The Dorian Pavus DA4 Thread - A Potential Companion?

In DAO you could use any weapon provided you had the strength/dexterity to do so. However, the mage would tend to put their points into other abilities first, which limited them to basic swords and knives. What the Arcane Warrior spec allowed you to do was use your magic score instead. Hence being able to use much more powerful weapons and armour. Also, unlike your staff, you had to sheath other weapons before doing your magic spells, which made for a delay in combat. Nevertheless, I liked the flexibility in what we could use. It was so frustrating when DA2 came out and you are constantly picking up fancy weapons and armour that mage Hawke can't use and in the case of the armour, your companions can't either.

It was also frustrating that with other classes instead of having two weapon slots, one for melee weapons and one for ranged, toggling between them, you had to pause, go to the inventory screen and swap them there. Then in DAI you couldn't do this at all whilst in combat, which was silly as the sensible strategy would be to use a ranged weapon until the enemy closed on your and then swap to melee. Of course, this was hardly a problem with the warrior class since they could no longer use ranged weapons at all. I really miss the flexibility of DAO.

Given that I consider Dorian to be the single best character ever created in ANY videogame, let alone the DA series I'd be very disappointed if he didn't appear. I've unleashed reams of criticism over DA:I, some of it justified, some of it personal preference - but I've always consistently praised the characters, and Dorian was the absolute pinnacle of awesome. I ended up with a serious man crush on the guy, and I'm as boringly hetro as you can get!

So yeah - bring him on please.

Whilst Bohdan said they had been invited, he could have changed his mind or, given the 2 year gap, they could have been there and left again. May be there were people taking too much interest in Sandal. Perhaps it would have been helpful to have a codex about this but, to be honest, I found that bit connected with Sandal in Trespasser to be rather odd and only likely to fuel more speculation.

However, I feel it is a totally different situation from Dorian. For a start off he was a companion and possible love interest. Yet, despite his acceptance in the south, he always returns to Tevinter, always starts the Lucerni with Maevaris and always becomes a Magister, even if you don't reconcile him with his father. Also, he always becomes Tevinter Ambassador to the Exalted Council, even if he hates the Inquisitor's guts (having been punched in the main game). Thus, the writers seemed to be determined to maintain his link to the Inquisition but ensure he is located in Tevinter at the end of Trespasser. If it wasn't due to their intent to give him a prominent role in the next game, why not leave him back in the south and his father alive in Tevinter, with Dorian having no political clout there? It would certainly make for a much less complicated relationship with his southern paramour, whether the Inquisitor or Iron Bull.

Put it another way, I will be extremely disappointed if they don't use him in a significant way in DA:D,, particularly since Varric is being involved once again.

I think that is the point. Apart from DAA, Sandal has always been our runecrafter, so it would be odd for him to be present in the game but not actually do anything. Why pay for the VAs for Bodhan and Sandal just to have the latter say "Enchantment" at the Winter Palace out of context? Assuming the reason they didn't include them was that Mark Darrah advised against it, why put the reference to him in Trespasser? That was really strange. It would mean nothing to new players, since they had never met him, and was actually somewhat patronising towards established players, thinking that throwing that reference in there would answer their query why he wasn't seen in the main game. If they didn't intend using Sandal again, then leave him out altogether.

Not to forget, the extend biography for him in WoT2. Suddenly he went from orphan/unwanted child abandoned in the Deep Roads (common practice in Orzammar) with possible connection to the Aeducan family, to an individual found miles from the city, in an area swarming with darkspawn, who suddenly appears in an old part of the Deep Roads that seems to have links to a time before the Memories. Why increase the mystery around him and then ditch him altogether? Sometimes I just don't understand the writers.

Yet no sign of them in Masked Empire either, which immediately preceded the events of DAI, although admittedly Morrigan was conspicuous by her absence too. Continuity seems to have fallen by the wayside in that narrative, since Morrigan was reputed to be heading to Orlais after DAO and WoT2 confirms Morrigan was around for some time before the civil war but there was absolutely no mention in the book. Then she crops up near the Tirashan Forest in that on-line mini-game (also set before the events of DAI since Justinia is still alive)