What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

Aneira

He does this work for romances even? I mean, aren't you a female dwarf you got 3 options, and then you may not even flirt with them.

phoray

I'm not sure yet, although I have already flirted with everyone at least once, Blackwall, Cullen and Cassandra twice. But since they all hate me anyways I'm not sure romance is an option. And I guess you have to use all or most of the flirt options when they are available or else there's no romance?


deadlydwarf

Yes I've thought about that, too, but decided not to. I was forced to play a dual wield rogue which I would never do if I was free to choose, so there's something. ^^ Since I had to roll the difficulty, too, I prefer to use working builds. Dying frustrates me to no end, I'm a sore loser, so I just know if I would die constantly I would ragequit. My frustration tolerance is veeery low.

Also I usually do not have Cole in my party, and I sometimes take Vivienne instead of Dorian although I can't stand her. Yeah, so I'm trying to do things differently to make it.


You should try it (=random PT) at some point, if you like mayhem.

I think, you need good reputation for the romance; I remember, that I could not start the romance with Dorian (after the first kiss – romance quest), before I had enough approval, so: if they hates your Inquisitor, then you have low chance for it (at least with companions, I dont know the advisor's romance, sadly)

Catilina

I think you completely misunderstood me. I wasn't saying that all mages in Thedas are like that. I was pointing out that the writers tend to give their mage party members very similar traits. Cold and caustic is typical for the women and world-changing destructive revolutionaries for the men. I've read most of the lore (save the first two DA books and WOT Vol. 2) and I know not all mages are like that. When the mages join the Inquistion, I always accept them as allies. I also invite them into the Chantry if they want it. I don't get along with Vivienne very well in most of my games because I usually play pro-freedom.

I also want to give a shoutout to Wynne. No hidden agendas, no ulterior motives really except for helping the Warden stop the Blight. Dorian is listed as good mage that doesn't believe in those "dismal little mage prisons." I respected Merrill a lot even though I thought she wasn't thinking things through as much as she thought. I don't mind a flawed character, but it felt like they gave her blood magic as overcompenstation for not having the traits most lady mages in the DA parites have.

Morrigan, despite her faults, has been friends to all but one of my Wardens. Anders was an emotional headtrip to romance and he's my "canon" LI.  Valanna was angry but not without cause.  I still like Solas as a person (not so much as the Dread Wolf tearing down the Veil) and he's one of the most interesting companions we've had in a DA game imho.

In fact, the only one that I truly dislike is Vivienne. That mainly comes from her role if she becomes Divine on top of her personality in the main game.  I don't dislike because she's a mage, I just don't think she's a good person deep down.  Unlike every other mage I listed.  I think the rest do have a heart and mean well.  

I am a pro-mage player most of the time because I've noticed that mages are just people.  Some good, some bad, most are boring. That's why I'd like to see the DA team break some of their bad habits for writing casters for the party. I'd like to see folks like Fenyriel, the Dreamer from DA2.  Just being a nice person for the sake of being nice is a trait too many mage companions lack, sadly.

Rhys is one of my favorite characters in the entire series. I was bummed that neither him or Evangline made it directly into DA:I. I know that the DA team could do a better job of writing mage party members that aren't so similar. A full-time party member like Rhys in personality would be a welcome change. I'd prefer anti-Circle/pro-College of Magi as well.

Sorry, if I misunderstod you. I agree, probably the writers want to present the mages as cold, caustic, destructive, crazy, unreliable, unpredictable etc., and many people tend to think so. (I heard, that the writers did not expect how many people sided with Mages in DA2.) What I wrote, was not against you (yes, I know, you are pro-mage), just to clear: these are general human traits, not because of they are mages.
(I have not read the books –likely I should–, my informations come only from the game and the forums.)

What do the grey bars on some of the DAI health bars represent?


Well rescuing the Queen didn't go as smoothly as it might have.
We knew we would have to fight our way through...

For rogues, it would be Prowler on Tier 3.  I find the "every character has his/her own look" concept.  For rogues, Prowler makes Sera and Cole look like they're in snowboarding outfits.  Varric looks like he's a pirate.  And the PC ends up in a leisure suit!  On Tier 3, the worst is Battlemaster armor.  You'd expect a warrior to have a full suit of armor.  Instead, you get this:


I prefer the heavier look of the DAO armors and the fact that they look the same on all characters.

Just curious, where did you find the battlemage armor?  I can only find the mail and coat.

Kind of annoying that, to the best of my knowledge, you have to soften L each time you get the opprotunity or else she turns into murder nun, or don't get at least a chance to try and convince her at the end.  Kara was very lazze fair about the Inquisition in the beginning but was quite...disturbed...by some of the things a hardened L would do.  Fortanatly both times I played the game with her I got Divine Cass. 

Murder Nun? I can see it if you don't soften her. She acts more than a bit touched otherwise. Did you go whole hog on your world state and have her defeated by the Warden?

My Cadash decided to talk her down. Garnet was nice but saw Leliana like a cat with it's back arched up. Don't touch her and keep a soft gentle voice. Easy there, Princess McStabby Stab. Too many years with too many jumpy clients that needed the Carta's services.

I'm about to fire back up DA:I. I still need to catch up on Josie's dialogue tree, tell Varric to create another Swords and Shields and I need to go talk to Sutherland. He'll be in the tavern by now. Once I finally leave it's off to VR for info on Calpurina. I played Templar side once about 18 months ago so this will almost be like a new quest for me.

olnorton

Herb farming is a bit of a pain but ignore the damn shards.  I hate those things so much.  I doesn't help that my first 3 times playing this game I played on PC.  Platforming with those controls still makes my eye twitch to this day.   I found it to be little more than forced exploration for not enough of a reward.  The zone those can unlock is a maze and extremely annoying.  

You should give it another chance, especially after you do good run-throughs in DAO and DA2 that you want to be part of your world state for DAI.  What's jarring is the massive change in aethetics among the three games.  The nice thing about your Leliana is that she genuinely looks like a younger version of the Leliana in DAI.

Wow. This was such cool timing that I'm pausing my game to share this with you guys.

I'm knocking out the Chargers v Qun quest as we speak. I just put Solas back into my party for the first time since about level 6. Solas chewed out Gatt for joining the Qun. Then I took care of the last pack of Vints. I'm going to hit the horn but I stopped. The banter between Solas and Bull about Bull being a spy and that other governments don't control what people think and act just fired off.

Curious timing, since I'm about to save the Chargers right about...now.

Edit:  I'm just about everyone's best friend in the game now.  Except Solas.  He's a hard nut (egg?) to crack.