Monte Carlo

I play Hard on mobs and sometimes switch it down to Normal for boss fights depending on what it is. I don't play with optimal parties and find that the re-specced spellcasters just break the game. Anyway, I'm taking the passive DW skills and want Momentum - not bothered about modal extra damage as my passive backstab is more than adequate. The critical chance archery tree is the other one. Add this to my panzer-grenadier antics (you really can have fun with bombs and poison) and I can easily take along good old Sten (frail!) and another rogue as well as Morrigan. Two rogues is a challenge I'm interested in playing for a bit. Cheers MC

^ I know, I'm as baffled. Am assured that with high cunning and the right items my Critical Hit chance can max out at 50% which with my already high attack speed, backstab and momentum will stack into a sick DPS build (am also going for Tier 4 stealth for the old Klingon cloaking trick). STR, apparently, doesn't come into it at all. This is from my occasionally drunken perusal of geekily mathematical post on Bio social-networking thing. Cheers MC

Trying to build the perfect jack-of-all-trades Rogue. It's not easy, what with there being no meaningful explanation of the games mechanics and my irrational fear that the DEX hotfix will break my game So in the end I though a smidgeon of STR so I can wear a bit of armour now and then, lots of DEX and a fair bit of CUNNING. I'm going to carry very light weapons and almost no armour. I want to be able to: * Fight. Properly, in melee combat without tanking obviously * Use bombs and poison * Shoot Stuff, like a ninja sniper assassin * Sneak about * Open every lock in the game This is what a rogue should be. I have been experimenting and it's tough --- you just don't have the points to do everything you'd like to do. Anyhow, I've made a satisfactory character who is of course silly rich (left Ostagar with 23 gold pieces without selling my Red Dragon Armour and with the two bargain rucksacks). I've been very picky with combat skills, tending towards the passive (less micromanagement). I've yet to go archery, but that's my next set of skills to get the Critical Shot O Death ability. A surprising thing I've discovered is that my dude does far more damage, very quickly, with two small weapons as opposed to one big weapon and one small one (decision = stop pumping STR) and, even wearing some weird barbarian fur ****tail dress I found in the Korcari Wilds I saunter about in combat without actually getting hit very much (decision = pump DEX). Even low level stealth is quite useful, it has changed the combat dynamics a great deal. One hugely annoying feature is that if you equip a bow and specialist arrows it empties your alt.weapon slot. Oh well. Combat works a bit like this - I sneak about and lure bad guys into the rest of the party. I then cut about hurling bombs and backstabbing before retreating and shooting stuff. As someone who usually tanks, this takes a while to get used to... leaving the poor old warriors to play pin cushion for you. Anyway, that's how the rogue is working out for me as a non-specialist 'D&D' style thief... my advice is don't fixate on having to go down one route and collect all the powaz... mix and match. Cheers MC

^ Yeah, good point. There are two ways around this: 1. There's a feat, I'm not sure what it's called but you can get it from the rogue skill tree at level 4. Combat tactics? It widens the arc for possible backstab, which is pretty effective... it works pretty well as long as you get a tighter flank in for the attack. Less micromanagement. 2. For mob battles I just stealth the rogue and move him in behind the mob. When it all kicks off and they are mobbing a taunting, heavily armoured character I'm already in position, and using the feat above I'm getting in good hits. I can then fall back and use archery (with Imoen Chick I did this all the time with scattershot etc). Still a bit of micromanagement, but not as dull as constantly clicking on the rogue to make sure he's in exactly the right place. Cheers MC

^ Alan, so what you're saying is that an Icewind Dale syle game using this engine would be pretty impractical? Because I could create an awesome, game-breaking team of bespoke characters? I can see this mod coming pretty soon, just like in BG2 you could 'multiplay' your own party as a single player. T'would be a shame, although I suppose you could just make the battles harder too.

Have created a human rogue. Am trying to be as 'Neutral Evil' as possible. So I'm fighting through the fiery ruins of the family schloss. My father lies, mortally wounded in the next room. My mother (I just know it!) will want to stay with him. What am I thinking? Well, she's wearing a suit of armour, a mace, shield and a longbow. That'll get me enough to buy a new backpack in Ostgar! So I strip it all off... Ha ha ha ha. On a less serious note, am thinking of mixing and matching DW and archery skills to make the character a bit more flexible. Any ideas - the critical hit archery route looks good. Cheers MC

I think the journalist had a sense of humour - check out the online comments she chose to quote (especially re. Dog).

