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Post by Daos on Jan 6, 2021 13:34:05 GMT -8
Defeating Howe was particularly satisfying for me in my first playthrough, due to my Human Noble background.
As for Anora, yeah...let me put it this way. You've met Cailan. He didn't strike you as particularly interesting in leadership, right? Anora was always the real power on the throne. Cailan just wanted to play hero. Anora is a real politician.
(All the more reason why Loghain would have freaked out at the thought of Cailan wanting to divorce Anora and marry Queen Celene. It would essentially put Orlais in charge of Fereldan again.)
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 7, 2021 7:42:42 GMT -8
Having rescued Anora, a large group of guards stopped us at the gate. We probably could have taken them, but I decided (for some reason) to instead surrender, break out, and then fight a bunch of guards. A bit unnecessary, probably. But hey.
Anyway, Howe wasn't wrong. Anora is crafty. But I don't see anything wrong with putting her on the throne--she's a stronger and more willing leader than Alistair, at any rate. Besides, he's totally cool with it. At least, that's how I read the room. Maybe he's completely lying and he'll throw a hissy fit and leave the party if Anora gets the throne. Probably not, but you never know.
Anyway, I know that Loghain is a potential party member if you make the right choices in the Landsmeet. I can't say I understand why. Hopefully, all I have to do is not let him join and Alistair will be cool. But I'll probably just kill him; you know, to be safe. Coriander is going to be veeeeery upset with him after doing the Alienage quest.
Oh, by the way, we can finally go back into the Alienage! I've been wanting to get back in there and say hi to all of Coriander's friends since Ostagar. It probably won't be pleasant, but, you know. Coriander's presence fixes every problem. (Except in Orzamarr...fricken Dwarf politics)
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 7, 2021 11:32:17 GMT -8
Coriander ventured into her old home, to find a bunch of Tevinter jerks kidnapping and enslaving the elves. After a brief awkward conversation with Leiliana about her wedding, Coriander went up to the leader, who claimed she had Blight. She then pointed out that Grey Wardens don't get Blight. He died. She continued to fight through the slavers, Intimidated one into retreating, and then met with Caladrian, the big boss himself. He proposed I pay him a ludicrous amount of money for documents incriminating Loghain, and he takes his slaves (including Coriander's father) and leaves. ...yeah, pass on that. Coriander offered an alternate deal: leave everything and run, and she'll go against her better judgement and decide he deserves to live. He didn't take the deal. After an intense battle, he surrendered, offering another deal: let him leave, and he'll kill all the elves in order to boost my health!
...he sucks at making deals.
Anyway, we killed him and saved the elves. We also gave 4 and a half sovereigns to some elven beggars who may have been elven con men. But, you know what? They live in a slum, and I have over 100 gold pieces. I can afford to help some impoverished elves, even if they're not as impoverished as they make themselves out to be.
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Post by Daos on Jan 7, 2021 14:15:27 GMT -8
Re: Big Fight It is possible to win the big fight, but it is very, very difficult. But honestly, unless you are super keen on collecting Ser Cauthrien's great sword, it's better to just surrender. More fun, too, because the breakout mission is great. You can either try and break out on your own, or you can wait for your companions to come get you. I prefer the latter, because the schemes they come up with (depending on who you select) are downright hair-brained. Sten is terrible at bluffing.  Re: Does Alistair want the throne? Depends on whether you harden him or not. If you do, he does want it and you have to talk him down about it if you don't want him to have it, too. On the other hand, if you do not harden him, he does not want the responsibility and you have to talk him into it if you want him to take the throne. Re: The Warden fixes everything I mean, you did solve things in Orzammar. They had a succession crisis, and now someone is on the throne. It's funny, though, the Grey Wardens are supposed to be all about not getting involved in local politics, and here you are, deciding the fate of every race and town in Fereldan; crowning kings, deciding who lives and dies, etc. Kind of ironic. Re: Tevinter Slaver Yes, I imagine this scene had a very different impact as a City Elf. Even as a Noble Human, I was pretty disgusted with the guy. It was a very difficult battle, too. Re: Elven Beggars I did the same thing. I'm sure they were laughing to themselves afterward about the gullible shem, but ehh, they need it more than me. Even if some of them are scammers. Plus, that whole scene was hilarious. Every time you go back, there are more of them. And Ollie's parents are still dead. |
