Dragon Age Origins discussion...

Tzzird said:
I did for about 12 levels. But 2 rogues doesn't make for a good party. I replaced her with Wynne once I got there.
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Spec Leliana for archery if your PC is a melee rogue and she'll dish out plenty of damage.

I went through that way and between me backstabbing and her with Arrow of Slaying any ranged casters never had a prayer against us. Shale for a tank and Morrigan (or Wynne) for a damager/healer and you're good to go.

My favorite party though was with Shale, Leliana, Dog and my PC Mage. :D
 
Limahl said:
My favorite party though was with Shale, Leliana, Dog and my PC Mage. :D
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interesting. Did you have issues with AOE spell damaging your two melee guys?

I'm only a few hours in but wondering what kind of party I want. I'm a mage and kinda don't want to go with 2 mages since some people have said that can get overpowered, to the point of boring. We'll see how long I find handicapping myself fun:)

Obviously need a tank. Me as AOE/CC. Can two ranged rogues work? or at least make for an interesting combo..?

edit: on normal. So far a 2nd play through seems likely:)
 
ObiDamnKenobi said:
interesting. Did you have issues with AOE spell damaging your two melee guys?

I'm only a few hours in but wondering what kind of party I want. I'm a mage and kinda don't want to go with 2 mages since some people have said that can get overpowered, to the point of boring. We'll see how long I find handicapping myself fun:)

Obviously need a tank. Me as AOE/CC. Can two ranged rogues work? or at least make for an interesting combo..?

edit: on normal. So far a 2nd play through seems likely:)
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Gotta just control the party so the AOE's don't hurt em. Use the button under the character portraits to hold your ground, toss a fireball downrange into the enemy then let your party go to town on them now that they are weakened. Or drop a Blizzard down there and do the same thing. The trick is learning how close you can get before the enemy will all out charge you, making AOE spells useless a lot of the time. Blizzard is especially good against banks of archers at range, and Crushing Prison is good against the leader types (yellow or orange names).

Everyone has their own style they like to use and feel comfortable with. Also depends a lot on how to spec the characters and set up your tactics slots.

I'm on my 4th playthrough now. ;)
 
Or blizzard your own guys - it sucks for them, but they take ~far~ less damage than the enemy :)
 
lopoetve said:
Or blizzard your own guys - it sucks for them, but they take ~far~ less damage than the enemy :)
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Depends on what difficulty you play on. :D

Harder difficulty = more friendly fire damage.

Casual - No friendly fire. Easy AI
Normal - 50% (0% on X360/PS3) damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Moderate AI.
Hard - 100% (50% on X360/PS3) damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Full AI. Opponents hit harder.
Nightmare - 100% damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Full AI. Opponents hit harder and additional resistances.
 
"Dirty, good. Clean bad!" LOL!

Don't know how much I missed on my 1st playthrough. Now on my 2nd, doing as many as quests as possible. Still only 50% completion. Love this game!
 
Limahl said:
Depends on what difficulty you play on. :D

Harder difficulty = more friendly fire damage.

Casual - No friendly fire. Easy AI
Normal - 50% (0% on X360/PS3) damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Moderate AI.
Hard - 100% (50% on X360/PS3) damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Full AI. Opponents hit harder.
Nightmare - 100% damage from friendly fire, traps, and other abilities. Full AI. Opponents hit harder and additional resistances.
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I don't believe there are any changes to AI across difficulties. Or maybe there are, but they are not mentioned in the table on the missing manual.
 
I've almost finished all of the "joining allies" section of the game. Not sure how much more there is.

I'm running a mage. I went with Arcane Warrior / Spirit Healer. But I only use Combat magic in a pinch / when I'm out of mana. I just run fairly light armor the rest of the time (Ancient Elven for most of the game, just switched to Wade's Superior Dragonskin).

I generally run my mage, Morrigan, Alistair and Leliana. I run lightning and earth with my mage, Morrigan runs ice and spirit (nightmare, sleep, etc) stuff. Cone of cold rules!

