I picked up the Dragon Age: Origins (Ultimate Edition) off Amazon for less than $40, the other day. I'd heard a ton of positive stuff about this RPG when it came out a year ago, the trailers for DA 2 have me all psyched, and when I saw that deal -- for $38.95 or something I got Origins, the Awakenings expansion, and all 9 DLC packs -- I just couldn't pass it up.

I think for my first playthrough I'll be going to my "default" of a Human Warrior, sword-and-board. Just like with Mass Effect (where I tend towards a straightforward play style with lots of armor and basic combat abilities), I find it's hard to go wrong with the good ol' human fighter, especially in a classic fantasy RPG, to keep things simple your first time through.

Great game! Have fun!

I only have the original DA:O, so I might pick up the Ultimate Edition as well, for all the extra stuff.

Bye
Thanee

They've still got the sale going on ($39.95, I just checked, so oh well my memory was close), so if you're interested, it looks like now's the time.

For some reason it is a lot cheaper in the UK. Just £17.69 right now (instead of £24.99 regular) on amazon.co.uk.

Bye
Thanee

It's not often that things are cheaper over here.

Still got a couple of things on my list before DA but I too have heard good things.

So, yeah. I stayed up until 5:00 am playing it yesterday, all in one sitting. I think I like it okay.

Orzammar.

Enough said.

Did anyone else hate that witch you get in your party? I can't remember her name for the life of me, started with an M. She's just so rude and annoying. I've dated girls exactly like her and the moment I realized this I began hoping for a chance to kill her...but I'm a nice guy and won't do that so I just take extra pleasure in seeing her get downed.

Morrigan? You get her like right at the start of the game?

Yeah, she was kind of annoying, but I seem to recall her getting better as time went on.

So far I've tackled the Mage Circle big quest, and I'm working on Redcliffe right now (part way done, I guess, I've handled some family issues and I'm off to go find the Urn, now). I also did one DLC quest, and got some swanky gear from returning to Ostagar. On my way to Denerim to handle the Redcliffe quest I'm not, but also Alistair and Leliana's personal quests seem to be leading me there, and a few side jobs, to boot.

Lovin' it!

This has been a really fun game so far, even if I can't help but feel I'm missing half of everything by going it "on my own" instead of slaving myself to a walkthrough and making sure I find every little thing. I'm having fun as a sword-and-board warrior (though I AM looking forward to getting a specialization, to open up a few more options), and just generally this has been a really cool gaming experience so far.

Thats the one! Oh really? Well I hope so, damn apostates

One thing that I kind of didn't like about the game was that there was all this lore about everyone hating/fearing blood mages, but you can become a blood mage and no one ever says anything about it.

I really loved Dragon Age, despite its hitches and warts. I had tons of fun as a sword and shield fighter and found them to be surprisingly durable and tough. I also enjoyed the Arcane Warrior or whatever it's called, the mage specialization. Combine that with some blood magic specialization and you basically have broken the game. Have fun walking through the opposition.

One of my only beefs with the game is that I seemed to always end up using the same people: Leliana, Morrigan, and Wynne. Morrigan was my hardcare magic specialist that I gave the good debuffs and my area effect spells. Wynne I would make the primary healer and also give her some crowd pleasing spells. Leliana was there purely for ranged/arrow damage and the odd lock. Then I'd put my main character out front and call it a day. Very little stood up to my party as I had it set up.

Fun fact: you can get infinite gold if you're willing to make trips back and forth across the map. All those juicy weapons you slaver over can be yours without selling every single potion and possession you own. Basically get Morrigan's Herbalism up to max rank as soon as you can, then save up the gold to buy the formula for the top rank Lyrium Potions (I think at the magic shop in Denerim). Buy tons and tons and tons of Lyrium dust at the Mage tower, and then go to that bar in Denerim and buy the rest of your ingredients. Brew them there, then sell them back for a profit. It's incredibly tedious (especially browing the potions, then selling them) but you end up making ridiculous amounts of money over time.

Hehe, same team for me, except that I replaced Morrigan as I was mage and Alister replaced you, as he was the sword and shield guy. I would equip him with armor that would negate/absorb fire, then throw out firestorm and then that AoE blood spell which paralyzed people for a while. Was exceedingly effective.

