I want a bigger inventory!Two things - buy all the backpacks. Most vendors in each of the cities have a single backpack that will add 10 slots to your inventory.
Second, is get the Warden's Keep DLC ($7 or free with Collector's Edition). Once you complete it, you have a lock box that you can store crap in.
No vendors I have met have had a backpack for sale. I also have the Wardens Keep but that dosn't do any good when I'm pilliging during a quest. I would have to go back all the way I came just to unload stuff and then go all the back to were I was, it too much of a pain in the A@@.
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No vendors I have met have had a backpack for sale. I also have the Wardens Keep but that dosn't do any good when I'm pilliging during a quest. I would have to go back all the way I came just to unload stuff and then go all the back to were I was, it too much of a pain in the A@@.I want a bigger inventory!Two things - buy all the backpacks. Most vendors in each of the cities have a single backpack that will add 10 slots to your inventory.
Second, is get the Warden's Keep DLC ($7 or free with Collector's Edition). Once you complete it, you have a lock box that you can store crap in.
The quartermaster in Ostagar had one but dont know how I'd have enough to afford it then. The dwarf merchant in your camp also sells one.
Dragon Age is easily the best RPG of the last few years and is at least the equal of Baldur's Gate 2. I'm not certain yet that I'd rate it better than BG2 (that'll require some time for the entire game to sink in), but it's at least as good. I've beaten it and this is about the only game I can think of that has ever truly pulled off "dark fantasy" to the very end without going over the top. It's a masterpiece.
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My first playthrough was with "nice" dwarf rogue...my next will be psychopath who kills anyone who gets in his way! Mwahahahaha!
I love this game...so, so many options. Oh, and the things your companions say are priceless. Nothing like good old bickering and in-fighting, and the snarky interjections some of your companions make during serious conversations will make you laugh.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Wow... people have beaten this already? You must be logging some hardcore playtime.
I picked it up just a couple days ago, playing through with a City Elf Rogue. Level 11 so far and still far from finished.
Those of you who are playing, what say we hook up through BioWare's social network, eh? You can find me there under the handle "LightningTea." This way we can all look at one another's stuff. :D
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I'm Tarlane on Bioware, I just added the two of you as friends.
Don't know why it isn't adding your characters. Mine have a lag between what they actually are and what it shows on the site, but its not too far back.
Added you back, Tar, and sent a friend request to Uzzy just now.
Do you have a favorite party combo or do you randomly pick?
My favorite combo is; Morrigan, because Claudia Black's voice is sexy and my human noble will be knocking boots with her. Shale because he has some of the snarkiest comments of all of them and Alistair. Alistair is an experiment to see if I can piss him off so much he quits, and with Morrigan and Shale in the group it's easy to make Alistair mad.
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Alistair is easy to piss off, and it is actually really funny when you make this choice, since he is the one who originally suggests you do it, but when you go back to your camp and talk to him, he's suddenly OMGWTFBBQQ!?! and that nets you -50 disapproval rating. All you have to do is
So far my party has been: human warrior sword and board (main character), Alistair, Leliana and Wynne or Morrigan. I'm starting to switch out Alistair for Sten to have complementary warriors, but Alistair is more vocal (and since I'm playing a goody-goody, happier in my PC's company) on plot points and things. I want to experiment some more, though, since I've got Zevran now as well. Still need to pick up Shale and Oghren.
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My main character is a dwarven rogue who has gone into bard, and is accompanied normally by Alistar, the dog, and until recently Morrigan. I've started to switch in Wynn more often now.
I'm not a terribly skilled combatant(no combat skills other then the rogue stuff) so having Alistair to flank with is great, and the dog is quick and durable enough to stop any ranged fighters from filling us with arrows while I deal with them. Now that I've got Wynn I am loving having that healing magic keeping us up.
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My party consists of Erika (My PC), a Two Handed Combat Monster, Warrior class, Alistair, Leliana and Morrigan. I've occasionally swapped out Alistair for Shale, but for the most part that's the party I've kept throughout. The interaction between Alistair and Morrigan is most amusing. I do also love Leliana's accent and general attitude. Nice to see an upbeat character in the game!
