It's obviously got more to do with minimizing frustration for those who wish to try a new build than it does with realism, like most gameplay mechanics. Not being able to get that last skill to perfect your Knight Enchanter build because your max level in the 100th hour of a competitionist run is never fun. Those who wish to pull the "consequences" card in cases like these must have a lot more free time than I do.
I totally agree, thats why in other games I save game a lot.
I don't need anything fancy and I also don't plan to use it beyond getting rid of starter skills. Tbh the concept of "respec" doesn't appeal to me, as it is far too unrealistic, even in a game based on wizards and warriors... but that's just me. Waiting until we have access to Skyhold sounds like I'd be dealing with auto-leveled skills for far longer than I'd like...
I actually share your perspective on this, but there are a lot gameplay mechanics that I consider essential that require a little more willful suspension of disbelief. For example, if I think about it too much, I can't really come up for an in-game justification for being able to cursor over an enemy and know it's health, strengths/weaknesses, etc. But I get annoyed with games that force you to pour points into some kind of lore skill to have this information, even though that makes more logical sense.
So hows Blood Magic gonna work in DA:I? A Spec or a skill line?
It hasn't been confirmed that blood magic is even going to be in the game, in fact it has been said that there will not be blood magic, but possibly something along the same lines in terms of being taboo skills that we can use.
So hows Blood Magic gonna work in DA:I? A Spec or a skill line?
Its been confirmed there is no blood magic. Specialisations for mages are Necromancer, Rift mage and Knight Enchanter. Known base skill trees are Inferno, Winter, Spirit and Creation(?), there almost might be one more they are hiding.
there almost might be one more they are hiding.
Yeah. count on it.
Yeah. count on it.
Yeah but what are the chances its going to be blood magic? we know its not a specialisation which would mean that blood mage suddenly is a default skill tree, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense given the lore and how they have played bloodmagic in the past games.
I would understand why they removed it, it seems like there will be more focus on what we specialise in since we only get 1 and there might be in game ramifications. Cassandra, Lelianna and your other mages would be unlikely to support you if you chose a highly forbidden art.
More like, it was removed because it was too much work to do a system tracking who've seen you use blood magic and allowing you to silence/control witnesses. On the other hand, I wonder how strong a reaction BW made NPCs have to a specialisation that consists of forcing Fade spirits into some poor sod's skeleton and making it do your menial tasks.
Hey again LexXxich, I think the decision to remove it, while partially lore based, probably came down to the fact that with only 8 abilities you couldn't afford to have a sustains running (and it looks like they have removed all sustains). Bloodmage is pretty much based around the sustain bloodmagic in which you use your health instead of mana.
This ontop of the gameplay decision to not allow health regen means that the skill tree would be largely useless.
I don't know if Necromancer is as clear cut "evil" as bloodmage is. The big fear of bloodmagic is the ability to dominate another persons mind and make him your slave, this is why it is seen as such a threat. You dominate the grand cleric, the king, the general and suddenly society falls apart. The ability to make dead people fight for you, while highly concerning, probably isn't as outlawed as bloodmagicc.
Hey again LexXxich, I think the decision to remove it, while partially lore based, probably came down to the fact that with only 8 abilities you couldn't afford to have a sustains running (and it looks like they have removed all sustains). Bloodmage is pretty much based around the sustain bloodmagic in which you use your health instead of mana.
This ontop of the gameplay decision to not allow health regen means that the skill tree would be largely useless.
I don't know if Necromancer is as clear cut "evil" as bloodmage is. The big fear of bloodmagic is the ability to dominate another persons mind and make him your slave, this is why it is seen as such a threat. You dominate the grand cleric, the king, the general and suddenly society falls apart. The ability to make dead people fight for you, while highly concerning, probably isn't as outlawed as bloodmagicc.
There may be an option for a player to control another person outside their party. Also I'm pretty sure they could have made Blood Magic work without a sustained ability if they really wanted to so I highly doubt the reason they got rid of it is because of that. Also, the Reaver gets stronger as their health drops meaning some players may want to play their reaver below max health for the majority of the battle and I think BW would account for this so I don't think that because HP management is so important in this game that they would get rid of Blood Magic for the fact of it zapping your HP either. The latter of the two arguments is more speculation than the first I'll admit.
