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"Everyone's got magical abilities" - not sure I love that. I like a mix of people and the premise of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. If everyone's a mage, therefore magic is ordinary... 🤔 Or is it?
They aren't all mages. Not anymore magical companions than the previous games anyway. Do you consider Alister a "mage" because of his Templar abilities?
Lucanis appears to be the token abomination party member (DAO = Wynne, Awakening = Kristoff/Justice, DA2 = Anders, DAI = Cole and Cassandra since Cole says they are the same just backward or whatever, lol). Taash seems to be very close to her Qunari's dragon accentry (whatever the source of that is). Davrin has two abilities that actually calls Assan, War Cry (which date back to DAO and is a taunt like in DAI here), Heroic Strike which doesn't sound magical and In War, Victory which is probably buff like Warrior has in DAI.
Harding's ability names do not suggest magical abilities, it seems she only use her new magical powers during cutscenes and she has Lyrium veings popping when she does. So not really a mage per in-setting description.
John Epler is Aging Dragons @eplerjc.bsky.social one of the funnier quirks of game dev is you will never remember missions by their real names but instead by the name you called them by for several years of development
it will never be 'In Your Heart Shall Burn' for me, it'll always be Setback
dai mission names according to me:
Prologue Redcliffe Seeker Fortress Setback Halamshiral Temple of Mythal Finale
- Just imagine having all the iterations of all the quests and characters in DA rattling around in your head. That, and all the things we don't know.
"Everyone's got magical abilities" - not sure I love that. I like a mix of people and the premise of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. If everyone's a mage, therefore magic is ordinary... 🤔 Or is it?
Malcolm @themalcolmtent.bsky.social I got to Bioware and they were like, hey, do you wanna work with Trick on the content for this badass beefy firebreathing Qunari treasure hunter and it was like the clouds frickin parted and choirs of angels sang out
Honestly the stuff we made for Taash is probably my favourite thing I've made in my 16+ years of making video games.
"Everyone's got magical abilities" - not sure I love that. I like a mix of people and the premise of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. If everyone's a mage, therefore magic is ordinary... 🤔 Or is it?
They aren't all mages. Not anymore magical companions than the previous games anyway. Do you consider Alister a "mage" because of his Templar abilities?
Lucanis appears to be the token abomination party member (DAO = Wynne, Awakening = Kristoff/Justice, DA2 = Anders, DAI = Cole and Cassandra since Cole says they are the same just backward or whatever, lol). Taash seems to be very close to her Qunari's dragon accentry (whatever the source of that is). Davrin has two abilities that actually calls Assan, War Cry (which date back to DAO and is a taunt like in DAI here), Heroic Strike which doesn't sound magical and In War, Victory which is probably buff like Warrior has in DAI.
Harding's ability names do not suggest magical abilities, it seems she only use her new magical powers during cutscenes and she has Lyrium veings popping when she does. So not really a mage per in-setting description.
Neve, Bellara and Emmrich are mages.
Granted we didn't exactly know this until we saw the list of powers but it seems BioWare continues to be really smart about such things and doing a slow drip feed of introducing this stuff which could have controversial or changing the status quo.
-The Qunari have gunpower weapons available to them which we only saw in maybe one optional cutscene in Inquisition, so we have just heard about i in lore. -Red Lyrium is probably the biggest example of whiplash given that Meredith was jumping around because of the stuff at the end of DA 2, however we have still seen its spread and resulting more crazy stuff over the next two installments. -Varric's Crossbow was a unique curiosity, but then we saw a lot more of them in Descent. -Dwarven magic, despite being supposedly impossible, we saw Sandal as a curiosity and then we saw how it probably happened with Valta and now even with that despite things Harding is still mostly a rogue just with occasional powers, thus we still haven't gotten a Dwarven mage.
Think the list goes on but these are the big ones.
Edit: -And since the above post reminded me consider TAASH. The qunari have been rather a big mystery but then there was a rather pointed, yet small, line by Iron Bull which many seemed to take to mean they were connected to Dragons...and here we are.
Point is this stuff hasn't exactly NOT been set up and continues to have a slow breadcrumb trail we've been following since Origins so whatever our personal feelings its not like we can blame BioWare for just making up random crap and for slowly getting us used to these ideas.
