Dragon Age Tactics

[Monte Carlo]

Arcane warriors can swap their MAGIC score for STRENGTH when wielding weapons & armour, this means that you get a mage who can double as a light fighter / archer if that floats your boat (I am experimenting with Morrigan as one, currently trying out an area of effect spell / waking nightmare / walking bomb / archery combo where you send exploding enemy mooks into the mob, she can do this all on her own while the rest of the guys get on with their thing). The specialist classes are all a bit meh, but a blood mage / arcane warrior mix would be a groovy party member.

 

Cheers

MC

[Monte Carlo]

Ha ha ha, have been playing with this tactic.

 

Hit a large mob (i.e. ogres, alphas, emissaries) with AoE like blizzard, then follow up with a waking nightmare. Hit a lower HP Genlock archer with walking bomb (actually I like to do two) then plink away at them with a bow and watch them blow up, depleting the HP of the aforementioned tougher monsters. Then send in your melee characters to finish them off at their leisure.

 

The tactic might not be optimal but it is lots of fun. Arcane Warrior can also mop up any of those annoying infantry who rush through your lines with sword & shield.

[HoonDing]

Blizzard + Tempest is enough to destroy everything on normal, it seems.

[Volourn]

"Some game areas really made me wish there was a Turn Undead spell. "

 

Yeah, but no doubt certain undeads would be immune or highly resistant anyways.

 

Rogues are evry sueful; but I think people wnat them to be as super powerful as warriors and mages but the class isn't deisgned that way in pretty much any game as the name suggests. A rogue should be treated as a SUPPORT class. Like that, they are pretty awesome.

[entrerix]

Blizzard + Tempest is enough to destroy everything on normal, it seems.

 

 

if you can avoid hitting your own party with it

 

im pretty terrible with friendly fire...

[mrmud]

"Some game areas really made me wish there was a Turn Undead spell. "

 

Yeah, but no doubt certain undeads would be immune or highly resistant anyways.

 

Rogues are evry sueful; but I think people wnat them to be as super powerful as warriors and mages but the class isn't deisgned that way in pretty much any game as the name suggests. A rogue should be treated as a SUPPORT class. Like that, they are pretty awesome.

Except the mage vastly outclasses rogues in support while dealing as much damage as the rogue.

[Volourn]

No, it doesn't. You simply aren't playing the rogue right. Sorry, but it's true.

[HoonDing]

Any tactics for random encounters involving 500 archers?

 

Sometimes I feel like the Spartans at the end of 300.

Edited November 16, 2009 by virumor

[Volourn]

500 archers? if youa re fighting 500 archers at once you are DEAD, DEAD, DEAD just like in rl.

[entrerix]

my rogue character does the least amount of damage in my group:

 

pc 40% alistair 19% morrigan 19% leliana17%

 

 

however she's the only one who opens locks and disarms traps which more than makes up for her 2% difference in damage output.

[Volourn]

Morigan only at 19%? Is your character a mage? Otherwise, I'm surprised she isn't higher. And, that's pretty spread out outside your PC who gets a boost since he's (she's) ALWAYS in the party. I'll have to check out the stats for my game but I'm sure Morrigan and my PC are both hogging the damage since they've been the main constants followed by Wynn but she spends her time healing.

[entrerix]

Morigan only at 19%? Is your character a mage? Otherwise, I'm surprised she isn't higher. And, that's pretty spread out outside your PC who gets a boost since he's (she's) ALWAYS in the party. I'll have to check out the stats for my game but I'm sure Morrigan and my PC are both hogging the damage since they've been the main constants followed by Wynn but she spends her time healing.

 

 

my pc is a fighter.

 

 

morrigan doesnt do much damage, all i use her for is cone of cold, force prison, sleep, heal, and crushing prison. (she also sustains telekinetic weapons. i have no idea if this helps me, i just do it because it seems cool)

 

she keeps the mobs from doing anything offensive while my 3 melee characters just mop up. it takes about 3 seconds for my melee characters to kill an enemy, so if morrigan can keep the mobs tied up for 30 seconds or so, then thats ten dead enemies.

Edited November 16, 2009 by entrerix

[HoonDing]

Morrigan does 33% damage in my party. Once she picked up Blizzard & Tempest, she started clearing out entire rooms on herself.

[Tigranes]

Alright, finished the game today so I'm starting again with a Dwarf Noble Rogue, Assassin/Duelist. I have the mods that let me choose all my abilities from scratch, for both PC and NPC, and Bio's dexterity hotfix that buffs ranged attacks and restores the proper str/dex dagger bonus.

 

I'm thinking that I'll dual-wield daggers and go for Momentum (third Dual-Wielding tree, third skill) as the key: combined with Combat Movement and Lethality, I think it will just give a super-fast slasher dealing good damage without the need to use active skills (except for Dirty Fighting to stun and Stealth to backstab). Then later the Duelist and Assassin trees can give me more options.

