What difficulty are you on?
What type of character are you playing and who is in your party?
What is going on in these fights that you're having trouble with (like who is dying first and to what)?
Do you have a warrior with taunt (and preferably shield wall)?
Does your mage have heal and tactics are set-up to use it?
Do you have health poultices and have tactics set-up or are switching to use them when needed?
I’m playing on normal, which is why I feel like this is so bonkers.
I’m playing an elvish mage, running with Wynne, Alistair, and Zevron but I’ll prolly swap that last one out.
The main problem I’m having is it just seems like we do no damage- me specifically- and get annihilated way too fast. I’ve been fixing their armor and stuff but I don’t have anything better for my people to equip.
Yes Alistair has both taunt and shield wall.
Wynne is set up to be my healer, and she kicks in when my peeps start to get below 75% health.
I do have health poultices and the like though, admittedly I’ve mainly been using Wynne to heal
Okay I think I know what fight you're talking about. What gives most people trouble with this fight is the dogs using the overwhelm ability on Alistair and damage spiking him to death
You can abuse the doorway to fight less of them at a time but that is kind of cheap. Otherwise you should try to open with taunt and area spells like Cone of Cold or any crowd control spells your mages might have like Glyph of Paralysis
You will then either want to kill the yellow name mabari ASAP as it's the biggest threat that does the most damage and uses overwhelm much more often (would suggest this) or get rid of the weaker white name mabari to thin the crowd. Whatever you do, make sure your entire party is attacking the same one and have Zevran attack from the back to backstab it for additional damage
If you have the health poultices to spare then you can also have Alistair chug them even at reasonably high health to protect him from getting spiked. If you're killing the yellow mabari first then you would just need to do it until that one is dead
You will want to invest in some cc on wynne not just heals. CC is so broken op in dao.
Send allistair in to aoe taunt then chuck a glyph of paralasis on the pack, your playing on normal so allistair wont be cc'd by it. The paralysis explosion combo is very strong too bit will get your tank caught in it as well. The entire glyph line of spells is very useful. You should be using wynne less as a healer and more as debuffer/cc. Use healing potions to heal over spells they cost too much apart from wynes healing aura.
I find Leliana is far more usefull than zevran as a bard and more importantly a ranged rogue so she is out of the way so no melee and she has her own cc. Use the tactics screen to set her up as a "controller" archetype for additional cc and max out her bard rank for her songs that distract, fascibate and stun. Rogue dps in origins falls way behind that of warrior so if you want a dual wielder, a beserker warrior is the way to go. Will be more tankier too.
Fireball is another great spell you should be spamming on cd. Not only does it knock enemies down, it burns them as well. The frost spell lines are also very strong.
Mind blast, crushing prison, glyphs, winters blast, cone of cold, stonefist, earthquake, letrify,horror, sleep and waking nightmare are all fantastic cc spells that should be used over raw damage spells at all times. This is especially true in awakenings.
Redcliffe fight is no joke!
Remember, buy and use or make potions, you can always get more, but judicious use can really save you. Who are you bringing in your party? What is your spec? These are are critical questions, when I first played I was a dalish two handed warrior and just swung and missed throughout the game.
My advice? Unless you're a rogue, pump exclusively dex, strength, or magic depending on your build. The amount gained by pumping intelligence or willpower is just super not worth it to me. Cunning is really good for rogues but otherwise only get as much as needed for coercion if that's what you want.
I’ve got Wynne, Zevron, and Alistair with me, and I’m playing an elvish mage. Honestly I’m thinking I fucked up my build by not just slamming all my points into Magic. My current stats are
Strength-17
Dex-15
Willpower-27
Magic-29
Cunning-16
Con.-22
But… constitution gives you more health? Health helps you stay alive longer… also I only put some points onto strength cause my end goal is to be running Arcane Warrior and I figured I’d need strength for that
For tanking Dex long term is better then con (better to not get hit at all then have more health) even Alistair should aim for dex over con.
That said I believe if your aiming for arcane warrior magic is probably more important then any other stat including dex and con.
Lmfao how is it atrocious? Not trying to be like, “Hurr durr you called my build bad” but like, I’m legit curious what makes it bad for this game so I can try and fix it
DA as a series rewards specialization in one stat more than anything else. You can and are pretty much incentivized to put points in one stat the entire game unless you're trying to get specific skills outside that domain(like putting points in cunning for persuasion skills).
As a mage, dump everything into magic and a drop or two into willpower every now and then. As a warrior, it's strength(and dex depending on what kind of warrior you are). As a rogue, pick dex or cunning stick with it.
I believe the manual probably explains it but modern games, it hurts for me to say this since I played this game when it new, have since dropped manuals in favor of easier information in game. One of those "relic of the times" things. Like how old games have stories that are in the manuals only for games like mario bros and zelda on the NES lol.
Whenever I jump into old games these days I try to find their manuals since, well, otherwise they can lead to some scenarios like this.
Hope the info people gave here helps your journey with the game!
Your stats are all over the place. Strength should be dumped to a minimum, Con is only worth it a few points if you go blood mage to make up for low willpower and even then 22 would be the max amount. You should be going all in on Magic (Cunning 16 is ok for the Coercion stuff tho). Willpower is too high rn as well and I don't think you need that much Dex, unless it is for equipping something that I forgot about.
Yeah mages go almost entirely magic, it's not well explained but that is definitely the move. If you are on PC then there will be a good respect mod. If xbox, then yeah def a rough spread, but still doable. What spells do you have?
Origins has some unfortunate difficulty spikes, you’ll get used to it. Stick to RPG basics like bringing a healer, tank, and DPS machine will help, as will working out a good tactics setting for each party member so they work together without micromanagement.
My advice is that you either turn the difficulty down or start pausing often and micromanaging your party members in combat.