"Everyone's got magical abilities" - not sure I love that. I like a mix of people and the premise of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. If everyone's a mage, therefore magic is ordinary... 🤔 Or is it?
You don't need to know, and there's not enough time to explain
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Post by Absafraginlootly on Aug 27, 2024 0:35:58 GMT
Why are people assuming that Davrin's and Taash's fire abilities are magic as opposed to Alchemy or enchantment? Was there a description of them that I missed?
DAO warriors could make and apply flame coating to their weapons through the poison-making skill (a very logical thing to be included in warden training now that darkspawn have fire vulnerability), and make fire bombs for that matter, and they could get flame rune enchantments through Sandal. Alot of Alchemy has since moved to class abilities, the dai Tempest straight up covered themselves with fire so i don't think fire breathing is beyond the pale - i mean we have fire breathing and fire eating circus acts in real life do we not?
"You are required to do nothing, least of all believe. Shut one's eye tight or open one's arms wider, either way one's a fool." - Flemeth
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Posts: 9,091 Likes: 25,487
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Why are people assuming that Davrin's and Taash's fire abilities are magic as opposed to Alchemy or enchantment? Was there a description of them that I missed?
DAO warriors could make and apply flame coating to their weapons through the poison-making skill (a very logical thing to be included in warden training now that darkspawn have fire vulnerability), and make fire bombs for that matter, and they could get flame rune enchantments through Sandal. Alot of Alchemy has since moved to class abilities, the dai Tempest straight up covered themselves with fire so i don't think fire breathing is beyond the pale - i mean we have fire breathing and fire eating circus acts in real life do we not?
Davrin's "fire abilities" are Assan flying into enemies while on fire going by what I saw.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Posts: 12,255 Likes: 20,241
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
John Epler is Aging Dragons @eplerjc.bsky.social one of the funnier quirks of game dev is you will never remember missions by their real names but instead by the name you called them by for several years of development
it will never be 'In Your Heart Shall Burn' for me, it'll always be Setback
dai mission names according to me:
Prologue Redcliffe Seeker Fortress Setback Halamshiral Temple of Mythal Finale
- Just imagine having all the iterations of all the quests and characters in DA rattling around in your head. That, and all the things we don't know.
In his defenc esom of the quests in DAI do have long names
Why are people assuming that Davrin's and Taash's fire abilities are magic as opposed to Alchemy or enchantment? Was there a description of them that I missed?
DAO warriors could make and apply flame coating to their weapons through the poison-making skill (a very logical thing to be included in warden training now that darkspawn have fire vulnerability), and make fire bombs for that matter, and they could get flame rune enchantments through Sandal. Alot of Alchemy has since moved to class abilities, the dai Tempest straight up covered themselves with fire so i don't think fire breathing is beyond the pale - i mean we have fire breathing and fire eating circus acts in real life do we not?
Davrin's "fire abilities" are Assan flying into enemies while on fire going by what I saw.
His Heroic Strike also appears to do fire damage. But Assan sure looks like he's using a Tempests fire flask during Death from Above
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
"Everyone's got magical abilities" - not sure I love that. I like a mix of people and the premise of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. If everyone's a mage, therefore magic is ordinary... 🤔 Or is it?
Davrin and Taash are still not mages, though. What Taash can do is not really comparable to what mages can do. Lucanis and Harding are different situations, but also unique circumstances that we need to know more of.
Honestly, Taash's draconic fire might just be her using some type of Dragon fire gland and breathing into it to release its flames. Just a thought.
Why are people assuming that Davrin's and Taash's fire abilities are magic as opposed to Alchemy or enchantment? Was there a description of them that I missed?
DAO warriors could make and apply flame coating to their weapons through the poison-making skill (a very logical thing to be included in warden training now that darkspawn have fire vulnerability), and make fire bombs for that matter, and they could get flame rune enchantments through Sandal. Alot of Alchemy has since moved to class abilities, the dai Tempest straight up covered themselves with fire so i don't think fire breathing is beyond the pale - i mean we have fire breathing and fire eating circus acts in real life do we not?
Why are people assuming that Davrin's and Taash's fire abilities are magic as opposed to Alchemy or enchantment? Was there a description of them that I missed?
