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[lorddarkflare]

I hope not, this is a single player game, it doesn't need class balance.
Sure, all classes need to be viable (and they are) and none should be too strong that it would trivialize the game (and generally, none of them are).
Over balancing just ends up watering down all classes.
Classes were not remotely balanced in BG2 or IWD, there is no reason for it in a game like this.

Well that is not exactly how i view balance, but that is beside the point anyways.

My Issue is that that the characters are very important in this game, and so it really hurts it when it you are more or less required to have two of them in your party at all times.

If there was more of a 'balance'(relative of course) we would not need six(6) warriors.

In a Single player game, Balance is necessary for variety. Once you have enough variety, it does not really matter how overpowered one class is.

 

[Amir0x]

I still find it kind of strange that you can have sex with a transsexual prostitute but they aren't willing to depict rape in a realistic way or even mention it explicitly. Figures.

To be fair, they don't really show the sex in a realistic way either - they just sort of kiss, touch and fade to black.

To be honest, I don't want a game tackling rape in a hyper graphic way atm. One, the visuals can't keep up so it'd seem to demean the significance of rape, almost like parody rape.

And two, I don't hold in my opinion the ability for any developer to properly depict rape without me really not wanting to play the game any further.

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

So I been playing this game on my PC for a week now and I do like it but, it's sad there is no game-pad control so I can lay back instead of being hunched over a computer desk. I get my 15 foot HDMI cable tomorrow so I can try the game out on my HTPC but, I still have to use a keyboard and mouse which is kind of like defeating the purpose.

I do have a couple questions and/or comments.

1. I can't seem to get my character to "play by himself" like the other characters in your party. I was under the impression that I could set the game up and play like FF12 on PS2 but, it looks like this isn't exactly working out that way. Am I missing something?

2. Does the game explain more about how to play as in how to gain or use new abilities or am I just on my own? I'm asking because I have the shape-shifting ability but I'd like to get more of the arcane arts but I'm not sure how. It seems like it's all just chance.

Great game though, other than the faults I mentioned I really like this game on PC.

Only other gripe is that it's a little too much micro management oriented with all the extra characters I'm never going to use. You can't switch them out during battle and it would be to time consuming and boring to just level grind every character you meet which would just turn the game into a strategy/sim or something.

4. Is there a nude patch out yet?

 

[Dipper145]

I had a really weird bug going through deep roads.

I assume Oghren was supposed to come with me, but I didn't know this, I mean he said "lets go" or something during our conversation, but didn't join my party. I didn't even know anything was up until one of the later cut-scenes like 2 hours into the area. He was invisible yet talking like he was there. It also happened in numerous other cut-scenes, and I don't know where he is anymore. I wasn't planning on using him anyway, I just thought it was quite a strange bug. It was funny when he first popped up, and my character was just staring at an empty area. At first I didn't even recognize who it was supposed to be, thought a ghost was going to pop up or something.

 

[Fredescu]

1. I can't seem to get my character to "play by himself" like the other characters in your party. I was under the impression that I could set the game up and play like FF12 on PS2 but, it looks like this isn't exactly working out that way. Am I missing something?

Whichever character you have selected ignores the tactics and only operates manually. You can't just let it play itself.

Only other gripe is that it's a little too much micro management oriented with all the extra characters I'm never going to use. You can't switch them out during battle and it would be to time consuming and boring to just level grind every character you meet which would just turn the game into a strategy/sim or something.

They gain levels when they're not in your party. You don't have to worry about switching them out to gain xp.

 

[Ventrue]

1. I can't seem to get my character to "play by himself" like the other characters in your party. I was under the impression that I could set the game up and play like FF12 on PS2 but, it looks like this isn't exactly working out that way. Am I missing something?

Currently selected characters won't use tactics. You can't have your whole party act completely autonomously.

2. Does the game explain more about how to play as in how to gain or use new abilities or am I just on my own? I'm asking because I have the shape-shifting ability but I'd like to get more of the arcane arts but I'm not sure how. It seems like it's all just chance.

If you mean gaining talents, they list their prerequisites when you scroll over them, usually an attribute score. If you mean specialisations, you have to find them but they are unlocked for all your characters once you get them once. They're usually learned from books available from merchants, party members or certain NPCs who have a very obvious connection with that class.

Only other gripe is that it's a little too much micro management oriented with all the extra characters I'm never going to use. You can't switch them out during battle and it would be to time consuming and boring to just level grind every character you meet which would just turn the game into a strategy/sim or something.

