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Dragon Age: Origins


Arcana
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Beat it on easy a couple of days ago, replaying on normal now. There's definately an extreme difficulty curve between the two on the PC version. Lots of more pausing than usual for positioning and stuff, and I still need to chug potions like crazy. Just managed to beat the Redcliffe undead attack, and all the NPCs except the knights died.

I recommend you get this mod:

http://social.bioware.com/project/469/

It allows you to respec yourself or any of your party members. Just run daupdater.exe and load the .dazip to install it.

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Bought this game yesterday, and I'm quite enjoying it. The game world and characters are all done quite well and make for an involving experience. My main issue is with the Class/Race/Combat/Magic systems. It all feels extremely simplified and 'console'-like compared to the infinity-based RPGs (Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment). Combat right now feels mostly to me as "Sit back and quaff a health/mana potion whenever needed and also maybe position my mage so that cone of cold hits as many enemies without hitting allies"

I understand this is done to appeal to a broader audience, but I'll still miss being able to multiclass my half-orc into a fighter/mage/thief and nerding out with mass instant-death spells, contingency spells and spell sequencers. RPG's will never be like that again I guess :(

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Alot of the combat in the game has felt that way, but not the bigger fights. I just fought the six-tits demon in the Deep Roads, and that might just have been the hardest fight I've seen. It wouldn't leave my casters alone.

I think my game is sort of bugged though. I installed the addons after I'd started a save, that might have to do with it: The "free items" show up in my inventory, but I don't get the map markers for places like Warden's Keep and wherever the Golem is, even though I talked to the quest givers. I guess I'll start over later on, and see if that helps.

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i understand this is done to appeal to a broader audience, but i'll still miss being able to multiclass my half-orc into a fighter/mage/thief and nerding out with mass instant-death spells, contingency spells and spell sequencers.

What?

HALF-ORCS CANNOT BE MAGES.

YOU ARE EITHER A LIAR OR A CHEATER SIR.

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Bought this game yesterday, and I'm quite enjoying it. The game world and characters are all done quite well and make for an involving experience. My main issue is with the Class/Race/Combat/Magic systems. It all feels extremely simplified and 'console'-like compared to the infinity-based RPGs (Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment). Combat right now feels mostly to me as "Sit back and quaff a health/mana potion whenever needed and also maybe position my mage so that cone of cold hits as many enemies without hitting allies"

I understand this is done to appeal to a broader audience, but I'll still miss being able to multiclass my half-orc into a fighter/mage/thief and nerding out with mass instant-death spells, contingency spells and spell sequencers. RPG's will never be like that again I guess :(

That's why there's two difficulties above Normal and specializations. While it still may not be as deep as previously mentioned half-orc system there's a LOT of variation and tactics avaliable to you.

also, WELOME TO THE DARK SIDE

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Also, the 'dying' and getting up after a battle is such a pussy way of handling it, along with the super-fast mana/health regen outside of battles. Back in my day we had permadeaths and we had to find spots to rest to recover health!

You won't feel true pain until you've had to leave your petrified party member behind because you had no scrolls of Stone to Flesh left, effectively permanently removing him from the game.

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You won't feel true pain until you've had to leave your petrified party member behind because you had no scrolls of Stone to Flesh left, effectively permanently removing him from the game.

Seriously. Used to be that I'd consider it a personal failure on my part if I couldn't get everyone in the party through a battle alive, and I'd reload and do it again no matter how far back it would take me or how decisively I would otherwise have won.

Now it's just "Eh, they'll be up again in a sec."

AND I'LL TELL YOU ANOTHER THING. We used to have to deal with HORDES of enemies that had a whole arsenal of bullshit instant death attacks that would end a battle (and the whole game) prematurely just because your main character failed one measly saving throw.

AND WE LIKED IT.

OK, we didn't really. But we still struggled through it, damn it.

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Finished the game yesterday btw. Already started a new character :D I'm gonna be a real asshole Elven Mage, slept with Morrigan just when I got out of Lothering.. such a pimp. I didn't get the stupid bisexual elf last time, I realize now that I killed him in my last save but now I'm making him (and blood magic) my top priority this playthrough.

Being evil is fun :3

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Also, the 'dying' and getting up after a battle is such a pussy way of handling it, along with the super-fast mana/health regen outside of battles. Back in my day we had permadeaths and we had to find spots to rest to recover health!

You won't feel true pain until you've had to leave your petrified party member behind because you had no scrolls of Stone to Flesh left, effectively permanently removing him from the game.

I wince whenever someone dies, because it's going to cost me 21.50 silver to remove the injury. It's a paltry cost overall though, but still makes me sigh. Making the injury recovery kits from scratch actually costs almost the same amount, if not more (depending on who your vendor is). It's also quite possible to run out of injury kits. I'm personally glad that this game isn't that hardcore.