As long as there is a truly sinister specialization I don't care if there is no blood magic.
Guest_IceQuinn_*
Yeah. And I think - can't quote nothing right now - but it's been established, stressed out, that Blood Magic IS evil. That we'd been given similar-in-theme/flavor "dark-magick" spells, but Blood Magic is a no no, it just might not be feasible any longer I guess from a story standpoint. Personally I was never a fan. So, I'm good, lol 
Switching topics real quick? I'm aching for new info! You guys? Anything. A new demo. A new spell, for us to dissect, speculate and hallucinate on. Oh, and the specs! More on them, I beg you...! xD
Yeah the bloodmagic thing has been out and we've known that for over a year now. Its not because of only 8 abilities, that doesn't make much sense as 'only 8' probably came out from a lot of testing as I doubt they where even sure if they could cap it. And if they where going to cap it - what number would it be? 6? 8? 12? That's the kind of thing they test out to see what fits best with what they're going for.
Blood magic, as has been stated, was removed for story purposes. They wanted to make specializations more meaningful and to some extent crop up with dialog and all that. Blood Magic, ultimately, would of required far more resources then anything else they would do. It would have to crop up in the 'vast' majority of quests and conversations requiring basically alternate paths for the vast majority of quest/story related content just for blood mages. Where as other specializations just don't need that.
Basically, from a lore/story perspective if they where to do a blood mage it would have to be its own class or the only option for a player to play as. Which seems a bit off-course for the series as a whole. That or make a game that has even less specializations options and 'all' get the same level of attention which could be interesting but would also drive a lot of people mad from lack of options.
TL:DR - No blood magic due to amount of attention it would require in the story related to other quests. It's not because of 8 hotkey skills, that's silly.
It's not that it's evil, its that the the vast majority of Thedas THINKS its evil... and that's frankly all that matters. They could think rainbows are evil and we all know they aren't but that doesn't matter does it? They'd be all, oh ****, rainbows, that's evil! And story wise thats... yeah that would be that.
How is Blood magic evil? Both the warden and Hawke can become blood mages and they are not evil.
Blood magic isn't evil, it's just using it makes it easier to become evil. It's like guns in the real world; guns aren't evil, though the people using them can be
The main problems with blood magic in DA:O and DA2 were:
1. Too weak - Mind Control was very weak spell in DA2 due to asymetric combat system, and the fact that there were usually ~20 enemies on screen, controlling one was useless + there was no option to use it anywhere else than combat. Main appeal of blood magic is therefore lost.
2. While I could stomach Meredith ignoring mage Hawke and his companions because of Champion thing or something, being a Blood Mage should result in being immediately executed in a templar-controlled city.
3. No-one ever commented on Hawke/Warden being a Blood Mage. Wynne, Alistair, Leliana, templars, Anders, Meredith, Elthina, Sebastian etc. were all blissfully ignorant of the fact, that Hawke was the most powerful Blood Mage in the city.
4. Blood magic is very risky too use, because it can tear the Veil - especially if it's already thin like in Kirkwall.
Now think about the last point in context of events in DA:I. Inquisitor sealing breaches in the Veil can hardly use blood magic that can easily tear it.
There is actually a non-used scene of a blood mage warden with Wynn and the templars at the mages guild after you 'save the day'. Where she points out you where using spells that seemed an awful lot like blood magic and the only real outcome (that I am aware of) is Wynn and the Templar turning on you which ultimately results in not having mages or templars on your side at all as you end up killing all of them.
Think that was the only instance they had in DAO that was going to do it and they ended up disabling it from happening for gameplay reasons. Outside of dealing with Dwarfs you'd need to do that kinda thing for everything. Which you know, really screws with the whole concept of completing the game. If your specialization choice ultimately makes ALL the rest of the games story choices 'for' you on the grounds of the way the world views it... yeah. Frankly it shouldn't of been in DAO or DA2.
1. Too weak - Mind Control was very weak spell in DA2 due to asymetric combat system, and the fact that there were usually ~20 enemies on screen, controlling one was useless + there was no option to use it anywhere else than combat. Main appeal of blood magic is therefore lost.
I agree with your post, except in this.
