You should totally play Trespasser on your first playthrough.
Yep, I second this. Buy Trespasser and play that after the main game (you must finish the main game first). Then if you want to play DAI again go get the other DLC and have fun exploring those. And do hard saves before/after major story points.
Also, I really suggest ignoring anything else on the forums and just experiencing the game totally blind. I really feel it will be more rewarding that way.
Leave this forum if you wish to keep your enthusiasm intact. Only return once you have completed the game and formed your own opinions; good or ill, you may find others who share your views.
I agree, Treaspassr is a must have. having Decent is nice too. JoH get a few crafting mats I love but, of the three that's the one I could be content without. I love the armors from Decent but Treaspasser also gives you trials and, that alone make it a must have.
I agree that Trespasser is a must-have to "finish" the story, but I think JoH is far better than Descent as far as story and fun.
(And I liked Svarah Sun-Hair a lot more than I liked Valta,)
I think DA:I is a good game, but a bad Bioware game, but as far as DLC is concerned, if you think the price is right, then buy as much of it as you can as it only adds to the experience.
Depends. Do you plan to do just a quick run on your first playthrough or do you want to do an all completionist one?
In my opinion:
If you plan to just rush to the end the first time, you don't need anything else.
You can do all the DLCs in order when you do a full completionist run (explore all areas, find all shards, click every single thing and do every quest etc). Finish the main game this way and then do in order Jaws of Hakkon, Descent and Trespasser.
I say it because there is a lot of "exploration and collection" (let's call it this way) to do in this game. And imho if you finish all the main story arc (included Trespasser) then you are less likely to go back and collect everything else... which is kind of a shame cause every single corner of this game is worth being explored. And then you can leave the best for last (Trespasser).
^^
Game is really good, but claiming landmarks, picking up shards and closing rifts gets old pretty fast.
Yeah, Trespasser for sure.
Absolutely get Trespasser. It is the best of the three by a wide margin, and a better ending than the main game's ending in fact.
JoH is also nice if a bit padded. Descent you can skip unless you really like the game.
Thanks everyone! I'll try and respond to key points.
So play through the game once then add Trespasser and play it. I definitely see me playing through at least once more.
I am playing pretty blind and reading little. I am really enjoying just learning as I go.
I am taking my time and exploring. Just got to SH at 75 hours in. I was trying to do everything I could first. Cleared H-lands and two others.
I'm going to follow advice and stay away from the forum and just play. This games too good to risk screwing the pooch. 
Thanks again.
Thanks everyone! I'll try and respond to key points.
So play through the game once then add Trespasser and play it. I definitely see me playing through at least once more.
I am playing pretty blind and reading little. I am really enjoying just learning as I go.
I am taking my time and exploring. Just got to SH at 75 hours in. I was trying to do everything I could first. Cleared H-lands and two others.
I'm going to follow advice and stay away from the forum and just play. This games too good to risk screwing the pooch.
Thanks again.
One thing worth noting: If you buy Trespasser and have it installed, it's not just an epilogue. It also gives you modifiers you can toggle on or off during the game (either for achievements/trophies, or just to add some challenge to the game). More importantly having Trespasser installed changes the items you win/find for some war table missions and chests in the game. As in, if you buy Trespasser after finishing the game, the items you may get are different from the items you would have gotten had you installed it before finishing. As far as I know, Trespasser is the only DLC that has that kind of impact on the main game.
Leave this forum if you wish to keep your enthusiasm intact. Only return once you have completed the game and formed your own opinions; good or ill, you may find others who share your views.
....and end up in the DQ, inevitably.
*drinks to giving himself an excuse to drink, ending up with not one, but TWO drinks - YAY!*
Also, I really suggest ignoring anything else on the forums and just experiencing the game totally blind. I really feel it will be more rewarding that way.
Word. I am on my third complete playthrough (2nd including all DLC) and I never once visited these forums until recently. I simply didn't want my experience either tarnished or polished by the opinions of others.
I started on normal difficulty (as a mage), progressed to hard difficulty (as a rogue), and am now about half way through the main game on nightmare as a (2-handed) female Qunari warrior. I have no doubt I will play through several more times (as I did with previous DA titles). My goal is to play every class and every race so I can experience as much of the game as possible.
While I definitely have opinions about things I like and dislike about the game, no opinion is so negative as to drive me away. I'm generally, and obviously given how much I play it, as much in love with this game as I have been with every BioWare title I've played, flaws and all.
So, just play it. Ignore (or avoid) the opinions of others and form your own. This game is worth that much at least.
I enjoyed all of the DLC, but Trespasser was a stunning success. The music, the cinematics, the story, the drama, it was all there and then some. It is incredible. It also adds trials and extra abilities, which I enjoyed.