DAO warriors could make and apply flame coating to their weapons through the poison-making skill (a very logical thing to be included in warden training now that darkspawn have fire vulnerability), and make fire bombs for that matter, and they could get flame rune enchantments through Sandal. Alot of Alchemy has since moved to class abilities, the dai Tempest straight up covered themselves with fire so i don't think fire breathing is beyond the pale - i mean we have fire breathing and fire eating circus acts in real life do we not?
So Taash has a fire rune tongue piercing?
You jest, but that actually sounds badass, haha. More seriously, it might also be a trick involving gunpowder, although I’d be curious how she got it and got out without being hunted down by the Ben Hassrath.
When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now I do not sleep.
And the energy disk generated by the warrior's shield throw is what? Super-accelerated air created by incredible physical prowess? Titan Stomp or whatever it's called is just great understanding of tectonics? The swarm of energy-arrows from the sky?
I'm sure we could come up with some sort of derrière-pull for most of this but it looks like magic.
"Give me a fully loaded Hornet and I'll shake the gates of heaven." -Aria Reilly
And the energy disk generated by the warrior's shield throw is what? Super-accelerated air created by incredible physical prowess? Titan Stomp or whatever it's called is just great understanding of tectonics? The swarm of energy-arrows from the sky?
I'm sure we could come up with some sort of derrière-pull for most of this but it looks like magic.
such abilities also go back to Origins in varrying degrees. Also magical warrior hybrids also go back to Origins.
Patreon (for my writing, posting chapters of my novel)
And the energy disk generated by the warrior's shield throw is what? Super-accelerated air created by incredible physical prowess? Titan Stomp or whatever it's called is just great understanding of tectonics? The swarm of energy-arrows from the sky?
I'm sure we could come up with some sort of derrière-pull for most of this but it looks like magic.
such abilities also go back to Origins in varrying degrees. Also magical warrior hybrids also go back to Origins.
Yes and it was never good to put that into a setting where magic made people into incarcerated outcasts. But now they doubled and tripled down on it - like combat and ability designers never talked to the world designers.
Or maybe the world really changed, magic is everywhere and everone's a-okay with it.
"Give me a fully loaded Hornet and I'll shake the gates of heaven." -Aria Reilly
such abilities also go back to Origins in varrying degrees. Also magical warrior hybrids also go back to Origins.
Yes and it was never good to put that into a setting where magic made people into incarcerated outcasts. But now they doubled and tripled down on it - like combat and ability designers never talked to the world designers.
Or maybe the world really changed, magic is everywhere and everone's a-okay with it.
I mean the truth is they often don’t. Hence why Gaider was surprised by the Desire demon design.
Also magic doesn’t make you an outcast in Tevinter (or Rivain or Nevarra), so that’s a moot point.
Last Edit: Aug 27, 2024 7:16:32 GMT by illuminated11
When I was a child I truly loved: Unthinking love as calm and deep As the North Sea. But I have lived, And now I do not sleep.
They aren't all mages. Not anymore magical companions than the previous games anyway. Do you consider Alister a "mage" because of his Templar abilities?
Lucanis appears to be the token abomination party member (DAO = Wynne, Awakening = Kristoff/Justice, DA2 = Anders, DAI = Cole and Cassandra since Cole says they are the same just backward or whatever, lol). Taash seems to be very close to her Qunari's dragon accentry (whatever the source of that is). Davrin has two abilities that actually calls Assan, War Cry (which date back to DAO and is a taunt like in DAI here), Heroic Strike which doesn't sound magical and In War, Victory which is probably buff like Warrior has in DAI.
Harding's ability names do not suggest magical abilities, it seems she only use her new magical powers during cutscenes and she has Lyrium veings popping when she does. So not really a mage per in-setting description.
Neve, Bellara and Emmrich are mages.
Edit: -And since the above post reminded me consider TAASH. The qunari have been rather a big mystery but then there was a rather pointed, yet small, line by Iron Bull which many seemed to take to mean they were connected to Dragons...and here we are.
Point is this stuff hasn't exactly NOT been set up and continues to have a slow breadcrumb trail we've been following since Origins so whatever our personal feelings its not like we can blame BioWare for just making up random crap and for slowly getting us used to these ideas.
It's not just Iron Bull's line that hinted at a connection with dragons, though. The whole comic arc with Alistair, Varric and Isabela hinted heavily at the qunari being possibly connected with dragons.
