So many possible story routes that can be taken. Love it

Biowares last true RPG masterpiece

 

If it's on PC, download this MOD: http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/181/? . Then mourn the loss of tactics as you move on through the series.

FYI Dragon Age Origins has an incredibly healthy modding community. It's not a Bethesda game w.r.t to modding but it's up there.

 

There are so many elements that can be utilized in combat that it makes my head spin. Some of the less popular abilities can be powerful if applied correctly, all the buff items (like, how often do you use the elemental balms or the incense of awareness), trap making, which I've never really explored... There's potential for solo play - with any class, if you know what you're doing.

DA2 combat is awesome fun, but it's admittedly much more streamlined. Still love the game though.

I have a dream... that one day I'll have a powerful machine, I'll pimp out DAO and DA2 with a ton of mods and experience the games in a new way.

 

I've never installed one mod. Huh. Guess I know what I'm doing until I get in the PoE expansion beta.

 

There are some great ones. Graphics obviously.

Romance expansions are great.

The better sex cutscenes because no moddedgame is complete without the nudity...



Serious note though, the sex scenes in DAO are just flat out awkward

 

Get in on that Zevran/maleDwarf game, bow chicka wow wow.

 

Yep. It's my usual origin route, though usually as a male. Fanfiction has ruined Fem!Cousland for me to a large degree.

I don't necessarily agree with the line on the uselessness of sword and board characters, though. Never tried playing as one myself because being main tank is boring, but I find that Alistair always has a much easier time staying healthy in fights relative to having Oghren or Sten try to tank as a 2H Warrior. Perhaps in my next run of the game I'll play 2H Warrior myself and see if I can make it work. I usually go for dual wield and found 2H to be slow and clunky when I last tried to use it, but that run didn't last much past the Korcari Wilds before I got bored and moved on to a mage.

 

City Elf is probably my favorite origin. It's delightfully dark, but yeah 2H. It's the awkward bastard middle ground of melee. Not as tanky as S&S, not as much DPS as dual wield, but to be honest, DW rogue does DW warrior better than the warrior does. However, DW talents are pretty meh (other than the only one that matters - momentum). 2H talents are bomb

That being said, 2H is my favorite non-mage DAO thing to do. It's just satisfying. Mages are just totally broken once you get to midgame.

Also, my absolute favorite mod is the Skip the Fade one. Unless you actually like that shit, I'd recommend that one for anyone who has done it once

 

Skip the fade is a gift from the Maker

 

Skip the Fade is the greatest thing on danexus, no doubt.

I could never get into a mage MC in DAO, in large part because of the dearth of equipment for actual mage mages. I'm not a big fan of robes and hats are atrocious. You could buff strength a bit to wear something like the Battledress of the Provocateur, or just go Arcane Warrior, but then AW never appealed to me either. Warriors have the abilities to actually use the melee weapons. But honestly, I just hate the mage attack animation. Yeah, it's a silly reason, but by gods, I couldn't stand the puny pew-pew from a distance and they run like idiots too. I've never completed the game as a mage, even though I once got as far as 2/4 treaty questlines as a solo AW. Mages got an awesomeness upgrade in DA2. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Plus the mage version of the Champion armor is by far the best looking. I love that armor/robes cross.

The secret to DW warrior in DAO is to go double axes. Two very specific axes. Aodh (looted from Cristof in Denerim) and the Veshialle, purchased from Bodahn for a little over a 100 gold. Or you can just get two Veshialles (the Reape's Cudgel gold), if you buy the first one before leaving party camp for the first time, when Bodahn's stock resets.

Whether you go double Veshialle or Aodh/Veshialle, you're getting two tier 6 waraxes that look identical (added benefit for me) and with momentum you will be pretty quick anyway, even despite the slower waraxe swing speed. But best of all, you get crazy armor penetration. Watch those Revenants melt.

2Hander talents are boss. It's simple stuff, really, but so well put together. Mighty Blow for Shatter combos (cuz if your mage doesn't have Cone of Cold you're doing something wrong), 2H Sweep for crowd control (on top of Taunt and Disengage), Pommel Strike is more cc, but really, the best a 2Hander has is Indomitable. Stun/knockdown immunity? Yes please. And available from the beginning. Now, how soon does a s&b get that same deal? Need to go deep into the tree for that. My last DAO run was 2H Warden, archer Leliana, Morrigan and Sten, then Oghren. Plus, two dwarves controlling the battle like bawse was cool. There are few things in DAO better than double Taunt/Disengage. I played a Dwarf Commoner, btw. I like the literal zero-hero theme there, especially when the Assembly wants to make a duster surfacer a Paragon. Also, call me crazy for giving the dragonbone plate to Oghren, but I love the look of the Legionnaire armor (which only looks good on dwarves).

/ramble

 

I usually go Starfang + Maric's Blade/Blightblood. But of course that combo requires DLC. Might try your way next time I build a DWarrior.

Never been a big fan of playing as elves in Dragon Age. My general disposition is to RP as a nice guy/gal, and it's much harder to self-justify doing that as an elf considering how poorly they're treated in the series. The last time I played as one, it was a little hard to resist being a caustic prick to everyone.

 

Then just go Dalish. You can be a smug twat and an elf at the same time.

 

Man, we're talking about Origins? Temptation to play rises. It was actually the first game I platinumed, just by playing it over and over and over again. I've become an achievement whore since. Then, when I got a pc that could run it, I got it on pc too... and did the same, since the game was even better on pc. That tactical view thing was glorious. One of the few games that I actually play on the highest difficulty and feel like it's balanced.