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 8, 2021 6:25:57 GMT -8
After the Alienage was saved, we headed off to the Landsmeet to confront Loghain: once and for all. His arguments were...suspect, to say the least. He justified all his terrible things, like selling Elves, as necessary to win the war. After all, there are no innocents in war, only winners and losers. Putting aside how trashy of an argument it is, this is a war between sentient beings and corrupt, mindless monstrosities that kill everything in their path! I'm pretty sure this isn't an "everyone is a bad guy" situation! Thankfully, the Landsmeet was turned against him; only one man actually voted in his favor. Then, came the duel. Coriander barely managed to defeat Loghain, and accepted his surrender. Then Alistair went a bit crazy. ("HOW CAN YOU LET HIM LIVE HE KILLED EVERYONE I KNEW HE DESERVES NOTHING BETTER THAN A HORRIBLE DEATH" Jeez, Alistair. There's still plenty of time to kill him) Riordan offered an alternative: force him to undergo the Joining and become a Grey Warden. Ali made his thoughts on that very clear. Since he was so worked up about it, I let Alistair brutally murder him. ...I suppose he felt about Loghain the same way Coriander felt about Caladrian, come to think of it. Anyway, he did the deed, clean and swift. Grumpy Hypocrite Man was no more. After that, there was the small matter of succession. It was easy enough. Alistair didn't want the throne, Anora did. Bang! Enjoy your new country, milady. Try not to ruin it. Finally, we did Shale's personal quest, and it turns out SHALE used to be a Dwarf. Also named Shale. But with a Y. Shayle. Huh. It was a bit underwhelming, but SHALE got some pretty powerful crystals out of it. Ohgren also hooked up with Felsi, with the help of Coriander. And she only had to lie a little! By the way, I love how one of the options when you learn about his fling is "WHAT? You cheated on Branka?!?!?!" I'm pretty sure we're past sympathizing with her. So, what else is there to do before the endgame? - I did the quests for all of my Companions, except for Zevran (who doesn't get one past that Denerim encounter, as far as I can tell) and Morrigan (who I hate)
- I did all three supplementary DLCs (i.e. part of the main game, not a separate campaign)
- I've achieved my romance with Leiliana
- I'm not interested in going around and doing every single sidequest.
Is there anything else I'm missing?
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Post by Daos on Jan 8, 2021 14:03:43 GMT -8
Re: Landsmeet If you got all but one vote, you did perfectly. There is one fellow who always sides with Loghain no matter what. So if you got everyone but him, then you did everything you could. Good job!
Re: Succession
There are a few different ways that can shake out. You can put Anora on the throne, as you did. You can put Alistair on the throne. If you are a noble human, you can actually take it yourself (marrying Anora if you are male or marrying Alistair if you are female). You can also have Alistair and Anora marry and rule together, which is the path I took. It turned out pretty well. Anora is competent, but ruthless. Alistair is a good person, but lacks experience. They basically balance each other out.
The real sad thing, and nobody ever brings this up, is that this is all temporary. No matter who takes the throne, there will be no heirs. As Return to Ostagar hinted, Anora may be infertile. But even if that wasn't the case, Alistair or the Warden are Grey Wardens, and thus cannot have children. So no matter what route you take, given another couple of decades or so, there will be a new succession crisis. Well, hopefully Fereldan won't be in the middle of a Blight when that day comes.
Re: Shayle
Ah, yes. I avoided commenting on what Shale's pronounces were, because I didn't want to spoil it. I always refer to her as 'she/her' out of habit, and had to watch myself to avoid doing it by accident.
Re: Companion Quests
Yes, for whatever reason, Zevran is the only party member aside from Dog who does not have a personal quest. All you get is that Denerim encounter. If your approval with him isn't high enough, he betrays you and you're forced to kill him.
Re: What's Left?
You may not like her, but I would recommend completing Morrigan's personal quest. For story purposes (especially if you intend to play the sequels at any point).
Aside from that, the only thing I can really think of is, is that did you ever slay Andraste (the dragon)? You get some really nice loot, including scales that can be used to make armor in Wade's Emporium down in Denerim.
Other than that, you're probably good to begin the endgame.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 8, 2021 16:07:40 GMT -8
You may not like her, but I would recommend completing Morrigan's personal quest. For story purposes (especially if you intend to play the sequels at any point).