Lately I've been running through an area though with an extra fighter (Shale or Sten) until I run out of inventory space or clear the area. Then I come back through again with Leliana in tow to open up chests and finish gathering the loot from locked chests.

I haven't played a PC RPG in ages. I still play BGII & Betrayal at Krondor sometimes though. This is a great game.
 
Cyrilix said:
I don't believe there are any changes to AI across difficulties. Or maybe there are, but they are not mentioned in the table on the missing manual.
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Those were taken from the Wiki for the game. They may not be 100% accurate on the AI info, I didn't care enough to try and confirm it personally. ;)

Enemy AI is so easy to beat in any game like this most times. They'll line up in doorways and just let you blow them away. :D

Outdoor areas with wide open spaces are more fun to me.
 
Limahl said:
Those were taken from the Wiki for the game. They may not be 100% accurate on the AI info, I didn't care enough to try and confirm it personally. ;)

Enemy AI is so easy to beat in any game like this most times. They'll line up in doorways and just let you blow them away. :D

Outdoor areas with wide open spaces are more fun to me.
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You bet it sucks. If I'm attacking a group of guys in a room with thin pillars, I can hide behind a pillar and snipe the guys within line of sight while the ones that aren't within the line of sight but only 10m away will sit around like nothing's happening.
 
had some trouble with the optional high dragon in the Haven area. Had me (arcane warrior), Wynne, Leliani and Alistar. Got raped repeatedly since when I cast force field on Alistar, the stupid dragon was switching targets to one of my mages. Trying to devise a new strategy, might add another fighter in place of Leliani and maybe blizzard the stupid dragon since it will freeze. But that stupid grab and toss thing it does kills my freaking tank in one hit, wtf.
 
kledar586 said:
had some trouble with the optional high dragon in the Haven area. Had me (arcane warrior), Wynne, Leliani and Alistar. Got raped repeatedly since when I cast force field on Alistar, the stupid dragon was switching targets to one of my mages. Trying to devise a new strategy, might add another fighter in place of Leliani and maybe blizzard the stupid dragon since it will freeze. But that stupid grab and toss thing it does kills my freaking tank in one hit, wtf.
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The dragon battles tend to work well with ranged attackers so it can't knock everyone down and stun them so easily.

Get a high aggro tank, a good healer to keep him alive, 2 ranged attackers and let fly.

Cone of Cold works very well to stop the Dragon "cold" for a few seconds, just keep casting it on him and you can keep him frozen most of the fight, though have mana potions cause it will take a while.
 
Equip someone with Drakescale or Dragonbone armor (both have excellent fire resistance) and any dragon will be a cinch. Just keep your distance from the dragon and simply waltz around it so it will either use the fireball or breath attack while your other party members use range or magic. Obviously using Taunt helps in case it gets bored of your tank's antics.
 
Just beat the game with 2 rogues and 2 tanks since I lost Morrigan who was my only mage (foolishly killed Wynn at the tower). It was pretty hard, and I popped a lot of health potions. Going to play through again as a mage.
 
SuX0rz said:
Just beat the game with 2 rogues and 2 tanks since I lost Morrigan who was my only mage (foolishly killed Wynn at the tower). It was pretty hard, and I popped a lot of health potions. Going to play through again as a mage.
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you are my hero
 
kledar586 said:
had some trouble with the optional high dragon in the Haven area. Had me (arcane warrior), Wynne, Leliani and Alistar. Got raped repeatedly since when I cast force field on Alistar, the stupid dragon was switching targets to one of my mages. Trying to devise a new strategy, might add another fighter in place of Leliani and maybe blizzard the stupid dragon since it will freeze. But that stupid grab and toss thing it does kills my freaking tank in one hit, wtf.
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Be ready, and when it looksl ike it might cast that, FF the dragon. Boom, safe. When it's about to expire, back the tank off. No one to throw! :)
 
The prison spell against my character can be sooo annoying. How do you prevent getting the prison lock? Is it just a matter of kill their mages before they cast prison?
 