 

Of course the main thing is indeed skills, I started with points in Conversation, Stealing and Weapon Skills, but eventually I'm going to want Poisons as well, and the lockpicking talents, etc., as I don't want to lug around two rogues. We'll see.

[entrerix]

my warrior is a champion reaver, which i chose because it was neato that i could unlock both with the same character. but im not really digging the champion skills.

 

 

what are the better specializations for a sword and shield fighter? i like reaver for that level 1 self heal skill, but im not sure what else i see that i like. are there any "must have" warrior specialization skills?

[Gromnir]

but im not really digging the champion skills.

 

really? champion would appear to have the best powhaz. war cry, with knockback, is extreme useful... and if it it imposes penalties proportional to rally...

 

the damned rules not being transparent makes comparisons difficult, but rally + motivate would appear to give a +10 bonus to both defense and attack to any party-mate in the zone... including the champion. am doubting that such stuff stacks if you got 2 champions, but am gonna look next time we see. honest, we don't see any warrior specialization that genuine compares to champion.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[entrerix]

but im not really digging the champion skills.

 

really? champion would appear to have the best powhaz. war cry, with knockback, is extreme useful... and if it it imposes penalties proportional to rally...

 

the damned rules not being transparent makes comparisons difficult, but rally + motivate would appear to give a +10 bonus to both defense and attack to any party-mate in the zone... including the champion. am doubting that such stuff stacks if you got 2 champions, but am gonna look next time we see. honest, we don't see any warrior specialization that genuine compares to champion.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

oh cool good to know, i hadnt tried any of them yet, they just didnt look very useful to me, but i agree the problem is with total lack of transparency in the mechanics...

Edited November 17, 2009 by entrerix

[HoonDing]

A Templar's Holy Smite power is pretty useful in the Deep Roads. Ranged stun attack that can rip mages off their mana.

 

Champion/Templar is the best combo for a warrior, imo.

[Nepenthe]

500 archers? if youa re fighting 500 archers at once you are DEAD, DEAD, DEAD just like in rl.

 

Ah, I see the old 'reload' tactic from Baldur's Gate I days is still viable.

 

No, really, there were some insanely lethal random encounters in there, right?

[Majek]

Alright, finished the game today so I'm starting again with a Dwarf Noble Rogue, Assassin/Duelist. I have the mods that let me choose all my abilities from scratch, for both PC and NPC, and Bio's dexterity hotfix that buffs ranged attacks and restores the proper str/dex dagger bonus.

 

I'm thinking that I'll dual-wield daggers and go for Momentum (third Dual-Wielding tree, third skill) as the key: combined with Combat Movement and Lethality, I think it will just give a super-fast slasher dealing good damage without the need to use active skills (except for Dirty Fighting to stun and Stealth to backstab). Then later the Duelist and Assassin trees can give me more options.

 

Of course the main thing is indeed skills, I started with points in Conversation, Stealing and Weapon Skills, but eventually I'm going to want Poisons as well, and the lockpicking talents, etc., as I don't want to lug around two rogues. We'll see.

Beware though, dex fix applies to enemies as well. so archers are more deadly.

[Spider]

I'm thinking that I'll dual-wield daggers and go for Momentum (third Dual-Wielding tree, third skill) as the key: combined with Combat Movement and Lethality, I think it will just give a super-fast slasher dealing good damage without the need to use active skills (except for Dirty Fighting to stun and Stealth to backstab). Then later the Duelist and Assassin trees can give me more options.

 

And dual sweep and flurry. Those two really are the backbone of the dual wielder.

 

Anyway, whoever designer the wolf encounter outside Lotheren is now on my list. First time the game difficulty earned it's name. I mean who thought 16 enemies with shred and OVERWHELM would be a good idea. Or even fun... But we're past that now and off to see the elves...

[alanschu]

That's where Morrigan's CC spells came in very handy very quickly. I believe it is possible to have sleep by the time. Though I believe that's a random encounter, so you also got unlucky based on its timing.

[Matthew Rorie]

I think the wolves spawn in when you get a certain quest off the chanting board. And yeah, there are a lot of them. I got to that encounter before Morrigan even levelled up once and it was pretty rough going.

[Monte Carlo]

My character is a Champion / Beserker. Maybe I'm not using the skills properly, but war cry is useless and beserker seems like a parastitic drain on my character rather than a tangible combat benefit.

 

I tend to just use assault and shield bash whilst having shield wall on permanently with precise striking. The guy is, literally, a tank and is always last man standing. Although I've now got 4 levels of coercion too so I can scare people off just as easily if I don't feel like fighting.

 

Next go I'm playing a rogue but I might respec sten to Sword and Shield and take him along again. Hopefully someone will mod his sword one-handed eventually.

[Gorth]

Sometimes your legs are your best friend. My brave heroic fighter legged it (together with his equally heroic companions) to the "garden fences" closer to town. Then you can create kill zones which limit how many wolves you have to fight at any given time