The Old Guard (Ye Olde Cullen Thread v4.0 + gen discussion)

Yeah I'm uh kinda embarrassed to admit why I play rogues. It's like, basically, if I'm playing a cute guy, like an elf dude, then ya know, he looks really cute in his armor and being all assassin-y and zippin' about and what not. If he's a hunky guy, then it's like, you can just see his hotness better in tight-fitting rogue armor as opposed to bulky warrior armor.

I. am. a. child. 

I don't see a problem with this

Yeah, I hate that lockpicking is tied to one class in DA. I have a giant axe! Let me smash this chest to pieces! I can repair a broken bridge with magic but I can't figure out how to unlatch a tiny locked chest?!

I don't always have rogues in my party because I like to try out different group banter, and every time I pass by a chest I feel a little twang of sadness.

Yes and yes! Why can't they just make it an unlockable ability choice for other classes? Makes no sense to me. A strongly worded letter to the development team may be in my future. 
*Not really. I'm too lazy.*

Oh my god that stupid door in the Fallow Mire! Honestly the most nit-picky annoying thing in the damn game to me. I brought Blackwall! I don't want to come back here again! Please just let me in! And of course I always forget about the lock every time and there's never a rogue in my party.

I remember in the very beginning of Dragon Age 2 there's a chest right before the Ogre fight that is impossible to unlock unless you chose to play a rogue. This was back when I was *always* concerned with making sure I never missed anything, so my first playthrough I ended up switching from mage to rogue just so I could break into the damn thing, and it ended up, of course, just being useless low-level loot. Sigh.

Two words: Zevran ASAP

Okay, that is sort of more than two words since ASAP is an acronym. 

And of course, if you play on a console, then the mod option is naught.

(Zevran fan here, so that mod is a "must have" for me. *nods!*)

*tip-toes in*

I prefer to play as a mage and my basic set up is 2 ranged (mage-me and typically another mage) and 2 melee (often both are warriors). In wandering maps I don't often bring a rogue with me, but dungeon crawling calls for one of my knifey-bladey-lock-picking friends. 

But I don't have the smoothest runs with rogue companions, particularly with DAI because 1) no healing magic and 2) I sometimes don't pay proper attention to my party. In both DAO/2 I've figured out how to operate well with rogues but DAI's combat changes pretty much killed the way I like to play. I could set up tactics and just monitor for health, not babysit the entire fight -- at least until I can craft better gear. It also doesn't help that I get attached to certain characters who aren't rogues. It's hard for me to play without Anders/Dorian, for example...

So, there were many a time when I run up to a chest/door and *YOU CAN'T PICK THIS LOCK* shames me for not bringing or being a rouge.  Like Ostagar in DAO, and Lothering in DA2. They thought that one little Lothering chest would be funny, didn't they?  It doesn't bother me so much now (not like the traps) because I know what's in the chests, but on my first runs? No. Not amused.

That said, I really didn't like being a rogue in DAO. I just... no. But DA2/DAI were surprisingly fun and even as a mage now I'll hop over to Isabela or Cole when I feel like it. Being sneaky and stabby is fun.  Zev, though, never meshed with my style. Poor thing always died pretty quickly. I've never played as an archer -- the closest I get is when I switch over to Sebastian, which is actually a lot of fun for me...


*resumes lurk*

Lol I love this discussion. Yeah, it still chaps my hide that we don't get Knock or lock bash. I loved in Neverwinter Nights how there was also always a risk to bashing the lock, and your loot would end up in pieces sometimes. But at least you still had a chance to get it.

That chest at the beginning of DA2 haunts me. So I must always have a balanced party anywhere I go in dragon age. No matter what. Which is why Carver never became a Grey Warden for me, because there was no way as a mage Hawke I was going to have a second mage in my party and bring Anders. LOL Plus I would've gotten my ass kicked.

Do we know for certain when the exact cutoff is?

Nice to see the new and improved Cullen et al threads.
I have just started a new game as a male Elf rogue and will be romancing Josie. It will be hard not to romance Cullen, but.... I have to move on... enjoying it so far