53 réponses à ce sujet

[Bootsykk]

GardenSnake wrote...

My second playthrough was a badass evil mage who had sex with everything and was just downright mean, except to his party members and Jowan who he actually valued as a friend. He learned blood magic to make Jowan feel like he wasn't alone and because he thought it would impress Morrigan and be badass. Lol. About the whole killing the templars and mages scene, I think that it was better that it was taken out. I mean how else are you supposed to get that treaty?

 /cast raise dead

[webbedfeet]

My blood mage is firmly in the neutral zone as far as morality is concerned. Blood magic is a tool, much like how people are tools in politics. Using either isn't 'right' in polite society, but there will always be ends that justify means. And he figured that it's only 'evil' because the Chantry needs some propaganda to bat off the Imperium at the time. If he ever needs to use it to fight giant armies of darkspawn (since he has no idea how big a blight is) or mind-control someone important (no foreknowledge on how the Landsmeet could go) or stab himself to emergency heal the front-line tanks when he's out of mana (altruistic use of blood magic! you can has that!), so be it. Burning people to death in a giant firestorm or causing someone to live a waking, screaming nightmare while you hack him into pieces is also morally dubious, but he doesn't see the Chantry making a fuss out of that.



And you can always consider curiousity as a roleplay reason. Curiosity's a powerful thing when it comes to mage-types. Or pride. Jowan dabbled, and the PC should know Jowan isn't evil, even if he is an idiot, and if Jowan could do it you also could dangit. Mages can also have hidden power/control issues due to their long repression in the tower, as reflected by how Irving treated the apprentices/Younger!Wynne's attitude with her old students/the scripts during the Fade nightmare where the mages went mad and killed each other. That could find expression in your grey character, even if he/she isn't 'evil' per se. A subconscious desire for greater control of your surroundings because you've never had such control for your entire life works pretty well for a mage who has mixed feelings about Circle life.



It's kind of ironic since my mage's a boringly 'lawful' character otherwise. Not that it translates to 'good', mind you.

[Aisynia]

Juneya wrote...

GardenSnake wrote...

My second playthrough was a badass evil mage who had sex with everything and was just downright mean, except to his party members and Jowan who he actually valued as a friend. He learned blood magic to make Jowan feel like he wasn't alone and because he thought it would impress Morrigan and be badass. Lol. About the whole killing the templars and mages scene, I think that it was better that it was taken out. I mean how else are you supposed to get that treaty?

 /cast raise dead

Hate to say it, but they should have made it impossible to fail completely.. and since they apparently didn't have the time or creativity to come up with a reason, they removed it.

[Raiil]

The one mage I used it for learned it to keep her team alive. She only used the 'suck life' spell on summoned animals, and never used it against actual people, even ones trying to attack her. As far as she was considered, her team > the Chantry boo hooing about it.

[Addai]

Valentia X wrote...

The one mage I used it for learned it to keep her team alive. She only used the 'suck life' spell on summoned animals, and never used it against actual people, even ones trying to attack her. As far as she was considered, her team > the Chantry boo hooing about it.

Blood Sacrifice (your healing spell) only works on allies.  I used a ranger summon, as well, but as a fallback would use Morrigan.  I figure RP-wise that my blood mage and she had an agreement where she could do this, since Morrigan took very little aggro (my mage was the DPS/ arcane warrior/ havoc wreaker and Morrigan more of a buff and hex mage) and she could heal herself.  I'm sure Morrigan would have groused about it, but eventually seen the practicality and given in. 

You really take very little health from the ally for what you get for it.  On my rogue characters, I have Morrigan cast Blood Sacrifice on the PC.  Again, I figure it is by agreement.

Modifié par Addai67, 21 avril 2010 - 06:34 .

[Raiil]

Whoops, sorry, I meant the other blood related spells, not the suck life one. Perhaps I shouldn't be trying to type on three hours sleep. XD



That particular PC was pretty persuasive (well, all my characters are, but that was probably the smoothest mage I ever had) and I could see her striking a deal with Morrigan or Zevran. The problem is that my team tended to consist of the PC, Alistair, Shale, and Leliana solely because I had her rangerfied so I could abuse her poor little wolf. For RP reasons I just couldn't see her being able to suck blood life/magic out of a golem, Leliana is too much of a woobie and she wasn't going to ask her LI, a former templar, for permission to drain his life.

[Aisynia]

Valentia X wrote...

