Restart Syndrome

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I hate myself, seriously I do. I have this issue with restarting RPG games over and over, but I never get further than level 10ish most of the time. It took me almost 3 months before I finally buckled down and took one character through NWN and NWN2 games. Once I decided on the character it was easier.

This game however is so good I just enjoy replaying the Harrowing and becoming a Grey Warden. I love it... I'm on my 10th play through now. What I find is that I restart if I missed something that I cannot replay (as I forget to save - stupid me). Or I just end up not liking the character I developed and start over. At the same time I know I get to replay the beginning again as I enjoy it. Silly I know, but I like it.

I'm really hoping I can stick with the character I created last night and actually finish the Mage Origin. Here is to hoping.

My character is a mage with the Coersion Skill and the frost and eletrical single attacks. My 5 attribute points rasied Magic and Willpower to 19. From there, the 3 skill points per a level up will be distrubted as 2 Magic, 1 Will and the next level would be 1 magic and 2 Will. My focus on spells will be the cold, eletrical, fire, defensive spells, and the spell ability to increase my spirit /spell attacks (the main one for mages). The specialization I plan to take is Blood Mage and Spirit Healer, though I"m not sure which one to take first.

For those of you who have played the game with a mage, what do you think of my character. Should I place the third attribute point per a level up on another attribute other than magic/will? Should I go with spells that impact other mages? Thoughts, comments, recommendations.....

 

It's amazing when a game does this to us. Both of the BGs and IWDs games did this to me. Makes you want to have 8 character slots, not 6 or 1.

 

If I were you, I would distribute your points 2 magic:1 willpower every level. It nets you the high level spells faster and lets you do more damage. With a mage as your PC, you shouldn't run out of mana too fast, and you can wait a few seconds out of combat to get your mana back. Powergaming note/semi spoiler:

Spoiler

At a certain point in the game you'll get a boost of 3 or 4 to cunning, so you don't really have to boost that much to get max coercion. Check the next spoiler for the location of said boost.

Bigger spoiler:

Spoiler

You get the boosts on your second trip to the mage tower, when you enter the fade, make sure to explore everywhere.

A big first pick for me was mind blast (something like that, the first talent that looks like a human head in the spirit tree) it stuns everyone around you. It's a huge life saver if you get attacked and definitely definitely worth it for survivability.
I would suggest either picking iferno or blizzard (you can take both and that's perfectly fine, but blizzard increases fire resistance, so to me, it wasn't worth the points). The first and third frost talents are definitely very very useful though. Then take tempest with that for mass AoE carnage. I chose inferni for fireball, which knocks all the enemies down. I then gave Alistair all my fire resist gear, so I could just nuke it away while he was tanking everything. ^_^ Even my inferno barely hurt him.

As for the anti-mage spells, I think they're great. Mana drain is pretty handy (though it's not the star of the show). Spell burst does tons of damage to enemy mages, and I'd highly recommend it, as if an enemy mage gets a big CC off on you (like a crushing prison or something) it can be really annoying, and sometimes fatal. I forget, and I'm not on my PC that I play dragonage on, so I can't check atm, but I think this is the tree with spell might in it? If so, spell might is amazing as well; not until you have the mana and utility to back it up though, mind you.

I also suggest taking some CC after you have your favorite few main damaging spells. For me I started taking CC after fireball, the first frost spell and lightning bolt (later in the game when I had more survivability I used the fire cone and took the other two cone spells for even more damage). But, CC is amazing in this game, paralyze, mass paralyze, sleep, waking nightmare. The best CC tree is most likely the sleep tree. Disorient is pretty useless, but horror, sleep and waking nightmare are all amazing. Protip: Cast horror on sleeping targets for mass damage. Crushing prison is also an amazing spell for later in the game when you have more spell points.

As for the defensive passives, they really aren't all that useful to keep up all the time, CC and nuking seemed to work better for me.

