Dragon Age VI: Siege Harder

[ArlEammon]

What's your opinion on Mages and Templars? Anyone?

[Keltest]

What's your opinion on Mages and Templars? Anyone?

For my part, I think Vivienne is full of crap and the mages are generally right. The circle system is pretty abusive towards people who's only crime is an accident of birth, and does more to foster dangerous use of magic than it does to suppress it.

[ArlEammon]

For my part, I think Vivienne is full of crap and the mages are generally right. The circle system is pretty abusive towards people who's only crime is an accident of birth, and does more to foster dangerous use of magic than it does to suppress it.

Hmm interesting. A long time has happened since the destruction of the Grand Cathedral.

[Dienekes]

What's your opinion on Mages and Templars? Anyone?

The more they're focused on the more I just hate everyone involved.

On one hand, there's a reason why every single ancient society and non-developed culture we know of was run by a violent and abusive magocracy of slave sacrificing super villains (with the exception of the dwarves who can't really do magic the way everyone else can). The Tevinter and the Elves being the most blatant about it.

I'd be willing to sacrifice quite a large amount just to make sure that never happens again. And considering the non-magically run cultures are those dominated by the Templar, the dwarves, and the Qunari who are somehow even more monstrous. I will say the Templar did their job efficiently. If horrifyingly. 800 years of success is nothing to sneeze at.

I had hopes that the elves would show a better way of dealing with the mage problem. But apparently they just pick one mage to apprentice and if there's too many they just leave the unlucky one to die alone in the wild, become possessed, or get abducted by the templars. So, no real help there.

I wish I had a better plan. And other than suggesting that trained mages should be allowed in the Templar ranks I really don't know what to do. I just recognize Templars may be necessary. And then side with the mages every damn time they abuse their power, as they're going to do with no checks and balances.

[Inarius]

For my part, I think Vivienne is full of crap and the mages are generally right. The circle system is pretty abusive towards people who's only crime is an accident of birth, and does more to foster dangerous use of magic than it does to suppress it.

I think Vivienne's stance is less about mages and more about herself to be honest. She isn't angry that the mages rebelled so much as being angry the mages rebelled leaving her the newly appointed leader of a nearly empty Circle. On top of that the Empress can then openly use an Apostate as an adviser leaving her with less power among the nobility.

If you make her Divine for instance a group of mages asks to leave the circle and she allows it because she no longer needs to wield authority among them to gain power. If it was really about protecting people from mages and that circles were the best option she would of never allowed the mages to leave. On top of that she leashes the Templars again, which basically means shes junking them up on Lyrium which is part of what caused the whole mess to begin with.

The more they're focused on the more I just hate everyone involved.

On one hand, there's a reason why every single ancient society and non-developed culture we know of was run by a violent and abusive magocracy of slave sacrificing super villains (with the exception of the dwarves who can't really do magic the way everyone else can). The Tevinter and the Elves being the most blatant about it.

I'd be willing to sacrifice quite a large amount just to make sure that never happens again. And considering the non-magically run cultures are those dominated by the Templar, the dwarves, and the Qunari who are somehow even more monstrous. I will say the Templar did their job efficiently. If horrifyingly. 800 years of success is nothing to sneeze at.

The thing about mages is we know they can exist peacefully among regular citizens. Take a look at the Avvar in Jaws of Hakkon. There we learn that possession can be reversed, that spirits can help ward demons away from villages. The mages have a role in society that doesn't necessarily involve them lording over others. The Chantry I think had a knee jerk reaction after the war with Tevinter and caused more damage than they solved by demonizing mages and locking them away from society.

[Dienekes]

The thing about mages is we know they can exist peacefully among regular citizens. Take a look at the Avvar in Jaws of Hakkon. There we learn that possession can be reversed, that spirits can help ward demons away from villages. The mages have a role in society that doesn't necessarily involve them lording over others. The Chantry I think had a knee jerk reaction after the war with Tevinter and caused more damage than they solved by demonizing mages and locking them away from society.

Right, the guys attempting to re-birth an elder god that may in fact just be another demon, or one of those super bloodthirsty mages to try and rule the world. Yeah, great.

Note, the point is not that mages cannot live peacefully with civilians. People are wondrous, I'm certain there are many who when given awesome cosmic power would use it to help cure diseases and grow crops.

But any system that does not have a check on the potential for mages to go all world conquering blood magic fueled super villain? That is a system that's bound to break. Because eventually there will be some ******* who doesn't want to grow crops and cure diseases. And from the setting we know that blood magic buffs the power of the mage dramatically.