For RP reasons I just couldn't see her being able to suck blood life/magic out of a golem

The devs agree. If you cast Blood Sacrifice on Shale, you have wasted the casting, as the spell is set to cool down, but there are no effects.

[Raiil]

Aisynia wrote...

Valentia X wrote...

For RP reasons I just couldn't see her being able to suck blood life/magic out of a golem

The devs agree. If you cast Blood Sacrifice on Shale, you have wasted the casting, as the spell is set to cool down, but there are no effects.

Ah, okay. I never even bothered trying. If Leliana's pet wolf wasn't there, I just didn't use that spell. 

[Aisynia]

Well I don't do it on purpose. Mis-click occasionally



Also, I cast it on whoever. I especially like hitting Alistair with it. I can just imagine him whining "Ow! Hey! Stop that!"

[Yendi]

Valentia X wrote...

The one mage I used it for learned it to keep her team alive. She only used the 'suck life' spell on summoned animals, and never used it against actual people, even ones trying to attack her.

Having a ranger with a summoned animal was a good idea. The problem with draining life from your companions otherwise is that I can’t imagine any of the stronger characters volunteering and it does seems like they should feel it, though its possible Oghren wouldn’t notice if he is drunk enough.

[Raiil]

Yendi wrote...

Valentia X wrote...
The one mage I used it for learned it to keep her team alive. She only used the 'suck life' spell on summoned animals, and never used it against actual people, even ones trying to attack her.

Having a ranger with a summoned animal was a good idea. The problem with draining life from your companions otherwise is that I can’t imagine any of the stronger characters volunteering and it does seems like they should feel it, though its possible Oghren wouldn’t notice if he is drunk enough.

Yeah, that's why I chose to Ranger Leliana. You can't use Shale and my only other character with good constitution was Alistair. :/

[Aisynia]

Well I like punishing Alistair

[Raiil]

Aisynia wrote...

Well I like punishing Alistair

Ah. He's my soft spot- well, him and Shale- and my PC would feel bad. XD

[Ramante]

I always use it on dog. o.o'

When I'm in a tough battle I sometimes use it on Shale, I totally forget about her not having blood and all. (strange that she can get the injury 'coughing up blood')



Roleplaying a blood mage is pretty easy, very easy since absolutely no one in the game starts screaming 'look a blood mage' when you use your skills. My Warden walked into the Landsmeet with blood magic active, no reaction at all.

I liked the fact that Wynne starts talking about it at the end of the Circle quest (I have the mod installed), I decided to talk my way out of it instead of fighting but it was fun.

The only strange thing about it is that Wynne starts calling you a blood mage and then when she wants to leave the tower with you she tells Irving that the Warden is a 'good person'.

[Yendi]

I'll have to get over my mod phobia and get that mod soon, it makes much more sense to have people react to what they see even if you can talk tour way out of it as always.



I'm starting to think it would have been better if the player could actually get the demon deal during the circle quest too. The veil is torn the place is full of demons and blood magic seems to have been spreading worse than the flu so why couldn’t the mage warden find someone willing to give the knowledge there?

[Addai]

Yendi wrote...

Having a ranger with a summoned animal was a good idea. The problem with draining life from your companions otherwise is that I can’t imagine any of the stronger characters volunteering and it does seems like they should feel it, though its possible Oghren wouldn’t notice if he is drunk enough.

They do feel it.  Like the blood mage when casting any blood spell, an ally will cry out in pain when you cast Blood Sacrifice on them.  The summon will do the same.  If you can't handle the heat of blood magic, get out of the kitchen, as the saying goes. 

Like I explained above, I set up Blood Sacrifice casting as I see it fitting the RP and try not to use it otherwise.  If a mage in the party is using blood magic, it is obviously by the PC's consent (or even direction), so the PC should take the brunt of things one way or another in my view.  That's what a good leader does.

[Creature 1]

Blood Sacrifice can pretty much half kill you. Of course you feel it.

[mousestalker]

Ramante wrote...
I liked the fact that Wynne starts talking about it at the end of the Circle quest (I have the mod installed), I decided to talk my way out of it instead of fighting but it was fun.
The only strange thing about it is that Wynne starts calling you a blood mage and then when she wants to leave the tower with you she tells Irving that the Warden is a 'good person'.