I've been using my primary (sword and board guy, and I just got the Blood Dragon DLC armor, and King Cailan's old sword and shield, so he's pretty ridiculously good), Wynne (with her AI tweaked to do nothing but heal and buff, pretty much), Lelianna (for archery and opening locks), and then either Alistair or Dog. I love the idea of Dog, I think he's a great little character, and even the RPer in me digs using him as my loyal warhound thanks to my Noble origin...but Alistair tricked out in the King's old armor is kicking a lot of butt, and the interactions with him and Wynne are pretty fun. We mostly get by through me and Alistair just grinding away at baddies while we take whatever they can throw at us, and so far it's worked pretty well.

Castle Redcliffe and similar terrain with doorways is a lot of fun, because we can actually block them for the most part, and just keep the two sword-and-board guys up front, kicking butt.

My plan is to run with the...uhh...less morally righteous crew, next time around. I'm not sure if I'll be a power hungry Mage or a stabbidy-stabby Rogue, but either way it'll make for a fun, DPS-oriented, crew with Morrigan, Zevran, and Ogrhen.

Well my impression is you don't wear a sign that says "Hey, ask me about blood magic!" plus your a gray warden so it is actually legal for you to do blood magic, just not very wise.

Also my first play throughw as a rogue, got really frustrated very early as I was sticking a fair number of points into stuff (like lockpicking) that didn't help make me a better fighter. But I didn't want to take another rogue along. Switched mage and was amazed at how much easier the game was (mob control spells for the win) then i got the advancement path that lets you use your magic value instead of strength for wearing armor and things got even more rediculous as I could actually take some hits. Started to play a noble tank at the end to see if i could get made king at the end but got bored with it mid way through because I'd already seen much of the game twice already. Maybe some of the DLC's will help that now.

http://biowarestore.com/dragon-age/dragon-...disapproves-tee




-k

Sexy outfit Claudia Black mage?

--



Origins Companions:
Alistair: Whiny insecure little bitch.
Morrigan: Bitch witch who doesn't seem to care much about most lives.
Leliana: "Reformed" bard who was going to join the Chantry but still has an unabashed bisexual.
Zevran: Assassin for hire that is unabashedly bisexual.
Oghren: Drunkard who seems to want to get Wynne in the sack.
Shale: HK-47 in golem form.
Wynne: Motherly. First of three sane companions
Dog: Loyal companion. Second of three sane companions.
Sten: Strong silent warrior. Third of three sane companions.
Secret Companion: No comment, never got it.

Awakening Companions:
Anders: Runaway mage. Keeps running away just so one female templar has to capture him.
Justice: Not human, or elf, or dwarf.
Nathaniel: You killed his father. Prepare to die.
Oghren: Drunkard. Still. Spends his time trying to get Sigrun in the sack.
Sigrun: Dwarf of the Legion of the Dead.
Velanna: Bitch elven witch but more personable than Morrigan.

I swear.... very few of the characters don't have some sort of psychological issue.

Well, yeah, but I'm okay with that. Normal, sane, stable, people don't take up a life of adventuring. "Murderous hobos," I called your average fantasy adventurer on another forum once, and I stand by it.

Yeah, Blood Magic + Arcane Warrior = Roll over Everything.

You just get a bunch of personal buff spells and activate them all, turn on blood magic and enjoy.

I gave every caster a heal spell and Blood Magic. Wynn, Morrigan, Myself and Leliana (as a Ranger so I could steal health from her pet). It worked out pretty well.

I've had this game for a while now. It's the first game I had to wrestle with my wife for to get my damn turn to play! Crazy lady, I tell ya'!

First time through, I did stick w/ Morrigan (who if you've got the right sense of humor and some patience can be hilarious), Leliahna, and usually one of the three tank types (Alistair, Sten, or Oghren). Still haven't DLd the extra set for getting Shale.

Secret Companion:


Don't worry about a walk through Crit. The game has real good replay value as a different origin, and different "alignment". You can play through just as well as a murderous thief. Which, incidentally, works really well once you ge tteh knack of the thief, with stunning attacks and two weapons. It's not to hard to take down an ogre without getting hit with a good rogue.

I love the mages though. The Cone of Cold/Frost/Whatever is the easiet trick, as it freezes a group of enemies, so you can beat them up/break them at your liesure.

A few tricks for mages:
Freezing spells + Force Cage = Busted enemies
Grease + Fire spells = nice inferno

Also for another nice free money break, albeit time consuming, in Lothren you can find a woman who pays you 30 cilver to make her some traps. Make them for her, then go to the bar and talk to the vendor there who sells you trap springs for something like a silver. Buy as many as you can, then make as many traps as you can. Then go sell them all to her. Rinse, repeat. With ten minutes of your time, you can get 200 gold and a couple of levels, because it keeps letting you repeat the quest.

