37 réponses à ce sujet

[Dracon525]

Hey guys

So I've read a couple comments about people swapping their team around to better suit the 'situation'. I was just wondering how that's exactly possible in DA.O (and even DA2). If it were a game, say, where at one point you were breaking into a mansion, then you'd probably want to take sneaky quiet types. Whereas with DA is far more direct, more "I'm taking you because you balance my team/I like you".

I'd love to play a character that keeps alternating which allies I take with me, but I just don't see why/how I would (logically).

Do any of you guys play like this? If so, what's your reasoning?

[Riverdaleswhiteflash]

You always want to have at least one rogue. The only time I don't have a mage (specifically a Spirit Healer, if possible) is during the Slim Couldry quest where you go to retrieve the Tears of Andraste, where you really are better off taking only sneaky types. (This only applies if you are yourself a rogue, otherwise forget about only having stealth types.)

[Dracon525]

Yeah. Like, I base my companions around my character's "comcept", so sometimes i'll be lacking a mage or whatever. I just keep thinking about games like Mass Effect 2, where just for the fun of it, you could switch up your party for different styled/themed missions

[CDR David Shepard]

I never do that.

In Origins...I view as not just my characters story...but the story of the my character and his 3 companions, Alistair, Morrigan, and Leliana.

Those four are the main characters of my DA:O.

The other (potential companions) are just "main" side-characters. I never bring them along after their "side-story"...but they have obviously have a bigger role than any other NPC.

This way...it's always the same companions on every mission. It simply doesn't make storyline sense to have more companions than that.

[Dracon525]

That's what i'm saying. I do that (though diff. companions for diff. characters), but would LIKE to swap companions around with the SAME character with it making sense.

Like, say the current quest was the one in Denerim where you have to kill that house filled with blood mages. I'd think "ok, bloodmages, bring along Alistair because Templar, Oghhren because dwarf magic resistence and rogue for traps", for example.

[Angrywolves]

I don't have a main other than Leliana.She usually is always with me if my character is not a rogue to get traps and open chests.
I usually then try to divide the mage spot between Wynne and Morrigan.
The tank spot between Allistair and Sten.
Seeking out ambushes and doing quests Im usually take Shale or Zevran along.
Take dog along for some of the quests and to look for missing items.

[Ferretinabun]

I don't swap characters to suit different encounters, but I do swap them around for different missions. They're all great characters and I like to give them all a bit of screentime. To be honest, I'd find it odd recruiting all these characters to simply drag the same three on every mission. You might as well send the others on their way.

In-game justifications are pretty easy. You can say various companions are exhausted/wounded after the last mission and should sit the next one out. Also, some companions are predictably better suited for certain levels - wouldn't Morrigan see going to the Mage's Tower as walking into a lion's den, for example, or might she relish the chance to go in incognito and see the 'mage's cattleshed' for herself - and maybe cause a bit of mischief? Alistair might have strong feelings about the Tower either way depending on how you imagine his time with the Templars went. Wouldn't Alistair, Leliana and Wynne most appreciate the chance to find Andraste's ashes? Wouldn't Zevran like to see the Dalish for himself? It's easy to headcanon motivations.

[dainbramage]

Ferretinabun wrote...

I don't swap characters to suit different encounters, but I do swap them around for different missions. They're all great characters and I like to give them all a bit of screentime. To be honest, I'd find it odd recruiting all these characters to simply drag the same three on every mission. You might as well send the others on their way.

In-game justifications are pretty easy. You can say various companions are exhausted/wounded after the last mission and should sit the next one out. Also, some companions are predictably better suited for certain levels - wouldn't Morrigan see going to the Mage's Tower as walking into a lion's den, for example, or might she relish the chance to go in incognito and see the 'mage's cattleshed' for herself - and maybe cause a bit of mischief? Alistair might have strong feelings about the Tower either way depending on how you imagine his time with the Templars went. Wouldn't Alistair, Leliana and Wynne most appreciate the chance to find Andraste's ashes? Wouldn't Zevran like to see the Dalish for himself? It's easy to headcanon motivations.

It would be nice to have a proper reason to use more characters though. Without contriving something there's typically very little reason to use zevran over leliana or oghren over sten (sure oghren gets berserker vs nothing, but its the worst spec for a 2h and his stat allocation is so bad sten will hit way harder anyway), for instance. Giving specializations a bigger impact (and only 1 per character!), and making racial bonuses a lot bigger could achieve this.

EDIT: While planescape: torment wasn't particularly focused on combat (though there was still a lot of it), it's an excellent demonstration of diverse companions.

