fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2951 ]

[ SECRET POST #2951 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2951 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[The To-Do List, Brandy/Willy]

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03.

[Avatar: Legend of Korra]

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04.

[The Amazing World of Gumball]

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05.

[Agents of Shield]

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06.

[Game of Thrones]

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07.

[Galavant]

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08.

[Soukyuu no Fafner Exodus]

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09.

[Jamie Dornan from "The Fall"]

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10.

(Neil Gaiman)

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 054 secrets from Secret Submission Post #422.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If you remember someone asking about system requirements a while back, that was me, and Dragon Age Origins does indeed run on my laptop! It doesn't run BEAUTIFULLY but I can at least play. (It DOES seem to require six or seven clicks to buy or sell an item, though, for the first several times it just brings up the circle with the 'x' in the middle but not the coin icon on the side. Is this a fixable issue?)

Anyway, I don't want spoilers (I'm already spoiled enough, lol) but I would like any tips y'all could give me on playing the game! General stuff like "definitely go this talent tree" or "always have this party member" or what have you would be very helpful--I'm not entirely at sea because the mechanics are like a more primitive WoW, but I know I'm missing a lot.

This probably only hugely entertains me, but my character is a Daelish elf who's a blatant Tauriel expy, and you know how there's a DLC quest where you meet a dog? And he's ill/poisoned and you help cure him and he imprints on you and loves you forever with puppy love? ...yeah. I named him Kili.

- Make sure you get all our companions, because you CAN miss them. I missed Dog AND Leliana on my first playthrough, and I heard of people killing Zevran, not realizing it's a possible companion.

- Lothering will become "overrun by darkspawn", meaning that once you get past a certain point, you can't return to it - so do all you want to do there.

- the way you assign points for strength/magic etc MATTERS in Da:O - I heard of people dying all the time later on in the game because the made crap characters.

- Your companions will already come with certain strengths and it's better to build on those than to change them (imho) Example - Wynne is more a natural healer, while Morrigan is more of an attacking made.

Have fun!

Yeah lol my brother killed Wynne, not realizing she was a companion.

So OP, if you want all the characters (and I assume you do), don't miss Dog, Leliana, Wynne or Zevran. They can die or even be completely missed. I'm pretty sure the others have to join you for the quest... but if you really piss them off they might leave.

Sten is also easy to miss. Remember to look through areas carefully before leaving them.

OP

I do want all the characters! I haven't met Wynne or Zevran yet (although I think I met Wynne briefly in the beginning) but I have Dog, Leliana, and Sten. (Sten thinks I'm lame, lol)

Re: I have succumbed to DA:O!

(Anonymous) - 2015-02-02 00:34 (UTC) - Expand

Hey hey! Welcome to the club.

I wouldn't say there's a wrong way to play the game - if it's your first time playing it, you probably don't want to get bogged down by doing everything or getting every character to 100% affection, stuff that generally takes a guide and requires spoilers. But a couple of general tips off the top of my head:

-Don't be afraid to sell stuff you don't need. I'm always afraid to sell unique items, but they just end up clogging my inventory and I never use them. Avoid selling to the dwarf in your party camp - it's not bad, but other vendors usually will give you more for your items. Definitely sell armor and weapons you've grown out of because:

-Inventory can fill quickly. Be on the look out right away for any vendor that is selling "Backpack" items. It gives you more inventory - buy those instantly before you buy anything else, because you can miss them along the way! It's easy to get too much clutter, but two of the same item will only count for a single item. So keep that in mind if you ever get full and need to destroy something to make more inventory.

-Also keep an eye out for Gifts! I think they are under the "other" tab when you are at a merchant, so they can be easy to not notice. I believe they are marked as a gift (with pink text or something iirc). Stock up on them, even if you don't hand them out right away.

-I always recommend Mages go for Cone of Cold right away (besides the obvious Heal) because it is just an excellent spell. Freezing enemies not only stops them for a few seconds, but the chance for critical hits to "Shatter" them is a KO.

