=========================================================
Index
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1 - Update History
2 - Character Creation
3 - The Origins
3.01 - City Elf
3.02 - Dalish Elf
3.03 - Dwarven Commoner
3.04 - Dwarven Noble
3.05 - Human Noble
3.06 - Mage
4 - Walkthrough
5 - Side Quests
6 - The NPCs
7 - Specializations
8 - About the Author
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1. Update History
=========================================================
v.0.5 - 11/24/2009 - First draft of guide completed. Still need to add numbers
to the main storyline walkthrough and side quests so as to help them be
searchable. Walkthrough about 55% completed. Stone Prisoner 50% complete.
Warden's Keep downloaded so that will be in next update.
v.1.0 - 11/29/2009 - Entire game is completed. Stone Prisoner is finished and
Warden's Keep is done as well. Only things remaining are the Prince
Bhelen path in Orzammar and a few differences in the game based on your
chosen Origin .
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2. Character Creation
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Races
===================
Dwarf
--------------
Starting Bonuses: +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +2 Constitution
10% Resistance to Hostile Magic
--------------
The Dwarven race hasn't exactly been having a good time of it for the past
century or so. Because of their closeness to the darkspawn underground they
have been battling against the monsters in a losing battle. They have had quite
a hard time in their lives due to this. As a race they make for great warriors
but there are plentiful rogues amongst them as well. The one thing that they
don't have are mages since their innate magic resistance prevents them from
properly harnessing magics.
The dwarves can pick from one of two Origins. They can either be nobles or
commoners. The nobles engage in a good bit of politicking, backstabbing each
other with regularity in power plays. It's a petty life that does its best to
ignore the fact that the dwarven race is on the verge of extinction. The
commoners battle amongst each other in a vicious fight for survival.
--------------
Elf
--------------
Starting Bonuses: +2 Magic, +2 Willpower
--------------
The Elves have suffered quite a bit recently. First they lost their homeland in
a battle with the humans which resulted in them being subjagated by the humans.
After some of them managed to take some land, the Dales, they managed to craft
a sort of second homeland for themselves. Unfortunately this too came to an end
when the Dales were destroyed, scattering the Elves yet again.
Elves can pick from one of three Origins. Fighters and Rogues can pick to be
either City or Dalish Elves. The Dalish are wild elves, living in the wooded
lands while trying to keep as much of their heritage alive as possible. They're
reclusive in the extreme, not known for their association with outsiders. The
City Elves chose to stay living amongst the humans as second class citizens in
fairly miserable lives but more stable than that of the Dalish. The last Origin
is for Mages and is that of the Magi origin. This is a special one unrelated to
the others.
--------------
Human
--------------
Starting Bonuses: +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Magic, +1 Cunning
--------------
Humans are essentially the everyman race. They excel at nothing but are capable
of doing most everything. As the undisputed rulers of Ferelden humans are the
most numerous of the races in the land as well as the most powerful, having
driven the elves to exile and slavery while the dwarves slowly die at the hands
of the darkspawn. Humans can range from powerful nobles to simple commoners to
the warriors that make up the bodies of the armies of Ferelden.
There is only one Origin for the humans, that of the Human Noble. This places
you in the boots of the youngest son to a lord of Highever, a simple but fairly
prosperous land. However the cruelty of politics and ambition rear their ugly
head in your life, throwing it for a loop. The other Origin is for Mages and is
that of the Magi origin. This is a special one unrelated to the others.
===================
Classes
===================
Warrior
--------------
Starting Bonuses
----------
Health: 100
Stamina: 100
Stat Bonuses: +4 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Constitution
Starting Skill: Combat Training
Starting Feat: Shield Bash, Precise Shot or Dual-Weapon Sweep
Levels to Gain Skill: 3
Health Per Level: 6
Stamina Per Level: 5
Base Attack: 60
Base Defense: 45
--------------
Warriors are the backbone of any adventuring party due to their raw power and
ability to survive attacks that would kill most rogues or magi. The important
stats are strength, dexterity and constitution. If you're going to use the
Coercion skill then cunning is helpful as well. There are four distinct ways to
play a warrior:
- Dual-Wielding Warrior: Fighters of this ilk sacrifice a bit of defense for
the ability to use another weapon. This allows them to strike more often in
combat as well as using a number of powerful area of effect skills. While the
second weapon doesn't gain your full strength bonus it can be used to attack
and, on occasion, it will block attacks like a shield.
**Specializations: It is suggested that you give these fighters Berserker and
Champion / Reaver specialization. These compliment their skills very well.
- Sword & Shield Warrior: These are the most useful tanks amongst the warriors.
Their shield provides an incredible amount of defensive ability that only
gets better as they increase in skill. However they can use the shield for
offense as well for stunning, damaging and knocking foes over. Overall those
who go this path should focus on getting better armor, shields and more HP.
**Specialization: Go for Templar and Champion. Templar is invaluable in your
ability to resist hostile magics while Champion simply increases your
effectiveness overall.
- Two-Handed Warrior: Sacrificing almost all defense for pure offensive power
these warriors are incredibly powerful. They have an easy time keeping their
enemies on the defensive by knocking them down, stunning them and killing
them quickly with raw power. However fighters of this type tend to need to be
babysat quite a bit since they can die easily. Get them the best weapons and
armor you can afford as well as misc. equipment. It's hard to keep them alive
sometimes but it's well worth it.
**Specialization: This is a tough one. If you want to increase your staying
power then Champion helps, Templar can help a bit as well. But if you want to
go pure destruction Reaver and Champion work well.
- Archer: A long range warrior who focuses on picking enemies apart rather than
pure damage, there are few times you will find yourself wishing that you had
an archer with you but when you have one it will be invaluable. They don't do
much damage most of the time but they can pick at enemies with their skills,
sticking them in place, weakening their defenses and other negative effects.
**Specialization: You should probably stick with Templar and Champion with
your archers. Templars gain the ability to drain magic with each attack so by
focusing on a mage you can reduce their effectiveness. Champion is just all
around useful.
--------------
Rogue
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Starting Bonuses
----------
Health: 90
Stamina: 90
Stat Bonuses: +4 Dexterity, +2 Willpower, +1 Cunning
Starting Skill: Poison-Making
Starting Feat: Dirty-Fighting
Levels to Gain Skill: 2
Health Per Level: 5
Stamina Per Level: 4
Base Attack: 55
Base Defense: 50
--------------
Your rogues likely will never play a main role in your combat teams but they
are always useful, in combat or otherwise. Outside of combat they can disarm
traps, open locks and steal from folk. Inside of combat they can stun enemies,
reduce their effectiveness and just generally cause a ruckus. The important
stats for a rogue are cunning and dexterity. Willpower can help you use more
skills but you should NEVER need a high strength, take the Lethality skill to
make your Cunning skill determine your melee damage. In addition almost all of
the rogue types should make use of poisons, it simply makes your attacks all
that much more effective. The three ways to play a Rogue are as follows
although they're not as simple as warriors:
- Dual-Wielder rogue: The dual-wielders are the closest you will get to a
warrior type amongst the rogues. In addition to raising up the dual-wielding
skills you will want to raise a lot of the rogue class skills. Stealth works
well as do the Dirty Fighting and Below the Belt skill trees. Your highest
priority is to get the first Dual-Wield skill tree up all the way so that you
can use two large weapons (ie. two longswords) instead of a sword and dagger.
**Specialization: There's no question with what should be done with the dual-
wielding rogues. Assassin and Duelist, hands down. These two together make a
melee rogue very scary especially if you take ranks in stealth.
- Archer rogue: Archer rogues are your basic type of rogue since they require
very little attention to be paid to them. Simply increase the archery skills
as well as whatever rogue skills are of interest to you. These are usually
the rogues where you can afford to take a good amount of lockpicking skill
as well as anything else that appeals, even a few ranks in dual-wielding.
**Specialization: It's honestly irrelevant. Duelist can help while Bards are
probably a better idea. Assassin isn't quite as useful but it has its high
points. Ranger is probably the best of the lot for a pure ranged character.
- Pure Rogue: This is a tough one to play as it's not the most combat oriented.
Rogues of this type get the majority of their skills from the Dirty Fighting
and Lethality skill trees and focus on raising your stealth and lockpicking
skills. By using stealth you can then proceed to bomb people with acid bombs
and soulrot bombs which are suprisingly effective.
**Specialization: It's probably a good idea to take the Ranger specialization
since you won't have much offense and this helps. Other than that it's up to
your personal tastes.
--------------
Mage
--------------
Starting Bonuses
----------
Health: 85
Stamina: 115
Stat Bonuses: +5 Magic, +4 Willpower, +1 Cunning
Starting Skill: Poison-Making
Starting Feat: Dirty Fighting
Levels to Gain Skill: 3
Health Per Level: 4
Magic Per Level: 6
Base Attack: 50
Base Defense: 45
* NOTE: Dwarves cannot be Mages due to their innate magical resistance.
--------------
Mages are the only ones in the game that can use actual magical spells. This
leaves them to be your offensive spellcasters, your magical healers and your
support casters all in one. As such it's pretty hard to have only one of these
guys in your party but you can find ways to manage. The important stats to any
mage are willpower and magic. Everything else is pretty much just icing on the
cake so do as you like. There are two main types of spellcaster:
- Pure Offense: These types of mages are more focused on just killing every
enemy that crosses their path than anything else. Mages of this type should
focus on lightning and ice paths as well as Walking Bomb. It's also best to
go after the Affliction Hex spell as this will make it much easier to kill
large groups of enemies. Generally speaking you should aim for Cone of Cold,
Fireball and most Lightning magics.
**Specialization: Blood Mage and Arcane Warrior are the best bet with this type
of mage although there's nothing wrong with the other two. To be honest the
mage specializations are more personal choice than anything else.
- Healer Mage: As you can probably guess this type of mage will focus on the
creation group of magics. Regenerate, Heal, Revival and a number of other
skills will prove to be very helpful. Be mindful that the Rejuvenate line of
spells cannot be cast on yourself even the group spell as they never have
any effect on the caster. So don't count on that helping you when your MP
begins to run low.
**Specialization: It's pretty important that you get Spirit Healer unlocked as
soon as possible. This will make your party much harder to kill thanks to the
group heal spell.
===================
Origin Bonuses
===================
Human Noble: Combat Tactics
Magi: Combat Tactics
City Elf: Coercion
Dalish Elf: Survival
Dwarf Commoner: Stealing
Dwarf Noble: Combat Training
===================
Character Suggestions
===================
For your first few playthroughs of the game it is suggested that you create
characters that have all of their bonuses and skills synch up perfectly. This
will enable you to get the full view of what you can do in this game with a
character who is running on all cylinders. After that you can make less ideal
types of characters, such as Dalish Elf Rogues, thus having more options.
A few examples are found below
Human, Noble, Warrior: This will provide you with a solid basis for a very
well rounded fighter. However if you'd like something
just a bit more specialized.
Dwarf, Noble, Warrior: These are the more powerful fighters in the game due
to high stats and solid Combat Training right out the
door due to class and race bonuses.
Elf, City, Rogue - Coercion is a great skill for anyone much less a rogue and
it's good to get one rank for free. In addition you get the
poison-making skill for being a rogue. Put points into the
Combat Training skill and then place your talent points into
the dual-wield traits to start on a powerful character. You
can add Assassin and Duelist to this for even more power.
=========================================================
3. The Origins
=========================================================
3.01 - City Elf
========================
Once you've finished your conversation go to the chest and get your things from
inside. Now speak to your father to recieve some boots from your mother. With
that done you can either walk around, speaking to people, or just go straight
to complete this section of the origin. It is highly suggested you at least
speak to certain folk:
- Dilwyn: Her and her husband are friends of your mother and will give you
some silver as a wedding present.
- Nessa's Father: While the father and mother are kind of jerkish, Nessa does
not wish to go with them to Ostagar. If giving her money doesn't sit well
with you then speak to her father for her. Use Coercion to Persuade him to
let her stay with your father. This will allow her to stay here.
Whenever you're ready make your way over to Soris. After a bit of chit-chat he
will take you to see your significant other to be. On your way you will be
caught up with Vaughn, the Arl of Denerim's son, stopping to be a jerk. There's
no real way to end that situation well. More talking with your arranged partner
before a man walks into the Alienage. Speak to Duncan before heading on over to
the elevated platform to start the wedding. However things don't go quite as
you may have hoped...
-------------------
Male City Elf
-------------------
Once Vaughn has made off with your wife-to-be head on over to the gathering of
Elves. They're planning on rescuing the women. Getting in can be accomplished
thanks to an elf who works as a servant in the Arl's estate. When you make your
way there speak to the servant who will get you inside. Follow him and he will
take you to a door that gets you in to rescue the women.
-------------------
Female City Elf
-------------------
You awaken in a room with the other women that they took. After a bit of things
going from bad to worse Soris comes to your rescue. You and him should have no
difficult taking down the soldiers. Strip them of everything they've got and
get yourself and him equipped. Now leave the room and search the next room as
well as the room to the south. Head into the hall to the north when ready.
-------------------
Three Off-Duty Guards challenge you and there's no real way past them. It's
better to kill them anyways so just attack them. Take them out one by one to
finish this with minimal risk of damage. Heading to the hallway to the west
leads you to a fight with a guard. Take him out and then go into the room to
the west. This is an armory with another guard, once you've taken him out you
have free reign to pillage the room.
Now head for the northern door. When you enter this room you see Nelaros' fate
and are then attacked by a trio of guards. If you're playing a rogue it's very
easy to die here as they seem to prioritize you. Try to have Soris use Shield
Bash on whichever of them you're not fighting so as to distract at least one.
This will spare you some health potions. When they're dead search the bodies
before moving on.
There is another guard in the next hallway so take him out. The first room on
the west wall has a locked chest and book. The first room on the east is a dog
Kennel with two easy Dog Trainers and a tough Mabari to fight. Search all of
the bodies as well as the crate before moving on. You can also open the kennels
to fight the other two Mabari, it's good for experience. The second room on the
west wall contains three Off-Duty Guards and a locked chest as does the second
room on the east wall. The third door on the east wall contains nothing.
With that done head through the door to the north to enter the entrance hall to
the Arl's home. Kill the two guards here, they should pose no major threat,
and then go through the eastern door. This hallway contains another guard.
You now appear to have a number of possible ways to go. The southernmost door
is locked so unless you're a rogue you can't get in there to get to the two
guards and ornate chest. The northwestern door leads to another door but this
one can only be opened by a key. The other northern door is much the same - it
is locked unless you have the key. So all that leaves is the eastern door. Go
on through the door and search the jars and armoire in the room before going
out the next eastern door.
Since the game saves you know trouble is afoot. There is a trap in this hallway
that, when triggered, prompts a strong fire attack from the gargoyle down the
hall. You can avoid it but your ally likely won't so Soris is going to be hurt
by it just in time for a powerful Bodyguard to rush you. If you're a rogue he
can take away most of your health with one Shield Bash since he pummels you as
you try to get up off the floor. Try to get one of you on each side of him as
this will often leave him turning back and forth to attack both of you. This
limits how much he hurts one person and will keep you both alive regardless of
which class you are.
The first door to the north is locked and contains only a Private Documents
pick-up and a book. Now search the room to the south to find a crate with an
item inside of it before going north. Search the vase and then go through the
northern door again to reach Vaughn.
If you accept his offer of gold then you will be given fourty Sovereigns, you
get to keep twenty of it, and you are then able to make your way back to the
Alienage. However guards will show up, take your money and attempt to throw you
into the dungeon. Duncan will save you but you will have gained nothing from
doing it this way. The money can be reclaimed when you come back to Denerim
later in the game (not when you complete Lothering) but by then the twenthy
gold won't matter as much. Instead it's best to take the obvious route...
Should you refuse his offer you get to kill Vaughn and his two little laughing
idiots. This is actually a pretty tough fight, mostly because these guys have
a number of skills to use that will annoy you. Vaughn has the ability to use
Dirty Fighting while Braden can use Shield Bash to knock people around. The
last one is mostly irrelevant. Try to have your strongest fighter take on
two of them while the other takes on Vaughn alone. If you can do this then it
won't be too hard to focus on Braden and Vaughn, whittling down their healths
and taking them out, leaving you to clean up. When the fighting is over search
the bodies and the room before talking to Shianni.
When this section is over you will have the option of saying who caused the
situation in the Arl's house. You can say it was you and Soris but, even
better, you can simply say that it was only you. This spares Soris being thrown
into prison while you get off scott free. It's a win-win situation for everyone
involved in this mess.
With that done speak to anyone in town that you wish to, namely Soris, your
father and Shianni, before leaving with Duncan.
========================
3.02 - Dalish Elf
========================
Your friend Tamlin has captured some humans who were trespassing on the Dalish
lands. Ask them where they came from and they will eventually tell you of the
ruins that they found as well as where they found them. You can choose to deal
with the humans however you like, it makes no real difference.
With that done make your way forward, this is a straight path with only a pair
of wolves feeding on a halla to get in your way. While moving search everything
you see for codex entries as well as items. There is even a locked chest just
past the wolves if you're a rogue. At the end of the path is a cave - head down
into it to find these ruins the humans mentioned.
Search the cocoon as you go forward but be wary as two giant spiders come out
to attack. Take them out but don't leave the area just yet. Go to the north to
find a pile of bones you can search. There is also a locked chest to the south
for rogues to open. Go through the door to find yourself in a hallway that goes
to the north and south.
The south is a dead end unless you're a rogue. Past the door is a trio of giant
spiders as well as a cocoon. But the door that leads out to the west is locked
and the door to the north just leads to the same room that going north does.
However it's worth going this way as the small hallway has a pile of bones you
can search to find some good equipment, worth selling if you're not going to be
using it yourself.
The northern path takes you to a room with a trio of spiders in it. Defeat them
and search the room to find a pile of bones and cocoon. If you went this way
first search the southern hallway for some items before continuing to the west.
Regardless of how you get there the western hallway contains no enemies. There
is a statue that will prompt some dialogue with Tamlen. Just to your west is a
door but when you approach it a bunch of undead attack as well as a trap going
off. Even rogues seem to have real issues with picking this trap up so there's
little to do but cope with it. The two undead aren't too tough but if you're an
archer you'll find that your arrows don't do much damage, switch to melee. If
you've got blunt weapons now's the time to use them.
When they're defeated go through the door to find a mirror as well as the demon
that the humans mentioned, a Bereskarn. This is essentially a darkspawn tainted
bear and it's pretty powerful. It's not as bad as later boss type enemies but
it can lay a world of hurt upon you and Tamlen if you're not careful, notably
on the higher difficulties. When it dies search the mirror. This causes a bit
of strangeness that ends with you back at home with your fellow Elves.
After much dialogue you will be told to head back to the cave with a Dalish
mage, Merril. Speak to Fenarel nearby, he wishes to come with you. It's very
much advised that you bring him along as another body is helpful.Scour the camp
for items, there are plenty of things to be found in various crates. If you're
a rogue there's even more treasure to be had in locked chests. Find Ilen near
the Hunter's Aravel. You can Persuade him to give you a Scout's Bow but his
main purpose is that of shopkeeper. Sell him anything you have that you don't
need and pick up weapons if you see any that will help out.
When you're ready to leave speak to Merril to be poofed on over to where you
and Tamlen were.
As soon as you start moving forward a pair of darkspawn will start shooting at
you with their bows. The trio of you can make short work of them. Move forward
to find a camp, your group discusses it for a bit before being attacked by some
darkspawn from the direction of the ruins. These three aren't too difficult
even though they rush you. Merril's Flame Blast and Arcane Bolt help out quite
a bit here. When they're dead head forward to enter the ruins again.
There are three groups of enemies inside the ruins now: a trio of darkspawn in
both the north and south rooms and a final trio in the hall just outside of the
mirror room. The ones in the north and south rooms are easy enough to defeat
but the last one bears some noting. This group has one melee Genlock, one
archer Genlock and a Genlock Emissary, he is the problem. Genlock Emissaries
are magic users, capable of using many spells to make your life difficult. This
one mainly uses his staff to fire corrosive attacks but he will also use Arcane
Bolt at times as well as Drain Life. Try to have an archer and Merril attacking
him to make short work of him while someone else keeps the melee Genlock busy.
Search the bodies before going to the mirror room and speaking to Duncan. This
ends with him going back to your camp with your party. You are told to speak to
Paivel but you can speak to whomever you wish around the camp. Return to the
Keeper after speaking to Paivel to end this really weak Origin story.
========================
3.03 - Dwarven Commoner
========================
Once you've finished talking to Beraht and your sister search the chest nearby.
With those items in hand head on out of the house to run into your associate
Leske. Make your way out of this part of town, into the Commons where you will
find a place called Tapster's Tavern. Speak to the bartender to find out that
Oskias is here... and bully the punk a bit.
Head over to Oskias to find out that he's been taking Lyrium to sell to the
surface dwellers. He claims he was going to share with Beraht but it's up to
you as to whether you believe him or not. But that's not what's most important
here, what's important is what you want to do. You can either take the Lyrium
offered, Intimidate him into giving you two Lyrium or kill him and take the lot
of it from him. Regardless of what you choose to do you will end up with the
Lyrium in hand.
Make your way to Beraht's Shop to speak to him. Now you have another choice,
you can either keep the Lyrium Nuggets or give them to Beraht. Selling them is
worth a fair bit so if you don't feel like being loyal hide them from him. He
has another quest for you, this time in the Proving Grounds so head on over
there next. Show the pass to the guard to get inside.
You can find Duncan the Grey Warden in the main area, speak to him if you like.
If not then you will want to head to the northwest to find Everd. He's passed
out on the floor so you'll have to dress up in his armor and fight in the
Proving Grounds for him. You can either do this the legitimate way or you can
send Leske to drug Mainar. In either case get the armor from his chest and put
it on so that you can pretend to be him.
Walk over to Mainar and speak to him to distract him from Leske's tampering. If
you're not doing this, or once you get it done, head on over to the Guard and
you'll be taken into the Proving Ground to fight Mainar. Suprisingly he's not
all that hard if you're a warrior. The main threat of this battle is he can
stun you. This means that if you're not able to survive a few of his attacks
without healing yourself then you may be in for trouble. This is why rogues
should always poison him, it gives you much better odds of defeating him. You
want this to be as easy as possible since you still have more fighting to do
after this bout.
Your second fight is against Adalbo and he's a bit harder than Mainar but he's
not poisoned so you'll need to be careful. Try to keep him knocked down and /
or stunned as much as possible while trying to heal only when absolutely needed
as you still have one more fight. This berseker hits hard as hell, doing 10+
damage with pretty much every hit, so you may find it to be a good idea to pull
back, running away to let your skills recharge and then get back to stunning.
Lenka is the last one you will fight and she's not as bad as Adalbo but she
uses two weapons which means she's not hitting as hard but she is hitting more
often. However if you're using a shield or second weapon you will block a few
of her attacks which will keep you alive much longer. You shouldn't have much
difficulty taking her out. Unfortunately afterwards things go sour very quickly
and result in you being taken captive.
After the dialogue ends you will need to get out of the cell and there are a
few ways to go about this. You can either unlock your cell (if a rogue), search
the rubble in your cell for splinters you can give to Leske as lockpicks, call
the guard over and try to get him into your cell to take him out (not a good
idea generally) or call him over to pick his pocket. It's a good idea to give
the picks to Leske so he can open his cell and take out the guard for you.
However you get out get your belongings back from the chest and then loot the
guard. Now head for the door and out into the hallways. The southern path is
sealed so just go east. When you open the door you need to be careful. There is
a trap close by and the room has five enemies waiting for you. There's no good
way past this fight so just rush in with Leske and try to take out the guy with
the two handed weapon first and then everyone else second.
