1881

I still haven’t managed to watch that show despite the many references in Castle and such. :(

A few more convenient mods:

Long Poisons :: Bump poison duration to 30 minutes

Unlock All 25 Tactic Slots :: Self-explanatory :)

Madd Gift Guide :: Reveal ideal gift recipients in item tooltips

Detailed Tooltips :: More informative item tooltips

Character Respec :: Allows you to reset your skills, abilities, etc

Advanced Party :: Party members join with no points assigned in anything

And some minor appearance mods:

No Helmet Hack :: Begone awkward helmets!

Slender Light Armor :: Armor mod for female characters

Slender Heavy Armor :: Armor mod for female characters

Personal Annoyance Remover :: Rid yourself of distracting auras and such

And then advanced appearance mods that will take small amounts of fiddling (and some reading) to install:

Just Morphs :: heaps of head morphs

Installation of Just Morphs will require that you install several other appearance mods (read the description!) It drastically improves the appearance of skin, eyes, hair, and overall consistency in the game. You have options for more lore-centric appearances or more refined, pretty appearances. If that sounds daunting, you may just want to install this redesign pack and skip the rest:

Dragon Age Redesigned :: Fixes numerous issues with DA character design
http://social.bioware.com/project/1205/

I haven’t had any issues with this haphazard mix of mods but I also haven’t tested them very extensively. Well, no, I suppose there’s one issue: you’ll have luminescent poisons in all your cut scenes with Long Poisons. I think there’s a mod that will let you remove poison particle effects, though.

I regret to report my duo rogue playthrough has come to a screeching halt. I just couldn’t bear to listen to Leliana talk to herself because there were only two of us and my character is a mute, so I brought in Morrigan on the off chance she and Leliana will get into a fistfight or something. I kicked the difficulty up to hard because of the 3rd party member and the gameplay is still very fun. I set down some traps, retreat to a choke point with both rogues and then bait them through the gauntlet with Morrigan. With no tank I have to keep a steady rotation of CC going. I don’t use it all at once but spread it thin so that no one’s taking enough burst damage to die while poultices are on cooldown.

It’s working, for now…

1882

Well, I’m playing on a console so the mods won’t help me too much. I will say there was a big downside to Witch Hunt. The really cool black leather armor that I found in DA:A, and spent an hour or two developing runecrafting on so I could twink it out, just plain vanished in Witch Hunt. I started the game with a completely transparent body with only my limbs and head visible. This after downloading the additional Witch supplements for DA:O and DA:A.

I’m over it now but it sucks all the same. Now I’m back to some crappy leather loot armor that happened to be in my inventory.

1883

FWIW - I noticed you said you haven’t played Leliana’s DLC. I honestly found it quite good, although it’s very directed and short (as most of the DLC’s are). If you have a few spare dollars to burn, it’s worth giving it a shot and can be played in any order because it’s backstory. Oh, and it also gives you some very nice leather armor should you find all the goodies (and you will, assuming you take the time to look).

1884

Thanks, Joe! I’m starting a new play-through of DA once I’m done moving, and I was going to either start a new thread looking for mods or go digging through the archives. That stuff is awesome.

Is there a mod that tones down the over-the-top bloodspray?

1885

This mod appears to remove blood altogether. If you look very close there’s still a few particles in there but it’s not the same improbable geyser of blood-letting that the game has by default. Unfortunately, I’ve not found anything that simply tones it down some but I’ll try tinkering with this in the toolset a bit since I’m interested in less blood, too.

Oh, and one more mod! There’s a Baldur’s Gate 2 project ongoing: http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1836

Nostalgia strikes home when playing through Dragon Age: Origins. You have flashbacks from the past, an urge to play a game you once loved. That game is the renowned Baldur’s Gate 2, famous for its fantastic writing and twisting plot. Starting out with Irenicus’ Dungeon, the BGR Team is recreating the beloved Baldur’s Gate experience in the Dragon Age engine.

This module contains the very first dungeon in the game - Irenicus’ Dungeon. This provides around two hours of gameplay, several levels and quests, and a whole lot of new features besides that.

1886

Holy crap that was short and I really don’t feel I learned much from Morrigan beyond what I already had assumed. Maybe I shoulda picked a fight! But for a few bucks, eh, not bad.

Downloading Leliana’s Song now. Hopefully there’s a touch more meat on this one.

1887

Hmm, so if I specced a warrior to be a dual warrior am I screwed? I really don’t know much about these systems.