I got locked a few times in the last couple hours of the game (on Normal) but for the most part, I just locked them first. With two mages and my PC rogue to stealth open the door so I can get a picture of the scenario: Control with Earthquake+ control with Blizzard, quick secondary casting of Death Cloud. Throw a Stone-fist attack at the most powerful frozen foe and use Crushing prison on the most powerful yellow or orange along with Arrow of Slaying. Add Tempest in there for some more ridiculous damage. Tank, Mass Paralysis and Scattershot to mop up when the clouds abate. If you don't have Earthquake, Blizzard or Crushing Prison, you should try and grab them at least.

Aside from some boss battles, that above combo makes you nigh invincible as a party against as big of a group as there can be... as long as you can get a look at the room first, anyways.

There are many different ways to control a room though.

Impressive, beating the game without mages. I don't know if I'd even enjoy trying that.
 
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SuX0rz said:
Just beat the game with 2 rogues and 2 tanks since I lost Morrigan who was my only mage (foolishly killed Wynn at the tower). It was pretty hard, and I popped a lot of health potions. Going to play through again as a mage.
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Heh yeah. Did three rogues and Alistair for one playthrough. Got to love the sheer numbers that pour off the mobs :p
 
I think you can cast force field on the prison to negate it (or any of several of the dispel magic spells/talents), but beware you'll get a large knockback effect around the area.
 
I'm going through the Dalish elves woods and I've been trying to do the "Mage's Treasure" (Juggernaut) quest. Anyone else have the problem that the first gravestone won't activate? Must you do it last? I've seen one other person report the same problem, for him it worked after he'd gotten the 'last' piece from the temple, but I've also seen reports that the outside gravestones won't activate if you've been to the temple so.. conflicting reports. I don't see why the first gravestone you get to wouldn't activate, there's really no plot-reason (that I can see) for it to work that way.

Another report:

"you can only activate one of the gravestones in the begining. i was only able to use the one north of the hermit, the one in first forest section, and the one by the dungeon would not let me do anything to it. and i could not accually beat the enemies from the one i was able to disturb. the first piece i got was accually the piece in the dungeon itself, after doing the water jug puzzle. once i got that, i was able to disturb the other graves. and also got the quest. so i would go back and check them all again."

Well, that can't be 100% because I have disturbed and successfully taken out the enemeis of two of the three outdoors grave encounters.

Someone else says:
"You can only summon the revanant for the last piece once you have the rest of the pieces, his grave is in the first area of the forest."

Okay. I guess I'll just have to press on and hope for the best.
 
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The first one won't activate until you activate the second stone you'll come across. Then you can go back and do the first. The last piece inside the Werewolf ruins requires a tablet from a sarcophagus in a nearby room to start the elven ritual quest.
 
Well, I already went back after I did the grave by the Hermit, and the first gravestone (near the "Old Oak") wouldn't activate then either. There are just too many conflicting reports about this quest. I'm going to go back again and check before I enter the ruins, just to cover all my bases.
 
The way I've done it is do the second one, above the hermit I believe, then I run back and do the first. After that, just do the last one near the entrance to the werewolf ruins, then the fourth inside via the ritual.
 
Okay, I can now disturb the first grave, having done the other two and before going into the ruins.

Now I just have to survive the fight :)
 
Ryom said:
I think you can cast force field on the prison to negate it (or any of several of the dispel magic spells/talents), but beware you'll get a large knockback effect around the area.
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Yep, the knockback combo is just another reason why FF is horribly broken. If you can get a whole mob focused on a FF'd character and keep your archers/magi at distance, victory is basically certain. I've only used the tank+taunt/enrage+ff cheese once, 'cos I took on Flemeth at level 10 and could see no other route to beating her.
 
eloj said:
Okay, I can now disturb the first grave, having done the other two and before going into the ruins.

