Dragon Age Origins discussion...

an hour or so into it an is it just me or is this game a bit hard.

I mean I died twice on just a regular group of people. Does it get more easy as you get above level 4?
 
I recommend being more tactical; pausing and considering all options. Swinging away with all characters isn't a good idea.

Some fights can seem a little daunting at first but, on normal difficulty at least, there's nothing you shouldn't be able to handle. Do whatever you can to control the crowd and isolate your prime target. Poisons, coatings, salves, bombs, traps can all be useful.
 
an hour or so into it an is it just me or is this game a bit hard.

I mean I died twice on just a regular group of people. Does it get more easy as you get above level 4?

There is a learning curve, for sure, unless you play alot of crpg. Once you learn the tricks it gets alot easier.
 
an hour or so into it an is it just me or is this game a bit hard.

I mean I died twice on just a regular group of people. Does it get more easy as you get above level 4?

Unless you're playing on Easy, you most definitely cannot just run into battles and play real time. You will have to pause combat, select team members individually and issue commands, sometimes the entire length of a battle. Additionally you will often find yourself in some battles where you die 25+ times trying to figure out a way to beat the AI. Its a puzzle, a thinking mans RPG.. so save often and learn patience.
 
...and remember that the game often WANTS you to use AI flaws. Drawing people out 1 at a time, running your entire party through a battlefield only to get in a room (creating a bottleneck), etc. is not only encouraged but in many case required to win some fights.
 
Yeah, I got all 4 levels of lockpick and still can't get into everything with a cunning of 22, but like others have mentioned - I haven't found anything groundbreaking in a chest. Lots of "good" items and tons of stuff to sell (so you can buy tomes or better goods), but I can't recall anything truly amazing from one.

You need 30 cunning and level 4 lockpicking to unlock everything. The amount of XP gained from successfully picking a lock increases with the lock's difficulty. If I remember correctly, 60 XP is the hardest lock.
 
After playing this game for 2 weeks and getting my wife's take on it (we've been playing independently) I'm convinced the devs want you to you AI exploits moreso than strategy. In nearly every fight I'm left wondering "Am I just too weak to win this?" until I pile my team into a corner and use friendly fire massive spells/potions or draw enemies out 1 at a time using the AI's limited vision.
I understand that you're constantly being bombarded by battles with tons of archers and 5-6 melee fighters while you're stuck with 4 people...but too often battles pretty much force you to use an exploit.
Plus, it seems like there's a pretty wide margin between normal and easy.
I feel that the battles are getting in the way of a good game, which is weird.
I've completed all of the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale games and NWN 1 and 2, but this game is just weird about how weak you always seem.

Much agreed. One of my main complaints for an overall super game.
It doesn't help when the enemy seems to have twice (if not more) the hitpoints your own characters have.

I've been finding the battles MUCH more enjoyable if I do this:
1) Get rid of the health pots, Don't use 'em.
2) Don't use AI exploits. (no pulling nor invincible tank forcefield trick). My latest playthrough, I'm going rogue, and have been skipping the AOE spells.
2a) Play without the "hide behind the tank" strategy. 90% of battles I charge headfirst into the pile with my rogue (no waiting for the tank). The other 5% I'm just peppering them with arrows and single shot spells for fun. Other 5% I stealth kill the enemy mages, nasty buggers.
3) Code myself extra talent and attribute points to compensate.

Combat is a lot more fun.
 
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I encountered a rather frustrating game breaking bug last night. In my parties camp there was some annoying guy who wanted me to go to wardens peak to clear his families name. I completed that place, long ago, siding with that old mage and killed the demon. I tried to go back there, and ran into some cutscenes with the guy from the camp. I made it all the way to the mage, talked to him, and now I am stuck in an endless loop. The Mage talks to an invisible demon (because I killed the demon already), and its start an encounter. The problem is the encounter ends immediately, because the demon is gone and my only choice is to talk to the mage and repeat the loop. I can't even leave the room because both doors lock when you enter the room.

.... sigh.

Also if I talk to Shale, in Orgrimar .. er ... Ozrimar or whatever, I fall under the floor and I am able to walk in the lava, through walls and everything.
 
