Dragon Age: Origins - Gen. Discussion & Info

[Tony208]

wow I forgot how overpowered haste + blood thirst is for warriors
auto attack does more dmg than most skills unless there's a lot then I go 2H sweep

I set morrigan and wynne to walking bomb everything in sight and it's a cakewalk

blood thirst + haste out of combat move speed is great!

[IceBlueShoes]

Your warriors really shouldn't have much trouble in a stand-up fight. Just have some poultices and heal spells ready to go.

Mages can go to the ballistae and use them. Just keep them dancing around to avoid the minions and watch out for spells from the archdemon.
They don't.
I don't get what I'm doing wrong...
I can't heal Steg and Alistair fast enough though. Morrigan doesn't do much.
This is soo frustratring...:bomb:

[Luxuria]

Question: Does the code voucher that comes with the Blood Dragon Armor include DA? It only shows ME2.

[Ryuukishi]

Question: Does the code voucher that comes with the Blood Dragon Armor include DA? It only shows ME2.
It actually should unlock the Blood Dragon Armor for Origins, ME2, and Dragon Age II.

[The Crotch]

They don't.
I don't get what I'm doing wrong...
I can't heal Steg and Alistair fast enough though. Morrigan doesn't do much.
This is soo frustratring...:bomb:
Well, it's been a long time since I fought the Archdemon, but...

1: Make sure you're not relying on mage healing too much. Have plenty of health poultices ready; "normal" quality at worst.
2: What spells do both your mages have? Is at least one of them a spirit healer? Are they both? Do you have ample reserves of lesser lyrium potions?
3: Make sure, immediately on running in to battle, you have Alistair use a talent like assault on the Archdemon, then slap on shield wall (I think that's the best one; been a while). Once you've reduced his stamina a bit more, you can throw on threaten, too. That should take a fair bit of heat off of Sten. For his part, Sten should use a few abilities to get rid of stamina then turn on indomitable and maybe powerful swings or whatever it's called.
4: Make sure you're running them out of AoE spells! Note that the archdemon's spells are spirit, not fire, so check your resistances.
5: Try to keep Sten and Alistair on opposite sides of it, so it can only hit one at once.
6: Bonuses against both dragons and darkspawn do not work.
7: Ballistae, however, are super effective. Set your mages on them. "Nature" attacks are also quite powerful.
8: Lifeward? And that other spell that raises dead?
9: As with pretty much everything else in the final fight, elves are your friends.
10: It's immune to stun, but I'm pretty sure you can forcefield it briefly.

[Ma12kez]

They don't.
I don't get what I'm doing wrong...
I can't heal Steg and Alistair fast enough though. Morrigan doesn't do much.
This is soo frustratring...:bomb:If you have Shale from the Stone Prisoner DLC, I would switch out Sten or Alistair for the golem. Equip Brilliant Nature Crystals (the green ones) with the Stone Heart ability activated and the golem never falls in battle. Have decent constitution with the rest of the attributes into dexterity and Shale can actually regenerate health faster than the damage output by the final boss; even with minions hacking away.

[IceBlueShoes]

Well, it's been a long time since I fought the Archdemon, but...

1: Make sure you're not relying on mage healing too much. Have plenty of health poultices ready; "normal" quality at worst.
2: What spells do both your mages have? Is at least one of them a spirit healer? Are they both? Do you have ample reserves of lesser lyrium potions?
3: Make sure, immediately on running in to battle, you have Alistair use a talent like assault on the Archdemon, then slap on shield wall (I think that's the best one; been a while). Once you've reduced his stamina a bit more, you can throw on threaten, too. That should take a fair bit of heat off of Sten. For his part, Sten should use a few abilities to get rid of stamina then turn on indomitable and maybe powerful swings or whatever it's called.
4: Make sure you're running them out of AoE spells! Note that the archdemon's spells are spirit, not fire, so check your resistances.
5: Try to keep Sten and Alistair on opposite sides of it, so it can only hit one at once.
6: Bonuses against both dragons and darkspawn do not work.
7: Ballistae, however, are super effective. Set your mages on them. "Nature" attacks are also quite powerful.
8: Lifeward? And that other spell that raises dead?
9: As with pretty much everything else in the final fight, elves are your friends.
10: It's immune to stun, but I'm pretty sure you can forcefield it briefly.
Thanks for the tips. I'll try them out.
What's AoS though?
I'm not sure I have enough healing potions or lyrium. My mage with his staff only does 6 damage at a time.
I would be here till next week fighting the damn thing...
If you have Shale from the Stone Prisoner DLC, I would switch out Sten or Alistair for the golem. Equip Brilliant Nature Crystals (the green ones) with the Stone Heart ability activated and the golem never falls in battle. Have decent constitution with the rest of the attributes into dexterity and Shale can actually regenerate health faster than the damage output by the final boss; even with minions hacking away.
I actually tried to leave the castle but it seems I can't get out, so I'm stuck with this "crew"!

