Marceror’s Third(ish) Runthrough

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That is cool. Remember that if you wish you can use the cheap trick of buying tomes and going back to a previous save to keep your hard earned gold and still unlock the specializations.

 

Just won the Landsmeet with a 5 to 1 vote (or at least, I had all but one noble voting for the warden).

Spoiler

In this runthrough I managed to "harden" Alistair, which meant he was at least halfway willing to become king, and had him marry Anora. I think Alistair will make a better king than Cailan did, as he is a lot more grown up and mature than Cailan ever appeared to be. For as spoiled as Alistair can act at times, it's nothing compared to a kid who was raised his entire life to become king.

I slew Loghain with my own hand. I wish I could have kept him alive, and somehow managed to have both him and Alistair in my party. Keep the Gray Warden numbers growing, right? But since taking Loghain as a companion means losing Alistair, I simply could not consider doing that. Alistair is my right hand companion. I haven't gone this far with him, just to let him sulk in the castle during the most critical battles!

 

I wonder - has anyone managed to get a perfect vote at the Landsmeet? I thought I got everything right and also only managed 5 to 1.

 

I don't think it's possible to get a perfect vote. One of the nobles is clearly a Loghain fan-boy.

 

On the topic of Loghain I've been reading excerpts from the Dragon Age novels by David Gaider recently (planning to go to Barnes and Noble and read them soon) and apparently Loghain has always been... Loghain (the one who abandoned Cailan).
Seems Loghain has always been more self-righteous than self-sacrificing, ie, he is doing what is best for Ferelden because he thinks it is best, not because it actually is best.

Since he compares the Warden to Maric a lot, you'll be interested to know that Loghain takes advantage of Maric's trust several times the books.

Book spoiler:

Spoiler

Loghain even arranges for Maric to kill his own lover at some point, because she was Orlesian.

 

Yeah but it is nice at the end of the game to see Loghain become what he hates a Gray Warden. It was poetic justice of sorts.

 

I sort of forgot about this thread, but I feel I should at least follow up to state that I completed the game. My dwarven rogue was an absolute genious with his dual dagger fighting style. Truly unstoppable.

When my armies finally set off for Denerim, and I got to watch the cutscene, I have to admit, I got a little bit choked up. Alistair's speech had me cheering (well, silently, as not to be thought a freak by my wife and kids).

It was a thoroughly enjoyable playthrough. Now I've switched gears into Empire Total War, but am spending more time messing with my video drivers and settings than I am playing the game. Amazing that my other games can run so smoothly, yet ETW, after 5 patches, can still have such stability issues.

 

I'm pretty pissed that Bioware has not fixed the dagger bug with DAO on the PS3 and XBox. It is very annoying not being able to use a dual wielding dagger based character to his fullest because you don't gain the additional damage by increasing Dex. It is also annoying that Dex is required to get the higher level talents in the dual wielding but has not impact to damage. Bioware better wake up and fix this issue and fast.