Along the lines of Leliana and the Bard tree, I completely agree. I originally took my rogue down the assassin and duelist lines, which were merely "meh" to me. When I changed to the bard and ranger lines, wow, what a difference. Those skills don't seem that awesome when you read them, but they work very very well. Having the bear up from the ranger with the advanced pet skill makes the bear a real force. He does like 60 to 80 damage per hit and holds agro over Allistar and he doesn't take much damage when I accidentally freeze him...lol
 
heheh, yeah, captivating song with high cunning is nasty. I ought to try it at the nasty battle after rescuing the

***spoiler***
queen at Arl Howe's house.
 
Unless you're playing on Easy, you most definitely cannot just run into battles and play real time. You will have to pause combat, select team members individually and issue commands, sometimes the entire length of a battle. Additionally you will often find yourself in some battles where you die 25+ times trying to figure out a way to beat the AI. Its a puzzle, a thinking mans RPG.. so save often and learn patience.

If you build your party right, most trash mob groups are cake on normal. The only people you really need to micromanage are your casters. AoE disables are worth their weight in gold. Mass paralysis followed by a well placed cone of cold on the mob inevitably surrounding your tank (sorry tank) can let you wipe the floor with white enemies and take virtually no damage in return. Secondary priority is to lock down the boss mob(s) with single-target disables.
 
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I played through once on Normal difficulty with an Arcane Warrior and had a tough time with a number of battles. I find it funny that I'm easily walking thorugh some of those same battles with my Rogue on the harder difficuly setting. Mainly I think it's because I've learned to be more tactical. Also I love all of the poison abilities I have with my rogue- killing a group of mobs with a single Ice or Fire bomb is very satisfying!

The more time you take to stufy the battlefield and micromanage your party, the easier most battles will be.
 
After playing this game for 2 weeks and getting my wife's take on it (we've been playing independently) I'm convinced the devs want you to you AI exploits moreso than strategy. In nearly every fight I'm left wondering "Am I just too weak to win this?" until I pile my team into a corner and use friendly fire massive spells/potions or draw enemies out 1 at a time using the AI's limited vision.
I understand that you're constantly being bombarded by battles with tons of archers and 5-6 melee fighters while you're stuck with 4 people...but too often battles pretty much force you to use an exploit.
Plus, it seems like there's a pretty wide margin between normal and easy.
I feel that the battles are getting in the way of a good game, which is weird.
I've completed all of the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale games and NWN 1 and 2, but this game is just weird about how weak you always seem.
I actually disagree with you. First, you don't have to necessarily fight stuff when you encounter it. You can come back later. For example, the Revenants are extremely difficult at level 6, probably close to impossible. By level 10-12 they are doable and by 14-15 you should handle them easily. And yeah, I understand having a zone with 10 archers and 10 more fighters is really irritating and there were a few of those in Denerim and one with Dark Spawn and I was like WTF??? this is difficult. After a second try I changed my ways and it was actually pretty easy. I have not encounter a fight that took more than a few trys. One thing I will say though is that Wynn totally makes the game easier. If you're not playing a healer yourself, she's almost a must-have character to join. I tried taking some healing spells with Morrigan and it just takes to long to start getting the good ones (game is getting harder at that point). The game basically forces you to have a healer (I don't have a problem with that).
 
The game does have a learning curve, and like almost any activity, there are ways of cheating the system. If that's how you choose to play the game, then by all means, but there are legitimate ways of handling each difficulty level.

I'm generally pretty bad at these games. I always start off at easy difficulty, and try to get my head into the style of the game. I generally play for around 10 hours on easy, then take it up to normal for my first official playthrough. Each jump you make in difficulty makes you scratch your head and think of how the hell you're going to beat it this time :p

By the time you've done a playthrough, you know all the mobs strengths/weaknesses, all the vendors which sell good items at good rates for your party at different stages of the game, different spells/abilities/combos, and how to better manage your party in different combat situations. The way you structure your party, and each party member's spells/abilities plays a fairly large role in how you handle each difficulty to your liking.

