Dragon Age

[Reg]

I'm doing my second playthrough as a mage. I thought it'd open up a few new characters to have in my party.  As an arcane warrior though it looks like the most efficient way to play would be me as the tank along with Morrigan and Wynn and maybe a rogue. I had Morrigan and Wynn as perma-members of my last party and I'd hoped to avoid doing that this time around. Hmm.

I should just try to get over my instinct to always use the absolute optimal build/party in these games.

[stray]

I'm doing my second playthrough as a mage. I thought it'd open up a few new characters to have in my party.  As an arcane warrior though it looks like the most efficient way to play would be me as the tank along with Morrigan and Wynn and maybe a rogue.

Just put the rogue/archer chick in there, and roleplay a harem. It just happens to be "optimal".  

That's what I did... Except my mage is a fag and looks like Lorenzo Lamas. /quit

[Thrawn]

Cult stuff...
And WHAT THE FUCK is up with this overpower thing wolves and small dragons do? You DO NOT EVER make the player sit and watch helplessly as he LOSES THE GAME. I don't care if I can get back up after the fight. Watching myself die is stupidhead dumbfuck design and should not happen!

Indomitable (2H, Second Tier) makes you immune to knockdowns.

If the enemy Overwhelm is anything like the Master Shapeshifter Bear/Spider one, it's a neat attack (since it's a lunge and a knockdown) but it's not ridiculous... just need to be fast on the Heal.

Indomitable does not keep you from being hit by overwhelm sadly, you still get knocked down like anyone else.

[Sky]

I just got cone of cold yesterday. Everyone now hates Morrigan because she has frozen them so many times already.

[Rasix]

The choice you make near the end is 

[Furiously]

Broodmother codex entry  was frightening.

[caladein]

Speaking of the codex, I wish it carried over games.

[Reg]

The choice you make near the end is 

Ahh you missed a choice. Here's what I went for:


I'm a girl on my latest run through. I'm going to see if I can't end up Queen at the end.

[stray]

Strange. Did you know you can get a Tier 4 Staff just in the Human Noble starting level? Keep clicking on the dog until he fetches it for you.

edit: Pretty useless for a human noble (or a party member anytime soon.. although i'm not sure what morrigan's starting gear is now that i think about it), but not worthless.

[Slyfeind]

Biggest gripe so far is no queue-able action bar. It makes the combat felt so awkward cause I kept pausing after a spell is cast to re-position and re-target.

Queueable actions would be both  and    because I would love to play with it, but I'm sure whatever interface it used would be crazy complicated. I have a hard enough time grokking the tactics page.

[tmp]

but I'm sure whatever interface it used would be crazy complicated

Can't remember the exact title(s) this idea comes from, but pretty intuitive approach seems to be add order to queue if Shift key is pressed, and starting the queue anew if it's not. The shit happens so fast in these battles it's not very likely one would be issuing more than 2-3 orders per character if that..?

[Riggswolfe]

The choice you make near the end is 

Like Reg I went for choice 3 on my first playthrough. I'd suggest a save right before the

[rk47]

I just got cone of cold yesterday. Everyone now hates Morrigan because she has frozen them so many times already.

Frost spells are probably the best CC in the game. I got around the friendly fire bit by using wall corners or warrior lead while the rest setup ambushes. It gets kind of repetitive but I got bad experience with facing several mages while the party is clumped together, so it's better to be safe than sorry.

[jakonovski]

Mages stop being a problem if you have the final Templar skill. God I love this game's mechanics.

[Strazos]

The Fade part SUCKS.

[jakonovski]

The Fade part SUCKS.

No, it's totally sweet once you get all the forms. It's like having godmode for a while, very fitting.

[gryeyes]

NEG

[Nightblade]

On the subject of the landsmeet.

[NiX]

I love the game, but at the same time I suck at it. Do not like micro managing and the AI scripting isn't that spectacular. Bleh.

[CaptainNapkin]

I love the game, but at the same time I suck at it. Do not like micro managing and the AI scripting isn't that spectacular. Bleh.

What difficulty are you playing on? I hate micro management as well, and figured I'd just play through on easy to avoid that part as much as possible while still enjoying the story and whatnot. Haven't gotten my copy yet so no clue if this will be the case.

[tmp]

No, it's totally sweet once you get all the forms. It's like having godmode for a while, very fitting.

Pretty much; fireballing people while being immune to fire damage yourself, then switching to the golem to smash whatever was there still standing... way too much fun. The best was going into room with something like 5 mages and watching them basically kill themselves with all the fire spells they're trying to hurt me with

[Fabricated]

I just started a game and wow, it's kinda fucking hard. I go into the wilds and:

-I make one turn and run into a camp of guys who run over me.

okay then, so I don't go that way.

-I make another turn later and run into a massive trap and get slaughtered.

