83 replies to this topic

[cmorgan]

Harald has proven his worth over and over again - and the banters are great! I am stuck swapping in the cute but obviously destined for a long pining romance (which looks like a good match for a paladin-type, which i am definitely NOT playing this run!) rogue for him occasionally, because I want a locksmith (and she does not look so bad, either), but Morrigan is just my cup of tea this time through. No holds barred honesty, situational ethics - just what the aspiring shadowfighter needs to whip the likes of these stupid politicians and warlords. Kiss 'em, Kick 'em, Kis 'em works well with high cunning, and when that fails, unleash the Dogs of War (literally).

So far, other than wishing I could make the barmaid in R into a romanceable, all of the NPCs I have run into are refreshingly balanced and fun, each in their own way. I am going to have to replay this one over and over again, I think. And the Camp idea is growing on me fast. I like it.

[Celestine]

Oghen is hilarious, my favorite NPC after Alistair. My current party is a mage PC, Alistair, Zevhan and Oghen. Occasionally I swap Oghren for Leliana or Morrigan.

Btw, has anyone name the Dog as Boo?

[berelinde]

Btw, has anyone name the Dog as Boo?

I so wish I'd thought of that. I named mine Daisy.

[cmorgan]

I just (PID) asked Harald (my wardog) in an Inn, and he barked excitedly and ran around in a circle, then ran off and brought me back an item.

I had unplugged the earphones, so both my dogs jumped up barking at the computer, and then Choco ran off and grabbed a ball and brought it to me.

So screen and real life converged... weird.

I think I am calling it a night and going to go throw the ball for Choco a bit before hitting the sack. When RL and Fantasy gets that close together, I get worried - if Choco brings me back a Darkspawn hand or foot or something, I will be very worried about the nature of the universe...

[Icendoan]

And yet, more impressed with the game.

Icen

[Choo Choo]

Well, elven mage here with Alistair (romance), Leliana and the doggie named Fluffy in my party. At the moment, I'm in the Brecilian forest (Going the route Redcliffe - Mages - Elves - Dwarves) killing some undead. Good fun.

[Grunker]

Did I read somewhere that there's an NPC/NPC romance possible, or did I dream that?

I don't know for sure, but I think you dreamed that. The banters are not handled Baldur's Gate/KotOR-style. In a move I will never be able to comprehen, Bioware chose to have all banters play out as flowing text over the heads of your characters. This means that the banter might start while you're entering a new area, in which case you lose that banter :/

Anyway, my female City Elf warrior took along Shale, Leliana and Wynne. My Human Mage is probably gonna use Dog/Rabbit, Sten and Morrigan. If someone can give me one good reason to add a rogue, please do

Locked chest-loot is worthless. Besides that, the rogues just function as bad warriors.

[cmorgan]

Are you sure about the banter being cut off? I have had banters that were cut off by interacting with the environment resume - and since I have subtitles off, it is "vocal only" banter.

[WeeRLegion]

Banters will resume after opening the inventory, clicking on chests and what not, and who know whatever else, But I'm fairly certain area transitions do break them, never caught anything resuming after that.

[Vicen]

Be carefull if you are near the "gossip" people...Ive had to reload a save or two because the chat the gossip people have will overide your companions chat with each other

[Kulyok]

I just heard the fourth-wall breaking banter about cosmic powers and "players in a play". (Near the lake and Spoiled Princess). Was kind of fun, actually. Not sure it was gossip, though.

Locked chest-loot is worthless. Besides that, the rogues just function as bad warriors.

Isn't. My rogue opens all chests, and we already bought an amulet for 87 gold coins, a belt for 106 gold coins, a tome, a couple of bags of holding and lots of various cool boots and helmets(8-9 coins each) - and we haven't even done all "gather allies for the blight" quests, only Redcliffe, elves and mages. Also, my Cunning score is about forty now - and as rogues can use Cunning instead of Strength(a skill in Rogues tab somewhere), my Lyna kills almost as much as Alistair and Zevran, combined. Also, you HAVE to have a high cunning score to pass all persuasion checks(my rogue does), so rogue fits perfectly here - mage has to develop magic and the other skill for mana, and warriors don't need cunning at all.