Just started this and have a general Xbox question -
Is it possible to easily change party members inside of a region, or do you have to go to the world map? I apologize if I'm too dense to find it. I tend to just start playing and learn the commands as I go.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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My main character is a city elf rogue specializing in Two-Weapon Fighting. My "preferred" party consists of my main character, Morrigan (mostly for the healing and debuffing rather than damage), Alistair (as a tank), and Leliana (who I have focused on archery and her bardic music). It works astonishingly well.
BTW, those of you who haven't yet experienced the joys of higher level spells on your mage characters: Sleep + Waking Nightmare is devastating. That is all.
My "backup" group substitutes Shale in for Alistair and Zevran in for Leliana. Major melee damage there. It's pretty sick, but not terribly versatile.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Is it possible to easily change party members inside of a region, or do you have to go to the world map? I apologize if I'm too dense to find it. I tend to just start playing and learn the commands as I go.
The answer is... sometimes. 90% of the time, you have to go out to the party camp on the world map to change party members, but in some villages/cities where there is no combat element, you can switch party members freely. I'm playing the PC version myself, but I have no reason to believe the Xbox would be any different in this regard.
Thx. Note to self - Must research magic combos.
Creative Director
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Is it possible to easily change party members inside of a region, or do you have to go to the world map? I apologize if I'm too dense to find it. I tend to just start playing and learn the commands as I go.The answer is... sometimes. 90% of the time, you have to go out to the party camp on the world map to change party members, but in some villages/cities where there is no combat element, you can switch party members freely. I'm playing the PC version myself, but I have no reason to believe the Xbox would be any different in this regard.
You can indeed. It seems that in civilized areas, once you handle the problems in those regions, you can swap out party combinations on the fly. The option on the Xbox version to do this is accessed via the radial menu using the left trigger.
And yeah... this game is super awesome. It's pretty much taken over almost everyone on the ground floor of Paizo, in fact (the majority of the art and editorial staff). Good times.
EDIT: My favored party combo = me (two-weapon elf rogue), Alistair, Morrigan, and Lelianna.
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Indeed, its very nice whenever you come up with something like that which works well together. Being able to pick out a critical target and either remove them from the fight or at least extremely limit them saves so much.
Only one I've discovered is Cone of Cold and then a heavy enough melee hit to shatter the target. Been running wiht Alistair, my 2hw templar PC, Lelianna and Wynne lately so have not had much offensive spellcasting.
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Ahh, if you have made use of the stone prisoner DLC(I think it comes with the game), Shale and his hatred of birds is always far too amusing to me. I have begun to think of him as the HK-47 of Dragonage.
My favorite line at the moment is between Shale and Alistair
Is it possible to easily change party members inside of a region, or do you have to go to the world map? I apologize if I'm too dense to find it. I tend to just start playing and learn the commands as I go.The answer is... sometimes. 90% of the time, you have to go out to the party camp on the world map to change party members, but in some villages/cities where there is no combat element, you can switch party members freely. I'm playing the PC version myself, but I have no reason to believe the Xbox would be any different in this regard.You can indeed. It seems that in civilized areas, once you handle the problems in those regions, you can swap out party combinations on the fly. The option on the Xbox version to do this is accessed via the radial menu using the left trigger.
And yeah... this game is super awesome. It's pretty much taken over almost everyone on the ground floor of Paizo, in fact (the majority of the art and editorial staff). Good times.
EDIT: My favored party combo = me (two-weapon elf rogue), Alistair, Morrigan, and Lelianna.
Thx. With Redcliff Village done I'm bringing Alistair back into the party in place of Sten, since I keep disappointing him. Though it's funny to listen to Lelianna pester him.
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Is it possible to easily change party members inside of a region, or do you have to go to the world map? I apologize if I'm too dense to find it. I tend to just start playing and learn the commands as I go.The answer is... sometimes. 90% of the time, you have to go out to the party camp on the world map to change party members, but in some villages/cities where there is no combat element, you can switch party members freely. I'm playing the PC version myself, but I have no reason to believe the Xbox would be any different in this regard.You can indeed. It seems that in civilized areas, once you handle the problems in those regions, you can swap out party combinations on the fly. The option on the Xbox version to do this is accessed via the radial menu using the left trigger.
And yeah... this game is super awesome. It's pretty much taken over almost everyone on the ground floor of Paizo, in fact (the majority of the art and editorial staff). Good times.
EDIT: My favored party combo = me (two-weapon elf rogue), Alistair, Morrigan, and Lelianna.