Each time, learn as much as you can about all the aspects of the game, then up the difficulty for the next playthrough, and start the learning experience all over again :)
 
Oh, am I missing something, is there not a potion to revive your fallen members. I just got Wynne and she has revive but before that, if someone died, they were dead until the battle was over. Im lvl 10-11 now. Also been wondering, the party member you dont use, do they level up with you. I believe they have or Im seeing things...which i wouldn't doubt
 
Oh, am I missing something, is there not a potion to revive your fallen members. I just got Wynne and she has revive but before that, if someone died, they were dead until the battle was over. Im lvl 10-11 now. Also been wondering, the party member you dont use, do they level up with you. I believe they have or Im seeing things...which i wouldn't doubt

Fallen team members revive after combat and when you get close enough to them, but the revive spell works in combat. So if you happen to lose someone like Morrigan at the start of a big battle, you can revive her immediately instead of waiting until the battle is over.

Yes, your team members gain xp in camp just as if they were in your party. Unfortunately, you can't level them up in camp, you have to have them in your party to allocate all of the skills and points. So you need to go to an area like the dalish camp or something and use the change party button to bring them in and level them up accordingly.

As a hint and not a spoiler, you should probably level them up occasionaly like I stated above and give them some gear as you get it, (like armor and weapons that are good but you don't need and don't need to sell), because you may need these people later on in the game.
 
I need some help deciding if I want this game or not.
The price is right. It's on sale at a lot of places for a pretty decent price.

However, when I look at gameplay videos I just shake my head. Of the video's I've seen, they're esentially party zerg swarms with bad melee character animations. I also fear I'll get pissed at my team AI for doing stupid things.

Am I watching the wrong videos or is everyone else drinking the DA:O Kool-Aid?
 
thanks. I was kinda worried that i was lvl 10ish and hadn't seen a potion to revive. But im very happy to have Wynne now. Usually its Al that would die. Morrigan only would (die) if she decided to run into battle or to some strange enemy off in the corner even though I have her set as ranged, i believe. Thats if i dont catch her in time. she doesn't always listen to her assigned tactics but, i pause the game a million times during battle. Almost makes it turn based for me, which I like
 
Downed my second dragon, which was cool especially the death animation. Although it certainly seemed like it was easiest to just pelt the dragon with arrows which was somewhat of a let down since my main is a 2H warrior and he had to use a bow.

One thing I find amusing is how many people are genuinely interested in the "romance" scenes in the game. To me it seems like an entirely pointless and tasteless part of the game included either for shock factor or for 13 year olds. I pretty much avoid these sequences.

Yes, your team members gain xp in camp just as if they were in your party. Unfortunately, you can't level them up in camp, you have to have them in your party to allocate all of the skills and points. So you need to go to an area like the dalish camp or something and use the change party button to bring them in and level them up accordingly.

Thats actually false, if you go to the Character sheet screen ("c" on the PC version) you can tab between characters and click "level up" when its available.

I need some help deciding if I want this game or not.
The price is right. It's on sale at a lot of places for a pretty decent price.

However, when I look at gameplay videos I just shake my head. Of the video's I've seen, they're esentially party zerg swarms with bad melee character animations. I also fear I'll get pissed at my team AI for doing stupid things.

Am I watching the wrong videos or is everyone else drinking the DA:O Kool-Aid?

Not really sure what you mean by "party zerg swarms," however there are plenty of situations where your party is outnumbered by the AI. Rushing into combat unprepared can get you killed. Party animations are pretty much standard fare for any RPG. The AI is actually pretty competent, and you can make them almost self sufficient with the right tactics, which you can assign yourself.
 
Not really sure what you mean by "party zerg swarms," however there are plenty of situations where your party is outnumbered by the AI. Rushing into combat unprepared can get you killed. Party animations are pretty much standard fare for any RPG. The AI is actually pretty competent, and you can make them almost self sufficient with the right tactics, which you can assign yourself.
"Party zerg swarms" are basically everyone rushes into battle and gets in base-to-base contact with the enemy and begins swinging widly. I didn't see any strategy, tanking, avoidance, disables or countering that would actually add some depth to the gameplay. It was just run in and start swinging until everyone falls down.

Are there any gameplay videos that go beyond rush in and win or rush in and get overwhelmed?
 
"Party zerg swarms" are basically everyone rushes into battle and gets in base-to-base contact with the enemy and begins swinging widly. I didn't see any strategy, tanking, avoidance, disables or countering that would actually add some depth to the gameplay. It was just run in and start swinging until everyone falls down.

