DA:O My melee fighters do no damage

...I mean, the whimpiest thing I've come across so far (skeleton archers) take three hits to kill!

I'm level 8 and I'm in Redcliffe castle. My character is a shield warrior. He's decent as a tank but his damage output is insignificant. I could trade so that he's a poor tank and a poor damage dealer by turning off Shield Wall. I don't figure it a fair trade.

So basically, his job is to stand in the frontline and soak up damage (I wish he could do some actual damage himself but I guess not ). That means it's the other three members job to do the damage. So far I've got my dog, Allistair, Sten, Morrigan and... the rogue nun... It takes the best damage dealer of these (Sten) four hits to get down an opponent.

If you keep facing six opponents as soon as it's a battle this gets old. If you face a hard battle, like the Makabi warhounds or the reventant battle, it's all but impossible if you don't play on easy. I don't know what they were thinking with that revenant battle. On normal there were two tactis. You either ignored the revenant and focused on the 8ish minions. If you did that the revenant slaughtered you because you were out of energy once you were done with the others (if not earlier than that). The other option was to try and get down the revenant first, and if you did that you were slaughtered by the other minions instead. I tried to use all tricks I have at this point in the game, but I simply don't do enough damage. I get killed before I can kill them.

What can I do to change this? I try to get crowd control but at the moment I have almost none (I have two stuns, and those would feel a lot more effective if I could acually deal some serious damage to the opponents while they were stunned). Like I said, these fights are getting old.

Übereil

Strength contributes a lot to melee damage. What is your warrior's strength? Also, maces and hammers are a lot more effective against enemies with armor.

I also found some parts of Redcliff castle to be tough. It helps a lot to send one party member to draw out enemies 1 or 2 at a time. That was the only way I could beat that pack of Mabari war hounds.

I'd try to take down the others first, then focus on the Revenant. Tease out a couple of minions, first.

Does Morrigan have Forcefield or Cone of Cold? At the very least, she will have mind-blast — it's better than nothing. Consider using the Tactics system to health-pot the tank that will keep the Revenant occupied (ie, automatically use a health pot at 50% health or whatever). Make sure you use flanking every single time and manually control skills that cause stuns to stun the enemy and use flanking at the same time to take them down fast.

I know it doesn't help much at the moment but you're warrior heavy, so your priority should be to develop stun and AoE attacks with Morrigan. As JDR said, your damage will increase as you develop Strength.

Ubereil said:

the reventant battle, it's all but impossible if you don't play on easy

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Open the gate.

The best way to play the game is manually. AI tactics can never adapt to each unique situation as specifically as your own mind can.

Use Morrigan to keep the revenant's buddies busy with stun (mindblast), horror, freeze, etc, while your DPS character hits the revenant from behind if possible while your tank taunts and threatens him to try and attract aggro. I had a mage healer already at this point, but if you don't, drink 'em health poultices - lots!

Also, - what DeepO said… You could do with some help from outside.

Oh, and don't underestimate the dog, btw…

I finished that fight by taking the difficulty down to easy. I just used it as an example of fights in general that aren't going all that well. I need tactical tips in general, not just tips for that specific battle.

My hero's strength rating is 30 (with items). Sten has 28 and my dog has 30. Allistair is up there somewhere too. It's the highest stat of anyone who isn't a mage or rogue. It might be that we're all using swords though (exept the dog, for obvious reasons). I'm switching Sten to a maul, we will see if that influences his damage output. I will also add some AI behavior for when to use potions (exelent suggestion, by the way).

Morrigan so far has nothing. She's gained one level and I put it on frost weapons (or whatever it's called), I will get Cone of Cold next level. Then I'll probably build towards thunder storm (or whatever it's called), though I doubt I will be using Morrigan that much. My character doesn't like her that much, really, the only reason she's in my main party is because she's the only spell caster I have.

