I hated killing the mages, almost as much as I hated killing Cullen in The Darkspawn Chronicles during the slay the healer quest. That was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.
Yeah I really didn't like it, hence doing it this way as apposed to fighting Wynne etc. I wanted at least one save where I had templars at the end.
I have tried to do it before but just couldn't make myself do it lol
I think I have got to the point where DA:O stuff doesn't faze me as much - I even kept Branka and the anvil on another recent pt - I STILL can't being myself to convince the werewolves to kill the dalish clan - I think ages ago I triggered it, watch about a second of it and reloaded.
Next game I guess lol
Having Isolde kill Connor was horrible too, as much as I can't stand her, as a mother it was horrible to see.
I got DAO for my birthday in 2010 I think *checks her join date*
I actually can't remember which I got first ME or DAO - I think ti was DAO.
I had a friend that was always talking about how great ME was so I looked up Bioware and started buying all their stuff... sadly I didn't know about bioware stuff before then 
I'm 39 this year - we bought our first computer in 1992 - which started my gaming career - before that it was those old handheld things and something we plugged into our TV - is it sad that I remember how great pong was?
I have fond memories of the old sierra games and commander keen - I loved commander keen lol.
To this day I have hand drawn maps (drawn by my late father) of every square you could step onto in Might and Magic 3 - all tagged / color coded and cross referenced with encounters, battle strategies, money dropped, shops and what they sell etc etc
Im old and I talk too much 