Are there any gameplay videos that go beyond rush in and win or rush in and get overwhelmed?

I assume you could probably get away with "party zerg swarms" on easy difficulty for the regular encounters. However I found that from my own experience that tanking, crowd control and character placement are instrumental especially on the tougher bosses and bigger crowds. Plus the more strategic you get about it the more rewarding it is.
 
"Party zerg swarms" are basically everyone rushes into battle and gets in base-to-base contact with the enemy and begins swinging widly. I didn't see any strategy, tanking, avoidance, disables or countering that would actually add some depth to the gameplay. It was just run in and start swinging until everyone falls down.

Are there any gameplay videos that go beyond rush in and win or rush in and get overwhelmed?

The first question to ask yourself is this......

Do you enjoy micro-managing party tactics?

If not, don't get the game, because you're going to spend plenty of time doing it especially on the harder battles. Normal fights you can build a solid tactics formula which will work fairly well, but will never be 100% reliable.

How often you need to press space to pause the battle and re-assign characters to other tasks will depend on the difficulty level you play on, the makeup of your party, and how well you designed each of the computer character tactics setups.

This video here shows the sort of "pause/adjust" thing I'm talking about......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoDGOJTP8So

Not the best video maybe, but I don't have a lot of time to search at the moment. Do some searches on YouTube and you'll likely find other videos that are better.

I wish they had a small demo out so people could try it out a little.
 
"Party zerg swarms" are basically everyone rushes into battle and gets in base-to-base contact with the enemy and begins swinging widly. I didn't see any strategy, tanking, avoidance, disables or countering that would actually add some depth to the gameplay. It was just run in and start swinging until everyone falls down.

Are there any gameplay videos that go beyond rush in and win or rush in and get overwhelmed?

Honestly, it sounds like you probably wouldn't like it. If you are looking for good graphics and cool melee animations, there aren't many here. If you like nearly turn based combat, then it works. You zerg how much you want to zerg. There are many enemies that I find that I cannot zerg at all, like the big drakes/dragons in haven. To each his own I say. Maybe see if you can see/play the game at a local game shop as a demo or something...

Personally I love the game. The story and voice acting are top notch, and I am almost done with my second play through, and I plan to play through it a third time at least, (this time a dwarf tank)...
 
"Party zerg swarms" are basically everyone rushes into battle and gets in base-to-base contact with the enemy and begins swinging widly. I didn't see any strategy, tanking, avoidance, disables or countering that would actually add some depth to the gameplay. It was just run in and start swinging until everyone falls down.

Are there any gameplay videos that go beyond rush in and win or rush in and get overwhelmed?

You've not read any reviews by the sound of it, good skill that, Reading.
People write reviews to answer exactly those sorts of questions, just a heads-up in case you werent aware :)

If you dont want "Party zerg swarms" then dont use them, use tactics.
 
Man, this game is pretty fun, but I get the feeling that I suck pretty hard at it. Playing on normal difficulty, I am getting my ass handed to me regularly. I went to the mage tower, and now I am in Redcliffe and the enemies are taking forever to kill. (It doesn't help I suppose that I pause a lot)

I think I messed up my party makeup a bit. My character is a rogue specializing in archery. I have Allistar with heavy armor as a tank, Morrigan with a bunch of ice spells, and Wynne as a healer. I can stun the enemies for a bit, but I cant deal enough damage to make a difference and they end up unfreezing and kicking my ass. Does the game get any easier later on? I am thinking that I should have chosen a different specialization for my main character so they could deal more damage.
 
You've not read any reviews by the sound of it, good skill that, Reading.
People write reviews to answer exactly those sorts of questions, just a heads-up in case you werent aware :)

If you dont want "Party zerg swarms" then dont use them, use tactics.
I stopped reading reviews and looking at press release materials years ago.

The first question to ask yourself is this......

Do you enjoy micro-managing party tactics?

If not, don't get the game, because you're going to spend plenty of time doing it especially on the harder battles. Normal fights you can build a solid tactics formula which will work fairly well, but will never be 100% reliable.

How often you need to press space to pause the battle and re-assign characters to other tasks will depend on the difficulty level you play on, the makeup of your party, and how well you designed each of the computer character tactics setups.

