Dragon Age: Origins Catch-All

Katy wrote:

I wish the tactics had more options. Like, say, "Don't run into fire."

Or maybe, "hey dumbass, we're at the door for a reason, don't go in that room"

Or, "don't trigger identified traps."

Or "don't use cold spells on undead who are immune to cold."

Katy wrote:

I wish the tactics had more options. Like, say, "Don't run into fire."

The defense of Redcliffe made me wish that a lot.

You can disable Tactics on a case to case basis. If you're against Undead, you can simply disable Cold Spells in the Tactics menu.

Sonicator wrote:

For anyone having trouble establishing the motivation for a darker character, have them do the

Spoiler:

city elf

origin story IMO. (Barely a spoiler, but better safe than sorry). That had me right in the mood for a cold-blooded character.

Quite possibly my favourite conversation option in the game came when the chirpy friendly king cheerfully asked what things were like in

Spoiler:

the alienage

.

Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.

But hey, as an evil bastard that's what you do, right?

Rallick wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.

But hey, as an evil bastard that's what you do, right? :-P

I snap their necks baby.

Oh, you mean in the game?

That's actually a conundrum, would this character help the kennel master? She is a raging xenophobe, but it's humans she hates.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
Rallick wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:

Very true, that's perfect preparation. Although it does show what a nice guy the king is. It felt like kicking a puppy.

But hey, as an evil bastard that's what you do, right? :-P

I snap their necks baby.

Oh, you mean in the game?

That's actually a conundrum, would this character help the kennel master? She is a raging xenophobe, but it's humans she hates.

I got the thing the kennel master wanted (because I was told there was a reward, you lying bastard Daveth, glad you got what you deserved!) but I rejected his overtures to foist the animal on me.

lethial wrote:

I recommend you guys take a look at the Weapon Rebalance mod that I posted today. I have heard a lot of praises for it already. Also take a look at the Scaling Change mod, which make CON more useful and tweaks skills (Holy smite right now) to scale off of STR rather than WIL.

Speaking of mods, I would like some of your opinions on I shall be Queen mod.

Spoiler:

The "I shall be Queen" mod lets you become Queen no matter your Background. So you no longer have to be a human noble to claim the Throne or romance Alistair to the end!

I didn't add it to the mod list, since it is not a "mod" in the sense that there is nothing to install. Rather it is set of instructions which involves the toolset, and editing of save game files.

I personally will never use it, because I always have issue "role playing" as female chars. (Yeah I have issues, but it just feel "weird" if I try to play a female character ). But I know this is something that some would love to make use of.

Please let me know of your thoughts, and whether or not I should add it to the mod list.

thanks

Ugh. That's terrible. I disapprove of mods that change the actual storyline/canon/history of the core game and would never use it. (Add-ons are cool, but this just seems like, defilement.)

But I know there is a huge demand for this kind of thing. Trolling the Bioware social site forums really puts in perspective how insane some people are.

My suggestion is to put it under a "fanfic" mod section. Next to the "Now you can have ghey sex with Alistair" mod.

You mean you can't have ghey sex with Alistair in the plain vanilla game? CURSES!

Dimmerswitch wrote:
Katy wrote:

I wish the tactics had more options. Like, say, "Don't run into fire."

The defense of Redcliffe made me wish that a lot.

I basically keep my finger over the H key whenever I start a fight. The hold position command has made things much, much easier for me. I just plunk away with my bow, get the melees to charge me and only release the hold position order once the enemy has closed with me. It also makes throwing blizzard into an adjoining room a riskless venture.

BadKen wrote:

I can't imagine anyone complaining about a mod that makes your character godly. Just reading through some of the tweaks in that mod makes me nauseous. Do people really want an I WIN button that badly? Is the game really that hard? I find myself wanting to install one of the Nightmare+ mods.