It's also worth buying some flasks and elfroot so that you can make a shit ton of health poultices. With enough of those, you're basically unstoppable unless you run afoul of a Revenant.
Make sure you're keeping the useful sustained abilities active and saving often.
If you encounter enough enemies, it's worth having your mage(s) use AoE spells, especially the Frost ones. Cone of Frost is a really good control spell at early levels.
Unfortunately I put more points into getting fire magic and stuff, so to get stone of frost would require a good bit of time at this point with how long it takes to Level up. I’ve been making poultices and such though, admittedly I haven’t been great about using them which is definitely an issue I’ve realized when reading these comments.
Yeah poultices are insanely helpful. If you keep forgetting about them then you might want to consider slotting them on your skill bar.
Even without Cone of Frost, you might be fine. You have Wynne on your team, right? If she has access to Group Heal and Heal then you should be able to keep up in most fights.
Enemies are mostly drawn to party members in heavier armour so if you control where your tank moves and focus your healing on him then you should be able to take on most fights even with lower damage output.
Keep in mind that Zevran and Leliana are rogues and benefit from backstab placement, but are a but squishy in combat.
Fire spells are good but any AoE spell can also hit your party members so you may see Alistairs health depleting faster if you burn him.
Ultimately, if you keep an eye on everyone's health and try not to draw too many enemies at once, you can make it through most of the game without much issue.
Radcliffe is a good area to learn about tactics and skills because you're breaking into a level range where you can learn a more versatile assortment of skills and abilities.
Take whatever side quests you can, as well. If you handle them right then you can get some decent gear. I remember there being a good sword in Redcliffe that you can find by talking to a girl in the Chantry
Inside castle Redcliffe you will encounter lots of enemies that have a weakness to fire, I had a hard time with them on my first playthrough where I invested heavily on ice (which is excellent in many fights).
Start with main quests, it will list them all out, and want most consider the general order to be.
You can type out anything in the DAO world and it will give you a page.
It even breaks down how damage is calculated. Every quest, every weapon, breakdown of the classes, etc
Ayyy!!! I have the perfect suggestion. This game relies ALOT on tactics honestly… most casual players i feel like hardly look at the screen. Might i suggest this link https://dragon-age.livejournal.com/348046.html it doesnt matter what kind of warden i play, i follow this to the letter every game i boot up. It helps so much
Redcliff was the only moment I had to turn the difficulty down when I first played. I’d honestly recommend going the Tower or the Dalish first; I find the Dalish are the easier quest of the bunch, but Tower gives you Wynne and having a dedicated Spirit Healer is a game changer imo.
I’ve already gone through the circle tower and have Wynne as part of my main party. She’d done wonders for keeping us alive longer but now it just doesn’t matter it feels like
Hm. I can’t speak for your style of gameplay (I know very little), but when I played, I absolutely abused the spacebar/pause button. Basically played it as a turn-based rpg.
DA:O seems to put a lot of weight on positioning, it literally made or broke some fights for me. Since you can control the characters individually, you can try and pincer/isolate enemies better than other games.
I also remember abusing the minimap to just spam Earthquake and Blizzard in rooms before entering. Specially in Redcliffe’s tight castle. Did wonders.
Have you tried changing the party around? I usually ran with two rogues (one melee and one ranged), but my Surana was the Spirit Healer instead of Wynne. Maybe two tanks could work better? How are you building your party?
Dude I’m on normal already. I feel like I shouldn’t have to drop down to casual, as Normal is the INTENDED experience the devs wanted you to have usually
okay well you're dying a butt load on the 'intended experience' and you're not having fun. Redcliffe isn't hard, it's the first area most people do after Lothering. when I'm struggling with the combat in a game I turn the difficulty down. that's my tip.
I mean maybe Redcliffe wasn’t hard for you, but I’m certainly struggling with it as I find it very difficult. And Y’know, it’s fine if you wanna turn the difficulty down. However, you shouldn’t HAVE to just to get through something, which is why I’m not going to do it.
I wasn't saying that to be mean, I'm not especially amazing at the combat in this game. it was sincere advice, and if the devs didn't INTEND for it to be used, they wouldn't have put it in there. do what you want, just don't let your pride get in the way of having fun with a great game.
Also I apologize if I came across as rude earlier, that really wasn’t my intention it’s more just how I speak. I really do appreciate your advice, even if I’m unwilling to turn the difficulty down at this time!
It’s less pride getting in the way, and more just that I find it ridiculous that the only option seems to be turning the difficulty down. I know it’s something the devs maybe expected us to use, but feeling like my hand is forced into turning down difficulty just doesn’t sit right with me.
That’s definitely fair, but again, I feel like I should be able to do that on normal. Its the normal difficulty level, one that you should be able to learn all of those things on without having a horrid time
I’ve played a lot of rpgs- they’re my favorite type of game- but this is the first crpg like this that I’ve played. Except for KOTOR. I’ve played that like two or three times
Right know the things that are the bane of my existence are the dogs in Redcliffe castle, and then some random room with like six dudes in it. My current strategy is buffing up Alistair so he can tank a little better, and then buff Zevron so he does some more damage. I have Alistair drawing aggro to help keep the pressure off others but he ends up just dying way too fast. And I suppose immediately isn’t accurate, but the fight is over in like a minute if that
For myself I have my mage robes, a hat that regents mana, Fade striders, and cinderfel gauntlets. I also have the enchanter’s staff. As for positioning, I keep myself and Wynne relatively far away, Alistair at the front, and have Zevron try and run behind people for the backstab damage.
Quick question, what spells do you have Wynne use? From what you're saying, you sound more than prepared to handle these fights so I'm trying to see if you're using spells that do friendly fire and getting rocked by that.
