Childer, Witches and Oh My! - Let's Play Dragon Age DLC!

I agree. Thomas is as far as I know the only sibling NOT to appear, though I guess he might be the drunken philanderer Nathaniel refers to at one point, but they could have done so much with this. The Couslands and Howes were so closely aligned for years, and it seems pretty odd Human Noble never even saw Nathaniel before. They give special dialogue in both DLCs when a Dalish elf meets certain party members; so why do so little with a character like Nathaniel... I guess it would have been more work rewriting him so he knew one particular Origin, but it could be pretty neat. Wouldn't have to be much more than the special treatment Wynne gives a mage warden at Ostagar and subsequently in asides.

I know, right? Even just an "oh, shit, Nathaniel?" on the Warden's part or a "I'm not surprised you don't recognize me, the last time we saw each other you were eight years old chasing after me and Fergus trying to join in on our mock-swordfights and getting mad when I pulled your pigtails," from Nate.

...I may or may not have a headcanon here. <_<

Your headcanon may or may not now be accepted.

Of course my actual headcanon involves them being slightly older the last time they met and young Clare Cousland having a fierce schoolgirl crush on Nathaniel, but that gels even less well with what BioWare actually does here and it's mostly because I like the idea of her hooking up with Nathaniel on the rebound after Alistair breaks her heart if she doesn't summarily appoint herself Queen at the Landsmeet.

Still kind of sad about that lack of romances, even if objectively I know that there probably wasn't time or room to include them in an expansion like Awakening.

I do miss the romancing. Companion interactions in the game generally feels pretty flat, and it's even worse when Oghren starts at 0 affection. They could have put him at 50 affection as a start or something instead of making him the SINGLE hardest companion to raise affection with. That said...

Stuff like this is how Nathaniel won me over basically from the get-go, because there's really just so much you can read into the way that he presents himself to the Warden. He could lie, but he's too honest. He could be conciliatory, seek mercy, but he's too angry and too proud. He's already certain that thanks to what went down with his father the entire country is against him and wants him dead - certainly he's convinced that you want him dead, or should - and if that's how it is, then you know what? He'd just as soon you got the hell on with it, thank you very much.

It pulls the rug out from under him when you recruit him and it's great. I love how very completely he fails to know what to make of the Warden's decision.

ily
really though your humor is wondrous

Don't give Nathaniel those "useless trinkets." Like say...a golden vase. Damn you Bioware.

I see Nathaniel as the much better version of Sebastien. One I liked more as the game went on...one I liked less because he turns out to be a:



And yeah, agreed with Oghren. It's virtually impossible to raise his affinity in DA:A.

Eightball, best image ever. I really miss Back to the Future. Wonder where the DVD's gone off to...

And yes. Goddamn Sebastian. I just realized I forgot to put him in that chibi lineup in the other thread. I guess I'm still pissed at him.

Thank you! ^///^

I'm on a lot about Bioware's abillity to write character intros that say as much implicitly as explicitly and Nathaniel is one of their crowning glories and perhaps even more impressive than the stellar work done for everyone in DA2 because it's not an action cutscene, he's just talking, sneering, to you. It's also a nice change from party characters for for whatever reason don't tell you the entire truth about themselves or what is going on. Not that I don't get why Leliana waits until she knows she can trust you, for instance, but it's still an interesting break.

Oh hey, I finally caught up!

Since I've read your DA2 LP first, Awakening!Anders is... interesting. I'm quite curious how he gets from one to the other.

Yeah, the order isn't ideal, but I'm glad to see you back here ^^

Awakening does a terrific amount of Horrific in Hindsight banter, and actually, that's a good reminder. I should share what unlocked until now:

Anders: You're quite the dirty little dwarf, aren't you?
Oghren: And you're quite the dirty little mage.
Anders: I do my best. Still, I'm no ale-swilling mountain of belches like you!
Oghren: And I'm no winking, slack-jawed coward like you.
Anders: True! We should form a club!

This one amuses me because of how well Anders gets along with Varric later.

Nathaniel: You don't always wear robes, do you?
Anders: Not when I'm naked I don't....
Nathaniel: I mean when you run from the Circle. Robes would make you easy to spot.
Anders: So does the "I'm a mage!" sign around my neck. I like to make it easy for the templars.
Nathaniel: Ah, so that's how it's going to be....

Awakening!Anders has a lot more in common with Isabela than he does with his DA2 self, in some ways. He's not big on taking things seriously, as we can see in that conversation with Nate.

There's far fewer banter triggers in Awakening compared to DA2, and since I'd get a bit bored running in and out of the keep ten thousand times, I'm going to just add the banter as it appears. Anders does seem keen to prove Joie's point right now. He's also monopolizing every conversation XD

Anders: So, you're a Howe.
Nathaniel: Do you have a point, mage?
Anders: Hey, I'm fond of the Howes! I'm also fond of the Whys, the Whos and the Whats!
Nathaniel: How clever...
Anders: *cackle* Oh, it's shameful how long it too for me to come up with that!

