Dragon Age anyone?

Discussion in 'Fan Town' started by Kittenly, Apr 25, 2015.

  1. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    I wanna sperg about DA. So come talk about your Wardens/Hawkes/Quizzies. Your romances. Game choices. All that stuff. Who your favorite companions, villains, teeny tiny side characters are. What you named your dog.

    A preemptive spoiler alert for all the games.

    I guess I'll start with my canon playthrough. Which there are two versions of. One normal, and Dual-verse, which my bffsie and I made by sloshing our two playthroughs into the same verse. But here are my characters:

    Warden: Mercy Amell
    Class: Mage
    Specialization: Spirit Healer/Arcane Warrior
    Romance: Zevran
    Personality: Quiet, Dutiful, Serious, Compassionate, Zevran brings out her more easy going side, and when her walls are lowered, she's clever, easily exasperated (mostly by Zev), and sort of painfully tender and sincere.

    Hawke: Mara Hawke
    Class: Mage
    Specialization: Spirit Healer/Force Mage
    Romance: Anders (Rivaled)
    Personality (Purple): Her personality is molded a lot by being the younger of twins, with her sister Pyrena also being a purple Hawke. But she is sharp, sarcastic, and often bitter in her humor. Anders brings out the worst of this, and the two antagonize each other constantly (Mara being very pro-circle, at least until around act 3 where that gets tarnished a lot, and Anders being radically for mage freedom). As time goes on and things keep getting worse and worse, Mara's humor becomes nearly an impenetrable wall to hide how much of a mess she is. When she's faced with Anders after the Chantry incident, she for once lets go of her bitterness and resentment starts to use the energy that went into all her envy and resentment in trying to help people (Anders, the mages of Kirkwall) get to a better place. It's still a work in progress.

    Inquisitor: Renwyn Lavellan
    Class: Mage
    Specialization: Necromancer
    Romance: Cullen
    Personality: Ren starts off as pretty lonely and reserved. She's hella autistic so lived her life in pretty much a state of being constantly overwhelmed. Luckily for her, that means that she was quite well prepared for the sheer amount of overwhelming things that happened to her that made her and Lysander Trevelyan Lady and Lord Inquisitor. She's blunt and oblivious, and while she's not good at reading people, as the Inquisition becomes her family, she becomes very good at playing with people's expectations of her for humorous effect. She's clever and silly and really really terrible at cards.
     
    • Like x 2
  2. strictly quadrilateral

    strictly quadrilateral alive, alive, alive!

    I love Dragon Age but most of my strategy when I play is "YES LET'S FIGHT PEOPLE" so I tend not to realize that there uh...are game choices. I've only played DA2 so I don't know any of the plot/characters of the other two besides what I've been told. And I'm pretty sure my favorite companions are All Of Them Please Don't Make Me Choose.
     
    • Like x 1
  3. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    I'm def more into the RP than the combat, but it's all good :D

    Except all the gangs EVERYWHERE in Kirkwall. Oh god. Why. I just want to walk home. Stop throwing me into a three wave, plot-irrelevant, combat situation. DA2 is probably my favorite right now, because Anders. And Aveline. And Varric, Isabela, Merrill, Fenris, Carver. They're all losers. Except Aveline. Aveline is perfection. So, yeah, I get you on the whole, don't make me choose bit. All of them are Very Important.
     
    • Like x 1
  4. strictly quadrilateral

    strictly quadrilateral alive, alive, alive!

    I got pretty much all the way through my first play through before I realized that the how-much-does-this-companion-like/hate-you meters existed and then was very sad
    because I had to kill Fenris and it was unfair and awful

    I'm so bad at figuring things out.
     
  5. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    Oh god, I had to do that too in my first playthrough bc I never took him anywhere because I prefer Aveline as my warrior. And that trigger the NOPE NOPE DO NOT WANT DDD:

    there was much distress.
     
  6. strictly quadrilateral

    strictly quadrilateral alive, alive, alive!

    For me, it was because I took him too many places and he kept getting offended or whatever. I liked his party banter so I kept him around but I kept making choices he didn't like??? I don't know.

    I feel like that was unnecessary and we shouldn't have had to do that.
     
