I eventually decided to give up and just run through the story missions. This made me actually fail some other missions. It's cool how side missions can change the course of how a main mission will play out.
I can't play like that but I do think it somewhat ruins my subsequent playthroughs as I'm usually quite burnt out by the end of the first. So for instance I'm struggling to complete DAI on PS4 because my first run was 230 hours on PS3 and I felt like it was done. I need to persevere though for JoH. Mind you, I've played Origins and DA2 more than once, I just needed a break. The side missions are awesome, I've just done Invitation from Keira Metz, and I struggled like mad with Jenny O' the Woods (like HB). Finally went back at level 12 and it was still a fight WTF?
And on a DA note, I've just been reading the red lyrium thread and realize that I'm woefully lacking knowledge about the DA universe. I had to buy and read Asunder so I could connect the dots in DAI.