Dragon Age

Hey, it's peaceful compared to Skyrim where the Bandit to Peasant ratio is like 1000:1

Batman rules, to some extent. Exaggeration for effect. More realistically, even if a city were thoroughly corrupt, you wouldn't see as many fights with as many combatants, the fights wouldn't be as one-sided, and they wouldn't be to the death. Some of them would run, surrender, or be left on the ground but alive or taken in by the guards, and so on and so forth.

It's not just Varric doing this, but video game convention. Even in tamer games you fight and kill ridiculous numbers of people, far more than even veteran real-life soldiers would see in a full career of combat.

I always loved Dead Rising for having an achievement for killing more Zombies than there's population in Willamette.

I'd like to point out that Cassandra calling bullshit on Varric was at the beginning of the tale and he just jumps straight into it. And Aveline is presumably still in the city and has given testimony that THAT never happened.

Meanwhile, a lot of the other stuff that seems otherwise 'bullshitty' takes place hours later meaning Varric has had plenty of time to suck Cassandra into his story and give her more reason ('Hawke and Anders had trained for hours to use the spell Haste on their companions' 'Yes, I have seen mages use a similar spell in combat. I didn't realize the effects could be combined') to believe him if he actually explains things.

It should be noted that in many ancient and medieval cities, going outside after dark was very, very dangerous due to the amount of people that would rob and stab you.

Not as bad as kirkwall, but still pretty bad.

Of note, Cassandra actually gives Varric free license to embellish at his leisure during the opening conversation. After she calls bunk on his original telling of Hawke's escape from Lothering, Varric asks her if she's concerned that he'll lie to her during his tale. Her response is something to the effect of, "Not even a little."

She basically outright stated that she is going to absorb every ounce of the story he tells exactly how he tells it. Which, to an embellisher like Varric, is like being given a free trip to Disneyland. True enough, she only calls bullshit once after that when he goes a bit too far with it.

Thus, the easy answer for why you have to fight enough random thugs in a single encounter to fill a bingo hall is because Cassandra is naively allowing Varric to dictate the terms of this interrogation.

• Varric: And then TWELVE MORE OF THEM scrambled out of a nearby pawn shop, but Fenris deftly decapitated them all with a single blow!
• Cassandra: Mmm, good, I'm listening.

edited 20th Jun '17 5:46:45 PM by TobiasDrake

Don't you mean that Fenris got oneshotted because he charged an Arcane Horror despite telling him thirty times not to?

Okay, I listened to that video from earlier, and even I can't believe that there are a solid 2-3 minutes worth of clips for enemy reinforcement responses. Most of them are only a little over a second long.

"Why isn't anybody ever happy to see us?" ...Varric, buddy, you probably murdered their whole extended families by now, holy hell, no wonder they're pissed.

DA 2's battle dialogue is so good and really helps with the immersion. As you noted, there's so much of it for every occasion and it really helped get me invested in the fights in a way I never was with Origins or Inquisition.

I definitely agree. The party in DA 2 are always chattering, if someone goes down it can even get kind of emotional.

How do dwarves decide when to sleep? Do they have day and night? Sorry if this seams ridiculous.

The Stone sends little Stone Angels to remind the dwarves what the time is and that they should turn in for the night.

Or they know it's time to sleep once they've had enough drink.

Or when a noble tells them to sleep.

When they've had enough to drink gets my vote.

But if you want a serious answer, like most things about dwarves: Stone Sense. Also the body has a surprisingly accurate natural clock if you don't deliberately fight against it.

For humans at least, the natural clock is set to 25 hours instead of 24, so relying on it for too long can be confusing. But dwarves might be different. Hell, maybe they just use a 25 hour day. I doubt anyone would notice the difference.

edited 22nd Jun '17 7:23:09 AM by Discar

Just created a dagger based on the Blade of Red Birth schematic: 362DPS/141 damage, 18% armour penetration,+3 cunning,+3 dextertiy, 33% flanking damage and every hit heals 1% of my health.

I call it "Fang of the Vampire".

edited 22nd Jun '17 5:36:12 PM by HextarVigar

Decided to start over in Origins. Used a mage this time, and it's better since combat isn't quite as awkward with one. It's nice seeing some of the Inquisition folk like Leliana and Cullen around. Though Cullen is much better looking in DAI.

The only character I found better looking in Origins was Alistar, I barely recognized him in Inquisition, he was way more of a Hunk in Origins.

What about poor old Zevran? He looks like his face got rammed through a blender in his cameo in 2.

Yeah I noticed that too. :( I dunno what happened there.

I loved Isabela's makeover in DA 2. Also her new voice was way better as well.

Alistar was in DAI?

Huh I didn't even notice.

I think it's just a short scene at the end of the redcliffe quest line if you choose the mages. I'm not sure if he appears anywhere else?

If he stayed a Grey Warden and didn't become King he can be the one Warden that can sacrifices himself against the Fear demon.

And he comes to Skyhold, where you can have a conversation with him much like the one with Hawke. I loved that.

Warden!Alistair can also have a conversation with Morrigan , though only if Kieran exists.