It's not something that comes out of nowhere, and without accounting gameplay, the fact that every companion has a form of magical power is likely going to have an explanation, with Lucanis being merged with a demon/spirit, Harding's power coming from the consequences of the ritual/some connection with the Titans, and Taash with the dragon blood and connection.
Why are people assuming that Davrin's and Taash's fire abilities are magic as opposed to Alchemy or enchantment? Was there a description of them that I missed?
DAO warriors could make and apply flame coating to their weapons through the poison-making skill (a very logical thing to be included in warden training now that darkspawn have fire vulnerability), and make fire bombs for that matter, and they could get flame rune enchantments through Sandal. Alot of Alchemy has since moved to class abilities, the dai Tempest straight up covered themselves with fire so i don't think fire breathing is beyond the pale - i mean we have fire breathing and fire eating circus acts in real life do we not?
As far as we know, Davrin's 'magical' power is just about him being a Grey Warden, which isn't new. The fire nature of his abilities seems more like something related to gameplay. Taash was described to be able to breathe fire, and I don't think it'll be something strictly circumvented in the gameplay, so it could be something more. The possibility of her ability being tied to the dragon blood qunari seems to have inside of them is definitely here.
such abilities also go back to Origins in varrying degrees. Also magical warrior hybrids also go back to Origins.
Yes and it was never good to put that into a setting where magic made people into incarcerated outcasts. But now they doubled and tripled down on it - like combat and ability designers never talked to the world designers.
Or maybe the world really changed, magic is everywhere and everone's a-okay with it.
I honestly doubt those abilities are linked to the change in the world. It's a fair point of criticism, but I think the most likely explanation is that they leant deeper in the separation between combat and world.
Which is why I mentioned that the companions may be selected based on powers that they've already gained, even through circumstances that appear to be unrelated - something unusual happened to them, and because of that, they may already be (consciously or not) driven to converge where Rook can find them. That's usually how fate works in fiction.
I just don't see how the party being composed by people with magical powers is a necessary step for the prophecy to be fulfilled. But I guess it's a metter of subjectivity.
This is also the reason why removing the Veil is potentially so contentious: what happens if magic returns to people, when most people are unfamiliar with how it is to have magic (and in case of the South: where people are often deeply afraid of it)???
When I made my original comment about Sandal's prophesy I wasn't being entirely serious. We have to remember that to many of the people in the south the Herald was the fulfillment of a prophesy concerning the return of Andraste but that turned out not to be the case because the figure behind us in the Fade was neither Andraste nor the reason we had the Anchor (well I suppose you could argue it was Justinia who knocked it towards us). Sandal's prophesy was not made to the public at large or actually retained within the lore of Thedas. It is just something that Hawke could overhear if you clicked on Sandal enough. It might be intended to be a real prophesy or just the writers having a bit of fun because they knew we'd be having endless debates like this.
However, with regard to the companions and Rook having powers you wouldn't normally expect to find in them, perhaps that is important to the narrative. Solas does want the world put back the way it was before the Veil when everyone was different because their minds had free access to the Fade. May be this is going to inform Rook's view of what Solas was/is trying to do. Even if it doesn't result in wholesale physical death and destruction, it may blow the minds of the majority of inhabitants of Thedas. We had a hint of this with Pharamond in Asunder when he succeeded in reversing his tranquility. It wasn't the possession that followed that was the problem for him so much as what happened when the demon was no longer shielding him from reconnecting with his emotions. He was struggling to cope. So, how our companions deal with their "magical" state, even though it may come from different sources could be important not only in how we view Solas' grand plan but also how we argue against it.
Have they indicated if there is any significance to the fact they have shown their tarot cards wreathed in coloured flames? I can see the symbolism of the colours but why the flames?
Davrin: blue - Grey warden colour Emmrich: Fade green - lots of spirit magic and member of Mourn Watch Neve: rose red - Tevinter? Bellara: bright red - no idea but may be something to do with her tragic past (to be honest it looks very similar to Neve's to me) Taash: orange - she has fire in her blood so that's easy Hardin: forest green - likes nature and growing plants Lucanis: purple - his signature colour likely associated with whatever gives him wings. (not Red Bull)
such abilities also go back to Origins in varrying degrees. Also magical warrior hybrids also go back to Origins.
