Dragon Age
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I really like most companions in the Inquisition so far. They seem one dimensional at first, but skits you get practically every time you come to the keep flesh them out. It's heartwarming to see Blackwall carving toy griffons in his spare time.
My least favorite companions are Sera and Vivienne. Sera is singlemindedly raging against the nobles, and that's all there is to her. Maybe she'll show something else later, but I see nothing yet.
Vivienne is cold and political, and bitches at Cole and Dorian all the time, whom I actually like.
My least favorite companions are Sera and Vivienne. Sera is singlemindedly raging against the nobles, and that's all there is to her. Maybe she'll show something else later, but I see nothing yet.
Vivienne is cold and political, and bitches at Cole and Dorian all the time, whom I actually like.
Sera made it pretty clear that she plays a lot. She's all "YOLO!" On the plus side, she apparently lives without a drop of angst, and that's pretty refreshing to me. I'm going to have her as Party Rogue on my playthrough, to see how she plays off everyone else.
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
After entirely too much fucking around with drivers, I have finally gotten it to launch.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
- Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Blackwall should have been a dwarf. He's steadfast and honorable, is as tough as old balls, and has an epic beard.
Also, I should have the option to nail Scout Harding... <3
Sera is actually alright once you get past her speech patterns. I like how you find a note where she mentions it's creepy as hell that the bard wrote a song about her...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Zkun0tJc4
Also, it would be refreshing as hell to NOT have a good aligned user of dark magic join you. I like Dorian, and I agree with his opinions abut blood magic, but do we NEED another likable necromancer in a fantasy game? When does doing the opposite of the cliche become cliche?
Also, I question whether one of his personal quests is topical or pandering:
Also, I should have the option to nail Scout Harding... <3
Sera is actually alright once you get past her speech patterns. I like how you find a note where she mentions it's creepy as hell that the bard wrote a song about her...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Zkun0tJc4
Also, it would be refreshing as hell to NOT have a good aligned user of dark magic join you. I like Dorian, and I agree with his opinions abut blood magic, but do we NEED another likable necromancer in a fantasy game? When does doing the opposite of the cliche become cliche?
Also, I question whether one of his personal quests is topical or pandering:
You find out that Dorian has been estranged from his family. Not because of being a necromancer, his father is a Tevinter Magister. No, it's because his father doesn't approve of dudefucking and used blood magic to force him to be straight and it didn't work...
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Blackwall is more than you think.
Technically, all necromancers (mortalitasi) are good aligned. It's a nevarran tradition of spirit summoners, who watch over graveyards and summon willing spirits into the deceased bodies to have ritual meetings with the family. DA doesn't have traditional necromancy, because ghosts don't exist, and raising dead bodies is done via blood magic shoving a demon inside it.
Technically, all necromancers (mortalitasi) are good aligned. It's a nevarran tradition of spirit summoners, who watch over graveyards and summon willing spirits into the deceased bodies to have ritual meetings with the family. DA doesn't have traditional necromancy, because ghosts don't exist, and raising dead bodies is done via blood magic shoving a demon inside it.
There's also transgender Krem.Also, I question whether one of his personal quests is topical or pandering:
Does Dorian even use blood magic? I know he's pretty against the corrupt system of Tevinter.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
- Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Yes, it's definitely not like (in my worldstate anyway) that the Warden and the Champion of Kirkwall were both accomplished blood mages... (angry moth noises)
Edit: Krem is transgendered? I honestly didn't realize that. I didn't talk to him very often though.
Edit: Krem is transgendered? I honestly didn't realize that. I didn't talk to him very often though.
Last edited by Count Arioch the 28th on Sat Nov 29, 2014 9:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Krem is a woman.
Warden is a special case due to him being a Grey Warden. While Hawke can have a Blood Mage specialization, dialogues with him in Inquisition imply that he hates blood magic and blood mages due to all the crap that happened in Kirkwall. He's also an apostate. Inquisition on the other hand is technically working with the Chantry, and blood magic is a big no-no there.
Warden is a special case due to him being a Grey Warden. While Hawke can have a Blood Mage specialization, dialogues with him in Inquisition imply that he hates blood magic and blood mages due to all the crap that happened in Kirkwall. He's also an apostate. Inquisition on the other hand is technically working with the Chantry, and blood magic is a big no-no there.
I'm starting to get annoyed by all the conversations speculating about who might have caused the breach, because you never seem to get the option to say, "Almost certainly a Pride Abomination, because duh" Other contenders, in decreasing order of likelyhood: Tevinter Imperium, Flemeth, Darkspawn, Qunari.