Aside from that, the only thing I can really think of is, is that did you ever slay Andraste (the dragon)? You get some really nice loot, including scales that can be used to make armor in Wade's Emporium down in Denerim.
Other than that, you're probably good to begin the endgame.
Hmm...the biggest problem is how approval is going to get high enough. There's not enough evil decisions to make left to get her on Coriander's good side, and using the Feastday Gifts feels a bit cheaty. Besides, that's sort of...metagame-y? I admit, it's not really a problem in a single-player game, but Coriander doesn't have the slightest interest in Morrigan and her problems. ...this is a bit of a character rant, and I'm probably about to slander this game you love so much. (Sorry. [but mostly just slandering Morrigan]) No matter how much people talk about how Morrigan's childhood is terrible, and how she was raised to be evil, she isn't written like a character who only knows how to be an evil jerk and doesn't understand how you wouldn't be an evil jerk. She's written like an evil jerk who knows she's an evil jerk, and doesn't care. There are other companions with somewhat dubious morality, but you sort of...understand why they're like that, and at the end of the day, they're still pleasant people? But Morrigan's not like that at all. Anyway, I never fought the dragon, and I didn't really intend to. But if you win me over about Morrigan's quest, I'll probably do that, too. |
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Post by Daos on Jan 8, 2021 16:21:47 GMT -8
Even without Feastday, it's really easy to get Morrigan's approval up. I'd just leave her in camp and ply her with jewelry gifts. In one playthrough, I even romanced her that way.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 8, 2021 16:33:10 GMT -8
I suppose. I've already given her quite a few gifts, so she's between 10 and 20 approval. I don't really want to go around the world, searching for those gifts, though? That's more effort that I'd care to put into Morrigan.
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Post by Daos on Jan 8, 2021 17:03:31 GMT -8
Well, I'd tell you how to use a console command to just auto-raise it, but you said you had the Feastday gifts already on hand, so that just seems unnecessary.
Would it help if I told you you actually don't bring Morrigan with you when doing her companion quest at all? In fact, she insists on being left at camp for it.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 8, 2021 17:11:07 GMT -8
Well, I'd tell you how to use a console command to just auto-raise it, but you said you had the Feastday gifts already on hand, so that just seems unnecessary. Would it help if I told you you actually don't bring Morrigan with you when doing her companion quest at all? In fact, she insists on being left at camp for it. Hmm.......not really? I guess I just don't like the idea of Morrigan actually liking Coriander enough to offer the quest. How...vital is the information in the quest? Is it the sort of thing that the game assumes you know by Dragon Age II? I still don't think it's necessary, since Hawke wouldn't know about the events, whether the Warden did it or not. I presume it's about Flemeth, who I know is some sort of mythical witch-goddess, from Leiliana's stories. And I presume it teaches you all sorts of secret forbidden knowledge about her. But I'm not that interested, honestly. |
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Post by Daos on Jan 8, 2021 17:15:18 GMT -8
It does relate to Flemeth, yes.
But if you're that determined not to do it, then I won't twist your arm about it. I can always fill you in on what you missed later.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 8, 2021 17:19:05 GMT -8
It does relate to Flemeth, yes. But if you're that determined not to do it, then I won't twist your arm about it. I can always fill you in on what you missed later. Well...truth be told, not long after asking you about other stuff to do, I went ahead and started the endgame, albeit with an emergency contingency save. So I'd have to re-go through a lot of cutscenes if I wanted to go back and do the quest, and I'm not sure I want to do that for Morrigan, of all people. But whatever, I'll think about it and decide next time i play. |
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Post by Daos on Jan 8, 2021 17:29:28 GMT -8
I found Morrigan off-putting on my first playthrough, too, but I never felt so strongly that I avoided her quest. I'm curious, if you disliked her that much, why didn't you just kick her from the party entirely?
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jan 8, 2021 17:58:21 GMT -8
I found Morrigan off-putting on my first playthrough, too, but I never felt so strongly that I avoided her quest. I'm curious, if you disliked her that much, why didn't you just kick her from the party entirely? ...well, by the time I realized I could ask her to leave, I had more or less stopped talking to her. So...*shrug*. I suppose I have enough completionist in me to not want to lose companions, but not enough to actually do their quests. |
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