Blood mage is about the best specialization for a mage who wants to do damage, not really because the spells are all that great, but because they get lots of blood mage only equipment that increases spellpower or magic. Otherwise, I wouldn't suggest maxing out the healing tree (taking only Heal itself, is a very handy idea, as it is useful at times). Smallish spoiler:

Spoiler

You'll find a spirit mage later in the game, also at the second trip to the mage tower, who does a really good job of being a healer. Since, healers tend to need lots of willpower. And, if you want to nuke things on your PC mage, have her tactics set to cast rejuvenate, mass rejuvenate and spell bloom on your PC when he gets low on mana.

 

Cone of cold is great.

As far as chronic restarting is concerned I've been fighting that impulse. I'm a chronic restarter myself so I know how hard it is to stick to a character. I'm glad so far because I avoided playing through the origins (I've only done the City elf origin) and I'm pretty condident now that with more than 40 hours invested in that game I'll stick to it.

I'm picturing my next run through the game quite vividly though!

 

I have restarted twice so far, and have, after two fighters, eventually settled for a human rogue. Not that much time lost as I have played the first two only to Redcliffe, without starting the quest there. The new rogue plays fairly well, and the emphasis is on combat and dialogue. I am a little unhappy about me spending two talent or skill slots on lock picking, only to find myself out-skilled by Lianna. Why spend the points at all then?

I have not yet fully understood the game system, so I have repeatedly erred in configuring my character in an optimal way. I am ... eh ... fairly pedantic as far as that is concerned, and such things frequently prod me to restart, or to reload at least. Anyway, I intent to stick with my current character.

If I feel my rogue lacks punch, heaven forbid, I still have my save game from Redcliffe with my fighter - so I can replay without losing all that much time.

 

Regarding Lelianna, if your rogue is good enough you don't need another rogue in your party and therefore you can replace her with another character. I like her a lot but her skills are a bit redundant since I'm playing a rogue. Still, if you don't want to invest on these skills you can focus on other skills and keep her in your party (that's not something that you can think about in a first run though).

Rogues are beasts. But you have to micromanage them. Try to flank enemies as much as possible so backstab comes into play.

Some skills are passive so you don't have to activate them but some active or sustained abilities really make a huge difference.

Dirty Fighting is great (and Riposte if you go for dual wielding) since it will stun enemies when it succeeds. Stunned foes are flanked and get loads of damage from your rogue's attacks.

When choosing a skill, think ahead. Sometimes picking a skill that looks less useful opens up a much more useful one for your next level.

There are few bad choices but it depends on your focus. Early on you can cripple your character if you altogether neglect fighting skills but with a few more levels you can spread your skills around and it pays off. I went for maximum coercion first but it worked out after gaining a few levels.

I believe that level 7 and 14 are turning points since you access your specialization. I'd suggest picking the one that suits your character from a RPing perspective keeping in mind that some works better for a main character. For instance Bard is nice for a follower but IMO Assassin or Duellist are better for a frontliner or an offensive rogue. Don't pick a specialization just because you can if you want another. You can delay that choice for a long time. I picked both Assassin and Duellist for my rogue and both make for a very competent swordsman.

Other than that it's pretty common tactics. A rogue can hide and backstab the most dangerous foe (especially mages) and then retreat to the party before getting swamped. If you let your rogue get isolated he or she will probably die.

Considering character development you have to invest points in cunning, dexterity and strength. Cunning is a must have for many things from backstabs to dialogue (it can also substitute to strength for damage if you pick up the right skill later on). Dexterity unlocks the best skills and boosts defense and small blades. Strength is mostly needed in order to be able to use the best gear. Even a rogue can wear a heavy armour in that game and still act as a rogue if strength is high enough. Wielding the best swords also requires strength.

My dual wielding rogue with a good armour and two good swords (with runes) is definitely more than a match for the warriors in my party. Furthermore if you max out the first line in the dual wielding skills you'll be able to wield two regular swords.

Classes in Dragon Age are less strict than in D&D so it's a good thing to take advantage of certain things like armours that are not restricted to fighters for instance. It took me a while to realize that there was nothing wrong with pumping points in Strength so that my rogue could wear the Grey Warden Armour from Warden's Keep.

EDIT: Dexterity doesn't modify damage for small blades, only Strength does.

