Monte Carlo

And I never knew who 30 Seconds To Mars were before the video for This is War. Which I'll now be picking up.

Is it me, or does the b00b demon have cellulite issues?

Revenants at low level, the most irritating and powerful pseudo-boss monster before level 9 or 10: Cone of Cold (again) ... they will often fail their save against it. One mage and two warriors performing a variety of melee smackdowns can take a revenant if the mage has enough mana to keep hosing the revenant with ice. A mage can even keep this up whilst the warriors take out mook hordes that usually travel around with the revenant, buying valuable time. While waiting for the cone of cold to recharge, hit the sucka with whatever damage dealing spells you have left to chip away at his hit points. Whatever you do, don't run away from the revenant, he has this magnetic ability to smack you on the floor and drag you to him - omb him straight away and get that ice spell trained on him! Cheers MC

Altho' i now know how the original BG players with no D&D experience felt - choosing armour and spells because they sounded good and wondering what THACO actually meant. In fact, I reckon DA doesn't actually have a ruleset, it's just a joke by the developers. It's all random.

Heaven forfend that when you play a game you might like to know the rules.

No.

Waking Nightmare is like confusion, stun, sleep and charm person all rolled into one. Some critters fight for you, others fall over, others wander around. It has a pretty big AoE and is perfect for crowd control versus it's duration / cooldown time. It isn't as sexy as fireball etc, but it is very useful.

Yeah, Morrigan as shapechanged critter is a waste of her offensive spell-casting abilities. I've not used them once since level 5 or 6. Am eagerly awaiting 'level one NPC' mod a la BG2, when you meet the NPC they are level 1 and you level them up. For Morrigan, that extra point would have got me a bit nearer fireball or walking nightmare. Sten? Sword and Shield. Alistair, mebbe dual-wielding. Imoen-Chick, maybe a decent rogue

Does using a frost spell against a target followed by a fire spell work in your favour or against?

--- Dragon Age: Origins Tactics Thread ---- Note to moderators: Please don't delete. This is the biggest fantasy CRPG release for some time, many of us want to discuss this aspect of the game and the other threads (although enjoyable) do not adequately address the issues. No, we can't all bugger off to the Bio boards. They are all over the place. Plus, we like it here. Hello, please post your tactical advice here, along with character builds, spell combos and so on. Please use spoiler tags where appropriate, although I'm sure we can all use our discretion and assume that most of us are a certain way through the game. No general comments, reviews, spamming and so on. Many thanks. Starter for Ten... The Rogue Question. Not since Schleswig-Holstein has there been so much bafflement. All ideas welcome. Cheers MC

If you think that my comment about command economies = retard then shame on you. Moderate socialism is a tautology. It's like having moderate rabies. So-called socialist countries usually practice wholly corrupt, corporate bordello capitalism, just have more dudes in uniforms putting journalists in prison. China springs to mind, so does Russia. Please quote so-called socialist Scandinavian countries in riposte so I can rend your argument at my leisure.

you work in middle management, dont you?

SPOILER.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I wasted Wynne after I decided to slay all the mages, just to be on the safe side. That meant Morrigan for that entire quest, and having played it with both NPC mages it's easier with M rather than W. Cheers MC

^ Hmmm, you release a toolset, you create organic support. It's smart. Games companies know this. Bioware OTOH support their games more or less ad infinitum, I can still get BG2 patches there. What I think the EA suit is saying is the 12 month premium sale lifespan (i.e. GotY, DA Gold and other iterations). If an industry pro would correct me if I'm wrong I'd be obliged. Then again, this is EA so I take your point. Personally, I'm feeling quite good about the modding that is likely to come out of this game, I'll be playing it for more than the next twelve months and would buy extra DLC if it was substantial. Cheers MC

I remembered one other bug, the "skateboarding warrior" in Redcliffe Castle, but it was so minor and fleeting I didn't even consider it a bug. I've not had one crash or any other bug-like issue, although I am running on the first patch so, again, well done. And I am on Vista, which has... issues. Shame you missed how broken the rogue was, though

You know what, I've thus far failed to mention how stable and un-buggy this game is, and for that alone Bioware deserve a little bit more credit (damn it, three Bio plaudits in a day, I must return to the lab and put this right!). The only bug I've discovered is minor but supremely annoying. Alistair says something along the lines of "Can you get a ladder? So you can get off my back." It's one of the most annoying NPC lines since Ira in JA2 ("You got my ear!"), difference being I could switch it off. Am currently in Soldier's Peak and he's not even in my party but I'm still getting it, as if the ghost of Alistair is always with me. It's bloody annoying, probably a minor bug that will be squished in a patch. Cheers MC

Alan next time you get to ask (unless it would be difficult) can you ask at what point the Conan feel of the early concept art changed? I remember DA concept 1.0 and it definitely felt more low fantasy / Hyborian age than the Dark Age / early medieval vibe in the end product.

^ Yes, the spirit of IWD2 is strong in this one.

BTW, I take it all back about romances. I got to make out with Morrigan and laughed so hard at the whole thing that beer shot through my nose. It's this sort of jollity that lengthens your lifespan, thanks Bio!

Gromnir said it better than I did (damn his eyes!), it's almost as if the developers won't allow optimal NPC builds as not to steal the glory from the PC. Which is rubbish, please give me optimally built NPCs to give me a clue how to build a good character for myself later. It's not as if the rules are particularly transparent or anything, are they? 8.40 damage? Huh? I want a rogue who can open locks, lob grenades, be a half-decent mage-attrition archer and lend a decent hand in combat. Purkake - I am now committed to my Human Noble Warrior game, am 22% of the way through and want to finish. Also, now have Dragon Armour, that makes me look like a Cylon. Ha ha ha.

I think I'm going psycho Dwarf commoner rogue next play through, just to see if I can do something interesting with the class. If we ever get our tactics thread then maybe we can post some good rogue builds.

In other news, I spared Zevran because he knows six different card games, twelve massages and is good at parties. And he sounds like Zorro. You see, I don't care if he's about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike in combat, he makes me laugh so he's in. What gifts does he like?

Stop it. My ribs are splitting.

As I said in another post, it's about as dark as the ending of White Christmas.

Who urinated on your cornflakes this morning? Anyway, I thought I'd go back to Lothering to see the merchant, but, dah-dah-dah! T'was a skull on the world map, razed by the Darkspawn. So they do advance... Have got my first NPC to adore (+90), 'tis Morrigan, this was achieved by spamming her with presents and behaving like the Lawful Evil stud-muffin my character clearly is. Sten also thinks I am the best thing since sliced bread, achieved by giving him dodgy paintings found in barrels and telling him to STFU. Cheers MC