Dragon Age

I don't recall having many issues with that mission... is the rock wraith the one Varrick can just shoot in a conversation or is that the other one?

No, you're thinking of the Gascard in act II who he shoots before Gascard's old mentor talks him into helping him against you (or before diplomatic Hawkes can talk him into helping them).

I always look for good quotes by or about qunari because so few people seemto understand their appeal or why I believe in them.

Seamus has a good one I had forgotten.

"I had so many doubts. Qunari have none."

I can relate with Seamus all too well here.

So what are you supposed to do with the big explode-y attacks? This has been a recurring problem all my runs but if you jus tkeep trying, eventually luck will favor you and your party won't all be wiped for one reason or another. But since I'm actually trying to "get good" I'm curious what I can do when an enemy is enveloped in one ofthose energy/magic/whatever bubbles and then blows everything near it to hell? I've tried just telling my Warrior and Isabela to run but that doesn't seem like a particularly grat strategy. Can Dispel stop this? I still have to learn that but I'll prioritize it if it can save me.

I did a Google search on just some random tips and a guy said on Nightmare - which I'm not playing but I can see his point now - that a party of Ranged characters is the way to go. Right now, with my Mage Hawke and Varric, I have two Ranged characters and two CQC characters.

edited 14th Feb '16 7:36:14 PM by Nikkolas

I can actually understand the appeal of the Qun.

It's just that they also practice religious conquest, reeducate (read: brainwashing via torture) people who don't want to join the Qun or want to leave the Qun (and basically lobotomize anyone they can't break), treat mages even worse than the Chantry does, and are just extremely intolerant of anything that doesn't fit their view of the world.

Granted, the Chantry has several marks against it as well, including some of the ones I just listed, but I don't think I'm obligated to support the Qunari because of that.

I'd rather not have my purpose in life decided for me - I'd prefer to decide for myself. If someone does honestly believe in the Qun, that's fine, but that doesn't give them the right to force me or anyone else to fit how they thing the world should be.

edited 14th Feb '16 7:45:13 PM by KarkatTheDalek

This. I really do admire the lack of doubt a lot of adherents to the Qun seem to display (Tallis and Bull among the exceptions), but I despise their treatment of mages, and how they seem to view nearly everything outside of the Qun as worthless. That and the purpose-thing being decided for you. I'd rather fail and find my own way, as I've already done multiple times in my life, than have it be dictated by someone else.

The Chantry is barely better, what with their Crusades Exalted Marches, but at least the Chantry's capable of changing. I don't see that happening with the Qun.

edited 14th Feb '16 8:07:22 PM by ITNW1989

The appeal of the Qun isn't difficult to understand, the opposite really. My problem with them has always been the fact that they intend to forcefully indoctrinate Thedas into their religion.

@The Curious Fan: No, I know Varrick can shoot one of those things in the Deep Roads while you're trying to find a way out after Bartrand ditches you. I had him do it in my first playthrough.

I just can't recall which thing. It's right after you find the gold cache.

@Qun: I can see the appeal, but I loathe it regardless. I too, would much rather not be lumped into some role, instead I'd like to find that myself.

edited 15th Feb '16 12:35:19 AM by joergenjetsam

So I distinctly recall the last time I dd Wayward Son with Varric he shot the slaver holding Feynriel. This time, he made up some BS story about Feynriel being the Viscount's half-elf bastard.

I would assume the difference is in my Hawke. Aggressive Hawke had him shoot the guy, my Diplomatic Hawke had him talk him down.

See, this is why I love this game. Yes, there are certainly Western RPG's out there with more variables but there are still plenty of surprises here. Like, Athenril attacking me because I warned that one guy about her. That's never happened before either. It's just really fun when "business as usual" is interrupted by stuff I've never seen.

Gamlen at the Blooming Rose: I won't mention this to your mother if you don't.

Between this, Isabela's assertions about Carver and how I'm playing Hawke this time, I guess the whole family just has a dire need of...companionship.

And that about does it for Act I. Before I wrap it up though I think I'll do Mark of the Assassin and maybe Legacy. I've never had Carver with me this much but I'm making sure to use him as much as possible here.

Speaking of which, I had forgotten but...Carver is a pretty good character. What's more, I like that I'm gonna let him join the Templars this run. It really makes sense, if you do everything, like finding out he was named after a Templar, and meeting Thrask and the like. He clearly hated them at first but came to respect their order a lot more and him joining up feels like logical character development.

In my book, the absence of doubt is a mark against them, not in their favor. Doubt is what tells us that we may be making the right choice. It's what makes us consider that our beliefs may be in error. It allows us to consider other options and analyze positions from multiple perspectives. It allows for the basic premise that we may, in fact, be wrong.

Qunari are incapable of this and it's because of that absence of doubt that they are the pig-headed conquerors they are. They seek to indoctrinate all of Thedas because their philosophy hinges on one basic principle: that everything they say and do is right. And if everything is right, then why allow anyone to do anything else? Everything else that could be done is necessarily wrong.

