I have about 27 hours into Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins, and have explored about a third of the world. Having enlisted the aid of Arl Eoman, the Circle of Magi and the Dalish Elves to my cause, I am now exploring the depths of Ozrammar, hoping the dwarfs will honor their ancient treaty.
My party is in the vicinity of levels 13-15; it’s really nice that characters you don’t include in your party still level up along with the main character, always a level behind. My main character, Tipa the City Elf Rogue, has both of her subclasses now – bard and duellist. I haven’t trained any of the bard powers, but I am well down the track for duellist, a really excellent choice for how I play.
Morrigan has left behind her shapeshifter roots and taken on the role of the arcane warrior, a melee mage. She is responsible for crowd control and nukage. She was the healer before we acquired Wynne, and has so many things to do that in fights, normally I control Morrigan’s every move. Arcane Warrior is amazing; if I play through again, I’ll likely make it my main.
Having toyed with Alistair and DLC golem Shale as tanks, I’ve largely settled in with Sten. Leilana was a mainstay of the party until we got Wynne; we needed a dedicated healer more than another bard, and the party stats exposed her for the poor dps she was. Since I’m handling all the roguish duties, Zevran has never had a party slot, though he did finally teach me the assassin ways. Barkspawn helps out now and again.
After the jump, some pictures from my journeys. May (or may not) contain spoilers.
A friendly treant in the Brecilian Forest
Meeting Zevran the Assassin
Meeting Zevran the Assassin again… later…
All this Tin Man needs is an oil can, a heart, and a control rod
I’d missed the signature dragon fight in the Ruined Temple (not a spoiler, this fight was in the press previews before release), so I went back and did it. It was VERY worth it. Alistair, Barkspawn and Morrigan joined me; Alistair got the kill shot. I and Barkspawn died during the fight. Morrigan’s heals and Cone of Ice made it possible.
Although Morrigan can wear massive plate, I just let her wear this massive dragonbone armor until Sten had trained his strength up enough to use it. Morrigan currently wields a sword and shield alongside more traditional mage robes and light leather in order to stave off fatigue and preserve mana.
The A-Team
Every dragon fight is different and difficult. They can get you with a bite, a breath weapon, front and rear legs and the tail. Most fights, I control Morrigan in order to keep the crowd controlled. With this fight, I was keeping Tipa out of harm’s way, looking for openings to rush in and go all Duelist on the dragon, and I was rewarded with the kill shot. Dragon kill shots get a pretty unique animation that you just have to see for yourself.
The second dragon kill crew. I don’t think anyone died in this one; I’d learned a lot about keeping people out of harm’s way, and of course, we had Wynne this time. Tipa is in Superior Drakescale Armor, Sten is now in the Massive Dragonbone Armor that Morrigan had been sporting, Wynne is still too new to get any gear for her own, and Shale steps in for Morrigan for some old fashioned Clobberin’ Time.