Dragon Age: Origins

[JPhillips]

I didn't have that much trouble with Redcliffe. I kept trying to heal the townspeople as well as my party and that made it pretty simple.

The only battle I've lost so far was the troll in the signal tower during the darkspawn battle.

[TargetPractice6]

Maybe it depends on when you go to Redcliffe? It was my first stop after leaving Lothering so I didn't have too many abilities to play with yet. Also, how do you heal NPCs?

[dwardzala]

Originally Posted by TargetPractice6

Just finished the Redcliffe onsalught and I'm hard pressed to thing of an RPG battle that had me more on the edge of my seat. I'd already wiped once and it seemed like it was inevitable again, but with my mage down and only a few healing potions left I finally stemmed the tide. Loving this game.

How many "battles" are there with the walking corpses at Redcliffe? I got past the one at the top of the hill by the Windmill, but the one in front of the Chantry keeps kicking my ass. I think I used up too many healing potions in the first one. Is there more after that one or is the night of terror done. I am trying to decide if I need should keep banging my head against the wall or back track in my save games to get more healing.

[TargetPractice6]

The second onslaught (after you run down the hill) is the last one, but it goes on and on and on. When I wiped the first time it was because at some point I decided they were never going to stop and there must be some building or objective I had to get to, so I started running around looking for any escape.

For reference I had about 36 lesser health potions and 11 regular health potions to start. I didn't use any during the first skirmish at the windmill, but ended up with only 9 lesser potions and no regulars by the end of the second skirmish.

[dwardzala]

TP - thanks for the info.

I think I am way short of potions so I might have to revert to my camp save and change up my supplies. I bought a bunch of other stuff that was cool but not any healing.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by TargetPractice6

Maybe it depends on when you go to Redcliffe? It was my first stop after leaving Lothering so I didn't have too many abilities to play with yet. Also, how do you heal NPCs?

I do most of my healing with spells, so if you don't have healing spells you're in worse shape. Healing NPCs is simple with spells, click on the spell and click on the NPC. I don't think there's a way to use a poultice on an NPC.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Is there any way to turn on the health bars above all the characters permanently (rather than on mouse-over)? My seemingly only major complaint I've had with the game is how it is very difficult to keep track of my party's health. Or maybe this is just a problem for me...

[TargetPractice6]

I don't know about permanently, but hitting tab displays the health bars for all characters on screen.

[SportsDino]

I'm going to try roleplaying the game as a pure blackhearted dark mage and see how flexible the plot is. I've played a few origins to get a feel for the game, but haven't gone too deep since I've been sick.

I'll give my impressions after I make a play through (I tend to play under house rules, and it seems the unpatched difficulty is a bit hard ).

[Groundhog]

OK, I'm a little late to the party, but I picked this up on Saturday. I've spent about 10 hours on it so far, and I'm hooked. My only complaint is the load times... my god. Some of the scenes are so small, and it can take 2 minutes sometimes for me to load the next scene, which makes for some painful waiting at times.

I'm also finding myself getting wiped an awful lot. My standard party is me (warrior), Sten, Alistair, and Morrigan (mage). Sten is sorta my tank, but I don't know that he fits that role too well with his two-handed abilities, and Alistair is by far the weakest of my crew. I tend to control Morrigan and let my warriors fight it out, but I want to replace Alistair with a healer to stop Sten and myself getting hacked to pieces, hopefully I come across one soon.

[Eaglesfan27]

Is Sten a warrior? I've never used him but have him in my reserves. 3 warriors seems like a bad balance to me personally. I've been a fan of 1 warrior, 1 rogue, and 2 mages (one focused on damage and one on healing) and I've never wiped except for a part of the game where I was temporarily by myself.

Edit: If you want to know where a good healer is, look at the spoiler:

Spoiler

In the Mage's Tower

[Groundhog]

Yup, Sten's a warrior, high in strength, low in everything else. I have a rogue also, I think I might activate her over Alistair and seek out that healer you mention, because that's the big thing killing me right now... lack of healing potions. Thanks!

[SportsDino]

ya, without a healing ability it is pretty rough. I wipe a lot, but I like a challenge, and currently I'm rocking with:

Moridin: a nihilistic black mage to see how much this storyline can really be bent.

Game is pretty fun, but I think I've been spoiled by Bethesda and those wide open worlds.... I keep wanting to go on an exploring fit and feeling the world is not all that large, although the actual plot itself is much more significant.