When they're defeated search the bodies as well as the containers in the room
for some decent items. Continue forward to find three more of these thugs,
take them out and search this area as well. Go through the door into the halls
so you can keep going north. The next room has four more thugs, as well as a
trap right at the bottom of the steps that's hard to avoid, so try to take
them out as quickly as possible, it's easy to get overrun if they gang up three
or four on one. Use stunning skills to spare yourself grief. Search the room
before you head out the eastern door.
In this hallway you will find a trio of doors; east, north and west. The north
one is sealed while the southern one has a pair of thugs that come to attack as
you pass by. Search the tunnel behind that door for a locked chest. The eastern
door autosaves as you near it which means very bad things. Go on through to
find Beraht planning on passing your sister around to his friends.
Surprisingly enough, even with a fairly weak rogue, you shouldn't have any
problems with this fight. Go for Beraht first, getting Leske behind him so that
he can backstab him, and the fight will go pretty easy. He's the only real
danger here as he can stun you, block your attacks with his shield and he does
a good bit of damage. The two thugs are nobodies who go down quite fast so go
for the damage dealer first and then clean up.
Search the bodies for anything you can find and then it's time to leave. If you
wish you can try to have Leske unlock the southern door, as well as the chest
inside, or do it yourself if you're a rogue but then it's time to go. Follow
the path out the northern door into Beraht's Shop. Head out into the Commons to
run into guards as well as Duncan. This is where the Origin story ends.
========================
3.04 - Dwarven Noble
========================
After your conversation with Gorim ends you will have the option of going to
see the merchants or head over to see the Proving grounds. Before doing either
of these open the chest in the room and gather your things. Now explore the
palace a bit before leaving. If you want to just get this on its way go into
the throne room but it's not suggested.
Heading outside there are a few things to note. Just outside you can find a
scholar and noble in the middle of a debate that's likely to leave the scholar
dead. Either help him or not, it's your choice. Further down the street you
will find your two brothers, that doesn't go well either. You can also find a
pair of women who are hunting nobles, trying to get pregnant so as to be raised
up to living in the nobles house. This is a big deal to the Dwarves so if you
are playing a male it's something to consider.
Next, at the weapons stall, the merchant has something to as of you. He has a
dagger that he wishes for you to have - wearing it means angering your brother
but if you're hoping to be king that's not a bad thing. Beyond that there's
not much to do here so head on over to the Proving Ground, an escort will take
you there.
Once you arrive you will either be able to simply grace it with your presence
by having come to watch or participate. If you can handle the fighting it's a
good idea to get involved since you'll net some experience that way. The first
battle is against someone with a two-handed hammer, you can defeat him easily
even if you're a rogue. The second one, Lady Helmi, is a bit tougher if you're
not a fighter since she hits so fast that it'll drain your health rapidly. Use
of Dirty Fighting is necessary to get through this.
The next opponent, Lord Blackstone, is a hell of fighter. His hammer is more
than capable of cutting down your health in short order so be very careful here
or you will find yourself very hurt. Keep him stunned / knocked down or what
have you if you wish to beat him. Lastly is Frandlin Ivo who is going to hurt
even the most defensive of warriors and pose an issue for most rogues. Fighting
him is a measure of your ability to survive a tough opponent one on one at this
early juncture since he will use Shield Bash and Shield Pummel to keep you from
fighting back. If you're a warrior you should be able to tough it out but a
rogue should use Dirty Fighting, get some backstabs in and then run away until
DF recharges and then repeat this.
With him beaten there's nothing else to do here. You are given a Ceremonial
Helm or you can have it sent to Frandlin Ivo. Regardless of what you do head
back to the Palace for your feast now.
If you speak with Lord Dace he will ask you to support his cause. If you agree
to do this then speak to Lady Helmi to get another viewpoint on the matter. You
can also speak to Duncan the Grey Warden. With that done you may now go ahead
and speak to your father to move this whole thing along. The nobles attending
will speak... namely Lord Dace if you spoke to him and then the story will move
along to the next part.
You are sent to locate Trian and have him sent to your father. When you enter
his room you can read his journal to find out what part of Triam's issue with
you is - jealousy. Overall though he doesn't seem to be a really bad person.
Talk to him and he will leave, leaving you alone with Bhelen. Bhelen believes
that you will be assassinated by your brother. Your choice in talking to him is
to either refuse to fight Trian or make plans with Bhelen to do something about
Trian and his plotting. When you finish your conversation you can turn in for
the night... or try to make babies with your new friend(s).
Next you are asked by your father to find a thaig that was abandoned by the
dwarven ancestors, one that contains a shield of your family.
Head through the tunnel to your west. As you move along you will be attacked by
a giant spider, defeat it and keep going. Further ahead, at an intersection, a
pair of Genlocks attack rom the east. Be careful going after them since there
is a leghold trap in your way that's hard to find even if you're a rogue. Try
to lure them out to defeat them easily. Search the bodies as well as the dead
dwarf inside the place they came from before moving on.
Further ahead you will meet Frandlin Ivo from the Proving Grounds. He will join
you for this next leg of the adventure. Your destination is to the southwest
but you can't actually head that way since the paths are blocked. However go to
the southwestern path to find a group of Deepstalkers waiting for you. Defeat
them, search the bodies as well as the dead dwarf nearby and then double back.
Head down the southwestern tunnel. Here you will encounter a group of Genlock
just waiting to be killed. Split your men up to take them down with ease. Check
the area for items and then move on. A scout is waiting for you just up ahead
and he will join you as well. Keep going through the narrow tunnels until you
come out in a larger room with numerous Genlocks. Have your men focus on taking
out the melee Genlock as well as the Genlock Alpha before worrying about the
numerous archers.
Pass by the statues of the dwarven warriors to reach the hidden thaig. It seems
that someone has gotten in there ahead of us so let's move carefully. As you
walk over the bridge you will be confronted by a group of mercenaries. These
men propose you tell them where the shield is and you don't kill them. So just
go ahead and kill them first. Have two of your party go after the Mercenary
Captain while a fighter keeps the schmo with the two handed weapon busy. Leave
your scout to take out an archer. So long as you can keep the captain from
fighting back too much with knockdown or stun attacks this should be easy.
However as you move ahead you will find a mercenary using the ballista to try
and take you out so get to them and cut them apart. Pick up the ballista bolts
from the barrel nearby and search the corpses. You will find Thain's Signet
Ring on one of the bodies. Head further to the north of this chamber to find
a battered ballista, load it and fire it at the stone wall to clear a path back
to the crossroads chamber. With that done you can head into the Thaig Chamber.
Now you'll need to solve a bit of a puzzle to get the shield out of that
sarcophagus but it's simple enough. Tell your party to Hold Position in the
radial menu. Now find the three tiles on the ground that go down when you step
on them - have each of your allies, not you, stand on them. With them all in
place go over to the sarcophagus and use your signet ring to open it. Take the
shield out and then it's time to head to the crossroads.
When you leave a number of Genlocks wait to attack and this time they've gotten
a Blight Wolf friend to help out. Send one fighter to keep the melee Genlock
busy while two of your party members go after the Blight Wolf. Let the archer
pick at either the Blight Wolf or any Genlock who try to get behind those who
are fighting the Blight Wolf. Once the wolf is down you can simply play clean
up with the easy to kill Genlocks.
As you near the crossroads Gorim will speak to you. Handle that however you
please before moving forward. You will find Trian's corpse here shortly before
everyone else finds their way to your location. It all ends poorly as you might
have guessed. From here you will have some talking to get through before you
are set out in the Deep Roads.
Once there walk forward and then go into the tunnels to the east. Kill the
Giant Spider before searching the nearby corpse. This will net you some armor,
a bow and a two-handed sword which is everything you need no matter what sort
of warrior you may be. Further down the tunnel you will find a pair of Genlock,
get right into their faces and cut them up. Search the dead dwarf nearby to
find a dagger and some gloves for yet more armor.
To the northeast in this large chamber you can find a wooden crate and locked
chest, loot them before going south. You will pass an intersection, the east
corner has a giant spider and darkspawn corpse to search while the western path
has two Deepstalkers to fight. It's suggested you deal with them both before
continuing on as this will help boost your experience and net you equipment.
Keep going south to come across thee Genlocks one by one, the first is before
the next intersection while the other two occur there. Defeat them so you can
check the dead dwarf and get his armor from him. This is Superior Dwarven Guard
Armor is great for fighters but it carries a high strength requirement. From
this intersection you can either go to the east or west. East is a bad idea for
rogues since it leads to four Deepstalkers who are hard as heck to kill as a
non-warrior and it only gives you some armor for a fighter to use.
Continue to the west to find Duncan and the Grey Wardens. This will end the
Origin story.
========================
3.05 - Human Noble
========================
After the introduction you will be in a conversation with your father and Arl
Howe. There's nothing special to be done here besides playing your character
out a bit in the conversations. Talking to Arl Howe's guards, or Arl Howe, too
much reveals that they're acting a bit suspicious. There's nothing you can do
about it though so it's best to just leave, making your way out the door to
the south to leave the grand hall. Walk to the west to find Ser Gilmore who
explains you two must go to the castle kitchen and retrieve your dog.
You now have a few options - you could either explore the Castle, talking to
people and looking for books to pick up or you can actually go handle the
problem in the kitchen. Codexes are books you find that give background info
on the setting but they also give you XP rewards when you find them. If you've
played Mass Effect you should be familiar with all of this. You can also get
more codexes by talking to people about subject matter, such as listening to
Malloly talk about The Maker or Aldous speak about your family history.
Heading to the kitchen will introduce you to Nan, the ever so cheerful cook,
who is desperate to see your dog taken out of the larder. After the dialogue is
over head into the door just beyond her to find your pet Mibari Hound. You'll
have the opportunity to name him before you find out why he's been so excited,
he's found some rats in the larder. Think of this as your first combat tutorial
so take your time to get used to your active abilities and how to target. It's
really easy so don't worry about it.
When the rats are all dead search the room for any glowing containers to get
some items. Head out of the room, speak to Nan again and then it's time to find
your mother. Follow the white marker on your map towards the southwestern part
of the castle to find her talking to several others. There's nothing of import
here although you can speak to Iona or Darrion later in the study (near Aldous)
and have them accompany you to bed. This has some minor changes later on but
nothing too important.
Continue to the southwest to find your brother and his family talking in his
room. There isn't much to be done here so talk to them, search the bookshelf to
find another Codex and then leave the room. This causes a transition to the
next part of Origin.
You are woken up at night by the sounds of a commotion outside. If you are in
bed by yourself the door will fly open and a soldier is killed in front of you.
Should you have a nighttime companion they are the unfortunate victim. Argh,
poor cute Iona. We barely knew you. Like really barely knew you. In either case
it's in your best interest to get out into the hall and kill that archer as
quickly as possible since he is kind of a nuisance. Be mindful that there are
two more soldiers to the left that will rush up on you so moving out to fight
the archer in melee can be dangerous. It may be better to let your hound do it
while you fight more carefully.
With them defeated your mother will come to speak with you. After the dialogue
ends search the dead bodies for loot and then go back into your room. There's a
chest in here with a bunch of stuff so gather that up. If you have the Blood
Armor DLC then this is where you will get it, using it is another matter though
as it requires a 38 strength. In either case this is a good point to mention
that if you're a fighter it pays to keep more than one weapon. You may find you
need armor penetration to make a hard fight easier so a mace or dagger may be
better than your sword at times. It's not needed but it helps.
With them dead search the room just across from yours to find a pretty horrible
sight. Nothing else in the room so leave and go to the south into the master
bedroom. Here there is a chest with some of your fathers stuff you can open as
well as a locked chest for rogues to open. Gather up the items here and then it
is time to find out what the hell is going on.
Walking into the next room confronts you with more enemies so try to let Fido
handle the melee users while you get rid of the archers. Now you can head out
into the castle halls. Here you will face non-stop enemy attacks of swordsmen,
archers and enemy mibari hounds so be ready for a lot of fighting. You can go
into the rooms to search for treasure but most chests are locked meaning you'd
need a rogue to make good use of this. However you can find dead bodies, more
books and enemies by searching around so keep at it. Also if you have a good
enough Cunning and Coercion skill you can convince the servant you meet to come
fight with you instead of fleeing. He doesn't die, or do too much damage, but
another blade is always handy.
One thing you don't want to do is head inside of the great hall immediately.
Instead walk that way, keeping to the south. Then head south further towards
the treasury. Your mother gives you the key to this room to finally allow you
access. In here you will find some really good weapons and armor although the
armor is a bit on the heavy side so unless you've focused heavily on strength
you might not be able to use it. Upon leaving the room enemies will attack but
they shouldn't be a threat at this point.
Now you can head into the main hall to find your father. If you wish to have
another NPC around you can go to the end of the hall to find a bunch of enemies
in the church fighting some guards. Should any of the guards survive one of
them will join up with you. Walk into the main hall to find yet more enemies
but you need to be careful here, there is a mage and two archers in the back of
the hall. If you don't kill them they will damage you greatly but doing so is
very dangerous as they can interrupt the heck out of you and deal serious
damage very suddenly. It's best if you send your mother after the mage, the
hound after an archer and you go after the mage as well. Use whatever skills
you have to keep them off balance and kill them quickly.
Ser Gilliam will speak to you, telling you where your father went so it's off
to the kitchens! As you head out you will find more enemies so cut through but
don't head to the kitchens just yet. Follow the path in front of you to find
doors that lead to servants quarters with more enemies and open chests. Take
everything you can find before going to the kitchen. Outside of it there are a
number of enemies but what's important is the Howe Knight. This big boy hits
hard, takes a lot of punishment, isn't easy to hit and is hard to stun or knock
down. Have your dog attack him while you keep on using your active skills to
make short work of him.
Head on into the kitchen larder to find your father. After much conversation
the Origin story will end, leaving you heading to Ostragar and right into the
main storyline.
========================
3.06 - Mage
========================
After the initial cutscene you will find yourself inside of the Fade. Open the
vase nearby to gather up some healing items and then examine the nearby statue.
This will give you a Codex entry - much like Mass Effect you can collect these
for background on the game world as well as, more importantly, experience. Now
head down the path to find a Wisp Wraith. Don't bother trying to be fancy or
dodge it's attacks, they all home in on you. Just use Arcane Bolt and whatever
other spells you have and hammer him into the ground.
Start making your way forward, killing enemies as you go, until you are stopped
by a small mouse. Speak to Mouse until he asks to come along - allow him to do
so as he will tell you about other spirits who might be able to help. Keep
moving forward, stopping to refill at the Lyrium fountain, until your quest
marker points you at a Spirit of Valor. This here is tricky. Speak to him and
you will be asked to duel if you would like his assistance. You have a few
options at your disposal:
- You can fight Valor if you so choose. Asking him for his help, or a weapon,
will lead to this option. Should you choose to fight him try to keep moving
away from him while you hit him with everything you've got. He's not hard so
long as you keep yourself alive.
- Browbeat him into helping you. Pick the [Willpower] option during dialogue
and accuse him of wanting to kill helpless mortals. Persist with these sorts of
dialogue options and he will give you a staff to aide you without a fight.
Now keep moving towards the next quest marker. The game will auto-save and you
will be set upon by a number of Spirit Wolves. Individually they aren't very
strong, taking only two Arcane Bolts and perhaps one other spell to take down.
The trick comes when you kill the first, a pair will often attack. As you're
trying to take out the pair (a well placed Flame Blast helps) a final one may
attack. Once they're all dead you can head to the end of the path to find the
Sloth Demon just lying around.
Speaking to the Sloth Demon will give you some more background on the Fade but
you can also convince him to teach Mouse the trick to changing his shape into
that of a bear. To do this easiest it's best to just answer his riddles, the
answers of which can be found below:
1 - Map
2 - Tongue
3 - Dream
You will now need to head back towards the Lyrium Vein back near the start of
this level. A large pack of Spirit Wolves will attack from all sides as you
near the Spirit of Valor but with Mouses' aide they're no problem. Keep on
following the quest marker to find the demon. Speak to the demon to start the
fight that will help you get out of here.
-------------------
Boss: Rage Demon
-------------------
Honestly the Rage Demon itself isn't the big problem here. It's those four
Wisp Wraiths that will keep pummeling you with unavoidable energy attacks. Try
to focus on killing them, as Mouse usually will, before even trying to focus on
the Rage Demon. It uses melee attacks so it's not really all that dangerous.
Eventually it will go down and you will have leveled up.
Mouse will speak to you but this part is really important. Refuse to let Mouse
in when he asks, by refusing him you will have finished your test and finally
be done with your Harrowing.
You awaken back in the real world talking to your friend Jowan. Speak to him
and then proceed to scour the tower for anything you can pick you as you make
your way to the second floor. There's plenty of small items and Codex entries
to pick up as you go. The same goes for the second floor, there are plentiful
objects to pick up so don't get lazy. You'll need all the help you can get soon
enough unfortunately.
Whenever you're ready head to Irvings room and speak to him and Duncan. After
the conversation search this room and then escort Duncan to his room. As you go
to leave Jowan will be outside looking to speak to you. You are taken to the
chapel to speak with him there, he has a plan for his problem but it doesn't
bode well for you.
There are two ways this can go:
- Refuse to help Jowan. The only thing you can do if you go this route is to
speak to Irving and help him by getting Lily in trouble as well. You'll have to
go to the pair, tell them that you're willing to help and then lead them into
the ambush. There's no way around the fact here.
- Agree to help Jowan genuinely. You will be told that they need to get into
the repostiroy and the only way to do this is by getting a Rod of Fire to melt
through the locks.
Make your way to Owain and speak to him. You need the signature of a Senior
Enchanter before he will release this to you. By now you've likely noticed the
exclamation mark indicating a side quest - well it's not a side quest anymore.
Follow it to fid Senior Enchanter Leorah. When speaking to her accuse her of
hiding something to find out there's a spider infestation inside of the store
rooms here. Agree to help her clear them out, this is how we get her signature.
Head on into the cavern storeroom and start searching the containers as you
make your way south. This area is just a giant loop so make your way throuh the
circle, killing spiders as you go. They're not that hard, just focus on using
your strongest spells over and over to kill them pretty quick. Don't try to do
too much evasion since they'll hit you anyways. Search every nook and cranny,
as well as behind crates, for containers you can open. Just follow the loop
around and you'll kill all of the spiders in one pass.
Speak to Leorah, get the signed paper, turn it in to Owain and then speak to
Jowan. With the Rod of Fire and your friends accompanyment we can now head down
into the basement to get that phylactery.
At the first door Lily will open it for you but the plan doesn't work out for
the next one as it's protected by an anti-magic barrier. Turn to the right and
go to use that door. The Rod of Fire works fine but the suit of armor will now
attack you. Focus on Arcane Bolt as it does the most damage and start making
your way through the halls.
Around the corner is a pair of Sentinels will rush to attack so be careful
here. Your party does a decent job of keeping itself alive so don't worry too
much about them. Search the two rooms you pass for items and then open the far
door. Another pair of Sentinels wait in here and, once defeated, you can open
the crate and chest. Go through this door as well to find two Sentinels and a
Robed Sentinel. The robed one will keep firing off Arcane Bolts so try to kill
him off quickly if he's causing serious problems. If you're unlucky he will use
a burst of energy to knock you flat which can be a serious problem.
When you attempt to use the next door the game autosaves which bodes ill. Going
inside reveals that there's simply a new enemy, a Deep Stalker. These are small
melee enemies that don't do too much damage. Take it out, go into the next room
and defeat all three of these Deep Stalkers including the leader. Search the
cabinet and go into the next hall, this one containing two more Sentinels and
the Robed Wizard. The room south of here contains a chest and crate with some
treasure so grab that and continue west.
Into the next room which is a dungeon. Kill the three Sentinels (Flame Blast
really helps) and search the cells to find some chests with items. In the next
hall you'll have two more Sentinels and a Robed Sentinel to defeat and, further
down the hallway, another Sentinel spaws in. With them defeated you can now go
into the Repository.
Talk to the warrior statue to find some info on the Tevinter Imperium, open the
chest for a good staff and then search the bookcase. You can Jowan can move it
and this allows you to use the artifact to blow open the wall.
Go down the stairs to find the Phylactery chamber, guarded by two Sentinels and
a Sentinel Leader. Focus on the weaker ones first although any group hitting
attacks will do well in this small area. If you have Walking Bomb you can turn
the two Sentinels into weapons against the bigger one though which helps out
quite immensely. When they're all dead head up the stairs to find where Jowans
phylactery is, just sitting out in the open. Activate it and then get the heck
out of this dungeon using the previously locked door to end this mess of an
Origin story.
=========================================================
4. Walkthrough
=========================================================
Joining the Grey Wardens
========================
Once the origin story has ended you will find yourself speaking to the young
king Cailan. Plenty of talking ensues until you're eventually left on your own
to explore Ostagar. However there really isn't much to see in the ruins, a few
patches of Elfroot you can snag up and a couple of sacks with minor items in
them. Even when you head across the bridge into the base camp there isn't much
to pick up unless you're a rogue who can open all of the chests. What is here
are a bunch of NPCs to talk to that will get you plenty of XP and Codex entries
to help you level up.
Whenever you're done with all of that follow the quest marker to find Alistair
talking to a mage. After some brief introductions he will join you. Now you
need to find the other two Grey Warden apprentices although this is easily done
by simply checking near the Quartermaster and just past him up the stairs near
the priest. With them in hand head back to Duncan to get this whole ritual
business underway.
========================
Tainted Blood & The Grey Warden's Cache
========================
Tainted Blood is very easily completed by simply going in the direction that
the quest marker for "The Grey Warden's Cache" points you. Anytime you kill one
of the many Genlock or Hurlock enemies there is a good chance that they drop
the vial of blood you're looking for so don't bother going out of your way to
get this quickly.
Keep in mind that this is a pretty dangerous walk, there are lots of wolves
here and then the path will bring you right through Hurlock central. Try to
stay together with your battle party since they can be overwhelming if you end
up fighting more than one at a time (rogues and mages) or two at a time (for
the warrior sorts). You will likely have to push through two large encounters
with the Hurlocks to get here. Luckily the game autosaves before either one.
The first one is easy to see coming since you will see a Hurlock Emissary, a
spellcaster, standing on a bridge waiting for you. Don't rush him though, walk
to the fallen tree to the right of the bridge and wait. A group of Genlock
Rogues will attack you here. Once they're wiped out you can cross the bridge so
rush the Emissary, taking him out as fast as possible or his spells will really
whittle you down. With him dead you can now clean up the rest of the 'locks and
move along on your way.
The second is nowhere near as dramatic as the first one. There is a large group
of melee Henlocks that will come rushing, one who is covered in red. These pain
in the rears are hard to knock down and do a lot of damage... they're basically
Henlock knights. However they don't stand up to a fully armed group of trained
warriors! Gang up on this guy with at least two people, preferably one behind
him so as to flank, and he won't give you too much grief.
When you finally reach the Grey Warden's Tower a cutscene will ensue. Speak to
Morrigan and she will take you to her mother who has the scrolls. After much
dialogue you will obtain the scrolls and be teleported back to the camp which
is really convenient. Head on over to Duncan to find out what is next.
When the cutscene is over you'll get the equipment from the party members that
have left. Oh and you'll have your pet Mibari Hound back so that's nice. Equip
yourself before heading towards the quest marker to find out what the battle
strategy is going to be in the coming time. However all doesn't appear to be
well with Teyrn Loghain... After some more conversation you'll need to head
towards the quest marker again to get this next section started. An awesome
cutscene ensues before you're under control again.
========================
The Tower of Ishal
========================
Start making your way across the bridge although be mindful that you'll get
knocked over by several catapult hits so stop on the far side of the bridge if
you need to heal. However it seems that the Tower of Ishal has been taken by
some Darkspawn who came up from underground. You'll be joined by a Circle Mage
in your attempts to retake it so head on through the gate.
