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Choosing Spells and Talents for your Characters | Combat | Equipping your Characters | Utilizing the scripting system in Dragon Age |
Choosing your Spells and Talents - some guidelines
As far as choosing your talents go, the key emphasis should be TEAM WORK. Is the end result that your core party members complement each other and work well together as a team? What I offer below are a few general guidelines. Keep in that any guideline can be open to exceptions.Too costly to get the Fourth Talent in a Tree?
Sure, some of the fourth talents in any given tree may be awesome. But a question that is worth asking yourself is: What use can I make of the other three talents in the tree? If the other three aren't of any use to you, you have to wonder if this is an ineffective and time-consuming expenditure, considering that you usually only get one talent for each level your character advances. Keep in mind that there may be exceptions. Maybe that fourth ability in the tree really is so awesome that you don't mind spending levels on three useless talents to get it. In my opinion, Captivating Song may fit this bill for some (although Song of Courage actually is pretty awesome too).
Pick the Cherry
What I mean by this is sometimes some talents and abilities may not be so great despite the fact that they're 3rd or 4th talents in a tree. On the other hand, maybe the 1st and/or 2nd talents may be more useful for your character. If that's the case, don't feel any shame in cherry-picking. You're just developing your character effectively. The same goes for specialization. Sometimes you can choose a second specialization to get the bonuses, but without choosing any talents from that specialization.
The Strongest Trees
This means keeping an eye out for those talent trees where 3 or all of the talents in a tree are useful to the character. In a sense, this involves the most cost-effective use of the levels that your character advances through.
Duplication or Versatility?
Sometimes an ability is so good that some players may be tempted to have more than one of their characters choose it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but a player should always ask him or herself if its worth passing up on an ability that provides a function previously unavailable to the party. Very often selecting a diverse range of abilities means more versatility for the party. On the other hand, sometimes players can decide that having two characters with the same ability is worth it (e.g. two mages who can crank out Cone of Cold).
Go with a minimum number of Sustained Abilities that really count
Let's face it, sustained abilities increase fatigue and the cost of activated talents. They also reduce the pool of mana left for activated talents. It may be tempting to select a lot of sustained abilities that sound cool. But if you pile them up, your stamina can get drained down in but a few instants. Pick at most one or two that you will find useful throughout the game. If adding a third or fourth becomes truly necessary, script them so that they're started only in reaction to specific situations (e.g. activate Shield Defense when surrounded by 3 or more enemies).
Passive Abilities are your friends
Passive abilities are wonderful in that a) they are always 'active' in the sense that they permanently augment either your activated or sustained abilities, or even your basic attacks and b) they cost nothing. Be on the lookout for as many useful passive abilities as you can avail yourself. Also, if a sustained ability and a passive ability provide substantially similar benefits, it may be more worthwhile to go with the passive ability. Keep in mind that this advice applies more to warriors and rogues than to mages, whose spells are mostly activated.
Storm of the Century - also for the side benefits
I earnestly recommend that you develop at least one or two mages so that either individually or between a pair the Storm of the Century combo can be set up. Its the best combo there is for wiping out hordes of enemies at a distance, and then picking off any stranglers that happen to make it out. Besides the sheer power of the combo, it also offers a lot of side benefits that will already be in place, or are just one to a few levels away afterwards. These include Winter's Grasp (one of the best single-target damage spells in the game), Cone of Cold, Blizzard, Lighting, Shock, Tempest, Chain Lightning, Spell Might, and Mana Clash, which is arguably the best anti-mage spell in the game. One of the mages will also be in place to develop the Waking Bomb line of spells with the possibility of summoning a powerful undead skeleton in conjunction with Spell Might, if you're so inclined.