Yes and it was never good to put that into a setting where magic made people into incarcerated outcasts. But now they doubled and tripled down on it - like combat and ability designers never talked to the world designers.
Or maybe the world really changed, magic is everywhere and everone's a-okay with it.
You have to consider the difference between segregration for story and presentation purposes. Like OK I get it, I pointed it out myself, Spiritual Bulwark looks and sounds a bit magicky....and given the name for that specific ability there probably is a spirtual/ magic/ fade connection but this does not quite mean this is universal. Abilities in Dragon Age tend to either serve A. a practical purpose or B. look like they are magical in terms of presentation but is just the game trying to explain a fairly mundane attack in a way that we, the player, can tell what is going on.
And this is also a setting with other near magic things that don't quite seem to coutn as magic or grant people abilities.
Lyrium and Templar abilities, perhaps Dwarven abilities. Alchemy which was the explanation for the Tempest spec in Inquisition. And then things like Red Lyrium or the Joining which grant their warriors several super natural abilities.
Which we have seen, throughout the series.
Two handed warrior ability splits the ground open and sends people flying in Inquisition, a visual representation and a means to an end giving the two handed warrior the ability to control crowds. Blackwall in the Champion spec summons three spectral versions of himself, a representation how he was 'holding the line' against an enemy force. The Hidden blades ability where a Rogue can strike multiple times at the same target, a visual representation of the trope where rogue like/ assassin characters pretty much do just that. Warriors can 'taunt' enemies which has their voice carry across the battlfield visually. The Rogue throughout all three games can 'stealth' themselves making them turn invisible, the trope where rogues can 'dissapear' with a puff of smoke stunning their enmies. The Rogue throughout all three games having abilities where they can make copies of themselves to distract foes...actually not sure what this is about but I am sure there is a trope somewhere.
None of these abilities are considered 'magic' and even if they look magical usually have some sort of logical, natural explanation to them, but since these are games their effects have to be represented somehow.
And then this brings us up to Veilguard. Now I would be really curious to see the in world explanation for it but the ability where the Rook Warrior pulls out a war horn, puts down a bunch of 'glowing' arrows which then summoned a fire ball...what it reminded me of was a modern 'fire mission'. Rook basically called in an air strike which if it is what they are going for then while it might be a stretchy explanation, what does Rook just bring catipults wherever they go in the field?, it still would make a fair bit of sense because...its stylized and flashy as hell...but even in Medieval times we had siege weapons and the like.
Though in the end to we also have seen through the description of specs and abilities that it seems the line between magic in the classes is blurring a little. At least in some regard, the Veil Ranger mentioned 'magical arrows' in its blurb, but then we also have Arcane Warrior, Knight Enchanter, Tempest, Shadow, and all sorts of weird blending of classes via Specialization throughout the history of the series.
Patreon (for my writing, posting chapters of my novel)
"Everyone's got magical abilities" - not sure I love that. I like a mix of people and the premise of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. If everyone's a mage, therefore magic is ordinary... 🤔 Or is it?
They aren't all mages. Not anymore magical companions than the previous games anyway. Do you consider Alister a "mage" because of his Templar abilities?
Lucanis appears to be the token abomination party member (DAO = Wynne, Awakening = Kristoff/Justice, DA2 = Anders, DAI = Cole and Cassandra since Cole says they are the same just backward or whatever, lol). Taash seems to be very close to her Qunari's dragon accentry (whatever the source of that is). Davrin has two abilities that actually calls Assan, War Cry (which date back to DAO and is a taunt like in DAI here), Heroic Strike which doesn't sound magical and In War, Victory which is probably buff like Warrior has in DAI.
Harding's ability names do not suggest magical abilities, it seems she only use her new magical powers during cutscenes and she has Lyrium veings popping when she does. So not really a mage per in-setting description.
Neve, Bellara and Emmrich are mages.
Ah-hem... clears throat.... castrati mages to me. Interesting that "magic enters the world". If true, no surprise that "everyone" develops some degree of magical abilities. Of course, "everyone" will be castrati mages following Bio's new normal.
One of the Part 2-4 upcoming video demos will show high level magic user. Emmrich is more than likely to be the one to show "old style" combat magic being a Necro and all. I just can't picture the man somersaulting forward and backward.... do you?
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