Thx. With Redcliff Village done I'm bringing Alistair back into the party in place of Sten, since I keep disappointing him. Though it's funny to listen to Lelianna pester him.
** spoiler omitted **
If you disappoint Sten enough, he will challenge you for control of the party. The fight is somewhat brutal. If you win, he will leave you.
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As an aside, Dragon Slaying in this game is totally and utterly the most badass thing I've done in video games this year. Don't even try it till you're a high level though! The killing animation for it is pretty awesome.
Anyway, I've got to the Landsmeet, and suddenly Alistair won't talk to me about 'personal' stuff anymore. Does starting the Landsmeet put you into endgame territory, so you can't do anything else?
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Favoured Group:
Me (Noble Human Rogue Switch Hitter [Ranged/Two Weapon], currently a Bard/Duelist]. Alistair (Man that guy is funny). Shale (Also funny but in a completely different way). Morrigan (She is absolutely brutal, when everyone else goes down she uses her cone of cold, runs back, cone of cold, runs back, melee has no chance against this broad and brewing up healing potions is easy enough).
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Leilana is very tough to get romantic with. Right now I have her at 'Adore' and 100%, but I haven't triggered any romance options. But then again, I have not yet triggered her personal quest yet. I'm a rogue too, so I haven't had her in my party much. I suspect that I either need to just port her around with me for a while for a random event or take her with me to a specific area. I have seen both those as triggering factors for other characters.
The main character now has my new favorite line though, Leilana was annoyed with me because I had been romantic with Morrigan. She asked why I had been to her tent every night the last week and implied she couldn't be that good of a conversationalist, and I said 'Oh, she's very imaginitive.'
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Leliana's romance isn't just tough to get, it's buggy too. If you miss asking her something at a certain point, you'll never get the personal quest. The only way to solve this is..
I know, it's annoying. Happened to me too. But hell, I couldn't not put the effort in, given she sang for me!
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Combat can be pretty rough on the game and it doesn't mess around at all.
As far as healing goes, trying to keep a caster in the group who can heal and has tactics focusing on healing will make a big difference in how many potions you eat through.
Also, don't be afraid to pick up some flasks and other alchemy ingredients whenever you can and make your own potions. If your principles aren't too far on the good side, stealing is a great way to come up with healing items as well, its one of the really common things for people to carry that you can pick up off them.
For tactics, I would strongly recommend trying to focus your units on one enemy at a time, often one of the weaker ones that you can drop quickly so you have just that many less units attacking you at once(and even weak units will do damage while flanking when you face the tougher guys). Mages can wreck havok on you, so take them out first and formost, preferably with an ability that will keep them from murdering you while you do so(petrify, sleep, stunning abilities all are great for this).
Finally, if you have someone who has the skills to survive it, taking out archers while the rest work through the melee enemies is a great way to drop damage. You often have a much worse armor score vs ranged attacks, so archers can be devastating on your group while you are hacking through foes up close and personal. Sending the quick dog, a rogue who is stealthed, or a shield fighter who puts up a shield defense vs ranged to go handle the archers will draw their attention and make sure your melee guys can do their job.
As a side note, if you haven't already done it, I would also grab the 1.01 patch for the game. It hasn't gotten a lot of publicity or anything, but you can find it if you snoop a bit. It fixes a few bugs, but it also does a bit of re-balancing on the difficulty settings. I believe that on normal mode your allies take a bit of a damage penalty that wasn't intended and its corrected with the patch.
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Combat can be pretty rough on the game and it doesn't mess around at all.
As far as healing goes, trying to keep a caster in the group who can heal and has tactics focusing on healing will make a big difference in how many potions you eat through.
Also, don't be afraid to pick up some flasks and other alchemy ingredients whenever you can and make your own potions. If your principles aren't too far on the good side, stealing is a great way to come up with healing items as well, its one of the really common things for people to carry that you can pick up off them.
For tactics, I would strongly recommend trying to focus your units on one enemy at a time, often one of the weaker ones that you can drop quickly so you have just that many less units attacking you at once(and even weak units will do damage while flanking when you face the tougher guys). Mages can wreck havok on you, so take them out first and formost, preferably with an ability that will keep them from murdering you while you do so(petrify, sleep, stunning abilities all are great for this).