I don't trust that every mage will hold hands and sing kumbaya, any more than I trust every Templar not to abuse their position of authority. But I don't pretend that the Templar aren't providing a somewhat necessary duty (even if they're doing it in a completely jackass way) any more than I pretend that the majority of mages don't deserve the treatment they're under. The system sucks. But abolishing the Templars without a damn good back up plan is problematic.

[Keltest]

Right, the guys attempting to re-birth an elder god that may in fact just be another demon, or one of those super bloodthirsty mages to try and rule the world. Yeah, great.

Note, the point is not that mages cannot live peacefully with civilians. People are wondrous, I'm certain there are many who when given awesome cosmic power would use it to help cure diseases and grow crops.

But any system that does not have a check on the potential for mages to go all world conquering blood magic fueled super villain? That is a system that's bound to break. Because eventually there will be some ******* who doesn't want to grow crops and cure diseases. And from the setting we know that blood magic buffs the power of the mage dramatically.

I don't trust that every mage will hold hands and sing kumbaya, any more than I trust every Templar not to abuse their position of authority. But I don't pretend that the Templar aren't providing a somewhat necessary duty (even if they're doing it in a completely jackass way) any more than I pretend that the majority of mages don't deserve the treatment they're under. The system sucks. But abolishing the Templars without a damn good back up plan is problematic.

Heres the thing. Magocratic blood empires do not arise overnight. Tevinter started off as being very close to the south after Andraste's rebellion, and changed by inches. Now its ruled by magisters again, and their Templars are a tool of the mages. A blood mage will be a dangerous short term threat, but they are highly unlikely to just seize power and take over, say, Ferelden, even if they did decide they wanted to do that. Without armies and popular opinion in their favor (or at least not dead set against them), theyre going to struggle to conquer anything.

Its true, not every mage will want to play by the rules. But oppressing the otherwise benign mages because of them isn't the answer.

[Dienekes]

Heres the thing. Magocratic blood empires do not arise overnight. Tevinter started off as being very close to the south after Andraste's rebellion, and changed by inches. Now its ruled by magisters again, and their Templars are a tool of the mages. A blood mage will be a dangerous short term threat, but they are highly unlikely to just seize power and take over, say, Ferelden, even if they did decide they wanted to do that. Without armies and popular opinion in their favor (or at least not dead set against them), theyre going to struggle to conquer anything.

Its true, not every mage will want to play by the rules. But oppressing the otherwise benign mages because of them isn't the answer.

Tevinter was already a blood drunk magocracy before Andraste, now it's basically that again with Templars who aren't doing the job in the south.

You can think the practice of Templars and Circles is barbaric all you want. I certainly do. But saying "This isn't the answer" without, you know, actually coming up with a working solution on how to prevent a magocracy doesn't actually do anything. No checks, no balances, only a time bomb.

[Inarius]

Tevinter was already a blood drunk magocracy before Andraste, now it's basically that again with Templars who aren't doing the job in the south.

You can think the practice of Templars and Circles is barbaric all you want. I certainly do. But saying "This isn't the answer" without, you know, actually coming up with a working solution on how to prevent a magocracy doesn't actually do anything. No checks, no balances, only a time bomb.

Honestly it seems like there was a solution at one point but the chantry threw that all out the window. Prior to the formation of the Circles, mages worked alongside Proto-Templars in the original Inquisition to bring demons and blood mages to heel. That seemed to of worked for the most part, but didn't last beyond Ameridan and his party.

[Kish]

I think Vivienne's stance is less about mages and more about herself to be honest. She isn't angry that the mages rebelled so much as being angry the mages rebelled leaving her the newly appointed leader of a nearly empty Circle. On top of that the Empress can then openly use an Apostate as an adviser leaving her with less power among the nobility.

If you have Vivienne and Cole in the party long enough, Cole spells out Vivienne's motivations in a lot more depth. She's a character entirely motivated by terror--of demons and of templars. And as Merrill can say in DA2, magic doesn't make people into monsters, but fear can. Everything she does or says is aimed at sending the message, "You don't have to kill me, I'm a Good One." When the cell door is opened, she screams for it to be closed before the jailer sees.

[Cozzer]

The idea you can propose to Vivienne (and I believe comes up in other dialogue choices too) during Inquisition, which is including mages in the Chantry hierarchy at all levels, is one I can see working. Not an instant perfect solution, but mages would have authority figures lobbying for their rights during all choices about Circles and how they should work.

