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

So...careful for about 15 more minutes....then Oghren gets to spend the rest of his time belching near the beer keg!

Muttering about asschabs. Precisely!

It did drive me crazy how in DA:O, you were essentially limited to taking Alistair with you, as the other two warriors were damage dealers. Unless your main was a tank, but that's probably not the most popular character archetype out there. I'd always respec Oghren using a mod to a sword and board character. I never did it with Sten, because he's pretty much an insufferable bastard, so I never really wanted to use him...

Sten could do a pretty respectable job though tanking, but you had to build your 2hander to tank like that, and it sorta hurts your purpose.. But you just aim to end the fights fast! Hehe.
He could be a jerk, but that was just... Sten. You couldn't coddle him or try and spare his feelings; He just wanted you to just get to the chase (and not ask him about things he wouldn't know because that's not his ROLE GOSH).

He's a great guy at high loyalty, ahah.

But for the "Other options for tanking" front, I believe and agree with you. They could have at least allowed Oghren the ability to Sword and board.. But I guess they just wanted to leave that slot open to the PC, and give you the dps wars to fill it out if you wanted.. Eh.

I notice the Human and Dwarven Noble starts out with a few Sword-and-Shield skills, but the City Elf and Dwarven Commoner start out two-handed. I'm fairly sure the Dalish starts with bonus to Archery, warrior or rogue none withstanding. Still, they seem to realize it was a bit of a problem in Awakening if you weren't a tank yourself when they make sure the only companion you can't time when to get is the tank who's with you from the Prologue (instantly and entirely eliminating my desire to ever go sword-and-shield in DA2 - WHY WOULDN'T I take Aveline everywhere?).

Usually, you can get by without a tank in easier encounters with sheer damage. I think the problem right now is that Elissa is a bit underlevelled from the import against what I am used to (I play every quest, every in-game DLC) and that between Anders, Elissa and Nate as his backup, Oghren is the only one not made of wet tissue paper.

What annoys me with Sten is primarily him in combat. STEN, IF YOU'RE NOT A TANK, DON'T CONSTANTLY ACTIVATE THREATEN. I almost always forget to change his tactics at first and he always gets himself insta-borked. Psh. At least Shale is a decent tank, utilizing the right modes.

I finally read everything! I really love your LPs.
(Also, Javert. <3)
It also made me realize that I really don't care about much Leliana.
Also I'M SORRY SKETCH, I'M NEVER GOING TO SKIP YOUR SIDEQUEST JUST BECAUSE IT'S BORING AGAIN.

The tank issue didn't bother me too much because I usually have Alistair and/or Morrigan around - and because I can't build a decent tank, so it's always Morrigan who saves the day. Then again I play on Casual, so I don't have much to worry about all the technical stuff.
This is why I can complete Awakening with two mages and two rogues.

Also, I hate the Black Marsh because I keep getting lost and missing quest-related stuff. This is also why I hate woods in DA XD

There should be also one line who says "You remind me of someone" - Do you know what happened to the last one who tried to assassinate me? I romanced him - but seems like Elissa learnt how to socialize from Sagacious Zhu. So Zevran and Sten are probably dead.

I thought Alistair was angry at Elissa because of Loghain, but I don't remember he being that angry in Awakening when I spared him. I'm quite sure he also speaks of the Warden as a friend in DA2 nevertheless.

And this is where my Cousland got his name from. And a bad characterization vaguely inspired on Frederick The Great.

I basically always kept Alistair around so I didn't have to care too much, fortunately.

Welcome back! Yes, everything went the way of Javert while you were away XD. I played him in the Zafehouse: Diaries LP Anabanana runs and I decided I liked him as my avatar so he stays here now.

SKETCH NEEDS ALL THE HUGS IN THE WORLD... but it is a boring-ass sidequest. Which is probably why they put him there to guilt people into doing it anyway...

Spatial awareness, I have none. For some reason, though, I do better in the forests and natures areas than the towns and caves. Towns because houses apparently make me stupid and caves because I get claustrophobic and starts flailing.

As for Elissa, each new DAO reference is my waiting with my guts in a knot to see what she screwed up THIS TIME. The PC seems to make some pretty stupid decisions when not left under human control. So yeah, she's basically Zu with prettier hair.

Thank you, glad to be back! I should give that thread a look then, I tried to made my family like Les Mis instead. Now I have to find the italian book, the polish cd version and the spanish musical. Which has to exist somewhere, the songs are on YouTube.

