Kolgrim

In my first run I just killed him without second thoughts, I knew he was evil. In my second game, my evil dwarf agreed to do his task and killed him after completing his quest.

That area is a great place to have fun with traps.

 

I did this as a direct assault as well. As I recall, it was a tough fight with many healing potions consumed. I'm pretty sure I took out the mages first, and tried to stay out of melée with Kolgrim until I was ready to focus on him.

 

I killed him instantly too. It was quite easy and it was the last place I went to before the Landsmeet so my characters were above level 20. Generally only mages are a problem if you do not deal with them quickly and as I always had two archers in the party it was not an issue as they kill mages very swiftly (Rapid Shot with Perfect/Precise Striking and Arrow of Slaying is all you need).

 

There is some level scaling in Dragon Age, it's rather subtle but I'm pretty sure bosses adapt to your party level.

 

Killed him too. He was obviously insane and evil. Tough opponent, but manageable. I iirc withdrew from combat, found a bypass and there took them on one after another on my terms.

Still, he hits hard. He iirc wields a greataxe. For damaged, low constitution mage or thief types a critical hit means immediate death. It's thus sensible to try put or keep him out of the fight with special attacks or cone of cold and the like.

 

If you agree with him your party members generally dont like it

 

Playing the game on the PS3 I play the game mostly on casual since I tend not to pause or use tactics. My current play through I playing on normal. The game is a lot tougher and I have to use tactics to survive. I imagine if I played the game with a PC I would use hard as I would be able to move the camera to a isometic view.

 

I remember taking out the pesky mages with earthquake/blizzard/lightning storm using Morrigan and Wynne

 

Caradhras is correct on the level scaling- his name will always be orange, no matter what level you are. The game scales enemy levels so it doesn't get absurdly easy later on.

As to the encounter: yeah, first time through I fought him straight off. Agreed to his proposal the second time though. As is usual for all boss fights, magic makes a big difference. As an example, Mana Clash is instant death to any non-boss mage. Crushing Prison is also a powerful spell as you should be able to kill or at least severely injure a mage by casting on them while preventing them from casting. Force field is always excellent- if your tank uses Threaten and takes the aggro off the rest of your party, you can cast Force field on him and use the time gained to deal with the boss' allies. Just a couple of spells, there are other really good ones.

 

Quite right. Force Field is a bit cheesy IMO because enemies are unable to realize that it's on and they'll keep whacking away at your tank.

I hated the few times my main was trapped with Crushing Prison. It's one of the most annoying spells enemy mages can cast. It's way more fun when you're the one casting it.

 

Well, Blackthorne I'm not so sure about the early game being more difficult because of crappy equipment and less levels. You get more abilities as you play and more equipment but it's rather easy to fall into a routine because some spells and abilities are very useful in almost every situations. Besides if you plan your build according to these abilities you may well get the ones you want while in Ostagar.

Regarding equipment it's a rather moot point as armour is overrated especially with a high DEX I had a dual wielding dwarf that only wore a loincloth (no armour except boots and gauntlets) for the entire game, it was really funny and I never missed it.

Dragon Age is also one of these games that gets easier the more you play and get used to its system. I've first completed the game on normal to avoid frustation and then moved on to hard and now to nightmare to make things interesting with my mage. Some fights are daunting until you try a different approach and the game provides many ways to tackle foes. Rogues are still my favourite class because of the variety of tactics that are available to them (poisons, stealth, traps and bombs sure make for fun ways to tackle mobs). Of course, the more mages you have the easier it gets as magic allows you to avoid gulping down poultices and makes for very effective crowd control.

 

It must have been a trick of the light; the orange-red colour is as far as it goes. Even the Archdemon is orange. And easy I guess, but that's another discussion.

 

Are you sure of that? I think I have seen red on npcs and some foes. Could be that I just imagined it as the colour coding in WoW is green, yellow, orange, red with red mobs being many levels above you. Maybe I just expected to see red and thus did it but I am fairly sure I have seen some red, could have been Irving now that I think about it.

 

I have yet to meet Kolgrim; how do you get to him? Please do not keep him a secert from me. My dwarven warrior is looking for a tough fight.

 

That's the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest line.

 

I killed him outright because I knew he had a sword I was going to give Morrigan since she was going to be a Arcane Warrior the next time she leveled up.

The fight was hard, but I prefert it that way...I like to earn my XP. Also, if there aren't as many baddies to fight, do you get less XP for it...or do you get extra XP for doing as he proposes?