That said, I usually end up making Leliana divine, which means the Circles are replaced by mage-governed Hogwartses or whatever in my canon setting. I can see that working too, since the Chantry/Templar influence is strong enough to keep them in check even from the outside (I imagine Templar parties would pay a lot of friendly courtesy visits to the colleges).

Basically, as long as the strongest power around has another, opposed, power strong enough to keep it in check, I'm ok with giving it a try. This time the balance was broken by mages having too little political weight compared to Templars, but I could see the same thing happening if the opposite had been true.

[Morty]

The mage/Templar/everyone else conflict is an interesting one, but buried under layers of botched writing. It's a question of freedom and security, and how willing we are to curb the freedom of some (mages) to protect the many (everyone who is neither a mage nor a highly-trained murderhobo protagonist). Unfortunately, Origins mostly goes along the lines of a painfully unoriginal "poor special people oppressed by the unwashed masses" story. DA2 makes Templars into fascists, and mages into people who can't be trusted to buy a newspaper without getting possessed. Inquisition finally starts handling it with some finesse, but the sour taste left by Meredith "walking Godwin's Law magnet" Stannard can't be washed away very easily.

Templars have an interesting conflict built into them in their own right. Thedas needs a force of non-mages to be a check on magic, but subjecting people to addiction that eventually leaves them senile wrecks is what most people would call a jerk move.

[Inarius]

If you have Vivienne and Cole in the party long enough, Cole spells out Vivienne's motivations in a lot more depth. She's a character entirely motivated by terror--of demons and of templars. And as Merrill can say in DA2, magic doesn't make people into monsters, but fear can. Everything she does or says is aimed at sending the message, "You don't have to kill me, I'm a Good One." When the cell door is opened, she screams for it to be closed before the jailer sees.

Yeah, I've seen that conversation in play as well and I'm sure her fear plays a role in why she wants the circles to remain. I do however also believe her quest for power also plays a significant role in why she wants the circles to remain. Even the way she describes her romance with Duke Bastien seems more like she fell in love with his status first and then the man second.

[Kish]

The way Cole describes her feelings when their relationship started, she was a terrified teenage girl (...which makes Bastien seem creepy as Fade, but never mind...) who suddenly, for the first time in her life, had a source of real protection. Which again points to her constant fear: she needs enough power to protect herself, and enough power to stop other mages from bringing down the retribution she will never believe isn't inches away, evidence be damned.

(As for falling in love with Bastien himself ever, well, she was willing to experiment on him with her youth potion, though I believe "yay he's not going to die now" would have been part of her reaction if it had worked, somewhere firmly behind "yay my youth potion works, 20 again here I come.")

[Dienekes]

Honestly it seems like there was a solution at one point but the chantry threw that all out the window. Prior to the formation of the Circles, mages worked alongside Proto-Templars in the original Inquisition to bring demons and blood mages to heel. That seemed to of worked for the most part, but didn't last beyond Ameridan and his party.

My understanding was that the King, the last Inquistors friend even, brought about the changes because his land was still overrun with blood mages and demons.

Which makes me think that the old inquisition was not as perfect a solution as we'd hoped. Though it may have just needed a bit of tweaking instead of being replaced with the Templar and Circles.

The mage/Templar/everyone else conflict is an interesting one, but buried under layers of botched writing. It's a question of freedom and security, and how willing we are to curb the freedom of some (mages) to protect the many (everyone who is neither a mage nor a highly-trained murderhobo protagonist). Unfortunately, Origins mostly goes along the lines of a painfully unoriginal "poor special people oppressed by the unwashed masses" story. DA2 makes Templars into fascists, and mages into people who can't be trusted to buy a newspaper without getting possessed. Inquisition finally starts handling it with some finesse, but the sour taste left by Meredith "walking Godwin's Law magnet" Stannard can't be washed away very easily.

Templars have an interesting conflict built into them in their own right. Thedas needs a force of non-mages to be a check on magic, but subjecting people to addiction that eventually leaves them senile wrecks is what most people would call a jerk move.

This is a pretty good description. Though for what it's worth I think both sides are still acting like idiots even in DA:I

[Keltest]

The way Cole describes her feelings when their relationship started, she was a terrified teenage girl (...which makes Bastien seem creepy as Fade, but never mind...) who suddenly, for the first time in her life, had a source of real protection. Which again points to her constant fear: she needs enough power to protect herself, and enough power to stop other mages from bringing down the retribution she will never believe isn't inches away, evidence be damned.