Übereil

I haven't play the game enough to know what are the nice tricks to manage fights but I noticed:

• Start battles with long range attacks, all PC attacking one opponent until he is dead then switch to another.
• Kill first weaker enemies quickly by concentrating attacks on one weaker enemy.
• You can win a lot of time by having a PC running and chased by some strong enemies or multiple enemies when other PC hit the chasing enemies with long range.
• Take care to quote when one PC get attacked by too many enemies at same time, it could be time to use the run tactic mentioned above.
• A healer in your team reduce the difficulty a lot, take the second level regeneration spell asap.
• With a healer in your team to make fights more easy, save all his mana only for healing purpose and mainly control the healer character to organize from far the fight.
• With no healer in your team, avoid use only one tank and try spread enemy attacks on multiple PC, this mean for example to remove from AI list the postures attracting enemy attacks (use a defensive posture instead for example).
• With no healer in your team take care have one PC that develop potions making and to always have a potions stock ready.
• Some AI tactics are rather good and will avoid you a lot of micro management and you'll even hardly do better but by choosing targets, using run tactics, use some key spells not in the AI list.
• Some prebuild AI tactics are rather good with only few change to adapt them better to your fight tactics.

That's really my 0.5 cents, not more.

Yes, you need not micromanage with the easier fights - I had meant especially with the more challenging fights.

Don't diss Morrigan too soon. She can throw out spells that keep the hordes at bay which buys you a lot of precious time.
After COC don't get the blizzard spell - it deals damage to your party members as well, and it does not freeze opponents as effectively as COC does. It's area is also too big etc, etc - it's just not as nice as some other spells.

Rather get spells like sleep or paralyse. Sleep is a very nice area effect spell. I gave my healing mage some nice healing and buffing spells, but then also a few offensive spells so she can 1) protect herself, and 2) also help with the fighting and crowd control. I gave her those glyphs which can paralyse the enemy, I gave her mindblast as well, the first freeze spell, etc.

Once the mages increase their spellpower (magic) these spells are a lot more helpful.

For your warriors - don't underestimate the use of poisons. Get one of your party members proficient in poisonmaking, and get you melee DPS dealers, at least the first tier of the poison skill so they can apply poison to their weapons - poisons can be stacked btw.

Poison users can also throw bombs.

Work on making party members like Morrigan and Sten like you, by giving them gifts. (Morrigan likes jewellery, Sten likes pictures, Alistair likes statues and runestones)
Not only does their whining turn into dutiful and approving purring, they also gain stat/ and talent bonuses the more they like you.

RivianWitch said:

Don't diss Morrigan too soon. She can throw out spells that keep the hordes at bay which buys you a lot of precious time.

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I doubt she'll stop being an asshole just because she gets Cone of Cold.

Übereil

Ubereil said:

I doubt she'll stop being an asshole just because she gets Cone of Cold.

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I consider her more of a c*nt than an asshole.

Seriously though, what does that matter?

I got Morrigan's attitude up to a 100% positive, and she turned into a seriously pleasant person. In fact she declared her friendship and her liking of me many times over.
Just saying.

They're all unpleasant or pleasant according to their approval score. Have a look at the approval score rating on the gold bar below your party members' ragdoll in the inventory window.

Actually, I had found Sten to be even more of an asshole at first, and he carried on being one for longer than Morrigan did. He simply did not like me, whereas Morrigan more had an issue with Alistair, whom I eventually stopped using in favour of Shale, in any case. With Shale - there was more of a bickering between him and Wynne, your healer - but most of it is very humorous actually.

Sten has no humorous dialogue. Just surly mumblings.

RivianWitch said:

I got Morrigan's attitude up to a 100% positive, and she turned into a seriously pleasant person. In fact she declared her friendship and her liking of me many times over.

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I think I found Shale to be more abrasive and annoying than anyone else.

JDR13 said:

I think I found Shale to be more abrasive and annoying than anyone else.

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I suppose it depends on the person - I had found the dialogue pretty funny - but the writers will never manage to please everybody, so that's also ok, I suppose.

Are golems supposed to be tactful and full of finesse, I wonder?

JDR13 said:

I consider her more of a c*nt than an asshole.

Seriously though, what does that matter?

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Why would my character be hanging out with her when he doesn't like her? Especially when he can hang out with pepole he does like.

RivianWitch said:

I got Morrigan's attitude up to a 100% positive, and she turned into a seriously pleasant person. In fact she declared her friendship and her liking of me many times over.
Just saying.

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She puts her own survival infront of everything else. My character isn't big on that. Especially when it comes to who's going to hold his back while he's trying to save the world.

It's not that he (I'm playing a male) finds her unpleasant company, it's just that she doesn't have the right moral values. It's kind of a matter of princips. And it's not my princips, really, it's my character's princips. I'd rather hang out with Sten even though he's as charismatic as his name (which in Swedish means rock). At least Sten's got honor.

