8 réponses à ce sujet

[Odoyle]

I just picked up DA:O awhile ago to take a break from the 500 hours of Mass Effect 1/2 I had amassed in a short time.

I haven't been able to finish it though, because I keep on either wanting to try new character race/class combinations, romances, make different storyline choices, or RP things differently. I have a really bad case of OCD and if things don't go just right I can lose interest in a character quickly.

ANYWAYS, the point of this qustion was, HOW exactly do you build a party, when it feels like so many choices are already made for you?

Alistair is pretty much built for being a tank. He is also very central to the storyline. To not bring him along on quests, main storyline or otherwise, just feels wrong.

Beyond Lothering, the party pretty much needs a Mage to act as Healer. Generally I will buy the first Tome of Arcane whatever from Bodahn, and use it on Morrigan just to get her a basic heal so I can go do Solidier's Peak before heading to the circle.

Then there is Leliana. If you are not playing a Rogue yourself, you kinda need her for opening chests and the like. I guess you could use that mod that let's you magically open them or bash them open, but meh, I haven't gone that far yet. Also if you are romancing her, which many of my characters do because she is so sweet, she is going to be all of my groups anyways.

Add in the Hero, and there is no room really for anyone else. You can swap in Wynne to replace Morrigan, but if you are romancing Morrigan you will want her along. You can turn Morrigan into a Ranged DPS, but I have a hard time with Mage DPS. I don't want to play on Easy (PC) for the lack of FF, which makes the Primal schools dangerous and hard to use, and I don't understand Spirit or Entropy DPS well yet to properly work them into Tacticals.

So that leaves Sten, Zevran, Shale and Ohgren as just kind of ****fless layabouts who aren't really needed for anything. Unless you go out of your way to bring them into your party, or, drop one of the "main" characters. What's sad is they all have their own dialogue, personal quests, interaction dialogue, etc. It feels like a shame not to use them, and it feels "cheesy" to only talk to them in camp and then do their personal quests, without ever bringing them along on a quest.

Oh, and let's not forget about DOG! He's an interesting part of the story in the beginning, who gets relegated to taking naps and digging holes around camp for the rest of the game for most people.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to rationalize this in my head? What is the ideal role to play to get more flexibility in who I bring on my quests?

[ZCaitan]

I kind of do it same as you.
Alistair as tank is kind of standard for me especially since I find him to be the most sympathetic characters of the whole game (aside of the Hero ofc^^). I tried swapping him for Sten and Shale but Shale can get on my nerves pretty fast with her "it is squishy" and Sten kind of needs time to warm up to you, while Alistair is kind of easy to please and all around a nice person. But I admit, it is a personal problem of mine that I have never succeded in making a playthrough other than one I would have really done myself.
My main character is a fighting mage so I used to keep Leliana with me, until my second location (1. Redcliffe 2. Circle) when I changed her for Dog. Although she is a nice person and can open chests I learned in previous playthroughs I didnt really need the locked chests but for the XP for opening them and religious zealots give me the shivers (being a mage warden xD).
Whether to take Wynnne or Morrigan is usually my hardest decision and I changed them quite often. I really like Wynne's support skills and dialogues but I find Morrigan far more interesting as a character and her dialogues especially with Alistair are just priceless. Add to that the Morrigan can be pretty heavy hitter if need be additionaly to the one skill point I always give to heal and I usually end up with Morrigan on Fort Drakon.
Taking Oghren into the Deep Roads is a standard for me but other than that I ignored him, mainly because I think he not that funny except for "Oooooh-ghren". Personal opinion though.
Zevran I plainly dont like. I took him into the party once to get his approval up and the dialogues but usually I let him go after the "incident" as I think that is the funniest scene involving him anyways.
I think the choice of squad depends heavily on whether you are generally good or evil, at least as long as you want to keep with the traditional RPG tactics.
Good: Hero - Alistair/Sten/Dog - Wynne - Leliana
Evil: Hero - Oghren/Shale/Dog - Morrigan - Zevran
The most important skill is Heal and Lockpick and you can fairly even give that to Morrigan and Zevran so I dont think skill sets are that important. But I have never played or highest difficulty, it might be more important there I imagine.

Modifié par ZCaitan, 04 juillet 2011 - 10:51 .