Anyway! Don't you folks wish there was a LEVEL 1 NPC mod for Dragon Age? I mean, look at their original skills! Alistair has lots of slots filled with sword and shield - what if I want him to dual-wield? Zevran uses poisons and stealth - but I don't need these skills! Morrigan uses shapeshifting and horror/mind blasts - never use them, either. They could've been so much more if only we were allowed to pick their skills and stats!

[Eleima]

I don't know for sure, but I think you dreamed that. The banters are not handled Baldur's Gate/KotOR-style. In a move I will never be able to comprehen, Bioware chose to have all banters play out as flowing text over the heads of your characters. This means that the banter might start while you're entering a new area, in which case you lose that banter :/

Yeah, I just had that happen to me twice today. Just as my PC nears the door leading to the marketplace, Wynne goes "Alistair..." and boom, I'm out the door. And like cmorgan, I went with subtitles for the vocals only, not the ambient. What a shame to lose banters that way. Some really cracked me up (mostly, Alistair's), and I like seeing Wynne's reaction to our budding romance. They're really should've gone with a "banter pauses game", in my opinion. That would've allowed the player to actually *hear* the whole banter (which they probably worked really hard on, too), and perhaps even to react to what the others were saying. I can't imagine my feisty Noble Rogue firing back a few answers (example, caution spoilers ahead,

Spoiler

in that banter in which Wynne remarks that Alistair's staring at the PC's butt, mine probably would've had the nerve to say "he can look if he wants too!"

).

I agree with Kulyok regarding rogues. My lil' rogue is opening every chest she can find, and we've gotten more loot than we could carry (thank goodness for all those extra backpacks you can buy). That, and she's killed more critters than Alistair, what with her cunning used instead of strength, like Kulyok said. And when I manage to maneuver her to place her behind an opponent, well... the backstabs just keep piling up!

But to get back on topic, one of my largest surprises these last few days was Sten. At first, I didn't like him so much because he kept ranting about "people having to help themselves", when I got to Redcliffe and wanted to help people out. But, a few gifts later, he's actually warming up to me, and I to him, and I'm actually wondering where the friendship arc will lead us. That, and he's a rally good fighter.

[Crazee]

Love the inclusion of gifts in this game, I've got to say. They allow me to roleplay my character (which I always hesitated to do in, for example, NWN2 for fear of angering my allies too much) and thus lose god awful amounts of approval and yet my companions still stay with me. Maker knows Morrigan and Zevran would have left my serious, idealistic knight-like noble yonks ago if not for the gifts I've showered upon them.

I've really liked Wynne, surprisingly. She's good people, and I've enjoyed all the heart-to-hearts my PC and her have shared.

[berelinde]

Anyway! Don't you folks wish there was a LEVEL 1 NPC mod for Dragon Age? I mean, look at their original skills! Alistair has lots of slots filled with sword and shield - what if I want him to dual-wield? Zevran uses poisons and stealth - but I don't need these skills! Morrigan uses shapeshifting and horror/mind blasts - never use them, either. They could've been so much more if only we were allowed to pick their skills and stats!

Yea, verily, uh-huh. I'm OK with Alistair sword-and-shielding (though next time I run a warrior, I'm going to dual wield myself), but I really want Zevran to have some lockpicking ability.

But to get back on topic, one of my largest surprises these last few days was Sten. At first, I didn't like him so much because he kept ranting about "people having to help themselves", when I got to Redcliffe and wanted to help people out. But, a few gifts later, he's actually warming up to me, and I to him, and I'm actually wondering where the friendship arc will lead us. That, and he's a rally good fighter.

Yeah, I'm finding that I'm becoming increasingly fond of him as well.

Spoiler

Just don't bring him along on the Sacred Urn quest

, that's all I'm saying.

Love the inclusion of gifts in this game, I've got to say. They allow me to roleplay my character (which I always hesitated to do in, for example, NWN2 for fear of angering my allies too much) and thus lose god awful amounts of approval and yet my companions still stay with me. Maker knows Morrigan and Zevran would have left my serious, idealistic knight-like noble yonks ago if not for the gifts I've showered upon them.

I've really liked Wynne, surprisingly. She's good people, and I've enjoyed all the heart-to-hearts my PC and her have shared.