You have to try it again mate! Mind control was awesome in DA2.
I know there were 20 minions in each combat, but normally you would have 5 elites and 20 trash mobs. Mind control worked on an elite mob, so it was really a significant change. Also, if you upgraded it, that minion would explode doing AoE damage depending on their health IIRC. It was very fun!
I agree with your post, except in this.
You have to try it again mate! Mind control was awesome in DA2.
I know there were 20 minions in each combat, but normally you would have 5 elites and 20 trash mobs. Mind control worked on an elite mob, so it was really a significant change. Also, if you upgraded it, that minion would explode doing AoE damage depending on their health IIRC. It was very fun!
Fun, yes, useful? meh.
You could obliterate the majority of the party anyway, without the control spell. That said, I ALWAYS played blod mage. I loved thespell where hawke stabs his staff in his gut
I'm kind of glad there's no more blood mage in DAI, storywise (especially in DAII) it made completely no sense. And they'll have replaced most of its spells with other likewise spells anyway.
I agree with your post, except in this.
You have to try it again mate! Mind control was awesome in DA2.
I know there were 20 minions in each combat, but normally you would have 5 elites and 20 trash mobs. Mind control worked on an elite mob, so it was really a significant change. Also, if you upgraded it, that minion would explode doing AoE damage depending on their health IIRC. It was very fun!
Yeah, but the problem was that when upgraded, the enchanted guy would run towards your party after you lost control and before he exploded, killing everybody in proximity 
.
But I must admit, I didn't know that it works on elites. I think I was suggested by spell description, which says "100% chance against normal enemy".
Enchanting and then automatically killing an assassin/lieutanant can be useful.
Yeah, but the problem was that when upgraded, the enchanted guy would run towards your party after you lost control and before he exploded, killing everybody in proximity
But I must admit, I didn't know that it works on elites. I think I was suggested by spell description, which says "100% chance against normal enemy".
Enchanting and then automatically killing an assassin/lieutanant can be useful.
Dont take "elite" as literal. I mean "large health bar enemies", meaning "non trash mobs". I dont remember exactly the rank system of DA2.
In a trash mob it was just a walking bomb, semi meh AoE, but in large health enemies that can be a pain in the ass depending on your party (that is, rogues or mages ofc), it was usefull. And since blood mage had infinite mana, it was worth the 1-2 seconds you spent casting it.
About FF, YES, THAT was a huge issue. However I really loathe the nightmare system in DA2, so I always played it in hard. Nightmare, for many reason, was stupid to me. I play nightmare in DAO though.
3. No-one ever commented on Hawke/Warden being a Blood Mage. Wynne, Alistair, Leliana, templars, Anders, Meredith, Elthina, Sebastian etc. were all blissfully ignorant of the fact, that Hawke was the most powerful Blood Mage in the city.
4. Blood magic is very risky too use, because it can tear the Veil - especially if it's already thin like in Kirkwall.
Now think about the last point in context of events in DA:I. Inquisitor sealing breaches in the Veil can hardly use blood magic that can easily tear it.
Well I guess it depends. It's possible that she may not have known that Hawke was a blood mage. The party should have known and I guess some of the people that saw Hawke fighting might depending on how often he used blood magic and what spells he actually used.
The city was full of bloodmages many of them evading the Templars.
It would be very different for the Inquisitor though so I am not complaining that they took it out.
About FF, YES, THAT was a huge issue. However I really loathe the nightmare system in DA2, so I always played it in hard. Nightmare, for many reason, was stupid to me. I play nightmare in DAO though.
I couldn't handle the friendly fire on the nightmare setting in DA2. It was manageable in Origins because there was so much more space to move your party about and it was allot easier to control where your party was and what they were doing but DA2 was just too much trouble for me.
I applaud anyone who struggled through that but I just wasn't enjoying it at all.
Warrior melee being part of FF was a bit silly in DA2, more so that it was like a 10th of the dmg or something? You basically where a weak DoT to anyone near you for no apparent reason. ATM I'm really hoping they don't do the random immunities. I like immunities when it makes sense (fire elemental immune to fire) but every Qunari getting lightning immune + something else, all bandits being immune to 2 random things. Pardon the censored words but **** that **** - absolutely awful.
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