Character creator.

Close combat.

well i just got this game, looking forward to playing it. is there any things i should know before i start?

It's a great game, take your time with it. You should know that mages are the most powerful class (imo at least) and you should have at least one in your party. Also, try to keep a balanced party, have a rogue to open locks, a mage for crowd control and healing, a warrior to do damage and tank, etc...

ok thx! what class should i use for my first mage or warrior?

I'd go with mage, I find them more fun and more powerful.

I've only beat Dragon Age once but I loved it! If you having trouble killing the last boss, what I did is

That only really works on casual difficulty though, on higher difficulties the catapults have a limited number of uses before breaking.

Helps if you have an herbalist character make tons of health pots, and stick a Self / Health / <25% / Use Most Powerful Healing Potion in each character's tactic screen, and move it up to the #1 slot. Certainly takes a load offa your healer.

hey i heard you can use the blood dragon armor in ME2 is that true? and if it is how do i use it.

Yes you can. You simply have to buy and register both games and you will be given a code to redeem which allows you to use the blood dragon armor in both games. However, the armor looks horrible in ME2 especially since you cannot remove the helmet.

Okay. Something weird is happening. A. Tactics don't seem to do anything for my characters. Ever.
:(

Seriously, neither does demeanor, or whatever the other option inside tactics is.
I mean, maybe it does, I don't know, everyone seems to just get killed.
I could put heal <50% for my character, on number 1 tactics, but I don't think that does anything.

i mean, seriously, I'm on Easy, and I am getting murdered by the blood mages in that one deserted building. Why would they give you a quest that cannot be completed by anyone ever?
Seriously? 8 or 13 archers and 3 blood mages spamming attacks and the archers run at you stabbing you with swords FTL is not possible to win at!
I'm serious. There are no tactics for that situation.

And what Casual Difficulty? There's only Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare.

I really am close to looking up cheats for this game, because they have put me in a situation where there is no way to win!
I'm dead serious here! I've been wiped out like crazy over and over again! ON EASY!

Someone please tell me how that can happen? I mean, what the heck? Seriously. Just tell me how?!?!
Tactics don't work, if they did, my characters would heal themselves, instead of being human pincushions, and frozen in place, and debuffed, and frozen again, and misdirected, and fireballed by an attack that would drop a Dragon!
Seriously, I just, can't figure this out.
Most of the places in this dungeon weren't that hard, but these mages, there's three of them in one room! There's no level grinding possible to make your characters immune to being frozen, misdirected/weakened/howled/growled,etc.

The final Boss is going to be easier than those mages!
Seriously, there's a huge issue here.

I'm level 10, and no matter what combination I have of characters, it's a slaughter. Healing doesn't work when you're dead and or frozen.
Archers bypass my armor, which doesn't even make sense to be honest, and it's literally the only reason that they hit my character every single time! Seriously, and for up to 17 damage a hit! Except for the mages and their ability to do 60 something damage in a flurry of attacks per 2 seconds. In fact, I dare say defense is useless in this game, because I've never had that many misses against my character despite having a lot of defense.
240 health isn't enough for this area, 400 wouldn't be enough! 1000 might be enough!

What the hell?
What level do you have to be? 40? I mean, I'm sorry, but there needs to not be such a steep difficulty curve. I have no issues with any fights up until now. Any of them!

I mean, there's a difference between having a quest show up, and a quest requiring you to be decked out in the best gear in the game! Someone please explain to me what the hell I'm doing wrong?

Also, where the heck is the Warehouse for the final body to dump in the one quest? I cannot find it anywhere.
I have the Market and the Pearl one down.

So it has been a while since I played this game. I beat it with a human warrior an an elf mage. I tried playing as a rogue a few times but never enjoyed it. Anyways, I just started a new playthrough with a human mage who I'm going to make an arcane warrior, and I'm wondering if Awakening is worth the $40. So, is it?

@DavidB... Leave that quest and come back in a few levels. Depending on your party make up, it can be very hard. I have never had a problem with Tactics working, nor have I heard anyone complaining about that. The issue may really be how you are trying to deal with the mobs. Come back when you have a mage with a couple good crowd control spells. Or an archer who can do scattershot to stun people. And a templar who can do holy smite and knock the mages silly - or better yet, a mage who can toss out mana clash. That is not an area you can just barrel through. You need a rogue to disable traps, you need a mage who can do an AoE spell from a distance while you hold the team back for a minute and so on.

Look, if you're getting your ass handed to you in that quest (which is completely optional), it's time to turn around and leave. Gain a few levels, get some more talents and spells, and work on better ways to quickly deal with mages. That particular sidequest is quite infamous for its difficulty, and being level 10 is really too low to handle it.


No, not really. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun romp, overall, but considering its length, (lack of) difficulty, and bugginess, it's really not worth 40 bucks. I'd wait for a price drop.