^ There's a guy who loves the Sacred Ashes trailer and wanted to make the in-game characters more like the way they're depicted in it. He's modded the characters armour and facial features etc. using the toolset, he's done a good job IMO. Actually the African looking Sten in the trailer is much cooler than the in-game one. As for the 30 Seconds to Mars track, I like it.

^ The eternal economic conundrum of Dragon Age - loot stuff so you can afford to buy a 5 gp rucksack so you can loot some more stuff. So you can afford a 7 gp rucksack. Ha ha ha.

Sten, wearing a Jadgpanzer Hull and wielding a comedy axe, got the last smackdown on the Archdemon after I'd done all the work. He looked pretty cool in the slo-mo slaying animation. Forget gimpy rogues... keeping the Stenmeister alive through that final battle was my biggest achievement.

I want the XP to be called "Deeper Roads: More Fighting in Tunnels." In my golfing apparel. Anyway I finally finished it, the final battle was fun but the mechanics of the epilogue were the best in any CRPG I've played, all the sub-stories about Stuff You'd Done and talking to the NPCs about the future. Well done Bioware, mission accomplished. Now make another one. Cheers MC

Hi Obsidian developers. Most of us have now played Dragon Age and enjoyed it to varying degrees. For me it was great fun despite the ruleset not because of it. Quite an achievement if you think about it. I'm not asking you to comment on DA whatsoever (unless you'd like to ) but if you were to make a similar game with an original IP then what principles would you follow? Would you choose to abandon classes? What other games have got it right and which have got it wrong? Am interested in your thoughts. Cheers MC

Skills & Talents, there's another half-arsed desgin decision... Why is stealing one and lockpicking the other? The oddness of Combat Tactics slots has been dissected elsewhere. The whole thing is fugly, it's a fun game despite it not because of it and I strongly suspect an overhaul for the inevitable DA2. Ditch the Rogue class and allow folks to make a light-fighter warrior with recon skills or a sneaky stealth mage or an archer / support mage. It really does solve the problem.

^ Yeah, that was me. Imoen-Chick did 138 and used all her stamina. And stood at the back. And died shortly afterwards. Dwarf warrior can heft his shield, rely on his awesome hit points and dish out consistent damage. Like you say all have strengths and weaknesses... but all these games are party based and there is an expectation that the classic 2 + 1 + 1 model will be followed (i.e. two combat capable characters, a spellcaster and a utility guy / cleric). Cheers MC

^ +1 That drives me nuts... <CHARNAME> Cousland is obviously meant to be a vanilla S&S warrior archetype. Dwarf Noble story screams warrior - nobody acknowledges your roguishness, not even a line about "how you didn't turn out the way Pa wanted." To be fair, Dalish Elf and Dwarf Commoner work either way and Mage speaks for itself. The noble origins highlight the rogue identity crisis even Vol acknowledges.

I'm sure Gromnir will speak for himself, but he played on Hard with a 2H fighter. The Dawn of the Dead scenario at Redcliffe is an early game nightmare for a 2H fighter. 2H fighters excel in boss combat / one-on-one. Redcliffe is mobs. My sword and shield guy was last man standing, my DW warrior went all Chuck Norris on them.... when Sten was my last dude in that battle. Hmmm. This game isn't scaled for every class / specialisation / party combo... it couldn't be. I see why Grom struggled with that battle. Me? I'd have switched difficulty down to normal but I ain't Grom. Cheers MC

I don't think there is an 'Evil' path in Dragon Age. There's a mercenary path, an occasionally-selfish path and a morally ambiguous path... but Evil? I mean evil in a "MWUHAHAHAHAH" and EnSLaVinG NatiONs WitH NEcrOMAnCY sort of way. Don't get me wrong, I like it. For example, in the Warden's Keep The Blight is WW2. Some guys want to beat the Nazis via the Queensbury Rules, others a la The Inglorious Basterds route. I'm going to play my Dwarf Rogue the bad boy route next time. Re-Speccing Sten as a Sword & Shield guy and leaving Alistair at the camp navel-gazing.

