Monte's Dragon Age Thread

[Nightshape]

I r agree'in wit Grommy.

[Hurlshort]

I'm definitely enjoying figuring out which gifts go best with which NPC's. Sten loves paintings, apparently.

[HoonDing]

I've been buttering up Shale, Alistair & Leliana mostly, but surprisingly have good approval with Sten too. He's not the Canderous Ordo type I had expected him to be.

 

With Morrigan it's just a pain to prevent her approval from sinking constantly.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Morrigan is Jaheira without the annoying husband.

 

Approval rating yo-yos but I'm stuck with her since the, er, incident with Wynne.

 

We now have fireball, wow now that's what I call a spell.

[Oner]

Don't get me started on Sten. If Bio puts in an annoying ****wad, at least let me insult him thoroughly.

EXCUSE ME FOR ONLY KILLING A DEMON THAT AN OGRE COULDN'T HEADBUTT WHILE YOU'RE BUSY SITTING IN CAMP CRYING OVER A FEW PEASANTS YOU BLOODTHIRSTY **** MURDERER. OH WHAT, LITTLE STENY GONNA CRY AGAIN?

 

 

For clarification: I got the "you're not impressive enough" conversation at camp right after I came back from the mage tower.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Oner

[HoonDing]

Don't get me started on Sten. If Bio puts in an annoying ****wad, at least let me insult him thoroughly.

EXCUSE ME FOR ONLY KILLING A DEMON THAT AN OGRE COULDN'T HEADBUTT WHILE YOU'RE BUSY SITTING IN CAMP CRYING OVER A FEW PEASANTS YOU BLOODTHIRSTY **** MURDERER. OH WHAT, LITTLE STENY GONNA CRY AGAIN?

"You fiend!"

[Aristes]

Thanks, MC, you bastard, for forcing me to look up plaudits. Anyhow, the voice over work is excellent. Sure, they went heavy on the English accent thing, but that's not a question of performance. That was a production decision. I think Morrigan is a bit over the top, but overall they're excellent in their delivery. There have only been a couple of American accents I've heard so far. Morrigan's mother is one of them and I can't remember the other. Maybe when I get to other areas?

 

I haven't had a lot of chances to play, so I've only just met Sten. I'm eager to see what the hubbub is all about, though.

 

BTW: The flash game is pretty damned sleek also. Have played that even less, tho.

[alanschu]

I think Morrigan's is technically Australian

[Aristes]

Yeah, but she's still over the top. I'm not talking accent. I'm talking delivery. ...And, I think that's taste, which is to say that she doesn't give a bad performance, just not my cup of tea performance.

[Purkake]

The English speaking people are pretty good, but what the hell is up with the Orlais accent? I don't have a clue what they were trying there, it's barely more understandable than the Werewolves...

[Hurlshort]

I think it is supposed to be French. In fact I get a whole Joan of Arc vibe from Leliana.

[Purkake]

I think I read that from somewhere as well, it mostly sounds like slurring, though. I'd rather have a fake French accent like in System Shock 2 or just grab a French person from Montreal and have them do it.

[Killian Kalthorne]

If I grabbed a French woman I would get arrested.

[alanschu]

I believe her voice actress is Parisian.

 

It immediately seemed French to me.

Edited November 9, 2009 by alanschu

[Purkake]

Makes me think of the Seanchan, but you wouldn't know anything of that.

 

So yeah, I'm helping elves and killing werewolves. Without Cone of Cold I would have never made it that far, too bad Morrigan starts with a ton of really crappy spells.

[entrerix]

what are the skills that come with the wardens keep dlc?

 

anyone know what they do?

 

are they overpowered? unbalancing- the- game over powered or just a little bit?

[HoonDing]

Without Cone of Cold I would have never made it that far, too bad Morrigan starts with a ton of really crappy spells.

Cone of Cold + Stonefist/Shield Pummel has become my bread & butter.

 

I'm sure Morrigan will be modded into having decent starting spells sooner or later.

[alanschu]

What are Morrigan's starting spells again?

[Oner]

Drain Life, Weakness, Winter's Grasp, Cold Weapons, Lightning and spider shape shift IIRC.

Or not.

Edited November 10, 2009 by Oner

[alanschu]

I think the console version does have lightning instead of one of the spells, but I'm not sure which one.

 

 

Morrigan's starting spells aren't that bad though. Disorient and Horror are pre-reqs for a very, very useful tree. Winter Grasp is a good spell in and of itself, and a useful pre-req to get Cone of Cold.

 

Vulnerability Hex I didn't really use too much, though I suppose it'd be useful with other damaging spells, and especially with another mage nearby.

 

Mind blast is a great spell IMO. and starts you off down a very useful tree as well.

 

Some of the most effective spells IMO are Sleep, Waking Nightmare, Force Field, and Crushing Prison.