Now I just have to survive the fight :)
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Aye, revenants are tough. Especially because you cannot activate the gravestones without having your whole party all lumped together, putting you at a tactical disadvantage from the outset. Using walls and other obstacles to work around their mass pull works well. I found Sten was the best tank to stand against them, equipped with a maul and using telekinetic weapons to give him very good AP. Archers were a waste of time for me - staff attacks work much better.
 
rincewind said:
Aye, revenants are tough. Especially because you cannot activate the gravestones without having your whole party all lumped together, putting you at a tactical disadvantage from the outset. Using walls and other obstacles to work around their mass pull works well. I found Sten was the best tank to stand against them, equipped with a maul and using telekinetic weapons to give him very good AP. Archers were a waste of time for me - staff attacks work much better.
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Staff attacks have ridiculous Armor Piercing, upwards of 50 I believe. The best crossbow I remember tops out at 15 maybe? The trouble with staves are that the Revenants are immune to cold and nature attacks, so if you have a staff with one of those attacks it will do no damage.
 
yea revs aren't too hard once you got a tank that can hold up to it, just back everyone else away from it. until then its rough and lots of health pot chugging. Which set of heavy armor is everyone rolling with, I got the Juggernaut set, also have the Legion set, dragon scale and effort set, I'm currently rolling with the juggernauts but I wish I can find out what the item set bonus is, it wont tell me anywhere.
 
kledar586 said:
yea revs aren't too hard once you got a tank that can hold up to it, just back everyone else away from it. until then its rough and lots of health pot chugging. Which set of heavy armor is everyone rolling with, I got the Juggernaut set, also have the Legion set, dragon scale and effort set, I'm currently rolling with the juggernauts but I wish I can find out what the item set bonus is, it wont tell me anywhere.
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Right click the item and select the eyeball icon to inspect it.

The set bonuses are described on that information screen, but they don't list specific values for a lot of things.

For Chainmail gloves it will read "When equipped in a set with basic chainmail armor and boots, the characters spells or talents cost less to activate".

That's the set bonus for Chainmail.
 
Yes, I wish they would make the set bonuses easier to see. After the second time through, I have received alot more complete sets this time, but without looking at the stats, I just don't know what they do. Like you cannot see in a stat if it makes things cost less stamina...lol
 
ob1 said:
Yes, I wish they would make the set bonuses easier to see. After the second time through, I have received alot more complete sets this time, but without looking at the stats, I just don't know what they do. Like you cannot see in a stat if it makes things cost less stamina...lol
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It's not comprehensive by any means, but a lot of the info can be found here: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Armor

The site is getting better every day, literally.
 
I'm about to finish my 1st play through (not sure if I can commit enough time for a 2nd) with about 85+ hours spent and still loving every bit of this game.

My current party consists of Alistair, Oghren , Wynne, and my PC is a dual-wield rogue. One of my favorite tactics with this group is to have all three melee chars group tightly together and taunt themselves into the center of a horde of enemies then pause once they're nice and surrounded. Next I have Alistair use Holy Smite, Oghren uses Two-Handed Sweep, my main does Whirlwind, and Wynne fireballs any ranged targets. Whirlwind will trigger first followed by Holy Smite then Two-handed sweep. The resulting devestation usually leaves every non-boss target stunned or on the floor at around half health or less.

It's not always the most practical strategy but It is really cool to see all the numbers pop up while enemies go flying every which way. I'll usually follow up with a cone of cold and let the shatter-fest begin. If there were no/few ranged characters then I'll occasionally drop the fireball right on one of my melee's since they're all wearing fire-resist gear.

There are so many ways battles can be played out, that's probably my favorite thing about this game.
 
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With Revnants I pretty much abuse cone of cold and the rogue multi-hit attacks. At first I used to try using a ranged approach, but once I hit level 11 or so, I pretty much pound it out in close. Morrigan's job is just to heal people and keep using cone of cold. I can usually make it through a battle only using maybe 1 or 2 health items if I'm lucky.
 
Hey I'm curious how far I am into the game for the people that have beaten it. I'm at the point where I have got out of the fade and I have almost explored everything on the map havent traveled west yet through the mountains.
 
Blubikins said:
Hey I'm curious how far I am into the game for the people that have beaten it. I'm at the point where I have got out of the fade and I have almost explored everything on the map havent traveled west yet through the mountains.
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Keep in mind the big picture. Your ultimate goal is to gain support of the factions then fight the darkspawn horde. If you've gained support of everyone, then you're close. If not, keep chugging.
 
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