All you characters level up at the same rate whether they're in the party or not. Some areas (cities, etc) will let you swap out character with one of the buttons on the top menu (skills, talents, map, etc).

 

[Chichikov]

Well that is not exactly how i view balance, but that is beside the point anyways.

My Issue is that that the characters are very important in this game, and so it really hurts it when it you are more or less required to have two of them in your party at all times.

If there was more of a 'balance'(relative of course) we would not need six(6) warriors.

In a Single player game, Balance is necessary for variety. Once you have enough variety, it does not really matter how overpowered one class is.

Granted, I have not yet finished the game, but so far, at least on normal difficulty, you certainly don't require 2 mages in your party at all time.
Far from it.
The main thing you will be missing if going with none (as far as hindrance to your success) is the lack of a healer, but that's hardly something unusual for an RPG, and in any case, the abundance of potions make it easier to go without a healer than most party based RPGs.

 

[lorddarkflare]

Granted, I have not yet finished the game, but so far, at least on normal difficulty, you certainly don't require 2 mages in your party at all time.
Far from it.
The main thing you will be missing if going with none (as far as hindrance to your success) is the lack of a healer, but that's hardly something unusual for an RPG, and in any case, the abundance of potions make it easier to go without a healer than most party based RPGs.

Nightmare + Pc + Dex hotfix.

I think it is easy, but this is only because of Morrigan and Wynne. I am sure that the experience would be unpleasant otherwise.

The way i look at it, the best config in terms of combat is easily Morrigan + Wynne + Shale.
Keep Liliana in the background for chests, and make your PC anything (best choice is Mage. Rogue is good too)

 

[Tokubetsu]

Jesus christ do enemy archers get deadly endgame with the Dex hotfix. They do scattershot I think it is and literally my entire party is down to like half health and stunned. Right off the fucking bat.

 

[Haunted]

He just wants to be pretty.

I honestly thought for a second Shale was homosexual, but being a golem I guess thats not even possible.

Shale

Spoiler

Gender: Female

just sayin'

 

[Fredescu]

Shale

Spoiler

Gender: Female

Just sayin'.

That's a bit of a spoiler.

 

[Tobor]

I was hoping Kosma and Zeliard could play through that part before someone spoiled it. Don't click, fellas.

 

[markot]

Wish you could give Shale some soft shoes!

 

[Kosma]

Shale

Spoiler

Gender: Female

just sayin'

Mind blown.

I always thought Golems were supposed to be genderless constructs.

I was hoping Kosma and Zeliard could play through that part before someone spoiled it. Don't click, fellas.

Too late I will surivive though.

 

[MirageDwarf]

What I like very much in DA is that you can't just please everyone all the time. Even your normal quest decisions affect your approval ratings within party. Also, I like party banter with double meaning. It's a nice touch instead of dull conversations.

Will my decisions throughout main quest make it impossible to have relationship with both Leliana and Morrigan?

 

[Shouta]

Finished the game last night with like 35-40 hours on the clock. Overall, I liked it. A fairly strong main storyline (even if it was a bit by the book) with some choices in what you do. I thought they could've gotten a little farther with the choices though. I also thought a few more twists would've happened in the primary storyline but I guess it'd be jumping the game into a bit of crazy territory.

Combat is pretty nice but I thought I did have gripes. I didn't notice an option to make the game progress in turns then pause kind of like how BG had the ability to. It would've made handling a lot of battles easier if I could've played like that. I found the difficulty all over the place. Started off kind of tough, then got really tough, then got kind of easy, then a little tough. It was just a rollercoaster on the whole. It was just weird that it was like that. Folks said Normal was pretty easy but it seemed to be fairly difficult on its own (though I don't have any DLC). Wasn't until the end that I found the game to be a cakewalk. Outside of that, I spent most of my time micromanaging Morrigan for Crowd Control and AOE damage.

Anyway, I think my biggest complaint is that all the dungeons are so linear. I was hoping they'd be a little more free-form in design so I could try some different things. Also, enemies that spawn as you go is annoying as hell. >=|

 

[Zeliard]

I was hoping Kosma and Zeliard could play through that part before someone spoiled it. Don't click, fellas.

If that's the big Shale spoiler, I actually already knew about it. Accidentally spoiled it for myself through a google search around the time I got Shale a week or so ago.

It was annoying and unfortunate being spoiled, obviously, but it's also kinda neat in a way knowing early on because you get a much different and pretty interesting perspective on things involving Shale.