EDIT: the small blades bug has been fixed with the latest patch so now both Dexterity and Strength modify small blades.

 

I was doing the Redcliff battle against the undead and I just experience a game glitch that completely pissed me off. I had two saves for the same area both around the same time and the game would not go forward after defeating all the undead. I had to restart recently not because I wanted to but because I didn't have a recent save prior to the undead invasion of Redcliff.

My current character is elf female mage. I have selected up to clone of cold, the first two electrical attacks, the three main mage powers, and the power that increases the characters armor skill (going for earth quake as I found that spell to be very useful) and heal as I am playing the game on normal on the PS3.

I'm going to switch between Magic and Will Power until Will Power is at 35. My character is level 7 (selected Spirit Healer Specialization) with magic and will power both at close to 30.

 

I had the same thing happen to me, I waited ages, but no end-of-scenario occurred. Then I became more pro-active and sent my player out into the green mist, and on behind it to root out any bad boys who were 'stuck in the scenery'. Behind the green mist (upper level) I found two and despatched them......still no finish. Then I went back down to the lower level and searched among the buildings, and flushed out the final enemy. Once he died, the scenario moved on.

As for the tendency to re-start, I do that too. I started with a Dwarven commoner as a warrior, then began again as a rogue, and then a third time, a rogue again (but a Dwarven noble, this time), attempting to maximise the talent trees and make the absolute best use of spending money. Playing a prince who is a rogue is, well, wierd. (But weird is ok)

 

I completed the game with a elven blood mage/arcane warrior. I found it very difficult but did it. Thats good advice on stat allocations by the way Rahkir. I just pummelled magic till I got it very high to about 70 - with the help of tomes as well - then put the rest in willpower. I will replay the game as a City Fighter Elf sword and shield style. Two-handed style looks very very slow and even the damage multipliers on two-handed weapons are not that impressive. Good game but the Baldurs Gate series still beats it for me.

 

The restarting, do not get me started(sorry)about it. I still have not finished NWN2.

And yes, you just have to play a few origins.

 

Oh dear, I have to go finish by Baldur's Gate start number......... I'm sure its in double digits.

It is just so easy to get a good idea and then get another.

Do whatever you want (wouldn't recommend restarting over this) but I was told someone made Leliana quite powerful by making her a ranger with very good bow skills. Recommend just carrying forward with the game and enjoying whatever you've done with it thus far. Good Luck.

 

Leliana made me reconsider the usefulness of bows in that game. Some skills are very good for sheer damage output.

I'm not sold on the Ranger specialization but Bard is a great support specialization. The Ranger is only a summoner. I'm not a big fan of summoning and I haven't tested it much but I prefer having my character take on enemies rather than summoning creatures to do that.

Duelist is another option for Leliana. It is focused on melee combat and won't be that useful for most of us who use Leliana as an Archer. For instance Pinpoint Strike is great for a melee Rogue but won't help an Archer build at all. Duelists get a bonus to Dexterity and damage.

Assassin is great for backstabbers. Mark of Death is rather good since it doesn't require to much investment in the class and can be used from a distance and will affect damage dealt by any party member. Don't forget that Assassins get a bonus to Dexterity and critical chance. Although Leliana is probably not used as a backstabber (bows can get critical hits but don't qualify for backstabs) I'd pick this specialization if only for the base bonuses and Mark of Death.

I'm currently playing a Dwarf Warrior dual wielder and I decided I'd start putting at least some points in Archery since it has its uses (it makes some fights much easier).

Keep in mind that armours give protection but will make enemies attack you more. My (almost) naked Dwarf is taking advantage of this and is ignored by most enemies who go for the heavy armoured Sten instead.

 

There are two mutliplers for two handed weapons. The mutipler on the weapon is how much extra damage STR does. The second is that any 2handed weapon does 50% more STR damage. So a 2handed weapon that has a 1.25 mutipler will do 1.25 X STR modifier + 50% STR modifier.

The best single handed weapon in the game is the axe followed by the long sword. The best 2handed weapon from my experience has been the hammers.