It's like the characters have forgotten that opening a giant hole into the Fade is really fucking hard. The most hilarious accusation was directed at the Templars, which is reasonable on all grounds except that it's impossible.
It's like the characters have forgotten that opening a giant hole into the Fade is really fucking hard. The most hilarious accusation was directed at the Templars, which is reasonable on all grounds except that it's impossible.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
Playing as a Tal'Vashoth mage, it's bugging me that my character keeps getting called a Qunari. Now, most people don't register the distinction, but my character and especially Iron Bull should know better.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
The Dragon Age Nerds wrote:The term kossith is an antiquated technical name and it is not known anywhere around Thedas or even amongst the Qunari. It is only known within scholarly circles, and a few members of the tamassrans, however they do not teach it to other Qunari.[1] The leadership of the Qunari does not recognize even the concept of kossith and few if any rank and file Qunari are aware of the word.[6] To almost everyone in Thedas, the horned race is just "Qunari" or "Tal-Vashoth", respectively.[3][7]
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
- Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Really? In my playthrough Iron Bull is very quick to call me out for not being Qunari, he even emphasizes "Tal Vashoth" in kind of a derogatory fashion at several points.name_here wrote:Playing as a Tal'Vashoth mage, it's bugging me that my character keeps getting called a Qunari. Now, most people don't register the distinction, but my character and especially Iron Bull should know better.
He also brings up the term "Kossith", but also mentions that word isn't used anymore and the Kossith probably were nothing like either the Qunari or the Tal Vashoth.
Last edited by Count Arioch the 28th on Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
Admittedly he hasn't talked to me much yet, but he called me Qunari during the first meeting. Note that he could clearly tell I had magical powers and a tongue.Count Arioch the 28th wrote:Really? In my playthrough Iron Bull is very quick to call me out for not being Qunari, he even emphasizes "Tal Vashoth" in kind of a derogatory fashion at several points.name_here wrote:Playing as a Tal'Vashoth mage, it's bugging me that my character keeps getting called a Qunari. Now, most people don't register the distinction, but my character and especially Iron Bull should know better.
Last edited by name_here on Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
- Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
I am trying that out now, and so far it seems to be working well. I've decided it works well if you take Cole, Iron Bull, and one of the two tanks along as everyone is up in the monster's grill, and I can keep barriers up most of the time on the entire party.Longes wrote:So, about Knight-Enchnaters.
Your power comes from the these three abilities:
-Spirit Blade. The first ability in the tree. It costs 10 mana and has no recharge time. It makes a melee attack with a magical sword for 300% of your staff damage, plus 200% against barriers and 400% against guard. Remember, that the sword's damage type is Spirit, which means that armor doesn't apply.
This your main attack now. Using staff is worse than using Spirit Blade in pretty much every situation.
-Combat Clarity. You get 50% faster mana regeneration when within 5 meters of the enemy.
This means you'll never run out of mana for your Spirit Blade.
-Fade Shield. You get 30% of damage you deal back as your barrier.
Congratulations. With a good staff you'll never run out of Barrier as long as you keep fighting. And if you did run out of barrier, you can just recast it, thanks to your great mana regeneration speed.
Now, the synergies. You obviously want the whole right branch of the Spirit tree, because it makes your shield stronger. You want Clear Burn from the Fire tree. It reduces spell cooldown time each time you cast a spell. Spirit Blade is a spell. You cast it all the time. You also want Fade Step from the Frost tree. Together with Fade Cloak from the Knight Enchanter it gives you 4 seconds of invulnerability whenver you want.
About Viviene. Don't put any points into the Knight Enchanter specialty for her. AI doesn't know how to use Knight Enchanter properly, so all those points are wasted.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
I've just gotten through the mage/templar decision siding with the mages, and have started up the next major portion.
The Templar Order is so fired
The Templar Order is so fired
In case you miss learning about the important points if you side with the Templars, what happens is that after you and the mages seal the breach, you get attacked by an army of Red Lyrium-infused Templars, with crystals growing out of their bodies, some of them mutated into giant monsters, and with various deadly supernatural abilities and physical enhancements. Apparently because their leadership heard about how it transformed Meredith into a supervillain and decided they wanted some of that.
The hilariously ironic thing about this is that the Templars have demonstrated that they're exactly the same kind of problem as the mages. They wanted more power and control, so they decided to draw on sources they knew were dangerous, and it's been turning them into monsters and destroying their minds. It's granted them power beyond the capacity of ordinary men and has allowed them to slaughter indiscriminately. Hell, the Horrors are more distorted than most Abominations, and they've got a goddamn Red Lyrium Dragon as a pet.
