Dragon Age: Origins

[Broker]

Seriously? Out of how many NPC's? That's terrible.

Where's the Circle tower? Where I got Wynn?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

There are maybe 10 different companions to get, of which you've missed two. And yes, the Circle Tower is where Wynne was. And I think the mage thing is mostly one of balance, because even having two mages in a party makes the game ridiculously easy.

[Broker]

So back to the magic tower for the two handed sword, which will be fine as my character is a warrior who specialises in two handed weapons. Is the quest long?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

You'll need to go through most of the floors and keep an eye out for stuff to examine. You know about highlighting all interactable objects right? It's tab on PC, think it's a trigger on console.

[Broker]

Watchguard of Reaching? I bet I've already activated it, I usually check everything

[Teeohbee.]

You may well have done, once activated you have to go back to one of the early levels of the mages tower, which you might miss if you head on up to complete the main quest, then get warped back down.

[Frosty]

My strategy for the High Dragon (on Nightmare) was my PC (Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage) and Alistair suited up in massive plate with shimmering shield/lots of fire resist items for Alistair and just wailing on it (paralyze runes were helpful to stop it from jumping about) up close while Wynne was set up for mass healing and Morrigan hitting it with the various hexes (Death Hex is fucking brutal) and the occasional winter's grasp for some extra damage. I set everyone to use a lesser health poultice whenever their heath dropped below 75% and the mages to use a lyrium potion whenever their mana got below 25% and knocked up a hundred or so of each (didn't use them all but it was a handy backup to have). The fight didn't last very long - mages are seriously overpowered - though I did have to manually move Wynne and Morrigan occasionally to stop them from getting swiped at.

protip:

make sure you have already commissioned one of the drakeskin suits and PAID FOR IT, doesn't matter which one you pay for as long as you do, if you don't do this you'll miss out on the superior plate, you might also want to buy all the unique armour Wade has because eventually the git will stop serving you.

[sprite]

This.

Worth modding for this:

And the pantene model works, I reckon:

90% of the other character mods are shit though

I just don't buy how Morrigan could've got her hair highlighted living in a swamp.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

A wizard Witch of the Wilds did it - Flemeth is really Nicky Clarke.

[sprite]

How bout the eyeshadow? I suppose that's mud.

[spaceyjase]

I found the lack of body hair slightly more perplexing. But like Ulala said, I'm sure Janeway fixed it for her.

[Mr Peckerston]

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask, but does anyone know roughly how long this game takes to complete? A friend just gave this to me as a late xmas present but I have next to no free time at the moment, and it looks like one of those games where I'll forget what I'm doing if I stop playing halfway through.

[spaceyjase]

You can't forget as there are handy hints during the load screen and a nice little quest log to point you in the right direction. Time to complete? As long as it takes you, really.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Anything from 30 - 70 hours.

[sprite]

Whilst you may not forget what you're meant to be doing, I think it's definitely the sort of game where if you have a prolonged period of time away from it, you try coming back and lose all your investment in the story and the characters. Sort of make you want to just start from scratch, kinda thing.

[ElNino]

I finally got the 'Heavy Hitter' achivement last night.

Only 7 left to go.

Why did I decide to max out this game, I've got Assasins Creed sitting waiting to be played.

[Teeohbee.]

You have to be in the right mood to play this game don't you?

I played for about 2 hours last night and felt like I achieved nothing. I arrived in Denerim and was overwhelmed by new quests, and people to talk to etc. and sometimes I get bored of talking to people.

Also annoyed that my Leilana seems to have glitched up. In camp it provides me with no options when I talk to her, no mention of her backstory or personal mission etc, despite her approval being really high.

I've been forced to seek refuge in Morrigans tent.

[Broker]

I played for about 2 hours last night and felt like I achieved nothing. I arrived in Denerim and was overwhelmed by new quests, and people to talk to etc. and sometimes I get bored of talking to people.

Also annoyed that my Leilana seems to have glitched up. In camp it provides me with no options when I talk to her, no mention of her backstory or personal mission etc, despite her approval being really high.

I felt a bit like that (went to Denerim for the first time last night). I got into it a bit more after that though, just following the main quest at the moment and doing side stuff if it sounds exciting or it comes up and shoves itself in my face.

Where do you recruit Leilana? I've found barely any NPC's, I'm genuinely thinking of using a guide to choose a party then starting again and grabbing them early.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Leliana is completely unmissable if you do anything in Lothering other than rush right through the village.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Leliana - the Lothering Inn

Sten - speak to the Blessed Mother in the Lothering Chantry

Precious - be a human warrior/rogue or do the Sick Mabari quest in Ostegar

[Broker]

What class is Precious?

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Kickass class. The console version throws in a few warrior skills as well.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Precious.

[Broker]

Another warrior? Are there no NPC archer's?

[Teeohbee.]

Leilana

[minkee]

I didn't think I would, but I'm really getting the urge to play through this again. And especially to get exactly all the outcomes I want this time. Often I get too overwhelming a feeling of 'I've done this before' - especially because I tend to do absolutely every side quest I possibly can first time round - when I try to play games through a second time. I guess my main problem on a second playthrough is that I'd really want my party to be almost the same, with leliana and morrigan, and POSSIBLY swapping Alistair for my wonderful dog. I suppose I should really branch out a bit more, and play with some of those boys. Stupid boys.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Chuck Sten into that party with Leliana at least, you won't regret it. Their talks are wonderful.

Another warrior? Are there no NPC archer's?

'Precious' isn't a warrior but the console versions didn't seem able to deal with the specific upgrade path and so gave it the warrior class talents (Bravery, Precise Striking, those lines) so that there were more talents for each level-up. So that it wasn't broken.

[minkee]

maybe i could drop morrigan this time round, even though i do love her, and go hardcore no mage style.

and i was thinking about making a rough tough 2h sword warrior type. i'd actually almost prefer it if i could just take the npcs along and remove me from the party

[minkee]

also, rudi, i've been wondering for a while:

are there any games you don't actually play?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Loads, including pretty much all console exclusives now that I don't have access to a 360 or a PS3. You must just be reading the threads that I'm posting in!