(As for falling in love with Bastien himself ever, well, she was willing to experiment on him with her youth potion, though I believe "yay he's not going to die now" would have been part of her reaction if it had worked, somewhere firmly behind "yay my youth potion works, 20 again here I come.")

Why would Vivienne want to be 20 again? Youthful beauty aside, nobody respects the still-barely-an-adult in any field, and she is perfectly happy playing the "intimidating older woman" card.

To say nothing of the fact that its pretty explicitly a one off thing with a shelf life of "no" and an ingredient list of "good luck".

[Giggling Ghast]

The Mage/Templar debate has so many different sides to it that it's a lot more complicated than simply Security vs. Freedom. For instance, what's your feelings on blood magic? On Tranquility? On employing spirits in magic?

I'm looking forward to seeing Tevinter because it represents the opposite side of the coin: where mages are not the oppressed, but the oppressors. I imagine a few of the more diehard mage freedom types will have their heads explode.

[factotum]

Templars have an interesting conflict built into them in their own right. Thedas needs a force of non-mages to be a check on magic, but subjecting people to addiction that eventually leaves them senile wrecks is what most people would call a jerk move.

The idea is, though, that lyrium gives them the ability to combat mages without themselves being mages, so what other choice do they have? It would be nice if you could have the Templars also be mages, since that would give an interesting conflict, but the Tevinter Imperium gives you an idea of what happens when mages are given the ability to govern themselves and others--demonic possession incidents are pretty much considered a cost of doing business, and blood magic usage is rife.

I do wonder how much of the story in later Dragon Age games comes because they didn't really expect the first one to be successful enough to warrant a sequel, though. The Grey Wardens are a particularly odd point to my mind--in the first game they seemed to be a dying order with very few members, yet by the time we get to Inquisition there are hundreds of them? And this doesn't seem to be down to simple "Oh, we had a Blight so we'd better get the Grey Warden population up again" thing either.

[Giggling Ghast]

That was only the Wardens in Ferelden, and there were in-game reasons for why the order was relatively small there. I do recall Riordan saying there were sizeable numbers of Wardens in other nations.

EDIT: Curse my fat fingers!

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Aye, canonically DA:O happens in a VERY short amount of time. A big point is made that the Wardens in Orlais are quite powerful, but that the civil leaders of Ferelden don't want to let them in because politics. The Wardens in Ferelden are weak (partially because there has never been a blight in Ferelden before), and then are crushed in battle. Orlais, meanwhile, has been at the front of several Blights, and kept the Wardens strong. Consider, as well, that if the Hero of Ferelden dies in DA:O, then an Orlesian becomes Warden-Commander in DA:O:A.

[Keltest]

That was only the Aardens in Ferelsen, and there were in-game reasons for why the order was relatively small there. I do recall Riordan saying there were sizeable numbers of Wardens in other nations.

Indeed. The wardens have only been allowed back into Ferelden for what, a generation? In other nations, they are an actual army, able to fight an army of darkspawn in relative safety.

I would also like to add that the Templars are apparently not especially good at hunting down apostates from outside the circle. The Hawkes managed mostly fine until they got to Kirkwall, Dalish has been with the Bull's Chargers for a while, and there are a lot of mage enemies roaming around southern Thedas in Origins and Inquisition.

[Morty]

The Mage/Templar debate has so many different sides to it that it's a lot more complicated than simply Security vs. Freedom. For instance, what's your feelings on blood magic? On Tranquility? On employing spirits in magic?

I'm looking forward to seeing Tevinter because it represents the opposite side of the coin:?where mages are not the oppressed, but the oppressors. I imagine a few of the more diehard mage freedom types will have their heads explode.

I do wonder how BioWare will reconcile their pro-mage skew with the political reality of Tevinter. Then again, we're also likely to see more Qunari, for obvious reasons - and their treatment of mages makes the Chantry look like hippies.

The idea is, though, that lyrium gives them the ability to combat mages without themselves being mages, so what other choice do they have? It would be nice if you could have the Templars also be mages, since that would give an interesting conflict, but the Tevinter Imperium gives you an idea of what happens when mages are given the ability to govern themselves and others--demonic possession incidents are pretty much considered a cost of doing business, and blood magic usage is rife.

That's the point, yes. The addiction and mental erosion versus the usefulness, or arguably necessity, of Templar abilities. That being said, even if the Templar Order keeps using lyrium, full disclosure and a freedom to quit before the effects become irreversible certainly wouldn't hurt. It's not like a Templar who stopped taking lyrium stops being a capable, veteran warrior.

