Monte Carlo

Actually, now I have the burning man form it's a little less irritating, still can't wait to get out. +1 to prime stats is the least compensation I deserve for enduring it.

^ Thank you both very much.

Can anybody link me a walkthru with a map please? I'm in something called Templar's Nightmare, which is aptly named. I utterly, utterly hate random holes, glowing doors, portals and other nonsense where I have to guess which one goes where. It's not a puzzle, it's a freakin chore.

^ It's really not my thing, it's making me feel like I'm long-sighted or something, where's the get me outta here button?

Am now trapped in the fade, the sort of multi-area puzzle / mini-game / maze that game designers lurve and Monte despises. Someone, please, spoil me the hell outta there ASAP. Cheers MC

Hmm, I'm not having any problems with the tactics slots, unless you counting me not getting < and > the right way round when it comes to glugging potions of course. Sometimes a character will do something irritating, but I'm glad I'm not playing a game on autopilot for a change. I'll reiterate - after NWN2 I seriously forgot what it was like to control a full party. Having said that, you do have to sit down and figure out tactics slots, it isn't particularly intuitive. Cheers MC

Please list Achievements Bioware Would Never Put In The Game: No. 1 - Never Read A Codex Entry - You completely ignore the plethora of FANTASAE INFURMASHUN that constantly spams the GUI.

Do the dwarves have plastic lobsters glued to the front of their heads too?

Ah, but Fighter, BG1 had that brilliant theft dynamic where you could get spotted, thus alerting the Flaming Fist and either getting a reputation hit or a ruck with the guard. This made burglary missions around Baldur's Gate (remember the museum) brilliant fun, using stealth, invisibility potions etc. And getting loot. They got rid of it for BG2 because of forum whining. Which was a shame. Cheers MC

I'm slowly working out how the rogue works in this game using Imoen Chick, mainly because I've not found Exotic Elf Bloke yet. The way Imoen Chick is configured is classic support role: very minor buffing, second rate archery and a bit of a backstab. Up to level 9 or 10 in fact all she's done for me is open locked containers, thus increasing my stock of first aid equipment. Thanks, love. However, and yes, there is a however... there are some uses. 1. She seems to level quite quickly. Why I'm not sure, am assuming XP is shared but mebbe she gets more for all the traps'n'locks she deals with. Anyhow, that's my perception. 2. Poison. With poison and the skill that allows you to increase your backstab arc she's pretty good at finishing off the critters already at low health through AoE spell damage, a bit fiddly but not un-useful. 3. Bombs. I have discovered firebombs and soulrot bombs. Imoen Chick is very good at stealthing over to that pesky bank of archers and / or mages and lobbing a bomb at them. So Imoen chick lobs bombs like an amateur 19th century anarchist, unlocks things and puts dying creatures out of their misery for my mage. Well, someone's gotta do it. Cheers MC

^ I see where the guy is coming from, to an extent. But this is a game. Some folks seem to want a fantasy-medieval life simulator. I don't. Hey why have those refugees got teeth? There's no dentists in Ferelden, right? I can't find one (etc). Cheers MC

Yeah, for the first time in a game, what I imagined a fireball should be has been realised. A big, angry blast of napalm that fubars everyone in it.

^ Meh, the Darkspawn don't exactly strike me as the disciplined, Blitzkrieg types. More like maraud, torture, feed, sleep, probably fight among themselves for a bit. Go backwards, torture a squirrel... they're like zombies with a bit of army training. Mages own this game, it's very mage-centric. My main character taunts, everyone attacks him, he uses the fortress shield ability (I am a one-warrior Roman army tortoise formation) and Morrigan dances around freezing, smashing, burning with glee. I am just the bait. Still enjoying it, very good game. It could have been truly great, but...

I politely asked the mods for a tactics thread and they demurred, we are now stuck with a generic comment thread where we have to wade through all the other chat to get some actual advice.

Hey, if it turns out to be a portal, a la the HoW XP entry point in IWD, and you have to pay more to go back in then sign me up for the mob of wailing, pitchfork armed villagers.

I like Claudia Black's VO and there are only two mages to choose from ::shrug:: but she is the Jaheira of DA. Snarky, difficult to win over and pretty useful to have around.

If you look at my record, I'm not exactly a Bioware apologist. Quite the opposite. But the rabid reaction to some people about this issue (not on this forum, most people have have been very measured about it) is a bit... silly. It has full V.O. It has development time. OK, if in six months people are knocking out stuff like this using the toolset, for free, of comparable quality then serve me a big slice of crow pie. I've tried to get upset about it... I just can't. It's the price of a stupid Xmas coffee in Starbucks. Am I missing something? Cheers MC

^ No Shale, but I did beat it in the end. My tactic was to lure the hordes up to the knights at the windmill, who helped me whup them. Then I advanced down, lured up another bunch (rinse and repeat) then headed down to take on the last lot (lost Sten, who dies with alarming regularity, his rubbish CON score doesn't help). You can't really use chokepoints in this game, enemies just squeeze past you like an oiled pig. It's a bit of a pain. Cheers MC

OK, help required. I have a level 6/7 party - My warrior (shield), Sten, Alistair and Morrigan (just levelled her up and gave her a healing spell). I'm at Redcliffe and have defeated the first two waves of zombies, have retreated up the hill and have full health and mana. All the militia are dead. Down the hill is another horde of undead, have re-loaded three freaking times but they won't stop coming. If I turn it down to easy I will never be able to live with myself. We are reasonably well equipped / armoured but have no AoE spells to speak of and are down to 4 health poultices. Any ideas? Cheers MC

Bio made BG1&2, Obz returned the serve with IWD. Let's see them do it with DA:O.

Cup of coffee and a muffin in the Starbucks in Borders = About

Annoying NPCs I'm meant to love (but don't) is all part of the Bioware experience. Enough of their fans love it, so I just spend a lot of time hitting ESC as they warble on. My main beef is the obtuse NPC combo / skill / class decisions endemic in Bio games (why I love IWD and latterly SoZ). The mod that allows you to meet every NPC at level 1 and level them up as you would choose (Sten with sword and shield, Morrigan with a freaking healing spell, Imoen Chick not as a bloody bard) can't come quickly enough. Cheers MC

^ Yeah, it checked it once after I bought it, and once when I started a new game then that's it. I'm going to burn the files to disc anyway in case I change machines.

^ You see, it's this type of tactical acumen and cunning that would make the thread a treasure trove of solid advice.

Hmmm. So I re-started. It had to happen. Again, I'm a human fighter. I rushed other parts of my last game and I'm sure you know the feeling when you want to start again and apply some of the lessons you've learnt before you've done 3/4 of the game (I'd put in over twenty hours and done about 18%!). So, I'm in the Tower of Ishal and start applying sensible tactics and simple things like using the Tower Mage to make 10 health potions, via the bottles I bought from the merchant. I now have decent kit because I took the time to do the Chasind marker quest in the wilds. I utilized the neat-o ballista in the tower to play Genlock ten-pin bowling. I use Alistair and my shield dude to play shield-bash pong in melee, which is lots of fun. Dog now charges properly. I have figured out tactics slots so all the guys drink potions un-prompted. The tactics slots are groovy, it's just that you need to spend some time figuring them out (I was too keen playing to bother for about fifteen hours!). So, moderators, a question. Would you object to a Dragon Age: Tactics thread (I know there's an abundance of them) so we can help any guys having problems with combat without having to trawl all the other threads or (gasp) go on the Bioware site. It's much nicer here Let me know if it's OK, or one of you lot open it I don't mind. Cheers MC