HoonDing

^Thanks. I don't really care about the number crunching at any rate, Morrowind had pretty much the same thing going on. Lots of hidden mathematical formulae... didn't prevent people from completely breaking the game anyway.

Wait, has the first Female Morrigan Romance mod finally arrived? *checks Bio social site*

This is something Morrowind did really well. No boring rat/goblin killing or dungeon crawl, no hand-holding, no lame speeches, but just filling out a form, stamping some papers and you're on your own... possibly dying 5 minutes later in the first bandit cave or ancestral tomb.

Damian is one of the better RPG villains out there.

1. Where is the recipe for freeze bombs (and what ingredients do they use)? 2. Can you shatter with archery? If so, my next char (for my 3rd playthrough) is going to be a Dalish Elf (I've been dying to play this origin, but I'm not done with my Arcane Warrior game) archer abusing stealth-freeze-bombing. 1. Lothering tavern 2. Critical shot It might even be fun to go through the entire game with Zevran and only Zevran as party member (stealth/DW specialist) for some melee oomph.

^Is there any information on how Stealth checks work in the game? Is Cunning really essential? I think my Dalish Elf is going to go with bombs, combined with Tier 4 stealth and the three maxed out Archery talents. And maybe a few DW feats for some boss fights if I can get away with it.

Does stealth work against Dragons? Is there any 'True Seeing' in the game at all? Because if not, a rogue could cheese-kill dragons with traps & bombs alone. If Freeze Bombs can replace Cone of Cold (Sweep shatters enemies, right?) & bomb-throwing doesn't break Tier 4 stealth, the rogue class offers an alternative way of soloing the game.

Horses: no. Griffons: yes.

Link, pretty please?

I thought Morrigan becomes quite likable once her approval gets to 'friendly'. Didn't happen on my first playthrough though because I took her along in that one. As for Alistair... after a certain 'decision' near the end I thought he would take off a mask and reveal the face of Carth Onasi. *shrug*

^I think I'll use Shale's AoE & shock/freeze bombs instead. Might even go dual-wield with this in mind. The less Morrigan in the party, the better.

Actually, yeah, what is a fluffer?

^Yeh, I've already made a Dalish Elf archer-rogue in fact. Problem is it seems the game was designed with crowd control in mind, considering the numbers it constantly throws at you, and without an offensive mage it just seems one is handicapping oneself just to spice things up. I wish the game had battles against rival groups of adventurers. Like in BG2, where you could wipe out Drizzt & his party. Even NWN 2 had one such encounter. Only thing that comes close in DA is the encounter with the Hurlock Omega & that charlatan scroll merchant.

Morrigan & Shale.

I also finished a second playthrough but for now am going back to NWN 2. At least in that game 90% of battles don't boil down to "cast sleep, cast cone of cold, shatter enemies, rinse & repeat". The only challenge the game provides is either ambushes where the party is positioned in the worst way possible and/or being outnumbered 5 to 1 at least, but even those can be beaten fairly easily with said spells... not to mention health/lyrium potions are easy to come by in large doses.

In before Russian reversal.

Nope, its just slightly overzealous balancing. But thanks. Then one might wonder why Bio didn't nerf Mana Clash? It's an unresistable "Finger of Death" spell for enemy mages. And since most mobs only have one mage...

Turn-based combat, or at least the ability to pause every turn (if there even are turns) would make the combat much less chaotic & more palatable. This is what made Drakensang combat so fun & tactical. The reason why I'll probably never play a non-archer rogue, is that having to micromanage said rogue + a mage, would be a nightmare with having to pause every two seconds... similar to NWN 2 with Qara in the party.

Same reason why a mage should ignore Willpower. With unlimited potions to make and use without any consequences (unlike in the Witcher, where potions had Toxicity levels) one should simply pump Magic and get a 100+ spellpower. Willpower gives 5 mana per point, Constitution 5 HP per point... not enough pay-off.

Not all is drab in Oblivion. Thieves guild & Dark Brotherhood were decent in Oblivion. Some of the city quests were too. The either insipid or overblown delivery of the voice actors really drags everything down, though.

I noticed the level scaling with the Helmet of Honnleath, supposedly the best helmet in the game. It goes from Tier 1 all the way to Tier 7 depending when one goes to fetch Shale. It's like Oblivion, with the difference that nothing changes visibly, only stats change. So all those Denerim thugs might as well come charging in Dragonbone armour. EDIT: dyslexia

Mages really shouldn't be nerfed. They're already extremely squishy, being able to disintegrate & freeze mooks is supposed to compensate for this. There's supposed to be a reason why they're locked up in a tower. Fixing the AI would be better. I.e. enemies quit attacking Force Fielded allies, and go after the mages first in combat rather than attacking the person that take longest to kill. In both my playthroughs either Morrigan or my mage simply ran all over the place owning everyone without punishment. Imagine doing that with Edwin in Baldur's Gate.

Oblivion is a horrible anomaly in Bethesda's history. Then again, notice how similar the main stories of Oblivion & Dragon Age are, for instance? Both involve relative nobodies joining an elite organization and needing to put some secret heir on the throne, all the while fighting dremora/darkspawn (mooks with messed up faces) led by some huge demon. The difference between the two is just the execution.

Fixed.