My loadout is Alistair, Morrigan, Sten, and my dude Moridin. Hardly any healing at all, I get by on micromanaged mass destruction and crowd control, kill off targets quickly, use environment to funnel baddies, and wherever possible find ways to mutually support powers/abilities to manage a fight. A VERY active form of gameplay, I ride the pause button religiously. Not suggested for a first playthrough, and I'm not far enough to see how far you can get with no real healing strategy.

An evil style mage can really lay on the damage. Fire is a badass's best friend.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

Game is pretty fun, but I think I've been spoiled by Bethesda and those wide open worlds.... I keep wanting to go on an exploring fit and feeling the world is not all that large, although the actual plot itself is much more significant.

Definitely agreed. To be honest I'm a little dissapointed in how small the scenes are. One thing I loved about Baldur's Gate is that I could just say to hell with the storyline and go exploring if I got bored.

Having said that, the story line of this title is a hell of a lot stronger, but you're also very much forced into following it along.

An evil style mage can really lay on the damage. Fire is a badass's best friend.

I'm having a lot of fun using Morrigan. Definitely going a mage my next time around, and I think being evil would be a nice change too.

[Shepp]

Has anyone had any luck with fighting dragons? If so what level were you when you beat them? My party is about level 12 and I've had my @ss handed to me.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Shepp

Has anyone had any luck with fighting dragons? If so what level were you when you beat them? My party is about level 12 and I've had my @ss handed to me.

Spoiler

Are you in the werewolf city? That's where I just ran into my first dragon, and I eventually beat him on my third try (I'm 7th level), but it took a lot of work....I just had to use the pause button judiciously, and tried to use any skill that would stun/disable for a short time, as much as I could.

[Shepp]

Actually I've run into them in two other places. I don't want to give anything away but I was just curious if I was waisting my time to try and beat them until I got to a higher level.

In case you really want to know where I encountered them:

Spoiler

The first one I found was at the top of the mountain during the Sacred Ashes Quest and the second is when I went to kill Flemmeth for Morigan, she shape shifts into a dragon

[sabotai]

Fighting dragons takes a lot more tactical work than a normal fight. Use the pause a lot. And have a lot of health potions, especially if you don't have a healer in your party. And even if you do....

[Calis]

I actually had an easier time with the Dragons than I thought I would(the ones so far at least). I find that three Mages is the way to go if possible with them, or two mages and an archer. If you can have one melee guy pulling aggro it is easy to deal with AOE's and you can slap force fields on him to avoid damage all together.

Keep your party spread out at all costs and prepare to use a ton of health and mana potions.

I find the single powerful bosses a lot easier than the swarms of bad guys. I had more trouble with the end of the Elf portion than with those.

[Mustang]

Where can you pick up a rogue? Right now, I have Sten, Allistair, the bitch and myself (a mage). I'm continually having to bypass locked chests.

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Where can you pick up a rogue? Right now, I have Sten, Allistair, the bitch and myself (a mage). I'm continually having to bypass locked chests.

In the bar in Lothering you'll come across a rogue. I however cannot remember her name.

[Calis]

My memory is shot so I'm already forgetting, but to be vaguely spoilerish-

You will run across one rogue relatively quickly(before the game branches out to let you choose) and another after you finish one of the main sections.(I did Redcliff first so I'm not sure if it is tied to that or just the first major section you do)

There is a mod out there that gives the Mages an Unlock spell line, but I haven't tried it out yet.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Bearcat729

In the bar in Lothering you'll come across a rogue. I however cannot remember her name.

Her name is Leliana and she has been my main rogue the entire game. However, she still has trouble with some chests. What is more important for unlocking chests, Dexterity or Cunning?

[Shepp]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Her name is Leliana and she has been my main rogue the entire game. However, she still has trouble with some chests. What is more important for unlocking chests, Dexterity or Cunning?

Cunning is more important.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Shepp

Has anyone had any luck with fighting dragons? If so what level were you when you beat them? My party is about level 12 and I've had my @ss handed to me.

Use any spell that freezes. Keep your melee guys spaced so one is always attacking from behind. Use heal spells and poultices early. Use warmth balm to reduce fire damage. And make sure your party doesn't trip any traps as the dragon is awakening.

[Groundhog]

I was frustrated by that puzzle last night in the Sacred Ashes quest where you need to light up the pieces of the bridge, but I only tried for about 10 minutes.

The dragon at that zone completely kicked my ass though. I didn't even come CLOSE to taking 25% of its health away before it wiped me.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've gotten my ass kicked by every dragon I've faced. I'm just working on building up my party a bit more (all level 10-11 right now) before I try any of them again.

