• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Dragon Age - Discussion Thread

So I finally figured out what those Sad Splinters you get from destroying the front gates of the three capturable keeps are used for. You can find a weapon schematic in a big dung pile in the Exalted Plains. Which pile actually holds the schematic apparently varies, though. On one character it was in the middle of the field just west of Ville Montevelan. On another it was right by the Riverwatch Camp. As for the weapon itself, well, see for yourself. :lol:

ScreenshotWin32_0028_Final_zps79819b13.jpg


ScreenshotWin32_0029_Final_zpsceac6b34.jpg
 
Interesting... The Exalted +50 Banana of Doom, accompanied by the +20 Fetid Cheese Wheel of Bashing. So looking forward to getting this soon... :D
 
Just finished my first playthough. That ending was certainly....interesting? Not nearly as anticlimactic as DA2's, nor the utter mess that was ME3's, but I feel like there could have been a little more build up to the final fight. It lacked the inertia I feel it deserved and as it stands it's *almost* perfunctory in terms of execution.

Now the spoilery stuff. REALLY spoilery.....last warning!
So, Flemeth was an elven god after all. I thought I had her pegged as Fen'Haral, but no, she was Mythal the whole time.

Solas as *actually* Fen'Haral was a twist. Didn't see that coming! In hindsight, his reaction to the statue of...er...him...should have been a bit of a clue.

So...was Flemeth tied to the orb and it's destruction meant her death, or was she already dying and orb was the only way to save her? Or was what we saw actually see him killing her?
Did Kieran's Old God soul go with her or are they now both part of Solas?

Not sure I've untangled all the lore correctly, but I'm a bit confused as to the Dread Wolf's role in things.

The fall of Elvhenan and the loss of Arlathan wasn't the work of Tevinter, but the result of some kind of civil war. Does that mean the Magisters simply claimed credit, grabbed whatever magical items they could and enslaved the helpless elven survivors in the aftermath? Solas still seems particularly upset with the state of affairs. What role did he play in it? Is he to blame?

The Elven god thing has me very confused. According to the Dalish, the story goes that the Dread Wolf tricked the two factions of "gods" and locked them all away. One assumes that the "Forgotten Ones"--the ones locked away deep underground--are the same ones that taught humans blood magic and would later become the Archdemons.

The other faction (that included Flemeth/Mythal) were locked away "in the heavens". Would that be in the fade somewhere? One of the in-between places that some of the eluvian lead to? Could the prison be what humans called the Golden City?
The orb belonged to Solas/Fen'Harel and he was the one that gave it to Corypheus. One assumes he did this back when he was still human. If so (and assuming the Black/Golden city was the prison) was this an attempt to break them out? Why do that if he put them inside in the first place? Why have a human do it? Was he asleep too like the old gods? What really went wrong? Why did the city go dark? Where did the taint come from? What's it's connection to red lyrium?

None of this explains how Mythal ended up as a wisp in the material world. Did she (barely?) escape the prison? Was she never locked away with the others? She mentioned a betrayal, but didn't appear to have any animosity towards Solas.

Small note: it's easy to miss, but I'm pretty sure the post-credits scene takes place in the crossroads. Those who have read 'Masked Empire' may recall that the paths of eluvian appear different (less clouded, more distinct) to elves than to humans who aren't attuned to it. One assumes that it may appear different still to the "gods" who may have created it in the first place. If I'm right then was the mirror Flemeth was seen touching the door to the prison?

If you go back and speak to Cole after the end, you'll hear him speak a message from Solas where me mentions he must now "walk in solitude forever". Were he and Mythal the only ones left?

...and what's with the unfinished mural? I mean I get the "unfinished business" symbolism, but I can't quite figure out what it's depicting. Is that a wolf standing over a dragon with a sword in it's back?

After all that, i think I'm left with more questions than answers! ;)
 
Last edited:
My thoughts on that:
I thought that Fen'Haral wanted the Veil gone and go back to the time when there was no such artificial barrier.
As I understand it, the Veil was a result of the whole civil war ending banishment, and it ended the immortality of the elves and changed magic to what we have "today" in Thedas. Corypheus was Fen'Harals choice to do this (he was too weak to do it on his own), but he was apparently more interested in changing the world back to what it was in his time and his own power.
 
Ugh, the winter palace was annoying. It was also stressful, since I always thought I was a second away from losing favor whenever I did anything. Still, I got a cool adviser, so that's something.
 
Evil Twin said:
So now that you finished it, check this out:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/536142-you-magnificent-bastards-ending-spoilers/

:eek:
Click to expand...


...huh....

It certainly lends credence to the claim that this is the actual game they've been planning to make since they finished DAO....unless of course it turns out the next game is the *actual* actual game they wanted to make.

