In NWN with its DnD ruleset, things were a bit iffy at very low levels because of the silly hitpoint progression that gave you something like 10 HP at level 1. DA:O rules fix the hitpoint problem but everything else tends to be rather creaky during early levels.
Toons have trouble hitting anything even with lots of +DEX and +attack bonusses from gear and all allocatable attribute points piled into strength or dexterity. At that time the effect of available abilities on hit rate and defence is somewhere between very small and pure placebo. Resistance mechanics do work already after a fashion, but with a lot of sputtering.
For non-mages, many important abilities are delayed by silly level restrictions. Shield warriors are probably hit hardest as they have to wait for level 12 for the non-placebo editions of their defensive abilities, and there aren't any decent shields until you go to Orzammar and swipe one from Vartag. As a consequence, many builds don't really unfold until the early to mid teen levels. Weapons with three rune slots tend to be scarce or unavailable before that time.
Mages fare the best because there are no level restrictions for spell schools, only for specialisations and other non-essential things. Hence a mage can have a reasonably well-rounded spellbook as soon as they have sufficient cash and can travel to all the vendors of tomes. With mousestalker's Stick of Sovereign Summoning that would be right after arrival in Lothering, otherwise it may take a couple of levels to get the funds.
For example, my current nightmare solo mage hoarded all spell points except one in the five levels since Lothering, originally in order to be flexible for Uldred and the RtO ogre who were looming rather large on the horizon. That turned out to be unnecessary, so the specialisation and four spell points are still hanging now, halfway through the Ashes. That would probably be unthinkable for any other class.
Playing a mage is also special because it is irrelevant how much damage enemies would do if you allowed them to hit you, since you generally don't (except maybe for your favourite bossy beasts and desire demons). Contrast this to shield warriors who feel like they are wearing wet paper for armour if they are pitted against revenants and two-handers, until the early to midteens when they suddenly become almost invulnerable and can eat revenants for breakfast.
Enemy levelling is a problem. The bounty hunters at the Frostback Mountain pass will be level 10 (leader) and 9 (grunts) if you go there early but 16 and 15 respectively if you go there with a Warden who is level 16 or higher. Ranked enemies tend to stop levelling at level 20 in general, grunts long before that.
This means that high-level characters appear stronger simply because they have so many levels on their enemies. In saving throws, having five levels on the enemy is like having an extra GM Hale rune equipped, or to negate the equivalent resistance for the enemy. The level difference alone is equivalent to 25 attribute points (more than 8 levels' worth) piled exclusively into the attacking attribute, and 50 points - more than 16 levels' worth - for the defending attribute group. The difference is even greater if you actually did spend some of your extra attribute points sensibly.
It seems that the game was deliberately designed to make you appear weak during early levels and strong later, no matter what you do. Another thing is that they had to make the difficulty such that an average first-time player can muddle through somehow, which means serious pwnage if you know what you're doing and increasing distance to the reference muddle as your build develops.
In Awakening you hit the ground running, and you also have all the accumulated bonusses and goodies from your DA:O life. This widens the gap. Amgarrak was clearly designed to take power gamers down a peg or two on Hard and Nightmare, but I guess they couldn't afford to do that with Awakening.
Agreed. The game kind of sucks early on. I add xp and attrib points right away because of that. Then it feels like I'm actually playing a decent game. Even in ME series, it sucked early on. ME1 and ME2 good luck with those powers right out of the gate. This is something that BW/EA sucks as. While you shouldn't be overpowered, your powers should matter to some extent.
But leveling in and of itself is always problematic it seems because you don't really get to have as much fun with whatever skills you are using until you get to those higher levels. I thought this of Archery in skyrim and even stealth at times. In DAO the best magic is later after many levels when you are probably nearing the end and the best rogue skills are at the end. Tank can run well early on to a degree because the skill you get are not anything too specific. You can still swing a sword and bash with a shield to a degree without that power and they do some damage yet they get beaten to death half the time. But rogues and mages feel like they suck early on and are not fun because their skills don't really come out till later. They can get by with what they have but it's not fun at all to be honest. So I addxp as soon as I start because I want the fun of playing the skills I am supposed to have. This is where ME was better. Once you put some points into a skill you had it. It's just a matter of how powerful it was. Lift was useful but didn't really give you mad power till it was at least at advanced stages. But then again, I play casually. ME3 MP was the only game I played on harder levels. The rest I play easy because the design sucks.
I think ideally you should have powers then have to put more into them and the things you need for them like magic or strength. Kind of how skyrim is. You needed more mana to sustain some of those spells or you had to regen. But you also could make enchantments that helped that. So much more playable because you could have fun but sadly magic never scaled in power which was lame. Here, you get some very powerful spells but they only come after so many points are unlocked. Now as a straight out mage it's BORING. Also, it would be nice to have more powers that are less powerful. The way it unfolds you don't get enough points to give yourself more powers. You have to focus on a few lines. Now I cheat and give my rogues some magic. But again, stupid sheathing of weapons means I have to pick. Crushing prison is the only one where I don't sheath. It's a high level power. Fun as hell. But I would play others now and then for the fun if I didn't have to sheath. Crappy design.
Also, I really love dual daggers. Why my mage could not use magic from her hands without having to sheath and unsheath her weapons is beyond me. In fact, a dual dagger running mage makes a hell of a lot more sense than a sword/shield running one realistically speaking. And they could have included a cloaking spell as well. Or invisibility. Maybe in the creation line as a ward - ward of invisibility or something like that. This would have made mages more fun than they are. Go with arcane warrior (what idiot thought it would be good to make a mage carry a shield and wear heavier armor when they are truly designed as more like rogues?) - Arcane warrior should have opened up branch options like not sheathing weapons, dual dagger or sword or sword and shield with a few of those skills. Rather than just the four there should have been ways to spec it that were not offered. It's limited. Yeah you get a sword, but really you are designed to be a rouge otherwise you pay in blood. Mages make great rogues. I often ran mage rogue mix in skyrim. Stealth, maybe archery for distance, and magic.
I have tried to go back to mages now and just don't like either straight magic or arcane warriors because some of the most powerful spells knocks you on your butt. That's ridiculous. If you are an arcane warrior you have to sheath your weapon to do a spell then your targets have moved and now you do the spell on yourself and your team. Blowback from Fireball is not worth it because everyone but the tank goes down but even the tank will go down. It's hit or miss. After playing several games, it feels like they really didn't think the mechanics through at all. That's why I play this one on easy and level up early. It's an issue all games have but looking to ME, it was done pretty well in the first game. You could put a few points into throw or whatever and get some utility out of it. Here, you don't get the skill until later. Much later.
Retour en haut