 

[Mindlog]

I've been playing as a mage after my 2H warrior. The game has been fun and the power combination is interesting of course.

I was building a traditional mage, but I kept the arcane warrior spec in the back of my mind. Around level 12 I finally decided to get some skill books and weapons to create a 2H arcane warrior. It's already hitting harder and living longer vs groups than my 2H warrior ever died.

god damnit

The only thing lacking is indomitable. Knockdown/stun is a pain in the ass.

 

[Pancakes]

I've been playing as a mage after my 2H warrior. The game has been fun and the power combination is interesting of course.

I was building a traditional mage, but I kept the arcane warrior spec in the back of my mind. Around level 12 I finally decided to get some skill books and weapons to create a 2H arcane warrior. It's already hitting harder and living longer vs groups than my 2H warrior ever died.

god damnit

The only thing lacking is indomitable. Knockdown/stun is a pain in the ass.

Jeez, I'd imagine you're getting alot of shatters?

I found that playing as a Mage is much much better than playing as a warrior. I rolled a mage after my warrior and upped the difficulty to Hard. Surprisingly enough, I found the game much easier than normal. Go mages!

I'm still thinking about whether to stay a traditional mage or the arcane warrior route. Don't spells cost a ton of mana because of the fatigue? or does that not really come into play?

 

[Stratman]

Currently selected characters won't use tactics. You can't have your whole party act completely autonomously.

Why anyone would want that is beyond me.

Took advantage of the collect the darkspawn blood vials/leave the treaties levelling glitch a moment ago. I feel a little dirty.

 

[Fredescu]

Took advantage of the collect the darkspawn blood vials/leave the treaties levelling glitch a moment ago. I feel a little dirty.

It kinda screws you over on speccing your party members unless you install the respec mod. Or unless you don't mind the default talents I guess.

 

[Mindlog]

Jeez, I'd imagine you're getting alot of shatters?

I found that playing as a Mage is much much better than playing as a warrior. I rolled a mage after my warrior and upped the difficulty to Hard. Surprisingly enough, I found the game much easier than normal. Go mages!

I'm still thinking about whether to stay a traditional mage or the arcane warrior route. Don't spells cost a ton of mana because of the fatigue? or does that not really come into play?

If you keep Morrigan and Wynne with you they can do a lot of the necessary auras. I'm going to try and keep all the necessary auras on my mage from now on, but I didn't start with this in mind. I might not have enough skill points left to do it.

Important spell casting info here.

I'm mostly using a lot of cone of cold to go with Rock Armor, Combat Magic, Miasma, Telekinetic Weapons and I have Wynne with the Haste aura. Still early though, next level comes Shimmering Shield. This is just a first run with it. If I play the game as a mage again I'm going to start with AM in mind and some things will change.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Why anyone would want that is beyond me.

Took advantage of the collect the darkspawn blood vials/leave the treaties levelling glitch a moment ago. I feel a little dirty.

I'd love to have my party run autonomous once I'd setup their tactics and put them into position for a given encounter. There are plenty of encounters where I don't need to micro any of them, but since whichever character is selected stands there with his thumb up his butt you have to micro at least one character every battle or just let him/her sit out.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I'd love to have my party run autonomous once I'd setup their tactics and put them into position for a given encounter. There are plenty of encounters where I don't need to micro any of them, but since whichever character is selected stands there with his thumb up his butt you have to micro at least one character every battle or just let him/her sit out.

If you have some RTS-fu and are playing on the PC, if you set your hotbars up right you can have a lot of fun just playing the game without pause once you intuitively learn the cooldowns of the different bread and butter spells. Anyone with even basic training level management skills / APM can have a good time doing that.


I'l do Arcane Warrior main, Wynne, Leliana, and Sten/Shale after a few mods are released to better balance the game.

Also, Mana Clash, don't leave camp without it:

 

[Pancakes]

If you keep Morrigan and Wynne with you they can do a lot of the necessary auras. I'm going to try and keep all the necessary auras on my mage from now on, but I didn't start with this in mind. I might not have enough skill points left to do it.

Important spell casting info here.

I'm mostly using a lot of cone of cold to go with Rock Armor, Combat Magic, Miasma, Telekinetic Weapons and I have Wynne with the Haste aura. Still early though, next level comes Shimmering Shield. This is just a first run with it. If I play the game as a mage again I'm going to start with AM in mind and some things will change.

Thanks for the info, I will probably try it out once I get my 360 back.

Also, Mana Clash, don't leave camp without it:

:O!