Modifié par dainbramage, 29 décembre 2013 - 12:18 .

[sylvanaerie]

Alistair is my favorite, a fellow gray warden and an excellent tank you get around level 2 or 3, which means I'm responsible for his build. Likewise, Leliana is also picked up at low levels and very useful if I'm not running a rogue myself. Morrigan is immediately replaced and sits in camp once I get Leliana (I'm usually running a mage myself, which makes her redundant as I have sufficient dps--which she does have--and heals--something she doesn't start with).

LIkewise, Wynne is also a camp sitter on my mage runs, though I find she adds a lot to the mage origin with circle specific dialogues.

It boils down after 'usefulness' to 'who I like' after those considerations. I hate Sten. Playing a female mage enough times has earned him (at the very least) sitting in camp keeping Dog company. Sometimes I never free him, it depends on if I RP my mage has heard about Qunari practices (in particular their treatment of mages). Both Sten and Oghren are too squishy to be proper tanks (they just aren't built for it), though I always take Oghren into the deep roads as he really shines there, and he's forced onto your party at the end with Cariden anyway.

If I play my mage, Dog stays with me a bit until I pick up the next character, usually Zevran, then he gets replaced by Zev, who is crazy melee dps and a lot of fun to bring along in banters and dialogues with NPCs.

So, invariably, once I have the NPCs I want, its Alistair (tank), Leliana (ranged archer, trapfinder/lockpicker) and Zevran as melee dps (get his dex up and nothing usually hits him).

Modifié par sylvanaerie, 31 décembre 2013 - 07:54 .

[Star fury]

My dream team - 3 mages and Leliana. My protagonist and Morrigan as DD, Wynne as a healer/support, and Leliana(usually I make her an agility rogue with daggers thanks to a mod). With +100 dexterity Leliana has a huge DPS and tanks better than Alistair.

I call it a girl group with a female protagonist.

Modifié par Star fury, 31 décembre 2013 - 09:26 .

[sylvanaerie]

Star fury wrote...

My dream team - 3 mages and Leliana. My protagonist and Morrigan as DD, Wynne as a healer/support, and Leliana(usually I make her a agility rogue with daggers with a mod). With +100 dexterity Leliana has a huge DPS and tanks better than Alistair.

I call it a girl group with a female protagonist.

My only issue with that set up is Leliana isn't a tank and lacks the abilities to manage aggro of mobs (groups of mobs, not individuals) if one of the mages gets their attention with a devastating blast.  However, I can see this being effective in that not a lot is left standing after the first few seconds of combat!  

Girl Power!

[Star fury]

sylvanaerie wrote...

My only issue with that set up is Leliana isn't a tank and lacks the abilities to manage aggro of mobs (groups of mobs, not individuals) if one of the mages gets their attention with a devastating blast.  However, I can see this being effective in that not a lot is left standing after the first few seconds of combat!  

Girl Power!

I respec Leliana's stats and instead of an archer I make her dual wielding rogue with daggers. With 100 dexterity usually nothing can hit her, it's much better than a heavy armour and lots of HP. Also one or two of other girls are AW, so tanking is not a problem. And yeah, after some heavy bombardment - fireballs, cones of cold, blood wound "not a lot is left standing after the first few seconds of combat!" 

Modifié par Star fury, 31 décembre 2013 - 09:35 .

[dainbramage]

sylvanaerie wrote...

Star fury wrote...

My dream team - 3 mages and Leliana. My protagonist and Morrigan as DD, Wynne as a healer/support, and Leliana(usually I make her a agility rogue with daggers with a mod). With +100 dexterity Leliana has a huge DPS and tanks better than Alistair.

I call it a girl group with a female protagonist.

My only issue with that set up is Leliana isn't a tank and lacks the abilities to manage aggro of mobs (groups of mobs, not individuals) if one of the mages gets their attention with a devastating blast.  However, I can see this being effective in that not a lot is left standing after the first few seconds of combat!  

Girl Power!

3 mages have so much crowd control that you don't need a tank, you can just have literally every enemy disabled. With that said though, an archer can still generate a lot of threat with scattershot, and survive it with high dex and defensive and suppressing fire on.

[Icy Magebane]

I don't do this at all, really... I mean, you always have to have a rogue around to pick locks, so that slot is taken.  I always kick Morrigan off the team after recruiting Wynne, and since she's the only mage companion, she has a permanent slot... I don't recruit Sten because I don't like him.  I don't use Shale because I don't like her.  Oghren shows up so late in the game for me that taking him on missions is rarely an option.  With only the mabari as an alternative, Alistair is usually guaranteed to have the final slot...  Zevran is a bit of a wild card.  Sometimes I kill him, sometimes I don't... sometimes he takes Alistair's place on the team, but even then I don't rotate members very often.