This video here shows the sort of "pause/adjust" thing I'm talking about......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoDGOJTP8So

Not the best video maybe, but I don't have a lot of time to search at the moment. Do some searches on YouTube and you'll likely find other videos that are better.

I wish they had a small demo out so people could try it out a little.

That's the ticket right there.
I love to micro manage and I loved the pause/command stuff they had in KOTOR.
Definitely going to buy.
 
You've not read any reviews by the sound of it, good skill that, Reading.
People write reviews to answer exactly those sorts of questions, just a heads-up in case you werent aware :)

If you dont want "Party zerg swarms" then dont use them, use tactics.

I don'tknow about that. I avoid reviews like the plague - too many spoilers.
 
I'm not terribly keen on the automatic difficulty scaling. After leveling up in the BG series, it was fun to be able to sweep through low level mobs unimpeded. Genlocks arrows should be gnats at 15th level, but they're not.
 
Man, this game is pretty fun, but I get the feeling that I suck pretty hard at it. Playing on normal difficulty, I am getting my ass handed to me regularly. I went to the mage tower, and now I am in Redcliffe and the enemies are taking forever to kill. (It doesn't help I suppose that I pause a lot)

I think I messed up my party makeup a bit. My character is a rogue specializing in archery. I have Allistar with heavy armor as a tank, Morrigan with a bunch of ice spells, and Wynne as a healer. I can stun the enemies for a bit, but I cant deal enough damage to make a difference and they end up unfreezing and kicking my ass. Does the game get any easier later on? I am thinking that I should have chosen a different specialization for my main character so they could deal more damage.

As it is now your best bet with a rogue is to dual wield. There are advantages to Archery but they are mostly negated because its overall attack speed is so slow.

Later in the game however this won't matter so much for your common battles as having two mages in the party makes the game incredibly easy on everything but boss battles. With the 4th tier area effect spells you can cast them over an area without having line of sight. This means you could have Morrigan start casting Blizzard while Wynne is casting Tempest all from a completely different room. Any enemies that survive the ensuing shit storm can be easily cleaned up as they run bruised and beaten down the hallway and into whatever chokepoint position you have set up.

Honestly it's really cheap and makes the game way too easy so I just run with one mage now.
 
In the situations where you're outnumbered greatly (10 or 15 to your 4), there's almost always some kind of alcove that provides cover from arrows and some way to exploit the games generally poor AI.
One really amusing one is in Denerim when you enter the warehouse. There are 5 archers (with stun abilities), 2 "boss" enemies, and 5 normal melee fighters. They also just happen to be in perfect position and have you surrounded. What's the eaisiest way to win this without using 30 health packs? At the start of the battle you haul ass to the tiny room at the back of the warehouse. From there, you can only be hit by one archer and all of the melee fighters will rush in after you. Cast cone of cold to freeze one in the doorway and then fireball the hell out of him and the area behind him. You'll take friendly fire, but you'll survive while all but 2 archers will die. Lame...but it works. Either that or you can do it the way that makes most sense...and end up using a ton of health items and getting stunned by arrows every other second.
Similar tricks are best in the Denerim gang fights, too. You're outnumbered 15 to 1 with a ton of archers with stun arrows. You can usually squeeze your party next to the gate opening so that one one person is taking arrows. From there, again, freeze and fireballs (friendly fire FTW - you might lose one person, but you'll kill more of them) are your friends. Once you only have archers left, you can use the scenery as an ally so that you're able to isolate them and only have to deal with 1 or 2 at a time because the AI can't see you at certain angles.

Those are the things that bug me about the game. In many fights where there are 5 or more archers trying to stun you - you're stuck using exploits like these. If you don't, you're going to get peppered by arrows and you're going to find 1/2 your party stunned and getting slaughtered.
 
While that is a fine example of using the game against itself, I usually don't use these tactics at all. In that big fight you speaking about, I have Morrigan use the several crowd control spells, like the one that makes enemies attack each other and the aoe sleep at the start of the fight. I also have wynne set to use heals and regens and group heals in the tactics as well to reduce potion consumption. I use potion grenades from my rogue on the archer groups and use cone of cold on enemies that get to close to the casters. Essentially I don't run, I just stick it out and fight it out there without using too many potions. I think there are several ways around it, and I would be surprised if there wasn't a better solution than either of these two...
 
