Rambling about Dragon Age
Jul. 17th, 2013 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrThis post is to stop myself from just sitting and finishing my latest playthrough. I'm near the end but there's still a few hours to go and I really don't want to be up at midnight with sore hands and a headache with little memory of the game.
Have done all the main quests leading up to Denerim, and just rescued Anora, all without cheats! I was worried about the Deep Roads just because I found them quite upsetting last time I played through them (a few years ago now!) but I think the combination of time to get used to the plotline and no longer having untreated anxiety makes all the difference, plus actually playing the combat was nicely distracting.
My strategising is still really simplistic.
AI tactics: Anyone who gets too low on health swallows potions or is healed by Morrigan. Then the default tactics. Then at the bottom is "attack main character's target", to stop anyone standing around uselessly in the middle of battle if they have nothing better to do.
My PC is an archer, and I basically just shoot whoever looks closest to death, and leave Shale and Dog (or, if he's needed for plot, Alistair) to hack at whoever they feel like. If there's a big boss I get Morrigan to cast Crushing Prison, and if there's a bunch of enemies close together she casts cone of ice/fire, otherwise she heals/attacks as per the AI.
Oh and I summon a poisonous spider because spiders are cool.
This works on 99% of battles, and for the rest there are walkthroughs and my massive stock pile of acid flasks etc :)
Anyway! I didn't have any specific plans for Tesni Mahariel and just went with my gut. Normally this leads me to be very Paragonish, taking the "good" options for major decisions with maybe some minor jerkishness here and there. But as I've gone along she's surprised me. She is mostly fairly nice, certainly if someone's right in front of her in pain she'll go out of her way to help them, and she is understandably VERY LEERY of ancient artifacts.
But she's also willing to be entirely ruthless if need be, and since she decided dragons were less creepy than some old magical temple to a human god she has no regrets about defiling the urn of sacred ashes. In fact she found the Haven townsfolk kind of endearing, with their closeknit little community worshipping an old religion they kind of reminded her of the Dalish. She was sad to see Wynne go but at least she didn't have to kill her. Becoming friends with a dragon was pretty badass :D
She dislikes Oghren and is just barely warming up to Leliana. Shale and Sten ended up liking her heaps without me really trying, but Tesni herself just likes them well enough. And yet she very nearly sided with Branka, it was only Caradin's argument about the anvil being inevitably used by unscrupulous rulers to create slaves that persuaded her to destroy it.
She is madly in platonic love with Zevran, and was quite sad he refused to open up to her even with all the right gifts (and some of Wynne's. She wasn't using them!). And then his quest hit and he defended her and now they are bosom buddies :D :D She is less in love with Alistair, despite him being 100% in love with her, but his cuddly friendliness makes her feel good and she is looking forward to being the little voice in his ear once he marries Anora. She has all kinds of weird mixed up feelings about him being human.
I've also started another character, Durian Aeducan, who just arrived in Ostagar and has already shown himself to be a sociopathic opportunist. Aeducans make the best douchebags. My first Aeducan, played way back, was too angry in her douchebaggery: once she found out Gorim had moved on she felt zero motivation to stick with the Wardens or do much of anything. I'm hoping Durian will be more fun to play but still able to do the nasty things even Tesni has balked at, like not brokering peace between the Dalish and Werewolves.
Have done all the main quests leading up to Denerim, and just rescued Anora, all without cheats! I was worried about the Deep Roads just because I found them quite upsetting last time I played through them (a few years ago now!) but I think the combination of time to get used to the plotline and no longer having untreated anxiety makes all the difference, plus actually playing the combat was nicely distracting.
My strategising is still really simplistic.
AI tactics: Anyone who gets too low on health swallows potions or is healed by Morrigan. Then the default tactics. Then at the bottom is "attack main character's target", to stop anyone standing around uselessly in the middle of battle if they have nothing better to do.
My PC is an archer, and I basically just shoot whoever looks closest to death, and leave Shale and Dog (or, if he's needed for plot, Alistair) to hack at whoever they feel like. If there's a big boss I get Morrigan to cast Crushing Prison, and if there's a bunch of enemies close together she casts cone of ice/fire, otherwise she heals/attacks as per the AI.
Oh and I summon a poisonous spider because spiders are cool.
This works on 99% of battles, and for the rest there are walkthroughs and my massive stock pile of acid flasks etc :)
Anyway! I didn't have any specific plans for Tesni Mahariel and just went with my gut. Normally this leads me to be very Paragonish, taking the "good" options for major decisions with maybe some minor jerkishness here and there. But as I've gone along she's surprised me. She is mostly fairly nice, certainly if someone's right in front of her in pain she'll go out of her way to help them, and she is understandably VERY LEERY of ancient artifacts.
But she's also willing to be entirely ruthless if need be, and since she decided dragons were less creepy than some old magical temple to a human god she has no regrets about defiling the urn of sacred ashes. In fact she found the Haven townsfolk kind of endearing, with their closeknit little community worshipping an old religion they kind of reminded her of the Dalish. She was sad to see Wynne go but at least she didn't have to kill her. Becoming friends with a dragon was pretty badass :D
She dislikes Oghren and is just barely warming up to Leliana. Shale and Sten ended up liking her heaps without me really trying, but Tesni herself just likes them well enough. And yet she very nearly sided with Branka, it was only Caradin's argument about the anvil being inevitably used by unscrupulous rulers to create slaves that persuaded her to destroy it.
She is madly in platonic love with Zevran, and was quite sad he refused to open up to her even with all the right gifts (and some of Wynne's. She wasn't using them!). And then his quest hit and he defended her and now they are bosom buddies :D :D She is less in love with Alistair, despite him being 100% in love with her, but his cuddly friendliness makes her feel good and she is looking forward to being the little voice in his ear once he marries Anora. She has all kinds of weird mixed up feelings about him being human.
I've also started another character, Durian Aeducan, who just arrived in Ostagar and has already shown himself to be a sociopathic opportunist. Aeducans make the best douchebags. My first Aeducan, played way back, was too angry in her douchebaggery: once she found out Gorim had moved on she felt zero motivation to stick with the Wardens or do much of anything. I'm hoping Durian will be more fun to play but still able to do the nasty things even Tesni has balked at, like not brokering peace between the Dalish and Werewolves.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-18 03:33 pm (UTC)I missed out on the opportunity of having a Mahariel desecrate the ashes, even though it provides a very interesting symmetry and is also convenient gamewise if you're an archer.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-20 06:40 am (UTC)Yeah, I'm not regretting it so far. And turning Morrigan into the party healer is amusing :)
no subject
Date: 2013-07-20 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-20 03:37 pm (UTC)My rather cold, detached Mahariel ended up desecrating the ashes for "why should I care?" reasons as much as anything else. Good times. Also, calculating Aeducan opportunists are the best.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-21 09:07 am (UTC)