1888

No, that’s a good build, a damage machine.

1889

Is it possible to play this game on Normal, not pay much attention to optimal character builds, and not get stomped regularly? This was how I played the game at release and really didn’t enjoy it much.

You gotta have SOME ability to plan out classes and stuff, but jesus; reading through some of the character build stuff is totally intimidating and a huge turn-off. I just wanna do some basic stuff, wade in, and kick some ass (but be challenged, too).

Possible on Normal?

1890

Absolutely possible. That’s the only way I play. I just go with what makes sense, what I want in a build, and don’t pay any attention to maximizing or optimizing a build. Don’t bother reading any guides on builds; just have an idea of where you want to go with spells, skills, etc. The make-up of your party, combined with your battle tactics, will dictate whether you survive combat.

1891

If you play with two mages in your party you can essentially slam your head on the keyboard and emerge victorious from all but a handful of encounters.

1892

I wanna be a Dwarf rogue, have Alastair, Morrigan, and Wynne.

My first playthrough went horribly with an elf rogue. I went into the Brecilian forest first, and it whipped my ass. I finally restarted with a mage that I specced for CC, but I just wasn’t enjoying it. I was playing with a number of mods, and was frustrated by my previous attempt, and I think I got sucked into a mindset best described with the statement “If I can just tweak this enough, maybe I’ll have fun!” Once I respecced Morrigan once, it was hard not to do it again, and again, and again. And that dissatisfaction pervaded all areas of the game.

Now I’m looking forward to building a rogue that can help all over the place with bombs and damage output (screw traps), keep Alastair as a damage-soaking threat puller, and use Morrigan for serious CC. I think I’ll respec Morrigan once, but no more! Wynne of course for healing, once I get her.

Though I am worried about the early game, which is so damn hard compared to the experience post level 10. I’ll probably hit Redcliff first, then go to the Mages Tower (with a skip the Fade mod), then do the Brecilian forest.

But any tips for the early game with a rogue? Anything I should be trying to think about them as? I’m not well-versed in the MMO roles like ‘high DPS aggro stealer’ or whatever, so I find it difficult to imagine and choose a combat role to fit into.

But it sounds like I should just go with what’s fun, makes sense, and complements the party. Get ready, you Darkspawn bastards!

1893

Your plan is pretty much how I played the game. Just be sure to pause and micro your rogue into backstab range. You can’t go wrong with any of the dual wield stuff. I don’t remember doing anything unique in the early game. It’s a challenge to manage the low resources until you get the second mage.

1894

What are you using to respec? The respec mod I got just let me select a new class and profession (i.e rouge / assasin) for the hero character.
I’d really like to undo some of the skills I stupidly gave him and the others.

BTW, I decided to go with Alistair, Lelianna and Morrigan and decided to ignore anyone completly. I might replace Morrigan though because she is irritating in the worse possible Bioware manner.

1895

I liked Morrigan for the way she would reduce my rep for doing anything. Helping that guy cross the road? -1 rep.

1896

Be aware that in the endgame, you’ll have to use all your party members. So don’t neglect them completely.

1897

Can’t remember, sorry. If I end up doing that again, I’ll letcha know! As it is, I installed the Loot and Gamebalance mod mentioned just upthread, and it includes Advanced Party Members (or something) that makes people join your party with no skills used, so you get to assign them yourself. Good times!

1898

I got it sorted. I didn’t understand that I need to drink a potion. The author of the mod did not think it important enough to be mentioned in the readme.

1899

Quick arise…

I’m starting to really burn out on this one. About 45 hours in, got the mages and the elves ready to go, almost done with the dwarves but am in the deep roads. Feels like a drag so far, and I was already thinking the Mage tower sequence was a total drag.

I generally like the mechanics, I like how it controls on the xbox, but this game feels like so much bland padding recently that it’s tough to stay motivated. I almost dread going to the main city and suddenly getting another 30 blah quests piled on, but I want to finish what I started (and be ready in case DA2 turns out to be totally awesome). I also feel like I’m getting fairly tired of the bioware rpg formula.

1900

Yeah, this game had way too much padding. From a story perspective, it was like reading a short story. But a short story that took fucking 50+ hours to finish thanks to all the combat padding. And unfortunately, on the 360, the combat wasn’t great. And the game looked like shit too. I was surprised when I played Mass Effect recently on the 360 and discovered that the game looked way better than Dragon Age on the 360, even though it came out earlier.