Dragon Age: Origins - Gen. Discussion & Info

Ended up with an elf mage. Put two points on Magic and two on Willpower with the remaining point going to Cunning. Chose Coercion and Drain Life as my starter spells.

Haven't had much time to play yet. Just completed the Harrowing. Looking around at some of the guides, I'm not sure what specialization I'm heading toward, but I'm most attracted by Arcane Warrior, Battlemage, and Keeper (I have the Ultimate Ed., and thus all the DLC, though no idea when to actually tackle it).
 
[quote name='Tybee']Ended up with an elf mage. Put two points on Magic and two on Willpower with the remaining point going to Cunning. Chose Coercion and Drain Life as my starter spells.

Haven't had much time to play yet. Just completed the Harrowing. Looking around at some of the guides, I'm not sure what specialization I'm heading toward, but I'm most attracted by Arcane Warrior, Battlemage, and Keeper (I have the Ultimate Ed., and thus all the DLC, though no idea when to actually tackle it).[/QUOTE]

What difficulty are you playing on and what's your play style - aggressive or defensive? Battlemage and Keeper are Awakening exclusive and AW isn't available until after Lothering plus there's a substantial amount of preparation involved for optimal use. If you're on Casual or Normal then there honestly isn't much strategy involved for a Mage due to the lack of Friendly Fire. You can focus on area of effect spells like Inferno, Shock, Cone of Cold, Blizzard, etc. spamming them on yourself or party to your heart's content with very little consequence. Your main concern would then be party management.

Anything higher than Normal would require actual effort.
 
i never understood the lack of friendly fire on normal or casual. should have some effect on your party. i also was a elf mage and loved blood mage and arcane warrior. but yeah u wont get keeper or battle mage until you play awakening
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']What difficulty are you playing on and what's your play style - aggressive or defensive? Battlemage and Keeper are Awakening exclusive and AW isn't available until after Lothering plus there's a substantial amount of preparation involved for optimal use. If you're on Casual or Normal then there honestly isn't much strategy involved for a Mage due to the lack of Friendly Fire. You can focus on area of effect spells like Inferno, Shock, Cone of Cold, Blizzard, etc. spamming them on yourself or party to your heart's content with very little consequence. Your main concern would then be party management.

Anything higher than Normal would require actual effort.[/QUOTE]

Playing on Normal, so I guess I'll focus on my party. I lean toward defensive but still like to be in the fight (I played a Sentinel in ME2 and ended up using my biotic and tech abilities more than I did actual shooting). Ideally, I plan to go with a two mages (myself and Wynne, most likely), a tank, and a rogue.
 
[quote name='Maynard46']i never understood the lack of friendly fire on normal or casual. should have some effect on your party.[/QUOTE]
They can be knocked down and frozen (and I assume stunned and paralyzed) by AoE spells, so they're not completely immune.
 
If that's the case then you're going to breeze through your initial play-through:

Tank: Alistair or Shale

For Alistair: Focus on 40 Strength to pass high armor + all shield ability requirements then max Dex (evade/defense/accuracy) and maybe add in a little Con (health but rarely required as armor, items, accessories and high dex will handle it) here or there as desired/needed.

Set CPU to Aggressive and make sure you or another mage prioritizes his healing at around 75% or 50%. Once you've established a designated healer acquire Threaten and Taunt asap. Set the CPU to activate Shield Wall (his best shield sustainable) then Threaten or Taunt (or both) on enemy encounter. Have him focus primarily on either Elites or Mages and Archers while you handle the rest.

Until you've acquired better weapons and armor (preferably the Return To Ostagar DLC sets - both armor & shield w/ sword) for him you WILL have to babysit him in the early game. It's easy to forget the rest of your party is primarily DPS while he is simply a distraction. You HAVE to support him in every battle. Ideal specializations: Champion/Berserker & Champion/Templar. Either way max out Champion asap.

For Shale: Focus on 38 - 40 Con & Strength to equip high level Nature crystals (use a 2:1 alternating approach or just focus on maxing Con first when leveling up) and maxing out the Stoneheart specialization asap. Set CPU to Aggressive and that is more or less it. The rest is self explanatory.

