Dragon Age

I think it would be slightly better, balance wise and fluff wise, if Knight Enchanters got Haste and Necromancers got Resurgence. It wouldn't really do anything for the Knight Enchanter's unbelievable barrier proc, but I'm still not sure why Necromancers get haste.

Better than the Rift Mages getting the completely unrelated fire-storm attack.

It's at at least the Rift mage is all about damage dealing and big bang hitting magic.

Besides, the Rift mage has a stone projective. Why not fire?

edited 31st Jul '15 2:23:33 PM by CobraPrime

About the only attack my Rift Mage Inquisitor uses is the Green Fist of Death thing. The explody one.

Stone Fist is pretty good two, especially when upgraded. Rift mage isn't bad, it's just... more of what the regular mage does.

Rift Mage works best to get enemies close enough for other attacks, or the Reaver's THUNDERDOME.

So in DA 2, what prompts the Anders rejection conversation in Act I that makes him throw a fit ("Everyone's trying to control my thoughts!")? I've never had this before and had only heard of it from people complaining about him, but I just got it for the first time in my Diplomatic Mage game.

(Also can this not be yet another Let's-All-Hate-On-Anders-Fest? It happens far too often.)

Too late, let the hate flow. So anyway I was going down into the Kirkwal sewers to help Anders gather his bomb making materials,though of course my character doesn't know that. And he comes up to me and says that Meril, my characters girl friend will "never chose me over her demon." Normally I would not consider this a bad thing, Meril does have some very bad tendencies. But that coming form Anders,and considering what he does later in the game, and what he is planing to do, oh the hypocrisy is strong with this one. I will slim down the various expletives I screamed at the TV to one simple sentence. "GODDAMIT ANDERS!!!"

Yep, Anders is pretty much the best character in the game.

I'm not sure what scene you are referring to. I'd offer my view of it but I don't think I've ever seen it.

edited 31st Jul '15 4:16:46 PM by Nikkolas

As soon as he stop being terrible.

He's a terrible person but a good character.

Agreed. I have heard he has better moments if you romance and or rival him. And for what it's worth I liked his character in Awakening. And his healing skill have been the difference between victory and defeat for me many times.

Great...just, great... Last time I'm asking you lot anything about Anders.

Since no one answered my question and did exactly what I requested they didn't do, I'm just to take a guess and say it was because I was being nice instead of silly. He just sort of laughs along with the joke Hawke makes after dealing with the Templars. Diplomacy must open up a new dialogue tree.

@Nikkolas The scene in question is after you recruit him. A quest called Talk to Anders appears where you basically debrief about what just happened during Tranquility. For most of my games I didn't get this choice, but this time he asked if it was okay if he thought of my Hawke romantically. I told him no, since the other two options were hearts, which leads to him yelling "Everyone wants to control my thoughts!" and you getting Rivalry.

edited 31st Jul '15 5:37:12 PM by randomdude4

Well think of it is in context. This is just after Karl was made Tranquil and I believe Tranquil Karl even says something like "you'll be happier like this too, Anders" Or something to that effect.

So we have the Templars trying to control him from without, and Justice trying to control him from within. Thus everyone is trying to control him/his thoughts.

edited 31st Jul '15 5:44:15 PM by Nikkolas

Technically, we didn't start hating on Anders.

A guy just wants to ask a question about Anders and asks that the venomous bile that Anders Talk usually spawns just be put aside for a second to answer it.

The response?

"As soon as he stop being terrible."

Yeah, that's "hating" by any definition of the word.

If you want to play the semantics game, take it to On-Topic Conversations. I hear there's a topic for you there.

And his reaction does make sense given what he just saw, it just felt a little...harsh. I mean, Hawke didn't say it like "No, screw you creep! Not okay with you thinking about me like that." It was much more of a "Sorry, that makes me a little uncomfortable," which is far more acceptable and fair. Bioware should've had a fourth option that's actually harsh enough to warrant that response from Anders and have the normal rejection be far more understanding (like Fenris).

Well Anders is canonically bipolar. Coupled with recent stress, it's a believable enough response, if unnecessarily aggressive as you say. I'm sure Anders would agree it was uncalled for once he calmed down.

The problem is, he doesn't. And... I'm not sure how conon him being bipolar is. I know he's meant to be struggling with mental health (though, even that portrayal goes into territory that I'm uncomfortable with), but I don't think there was ever an explicit diagnosis.

The way his character is described and Word of God from one of the developers.

I think it was Gaider. I could be wrong though.

Gaider's commented that Anders could be interpreted as bipolar, I believe, but not really said anything like "he is bipolar".

I think the main source of "Anders as bipolar" comes from his writer in 2, Jennifer Hepler. Apologies, but I can't find the source for this. I've found links to "the source", but at this point the post seems to have vanished/been deleted, so all I can see is people quoting the original post. For what it's worth, I remember reading something like this in an actual post by Hepler.

Of course, this is still a bit away from outright saying "Anders is bipolar", but he's pretty much written that way.

EDIT: Okay, source! Overlooked it. There's also this comment:

Enjoy this wall of mostly-developer text.

edited 31st Jul '15 8:39:49 PM by Lavaeolus

Since I wrapped up with Dragon Age: Origins(for now, still want to do a Human Noble and romance Morrigan and then do Awakening and Witch Hunt) I'm trying to decide between a Warrior!Hawke for a new DA 2 playthrough or a Mage!Hawke to have Carver. I hate this "Character due to Class" thing, sure I get it's because of balancing issues, but why bother with introducing a brother and sister if they're just going to kill one off for cheap drama?

Carver is kind of a jerk while Bethany is pretty flat. If that's entirely what you're basing your decision on I'd go with mage so you can bring Carver along for Legacy. I'm playing a warrior file now and feel a lot stronger than I did as a mage, though, so take that for what it's worth.

And they don't have to die. Bethany is perfectly content if she ends up in the Circle and Carver is happy to become a Grey Warden.

edited 31st Jul '15 11:33:50 PM by Arha

Well, the first time I played 2, it was a Rouge!Hawke with half a Dragon Age: Origins playthrough. Kept getting killed by the dozen or so Shades and two or three Pride Demons, so I figured I'd start a brand new file all over. I only know how Mages work through my current Inquisition playthrough and the Fade quest with Jowan in Redcliff.

Addition: I was referring to the "Play a Mage and Bethany dies, play a Warrior or Rogue and Carver dies" thing at the beginning of the game.

edited 31st Jul '15 11:37:46 PM by GethKnight