I am playing Dragon Age Origins

[Piotrovitz]

Is coercion skill worth investing in?

I got two or three ranks and so far it seems to be providing only small gold/xp bonuses due to persuasion or intimidate conversation options in minor quests.

 

[Cael]

Is coercion skill worth investing in?

I got two or three ranks and so far it seems to be providing only small gold/xp bonuses due to persuasion or intimidate conversation options in minor quests.

It is. Get 4 ASAP.

 

[Cael]

(Note: you can build the mage MC as Arcane Warrior in which case you can do without a tank and go 3 mages + rogue; however even so keeping aggro off the others is too fiddly to be enjoyable IMO.)

Been some times since i finished, but i remember that fireball as an opening move + wearing heavy armor was enough to draw aggro. Most fight are very short, and MC was using a 2H, arcane warrior is already the superior tank by a huge margin.

Arcane Warriors make perfect tanks. Drawing aggro is never an issue for mages, what with their absurd number of AoE abilities. The problem is usually when the squishy mage gets dogpiled. AW turns that on its head.

Just unload your entire mana battery at the enemy and then start bringing up the sustains (which don't need mana to activate). I wouldn't use a 2handed, though. The attack rate is too low. Use Spellweaver and a shield.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Is coercion skill worth investing in?

I got two or three ranks and so far it seems to be providing only small gold/xp bonuses due to persuasion or intimidate conversation options in minor quests.

It is. Get 4 ASAP.

I've read somewhere that persuasion dialogues are governed also by cunning - considering I'm rolling with CUN/lethality rogue is it still need to crank it up to 4?

 

[bec de corbin]

Is coercion skill worth investing in?

I got two or three ranks and so far it seems to be providing only small gold/xp bonuses due to persuasion or intimidate conversation options in minor quests.

It is. Get 4 ASAP.

I've read somewhere that persuasion dialogues are governed also by cunning - considering I'm rolling with CUN/lethality rogue is it still need to crank it up to 4?

The way it works is that persuasion skill checks range from 25 to 100 in difficulty, and each point in coercion or intimidate is worth 25 points. Each point of cunning or strength above 10 is worth 1 point for their respective skill. There's no randomness involved, so if you have 35 cunning then you only need 3 levels in coercion (75+25=100) to pass all checks. Otherwise you need 4.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Another question on second specializations for Morrigan/Wynne - should they both go for blood mages?
Was planning to make Wynne AW, but I'm not sure if this won't be redundant, having one full time tank already.

That's a lot of questions tbh - I usually avoid metagaming, but this is my virgin run on hard and I don't want to fuck something up (though it seems really hard to do here), plus I'm a bit short on time and am pretty sure I'll never go back for a second run.

 

[NJClaw]

With the Blood Mage specialization you basically can spam spells endlessly without touching potions, since you can use both your mana and health as separate pools. The AoE CC is very strong, and the mind control one can be useful, but you rarely need it if you have 2+ mages with Cone of Cold and Blood Wound. I vastly prefer Blood Mage over Arcane Warrior on every Mage.

If you rely heavily on Force Field, you already have an invulnerable tank, you don't need an entire specialization just for that.

 

[cruelio]

No one ever mentions how much Dragon Age rips off from other properties. Yeah all fantasy trash is ultimately derivative, I’m not complaining DA has elves and orcs cause omg Tolkien. But check this out:

Psykers Mages are dangerous because their powers are linked to the Warp Fade. The Fade is a dimension full of daemons demons that is influenced by the collective subconscious of most living things mortal dreams. Demons reflect primeval emotions/concepts such as lust, aggression, fear of death, and the pursuit of knowledge/change emotions such as desire, rage, despair, and pride. Mages who fuck up invite demonic possession and other potentially disastrous consequences. To regulate mages, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica Circle of Magi tracks down mages at a young age and recruits them for training to make sure they don’t kill everyone around them by accident. Rogue mages are hunted down by the Inquisition Inquisition.

Anyone with a basic familiarity with Warhammer 40k will see what I’m getting at. DA also heavily rips of the Witcher too (funny since the first Witcher used, of all things, the Neverwinter Nights engine).

 

[Nano]

Wynne being a Blood Mage makes no sense characterization-wise. Feel free to give it to Morrigan though, she never says she's against blood magic.

I vastly prefer Blood Mage over Arcane Warrior on every Mage.

Why not both, on the main PC. You become an indestructible machine of death.