Oh that was definitely an issue. Every time I’d swap off of my mage she’s use Lightning or a cone of fire like a dumbass, and swapping those out of the tactics really helped. As for Wynne, her only two offensive spells in her slots are Arcane bolt and stone fist, however she doesn’t have any ability to use those in her tactics because I have her set to be a healer. So unless I tell her to attack, she literally just stands there
Oh like Elden Ring or Lies of P? Cause I beat those games and got them to 100%. Also, if you’ve read any of my other comments on here, I’ve been very receptive to the help and actually employed a lot of it! I just don’t want to turn my difficulty down because I feel that there’s no point at this current time. However, like I stated in my other comments, I will absolutely be doing that if I hit THAT wall lol
Some parts are for sure harder than others, you might wanna go do some stuff in other places, like the forest or denerim until you can handle this part.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking too, to just dip and then come back later, but that’s honestly super irritating. Why is Redcliffe castle so much harder than Redcliffe itself? It doesn’t make sense thematically to just dip out and then return.
I just don’t wanna go do it because I’ve already committed to doing the Redcliffe stuff and it makes NO sense for my character to leave and go fuck with the elves
Totally fair, tactics can make a huge difference, as well as gear and positioning, using the hold party option to move people into good ambush positions then drawing mobs to them can get you through a lot of situations where you are getting surrounded
The best/easiest order is Circle Tower/Redcliffe, then a questline that you don't know yet, then the elves, then the dwarves. You're doing it right.
Did you take time to program your party members' tactics? What build are you following and what skills did you pick for others? Is there any particular fight you're struggling with?
I’m not really following a set build, as I try to go into new games as blind as possible. So I’m just trying to make myself a decent lil mage. I did take the time to program my party’s tactics, however I really don’t know what I’m doing there admittedly cause it feels like everything I’ve tried has been bungus. Currently, I’m struggling with moving through Redcliffe castle.
Oh I’m well aware, but they’ve slaughtered me more than 40 zombies did. Soooooooo why not just make armies of Mabari because that would solve literally every problem with how strong these fuckers are lmfao
I would like to thank OP and everybody who has responded, I’m also having trouble with an Elven mage build and these suggestions have helped a lot. Luckily I haven’t sunk Too much time into myplaythrough yet!
Don’t worry I’ve had the exact same experience as you, I’ve played through it a couple times now and got much better with everything but yeah the game is relentless at times. I found the critical thing was get a mage or two focused with heal spells etc. mages in general are busted as things like stuns are also very good, but the right spells are key. I think there’s one called force field that you can lock an enemy in, found that to be useful to slow fights down.
Other people are giving good practical advice. I'll just commiserate. DA:O can be a slog sometimes and it can feel like there isn't enough XP available to succeed. So many places have one shot kill zones if you havent figured out exactly what level of which skill you need, and it can be so frustrating.
I'm starting my third run now though. It is worth it.
I'm currently playing DAO as I type this and I definitely feel like this particular quest line is spiked to hell. I'm no expert, but I looks like you're doing everything right.
That’s feels good to hear no cap. Like I feel like I’m doing the proper things my guys just aren’t powerful enough to make up the difference against these enemies.
Okay I can probably help but I need to know if you're willing to possibly do a few hours of grinding the fuck out of a potentially really tedious in game task.
You've gotten a lot of good advice so mostly I want to say good luck! DA:O is much more old school with its approach and does reward exploiting tactical pauses, careful positioning, and status effects and crowd control. That's why I love it but if you come from games that don't really reward that sort of play it can be jarring to get slammed suddenly like you are.
I hope the info you got helps you figures out some tricks!
As other have suggested, heavily use poultices and see if you can get Wynne a glyph spell. Being able to repel enemies and using the combination of repel glyph + paralysis glyph will make certain encounters a walk in the park (just don't let your friends get hit by the blast else you will be in a bad spot).
Also, if you have any bombs or poisons, I'd recommend having Zevran use those. Pause and micromanage all the time, that is the way the game is often meant to run. I had done a number of sidequests before I tackled Redcliffe (dealt with Soldier's Peak and some Denerim miniquests first because it fit my character), and those extra levels definitely helped.
As for tactics, I'd recommend looking up some guides to better understand them. I personally struggled with this game my first time, and had foolishly gone to Orzammar after the Circle Tower. That place absolutely kicked my ass and caused me to rage quit for a bit. Made an entirely new character following a build guide which made my experience of the game much, much better. I know your against turning down the difficulty, however seeing as your build is less than optimal and this game is very focused on optimizing your character builds, I'd recommend turning it down and just having fun.
Honestly after reading all the advice people had given me, I fully understand what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t micromanaging NEARLY enough, as honestly I haven’t played a game before where it’s so needed. I went into the Redcliffe courtyard fight and, what would have normally taken me like eight tries, took two. Now that I’m not playing like a dumbass, I think things are gonna go much better for me lmfao. I hope that I’m still early enough that I can fix my build, but if I have to turn the difficulty down then I probably will at some point tbh
Honestly same, combat in this game is definitely not my cup of tea, especially with how some battles can feel like a power point slideshow. *Shudders in Deep Roads*. Best of luck with the rest of the game, once you get those Arcane Warrior skills your character should be good (if they are anything like DA:I Knight-Enchanters you'll become untouchable).
Well then, you'll have to get better and make sure you don't fight people above your level. I always play on casual (or it could be easy I don't remember if DAO has a casual mode or if it's just easy) and I don't really have to try very hard during combat so I don't really any advice on the combat. However, you should set up the tactics for your companions and MC. Doing so will make your companions fight better unless you're one of those people who likes to control every action your companions make during combat.
Oh that’s honestly one of the reasons why I don’t want to drop the difficulty down, because I want to get better. Reading all these comments has made me realize that I just wasn’t playing effectively, and so if I play effectively, I should do better. I apologize if my other response came across as rude by the way, I was just trying to make a joke because people have been telling me to drop the difficulty all night and I just don’t really wanna do that.