Basically, I just play with the same people all the time, but Zevran and Alistair have a chance of being swapped for one another.  Usually it's semi-permanent.  I use one or the other.

The way this game is set up, there really isn't any need to change your party based on the mission.

[superdeathdealer14]

Most of the time I usually take Morrigan, Alistair and Zevran but when I know a certain quest will be hard I take out the big guns either Oghren or Shale. I don't really need Wynne as I stock up on potions all the time, for Sten well..... I just don't take him along cause me and Alistair do a pretty good job at being tanks as for Leliana well I got Zevran so I don't take her much... and when Zevran hits on Morrigan too much (which is most of time) I swap him for Oghren, and for my dog well: I don't wont my little puppy getting hurt now do I ?

Modifié par superdeathdealer14, 01 janvier 2014 - 03:39 .

[Secretlyapotato]

I always bring Wynne or Morrigan because I'm not usually a mage and I really depend on them. >.> And if I need a tank then usually Shale or Alistair comes along as well. Otherwise I usually have it set for certain areas, where if I'm looking for Branka, it's always Wynne, Shale, and Oghren, or sneaking into Redcliffe Castle, it's always Alistair, Morrigan, and Sten, or finding the urn it's always Sten, Leliana, and Morrigan (like in the trailer), or if it's in the Brecilian Forest it's always Zevran, Shale, and Wynne, etc. because that's just how I feel it should be. >.<

And I always recruit and use everyone available.

[CDR David Shepard]

Ferretinabun wrote...

I don't swap characters to suit different encounters, but I do swap them around for different missions. They're all great characters and I like to give them all a bit of screentime. To be honest, I'd find it odd recruiting all these characters to simply drag the same three on every mission. You might as well send the others on their way.

Yeah, I simply never recruit any others. I run their "main" side-missions...but never recruit them back to camp.

Unfortunately for Ohgren...he tries to come no matter what...so I have to flat out tell him "No, I don't want you with us".

[ruudg]

somehow i allmost allways end up with Alister Leliana and Wyne.
Doesnt matter what i play myself.
Sometimes switch Alister in for Sten, but when you just get Sten, i find him pretty soft.
He dies a lot. Dont like Oggie dont realy have a use for zevran or the stonetank
and since i allways send morigan away at the end and do not take her offer i dont use
her either.

In my last game (still playing it) i made Leli a cunning rogue, and i like her damage output with the
bow now. Just use white hits and see pretty good base damage and regular crits.
I love it 8) Only use the scattershot talent and did not even spec arrow of slaying.

[Mike3207]

A lot depends on what class my PC is. Still, more often than not I go from this group-Leliana, Wynne/Morrigan, Dog, and Alistair.

As for Zevran, not a lot. I'll give him a little playtime to have him make poisons, but that's about it.

Shale and Sten-situational. I've occasionally brought Shale on the Tower adventure and Sten in the dwarven adventures.

Overall-I'll stick with 1 rogue, I mage, one tank, and a offtank.In certain circumstances I'll change it, but that's the rule more often than not.

[RavenousBear]

I always have switched the composition of my party during quests, but some companions receive far less action than others. Zevran often is the odd one out since I really have no need for DW rogues in my party. In fact if disarming traps did not give you exp I would probably keep the rogues in the camp due to my playstyle. I do not enjoy micromanaging rogues in general unless my Warden is the rogue.

I preferred using Shale, Sten, Morrigan, and Oghren in my team in my past campaigns. Right now I am using Sten & Wynne quite a bit so far as Morrigan is getting a bit on my nerves as I am playing a "good" character. I find Wynne to be rather stale as a character but I like mages so I must have at least one mage in my party composition. I wish there was another mage companion in Origins.

Alistair received much use in the beginning but went to the bench later on as I find S&S warriors to be dull and unnecessary. I could respec his talents if I wanted to but for RP purposes I prefer most of my companions to keep their starting specialization and their talents (except for Mages). It is too bad since he has some funny banter.

I think 2 Warriors and 2 Mages would my ideal party composition negating the npc's personalities. There would be plenty of Crowd Control and Anti-Armor abilities to control the battlefield and annihilate bosses with anti-armor abilities. Rogues are a very strong class but I am too lazy to use them to their maximum potential unless my PC was a rogue. Plus light armor looks like garbage in my opinion, the preferred armor choice for Dex & Cun Rogues.