I do wonder how much of the story in later Dragon Age games comes because they didn't really expect the first one to be successful enough to warrant a sequel, though. The Grey Wardens are a particularly odd point to my mind--in the first game they seemed to be a dying order with very few members, yet by the time we get to Inquisition there are hundreds of them? And this doesn't seem to be down to simple "Oh, we had a Blight so we'd better get the Grey Warden population up again" thing either.

I think it's less about not expecting it to spawn a sequel, and not being certain if it will. That being said, the various endings to Dragon Age: Origins come to mind - of all the favours Alistair or Anora can grant you, I don't think a single one actually comes into play later.

[Kish]

I do wonder how BioWare will reconcile their pro-mage skew with the political reality of Tevinter.

I think all the arguments along these lines miss the point. Continuing to uphold "it's wrong to treat any people like they're things rather than people" will continue to come out as it has for three games (hopefully better without Gaider and his insistence on trying to pretend clear-cut areas are actually grey, first with Loghain and then with imprisoning mages). Vaughan Kendell, Loghain, Anora, Rendon Howe, Meredith, Empress Celene, and Duke Gaspard didn't make it impossible to treat humans as people, so I don't know why the Tevinter government would make anyone have a sudden head-exploding "wait, mages aren't people!" epiphany.

(Though, separate from the latest iteration of do-you-see-the-value-in-mage-slavery-yet?-how-about-now? from Dienekes and Giggling Ghast, I do wonder how they're going to depict Tevinter, not in terms of "how do we continue to treat mages as sympathetic while showing this?" but just in terms of--it doesn't sound like a functional society. At all. It sounds like a ten-year-old aspiring writer's first Evil Empire. Unless they suddenly go back on everything they've said about Tevinter being a place where everyone in control is a monster, I don't know how the PC could possibly function there. "Do you support Gaspard, Celene, or Briala?" has a lot of player investment even for those who, like me, think they're all pretty thoroughly evil. "Do you support Mustache-Twirling Black-Hatted Caricature 1 or or Mustache-Twirling Black-Hatted Caricature 2?" is likely to be harder to pull off.)

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I dunno, I haven't honestly finished Inquisition yet, but I thought they've added a good bit of nuance. Before Inquisition, Tevinter had Mage Overlords and Slaves and that was it. Inquisition clarified a lot, how the government involved a level of democracy, a level of sexual and gender freedom not seen elsewhere in Thedas, plus, of course, the introduction of the Soporoti class, most of whom doubtlessly live their lives like anyone anywhere in a functioning urbanized society.

[Keltest]

For my part, I imagine Tevinter's magical political scheming as being largely separate from the general governing. Yeah, theyre technically in charge, but they probably have people who do things like negotiate trade and deal with the logistics of running an empire for them. Think House Telvanni from the elder scrolls.

[Giggling Ghast]

The Wiki has a fairly detailed breakdown of Tevinter society, which was detailed in World of Thedas Volume 1. Dorian helped flush out a few things.

The Imperial Senate, incidentally, is divided into the Magisterium and the Publicanium, which are the bureaucrats. All real power rests with the Magisterium. Of course, as Dorian says, the fiction in the Imperium is that mages don't rule — the Magisterium does. That all Magisters are mages is just a happy coincidence!

As for the pro-mage crowd, I've seen people argue that Fiona was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT to sell her people into slavery indentured servitude to the Venatori and other fun such arguments. They really only care about beating the Templars.

[Anteros]

What's your opinion on Mages and Templars? Anyone?

I think that despite Bioware's rather obvious attempts to skew the narrative towards "Mages should be free just like anyone" we've still spent the entirety of the series cleaning up after their messes, and stepping over the corpses of the innocents who just happened to be around them.

Almost every major tragedy in the series can be laid at the feet of some mage. The Templars are obviously a bit corrupt, and abuse their power over the mages, but that doesn't mean they aren't necessary. Their organization needs heavy reform, but without them the world would be much worse.

I sided with the mages for the first two games, but by the third I went with the Templars because I'm tired of constantly having to save these idiots from themselves. If they want to destroy themselves so badly that it literally takes a "chosen one" coming around every few years to stop it, who am I to stand in their way?