The Qunari are Tautological Templars because of their basic inability to accept that the Qun could ever be in error.

What you are criticizing can apply to many philosophies or religions, ya know. There's a reason they're called "faiths." Withoutthe power of belief in the rightness of your actions or choices, you're not much of a believer are you?

I think it's healthy to allow for doubt in any case, to allow yourself to consider "but what if it isn't so?".

There's a difference between believing or having faith, and being a fanatic or a zealot.

edited 15th Feb '16 9:41:48 AM by joergenjetsam

That.

Some of the greatest atrocities in history have been the product of zealotry. Fanatical extremism is not a lifestyle worth endorsing.

A good faith allows room for doubt, for interpretation, for reinvention and reimagining. The Qun, on the other hand, insists that you're either in 100% or you're out. They have re-education camps set up to brainwash your doubt away. They declare those who find disagreement to be mindless beasts and hunt them down for mass slaughter. That is not the practice of a healthy religion.

edited 15th Feb '16 9:45:48 AM by TobiasDrake

So, what kind of companions would you like to see in the next game? I'd personally like to state my desire for a female qunari - more specifically, a Tal-Vashoth mage. I think it's about time we got a female qunari party member in the vein of Sten and Iron Bull, and I'd like some more insight into the Tal-Vashoth and the saarebas. Granted, I don't know if it would be possible for a saarebas to go Tal-Vashoth, but what are Dragon Age companions if not exceptional people?

Anyone else?

edited 16th Feb '16 2:53:16 AM by KarkatTheDalek

A Tevinter templar. He could be a Knight in Sour Armor, trying to enforce limits to the mages' behavior in any small way he can while resenting how his Chantry is basically the Magisters' doormat.

Maybe he has a peculiar backstory that justifies him having learned actual anti-magic skills, which he needs to keep hidden from his own superiors or something. He could be an ally of Dorian's faction, while still being suspicious of it.

edited 16th Feb '16 2:58:00 AM by Cozzer

An interesting choice. I'd definitely be up for learning more about the Imperial Chantry (which we probably will anyway, but what better way than to have a Templar companion?).

We should probably have a member of the Magisterium too - either Dorian or Maeveris - I'm having trouble deciding which. I think we should do what Inquisition did and have three of each class, but I'm wondering if two members of the Magisterium would be lacking in variety.

I'd also like to make a case for...

edited 16th Feb '16 6:10:06 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Romancable male and female dwarves, one of them being from Kal-Sharok. I also want everyone to be likable in some way if possible and for their party banter to be much easier to get then in Inquisition. A female Vasoth will be very welcome as well.

About the banter, I liked how they did it in Trespasser, with visible spots you could interact with that triggered bander depending on which companions you had with you.

It makes the banter feels like reward for exploration and interaction, and the banter itself can be more varied as the writers can assume, for example, that the characters have just seen a certain landmark. Maybe some "banter spots" are bound to certain characters and certain conversations, while other spots are just "trigger a random conversation between two random companions".

edited 16th Feb '16 3:50:56 AM by Cozzer

A member of the Tevinter Publicanum — the bureaucrats in the Senate without much power. Make him like the Dragon Age version of a minor Roman magistrate — everyone in the Magisterium is doing blood magic and plotting, and this guy just wants to keep the shit from piling up in the streets of Minrathous and the roads from falling apart. Class would be a mage.

Could be a fun character, although I wonder how many Tevinter mages we should have (I like my Tal-Vashoth mage idea). I kind of want either Dorian or Maeveris in the party, and I was kind of hoping for an elf as well...

Could we have an elf as a low-level Tevinter bureaucrat, or would that not work?

edited 16th Feb '16 6:06:41 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Calpernia and Valta are the only people from Inquisition I'd want to have in my Dragon Age 4 Party (Harding never interested me like she did a lot of other people). Other than those 2, I'd like an all-new squad of companions.

I think I'd prefer Maeveris to Dorian. I didn't hate Dorian but I wasn't crazy about him either. And with Gaider gone I wonder if he'd even really be the same anyway. The last time someone took over one of Gaider's "funny" characters we got DA 2 Anders. Though on the other hand I might actually find a darker Dorian to be more interesting...

I also assume we'll be needing a character who somehow ties into this metaplot about the Veil and the Evanuris.

Oh right Calpernia! I'd love to have Calpernia back.

edited 16th Feb '16 10:26:45 AM by Pyrogenic

The person who wrote Anders in Dragon Age ][ no longer works at Bioware, so no need to make assumptions.

The fact that that particular writer doesn't work there anymore isn't really relevant. What's relevant is someone besides Gaider will have to write him and they may not even be able to have Gaider look it over since he doesn't work there anymore.

On that note though what's with all these people leaving Bioware recently?

Gaider's the only long-termer who has left recently. Mass Effect Andromeda lost its project lead and lead writer a few months ago, but they were both from other companies and only joined Bioware for MEA.

Actually...

And I know it's only been people working on Andromeda but it's still got me curious. Particularly how they transferred Gaider to Andromeda only for him to leave a few months later.