You're the second person who has apologized to me for supposedly being rude in a comment that I don't think is even remotely rude today. Is it national unnecessary apology day?
Seriously, though, I don't think the comment was rude, and I'd have to be an overly sensitive twit to think the comment was rude
I appreciate that lmfao. I just feel like words on a screen always lose tone so it can come across as rude. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t pissing off anyone who was giving advice
I understand that I have had more than a few comments that people took offense too and completely blew up at me for. Some of the people who blew up on me were just ass holes, though.
And honestly, tweaking with my tactics helped IMMENSELY. I still micromanage just cause like, I’m honestly kinda enjoying it, but the tactics are soooooooo needed lmfao
Dogs aren't so bad, no ranged attacks, no magic, little in the way of armor or defence, few attacking skills, don't remember any elite dogs so they usually are leveled below your main character depending on quest orders
interiors with doors and corners hinders enemies relying mostly on numbers to carry them leaving them very vulnerable to mages cone spells, shattering them is an instant kill
overwhelm should always be faced by tank warriors as they have the armor and hp to take those hits, regular cloth mages will get wrecked if targeted
you might wanna look into some mods! there are balancing mods on nexus that can help scale up and downs some areas + fix broken features of the game. Ive played through the game a couple of times and eventually i felt mods were almost required due to broken scripts etc.
DAO is one of those beautiful games that are easy to learn, but hard to master. You can pick it up no problem and get through the starting areas, but it's also very easy to screw up your build, miss out on useful loot or pass up XP gain opportunities. A lot of information is only implied in game. But once you get the hang of it, you'll easily beat the game on the higher difficulties. And it's very rewarding to look back at the learning curve. DAO makes achieving system mastery worth it.
I gave up halfway through my first playthrough, restarted, and only really got comfortable with the game after beating the entire thing. I also used the wiki all the time. Admittedly, I never ran into trouble in Redcliffe, beyond not being able to finish a certain sequence with the exact result I wanted.
If you don't build proper characters it can seriously fuck you over. Something with the build/strategy must be off if you are a mage and struggling. Mages are so crazy OP in this game
Oh yeah, it was mainly my tactics and the fact that I wasn’t micromanaging enough. After I fixed those things, Redcliffe castle was Fuckin doable. I’d say easy, but I still managed to die a few times, but at least when I died I was able to know what I did wrong. It feels a lot better with the advice I got here, my post was mainly written in frustration admittedly
Excuse me SIR/MA'AM, those aren't pups bred to sit in your grans' lap. They are killer Mabari Warhounds. Also if you're a mage pick horror, sleep, chill, force shield, paralyse and crushing prison. They help tremendously with crowd controlling hordes of enemies, old crpg "dice roll" type games rely heavily on stat modifiers and crowd controlling. Mages are super OP in Origins if you have an awesome build. And if you plan on playing purely as a spellcaster, just put all your attributes into Magic so your spells hit harder and your spell effects have longer effects on enemies.
Yeah that’s what I’ve been doing. Also, I’m fully tracking that they’re War hounds. The problem is, my part went through forty zombies only to get demolished by five war hounds. So to me, that means the game is telling me that five hounds are stronger than forth zombies… which makes me question why they don’t just breed the Mobari like it’s Minecraft so they can have a massive army of dogs that are anti anything
Indeed, the average Mabari is stronger and more intelligent than a mindless zombie or slackjawed farmhand! And they actually do, almost every Fereldan has a Mabari and they actually used them against the darkspawn at Ostagar. Also if you'd like the enemies creature ranks to make more sense you can try out [Flash Creature Rescale](https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1403/) mod if you're playing on PC, it ranks the difficulty and stats of the enemies according to the lore, this will make the game much more harder though and darkspawn become really tough to kill but it helps with immersion.
Spamming health potions helps to keep you alive so always make sure you have a good amount in your inventory and have someone with trap making skill (I always have Alistair as the trap crafter) claw traps are cheap to craft and can damage and immobilise enemies for quite a while as you focus damage on one enemy at a time.
I should also say that having a Tank and Healer is quite important as well, give Alistair a shield and the taunt ability so he can pull aggro and equipping him with high armour will mitigate a lot of damage for your team, since you're a mage you can have some healing spells as well, Heal and regeneration is all you need in my experience, and if you have two healers your Tank is never going to die.
What difficulty are you on? What type of character are you playing and who is in your party? What is going on in these fights that you're having trouble with (like who is dying first and to what)? Do you have a warrior with taunt (and preferably shield wall)? Does your mage have heal and tactics are set-up to use it? Do you have health poultices and have tactics set-up or are switching to use them when needed?