[VoxRationis]

I've begun my very first playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Well, I "begun" my playthrough before last Christmas, but I was on a Skyrim kick for a bit and have only come back to the game lately. Right now I just got to Skyhold, so I figure I'm about halfway through. I should probably have begun discussing my opinions as I went through, but here's my reactions to things:

Spoiler: Character

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I'm playing a female elf mage. Apparently that makes you automatically a Dalish, so I'm rolling with that full force, constantly telling everyone that I don't believe in their shemlen god and am not this "Herald of Andraste" they won't stop talking about. Of all my party members, my character gravitates to Solas, as he seems a font of information about the elven civilization that was. By contrast, I get along with Vivienne like oil gets along with water; she supports the Chantry and Circles wholeheartedly, while I don't want either institution to continue existing. Almost everything I do seems to inspire a "Vivienne disapproves" reaction, and I'm okay with that.

Spoiler: Gameplay

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I'm not fond of the gameplay. I'll start with that. It suffers from mega-inflation of hit points, something I'm not a big fan of. Fights take forever, even when I'm just polishing off a lone enemy. Moreover, there's so much busywork! All these power requirements to go to the story quests mean I have to spend hours grinding in the wilderness, doing odd fetch quests and the like. I like the dialogue, the characters, and the story so far, but I feel like I have to do way too much work to get to it. The overworld also feels like an MMO, with enemies that don't see me until I come into a specific radius (rather than LOS) and enemies that spawn periodically, particularly after I load the game. I've been ambushed by overpowering encounters because of respawns upon loading the game, which seems unfair.

The lack of out-and-out healing spells (barring the odd specialization talent) and out-of-combat healing is interesting. It creates a definite resource management aspect that wasn't there in Origins, since any wound you take is persistent. I can only travel so far from a camp before I start running out of healing potions, though that distance seems to be increasing on account of my tanks getting better over time and more than one mage learning the Barrier spell.

Inventory management is rough in this campaign, something which is a common complaint for Bioware games and one which I usually ignore, but managing all the item customization slots is a pain because I can't do it in the field and I can't compare the stats of weapons independent of those customization slots either. I also can't see how good a schematic I get is without analyzing its properties against the resources I have available to me, so I'm not sure whether I should be crafting my light and medium armors out of whole cloth or sticking with what I've picked up. Another issue I have with inventory management is that it won't let me swap between weapon sets like Origins would let me. Last time I checked, I couldn't even swap manually through the inventory screen mid-combat. My warriors now can only hit in melee and my rogues are forced into specialization between melee and ranged. Worse, my mages often find their staves useless because of enemies' elemental resistances—I've had to maintain a policy of making all my mages carry staves exclusively of the element they don't use with their spells.

Spoiler: Party Members

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Cassandra: We sort of got off on the wrong foot, what with her blaming me for killing the Divine Justinia, and I've mostly avoided talking to her whenever possible. Ever since I picked up Blackwall, I've mostly ignored Cassandra, as I've found him to be the better tank (partly because I was able to build him to be a better tank, having found him shortly before Haven's destruction and thus being better-acquainted with the flow of combat in the game.)

Varric: I didn't play DA2, so I have no fond memories of this character. He's nice enough, I suppose.

Solas: I like this guy. His knowledge of ancient Arlathan makes him the sort of guy I want to ask a lot of questions. My Dalish mage flirts with him every now and then, in the midst of their otherwise-deep conversations. I've built him to be heavy on the barrier support, with several passives supporting that spell, and my non-tanks have noticeably better survivability when he's in the party.

Dorian: Strangely, I like him as well. He, being a Tevinter mage, kind of hits a sore spot for most southerners, but particularly for Solas and me, but the conversations between him and Solas are entertaining, and his larger-than-life persona is as well. He was disturbingly cavalier about slavery when we discussed it, especially given that the conversation beforehand made it clear that he was well aware of the blood sacrifices Tevinter mages perform, but he seems to have a strong moral compass otherwise. I'll just weigh his inputs with a grain of salt. Since finding Skyhold and unlocking the Necromancer specialization, I've come up with an amusing combo: I trap a group of enemies in Static Cage and then he hits them with Horror, watching them mill about and bounce off the border of the cage.

Sera: A flat-nosed Cockney city elf who strangely is met in Val Royeaux, rather than Ferelden. She seems to care for little other than pestering nobles and making money. Not a huge fan of her, though her skills are very useful, and her specialization ability that allows her to ignore stamina and cooldown for her abilities can make for an impressive first-strike nova. Her skepticism of nobility and clergy is good for keeping me grounded, though.

Blackwall: I haven't much to say about him personally, but he's been a positive boon to the party—a far better boon than Cassandra or Iron Bull.