[Oner]

I was using Wynne and had her learn earthquake. Maybe I used it wrong, but it was underwhelming, or rather didn't last long enough.

[Tigranes]

Some of the most effective spells IMO are Sleep, Waking Nightmare, Force Field, and Crushing Prison.

 

None of which I have, despite being level ~11. I think it's silly not to have the exact effects of spells and abilities available in-game (or in the manual) - you just have to read the description then guess at exactly how potent they are. i.e. I wasn't to know that crushing prison in fact deals quite a lot of damage, not 'token damage' while incapacitating.

[Gromnir]

Some of the most effective spells IMO are Sleep, Waking Nightmare, Force Field, and Crushing Prison.

 

None of which I have, despite being level ~11. I think it's silly not to have the exact effects of spells and abilities available in-game (or in the manual) - you just have to read the description then guess at exactly how potent they are. i.e. I wasn't to know that crushing prison in fact deals quite a lot of damage, not 'token damage' while incapacitating.

 

am gonna second tig's observation. we chose a couple of lame spells for the two npc casters but am not gonna replay half game so we can fix after the fact. a gorlock emissary hits us with curse o' mortality or crushing prison and then we begins to realize that such spells is relative efficacious? can't figure out from the spell description. we did choose sleep/walking nightmare for claudia black... cast horror on sleeping critter does do good damage. only drawback o' walking nightmare is that 1/2 of those affected turn hostile and begin attacking us anyways... and you gotta have a pretty good internal clock to time your casting o' walking nightmare just before sleep expires. is good anti-mob spells, but is not so good v. any critter who gots yellow lettering. also, we got a weird bug with walking nightmare that has popped up a couple times (2x). is rare, but sometimes when we kill a critter who is under effects o' walking nightmare, he don't go down... health bar complete empties and the critter won't attack, but it won't complete die neither.... which is somewhat irritating if we have a downed party member, 'cause combat persists. Gromnir uses lots o' cone of cold and mighty blow combos to create shatters, so am not sure if that is part of the problem.

 

we took earthquake and have found it to be useful, but you gotta use geography and additional area effect damage spells. d&d equivalent would be grease spell... but covering more area. slow the baddies down and disrupt archers, etc.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[alanschu]

Some of the most effective spells IMO are Sleep, Waking Nightmare, Force Field, and Crushing Prison.

 

None of which I have, despite being level ~11. I think it's silly not to have the exact effects of spells and abilities available in-game (or in the manual) - you just have to read the description then guess at exactly how potent they are. i.e. I wasn't to know that crushing prison in fact deals quite a lot of damage, not 'token damage' while incapacitating.

 

 

I guess it would depend. Based on a meeting we had today, we were explicitly told to refrain from explaining on the forums, the exact mechanics of how a lot of the attributes work in the mean time because apparently there's groups that are having a heck of a time figuring it out and sharing it. Not that I actually know the mechanics anyway haha. I'm not saying that the information couldn't have been better in descriptions, but at the same time it sounds like a lot of people are having fun learning.

 

I was the same as you my first playthrough at first, and made many assumptions based on my experiences with other games (namely D&D games at that). After a while (and some comments from other people), I began to experiment with other spells as I went along in my playthrough. I think a lot of us made assumptions on the spells based on prior experience with similar spells, but that's not necessarily the fault of the game player though. It's not uncommon to fall back on what we're familiar with.

 

What I basically gleaned is that pretty much any 4th tier spell is pretty effective. Resistances to CC effects go up with special guys (non-white names) so damage tends to work better against them. But placing a Force Field on a special character as I slaughter his lackeys is good times. A lot of spells that I typically would never use ended up being really useful through some experimentation. It was fun discovering it and realizing many of my assumptions were just wrong.

 

 

also, we got a weird bug with walking nightmare that has popped up a couple times (2x). is rare, but sometimes when we kill a critter who is under effects o' walking nightmare, he don't go down... health bar complete empties and the critter won't attack, but it won't complete die neither.... which is somewhat irritating if we have a downed party member, 'cause combat persists.

 

Just to be clear, are you saying that you're getting an invincible character that doesn't attack you either, keeping you combat indefinitely?

Edited November 10, 2009 by alanschu

[Tigranes]

Based on a meeting we had today, we were explicitly told to refrain from explaining on the forums, the exact mechanics of how a lot of the attributes work in the mean time because apparently there's groups that are having a heck of a time figuring it out and sharing it.

 

That's fair enough, but normally the sort of information that is kept for the mathematicians amongst us is much more specific. This is the equivalent of all your pieces of armour saying "provides pretty good defence, ja" and leaving everyone else to figure out exactly how much defence it adds... as opposed to, say, remaining taciturn on the exact mechanisms of armour penetration ratings vs. armour efficiency. I think it was a mistake to leave basic information about spells out and pretty much guarantees that you'll screw yourself over. Not having perfectly unoptimised characters is fine, but...