-Getting high affection gets characters stat boosts. Unless you're really committed to roleplaying it otherwise, try to get everyone's affection as high as possible. Gifts and such will help

-Do you have any of the DLC? I recommend them! The Stone Prisoner gives you another party member, who is awesome. Another one gives you a storage chest, which is nice if you don't want to carry stuff that you'd really rather not sell. Some useful stuff, and you get more utilization out of the DLC if you have them sooner rather than later.

-There are pretty much a limited number of possible battles you can do, thus you can't really grind in this game (do plenty of sidequests to get as much as possible!) Companions not in your party will still level up, though - I think the rule is that they jump a level if they fall two levels behind your Warden. You'll probably be around level 21-22 on a casual game by the ending, though if you do all the sidequests you can hit up to 25.

-Search the world - you also get experience points for reading codexes and stuff. It's always worth it to check out every corner, and search for items everywhere. There's a lot of junk, but some sidequest items are randomly found that way.

I think I remember the dwarves at camp selling a backpack...I am just low on money, alas!

I have the DLC (I got the Ultimate Edition that includes everything) and I was wondering, is there a set level for the DLC? Like, can you do those quests whenever or do you need to level up first? I don't want to send my lvl 7 party to fight lvl 15 elites/the DAO equivalent of that.

DLC: You can do Leliana's Song (separate gameplay), Warden's Keep and Stone Prisoner whenever - they scale to your level. Soon is better for the rewards. Return to Ostagar as well, but most people do it later in the game for story reasons.

Post-game: Awakening, Golems, Witch Hunt.

Darkspawn Chronicles is a what if scenario best played after the game.

Awesome! So Bodahn, the dwarf at camp, should sell SUPER gifts (the feastday ones). I try to avoid using them unless I really need to, but you have that just in case! I think he'll also sell "prank gifts" which actually lowers approval - there's no real need for you to do that (except occasionally fixing glitches where if you make someone like you to too high of a tier without exhausting all their conversation options, you can miss some stuff, including romance) but they're fun just to see how the characters act when they hate you.

Anyway, I think all the DLC is level scaled. I personally like getting Shale fairly early on, just because it's an extra character and all. Return to Ostagar I think is a little better to play later in the game, you don't have to of course, it just makes the experience more nostalgic. Warden's Keep, I'd probably wait until you feel a bit more comfortable with the game, because though the game is scaled the strategy is probably a little more difficult than the first couple areas you go through in the main quest, but definitely don't wait until the end because that's where the storage chest is, and I like to get my money's worth with that!

A couple of the DLC take place "before" the game or separate. They don't use your Warden. Leliana's Song can be played before (and if you play it through, you get a item rewards that transfer to your main game), same with A Tale of Orzammar. Technically Darkspawn Chronicles too, but I wouldn't play that one until you've beaten the game at least once because it's basically you play from the point of view of the Darkspawn, and it'll spoil the ending.

The ones you play AFTER you've beaten the game: the best order is Awakening (which is basically another game, using your same Warden, though it's much shorter than Origins), then Golems, then finally Witch Hunt.

Then you transfer everything into Dragon Age 2! :D

If you really wanna go full murder here's what you need to have:
1. a mage with Haste always on (Haste is really good regardless)
2. a warrior with two daggers and the talent Momentum on Dual-Wield tree (put only enough strength you need for armors, and rest to dexterity (dex is surprisingly better for warriors than strength because they hit faster))
(3. a rogue with two daggers and stack on cunning (just enough dexterity to get equipment)

Guaranteed to kill everything. I didn't put any points to constitution and managed to get through the game no problem on nightmare. Of course if you're very far ahead in the game and don't have re-spec mod it might be useless to build.

Oh and since you're playing on laptop, you could take a look at the mods. I do remember sticky clicking for the merchants, too. There's a couple of unofficial patches that really do help. Try out Nexusmods, that's where I get all mine. I don't think there's anything you absolutely need, but I do recall that the unofficial patches really help. Anyway since it's an older game, luckily any problem you're having likely someone else has also experienced, so give it a Google.