  7. wixbloom

    wixbloom artcute

    I'm currently nerding out (which is my NT term for sperging out but seems to be really similar honestly) on Dragon Age and I have this very elaborate plan which is:

    • Play Origins 4x, one romancing each character, and make different choices each time.
    • Import each of these saves into DAII, play it 4 times, one romancing each character, and make different choices each time.
    • Import each of these four saves into DA:I, play it 4 times.
    • Have 4 completely different Dragon Age universes stemming from the butterfly effect.

    I've made my 4 wardens already and actually played with 2 of them so far.

    Lux, my very femme City Elf long-haired pretty boy with a smart mouth and a chip on his shoulder, has already saved the city of Redcliffe and little Connor (though he allowed Lady Isolde to sacrifice herself to do it), won the allegiance of the Circle mages and templars and done most of the quests in the Denerim market district, and also had sex with Zevran a bunch of times (their relationship makes me so happy <3). He's at level 9 so far and his preferred party is Alistair, Leliana and Wynne.

    Mélusine, my precious human noble warrior who wields a longsword almost as heavy as herself and looks like a tiny, cute fucking angel and wears a flower crown while destroying her enemies and being Not Good With Words, has only just arrived to Ostagar. Little does she know she's gonna be Queen of Ferelden!

    The other 2 are gorgeous but so far are personality-less blobs. One is a Dwarf noble and one is a Human mage. I have to say I find the mage origin pretty boring, and wish there was a way to make a Dalish mage who is First to the keeper, but I really want the repercussions of having a mage warden.
     
    • Like x 1
  8. tinyhydra

    tinyhydra a dingus

    I managed to get like 80% through DA:2 before remembering that there was supposed to be some prettyboy elf warrior on my team???? I hope the dude's doing okay wherever he is, cause he sure as hell ain't hanging with my Hawke. I forget her name, but she was a very blunt, awkward mage who favored the direct approach and was always faintly baffled by how well people didn't respond to that. She had absolutely no tact and never really considered mitigating suffering unless it achieved some sort of tangible goal, and I remember being really pleased to role play her awkwardly trying to connect with her teammates on a personal level. She also had a wicked hard crush on Aveline and handled it with all the grace and charm of a thirteen year old robot experiencing her first human boner. Ah, good times. Ought to finish playing that one of these days.

    My Inquisitor was based on my cat. She's a Qunari mage with the very traditional name of Bertie, and I gave her the dopiest face, seriously she looks so very uncomfortable in her own skin it's hilarious watching her talk shop with all these older, battle hardened folk, she's like a 7 foot tall teenager. She's paranoid and cowardly and only cares about other people insofar as they affect her, which ends up being quite a lot. She'd really just like to be left alone, but circumstances being what they are, she feels forced to take care of everybody if only to avoid being overthrown by her own men. She favors the glib remarks, as a means of making herself seem nonthreatening and avoiding showing her hand before she's figured out the situation, and has proved herself surprisingly shrewd and pragmatic. Still, she is young and weirdly idealistic and naive about certain topics, and it shows. She gets along best with Dorien and Sera, and has some weird, hero worship thing going on for Cassandra, even though she disagrees with her on most topics. She hates Solas because he agrees with her on too many things but for all the wrong reasons.
    She's my main, but it's my policy with Dragon Age games to makes like six characters with all the color/class/species/gender arrangements I can be arsed to make. Highlight of this lot is Bronze Ram, who I made in a fit of disappointment over the lack of Qunari bull horns. I wanted to make an Iron Bull clone so bad you guys. I was so crushed. He hasn't done anything yet, but I like the thought of him being very sweet and gentle and romantic, cause of reasons.

    Haven't finished either game, cause goddamn, they are long ass games. Should get around to it at some point.
     
    • Like x 1
  9. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    Eeeeee! Sorry talking about DA just makes me so happy.

    @wixbloom: I've played Origins what... three times all the way and I have five characters thus far. I originally had four but then my friends wanted to make another combined verse so Whoops that's three more characters. I agree that the mage origin is a little disappointing, but I have a hard time playing anything other than a mage. I think City Elf and Dwarf Noble are my favorite origins.

