Yeah, that's what I seem to have understood anyway. I think Leliana is a bard/duellist now.

Yes, every character gets 2 specialization points at level 7 and 14. I havent taken one with my mage, nor for wynne but alistair is templar/berserker and Leliana is assassin/bard.

I finished it. I wiped the floor with the archdemon. Lets just say i was expecting more from this game or perhaps it was a bad idea to complete NWN2 before playing this one because they are very similiar. I dont know, for some reason i feel disappointed.

Did you play on easy or normal?

Just recently I am now doing alot better in fights now that Ali has some good armor.

Heres how my game sessions goes.

Save, clear room,Save, clear room,Save, someone dies, load, clear room,Save, clear room, save, everyone dies, load, boss fight with adds everyone dies, load, rinse repeat 10 times , boss down, save.

Just about ever fight is an epic battle which involves ultra micro of my characters to make sure noone dies.

I think the biggest part of the problem is having 2 warriors. In fact I've gone through some areas with Alistar being the only melee and pulling my main/2h warrior back and giving him a bow.

Peltzdude, what? I mean, you're entitled to your opinion and all, but I personally feel that NWN2 and DA aren't anything alike. For one, NWN2 is an above-average game, and DA is amazing. The only somewhat similar thing is the quickbar, imho. The story is grander, the fights harder, the NPC's muuuch better, the inventory better, the graphics engine much less annoying (yay for almost-isometric view) and the world is much more alive. Also, the decisions aren't as black and white as in NWN 2.

I just finished it too and I am positively blown away. This game makes all RPG's since BG2 (with the possible exception of The Witcher) shit. NWN 2 was utter gash compared to DA, to use a Derfism. I really thought it was amazing and I'm already waiting for a sequel. I might even buy the DLC, I liked it that much.

I've made some tough choices, hard battles, and really digged some of the NPC's towards the end. That's all you can ask for in a game I think.

@ 11B I was playing on hard as you know, and having serious problems towards the second half of the game (also because I don't have a healer) until I came past a certain point where I actually started to pwn pretty hard instead of having to micromanage everything. I think the biggest difference was having a character with the maxed out Champion skilltree - the bonuses to melee are tremendous. Towards the end of the game I packed three warriors and a damage mage, which wouldn't have been possible for much of the game. Of course, better armor (set bonuses) and difference in the scaling might have mattered. I think the entire finale of the game is unscaled so at lvl 20 I did fairly well, but I could be wrong.

at about 85% into the game I ran into a character that was just RIDICULOUS though. It's a regular human, but with an "orange" name and a personal guard of anout 20 tough men. He/she had a staggering amount of HP and did 90 (!!!) damage with every blow of the two-handed sword he/she was wielding. That's insane. I had to somewhat cheese my way through by force-fielding Morrigan and hoping he/she would keep focused on her. The force field trick works well almost anywhere btw. But I only used it there and in some other battle - I beat the dragons and end fair and square and uncheesily.

On a sidenote: you can easily avoid the fight if you make a different choice than what I did (read: make the more sensible choice), but still.

I played on normal with party: Me (crowd control mage), Alistair as tank, Leliana as dps (melee/bow), wynne (as healer).

As for nwn2 and Da comparison:

Game starts with a battle: Check
Lose a friend at the start of the game: Check
Party of 4: check
Gather an army: check
Defeat a main badguy who is pictured as a toughguy but is actually a wuss: check.
Impending world doom: check
romance: check
party hangout place: check
Fight a big fight in a fortress: check


I could go on, if we were to subtract all emotions and just look at the architecture of the plot they are very very similiar.

To me the problem with DA is that the plot is way too simplistic and about the only afterthough it left me with was that i was a toughguy who was in town to kick ass, and ass i kicked . About the only thing that came to me as surprise was Flemeth. I did enjoy circle of the magi line.

While the game has very high production value and its pretty much bugless i believe that the second half of NWN2 delievered a much more powerful emotion than DA and there was a deeper philosofical meaning to it whereas DA runs bretty much on betrayal only which wouldnt be so bad if it weren't so obvious. Also i felt that the game lacked something to carry through the early parts of the game like the court session of NWN2. Overall i feel disappointed not because the game is bad but because it failed to give me a "oh snap, didn't see that coming" moment.

Anyway, if they ever release DA: Dynasties or DA: Destinies or whatever they call the sequel im sure there will be a more deeper plot because if i read the codex right, there have been 4 blights, this was the 5th so theres 2 more to come, but i am probably mistaken

I think more than half of those parallels are standard fantasy/RPG stock storyline stuff, so I don't feel they really qualify as a real resemblance.