I installed the combat/weapon balance mod last night mainly for my bows only ranger character. It definitely wasn't a game breaking I WIN mod. I honestly can't tell much difference at all in the grand scheme of things. Sten still drops like a sack of potatos in hard fights (though I later fixed this with the respec mod by essentially turning him into Alistair), Revenants still smack the bejeezus out of my group at lower levels, etc. The biggest difference I noticed was that my average ranged attack was doing 21 damage a shot instead of 18. Of course it also seems like I'm missing like crazy now and I have no recollection if that was the case before.

BTW, I can't say enough good things about the respec mod. Having gone through the game once "as intended" I can now customize my party members so that I can experience different party combinations, along with all their wonderful banter, while still keeping the utility I need. Turn Zevron into a lock-picker, easy. Have Morrigan as a spirit healer and get rid of the nearly worthless shapeshifting? Can do.

I've been running with myself (rogue), Alistair (tank), Sten (off-tank), and Wynne (healer). I'm getting tired of babysitting Sten, and he drinks health potions like an alcoholic on a bender.

Any thoughts as to bringing back Morrigan in Sten's place, and running two mages? I really need more crowd control. Sten isn't paying off much, even Alistair the tank is doing more damage than him.

I used both Wynne and Morrigan through most of my first play through and thought it worked really well. I mostly let Wynne handling healing, with Morrigan throwing an occupational backup heal. I focused Morrigan on CC and AoE spells, and that generally worked out really well for me. I used Sleep + Nightmare and Blizzard quite a bit, made a lot of the bigger fights with lots of enemies easier.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I've been running with myself (rogue), Alistair (tank), Sten (off-tank), and Wynne (healer). I'm getting tired of babysitting Sten, and he drinks health potions like an alcoholic on a bender.

Any thoughts as to bringing back Morrigan in Sten's place, and running two mages? I really need more crowd control. Sten isn't paying off much, even Alistair the tank is doing more damage than him.

I had a similar problem with Sten until I (upon reading the adivce of a fellow Goodjer) switched him from a two-handed weapon to a one-handed sword and a shield. He lasts much longer now and, in tough battles is one of the last standing.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I've been running with myself (rogue), Alistair (tank), Sten (off-tank), and Wynne (healer). I'm getting tired of babysitting Sten, and he drinks health potions like an alcoholic on a bender.

Any thoughts as to bringing back Morrigan in Sten's place, and running two mages? I really need more crowd control. Sten isn't paying off much, even Alistair the tank is doing more damage than him.

It's much more effective to have your mage use healing spells and drink lyrium as needed than have everyone chomping down poultices. Going Spirit Healer and getting Group Heal is essential.

Kosars wrote:

I used both Wynne and Morrigan through most of my first play through and thought it worked really well. I mostly let Wynne handling healing, with Morrigan throwing an occupational backup heal. I focused Morrigan on CC and AoE spells, and that generally worked out really well for me. I used Sleep + Nightmare and Blizzard quite a bit, made a lot of the bigger fights with lots of enemies easier.

Morrigan and Wynne work really well together. Toward the end of the game, most fights consisted of Wynne throwing earthquake out there then morrigan setting off a blizzard and tempest while the enemies were trying to get off their keisters. Plus the damage from a regular staff blast ain't half bad. Alistair's pretty good about grabbing agro if anyone gets through your vortex of death.

Beat the game a few times over already, 97% world explored, level 23, a little over 120 hours (mostly because I took my time with battles and read every bit of lore in game). I'll write up some comments later when I have more time. But for now, a comment on the Army Picker in the battles leading up to the final battle.

I found the elf archers to be the most effective army. They hang back and waste enemy archers and mages. Had no issues with the generals when mixed with Allister's Holy Smite and Morrigan's crushing prison. The Circle Tower mages were a total liability though. They almost wasted my entire party when they launched fireballs as targets my party was in melee combat with.

Wow, my experience was the opposite. The elves did such little damage they were largely ineffective for me, while the mages were mowing down baddies. My strategy was to stay back and control the crowd from afar with mezzes and earthquakes though, so the fireball colateral damager wasn't much of an issue for me.