One of the things I like best about the game is that you *can* say what's on your mind with your companions, and often it results in approval being gained, not lost. I've also had a lot of luck leaving companions behind if I'm given a quest where I think they're likely to disapprove. As a result, however, Morrigan almost never leaves camp...

And yeah, I like Wynne's grandmotherly relationship with my character, though there are times when my PC feels like she's got a chaperon.

[Eleima]

As a result, however, Morrigan almost never leaves camp...

That's kinda how it went down for me, too... She kept complaining too much, so as soon as I got Wynne, I just dropped Morrigan. Wynne's the better mage too, in my opinion, what with all the healing...

And yeah, I like Wynne's grandmotherly relationship with my character, though there are times when my PC feels like she's got a chaperon.

I *love* the Wynne-PC relationship, she's like a surrogate grandmother. And I thought she had rather interesting remarks regarding my PC's relationship with Alistair, with different reactions for the different stages. And her banters! Don't get me started! She's full of surprises. Try to hear her banters with Alistair and with Oghren in particular, they're great.

[Discordia]

Anyway! Don't you folks wish there was a LEVEL 1 NPC mod for Dragon Age?

quoted for truth. i also want a tactics mod, and if it isnt hardcoded, some possibility to increase party size to 6 (which should probably come with its own balancing mod)

[Kaeloree]

Character Respecialisation mod may be what you guys are looking for.

[berelinde]

Looks promising, but it looks like there are still a few kinks to work out.

[Grunker]

Isn't. My rogue opens all chests, and we already bought an amulet for 87 gold coins, a belt for 106 gold coins, a tome, a couple of bags of holding and lots of various cool boots and helmets(8-9 coins each) - and we haven't even done all "gather allies for the blight" quests, only Redcliffe, elves and mages. Also, my Cunning score is about forty now - and as rogues can use Cunning instead of Strength(a skill in Rogues tab somewhere), my Lyna kills almost as much as Alistair and Zevran, combined. Also, you HAVE to have a high cunning score to pass all persuasion checks(my rogue does), so rogue fits perfectly here - mage has to develop magic and the other skill for mana, and warriors don't need cunning at all.

Main character is more powerful than the NPCs (check 1st patch notes), so that's no wonder. My character has a cunning of 18, and she passed every single persuasion and intimidation check I was ever presented with.

As for the gold stuff, I've opened every chest in the game, and sold all loot found in said chests (almost). Ca. 1/4 of my income came from this. Compare this to the obvious benefit of another warrior or mage, and it becomes moot. One or two über merchant items won't be worth that in a hundred years

I would really like for the rogues to be on par, and I wonder why they're not, since three classes should be pretty easy to handle.

Anyway! Don't you folks wish there was a LEVEL 1 NPC mod for Dragon Age? I mean, look at their original skills! Alistair has lots of slots filled with sword and shield - what if I want him to dual-wield? Zevran uses poisons and stealth - but I don't need these skills! Morrigan uses shapeshifting and horror/mind blasts - never use them, either. They could've been so much more if only we were allowed to pick their skills and stats!

I agree completely. It's also really weird that your character has a forced talent point on level one. I wanted to go Sword-n-board with my female city elf, but couldn't, since that would mean a wasted talent point (the get dual-weapon sweep).

I can't believe what I'm hearing about the giftsystem however. It's throws me completely out of the immersion when I bitch Alistair all the time, and all it takes to fix that is a couple of material boons. Being friends with everyone is not nearly as exciting as having amounts of conflict and amounts of love.

[WeeRLegion]

I'm with Grunker as far as the gift system goes. It seems to be implemented just as an ease-of-use feature.
I do think the special gifts, like Alistair's momma's locket and flowers for Leliana, are good; sure people like being appreciated in a special manner, but getting 5 appreciation points from 'I-hate-Dead-Rabbits-In-My-Backpack' -Morrigan for a gnawed lamb's bone?
That's messed up, and that's just one of the extremely weird gift items available. xP

Methinks the devs were just too lazy to implement a proper way to redeem yourself in the eyes of an pissed off NPC.

And then I think they went and balanced the party interaction with gifts in mind I think, making it difficult to get anywhere with a romance without a ton of bribery. Sigh.

Edited by WeeRLegion, 12 November 2009 - 09:16 PM.