There is no other reason...it's a pity they couldn't give him a better quest, those aren't even interesting enemies. Having to kill the usual bandits at night was already boring enough.

All the trees look the same to me in DA:O. With a map I can walk around the Deep Roads just fine and enjoying it. That' impossible in the woods.

C'mon, Zu's hair look fine. But yeah, you really can't trust the PC to do anything. But it's not like she can screw up something else at this point, can she?

I can warmly recommend it! It's a behemoth of a thread, but the runs are really fun. if you find it's a bit much to catch up on, though Anabanana has linked to a summary Jacquelle wrote in the first post and... I might also have done an extended summary to the libretto of Evita. Also linked in the first post.

And a general summary of Zafehouse's Classic Mode to I Dreamed a Dream and... erm... yeah. That thread is going places, not all of them sane.

And we meet character who talk and for the first time in a few days I end up with over 100 screenshots. The issue with how dialogue works in DAO where I have to highlight my reponses with lines also make cutting those down a bit harder, but we're at a total of 80 for this. I guess it could have been worse.

Arbitrary vote for Knotwood Hills, because I remember a little about who appears in the Wending Woods and, well, meh.

Also: man, I liked Anders a lot better when he was more invested in covering his own ass than in furthering any causes, even if it did make his advice really unhelpful at moments like this. :<

I love Justice so much.

I do, too. I was far from sad we ended up doing this quest first for that very reason.

You know, with Justice's rotting corpse and Oghren - plus Ser-Pounce-A-Lot occasionally - living in the Keep's hall must be...interesting.
Unless Oghren steals Dog's role and gets a bath.

I am often very relieved there's no smell in video games...

You're not kidding.

I am in no hurry to experience Caverns of Socrates / Sword Art Online-style full-immersion VR gaming.

VR Gaming would be awesome however.
(But I will never ever play a survival horror again in my entire life. )

so if you meet Leliana in Lothering and it's not possible to go to Lothering then did I miss my chance to recruit her? e.e

I'm afraid you did.
...well, that adds replayability?

Lothering locks out after completing one story quest after leaving Lothering the first time, but you really have to try hard to not meet her at all. You didn't enter the tavern at all? If Lothering has been destroyed, then yes, you can't recruit her or Sten anymore.

...
considering how much I run everywhere it really is weird I didn't meet her...

Well, another time there's a two sections after you walk over the bridge where there's a banter trigger point. To your left is sort of an empty space where you meet Elder Mirriam, the woman asking for herbs or poultices and the very shy woman who wants to ask if you can make traps. To your right is a building with a man labelled 'Helpful Refugee' standing outside. He'll warn you about going in, saying there's some really loud soldiers in there. Go inside. That's the tavern and the Leliana event triggers automatically.

definitely weird. well thank you ^^ future reference woo~
nghh this reminds me though of when I accidentally let the Temple of Light get destroyed in Fable II x~x it was my first time playing it I didn't know about the timeskip ;___;

Don't mention it ^^ I usually label the first time I play anything my Failthrough, because I make a lot of mistakes or mess up the order of things or miss them and things end up at best suboptimal. A game as massive as DAO makes it even more likely things get lost.

Wending Hills next. And how is it that:

Justice is an awesome character in DA:A.
Anders is an awesome character in DA:A.
Anders/Justice is a douchebag in DA2.

I keep saying it, but....how could you have gotten that so wrong, Bioware!

Yyyyeah. I've mentioned it before, but I completely missed Leliana my first time through thanks to a moment of critical genre blindness - dude said "don't go into the tavern, Loghain's men are in there" and I thought "hey, that is really helpful advice, I will not go in there!"

That worked out great, obviously.

I could probably write a ten page essay on everything wrong in the leather armour. Although the plate would probably get fifteen, so I guess it's a relative thing. In fact, now that you've mentioned it some of the plate pieces look like they're designed to get the wearer killed.

You can cross anything with bears off the list, too.

But think of the drama!
And, being an abomination is bad, unless you're Wynne.

(I like what they did in DA2, maybe because I played it before DA:O and DA:A. But we could have used some happy moment other than the DLCs. )


I'll toss a vote for Knotwood Hills.

Do you know where I can read an essay like that? I often heard similar comments, but I have no idea where to learn something more about that - aside from books.

