Current Events > I think I might play through Dragon Age: Origins again (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Man, I went from princess with the world on a string, to a casteless Grey Warden who doesn't even have shoes. Now that I think about it, though, I might've done this origin story before. For a moment, I even had that thought of "maybe Bhelen isn't so bad and it's really his brother who was evil! He was doing it in self-defense, yeah!!", but naw, he's just a straight-up douchebagger. He even paid off those two lackey scouts, including the mofo I gave a free helmet to. I hope I get to kill 'em later, haha.

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Did you not do any of the other dlc? Golems, etc?

They're kinda fun.

Might do the ones I skipped with my rogue imported. Well, I'm not that interested in Darkspawn Chronicles, but whatever ones are left, perhaps.

Vokrent posted...

Did you not do any of the other dlc? Golems, etc?

They're kinda fun.

Golems is like the opposite of fun, tbh

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Golems is like the opposite of fun, tbh

okay yeah, that's fair.

but the other one with the focus on Morrigan was fun.

I love Shale, but the inability to equip normal equipment made her tanking lag behind the others. Perhaps I should've just used her as a beatdown machine instead. Either way, I might go through the Golems DLC later.

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Golem of amgerrak isn't related to Shale as far as I know.

I was just musing about my other golem.

As for the order I'm doing this time, I went from Lothering to Denerim, then to Soldier's Peak (when I found I couldn't snatch victory that well for some of these random fights). After beating that DLC, I went to the Dalish to see if I could finish things with maxed-out Coercion. I think I still have to fight the elf guy, but once you take care of the trees, maybe it won't be as hard.

The idea of fighting a revenant with my current party would turn my hair bone white, though.

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Once I do the forest crap, I might go back to Orzammar. I already found my old buddy who's settled down in Denerim with a real "arrow in the knee" sort of injury. No more fighting for he.

Vokrent posted...

Golem of amgerrak isn't related to Shale as far as I know.

it's completely unrelated to everything aside from namedropping Branka as "Even Branka thought this shit was whack yo"

FInished the Dalish crap and went to Orzammar, mostly because it's so involving, I knew I could get a ton of XP. My scout actually feels a bit weak, maybe because I'm going longsword/dagger instead of dagger/dagger, but I've still gotten through the Proving (somehow) and it's onto Jartia's base. I like how they give the option for my betrayed princess to follow the pro-Bhelen route, although I'd have to be a Stone-forsaken fool to do that. Maybe if I was playing an evil opportunist/coward route or something.

Right now I'm using Alistair as a tank, Leliana as her bard hybrid, and Morrigan as healer. Once I get Spirit Healer, Morrigan will keep us alive a bit easier (already got some smart AoEs like Sleep that have been clutch).

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Alright, killed Jartia pretty easily. Last time through the tunnels, I spammed AoE magic I could cast through the walls, but this time, I'm using my pets to lure stragglers back to my beatdown squad. Didn't work as well with Jartia, but after using 80% of my potions, it somehow worked in my favor. Pets are good for triggering traps/ambushes, too, haha.

There's a caved-in tunnel in the Aeducan Thaig (???) area where the prologue crap went down, so maybe there's a sidequest I can do that goes down there. Pretty sure I've been down there before in older playthroughs.

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Most of my squad is Lv12-13, so I'll be having more bears soon. Maybe next time I go to Orzammar to dump my equipment I loot, I'll go back to the world map and trigger Zevran's ambush. Shouldn't be too difficult at this point, I'd imagine. Assassin/Ranger ain't a bad combo.

I started a new playthrough thanks to you, TC.

Playing a human mage. I have some mods that negate the need for a rogue, so I'm gonna run myself, morrigan, wynne, and Alistair.

I'll pull double duty on damage and healing, especially once I get Arcane Warrior, morrigan will be crowd control and debuffs, wynne will heal and buff.

Alistair will smack things with a sword.

Currently about to head into the wilds from ostagar

I almost want to start a third play where I'm a support mage. Maybe go with Wynne as main healer, Sten as tank/fighter (mostly been ignoring him up until now), and...maybe Zevran as the rogue. I've been enjoying some of the magic I've mostly ignored on the first playthroughs, like Sleep, Waking Nightmare, Forcefield (basically Crushing Prison except with damage immunity), etc. Some of the fights in the game, like that massive ambush you get into during the alienage stuff, would've been a lot easier with Sleep/Waking Nightmare.

A three-mage party is interesting, though. Could probably work without too much difficulty; really only need one constitution-minded character to absorb damage from all the ogres, bosses, and so on.

As for what I'm up to, I'm currently in Ortan Thaig. Already found my three sacks o' gore and will do the cheat to get 75 sovereigns from that demon, haha. Went and got Zevran, too, just to make sure he's getting some XP on the side. Not sure if he gets it at a reduced rate or something, but he needs to get in on this action.

Pic: my tactic of drawing aggro, going behind cover (foil archers), then springing my trap. Good stuff.
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Leliana's random song even settled my doggie Lockjaw (barkist formerly known as Spawnmuncher).
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With my max Coercion, Alistair has no trouble taking the assassin into the fold. [-3 respect]
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i'm not playing on insanity or nightmare or whatever the highest is called.

i already went through that bullshit in 2009, so i'm playing on normal because i value my sanity

Yeah, I wouldn't bother playing on higher levels unless I'm on a class I know a bit better. Oddly, I didn't mind playing Inquisition on hard mode with that one opt-in that makes random enemies have X amount of special characteristics.