Let's see what I remember. Mage > rogue > warrior. Dw > 2h. Alistair in 100% spell resist.

My favorite Origin is probably City Elf, but my most played ones are Human Noble and Mage. I'd definitely recommend Noble for your first playthrough, if you don't care about magic. Feels much more involved.

The DLCs were a mixed bag. I can recommend the Shale one. The rest... eh. Maybe the one with Morrigan if you want an ending with her.

As for mods, I remember using a hair/eye one, some face replaces for Leliana, romance mod (can romance everyone at the same time without jealousy, only got this much later), skip fade (I did it 6+ times on ps4, fuck that place), Ivory Tower for my Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage, the OP thing it was. My first Nightmare playthrough was with a dw warrior though. I think I used swords.

My biggest complaint about Origin might be the ugly robe models. I hope there's a mod for that now.

 

So, all this Dragon Age talk has me thinking about doing a run through again. I'm going to have to go through and see if any of my Inquisition mods broke though... (I think I'm alone here in absolutely adoring DAI - if Origins is a 10/10 and DA2 is a 5/10, INQ is an 8 or 9 for me)

Actually, I don't think a new official patch has been released since then. Joy!

 

I quite enjoyed Inquisition, even though I hated DA2. It was a little padded and ended up dragging a fair bit toward the end, and the mission table was retardation of the highest order, but on the whole, the game was quite good, with an interesting story and engaging characters.

It's no Origins, but it's definitely a good time. Especially since you can play a Qunari.

 

Good old immediate war table cheat/mod. It brings some coherency to the story - there's a lot that can be lost while waiting for those things. When they're immediate it's much tighter IMO. And there's a lot of good stuff in there. Dealings with the Ferelden Crown, Sutherland's Company (though they clearly highlighted this one by making you have to do stuff outside the table), Varric's book stuff in Kirkwall, The Lydes Succession, Clan Lavellan, etc.

---------- Post automerged at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 PM ----------

Lol. After starting again I get reminded about the golden nug. Fuck Mythal or Fen'haral or the Maker or any of the Dragon Age gods - the Golden Nug is the one true god.

 

Just remember the one basic tenant of Nug Worship:

"Swooping is bad."

 

Last little post in my barrage here - someone give me a bleak fucked up world state to use in the tapestry for this run. I plan on being a male Dalish keeper Inquisitor who renounces the elvish gods and turns strict Andrastian for political reasons. Also I'm going to punch Solas in the face and do unspeakable things to Josie.

Also, I'm disappointed that DAI is so unfriendly to mods. The mod community right now is basically the same as it was right at final patch. It's trendy to blame Frostbite, but man.

 

Spoilering

Spoiler

Blood Mage Elf.
Romance Morrigan-God baby
Kill lelianna-Wynette sacred ashes

Turn Alistair drunkard
Kill zevran
Leave sten to die.
Kill shale and go golems.
Go werewolf vengeance
Harrowmount king
Templar right of annulment

Hmm..

Connor possessed by desire demon.
Give everyone the most depressing ending.

 

Ended up with this: Going to just shit on mages the entire time then play a super angry Dalish keeper Tyrant. Think what comes to pass during the Envy demon's scenario. As an aside, the Tapestry was a great fucking feature. Hopefully if there's future Mass Effect games, they incorporate it. Call it the Codex.

Spoiler

Origins:

Male Cousland and cured Barkspawn, duh.

Companion stuff:
Romancing Morrigan w/ Kieran
Executing Alistair
Loghain alive and well (haven't actually had a DAI playthrough where he's the Warden instead of Stroud or Alistair)
Zevran died
Wynne died
Leliana dies (even though I know since she is crucial to DAI she gets resurrected with some magic shit)

Werewolf slaughters the dalish
Saved the Halla can't help it

Joined with Branca
Theresa MayHarrowmont King
Dagna destroyed circle
Said Darkspawn tainted Ruck was a hero
Told Burkel to fuck off with his Chantry
Was Rogek's middle man on the Lyrium smuggling. Roleplaying that I did that before the Tower fell and went back for it after it was annulled)
Tower fell, Cullen's request granted, Irving left a smear in the Harrowing Chamber

Did the Crime Wave and Ignacio's murders, duh
Hardened Alistair in the Goldana encounter as well as Leliana with that Marjorlaine cunt. For all the good it did them in the end.

Cousland slew the Archdemon, thus empowering Kieran with Urthemiel's corrupted soul.

Architect alive, Nathaniel dead, Keep protected; Amarinthine destroyed, Avernus free to continue his horrific research, Oghren back with Felsi

Stabbed Morrigan

Shale all good and Matthias infected by the desire demon.

Dragon Age 2:

Warrior chick, aggressive Hawke.
Did the nasty with Sebastian and led him along
Disliked Varric, but helped him. But he kept the red lyrium
Bethany became a Grey Warden and lived.
Isabella given to the Arishok
Fenris alive, but pursued.
Killed Anders's ass
Merrill kept the Eluvian and her clan died

Turned mages over
Danzig alive
Handed over Ketojan

Didn't kill Gascard
Feynriel possessed
Arishok well

Conspirators to Meredith
Emile back to the circle
Sided with the Templars
Keran to the Templars
Fucked up the Bone Pit dragon, duh
Sided with Larius (fuck Corypheshit, fuck him. and found Marcus's will

So mostly a shit outcome thing with a few things I can't help but have happy endings on.