Finally, if you have someone who has the skills to survive it, taking out archers while the rest work through the melee enemies is a great way to drop damage. You often have a much worse armor score vs ranged attacks, so archers can be devastating on your group while you are hacking through foes up close and personal. Sending the quick dog, a rogue who is stealthed, or a shield fighter who puts up a shield defense vs ranged to go handle the archers will draw their attention and make sure your melee guys can do their job.
As a side note, if you haven't already done it, I would also grab the 1.01 patch for the game. It hasn't gotten a lot of publicity or anything, but you can find it if you snoop a bit. It fixes a few bugs, but it also does a bit of re-balancing on the difficulty settings. I believe that on normal mode your allies take a bit of a damage penalty that wasn't intended and its corrected with the patch.
Where is the Patch? I did not see it on thier site, and the game does not seem to have an auto patch feature.
What Tactics do I use to set up the combat the way you suggest?
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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As an aside, Dragon Slaying in this game is totally and utterly the most badass thing I've done in video games this year. Don't even try it till you're a high level though! The killing animation for it is pretty awesome.
I've been reluctant to take on the dragon so far. I'm level 18 now, should I be ready for it or should I keep waiting?
Also, has anyone discovered the level cap for this game? I noticed that there's an achievement for reaching level 20, but I really hope that's not the cap.
EDIT: Nevermind. Just Googled for it. No level cap! Woo-hoo!
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I was level 16 when I took on the Dragon. I had Alistair, Wynne and Morrigan with me. Have two fighters, and stick Wynne on healing duty, with Morrigan nuking the dragon. You've got a good chance then!
As for combat, I've found it terribly swingy. I can walk through hordes at one point, then die instantly to a group in the next room. Most annoying at times.
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New DLC announced just now.
Now, there are rumors that a fellow survivor of the battle has escaped from captivity and is seeking the Grey Wardens' help. The time has come for the Grey Wardens to make their return to Ostagar and exact their revenge upon the darkspawn.
Looks interesting. I do hope Bioware keep putting out plenty of good DLC, they've certainly promised to do so for a couple of years.
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Awesome,
I know a lot of people complained about the DLC, but I have been very impressed with it and I think the idea of it is great much like I enjoy the idea of episodic games. Its a great way for studios to fund continued development on a game, when there may not be financial incentive to build a full expansion pack. Its a lot like Paizo's subscription method really, they can put out smaller books monthly when it would be totally unfeasible for them to instead put out a full book of the AP every 6 months.
As for the dragon, I have just reached level 17(but have been in the dwarf stronghold for a couple levels) and haven't fought the true dragon yet, but I fought shapeshifted dragon which is a finale of one of the side quests at 15. It was terribly difficult, but if you really focus on keeping the healing up and work on your group, it was do-able. You just have to be ready to have magic and healing potions available for you.
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Its green ronin, so it could be True20, but I haven't seen that as a detail. Its possible it will be its very own system, I know it comes in a boxed set.
Edit:Designed by award-winning author Chris Pramas (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Freeport), Dragon Age features an all-new game system that's both easy to learn and exciting to play. The boxed set includes:
A 64-page Player's Guide with an introduction to tabletop roleplaying, background on Thedas and the nation of Ferelden, a complete guide to character creation, rules for character classes and talents, a primer on magic, and the basic game rules.
A 64-page Gamemaster's Guide with an introduction to this key role, advice on the art of game mastering, advanced game rules, and an introductory adventure that plunges the characters right into the world of Dragon Age.
A beautiful poster map of the nation of Ferelden, the opening setting for the Dragon Age RPG.
3 six-sided dice.
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From what I understand, the system will be based around six sided dice, and is more 'inspired' by the game itself, rather then a direct port. I'll still be buying it, as it does look very good. The poster map is a big appeal, and hopefully I'll be able to play a few games with it.
Either way, finished my first playthrough of the game. Spoilers for the ending!
I loved the coda afterwards. Erika Cousland going on more adventures with Leliana sounds rather good, and I can't wait for a sequel/DLC dealing with that sort of thing. I was rather happy seeing Fergus Cousland at the coronation. Nice little touch that from Bioware.
Now, time for another playthrough. Dalish or City Elf, hmm..
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One other point about the post Landsmeet sequence.
Also of note, my characters seem to finally be up on the Bioware Social Website, though Erika Cousland is still a day old (hit level 20 during the ending sequence)