 

[Prime Junta]

No one ever mentions how much Dragon Age rips off from other properties.

Fake news, I've groused about it since before it was released. It's mega derivative. Even the setting and main characters are a rip from Ivanhoe.

That said, there's no harm in being derivative if it's done well, and with Thedas it is done fairly well. It does recycle clichés and tropes but it does so thoughtfully and consistently, generally speaking, and that's already better than par for course. If Mass Effect had recycled its clichés and tropes as thoughtfully I would've liked it a lot more.

 

[Cael]

Another question on second specializations for Morrigan/Wynne - should they both go for blood mages?
Was planning to make Wynne AW, but I'm not sure if this won't be redundant, having one full time tank already.

That's a lot of questions tbh - I usually avoid metagaming, but this is my virgin run on hard and I don't want to fuck something up (though it seems really hard to do here), plus I'm a bit short on time and am pretty sure I'll never go back for a second run.

Blood mages are OK. The AoE CC is broken as all hell, so it is always good to have lying around. I can't remember which one, but one of the AW/BM specs have skills that is not geared towards level 7 when you first get the spec. If you are going for both, get the one with lower level restrictions first.

AW/SH combo is really strong. The AoE heal or regen skills are crazy strong when coupled with a strong tank. Even worse if you have 2 or 3 tanks around.

 

[bec de corbin]

No one ever mentions how much Dragon Age rips off from other properties.

Fake news, I've groused about it since before it was released. It's mega derivative. Even the setting and main characters are a rip from Ivanhoe.

That said, there's no harm in being derivative if it's done well, and with Thedas it is done fairly well. It does recycle clichés and tropes but it does so thoughtfully and consistently, generally speaking, and that's already better than par for course. If Mass Effect had recycled its clichés and tropes as thoughtfully I would've liked it a lot more.

I liked Mass Effect 1 ok at first, because even if it wasn't great at least scifi rpgs aren't particularly common. But it has a crap ending that exists only to set up sequels that are completely unplayable garbage, so it's not worth anyone's time regardless.

 

[Sarathiour]

No one ever mentions how much Dragon Age rips off from other properties. Yeah all fantasy trash is ultimately derivative, I’m not complaining DA has elves and orcs cause omg Tolkien. But check this out:

Psykers Mages are dangerous because their powers are linked to the Warp Fade. The Fade is a dimension full of daemons demons that is influenced by the collective subconscious of most living things mortal dreams. Demons reflect primeval emotions/concepts such as lust, aggression, fear of death, and the pursuit of knowledge/change emotions such as desire, rage, despair, and pride. Mages who fuck up invite demonic possession and other potentially disastrous consequences. To regulate mages, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica Circle of Magi tracks down mages at a young age and recruits them for training to make sure they don’t kill everyone around them by accident. Rogue mages are hunted down by the Inquisition Inquisition.

Anyone with a basic familiarity with Warhammer 40k will see what I’m getting at. DA also heavily rips of the Witcher too (funny since the first Witcher used, of all things, the Neverwinter Nights engine).

https://www.quora.com/What-were-the-inspirations-for-the-Warhammer-40-000-aesthetics

The TL: DR is Warhammer 40k is a more or less a parody sci-fi setting, whole "magic very dangerous" is probably due to Moorcock's inspiration.

Is coercion skill worth investing in?

The only one worth investing in, i would say.

AW/SH combo is really strong.

In Awakening, you can add battlemage to the mix and it's absolutely disgusting.

 

[Piotrovitz]

I'm thinking about restarting on nightmare - how much of a problem is HP bloat?

Right now I finished tower, Redcliffe and part of Denerim - DPS from rogue is obscene and I rarely had to reload.
Are fights going to get tougher, or is there some kind of retarded scaling mechanics in place that adjust difficulty to your current level?
I have a feeling that no matter where I go, the level of challenge is always the same.

I think I already grasped vanilla mechanics and am thinking on some mods - any good rebalance ones?

 

[Cael]

I'm thinking about restarting on nightmare - how much of a problem is HP bloat?

Right now I finished tower, Redcliffe and part of Denerim - DPS from rogue is obscene and I rarely had to reload.
Are fights going to get tougher, or is there some kind of retarded scaling mechanics in place that adjust difficulty to your current level?
I have a feeling that no matter where I go, the level of challenge is always the same.

It is all about more HP, more armour and more damage. Everything else is the same. Waste of time.