Once you enter through the gate you will find a battle in progress between the
soldiers guarding the tower and enemies. Take out the enemies right here before
going to sweep around to kill the archers near the wooden structure. The whole
process of fighting them is made much easier thanks to the mage and his ability
to enchant your weapons to do fire damage. Loot the bodies and chests here
before moving forward.
When you head a bit more towards the quest marker you will find that a large
group of darkspawn is fighting more soldiers so this is a good place to send
your men into melee quickly as you have plenty of support. Make sure that the
mage stays back to keep using arcane bolt and watch the area you're in. As you
fight enemies will come from the ramp ahead and on top of the wooden scaffold,
firing arrows at you. Be careful about rushing up the ramp solo as there are a
total of three archers up here and a Hurlock Alpha, another knight type enemy.
Try to pummel the Alpha with magical spells before he closes to melee so as to
weaken him a bit before you take him out.
This clears up the outside so loot all the bodies before going on in.
The game auto-saves once you enter which is a good thing as the next room is
pretty rough. Once you enter the wooden barriers are set on fire to try and
disorient you. Immediately have your mage cast Paralyze on either the melee
Hurlock to the right, behind the first barrier, or the Genlock Emissary to the
left behind the far barrier. This takes them out of the way for a moment and
leaves you with the other one as well as a pair of archers. Send your party to
handle the Emissary while one person keeps the melee Heurlock busy, if you're a
melee warrior then you can do it but if not send Alistair and have him keep on
knocking the big guy down. When the Emissary and melee fighter are dead clean
up the archers and head into the next hallway.
Here you can either head into a room to the south or to the north. In the south
room plenty of Hurlocks wait to be fought, with Genlocks ambushing from the
rear, so be ready for a fight. If you go to the north you'll likely end up with
the enemies in the southern room ambushing you so clear them both. Now you can
open the crates in the south for more items as well as a locked treasure chest.
Go into the next room, fight more darkspawn, open the chest if you have a rogue
and then head upstairs to the next level.
There is another locked chest and wooden crate in the first room on the second
floor. Go through the southern door when you enter the hallway, this serves an
important purpose in the coming fight. Head through the room, picking up any
objects you see, and go out into the hallway. Here, to the north, is a Hurlock
and four Genlocks. As soon as they notice you two Hurlocks come out a door to
the side. Seven enemies? Yeah that's bad.
But there's a trick! Have your party hold position and have one of your
characters run between the two ballista in this hallway. You can fire flaming
arrows at the enemy. When they start getting close have your mage cast spells
to either hurt or paralyze them and have your party move to attack. They should
be hurt enough that taking them out is no problem so slaughter them and search
the bodies. A group of five Genlock is guarding the stairs to the third floor
so be ready to fight through them before going up.
Search the pile of bones in the first room and head into the next room for a
fight with a bunch of darkspawn, nothing too serious. The next room has several
Genlocks as well as an Alpha with a bow so be careful here. If you'd like to
make your life easier ignore the enemies with one party member, a rogue who is
sneaking does well at this, and use the cage release. This allows three Mibari
hounds to attack the darkspawn for you. Take them out, search the bodies and
open the locked chest if possible.
In the next hallway is three rooms along one wall and a door at the far end.
The far door leads to the stairs but the other rooms lead to side rooms with a
bit of treasure in crates. It is suggested you open the first door and go in to
fight the enemies. As you do this more enemies will come from the other two
rooms, responding to the noise, and fight you. However it's better to do this
here rather than getting ambushed from behind in the staircase room. Take them
out, being mindful to protect the mage, and then gather up loot. Head into the
stairwell to find a Hurlock and two Genlocks. Defeat them, loot the bodies and
search the weapon rack for some arrows. To the top floor!
Here you will get your first taste of a "boss" fight although this one isn't
all that bad.
-------------------
Boss: Ogre
-------------------
While the Ogre is very big, and very scary looking, he's not actually all that
hard. His main advantages are that he has a lot of hit points, can attack you
if you go behind him and can kill the mage in one, harsh, attack. So you'll
likely want to control your mages for this one to keep them well away.
The ogre attacks pretty rapidly but not so fast you should ever die without a
chance to heal... unless you're a mage. Try to focus on hitting him with as
many spells and special attacks as possible. Your hound will do a good job of
damaging him while not taking too much damage and Alistair can go toe to toe
with it so long as he has Shield Defense, not Shield Cover as he likes to use,
going at the time.
What you do is dependant upon your class. If you're a warrior try to let the
game control you while you use the mage to keep hitting him with spell after
spell. Should he start to move towards you run for your life and hope the other
three distract him. But if you're a rogue things are harder to judge. Try to
stay back, shooting arrows at him from a far distance, and keep watch on the
mage so that he doesn't get too close. The same goes true for mage PC's.
Even if he ganks the mage the fight shouldn't last much longer. Keep at it and
watch the awesome special attack that kills this bad boy off.
-------------------
Search the Ogre and barrels in the room before activating the signal light. A
cutscene will play showing yet more wonderful people in this world that you
should totally be saving. When the cutscene ends you will be having a talk with
Morrigan in her mothers hut. Once you're done speaking to her head outside to
the Korcari Wilds to have a chat with Alistair and Flemeth.
After a long conversation with Flemeth, Alistair and Morrigan you will leave
the wild with a new party member. Head out onto the world map to see the...
well, to see the world map. From this you can pick to head straight to the
village of Lothering.
========================
Lothering and the Imperial Highway
========================
Bandits on the Road
===================
When you arrive at Lothering a bunch of bandits will attempt to extort silver
pieces from you. There are a few things that can be done with this situation:
- If you have a good enough Coercion skill you can talk them into letting you
by via Intimidate. It's then possible to demand they pay you for your trouble,
which causes them to offer 20 silver. This allows you to go on your way.
- Just flat out attack them. If a fight breaks out they prove to be fairly
tough. The big guy with the hammer needs to be a priority target, followed by
the leader who is fairly capable in melee combat and will stun you quite often.
Once the leader is hurt enough he will attempt to talk the situation out. You
can either ask him a few questions and let him go or kill him. He will not join
your army, asking him to do so just leads to having to kill him.
Search the bodies, as well as the fallen Templar to start "A Fallen Templar", a
side quest based in Lothering. Search the bodies, nearby chests and then head
on into the town.
Here you can get involved in plenty of small things, talking to people all over
the town. Sometimes your party will disapprove of your actions, it will often
be Morrigan, but there's plenty to do. Main things of note are the squabble
with the merchant and priestess (someplace to unload equipment!), the Chanter's
Board and a hysterical man near the Chantry who you can calm down with several
Persuade checks. However do not head inside of the Tavern until you're ready
for some trouble. Hold off on entering the Chantry until you've spoken to Sten
outside the village and gotten "The Qunari Prisoner" quest.
When you enter the tavern several of Teyrn Loghains men will harass you before
attacking. They're not terribly difficult and the only one you need to kill to
end the battle is the Commander so have everyone target him. This is especially
easy thanks to Morrigan - simply use her Vulnerability Hex and then hit him
with her ice and lightning attacks. His health will plummet even if the others
aren't going after him. Once he has lost most of his life you can either let
him go or finish him off. The only difference in your decision is whether your
new lay Priestess friend, Leliana, approves of your decision or not.
With them defeated Leliana will offer to join your party. It's nice to have a
Rogue at this point so you'll want her coming along. Now speak to Barlin,
another shopkeeper, before talking to the Blackstone Liason. This will open up
a line of quests that are worth doing.
Leave the tavern and head out of town to the north. Here you will find a man
inside of a cage, speak to him. Sten, as he is named, is guilty of killing a
whole family but he could be useful to your quest. Head back to the Chantry and
go on inside. Once in speak to Ser Bryant for a reward for handling the bandits
as well as asking about Sten. You could also ask him for help which results in
him giving you a key to use on a cupboard, this nets you a good pair of boots
as well as some healing items.
You can turn in the "Fallen Templar" quest here if you are doing it. Now head
into the back to find the Revered Mother. Speak to her about your quest, you
can even get a blessing if you like. If you're looking to recruit Sten finish
up that quest now before moving on. There's little else to do here besides the
various side quests.
When you head to the north to try and leave Lothering a group of Refugees will
attack you for the bounty that has been placed on your head. There's nothing to
do but kill them. Be careful that Leliana and Morrigan aren't left on their own
to handle these enemies or they will likely fall. This is especially important
since enemies will likely come up from behind you to attack so watch out for
your two ladies.
Continue towards the Imperial Highway to get out of town where you will meet up
with a bunch of darkspawn killing a Blood Mage while two dwarves cower. Go kill
the lot of them, speak to the dwarves, loot the bodies and then be on your way.
When you leave the limits of the city you will be in a party camp although you
have a cutscene first. Once you're awake you can speak to Alistair and the rest
of your party. There is a quest here to learn about Enchanting your equipment
but this is really just a small break in the game to let you talk to your party
members before heading into the next area.
The quests will be attended to in the order they appear in your quest log.
========================
The Arl of Redcliffe
========================
On the map screen choose Redcliffe Village as your destination point. As you go
to cross the bridge towards the town a man named Tomas will speak to you. It
seems that monsters have overtaken this village and only Bann Teagan has been
holding everything together. You're taken to see him which leads to a nice long
conversation that explains the situation in this village.
===================
A Village Under Siege
===================
When the talking is over you'll have to head out into the village itself to
find Murdock and Ser Perth. Speaking to Murdock is simple as he's just outside
of the Chantry. He explains that the blacksmith has lost his daughter inside of
the castle and will not help the defenders at all. It's up to you to talk some
sense into him.
Talking the Blacksmith is kind of a pain and it's not suggested that you bring
Morrigan along. He's almost impossible to force into doing the work, you're all
but certain to end up having to promise to rescue his daughter, starting the
"Lost in the Castle" quest. Morrigan will, of course, mock you for this which
causes her to lose a good chunk of approval. Ugh.
You don't have to do anything else for Murdock but you can help him to recruit
some allies for the coming battle. Find Dwynn's house along the waters to the
eastern part of town and either lockpick the door open or bust the lock. Once
inside you can either hire Dwynn to protect the locals or intimidate him into
doing it. Either way he'll be out there on the field.
Now for Ser Perth. To find this schmo you're going to have to head up the hills
and then over a stone bridge. Before going up there find the general store in
town and search the barrels. This will let you know that you have some oil to
be used against the monsters. Now speak to him to find out that there isn't
really anything he needs. If you feel up to it you can go to the Revered Mother
and ask her for some holy protection. She can't use magic to do so but you can
give them some amulets to con them into thinking the Maker protects them. If
you do this Morrigan approves, Leliana doesn't.
Whenever you're ready tell them that you're done to start the night attack.
===================
Attack at Nightfall
===================
From where you start the undead will be rushing your position. This part is
very simple if you've gotten the flames laid out by talking to the knights. The
undead will continually rush at you through the flames taking a lot of damage
and being very easy to cut down. Just try to keep your idiot allies from going
right into the fire and you'll be fine.
After fighting here for a bit the undead will attack from another angle forcing
you to rush to the Chantry to defend it. This part of the fight is once again
just you standing your ground against constant waves of enemies. This one is a
bit easier thanks to how many men you have at your side so even though you're
fighting four or five at a time the militia will make your life much easier.
Just keep on fighting and don't let your party members get knocked down or they
won't be getting back up anytime soon. Keep your health up to make this as easy
as can be.
* NOTE: If you've defeated all enemies but the cutscene doesn't play go towards
the water. Sometimes a lone zombie ends up stuck on something over here and you
need to go kill him to advance the game.
When the fighting ends a cutscene will play with the townsfolk thanking you for
saving them. If you let him Bann Teagan will give you a helmet passed down in
his family. It's pretty good so you might want to take it rather than going the
selfless route. Once the talking is over the Blackstone Liason and Chanter
Board in town will open up for your use so if you feel like side questing that
is the time.
Make your way to Bann Teagan to talk about the situation going on now. This
sets you back on the Arl of Redcliffe quest. Speak to Ser Perth after the talk
has ended to have him go to the castle gates and then head into the windmill.
Straight ahead of you is a trapdoor that will take you down into the passage.
========================
The Arl of Redcliffe
========================
Right in front of you, through the door, you will find three walking corpses
trying to get into a jail cell down here. Defeat them and then speak to Jowan,
the blood mage trapped in the cell. This will be familiar to Magi characters.
Either set him free, kill him or leave him alone - it only matters later on in
this mission. None of your allies like you killing him but Alistair really does
not like letting him go. The others seem to think that giving him another
chance to set things right is the proper thing to do so make up your mind.
Continue forward when you've made your decision. Search in the next room for a
letter that goes into your Quest-related notes as "A Rolled-up Note" for a
quest to do later on. When you approach the door to the main floor four undead
will attack, three from the rear and one from the small alcove to your left. Do
your best not to let Morrigan or Leliana get surrounded or they will suffer for
it. Try to keep at least one fighter near the rear as you approach this so that
they fight the horde instead. Head upstairs after searching the bodies.
Inside of the castle you will find that if you dally too long enemies will come
after you so it's best to move throughout this place as quickly as reasonable.
Open the door to the room you start in and open the door across the hall. In
here you will fight some Shades and a Greater Shade. These guys are tough since
you can't knock them down and stunning doens't work very well on them either.
It's best to immobilize them with ice attacks if you have them since that works
pretty well. If not them just hit them hard, focusing on one at a time until
only the Greater Shade is left.
When he's dead go out into the hall to find more corpses needing to be killed.
To the north, in the corner, is a locked door to the armory. If you can get in
then there's a bevy of equipment to pick up so go for it. Continue further into
the castle to find one of the most frustrating sections in the entire game.
As you go to enter the small hallway you will be attacked by a group of undead.
There is a Devouring Corpse amongst the lot of them and he does a whole lot of
damage. This isn't so bad at first but if you don't kill them fast enough then
more undead come as reinforcements. Don't count on killing them though since
they have a lot of health. Plus they're basically immune to corrosive damage as
well as nature damage so you can't use acid flasks or most poisons to help out.
The only thing to really do is try to bottleneck them if you're feeling up to
it. Have your fighters hold position (in the advanced menu) in the doorway. Any
ranged attackers should hold position behind them. If your fighters are using
sword and shield style have them use one of the sustained skills that gives the
better defense boost, Shield Fortress works well. Your main damage should come
from the ones in the rear while your guys up front focus on staying alive.
It is is possible to fight up to thirteen undead total here so be ready for a
long hard slog through this but eventually you will come out on top. Loot the
bodies before heading forward or retreating to town if you need more healing
items to get through this place. Just don't forget that if you have potion
making you can likely make some more healing items for free.
Head north from this hall to find a group of Mabari War Hounds eating a dead,
charred body. When they attack try to hit them with a group attack or two
before they even reach you to help get the jump on the fight. Then try to have
Leliana and Morrigan focus on whichever ones are hurt while your fighters run
interference. Make your way to the east after that, ignoring the door going to
the south, searching all of the rooms here for loot. The last door has Valena
in it which solves the blacksmiths quest.
Going to the south you will find that the door to the Main Hall is locked which
means you have no choice but to the go east, towards the basement. To get to
the door going down you're going to have to fight your way through a bunch more
undead but they're not quite so bad, the Devouring Corpse amongst them isn't as
strong as the first one you fought.
Take them out, head down into the basement and then enter the courtyard. Make
sure to search everything you see as you go since there's lenty of stuff to
sell amidst all of this.
Once in the courtyard there are no enemies immediately in sight but there's a
group of Shambling Corpses led by a Revenant on the far end. If you've spoken
to Ser Perth rush for the gate, open it and then charge the Revenant. These are
really powerful, capable of using magic to hurt you from a distance or a big
sword to do it up close. Try to keep him stun locked by alternating use of
Shield Bashes / Pummels, Dirty Fighting and Ice spells to prevent him from
being able to fight back. Just don't forget to keep an eye on your HP meter!
When he's defeated speak to Ser Perth who is eager to enter the castle with you
to help reclaim it. Agree to this whenever you're ready for trouble.
No matter what you do once you enter the Main Hall you will end up in a fight
with several soldiers and Bann Teagan. If you were smart enough to bring along
the soldiers you will find that this is an incredibly easy fight. Simply let
your party spread out, slowing down the soldiers from getting near your back
line of characters. Let your fighters handle Bann Teagen when he gets close and
the enemies will fall rapidly. Should you have chosen to not bring the soldiers
along at any point then this fight is really hellish and will require a lot of
healing. Focus on taking out Teagan as he is the strongest one before starting
to take out the other soldiers. Try to use any sort of stunning abilities you
have for crowd control to help out.
After the conversation ends you will have a couple of options with how to
proceed from here.
- If you have freed Jowan and brought a Mage along (PC or NPC) then you will
have the option of sending them into the Fade to defeat the demon there. This
will free Conner of the demon but it will mean the death of Isolde. Going into
the Fade like this is key to getting the Blood Mage specialization unlocked.
- Should you have not freed Jowan then you will have to kill Conner. Unless...
- If you refuse to make a decision at that moment and then come back to speak
to them you will have the option of asking if there are any other ways to
help Conner. The Circle of Magi will be mentioned as an option here which will
allow you to get through this without making use of the Blood Magic. By going
to the Circle of Magi you will be able to request their help so long as you
complete "The Broken Circle" in favor the Mages. This allows someone to go into
the Fade to fight the demon without Isolde dying thus saving both nobles. It
will cost some commoners their lives but it's for the greater good.
Before making a decision end the conversation and explore the floor you're on.
There are animated suits of armor in the hall to the west of you. They're very
resistant to non-blunt physical damage but if you have magics then they'll go
down pretty fast, giving a nice chunk of experience out. Now go into the west
room and search the desk to find Alistair's Mothers Amulet. Give this to him to
cause a huge boost in approval.
Now search the room to the north off of the west wing to find more corpses led
by a possessed Chamberlain. They're not that powerful so long as you're careful
about not letting them swarm your weaker characters. Search the Chamberlains
body for a Redcliffe Vault Key and then check inside of the room for valuables.
If you would like you can explore the second floor as well, this is where the
Vault is located, but be careful not to head too far to the east. You don't
want to run into Conner if you aren't fighting him.
Should you be looking to fight him he's not terribly difficult. This is the
quick and dirty way to complete this but you're going to be upsetting both the
Arlessa and Eamon once he's better.
If you choose to use Jowans ability to send a mage in via Blood Magic you will
have to either send the PC, Morrigan or Wynne. It's not advised to send Wynne
since she's not very good at fighting. Should you have enlisted the Circle you
can actually send Jowan in there. He's not a bad choice nor is he a very good
one. Should Morrigan not be an option then Jowan is a better call than Wynne.
Arl Eamon is in the first section of the Fade but he's no use to anyone with
the state he's in. Go through the portal in the next area to find Conner up on
a cliff. When you speak to him he will change into a Desire Demon to attack you
even if you try to be gentle with the boy. This fight isn't too hard so long as
you use any sort of paralyzing or status ailment spells. Reducing the attack
rating of the demon will actually help, as will stunning. Jowan can make use of
Stonefist to knock her down, Mind Blast to stun and Lightning / Flame Blast to
do damage to her.
When she goes down head back to the portal you used and pass through. After a
bit of walking here you will find Conner again. He attacks after you speak to
him except this time he has a Lesser Rage Demon with him. Stunning the demon
with Mind Blast may work every so often but Paralyze works much better. Use it
on the Rage Demon before turning to the Desire Demon. Hit her with Lightning
and Stonefist to take her out before whittling down the Rage Demon. Head back
to the portal to be teleported yet again.
In this area you will be attacked by the Rage Demon / Desire Demon combo yet
again. They're no harder than before so defeat them before heading back to the
portal. This last fight though... oye.
-------------------
Boss: Desire Demon
-------------------
The Demon fights basically the same way she's fought you the previous times
except that this time is the real demon. She's more aggressive, uses stronger
attacks and has way more health. Worst of all is that since you have no easy
way of healing she can kill you pretty fast. This is hard no matter how you cut
it but there are ways to make it easier. If you're playing as an ice using mage
spam those on her to keep her from being able to attack. A mix of Cone of Cold,
Winter's Grasp and, if you have it, Stonefist can really keep her stuck.
If you're using Jowan things are going to get pretty tough for you since she's
so strong and aggressive. As soon as the fight starts hit her with Stonefist.
This almost always knocks her down. Now while she's on the ground hit her with
regular attacks, maybe one Lightning spell, until she starts to get up. As she
does so try to use the Paralyze spell to leave her stuck. If this works hit her
with an Arcane Bolt but then leave Jowan to just keep using his staff. By the
time she unfreezes you should be able to use Stonefist again to knock her down.
If not then just run away until you can do so, you'll take minimal damage as
she slices at your back.
After you hurt her enough she will split up into a number of clones in a circle
around the area to confuse you. Don't get flustered here, this is easy. Watch
for one of the clones that is more "real" looking than the others, darker
colored than the bright pink illusions. Hit this one with a spell to distract
her. If you don't do this then she will be able to heal herself or do anything
to you. When she's been distracted the clones disappear and she comes to attack
you so just repeat what you were doing before. So long as you keep this up she
will not be able to stop you.
Once she's dead this section is over. You will be taken back to Redcliffe where
you get to see all of the dead being cremated. It's... pretty depressing to
think about really.
This will complete this quest. However Teagan will request that you search for
the Urn of Sacred Ashes to heal Eamon. This is pretty necessary if you are
looking to get his aide. Consult just below here for more information. For now
you may proceed to your next destination. However if you've done this and the
Mage's quest now may be a good time to check out Denerim to clear up some side
quests that have likely been clogging your Quest Log.
===================
The Urn of Sacred Ashes
===================
You will now have to head to Denerim to search the chantry for any information
on Brother Gentivi. When you arrive at the Market District you will see his
home, clear as day. Inside you will find his aide, Weylon, who knows where the
Brother has gone. If you press him he will tell you that he went to an Inn near
Lake Calenhad. Keep talking and you will get a Cunning option to try to coerce
more out of him. After this comes an Intimidate option. If you pass these, or
annoy him enough, he will blast you with a spell. Jump on him with everyone,
stunning or freezing him repeatedly, to take him out in short order. Now search
the home to find the real Weylon's body as well as Genitivi's research. It's
just flavor but it's an interesting read.
Now we need to head towards Haven. However when you arive in the city it's
fairly apparent that there's no love for outsiders. Great. You're told to go to
the store, restock and then get the heck outta town. Go to the shop and speak
the shopkeeper to get a less hostile but still awkward reception. Trade with
him if you like but this is where you have a few ways of going about this.
If you try to enter the back twice you will be attacked by the shopkeeper. Kill
him and look around to find the body of one of Arl Eamons knights. Alternately
you can enter a villagers house and find the bloody altar, this too causes you
to be attacked. However you do it you need to be attacked and then head towards
the hill to the northwest, this is where Father Eirik is. As you go up the hill
more cultists will attack you, take them out and enter the building.
After a bit of conversation Father Eirik will attack you with several guards.
This is a pretty easy fight as the only real danger is Eirik as he's pretty
tough and has a number of spells at his disposal. However if you get a warrior
into his face then this won't be a problem. Keep hitting him while your party
deals with the rest of the enemies, using crowd control to minimize damage.
When they're all down search the bodies before going into the western room and
searching in there as well.
Go back into the main room and examine the brick wall to the east. This will
open the door, allowing you to reach Brother Genitivi. He will take you to the
Ruined Temple where the Ashes are kept. After a bit of talking he stays behind
to look at the carvings while you go in deeper. Leave him to it and head down
the hallway to the west. There are some cultists in a room so defeat them
before looting the room of stuff.
Head back to the main chamber, going down the eastern hall this time. The north
path is a dead end and the door along the southern wall is a dead end but the
east door actually leads somewhere so go that way. Search the scroll pile to
get the side quest "Forgotten Verses". Now head to the north in the main hall,
going up the stairs. Numerous enemies will attack, Reavers and Archers, but
there aren't too many of them so they shouldn't pose much of a problem.
