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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → I HATE the surprise battles in Dragon Age Origins
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I HATE the surprise battles in Dragon Age Origins
2009-12-05, 3:48 PM #1
When you're traveling between places on the map, I HATE the stupid battles that come up. They're often too difficult because my entire party is surrounded. Does anyone know of a mod to remove these annoying scenes entirely?
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-05, 4:08 PM #2
What difficulty you playing on? Most of the fights are trivial and decent xp.
2009-12-05, 4:16 PM #3
I'm on normal, but I'm a sissy mage and I don't have that many good items yet. It's usually the darkspawn battles that are a problem.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-05, 4:43 PM #4
Got any crowd control spells (paralysis, cone of cold, etc)? Those are usually a big help.
2009-12-05, 7:10 PM #5
I'd say try to just get through them, bump down the difficulty to easy for those fights if you must. As the game progresses, you'll get less and less of them, and they'll be less and less of a challenge. A mod couldn't really remove these, because they aren't as random as they originally seem. As the game progresses a lot of important non-combat scenes are thrown your way mid-travel in the same way these fights are.

Hopefully that made sense.

But yea, remember you can bump down the difficulty in the options menu with a simple pause.
Was cheated out of lions by happydud
Was cheated out of marriage by sugarless
2009-12-05, 7:29 PM #6
I'm in the same boat as Emon right now. I'm playing on the second hardest difficulty and I just encountered a random battle with about 8-10 dark spawns archers and 2 shrieks. The best I can do so far is kill the shrieks and have 3 dark spawns left. And this is with massive spam on cone of cold from morrigan, and sten's, aedan's and alistair's abilities. I literally pause every 2 seconds, micro managing every one... But yeah, i refuse to change the difficulty so now im stuck at this part for 2 hours now. Oh and what made this battle really hard for me is that I was fast traveling from the witherfang quest, so I have 1 lesser health potion and 1 greater health potion between 3 of my melee guys....
\(='_'=)/
2009-12-06, 2:50 AM #7
Use your tactics screen and set one of your warriors or a rogue to attack the guys who are attacking you.
Pissed Off?
2009-12-06, 12:21 PM #8
I will give that a try, although there are usually at least 3 dark spawns hitting any of my characters at once. If i decide to send him off to fight the aggressor, I won't be able to kill the frozen dark spawn before they thaw though...
\(='_'=)/
2009-12-06, 12:30 PM #9
I don't think any of those battles are actually random.
Detty. Professional Expert.
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2009-12-06, 1:23 PM #10
Your tank is using taunt and threaten, right? It makes a huge difference keeping bad guys away from your mage.

Also, get Cone of Cold. If you have Cone of Cold, use it every time it's available.
If you think the waiters are rude, you should see the manager.
2009-12-06, 1:47 PM #11
Yeah I'll have to set a tactic for taunt and threaten. Morrigan has cone of cold and I use it all the time.

I recently leveled up and now my character has fireball and tempest, and Morrigan has the winter storm thing or whatever. The storm spell combined with tempest is devastating on large groups of enemies. I used it on an ogre in the deep roads and it dropped its health to like, two pixels.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-06, 1:49 PM #12
Hey! I'm playing as a human mage myself, never had any difficulties with the encounters. I've given Morrigan Freeze and Cone of Cold, makes battles pretty easy.

And just some advise for the future - make sure to get the Forcefield spell, so you can always put the most dangerous enemy in stasis while you fight off the weaker ones. If you're using 2 mages like me, 2 forcefields make fights even easier.
幻術
2009-12-06, 2:17 PM #13
2 cone of colds are nice, too. If you got your timing right, you can keep a large group of enemies frozen for 100% of the fight.
2009-12-06, 3:25 PM #14
I had Leliana set up to use Critical Shot against any frozen enemy. Instant shatter.
If you think the waiters are rude, you should see the manager.
2009-12-06, 3:51 PM #15
Yeah, I have forcefield and am working my way up to crushing prison. I used that in the fade, with the spirit form, to devastating effect.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-06, 4:03 PM #16
Go back to Peggle, casual.
:master::master::master:
2009-12-06, 4:07 PM #17
BTW, you can sell items to Gorim for double the price if you're a dwarf noble... Anyone know if other backgrounds get the same perk? =/
2009-12-06, 5:13 PM #18
Probably not. I've never played a dwarf noble, and I've never gotten any special deals from Gorim.
If you think the waiters are rude, you should see the manager.
2009-12-06, 7:32 PM #19
Originally posted by Emon:
I'm on normal, but I'm a sissy mage and I don't have that many good items yet. It's usually the darkspawn battles that are a problem.


Dude, sissy mages are the BEST at taking on random battles.
I've got a sissy mage, and just yesterday I was complaining that no matter how far you travel, you can't get more than one random battle.
You can't judge a book by it's file size
2009-12-06, 7:52 PM #20
It's not really a problem anymore. It was just one particular darkspawn battle. It's the one where (assuming this is constant), Wynn falls over while walking back to the path. I thought I had already finished that bit, so I was annoyed that I kept having to play the same stupid battle. I must have loaded a previous game after I beat that, though.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-06, 8:10 PM #21
Yeah, that one's pretty tough for any party. I think it and the Leliana assassination attempt are two of the most difficult random encounters in the game, mainly because of the huge terrain advantage that the enemy gets.
If you think the waiters are rude, you should see the manager.
2009-12-07, 7:25 AM #22
Waking Nightmare and Sleep are both instant cast spells with no friendly fire.
Despite the advantage of combining the two, I'd mostly cast them on separate groups where possible. Sleeping the melee group and confusing the range group. That way you tie up all of the enemies at once. Then I like shoving a Death Cloud over as much as possible (death cloud being the one AOE damage spell that doesn't have friendly fire).
You can't judge a book by it's file size
2009-12-07, 9:59 PM #23
I also recently became an Arcane Warrior. I've only got level 2 of the ability and already it's incredibly :awesome:
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-07, 10:58 PM #24
Dragon Age got a patch today as well, FYI.
2009-12-08, 3:39 PM #25
They nerfed cone of cold. -.-
2009-12-08, 10:15 PM #26
Cone of cold wasn't really that cheap. It was cheap on enemies weak to cold, such as dragons I suppose.