Haha oh if you like your dog (Kili lol) tell him to have a look around! You can talk to him in dungeons and whatnot (though if he has an injury, he'll just whine and you'll have to heal him first). There's actually a few places where Dog can find unique items. I can't remember what exactly and where, but if he's in your party, make him search! I know he can find a really great staff for the mages early on, and also some items that can be used as gifts.

There's no character you HAVE to use, they are all pretty much specced however you like. But it's good to keep at least one rogue in the party, and put some points into lockpicking stuff. Get all the treasures! Otherwise, common sense - a rogue, a warrior, and a mage should generally be in your party.

A mistake I made the first time I played it - I didn't know what injuries were for a long time! I also didn't know how to access the camp, stupidly enough. So I think I made it through one and a half "areas", probably had a stack of ten injuries on each character. So keep the injury kits in stock, but of course returning to party camp heals all. Same with potions and whatnot, though of course if you can have a mage Heal, do that (I make all the mages learn Heal, if not Revive, even Morrigan).

I still don't know what injuries are, I'll look that up. :D I got out of the habit of sending Kili to look around cause he didn't find anything, but now that I know there'ss things TO find I'll look. Thank you!

Injuries are when your character gets knocked out in battle, of course they wake up when the battle is over but they get some kind of stat penalty, an injury. Like, a "permanent" health reduction, for example. Injuries can be cured with Injury Kits, or just by going back to camp, which is the easiest by far solution to curing injuries!

Welcome to Dragon Age hell! For general tips, I have:

- ALWAYS keep a rogue in your party if you aren't playing one for lockpicking/disarming traps

- to the best of my knowledge, the mission to rescue the dog isn't a DLC thing, because it works on my Xbox when the only DLC I have for that is the Stone Prisoner (it was free and I really love Shale)

- for the not being able to buy/sell items without a bunch of clicks, you can always drag the item you want from one side of the merchant window to the other

- I'm going to assume you're playing a rogue since you said your character is a Tauriel expy (fun fact, I just made a Tauriel to play with in Inquisition!) and rogue sounds like the best fit, but in my experience, Bard and Assassin are the best specializations for an archer pure DPS wise. This is personal opinion though, and let's be real, Ranger is amazing because who doesn't want a pet? :D

- It is entirely possible to piss your companions off to the point they leave you, and fun point of fact I discovered the hard way in my first ever playthrough, three of them can leave you during the SAME QUEST. So try to keep everyone happy, even if you're super committed to roleplaying (showering them in gifts is super easy if you have the feastday gifts DLC). There's also one point late in the game where a companion will leave you forever if you make the wrong choice.

- Save often, especially when you're doing the quest to recruit the mages with the treaty. And when I say "save", I mean hard save, as in through the save menu. Don't rely entirely on quick saves. Made that mistake once and had to replay 20 hours of game to fix it.

- Keep at least one mage in your party, and make sure they learn to heal. The Spirit Healer spec is highly recommended, because it gives you a party-wide heal and a revive spell. Even if you just give them the one Heal spell, it'll save you a whole lot of grief and a lot of money you can spend on making poisons and buying the more expensive weapons.

I hope you have fun selling your soul to Bioware! :D

I can just slick and drag items to sell?? omg you're my hero thank you got educating the idiot. this will save me much frustration!

Tauriel is indeed a rogue. :D I was considering Ranger (cause, c'mon--TAURIEL) but Assasin looks good too. How do you pick a specialty? The tooltip said "you can now pick a specialty, find a trainer" but I have yet to find a trainer....

Is there a way to make Morrighan like me? I've given her a few gifts and chatted a bit, but she was pissed when I agreed to help Redcliffe. Will it help to converse with her or does that just piss her off?

(I got a laugh out of the fact that apparently if you give Alistair an ale he'll love you.)

You can learn specializations from companions if their approval is high enough. Zevran can teach you the Assassin-specialization. Some specializations can also be unlocked by buying tomes from certain stores. You can't access the Assassin-tome atm, so you'll have to wait a bit.
Bodahn at the camp sells a Ranger-tome. You get another specialization once you hit lvl 14.