[Star fury]

ruudg wrote...

somehow i allmost allways end up with Alister Leliana and Wyne.
Doesnt matter what i play myself.

So you basically have only party members with Good alignment if speaking in D&D terms. Wynne(Lawful Good), Alistair(Neutral Good) and Leliana(Chaotic Good). 

[KaiserShep]

That was probably my most used set as well. I'd build up Leliana to be my lock-picking archer and would have Zevran get the dual weapon stats for my "assassin" quests. I'd sometimes take Morrigan instead of Wynne, because I found her banter amusing, especially with Alistair. It makes her final quest all the better.

[ruudg]

indeed, i tend to turn to the good side 8)

[Trank 209]

In DA:O my char was a warrior and he always was the tank. So i used taunt and tried to be sure i was taking all the hits i could be.

I always had Wynne with me and set her tactics to not even be using any attacks and just focus on healing the party which would work out perfectly. Hardly used any poultices. Shale i would use alot. Great for taking damage and dealing it, very nice to not have to worry about her. Great at large amout of enemies. And i would either use Oghren for two handed DPS or Zevran if i need a rogue. And usually around the end of the game i would take Alistair instead of Oghren or Zevran.

[DarthGizka]

In the beginning I liked the classic AMW setup (Alistair tank, Morrigan CC/DD, Wynne healing/buffing) but that was before I played a sword & board warrior myself and realised just how much the failed templar sucks at his job.

Shale has always been on the bench (except for being dragged along the Deep Roads to make her remember the location of Cadash Thaig) because she's rather fragile for a golem, mostly useless on default AI and too complicated to be integrated into the team without excessive amounts of experimentation and wiki study. I wouldn't mind that if she could pick locks but she cannot, and I draw the line at one member who can't pull her full weight in combat (Leliana).

The slimy turd Zevran always bites the dust. The short time I had to endure him until he divulged the secrets of assassination gave me enough of him to last a couple of lifetimes. Besides, he doesn't have anything useful to contribute to the team. I think an assassin character works only as a Warden; for a companion they require way too much micro for too little effect (low DPS without tons of +crit gear).

The 'secret companion' doesn't count here since you only have him for a few minutes in any case.

At the moment I'm favouring the girl's club (Leliana, Morrigan and Wynne) for melee Wardens because with these three in tow you can handle anything that might come up. Nothing like the one time I took Alistair, Sten and Oghren out for a beer and ended up in a bandit camp with loads of locked chests and traps that had to go unharvested.

Primary roles: Leliana does traps and locks, and the procurement of things like Champion's Shields or funds from and for Rogek. Apart from that she mostly body-guards the two very squishy squishies. Morrigan's job is to take care of enemy mages, Wynne's is to ensure that blunders like getting hit with Curse of Mortality on top of Crushing Prison do not have to be fatal. In early times everyone has to pitch in and help with shattering (Stonefist, Critical Shot, Crushing Prison, Overpower, Mighty Blow etc. pp.) but later the cone-shatter thing is just too much work and the enemy is simply minced with big metal implements, or roasted as the case may be.

One problem with Alistair is that he can't dispel himself, and guess who is most likely to get hit with a Curse of Mortality or some annoying hex when he is playing tank? So you need someone else with dispel capability since there are no scrolls and such in Ferelden, and if you have a mage with dispel then you don't need Alistair.

In a team with another templar he could take over the anti-mage and dispel roles in addition to almost-tank, but other than that I can't see him as being able to pull his weight. That said, his mana-draining melee attacks might be useful against mages that take a lot of beating before they go down (Gaxkang, or the blood mage boss in Denerim) but since he's never been along except for the very first time I couldn't say if it makes a difference. Against physically big mage bosses like Uldred he's impractical because keeping more than one melee toon actually hitting them is just too much work and most of the time Alistair just isn't good enough to be primary tank (unless he wins by default because there is no contender for the role).

As regards banter, it seems like Morrigan has a talent for inciting the most interesting conversations. 'Tis a shame that her speech style and accent do not fit her character at all, and also her voice acting seems a bit sub par on occasion (to hammy). Having heard everything for umpteen times tends to make one very sensitive to the tiniest imperfections... Alistair is a bit of a let-down; after his very impressive start in Ostagar he comes across like a naive little boy in a grown man's body most of the time. The one character that I like unreservedly is Leliana, closely followed by Barkspawn and the fluffy edition of HK47 (just not in combat)