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Decided to reroll character, this time Human noble rogue. Have been playing around 10 hours with him, and got 5 characters to join my party (dog, Morrigan, Alistair, Lelianna and Sten).

So far most fun I have had with combination of dog, Morrigan and Alistair. The dialogues between Morrigan and Alistair are just priceless. For example:
Alistair: I have been thinking...
Morrigan: Now I know why it has taken so long
And many other comments they make about each other are just hilarious, sometimes it's just hard to decide which one I should side with when their arguments get so bad that I must take part in the discussion. Usually end up with Morrigan, as her replies are more witty, and My goal is to try to romance her.

The dog is so cute and funny on it's own way. The "conversations" it has with both Morrigan and Alistair are just priceless at times, as well as it's habit to "designate" different places (for example, the dog decided to do that inside a crowded inn. ).

As for the skills and abilities of these characters, well, both Alistair and Morrigan have their uses, Morrigan mostly as spellcaster and archer, and Alistair as my main meat shield. It's at times hard to actually keep Alistair alive, but I think the same problem would come with other melee characters as well. In most difficult fights me and Dog are usually the ones who stand left if not everybody.

I wouldn't actually want more NPCs to the game, as quantity doesn't always overcome quality. 9 joinable characters, each one well made with interesting personalities and skills, is better than 12 uninteresting characters, made hastily. And if we are precise, besides the normal 9 NPCs, the temporary characters are as well well made (the origin part NPCs aren't that well made, but interesting characters enough for their purpose). especially if we take account how long they will actually tag with you.

My party is my main character, who is a shield tank. First part of the game my main character and Alistair was pretty much identical almost. But now I kicked Alistair out so I can have a rogue (for locks and traps) Leliana, Morrigan for crowd control, and Wynne to heal everyone!

Unfortunatly I find wynne and Leliana to be too moral for my tastes, and boring Too bad since I need a rogue and I already slit Zevrans throat.

My party is me as a Warrior DW, Alistair as a tank, Wynne as a Healer/Controller and Leliana as Lockpicker/Sniper.
I also like that this group has the same moral values, so everybody is generally pleased with your decisions, if you play the good guy.

Having started up five different characters to experience the intro scenes I had the best results with Alistar (tank), Shale/Sven (offtank), Morrigan (damage mage) and my character (dps rogue). Some fights, were so much easier. Right now I've picked up Wynne for the Tower chain and to get heals. I dropped the OT and going with rogue/Alistar/Morrigan/Wynne. We'll see how that works out.

Maybe for another thread, but even putting Wynne on Healer mode in her tactics she still burns mana by attacking. Not sure how to dial that in to ONLY to healing.

Disabling all her tactics with attack spells should do the trick.

I just got Shale, who just replaced the Mabari in my party and I have to say, that he's nothing like I expected. His dialog is hilarious, not to mention his banter with other characters. His abilities on the other hand make him a unique and flexible member of the group, making him more of a tactical asset than any other character.

I used Shale for the first time as well... Wow. Apart from being funny, it's a great tank (two general threat aura's + two actives), and as Cren pointed out, it can switch from tanking to ranged damage dealing, to melee damage, and to party support in a heartbeat.

Leliana's useful for lockpicking, but I find she needs infinite micromanagement in a battle--not to mention, one of her strengths, poison, doesn't let her do it for anybody else. (And if you let a poison remain on your weapon for a minute or two, it vanishes: which I hope is a bug, and not a "feature.") I'm sorry I took her with me into Redcliffe. Should have stuck with Sten, or the dog, to keep up with Alistair and Morrigan.

So Far:

Morrigan, Alistair, Mabarian, and myself as an Elf Mage (Looking to unlock the Shapeshifter)

Alternatives: Leliana & Sten.


By the Way, Mabarian is the dog I thought the name most fitting.

fable wrote:Leliana's useful for lockpicking, but I find she needs infinite micromanagement in a battle--not to mention, one of her strengths, poison, doesn't let her do it for anybody else. (And if you let a poison remain on your weapon for a minute or two, it vanishes: which I hope is a bug, and not a "feature.") I'm sorry I took her with me into Redcliffe. Should have stuck with Sten, or the dog, to keep up with Alistair and Morrigan.