^ Dude you've just described the world Futures market in Wall Street, London (etc) for the past ten years.

^ Genuine LOL!

^ I'm a ruthless thief and pack-rat. Imoen-Chick opens and steals everything, GreyWardenCorp © is the Ferelden version of one of those US private military companies, we never turn down the offer of a gift or reward. The stuff in locked chests looks like it's rubbish, but for some reason armoured gloves and boots sell like hot cakes in kooky Denerim economy. And when I sell stuff I'm ruthless - if I ain't wearing it or don't need it I sell it. I make all my own potions courtesty of endless Elfroot Dude in the Brescilian Forest and Flask Guy in the Mage Tower. Result? Usually cruise around with 25-50 gold spare. Spend this on R&R in the Pearl and Backpacks (naturally). Enchantment! Boy also does his thang for free, unlike other games where you pay for magic items. Groovy. Cheers MC

^ With regards to archery... Don't feel the need to take all the talents... you get the feeling with this game that you need to pad out all the skills in a tree, maybe because many of them are symbiotic. Imoen-Chick is a fairly useful character, she's a thief and can help your party get seriously rich (she has for me). Re-Spec her with the Arrow of Slaying archery tree, boost her STR to 20 for decent armour and throw in a couple of DW melee skills. Max out locks and poison, stealth can come later. The result is an archer who can (a la the Sacred Ashes trailer) kill enemy mages or finish off boss critters with one shot (my max damage with that skill using Imoen-Chick is 134 I think). She can use two daggers and backstab when mob combat gets out of hand. She can make and use grenades, the last-ditch fix bayonets weapon of choice that's saved my ass on numerous occasions. And she can steal everything. And pump Cunning, not a problem because all those tomes and books become easily affordable with a good thief on the team. Don't ever use her as anything other than a Swiss army knife, though, because she will get killed very quickly in combat. Anyhow, that's how I used her (admittedly on Hard setting) and found her to be superior to Zevran straight outta the box. Zevran is more amusing, to be sure, but after the first playthrough we tend to be more pragmatic about these things. Cheers MC

I am a Grey Warden. I spend all my money on unusual sexual experiences and backpacks. Occasionally at the same time. Dressed like Bob Hope. Honestly, this game is more fun than a sack of squirrels playing bagpipes. Some of it is intentional. Cheers MC

This post is about armour, this is the only tenuous link to the topic. Then again, I started the thread yadda yadda. There is a piece of armour crafted from a block of pure awesomeness. I wish I knew how to post pictures. I genuinely wonder if it's an Easter Egg. Equip, on a human, the Armour of Diligence (I think that's what it's called) and the Heavy Dwarven Boots of Something or Another (I paraphrase). Result? I s**t you not, golfing plus fours. And they're plaid. Honestly, you look like Bob Hope in a screwball 50's comedy or something. Either that or they were trying for a sort of Asterix the Gaul tartan type effect but honestly it looks like I'm playing golf in a New England country club circa. 1949. LOL! Cheers MC

I went to the forest on my first game - slugged through it all with great difficulty (still learning the game) but couldn't beat Second game went straight to Redcliffe - I never thought I'd be able to save the militia so slugged it out there too, Hamburger Hill style! Kept kiting the zombies under spell and missile fire back up the hill to fight the knights at the top, then found a little spot where the game lets you rest. Cheesy, but I was low level, out of poultices ammo and everything else. My S&S guy was last man standing with about 11 or 12 health left. Then and fought the Revenant, about level 8 or 9, Alistair last man standing this time! Now I'm on top of the combat mechanics and spell combos - next (and probably last for a while) playthrough will be my amoral Good Fellas dwarf barrio rogue. For some reason I stop and make final end saves before the final battle - so I haven't finished the game! I'll have three level 20-22 characters with three end saves then decide which one to finish with. Strange, I know, it's just the way I've decided to finish what has been a really enjoyable game. Cheers MC

More general SoZ awesomeness.