[The Crotch]

AoE = Area of Effect. Attacks that do damage over a large area.

[IceBlueShoes]

Well I'm getting better, but as soon as the "horde reinforcements come after me, it all starts to go downhill from there.
I've been using the elves right off the bat, and while it does make a big difference, the non-stop onslaught isn't helping at all.
Grr...

[The Crotch]

Morrigan has herbalism at least a basic level of herbalism, yes?

Talk to Sandal and get a good pile of flasks and lyrium dust, if he sells it. I never found the need to get anything better than a lesser lyrium potion for my mages. If you have better herbalism than that and access to distillation agents and elfroot, make up a bunch of health poultices (lesser health just don't do the trick). Make sure you're at least using up a bit of your mana/stamina before putting on your sustainable abilities, and keep dancing your mages around if they're under attack. The pause button is your friend. Tactics are not.

[shrike4242]

Shrike, be careful once u get to Lothering. As u can tell from DA 2 marketing, once Lothering falls u can't go back. Also make sure u do the dog quest in Ostagar. You should have 5 companions once u leave Lothering.I finished up Lothering this evening, and apparently I only missed one side quest there. I have six companions now that I've left Lothering, counting the dog.

I think that now I've completed Lothering and had some time to chat with all of the party companions, it's sucked me into it. The inter-party banter is great.

Made it to Level 7, as well.

EDIT: Did Warden's Keep last night as well, and up to Level 8.

[IceBlueShoes]

Morrigan has herbalism at least a basic level of herbalism, yes?

Talk to Sandal and get a good pile of flasks and lyrium dust, if he sells it. I never found the need to get anything better than a lesser lyrium potion for my mages. If you have better herbalism than that and access to distillation agents and elfroot, make up a bunch of health poultices (lesser health just don't do the trick). Make sure you're at least using up a bit of your mana/stamina before putting on your sustainable abilities, and keep dancing your mages around if they're under attack. The pause button is your friend. Tactics are not.
She doesn't but my mage does.
I think I"m at a point where I'm stuck. I can't get any more lyrium or health potions. I bought out everything from Sandal. I dunno what to do. I think I'm stuck. Maybe go back and do a previous save? Damn...

[shrike4242]

Worked through Stone Prisoner and Return to Ostagar last night, so up to level 10. Did anyone else who played KOTOR1 think that Shale acts a lot like THX-88, the droid you pick up for your party in KOTOR?

I think I may have accidentally started a relationship with Leilana last night as well. :lol:

Enjoyed Return To Ostagar last night, though from a couple of reviews I've read, there's some interesting dialogue between Wynne (who I don't have in my party yet) and Alistair when they're in your party, which I missed. Had Sten, Morrigan and Leilana in the party.

[The Crotch]

I always thought Shale was an attempt to build on the popularity of HK, what with the constant disparaging remarks towards "fleshy things".

[shrike4242]

I always thought Shale was an attempt to build on the popularity of HK, what with the constant disparaging remarks towards "fleshy things".Sorry, I guess it's HK-88.

And yes, Shale acts like HK-88 with his comments about organics.

Same vanity as well.

[The Crotch]

...

47.

It's HK-47.

<3 KotOR.

[shrike4242]

...

47.

It's HK-47.

<3 KotOR.I guess I'm confusing HK-47 with IG-88. :dunce:

Thanks for the correction.

[jaydepps]

Beat Dragon Age: Origins, Golems of Agmarrek, Stone Prisoner, Leliana's Song, Awakening, and Witch Hunt this week. Have to say this was probably my favorite game I've ever played. Anyone think the other DLCs are worth it? If not I am just gonna play Dragon Age II. I really hope they bring back Morrigan and Warden Commander as well as a few other characters in either DLC for 2 or if they make a 3rd one.

[The Crotch]

Heh.

Just remember this: It's Dragon Age 2, not Dragon Age Origins 2.

