am currently on my 7th or so playthrough on Nightmare (finding it easy in all honesty). My set-up on this playthrough;

Main Character - Two Handed spec Warrior, put the majority of points in Strength. Using the Champion specialization. Extremely high damage and takes the majority of the damage from melee, range and magic (Juggernaut armour helps for resistance) All two hand skills and Champ skills are maxed, using Warrior skills also such as Taunt.

Alistair - Secondary Tanker using Shield based skills (<3 Shield Defence) couple Alistair's Shield tanking with my main's Champion skill, Rally, and you have a huge defence buff with attack. Alistair also has Templar skills maxed to be an effective Mage combatant.

Morrigan - A lot of skills used in Entropy for crowd control (Sleep, Waking Nightmare, Mass Paralysis and the Hexs'). I use Morrigan standing in the crowd with Miasma, as it is an extremely helpful skill, slowing attacks and enemy getaways. My main's Taunt, defence and increased hostility items mean Morrigan is hardly ever attacked even when she is stood in the main crowd battle.

Wynne - Party healer with maxed Spirit Healer skillset (<3 Cleansing Aura). I also use her defence and attack boost auras on the main and Alistair - further boosting their high defence and attack buffs. Sustained skills such as Haste for higher attack speed are a huge help for a warrior based party such as mine. Using the Glyphs are also a huge help for a moderate amount of crowd control (Paralysis Glyph and Knockback one) The Glyph for defence boost is a huge help too for keeping my tanks tanking further damage. Wynne is such a Lyrium pot junkie too in battles - constantly casting heals, buff spells and pots to keep the mana pool up.

I recommend you experiment with your tactics and think deeply about what you will use certain charaters for and base all your tactic points around that. All of Morrigan's tactics in my party are used for crowd control spells and once she has casted them all she just stands in the middle of the crowd doing nothing but sustain her Miasma and re-cast crowd spells when they finish their cooldown. She does not deal any damage.

The only problem with my party is that if Wynne ever died (Hasn't yet on this playthrough) the group would begin to fall apart with the lack of healing and buff spells. I do keep a large collection of high tier health pots in case this ever happens though.

EDIT: ^^You're probably only 20% into the game. You still have to unite the Elves, find the Urn, do the Mage's tower and travel through the Deep Road's near Orzamaar (sp?). A few other tidbits along the way too
 
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Wow, Wynne is making it MUCH easier :D Loving it now, not having to worry about micro management as much with health potions :)

ags
 
agnes said:
Also, what effect does lowering the difficulty have on leveling up?

ags
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I don't think it has any negative effect, just makes the battles easier. You can switch between difficulty levels at any time, so if a particular battle is proving too hard just knock it back to easy. I had to do this twice in Redcliffe, and once for a load of golems that I just couldn't be bothered wearing down :)
 
Well, I am loving it! I have turned the difficulty to casual, as I am 100% sure I will be playing through this game many more times.

I am now about to finish off the urn quest... But I am starting to become confused/flooded with side quests. I have got about 10-15 side quests waiting to be completed. I am thinking, I will probably finish off the Urn quest as that takes me through the Dwarven caves so I could pick up some heavy/massive armour for my Arcane Warrior. Then just go round and slowly complete all side quests I have, one by one. Which should add on a extra 10 hours minimum to the 24 hours I have already logged!

Any suggestions for armor/weapons? I'm guessing the Dwarven stuff is as good as it gets? I just feel that once I got all the factions together and agreed to fulfil their treaties... That is it. So I don't want to miss anything.

Can someone, please just confirm. Once I have got the above done, what will happen? Will the game then force me down a path to complete the main story, or will it then give me a further quest and let me free roam? Once the above is done, what is the % of the main quest line done?

ags
 
You can spend as much time as you want doing quests. The tipping point is the landsmeet. Once that is done, you can then travel to the last mission, but you can still travel the world finishing missions. Once you are on the last mission, however, you can't stop.

Once the last mission is finished, you can still go back and do the side-missions. The game is not over. :) You just carry on. This means, as new mods and campaigns are released, you can stay with your character, and not have to generate a new one.

P.S. I logged over 80 hours on my first play-through.
 
I'd imagen its much harder on consoles due to the controls and interface.

My own little tip all your mages should have mind blast and heal and force feild.
 
DooMeR said:
I'd imagen its much harder on consoles due to the controls and interface.

My own little tip all your mages should have mind blast and heal and force feild.
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I am finding it very well done tbh, obviously micro management is next to none existent, but I hate micro management anyway. I spent about a hour last night tweaking each char's tacticts and honestly, I now wipe out most things coming my way (guess thats because I have casual difficulty on lol).

I only hate one thing, debuffs... When ever all my sustainables get taken off thanks to debuff, it takes me a long time to build them all back up again... Wish I could just make a macro that does them all one after the other... But the sun sets and the moon rises and all that.

ags
 
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