    @tinyhydra: Ppft, your Hawke sounds like a delight. God. One of my Hawkes also crushed HARD on Aveline. I think she handled it alright, all things considered, but I love your descriptions of: "handled it with all the grace and charm of a thirteen year old robot experiencing her first human boner."
    :D

    So my five Wardens are:
    Mercy Amell (talked about above) Preferred party: Wynne, Shale, Zevran
    Dog named: Spot

    Ranna Tabris: She was a little, rude, gay elf snot who took everything too personally and was really poorly equipped to handle being thrown out into the world. She romanced Leliana and made the Ultimate Sacrifice. Preferred party: Leliana, Alistair, Wynne
    Dog named: Big-Dog

    Duna Mahariel: They were also poorly equipped to be thrown into the world and resisted it kicking and screaming all the way to Ostagar. Until they met Morrigan. Duna's arc is much more satisfying than Ranna's, as they get more and more comfortable in their skin and their relationship with Morrigan does wonders for both of them. Until Duna didn't do the dark ritual with Morrigan, and ended up dying as a result. Morrigan has Keiran though, who she regales with stories of his, uh... father-sort-of. Preferred party: Morrigan, Sten, Zevran
    Dog named: Dorf

    Variel Cousland: Has mommy issues up the wazoo. Momma Cousland trained her daughter well in the arts of intrigue and court and ruling. Though she never liked it much, V definitely had a knack for it, and can pretty much convince anyone of anything if she wants to. Nevertheless, she would do anything to be in her brother Fergus's shoes. Needless to say the attack on her family that killed her parents left her feeling very confused, because on the one hand, she's following Duncan and gets to finally be on the battlefield, but her family is /dead/. Her mother is /dead/ and she feels super extra guilty for being relieved about it. She finally lets go of her mother's ghost when she lets Anora keep the throne and she and (romanced) Ali stay wardens together. Preferred Party: Alistair, Wynne, Morrigan
    Dog named: Kingsfoil

    Greta Aeducan: Second and favorite child of the king of Orzammar, Greta has been sort of subconsciously been groomed to take the throne after her father dies. She's everything a dwarf royal should be, decisive, commanding, courageous, but also fair and values justice and the well being of her people. And that's where her description of herself would end. She thinks quite highly of herself, and while she's got a lot going for her, she is also rash, uncompromising, and stubborn. She may value justice and compassion as ideals, but in practice, she tends to enforce the status quo, not ask enough questions, and basically hit whatever she thinks needs to be hit as hard as possible then ask questions later. She's funny and boisterous and so gets along swimmingly with pretty much all the party, especially (romanced) Alistair, Leliana, and Zevran. Preferred party: Alistair, Wynne, Shale
    Dog named: Stonetooth
     
  10. An Actual Bird

    An Actual Bird neverthelass, Brid persisted, ate third baggel

    Oh, man. @a tiny mushroom needs to get in here. I mostly just watch her play; I got through about 10% of Origins with a dwarf noble then kinda...gave up. My computer, it is not good at running anything more demanding than choose-your-own-adventures. Also I left Sten behind, didn't get a dog and never even met Leliana so I kinda wrote that save off. I'll let Liese sperg out about her Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor, though :P

    My favourite companion is Krem. He is a companion in my heart, which is what matters.
     
    • Like x 2
  11. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    Krem is too precious for this world. And his and Bull's relationship just gets me right in the feels. And it also lead to this:
     
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  12. a tiny mushroom

    a tiny mushroom the tiniest

    [kicks down door] DID SOMEONE SAY DRAGON AGE?!

    I actually spend way more time reading/talking about Dragon Age then I actually spend playing it, oops.

    Wardens:
    Mira Surana. Mage. Gentle and kinda naive, but will kick your butt. Loves her dog. Romanced Zevran because I have a thing for bad boys with troubled pasts, apparently. Did the ritual thing, which uh I feel very, very bad about forcing Alistair to do that so uh yeah not doing that to him again even if it means someone dies. Made Anora the queen because Alistair didn't seem too happy about the whole being a king thing.

    I have a second Warden but I can't remember what I named her right now =.=; She is a Dalish elf. I am planning to romance Leliana. I named the dog Tamlen because I hate myself. She is significantly tougher than Mira, and is kinda pissy at humans but will still get along with them. I haven't really played her long enough.

    Hawkes:
    Florence Hawke. Did the diplomatic personality. Romanced Merrill. Cried while I killed Merrill's entire clan. Sided with the mages. Cried when I killed Fenris. That game was so upsetting. I immediately created a new game after playing it.

    Tilli Hawke. Rogue. Going with the joker personality. Understands why people mistrust mages, but is fiercely protective of her sister. Was going to romance Fenris. I will probably side with the Templars. I have't played it for awhile.