Iron Bull: Affable enough, but a Qunari spy nonetheless, and the Qun is if anything even more oppressive than the Chantry. I'll have to keep an eye on him. He's also not that useful in combat, being a warrior geared to damage-dealing in a game series that mostly reserves that for the rogues. Sword and shield serve me better, especially with Vanguard talents to draw enemy fire. Perhaps if I were playing the tank, I would appreciate him more, but much like Sten before him, Iron Bull struggles with the primary purpose of warriors in Dragon Age.

Cole: I hate that hat! I decided to sell it first thing, without even waiting to find a replacement, since I hate that hat so much. Cole is creepy, to say the least, and we'll have to be careful about what we expose him to, lest he come to the conclusion that the world needs the "mercy" of being ended, but I have been needing a double-dagger rogue, especially what with the cool daggers I've been finding.
I was also touched when dialogue I overheard around Skyhold implied that Cole threw a bag of turnips into the kitchen fire so a dying soldier could smell his mother's turnip soup one last time.

Vivienne: Not getting along with her. She loves the Chantry and the Circles, and I love neither. What's worse is her hypocrisy. She operates with little supervision and casually abuses her power (she was going to suffocate a man at her salon when I first met her), but she demands that all these other mages be under constant Templar supervision. I prefer bringing Solas or Dorian if I want another mage in the party. On the other hand, she's a Knight-Enchanter, and that spirit blade sounds like it'll be useful against barrier-using opponents like Despair Demons; I might take that specialization myself.

[Dienekes]

I've begun my very first playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Well, I "begun" my playthrough before last Christmas, but I was on a Skyrim kick for a bit and have only come back to the game lately. Right now I just got to Skyhold, so I figure I'm about halfway through. I should probably have begun discussing my opinions as I went through, but here's my reactions to things:

Spoiler: Character

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I'm playing a female elf mage. Apparently that makes you automatically a Dalish, so I'm rolling with that full force, constantly telling everyone that I don't believe in their shemlen god and am not this "Herald of Andraste" they won't stop talking about. Of all my party members, my character gravitates to Solas, as he seems a font of information about the elven civilization that was. By contrast, I get along with Vivienne like oil gets along with water; she supports the Chantry and Circles wholeheartedly, while I don't want either institution to continue existing. Almost everything I do seems to inspire a "Vivienne disapproves" reaction, and I'm okay with that.

Spoiler: Gameplay

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I'm not fond of the gameplay. I'll start with that. It suffers from mega-inflation of hit points, something I'm not a big fan of. Fights take forever, even when I'm just polishing off a lone enemy. Moreover, there's so much busywork! All these power requirements to go to the story quests mean I have to spend hours grinding in the wilderness, doing odd fetch quests and the like. I like the dialogue, the characters, and the story so far, but I feel like I have to do way too much work to get to it. The overworld also feels like an MMO, with enemies that don't see me until I come into a specific radius (rather than LOS) and enemies that spawn periodically, particularly after I load the game. I've been ambushed by overpowering encounters because of respawns upon loading the game, which seems unfair.

The lack of out-and-out healing spells (barring the odd specialization talent) and out-of-combat healing is interesting. It creates a definite resource management aspect that wasn't there in Origins, since any wound you take is persistent. I can only travel so far from a camp before I start running out of healing potions, though that distance seems to be increasing on account of my tanks getting better over time and more than one mage learning the Barrier spell.

Inventory management is rough in this campaign, something which is a common complaint for Bioware games and one which I usually ignore, but managing all the item customization slots is a pain because I can't do it in the field and I can't compare the stats of weapons independent of those customization slots either. I also can't see how good a schematic I get is without analyzing its properties against the resources I have available to me, so I'm not sure whether I should be crafting my light and medium armors out of whole cloth or sticking with what I've picked up. Another issue I have with inventory management is that it won't let me swap between weapon sets like Origins would let me. Last time I checked, I couldn't even swap manually through the inventory screen mid-combat. My warriors now can only hit in melee and my rogues are forced into specialization between melee and ranged. Worse, my mages often find their staves useless because of enemies' elemental resistances—I've had to maintain a policy of making all my mages carry staves exclusively of the element they don't use with their spells.

Spoiler: Party Members

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Cassandra: We sort of got off on the wrong foot, what with her blaming me for killing the Divine Justinia, and I've mostly avoided talking to her whenever possible. Ever since I picked up Blackwall, I've mostly ignored Cassandra, as I've found him to be the better tank (partly because I was able to build him to be a better tank, having found him shortly before Haven's destruction and thus being better-acquainted with the flow of combat in the game.)