[mosesofwar]

It all depends on how you want to play. I don't even care about most of the chests any longer as the majority of the items are usless and the XP becomes negligible at a certain point. I've been experimenting with a 3 Mage + Tank build, with the tank either being a Ranger pet, Dex Rogue or Alistair. I use the PC mage to control FF, Wynne for Buffs + Glyphs and Morrigan for Debuffs + CC. All of them are Spirit Healers, the PC is a Blood Mage. With the right tactics, you can do a no pause playthrough.

My cannon character is a DPS warrior, so I slotted different characters during different quests, just to keep it interesting storywise. It's not as optimal as the 3 mage + Tank, but it keeps the story flowing.

[Last Darkness]

4 warriors is fun

[Arthur Cousland]

I find it fun to just go alone as an arcane warrior, with perhaps Leliana along for lockpicking. Less companions=less babysitting, though it takes away from the game somewhat without the companion banter while walking around.

Sten/Oghren/Shale can be tanks, though they won't have the defense of Alistair. At least you get Sten early enough that you have time to raise his dexterity, though it will take time.

My mage companions usually stick to healing. If you want to give them some primal spells, then go with arcane bolt, stonefist, winter's grasp and lightning if you don't want to worry about friendly fire, though if you have just one mage who's healing and nuking, then they will go through mana fast. It's only if my warden is the mage, then I'll invest in primal spells like fireball, cone of cold and the storm of the century spells. When I play as a mage, then I'll leave Wynne+Morrigan behind and my warden is the healer/nuker/crowd controller. This is usually my most offensive setup as then I'll go with Alistair, Leliana and Sten/Oghren with minimal resistance throughout the game. I might go with "dog" instead of Sten/Oghren, but he can't equip bows, and I like the flexibility, though you could just sub him out during dragon fights.

Usually, if my warden is a warrior, then I leave Alistair behind. The same can be said, if my warden is a rogue or mage: Leliana and Wynne become expendable.

When I have a full party with me, it does usually consist of Alistair, Leliana and Wynne. Not only do they fulfill the main "roles" in the party, but I like them, aside from Wynne's preaching.

[Last Darkness]

Arthur Cousland, FYI the reason Arcane Warriors do so well solo is because over half the spells in the game have a modifier to their effects that starts at 4 and then is reduced by each party member you have active.

So a large number of spells are 3 to 4 times more effective solo.



Want a truly unique, fun, game? Make your Warden a Warrior Archer.
Also I highly suggest playing as a Dwarf Commoner at least once so you get to see the otherside of events during a Paragon of her Kind.

[Arthur Cousland]

I didn't know about mage spells being more effective with less companions. Interesting...

I also like dwarf commoners. They have a certain "edge" to them, I guess, growing up in the slums of Orzammar, being forced into life as a thug to survive. It's a bit easier rp'ing as a warden who doesn't get all emotional about killing others, as to them, it can be explained as "just business", or "a job is a job".

[Last Darkness]

Arthur Cousland wrote...

I didn't know about mage spells being more effective with less companions. Interesting...

I also like dwarf commoners. They have a certain "edge" to them, I guess, growing up in the slums of Orzammar, being forced into life as a thug to survive. It's a bit easier rp'ing as a warden who doesn't get all emotional about killing others, as to them, it can be explained as "just business", or "a job is a job".

Yeah a lot of the spells have modifiers that get more benefit the less party members you have.
Too many to list, but feel free to search through the wiki. It mostly things like durations on stuns basicaly.


Well I find too many people are personaly biased against all the events that happen in Orzamar because they play Dwarf Nobles.  The Commoner really lets you see the otherside of events.
To a Noble Bhelen is Evil and Harrowmont is Good, to a Commoner though thats switched.
Its really eye opening at the amount of things you are ignoring and just persuing personal bias and vengeance in Paragon of her Kind.

Personaly my first Warden(And my only Warden who I have actualy beat both games with) was Dwarf Noble. It certainly biased me against Bhelen but then again I also personaly killed Trian instead of being framed...

[tyrannosaur56]

my party build is 3 mage, 1 rouge. i will often take arcane warrior specialization and blood mage as second. wynne and morrigan, i use them as heraler and lelianna for lock picking. i find that much easier to control tho, no baby sitting. tried both side of the paragon of her kind. much prefer the bhelen side as the quest flow is more smooth. tho i like the proving of harrowment where i can single-handedly own them. still havent got chance to try the other side of the elves tho. i much prefer to play the mage tho.... rouge and warrior, not really my style. but now trying to play duel-wielding rouge, but seems like having difficulty...might restart on character again.