    Inquisitors:
    Thalia Adaar. Parents gave her a human name in the hopes that it would help her fit in. Lady. Mage. She ended up somehow being kinda socially awkward, but kind and diplomatic. She started off being "not sure about Andraste" but when she survived the attack on Haven, I was like, "Okay you would probs believe after that, right?" Romanced Josephine WHO IS ADORABLE I LOVE HER OH MY GOD. I accidentally chose the Templars. My preferred party with her was Cassandra, Solas, and Cole. And now I have to choose another mage if I want to keep playing THANKS SOLAS.

    Lyrikka Cadash. Lady. Rogue. Diplomatic but also quite humorous, sarcastic and doesn't take anybody's shit. Rode the Bull, mostly because I thought the height difference was hilarious, but Bull turned out to actually be a huge fucking marshmallow. I love him. His fucking face when you give him the dragon tooth necklace. Oh my god. Decided to make her Andrastian from the start because why not. Chose the mages. Preferred party is Sera, Bull, and either Vivienne or Dorian. Still haven't finished her playthrough.

    I also romance Krem in my heart.
     
    • Like x 1
  13. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    Ahahahaha! Welcome friend! I spend way more time talking about DA too, though it's sometimes hard to do it on tumblr. because tumblr ya know? Omg there are so many things I want to word vomit onto the thread but now I don't even know where to start! Mira sounds like a sweetie. And yes, Zev! Agh. He is my favorite DAO romance. He portrays this suave, badboy air but really he's a doofus who happily tells you the story of when his boots were stolen just to make you laugh. And his whole, "I'd scale the walls of the black city with you if you asked," just gets me. That idiot is probably the most loyal of the group once you get through to him. And his stupid sense of humor and determination to make you laugh is so good for so many of my characters. I really love Zevran okay ;-;
     
    • Like x 2
  14. tinyhydra

    tinyhydra a dingus

    My Hawke tended to shuffle party members on the regular, for whatever the hell reason. Aveline was a regular fixture, cause she was the only warrior who wasn't related to Hawke, and Hawke has weird ideas about familial loyalty that begin and end with keeping them out of harm's way at all costs. I think she brought Merril and Anders along a lot, cause if something's worth destroying then it's worth Completely And Utterly Destroying With Maximum Force. Three mages worth of force, shoved right up enemy rectum. Naturally, she stuck with only the most destructive of spells and left the healing to the rest of the party.
    The Inquisitor had a brief phase where she realized that she could bring along Four Whole Mages, and that thought was so exciting that she promptly went and got everyone killed headbutting a dragon. Quad Maging was not a wise decision. Nowadays, she mostly sticks to the dream team of Sera, Cassandra, and Varric, so three of the party members slip under the radar and one heals the party full when she dies.
    I am not a tactician.

    I always get really into character creation when playing Bioware games, and it always breaks the game for me, cause I end up making characters who would never make the decisions they make for the rationals the game presents. Like, in Mass Effect 2, I voted to kill the dissenting Geth, cause my Shepard was a simple, straight laced kind of lady, and the thought of overwriting people's free will didn't jell with her. It was a hard fucking decision that I spent like ten minutes agonizing over, and then the game made it so she killed them all cause it was quicker than reprogramming them. Fuck that noise! Tucker's a resolutely moral commander, she always spent extra time and resources on mitigating harm!
    I mean, it can't be helped. The game has to be that simple, or else everything'd spiral out of control. Still. Doesn't make it any less jarring.
     
    • Like x 1
  15. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    @tinyhydra Yeah, I do a lot of extensive rewritting of stuff in these games too. Sometimes there's just not the right sort of response. I've basically had to rewrite Mara and Anders' entire romance because it kept missing the mark. Like at one point she says, "I want you right here, until the day we die!" and it's super dramatic and I was like uhhh... Mara is /never/ that sincere because she's an emotionally stunted ball of family baggage who deals with her problems by making tactless jokes. And also this whole "I'll stay with you even when things are terrible," is character development she super hasn't hit yet. But the only other option breaks off the romance?? Ehh. I just say it was Varric editing the story to respect the progress Mara and Anders had made in their relationship. No need in telling the Seeker all the painful details when they had moved on and rebuilt from scratch.