Head through the western doorway to be attacked by two archers and a Bronto.
These are basically small Rhinos. They're hard to kill, knock you around and
are generally pains in the butt. However they're fairly susceptible to ice so
use that to keep control of them. The next hallway has a trap in it with some
enemies just beyond it - two archers wait in the hallways while four Reavers
wait inside of the room just waiting to come rushing out. Take them out and
search the room.
Now head towards the south where things can get a bit dicey. The two rooms to
the southernmost side of this area have a mage in them, these guys love using
Cone of Cold and Winter's Grasp to freeze your party. As you're fighting them
three Reavers will come up behind you to beat on your now frozen punching bags.
It's important that you have plenty of crowd control skills at the ready for
this or you will likely die. Stunning the mages and keeping the Reavers out of
the fight will help keep you out of harms way.
With that room cleared go into the eastern room to find a bunch of Cultists, a
Reaver and a Mage. This shouldn't be a problem at this point as there's only
one mage to deal with. Search this room, open the door to the south and search
that room as well. Inside of the ornate chest is a south-eastern chamber key.
Take this back to the locked door you passed earlier to find a couple of chests
with treasure in them as well as the main hall key.
Now head to the eastern side of the main stairwell to the door. Here you will
find the Armor of Diligence, a good suit of heavy chainmail armor that you some
good health regeneration and armor boosts.
With the key to the main hall in hand head for the northern door. After the
auto-save open the door and go through. Far down the hall, atop the stairs, a
group of enemies wait - a mage with a quartet of archers. As you run towards
them a pair of Ash Wraiths will appear on the sides of the lower level to try
and box you in. Send your men after the mage immediately while your mage uses
their crowd control spells to keep the wraiths under control. Ignore the
archers until the mage and wraiths are dead since these do the most damage.
Take out the rest of them once these three die and then loot the bodies.
The next room contains four archers which would be easy prey if not for the
fact that there are a number of traps littering the floor of this room. Trip-
wire in the middle of the room will cause the two ballista to fire off while
the leg hold traps on the sides of the carpet will immobilize you for easy
archer pickings. If you can knock them down with a spell (like Fireball) this
is easy. Otherwise you're going to have to rush them with a few people getting
caught by the traps. Try to use your magic to slow down their assault or to
protect / heal your party while doing this.
The game autosaves before you head into the next room which is another great
sign. Once you enter an elite Ash Wraith will appear in the center of the room
while enemies come out each of the doors; a Cultist Reaver and Archer from the
room on the left while a Reaver and Mage come out from the right. This is going
to be pretty rough for most parties.
While most Ash Wraiths are powerful this one is incredibly strong. It does a
lot of damage to your party and can cause an explosion of energy that knocks
everyone nearby it down to the ground. In addition to that you're going to need
your mage focusing on this enemy since it doesn't take much damage from melee
or ranged attacks. Poisons don't work and most nature / spirit energy attacks
are likewise useless which rules out most of the bombs or poisons you might try
to use. You're just going to have to do this the old fashioned way.
Pick your strongest tank, the one who is the hardest to hit and has the most
hit points, and have him get right into the face of the Ash Wraith. Send your
next warrior to go to the left to keep that Reaver and Archer busy while the
mage heads out into the room to go deal with that mage. As soon as the fight
starts send the mage over to the right door and use whatever crowd control type
spells you have to prevent these enemies from getting into the fight. Kill the
mage as quickly as possible so you can turn your attention to the Reaver. You
should be fine taking them both out with a good offensive mage. Your final
character can do whatever you need them to do, be it helping get rid of the
mage or keeping one of the Reavers busy.
Once the mage is defeated you can turn your attention to the Ash Spirit. Your
fighter should be done with his Reaver by now so turn to the second one and get
rid of him as quickly as possible. Once both Reavers and the Mage are gone you
can send your rogue to deal with the Archer while you take down the Ash Spirit.
So long as you don't let anyone die here this should take no time.
Go through the eastern door and through a few doors to find another group of
enemies, two reavers with a mage and two archers. They're no big deal at this
point so take them out and keep moving. In the next room is a Cultist Mage who
will summon up two Ash Wraiths to attack you. Just get rid of that pain in the
butt before worrying about the Wraiths. Yet again the next room contains more
Cultists, two archers and a reaver to be precise. This is easily gotten past so
long as the trap in the room doesn't do too much damage. Up the stairs is the
way to the Wyrmlings Lair.
If you should instead pick the western door the first enemy is inside of the
room to the south. Here a Cultist Mage will summon up to Ash Wraiths to attack
you. He's the main threat so take him out before worrying about the Wraiths.
You can head into the next room to find four chests, one near the eastern wall,
two on the south and one on the west. The one on the eastern wall has an Ash
Wraith in it. The first one on the southern wall has a pair of them while the
second has three, two of which are elites. The final chest is locked and has a
small amount of treasure in it.
Up the stairs to the north are some more Cultists, two Reavers and a pair of
archers, who will be the last obstacle between you and the Wyrmlings Lair.
Inside you will find that no matter which door you used you're inside of the
same hallway. From here you can head into the northern room to find a trio of
Cultist Reavers with a Cultist Overseer. After some of the fights you've been
having this shouldn't be an issue at all. Just try to keep the Overseer from
being able to fight back via stunning, freezing or knockdown and this fight
will be over in no time. Loot the bodies and then continue to the north.
The next room has a pair of mages who will try to ambush you. This can either
be a really hard fight or really easy. It's easy if they don't use any Mind
Blast or Winter's Grasp spells since you can get into their faces and beat them
into the ground. Should they actually use these then things can get tough. Loot
the room when you're done before continuing.
Here you will encounter three Cultist Reavers and an Archer. Take them out so
you can head deeper into this place. As you attempt to pass through this room
a trio of leghold traps will try to snare your party as six Dragonlings attack.
These are basically slightly weaker versions of the Drake. They can claw you or
breathe a weak fire on someone. Try to take out the three behind you first as
the ones in front don't necessarily rush your position. Then take out the three
in front of you so you can continue onward.
As you traverse this hallway the game will auto-save which is, as always, a bad
sign. Here the fight looks like it's against a single Cultist Mage and his lone
Reaver buddy. Howeve when they're defeated a Dragonling, Cultist Reaver and a
Mage will be to the northeast. When you move to go after them another Reaver
pops up as does about five Dragonlings. So long as you get rid of the Mages as
quickly as possible you should find that this goes without a hitch. Crowd
control spells are necessary if you plan on keeping your party alive through
this as those Dragonlings can really lay on the damage rapidly.
With that done make your way through the northern tunnels until you reach the
next room. Here you will find a Cultist Reaver, Cultist Mage and an army of the
Dragonlings. One will come from the north while the rest pour from the eastern
side of this room. This is tough if you're not expecting it. Send someone to
deal with the Mage, preferably Allistair, while your ranged attackers help him
out if you have any. Your mage who has crowd control spells should focus on
keeping the Dragonlings at bay with Mind Blast, Cone of Cold or anything else
you might have. Cone of Cold, a few Walking Bombs and then some power spells
can make short work of this lot.
The path splits here, to the north and northeast. It's suggested that you go to
the northeast as that's just go some treasure and a hard fight.
- Northeast: The path goes for awhile before you enter a large open room. Here
a pair of Drakes will emerge, one from in front of you and one behind you. This
fight is ridiculously annoying for one reason and one reason alone: because of
the small space you will find yourself fighting in (the tunnel area) their roar
attack will stun almost everyone every time. Once this happens they will then
pounce on the character, pushing them to the floor and nibbling their face off.
These attacks are annoying at the best of times and having half of your party
floored by them is intensely obnoxious. Plus there's nothing you can do to stop
it since everyone will be stunned. If this gets Morrigan she's a goner.
What you need to do is very quickly kill off at least one of the Drakes, namely
the one right behind you. If you're lucky, and quick enough, the first Drake
may not have even moved by the time you kill this one. This allows you to take
them one at a time which makes this infinitely easier to handle. Take the Drake
Scales off their bodies and search the Pile of Dragon Filth for treasure before
going back to the fork.
- North: As you travel you will see a Cultist Mage off in the distance. When
you move to attack him a pair of Cultist Assassins (elite enemies) will pop out
to attack you. Try to use some stun / ice attacks to keep them from doing much
of anything or they can cause some serious pain in a very short amount of time.
This is doubly true when they attack from behind due to their backstab ability.
Once again there are two ways to go. It is suggested you continue to the north
before doing anything else.
- Continue North: After a bit of walking the game will auto-save. In the next
large chamber you will be attacked by two high level Cultist Reavers, a Drake
and a mage Cultist Overseer. Send a warrior to get rid of that mage while your
party plays distraction. It shouldn't be too hard to wipe this out considering
some of the other fights we've been caught up in. Continue going along this
path to find a real fight: a Cultist Mage will attack, backed up by a Drake,
Cultist Archer and, eventually, a Cultist Assassin. Try to get rid of the Mage
ASAP and then the Drake. When everyone's dead search the room (namely the
Dragon Egg) and then double back for the Western path.
- West: A short ways down the tunnel you will encounter another Drake. Take it
out and keep moving. Up the stairs into the next chamber are a pair of Archers
to your left, with their Reaver buddy, and a Mage and Reaver to your right. In
both directions are a blade trap so head up onto the dirt to avoid them. Take
out the mage as usual before turning your attention to the Reavers. Past them
in the next tunnel is another Drake waiting to be slain.
In the very next chamber you will meet Father Kolgrim. This lunatic thinks that
Andraste has returned to the world as a Dragon, an Old One. There are three
ways to go through with this situation. You can either refuse to help them,
fighting the lot of them here, agree to help them and mean it or agree to help
them and then betray them.
If you should choose to fight them now...
-------------------
Boss: Kolgrim
-------------------
Honestly this isn't much of a "boss" fight. The entire difficulty of this
fight lies, not in the boss himself, but in his two annoying ass mages. Since
you HAVE to get to them or they just spam off spells without any cares towards
their supposedly limited MP you have to ignore the three ginormous warriors who
love to get in your face and spam knockdown attacks over and over again. They
are also quite fond of just... walking away from melee combat to randomly kill
your archers for no real reason. Hard? No, just very annoying.
Try to let one fighter tangle up Kolgrim in melee, preferably a tank, while
another fighter begins to distract one of his two Reaver allies. Your archer
type should spend it's time focusing on whittling down the health of whatever
Reaver is busy with another party member. If you've got poison-making then try
to throw an acid flask to hit all of the three melee enemies. Your mage should
move on towards the other mages to deal with them.
Now this is where it gets tricky. If you throw a flask then there's a good 50%
chance that these guys will ignore your melee team and go straight for the
archer. This is bad. Try to get your archer away from them ASAP so you can try
to focus on more important matters, like the mages. This is the other reason
that this is tricky. If your mage approaches one of them and gets hit by a Cone
of Cold then they're probably dead. You need your mage to take them out quick
and deadly without being frozen for this to work.
Of course there's a number of ways to take them out. Heck if you've got three
fighters then the fight practically wins itself for you. But if not then there
is this strategy.
-------------------
When you get outside a few things can happen. First you will see the dragon fly
overhead in a cutscene. Now search to the east to find a crate and chest you
can loot. Now continue forward. If you are siding with Kolgrim, even a little,
you will see him interact with the dragon. Now go into the Gauntlet. If you are
not siding with Kolgrim, as in he's already dead, then DO NOT RING THE GONG!
This is touched on further down but do not ring the gong unless you're ready
for a world of pain. Just go into the Gauntlet.
Once inside of the Gauntlet speak to the Guardian. Speak to him to find out who
these others are in the temple as well as a bit of backstory. He also asks you
about your Origin story which is a neat little addition. However you will have
to get through the Gauntlet before you can get to the Ashes. Enter the door
when you are ready.
In the first room there are some riddles to answer so let's go from left, front
to rear, and then right front to rear. You will likely have little trouble with
guessing these if you're clever or read the info on Andraste throughout the
rest of the game.
- Brona: Dreams
- Thane Shartan: Home
- General Maferath: Jealousy
- Archon Hessarian: Mercy
- Ealisay: A Tune
- Lady Vasilia: Vengeance
- Disciple Havard: The Mountains
- Disciple Cathaire: Hunger
Next room! When you enter you will get a short scene that is based upon what
Origin you played through with this character.
Human Noble: Your father appears an gives you Reflection, a pretty good amulet.
When you pass through this room into the next chamber you will find ghostly
images in the shape of your own party. It's hard to give suggestions for this
fight since this can literally be any number of variable fights. As a general
rule have melee warriors fight their image, Sten vs. Sten while Alistair beats
on Alistair, except for your archers or mage. Have this one focus on helping
the two warriors get rid of their mirror images. Once the warriors are defeated
you will have an easy time cleaning up the others.
The next room has a number of odd floor tiles around a giant pit. This one is a
bit trickier. You'll need to stand on these floor tiles to make a bridge appear
but it's not so simple. Depending on which tile you stand on different bridge
sections will appear. You need to step on two of the same tile to make the
bridge solid enough to walk on. When you find two of these tiles that cause one
of the floating ones to become solid it will lock in place. You can then move
on to making the rest of the bridge. It's really simple, so long as you have a
character run up each set of tiles you'll get it eventually.
For this next room examine the altar. You will be told to remove all equipment
and then walk through the flames. Go ahead and do as instructed, choosing to
remove all equipment when the altar prompts it. Now run through the flames to
prompt the Guardian to reappear. You can now approach the Sacred Ashes of
Andraste and either poison them with the Dragon's Blood or leave them be after
you take the ashes you need for the Arl.
If you choose to poison the ashes then you will have to fight the Guardian as
well as Leliana and Wynne if you've brought them along. You will get a chance
to intimidate them into staying in your party but it requires high Coercion and
Strength scores that, even at level 20, are easy to fail.
-------------------
Boss: Guardian
-------------------
How difficult this fight is depends on who you have in your party. Should you
have brought Leliana and / or Wynne and fail to keep them from turning their
back on you then this fight will be hell. If you can keep them from turning or
only have one turn then this fight is only fairly difficult.
The Guardian starts the battle by summoning up two Ash Spirits who will attack
you with him. For his part the Guardian is actually fairly easy as he's just a
very strong two-handed weapon wielder with a lot of health. The trick will be
getting rid of the two elite Ash Wraiths as well as any rogue party members.
When they're all dealt with gang up on the Guardian with everyone you've got.
He will go down fairly quickly although you should still watch your health or
he might kill someone totally out of the blue.
-------------------
With the Guardian dead you can now return to Kolgrim for your reward: he will
unlock the Reaver specialization for your party.
Should you not poison the ashes then when you attempt to leave here you will be
attacked by Kolgrim and his cronies. See the boss description of Kolgrim just a
bit earlier to see battle suggestions on how to handle this fight. It's not all
that hard either although it is actually a bit harder than the Guardian due to
the two mages. The one advantage to doing it this way is that you will only
have to fight Kolgrim and two Reavers at first and then, by moving ahead, you
will find the rest of his retinue although it's a mage and a Drake now instead
of the two mages.
Lastly if you have already killed Kolgrim then all you have left to do is just
get the heck out of here. Search the unfortunate adventurer as well as the two
locked chests on either side of the staircase for some extra treasure.
************************
* NOTE: There are a few things you can exploit here. If you're after trophies
or achievements then take the vial from Kolgrim when you meet him the first
time. Go into the Gauntlet, make your way through it and then save right after
you walk through the flames. You can now
************************
However there's one last thing to do here if you're feeling bold enough for it.
There is a gong resting on a cliff on this mountain top. By ringing it you will
call down "Andraste" the High Dragon for a really serious fight. As this fight
is mostly similar to the Flemeth fight tips will be reposted here although more
information will be added due to this dragon's unique combat strategies.
-------------------
Boss: High Dragon
-------------------
The High Dragon has a number of powerful combat maneuvers at his beck and call.
The first is basic claws and bites, these aren't anything all that big. They do
a good bit of damage but they're not the problem. The only real issue with
these are that she can hit you no matter where you are. If you're fully behind
her expect to be kicked instead. Her second attack is a weird flailing type
attack that knocks down the people standing near her while doing a good bit of
damage to them. The third attack is a roar that will stun almost everyone that
you brought along thanks to its tremendous radius. Her last attacks are two
different fire breaths. If you're close by then she will use a sweeping wall of
fire but if you're far away she spits out a ball of fire that explodes. Both of
these can leave you on fire, dealing damage over time to whomever it hits.
What ends up making this fight so hard is that of the Dragons chew attack.
She can pick you up in her mouth, gnawing on you for a bit before throwing you
up into the air, doing it some more and then slamming you into the ground. This
does about 300 points of damage or so, give or take, and can wipe you out in no
time even if you have someone heal them while they're dragon bait. Only allow
your strongest characters to stand in front of her face as she can't do this if
you're near her rear flank. Keep any melee rogues back here or watch them die
in very short order.
In addition to what you may be familiar with from the Flemeth fight you will
also find that she can do two new things:
- Leap into the air and land somewhere else. The dragon starts the fight to the
north of the gong but it will occasionally jump up onto the hill near the gong.
When it lands it will hurt those who are too close by a bit. However this is a
blessing in disguise as you can get some free hits in on her so long as you're
standing by the gong itself. This will allow you to keep hitting her no matter
where she lands.
- Rearing up the dragon will flap its wings and pull you into melee range. This
sounds really bad but it isn't all that dangerous. The dragon spends time doing
this and will only do it if your melee types are out of the picture really. If
that's the case she will start using this after landing to pull you in close.
Should this happen quickly switch to that character and simply run away. The
dragon will usually stand there for a moment watching them, almost like it's
very confused, before leaping again. For some odd reason it prefers to do this
more than just breathing fire at you.
All of this sounds bad, and it really is, but your ability to defeat Flemeth is
based upon how prepared you are. Activated skills, potions and salves aren't
going to be enough to defeat her due to their short duration. You need good
equipment, weapons, skills, spells and to be fairly leveled. There are some who
have beaten her as early as level 9 while others end up waiting until level 13
or even later. That's not necessary but it may be necessary depending upon what
sort of character you've built.
Regardless of what you normally travel around with you're going to want to have
at least two Warriors and one healing dedicated Mage. Some people find that
having a third Warrior works out while others prefer an archer. Depending on
your class you will find different strategies to be more effective:
Mage - If you don't have healing magic then it's best to wait until you have
gotten Wynne. If you're not going to be able to get her, or have killed her,
make sure you have at least some minor healing capabilities since you'll need
to heal anyone who gets grabbed in her mouth. However you do have choices in
what to do here: you can either bring in two warriors and an archer, two
warriors and another mage (to either heal or attack) or, my favorite as a mage,
three warriors. Just make sure you keep your health up as much as possible to
get through her attacks alive.
Rogue - Let's just hope you're playing an archer type rogue, as a dual-wielder
is likely to get killed. Archers can hang back near the mages, spread out a bit
so that they don't both get hit by any stray fireballs, peppering Flemeth with
Rapid Fire arrows. Dual-wielding characters should get behind the dragon and
start cutting... and praying. You will need a healing mage here as well to keep
everyone who'se chopping away alive.
Warrior - This is easy! Either bring two fighters or a fighter and rogue with
your healing dedicated mage and just go to town. You, Alister and Oghren or
Sten can do incredibly well just cutting at the thing, especially if someone is
using two-handed swords (you should have Yusaris which works great here). If
you're finding that she does too much damage with her fire attacks swap out
Alister for Shale (if you have the DLC) and equip him with Flame Crystals to
protect him from fire attacks quite a bit.
Honestly this fight comes down to tanking her damage while doing as much damage
to her as possible. Mages do the most damage but die easily if it turns its
full attention to them. Archers aren't a really good idea unless you're using
a strong bow (Ice Arrows help with this). Fill her full of arrows to pick her
apart little by little.
*******************
* NOTE: Ironically enough this fight gets easier as more people in your party
die if you have an offensive mage. Typically the dragon will focus on whomever
is doing the most damage although any melee attack will distract her. But if
your melee types die just have your offensive mage run away from the dragon at
all times, so you're about twenty steps away, and fire off your spells. You are
going to be pulled in so quickly run away before attacking again. The dragon
will then leap and repeat this. This FAQ writer took off the last 1/5th or so
of the High Dragon's health by just doing this over and over with Morrigan as
the last party member left.
*******************
Whatever you may have done you can now return to Redcliffe with the Ashes in
hand so you can finally heal the Arl. Oh yeah, don't forget to tell Brother
Genitivi that you succeeded in this endeavor so he finally goes home. You can
go thim for a reward later but for now it's on to Arl Eamons!
If you have not poisoned the Urn of Andraste you will be named as Champion of
Redcliffe which unlocks the Champion Specialization. As you can see you cannot
get these two on the same playthrough. If you've done well then you can get a
shield from him as well, it's a decent shield but nothing all that fantastic.
Regardless of what you have done he will call the Landsmeet to try and take
Loghain off of the throne. In addition you will have to judge Jowan depending
on what course of action you have taken.
With that done you can now move on to the next quest!
========================
A Paragon of Her Kind
========================
As you head towards the entrance to the Deep Roads a group of Bounty Hunters
will attack you. These guys are pushovers though so long as you take out that
archer and mage quickly. Loot their corpses and move on. Past the outdoor
market you will find a few of Loghains men arguing that the dwarves must swear
fealty to Loghain. They're not getting far but you can enter with no problems
thanks to your nifty treaties. The others will not take this well but if you
Intimidate them they will back down like the non-threats they are.
Walk through the hall to find the door to the Commons. Once here you will get
a cutscene showing the chaos that the city has fallen into. Speak to the
Captain of the Guard to get an idea as to what's going on / who to speak to.
Now talk to the woman to your right, Navea will tell you about Lord Harrowmont
and how he's the only one to be trusted. With that said you can explore now.
Take note that if you enter Dust Town you will have to fight some thugs. They
don't have much on them nor are they any real threat, they're just there to be
trouble for you.
To start the main storyline here you should make your way down to the Diamond
Quarter. Head to the far end of this street to find the Assembly Chamber and
head on inside. After watching them practically ready to attack each other you
can speak to the Steward. He informs you that without a King there's no help to
be found in Orzammar and that the only way to stop this fighting is for either
Bhelen or Harrowmont to come out on top. To do this you'll need to speak to the
men who work for these two longs, Vartag and Dulin respectively, to try and get
an audience with these men and hopefully settle this affair.
There are two ways to handle this, via Lord Bhelen's route or Lord Harrowmonts
route. These are split into two different paths below although it is possible
to go through these quests in such a way as to not alienate either side until
near the very end. You'll need a pretty good Persuade skill to get this to work
though as when you complete a quest for one the quests for the other will just
poof from your codex. However be mindful of doing this too much and keep s save
to the side. There's a game breaking bug that can cause both sides to refuse to
speak to you preventing you from going any further. This happens at the point
you are asked to spy on both sides at the same time but not every time.
===================
Lord Bhelen
===================
A Prince's Favor: The First Task
===================
To begin with Vartag will tell you to speak to two of Harrowmonts supporters to
show them that he's been double dealing two of the noble houses. Speaking to
Lady Dace is easy, she's in the Diamond Quarter. Unfortunately she can't make
the decision for her house as her father made the alliance. So if you want to
have him change his decision you'll need to find him in the Deep Roads. Agree
to this and recieve a pass into the roads from her.
Now go to find Lord Helmi in the Tapster Tavern in the Commons. As you head
that way you'll see a scene between Loilinar and Oghren that you can speak to
Loilinar about when the other leaves. This gives you some more information on
this Branka you've been hearing about.
When you find Lord Helmi he will believe the letter easily enough although he
complains about having to deal with politics more than he wishes. Now return
to Vartag in the Assembly Chambers to tell him of your completion.