Of course, that's only the Templars who have gone rogue, but they justify locking up mages because of what rogue mages have done. If the circles are reestablished, by all rights the Templars should be imprisoned with them as well. Somehow, though, I get the sense that Cullen and Cassandra won't see things that way.
The hilariously ironic thing about this is that the Templars have demonstrated that they're exactly the same kind of problem as the mages. They wanted more power and control, so they decided to draw on sources they knew were dangerous, and it's been turning them into monsters and destroying their minds. It's granted them power beyond the capacity of ordinary men and has allowed them to slaughter indiscriminately. Hell, the Horrors are more distorted than most Abominations, and they've got a goddamn Red Lyrium Dragon as a pet.
Of course, that's only the Templars who have gone rogue, but they justify locking up mages because of what rogue mages have done. If the circles are reestablished, by all rights the Templars should be imprisoned with them as well. Somehow, though, I get the sense that Cullen and Cassandra won't see things that way.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
What's even worse, their current leader is Samson. Samson is the templar who got kicked out of the order by Meredith in DA2 for using rite of Tranquility to build himself a sex slave harem. He's been out of the order for five years now. And they've made him their new leader.Apparently because their leadership heard about how it transformed Meredith into a supervillain and decided they wanted some of that.
Not sure about Cullen, but Cassandra definitely feels that mages were oppressed, and that in the future circles should govern themself, while Templars should be doing demon hunting in the field.
There's more to it. Templars are addicted to lirium. Since they went rogue on the Chantry, they were cut off from their normal suppliers, so a lot of templars decided that red lirium is better than no lirium.Apparently because their leadership heard about how it transformed Meredith into a supervillain and decided they wanted some of that.
Last edited by Longes on Sun Nov 30, 2014 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Templars
The Templars aren't completely guilty here. The villain is pretty good at this sort of mindscrewing. Essentially, he was playing both sides--Templars and Mages. If you save one, he'll establish his dominion over the other.
I still think they're a bunch of self-righteous assholes who have gone crazy with their own power and are more at fault than the mages, but I gotta give 'em some credit that going nuts on red lyrium wasn't entirely their own idea.
I still think they're a bunch of self-righteous assholes who have gone crazy with their own power and are more at fault than the mages, but I gotta give 'em some credit that going nuts on red lyrium wasn't entirely their own idea.
Last edited by Maxus on Sun Nov 30, 2014 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Yeah, I did gather that in Redcliff. Though I should point out that if the guy in Val Reyoux was really the Lord Seeker, he's immune to mind control and led them into becoming an insane cult on his own initiative.
However, the point isn't why they went for Red Lyrium, the point is that they could. Just like how mages can use demons or blood magic. So if the threat of what mages can do justifies confining them, the same logic justifies confining the Templars.
At the moment, there seem to be four internally consistent courses of action:
1. Templars and Mages both get confined. The Seekers, who get their powers through meditation and crap and presumably cannot parlay that into becoming some sort of giant monster, expand their ranks and guard both groups.
2. Templars and Mages both get to walk free and get tasked with beating up rogue members of either group.
3. Templars receive Damnation of Memory. All of them die and they're expunged from all records, erasing all knowledge of how to use Lyrium to power their abilities. Mages can't be removed on a permanent basis because new ones keep getting born, so something else gets done about them.
4. Qunari victory, both get used as living weapons kept under constant supervision.
Personally, I favor option 2. I suspect, however, that a lot of other characters are going to want the status quo back.
However, the point isn't why they went for Red Lyrium, the point is that they could. Just like how mages can use demons or blood magic. So if the threat of what mages can do justifies confining them, the same logic justifies confining the Templars.
At the moment, there seem to be four internally consistent courses of action:
1. Templars and Mages both get confined. The Seekers, who get their powers through meditation and crap and presumably cannot parlay that into becoming some sort of giant monster, expand their ranks and guard both groups.
2. Templars and Mages both get to walk free and get tasked with beating up rogue members of either group.
3. Templars receive Damnation of Memory. All of them die and they're expunged from all records, erasing all knowledge of how to use Lyrium to power their abilities. Mages can't be removed on a permanent basis because new ones keep getting born, so something else gets done about them.
4. Qunari victory, both get used as living weapons kept under constant supervision.
Personally, I favor option 2. I suspect, however, that a lot of other characters are going to want the status quo back.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.