 

[John Harker]

About to dive in since I just completed Demon's Souls and Uncharted 2.

Before I begin, is there any general consensus which race/class is the most fun?
Generally, I'm against games that highly specialized classes (i.e. warriors can't use magic at all) so I'm hesitant at the beginning here since I don't want to lock myself out a lot of cool stuff, or pigeon hole my combat since super specialized classes tend to take away from mixing up tactics/strategy on the fly...

 

[Zeliard]

I normally don't like to respec but I went ahead and did so with my mage and Zevran, though I'm stopping there. Things are flowing more smoothly now. Changed Zevran's specialization to Ranger. The pets are pretty awesome.

 

[lorddarkflare]

I normally don't like to respec but I went ahead and did so with my mage and Zevran, though I'm stopping there. Things are flowing more smoothly now. Changed Zevran's specialization to Ranger. The pets are pretty awesome.

I think that option to respec during level ups would be nice.

 

[Stratman]

It kinda screws you over on speccing your party members unless you install the respec mod. Or unless you don't mind the default talents I guess.

Truth be told, it was purely for the achievement. Though I do plan to playthrough as that character.

 

[Pancakes]

About to dive in since I just completed Demon's Souls and Uncharted 2.

Before I begin, is there any general consensus which race/class is the most fun?
Generally, I'm against games that highly specialized classes (i.e. warriors can't use magic at all) so I'm hesitant at the beginning here since I don't want to lock myself out a lot of cool stuff, or pigeon hole my combat since super specialized classes tend to take away from mixing up tactics/strategy on the fly...

-I found tanking with my warrior fun but difficult (on normal)

-You could always go the Mage route and specialize as an Arcane Warrior. (What I'm doing right now on hard and it's pretty easy)

If you wanna be a brawler, put on some heavy armor and a sword. If you wanna stay in the back and just cast just wear cloth and a staff. Also Mages are the only class with healing spells (If you put the talent points into them).

-I have no idea about rogues.

 

[John Harker]

-I found tanking with my warrior fun but difficult (on normal)

-You could always go the Mage route and specialize as an Arcane Warrior. (What I'm doing right now on hard and it's pretty easy)

If you wanna be a brawler, put on some heavy armor and a sword. If you wanna stay in the back and just cast just wear cloth and a staff. Also Mages are the only class with healing spells (If you put the talent points into them).

-I have no idea about rogues.

Maybe I'll do the Arcane Warrior thing. My issue with games like this though is that mage classes tend to be the most fun in the beginning... then by the end, its lots and lots of awesome weapons you can't use. You don't collect spells like you do items, so by the middle/end I usually fee underpowered and lack of incentive

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

One more complaint I have with this game, and just about any game like this, is that many times when you are trying to choose how to answer someone you can't figure out if the text is meant to be a jokingly funny remark or if your being a smart ass. I don't understand why the developers of these games can't just put a color coding system or something on the text so I know if I'm answering someone as a smart ass or not. It's kind of like trying to figure out the sarcasm meter of a poster on GAF in a thread about Killzone 2.

 

[Fredescu]

Anyone have some good party banter youtube links? I thought I saw a bunch earlier, but all I can find now is that Ogrhen/Alistair one.

Maybe I'll do the Arcane Warrior thing. My issue with games like this though is that mage classes tend to be the most fun in the beginning... then by the end, its lots and lots of awesome weapons you can't use. You don't collect spells like you do items, so by the middle/end I usually fee underpowered and lack of incentive

This is a party based RPG, so you can put that awesome loot on your party members which increases your overall effectiveness anyway. The loot isn't all that great though.

 

[Atrus]

Maybe I'll do the Arcane Warrior thing. My issue with games like this though is that mage classes tend to be the most fun in the beginning... then by the end, its lots and lots of awesome weapons you can't use. You don't collect spells like you do items, so by the middle/end I usually fee underpowered and lack of incentive

You're forgeting the other side to the fantasy cliche.

While a warrior is trying to get and keep all this awesome weaponry in his arsenal, a mage is simply going to cash it in for lots of money and laugh at how he can afford, everything his magery skills require.

If magic is a byword for hax in the particular universe, the mage also laughs as he casts his Thermonuclear spells on epic bosses and reduces what the warrior spends his heart and soul fighting to a minor inconvenience.

 

[DY_nasty]

Whats the deal with Rogues in this game. My main is a lvl 15, elven rogue duelist/assassin dual wielding daggers with high paralyze chance and I think I'm doing damage. But it really feels like I'm not sometimes, especially whenever I switchover to Morrigan and she beasts an entire small nation with blizzard.