Mage Healer (Wynne): Max Will then Mag (2:1 alternating leveling approach) focusing on support spells.

For Wynne snag Group Heal & Revive (Lifeward is optional but not required) then start working toward Wards, Hexes, Mass Paralyze tree. Ignore everything else outside of defensive sustains such as Rock Armor or cheap low cost dmg spells like Fireball or Arcane Bolt. Stay the f*ck away from Earthquake for it is absolute garbage AOE that affects everything on the field including your party. Get her Ward of Repulsion asap then set the CPU to cast on self when melee attacked for a little de-aggro and automatic crowd control action.

Her main objective is to heal above all else so have the CPU set to Cautious and try to limit the number of damage spells you have her use to keep aggro away from her. CPU should prioritize themselves at 75% then either the tank or dps afterward before moving down the line. 75% - 50% health is again the ideal percent to set-and-forget but on Normal you'll probably get away with 50 for everyone else but your tank or primary DPS for quite a while.

Only use Group Heal as a PC because the game has a high tendency to glitch party members in place if the designated target has suddenly died, become afflicted by a status altering spell or effect (frozen, paralyzed, etc.) or if you've reached then rapidly exceeded the desired percent of lost health while casting.

In other words get used to them standing around stupefied on occasion if you've lost more than 50% health in a single blow or died before they could finish the healing animation. When that happens you'll have to switch to PC and control them yourself to snap them out of it.

Rogue (Leliana): GET. HER. A. DAMN. LONG. BOW. ASAP. She is an Archer first and foremost so do NOT f*ck with her specialty until you've grown accustomed to the game. Focus on high Dex (for bows and archer talent requirements) then Cun (the trusty 2:1 applies here) until you've hit 30 Cun so when you unlock the third branch of the Deft Hands specialty she'll open every chest and door in the game. From there you want to focus a little on Strength for solid Light Armor (15 - 20 or as needed) then continue to either max Dex (Bard/Assassin) or Cun (Bard/Ranger). Bows to look out for are Far Song and Marjoline's Recurve located in Redcliffe (available for sale but only if you fail the blacksmith's quest) and Leliana's personal quest (but only should you decide to attack) respectively.

Talent wise it honestly depends on your level of progression throughout the game. On Normal you can get away with a lot of shit but in general you'll want to focus on the shots (Scatter, Critical, Arrow) and sustains (Suppressing Fire) first then supplement with Lethality and Coup or Bard sustains such as Song of Valor and Courage.

Cunning builds max that out after minimum Dex for bows and such to increase the effectiveness of Bard songs and Ranger pets which help the party by providing free DPS as mini-tanks. Stop at SoC for Bard and Wolf/Spider or max Ranger out exclusively using Wolf or Spider due to the Bear's sluggish attack rate, questionable accuracy and likelihood of getting stuck in passageways every five seconds. Plus both wolves and spiders have Overwhelm (A savage continuous high damage attack immobilizing the victim for the entire duration. It's a royal pain in the ass when you're on the receiving end because ONLY a staggering attack from an outside force such as Alistair's Shield Bash can knock them off of you.) so uh... case closed.

Dex builds max that out after 30 Cun w/ DH for chests by acquiring Mark of Death from the Assassin spec. then spamming that along with shots for ridiculously high damage. Set CPU to Ranged maintaining focus on rival Archers and Mages. Always use Scattershot to open up every battle if possible. Make sure it's set to any, nearest visible, ranged or magic using enemies rather than clustered because: 1) it attracts aggro like a motherf*cker, 2) the only clustered high threat types aside from elites or boss types which will always charge first unless they are archers or mages ARE usually the aforementioned, 3) any solid team will have already killed or come damn close to killing them in the first place thus increasing your chances of wasting it on a single target.

There you go. Just some general tips on basic party management. You can pretty much go nuts on your mage because Normal is only going to provide you with a few legitimately difficult fights throughout the game. Of course if your heart was set on Arcane Warrior and it's better half/significant other Blood Mage then I can provide some general tips for that as well. Above all else remember to use LB+RB to control the movement of your entire party (they will follow whatever character you're controlling ATM) to avoid ambushes or clear out of choke points in a hurry. Otherwise you should be good to go.
 