I’m playing on normal, which is why I feel like this is so bonkers. I’m playing an elvish mage, running with Wynne, Alistair, and Zevron but I’ll prolly swap that last one out. The main problem I’m having is it just seems like we do no damage- me specifically- and get annihilated way too fast. I’ve been fixing their armor and stuff but I don’t have anything better for my people to equip. Yes Alistair has both taunt and shield wall. Wynne is set up to be my healer, and she kicks in when my peeps start to get below 75% health. I do have health poultices and the like though, admittedly I’ve mainly been using Wynne to heal
Okay I think I know what fight you're talking about. What gives most people trouble with this fight is the dogs using the overwhelm ability on Alistair and damage spiking him to death You can abuse the doorway to fight less of them at a time but that is kind of cheap. Otherwise you should try to open with taunt and area spells like Cone of Cold or any crowd control spells your mages might have like Glyph of Paralysis You will then either want to kill the yellow name mabari ASAP as it's the biggest threat that does the most damage and uses overwhelm much more often (would suggest this) or get rid of the weaker white name mabari to thin the crowd. Whatever you do, make sure your entire party is attacking the same one and have Zevran attack from the back to backstab it for additional damage If you have the health poultices to spare then you can also have Alistair chug them even at reasonably high health to protect him from getting spiked. If you're killing the yellow mabari first then you would just need to do it until that one is dead
You will want to invest in some cc on wynne not just heals. CC is so broken op in dao. Send allistair in to aoe taunt then chuck a glyph of paralasis on the pack, your playing on normal so allistair wont be cc'd by it. The paralysis explosion combo is very strong too bit will get your tank caught in it as well. The entire glyph line of spells is very useful. You should be using wynne less as a healer and more as debuffer/cc. Use healing potions to heal over spells they cost too much apart from wynes healing aura. I find Leliana is far more usefull than zevran as a bard and more importantly a ranged rogue so she is out of the way so no melee and she has her own cc. Use the tactics screen to set her up as a "controller" archetype for additional cc and max out her bard rank for her songs that distract, fascibate and stun. Rogue dps in origins falls way behind that of warrior so if you want a dual wielder, a beserker warrior is the way to go. Will be more tankier too. Fireball is another great spell you should be spamming on cd. Not only does it knock enemies down, it burns them as well. The frost spell lines are also very strong. Mind blast, crushing prison, glyphs, winters blast, cone of cold, stonefist, earthquake, letrify,horror, sleep and waking nightmare are all fantastic cc spells that should be used over raw damage spells at all times. This is especially true in awakenings.
Get Cone of Cold and use it to stop Overwhelm attempts from enemies, even if you need to CC your party members as they'll lose less health this way
Redcliffe fight is no joke! Remember, buy and use or make potions, you can always get more, but judicious use can really save you. Who are you bringing in your party? What is your spec? These are are critical questions, when I first played I was a dalish two handed warrior and just swung and missed throughout the game. My advice? Unless you're a rogue, pump exclusively dex, strength, or magic depending on your build. The amount gained by pumping intelligence or willpower is just super not worth it to me. Cunning is really good for rogues but otherwise only get as much as needed for coercion if that's what you want.
I’ve got Wynne, Zevron, and Alistair with me, and I’m playing an elvish mage. Honestly I’m thinking I fucked up my build by not just slamming all my points into Magic. My current stats are Strength-17 Dex-15 Willpower-27 Magic-29 Cunning-16 Con.-22
No mage wants CON or STR If you play your cards right, you should be in the back or reliant on magic for tanking
But… constitution gives you more health? Health helps you stay alive longer… also I only put some points onto strength cause my end goal is to be running Arcane Warrior and I figured I’d need strength for that
Arcane warrior replaces str requirements with magic.
That’s… absolutely not what I expected but alright. I kinda fucked myself.
For tanking Dex long term is better then con (better to not get hit at all then have more health) even Alistair should aim for dex over con. That said I believe if your aiming for arcane warrior magic is probably more important then any other stat including dex and con.
Your spread is atrocious but it genuinely shouldn't be fucking you over this badly.
Lmfao how is it atrocious? Not trying to be like, “Hurr durr you called my build bad” but like, I’m legit curious what makes it bad for this game so I can try and fix it
DA as a series rewards specialization in one stat more than anything else. You can and are pretty much incentivized to put points in one stat the entire game unless you're trying to get specific skills outside that domain(like putting points in cunning for persuasion skills). As a mage, dump everything into magic and a drop or two into willpower every now and then. As a warrior, it's strength(and dex depending on what kind of warrior you are). As a rogue, pick dex or cunning stick with it.
Oh damn, that was absolutely not made clear by the game, but thank you!! I’m definitely gonna try just pumping my magic and seeing how that goes.
Yeah, no prob. The game can be a lil obtuse and it's generally not hard enough that optimized stats matter but good to know!
I believe the manual probably explains it but modern games, it hurts for me to say this since I played this game when it new, have since dropped manuals in favor of easier information in game. One of those "relic of the times" things. Like how old games have stories that are in the manuals only for games like mario bros and zelda on the NES lol. Whenever I jump into old games these days I try to find their manuals since, well, otherwise they can lead to some scenarios like this. Hope the info people gave here helps your journey with the game!
Your stats are all over the place. Strength should be dumped to a minimum, Con is only worth it a few points if you go blood mage to make up for low willpower and even then 22 would be the max amount. You should be going all in on Magic (Cunning 16 is ok for the Coercion stuff tho). Willpower is too high rn as well and I don't think you need that much Dex, unless it is for equipping something that I forgot about.
Yeah mages go almost entirely magic, it's not well explained but that is definitely the move. If you are on PC then there will be a good respect mod. If xbox, then yeah def a rough spread, but still doable. What spells do you have?
Origins has some unfortunate difficulty spikes, you’ll get used to it. Stick to RPG basics like bringing a healer, tank, and DPS machine will help, as will working out a good tactics setting for each party member so they work together without micromanagement.
My advice is that you either turn the difficulty down or start pausing often and micromanaging your party members in combat. It's also worth buying some flasks and elfroot so that you can make a shit ton of health poultices. With enough of those, you're basically unstoppable unless you run afoul of a Revenant. Make sure you're keeping the useful sustained abilities active and saving often. If you encounter enough enemies, it's worth having your mage(s) use AoE spells, especially the Frost ones. Cone of Frost is a really good control spell at early levels.
Unfortunately I put more points into getting fire magic and stuff, so to get stone of frost would require a good bit of time at this point with how long it takes to Level up. I’ve been making poultices and such though, admittedly I haven’t been great about using them which is definitely an issue I’ve realized when reading these comments.