===================
Lord Harrowmont
===================
A Lord's Favor: The First Task
===================
Dulin will send you to the Proving to find some information on what's happening
with the fighters that Harrowmont sent there. So make your way to the Proving
Grounds in the Commons to find these two warriors. Baizyl Harrowmont is to the
left as you enter and he will need to be Persuaded or Intimidated to find out
just what bug crawled up his butt. A woman named Myaja has blackmailed him with
some love letters that you'll need to find if you want him to fight. You can
head to the south to find Myaja's chambers, a simple lockpicking gets you into
the room as well as her chest to get those letters. Return them to Baizyl to
convince him to fight.
Gwiddon is the second one you need to find, he's through the doors to the south
in the back of the Proving areas. It seems that he believes Harrowmont is about
to give in to Dulin. If you Intimidate him, or Persuasde him, he will be more
than happy to believe that this isn't the case and get back into the arena for
his lord.
There may be other ways to get these two to fight, convincing Gwiddow and
getting those letters back, but nothing that's been found so far. An update
will contain any information on this that's acquired through more playthroughs.
With that done speak to the Proving Master to fight for Lord Harrowmont. This
starts the arena leg of this quest.
First Round: Seweryn - As befitting the first round this is a simple fight that
isn't all that tough. Rogues should try to keep some distance, as should any
Magi, but warriors can get right into his face and start hammering away. He'll
go down in no time flat.
Second Round: Myaja and Lucjan - Now we move onto something a bit different.
These two are allowed to fight as one person since they're twins so you get to
fight in a two-on-one. There are a few ways to handle this fight but they all
involve beating down on Lucjan first as he's able to do a lot of damage via
hitting you in the back repeatedly.
As a Mage try to use crowd control spells to control this fight. Keep going
after Lucjan with your damage spells while stopping them from fighting back. If
you find yourself stymied by spell cooldown then run away until you're able to
start fighting back.
Fighters and rogues should stand their ground, using their skills to keep
Myaja stunned and the both of them away from your back, while damaging Lucjan
as quickly as possible. Once he goes down you can handle Myaja easily.
Third Round: Hanshar - Since she's using a two-handed weapon this lady does a
lot of damage but she's slow about it. Any character should have little problem
with stopping her from attacking by using your skills constantly. This will
keep her on the defensive and unable to deal any appreciable damage, ending the
fight rather quickly. If she starts hitting you then healing will be needed,
doubly so if you're a mage, but it shouldn't come to that.
Fourth Round - Wojech Ivo & Valance, pairs - This is where it gets hard. Ivo is
a pain as he has a lot of health and does a lot of damage. Valance is a rogue
so he will use stealth, dirty fighting and backstabs. Lots of backstabs. As a
partner you may bring in either of Harrowmonts fighters or your own party (not
including Shale for whatever reason). It really shouldn't matter who you pick
so long as you focus on Wojech. He's the main problem so deal with him as fast
as you can to prevent him from hammering on you and this won't be a big deal.
If you don't attend to him then he will bring the pain and make your life very
difficult. As a note if you do choose a party member to help then another
fighter is a good idea. Mages don't do as much damage as they normally would to
a dwarf and it'll show here.
Fifth Round: Piotin Aeducan, squads - See below.
-------------------
Boss: Piotin Aeducan
-------------------
Party on party combat is the name of the game here. He's a high level boss
enemy and you've got your party. So this is going to be a brawl. You can call
for Baizyl and Gwiddon to join you in the arena instead of your party but this
can be a problem. If you get KOed then you're going to lose entirely so don't
make this decision unless you know you can handle the fighting. It's best to
bring your party along to the battle instead.
If you have a full four party members then this is easy as it gets since two
of these four are pushovers. Simply have your men target the two regular dwarf
enemies before turning to deal with Piotin's Right Hand Man. Lastly you can
turn to dealing with Piotin himself. Use your Mage's crowd control skills to
keep control of the enemies, stopping them from fighting back, since that's
easily enough done.
With just the two dwarves helping you this fight plays out mostly the same.
However since you can't control them there's no real way to make them do what
you want. So you'll have to handle the specifics yourself. The one to your left
usually ends up fighting Piotin and his Right Hand while the one on your right
goes after a regular enemy, leaving the archer to annoy you. Try to stun Piotin
before going after his Right Hand and pray that the dwarves live long enough to
keep you from being ganged up on.
-------------------
With that done this is completed and you may return to Durin. You can find him
in Tapster's Tavern waiting to take you to see Lord Harrowmont now. This takes
you to Harrowmonts Estate in the Diamond Quarter, walk forward to speak to him.
He will send you to deal with Jarvia in Dust Town.
************************
*NOTE: By siding with Harrowmont you will find that as you move around groups
of Bhelen Fanatics will be waiting to attack you. These will respawn but they
aren't hard to defeat but they can be annoying nonetheless. Luckily annoying
doesn't mean useless as they can be a nice source of money and potions.
************************
===================
A Lord's Trust: The Second Task
===================
This is actually two quests in one, the listed quest name above and "Entering
Jarvia's Hideout". To take down this dwarven thug you will have to go down to
Dust Town and speak to the people there for information. This is exactly what
you need to do - go down to Dust Town and speak to all of the beggars, as well
as the shopkeeper about her. Now walk into the Slums House for a fight. There
are a lot of dwarves here but if you have a combat mage they shouldn't be too
difficult. If you don't have that then AoE effects from skills or bombs will
make short work of them.
When the enemies are all dead except for the leader, or if you get his health
down low enough, he will surrender. The dwarf offers you the finger bone you
need as well as telling you where the base is. You can either let him go or
kill him off now, it's your choice. Regardless, leave the house and walk to the
Suspicious Door nearby. Open this with the fingerbone to find Jarvia's base.
Inside of the tunnels head straight forward to find the Carta Doorman. Since we
don't have the password we're going to have to fight our way through so let's
get to it. Since this is a small area with numerous enemies all it takes is one
solid Mind Blast to keep everyone under control. In addition you shouldn't have
much difficulty moving around to find places to use cone spells or other such
spells. An Affliction Hex makes this all the easier.
Loot the bodies and then continue through the door to the next hallway. Take
a right to find a bunch of enemies waiting for you, as well as a trap right in
your path. This is a large group so once again your mage will find lots of use
here. Search the bodies and the room for treasure (as well as a sidequest). Now
go down the eastern path to find a room with a few more enemies to take out and
some more loot.
Continue to the south when you're done. At this next intersection there will be
more enemies to the west and in addition to the ones in the hall more emerge
from the room to fight. There are enough people here for your rogues or mages
to be taken down before you know it so fight carefully. It's far too easy for
everyone to target Morrigan and find her locked in place, dying rapidly. Loot
their corpses and search the room before heading to the eastern room. Here you
will find an NPC party of sorts (Assassin, Fighter and Mage). Take out the mage
first and then deal with the others. Loot the room and keep moving south.
Go straight south now to find a room full of enemies. Four melee types charge
you while three hang back shooting arrows at you. Make sure to get rid of the
melee fighters before going after the archers as the trap on the ground can
paralyze your party members. Search the room for stuff before going back and
taking the eastern path you ignored.
Inside of this room are more dwarves waiting to attack but there's nothing else
of note. Continue forward and go west at the next intersection. Here you will
find a jail with a few archers, a Carta Jailor and Carta Assassin to deal with.
These enemies aren't too strong but the Assassin can pull off a move that marks
someone for extra damage from all attacks. This is indicated by a red circle
moving around their feet. Attack the Assassin as quickly as possible so that he
doesn't get the chance to do this because him and the Jailor can hurt whomever
is like this badly.
Now you can free Leske from the cell with the key from the Jailors body. This
is only relevant to those who are not playing the Dwarven Commoner.
Double back to the tunnels and go east this time. Inside of this room you will
be attacked by a trio of cloaked Assassins. Deal with them quickly and try to
keep them stunned or frozen to stop them from marking people. It's possible to
get your whole party marked if you don't do this and your mages will likely die
if that happens. Search this area and move into the next one to find yet more
enemies waiting for you.
Just beyond them are some more enemies eager to be slain by your swords. This
is a pretty eager bunch of lambs I'd say. Go through this door and follow the
hall to reach a room with a slew of enemies. It starts off simple with just a
few Carta Thugs. But a Carta Assassin pops-in and a Elven Mercenary mage starts
to cast spells. Since the mage is fairly deep into the room getting to him is
not going to be easy. Rushing him may not be possible if you're lower level so
try to get rid of the Assassin with your mage and rogue while your fighters
deal with the enemy melee attackers. Then let your rogue and mage move into the
room and try to remove the mage from the picture.
Loot everything and head through the door. At the next intersection there are
three ways to go. The southern path locked door has a locked chest inside with
very little in it as well as three Giant Spiders watching it. The northern door
has a tunnel with a number of Carta Thugs in it that leads to treasure. Going
through the eastern door will take you to Jarvia.
-------------------
Boss: Jarvia & Co.
-------------------
As you may have guessed this fight isn't so much about Jarvia as it is about
the numerous allies she has in the room with her. Once the fight starts you are
stuck in close range with her and four of her allies. There are three more in
the far end of the room using crossbows. Unfortunately as you hurt her more of
these monkeys will pop up, namely weaker Carta Assassins.
Since you're fighting so many rogues there is potential for a lot of Stealth
useage, backstabs and Dirty Fighting to cause you trouble so it's important
that you have a party that can handle this. It's heavily suggested that, even
if you've ignored such so far, to make sure you use a mage with crowd control
spells. No matter how much you might like Wynne bring Morrigan along instead.
It's imperative that you be able to freeze people to stop them from going four-
on-one with somebody.
Jarvia does a good bit of damage, especially if you're very low level, but she
isn't enough to take out your party. So long as you keep the others off of your
fighters they should be able to mostly handle her. Let your mage keep everyone
stunned / frozen while your archer picks people apart with special arrows.
-------------------
When Jarvia is dead loot her and her buddies before going to the southern door
at the far end of the room. Search the two chests before leaving via the north
door. This will take you out of the tunnels finally. Harrowmont is pleased to
hear of your success but it seems that without the Paragon Branka there will be
no chance to sway others to your side. So now we have to hunt her down in the
Deep Roads... where all the darkspawn come from. Great.
As you head towards the mines Oghren will ask to join you. He's a two-handed
axe loving Dwarven Berserker so you could do much worse than getting him to
join up with you. However you're going to need to baby sit him since the drunk
doesn't seem to love life, frequently dying all over the place.
As a warning the Deep Roads are one of the least enjoyable sections of the
whole game. Since the enemies level with you the Hurlocks and Genlocks manage
to always be capable of dealing a good bit of damage. Unfortunately the lot of
these enemies seem to loathe dropping health, Lyrium or injury potions, often
dropping crappy Darkspawn equipment or a piddling amount of silver. So you're
going to need to make sure you're well prepared for this one.
************************
*NOTE: If you have Shale from the Stone Prisoner DLC then bring him with you
into the Deep Roads. You'll need him in your party when you reach Caridian's
Cross if you wish to pursue his backstory. He may sometimes speak to you in the
camp about it instead but it's best not to leave it up to luck as it has been
known to glitch.
************************
Make your way to Caridan's Cross. As you start to enter you will be confronted
by a trio of thugs. They're working for Bhelen so you'll have to kill them to
get by. As per usual take out the mage first and then clean up the rest of them
however you please. Continue forward where you will find two tunnels that lead
out of the main one you are walking in. The eastern tunnel is the easier of the
two by far but the western one has more experience gain.
-----------------------------
- Northwest: After walking through a small tunnel you will enter a large
chamber full of Genlocks. You will start off fighting a small group of them. As
you move further in, battling them, more can be found off to the west. However
there is a trick here that can be really bad for your party. On the bridge that
goes to the south is a Hurlock Alpha whose mere presence will keep you stuck in
battle mode. When you move to attack him a bunch of archers will magically
spawn up behind you. This can easily kill wounded party members so be mindful
of it and keep people healed up.
Cross the bridge to find more Genlocks as well as a new enemy, the Shrieks.
They're nothing too special, basically just darkspawn rogues, but they can do a
good bit of damage if they surround you. What you want to watch out for here is
further to the south, near the archers, as there is an Ogre there. This pain in
the rear is often a death sentence for Oghren as he tends to charge the archers
and dies at the Ogre's hand. Keep an eye on the dwarf if you've brought him.
When they're defeated you can head through the tunnel to the south to reach a
new section of the Deep Roads. To your west is a way to leave if you so choose
while to the right are some enemies, one with a Bronto. This is likely a new
type of fight for you but it isn't anything special. Take out the enemies and
keep going. To your east you will find three Runners, one of whom stands to
fight while two of his fellows run down a tunnel to the south.
From here you can either go down the tunnel or towards the intersection to the
east. If you go there you will find numerous enemies; a Genlock Emissary and a
trio of archers, one of whom is manning a ballista, as well as three more of
the Genlock archers to the north. Watch your health here as that Emissary is in
love with the Fireball spell. Both paths converge at this crossroad.
-----------------------------
- Southeast: After walking through the tunnels a bit you will find a lone Deep
Stalker. It may attempt to run off since, as you walk past the next bend, there
is a fair sized group of them just waiting for you. Take them out and continue
on your way. In the larger room ahead there is only treasure on the eastern
path so head down to the southeast again. More Deep Stalkers will attack, this
time from in front and behind, so be ready to take them out.
Walk forward into the next chamber for some more Deepstalker combat. Head into
the next tunnel to find your way to the Deep Road again. A Bronto and some
Genlocks wait here for you. After killing them you will notice that the way to
the south is just full of Genlocks. There are two near the dirt mound itself,
one near the ballista, a Genlock Emissary further back and a trio of more
Genlock archers near him. It's very easy to see someone die here so watch your
party hit points. Both paths converge at this crossroad.
-----------------------------
From the intersection you can either go to the east or west. West leads to a
small tunnel to the south that two Runners disappear down while the East stays
on the Deep Road.
- Western Tunnel: As you go down this tunnel to the south you will very soon
find those Runners. They are waiting with a Hurlock and Genlock Emissary to
ambush you. It's no big deal, the fight is easy, just be ready for a Shriek to
pop up and attack you from behind. On the Emissary you will find Topsider's
Hilt, a piece of a sword. Keep going through the tunnels until you find a very
nasty surprise...
Waiting for you at an intersection are a trio of Shrieks who ambush you. But
that's not the surprise. That honor belongs to the Ogre Alpha. Yes, a boss Ogre
who was not so long ago a boss itself. Ogre Alpha isn't that bad as far as the
"boss" type monsters go but he's still pretty bad. He doesn't have any new
attacks, he still charges, stomps to stun everyone and picks people up to try
squishing them, nor does he do that much more damage. But oh boy does he have
more health.
To get past this behemoth with minimal difficulty you will need to rely heavily
on stunning attacks. He resists these fairly well but when he goes to pick up a
party member you'll want to throw everything you have at him. If you can stun
him he will drop your ally, leaving you free to start attacking again. Freezing
attacks also work but they can be dangerous as he will usually focus on the
mage after being frozen once or twice.
When he goes down you can head to the east out of the tunnel. South is the exit
to Ortan Thaig from here.
- East: As you start moving this way you will find a Glass Phylactery amidst
some rubble. This is part of the Unbound quest although it's not a official
quest. Touching this unleashes a powerful Revenant that is dangerous in both
melee and ranged combat using his spells. Try to keep him frozen and stunned to
minimize risk of your life. He doesn't take damage from ice spells at all but
he can be frozen solid briefly, buying you time to beat on him further.
From here it branches off in three directions: One to the east, one to the west
(although this only doubles back on a previous path) and the exit to the south
that leads to Ortan Thaig.
Going down the eastern tunnel is a short trip. A group of Genlocks are waiting
for a fight in the very first room. The next room has a bunch of those little
chicken like Deepstalkers except it's got a whole lot of them. They spawn in
large groups, attacking you from all sides. However after defeating three of
these groups you will be able to fight the Deepstalker Matriarch, a boss type
Deepstalker that isn't all that hard. Once she's down search the sarcophagus
and then head out of here.
To Ortan Thaig!
After a chit-chat with Oghren you will be ready to move through Ortan Thaig.
Just up ahead you can find a dead Ogre with some Giant Spiders nearby. This is
a bad sign. Head down the tunnel nearby to find an interesting situation.
This next room is full of Giant Spiders, Thaig Crawlers (stronger spiders) and
some Giant Poisonous Spiders brawling it out with darkspawn. First you will see
them attacking an Ogre for all they're worth. If you have area of effect attack
spells this is a great place to use them. A Cone of Cold here, Fireball there
and voila! Lots of easy experience.
Head to the north when they've all fallen to find yet more chaos. Spiders are
fighting regular darkspawn here so start throwing off spells again. After a bit
a Shriek Alpha will pop up out of nowhere. Focus on this guy since he can do a
lot of damage surprisingly fast if you happen to lose track of him in the mess.
When they're all down search this area for treasure and loot before moving on.
The next tunnel has a Giant Poisonous Spider in it who will sprint away at top
speed. Stop your party from chasing after him and try to draw him back to you
with ranged attacks or spells. If you run through the web four more spiders are
going to attack you and dealing with them, plus the Poisonous Spider, can be an
issue. Handle it before heading to the west.
Stepping out into this chamber will see you attacked by dwarven spirits and a
Stone Golem. The spirits are totally immune to cold magics and don't take very
much from any other type of magic spells. Mind Blast has some success and they
can still be frozen solid so that gives you some options. The Stone Golem is
the real danger since he can stun your party with his Quake attack (punching
the ground repeatedly) and is hard to do much of anything to, magic wise.
When they've all fallen start following the path to the north through the Thaig
proper. Here you will see a dwarf leaning over a darkspawn corpse who runs off
as you approach. Here is where you can work on the "A Mother's Hope" and "The
Lost Memories" quests. From here go to the southwest just a bit to head around
the buildings to the Altar of Sundering. This is relevant to the "Asunder"
quest if you've been working on it. While none of these need to be visited to
go on with the main quest it's suggested that you speak to Ruck since he can
act as a merchant if you can calm him down. This is a great place to unload all
of the crappy darkspawn equipment you've been picking up.
Whenever you're ready to proceed to one of the bridges to the west. Both of
them have a Stone Golem on them with two dwarves at the far end. In the middle
of the far bank are three more dwarves. It's suggested that you walk onto a
bridge, kill the enemies and then go to the other bridge and do the same before
actually trying to cross it. Search the bank before continuing on, into the
tunnel on the other side of the river.
As you go you will see Giant Spiders retreating from you, both running away and
slipping up into the ceiling. Don't get too proud of that fact, the reason why
they're doing this is just across that bridge...
Once you near the far bank a group of Corrupted Spiders will come out to attack
you with a Genlock Emissary. Four come from the front while one attacks you
from the rear. If you don't move forward quickly then they will block off the
way to the Emissary, leaving him free to pummel you with Winter's Grasp, lots
of Fireballs and a number of other "kill you stupidly fast" spells. Oh and the
spiders can not only web you but they can tackle you to the ground to nibble on
your face meaning it's possible for them to incapacitate your entire party in
very short order.
The best way to deal with this is to send someone across the bridge with a very
high natural armor rating as a target. The spiders will go after him as one big
group. Use your mage to stun / freeze them all and send another fighter to go
after the Emissary, preferably a Templar. Now let the mage keep the spiders
busy while the fighter, if he still lives, helps when he unwebs. Your last man
should be keeping the rear attacking spider busy unless it dies in which case
he can help out the mage as well.
With that done loot the Emissary and head for Branka's Journal. If you go to
the east there are more Corrupted Spiders with another Emissary. But beyond
that lies the Corrupted Spider Queen, the boss of this place.
-------------------
Boss: Corrupted Spider Queen
-------------------
The main body of this fight isn't going to be against the Spider Queen herself
but against the many Corrupted Spiders she calls up. Most of these only come
down two or three at a time and they don't use their web attack very often if
at all. For the most part it's an easy fight thanks to this fact but it can be
dangerous if you're not careful.
Dealing with the Spider Queen is simple enough. She will come down on a line of
web to start spitting venom at you. When you near her she will wait between one
to four seconds before webbing up everyone around her and retreating to the
ceiling. Then she comes down somewhere else, usually away from your party, and
starts it all over again. You're basically forced to chase her around while you
try desperately to wail on her.
The trick to this fight is your mage, as usual. If you have freezing spells she
can be easily locked in place to allow your fighters to deal some solid damage.
Then, when the Corrupted Spider reinforcements arrive, the mage can use things
like Mind Blast or Paralysis to prevent them from ganging up on the fighters.
Honestly this is a fairly easy fight unless people start getting pounced in
which case you desperately need to get them off ASAP or you will likely lose a
party member, especially if it's a mage or rogue that they hit.
-------------------
When the Queen dies loot her body before scouring the area for stuff. Then go
on over to Branka's Journal and read it to learn a bit more about where she has
gone. Now we're going even deeper into the Deep Roads so you may want to go
back to Orzammar to restock on supplies, this trip isn't over yet.
Welcome to the Dead Trenches, home to the... Holy Sweet Mother what the hell is
that thing?! Okay, wow. After that cutscene you may feel the need to proceed
slowly forward so as to not get eaten alive. Heading down the ramp you will see
some dwarven Legionnaires fending off a bunch of darkspawn. This bridge seems
to have a never-ending flow of darkspawn across it. When you near it you'd best
be ready to fight since that flow only stops when you kill enough of those damn
darkspawn so be ready for a protracted battle.
Speak to the dwarven leader before crossing the bridge. Your first fight will
be against a group of regular Hurlocks and Genlocks. But once you reach the
other side you will find eight Genlock archers and an Ogre waiting for you. Try
to let your mage go after the Genlocks since crowd control spells will stop
them in their tracks and they like to stay clustered. Your warriors should make
it a priority to get rid of the Ogre before worrying about the archers. This
whole group is kind of weak so you shouldn't have too many difficulties.
To the south is just some treasure while north will lead to a tunnel that takes
you deeper into the trenches. You will have to battle some darkspawn after an
auto-save but that's all that's between you and Bownammar. Once inside you will
find a pair of Hurlocks to the south who charge you with a Bronto. While you
fight them a pair of archers with a Genlock Emissary are by the large doors and
will be throwing off attacks at you. Aim for the Bronto first while your mage
tries to incapacitate the Emissary.
With that done you have a few ways to go. There are two doors to the sotuh and
a single one to the north. The southwestern door contains a squad of darkspawn
and has a few sarcophagi to loot as well as a locked chest. The northern door
leads to another small room with some darkspawn and treasure. South is the way
to go if you want to go deeper.
The door to the south contains a number of enemies, as well as traps, but the
sarcophagi here have a few decent items inside of them, notably a great pair of
gauntlets. Inside of the tunnels past this room lies your next challenge. A
squad of enemies, namely Hurlocks and a Genlock Emissary, wait for you with a
number of Corrupted Spiders. Getting past this fight without serious damage is
difficult since the spiders and Emissary can immobilize you while they all are
capable of dealing significant damage. Try to get a large group of enemies all
together so you can hit them with AoE attacks and then quickly get rid of that
Emissary before his damage adds up too much.
Past this is yet another rough patch - an Ancient Darkspawn awaits around the
corner. While his name is colored like a boss he isn't really one. However he
is a very smart fighter with a number of skills. He seems to be something of a
Champion / Ravager mix based on the skills he uses, capable of going into a
frenzy to cut your party up as well as hitting everyone around him with his big
ol' axe. Your best bet is to keep stunning him but don't let your mage get too
invovled. He's smart enough to go after mages in the first place and if you get
too happy about casting spells he will charge your mage in an attempt to knock
them off. Don't let that happen.
Loot his corpse to find The Topsider's Blade, the final piece of the sword that
you have been finding parts of. You'll need to return this to the tomb in the
Ortan Thaig but that can wait. Head into the next tunnel to find a bunch more
traps with a few darkspawn. There are some Shrieks hidden there as well so try
not to leave your mages undefended.