The dog is indeed awesome. If you download the adventure that lets you play as darkspawn, yuo fight him in the end. His name is "Barkspawn", which is now my default name for him.

I personally hate Wynne because she burns through mana way to damn fast. I have to baby sit her to make sure she doesn't use it all up in the first minute of a fight.

Enjoy the game. Sadly, btw, the Dalish elf has the weakest origin story. Dwarf noble, human, and elf commoner are the best IMO. Soldier's Peak is also a good download for more gear , armor specifically.

The second one comes out in a few months.

The force cage and the one that crushes somebody is another good combo. It'll create an AOE effect as the cage shatters. Its nice to lock down a heavy and for a while, then blow up the cage and finish off the weaklings.

I've made it through most of the game so far with my sword & board human noble (Templar/Champion specializations). I've got to hit the Dalish Elves area and add to my army, and then off I go to Landsmeet. I did the DLC stuff to get Shale, went back to Ostragar, claimed Warden's Keep, and did play as the Darkspawn guy in that little on-shot DLC mission...now it's time to knuckle down and get back to work.

Playing as an ogre is too much fun. Really is criminal.

There's some interesting alternate choices out there for the bad guy style. Dalish for example, you can side with the werewolves and wipe them out. You actually go into the camp with the werewolves and attack the elves en masse.

No win Situation spoiler for later in the game:


First time I played through I went for the Dwarf Noble, which was fun. Never did try going for the throne myself though. Not really sure if I could. One thing that really recommends this game for me, it really gets you mad at some of the Origin Story bad guys. The bastard in the Dwarf Commoner story line is just ....grrr.

The best thing about this game (though don't get me wrong, I loved it) is that it has distracted my wife for many hours, allowing me to play World of Warcraft uninterrupted.

In all seriousness though, I found the story to be very compelling and the world to be very interesting. I can't wait for the sequel. Also if you're interested in more DA lore, there are a couple of novels out which are also quite good.

I know exactly what you mean (with the exception of Wow. I still won't play that). My wife is addicted to this game, and has only stopped playing because she's done the game through with all the classes she was interested in. I read her your post.

I'd seen the books but had been leery of them, as I don't tend to enjoy books that intertwine with computer games (I read the books based off of DOOM back in ...'95?) . Maybe I'll give these a shot.

Should be getting a copy of this tomorrow. Well, me and the kid jointly and I don't think I'll be getting much time with for a few days that doesn't involve watching over his shoulder.

Opinions from both of us to come

Depending on how old the kid is, you might want to check it out yourself first. First, there's a setting for "Persistent Gore". Basically the fights are bloody, and the characters end up covered in blood , that remains even through conversations. You can have the Dog clean you up. Or you can turn it off in the options menu.

There's also some more serious things in the game, like mercy killings, possessions, torture, and off screen rape in one of the origins (alluded to strongly, but not direct). So it is a more adult game in some parts. Over all though it's not bad. Most of the game I don't have a problem with my kids seeing.

Merry Christmas!:D

Finished up my "good guy who basically acts like he's worried about losing his Paladin abilities" playthrough last night (Sword and Board, going Champion/Templar), and started up a power-hungry elf (Arcane Warrior/Blood Mage)...having a lot of fun, so far.

That combo is pretty great. I never used Arcane Warrior for anything more than better equipment, putting levels into spells instead. Blood magic is great at the higher levels though. Especially when you can take control of ogres and turn them on others.

Two handed combat is pretty good to for dealing massive amounts of damage.

He's 15 in 10 days or so. I don't imagine it'll be the worst thing he's played, anything his stepdad buys he gets to play so....

Remember to remind him there's "nudity" in the game, then make sure to watch his expression when he sees the Broodmother.






-k

I hope you ordered the Ultimate Edition.

Bye
Thanee

Ohhh yeah. Know how that one goes. Well enjoy then.

City elf?

I've played the Dalish, Mage, and Human Noble origins and I can't think of any part where rape was implied in those three. Rape doesn't seem to go along with either Dwarf origin. Probably because I don't want to think of an Oghren forcing himself on a Sigrun in order to make little blue and pink rocks.

*shudder*

City Elf, yes.