The really bad thing about DA:O is that enemies scale with you. That is why it is always the same in terms of toughness, until the enemy archers start getting Shattershot. Then you get stunlocked to death.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Another question on second specializations for Morrigan/Wynne - should they both go for blood mages?

morrigan yes, maybe wynne no
I don't like wynne being a blood mage for RP reasons

 

[Cael]

Another question on second specializations for Morrigan/Wynne - should they both go for blood mages?

morrigan yes, maybe wynne no
I don't like wynne being a blood mage for RP reasons

Wynne is better off as AW/SH. SH/BM doesn't synergise as well.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm thinking about restarting on nightmare - how much of a problem is HP bloat?

Right now I finished tower, Redcliffe and part of Denerim - DPS from rogue is obscene and I rarely had to reload.
Are fights going to get tougher, or is there some kind of retarded scaling mechanics in place that adjust difficulty to your current level?
I have a feeling that no matter where I go, the level of challenge is always the same.

I think I already grasped vanilla mechanics and am thinking on some mods - any good rebalance ones?

There are mods out there that meaningfully increase the difficulty, so I'd just go with that.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm thinking about restarting on nightmare - how much of a problem is HP bloat?

Some boss fights get tedious. For trash fights, not much.

Right now I finished tower, Redcliffe and part of Denerim - DPS from rogue is obscene and I rarely had to reload.
Are fights going to get tougher, or is there some kind of retarded scaling mechanics in place that adjust difficulty to your current level?
I have a feeling that no matter where I go, the level of challenge is always the same.

There is that, yes. There are occasional difficulty spikes with bosses and some hand-placed encounters, but in general difficulty falls off around the midgame.

I think I already grasped vanilla mechanics and am thinking on some mods - any good rebalance ones?

No comment on this one, I've only played vanilla.

Just my 10¢: IMO you might be wanting to make this game into something that it isn't. The combat is what it is, no matter how you slice it. There are some good hand-placed encounters and boss fights, but there are way too many trash fights which are way too repetitive, like most large cRPGs the difficulty falls off mid-game, and yes it's level scaled (level set when you enter a map). So other than finding a mod that radically rejiggers it, that's not going to change.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Just my 10¢: IMO you might be wanting to make this game into something that it isn't.

Yeah, I think that's exactly the case here. I kinda had high hopes for this, since it's often mentioned on Dex as one of the last decent RPGs before the fall of the dark ages.

Anyway, I restarted on nightmare and tbh I don't find the HP bloat that much of an issue - fights are lasting a bit longer, but the rogue is still cutting through everything in matter of seconds.

I've put my high hopes on the shelf and accepted the game as it is, and it's definitely less disappointing now. I even learned to enjoy arcade'y/single player MMO combat and find it kinda entertaining even with all the trash fights.

Thanks for all the input here bros.

 

[Piotrovitz]

QQ - when on my initial encounter with Zevran I told him to fuck off, is there still a chance to recruit him somewhere (i.e he's waiting at some inn or whatever)?

From what I see, assassin spec can be only gained either from him or from manual that is available only just before the endgame (which sucks), so I'm hoping there's still a chance to recruit him.

 

[Krivol]

I kinda had high hopes for this, since it's often mentioned on Dex as one of the last decent RPGs before the fall of the dark ages.

No, man, it's Fallout 2.

 

[Nano]

QQ - when on my initial encounter with Zevran I told him to fuck off, is there still a chance to recruit him somewhere (i.e he's waiting at some inn or whatever)?

From what I see, assassin spec can be only gained either from him or from manual that is available only just before the endgame (which sucks), so I'm hoping there's still a chance to recruit him.

https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/4672/?tab=description

Enjoy.

 

[Prime Junta]

QQ - when on my initial encounter with Zevran I told him to fuck off, is there still a chance to recruit him somewhere (i.e he's waiting at some inn or whatever)?

Nope, man. This is some of the actual tangible C&C the game has. Same thing with the Blood Mage specialisation, you actually have to be pretty fucking vicious to unlock it.

 

[Nano]

Nope, man. This is some of the actual tangible C&C the game has. Same thing with the Blood Mage specialisation, you actually have to be pretty fucking vicious to unlock it.

The specialization requirements tend to be too restrictive IMO. Jowan, for instance, learned blood magic from books in the Mage Tower that slipped through the cracks. What prevents your PC from having done the same? It's a blank slate protagonist after all.