Dragon Age

[The Despondent Mind]

If Alistair is "Hardened" he'll still marry Anora and become King even if you spare Loghain. If he isn't hardened, Anora will push to have Alistair executed, which you can then allow, or push to have him simply exiled instead. To "Harden" him, do his personal quest in Denerim where you visit his half-sister. After it's over, give him the harsh response, it's something like "You can't rely on anyone but yourself" or something, you'll know which one it is. After that I think he'll approach you in camp, and you should again give the harsh answer. If you've already done that quest and not given those responses, you cannot harden him, and it's then impossible for your desired ending to happen.

Thanks for help
So it's not possible to harden him with talk about Duncan ?

 

[Musthavename]

The only way to Harden him is through the quest regarding his Half-Sister. Nothing else you say to him matters in this regard.

 

[Lysimachus]

goddamnit, I just did Leliana then talked to Alistair and he made me decide between the two of them

why cant i have them both

this was meant to be my check if leliana was bisexual playthrough but I think i'll play it all the way to the end anyway

 

[blank]

The only way to Harden him is through the quest regarding his Half-Sister. Nothing else you say to him matters in this regard.

Just finished the Landsmeet again and it reminded me of what a whiny little sissy he is.

 

[Vic Vega]

Just finished the Landsmeet again and it reminded me of what a whiny little sissy he is.

If Duncan is alive and at the landsmeet, Alistair is probably gonna get stabbed like Jory for ditching the Grey Wardens


I believe Alistair had to be kept alive as he was the last of the Theurin line

 

[Musthavename]

Just finished the Landsmeet again and it reminded me of what a whiny little sissy he is.

It's quite funny if you choose to have him killed. Seriously, during my "Evil as Possible" playthrough everything about him was just so funny.

 

[Beregond]

Don't know about you, guys, but after completing DA2 I had a kind of nostalgia feeling and started the third playthrough in DAO

daaaamn, this is so cool. You can really roleplay the character, not follow some stupid cliche Hawke. And I can play as elf and dwarf! after DA2 it seems like a big deal indeed. Not to mention that I was glad to come back to origins' cobat system and that I managed to install English-voiced game, instead of having Russian localisation (now I can understand why Alistair is so irritating to many )

Started a Dalish female dual-weapon warrior. Like it much more than my previous tanks, and playing the Dalish is fun, so many dialogue options to show shemlens who they are; makes me wish Bioware give us back the ability to choose the character

Here's my Lyna, always in Elven garments

Spoiler

 

[Lysimachus]

I hate how the Ancient Elven chestpiece and the Diligence chestpiece retard a female character's tits. I mean I hardly spend my time ogling (i'm quite obsessed with the massive armour pieces rather than chainmail) but I hated when I wanted to equip it and it would just look horrific to the point that I refuse to use them.

As fun as DA:O was as well, I find the lack of voice acting sucks. I mean, there were some moments in the game that would have enraged or shocked your character but they would just remained silent (Bhelen double-crossing you in the Deep Roads or Bryce Cousland dying) which kinda takes away from it, whereas with my Hawke I found it really cool when I cleared the Killer's Lair with Gascard, met him in Darktown afterwards and my guy was all like "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT" in a really pissed off voice.

 

[PGeo36]

Knowing Bioware, a voiced main character would say something completely opposite of what the dialogue option was.

 

[Stavroforos]

Haha yeah I never got that...

 

[Musthavename]

I started replaying DA:O on and off also. Ran a Dalish guy. I've done all the sidequests bar Sacred Ashes right now. Made sure to strap on some mods this time. Namely party storage chest, respec mod, improved atmosphere, improved tactics.

It really brings home what an inferior game DA:2 was. All the environments outside of random encounters or Denerim are unique (even if skins are similar, but the maps are all different). Combat feels much better (really shows how much faster DA2 combat is), and I feel far more in control of whom my character really is. Infact I much prefer not having a voiced character.

 

[Beregond]

I especially like the small details in DAO, of which there are far less in DA2. For example various codex entries, that add to the atmospere. I was ABSOLUTELY certain there would be some ancient carvings in that old Dwarven thaig in DA2, but nothing. boring statues and lyrium. On the other hand, the Deep Roads in DAO are full of bits and pieces that add to the atmosphere of dwarven kingdoms desperately fighting for survival.

Plus the enemies in Origins are far interesting. I almost forgot how dangerous mages are, they can cast many things other than force bubbles and teleports that contradict the lore. Payed for it several times

 

[Razvus]

I haven't read a single bit of codex entry in DA2 because the style is horribad and boring. Dull-gold on a black background. yea.