I'm playing back through this again as a dwarf sword-and-shield fighter. I have to say, I enjoy it everytime my character does one of those spinning reverse sword decapitations upon finishing off the monster.

Mrs. Crit snagged me Assassin's Creed II for Christmas (nice and cheap!), so I've been playing that for the last day or so. Just found out the new semester doesn't start for a good, long, time, though...so I'm sure I'll be back to stabbing and burning my way across Denerim before too long.

Jesus, you played the game *exactly* the way I did.

Quitter.

Compared to Altair, you will fall in love with Ezio. You will want to have little Ezio babies. Plus Ezio can swim. Damn Altair.

Doesn't Mrs 4.0 already have her own handle?

When you say "Dark Sun Game," Fisty, you mean the 4e boxed set? Or is there some video game or something I haven't heard about?


I'll be honest, but the main character actually being...well...a character...really helped draw me in, and early in the game. I'm a fan of the brooding silent type of badass as much as the next fan of badassery in general, but yeah. Ezio actually having something like a personality, a family, etc, etc, went a long way towards making the early stages of the game fun.

Just as important, of course, were the actual gameplay upgrades. I never finished AC1 because I was just bored with the repetitive missions, the uselessness of the pre-mission scouting stuff, etc, etc. The way you can meld with a crowd in AC2, the side jobs just to get money (the fact there IS money), picking pockets, the organic way you blend with crowds...I'm definitely diggin' it so far. They really did fix what issues I had with the first one, and made a sequel that's all around better than the original.

So, sure, I hopped on the bandwagon late, but I also got it for $15. I'm calling it a reasonable trade-ff.

I've been bugging my friends to just play AC2 already so I can friggin talk to them about the game. I hate having a game which engages my mind and having no one to talk to about it. It helps drive me mad(der). They're two games behind me in the series!

SO many ways to answer this...
I hate 4th edition. Hate it. I still bought the 4th edition book. It was just nice to see Darksun printed again. Nice to see new art as well, although there's a good amount of it that's rather cartoony. There were also some things added to the setting that were nice additions.

If I could, I'd play Darksun 2nd edt. But the wife prefers/knows 3.5. It's not bad, works well. Just ... the lack of psionics... dissapointing.

There are Darksun games, but not since DOS (Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager). Classics but very outdated. There is a new novel out. As much as I hate to spend money on things I'm not thrilled about, I like Darksun enough to buy them anyway.

BTW, if you're digging more character to the characters, might want to look at DragonAge 2 when it comes out in March. The main character is supposed to have dialog added. Wow. Such a huge leap forward. It's such an obvious thing and so very lacking from the last one. I don't know what that means about different character options though.

We've used Complete Psionics in our Eberron 3.5 campain back in the days. Why don't you use it in a Dark Suns 3.5 game?

I do. And the Expanded Psionics Handbook. What I'm missing is mental combat, brain to brain, construct to construct, the way it used to be. It was one of my favorite parts of Darksun, something so unique. I have a house rule system for it, but it just isn't the same, since the old Attacks/Defenses are now powers that do different things.

Essentially similar to an old version that was IIRC in the Skills & Powers book forever ago.If power costs X, (we'll say x is 3) then it can deal up to 2x in damage (so a power costing 3 psps deals 1d6 psp damage). Unfortunately it makes psionic combat very short at lower levels. And I hated the way they did it before , where it knocked points off of attributes. Still looking for a good system.

The powers themselves are good, and fun. I love Augmenting for one thing. The Mental Combat is hard to get over.

Do you have the D&D 3.0 Psionics Handbook... I think it still had the mental combat stuff.

Bye
Thanee

I have yet to make it through more than one session of D&D 4e, myself. It just doesn't...feel right. I tried to make a Dark Sun character, but just can't manage to wade through it all. I guess maybe I'm not giving it a fair shake, or whatever, but I just don't want to.

More specifically, though, I was just trying to ask what the heck you got for Christmas. You said she got you a Dark Sun game, and I wasn't sure what you meant (if it was the recent Dark Sun stuff, or something else that I hadn't heard about).


Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Especially after having played Mass Effect, the lack of main-character dialogue being spoken in Dragon Age was really jarring. It's still an amazing game, etc, etc, and I can understand that having voice actors for every possible character build would've been a lot of work...but the way you just vacantly stare at everyone that talks to you, it really takes away from the experience somewhat.

From what I've seen of DA 2, character creation (at the start) is pretty simple. Fighter, Rogue, or Wizard, and then Male or Female...and that's it.