Übereil

I guess I have to give you credit, you take "role-playing" to a whole new level.

Ubereil said:

Why would my character be hanging out with her when he doesn't like her?

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Perhaps because he finds her spells useful? After all, sometimes you need to cooperate with people you don´t like to succeed. C´est la vie and all that.

Ubereil said:

At least Sten's got honor.

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He´s also child murderer. You´re roleplaying a character with questionable moral integrity I take it?

Anyway, to both Sten and Morrigan a lot of Ferelden´s concepts are alien since they´re coming from a very different background, thus classifying them on the good/evil axis isn´t really that straightforward as usual. It´s actually one aspect where Dragon Age takes a rather mature route, I´d say.

Yes, I agree with DeepO's points. You have to look at the background of each of the characters, and they each act in character according to the context of their backgrounds.

Morrigan didn't have the most pleasant of upbringings, and a lot of her outer veneer is simply a defensive mechanism.

Sten clings to his cultural tradition above all else, even if that does make him a despicable mass-murderer and baby-killer. Is that honourable? Some tribally oriented people might say yes; - personally, I don't agree with or condone his values at all.

Leliana is also…complex, I don't want to spoil too much, but do her personal quest and you will see.

Once you've done Shale's personal quest, you will also understand more about the character, same goes for Wynne.

Even Zevran has a vulnerable side and a measure of honour - if there is any to be found in a rogue.

I agree that the characterisations were very well done.

Well, roleplay as you enjoy it but Morrigan is pivotal to me for any major fight. She probably doesn't do the most damage but her AoE / stun / paralyse spells are critical for success. Cone of Cold will change the game for you, I would suggest.

DeepO said:

Perhaps because he finds her spells useful? After all, sometimes you need to cooperate with people you don´t like to succeed. C´est la vie and all that.

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That is why I hang out with her now, remember?

DeepO said:

He´s also child murderer. You´re roleplaying a character with questionable moral integrity I take it?

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Not really. He is trying to make up for his past sins by fighting the blight though... Wait, blight is NWN2... Oh well. Sten has been given a second chance to make up for his crime (which I still don't know why he did it since he says aproximately nothing). For as long as he's doing that he can stay. Though he's not someone I want there either, as soon as I find someone else I'll switch him.

DeepO said:

Anyway, to both Sten and Morrigan a lot of Ferelden´s concepts are alien since they´re coming from a very different background, thus classifying them on the good/evil axis isn´t really that straightforward as usual. It´s actually one aspect where Dragon Age takes a rather mature route, I´d say.

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I agree. But then again, I didn't grow up with nobles from Ferelden.

Übereil

I also see Morrigan and Shale as two assholes and don't feel at all the character development is a good gray writing like in The Witcher for example.

At first Morrigan is one of the best party NPC I ever saw but her character development turn her quickly in a poor idiot girl. I'm playing a rogue so at the point of the game I am I could not do without her but that's the only reason I continue keep her.

My point is that many time I do an action and she dislike me for it. I wonder what logic can explain you dislike someone because he is helping someone else who has no concern with you and this has no consequence? That sort of stuff makes no sense and turn quickly into classical stupid D&D stuff… One more time, no, evil people don't like evil people, that makes no sense, it's just a weird D&D stuff.

For the golem well let say it's a crazy golem and that's what try to show the weird dialog you get before enroll it. Alas the guy who wrote that should have read some Asimov Robot stories before to write this crap. And my main grin about all of this is to not have the choice to destroy the golem, it make no sense to let it escape when you don't enroll this mad thing.

And again the character development seems a little weird, I finally enroll it anyway and after some time get it in some dungeons for the try and well it was cool stuff not like the introduction crap.

EDIT: The problem with D&D and sadly DAO repeat the crap, is to think that people do evil for doing evil. No they do it for a reason they think good in some way, even vengeance falls in this category. That's where fail D&D and alas DAO and that's all the difference with the much more mature and deep view of writers like in The Wither.

EDIT2: Ok I'm simplistic. People also do evil for the profit but many Morrigan weird reactions don't enter at all in this category. And people become aggressive for many reason and start do evil thing as a consequence of aggressiveness. Many Morrigan behaviors enter in this category like the harassment of Alister but that point was totally fine for me, but my concern are D&D like Morrigan reactions that don't enter in this category.