[Atocep]

Some help with the dragons. May be some spoiler info in there for those that haven't fought them yet.

Spoiler

You really have to micromanage the dragon fights. I move my tank forward first or into the spot where the one in the dwarven questline lands to make sure he's the one that gets hit first. Then I use the halt party button (not pause - the one that makes it to where your part will stand in place unless told to move) to hold him there as I position my party. The first few seconds are usually very dicey as you get settled in. Keep in mind, though, once you give the halt order you have to manually move them everywhere so I pause a lot to move the melee back into place if they get knocked back.

I usually have a 2 melee/2 caster setup so both casters are on a flank at range and the melee damage character is on the opposite flank. This limits how many people get breathed on in case it switches targets.

Fire resist for your tank is nearly a must. Physical resist for your melee is really good as well (helps prevent the knockbacks and knockdowns). There's at least 3 sets of gear stacked with fire resist along with some weapons, rings, necks that have it as well. Get your tank the best combination of fire resist/armor you can get him. Some on other characters is a bonus. Have tons of pots ready, mana and health. Use the elixers of warming also. The hexes that cause each normal hit by enemies to miss is nice and so is the one that causes all of your normal hits to crit. Bring a mage that can cast those if you have one. Wynne is a great to bring as well because of her heals.

[SportsDino]

Ya, I'd follow Atocep's plan about 90% of the time. I actually have this thing I call the 'Whirlwind of Pain' which is basically a detailed micromanaging process where I can kill a dragon without the traditional tank concept, but I'm basically optimized for damage and layered effects. Dragons are tough, so I'd suggest a traditional strategy for your first playthrough and optimize for it. My house rules for RPGs occaisonally lead to a mid or late game restart, but so far this team I assembled has movements of pure brilliance, so I'm glad I'm starting out the game role-playing rather than power-gaming.

The combat in this game is actually pretty fulfilling, you can standard hack and slash it, but there is actually quite a lot of room and power in the finesse game, so I feel that tactics and strategy are actually worth learning.

[kingnebwsu]

In case anyone cares, this game is super-cheap on Black Friday. I can't remember what store has it, but it's on super-sale tomorrow (it may even be online tonight).

[Atocep]

Finished the game last night. Satisfying ending and the boss fights are the most enjoyable I've ever experience in a RPG. Fallout 3 is the only game in recent memory that I've done multiple playthroughs on and I can already see myself making another character for this. I'll probably give the modding community some time to come up with some extra stuff first, though.

I'm having a hard time thinking of a RPG made in the past 10 years that tops this. The only games I could really compare this to are the first 2 fallout games and torment, but they were made in the 90s and I honestly think the only thing that would keep them ahead of Dragon Age is nostalgia. Witcher, Fallout 3 and Mass Effect are the most recent RPGs I've enjoyed and all are great games, but easily fall short of this IMO.

[Eaglesfan27]

Hmm, I'm thinking not all Dragons are created equal. The first dragon that kicked my butt, I couldn't even get 25% down. I eventually left that dragon alone and now in a different area, I just found my 2nd dragon and it went down surprisingly easy - I only used 3 potions and no one died.

[Calis]

Out of curiosity for those that have finished the game, I'm curious how much is left after you finish the last of the major branches in the plot?(Dwarves, Elves, Mages, Humans)

I've been taking my time going through this one, but am approaching the end of the Dwarven section which I did last and curious how much more I have to go(without being too spoilery, just a general idea).

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've gotten my ass kicked by every dragon I've faced. I'm just working on building up my party a bit more (all level 10-11 right now) before I try any of them again.

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Hmm, I'm thinking not all Dragons are created equal. The first dragon that kicked my butt, I couldn't even get 25% down. I eventually left that dragon alone and now in a different area, I just found my 2nd dragon and it went down surprisingly easy - I only used 3 potions and no one died.

So I take it that as of the first post you'd fought a grand total of one dragon???

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Axxon

So I take it that as of the first post you'd fought a grand total of one dragon???

Actually, I've faced 3, but one of them isn't a true dragon.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Calis

Out of curiosity for those that have finished the game, I'm curious how much is left after you finish the last of the major branches in the plot?(Dwarves, Elves, Mages, Humans)

I've been taking my time going through this one, but am approaching the end of the Dwarven section which I did last and curious how much more I have to go(without being too spoilery, just a general idea).