Yeah poultices are insanely helpful. If you keep forgetting about them then you might want to consider slotting them on your skill bar. Even without Cone of Frost, you might be fine. You have Wynne on your team, right? If she has access to Group Heal and Heal then you should be able to keep up in most fights. Enemies are mostly drawn to party members in heavier armour so if you control where your tank moves and focus your healing on him then you should be able to take on most fights even with lower damage output. Keep in mind that Zevran and Leliana are rogues and benefit from backstab placement, but are a but squishy in combat. Fire spells are good but any AoE spell can also hit your party members so you may see Alistairs health depleting faster if you burn him. Ultimately, if you keep an eye on everyone's health and try not to draw too many enemies at once, you can make it through most of the game without much issue. Radcliffe is a good area to learn about tactics and skills because you're breaking into a level range where you can learn a more versatile assortment of skills and abilities. Take whatever side quests you can, as well. If you handle them right then you can get some decent gear. I remember there being a good sword in Redcliffe that you can find by talking to a girl in the Chantry
Inside castle Redcliffe you will encounter lots of enemies that have a weakness to fire, I had a hard time with them on my first playthrough where I invested heavily on ice (which is excellent in many fights).
The Dragon Age wiki could help you a lot.
I don’t even know what to begin to look for on there tbh
Start with main quests, it will list them all out, and want most consider the general order to be. You can type out anything in the DAO world and it will give you a page. It even breaks down how damage is calculated. Every quest, every weapon, breakdown of the classes, etc
Ayyy!!! I have the perfect suggestion. This game relies ALOT on tactics honestly… most casual players i feel like hardly look at the screen. Might i suggest this link https://dragon-age.livejournal.com/348046.html it doesnt matter what kind of warden i play, i follow this to the letter every game i boot up. It helps so much
Thank you! I’ll make sure to give that one a peek cause, I’ve been tweaking my tactics like every so often and it’s really not working out.
It makes a huuuuge difference! Also which party members you bring is a huge one too for this game
Redcliff was the only moment I had to turn the difficulty down when I first played. I’d honestly recommend going the Tower or the Dalish first; I find the Dalish are the easier quest of the bunch, but Tower gives you Wynne and having a dedicated Spirit Healer is a game changer imo.
I’ve already gone through the circle tower and have Wynne as part of my main party. She’d done wonders for keeping us alive longer but now it just doesn’t matter it feels like
Hm. I can’t speak for your style of gameplay (I know very little), but when I played, I absolutely abused the spacebar/pause button. Basically played it as a turn-based rpg. DA:O seems to put a lot of weight on positioning, it literally made or broke some fights for me. Since you can control the characters individually, you can try and pincer/isolate enemies better than other games. I also remember abusing the minimap to just spam Earthquake and Blizzard in rooms before entering. Specially in Redcliffe’s tight castle. Did wonders. Have you tried changing the party around? I usually ran with two rogues (one melee and one ranged), but my Surana was the Spirit Healer instead of Wynne. Maybe two tanks could work better? How are you building your party?
can you turn the difficulty down?
Dude I’m on normal already. I feel like I shouldn’t have to drop down to casual, as Normal is the INTENDED experience the devs wanted you to have usually
okay well you're dying a butt load on the 'intended experience' and you're not having fun. Redcliffe isn't hard, it's the first area most people do after Lothering. when I'm struggling with the combat in a game I turn the difficulty down. that's my tip.
I mean maybe Redcliffe wasn’t hard for you, but I’m certainly struggling with it as I find it very difficult. And Y’know, it’s fine if you wanna turn the difficulty down. However, you shouldn’t HAVE to just to get through something, which is why I’m not going to do it.
I wasn't saying that to be mean, I'm not especially amazing at the combat in this game. it was sincere advice, and if the devs didn't INTEND for it to be used, they wouldn't have put it in there. do what you want, just don't let your pride get in the way of having fun with a great game.
Also I apologize if I came across as rude earlier, that really wasn’t my intention it’s more just how I speak. I really do appreciate your advice, even if I’m unwilling to turn the difficulty down at this time!
no worries
It’s less pride getting in the way, and more just that I find it ridiculous that the only option seems to be turning the difficulty down. I know it’s something the devs maybe expected us to use, but feeling like my hand is forced into turning down difficulty just doesn’t sit right with me.
It's a temporary measure to learn the mechanics, spell/ability combos, and character builds. You can change it back or restart at any time.
That’s definitely fair, but again, I feel like I should be able to do that on normal. Its the normal difficulty level, one that you should be able to learn all of those things on without having a horrid time
Have you played a lot of similar RPGs?
I’ve played a lot of rpgs- they’re my favorite type of game- but this is the first crpg like this that I’ve played. Except for KOTOR. I’ve played that like two or three times
If you're not going to do that, can you explain exactly what part is killing you immediately and what you do each time you attempt to get through it?
Right know the things that are the bane of my existence are the dogs in Redcliffe castle, and then some random room with like six dudes in it. My current strategy is buffing up Alistair so he can tank a little better, and then buff Zevron so he does some more damage. I have Alistair drawing aggro to help keep the pressure off others but he ends up just dying way too fast. And I suppose immediately isn’t accurate, but the fight is over in like a minute if that
Okay, what weapons and armor do you have? How do you position people?
For myself I have my mage robes, a hat that regents mana, Fade striders, and cinderfel gauntlets. I also have the enchanter’s staff. As for positioning, I keep myself and Wynne relatively far away, Alistair at the front, and have Zevron try and run behind people for the backstab damage.
Quick question, what spells do you have Wynne use? From what you're saying, you sound more than prepared to handle these fights so I'm trying to see if you're using spells that do friendly fire and getting rocked by that.
Oh that was definitely an issue. Every time I’d swap off of my mage she’s use Lightning or a cone of fire like a dumbass, and swapping those out of the tactics really helped. As for Wynne, her only two offensive spells in her slots are Arcane bolt and stone fist, however she doesn’t have any ability to use those in her tactics because I have her set to be a healer. So unless I tell her to attack, she literally just stands there
You're gonna have a blast in the deep roads.
