Dragon Age--What's the best class/race to start as?

[Endorenna]

Yet another question, hehe. If I become a blood mage, will that lower Alistair's approval? (I know I can get it back with gifts, but I'd prefer not to lose it at all.)

 

Also, do y'all have any tips for keeping Alistair happy after I've picked up Zevran? I intend to bring them both along all the time 'cuz I need a rogue (I don't like Leliana) and Alistair's more fun to talk to than anyone else so far, and I'd prefer not to alienate either of them. (Spoilers are fine.)

 

One more question. Are the chances of the dog finding me good stuff worth taking up a character slot with him?

[Taak Farst]

No matter what you choose, you can't lower/raise approval with the class updates. so no - if u become a blood mage - his approval won't diminish in any way

[Darth Payne]

Well, a recent Gift DLC seems to me a great way to get ALL of your party members to 100%.

 

This DLC is also a great way to *keep* you party members at 100%.

 

Heck, i romanced both Morrigan and Zevran in less than 3 minutes of each other.

 

Gonna try Morrigan and Leliana next:).

[stoffe]

Yet another question, hehe. If I become a blood mage, will that lower Alistair's approval? (I know I can get it back with gifts, but I'd prefer not to lose it at all.)

 

No, there are disappointingly few consequences for being a Blood Mage. Everyone will still talk about other blood mages with fear and revulsion and just quietly ignore that the person they're talking to is one themselves.

 

The only real consequence is in how you acquire it, that I can remember. You will...

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have to leave a young boy's soul in the clutches of a desire demon, unleashing an abomination upon the world many years later, unless you have a very high Intimidate skill so you can bully the demon into both releasing Connor and giving you a boon. I think you need rank 4 Coercion to be able to succeed with that.

And even that won't really have any in-game consequences I'm aware of, that's just roleplaying stuff that's mentioned in the epilogue IIRC.

 

I guess you can justify it by Grey Warden mages not being under Chantry jurisdiction and the Wardens not forbidding use of blood magic. But just because it's technically legal it doesn't mean that the "Oh crap Blood magic!" people have to approve.

 

(Heck you can even make Wynne a blood mage herself at level 14 and she won't react to it. )

 

Also, do y'all have any tips for keeping Alistair happy after I've picked up Zevran? I intend to bring them both along all the time 'cuz I need a rogue (I don't like Leliana) and Alistair's more fun to talk to than anyone else so far, and I'd prefer not to alienate either of them. (Spoilers are fine.)

 

I don't think there is any way around getting Alistair disapproval if you spare Zevran and bring him along though the persuade option will lessen the approval loss a bit. The best way to avoid losing approval at recruitment is to not bring Alistair along in the active party when picking up Zevran. IIRC he'll always show up the next time you world map travel after you see the cutscene with him and Loghain, so it should be fairly predictable.

 

Other than that initial recruitment friction I can't remember any instances of Alistair and Zevran not getting along. Zev generally doesn't care what you do as long as it doesn't affect him personally so he's a fairly easy person to avoid approval drops with as long as you're careful what you say when speaking to him.

 

One more question. Are the chances of the dog finding me good stuff worth taking up a character slot with him?

 

There are a few items you can only get from your mabari playing fetch (the helmet of the Effort armor set comes to mind, which I think you can only get from the dog while in the Deep Roads). But it's generally not so much that it should affect your decision on whether to bring him along or not. Even if you leave him at camp you can return to most areas after you're done with the quests there and have the dog sniff around for loot.

 

Well, a recent Gift DLC seems to me a great way to get ALL of your party members to 100%.

 

That DLC costs money though, and it so strong at what it does that it effectively breaks the approval system, rendering it completely pointless. If you're going to cheat and have the PC version of the game you might as well just use the debug console instead to manipulate party member approval, since it's free.

[Endorenna]

All right, guess I have a game plan, then. Replace the dog with Sten, drop Alistair after the Zevran/Loghain cutscene, and try to have 4 Coercion before level 14 just in case the incident you mentioned has consequences in DA2 (provided they make it, of course).

 

Thanks very much, y'all. Hopefully I won't have to bother you with any more stupid questions, hehe. >_<

[DarthParametric]

There's a mod that allows you to have Dog as a 5th party member, essentially a "summon" for the PC. Worth considering if you don't want to swap him out directly for another character.

[Endorenna]

There's a mod that allows you to have Dog as a 5th party member, essentially a "summon" for the PC. Worth considering if you don't want to swap him out directly for another character.

 

Awesome. ^_^ Could you link it here, please?

 

Edit: Nevermind, I found it.

[DarthParametric]

For anyone else that's interested - http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=664

 

EDIT: Oh and I should add this as well, arguably an absolute necessity: Qwinn's Unofficial DA:O Fixpack. Fixes a shedload of bugs still not fixed in the latest official patch (1.03). If you haven't finished the game though, do not read the readme as it contains massive spoilers. Unfortunately it doesn't fix anything in Awakening (a shame as that has a few bugs as well).

[Q]

^Thanks for posting the fixpack.

 

Qwinn is a friggin' legend. He's one of the main people behind the Planescape: Torment fixpack as well.

[InfiniteAvenger]

So...how's the shapeshifter spec compared to blood and arcane warrior?

 

imo... Shapeshifter is a great mix with Spirit Healer as it allows you to be effectively be the same as a Druid in WoW. You cast damaging spells, you cast healing spells, and you can shapeshift into a Tank or Rogue type creature as well.

 

- Bear is a great tank if you tank falls.

- Spider is a great crowd control rogue with poison spit and web slinging.

- Swarm is great for crowd control elite (just make sure nobody is using fire spells if you use swarm, that is their only weakness).

 

Look over the abilities of each form that you can find easily at http://dragonage.wikia.com and decide for yourself. I myself love my Elven Druid(aka Elven Spirit Healer/Shapeshifter).

 

By the way, you learn shapeshifting from Morrigan for the first time if you don't already know.

[mur'phon]

If you are already a spirit healer and your tank dies, you rezz him. If it's on a cool down you use cone of cold, glyph of paralyzation/repulsion (or cross them if you like gambling). If you switch shapeshifter for arcane warrior, you can take a fair bit of punishment, if blood mage, you get an extra stun.

 

Mages are by themselves fantastic crowd control, so not too fond of the spider or swarm either.

 

Not saying it can't be fun to play a shapeshifter (the shifter class from NWN1 beeing my favorite class of any game ever), just that they aren't exactly powerful.