The Maevaris Tilani Discussion Thread

One possible pathway in Dragon Age is beefing up the options for sharing stealth.

I’ve done some Inquisition playthroughs where I skip most of the fights, but they’re kind of sad and lonely because I was solo roguing most of the time. And some fights are still mandatory, with doors or gates that won’t open until the enemies are dead. If rogues could share stealth with the rest of the party, this could be a more fleshed out playstyle.

Possibly my favorite rogue move.

I suppose I always thought it was "they moved really fast but we didn't want to deal with pathing and clipping" than actual teleportation

This whole discussion really hits me hard as to how little I know about the DA universe. I know most of the tertiary themes and lore pieces, but some characters I still don't know the backgrounds to. I know I've asked this before, but is there a resource to watch that handles specific characters in the DA universe? I think Heimdall (forgive me if I spelled it incorrectly) does his own thing.

Proper magical ones or just some other rogue "skill"?

See my previous post harking back to Mark of the Assassin. We actually were given the choice of doing that if we wished. So they could reintroduce that to some missions but leave it optional so those people who prefer just to stab and kill can do their thing but those who prefer an alternative to killing are given one.   I've also said elsewhere that I like being able to talk my way out of situations but would prefer it based on an actual ability (as in DAO) rather than simply choosing a particular dialogue option enough times (diplomatic one as in DA2) because I prefer to be able to vary my response to people according to the situation, without having to worry if it could ruin my chances at diplomacy down the line. 

Sure, but it played more like a minigame than the strategic, teamwork-based flow of combat. For most of the sequence, there was only one mechanic — don’t be in someone’s sight cone.

For a party-based RPG to revolve around pacifist solutions, there would need to be more meat than that. Maybe combat becomes heavily dependent on crowd control. Maybe enemies have an attention bar rather than an hp bar, and the party does “distraction per second” instead of “damage per second”. Maybe some combats are converted into social encounters, but with social competence partially tied to the skill tree, and more formal mechanics for party members cooperating on dialogue to “kill” a difficult opponent.

But there’s more complications in all of these options. How does a combat end if the other side is slowed but still alive? How could social interactions involve party tactics without feeling incredibly canned? It’s not obvious how a game could create that party-based RPG feel without combats ending in death.

Some games work around that by knocking people unconscious rather than killing them, but honestly, that’s a pretty silly workaround. KOing people does permanent brain damage, and doesn’t really solve the problem in a fundamentally different way than killing them. Nothing is deescalated. If they wake up, they’re still going to be mad at you.

I guess my argument is that any real integration of pacifism would have such different mechanics that it wouldn’t play like a party-based RPG anymore. I happen to like the mechanics of party-based combat a lot, which is why I play RPGs even despite all the killing.

Like, the only way I could see the party-based mechanics translating is if you were in a world where most social interactions were conducted by bee-like dance moves. So rather than fighting, you’re negotiating, but you’re doing it in the form of ritualized movements and interactions so positioning, spell layering, and crowd control still come into play.

And, I mean, that could work for one RPG, but it would be pretty hard to reuse such a specific setting without seeming like a ripoff.

Link is in the post you quoted.

All this talk of classes skill and here i am just hopeful Maevaris get at least a advisor status.

Doesn't she use lightning in the comics?  She does when they are in Qarinus and the guy she killed looked like someone fried by electricity.  Also note, she does this without the aid of a staff. I think she also tries against Titus in the Fade but he counters it with magic of his own.  Then in the final confrontation alongside Maric, she is definitely using lightning again.

She also had knowledge about Dalish magic and that of a Magister who was exiled to the Anderfels and legend says "could graft spirit onto flesh and restore life".   Some of us have wondered if that could also apply to just a part of the body, like a missing arm.  Still, it would also suggest the Magister of legend knew a few tricks and Mae has at least taken note of the story, may be even knows where in the Anderfels he was exiled to.

She features in Tevinter Nights