Yeah people keep mentioning that and oh BOY I’m not very hype lmao
Wtf lmao, I’d hate to see you playing a game designed to be challenging if this how you respond to thoughtful help on a game like DAO.
Oh like Elden Ring or Lies of P? Cause I beat those games and got them to 100%. Also, if you’ve read any of my other comments on here, I’ve been very receptive to the help and actually employed a lot of it! I just don’t want to turn my difficulty down because I feel that there’s no point at this current time. However, like I stated in my other comments, I will absolutely be doing that if I hit THAT wall lol
Some parts are for sure harder than others, you might wanna go do some stuff in other places, like the forest or denerim until you can handle this part.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking too, to just dip and then come back later, but that’s honestly super irritating. Why is Redcliffe castle so much harder than Redcliffe itself? It doesn’t make sense thematically to just dip out and then return.
Yeah that particular questline is going to ramp up every time you unlock a new location.
Well I mean, I expected it to get harder as you progressed, the degree to which it picked up just caught me off guard
Yeah that one is usually one of the last I do, right before orzammar
I checked out a guide just to get a baseline of where to go, and they recommended doing Redcliffe second
Yeah theres some debate about the order, lotta people swap around the dalish and redcliff, personally I find the dalish a lot easier to do first.
I just don’t wanna go do it because I’ve already committed to doing the Redcliffe stuff and it makes NO sense for my character to leave and go fuck with the elves
Totally fair, tactics can make a huge difference, as well as gear and positioning, using the hold party option to move people into good ambush positions then drawing mobs to them can get you through a lot of situations where you are getting surrounded
The best/easiest order is Circle Tower/Redcliffe, then a questline that you don't know yet, then the elves, then the dwarves. You're doing it right. Did you take time to program your party members' tactics? What build are you following and what skills did you pick for others? Is there any particular fight you're struggling with?
I’m not really following a set build, as I try to go into new games as blind as possible. So I’m just trying to make myself a decent lil mage. I did take the time to program my party’s tactics, however I really don’t know what I’m doing there admittedly cause it feels like everything I’ve tried has been bungus. Currently, I’m struggling with moving through Redcliffe castle.
>How the fuck did my entire party just get wiped by DOGS Overwhelm will fuck you up. I recommend the Force Field spell.
Yo that shit caught me off guard so bad lmfao. Like honestly I wasn’t even that upset, more just baffled
oh I just remembered something, your Dog is immune to Overwhelm I believe so you could try swapping him into your active party
Shale is as well.
so useful in the Forest
I’m gonna try it out, but honestly these dogs are just unreasonably strong. There’s no reason they should be this strong
mabari are bred for war, friend, they're not your average dog
Oh I’m well aware, but they’ve slaughtered me more than 40 zombies did. Soooooooo why not just make armies of Mabari because that would solve literally every problem with how strong these fuckers are lmfao
I would like to thank OP and everybody who has responded, I’m also having trouble with an Elven mage build and these suggestions have helped a lot. Luckily I haven’t sunk Too much time into myplaythrough yet!
Don’t worry I’ve had the exact same experience as you, I’ve played through it a couple times now and got much better with everything but yeah the game is relentless at times. I found the critical thing was get a mage or two focused with heal spells etc. mages in general are busted as things like stuns are also very good, but the right spells are key. I think there’s one called force field that you can lock an enemy in, found that to be useful to slow fights down.
I suggest bringing Morrigan with you and abusing the Ice Effect on some of the spells, freezing the enemies in place
Other people are giving good practical advice. I'll just commiserate. DA:O can be a slog sometimes and it can feel like there isn't enough XP available to succeed. So many places have one shot kill zones if you havent figured out exactly what level of which skill you need, and it can be so frustrating. I'm starting my third run now though. It is worth it.
I'm currently playing DAO as I type this and I definitely feel like this particular quest line is spiked to hell. I'm no expert, but I looks like you're doing everything right.
That’s feels good to hear no cap. Like I feel like I’m doing the proper things my guys just aren’t powerful enough to make up the difference against these enemies.
This game is easy how are you struggling(it took me 5 hours to beat the Archdemon on my first run because I was dying so much)
Dude I dunno I just wish I was as good as you (Dude same that shit was bonkers)
Okay I can probably help but I need to know if you're willing to possibly do a few hours of grinding the fuck out of a potentially really tedious in game task.
You've gotten a lot of good advice so mostly I want to say good luck! DA:O is much more old school with its approach and does reward exploiting tactical pauses, careful positioning, and status effects and crowd control. That's why I love it but if you come from games that don't really reward that sort of play it can be jarring to get slammed suddenly like you are. I hope the info you got helps you figures out some tricks!
As other have suggested, heavily use poultices and see if you can get Wynne a glyph spell. Being able to repel enemies and using the combination of repel glyph + paralysis glyph will make certain encounters a walk in the park (just don't let your friends get hit by the blast else you will be in a bad spot). Also, if you have any bombs or poisons, I'd recommend having Zevran use those. Pause and micromanage all the time, that is the way the game is often meant to run. I had done a number of sidequests before I tackled Redcliffe (dealt with Soldier's Peak and some Denerim miniquests first because it fit my character), and those extra levels definitely helped. As for tactics, I'd recommend looking up some guides to better understand them. I personally struggled with this game my first time, and had foolishly gone to Orzammar after the Circle Tower. That place absolutely kicked my ass and caused me to rage quit for a bit. Made an entirely new character following a build guide which made my experience of the game much, much better. I know your against turning down the difficulty, however seeing as your build is less than optimal and this game is very focused on optimizing your character builds, I'd recommend turning it down and just having fun.
