Dragon Age Origins: Collective knowledge thread

[Baby Tea]

I'm at 62 hours of gameplay and I'm currently fighting my way through what I can only imagine is the last stage of the game. Probably an hour left or so. To answer your other question which didn't seem to get really answered, the point of no return is after the landsmeet. So you're not there yet. And after you gather the armies, there's Denerim's Elven Alienage area left to to before the landsmeet. I don't know where you are in Orzammar, but I found that part of the game looooooong; You have stuff to do in the city itself (the slums, the "arena" and the political 'dicking around'), then the the Deep Roads which is one long dungeon after the other until you reach the Anvil of the Void.

Ohhh ok! Sweet.
I just did the Proving in Orzammar, and so I just left the city in fears that it would be over too quickly.
But now I see that that will not be the case! Awesome!
Well then, if you'll excuse me, I've got dungeons to crawl!

 

[Grampy_bone]

You don't need Lockpicking. All locked chests in the game contain crappy loot. If you want to make money, level Stealing. It's pretty great. To disarm traps, you need a Rogue with Trapmaking, but most traps can be avoided or healed through.

This is incorrect, you need device mastery to disarm traps, just like open locks. I'm pretty sure that both skills use your Cunning score to see if you can disarm/unlock something, and the skill ranks merely add a bonus to this. If so, there may be a "sweet spot" of Cunning and device mastery ranks that will allow you to get everything without wasting talent points.

Also, bows are not useless. There were many fights in the game where charging in and using melee or even magic resulted in a quick death while staying back and firing arrows lead to an easy victory. Killing dragons is easier with bows, as is any monster with devastating melee strikes that resists most spells.

 

[Faps]

Has anyone else found a piece of meteorite ore when travelling from place to place? It's in my quest section of inventory but I've not got a clue what to do with it.

 

[Jandau]

You don't need Lockpicking. All locked chests in the game contain crappy loot. If you want to make money, level Stealing. It's pretty great. To disarm traps, you need a Rogue with Trapmaking, but most traps can be avoided or healed through.

This is incorrect, you need device mastery to disarm traps, just like open locks. I'm pretty sure that both skills use your Cunning score to see if you can disarm/unlock something, and the skill ranks merely add a bonus to this. If so, there may be a "sweet spot" of Cunning and device mastery ranks that will allow you to get everything without wasting talent points.

Also, bows are not useless. There were many fights in the game where charging in and using melee or even magic resulted in a quick death while staying back and firing arrows lead to an easy victory. Killing dragons is easier with bows, as is any monster with devastating melee strikes that resists most spells.

The first part is partially incorrect, but I did make a slight mistake. Trapmaking governs trap detection. As for the sweet spot for cunning/device mastery, I belive that both of them add a certain modifier to your check. However, it is as yet unknown what the modifiers are, so a "sweet spot" is impossible to calculate. The same thing applies to Persuade/Intimidate checks.

There are a few fights where bows can be exploited for easy kills (Arcane Horror fight in Brecilian Ruins comes to mind), mostly involving static monsters. However, bows are underperforming in almost any other combat situation.

 

[John Smyth]

Brought this game on the day it came out it was brilliant, been playing every couple of days doing every side quest available. Unfortunately I recently received an unauthorised error meaning the game won't play unless I buy it again, EA have said it's a known error and they are "working on it"

They broke the game without even needing DRM

 

[Virgil]

my advice to any mage characters is to get high level area of effect spells. They are damn useful. I've gone lightning.

Also for mages, learn which spells require line of sight, and which don't. The Ice direct-damage and Blizzard spells do not, which means you can use them to ambush a group of enemies from a completely different room. Blizzard, by the way, is a large AoE damage over time spell that has a chance of freezing everyone in it every tick - it's an absolutely brutal opening move as long as you keep your own party from running into the range.

You don't need Lockpicking. All locked chests in the game contain crappy loot. If you want to make money, level Stealing. It's pretty great. To disarm traps, you need a Rogue with Trapmaking, but most traps can be avoided or healed through.

They all don't - some of them can contain some very nice things. At the beginning of the game they're almost all mushrooms though, for some reason. Lockpicking and disarming traps also use the same skill, which is dependant on Cunning. If you have level 2 Stealth, high Cunning (40-ish), and level 3 Device Mastery you can easily navigate through every battle in the game and detect/remove everything before the battle starts. Pair that with Trapmaking and you can apply some seriously nasty ambushes against almost any encounter that doesn't start with a cutscene.

Has anyone else found a piece of meteorite ore when travelling from place to place? It's in my quest section of inventory but I've not got a clue what to do with it.

Spoiler: Click for the Meteorite Answer

You need to finish the Warden's Keep DLC. Once you do this, you can give the meteorite to the smith there and he'll make you a 1h or 2h sword from the metal, your choice, and for free. The 1h sword is the best weapon I've seen so far.

