I thought I was slick and all, reading the Wiki to find out I should go to the Circle Tower so I could get the mages help with the Arl's quest.
Then I screwed up using the Litany and all the mages died.
It was heartbreaking to have to condemn Conner to death. People complain about Isolde, but that actress SOLD the cries of a mother begging for her son's life. Man, I haven't stared at a decision screen for that long EVER. It almost brought me to tears. I'm such a big sap these days.
I thought so as well, but [Sten] adds a lot if you have in your party. He'll have random observations that you can then talk to him more about in 1-on-1 convos. But, yes, he isn't as "talkative" as the others, otherwise.
Having Sten in your party with Morrigan is actually a hoot! The conversations they have are great, particularly one of the later ones.
He's also very amusing with Alistair and Zevran. In fact, I think that -- in his own way -- he's funnier than Oghren. The only thing I don't like about Sten is that I don't think you can give him more than one speciality class.
I can share more in a spoiler if folks are interested.
I know I'm coming to the party way late and resurrecting this thread, but I just finished DA:O and loved the heck out of it. I could not put it down, and when the credits were finished rolling and I shut down my PC for the night I had this hollow feeling inside like, "What am I going to do now that it's over?" (The answer is, of course, start over again with a different PC. )
I'm a woman in real life (thought I'd mention it because sometimes you can't tell on forums) and I played a female human mage. I'm a sucker for awkward, funny guys, and immediately fell in love with Alistair. I never went without him in my party, and eagerly jumped at the romance option with him. (Don't tell my husband. )
I was actually impressed at the amount that the romance worked into the plot. The last time I played a game with romance options was Baldur's Gate II, and if I recall correctly it just happened as a footnote and didn't actually interact with the main plot at all. There was a bit of a dry spell after I finally got him into my tent, and I thought for a moment that this romance would also be just a footnote, but then as the main plot climaxed it became relevant again.
JediSoth, that bit you mentioned in the spoiler block is one of the things that made me love this game so much. It was not afraid to have you make hard decisions. I ended up
going with Jowain's plan to use blood magic and trade the mother's life for the son's. I also have never stared at a decision screen so long in my gaming life. It surprised the heck out of me when Alistair's approval didn't go down immediately, but then I actually cringed and felt like crap when he started yelling at me when we got back to camp. I hated what he thought of me, but I really felt like it was the right thing to do.
I don't think a video game has ever evoked that sort of emotional reaction from me.
One of the most subtle things I noticed that I think was a great touch in that scenario is when you're at the starting, the one templar (forgot his name)
acts all shy and nervous around you if you talk to him (and talking to him was completely optional, though on the way) and then later just before the big fight at the end of the circle tower, he's the guy trapped in the forcefield and he is obviously riddled with pain and guilt about having a crush on you
The fact that it was unnecessary and subtle was just nice detail that made me appreciate and enjoy the game.
I did multiple playthroughts, one of which i even tried to do all the "against my better instincts" and yeah, the
conner choice as well as the elf choice, i sided with the wolves and watched what they did ...
that second one in particular just left me stunned and shocked and i felt so so so so bad afterwards that i just couldn't continue that save game for days until i got over how bad i felt.
While I haven't touched the game for a couple months, i expect i'll do one more run through before DA2 comes out in early march.
"...I shut down my PC for the night I had this hollow feeling inside like, "What am I going to do now that it's over?" (The answer is, of course, start over again with a different PC. )
They are on my Christmas list, so I won't be playing those immediately, in any case. My husband has heard me ranting and raving about this game for a few weeks now so I'd be very surprised if he doesn't get me Awakening.
I'm also drooling over DA II, but I can no longer justify paying full price for any video game, no matter how awesome, so I'll probably end up waiting a year or so after it comes out until it drops into the $30 price range (which is where DA:O was when I bought it).
Heh, I just started playing, and I too love the heck out of it.
I have a question though, does anyone know if there is a mod for the PC version that turns the key for highlighting objects into a toggle instead of a hold?
Tip for those playing (you'll probably figure this out soon enough anyway): kill or incapacitate the casters first. Knock 'em down, stun 'em, kill em, just don't let them get those fireballs out. Though there was one fun moment when
trapped in the Fade at the end of the Circle quest, I was in mouse form and crept into a room of dream-mages. I got in the center of them when they all noticed me, turned, and all let off fireballs. Somehow I managed to survive, just barely, but all the mages had burned to death.
I keep meaning to get into this. So, lemme ask you guys for some advice about what class to play as.
What is a rogue going to do for me that other classes won't? It's a party-based game, right? So, even if I'm good at sneaking, other players will give our presence away.
Do mage spells duplicate (or eclipse) rogue capabilities as they often have a tendency to (q.v. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)?
I'm leaning towards mage because otherwise I would have just stuck with the console version, but I love sneaking through dungeons and setting up ambushes, so rogues have appeal as well.
You can tell your party to hold their position and not move unless ordered, so it's still possible to take control of your rogue and sneak ahead of the party to scout or lay traps.
Mage spells cannot duplicate rogue abilities as far as I saw. Rogue is the only class that gets to be sneaky, and rogue is the only class that gets to pick locks.
That being said, for about 90% of the game you are playing a party of four characters, and you can recruit enough people early on to fill out your party with whatever classes you want. It really doesn't matter what class your main character is for most of the game as long as you're good at what you do, but that goes for all of your characters.
One benefit to playing a mage is that you can have a healbot right away. That's what I did on my first play-through. Now that I know where the other healer character is, though, I'm heading straight for her on my second play-through, now that I'm playing a rogue. You do get a mage pretty early on, but she's not that great as a healer.
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