While I'm not part of the, "It's awful! Kill David Gaider! Burn Edmonton to the ground!" group, I was overall disappointed with DA2, especially compared to Origins. It's doubly unfortunate that I preferred the party members of DA2, but overall found the game weaker...

And if you're playing on a console, I recommend waiting for the soon-to-be-released patch.

And if you're playing on PC (which has the patch already out), you'll probably want the mod that (mostly) fixes the issues with the imported saves.

[dmaul1114]

I finished up the rest of the dlc over the past weekend. Overall I was pretty mixed on the game. Liked the questing, exploring dungeons etc., but didn't like the combat and other things much.

I like more simplified wrpgs like Mass Effect 2 a lot more, or ones like Oblivion or Fallout 3 with just one character to manage, real time combat etc.

I liked the combat in the DA2 demo more, but not enough to get me to want to play it anytime soon.

[jlarlee]

Tried to get back into this last night. The convos just last too long and I find some of the quests too vague.
I dunno if I like it enough to drop 40 more hours into it

[shrike4242]

Dug through it some more, and now up to Level 12, with completing the first half of Arl of Redcliffe after doing The Broken Circle. I'd have to say at this point, I'm officially hooked into it.

I'm 20-something hours into the game and appear to only be about 20-something percent done with the game, though some of that time was involved with backtracking after letting Jowan use Isolde's for sending me into the fade to fight the demon, killing her, and figuring out on a second pass through that you can have the Circle send mages to do the same thing without killing Isolde off to get into the Fade.

The inter-character banter is even better than the ones in ME1 and ME2, especially with Leilana talking with Morrigan about going shopping. :rofl:

[MSUHitman]

Shrike if you want to hear all of the banter between specific party members, put whatever group you want together and walk up and down the bridge going from the main town to the colosseum in the dwarf area. That always starts conversations.

[Ma12kez]

The inter-character banter is even better than the ones in ME1 and ME2, especially with Leilana talking with Morrigan about going shopping. :rofl:You should hear the banter between Morrigan, Alistair, and the Dog.

[shrike4242]

Looks like I'm in the position to have the love triangle situation with Morrigan and Leilana. I did Morrigan's quest to get Flemeth's grimoire, which I did via negotiation instead of combat, so her approval is at 100, and gave me the talk about friendship and the possibility to be more than friends. If I rebuffed it, can I go back to her again and pursue a relationship with her if I break it off with Leilana?

[shrike4242]

Found out that the Morrigan offer was one-time only. Oh well.

Made it through Urn of Sacred Ashes and Paragon of Her Kind. Though, the end battle with Branka was a real irritant getting gang-banged by six golems, Branka, and her four minions. Lots of reloading in that area.

[Stryffe2004]

Beat Dragon Age: Origins, Golems of Agmarrek, Stone Prisoner, Leliana's Song, Awakening, and Witch Hunt this week. Have to say this was probably my favorite game I've ever played. Anyone think the other DLCs are worth it? If not I am just gonna play Dragon Age II. I really hope they bring back Morrigan and Warden Commander as well as a few other characters in either DLC for 2 or if they make a 3rd one.

I don't know about you, but I really enjoyed the journey of Orion, the Grey Warden Rogue. He followed the same path as yours. I haven't done Leiliana's song, but plan to soon. I think there are some strong indications that Hawk and the Warden will be back for part 3, based on how they are both mentioned at the end of II. If that is the case, I might die.

[Over easy]

I played about 12 hours into the game until I realize I was playing this all wrong. For some reason, I thought the stamina meter is the health meter (and I believe there was no meter for health). It was not until I died five time in a row that I realized how stupid I was.

On a different note, the part with the Circle Tower and sloth demon is quite long. I think I put around 4-5 hours in that section at least, and I'm still not done.

[timesplitt]

im in the fade, oh and im staying there

[Sir Lethal]

I honestly want some DLC for DA2 now.

[MSUHitman]

Was the dexterity bug for rogues fixed? Someone in the deals forum keeps asking about it since UE is $30 now and all of the patch notes on the Bioware forums are gone or hidden deep in the forum.

[Ryuukishi]

I'm fairly sure it did not get fixed on consoles. The wiki page (http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age:_Origins_Bugs/Glitches#Rogue:_Strength_vs_Dexterity_Issue) does not say anything about a fix anyway.

[shrike4242]

Made it through most of the game, and currently in the middle of the Landsmeet, having just been broken out of Fort Drakon.