 

[Souplex]

Go to the mages tower as soon as possible. There is this part where you go into this dreamworld and you can get several permanent bonuses to your stats. These help out a lot.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

Also for mages, learn which spells require line of sight, and which don't. The Ice direct-damage and Blizzard spells do not, which means you can use them to ambush a group of enemies from a completely different room. Blizzard, by the way, is a large AoE damage over time spell that has a chance of freezing everyone in it every tick - it's an absolutely brutal opening move as long as you keep your own party from running into the range.

Sounds like a good opening spell for my Arcane Warrior.

 

[Souplex]

Is there a way to get the reaver specialization without siding with those cultist jerks?

 

[Pingieking]

Go to the mages tower as soon as possible. There is this part where you go into this dreamworld and you can get several permanent bonuses to your stats. These help out a lot.

This.

Also, I'm running an Assassin/rogue+Shale combo, and it's turning out to be pretty deadly. Shale is insanely good at tanking (since he is made of rock). Great and keeping agro and survivng 5+ mobs at the same time, especially with Wynne throwing regens on him. I tossed him the best cold resist crystal I could get, so now I can drop a blizzard into a the mob of enemies around Shale, and even though he gets caught in it, he remains relatively unscathed.

Man, duel wielding Assassin+Duelist rogues are crazy DPS machines. Especially since I can feign death and stealth away if the stabbing catches too many people's attention. But they should fix the sword/dagger thing.

Shapeshifting is relatively useless. Doesn't scale very well for high level combat, and the abilities use mana and aren't as good as the later spells. But she does get overwhelm, which is useful for disabling guys with high spell resists.

Blood mage + Spirit healer + good management = insane amounts of healing. Use the red bar as the primary "mana" source, and the blue as the "back up" mana. If timed correctly, the ability repops before you run out of mana, and with some mana regen items you can get half the mana bar back before you run out of health. So the blood mage effectively has 3.5 bars of mana to work with before any potions are necessary. In addition, the last blood mage spell is pretty l33t h4x0rs.

I have yet to find a good use for the warriors and the dog yet. Mostly because Shale can out-tank any of them, and the assassin rogue can out DPS any of them. Only use I've gotten out of Alistiar is his Templar abilities; most notably the dispell. 2-handers deal good damage but they draw too much attention and go down too fast, resulting in the rogues pumping out more damage and less trouble in the long run. Got any good warrior builds/tactics I should try out?

Archery and daggers seem a bit underpowered. I hear they're going to fix that, so cheers.

Never tried it, but it seems like a 3 mage + Tank party would be extremely OPed. Pump up the tank with a bunch of buffs to up the resist and def, then drop a bunch of area effect spells to annihilate enemies. Throw in some wards and heals to keep tank alive. As long as the tank can keep agro, this build seems unstoppable.

 

[cainx10a]

Spoiler

There is no travelling and gameplay after defeating the archdemon unfortunatly.

There you go.

Well let me ask you something else, that's a bit more vague:
How much game is left after you gather all the armies?
Another 10 hours? 15 hours? 5?

Another 10 maybe. Remember after gathering the armies you still need to gather evidence that a certain Regent ain't doing his job properly etc ... And 30 hours in the game mean you missed a lot of side quests I guess.

Oh and, the journey may end, but that doesn't mean you can't come back with a different origin. Just finished with my blood mage at level 22, and 45 hours of gameplay. Working on a human noble now, 2h warrior.

And -cough- if you have the PC version, and the will to learn how to use the toolset (greatest learning curve since the aurora toolset), you will find that dragon age may be an everlasting experience. Personally, I want to see more DLCs that had at least 10-20 hours of content compared to the 30 min experience of Warden Keep, and 30+ min in Stone Prisoner.

 

[Baby Tea]

However, bows are underperforming in almost any other combat situation.

I'm not to sure about that. Just this morning I...

Spoiler

...fought Flemmeth in her dragon form. And Leliana (Or whatever her name is) was invaluable! Alister and I (Rogue) would be hit with stunning attacks, and Wynn kept running out of Mana. But the archer just plugged away, out of range from the swipes and grabs, while Alister and I would take all the hits.
It worked very well.

But it also all depends on tactics as well, and the power of the bow.
But get some good arrows and a sweet bow, and a character with high dexterity...bows are pretty decent.

But I do love my Assassin/duelist combo. Two Dragonbone daggers of awesome. I love it.
Oh! Quick question: Anyone know the level cap? I'm hovering around 16 or so now.

 

[Pingieking]

However, bows are underperforming in almost any other combat situation.

I'm not to sure about that. Just this morning I...

Spoiler

...fought Flemmeth in her dragon form. And Leliana (Or whatever her name is) was invaluable! Alister and I (Rogue) would be hit with stunning attacks, and Wynn kept running out of Mana. But the archer just plugged away, out of range from the swipes and grabs, while Alister and I would take all the hits.
It worked very well.

But it also all depends on tactics as well, and the power of the bow.
But get some good arrows and a sweet bow, and a character with high dexterity...bows are pretty decent.

But I do love my Assassin/duelist combo. Two Dragonbone daggers of awesome. I love it.
Oh! Quick question: Anyone know the level cap? I'm hovering around 16 or so now.

But bows are still a bit underpowered in my opinion. They are decent, but given that you're using sweet bows and arrows, they should be better.