I was playing on easy so I don't imagine my experience will line up with anyone else's, but I was worried about my armies dying before I truly needed them. So I didn't use them until the very last fight. Any of them.

The Elven Archers were with me for that final fight though they didn't seem to do much other than distract the enemy.

You get an achievement if you keep most of your armies alive. For a bunch of those fights you don't really need help, it just adds to the atmosphere to have others fighting the good fight with you.

WALL OF TEXT ALERT!
Wonderingkid over at SA forum has posted a great deal of info on AWs. The info posted is perfect for this thread, so w/o further ado.
Facts about Arcane Warriors

Combat Magic and your chance to hit:



You need to have this active for Spellpower to factor in your Attack Rating (chance to hit) and for your Magic stat to augment weapon damage as Strength should.



Attack Rating = 50 [Mage base] + (5 + Spellpower/5) [Combat Magic] +10 [Aura of Might]



and then you add whatever bonuses to attack rating you get from talents such as Heroic Offense (100 + Spellpower * 0.1).



So lets say you have 90 Spellpower and you run Combat Magic, Aura of Might and Heroic Offense. Your attacking rating is:



50 + (5 + 90/5) + 10 + (190 * 0.1) = 102



Edit: Aura of Might could be +5 attack instead of +10. Need to check when I get home.



Talents like Miasma further make it easier to hit by giving a -10 Defense penalty to anything in its area of effect. You want to increase stats and take talents that increase Spellpower and Attack Rating and which lower Defense. Some are arguably worth the points in redundant prerequisites whilst others are not. Arcane Mastery for instance only gives you a flat +5 bonus so if you don't use a staff then you decide if its worth spending 2 talent points for +5 Spellpower. I personally think this is a bad deal.



Heroic Offense gives you a huge attack bonus that scales almost as well as your Combat Magic bonus. You need to have Heroic Offense on if you want to hit anywhere near as consistently as a Warrior though it is somewhat hampered by its short duration and the fact that it requires you to sheath your weapon in order to cast. This talent is broken if you use the 'no weapon sheathing' mod for Arcane Warriors.



How to increase Spellpower:



Increase Magic stat (and/or use items that increase Magic such as Spellweaver)

Spell Wisp (100 + Spellpower * 0.05)

Spell Might (100 + Spellpower * 0.1)

Arcane Mastery (+5)

Items (i.e. Life Drinker amulet)



Spell Might is the most significant talent here followed by Spell Wisp. Arcane Mastery is the least significant. I recommend taking Spell Might early/mid game and leaving Spell Wisp and Arcane Mastery till the very end if you have nothing else to put the points in.



How to increase Attack Rating:



See above

Increase Dexterity and/or Strength (I don't recommend increasing Strength)

Heroic Offense (100 + Spellpower * 0.1)

Song of Courage (Bard talent)



Reducing Defense of targets:


Miasma (-10 Defense of all enemies in its area of effect)



note: Haste gives a -5 penalty to attack rating but it makes you attack 25% faster. Its worth it.



Edit: List is not complete. If anyone notices any talents that increase spellpower/attack rating and reduce defense chime in and I'll add it to this section.



Increase Dexterity or Constitution?



A good place to start is 1 point in Dexterity for every 2 points in Magic on each level up with all initial points in Magic. Depending on your playstyle and emphasis on spellcasting and melee fighting you should adjust the ratio of Dexterity to Magic accordingly. Dex helps you to avoid taking damage entirely and with 30 points in it you will for instance find that thug gangs in Denerim's back alleys make for a much easier fight. 30 Dex over base Dex mitigates alot more damage through side stepping and is very noticeable.


Don't put any points in Con even if you take Blood Mage secondary. You should have Lesser Health Poultice on your hotbar and you should be using it as your only heal 'spell'. You will also have 1 rank in Herbalism and you should be converting all your elfroots and flasks into potions. This is blatant cheese because both are in unlimited supply and are free/cheap but if you are ok with that then its more effective than taking Heal (cooldown between using potions is shorter and you save a talent point). Remember to turn off Blood Magic when you heal up.