I say that because: -
I felt as if they intentionally left things wide open. Indeed, after Haven it didn't feel like Corypheus was really what the game was about. Sure, he's the main antagonist, but in a Skeletor/Dr. Claw kin of way. After Haven it was just a series of the Inquisitor foiling his plans as he shakes his fist at you.
It never felt like he was the focus, instead the focus seemed to be the rise of the Inquisition and Corypheus was just the catalyst.
 
kirk55555 said:
Ugh, the winter palace was annoying. It was also stressful, since I always thought I was a second away from losing favor whenever I did anything. Still, I got a cool adviser, so that's something.
Click to expand...
It's not so bad the second time around once you figure out the mechanics of it all. The middle right dialogue options pretty much always net you favor, and you can get tons of it that way when you dance with Florienne, so any loss incurred when you're away from the ball can easily be regained. Whenever you hear the bell, starting heading back to the ballroom you can always return to where you were later, and arriving at the second bell nets you favor (but the third bell will lose favor). If an eavesdrop spot doesn't get you anything the first time, walk away and try it again until it does. Use the search button like crazy to find secrets, coins, and statues. There's a finite amount of halla statues (11 in total), so don't waste them on treasure-only rooms. Save them for rooms containing blackmail material. The door in the royal wing leading to Gaspard's mercenary is basically the point of no return, so ignore it until you've done everything else possible. You can leave the royal wing to turn in remaining secrets to Leliana, toss coins, etc. and come back afterwards with no consequences.
 
I found one statue the entire times, and got maybe 3 eavesdropping things. But, honestly, I was just happy to get through it. I'm not a completionist, so while I like finishing what I can, I doubt I'll do anything but speed through the winter palace as fast as possible in later playthroughs.
 
^That will severely limit your options on how to resolve the plot. What you find and your court approval directly impacts who you'll be able to side with.
 
Reverend said:
^That will severely limit your options on how to resolve the plot. What you find and your court approval directly impacts who you'll be able to side with.
Click to expand...

I could either let the empress die, turn in the guy and the elf, or support the elf while turning in the guy. The only option I wanted was to leave the Empress in power alone, and if I do another playthrough I'll just support the guy. So, neither of my choices were effected by running through, which I mostly did anyway (I searched through areas, but I didn't bother with statues or anything). This is one of the worst quests in any Bioware game I've played, and it honestly doesn't deserve any extra thought. Plus, I was only 10 favor away from full by the end anyway (although I did reload once when a positive answer subtracted 10 points because...Bioware can be idiots, basically). Its not the most tedious main quest (that is probably the fade quest in DAO) but at least the fade was kind of interesting from a story perspective. The party was just showing us that Orlesians are snotty idiots, which has been obvious since DAO.

On another topic, I HATE High Dragon's. All they do is cut off areas for exploration, like a super annoying level barrier. I'm level 17, and even turning the difficulty down to easy, and taking in my most heavily loaded characters, I last about 2 minutes. I really like Inquisition, but these things are the worst. If they really needed high level bosses for the people wanting an ultimate challenge, they could have at least put them in a cave or something, not wandering around areas where you actually need to go for some sidequests.

At least none are required, otherwise I'd probably be permanently stuck. As it is, there are several quests I'll never be completing (putting a dragon in front of some quests was just evil, especialy one in the freaking Hinterlands, which is marginally a starting area). There is a lot to love about DA:I, but these horrible bosses aren't one of them. You'd think a game with Dragon in its name would be able to make decent dragon fights.
 
My current elf playthrough I set up Gaspard as puppet emperor with Briala pulling the strings. :techman:

What class are you playing as? I've come to discover that it's actually advantageous to stay right next to a dragon when you fight them, even as a ranged class, because that way you don't get damaged by that nasty whirlwind attack they do that sucks you towards them. You can avoid their breath attack that way also. Use the tactical display to see what elemental type they're vulnerable to and equip your mages with the appropriate staves.

If all else fails, just max out Vivienne's knight-enchanter tree, play the battle as her, and just spirit blade the dragon to death. :lol:

Here's a handy reference for what they're all vulnerable to:
http://www.infobarrel.com/Here_Be_D...isition_Dragon_Locations_and_How_to_Kill_Them
 
I'm a elf mage, knight-enchanter. The spirit blade is pretty bad, I only use it if I get a bunch of people ganging up right next to me, which helps a bit. Knight-Enchanter overall is a pretty mediocre class. I only chose it because I'd read things online with people saying it was a good choice, but in practice I have points in every ability and it doesn't do much. As for the dragons, I just intend to ignore them. If Bioware's going to put some BS optional fights in the game, I'm not going to bother, even if it means leaving a few sidequests uncompleted.
 