Varric: I didn't play DA2, so I have no fond memories of this character. He's nice enough, I suppose.

Solas: I like this guy. His knowledge of ancient Arlathan makes him the sort of guy I want to ask a lot of questions. My Dalish mage flirts with him every now and then, in the midst of their otherwise-deep conversations. I've built him to be heavy on the barrier support, with several passives supporting that spell, and my non-tanks have noticeably better survivability when he's in the party.

Dorian: Strangely, I like him as well. He, being a Tevinter mage, kind of hits a sore spot for most southerners, but particularly for Solas and me, but the conversations between him and Solas are entertaining, and his larger-than-life persona is as well. He was disturbingly cavalier about slavery when we discussed it, especially given that the conversation beforehand made it clear that he was well aware of the blood sacrifices Tevinter mages perform, but he seems to have a strong moral compass otherwise. I'll just weigh his inputs with a grain of salt. Since finding Skyhold and unlocking the Necromancer specialization, I've come up with an amusing combo: I trap a group of enemies in Static Cage and then he hits them with Horror, watching them mill about and bounce off the border of the cage.

Sera: A flat-nosed Cockney city elf who strangely is met in Val Royeaux, rather than Ferelden. She seems to care for little other than pestering nobles and making money. Not a huge fan of her, though her skills are very useful, and her specialization ability that allows her to ignore stamina and cooldown for her abilities can make for an impressive first-strike nova. Her skepticism of nobility and clergy is good for keeping me grounded, though.

Blackwall: I haven't much to say about him personally, but he's been a positive boon to the party—a far better boon than Cassandra or Iron Bull.

Iron Bull: Affable enough, but a Qunari spy nonetheless, and the Qun is if anything even more oppressive than the Chantry. I'll have to keep an eye on him. He's also not that useful in combat, being a warrior geared to damage-dealing in a game series that mostly reserves that for the rogues. Sword and shield serve me better, especially with Vanguard talents to draw enemy fire. Perhaps if I were playing the tank, I would appreciate him more, but much like Sten before him, Iron Bull struggles with the primary purpose of warriors in Dragon Age.

Cole: I hate that hat! I decided to sell it first thing, without even waiting to find a replacement, since I hate that hat so much. Cole is creepy, to say the least, and we'll have to be careful about what we expose him to, lest he come to the conclusion that the world needs the "mercy" of being ended, but I have been needing a double-dagger rogue, especially what with the cool daggers I've been finding.
I was also touched when dialogue I overheard around Skyhold implied that Cole threw a bag of turnips into the kitchen fire so a dying soldier could smell his mother's turnip soup one last time.

Vivienne: Not getting along with her. She loves the Chantry and the Circles, and I love neither. What's worse is her hypocrisy. She operates with little supervision and casually abuses her power (she was going to suffocate a man at her salon when I first met her), but she demands that all these other mages be under constant Templar supervision. I prefer bringing Solas or Dorian if I want another mage in the party. On the other hand, she's a Knight-Enchanter, and that spirit blade sounds like it'll be useful against barrier-using opponents like Despair Demons; I might take that specialization myself.

Yeah I'm with you on the gameplay. I do find it interesting that with your pick, you chose the one character in which Solas doesn't come across as a racist ass to you.

"All Qunari are monster, only shackled by the Qun. Why aren't you a monster?" **** you Solas.

"I thought all humans were gross half brained mud monkeys who solve problems with violence." **** you, Solas.

"Most dwarves are over practical non-dreamers with no imagination." **** you, Solas.

Anyway for the combat, I had this stupid macho idea that I would beat the game on the hardest difficulties to show how awesome I am. But the thing is the combat isn't hard and the biggest hurdle are the enemies gargantuan health bars. If I can make a suggestion if you aren't having fun with it, just crank the difficulty to minimum and go through the game. The combat becomes less boring because it goes by quicker, and it opens up your party composition so you can experience all the companions interaction and really learn their characters.

In my case going through the game a second time that way really helped me appreciate more of the characters even the ones I disagreed with.

Except Sera. She's terrible.

[Morty]

Combat and exploration being a slog you need to chew through to get to the good parts is a very common impression of Inquisition.

That being said, I'd rather take Inquisition's clusters of enemies than DA2's constant ambushes out of thin air. At least in DA:I, I can see them in advance, and their placement makes a measure of in-universe sense.