Dragon Age Origins: Collective knowledge thread

[Grampy_bone]

Sten likes paintings.

I still think bows are more useful than many are giving them credit for. It's true that on paper they may not have the damage numbers of other weapons but if they let you kill stuff safely with no danger, what does that matter? For example you can win many, many battles by keeping your team back with ranged weapons, summon a bear, then use it to draw aggro while your archers destroy everything. This tactic works in pretty much any non-ambush fight.

However I will give you that bow talents are junk. My dual-wield rogue is just as effective as Leliana with a bow and he has zero archery talents. So I recommend giving everyone with enough dex a decent Fast Aim bow and using it often, taking the actual skills is optional.

You can have multiple romances with Leliana and Morrigan but eventually they will force you to choose, and you can only lose approval from there. However the first time Leliana suspects you of cheating you can actually [persuade] her it's all in her head and actually gain approval!

 

[Grampy_bone]

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?

You're better off telling them to all attack the same target, i.e. "target of controlled party member - attack." That way they'll gang up more.

For targeting AoE spells the hold position button is your friend. Try to let your fighters form a line with the enemies, then move your mage and blast them with fireball or cone of cold. Other options include using your tank as a decoy and them hitting him along with all the enemies gathered around him (he should be able to take it; this works well with Shale since you can easily increase his fire/cold resistance.) Set up enemies with sleep or mind blast to give yourself time to find the right position.

Speaking of spells Cone of Cold may be the best one in the game. You can lock down any regular enemy and most bosses--including those damn revenants. It's cooldown is only about 2 seconds longer than it's duration so you can spam it again and again.

 

[Pingieking]

*snip*

Two ways to go about this. Either create a choke point somehow using traps, wards, and natural terrain, and blasting them when they're running into the choke point, or pack a tank with sh*tloads of resistance to whatever AoE spell you use most, throw a bunch of buffs and regens, and just let him ride out the storm.

Also try to time your spell right. For example, fireball has a knockdown effect, so use that to prevent mobs from moving out of the AoE range.

I want to make an Arcane Knight (I think that was the class name ) next. Stone armor, magic shield, Mindblast, and some other close range AoE spells can dish out a world of hurt. I wonder how well it would work.

And yes, non-party members do get XP. So don't worry if you get a regular group going, everyone will level along at the same rate.

*snip*

Thanks. I let Leliana take the skill and gave her a sweet bow. Then gave the rogues/warriors the fast aim bows. It works quite well when Shale runs in and tanks the hell out of everything, but it's still faster just for my rogue to backstab everyone to death. Very nice for dragons and several bosses though. The bosses that hit really hard in melee but has no ranged attacks. Have someone go in as a punching bag with a healer keeping him alive, then proceed to turn the boss into a beehive.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

If we're talking Dragon Age, can someone give me a hand? I'm stuck on the undead invasion of Redcliff. I get past the first part with the knights ok, but when they start coming in by the river and I have to aid the militia I always get my ass handed to me. Any tips?

 

[Slycne]

If we're talking Dragon Age, can someone give me a hand? I'm stuck on the undead invasion of Redcliff. I get past the first part with the knights ok, but when they start coming in by the river and I have to aid the militia I always get my ass handed to me. Any tips?

Other then the general tips of focus fire them down to thin the numbers quick, protect your mage/healers and such - there isn't too much to offer in the ways of tips. What party member do you have and which are you using? Anything you can use to crowd control will greatly help as well - traps, poisons, spells, etc.

Getting the named Elf and the Dwarf to help will also make the fight a little easier, but I was able to do it without the Dwarf.

Spoiler

Didn't have enough cash to bribe him into fighting and besides he drops a decent sword.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

If we're talking Dragon Age, can someone give me a hand? I'm stuck on the undead invasion of Redcliff. I get past the first part with the knights ok, but when they start coming in by the river and I have to aid the militia I always get my ass handed to me. Any tips?

Other then the general tips of focus fire them down to thin the numbers quick, protect your mage/healers and such - there isn't too much to offer in the ways of tips. What party member do you have and which are you using? Anything you can use to crowd control will greatly help as well - traps, poisons, spells, etc.

Getting the named Elf and the Dwarf to help will also make the fight a little easier, but I was able to do it without the Dwarf.

Spoiler

Didn't have enough cash to bribe him into fighting and besides he drops a decent sword.

What named elf & dwarf?
As for my party, my current active party consists of Myself (obviously), Morrigan, Holy Rouge Girl (I forget her name, L-something), and my malbari wardog whom I named Fang; with Alister on standby.

 

[scotth266]

I like the idea of these "collective advice" threads. Borderlands could have used one of these...