Umm, are you keeping your barrier up? Make sure you have all the barrier-enhancing stuff in the spirit tree as well, because every hit from your spirit blade regenerates your barrier. Also, craft yourself a staff with with the generate guard on hit ability, which fade-touched obsidian (3 guard) or fade-touched silverite (5 guard) provides. If your barrier goes down, you then have a layer of guard to soak up damage until you can get it back up. Helps to have a second mage in the party as well to keep the barriers going. Fade step in the winter tree is also handy for quickly getting into melee range.

I just killed the dragon in Emerald Graves and it went very smoothly. Me (rift mage), Cassandra, Varric, and Solas. We all stayed clumped under its legs to avoid the whirlwind attack, Solas and I continuously pelted it with our fire staves, Cassandra kept the head occupied. Since we were all close together, the barriers could cover everyone. When the dragon would fly around, I'd just group everyone up and pop a barrier to avoid getting damaged by its ice projectile. Rinse, repeat.

But yeah, the knight-enchanter really is godly. Sounds like you just aren't taking full advantage of its capabilities.
 
I always try to keep the barrier up. I don't craft, because you never get anything remotely as good as what you find naturally (finding stuff naturally isn't great, but is still better than crafting). Plus, I've never heard of crafting an ability into an item. I have every thing in the KE tree, but it is all pretty pointless. Whenever I have Dorian on the team he has decent necromancer stuff, it seems like a far better class. Not great (all of the specializations are just average in DAI for mage, and some of the other classes like Varric's are just completely useless), but more useful than a weak spirit sword or a 3 second invulnerability move that is never worth the mana it takes to cast. To me the Knight-Enchanter is a waste of points, with no good abilities whatsoever. Well, I guess the team heal is ok, but it requires the mage to wade into combat to be useful.

Mages are fine to play in Inquisition, but they really got taken down a peg compared to DA2. I'm enjoying the game a lot in general, but Bioware really could have put a bit more effort into the classes, both normal and specialization for all three types (mage, rogue and warrior).
 
ScreenshotWin32_0037_Final_zps088539ea.jpg


The slot above the other four is the masterwork slot, and that's where you can add the fade-touched obsidian/silverite. Seriously, make yourself a guard on hit staff. The KE is really gimped without it. You can literally solo dragons with both barrier and guard constantly regenerating via the spirit blade.

And assuming you have the right schematics and mats, crafted items are ALWAYS going to be better than the purple drops. Rune crafting is very important as well. With a superb-level rune, the above staff goes from 115 to 196 DPS.
 
Well, I've used that slot before now that I think about it (when I finished the small crafting quest in Skyhold). I made decent heavy armor, but it was pretty inferior to Cassandra's so I just shoved it on Blackwall. But, I don't have any "Fade Touched" materials anyway, and I think 115 dps would be a big step down compared to my current staff. Honestly, material harvesting in this game gets frustrating. I have about 10 of those table selectable item building things unfinished because I have no idea where to get "fereldan locks" or a bunch of other random stuff. But, I have about a trillion plants and stuff that do absolutely nothing. Stuff like that discourages me from going out of my way to harvest anything.

Having a class that needs crafting to be decent is pretty BS. I'm not going to bother with it. I'll just keep going how I'm going. As long as I avoid the dragons, I do pretty well with combat.
 
Whizzer said:
My thoughts on that:
I thought that Fen'Haral wanted the Veil gone and go back to the time when there was no such artificial barrier.
As I understand it, the Veil was a result of the whole civil war ending banishment, and it ended the immortality of the elves and changed magic to what we have "today" in Thedas. Corypheus was Fen'Harals choice to do this (he was too weak to do it on his own), but he was apparently more interested in changing the world back to what it was in his time and his own power.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure what he's after. Several times he seems scornful of the idea of trying to recreate the past, both in what the Dalish do and Morrigan's endeavours. As for tearing down the veil....well we saw--at least in part--that in the future at Redcliffe and it was hardly the harmony between people and spirits that Solas seemed to want.

I do think that the existence of the veil has something to do with the fall of Arlathan and the Elves loosing their magic and immortality. I still think there's an outside chance that the Golden City was Arlathan, or at least the part of it that existed in the fade, perhaps before the veil separated it into two halves?

One small detail: all through the game, I was wondering if that jawbone necklace Solas is wearing had any significance, but it was never brought up. In light of the post credits scene, I did a google image search on what I thought it might actually be, and sure enough, it's a wolf's jawbone.

Sneaky bastards! ;)

You also have to wonder how much Merrill & Marethari actually knew. I mean for one thing, they used an altar to Mythal for that ritual that brought Flemeth back. That couldn't have been a coincidence.
 
Last edited:
Has anyone encountered the glitch at the end of the Champions of the Just when fighting that evil creature at the end? My party tends to freeze up like piñatas and I can hear the thwacking. I just don't see the movement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top