There's still a fair amount left. I'd estimate that when you finish the treaties that you're 2/3 to 3/4 complete depending on how many side quests you do.

[Neon_Chaos]

Hmmm.

I think I figured out what causes some of the memory leak slowdown... unfinished side quests.

edit: of course I could be completely wrong here...

[Honolulu_Blue]

I just started this up last week. I finally got around to playing "Fallout 3" and managed to finish it over the Thanksgiving holiday in large part to my bout with the swine flu. I really enjoyed "Fallout 3". It's a great game and a lot of fun. The only downside was that it got pretty easy at the end. There was very little in the way of a challenge. That said, wiping out the entire slaver town was one of the most satisfying things I've done in a game in a long, long time.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I just fired this game up and it's been a lot of fun so far. I am not too far into it, but it's great.

[Eaglesfan27]

I've been playing this in little bursts trying to make it last as long as possible for the first run through. I'm in the Gauntlet now and the bridge puzzle is annoying me. I've been working on it for an hour and I'm stuck. Anyone have any hints?

[MizzouCowboy]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've been playing this in little bursts trying to make it last as long as possible for the first run through. I'm in the Gauntlet now and the bridge puzzle is annoying me. I've been working on it for an hour and I'm stuck. Anyone have any hints?

Yeah this was frustrating, I thought I had to get the entire bridge built and took forever trying to do it.

What I finally did was take notes on what and where my party members had to be in order to move my guy across the bridge. I separated the sides of the bridge to left and right and numbered the squares 1-6. When I found the correct combination to light up two squares I would write it down, then move a guy to a different slot that lit up the next squares, while moving one party member across the bridge.

I should still have the sequence somewhere if you want me to post it, although I'm not sure how to put it in a spoiler tag.



...and go Cowboys

[gstelmack]

You use {spoiler} text {/spoiler}, except use square brackers instead of curly braces.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by MizzouCowboy

Spoiler

Yeah this was frustrating, I thought I had to get the entire bridge built and took forever trying to do it.

What I finally did was take notes on what and where my party members had to be in order to move my guy across the bridge. I separated the sides of the bridge to left and right and numbered the squares 1-6. When I found the correct combination to light up two squares I would write it down, then move a guy to a different slot that lit up the next squares, while moving one party member across the bridge.

I should still have the sequence somewhere if you want me to post it, although I'm not sure how to put it in a spoiler tag.

...and go Cowboys

Spoiler

Yeah, I've written down what each side lights up as well, but I hadn't tried to move a guy across the partial bridge. That is the clue I needed and I'm kicking myself for not trying to do that sooner. Thanks!

To put something in spoilers you use a left bracket, type spoiler, and then a right bracket. Then, type the text you want. After the text is done you do the same thing but with a backslash just inside the left bracket. In fact, I'm going to put my answer above in the spoiler flag just in case it gives anyone a clue they didn't want.

Also while I appreciate your help, I hope the Cowboys lose every game the rest of the year

Go Eagles!

[thesloppy]

This game just didn't take for me, and left me bored. Somewhere in there I ran out of healing potions in the Dalish woods, there were none left in the shops, or in camp, and I was all out of the appropriate herbs, so I'd have to spend some time an deffort tracking 'em down somewhere else and that minor niggle has been enough of a final straw to keep me from having any interest in firing up the game again.

[JPhillips]

If you want to continue, the Dalish merchant has unlimited elfroot and you can get unlimited flasks from the merchant in your camp.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm still loving this game and stand by my comments that it is Game of the Year for me. As soon as I finish it with my elf mage, I'm looking forward to trying the game with a black-hearted Dwarf fighter.

[EagleFan]

Finally decided to try the game. So far it's just like every other RPG game I have ever seen and there has been nothing yet to hook me. Hopefully it gets better.

Oh, and..... Touchdown Eagles!!!!!

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

Better than Modern Warfare 2?

Dunno if ef27 has played both, but I have and I think Dragon Age is a lot better than MW2. But I usually prefer RPGs to most other genres.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

If you want to continue, the Dalish merchant has unlimited elfroot and you can get unlimited flasks from the merchant in your camp.

Thanks!

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

Better than Modern Warfare 2?

I don't like most shooters and have not played Modern Warfare 2. I have played most of the other contenders this year. Like Sabotai, RPG's are generally my preferred genre.

[EagleFan]

So far I would give the GoY nod to Uncharted 2 over this game, hands down so far to be honest... unless this game gets dramatically better soon.