I will spare everyone more of my fangirling over Nathaniel for now and instead comment that man, Wade and Herren always crack me up so hard.

Every time I play this game, or see it being played...I get angrier at Bioware for some of their design choices in DA2.

Thank you, Bioware, SO MUCH for giving us Sebastien instead of Nathaniel (you could have had Seb be the cameo appearance, because really that's all he's worth), and you basically made Anders, who is a great character in DA:A, awful in DA2.

Every time I play DA2, and I think I mentioned it, I always wonder midway why I was so annoyed with Sebastian. He's a fine character, but it's very limited what story they tell with him.

*breathe*

I do love those guys. They're so over the top it's hilarious, and it's funny how the axis has turned on its head when in DAO you were with Wade trolling Herren. Now you're mostly with Herren trolling Wade.

"Today I will be done at the Keep." I told myself, "After all by now I'm making it look like the entire game is horsing around the courtyard complaining about cash and drooling over Nate and Anders."

140 screenshots later. Whelp.

I am not going to do a 140 picture update, so we won't actually be ready to leave the Keep today. We will in two.

Ser Pounce-a-lot is a pretty special gift. As far as I know he's the only gift to have several bits of banter connection to him, and the first triggered during this update.

Oghren: *Grumble* Women are drawn to you when you play with that cat...
Anders: Like moths to a flame! Women like it when men show affection for small, fuzzy, defenseless beings! *flatly* Like you.
Oghren: Stupid... mage. Every time I pull something out of my robes, the women just flee...

I love how there are some vassals who plot your downfall. Um...remember, this is the person who killed thousands of darkspawn, stopped a blight, killed a few dragons (2 high dragons on a complete playthrough), killed an ArchDaemon, deposed a tyrant, and oh yeah, killed the last Arl you had sworn fealty to.

You petty land barons really think YOU guys have a chance???

At least all that held weight in one of the sidequests. I cut down a lot of fighting by telling some kidnappers "Lads. Killed Archdemon. MAY want to reconsider the whole wanting to fight me over what I want."

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, I HATE SCANDINAVIAN WINTERS. That is, thanks to a sudden change in outside temperature, I will be doing these updates wearing gloves until my heater catches up. I'll try to catch the resulting typos, but if there's more nonsense than usual, I just wanted to explain it wasn't a sudden inabillity on my part to spell.

I know making a drunk, raunchy Dwarf is, like, in the Top 10 RPG Cliches Ever and you should be ashamed of yourself for being so lazy, but I can't help but find Oghren amusing.

I was okay with him until they did Varric and I realized what they were capable of when they weren't being lazy XD

This is true.

Tea can solve everything. Now, onwards.

And... we're nearly done with the Keep now.

I don't recall a lot about which quests involve which events particularly, but I do know where tracking down Kristoff leads, and it gets my vote to do first!

And then whatever gets us Sigrun.

Caravan attacks! It's the lowest hanging fruit of the three...

uhm.. look for Kristoff? sounds y'know. important.

mostly here cause I just got DAO and DA2 because gift cards are a truly great thing
...anyone have gameplay advice? :x

Well, for one, don't be scared to stay at the lowest difficulty until you learn the ropes - that's what it's there for (Oh, who am I kidding, I still play Casual), always try to keep a party of a sword-and-shield warrior, rogue and mage, and the mage preferably a healer for tougher encounters. That's the general between the games.

For DAO it's a good idea most of the time to kiss up to what your companions would like to hear (albiet Sten actually likes you standing up to him a bit) because they aren't on a Friendship Rivalry meter and if you piss them off enough as I have heard it, they leave you. For DA2 it's more of a matter of deciding on whether you want to antagonize or befriend them.

My foremost advice would be to have fun and, if you get stuck, consult the Dragon Age wiki. It can help you break companion interaction over your knee if need be because it includes what options hand in how much approval, and you can find a walkthrough for the puzzles there as well.

So far with the votes this is shaping up to be strangely like the first time I played Awakening...

Look for Kristoff first.

As an addendum to this, in DAO you can also use gifts to bribe your way into your companions' good graces, so don't feel like you have to kiss up to them all the time.

I forgot the gifts! Yes, especially with the Feastday package, you're a lot more free to speak than in the vanilla version.

I pretty much just bought Morrigan off entirely with shiny things.

Shiny things and blatant lies, in my case. Which she'd probably appreciate, anyway.

Seems we'll be going for Kristoff first with the two other options tied as second for the moment. I'll start playing the update now.