To be honest, if you use her Tactics, she needs virtually no micromanagement. Make sure she always sings, is in an Archer stance and uses specials shots against yellow and above enemies/casters.

Crenshinibon wrote:I went with the default group of Alistair, Mabari War Dog, and Morrigan. The interactions between the Mabari and Morrigan are pretty funny, since she can seemingly understand him. Same with her and Alistair. After I started romancing her, their dialog went into the gutter and a lot of it is simply hilarious.

Also, I thought it was hilarious that the Mabari could not only bring you items that he finds but he can also find a landmark to designate as his own territory, receiving a combat bonus at that!

I did the same, mostly because many of the others NPCs seems week in comparisons.
Of course, I'm not terrible far into the game yet, so I don't have access to all the NPCs, but of the ones I've found, the above party seem best as a whole.
Unless I play a healing character, then I'll swap Morrigan for another.

I've almost finished my first playthrough with Alistair, Leliana, Wynne, and myself as a Duelist/Assassin. Leliana was definately the weakest character in this group. I had her built as a high DEX archer, but in many situations you simply cannot avoid melee contact.

Her ranged AoE stun (Scattering Shot or something?) is awesome, but takes a lot of Sta, has a long cooldown, and pulls agro like mad. The Mabari's AoE stun would probably be more useful, also because it's never much of a problem if the Mabari ends up with some enemies on him.

If anyone has found a more effective way of using Leliana, I'd be interested, because I think I like having her around in a good-aligned group. Morrigan has all my femme-fatale alarm bells going off, which means I pretty much dislike her from the outset.

Alistair is definately my favorite character of the story. His character development from generic sidekick to hero,

Spoiler

royal heir

and best friend is amazing. And he never gets high and mighty about any of it. He has real doubts and fears as much as I do. I really love him, and I'm sure he will be my romance interest if I play the game again as good-aligned female.

Well, to use Leliana effectively as an Archer (which I did), check two posts above yours. Having a good tank (Weapons & Shield or Shale) helps a lot. She almost never comes into melee and excells at gunning down enemy mages/archers. If you use Supressive Fire instead of Aim/Rapid Shot, she provides a very useful debuff, at the cost of damage.

I must admit that I also find Leliana too weak to use with my current group (dual wielding rogue as main character).
Archery can be very powerful (from what I've seen), but it needs focused fire and does not work too well when the enemy can close the gab quickly.
And because there often seems to be rather close quaters or enemies can close quickly, then the benefits of the more melee orientated party members clearly outweigh her benefits.

I'm still working on my first playthrough - and keep restarting to make other characters - but at one point, I'll try to make a very archery based group and really mess around with tactics and set up a lot of focus fire - perhaps then Leliana has benefits.

But right now - I do not see her as useful. The Marabi and Alistar are just too valurable right now given my choice, leaving only one slot left which is best left for somebody as Morrigan and the weapon buff.
Perhaps if weapon buffs and poison worked for Archery, I'd be more inclined to take her along.

Playing as a human warrior (Champion/Bezerker - dual weilding) I pretty much kept the same group: Alister, Leliana and Morrigan.

Alister (Templar/Champion) kept sword n' shield style to act as a tank.
Leliana as an archer (Bard/Ranger) and pretty much existed to open chests and pick pockets. Yes, I am aware I'm a loot whore. Bard buffs are nice too.
Morrigan (Shapeshifter/Spirit Healer) for a little crowd control and some nice heals.

I only really changed characters for personal events and out of bordom on occassion.

From everything I can see, the Ideal group setup is 2 warriors, 1 rogue and 1 mage, which likely explains the ratios in NPCS.

Warrior (4) : Rogue (2) : Mage (2)

Xandax wrote:I must admit that I also find Leliana too weak to use with my current group (dual wielding rogue as main character).
Archery can be very powerful (from what I've seen), but it needs focused fire and does not work too well when the enemy can close the gab quickly.
And because there often seems to be rather close quaters or enemies can close quickly, then the benefits of the more melee orientated party members clearly outweigh her benefits.

The AI also doesn't seem up to handling backstab priorities, even when faced with a single enemy. Leliana routinely attacks alongside Alastair without regard to the tank going first, or to swinging wide around and attacking from the rear. Love the French accent, the red hair, the Audi-contoured leather look, the stories and the chest opening, but really...she's going back to camp, first chance. AI's going completely off, as well.