Question, are the new items in Awakening (ex: Manual of Focus, Stamina draughts) added to Origins once you have both games played?

Couldn't find anything new in Origins once I loaded up a few old character saves to respec. Swore I read somewhere they were added.

Just started playing Awakening after it came in the mail Saturday.
They sure do love throwing quests at you after getting the keep.
 
I don't think so. I haven't noticed any additional Awakening items being added to my games in general. Only DLC exclusive content as far as I can tell.
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']If that's the case then you're going to breeze through your initial play-through: [/QUOTE]

Wow. Thanks so much for taking the time to put that together on my behalf. That will be very helpful. I really appreciate it!

I've been told that playing DA on a higher difficulty level is kind of pointless on the consoles since it's only the PC version that really becomes more fun to play with the increased level of tactical micromanagement required. And of course there's no achievement/trophy incentive to tackle a harder difficulty.

I tend to play RPGs like I play point-and-click adventures: I want to see everything, talk to everyone, exhaust every dialog tree (that was certainly the case with ME 1 & 2, which I played on Veteran, although Oblivion did prove a little too vast, even for me, so a few non-achievement-related side quests got skipped). So I end up investing my time that way rather than replaying battles over and over. I don't think I've ever breezed through a game in my life. ;)

One thing I already like about DA is the way they have all the different origin quests up front, so you can start new characters and get those distinct game experiences (and associated achievements) easily, without having to play through most or all of the game again.
 
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Yeah, I got owned a ton, eventually I just put it on casual as I just have no interest in all the micro managing and party set up stuff etc. That's the type of stuff that keeps me from being a big RPG fan and mainly playing the simpler stuff like Mass Effect or games where you only have one character to deal with like Oblivion.

But I am enjoying it after dropping the difficulty and just focusing on the story and questing. I'm getting toward the end of the main quest (have done all the in-game DLC), then I'll play through the stand alone DLCs chapters, and then on to Awakenings. Will take me a while as I'm only playing a night a week or so lately.
 
[quote name='Tybee']Wow. Thanks so much for taking the time to put that together on my behalf. That will be very helpful. I really appreciate it!

I've been told that playing DA on a higher difficulty level is kind of pointless on the consoles since it's only the PC version that really becomes more fun to play with the increased level of tactical micromanagement required. And of course there's no achievement/trophy incentive to tackle a harder difficulty.

I tend to play RPGs like I play point-and-click adventures: I want to see everything, talk to everyone, exhaust every dialog tree (that was certainly the case with ME 1 & 2, which I played on Veteran, although Oblivion did prove a little too vast, even for me, so a few non-achievement-related side quests got skipped). So I end up investing my time that way rather than replaying battles over and over. I don't think I've ever breezed through a game in my life. ;)

One thing I already like about DA is the way they have all the different origin quests up front, so you can start new characters and get those distinct game experiences (and associated achievements) easily, without having to play through most or all of the game again.[/QUOTE]

My pleasure. The learning curve of this game is honestly only a minor glance at a FAQ, game manual, or forum post away from being tamable and very enjoyable which is why I'm naturally against drastically altering the game play mechanics into a completely different genre. Normal difficulty is extremely forgiving IMO. It just takes a little time to take root and get into the game play. The remaining difficulties are only tied to the boss fight achievements of Golems and Witch Hunt DLC respectively so kicking it up notch is completely up to you. You'd just have focus more on dispatching high level threats such as Elites (Yellow, Orange, Red-Orange colored names btw), Archers and Mages quickly while trimming the fat of the party's build.

If you have any other questions or aim to power through as many achievements as possible just hit the thread up again or PM me. Bioware's Character Build Forums is where I learned a lot of the tricks and builds that made the game extremely enjoyable for me so there is another solid point of reference. I'm one achievement away from a full score so obviously I play this game a little too much, haha.
 