Later on, the game gets much harder even on Normal. I did Redcliffe as my first event at Level 7ish. That was a TOUGH event. I had a really hard time. On another character, I went to Denerim at Level 8 and then tried to clear out the Deserted House. That took me 3 hours to do, with a lot of it involving saving-reloading.

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OK, so I just got the game and I've reached the first Ogre.

I was able to defeat it fairly soundly by kiting it to death, but you know what? I'm not going to accept that as a legitimate victory, god damn it. That's a cheap MMORPG bastard solution. If I can't find another way to beat this thing, I'm putting this game in the incinerator, because I refuse to play anything that encourages such bullshit "tactics".

EDIT: Also, I find it very odd that, with people's unblemished complexions and toned physiques and perfectly aligned facial features, they still saw fit to give everyone realistically brown teeth.

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That fight isn't meant to be hard or anything.

Yeah, it isn't hard if I kite it. But if I try to fight it any other way it just resists everything that isn't a plain attack and smashes everyone to pieces in seconds.

Not to mention the fact that I practically have to kite it, because it insists on attacking my mage and only my mage, and so I'm pretty much stuck running around like an idiot because standing my ground would be suicide.

Also, I don't get why kiting is bullshit tactics?

Because it doesn't make any friggin' sense. If there are four viable targets in a room, you're not going to just focus on one to the exclusion of all others and fruitlessly chase it in circles whilst the other three slowly and laboriously shoot you to death. Not to mention the fact that there's no reason why you should only be able to attack while standing still.

It's not so much a "strategy" as it is abusing the limitations of the game system, and it's pretty devastating to the immersion. It's also not fun.

Of course it'd be ridiculous to expect anyone to program a flawless AI that can adapt to anything, but I don't think it's ridiculous to expect them to balance the combat so that the player can win without resorting to cheap exploits.

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True bullshit tactics are when you cast all your AoE damage over time-spells before initiating conversations with plot bosses (cyclone, blizzard, inferno they're called iirc) so they immediately start taking damage once you start the battle.

Also Cone of Cold is hilarious (that's how I did the ogre fight by the way) in that it freezes EVERYTHING, from ogres to High Dragons. I've rarely seen it get resisted.

I thought the Redcliffe defense/battle was bullshit so when I reloaded I just promised the guy I'd help with the defense and then I went for a stroll and some sidequesting so I came back to a genocided village. Apart from a few conversations ("I'm a grey warden, I have more important matters to attend to") it seemed it literally did NOT make a difference for the quest at all, except you get to fight the villagers' corpses in the castle as well (which is easy anyway). I still struck a deal with the demon to teach me blood magic. :<

After killing Wynne because I'm playing an evil bitch, I decided to respec Morrigan as a Spirit Healer and all the battles have become ridiculously easy. My player hero tanks retarded amounts of damage as an Arcane Warrior with the full Juggernaut armor and the healing/CC from Morrigan while Leliana deals some sick DPS (Arrow of Slaying hitting for 250), and Sten...just sort of hangs around and dies a lot.

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This annoyed me to no end so I booted him and got Oghren. For some reason he doesn't die as much. Zevran on the other hand... damn close quarters rogue..

Oghren is basically made out of paper compared to my Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage. He does hit pretty hard and his banter is better than Sten's so I'll keep using him. The best part of my main heroes Class combo is that I use Leliana (who's a Duelist/Ranger in my current game) to summon bears that I can use to fill up my health with the second blood mage skill.

Turning on Blood Magic also allows you to cast all the mana hungry spells while having all the defensive upkeep spells of the Arcane Warrior up because the upkeep will still be taken from your mana pool even with Blood Magic turned on. I have literally not died a single time with my main hero since I got Arcane Warrior and at this point I'm pretty sure I could solo the entire game with her.

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True bullshit tactics are when you cast all your AoE damage over time-spells before initiating conversations with plot bosses (cyclone, blizzard, inferno they're called iirc) so they immediately start taking damage once you start the battle.

Also Cone of Cold is hilarious (that's how I did the ogre fight by the way) in that it freezes EVERYTHING, from ogres to High Dragons. I've rarely seen it get resisted.

Not exactly bullshit, but I'm having a lot of fun with Earthquake -> Inferno -> wait for Earthquake to start to wear off -> Fireball. I've had fights where none of the enemies get to attack because they're too busy falling down and burning.

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Oghren is basically made out of paper compared to my Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage. He does hit pretty hard and his banter is better than Sten's so I'll keep using him. The best part of my main heroes Class combo is that I use Leliana (who's a Duelist/Ranger in my current game) to summon bears that I can use to fill up my health with the second blood mage skill.

Turning on Blood Magic also allows you to cast all the mana hungry spells while having all the defensive upkeep spells of the Arcane Warrior up because the upkeep will still be taken from your mana pool even with Blood Magic turned on. I have literally not died a single time with my main hero since I got Arcane Warrior and at this point I'm pretty sure I could solo the entire game with her.

What sustainables do you use (Morrigan's support included)?

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