Conversations usually help with approval, though you have to be careful what to say. Each companion has few specific gifts that will give you loads of approval, so keep an eye out for those.

You're welcome! I had so much trouble with that at first, finding out it could be done the easy way was a godsend.

You learn specializations by doing getting the companion with that specialization to like you (Alistair teaches you the templar spec for warriors, for example), by buying the manual (this is the only way to learn the ranger spec without a mod or the dev console), or by doing certain things (an event in a section the Brecillian Forest lets you unlock the arcane warrior spec for mages). You only need to unlock each one once though, then they stay unlocked for all your characters, which is super nice because can you imagine having to go through all that every time? I can try to tell you as spoiler free as I can how to unlock the specs if you like :)

I always end up romancing Morrigan, so I can actually! Pick the dialogue options that sound most like your character has an enormous stick wedged up her backside, or that puts down the Circle and/or Chantry. Throwing jewelry at her is also an acceptable substitute if you want Tauriel to be a good person instead of having a stick wedged up her butt.

I love Alistair so much, and I'll forever be unhappy I can't romance him with a male Warden unless I use a mod. :(

Re: op

(Anonymous) - 2015-02-02 01:10 (UTC) - Expand

Re: op

aenrhien - 2015-02-02 01:20 (UTC) - Expand

Morrigan and Alistair keep bickering and I'm just like "WILL YOU TWO IDIOTS JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY??"

I always shipped them too! The more they hate each other, the more certain I am that they need to have sex. lol

I honestly don't think I have much to say that hasn't already been said, but imo when you figure out tactics, you're all set. Just, like others have said, be kind of careful with attribute points, it's probably best to keep a varied party, don't be afraid to sell items you don't need, but keep an eye out for gifts (there are guides around the net), the DLC for Origins is actually excellent so I'd recommend that, save often and don't be afraid to try different dialogue choices (some will give you more approval points than others, which can be important to maxing out your friendships), OH... And if you play Awakening, when you go to The Wending Wood, before heading into the Silverite Mine, unequip your armor and weapons. There's a glitch that makes it possible to not get them back.

Oh, and calling Dog Kili is pretty adorable given your Warden's name. Now I want to make an Inquisitor that looks like Tauriel.

Edited 2015-02-02 00:47 (UTC)

tbh tactics is the one thing I don't get at all. I have thus far left it at default and just occasionally micro'd the companions to stun/weaken certain mobs.

I was trying to type out a comment explaining tactics when my electricity went off (And so my computer)... Lol, so instead of trying to redo that I'll just say that I'm sure there are in depth guides to help you if you're interested! Once you get them they're simple and extremely helpful.

The main ones I would do are for healing (like, your mage should heal themselves before anyone; I usually did self: < 50% or even 75% because 25 is too low and not going to give the mage enough time to heal; after the self heal, you can do ally), and mobs (see which abilities work against a number of opponents then use the enemies in clusters option; you can do that for stuff like Leliana's bard abilities, can't remember the name, the one that stuns them), but most any ability can be used with tacits in a neat way. I imagine this would make things boring for some, but I barely had to do any micromanaging. I kind of like it that way personally, because the fighting can get repetitive.

Are you playing an archer? I tried that in my first game and found it so hard I switched to DW and then I found a lot of complaints online about how hard it is to build the archer in DAO.

Yeah, I am. I've always played ranged DPS and archers are my preference. I am playing on lol!mode though, so even if I'm not super awesome I'll probably survive??

Re: I have succumbed to DA:O!

chrys - 2015-02-02 01:43 (UTC) - Expand

Re: I have succumbed to DA:O!

(Anonymous) - 2015-02-02 21:29 (UTC) - Expand

I have no tips, but I hope you enjoy it! I'm in the final act of DA2 so yay for latecomers!

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[ SECRET POST #2951 ]

I have succumbed to DA:O!

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Oh, also I ship it.

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