Just checking in to say I'm really enjoying this game. So far I've completed everything in Lothering (got Sten but haven't taken him out of camp), the Mage's Tower main plot stuff (wanted to get Wynne ASAP, and man does having her make things easier), and a lot of time talking to folks in camp. I've did the Stone Prisoner DLC to get Shale, then did Warden's Keep and finally Return to Ostagar last night. So I guess it's on to Redcliffe next to advance the plot some more.

My A Team consists of my elf mage, Leilana (with great bow or crossbow), Wynne, and Alistair. I swapped in Shale for Warden's Keep, and he was fun to have around, but I think I'll stick with Alistair until I can procure some better crystals for Shale, since Alistair is pretty well geared up now. I need him to level up one more time to be able to get his strength high enough to wear all of the king's armor.

So far I've bedded Morrigan (easy!) and Zevran (easier!) and put in some serious time working on Leilana. While her meter is maxed, she hasn't invited me for a sleepover yet. Am I correct in assuming I have to complete her personal sidequest first? We talked about her past and subsequently ran into the assassins, but I haven't tracked down her old mentor/flame yet to finish it out (I think that takes place in Redcliffe, right?). I'm actually having a really hard time deciding who to pursue romantically between Morrigan and Leilana... even harder than deciding between Tali and Miranda in ME2 (went with the latter). I like the challenge Morrigan presents, and her vulnerability when it's clear she likes someone (and yet I couldn't care less about bad girl Jack in ME2). I thought Leilana would lack depth, but now I think she's really sweet and I'm dreading having to cut her loose once I ... um... pop that achievement.

Ugh. Stupid virtual romances.
 
With Leiliana there is one specific path in one specific dialogue sequence while you're in camp that you have to choose wisely to get romance started. Check YouTube for it.
 
Hmm.. Lei should have been the easiest to romance though they all are if you gift them to death. A little flirting in any of her dialogue chains combined with high enough positive reputation should have been enough to get it started. If her meter is maxed like you said then you need to continue progressing through the game while talking to her at camp. Make sure you've ran through every possible dialogue chain and you aren't inadvertently involved with anyone else.

Even then she should have called you on that by now in which case you'll have to break it off with the other or put your foot down. I thought Alistair's was by far the hardest nut to crack so to speak. The amount of stall from him when my warden was literally throwing herself at his feet was borderline ridiculous.
 
She definitely SEEMS under the impression that we are in a romance, and the dialogue seems to indicate as much (every time I talk to her it starts with "I'm here for you..."). And at one point she did make me definitively swear off Morrigan (which only cost me -2 favor with her...fitting), so I assumed that would do it. But not yet. I've exhausted every dialogue string, but there's one still there seemingly unrelated to romance options. But maybe I need to go through again and make different choices.

For those who have played out both romances, which did you find more rewarding? Does Morrigan actually open up to you if you max out her favor meter, or is bedding her kind of all you can hope for? I'm not going to drop Leilana and go back to her if she's just going to keep me at arm's length.
 
[quote name='Tybee']She definitely SEEMS under the impression that we are in a romance, and the dialogue seems to indicate as much (every time I talk to her it starts with "I'm here for you..."). And at one point she did make me definitively swear off Morrigan (which only cost me -2 favor with her...fitting), so I assumed that would do it. But not yet. I've exhausted every dialogue string, but there's one still there seemingly unrelated to romance options. But maybe I need to go through again and make different choices.

For those who have played out both romances, which did you find more rewarding? Does Morrigan actually open up to you if you max out her favor meter, or is bedding her kind of all you can hope for? I'm not going to drop Leilana and go back to her if she's just going to keep me at arm's length.[/QUOTE]

There's a bug that causes the Leliana romance to not happen if you gain favor with her too fast, so that's probably it. It happened to me, don't let it happen to you.
 
You can work around the Leliana bug by getting some negative favor with her-- April Fools prank DLC is a convenient way to do it. You need to get her down to like 90-95% and then you can continue the romance track.

I found the Morrigan romance very rewarding, but I like that kind of romance story with a hardass girl who ends up showing a little bit of vulnerability. I also just preferred Morrigan's character and found Leliana sort of a non-entity in comparison. Plus the fact that depending on the circumstances the Morrigan romance can tie directly into the main plot of the game.
 