Finally did Asunder and wound up with a whopping 128 sovereigns. So, if you were wondering if the extra Ranger creature helps get dough, I guess it does. (I just wish I had Leliana and Zevran specced into it already, but they're only LV13 or so, and I don't wanna wait.) I know sovereigns are pretty easy to come by at higher levels, but nevertheless, it feels good to be Mrs. Moneybags this early.

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I remember disliking the spider queen fight down in the Roads, but this time, I hid behind the mountain and had great success. With no line of sight, the summoned minions don't ever attack and the queen eventually runs back around to do web/spit spam. (You can even save when the queen runs away, if need be.) Since I don't have Group Heal yet, I just had my rogues hide and let Alistair, Morrigan and my bear whittle it down -- that avoided the weird AoE attack that inflicts a lot of nature (?) damage.

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It feels like 50% of the genlocks in this game are situated on a single bridge.

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Alright, finished the Orzammar stuff. Sided with Branka, killed Caridin, then saw the entire assembly murder my idiot brother. Then, I went to the Proving area and killed all Bhelen's lackeys for the hell of it.

Pic: Morrigan soloed the special forgemaster enemy with Winter's Grasp spam from a distance, haha.
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Caridin using quasi-Tempest is silly. The fire one has more thematic unity, though.
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I didn't offer Branka Oghren's soul, but that would've been funny. I made her kill herself once to see what it looked like, but then reloaded. This time, we'll make better golems, faster and stronger. I do wish I could've laughed when Harrowmont said "[you'll] have all the golems you need" or something without inquiring on the cost. Dwarves probably care more about the quality of stone than the soul part, if I had to guess.
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Couldn't even go kill Bhelen myself because he was surrounded by allies, haha.
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If I find whoever put a sliding-tile puzzle into this game, I'm going to feed them to the Branka's Anvil.

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Okay, got Shale (no child murder this time!) and then did the Return to Ostagar DLC for the extra XP. Not sure if I'll do Redcliffe next or the Mage Tower. Could also go back to Denerim and square away some of those random quests I avoided when I was a n00benheimer.

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Went back through Denerim's alleys and stuff to do stray quests. Even with my team buffed out with two bears, that battle with a boss blood mage, normal blood mage, and two mercs is still kinda hard. Luckily, the boss got stuck in a doorway and didn't use anything but the conal lightning attack. Get rekt.

Wow, they won't let me summon spiders and bears in the Fade. Just reason #234239 why the Fade sucks.

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unbearable

I haven't seen any other abilities that were Fade-forbidden so far. Had to disable one of Leliana's tactics because she kept trying to summon Smokey in vain. On the bright side, I kicked the Sloth Demon's ass on the first try, mostly because I knew it was going to try and spam magic. It got a Blizzard off, but only with 5% HP; I interrupted the other stuff with the Golem form. Overall, the Fade was easier this time since I knew what to expect and relied more on the transformation stuff to simplify stuff.

Didn't do much yesterday since my computer was acting up. Since I have the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest advanced enough, I'm thinking I'll go do that before finishing up at Redcliffe. Maybe I'll have Morrigan get a level or two to get the final Spirit Healer skill. Still have some trauma from that battle where the mage has spell immunity and then two powerful drakes come and attack, haha. (I hear the drakes don't attack if you don't go upstairs, though, so there's that.)

don't forget to grab Tingler in Awakening.

i don't think it was intended for fingers

I think I know the room you're talking about. I didn't see get there the first time, but yeah, it was suspicious to me, with an unlit torch, a weird statue or bookcase probably covering a passage, etc. I dunno if I'm going through Awakening again, though.

are you playing with the various bugfixes for Awakening? if you're on PC i do highly recommend them

Naw, I just played it straight up. Didn't really have much trouble, although some mentioned that weird forest mine has some kind of missing inventory item problem -- somehow avoided that.

you're very lucky. i never got through awakening unscathed until i used the modfixes

Okay, going through Haven's mountain again (forgot to go to Orzammar and get my sovereigns from the lyrium-smuggling quest). Last time through, I skipped that fight with the mage and the two mid-level drakes, but things have been pretty easy so far, so maybe it'll be fine. Planning on killing the cultist big bad and maybe the high dragon, too, if it comes to that. Cone of Cold would help for its OHKO (?) attack, I think.

Man, everything was a little easier this time with two extra attackers -- as expected. Use the wolves to draw stragglers over for an ambush, or to trigger the drakes' spawn in the Overseer battle. Then, against Kolgrim, I sicced 'em on the two mages and they ripped 'em apart. Might have to go back to town to drop off some inventory, though.

Other stuff: disarming traps as a fat-ass golem. The skills that kills.
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It kinda sucks that after I beat the boss, the mages I saved (mostly) die on the spot.

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It'd be kinda funny to make Wynne a blood mage. I forget if she voices opinions against it.

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Drake slaughter. The one where three elite drakes spawn on your six is kinda hard, but the bigger Overseer actually wound up easier, since I could trigger the trap, then lure one away without the other knowing.
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Shotgunnova posted...

It'd be kinda funny to make Wynne a blood mage. I forget if she voices opinions against it.

I think Anders might have a line about it if you make him one, but I don't believe anyone else has anything to say about it.