One thing I'm not sure about from checking over the wikia and the guide I have is that since it seems like the Landsmeet is pretty much pathing me into the endgame, am I pretty much boned for doing the rest of the side quests and the like? Also, am I stuck with trying to finish a romance with Leilana? She's at 100 approval and the dialogue options seem to be stalled. She's never brought up her personal quest with Majorlaine, and it seems like the only options I have is to try and drop her approval down to below 70 to see about having her bring it up. Any clues on what to do at this point?

I'm assuming that this is the same kind of endgame pathing you run into in ME1 and ME2, and I think I may have to revert back a few saves and not go to the Landsmeet to allow to finish up side quests.

[Ryuukishi]

The point of no return is traveling to Redcliffe after the end of the Landsmeet.

As for Leliana, the easiest way of doctoring her approval number (or anyone else's) is using the Feast Day gifts and pranks DLC. If you don't want to purchase that, it might be tough this late in the game to find a few things that she disagrees with. But you do need to get her approval down a bit (maybe into the 80s or so) before you can get her personal quest to trigger, and continue the romance.

[shrike4242]

The point of no return is traveling to Redcliffe after the end of the Landsmeet.

As for Leliana, the easiest way of doctoring her approval number (or anyone else's) is using the Feast Day gifts and pranks DLC. If you don't want to purchase that, it might be tough this late in the game to find a few things that she disagrees with. But you do need to get her approval down a bit (maybe into the 80s or so) before you can get her personal quest to trigger, and continue the romance.So, I can go through the Landsmeet, deal with the whole Logain situation, and once I'm done with that, it's open-world again until I go to Redcliffe? Good to know as I wasn't sure if I was on the path of no return or not.

I think I have the feastday prank I can give her to knock her approval down, and I think I have the corresponding item to knock it back up again. Have to check the inventory and make sure, though it probably requires a side trip to pick up the items in question.

[Ryuukishi]

So, I can go through the Landsmeet, deal with the whole Logain situation, and once I'm done with that, it's open-world again until I go to Redcliffe?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right. As long as you don't enter that certain place, you should be totally free to go anyplace else.

[MrPiggles]

Did they fix the DAO: Awakening and Warden's Keep armor glitch yet.

[Ryuukishi]

Did they fix the DAO: Awakening and Warden's Keep armor glitch yet.
They mitigated it somewhat, in that if you try to start Awakening with any of the disallowed DLC armor or weapons, they'll be replaced with some basic kit, rather than the character just being naked and weaponless. But you still can't take those items into Awakening AFAIK.

[CaptainJoel]

They mitigated it somewhat, in that if you try to start Awakening with any of the disallowed DLC armor or weapons, they'll be replaced with some basic kit, rather than the character just being naked and weaponless. But you still can't take those items into Awakening AFAIK.
Yeah, this is true. I played it last month and I had all DLC armor and weapons at the end of DAO and I had a shitty basic set of armor and weapons when I started Awakenings. The only armor that was DLC that I could use was Cailen's armor.

[MrPiggles]

Yeah, this is true. I played it last month and I had all DLC armor and weapons at the end of DAO and I had a shitty basic set of armor and weapons when I started Awakenings. The only armor that was DLC that I could use was Cailen's armor.

Not talking about that. I'm talking about when you have both Warden's Keep and Awakening installed, the Sentinel Armor set displays as the Warden Commander Armor on Male Humans.

[shrike4242]

Not to dig up a topic that I think has been discussed previously, though what's the order of the DLC playthroughs? I'm coming up to the endgame and wanted to know what order to do the DLC games in.

[CaptainJoel]

Not to dig up a topic that I think has been discussed previously, though what's the order of the DLC playthroughs? I'm coming up to the endgame and wanted to know what order to do the DLC games in.
After the main game head into Awakenings and from there go into Golems of Amgarrak, and then Witch Hunt. You can do Leliana's DLC at any time since it's a prologue and you can do Darkspawn Chronicles whenever because it's just a What If? mode.

[shrike4242]

After the main game head into Awakenings and from there go into Golems of Amgarrak, and then Witch Hunt. You can do Leliana's DLC at any time since it's a prologue and you can do Darkspawn Chronicles whenever because it's just a What If? mode.Thanks for clearing that up.

[CaptainJoel]

Thanks for clearing that up.
No problem! Also, if you're romancing Morrigan then make sure to keep the ring she gave you before you start Witch Hunt! I accidently ditched it for some higher leveled jewelry in Awakenings and totally regretted missing out on some dialogue about it.