Truth be told there were plenty of times where I preferred neither but if I absolutely had to chose a mate for my warden then Leliana wins by a landslide. A bit naive but stable and unwavering in her adoration - the wifey type. As much as I love a strong, gorgeous, no holds barred independent woman like Morrigan a person's actions speak volumes to what truly lies within. Loving someone only on their terms regardless of the reason isn't a relationship worth pursuing in my opinion; it's a nightmare. I'm fully expecting the characters I made that did romance her to regret it in the future.

Well... assuming the DA team is interested in allowing our warden to make an appearance in future games. I'll keep my fingers crossed until then.
 
I somehow managed to sleep with Morrigan and then sleep with Leilana without breaking it off with Morrigan. I just had them both maxed out with gifts and had been talking to them both. I since broke it off with Morrigan accidentally by not taking her ring though.
 
For anyone that's played the DLCs and got the "beat xxx monster on Hard"

Do you have to play the whole DLC on hard or just bump the diff up to hard before you start the battle wtih them?
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']For anyone that's played the DLCs and got the "beat xxx monster on Hard"

Do you have to play the whole DLC on hard or just bump the diff up to hard before you start the battle wtih them?[/QUOTE]
In both cases you can change the difficulty right before the boss.

The one for Witch Hunt is very easy (I changed from Casual up to Hard and barely realized anything had changed). But the one for Golems is extremely taxing. After a ton of failed tries I ended up just using the tome-duplication trick to beef up my character and replaying the whole DLC. The Harvester is a cheap, cheap bastard.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']In both cases you can change the difficulty right before the boss.

The one for Witch Hunt is very easy (I changed from Casual up to Hard and barely realized anything had changed). But the one for Golems is extremely taxing. After a ton of failed tries I ended up just using the tome-duplication trick to beef up my character and replaying the whole DLC. The Harvester is a cheap, cheap bastard.[/QUOTE]

Any tips? I'm finishing my replay of Awakenings now (I still have to go do the final dungeon and kill the Mother) and I'm level 32 or 33. Not sure how bad Harvester is going to be at the 35-36 I expect to be by then.

How do I do the tome trick?
 
I think there's actually some pretty good discussion of Harvester tactics earlier in the thread. The problem is that he spawns a ton of little minions that just overwhelm you and kill your companions in seconds. I ended up trying to kite the Harvester around while I dealt with the minions one at a time, but it never worked out. I was a Warrior btw, probably level 31 or something. I think I had hit 30 right at the very end of Awakening.

I don't remember exactly how the duplication trick worked, but basically you start with at least two of the item you want to duplicate (so hopefully you have an early enough save in the main game where you haven't bought or used all of the tomes yet), sell one to the merchant, and keep the rest in your junk, then you go to your junk, highlight the item, and press Y and A very quickly in sequence (almost but not quite at the same time), and whatever you had in your junk gets added to the merchant's buyback tab but doesn't actually leave your inventory. Or something like that-- there are better descriptions floating around. The timing of the button presses is a little tricky at first, and tough to describe in words, you just kind of need to keep trying until it clicks. And the trick actually works for any item, not just tomes.
 
Ok the Harvester beat the piss out of me. I tried him three times. Everytime my party went down quick (except the golem) and my Warden. I got him to the second form twice with just my warden and heal potions but got to be to much. Wow he doesn't just do a lot of damage he does it fast.
 
Just checking in: Did a lot of stuff in Denerim and last night completed the urn of ashes bit and thus the Arl of Redcliffe section of the plot (man, that was involved). Not that I was planning to
defile the ashes
as my ultimate path, but I did plan to get that achievement and the Reaver specialization and then revert to save. Well I didn't consider the fact that
Wynne and Leilana would turn on me -- seemed like Alistair was even thinking about it
, so that was a dumb crew to take along. But thankfully the achievement pops immediately after you do the evil deed. I couldn't bring myself to slaughter my teammates (not to mention my virtual gf!) and I wasn't planning to use the Reaver specialization on Alistair anyway, so I just skipped that bit of unpleasantness and reloaded immediately and took the saintly path. :roll: I also passed on taking on
the high dragon
for now, but will definitely come back later.