The other stuff...NWN 2 started with a few straggler demons pillaging a peasant town, the battle in DA is a LITTLE different. And the party camp thingie and 4-man party is just, well, true. But doesn't really affect the gameplay much. Besides, the NWN2 NPC's were shit, while the DA ones are almost invariably interesting - with one or two exceptions. Btw the NWN2 end battle can be tough if your entire party hates you - they will all attack you, all 10 or so of them, if they don't like you enough at the end and decided to side with the King of Shadows (who doesn't help). But yeah, he's easy on his own.

Really, you were never surprised? I was a couple of times...


SPOILERS


Allistair being the king's bastard son? Never saw that coming...knew there was something wrong there but not that. Zehvran betraying me with his Crow buddies, Anora pretending that you were kidnapping her when you escorted her out of the prison, Morrigan leaving me at the end, Sten challenging you to a duel when he thinks you're wasting time on meaningless errands (and you gaining +10 approval if you beat him), etc etc. The only thing I found a bit straightforward was Loghain's motives...I was hoping he had more reasons than just power hunger. Guess not.

Didn't you have difficulty making choices that weren't always "right" bit necessary? Like with kid/mother at Redcliffe? Or letting Loghain live (I know you didn't)? Or preserving the anvil? I didn't WANT to, but golems...that's some powerful allies right there. Maybe your speechcraft helped you to not have to take a lot of difficult decisions, I dunno.

Otoh, I survived and am a living dwarven Paragon. You're...well..dead. Peltz = the Jesus Christ of DA universe! Rinox = Judas.

Ah well...we'll have to agree to disagree. Let's see wha the others will say, while we try to avoid giving them too many spoilers.

Oh i doubt that, i pretty much robbed everyone And i drank the vial at the soldiers peak.

A lot of those npc lines never triggered for me. Perhaps it had something to do with me talking to them in camp so i could say whatever pleased them without any penalites with the others.

As for those having difficulties on normal, its probably because people have grown used to it that health potions are the last resort whereas in DA they are actually part of the core combat mechanic since there are shops that have infinite supplies of herbs to craft potions.

As for party members i would say that the DA ones are shallow in comparison to NWN2 ones. Yes they talk more but their backgrounds and motives are plain and superficial. And aside from Alistair and Morrigan their integration into the main plot seems rather forced.

As a RPG, DA is 5/5. As an Epic Rpg, its a 2/5 where as NWN2 i would give 3/5 and BG2+tob 4/5 (it would be 5/5 without ToB) and BG1, IWD2 5/5.

I personally hate having to rely on potions in any game. Where are these shops?

For herbs visit the dalish camp in the woods.

yes, the Dalish shopkeeper has unlimited elfroot and I think also mushrooms and deathrooth.

For your other healing potion material and ingredients like flasks, concentrator agent and distillation agent you can just talk to the merchant in your camp. He has unlimited supplies of each of them.

The actual recipes for making the stronger potions can be bought in most places...just shop around a bit and buy the greater/potent recipe and you should be set for the game (oh and have a char specialize in herbalism of course).

@ Peltz



I disagree completely. So I guess there's no point discussing it too much anymore. To each their own. I'm interested what the rest will say though. To me, it was an amazing experience in any case.

You thought IWD2 and BG1 were better than BG2 + ToB btw? Huh?

DA suffers from what i would call the "Oblivion" syndrome. Its when the single parts of the game outshine it as a whole. Plus i think i missed the morale of the story because other than "dont invade the heavens" i dont see any morale behind it. Where as BG2 had a perfect morale to it and it was all about Jon Irenicus and how far a person is willing to go for love or revenge. (I think i have never heard a more demeaning and insulting sentence than: Silence dog, you have no purpose other than to die by my hand) It is perfectly relatable to our own world and problems (especially with schools). As did NWN2 in that a system which tried to withhold change created the ultimate instrument which changed everything and that can also be related back to our lives wether its the government institutions or whatnot. Look at the US who is struggling to maintain its world police status but is infact producing the one instrument which will change its role and everything else around it soon enough (the 10trillion and growing debt).

But i could not find that deeper meaning in DA. It felt empty, superficial, bland. Yet i believe the philosophical meaning behind the NWN2 story was in fact accidental.

Yeah, I wouldn't say NWN2 was doing that on purpose.

While I'll agree that BG2 was a very different game in terms of motivations and morality, I don't agree that DA was bland and superficial. There is plenty of morality in the game. Sure, the main quest isn't much of a moralistic puzzle - save the world or all will be lost etc - but everyone else around it and leading up to it is. The choices you make along the way are all very much rooted in morality.

Anyway, doesn't matter. I miss Irenicus btw. :p

I agree. I mean when you visit the Pearl. Only thing is your kind of limited in your options. Its not like you can kill Alistar if you dont like him. ala Fallout 3.