Enoch

Given that intimidate can be used in place of persuade in most conversations, a high strength is nearly as good as a high cunning for talky purposes. I'm going to play a rogue in my next game, but I'm not yet sure how I want to build her. (I'm thinking Dwarf Noble.)

The dagger attack rate is faster than the attack rate with bigger weapons. I'm not sure how the damage-per-second math works out, but it is noticeable.

You get 1 spec slot at level 7, and a second at level 14.

Are the ranger critters controllable, or are they wholly AI-based?

From what I've read over on the Bioboards, the lockpicking formula is the same as the persuasion formula: 4 tiers of difficulty at 25, 50, 75, & 100. The formula for your ability is (Cunning - 10) + 25*(ranks in the governing Skill). So you can still unlock anything if you take all 4 skill ranks, but with a Cunning of 35 you only need to take 3.

No. They are real characters, that you can't bend to your will constantly, not the cardboard cutouts that flip to your way of thinking at the last moment or purr at whatever you do. Why shouldn't you be able to turn Morrigan into a sweet little bunny that doesn't drop you the minute she get what she needs? Or turn Alistiar into a hard as nails King that can see Loghain might be useful? Why should Wynne and Lelianna react to a certain choice? Why should Sten be annoyed at all the kitty saving? Let just have them all as bland instruments to your will, with no agenda or personality of their own. It's always this way with strong characters. Whinging. Not my point. I have nothing against strong characters with agendas and personalities. (Although I would quibble with the relative strength of the character design, that's a separate discussion.) I was simply pointing out that the agendas and personalities that these two particular characters exhibit towards the close of the game make them wholly unlikeable. Not because they disagreed with me, but because they were selfish, petulent, and irrational in doing so. Making the two JNPCs most central to the game's story and appeal so unlikeable is ... an odd choice. (Oh, and you should probably tag the spoilers.)

Will be going to bed shortly, after having gotten through the of the endgame. Big ol' spoilers ahead. Both Alistair and Morrigan are petulant, selfish little children. These are the characters that Bioware expects us to like?

As a strident micro-manager,* here's a feature I want: An option to enable an automatic toggle into the "Hold Position" mode at the beginning of combat, that goes back into "Free Movement" when the fight is over. On numerous occasions, I've set up actions I want my people to do at the beginning of combat (e.g., Wynne cast Petrify), then jumped to another character to move it around with the WASD keys (e.g., to set up a flanking Cone of Cold with my PC), only to find that first character ignoring my previous order and instead following the character I'm directing, because I forgot to toggle Hold Position on at the start of the fight. This is irritating. * The only spells that auto-cast are Heal (on very low health, just in case I'm not paying attention) and Arcane Bolt. And that's with a 2-mage party.

Agreed. My preferred party setup right now uses both of the NPC "tank" options-- Alistair and Shale. Shale is not only an adequate tank (a knockdown-avoidance ability is really the only thing lacking), in "Pulverizing Blows" mode, you've got a DPS-focused fighter that is probably better than Dog, Sten, or Oghren for most stages of the game.

ME was more balanced because there were fewer options. You had no character attributes and only about a dozen abilities per character class (with ranks that increased efficacy) to choose from, many of which were shared across multiple classes. Much easier to balance than DA's scores of unique spells (spells alone number 80, by my count), combat abilities, skills, and class talents, perched across variations in attributes, races, classes, and backgrounds. Any game with that many options is going to have some overpowered and underpowered abilities. And if the player is forced (as they are in DA) to make irrevocable character decisions based on limited knowledge of the actual effects of these choices, you are going to get some inadvertently gimped builds (and some inadvertently uber builds). It is a fun game, but some of their system-design decisions are destined to create frustrated players. (Who get mocked rather mercilessly when they post on the official forums.)

Details on the spell nerfs from a Bio employee:

"Gang of Dickensian child-thieves" was always one of my favorite cliche backgrounds for D&D characters. Also, link to source?

The merchant who's quest you get in the Mage Circle seemed overpowered to me. Good call-- that one gave me a lot of trouble. Encountering that merchant before you have an effective and immediate long-range mage-neutralizing spell or ability (force field, paralyze, etc.) makes for a fight that's tougher than most boss battles.

So, anybody care to guess which encounters that "were not scaling properly" were fixed by the patch? Alley thugs in Denerim have to be on that list, no? Edit: I also wonder what dropping poultices and $ "more appropriately" means. (Guess: Minor resistance balms have essentially been cut from the game for reason of uselessness, unless the player is dim enough to buy or make them.)

If it nerfs my Shimmering Shield, I don't want it! Condolences. DO NOT WANT! It's like my Morrowind Robe of St. Roris all over again. Or the BG2 Cloak of Reflection.

If it nerfs my Shimmering Shield, I don't want it! Condolences.

Yeah, the game gave me an auto-save right before the fight, but subsequent auto-saves have almost certainly overwritten it. I'm pretty sure I have a hard save before the Dungeon area, so, worst-case-scenario, I have to put another hour or so into getting through there.

Yup, and it's my favorite part of the game. Watching the comedy antics of your is PURE GOLD (I went with Leliana & Dog on my first playthrough); Damn.

So, what happens if ? The problem with Chain Lightning is that it's one of the only direct-damage spells that doesn't scale with Spellpower.

Go visit the Dalish. You'll stumble upon it while doing their big quest.

Last night I earned the "Sidetracked" achievement-- was the quest that put me over the top, which I thought that was an amusing coincidence. Then I talked to Arl Eamon and triggered the "go to Denerim for the Landsmeet" stage of the game.

I regretted taking the whole Paralysis line with my Mage. I found the Sleep line to be more useful, overall. Both have useless tier-1 spells and near-identical tier-2 spells (Horror is shorter range, but gets the edge because of its spell combo with Sleep). Mass Paralysis is nice, but it has a casting time, and it attacks an enemy's physical resistance. Sleep does much the same thing (enemies wake up when you hit them, but you should be concentrating fire, anyway), but it fires off quickly, has a larger area of effect, and attacks mental resistance, which is lower for most of the standard mobs you face. Walking nightmare is an OK spell, but you can get away with stopping at Sleep-- it sets enemies to treat each other as hostile, but half of them usually just keep going at your people (is threat level the reason?), and the duration isn't long enough for the in-fighting to do serious damage. The Glyphs line is also nice, but I think that Sleep + Force Field + Crushing Prison + Cone of Cold = all the crowd control you need. Focus the rest of your spells on ones that are effective in boss fights. (Hexes!)

Finished Orzammar. The grinding through the tunnels was indeed overlong, but it did have a nice payoff-- the area had the best "boss" battles in the game thus far ( ). I doubt they'd be equally fun on a second playthrough, as figuring out how to deal with their little surprises is a good part of the fun, but I felt it was on the whole a worthwhile experience for a first-timer.

It is possible though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_I...Great_Escape.22 Ha! Shortly after I wrote that post, I mused that I should've appended "for any purpose other than escaping a Nazi prison camp" to the first sentence.