 

[Pancakes]

Whats the deal with Rogues in this game. My main is a lvl 15, elven rogue duelist/assassin dual wielding daggers with high paralyze chance and I think I'm doing damage. But it really feels like I'm not sometimes, especially whenever I switchover to Morrigan and she beasts an entire small nation with blizzard.

Seriously wtf? Sometimes my warrior would swing at the enemy but no damage or miss indicator would come up (Console). Maybe there is just too much information to process or something?

 

[bengraven]

What's the synapsis on Oghren as a tank/character? I still haven't found him and wonder if he'll be a decent replacement for Alistair or I'll just put Sten in there.

I decided to go back and play through every origin. My opinion is thus:

Dwarf Noble > City Elf > Human Noble > Mage > Dalish Elf > Dwarf Commoner

I can stand by that lineup.

 

[Xevren]

Dex based weapons are glitched unless you got it patched on the pc, they take strength to determine damage.

 

[Dead]

Ugh, theres an armor piece I want to buy from Wades Emporium, only place to get it, and Im not allowed to buy anything from there anymore since doing the dragonscale armor quests

 

[Tokubetsu]

Anybody beat the game who had the City Elf origin?

Spoiler

What happens to your betrothed? Im wrapping up the alienage stuff in Denerim right now and must have missed the mention of her.

 

[DY_nasty]

Dex based weapons are glitched unless you got it patched on the pc, they take strength to determine damage.

....

Ooookay, sooooo I'm fucked until I beat the game and try again with a Dwarven Beserker?

 

[Xevren]

What I did with my rogue was get Lethality ASAP and put points into cunning. Need to put points into strength for swords though, since Lethality changes all str based damage to cunning. You'll need to put points into Dual Wield Mastery though so you can dual wield swords, but it ends up really good. Mine was outdamaging Alistair and sometimes Ohgren.

 

[rass]

Ugh, theres an armor piece I want to buy from Wades Emporium, only place to get it, and Im not allowed to buy anything from there anymore since doing the dragonscale armor quests

you actually have to quest for dragonscale armour? when I first went into Wade's, I had enough scales for

Spoiler

both

sets of armour, and I still have some in my inventory. Maybe I did things in a different order.

 

[Tokubetsu]

What I did with my rogue was get Lethality ASAP and put points into cunning. Need to put points into strength for swords though, since Lethality changes all str based damage to cunning. You'll need to put points into Dual Wield Mastery though so you can dual wield swords, but it ends up really good. Mine was outdamaging Alistair and sometimes Ohgren.

I decided to stick with dagger + sword but yea, lethality makes a world of difference. With right itemization, you WILL pull aggro from your tank. I did a 72 crit backstab today.

 

[DY_nasty]

What I did with my rogue was get Lethality ASAP and put points into cunning. Need to put points into strength for swords though, since Lethality changes all str based damage to cunning. You'll need to put points into Dual Wield Mastery though so you can dual wield swords, but it ends up really good. Mine was outdamaging Alistair and sometimes Ohgren.

Hmm, okay. I'll give that a try.

 

[Shinjitsu]

Only other gripe is that it's a little too much micro management oriented with all the extra characters I'm never going to use. You can't switch them out during battle and it would be to time consuming and boring to just level grind every character you meet which would just turn the game into a strategy/sim or something.

All the characters level along with your main party.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Dam, my mage playthrough with shale is also my bad guy playthrough which means i side with the you know who in the deep roads. As long as i dont have shale for that boss fight, i should be good right? Its only a persuade to keep him in the party?

 

[Nemesis_]

So I'm trying to bed Morrigan and as such don't really care about how I do it, but in regards to her "personal quest":

Spoiler

Is anything bad gonna happen since I didn't kill Flemeth?

 

[Tokubetsu]

So I'm trying to bed Morrigan and as such don't really care about how I do it, but in regards to her "personal quest":

Spoiler

Is anything bad gonna happen since I didn't kill Flemeth?

I'll let you know when I finish. I'm probably 10 or so hours shy of the end.

 

[dreamer3kx]

Quick question, im maybe like six or seven hours in, mostly doing side quests, I activated all

of the quests on one of the boards and read through them to determine which one I wanted

to do but now when choose one it doesnt let me know where to navigate, I have no idea

where to go in order to complete the ones in my log.

I guess the game wants you to load up one side quest at a time into your log and do that

specific quest, anybody know what I can do?