 

[Stavroforos]

Eh I don't know about that, but I found the journal and quest layout to be a huge improvement.

 

[Razvus]

Don't know man, I always found the blood on the journal as more personal and subtle(lol).

but if you're talking about the system of keeping track of quests and codex entries then sure. It's better than clicking on the page numbers from the DAO codex, but the artstyle thing was a lot better.

 

[Stavroforos]

Yeah I meant the system. I agree its presentation could have been nicer though.

 

[Musthavename]

Plus the enemies in Origins are far interesting. I almost forgot how dangerous mages are, they can cast many things other than force bubbles and teleports that contradict the lore. Payed for it several times

The one mage fight I always remember was a sidequest one. You're contracted to kill 4 Maleficar in a forest. Except, you have to talk to them before you kill them, meaning your party starts the fight bunched up. If those mages get off a Cone of Cold before you get off your spell, you're dead.

 

[Knight of Heaven]

The one mage fight I always remember was a sidequest one. You're contracted to kill 4 Maleficar in a forest. Except, you have to talk to them before you kill them, meaning your party starts the fight bunched up. If those mages get off a Cone of Cold before you get off your spell, you're dead.

You can dodge that, normaly i use blood wound on then so they cant do anything... i use morrigan for blood magic.

 

[Lysimachus]

The one mage fight I always remember was a sidequest one. You're contracted to kill 4 Maleficar in a forest. Except, you have to talk to them before you kill them, meaning your party starts the fight bunched up. If those mages get off a Cone of Cold before you get off your spell, you're dead.

I think the most hellish fights were against the Revenants. Rather than the complete jokes in DA2 (or the Aviergan Scrolls missions which are just trash mobs, lieutenants and the big boss guys) those guys were just a pain to fight. I remember going in to the Circle Tower as the first part of the game to complete with me (S&S warrior), Alistair, Leliana and Wynne, and Leliana would always drop first from Double Strike and then i'd always lose Wynne if I didn't keep her out of range. Then it was just a case of making sure I have enough mana and lyrium potions for healing spells and poultices for my character and Alistair to heal themselves.

As much as I enjoy DA2, the combat in it is just cheap. The balancing sucks, as it's simply low HP and massive damage output (player) countered by low damage output and massive HP (AI). Hell they don't even use the same spells as you (enemy mages: AOE spell, bolt, teleport, forcefield / enemy rogues: deadly backstab, nature damage inflicting backstab, stealth and backflip stealth [which by the way knocks you over because the talent is actually directed on to one of your characters which is what I found out by testing out the AI talents, therefore making it impossible to deflect] / enemy commanders: buff, stun, AOE) which just makes it feel false. I just hate having to fight huge mobs for absolutely no reason whereas in DA:O it really felt like there was some semblance of a reason behind each battle (the undead corpses in Redcliffe or the Circle Tower are obviously no friend of yours, but they're not overused, the gangs in Denerim will obviously target you, more so when you kill some of their buddies in one of the other alleys, or getting caught stealing in Denerim causes an absolute -ton of city guards to go after you, among others). That was probably made easier as the Darkspawn were the main enemy, but even against humanoids I felt each battle made perfect sense rather than the "oh look, I bumped in to 30 thugs who'll just hunt me down even though I did nothing", which is made worse since i've got the no gibbing and no disappearing body mods installed which makes it impossible to suspend my sheer disbelief when i've turned a Lowtown street in to a complete graveyard full of corpses within 20 seconds or so.

I know i'm rambling, but battles felt so much more convincing when you and the enemy were on equal footing since you had exactly the same choice of spells (though obviously the enemy would have had a few less, or creatures/demons had a different set), animations and similar HP levels (Lieutenants having slightly more and bosses having a bit more from that) where rather than giving bosses tens of thousands of HP and high elemental resistances/immunities, despite all of those being increased they focused more on increasing their actual damage output; the sheer hell i've had trying to slay Flemeth because of her deadly attacks made the fight more fun rather than the high dragon at the bone pit which involves whacking it with a warrior to draw attention and three ranged characters to hit it from a distance, equipping your characters with fire resistance runes and at certain phases just dealing with the huge trash mobs of dragons and dragonlings which just spawn out of thin air (GRAAAGHHH I HATE THAT) and then going back to whacking the high dragon with everything you've got (making it brittle then using a fully upgraded assassinate does nicely too if you're a dual-wielding rogue).