Oh, and Leilana DID give it up immediately after completing her side quest. :cool:
 
Just checking in: Did a lot of stuff in Denerim and last night completed the urn of ashes bit and thus the Arl of Redcliffe section of the plot (man, that was involved). Not that I was planning to
defile the ashes
as my ultimate path, but I did plan to get that achievement and the Reaver specialization and then revert to save. Well I didn't consider the fact that
Wynne and Leilana would turn on me -- seemed like Alistair was even thinking about it
, so that was a dumb crew to take along. But thankfully the achievement pops immediately after you do the evil deed. I couldn't bring myself to slaughter my teammates (not to mention my virtual gf!) and I wasn't planning to use the Reaver specialization on Alistair anyway, so I just skipped that bit of unpleasantness and reloaded immediately and took the saintly path. :roll: I also passed on taking on
the high dragon
for now, but will definitely come back later.

Oh, and Leilana DID give it up immediately after completing her side quest. :cool:
 
Since I've finally put aside ME2 for a while until we get the new DLC, I think I'm going to put my sanity aside and start into DA, with DA2 on the horizon.

Expecting the usual posts of recommendations like I've seen in the ME2 thread, does anyone have some initial pick choices that I should be looking at before I jump into DA?
 
IMO the best Origins are the two dwarf stories, and city elf. The mage and Dalish elf origins are boring as shit. The human noble origin is somewhere in between. None of them really have any impact on the rest of the game apart from restricting what race and class you can be.

I'll leave the class discussion to the usual suspects who know the mechanics of the game inside and out. :)

ETA: Also, if you're planning on purchasing any DLC for the game, Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep are the best choices. Stone Prisoner in particular is a must-- Shale is a cooler character than most of the regular party members.
 
Just checking in: Did a lot of stuff in Denerim and last night completed the urn of ashes bit and thus the Arl of Redcliffe section of the plot (man, that was involved). Not that I was planning to
defile the ashes
as my ultimate path, but I did plan to get that achievement and the Reaver specialization and then revert to save. Well I didn't consider the fact that
Wynne and Leilana would turn on me -- seemed like Alistair was even thinking about it
, so that was a dumb crew to take along. But thankfully the achievement pops immediately after you do the evil deed. I couldn't bring myself to slaughter my teammates (not to mention my virtual gf!) and I wasn't planning to use the Reaver specialization on Alistair anyway, so I just skipped that bit of unpleasantness and reloaded immediately and took the saintly path. :roll: I also passed on taking on
the high dragon
for now, but will definitely come back later.

Oh, and Leilana DID give it up immediately after completing her side quest. :cool:
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']IMO the best Origins are the two dwarf stories, and city elf. The mage and Dalish elf origins are boring as shit. The human noble origin is somewhere in between. None of them really have any impact on the rest of the game apart from restricting what race and class you can be.

I'll leave the class discussion to the usual suspects who know the mechanics of the game inside and out. :)

ETA: Also, if you're planning on purchasing any DLC for the game, Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep are the best choices. Stone Prisoner in particular is a must-- Shale is a cooler character than most of the regular party members.[/QUOTE]I've been picking up the DLC as it's been going on-sale, so I have all of the DLC out of the gate. I had the CE of the game, so I also have Stone Prisoner out of the gate as well.
 
Just checking in: Did a lot of stuff in Denerim and last night completed the urn of ashes bit and thus the Arl of Redcliffe section of the plot (man, that was involved). Not that I was planning to
defile the ashes
as my ultimate path, but I did plan to get that achievement and the Reaver specialization and then revert to save. Well I didn't consider the fact that
Wynne and Leilana would turn on me -- seemed like Alistair was even thinking about it
, so that was a dumb crew to take along. But thankfully the achievement pops immediately after you do the evil deed. I couldn't bring myself to slaughter my teammates (not to mention my virtual gf!) and I wasn't planning to use the Reaver specialization on Alistair anyway, so I just skipped that bit of unpleasantness and reloaded immediately and took the saintly path. :roll: I also passed on taking on
the high dragon
for now, but will definitely come back later.