Word. I am on my third complete playthrough (2nd including all DLC) and I never once visited these forums until recently. I simply didn't want my experience either tarnished or polished by the opinions of others.
I started on normal difficulty (as a mage), progressed to hard difficulty (as a rogue), and am now about half way through the main game on nightmare as a (2-handed) female Qunari warrior. I have no doubt I will play through several more times (as I did with previous DA titles). My goal is to play every class and every race so I can experience as much of the game as possible.
While I definitely have opinions about things I like and dislike about the game, no opinion is so negative as to drive me away. I'm generally, and obviously given how much I play it, as much in love with this game as I have been with every BioWare title I've played, flaws and all.
So, just play it. Ignore (or avoid) the opinions of others and form your own. This game is worth that much at least.
Agreed 100% it's definitely one of my favouriet games and my favourite DA game
You don't need any DLC for your first playthrough. Not even Trespasser. Its still a contained experience. I wouldn't mind at all if a friend of mine just played the game. The DLC is tuned for being primarily add-ons over 'missing chapters'. Trespasser can be considered the missing epilogue, sure, but even the consideration of it being epilogue/DA4 tease makes it its own story experience.. to a degree.
I'll say what each brings:
Spoils of the Qunari/Spoils of the Avvar - Just cosmetic stuff, themed. If you want to reflect more of a Qunari-ness, here you go! Selective use, depending on what you like. I can imagine a very future playthrough of being a Human Warrior who likes the Avvar stuff, but its not like much of the base game story supports that.
Jaws of Hakkon - Endgame open zone, basically. A couple bosses, one being a dragon. I consider this the 'cap off' to the open zoney exploration aspect of DAI. Can you do it late-game in DAI? Sure! But is it just as fitting (or perhaps moreso) for post-game? Yep! So you don't need it. In fact, it can be considered to interrupt the main plot conflict of DAI.
The Descent - Closed dungeon zone, basically. A couple(?) bosses. The most filler of them all and much of it acts as a conceptual teaser to what may be coming in the next game, IMO. But more endgame (pre or post ending) content!
Trespasser - On one hand, its the epilogue, which closes EVERYTHING ELSE off once you trigger it. It finishes the DAI-content-cycle story and offers some unique ..everything really. Combat, story, exploration, etc. So you don't need it for that since its its added on experience AFTER DAI. On the other hand, it changes up the base game, adding rewards throughout and changes to abilities (toggleable options), adding the Trial system that can alter your game in several ways and reward you occasionally, the longer you have Trials triggered on. While really cool, do you need this ASAP? NOT necessarily. You can save it for the possibility of a 2nd+ playthrough, not your first.
So Trespasser is the most 'needed', but all of them are not 'needed' in your first playthrough. But for 2nd or 3rd I'd definitely suggest getting the GOTY edition on sale for the best price, and having a lot more cosmetic and gameplay options available.
All three content DLCs were quite good, but if I had to choose, I'd say Jaws of Hakkon was the one I could live without.
If you have the cash lying around, I'd definitely recommend getting both Trespasser and The Descent - while I liked Trespasser as much as most others, I think especially the latter was a lot better than I expected. Most make it sound rather cheap by labeling it "dungeon crawler" - which it effectively is - but I also think it has the best level design out of all the content. Being encouraged to explore by actually more or less dexterously jumping from ledge to ledge, felt like a different game at times, in a good way.
I'm a sucker for the Deep Roads and its mysterious past, and if you say you're just coming from Fallout 4, there's also a great deal of well-executed environmental storytelling down there.
Leave this forum if you wish to keep your enthusiasm intact. Only return once you have completed the game and formed your own opinions; good or ill, you may find others who share your views.
Spoiler
I wouldn't say they're just cosmetic. The gear and scematics are pretty good, better than anything else you'll have at the stage you receive them. (Unless this is a second playthrough and you're importing schematics via the Golden Nug.) Same thing for Flames of the Inquisition.Spoils of the Qunari/Spoils of the Avvar - Just cosmetic stuff, themed. If you want to reflect more of a Qunari-ness, here you go! Selective use, depending on what you like. I can imagine a very future playthrough of being a Human Warrior who likes the Avvar stuff, but its not like much of the base game story supports that.
I wouldn't say they're just cosmetic. The gear and scematics are pretty good, better than anything else you'll have at the stage you receive them. (Unless this is a second playthrough and you're importing schematics via the Golden Nug.) Same thing for Flames of the Inquisition.
Whether this is good or bad depends on playstyle, but nobody forces you to use the stuff.
I love this game, too. I have just finished the trespasser DLC and have therefore completed the whole game (including the other DLC's). It has been, without doubt, one of my favorite games of 2014-2015. I could not get into the earlier games at all, but I have absolutely adored this one from its art style through to its story etc. I wonder what the next installation will bring!
Great responses. Still loving the game!
Thanks!
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