You would have thought too considering all the money the player ends up getting, like all the other guys you meet in the game you'd at least be able to hire a bit of muscle to protect you and deal with the annoying mobs when travelling during Kirkwall nights.

Ehhh ... Dragon Age 2 was a game with so much untapped potential because of its short development cycle, and as much as I detest the concept of it, Kirkwall could have made for a good setting in a multiplayer game where players can become mages or templars (perhaps travelling under the gallows to root out the mage underground, or as a mage to bust friends out of the gallows), or maybe even part of the Carta, Coterie, Kirkwall Guard, mercenaries or smugglers trying to achieve their own ends to get a monopoly on the trade going through Kirkwall, or perhaps to desperately maintain order in the city (guard). Then again, I do love Bioware's stories so maybe they should just stick to single-player.

 

[Beregond]

Anybody know a good way to develop 2handers? I tried to keep Sten in the party to listen to his dialogues outside the camp, but he seriously is a little...weak? I put all into strengths and then into constitution as well, but he is awfully slow and deals zero damage compared to my dual weapon Warden.
And this considering I roleplay a Dalish Elf that kinda cares about their heritage, so she's running in Elven armour (though terribly outdated) and still with that old Green blade from Redcliffe. In the statistics she deals 46-49% of party damage...I find it the most awesome class

I read somewhere that speed spell is useful for 2handers, but I didn't notice that much improvement, and on hard this kinda lets you down

 

[blank]

Anybody know a good way to develop 2handers? I tried to keep Sten in the party to listen to his dialogues outside the camp, but he seriously is a little...weak? I put all into strengths and then into constitution as well, but he is awfully slow and deals zero damage compared to my dual weapon Warden.
And this considering I roleplay a Dalish Elf that kinda cares about their heritage, so she's running in Elven armour (though terribly outdated) and still with that old Green blade from Redcliffe. In the statistics she deals 46-49% of party damage...I find it the most awesome class

I read somewhere that speed spell is useful for 2handers, but I didn't notice that much improvement, and on hard this kinda lets you down

2handers in DAO rely on activated abilities a lot. Also, you should make them Berserkers if you haven't yet.

 

[Musthavename]

Two-handers in Origins need a LOT of micromanagement to become competent. The trick is in timing the abilities right to maximise your swing rate. They REALLY benefit from having Haste also. Though if you have a Momentum Rogue Haste will break their attack speed. As far as damage output goes a DW-Warrior is vastly superior. My playthrough as one did comparable damage to a DW Rogue, using Berserk to compensate for lack of backstabs, but he served as party tank so the rest of my party did a lot more damage.

Honestly, the only playthrough i've even used Sten in was my last one. And that's because I used a mod to respec him into a Sword+Shield guy.

 

[PGeo36]

Not wasting point in Con might help you a bit, I typically put points in Str first then Willpwr, then dex.

 

[Lysimachus]

do any of you guys know a fix to the bug where equipping massive gloves on a female elf character breaks all of their hand-related animations?

 

[Ahlerich]

ok i just got the game + awakening add on
now i want to know if awakening happens before or after the main game. is the story in a chronological order and awakening happens after the beating of the main game or is awakening a flash back that plays before the main game storywise?

or are they completely independent storywise? pls no hints on the acual story. just a tip where to start if i want to play them in chronological order

 

[Jagdpanzer]

ok i just got the game + awakening add on
now i want to know if awakening happens before or after the main game. is the story in a chronological order and awakening happens after the beating of the main game or is awakening a flash back that plays before the main game storywise?

or are they completely independent storywise? pls no hints on the acual story. just a tip where to start if i want to play them in chronological order

Awakening happens after the main game. Play the main game first and then awakenings. It's not a flashback.

 

[Tankfriend]

Awakening happens after the main game. Play the main game first and then awakenings. It's not a flashback.

This. You can actually import your savegames from DA:O into Awakening and continue the story with the same player character.

 

[Ahlerich]

cool, will do. yey long weekend comming

 

[eregost]

If you got the DLC as well, then you should play them in this order in order to avoid possible bugs when transferring to DA2: Origins > Awakening > Golems of Amgarrak > Witch Hunt. Also be sure to patch Witch Hunt! Leliana's Song and Darkspawn Chronicles are standalone with set player characters but should not be played before Origins as they contain spoilers.

 

[Slaytaninc]

If only I was better at picking skills for my Shield and Sword character.

I need to continue this game again.