Oh, and Leilana DID give it up immediately after completing her side quest. :cool:
 
Best origins in my opinion are City Elf, Human, and Dwarf Noble. The Dwarf Commoner isn't bad but I did get bored during it. The Dalish Elf and Mage suck.

Right out the gate a Tank Warrior is the easiest to play I think but you can really do anything and get the hang of it pretty quick. (just knock down diff if any issues).
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']IMO the best Origins are the two dwarf stories, and city elf. The mage and Dalish elf origins are boring as shit. The human noble origin is somewhere in between. None of them really have any impact on the rest of the game apart from restricting what race and class you can be.

I'll leave the class discussion to the usual suspects who know the mechanics of the game inside and out. :)

ETA: Also, if you're planning on purchasing any DLC for the game, Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep are the best choices. Stone Prisoner in particular is a must-- Shale is a cooler character than most of the regular party members.[/QUOTE]I've been picking up the DLC as it's been going on-sale, so I have all of the DLC out of the gate. I had the CE of the game, so I also have Stone Prisoner out of the gate as well.
 
I hated the Dwarven areas of the game as I'm never a huge Dwarf guy in fantasy and I just didn't care for the Dwarf architecture in this game. Just a personal thing.

I would definately suggest either Human Noble (Human Warrior or Rogue), City Elf, or Mage. Human Noble and City Elf are the two best Origins IMO, but Mage is probably the strongest class in the game.
 
Just checking in: Did a lot of stuff in Denerim and last night completed the urn of ashes bit and thus the Arl of Redcliffe section of the plot (man, that was involved). Not that I was planning to
defile the ashes
as my ultimate path, but I did plan to get that achievement and the Reaver specialization and then revert to save. Well I didn't consider the fact that
Wynne and Leilana would turn on me -- seemed like Alistair was even thinking about it
, so that was a dumb crew to take along. But thankfully the achievement pops immediately after you do the evil deed. I couldn't bring myself to slaughter my teammates (not to mention my virtual gf!) and I wasn't planning to use the Reaver specialization on Alistair anyway, so I just skipped that bit of unpleasantness and reloaded immediately and took the saintly path. :roll: I also passed on taking on
the high dragon
for now, but will definitely come back later.

Oh, and Leilana DID give it up immediately after completing her side quest. :cool:
 
Just remember: If you go with a dwarf, you're going to have to watch simulated sex scenes involving said dwarf. And no one needs to see that.
 
Difficulty plays a huge factor in build recommendation so if you don't plan on switching any higher than Normal you basically have free reign to approach the game however you please.
 
I think I was going to do the same approach I did with ME2, start out on Normal and try a second playthrough another time under something harder than normal.

I may try the City Elf mage route and see how that works for starters.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']I may try the City Elf mage route and see how that works for starters.[/QUOTE]
IIRC, only an elf who is a warrior or rogue can do the Dalish or city elf origins. Any mage, even if elven, has to do the mage origin.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']IIRC, only an elf who is a warrior or rogue can do the Dalish or city elf origins. Any mage, even if elven, has to do the mage origin.[/QUOTE]

That is correct. FWIW, I didn't mind the mage origin bit so much, but it's the only one I've played so far. Gonna go back and do the rest at the end. Theoretically, you could actually go through and play through all the origins before deciding who to proceed on with through the game. Kinda wish I'd done that.
 
Whatever you do, leave the Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage build for last - if for no better reason than avoiding the complete dependency you'll have with that class :cool:

It was extremely hard to use a different class once I perfected my AW/BM.
 
Will I lose party members if I add a Blood Mage specialization? That's been preventing me from going that route. I would like to take Arcane Warrior for a spin as soon as I unlock that, though.

Side question: Is it okay to play the Dragon Age II demo, or will it ruin the rest of DA for me (either control wise or possibly spoilers of some sort)?
 