Loot the bodies and continue into the next chamber to find more trouble. To the
south are a number of Genlocks and Hurlocks accompanied by an archer Hurlock
Alpha and a Genlock Forge Master, basically a Genlock boss. This fight is a big
pain in the butt since this is a fairly large group of enemies that can cut up
your health in short order. To say nothing of the fact that whether you're at
close range or at a distance the obnoxious ass Forge Master can cleave your HP
apart with no problem. It's nice to see someone so versatile. And annoying.
Part of this fight is strategy and part of this fight is luck. The first times
you try this you will likely use up most of your health potions if not have a
full party wipe. But then miraculously you will get through it with minimal
issues. If you have any defensive skills now is the time to activate them!
Try to go for the first group as quickly, and brutally, as possible without
letting your mage use too many spells. Save up their big spells for just a few
moments. Wipe out that first group and then rush forward to where the Alpha is
with his two archers and the Forge Master is with his two archers. Send your
fighters and archer to deal with the Alpha and his men as fast as possible, use
all of your skills up if you must. While they do this have either a rogue or
your mage keep the Forge Master and pals busy with bombos or crowd control type
spells. If you're using Morrigan you should have Cone of Cold by now - keep on
casting this as much as possible, with whatever stunning / freezing / paralyze
spells you may have.
This keeps the Forge Master busy until all other enemies are down. Now have the
whole party gang up on him to take him down in no time at all. Loot the dead
and then double back to the north. In the eastern room there are some items in
the sarcophagi, grab them before continuing north. Your path brings you to a
bridge but as you try to cross it Shrieks will attack from both directions. It
seems bad but it's pretty easy to get through. Just focus on letting them get
clustered up and then hamer them with AoE attacks.
Continue north until you reach a large chamber where skeletons come out to
attack. There are at least ten of them in here and while not individually very
strong they can really lay on the damage as a unit. More importantly there is
a Genlock Emissary so make taking him out a priority unless you like watching
your party members die. The skeletons may annoy via shield bashes and going out
for your mages but overall this shouldn't be too bad. Make sure to search a
nearby sarcophagus to find the next to last piece of the Armor of the Legion.
As you start heading down the tunnels beyond the door a strange voice will be
heard. Follow it to a fork in the road - north leads to two Genlock Emissary's
and Corrupted Spiders guarding some locked chests while east keeps on going in
the direction of the voice. When you reach the end of the hall go through the
door to find Hespith, a dwarven victim of some crime perpetuated by Branka. It
seems like she was tainting her own family members for some reason connected to
the Anvil of the Void. She runs off after you're done talking so follow her.
There's a surprise in here for you: a pair of Ogre's to fight. It shouldn't be
too hard for you so long as you focus everything you have on one and then the
other. Just try not to waste your skills (ie. don't have two people try to stun
at the same time) so that you can quickly turn from one to the other.
When they both go down loot them, search the nearby rubble for a great joke on
the elevators in Mass Effect, and then go through the smaller door, not the big
Ominous Door. Here you will see a bunch of spirits praying, these are the souls
of fallen Legionnaires of the Legion of the Dead. There is a stone you can look
at here that speaks of the Gangue of the stone. Think of it as a corruption of
the very essence of the world. Beyond that is an altar with the key you need as
well as the last part of the Armor of the Legion.
When you take the key and helmet the dwarven spirits will attack you. They're
nothing too bad though so this shouldn't be a huge issue. Just don't let your
stupid party go running off by themselves to fight five of them, especially the
mages, to avoid any silliness. Once they're defeated you can activate the
Legion of the Dead Relic to call up a Gangue Spirit to fight. This is just a
really durable Shade / Ash Wraith so don't worry about it. Take it out and then
loot its corpse. Mosey back to those Ominous Doors so you can use that key you
just got to open them up.
Move forward, searching everything as you go for treasure, until you reach a
cutscene that shows... some really messed up crap. Welcome to the Broodmother
boss battle and this one can be a doozy.
-------------------
Boss: Broodmother
-------------------
This seems to be that beast that the crazy dwarf lady was talking about. You
will be fighting not just the Broodmother itself but its tentacles which can be
a real pain in the rear to handle. She's a veritable flurry of attacks, both
from herself and those freaking tentacles of hers. These pose a serious issue
to engaging her in melee and this limits your options considerably. Oh you can
try to battle her in melee but you will use up a whole lot of healing potions
even if you brought a healer along.
The Broodmother has three methods of defense. Firstly she herself has a number
of physical attacks that will knock people around, stagger them or just beat
the crud out of them. She also has a scream attack that stuns everyone even
remotely near her. If you try to stay at a range she will spit on you and she
can pick people up to blow chunks all over them.
Secondly her tentacles will attack you. Unlike her these aren't really that big
of a threat but they can contribute to your HP dropping rapidly. Lastly when
you deal too much damage she will summon up darkspawn. The first wave is called
when she's lost about a third of her health and is fairly small. It's just a
few Genlocks and Hurlocks to start with. But when you take down a bit more than
half of her health she summons a number of Hurlock, Genlock, Shrieks and, if
that wasn't enough, Genlock archers.
Her only weakness is cold attacks. Whether it's Winter's Grasp, Cone of Cold or
even Blizzard this will do a good amount of damage to her. If she's frozen then
there's a chance that even weak little Winter's Grasp will refreeze her which
works wonders for taking her out.
Here are a few suggested strategies to battle her:
1. If you're willing to be a bit cheesy then try this. Equip everyone with a
ranged weapon and hang back all the way away from her. Continually shoot her
with your bows and watch her health tick down. Any spells you use will only
speed this up. Now this isn't foolproof since her tentacles may make their way
over to you and when the darkspawn attack you'll need to deal with them, and
she can spit at you all the while, but you won't take nearly as much damage.
Just keep on the stone to reduce how many tentacles can reach you.
2. Get right in her face, freeze her, and start going to town with your party.
If you happen to have Death Hex cast that on her and then have your men rush in
to beat her down. While they're doing this you can have your spellcaster just
beating on her. Your pattern should go like this:
a) Mage: Death Hex, Others: Hang back until CoC casting begins
b) Mage: Cone of Cold, Others: Rush in and hit the frozen boss with as many
powerful skills as possible. Try to use ones that cause critical hits and
the like first.
c) Mage: cast as many damage dealing spells as possible, Others: Stay focused
on the boss unless others have spawned in. If this happens pull back to deal
with them without Broodmother hitting you and then attack.
d) Later, rinse, repeat
3. If you're feeling really cheesy you can just hang back on the stone roads to
either side of the Broodmother where she can't reach you and spam spells.
For example if you have Blizzard drop that right on top of her to cause a
serious amount of damage. Use Death Hex to make this all the harsher.
************************
*NOTE: For the super cheesy amongst us there's an uber combo you can use to end
this fight faster than you might ever dream. Have your mage activate the Spell
Might skill before casting Blizzard and Tempest. This will cause a spell combo
called Storm of the Century to go off. This deals about 5-30 damage per second
to enemies, or allies, in the area of effect. Watch it tear the boss to pieces
especially if you happen to cast off Death Hex before doing this.
************************
This fight can be something of an endurance test but you shouldn't have too
much trouble defeating her. Just be mindful of your health and you'll be fine.
-------------------
When she falls loot the body as well as the area before going through the hall
to the east. On the map choose the Anvil of the Void area and let's get to the
bottom of this mess.
After talking to Branka for a bit start walking forward through the tunnels...
as if you really have a choice. Listen to her rambling as you go to see just
how far gone she is. When you enter the large room you will be attacked by a
large group of darkspawn with most coming towards you and the rest near the
back of the chamber. Heading towards those in the back causes more to pour out
of the tunnel and when you go into the tunnel there are some more of them with
an Ogre. Yay! This is a huge brawl so make good use of your mages here and
watch your health. With proper crowd control you'll be just fine.
Head through the tunnels until the game auto-saves for you. In this next room
you will have to shut four gas valves to stop the flow of poison gas. While you
try to do this you will be attacked by a Stone Golem. It's important that you
ignore the golem for the moment and shut off those valves. This is easier to do
on the PC where you can easily click on where you want your people to go while
it's a fight on the consoles. Get those valves closed and start killing Stone
Golems. After taking out the first one four more will awaken so defeat them all
to unlock the door to this room.
The next room is a trapped room. If you have a skilled enough rogue they will
note the traps on the floor which you can then disarm. Should you not disarm it
then you will have to fight golems which aren't terribly hard to fight although
they come in pairs. Reaching the far end of the room opens the door to allow
you out.
Go through the tunnels to reach the Anvil of the Void. There is a test in this
room as well and this one is a bit of a puzzle to figure out what's going on.
As you enter the room the tower in the middle will begin to spin in place. It
then summons up four spirit dwarves, one to guard each spirit anvil in a circle
around it. As you kill these dwarves they are respawned but the anvils light up
in positions that correspond to the dwarf you kill. This may lead you to think
that you need to light them all up which isn't the case.
What you need to do is kill a dwarf that is standing near an anvil and then
activate the lit anvil. This will fire a blast of energy at the tower which
causes it to bleed and begin firing off attacks at you. To destroy the tower it
is necessary to hit each face with two blasts of energy from the anvil. Try to
watch where the faces turn and hit each face twice instead of hitting random
faces. The more injured faces the more damage it deals. Also note that while
the dwarves don't attack you until they're attacked your party has very serious
issues with controlling themselves here. Even if you tell them to attack the
northern dwarf they may decide to hit him and then go after another one which
means dealing with two enemies instead of one.
Once you've hit all four faces enough the fight ends and the door unlocks. Open
the three chests near the door (one of which is locked) and then go down the
tunnel. This takes you straight to Caridin and his army of Stone Golems. Speak
to him to learn about the Anvil of the Void.
************************
*NOTE: If you happen to have Shale with you at this point then he will have a
small conversation with Caridin that reveals more of his background. This is
the talk necessary to work towards unlocking Shale's memories. It's also the
start of his personal quest. However he will also betray you if you try to side
with Branka here so don't bring him along if that's your intention. You can try
to speak to him in camp later on. There's a 50/50 chance he will actually talk
about his memories although this may be a bug in the DLC as he seems like he
should always talk to you about it afterwards.
************************
There are two ways to go from here, siding with Branka the insane or Caridin
the big metal booty. If you side with Branka you will have to fight tall dark
and stainless with the aid of Caridin's golems but if you choose to side with
Branka then you have to fight Caridin with the aid of some of her golems. This
isn't exactly easy either way.
-------------------
Boss: Caridin
-------------------
If you side with Branka then you will have to take down Caridin and his six
Stone Golems. This is a tough fight since the only backup you have is the two
golems that Branka brings in with her. Plus Caridin is a serious powerhouse who
has all the traits of golems and is much stronger than they ever are.
Defeating him is really difficult if you try to just powerhouse your way past
the big guy. He hits for a lot of damage, he has a lot of help just nearby and
it's quite easy for him to suddenly kill you. Defeating him is a matter of not
letting him move around too much. As such try to junkpile on him with lots of
skills that stun him while your mage freezes him when possible.
Now that's not going to solve the whole problem, there are other golems that
want to kill you as well. It would be best to allow two of your party members
to keep Caridin busy while your mage and another character deal with the two
golems. If you've got freezing capabilities now is the time to abuse it. You
want to get rid of those two before the other two kill Branka's golems and then
come after you.
Once the golems are gone you can focus on Caridin who will go down eventually.
He does make the area dangerous by punching the ground, causing first electric
energy to spark up in the middle of the area and then it changes to flames that
leap out of the ground. Try to avoid these while battling him.
-------------------
After the fight speak to Branka and ask her to make a crown using the Anvil to
be given to the next king of Orzammar as a sign of her favor.
Or...
-------------------
Boss: Branka
-------------------
Fighting Branka isn't much easier than fighting Caridin but it's not likely to
feel that way. This fight is rough - there's no real way around that fact. You
will probably feel that it's impossible if you find yourself dying here since
it all feels very overwhelming thanks to not only the overwhelming odds but the
fact that Branka herself is a helluva powerhouse for a craftsman.
Much as when you fight most enemies it's important to get rid of the flunkies
first and then go after the boss. In this case it's doubly important to do so
thanks to the sheer power of these freaking golems. Ignore Branka as much as
possible and lure the golems to you. Then focus on the yellow named ones and
try to hit them with freezing spells to lock them in place. With that done you
should use your strongest skills to cut them down. Amusingly enough if you have
Cone of Cold and Stonefist or Crushing Prison you can destroy the white Golems
with easy spell combo.
When it comes to fighting Branka she's not that complicated at first. She has
moves to stun you and knock you down, all of which deal appreciable damage. The
rub of it is when you do about half of her health in damage to her. This will
prompt her to summon up a trio of mirror images that fight alongside her. It's
possible to destroy these quickly if you focus on them as they die pretty easy
but it's hard to do this with her herself still beating on you. Try to let your
mage focus on freezing them and dealing whatever damage they can while one more
character helps out.
It may take some time but you will be able to defeat Branka so long as you try
to keep your health as high as possible.
-------------------
Now you may return to Orzammar for a nice cutscene where you choose who will be
the next king. It doesn't matter who you've helped so far you can pull a total
180 here and just give it to whom you like. Regardless you will be given a
reward for your efforts and the aid of Orzammar.
If you've chosen to side with Harrowmont then you will get to engage in a fun
little melee within the council chambers. This is actually a pretty easy fight
since there are so many allies taking part in it. Just be careful with your AoE
attacks as you can kill the nobles. Focus on Bhelen and tear him a new one. If
you go into the Royal Palace and speak to Vartag he will attack you as well.
Just an FYI.
Now it's time to move on to the next quest.
========================
Nature of the Beast
========================
When you arrive at the Brecelian Forest you will be stopped by a group of Elven
warriors. You can either tell them of your business to try and convince them to
let you into the camp or simply use Persuade to let you in. Once you're brought
to the Keeper he will explain what is going on with the Elves and how you will
have to help them if you wish for their aid. Of course.
Speak to Sarel and Lenaya to gather some more information on what's going on in
his area as well as the forest, Zathrian and the Werewolves. You should next
find Varathorn to open up the shop. Take note that this man sells you as many
Elfroot as you can carry so grab them up and, when paired up with the flasks
and distillation agents in the party camp, you can now make as many healing
potions as you can afford. Once you're ready head into the forest.
Navigating the Brecelian Forest is kind of a pain, as are giving directions for
much of anything here. This is due to the fact that the paths are hard to tell
apart on the map, it's generally hard to tell where and when you need to
deviate from the paths to move around. It's generally confusing... like trying
to walk around in a forest would be.
Follow the path north then east as it curves around a hill. You will pretty
immediately be attacked by some Wolves (Blight Wolves at higher levels) and
Werewolves. The Werewolves aren't really anything all that special. They hit
kind of hard and have a moderate amount of health but your warriors should have
no issue taking them down even when outnumbered so long as you make good use of
your skills.
At the top of the hill head to the east, under the fallen tree, to reach a
waterfall where you will be confronted by a trio of Werewolves who talk to you.
You can try to talk to them but you're pretty much guaranteed to end up in a
fight with them. However it is possible to chase them off with a very high
Intimidate score or talk to them via Persuade. It's even possible to talk them
into leaving via Persuade by telling them you can't leave but don't wish to
fight them.
If it does come to blows then it's really not that big of a deal as it's simply
a fight against two werewolves and one werewolf elite. Get rid of the regular
ones first as they can do serious damage to your mages and archers should they
slip over to them. When they're down you can deal with Swiftrunner.
Go over the eastern bridge from here to be attacked by a larger werewolf pack.
This one will likely have some more elites within their ranks so be ready for a
bit more of a toussle. Once again, do not neglect AoE attacks and crowd control
spells, namely Cone of Cold or Mind Blast. After you've defeated the lot of
them head a bit more to the east to find a group of darkspawn. By now the only
real threat here should be the Ogre so focus everything on him. Since this is
not a boss, just a regular one, he will go down relatively fast to concentrated
assaults. Once he's down wipe out the rest of them.
To the north of here is a way to the northeast section of the Brecelian Forest.
If you head to the east you will find another pack of werewolves guarding the
exit to the southeastern part of the Brecelian Forest. Or you could swing to
the south along the path to find a bunch of Wild Sylvan, animated trees, who
are guarding the way. Fight them as you would Ogres since they're essentially
the same enemy except the Sylvans replace raw damage with the ability to trap
you up in entagling vines, damaging and immobilizing you.
You will have to fight a good three of these things before you will find the
Grand Oak. Speak to the Elder Tree to find out that he has a favor to ask of
you. He has a request of you but it's worth it coming this way just to listen
to him talk. When you're done with that walk to the southwest to find an oddly
abandoned camp site. By examining this enough times your non-mage party members
will all spontaneously die, leaving your mage to fend off a Greater Shade by
themselves. This isn't that hard as long as you have some means of healing from
the damage he deals constantly or the ability to freeze him (he can't really be
stunned or knocked down). When he dies you can search the area for treasure
from the remains that lie around.
Now the way further into this area is by going to the Eastern part of the
forest. Unfortunately you will encounter a barrier in this area that you can't
get through without some help. Luckily that's what the Grand Oak is for! This
talking tree will ask a favor of you. Someone has stolen his acorn and he will
die if it isn't returned. The thief has apparently gone off to the east so
let's head that way. By helping him you will be able to get through the barrier
so you are forced to follow the quest at least this far.
Now head into the Eastern part of the Brecilian forest, it doesn't matter what
path you pick out of the two. This next part of the guide is written from going
into the Eastern part via the southeastern path.
Walk forward along this path, fighting another Wild Sylvan, until you reach a
crossroads in the path. To the south is the way to the werewolf lair but it's
blocked off by a barrier seemingly created by the forest. To the northwest is
Danyla who will either start, or finish up, the Lost to the Curse quest. The
northeastern path is guarded by some bears but it also has Andraste's Grace, a
flower that Leliana loves to recieve. Beyond that lies a pair of Ogres who are
guarding a gravestone but there's nothing you can do with this yet. Lastly the
easternmost path leads to the Hermit you're looking for.
This man is the one who stole the Grand Oak's Acorn so we need to get that back
from this lunatic. There are a few ways to go about this section. First you can
just kill him to take the acorn, it's found inside of the tree stump. Secondly
you could trade with him, he accepts either books or scarves. However it is
very possible to side with the madman by going back and killing the Grand Oak.
How you finish this quest is up to you as all you need is the bark from the
Grand Oak which he will give you if you get the acorn.
Some notes: Taking something from the cubby cut into the tree stump results in
the Hermit attacking you. In addition to that he has an Elven helmet and old
book for trade. You will need to trade him a book or scarf for this as well.
-------------------
Boss: Mad Hermit
-------------------
Fighting the Mad Hermit may make you panic a bit as the fight begins. Not only
do you have to fight a powerful mage but he summons up two Rage Demons. It's a
sort of "oh crap!" moment until you actually start to fight them. The pair of
demons are actually fairly weak, going down pretty easily especially if you are
using cold attacks to take them down. The Hermit himself is something of a
problem if you aren't very careful. Immediately get right up into his face and
start to hammer him with your strongest attacks. Keep him stunned, knocked down
and frozen as much as possible to prevent him from ever casting a spell. As
long as you can keep this up you shouldn't have too many problems.
-------------------
Now take the acorn back to the Grand Oak in exchange for a branch.
or...
-------------------
Boss: Grand Oak
-------------------
Basically this walking pile of firewood is just an overpowered Wild Sylvan. He
can do a lot of damage with his physical attacks, entangle your party members
and he has a fair bit of health. The only major difference between him and the
Wild Sylvans is that he, very rarely, will pick someone up and start to squeeze
the life out of him. That's bad by the way. Make use of fire arrows, flaming
weapons and fire spells to cut down the Grand Oak in record time. Honestly he
should present little problem.
-------------------
You will be able to loot a branch off of the Grand Oak.
Regardless of how you completed this section you can now go through the barrier
that was stopping you from going into the werewolf lair. When you pass through
you will encounter Swiftrunner again and there's no way to avoid a fight here.
Him and his three werewolf buddies will leap to attack. However just as you're
about to defeat him a white wolf leaps into the middle of the fray allowing
Swiftrunner to escape. Just beyond this is the way into the ruins.
Head down the path straight in front of you until you reach the central hall.
You will fight two werewolves here but they're pushovers. To your north is a
hole in the wall that will take you to the Lair of the Werewolves. Sadly they
have barred the door from the other side so we have to take the long way around
to get in. That involves going through the western door.
Follow the path west until you reach the second intersection. As you near it a
large number of spiders will come out to attack so be ready to handle that. It
isn't really a hard fight although the constant web attacks may draw your ire.
When they're dead you have a few choices on where to go - the north and west
rooms contain some treasure while south takes you further in. It will lead you
right into a boss fight.
-------------------
Boss: Dragon
-------------------
For some this will be a really easy fight while others might see some of their
party members dying here. It's not that the Dragon is particularly hard to take
down but it can be generally hard to do this while keeping your party alive.
When you enter this chamber three traps will be right in front of you. Try to
disarm at least one or two of them before you actually bring the Dragon out or
your party members may blunder into them which is basically a death sentence.
The dragon is powerful offensively, able to dish out damage with its claws and
bite quickly while any who are caught in the flame breath will be burned badly
and possibly set on fire.
Luckily for you this beast is actually fairly easy to kill thanks to his body
being made of glass. If you have any strong skills wait until the dragon is
immobile in some way (stunning or freezing) and then just unload on the thing.
It honestly shouldn't survive very much of this. The trick is to kill it before
it slaughters someone which can be hard but overall it should be doable in a
try or two.
-------------------
Loot this large chamber, especially the Dragon Hoard, before continuing forward
into the Lower Levels of this dungeon.
Straight ahead you will see what appears to be the ghost of a young boy that
runs off once it spots you. Following it causes you to run face first into a
bunch of skeletons. They come from all angles but your warriors should be able
to do most of the work here with your other characters as just icing on the
cake. Search the rooms to the east and west for treasure before heading south.
Turn to the east when the path splits and be ready to fight some spiders. The
webs that are hanging in the corridor will tangle you up if you touch them so
try to avoid them until the spiders are dead, then it doesn't really matter. Go
into the large chamber once they're defeated to find that boy ghost again.
Regardless of what you do here he will flee and a bunch of skeletons will pop
up to attack you. While they're fairly easy to take out they will come from all
sides which can cut down your party ridiculously fast if they go for your more
vulnerable members. Try to get your mage and archer away from the melee so they
can fight in safety while your warriors take the brunt of it.
When they all fall search the room as well as the southern room. Make sure to
search the sarcophagus so you can get the tablet as well as "The Elven Ritual"
quest which will come up later in this dungeon. When you've gotten all the
treasures fro these rooms and the north room go through the western door. The
game will autosave in this corridor which is a great sign. The path goes to the
north and south, let's head south for now since that's where the enemies are.
Walking down the stairs towards the room will cause three skeletons to attack
you. While they are easily dispatched going into the room to loot causes about
a hal dozen more to pop up. This gets tricky since the space is tight which
means AoE attacks can be a dicey proposition. Try to use skills to knock people
down or moves that stun enemies (Mind Blast won't work on undead) to handle
this brawl without too much damage. Now search the floor in the corner to find
a Phylactery.
Picking up this Phylactery will allow you to learn the Arcane Warrior skill.
You need to ask it about the specialization first through conversing with it.
Once you've asked about it bring it to the altar and it will teach you how to
become an Arcane Warrior. Now place it on the altar to shatter the gem and free
the spirit. You could throw it aside or simply refuse to help but there doesn't
seem to be any real advantage to doing so.