 

[Pingieking]

*snip*

There's an elf in the local tavern. You can get him to fight, along with the tavern owner. The dwarf guy is holed up in his own house; the militia leader tells you about that guy.

I actually found that part really easy. The first time I tried it I made the mistake of bringing Shale and letting him tank. The second time I tried it I brought Sten, myself (assassin rogue), Morrigan, and Leliana. Let the militias take all the agro and focus on bringing down as many undead as you can before the militia all die (hence the DPS focused party). Leliana and Morrigan will sit back and pick away at them, while Sten stands in the middle and swings his sword indiscriminately, and I backstab a lot of zombies. Also had Leliana and me chucking grenades (shock and fire bombs) at the undead. Don't use acid though, they're immune to that.

If you're high level enough, there's a tactic that I haven't tried but should work well. Use the NPCs as mob magnets, then drop a few AoE spells on the crowd. You have to focus on keeping a few alive, or bring Shale/warrior along in case your party needs to take over the punching-bag duty. The millitia part is a natural chokepoint, so AoE stuff is pretty effective there.

 

[Ambrose von Carstein]

An excellent game, the most fun I've had since NWN2, but I always get the feeling BioWare wanted to make a Warhammer Fantasy game, but didn't want to bother with the license. So they just changed the names, watered the grittiness down, took out the dark humor, and lo, Dragon Age.

 

[Pingieking]

Also if you're a mage focus on trees since the spells at the end are so much more powerful. And get at least one full tree in the entropy spells. Fuck me they are powerful. Sleep -> Walking Nightmare hello easy mode.

As for prestige classes, -most- of them are good. For mages, Arcane Warrior is a very solid choice. You can wear any armour, be competent in combat, and even off-tank if you need. Only downside is that you'll have high fatigue (+% cost on all spells) due to the armour, but it's incredibly powerful if built right. And if you're going this way, make sure to explore the caverns in the urn quest, there's a mage with a very nice sword (Spellweaver) that restores mana and what have you.

Sweet. I'm going to restart my mage sometime. I messed up her spell set quite a bit (she's lvl 13 now).

How do I unlock the Reaver spec? And how do I get the Blood Mage spec without having to make a deal with the deamon? Most importantly, how do I get the Duelist spec? I'm sitting here with a lvl 16 rogue waiting for the duelist spec to show up.

 

[Mr Fatherland]

I'm a bit worried, I'm fretting whether to be a dwarf or not. I mean, Dwarves rock, it's just...I don't want to be small.

 

[Woodsey]

It's not fair! I can't get this game until I get my new PC and I want it so much.....
Is it better than kotor?

Nothing is better than KotOR.

 

[Baby Tea]

To get Blood Mage, just agree to the deal and then reload your save. It's still unlocked.

I wonder if this is a Mass Effect-style of unlocking.
In case you don't know: In Mass Effect, if you get the achievement for a specific weapon (150 kills with an assault rifle) or skill (Use 'warp' 150 times), then the next time you make a character, you can pick 1 free skill from the list of those you've got the achievement for.

So with Dragon Age, do I just have to unlock a specialty once? And then any new Character I make can get the specialty without hassle?
That would be great.

 

[Baby Tea]

Yeah that's how it works. You can also pick up books for about 10g that have specializations, saves a bit of a headache. No idea about the pattern of selling though.

Oh that's awesome!
I'm quite excited about my new characters now! And I'm totally going buts and buy all those books!
Save me time later!

 

[Slycne]

Duelist seems to be okay, but I'm not sure what role a duelist is supposed to fill. Rogues are supposed to backstab. >:|

I'm actually running a Duelist style character as my main at the moment. With Dueling Stance, Momentum, Dual Striking, 2 full size weapons and a Str/Dex point distribution I'm pumping out consistently higher damage then what I was getting with backstabs and crits, and I don't have to baby sit the character to move him behind targets.

I'd be interested in seeing the comparison to a full Dex/Cunning built dagger Assassin. I had originally intended to build an Assassin, but I didn't give enough consideration to Cunning that you get with Lethality and Expose Weakness.

 

[Flamezdudes]

To get Blood Mage, just agree to the deal and then reload your save. It's still unlocked.

I wonder if this is a Mass Effect-style of unlocking.
In case you don't know: In Mass Effect, if you get the achievement for a specific weapon (150 kills with an assault rifle) or skill (Use 'warp' 150 times), then the next time you make a character, you can pick 1 free skill from the list of those you've got the achievement for.

So with Dragon Age, do I just have to unlock a specialty once? And then any new Character I make can get the specialty without hassle?
That would be great.

Yep, i'm on my second playthrough already and the ones i unlocked in my first are there so i don't have to go buy/search or persuade companions to help me get them...