With 112.8% fatigue I tested the difference between an AW/BM with 30 Con/min Dex and one with 12 Con/30 Dex. With Blood Magic active I cast Crushing Prison and lose about 1/2 life with 30 Con. I lose a little over 2/3rds with 12 Con. The more fatigue you have the more life you lose.



Maintaining Combat Magic and a stack of other sustainables guarantees you will always have 80%+ fatigue so the life cost of spells is always high. If you need to cast, you should do it from mana and then cast your sustainables when you burn out. Turn on Blood Magic after that for emergency casting and for Blood Wound.



Equipment



+Stamina and +Mana are interchangeable.

+Stamina Regeneration and +Mana Regeneration are interchangeable.


Any item with +Stamina and +Stamina Regeneration will increase your Mana and Mana regeneration respectively.



These spells end when you can no longer meet their degenerative mana penalty:



Haste = -1.0 tick

Spell Might = -4.0 ticks

Shimmering Shield -10.0 ticks



These spells increase your mana regeneration:



Rejuvenate = +8.0 ticks (duration = 10 seconds, cooldown = 45 seconds)

Mass Rejuvenation = +5.0 ticks (duration = 15 seconds, cooldown = 90 seconds)

Spellbloom = +3.0 ticks (duration = 20 seconds, cooldown = 30 seconds)



Spellbloom is the only feasible method of maintaining alot of sustained spells with cumulative mana degeneration. The downside is that the it has a static area of effect so it restricts movement.



Highest mana regeneration possible from equipment:



Wade's Superior Dragonbone set (+2.0 ticks)

Andruil's Blessing (+2.0 ticks. Possibly +1.0. Not sure how it works)

Spellweaver (+1.0 tick)

Fade Wall (+1.0 tick)

Libertarian's Cowl (+0.25 ticks)

Wicked Oath (+1.0 tick)



Total = 7.25 ticks



It is impossible to permanently stall or reverse mana degeneration from Shimmering Shield on its own. However you can maintain it with most of your mana reserved for a reasonable amount of time if you fight in Spellbloom (however this costs 3 talent points all of which have dubious worth).

PC System Requirements:
Windows XP Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows XP with SP3
CPU: Intel Core 2 Single (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD 64 (or equivalent) running at 2.0Ghz or greater
RAM: 1GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X850 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Windows Vista/Windows 7 Minimum Specifications

OS: Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core 2 Single (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD 64 (or equivalent) running at 2.0Ghz or greater
RAM: 1.5 GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Recommended Specifications

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual-Core 2.7 GHz or greater
RAM: 2 GB (XP) or 3 GB (Windows Vista/Windows 7)
Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Background Stories

- Penny Arcade has a very nice background story write up here. (Thanks Mudbunny!)

SPOILER ALERT: Complete Codex Online (thanks NSMike)

Link to online Codex

Tips and Tricks from Gamers like you (12/3)