When you're done here head to the north if you're doing the Elven Ritual side-
quest (found in that section of this guide) or to the south if you're going on
with the main quest. Eventually the tunnels will lead you to an area where you
have enemies to your south, east and west. The eastern and southern enemies are
inside of regular rooms with open doors so they will come to attack you once
they get the slightest wind of you. An easy way to handle this fight is to toss
a fireball or some other spell into one of the rooms to draw all of the undead
to you instead of you going to them. This causes them to attack and let's you
take them out very easily.
Search the bodies as well as the two rooms to find some loot. There's also a
glass phylactery in the south room that will release a Revenant for you to
fight. If you touch this vial you will call up a very powerful Revenant for
your party to fight. Defeating this gives a big reward of experience but it's
hard as hell. Be sure to save before attempting this.
Once you're ready to continue head into the large room to the west. There are
a number of skeleton archers here but they're not hard to defeat. The trick is
dealing with all the pressure plates on the ground. Low level parties might
just kill themselves running over all of these so it's worth keeping control
over your party members for this section. Once they're all dead search the room
before continuing on.
Inside of the next room you will fight five Skeletons which is fairly easy and
may make you wonder why the game autosaved. Well further down the stairs is...
-------------------
Boss: Arcane Horror
-------------------
This guy is waiting to tear your face off and use it like a mask. Possessing
a number of potent magical abilities it's very easy for this one to be the end
of your party. What makes it even harder to fight is the fact that it teleports
away from you when you get to close, moving to the other devices on the floor
nearly at will. Oh and six skeletons will come rushing out to attack you as
well, adding to the general chaos.
The Arcane Horror isn't too hard to kill once you can get him to stop moving
around so you can beat on him. A good strategy is to send your fighter forward
so that the Horror beans him in the face with a Fireball. This prevents him
from using this on your mage or rogue for a bit. Now have your mage move in on
him and, once he teleports from your fighters rushing him, freeze him with a
Cone of Cold to lock him in place.
Now that he's stuck there you can open up on him. Hit him with your strongest
attacks as quickly as possible. If you're lucky you will take most of his
health away before he teleports again. Should his health be low just try to
finish him off with spells or arrow attacks. But if he still has a fair bit of
health you'll have some issues since the skeletons constantly cause your dumb
fighters to lose their focus on him when he teleports. Just wait until you can
freeze him again and manually make the fighters go after him. This will likely
be enough to kill him.
All that's left is to mop up the skeletons.
-------------------
When everything is dead... again, loot this room as well as the rooms to the
south. Head to the north when you're done, killing the last of the skeletons
and then entering the pool to reach the Lair of the Werewolves.
The first room you walk into will lead to a few battles with werewolf groups.
It shouldn't be difficult to take them out by now but be wary of the Shadow
Wolf enemies as they love to Overwhelm your party members. Anyone who isn't too
familiar with this oh so annoying attack will become so in the future. It is
basically the enemy jumping on your face and gnawing on it while you lay there
totally helpless. Fantastic.
To the south you will enter a room with the Gatekeeper. Regardless of how you
plan to solve this situation you will be able to change your mind later. So you
can go ahead and agree to see their Lady, then fight the wolves, or kill the
Gatekeeper and then agree to help the Lady of the Forest. If you choose to
fight him then it's best that you spam your stunning / knockdown attacks so you
don't get overwhelmed by the six werewolves that come out to play.
There are a few ways to go about the Werewolf / Elf problem from here.
1) You can just slaughter the lot of the Werewolves. This is actually pretty
tough since the wolves in this room are masters of the ancient martial art
style: knock you down whenever we please. This ancient style makes it nearly
impossible to mount a solid offense since people will be randomly knocked on
their butt by Swiftrunner or Witherfang. To top it off Witherfang is really
ridiculously hard to hit and she lands almost every single attack, doing a
lot of damage per hit. The only really easy way to complete this fight is to
use something overpowered like Death Hex + Death Cloud to tear them up while
you hide on the far side of the cloud sniping them with ranged weapons.
After they're dead you can loot their corpses, clear out the rest of the
level and then return to Zathrian for your reward.
2) If you have a high enough Persuade skill you can actually convince the
Werewolves to just wipe out the Elves. This is the only way to actually get
the achievement / trophy for siding with the Werewolves and it isn't really
suggested since the Elves make for much, MUCH, more useful allies later on.
But if you're hell bent on it simply make the suggestion to Swiftrunner and
then agree to help during the fighting.
You will be returned to the Elven camp with the Werewolves in tow. Zathrian
will be unrepentant and unwilling to help so you'll have to kill him as well
as his Elven friends. This is a really easy fight. Really easy. Just send
your people to kill Zathrian alongside the wolves, thus making it really
really easy, and then move on to slaughter the camp. It's quite easy thanks
to the Lady, Swiftrunner and friends. Once they're all dead you can loot the
bodies and the Werewolves will swear to join you against the Blight.
3) The best method of going about this is as follows. Agree to speak to the
Lady and when asked to bring Zathrian to see her tell her you will do so.
Search the Lair of the Werewolves for treasure before leaving via the newly
opened door and start heading back to the Dalish camp. Zathrian will be
waiting for you on the upper level. Convince him to go down and speak to the
Lady about getting the curse lifted.
Now that you're down here you can either side with the Zathrian or help him
destroy the wolves. The second option is just as hard as #1 since these guys
are tough. But the ideal resolution to this is to side with the wolves and
fighting Zathrian. This prompts a "boss battle" but it's anything but. It's
simply him and a pair of Wild Sylvans but the only one you need to kill is
Zathrian. Focus on him and him alone, hitting him with your best attacks to
drop his health in record time.
When his health is almost totally gone he will be start to speak to the Lady
of the Forest. This prompts lots of cutscene goodness that ends in him and
the Lady passing on and the curse being broken. Return to the Dalish to get
a promise of assistance from Lanaya, empty your inventory and move on.
To the next quest!
========================
Broken Circle
========================
Make your way to the Lake Calenhad Docks to start this quest. Here you can
speak to Kester to find out that something has gone wrong in the Mage's Tower
and that transport there is impossible. Make sure to speak to the Mage's
Collective Liason just behind him to start these quests up. There isn't much to
the Spoiled Princess tavern, just a place to sell goods really, so head down
the dock to continue the quest.
On the dock you will meet Carroll, a newbie of a Templar, who will attempt to
pull the tough guy routine. The easiest way past him is to either Persuade or
Intimidate him into letting you by. However if that's not an option having
Morrigan in the party works well - simply ask him if you can work something
out. She will handle it for you.
************************
* DLC NOTE: If you have Shale in your party he will handle the threatening for
you which automatically causes Carroll to let you cross the water. This may not
be ideal if you're looking to get the achievements for Persuade and Intimidate
checks but it can be helpful if you don't wish to bother.
************************
Regardless of how you get there you will be taken to the Mage's Tower. Griegor
will speak to you about what has occurred here. There's only one real course of
action - head inside of the tower to find what has happened to the Mages,
clearing it of the Abominations. Make your way through into the next room,
stopping only to speak to the Quartermaster if you can afford his pricier but
powerful pieces of equipment. Once through the doors they're sealed behind you.
There's no threat at first so search the two rooms for treasure and notes for
some info on what happened. When you open the first door though you will find
Wynne, the Circle Mage from the kings camp at Ostagar. Here you can make one of
two choices: either press that the Circle must be cleansed, siding with the
Templars, or agree to help her rescue survivors, siding with the Mages. If you
are trying to help Conner you must side with the Mages. Also if you agree to
help the Mages then you will have Wynne force herself onto your team after a
bit of Morrigan complaining.
Whenever you're ready head for the magical barrier, with it gone you can head
further into the tower.
When you enter the library you will be attacked by a Lesser Rage Demon as well
as several Abominations. The Abominations are hard hitters but they aren't all
that dangerous, it's that Rage Demon you need to watch out for. They do a good
bit of damage with their attacks and they can cause explosions that set your
party on fire as well as knocking them down. Your best bet is to focus on the
Rage Demon and handle the Abominations afterwards.
Search the area before continuing into the central room. Here are yet more of
the Abominations with a Greater Rage Demon. It's the same situation except the
demon has more health. Try to use stunning or freezing spells to keep it unable
to fight back while you whittle away its health. After that turn your attention
to the Abominations. When everyone is defeated search the room before going up
to the second level.
Speak to Owain just ahead to find out a bit more of what has gone on in here.
Continue into the next room to be attacked by a bunch of Blood Mages. They can
stun you but they die easily enough since they're weak... well, weak mages. As
you defeat the last one she will beg for mercy. If you have Allister and / or
Leliana they will debate over whether it's a good idea but it's ultimately up
to your judgement.
The next hallway has two doors along the wall and one at the far end. The first
door leads to a room with a few Abominations, easily defeated. Search the room
before heading into the next one to find some undead and Abominations. They're
split up into two groups so it's quite easy to take them down. Inside of the
closet in the corner there is a mage hiding although nothing special occurs
with him. Go to the door at the end of the hall and open it to continue.
The first room here contains little but more enemies, notably another Lesser
Rage Demon, but the second room needs warning. By examining the fallen statue
of Andraste you will find a vial hidden inside of it. If you touch this vial
you will call up a very powerful Revenant for your party to fight. Defeating
this gives a big reward of experience, as well as a nice shield, but it's hard
as hell. Be sure to save before attempting this. The final room is the most
important one as it is the First Enchanter's Office. There are numerous things
to pick up here, mostly flavor notes or items, but inside of his personal chest
you can find The Black Grimoire. This is important to Morrigan so hand it over
whenever you're ready to watch her approval leap.
Take the stairs to the third floor but be ready, this is where things get even
worse.
Search the room you start in before going to the west. Here you will be
attacked by several undead when you try to search the room. After defeating the
lot of them you will be attacked yet again when you near the far door. Numerous
undead will attack backed up by an Arcane Horror. It's imperative that you get
people to that Horror and kill it ASAP or it will tear you apart from the door.
It's spells are very powerful, capable of stunning, freezing and seriously
damaging your party otherwise.
The next room has a trap in the doorway, you can sneak around it but it is kind
of difficult, but the real problem is the horde of enemies. Two Lesser Rage
Demons will spawn in, three Abominations are in the room and a few more will
come from the next room. Ironically enough this room is a bit easier than the
last one since the Abominations are fairly easy to beat.
Next comes a hallway with one door leading into the central room and several
leading into side rooms. The first side room has a pair of Possessed Templars.
Defeat them, search the room and move on. The second room is empty but the
third has a Desire Demon and five Charmed Templars. There's no way to uncharm
them so you're going to have to kill them all. Try to get rid of the Desire
Demon first since she'll be a nuisance otherwise. Then whittle down the Templar
cronies as quickly as you can or you'll find yourself overwhelmed. The last
room contains only a bit of treasure.
-------------------
Boss: Abomination (Elite)
-------------------
Heading into the middle room leads to a boss fight. In here you will find an
Abomination with two Skeleton Archers. If you leave the Abomination alive long
enough he will start to summon up Lesser Shades as well. The archers are more
of a nuisance but they should be dealth with. The Abomination though is a real
powerhouse. His melee attacks are powerful and he has a lot of health to hang
in there with. If anyone can use poison, Deathroot Extract will allow you to
keep him stunned especially if using skills that stun as well. This wil allow
you time to kill the Archers and then focus on him. Wipe out the Shades once he
is gone and turn to looting.
On to the fourth floor! The first room contains a hottie... er, Desire Demon
with an Ensorcelled Templar. There are only two outcomes to this situation -
either you fight, and kill, the both of them or leave them both to their fates.
If you fight them you will have to deal with the two of them plus three undead.
They're not so bad as long as you go after the Desire Demon first. Put any
Templar specialized fighters up in her face to drain her mana reserves quickly
and the fight will end fast enough.
The next room contains three Possessed Templars with a Blood Mage. So long as
you get to the mage before he gets to paralyze, stun and generally beat on your
party this fight shouldn't be too difficult. Search the room for some minor
treasures and then head into the central room. Here you will be pulled into the
Fade in your dreams.
========================
Lost in Dreams
========================
Walk forward to find Duncan, speak to him. Resist his attempts to lull you into
beleving the dream. This causes Duncan and the two others to attack you. Get to
the mage first, then the archer before going after Duncan. These guys have very
little health while doing even less damage so this shouldn't be a problem, even
for a non-combat oriented character (like Healer Mages). Click on the Fade
Pedestal when it appears and then choose The Raw Fade, the next step on your
little sojourn.
In the Raw Fade you will find Niall who serves the purpose of explaining what
you need to do here. Travel to the five islands, find your party and figure out
ways past the variety of barriers. There are a few ways to go from here so we
will touch on them.
- The Fade Portal at the back of this area should be an immediate target. Go
through to find a Rage Demon, kill it. A mouse will speak to you for a bit and
then give you his shapechanging ability allowing you to become a mouse. Shift
into one before going to the mouse hole. Activate this form as well as the new
Stealth ability the mouse possesses before going into the hole. You emerge near
a Lesser Rage Demon. Shapeshift back and kill the demon before activating the
Fade Portal in this area. Kill the two Rage Demons in this area, ignore the
Spirit Door for now and head for the next Fade Portal. This takes you back to
Niall and the Fade Pedestal will be accessible now.
- The Fade Pedestal can take you to one of four areas: the Darkspawn Invasion,
The Templars' Nightmare, the Burning Tower and the Mage's Asunder. Let's get to
handling these in order of the skills you must acquire.
-------------------
The Darkspawn Invasion
-------------------
Head on over to the side and go through the mouse hole. Take the eastern mouse
hole in this hallway to find an Essence of Cunning. You will find many of these
and they confer +1 bonuses to the stats of whomever uses them. Try to use them
appropriately since you can always return for them. Double back and go to the
north this time, entering this mouse hole as well.
You appear in a room with two Flaming Darkspawn but they're very easy to fight.
Take them out and look around. You have two ways to go; north or south. The
southern path is blocked with flames, you can't go this way yet. Start heading
to the north to find a room with two Hurlocks and a Hurlock Emissary. It's best
to fight this carefully so stay in the hallway, letting them come to you. This
should let you fight the warriors while keeping the emissary out of the way. As
soon as you've killed those two head after the Emissary.
The door to the east is blocked with flames so head into mouse form and go into
the mouse hole. You can kill the three Genlocks in the room to the west if you
wish to, there's no real reward to this though. Go through the northern mouse
hole to find yourself in a battle. To the north a group of Darkspawn Spirits
will attack a Templar Spirit. The three melee enemies are pretty tough and the
spellcaster is a real pain in the ass. Target him first, sneaking up on him as
a mouse works great, so that he can't screw up your combat skills and then get
rid of the others.
The Templar will give you access to the Spirit form now. This allows you to see
hidden doors as well as getting Essence boosts from the big glowing red things
you've seen around. There's one in this room that increases your willpower. If
you wanted to fight more there's three Genlock through the door to the east but
don't bother with that yet as it's a dead end. Use the Fade Pedestal to get
out of here for now.
-------------------
The Raw Fade
-------------------
Before going to the next area return to The Raw Fade at this point. Find the
Spirit Door you ignored earlier, change into the Spirit Form and go through it.
Fight off the two Wisps and you will find an Essence of Dexterity here. Leave
via the other Spirit Door and go back to Niall. Near him is another Spirit Door
that will take you to Zevanya. If you can take this Desire Demon, her millions
of ice attacks and her two Shades then it's best to get it out of the way now.
She's not easy but she isn't too hard either. The trick is that if you're not
careful she will Winter's Grasp you as well as Cone of Cold, freezing you in
place for her to pound on. If you're careful you can get her to freeze the two
Shades as well by standing in the right spot and they'll stay frozen longer
than you will allowing you time to kill her.
You can also obtain an Essence of Willpower form the statue behind her here.
This will clear The Raw Fade completely and remove on part of the barrier that
is protecting the Sloth Demon.
-------------------
The Burning Tower
-------------------
From the start head through the western mouse hole to find an Essence of
Dexterity. Now head down the hallway through the door. Inside the first room
are a pair of Burning Templars but the next room contains nothing. You have to
use the second room to get to the third room as there's a fire blocking the
hall. In here is a door up some stairs, two Burning Templars and a massive door
that you can't do anything with yet. The only way is through the stairwell.
This area is pretty straightforward as the flames will herd you through the
hallways. Around the first corner two Burning Hounds attack, they're just like
regular Mabari except weaker, and around the next corner a Burning Templar and
Burning Hound will attack you. When you head to the east, towards the mouse
hole, a Hound from straight ahead and two more await you on each side of the
mouse hole. Defeat them before heading on in.
In here you will have to fight a Templar Dreamer as well as a Rage Demon. Go
after the demon first as his Damage over Time (DoT) attacks can really drain
your health. When you've dealt enough damage to the Templar Dreamer, who can
lay the hurt on you - don't forget about the Lyrium Vein, he will give you the
Flame Form before dying.
You can leave now but before doing so search to the north western side of the
previous room with all of the flames. There is a Spirit Door here that you can
enter to find an Essence of Cunning and Essence of Stamina.
-------------------
The Templar's Nightmare
-------------------
This place is a bit confusing since there are Fade Portals to teleport you all
over, rooms to search and mouse holes to explore. It's complicated so going
through it slowly is advised. From the first room head down the hallway to the
east. The first room has three Abominations to fight so handle them and search
the room for any Codex entries. The second room has an Arcane Horror in it and
he's way weaker than the earlier fight so don't stress over it. Now you have to
pick between the three Fade Portals.
* NOTE: Using the mouse hole in the first room with the Abominations will take
you to a room with a Blight Wolf. Defeat the beat before activating the Essence
of Dexterity in the room.
Ignore the lot of them and go into the mouse hole in the room with the Arcane
Horror. This takes you to an Ogre who'se just waiting to bash your face in. If
you don't think you can handle him then avoid this for now but with the Lyrium
Vein in the room this shouldn't be a huge issue. Stuns and paralysis effects
work well on him for the most part so they'll make your life much easier. The
only threat here is that you need to be able to take about 100 damage or so
without dying, around 150 if you count damage dealt beforehand, as his grab and
crush move can easily kill you. Take out the Ogre and its Abomination minion to
open the door to the next area.
* NOTE: The Fade Portals are a waste since they all lead back to the first door
near where you entered. Don't bother with them unless mentioned.
The first room in this hallway is blocked by a fire while the second is blocked
by massive doors. Switch to the Burning Man form, go through the flames and
then into the mouse hole. You will appear behind the massive door with two Rage
Abominations right near you. Kill them before going to the spirit door in the
corner, swapping forms and heading on through.
Take out the two Abominations and head for the door. Defeat these two as well
before using the mouse hole to get you past the massive door. This leaves you
behind an Arcane Horror with a Shambling Corpse. Take out the Horror first
before getting rid of the undead. Swap to the Flame shapechange and go through
the door. This room will light up into flames after a few moments so use that
fire form to get through the flame blocked door.
Defeat these two Abominations so you can continue forward. Be ready for trouble
when opening the next door - two undead with another Arcane Horror wait for you
inside. Get rid of that Horror first to save yourself a lot of trouble. Stand
off to the side of the door if you need to lure him in for melee types. With
him dead head on through the next door. Here you will see a Desire Demon named
Vereval shapeshift into a mouse before running through a mouse hole. Chase
after her.
If you've already fought Zevenya or any Desire Demons she fights exactly the
same way. She's not that hard but the constantly being frozen can be annoying.
Try to have any Anti-Ice equipment ready before going into the fight. When she
dies you will be able to use the Essence of Cunning in the room as well as have
removed another impediment to your progress. This should fully complete the
Templars' Nightmare level.
-------------------
The Mages Asunder
-------------------
From where you start there is a regular door, a massive door and two mouse
holes that need to be explored. Head through the northeastern mouse hole to get
to a Font of Strength. The second mouse hole will take you to the next room, a
room you can get to from the hallway, with a pair of mages inside. They will be
going hostile as soon as they see you and they love to freeze you with spells
so try to stun them as quickly as possible. The next room contains two more of
these magi, these love earth magic, as well as Essence of Magic. You need to be
in spirit form to get this one.
Inside the next room are four mages who can be tough to defeat. They're fond of
using glyphs to stun you while they hit you with a wide variety of attacks. It
is suggested that you use the fire form to fireball them from the hallway and
then hide out there. Only one or two will usually chase you out while the rest
burn to death. Mop up the leftovers and keep moving.
The room at the end of the hallway contains two easily defeated servants in a
pair with a third off in the corner beyond them. Defeat these three so you can
keep going. The next room is blocked off by a flame barrier on the entrance
and exit doors so head on in as the fire form. Two Rage Demons will attack but
if you're still in fire form you're invulnerable to them. Open the next door to
find an unpleasant surprise.
Two Rage Demons spawn up behind you while a group of mages come to the attack.
Make this easier by hanging back until the second group of demons spawns and
then use the fire forms Fireball spell to beat on the mages. This will help to
wound them while they're knocking you down and / or stunning you. Try to hit as
many of them as possible before using the walls as cover from their attacks. If
any come out at you kill them before using another Fireball.
In the last room of this area a group of four mages will be waiting for you.
Staying in flame form is the best idea here since you're going to be having
fireballs thrown at your face. You will be immune to these and thusly able to
stay on the offense, hammering them with fireballs of your own. Go after the
Instructor on the left first, this one can heal, and then get the pupiles. The
other instructor is the fireball happy one and she can't harm you. Take her out
when you're ready to proceed through the door.
Up here you will find three Chantry Priests attacking a Cursed Dreamer with a
pair of golems. Don't be intimidated, this is one of the easier fights of the
tower. Focus on the priests as the golems go straight for the mage. Once they
are defeated you can go after the golems who will fall readily enough to most
attacks. They're surprisingly weak. The Dreamer will give you the ability to
change into a golem yourself, this form is used to get rid of massive doors.
With that in hand head up the stairs to the next area. There is a mage pupil,
a mage and a golem here. They're not too difficult so long as you get that mage
first. Now use your golem form to open the door, take out the two priests just
beyond it and continue.
When you enter the outdoor hallways go straight south before turning to the
western door. Go into the room to find an Essence of Willpower guarded by two
golems and a priest. Take out the big guys first if possible as the priest is
very weak. Use the Essence and then head to the northeast. A stone golem is in
the halls but he's nothing. Enter the room to find a mage, priest and mage
pupils, as always go for the mages.
Now head to the southeastern room to find three Stone Golems guarding another
Font of Strength. If you have some way of knocking them over use this to keep
them from ganging up on you. Shield warriors can find the shield bash skill to
really save their hides here. Use the Font and continue towards the southern
door to advance.
It is advised that you open the door as a golem from the side so that the
enemies inside don't see you. You can then switch to spirit form to gain some
resistance to the spells about to come your way as well as for the Crushing
Prison spell. This will automatically take out one of the two Arcane Horrors
inside of the room. Just be ready to abandon the form as the other won't die so
easily to Winter's Grasp and you'll need to kill him quick. Now head on over to
the spirit door and go on inside.
Defeat the stone golem so you can use the Essence of Dexterity. Now go into the
mouse hole and quickly swap to Stone Golem form. This will be of great help,
even to most warriors, against the two golems that jump you. Activate the
Essence of Cunning here and then go into the next room, opening the door with
the golem, to find Essence of Constitution and Dexterity. Now you can go to
deal with the boss.
Slavren is one of the easier demons to defeat since he uses only physical
attacks to fight back. As such just start attacking him and watch him fall in
record time compared to those golems. If you're not a warrior then just take
on the Golem form and punch his head in.
You should now have someones nightmare activated. You will have to head on in
to get them out of their nightmare. Generally speaking if you can't persuade
them that it's all in their head there is someone nearby that you must talk to
to get them to snap out of it (ie. Goldanna for Alistair). You will also have
to fight as the demons don't want to let them go. Free whomever is now open and
then head back to the Darkspawn Invasion.