Okay then! Also, despite swordandboarding it, I take a shitload of damage in combat.

[schild]

I just started a game and wow, it's kinda fucking hard. I go into the wilds and:

It's because you've played so much WoW.

[Fabricated]

I just started a game and wow, it's kinda fucking hard. I go into the wilds and:

It's because you've played so much WoW.

Nah, I did a Trial of the Grand Crusader run today. That's a lot harder than Dragon Age. I was just surprised they actually went back to a more Baldur's Gate 1/2 style of difficulty where you can actually get yourself in over your head rather than neatly graphed fights that you only fail at if you gimp your character through shitty stat/skill distribution.

[Slyfeind]

I would love to play it on a more difficult mode, but the loading takes far too long for me; at least a full minute for just the campsite, and up to three minutes for the bigger regions. I couldn't handle that much saving and reloading just from dying.

[Fabricated]

I would love to play it on a more difficult mode, but the loading takes far too long for me; at least a full minute for just the campsite, and up to three minutes for the bigger regions. I couldn't handle that much saving and reloading just from dying.

My best death so far is trying to run my last party member away from some archers and taking a dozen arrows to the back at once and slumping over.

[stray]

I would love to play it on a more difficult mode, but the loading takes far too long for me; at least a full minute for just the campsite, and up to three minutes for the bigger regions. I couldn't handle that much saving and reloading just from dying.

I guess that's one thing I can be thankful about with the console version. It loads pretty fast. Then again, it probably doesn't look as good.

Okay then! Also, despite swordandboarding it, I take a shitload of damage in combat.

How are your stats? My new warrior character was a cinch in the wilds. If you want to be a tank, just pay equal attention to Dex, of course. STR isn't even that important (YET) imo. The only guy to worry about is that mage... just got to charge him and potion it up. Helps if you have that sustained shield skill to ward off the archer attacks around him.

Sword and shield is pretty cool in this game though.. Usually that's the most unappealing "class" type for me.

[Nonentity]

I beat this today. Hooray!

Wish I could have fudged with the outcome a bit, but eh. Don't really care about the story all THAT much, definitely not enough to warrant another playthrough. I think once through is good enough for me.

[Ingmar]

One playthrough down, 8 billion to go!

Best RPG since BG2 for sure. I don't think I could make a choice between them, frankly.

[NiX]

What difficulty are you playing on? I hate micro management as well, and figured I'd just play through on easy to avoid that part as much as possible while still enjoying the story and whatnot. Haven't gotten my copy yet so no clue if this will be the case.

I was on Normal when I got to Redcliffe and promptly turned it down to East after getting my ass handed to me. To be honest, I didn't check to see if the difficulty change persisted after the save reloaded.
Maybe I'm missing something in my party setup. I have me as a warrior (sword and board), Morrigan, Alistair and the frenchy Rogue girl. Alistair seems to die in extremely fast every time. Hell, it could be the fact that I haven't upgraded armor in a long time too. The fatigue thing irritates me.

[ShenMolo]

I was on Normal when I got to Redcliffe and promptly turned it down to East after getting my ass handed to me. To be honest, I didn't check to see if the difficulty change persisted after the save reloaded.
Maybe I'm missing something in my party setup. I have me as a warrior (sword and board), Morrigan, Alistair and the frenchy Rogue girl. Alistair seems to die in extremely fast every time. Hell, it could be the fact that I haven't upgraded armor in a long time too. The fatigue thing irritates me.

I remember getting spanked on entering Redcliffe Castle the first time as well. I play on Hard and it just marked the end of my bull-rushing everything and starting to use strategery. Placing your troops before each pull, line of sight, etc.

I would also think you are seriously gimping your DPS with a sword and board + Alistair. I play with Alistair as the sword and board and he does pretty good. Perhaps try swapping in Sten or another DPS for Alistair? My very first run I played as the tank and ended up re-rolling Mage when I decided I liked Alistair in the party and two tank types were slow going. Not having Alistair takes away from the RP-ness for me.

Maybe you could go as a 2-hander warrior and let Alistair handle the tanking?

Upgrading Armor definitely helps too.

[Reg]

Redcliffe Castle is tough. Is it the courtyard you're having trouble in?  Look around when you get there for a possible solution to that...

[jakonovski]

Redcliffe Castle is tough. Is it the courtyard you're having trouble in?  Look around when you get there for a possible solution to that...

A ranged character can pull the mobs one at a time. Totally cheesy, but oh well.

[waffel]

Having a tough time finishing it on the first playthrough. Its kind of weird how I've lost interest so much and so quickly with this game. The railroading and tediously boring combat really kills it for me. Got myself installing NWN2 + the xpacs. Guess I appreciate nwn2 that much more since playing dragonage.

[Big Gulp]