That may be part of why it was left out of the vanilla game. That and it's possible to bork the whole templars/mages thing.
It's a fun bit of dialogue though. My mage had very high persuasion so she breezed through it. I imagined Greagoir and Irving winking at each other when discussing the secret Warden spells.

[OrlesianWardenCommander]

Ha spirit healer and bloodmage combo Ying and yang work great with each other. I wana try blood mage played the game 15times never played as a blood mage now im totally trying it. I like the lore of the bloodmage.

[Addai]

Creature 1 wrote...

Blood Sacrifice can pretty much half kill you. Of course you feel it.

I play on Easy so maybe this affects it, but I wouldn't say that it half kills you.  It takes down very little HP for what the blood mage gets from it, and the ally can immediately heal via potion or spell.

[Addai]

OrlesianWardenCommander wrote...

Ha spirit healer and bloodmage combo Ying and yang work great with each other. I wana try blood mage played the game 15times never played as a blood mage now im totally trying it. I like the lore of the bloodmage.

Many people would say that that combo would break lore.  Personally I don't see blood magic as inherently evil, nor "spirit healing" as any more virtuous than any other spell, but people seem to like preserving a dichotomy.  I guess if you accept "Chantry-sanctioned" as being virtuous, it makes sense.

Since playing a PC blood mage, I basically can't do without Blood Wound anymore.  I make Morrigan a BM and live without Revival and Group Heal.  Again, playing on Easy, this works fine.  I realize others might not like to do it that way at higher difficulty.  I've set Morrigan to heal ally at 75% health and this works very efficiently, since Heal has a quick cooldown, and then everyone is set to take a potion at 50% health.

Oh, I'll mention since people are using ranger pets and might not know- if you click on the tactic notification when the summon comes up, you can set the pet to have a full complement of tactics including Overwhelm, Shred, Dread Howl etc. (for the wolf).  This makes the ranger pet very powerful.  My current PC is a ranger/archer and when she has her pet set up and Morrigan is casting Blood Wound, fights are almost too easy.

[OrlesianWardenCommander]

Well its not entirely evil nor the people that use it. Like that one mage you spare in the tower and i think being a blood mage and a spirit healer is awesome. Cause then your conflicted Between good and evil its like theres a dark and light side to your personality.

Witch entitles you to make good or evil choices and not feel its out of charater.

[Creature 1]

Addai67 wrote...

Creature 1 wrote...

Blood Sacrifice can pretty much half kill you. Of course you feel it.

I play on Easy so maybe this affects it, but I wouldn't say that it half kills you.  It takes down very little HP for what the blood mage gets from it, and the ally can immediately heal via potion or spell.

It pulls -50 to heal the mage for +100 (I think it varies by spellpower but I think those are the caps).  Depending on what level you are and who you're hitting -50 can be a big chunk of their HP (I usually hit my mages, and they're low CON), and equivalent to taking a couple sword slashes in combat.  Certainly the damage is easily healed again, but I don't think from an RP perspective it's the kind of thing your ally wouldn't notice.  

[mousestalker]

I think it's a tool. As a blood mage you can use your blood (health) as a substitute for mana. That's not especially good nor is it evil. It's a value neutral choice. You can also use your allies' health to heal yourself. Ethically, that's a bit more loaded, but can be moral. You can boil your foes' blood, which is an effective means to accomplishing your end (eradicating darkspawn). You can also seize control of a victim and force them to do your bidding.

Whether or not those are choices for good depends more upon who your target is than the means. In game we run into examples of more clearly evil choices. The Tevinter mages sacrifice slaves to fuel their magic, for example. The blood mages in the tower make the templars their puppets as well as torture them.

The main point remains. Your average Hurlock very likely doesn't much care whether he died by you sticking a blade into him or by you zapping him with magic. The end result is the same.

My mages tend to be very pragmatic. They use the best tools they have available to win. They have a Blight to defeat, after all.

Modifié par mousestalker, 22 avril 2010 - 09:20 .

[Tirigon]

I doubt anyone would mind if you are a bloodmage.



I know this sounds wrong, but let´s think common sense for once: Would you REALLY mess with a guy who can control your body against your will, or simply blow you up, freeze you or whatever else these mages do?



If you should decide to announce you are a bloodmage I would expect that everyone - large groups of templars nonwithstanding - is really, really polite and rather easy to persuade. Only downside is, I wouldn´t drink anything in a tavern without forcing the bartender to drink half of it first in case it´s poisoned.