Monte Carlo

Anyone care to post their re-spec builds for the NPCs. I've just turned Imoen Chick into a 14th level dual-wielding assassin death goddess. Apparently. Dual-wielding, traps, poison and 3 points in locks. Not much stealth though, as of yet am working on it. Morrigan is getting the full Arcane Warrior treatment, am going to try to create a tank-mage with small but deadly spell selection.

Yeah, the first week on the new social networking forum was full of people literally tearing their hair out at the difficulty of the combat - people have simply forgotten how to play non-screensaver games (and I include myself in that to a certain extent - normal difficulty was a handful for me to begin with).

The Respec mod on the DA social page is clean, well thought-out and allows you to make all the NPCs afresh from a clean slate.

Because there are lots of options, I've only got around to exploring the wacky world of traps by throwing a couple of points in trapping at Zevran. Those annoying choke points that enemies swarm through can now be seeded with simple, dirt-cheap leg traps that pin the bad guys in place while you hit them with spells and play attrition before they hit the melee line to get properly bashed. I also like the ability to open doors and chests while stealthed.

My character is a Champion / Beserker. Maybe I'm not using the skills properly, but war cry is useless and beserker seems like a parastitic drain on my character rather than a tangible combat benefit. I tend to just use assault and shield bash whilst having shield wall on permanently with precise striking. The guy is, literally, a tank and is always last man standing. Although I've now got 4 levels of coercion too so I can scare people off just as easily if I don't feel like fighting. Next go I'm playing a rogue but I might respec sten to Sword and Shield and take him along again. Hopefully someone will mod his sword one-handed eventually.

^ I know, it's not as if I couldn't afford extra tuition.

Actually, I'm reasonably wealthy.

He's a shining example of how to lead a more manly, meaningful life.

^ Morrigan is a fickle, shallow, high maintenance floozy. I've been a fairly straight down the line good (ish) guy in this game and have kept her approval sky-high with jewellery and other baubles. She's also the only viable combat mage in the game unless your playing one, another deus ex machina piece of NPC crafting by Bioware (remember Yoshimo, anyone?).

Ha ha ha, have been playing with this tactic. Hit a large mob (i.e. ogres, alphas, emissaries) with AoE like blizzard, then follow up with a waking nightmare. Hit a lower HP Genlock archer with walking bomb (actually I like to do two) then plink away at them with a bow and watch them blow up, depleting the HP of the aforementioned tougher monsters. Then send in your melee characters to finish them off at their leisure. The tactic might not be optimal but it is lots of fun. Arcane Warrior can also mop up any of those annoying infantry who rush through your lines with sword & shield.

^ Suffice it to say, the possibily of ENSLAVING NATIONS WITH NECROMANCY is limited. Which is a shame.

Arcane warriors can swap their MAGIC score for STRENGTH when wielding weapons & armour, this means that you get a mage who can double as a light fighter / archer if that floats your boat (I am experimenting with Morrigan as one, currently trying out an area of effect spell / waking nightmare / walking bomb / archery combo where you send exploding enemy mooks into the mob, she can do this all on her own while the rest of the guys get on with their thing). The specialist classes are all a bit meh, but a blood mage / arcane warrior mix would be a groovy party member. Cheers MC

I'm now in the Deep Roads (er, Underdark meets Mines of Moria) and loving it. The whole Orzammar area and plots are probably some of the best in the game, in fact I wish I'd been a dwarf commoner from the get-go just to see their reaction to my ex-gangsta made good. Tactics-wise, taking Oghren for this quest is a straight swap-out with Sten, I've decided to go for the walking bomb / undead spell path - any good tricks with the walking bombs... I reckon Waking Nightmare / Walking Bomb and a well-positioned arrow might be fun...

Enoch, there is some kit you get as a result of The Ritual (jug water yadda yadda) that you might want.

^ A career as a judge in an international ice-skating competition isn't for you.

So much for ambition. I'm level 16 and completely badass, trying to gather an epic army for the final confrontation with evil. Yet I'm never happier than when I'm nug-hunting for the dude who pays me 12 silver coins a go.

I've given it a very short review earlier in this thread, mebbe a page or so back. For me, it's a solid 8.5, every point deserved. if you liked BG2 buy this. When the serious modding community get going it will easily be a 9/10. Cheers MC

Which is why this game needs a mod that allows you to make your own party, or a few Pocket Plane group level NPCs. A battle mage who doesn't say much would be a very useful start.

What, do they level up quicker?

Oh, talking about soap opera, I do like some of the banter. Sten and Morrigan loathe each other. As you build Sten's approval up he starts to see Morrigan as the manipulative harpy she is. Morrigan, OTOH, taunts Sten about how she must desire him. Sten is a bit embarrassed about this but finally when she's asking him if he desires her (again) he calls her out and tells her that she will require a certain amount of protective equipment to survive a night Qunari passion. For the first time in the game Morrigan STFU. It's great. I know Sten is a brilliant character because the Bio forum regulars hate him. Ha ha ha.

I built a dwarf commoner rogue, and already having made level 16 (warrior) in another game can see the main problem (for me). Most of my decent skills aren't passive: I feel that I need reasonable STR (for weapons and armour), excellent DEX, excellent CUNNING and, yep, good willpower to power my stamina back up to re-use the activated skills that make the class viable. Dump that on top of my wish to be able to sneak and open locks and you've got a class that is severely hampered by stat-dump spread. You can't make an all-rounded, you have to specialise and it's not floating my boat at all. My dwarf commoner has two-weapon style (flurry) and locks at the moment, I don't think I'm ever gonna find the points for dialogue skills. Warriors? Boatloads of passive skills and easy-to-master skill trees. Mages I don't even need to go there, they rock right out of the box. Rogues? Hmmm, you need to decide whether you are light fighter or support / skill monkey but are gimped inbetween. I'm struggling to warm to the class, to be honest.

^ If you can do that in the game then I take my :: sigh :: back. I thought that was fan-made and symptomatic of the "RPG-as-soap-opera" tendency. My views on the romances have been made, I'll spare you the chore of having to hear them again. As an aside, I did the dwarf commoner origin today and suspect it will be my favourite, it's got a bit of everything, Good Fellas meets Gladiator! Cheers MC

I get the impression that elemental damage really depends on the type of enemy you are fighting - clearly fire-orientated enemies (i.e. ash wraiths and so on) really don't like cold damage. I've also found some good items that add +10% frost damage - put that on Morrigan and start casting Blizzard and you've got some serious artillery. Check out the 'Respec' mod Virumor mentioned, I'm playing with it at the moment and you can start Morrigan up as an excellent Arcane Warrior from day one. Wish I could figure out the rogue - I'm using Zevran and he's useful but not compelling. What skill tree / build are you using for yours? If he's good enough for you on Nightmare he must be good enough for me on normal / Hard (I'm playing Hard for mob battles and down to normal for bosses which is working nicely for me). Cheers MC

:: sigh ::

My party is two tanks, Morrigan and Zevran. I'm thinking of dropping him, just for dragon slaying, for Wynne for a two mage / two warrior lineup. Is there any reason to take a rogue dragon hunting? Telling me Zev has some amusing dialogue would do the trick, I've got some stuff to do in Denerim then I'm back up the mountain to use that horn and summon you-know-who.