[quote name='Tybee']Side question: Is it okay to play the Dragon Age II demo, or will it ruin the rest of DA for me (either control wise or possibly spoilers of some sort)?[/QUOTE]

I finished Dragon Age: Origins a while ago and played through the Dragon Age II demo the other day, and I can say that there are no spoilers to worry about in the demo. It's been long enough since I finished the first game that I can't speak to how different the controls are at this point, but I don't think that those will be a massive issue either.

That being said, am I the only one who found the demo disappointing? Just fight, fight, and fight some more -- I would have liked to see at least a little bit of the adventure/exploration side of it. I'm certainly keeping my pre-order because I expect the game itself to be much better, but if the demo was supposed to make me feel excited for it, it failed.

Also, while the Lothering's Lament and The Far Cliffs of Kirkwall downloads have appeared on my registered game promotions page on the BioWare site, I'm not seeing Hayder's Razor listed there even though I completed the demo. Does anyone else who completed the demo have it on their list? I'm going to be annoyed if I have to play through the entire demo again to get it.
 
[quote name='Tybee']Will I lose party members if I add a Blood Mage specialization? That's been preventing me from going that route. I would like to take Arcane Warrior for a spin as soon as I unlock that, though.[/QUOTE]

Your party members won't take notice to you using it. The same rules apply to themselves as well e.g. Wynne can be taught and will use Blood Magic without apprehension (a huge role play killer to some). Both BM and AW require preparation to utilize effectively so if you were to switch this late in the game your experience would vary greatly from a dedicated build. They also require unlocks via story (BM - Redcliffe Castle) and exploration (AW - Dalish Werewolves Lair) respectively.

Side question: Is it okay to play the Dragon Age II demo, or will it ruin the rest of DA for me (either control wise or possibly spoilers of some sort)?
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Aside from the canon Warden achieving his goal of ending the Blight there are no serious spoilers to speak of. Feel free to go nuts.
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']Your party members won't take notice to you using it. The same rules apply to themselves as well e.g. Wynne can be taught and will use Blood Magic without apprehension (a huge role play killer to some).[/quote]

Yeah, I tend to customize my party as I think they would like to be customized. So Alistair will be a Champion and (maybe) a Templar. Wynne is a Spirit Healer, etc. Since I'm not playing a high level of difficulty, I figure I can afford this little indulgence.

Both BM and AW require preparation to utilize effectively so if you were to switch this late in the game your experience would vary greatly from a dedicated build. They also require unlocks via story (BM - Redcliffe Castle) and exploration (AW - Dalish Werewolves Lair) respectively.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm at the point in the game where I only just recently unlocked the Blood Mage specialization (only thing I've done since is urn of ashes) and am about to go deal with the werewolves. I know you mean I should have been customizing my stats from the beginning in anticipation of unlocking these, but oh well.
 
Decided to do a city elf mage for my initial character.

Went through part of the origins campaign, and so far, I'm bored to tears with it. I haven't finished it, and I hope that the enjoyment picks up after the origins bit is done with.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Decided to do a city elf mage for my initial character.

Went through part of the origins campaign, and so far, I'm bored to tears with it. I haven't finished it, and I hope that the enjoyment picks up after the origins bit is done with.[/QUOTE]

It did for me. Really, it's not until after Ostagar (the part following your origin story) that you really begin to get a sense of the world and get into it a bit. And it's not until maybe you get to Lothering (the next part) that you start to get a feel for how the game really plays. Starting to build your party and getting to know them (even moreso than Mass Effect, in some ways) really helps too. And in the long run, you'll be VERY happy you went with a mage. Origin sucks, but gameplay is SO much better, IMO.

Went through the Dalish/Werewolves stuff over the weekend (I love how many different ways the ending of this section could play out, each substantially different than the other -- and good use of achievements to get me to play through "bad" choices I might not otherwise have tried) and the first part of Orzammar. About to head out on the Deep Roads. I started out with Alistair in there because I have him really tricked out at this point, but soon ran outside and got Shale because it's fun to make all the dwarves jealous of my golem. ;)

I found the small flawless nature crystal for him. Wish I could find the large flawless nature crystal.
 
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