Fireball can be really ****ing cheap.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-08, 10:23 PM #27
No, cone of cold was cheap. It was the most powerful and useful skill in the game, which will become quickly apparent to you in some of the more difficult fights later on.
America, home of the free gift with purchase.
2009-12-08, 10:54 PM #28
I don't want the update. I abuse Cone of Cold to the point that I'm not sure how I would beat the game on normal without it instantly freezing everything.
If you think the waiters are rude, you should see the manager.
2009-12-08, 10:57 PM #29
Originally posted by drizzt2k2:
No, cone of cold was cheap. It was the most powerful and useful skill in the game, which will become quickly apparent to you in some of the more difficult fights later on.

I've played through most of the game by now. I'm not sure if I have the update. I used cone of cold on the high dragon and it didn't last for more than a few seconds, but I can't tell if that's just that particular enemy.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-08, 11:54 PM #30
Originally posted by Michael MacFarlane:
I don't want the update. I abuse Cone of Cold to the point that I'm not sure how I would beat the game on normal without it instantly freezing everything.


I stopped using cone of cold around when I got blood magic.
I have so much awesome non-friendly fire crowd control that cone of cold seems weak and pathetic in comparison.
You can't judge a book by it's file size
2009-12-09, 12:23 AM #31
Argh, I had some AMAZING screenshots of my character killing an ogre. I paused it at the perfect moments during the kill, but the screenshots are not in the screenshot directory! :argh:
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-09, 10:37 AM #32
Is it one of those fancy dancy finishers? Those are pretty epic to watch when it happens XD
\(='_'=)/
2009-12-09, 10:42 AM #33
Melee dragon kills are the best.
Was cheated out of lions by happydud
Was cheated out of marriage by sugarless
2009-12-09, 6:09 PM #34
What have these patches done? I have to play it on easy to win simple battles that used to be quick and easy.

How is an average user that doesn't understand the game mechanics supposed to play this game?? I'm not a great RPG player but I have a good idea of how **** works, and this is ridiculous.
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-09, 6:22 PM #35
I have come to the conclusion that the game mechanics in DA:O absolutely suck compared to KotOR and Mass Effect. In KotOR and Mass Effect, I had choice over my abilities. Oh, DA lets you choose, but unless you choose the right skills and powers, you're ****ed later in the game! KotOR and Mass Effect gave you a wide variety of skills and powers, and even though they were often focused on the kind of enemy, at least they worked. Most of the spells I've gotten are completely worthless. The fact that cone of cold was so heavily relied upon should show this. All the spells that are supposed to instill fear or terror in your enemies? Worthless! Most of the stun spells don't last long enough for my character to finish pulling out his sword so he can strike!
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-09, 7:33 PM #36
Stun and paralyze abilities are best utilized when you have a rogue with Coup de Grace so the rogue can get automatic back stabs. Stronger enemies resist stun pretty well and all enemies can pass physical resistance checks that will prevent or reduce the length of stun. Your character's level and associated stats have a pretty big effect as well.
Pissed Off?
2009-12-09, 8:08 PM #37
Part of the problem seems to be the Oblivion-like leveling system. I understand the need to keep the game challenging, but the whole point of leveling up is that the regular battles get easier and easier. KotOR did this pretty well. By the time you're a full Jedi Master again, dealing with street punks is trivial.

It's not as bad as Oblivion though, where at high levels rats take 40 hits and forest bandits are supersoldiers with Daedric armor. :downswords:
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2009-12-10, 4:25 AM #38
I'm honestly bewildered at how some folks are finding it so difficult. And I don't mean that to brag, I just really had no trouble with the game all the way through on hard with my noble human warrior. Sure it wasn't a flawless run, and I definately met my end repeatedly against some enemies, but that was part of the fun. There's no fun in having everything handed to you on a silver plater. Truth be told, thats my issue with 90% of games these days. Everything is ridiculously easy.

I made some mistakes in what skills to pick, especially with my spellcasters, who lacked significant CC abilities like force field and crushing prison. I think I managed through with only Wynne's earthquake, Morrigan's frost tree and my various meleer's pummel/bash effects. Truth be told, I did all I could to limit Morrigan's use of those mentioned spells because it made things even easier.
Was cheated out of lions by happydud
Was cheated out of marriage by sugarless
2009-12-10, 5:40 AM #39
Totally with you on the difficulty thing Jep.
Though admittedly I kinda cheated in a way...
Got a mod that lets you get "respecialisation potions" so my wasted skills got recycled. Never used force field OR crushing prison though, those are the weaker CC spells.
You can't judge a book by it's file size
2009-12-10, 9:42 AM #40
Originally posted by Jep:
I'm honestly bewildered at how some folks are finding it so difficult.

Probably because you managed to pick the right skillset. BioWare seems to have ****ed this one up: the point of RPGs is being able to choose your character and have different character combinations. It's not "guess which abilities let you win and which get you pummeled into the ground!"
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
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