Man, this game is pretty fun, but I get the feeling that I suck pretty hard at it. Playing on normal difficulty, I am getting my ass handed to me regularly. I went to the mage tower, and now I am in Redcliffe and the enemies are taking forever to kill. (It doesn't help I suppose that I pause a lot)

I think I messed up my party makeup a bit. My character is a rogue specializing in archery. I have Allistar with heavy armor as a tank, Morrigan with a bunch of ice spells, and Wynne as a healer. I can stun the enemies for a bit, but I cant deal enough damage to make a difference and they end up unfreezing and kicking my ass. Does the game get any easier later on? I am thinking that I should have chosen a different specialization for my main character so they could deal more damage.

There's an unofficial dexterity patch that makes all archers tougher. Get duel wield, but you'll still want arrow of death. That one is a lifesaver against enemy mages if you don't have a mage with prison or mana clash.
 
I'm about 30 hours in on playthrough 2 and it is MUCH easier than the first for me and going much faster. Level 16 now and starting to see some "Omega" mobs rather than just Alpha. The first levels were pretty tough with the rogue since I piled a bunch of points into Lockpicking and Pickpocketing. Once I got Morrigan built up, it's now a piece of cake. Kind of regretting playing on Normal again because I don't know if I'll play through this game a third time.

I unlocked the Reaver ability last night and then reloaded a the save right before it. Wasn't about to lose one of my most valuable characters!

Anyone like that specialization?

Oh, I also took our Flemeth at level 15 and it was a LOT easier than I thought it was giong to be after my encounter with her on my first playthrough at level 12.
 
I stopped reading reviews and looking at press release materials years ago.

That's the ticket right there.
I love to micro manage and I loved the pause/command stuff they had in KOTOR.
Definitely going to buy.

I figured a video that shows the sort of stuff you'll actually be doing in battle would be the thing to give you a clear answer one way or the other. Near the end, you'll spend hours doing just what the guy in that video did to take down waves of enemies.

I highly recommend spending time on the official forums, and be ready because there are some bugs here and there, though the majority of people are having no issues playing. It seems most of the problems are on D2D or Steam downloads of the game versus those with an actual DVD in their hands.

http://social.bioware.com/forum

I spend a lot of time there posting and trying to help in the Technical forum where I can.

I really hope you enjoy it as much as most of us have. I'm still on my 4th playthrough now, and having a lot of fun with it. They better get a sequel out ASAP. :D
 
Those are the things that bug me about the game. In many fights where there are 5 or more archers trying to stun you - you're stuck using exploits like these. If you don't, you're going to get peppered by arrows and you're going to find 1/2 your party stunned and getting slaughtered.

There are many ways to tackle these situations, using 'sploits is not the only option, nor is it usually the best option. My second playthrough was on Hard, I never had to be "cheap", just try new things as much as you can and save constantly.

In fact, one of my favorite things about the game is that there are so many ways to deal with each individual situation you find yourself in.
 
Man, this game is pretty fun, but I get the feeling that I suck pretty hard at it. Playing on normal difficulty, I am getting my ass handed to me regularly. I went to the mage tower, and now I am in Redcliffe and the enemies are taking forever to kill. (It doesn't help I suppose that I pause a lot)

I think I messed up my party makeup a bit. My character is a rogue specializing in archery. I have Allistar with heavy armor as a tank, Morrigan with a bunch of ice spells, and Wynne as a healer. I can stun the enemies for a bit, but I cant deal enough damage to make a difference and they end up unfreezing and kicking my ass. Does the game get any easier later on? I am thinking that I should have chosen a different specialization for my main character so they could deal more damage.

You have the exact same primary party makeup as myself during my first runthrough. That is a very competent combination. Get Crushing Prison+Cone of Cold+Blizzard for Morrigan and Earthquake+Paralysis for Wynne. Don't forget to Vulnerability Hex anyone you're looking to land a "chance" attack on.

I'm a huge fan of the archery specs and I'm glad I chose archery for my PC instead of dual-weilding... even though I'm speccing in that now. :D
 
lol I must be the only one that likes to use Leliana with bows and then switch to shield and sword for melee, mostly concentrating on rogue skills plus bows so she doesn't have anything in dual wield yet.
 
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