    I also get super into the character creation process. Particularly for my canon-verse, because it's my best friend and my playthrough smashed together and we both perseverate HARD on DA. We have hundreds of AUs for our DA characters xD

    I also so don't play DA for the fighting strategy (There were many times in Awakening when my tank was a mage o.O) I also love the image of headbutting a dragon. Seems like something Bull would want to try. I pretty much just flail around in Inquisition, spamming energy barrage and walking bomb. I miss the spell combos from DAO. Those were fun. My party is usually Solas, Cass, and Cole.
     
    • Like x 2
  16. Enzel

    Enzel androgynous jrpg protag

    I'm a DA baby because I kept losing my Origins save because of computer problems. So I've done F cousland and city elf origins but never gotten past Ostagar the first time until my latest playthrough, Lesta Amell. (human mage) I got to the elf forest (wow my memory is bad) and then tried to leave and died repeatedly on a field battle with some wolves, and just sorta...gave up. Haven't touched it since. I want to, though! man. Does anyone have any tips for handling the battle system? I'm just...terrible at it. It might be because I specced for healer like a moron.

    I was romancing Leliana, she's so cute. Also forever sad you can't be lesbians with Morrigan.
     
    • Like x 2
  17. a tiny mushroom

    a tiny mushroom the tiniest

    You can't be in lesbians with Cassandra either. I was so sad. I love her. I want to stroke her cheekbones.

    @Kittenly Zev is actually lovely. Wynne kept telling me he was bad news and I was like, "Shut up, mum, you don't know him like I do." And yeah, I am really bad at fighting strategy =.=; I get better at it the more I play, but I'm still like, *random attacks until it dies*. I'm more strategy-y as a rogue, I think.

    Mostly, I want to know everything about the Qunari.
     
  18. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    Actually healer is definitely the way to go. Spirit healer is on of the best specializations hands down. Basically, if you haven't, there are a couple mods you'll want to download, and your first priorities are the respec mod, extra dog slot, and unlock specializations. On a healer mage (including Wynne), you'll want your basic heal spell, but probably nothing else from that line. For doing damage, you'll definitely want the ice line through cone of cold (best spell, spam it!) and earth through stonefist. Frozen enemies hit with stone first shatter, which is really useful. If you want to beef up that combo even more, go for walking bomb through virulent walking bomb, then freeze enemy, cast walking bomb on them, stonefist, then watch as they explode! For utility, go for the whole forcefield line through crushing prison. If you're on a really hard fight, use forcefield to immobilize the hardest thing there (you can't damage it though) and take out as many mooks as you can. Fireball can be good for that, as it knocks down everyone.

    Other mage options (especially if you're doing arcane warrior as your second specialization) are in the entropy line. I'm not sure what the first one is (weakness maybe?) but the one that ends in mass paralysis is really useful, and the hexes below them (misdirection and death hex most of all). Glyphs (from the creation tree) are also useful, but I find them less so than the hexes.

    You'll always want to max out your specialization line (I spec every mage with spirit healer. It's so fucking good) as soon as you can.

    I know a bit about speccing rogues and warriors, but not nearly as much. If you're really struggling with tanking I suggest Shale (if you have the ultimate edition) and immediately invest in the Stoneheart line. Makes her really hard to take out.

    :D Mercy had a very similar relationship to Wynne and also got pissy when she was like, I wouldn't trust him. She came around eventually though. Because Zev is the sweetest sweetie to ever sweet. And you first encounter with him he fails to kill you then starts flirting with you while lying in a pool of his own blood. God I love him.

    Yessss. And the dwarves. But you've heard Kieran talk about the Qunari, right? Your blood is not your own, and they're somehow connected to dragons and I NEED THE NEXT GAME and/or more DLC
     
    • Like x 1
  19. wixbloom

    wixbloom artcute

    Lux is romancing Zev, but his preferred party involves Wynne and he's pretty OK with her not approving. He's very respectful of her - she's clearly always been oppressed (in his understanding; Wynne would probably disagree) but still can focus on the greater good and her magic is so entirely focused on others, and she's levelheaded and wise, so, while his relationship with Zev is not going anywhere, he understands why Wynne might object and respects that.
     
  20. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    @wixbloom
    Well, Wynne is skeptical of all the romances, and for good reason. She's got some heavy history with ill-advised romances herself, and I think projects a lot of those worries onto the Warden. For all that she's level-headed and wise, she was a bit of a bad girl growing up, and had to give up her son when he was born. Which I think will always ache for her.

    I love Wynne. I love all of the Team Mom characters in these games. *cries*
     
    • Like x 2
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