Specific Game Features

  • You can give gifts to your companions to make them happy. This is going to be great for those of us that save and reload at every possible events/dialogs just in case it screwed up our Companion Influence...
  • There will be Tons of NPC banter. So much so that there little to no repeats of banter in one play through.
  • Influence "mini-game": In addition to your actions/dialogs, you can give gifts to your companions. Gifts will affect each companion differently. It is up to the player to find out what gifts will please which companion the most.
  • A lot of sidequests are based off of the main quest. While there are purely ancillary quests, DA provides a much more directed gaming experience then games like Oblivion.
  • Not completing some of the ancillary quests can be a good thing, since complete them can negatively affect your influence with a companion.
  • Most dungeons provide players with different tactical challenges, instead of just providing generic battles.
  • Six Origin stories: Dalish Elf, Dwarf Commoner, Magi, Human Noble, City Elf, Dwarf Noble. Each of them offers a different starting experience. And they will affect how NPC react to you. You will want to try all the origins. (talk about longevity and replay value! )
  • Ignore all the "new sh*t" trailers, watch the 20 minutes or so quick look from Giant Bomb instead.
  • Party based RPG, with a lot of focus on dialogs, choices, and story.
  • Don't fret about the lack of character skill selection from the character creator. There are Spcialization Classes that you can take later on (there are quests needed to be done to get these). More info here
  • Mages are very powerful in DA, but they are countered by Templars.
  • You can mix spells together for new affects! These are only the "official mixtures." There should be more user created mixtures.
  • There is a level cap at level 25 (though it is possible to get to level 26) but Bioware has mentioned that future (post-12/1/2009) patches will remove the cap.
  • "Hub of interest" based overland map. Like in past BG games. (Not free roaming like in Oblivion or Risen) There are random encounters though.
  • You can create your own AI scripts for your part members in game. It is like the "Gambit system" in Final Fantasy 12.
    Excellent Summary of this system from Corin Tucker over at SA:
    Dragon Age lets you create "If X Then Y" scripts for each member of your party, automating as much or as little of the combat as you want. It's sort of like the Gambit system in FFXII. You start off with a set amount of script slots, and as you level up (and your characters get new powers and run into new challenges) you automatically gain more. You can also invest skill points (NOT talent points which you use to buy combat abilities) into Combat Tactics, which will grant you additional slots.
  • The game has been in polish mode for a while now. Reviewers like Desslock have reported great stability of the game.
lethial wrote:

WALL OF TEXT

......

Are you guys as turned on as I am?

Grenn wrote:
lethial wrote:

WALL OF TEXT

......

Are you guys as turned on as I am?

I know I was when I first saw it...

Did anyone manage to ever use shapeshifting as a decent spec? Seemed terrible to me.

Wall of theorycrafting crits you for over 9000!

I didn't really bother trying to cast anything if I was actually meleeing with my Arcane Warrior. I just used it for magic->strength. Shimmering Shield + Miasma + Spell Wisp cost too much fatigue to really be casting anything other than maybe a single buff or debuff. By the way, that's a good tip to use Spell Wisp to increase spellpower (and hence attack power)--I frequently forgot to use it.

When I wanted to use my Arcane Warrior as a caster I just kept all that stuff off and stayed at range. My Havard's Aegis shield helped against missile attacks.

I didn't go overboard trying to spec for spell power, but I still found my Arcane Warrior very effective in melee combat. I was using the Arcane Warrior-specific sword, and did good damage with it. The main thing that's a drag about fighting as an Arcane Warrior is you have practically zero threat management. Nuking once to get threat is not effective for long fights, and I never seemed to have enough mana to cast any crowd control.

Cobble wrote:

Did anyone manage to ever use shapeshifting as a decent spec? Seemed terrible to me.

I found it very useful during one quest:

Spoiler:

In Redcliffe, if you send Morrigan into the Fade to battle the demon the encounter seems to be designed for mages. Your enemies are ill-suited to face a bear.

No. Though it would help me to justify keeping Morrigan with me when I try to make a completely non-human party. I'll just keep her in spider mode all the time, with me as an elf wizard, my dog, and shale.

Cobble wrote:

Did anyone manage to ever use shapeshifting as a decent spec? Seemed terrible to me.

The Master Shapeshifter forms are VERY powerful, and the swarm form in particular is very useful for tying up bosses while the rest of the party kills minions. You just don't take much damage in swarm form.

Shapeshifter is useful because of the flexibility it gives you. If you need another melee DPS, you can get one quickly. The Bear form is useful for a nuke & shift strategy, too.

I haven't played a shapeshifter as my main, but I had enough fun with it while using Morrigan as my Arcane Warrior's sidekick to make me interested in trying it out.

I just wish spiders could pick locks.