I love Leliana. Her bard song is nice, and she's got good stat/skill sets. She also provides some of the funniest lines in the game:

Spoiler

You're wading through her swamp!

I though that was an unorthodox but quite accurate description of the activity. Plus, she's bi. Can't go wrong with a kick ass bi spy girl.

 

[Nmil-ek]

Fire is bad, dont stand in the fire.

 

[Irridium]

I'm at 62 hours of gameplay and I'm currently fighting my way through what I can only imagine is the last stage of the game. Probably an hour left or so. To answer your other question which didn't seem to get really answered, the point of no return is after the landsmeet. So you're not there yet. And after you gather the armies, there's Denerim's Elven Alienage area left to to before the landsmeet. I don't know where you are in Orzammar, but I found that part of the game looooooong; You have stuff to do in the city itself (the slums, the "arena" and the political 'dicking around'), then the the Deep Roads which is one long dungeon after the other until you reach the Anvil of the Void.

Speaking of the Anvil, I'm stuck on that part and in need of help really bad.

Spoiler: best to keep it in a spoiler

I found the anvil and chose to fight Branka, but my party is Shale with all nature crystals, Alistar, and the Branka's husband "can't remember his name." I also have no healing items. And I can not beat that damn part no matter what I try. Shale can't damage the other Golems because they are resistant to nature, and Branka likes to use the lyrium and transform into 4 people.

I've tried everything I can think of, and nothing seems to work, I even tried putting it on easy, and it still wouldn't work.

Can anyone help me out with this?

 

[Baby Tea]

Plus, she's bi. Can't go wrong with a kick ass bi spy girl.

I was wondering, actually, if she was.
I guess that answers that question.

But I'm also wondering if you can have multiple romances going at once.
I got the 'romance' achievement with Leliana, but I'm totally able to make-out with (Though not sleep with) Morrigan. Now that's either because my approval isn't high enough, or because two romances is a 'no-no'.
I'll have to experiment some more.

 

[The DSM]

You can have gay sex on it as both genders, well it IS a bioware game after all.

 

[Pingieking]

Plus, she's bi. Can't go wrong with a kick ass bi spy girl.

I was wondering, actually, if she was.
I guess that answers that question.

But I'm also wondering if you can have multiple romances going at once.
I got the 'romance' achievement with Leliana, but I'm totally able to make-out with (Though not sleep with) Morrigan. Now that's either because my approval isn't high enough, or because two romances is a 'no-no'.
I'll have to experiment some more.

I think you can. I've had my female character pouncing on Allistiar and the elf assassin guy, while getting pretty close to Leliana. My male character has gotten a home run with Morrigan already, and is about halfway to Leliana. Now I need to find the travelling merchant with the blue shoes. The elf guy and Leliana share similar "One night stands are the best way to go" attitudes, so I'm pretty sure you can go with the option of using Morrigan as a toy and tossing her once you've got Leliana.

Funny thing is what happened after the romance scene with the assassin. The elf guy's position in the camp is around the fire, next to Alistiar.

Spoiler

After the scene, you get to have a little chat with the elf. The camera view is positioned so that Alistiar was standing menacingly with his viking styled helmet right behind the elf while the dialog was going on. I kept thinking that Alistiar had witness me cheating and was about to run his longsword through the elf. Turns out he didn't know, and it was just the position of the camera making it seem like that.

Even more spoilers

Spoiler

The Elf and Morrigan are much easier to get in the sack than the other two. Alistiar wouldn't go for it until I got his favor to the 70's, and even then it basically took me shoving him into the tent and ripping his armour off. I've gotten Leliana up to 58 and not even a kiss yet. But I did enjoy the whole "shoes" line of dialog.
Morrigan and the Elf will sleep with you once their favor is in the 40's (I think it was the 40's, might be lower). I got the elf immediately after he joined my party and without giving him any gifts. Got Morrigan immediately after Lothering, without using gifts or glitches. I'm wondering if these two eventually drop their "one night stand only" attitude if you get enough favor with them. I got the ring from Morrigan with favor in the high 70's, so she seems to care a lot more than she did before.

There's a glitch in the game that lets you get Morrigan's favor to 100.

Spoiler

In Lothering, when you're trying to free Sten. Take Allister and Leliana out of the party, put Morrigan in, and repeated threaten the high priestess. There are two threaten options, one will result in her giving you the keys right away, and the other (when you tell her you're a grey warden) will get you nothing. Both will give +4 to Morrigan, but you get to repeatedly threaten the priestess if you got for the second one.

BTW, does anyone know what type of present Sten likes? I find that guy to be an enigma.

 

[squid5580]

my advice to any mage characters is to get high level area of effect spells. They are damn useful. I've gone lightning. Also, the freeze spell will allow your melee characters respite. Stone fist works for that as well, as it knocks enemies down. Mindblast is great for neutralizing large groups of enemies.

Really? I have haven't a chance to get any area effect (except the fire spell) yet but friendly fire is a huge concern. Everyone is always right in the thick of things.

Am I wasting tactic slots by using the old "nearest visible - attack". And do non party members get XP?