[MSUHitman]

FYI the download of Awakening is $15 this week on the Marketplace. I'm going to trade my disk in at Gamestop and get $10 for it w/60% bump for buying a $.99 360 game. Then I'll buy a points code.

[iNFiNiTE HORiZON]

figure this is the best place to ask this.... I own the original regular copy of Dragon Age Origins. I bought a used copy of Dragon Age Ultimate Edition, with the intention of selling it off after installing the dlcs. I installed the dlc, and can't get it to work, not even with the first Ultimate Edition disc, it says "contacting EA severs... cant contact EA" and then just stays on the opening screen with no way to get past it. I've been trying different things for the past few days and am starting to think I should just try to sell it all off and take the hit/loss on it since I can't figure it out. any advice?

edit: nevermind, it says "the EA servers are no longer available" and then sticks on the title screen with no options to click, if I wait 5 or so minutes the "new game, load game, downloadable content, etc" all pop up to hit A on. and it says all downloadable content is downloaded.

so I guess my only question now is why this won't work with the standard vanilla DA: O copy? did they make it so you can only run the dlc thru the ultimate edition disc?

[hufferstl]

sorry to bring this thread back from the dead... I am now finally jumping right into DA:O(purchased new the month it came out for $40 from amazon). Anyway, I have seen the DLC on sale many times and now that I have finally started playing it, I think I am finally in the market. Looking for some answers on the best way to do that. I know there is an Ultimate Edition. Not sure if I get that if my current save will work with that edition, or if the UE just comes with DLC codes, or if the DLC is downloaded from the 2nd disc(like Borderlands).

Thanks in advance - I appreciate it.

[Ryuukishi]

I could have sworn I posted to this thread yesterday but now the post is gone.

[nasum]

good god this game just goes on forever... I think I messed something up, is it still possible to shag Leliana if you haven't done her personal quest after the landsmeet has started?

[Ryuukishi]

good god this game just goes on forever... I think I messed something up, is it still possible to shag Leliana if you haven't done her personal quest after the landsmeet has started?
IIRC (and it's been a little while :) ), there's no time limit for it, but there is a glitch where her personal quest will only trigger when her favoritism is a little bit below 100%, like between 80 and 95% or something. So it's possible that you got her favoritism up too high without triggering it, and you need to bump it back down a little bit.

[The Crotch]

good god this game just goes on forever... I think I messed something up, is it still possible to shag Leliana if you haven't done her personal quest after the landsmeet has started?
I... think you can, yeah.

Leliana's a little buggy, anyway. I think if you get her approval too high, a certain dialogue option disappears, and you need to lower it again in order to get it back.

Just... don't finish the landsmeet until you've made sure. And if you've already finished the landsmeet, don't go back to Redcliffe.

EDIT: Dammit, Ryuu.

[nasum]

I just went back to an earlier save and did it then went back to the later on in the game. Somehow I doubt having shagged would alter the endgame if she's at 100% fawning over me.

Finally beat the damn thing too.
I opted to have Loghain and Morrigan shag, werewolves & mages were around 16 members, redcliffe and dwarves (Harrowmont) at 50 each, got the defender since I barely used them other than the initial stairs of Fort Drakon or whatever, had my human mage, Leliana, Loghain and Wynne in the party with Ogheren as the gate captain.
I've read that as a human female you can romance Alistair and then become quuen with him as king. I'd like to try that, but there's just no way I can go another 60 hours on this thing. Maybe I'll just go back to a spot where I can romance Alistair, do the 3-way at the pearl and then get the queen ending too.
For some odd reason I was really surprised that Zeveran double-double crossed.

Booted up Darkspawn Chronicles and damn are the nerd points in that annoying as hell... It's taken me almost 3 hours to get through what equates to less than half an hour of actual game time since I'm babysitting all my thralls to get their approval all the way up. Then I hit a bug so I have to go back to a previous save from about an hour or so earlier.

I did manage to grab DA2 from Gamefly for $13. I've heard that it's much shorter and more arcadey than whatever mix of button mashing and strategy you want to call DA:O.

[chubbyninja1319]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but the anime titled Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker is looking darn good!

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/03/the_dragon_age_anime_is_getting_dragon_age-ier.php

http://youtu.be/kVqxYBqlSqE

[Ryuukishi]

That does look pretty sweet. I hope we see more of Cassandra in Dragon Age III.

ETA: Preorder price for the Blu-Ray on Amazon is only $16.99, not bad.