That is actually a good question. I don't know as I've ever seen a compiled list of "these are bad places to get stabbed and this is the best way to protect them." It's just, well, there are a lot of really important dudes in history who died because they took an arrow in an inopportune place like the neck or shoulder (Richard I) or eye (Harold II). Whereas people who died because they got stabbed in the elbow are less frequent.

Basically, look to the places you want to protect, the geometry of armour segments, the materials used, and how they work to deflect or absorb blows. Armour should deflect blows downwards and outwards with the least resistance possible, like a rain suit deflects water, because it throws the attacker off balance and ensures as little impact on the wearer as possible. When there's little reason for a piece of armour to be segmented, it really shouldn't be; especially if the material is naturally flexible. When a piece of segmented armour is below arm/chest level, (basically everything) the top plates should ideally overlap the bottom so that anything stabbing downwards will slide off a lower plate, rather than slide between. Skintight leather armour is next to useless, because the idea is to decelerate the blow first; that way it's more likely to be resisted or deflected successfully. Multiple layers of cloth padding underneath any armour is good, especially silk due to the natural strength and tight weave of the fibre. Nothing on the ensemble should stick out far or be jagged, because if the enemy's weapon slides off he's going to be off balance and need to recover. The only exception to this rule of no jagged bits is stuff like studding on leather armour, which will "bump" a blow outwards if it slides down a leather armour segment and provides some protection from direct hits to the stud.

In other words, I thought about medieval armour and weapon design way too much.

Visually, Sheep, VISUALLY :P! And let's be honest; DAO at least makes the effort to actually have women wear heavy plate similar to what men do which is more than most RPGs will give you.

If we REALLY want to get into it's it's also not out of the question that it's a result of wide-spread path dependency within the Chantry-controlled areas. Suboptimal outcomes can easily be maintained if there's a form of hegemon controlling everything - similar to how the Chinese Empire just decided to stop doing voyages and colonize just because the Emperor says so. The Chantry might well have emphasized an institutionalization of warfare where armour is ceremonial rather than practical and because the Chantry has more power, perhaps in effect cæsaropapism, the earthly kings, also under negliable geopolitical pressure in the present climate, adhere to the path rather than break it.

Ha, we posted simultaneously.

Yes, it's better than some things.

Everything said I do agree with you the leather armour makes very little combat sense, especially for females. I suppose at least the Battledress of the Provocateur that Elissa is wearing states in the description that the design idea is to show off and not get hit in the first place.

It's very... Orlesian.

Don't mind me, I'm just a nerd and I honestly have no idea how I originally came by this line of thinking. Probably some crazy old out of print book on medieval equipment that my high school library had and I was the fifth person to ever check it out in the forty years my school had it. On the other hand, plunging neckline... Oh, What were we talking about again?

Oh, yes. Armour. The other notable exception is a warrior on a horse the majority of the time, the direction that any segments overlap should be in accordance with the level of the seated rider as opposed to his expected adversary, which might be a guy below him who will strike upwards, ergo you'd have the lower segments overlap the top if you were expecting that to be your standard scenario.

Oh, don't stop on my account! Every time I see 'Sheepherder quoted your post' I know I'm about to learn something and that's a good thing ^^

Two pieces of banter unlocked. For some reason I am extremely amused the first time Anders and Justice talk it's to take snipes at each other.

Justice: I see that your feline companion remains with you.
Anders: He seems happy enough. Isn't that riiiight, Ser Pounce-a-lot?
Ser Pounce-a-lot: *Meows*
Justice: To enslave another creature does not seem just.
Anders: He's not a slave! He's a friend. And he's also a cat.
Justice: A cat that lacks freedom.
Anders: Just ignore him, Ser Pounce-a-lot. They don't have pets in the Fade, apparently...
Ser Pounce-a-lot: *Meows*

Nathaniel: What happens when this body of yours...expires?
Justice: How long does such a process take?
Nathaniel: I don't know. Can you still walk around once you're simply... bones?
Justice: So I'm led to believe, yes.
Nathaniel: That is incredibly disturbing.

And with that lovely image in mind, let's get updating. And it seems we're bound for Knotwood Hills next because that vote was bolded.

I have to decide somehow, don't I?!

Once - just once - I'd love for one of these ominous transformation sequences to be interrupted by someone in the party pulling a Varric and just whipping out an arrow and firing it right into the person's eye.

"What? You were going to do that, right?"

ME's interruption system should be in DA3 and be used to that EXACT effect. I don't even care if it costs me loot, it's starting to really grate on my nerves XD