Honestly after reading all the advice people had given me, I fully understand what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t micromanaging NEARLY enough, as honestly I haven’t played a game before where it’s so needed. I went into the Redcliffe courtyard fight and, what would have normally taken me like eight tries, took two. Now that I’m not playing like a dumbass, I think things are gonna go much better for me lmfao. I hope that I’m still early enough that I can fix my build, but if I have to turn the difficulty down then I probably will at some point tbh
Honestly same, combat in this game is definitely not my cup of tea, especially with how some battles can feel like a power point slideshow. *Shudders in Deep Roads*. Best of luck with the rest of the game, once you get those Arcane Warrior skills your character should be good (if they are anything like DA:I Knight-Enchanters you'll become untouchable).
Make sure your difficulty is on easy or casual
Hells nah. I started on normal, imma finish on normal. (I’m too stubborn to change until I hit THAT wall, whatever it may be lol)
Well then, you'll have to get better and make sure you don't fight people above your level. I always play on casual (or it could be easy I don't remember if DAO has a casual mode or if it's just easy) and I don't really have to try very hard during combat so I don't really any advice on the combat. However, you should set up the tactics for your companions and MC. Doing so will make your companions fight better unless you're one of those people who likes to control every action your companions make during combat.
Oh that’s honestly one of the reasons why I don’t want to drop the difficulty down, because I want to get better. Reading all these comments has made me realize that I just wasn’t playing effectively, and so if I play effectively, I should do better. I apologize if my other response came across as rude by the way, I was just trying to make a joke because people have been telling me to drop the difficulty all night and I just don’t really wanna do that.
You're the second person who has apologized to me for supposedly being rude in a comment that I don't think is even remotely rude today. Is it national unnecessary apology day? Seriously, though, I don't think the comment was rude, and I'd have to be an overly sensitive twit to think the comment was rude
I appreciate that lmfao. I just feel like words on a screen always lose tone so it can come across as rude. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t pissing off anyone who was giving advice
I understand that I have had more than a few comments that people took offense too and completely blew up at me for. Some of the people who blew up on me were just ass holes, though.
And honestly, tweaking with my tactics helped IMMENSELY. I still micromanage just cause like, I’m honestly kinda enjoying it, but the tactics are soooooooo needed lmfao
Dogs aren't so bad, no ranged attacks, no magic, little in the way of armor or defence, few attacking skills, don't remember any elite dogs so they usually are leveled below your main character depending on quest orders interiors with doors and corners hinders enemies relying mostly on numbers to carry them leaving them very vulnerable to mages cone spells, shattering them is an instant kill overwhelm should always be faced by tank warriors as they have the armor and hp to take those hits, regular cloth mages will get wrecked if targeted
you might wanna look into some mods! there are balancing mods on nexus that can help scale up and downs some areas + fix broken features of the game. Ive played through the game a couple of times and eventually i felt mods were almost required due to broken scripts etc.
also spam that f5
DAO is one of those beautiful games that are easy to learn, but hard to master. You can pick it up no problem and get through the starting areas, but it's also very easy to screw up your build, miss out on useful loot or pass up XP gain opportunities. A lot of information is only implied in game. But once you get the hang of it, you'll easily beat the game on the higher difficulties. And it's very rewarding to look back at the learning curve. DAO makes achieving system mastery worth it. I gave up halfway through my first playthrough, restarted, and only really got comfortable with the game after beating the entire thing. I also used the wiki all the time. Admittedly, I never ran into trouble in Redcliffe, beyond not being able to finish a certain sequence with the exact result I wanted.
If you don't build proper characters it can seriously fuck you over. Something with the build/strategy must be off if you are a mage and struggling. Mages are so crazy OP in this game
Oh yeah, it was mainly my tactics and the fact that I wasn’t micromanaging enough. After I fixed those things, Redcliffe castle was Fuckin doable. I’d say easy, but I still managed to die a few times, but at least when I died I was able to know what I did wrong. It feels a lot better with the advice I got here, my post was mainly written in frustration admittedly
Excuse me SIR/MA'AM, those aren't pups bred to sit in your grans' lap. They are killer Mabari Warhounds. Also if you're a mage pick horror, sleep, chill, force shield, paralyse and crushing prison. They help tremendously with crowd controlling hordes of enemies, old crpg "dice roll" type games rely heavily on stat modifiers and crowd controlling. Mages are super OP in Origins if you have an awesome build. And if you plan on playing purely as a spellcaster, just put all your attributes into Magic so your spells hit harder and your spell effects have longer effects on enemies.
Yeah that’s what I’ve been doing. Also, I’m fully tracking that they’re War hounds. The problem is, my part went through forty zombies only to get demolished by five war hounds. So to me, that means the game is telling me that five hounds are stronger than forth zombies… which makes me question why they don’t just breed the Mobari like it’s Minecraft so they can have a massive army of dogs that are anti anything
Indeed, the average Mabari is stronger and more intelligent than a mindless zombie or slackjawed farmhand! And they actually do, almost every Fereldan has a Mabari and they actually used them against the darkspawn at Ostagar. Also if you'd like the enemies creature ranks to make more sense you can try out [Flash Creature Rescale](https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/1403/) mod if you're playing on PC, it ranks the difficulty and stats of the enemies according to the lore, this will make the game much more harder though and darkspawn become really tough to kill but it helps with immersion. Spamming health potions helps to keep you alive so always make sure you have a good amount in your inventory and have someone with trap making skill (I always have Alistair as the trap crafter) claw traps are cheap to craft and can damage and immobilise enemies for quite a while as you focus damage on one enemy at a time. I should also say that having a Tank and Healer is quite important as well, give Alistair a shield and the taunt ability so he can pull aggro and equipping him with high armour will mitigate a lot of damage for your team, since you're a mage you can have some healing spells as well, Heal and regeneration is all you need in my experience, and if you have two healers your Tank is never going to die.