Casual is the easiest difficulty. It should be a cake walk in that mode. The warehouse is in the market district where you duel the knight who calls you out for being a grey warden. For the mages tower (Im assuming thats where you're having problems, thats where I had mine) don't go until your level 12 or higher I would say.

Okay, I'll come back.
But what do you mean disable traps? There doesn't seem to be any traps there?

I'm sorry for going on a tirade.
I was overwhelmed by it.

And I hate mages. I hate having to rely on a mage to get through an area. And how would you even get the rogue lady to use scattering shot? Switch to her and spam it?
I'll come back to that much much later.

Now, if only tactics would work reliably for me.
Yeah, my Sten does use Sunder arms on enemies via his tactics, and all, and same for the other characters, but I can't seem to get anyone to heal on their own.

No matter what demenor I set, no matter what I do, they rarely, if ever heal.
And it's annoying when the enemies swarm your characters.

Wyatt? There's only Easy difficulty on mine. No Casual difficulty. And I would never call Easy difficulty in this game Causal difficulty. It's like Easy on Neverwinter Nights 1. You can die and all. Implosion, most broken spell ever. Let's give Paladins a instant death spell! Casual difficulty would be "enemies fall asleep randomly and do very little damage, Player character cannot die"

And what's going to be a cakewalk? The final Boss? The mage zone? Dodging bullets?

Bummer. Thanks for the info, though.

The entire game on casual should be

So, how do I pick this Casual Difficulty? Because I only have Easy as the easiest difficulty. I don't see a "Whoa, you can't lose" difficulty.
I would like to try this Casual Difficulty.
I don't think you're talking about Easy, because, just like Neverwinter Nights 1, you can still die on Easy.
And it's not really that easy.
Then again, you can solo NWN 1.

Actually, it's not. I've played through on casual and normal, and although casual is certainly easier, there are certain battles that are just require you to think carefully about how to proceed and hit that pause bar a lot and make sure everyone is staying healthy. I actually got killed a few times, even having already played the game on normal first and so knowing what I was facing. A lot depends on your party make-up and how you deploy them.


DavidB - I assumed you were trying the optional blood mage quest in Denerim. If not and you are in the fade doing Broken Circle, you can't leave, unless you load a save from before you did that quest and mosey on elsewhere for a bit. But if you are in the fad, make sure you are switching quickly between your various shapeshifting forms.

As for healing, if you are setting them to drink a health potion for when their health goes below 50%, then you should see them usually doing that, unless they are in the midst of another tactic and getting mobbed. Other than a mage with the heal spell, other characters can use health potions for themselves. A healer can be set to heal certain party members at, say when their health drops below 50%. Maybe you are not interpreting some of the tactics to good effect? You can also drop the healing potions on the different characters quick key slots and heal them using pause and cycling through your party.

I love the mages in this game - they are powerful, they can be pure support only and very effective, or really badass damagers with some nasty effective spells, or a decent combo of both. I wouldn't be able to get through the game without a mage regularly in my party.

Edit: Casual = Easy. I think DOA has it designated as Easy. ME2 calls it "casual"

Well, the only problems I had on casual ( I just loaded up my game and it is causal not easy for me) were with the high dragons. The rest of the time I was leaving my party in the dust. Thats not to say that a couple of time my character didn't fall in combat, its just my entire party never got close to dying when on casual. Now on normal I felt like I was on hard difficulty. I would die, a lot. But you do bring up a good point to look for. DavidB - Make sure your characters actually drink the potion. I think they can be interrupted and not actually drink the potion.

Oh, no wonder I got confused! I thought there was a secret very easy difficulty.

Wait, are you saying your game has an Casual Difficulty, while all other people's games don't? Ah...I want your copy.
Can you post the difficulty settings your game has? I know that sounds annoying, but for mine, it's Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare.
What do you have?

I'll come back to that quest much later.
I just hate having to rely on my mages for uber-damage dealing.
Mages should not outshine Warriors that much.

And yes, I am in the Decrepit house in Denerim.

As for the healing, uh, can't say I noticed that.
I can keep trying with the tactics, I'm sure I can fix it.

It's always mobbed, mobbed, mobbed, and mobbed. And an occasional other tactic.
It's rather annoying to be honest.
Before I take them on again, I'm going to go buy/make as many potions as I can get.
And I didn't know you could heal people by dragging it on their pic, Doh!
I thought you had to go into the inventory and make them drink it that way.

And sometimes they don't even drink it. They just stand there and get beat up.

I wish I had this for PC, I need the mod to skip places the fade bores me to tears, but its nothing compared to the orzammer questline I am left to do *sigh* the anvil of the void and the fade really make me hate the game, its fun then it just annoys me.

I can, Ill do it later. I have it on the 360 so I have to take a picture of my screen and upload it.

Sounds like they are being interrupted, if they don't go through the motion then they don't get the benefit of the potion.