-------------------
The Darkspawn Invasion
-------------------
Head back to the very beginning of the stage and use the golem form to tear
open the massive door. Inside you will find a Font of Strength. Go back to the
area where you found the Templar Spirit to open that massive door as well. If
you'd like to hurt the Hurlocks / Genlock out there then fling a Fireball with
the flame form. Dispatch them how you like so you can get to the far end of
this courtyard. Here you will find a Darkspawn Emissary, Genlock and Hurlock.
If you'd like to make your life easy again you can use the golem to mop them
up pretty easily.
Now tear open the rear door to find Uthkiel the Crusher. He's something of a
terror in melee combat as a named Ogre. However the golem form is very good at
damaging him and he seems very reluctant to perform the grab attack on that
form as well. Obviously this is the ideal way to defeat him so hammer him into
the ground. With him defeated another ally will be available to rescue. Go to
do so before returning to the Burning Tower.
-------------------
The Burning Tower
-------------------
Go back past the burning area and through the door to find the massive door you
couldn't open before. Open it now to find an Essence of Magic. Go back to the
room you teleported into and open this door as well. Pass through the flames in
fire form but quickly shift to golem. There are a bunch of enemies in the next
room that can hurt you pretty bad but if you're in golem form they're not a
problem at all. Dispatch them before going to the far door to find the boss.
Switch to the fire form to fight Rhagos as he's using fire attacks almost
exclusively. By using this form he's unable to really hurt you beyond some very
minor damage every now and again (10 - 20 damage). When he falls you can use
the Font of Strength before leaving here.
Your final party member will have opened up now. Retrieve them before going to
tackle this demon of Sloth.
-------------------
The Inner Sanctum
-------------------
Fighting the Sloth Demon is done with your party and is one of the most drawn
out battles in video game history. To begin with he will start out in the form
of an Ogre but he won't stay that way. When you drain his health he will change
forms, gaining a new life bar in the process. He goes from Ogre to Rage Demon
to Shade to Abomination to Sloth Demon. However most of these are no real
threat so long as you have the healing items to hold out. If you've brought
Wynne along then she will solve the problem for you.
The only complication comes from the final form, that of the Sloth Demon. He is
prone to throwing out fireballs and surrounding himself in a tempest of ice. It
is pretty damn hard do much of anything at this point as your health plummets.
Your best bet is to pull people back, except for one melee sacrificial lamb,
and have everyone use ranged attacks on him. This should whittle his health
down enough that when the spell drops you can kill him.
After a brief conversation with Niall you will be back in the tower.
Search Niall's dead body for the Litany of Adralla as well as the soldiers
corpse in the room as it usually contains healing items you very likely need
desperately at this point.
Head into the next room to find a Drake of all things. These guys aren't too
hard although they don't get knocked down or stunned easily. What they do like
to do is jump on someone and start to eat their face. Try to get this done to
one of your melee types so as to avoid any unecessary deaths at this point. Go
into the next room to find a bunch of Dragonlings. These are basically weaker
versions of the Drake so go in to slaughter them. Search their bodies for
healing items and unlock the nearby chest for yet more of them.
Keep on going, you're almost done. In the next corridor an Abomination waits.
As soon as you start to fight him more will come out of both doorways so be
ready for a brawl. The enemies are weak though so this shouldn't be any issue
at all. Search the two rooms for stuff before opening the next door. This next
room is a pain - as you approach the chests a Greater Rage Demon, Greater Shade
and two Lesser Shades spawn into the room. It is imperative you get to the
Rage Demon ASAP since he loves throwing off fire spells that make it impossible
to do much of anything. Get rid of him and the rest should fall easily enough.
Walk into the next room to find Cullen, an imprisoned Templar. He suggests that
you wipe out all of the mages simply to be safe. This is your decision to make.
Head on up the stairs to the Harrowing Chamber once you're ready. After talking
with Uldred, either trying to side with him or kill him, you will end up having
to fight him.
-------------------
Boss: Uldred
-------------------
Uldred is a huge pain to fight. He's got a lot of powerful attacks, both melee
and otherwise, and he loves to use area of effect spells around himself that
either knock you down (fire) or freeze you (ice). It's also hard to do a good
amount of damage to him with a hit plus he's got a bucketload of health either
way. This isn't going to be quick or easy.
Set the Litany of Adralla to a talent slot and head on into the battle. Take
out the Abominations before focusing entirely on him. Have your melee types
tank his attacks while dealing as much damage as possible while your mages /
archers hit him from a distance. Keep trying to stun / freeze or knock him down
as it's hard to do but it can happen (especially stuns). When you hear Wynne
yell to use the Litany, or if you watch the mages for a white glow, use the
Litany to stop him from turning the mages into Abominations.
Honestly that's all there is to it although you're going to be at this for a
good bit of time.
Here is where the decision comes in - you can either spare the mages (siding
with them) or wipe them out (siding with the Templars). It's up to you but if
you're trying to save Conner you'll need the mages alive and on your side. To
make this happen be sure to side with the mages, pushing for their innocence in
what has happened.
When you're done leave this area. If you're using the mages to rescue Conner
head on back to Redcliffe. Should that not be the case then simply head on to
your next objective. Take heed that when you arrive you will see a cutscene
that indicates an Assassin has been hired to handle your merry band. Heading to
the next location after this will result in you being attacked by this band.
========================
Assassin's Ambush
========================
When you get into the next random encounter a woman will beg you to come help
her with her caravan. Following her, and yes you must follow her as there's no
other way to go, leads you into an ambush. The assassin attacks with a number
of his fellows. Ironically enough they're not the major threat, the traps are.
The whole forward area of this place is covered in traps that will damage you,
leave you held in place or knock you down... if not all of the above.
As such it's heavily suggested that you let your magic users / archers handle
the enemy archers from a range while your melee types focus on the "Travellers"
near you. Go after Zevran, the head assassin, first as he's the toughest of the
bunch. Then get the enemy mage if your archer hasn't already done so. Now all
you need to do is clean up the rest of the enemies. Now comes a decision.
You can either kill Zevran or wake him up. If you kill him the situation ends
here but if you wake him up you can learn some things from him. Should you take
him along Morrigan disapproves (even if her dialogue indicates otherwise) as
does Allistair whom you will have to pass a Persuasion check or be a real jerk
to get him to let Zevran join. Sten gives you little difficulty though so it
may help to have him along.
Now continue towards your next objective.
========================
The Landsmeet
========================
Once you've completed all four main objectives, having gotten four allies to
join your cause, it's time to head back to Redcliffe. Tell Arl Eamon that you
are ready to go to the Landsmeet and off you go! Once there you will have a
meeting with Loghain and his cronies. When he leaves you're tasked to find out
how the various nobles are feeling about the Loghain vs. Eamon situation. So it
is out into town with us.
In the Gnawed Noble you can overhear Ceorlic and Sighard chatting about the
situation. Ceorlic doesn't believe Loghain is a traitor while Sighard is a bit
more thoughtful on the matter. Bann Alfstana and Bryland are talking in the
other corner and she doesn't seem to buy into the true story either.
As you travel around the map you will be attacked by another group of Antivan
Crows. These assassins can be fairly tough thanks to their ability to mark you
for extra damage but that's not the main problem here. The main problem is that
if you don't have a good relationship with Zevran (about 60% at least) he will
betray you to join with Taleisan. If you do have a good relationship then he
forces himself into the party to fight alongside you which can be bad if you're
not using him and haven't given him any new equipment. Do your best with him
since this can be a real problem.
As far as the fight itself goes try to have your party split up so that each of
your fighters is keeping one pair of enemies busy. Zevran should help one of
them deal with the assassins by getting behind it, using some skills and just
backstabbing the hell out of them. Let your mage handle one of the groups on
their own, even a healer can do this by just keeping their health up and
whittling down the enemy HP with their staff. When they're dead loot the bodies
and then get your party back to normal.
Whenever you're done with fooling around in the city head on back to Arl Eamon
at his estate. Speak to him fo find out that Queen Anora has been taken captive
by Arl Howe. You're going to have to go to his estate to free her.
===================
Rescue the Queen
===================
When you reach the Arl's estate you will find the Queen's Handmaiden, Erlina,
off to the side behind a cart. Speak to her to find out that you'll be sneaking
in via the rear entrance. Walk past the cart and around the house to the west.
If you have the stealth skill here use it to avoid any guards noticing you. If
you don't have it then you'll have to fight one group of soldiers as you walk
along the west wall and another as you go along the north wall if you don't
move fast enough.
When you reach the eastern side of the estate you will have a few options on
how to handle getting in. Put on the disguse if you don't want to fight every
single enemy you encounter inside of the Arl's estate. It's suggested that you
do this even if for no other reason than to save time. Should you want to take
them off then simply speak to Erlina. Now you can either hide in the bushes or
go just kill the two guards.
Once inside Erlina will catch up to you. You have the choice to fight or just
sneak through this place now - it's suggested that you sneak to save yourself
some grief but if you choose to fight do so from the start. If you happen to
mess up part way through the enemies will call down most of the guards you
managed to sneak by making this a mess. So if you're going to sneak don't talk
to any of the guards, notably the Guard Captain, as that's the only way to get
yourself caught.
If you're going to fight through this place then just follow the directions for
the sneaking part of this guide. The fights aren't really complicated since it
consists of 99.9% melee or ranged enemies anyway.
Head into the kitchen and then out into the mess hall. Exit into the hallway to
the west and then start heading north. You can loot the armory to the west in
this hallway without any trouble. Go into the northern hallway and continue in
that direction past the main hall. Passing the four rooms in the short hallway
you can loot these for stuff just don't talk to anyone. Continue north until
Erlina leads you off down a side hall to Queen Anora.
Anora explains that she's been locked in by some sort of mage's spell and you
will have to kill the mage to free her. This mage is likely with Arl Howe so
you're going to have to head on over to his rooms to find him. Walk to the east
past the north / south hallway and do not enter the room in this next hallway.
If you enter the first room to the north your disguise will be broken up by a
guard who is dawdling with a servant. On the other hand do unlock the southern
door and loot that room for some really good treasure.
To the north is Arl Howe's room, search it for a Chest of Documents. Take out
the Grey Warden's Documents which will come in handy soon and then go through
the door here. You will have an encounter with a man who kills a guard to get
out of his cell. When speaking to him mention the documents and then ask about
the Joining and the like. This will enable you to learn where the Grey Warden
Cache is inside of Denerim when you speak to him later.
Now go down into the dungeon to find Arl Howe. You may as well get rid of the
disguise since it's not going to be of any further use. If you find that you
can't take it off exit and enter the dungeons a few times as this will usually
help get it off.
It's no use taking your disguise down the stairs as it acutally works against
you most of the time. The guards here will automatically see right through your
disguise and then attack you. If you're even remotely leveled then they will
start to shoot off Scattering Shot after Scattering Shot, stunning your whole
party and dealing a lot of damage to your mages and archers. While they do this
your melee fighters will set off a trap in their path that damages everyone
nearby. Overall it's a really bad start.
Try to back up into the ramp you came down to get into this room and let the
enemies come to you. This will prevent you from getting messed up by all of the
soldiers at once. Your party will still get paralyzed by the mess of arrows but
then they will not be able to continue hitting your mages / rogues so you will
be able to focus on defeating them in small groups more easily rather than just
drinking down potions.
When the enemies are defeated make your way to the south. The first room that
you pass has only some loot in it. Defeat the lone guard in the hallway before
hitting the auto-save. From here you will want to ignore the western room first
since they will stay in there until you open the door. Instead deal with the
enemies in the southern room.
This room contains a number of fighters, archers and an elite mage so deal with
it carefully. If you can throw an AoE spell into the room to lure them out. As
they rush for your mage use any crowd control spells you might have to stop
them in their tracks and let your fighters clean up. Then feel free to tackle
the room in much the same manner except being doubly careful as this room has
three Mabari and three archers. It's very easy to get stunned and then never
get up again thanks to this setup.
At the next intersection you will have a room to the north and east full of
enemies. Enter the north one, dealing with the Torturers. Here you will find a
man named Oswyn, son of Bann Sighard of Dragons Peak. This starts the "Tortured
Noble" sidequest but that's an issue for later. Next head into the room to the
east. In here you will find more warriors and archers with a Jailor. The archer
types are still huge pains in the rear thanks to their stunning attacks but the
Jailor is a huge threat courtesy of that big old Maul of his. Try to keep him
stunned or frozen while dealing with the others and then deal with him before
turning to his melee allies.
Get the key to the jails off of his body and then head into the eastern room.
Here you will find Rexel from the "Missing in Action" quest as well as Soris,
from the City Elf Origin story. Soris will always be there unless you are a
City Elf who took the blame for what happened during your Origin story.
The path is now clear to reach Arl Howe.
-------------------
Boss: Arl Howe
-------------------
Fittingly enough that swine Howe is an assassin and he's certainly not alone.
There are two mages and two guards with him and although he's your primary
target you will want to get rid of them ASAP. The mages are especially of some
concern since they are able to heal themselves, and others, from the wounds you
dish out. If you can get a warrior right up in their face so as to take them
out one by one then you should have few issues.
As soon as the fight starts send one of your fighters right up into Arl Howe's
face to keep him busy while your party goes after a mage. Be careful not to hit
Howe with any AoE attacks or he will likely switch his attentions to your rogue
or mage permanently. Just focus on taking down one mage and then the other.
When they're both down for the count turn to the guards, removing them from the
picture as well.
You can now focus all of your attention on Arl Howe, cutting him down pretty
fast now that there are no distractions.
-------------------
Loot the Arl's body and then go to the north. There are two people in here you
can free. The first is Irminic, a Templar, who asks a favor of you if you help
him out of his cell. This starts the "Lost Templar" quest. The second is known
as Vaughn, the son of the Arl of Denerim... unless you killed him during the
City Elf Origin. If you didn't then there are a few things you can do here. You
can leave him to rot, you can kill him, you can ask for his voice during the
Landsmeet or you can free him for a price. If you have a high enough Persuade
you can even get the key to the money he offers and still leave him locked up
in the cell.
Now leave the room, open the cell door to the west, head on up the stairs and
back into the main hall. Make your way to Erlina and open the door to free the
Queen from her room. Escort her just to the west to reach the main hall where
you will be stopped by Cauthren. You can either surrender to allow Anora to
escape, fight Cauthren or try to explain what happened. Don't bother with the
last one as it will cause Anora to betray you for... some reason. Great logic
in her head... just like her father.
-------------------
Boss: Cauthrien
-------------------
Okay, obviously Bioware didn't think the earlier fights were annoying enough
so they bring us the Cauthren fight. Welcome to the wonderful world of "I want
to throw my controller across the room because the computer only wants to spam
a single goddamn attack!" This ridiculously stupid fight consists of one boss
who wields a two-handed sword, a pair of melee soldiers, an elite mage and
eight, EIGHT, goddamned archers. Yeah you can already tell this is going to be
sheer fun and wonderment.
Honestly this fight isn't hard at all. On the PC. When you can get everyone out
of that main room this fight is easy as can be. But good luck with it on the
consoles since it's frankly the height of goddamned stupidity. As long as you
stand in that room you're just going to get stun after stun after stun on your
party members while the pansy ass melee fighters whittle your health down, the
mage hits you with spells and Cauthren wrecks you.
Defeating this group of enemies is as simple as preparing yourself, getting the
fight started and then quickly retreating. Make sure everyone has all of their
defensive abilities activated so as to reduce damage or make themselves harder
to hit. Now walk into the room enough to activate the fight and then get your
party the heck out of there. Retreat into one of the rooms in the previous
hallway so that the enemies have to come to you.
As they're busy filing into the hall to attack you they will be vulnerable to
crowd control spells and any bombs you wish to throw. Engage them in melee with
your fighters while your mages and rogues keep hitting Cauthren, her guards and
the mage with everything they've got. This shouldn't take very long. Now comes
the hard part as those archers will almost never follow you.
Get into that room as quickly as possible and rush one group of archers with
two of your characters, preferably fighters. Let them tangle up these idiots so
they don't fire off any Shattershots while you fire off a shattershot of your
own. Let your mage use Cone of Cold or Earthquake to keep the other group of
them busy. Once you've engaged them in melee they can do a lot of damage but it
isn't actually all that threatening, just keep using your skills to prevent
them doing too much damage and you will win this.
Loot the Summer Sword from Cauthrens body and you can now head to Arl Eamon's
estate to get ready for the Landsmeet.
-------------------
It is heavily suggested that you allow yourself to be captured. There is one
location that you can get into only by allowing yourself to be taken captive
here. If you don't visit this location then you will not be able to get the
Traveler achievement.
There are two ways to get out of this place. Firstly you can try to escape on
your own, requiring that you and Alistair make your way through this place. If
that's not your cup of tea you can wait, which will allow you to control your
party to storm this place. If you're trying to play through the game as "good"
then it's suggested that you escape as there's much less bloodshed.
===================
Captured! (Escape)
===================
If you happened to have Alistair in your party when captured you will have his
help in getting out of the jail. Going this route without too much frustration
requires a fairly high Persuasion or Intimidate so let that figure into which
path you choose.
First things first we need to get out of this cell so click on the door to call
the guard over and then choose from one of the below options:
- If you have a high enough lockpicking skill the door will be unlocked now.
- You can either pretend to be sick and then take him out.
- Use Persuasion to seduce the guard into entering the cell.
- Once he's inside of the cell you can convince him to remove his armor.
- Sucker punch him. This requires a high Strength.
- Slip out of the cell. This requires a high Dexterity.
Whatever you do here go to the chest to the south to reclaim your equipment.
Head south through the door to find a guard with some Mabari hounds. Take them
out and then head up the stairs, out the door to the east. Inside of a room to
the south you can find a Regulars Armory. Go into the room and take the armor
off of the stand so you don't have to fight every single guard you see.
Now you can either try to bust on out of here by going to the north (not a very
good idea) or just head to the Colonel's room. He assumes that you're the new
recruit thus sending you into storage to meet the rest of your squad so as to
pass inspection. Go into storage and use Persuasion to convince them you're
supposed to be getting ready for inspection. They will talk about how they need
swords to pass inspection so lead them into the armory and use Persuasion to
convince the Assistant Quartermaster that you're his relief.
With him gone you can collect the swords off the rack. Now head on back to the
Colonel for inspection. With a good Persuasion skill you can respond to him
with a "Yes, Sir!" which will make him happy. You're sent out on your first
patrol now so head out of the room and to the north. A guard at the door will
ask for the password which your new buddy tells him. From there, so long as you
have passed inspection, you have a straight shot to the exit all the way to the
north. You can just walk right on out the front door.
************************
*NOTE: If you don't want to go through all of this you can pickpocket the two
guards in the storage room to get their password. With that in hand you can go
to the central hall, in uniform, and tell the guards the password when asked.
Once you've gotten past the checkpoint you have options. You will either have
to convince the Sergeant that you're off-duty or you will have to fight your
way out of this place. Luckily for you if you can get to the Captains Quarters
any party members with high approval will come to assist you.
************************
===================
Captured! (Jailbreak)
===================
When you tell Alistair that you will wait for your friends to help you out you
will be able to pick two party members to help you get out of here. Try to pick
one person with good Cunning so as to convince your way through the guards and
another who will be helpful in fights, Leliana and Morrigan make a good pair.
Now when you enter the Fort speak to the guards near the door in front of you.
They will wish to know your business so let the person with the highest Cunning
talk to them both times. You will then wait in the waiting room for the Captain
to come speak to you. Once again let that character talk and he will allow you
to enter the prison.
When you enter the prison itself be careful not to enter the chapel unless you
are sure you can talk your way out of it. Mother Augustine can break apart your
little charade pretty quickly if you're not careful.
In the next room you will have a slight problem. Sergeant Tanna is waiting to
get in the way of your plot to break out your friends. Should you have Leliana
with you she should have an easy enough time talking her out of the way. But if
you don't then it's time for fun. Get up onto one of the ballista platforms
closest to the door and activate it twice to fire it. This will cause all of
the guards to run away from you to investigate what just happened. In that time
run through the door into the next room.
In here four guards will attack you, two in melee and two with bows. Once they
are down head towards the quest marker with as little deviation as possible.
You will have to fight another group of enemies, a guard and two Mabari hounds,
as well as a Jailor and Guard before you can free the Grey Wardens. With that
done you can either meander the grounds, fighting everyone in sight, or just
head straight for the exit. You will have to fight five guards at the exit but
they're no threat for your party. Defeat them and leave.
========================
The Landsmeet
========================
As soon as you arrive at Arl Eamon's Estate you will have some things to tend
to. If you have begun work on the Lost Templar or Tortured Noble qeusts then it
is a good idea to turn those in at the Gnawed Noble before continuing any
further with the game.
Once inside speak to Eamon and Anora to find out that there's trouble in the
Elven Alienage. But before that's investigated you will have to speak to Anora
in her room. Also Riordan, the Grey Warden you met in Howe's Estate, is here.
Speak to him about the cache and he will tell you where it is and how to get
into it so you can take the things there for the defense of Ferelden.
Now go to see Anora to see what it is that she desires. When you speak to her
she desires that you support her bid to rule as King... Queen. There are a few
ways to get through this section. You can either convince her that you will
support her bid for the throne or ask her to marry Alistair. If you ask her to
marry Alistair you will have to use your powers of Persuasion to convince her
and Alistair of this. It's no easy feat but it is the most ideal of the various
solutions to this.
If you're a male human noble you can instead ask Anora to marry you in exchange
for your support. With a high enough Persuasion skill you can convince her to
take you as her prince consort. This doesn't go over so well if you're in a
relationship with Morrigan or Leliana (unless you've gotten her to harden up a
bit). This doesn't really add any support or anything it's just fun to do.
Regardless of what you plan on doing at the Landsmeet promise Anora that you
will support her bid to the throne and make no mention of killing Loghain. Do
this and you will get a fair bit of support.
Now go to Alistair and speak to him. If you want him to marry Anora you will
need to use your Persuasion skills to do so. Convincing him to support her or
to take the throne himself is actualy a fair bit easier.
With all of that done it's time to check out the Alienage.
========================
Unrest in the Alienage
========================
If you have saved Soris from Arl Howe's place then this will be a bit easier.
Walk into Cyrion's house and speak to Soris. He will tell you of a plague that
has been going on as well as asking you to speak to his cousin Shianni near the
center of town. Should you have chosen not to save him then head into Alariths
Shop and speak to him. Either way you will find out that people are going into
the hospice and then very, very rarely ever coming back out.
There are two ways inside, you can either fight at the front doors or go on
through the back. The guard at the back can either be bribed for six gold or
just killed. Take this entrance into the room to find two guards and a
supervisor. They're easily taken out so defeat them and then search the room.
Notably examine the note on the table before opening the door to the back room.
After they've been freed you will be able to leave out the front door. Here you
will be attacked by two Tevinter Guards and a pair of Healer mages. This is a
really easy fight so long as you're smart. Send one of your fighters after one
of the healers while your mage chases the other one and continually uses spells
to stun, freeze or otherwise contain it. This allows you to keep them under
control, or dead, while your other two characters get rid of the other guards.
Show the note to Shianni outside and you two will try to figure out what's been
going on. Your next stop is the apartments in that back alley.
Once inside search the building, making sure to speak to the lone Elf hanging
around in here. Next go to the westernmost part of the building and pick the
lock into the room. Kill the four soldiers in here before looting their bodies.
Now head through the southern door back out into the Alienage.
Here you will have to fight an Alley Guard with around five other guards. Three
of them like to stay back and just pummel you with arrows while the others will
fight in melee. Let your mage and one fighter entertain the archers so they are
not a constant thorn in your side and just focus on killing the melee fighters.
When they're all down head on into the warehouse.
In here you have a few ways of dealing with Devera. You can either Persuade or
Intimidate her into letting you past or just killing her and her men. Unless
you are planning on ending this peacefully it's best just to kill them now. The
hard part of this fight is that there are traps that will stop you from getting
to Devera or her two archers. So while you fight the melee troops she will be
free to pepper you with arrows. The best way to handle this is to put your mage
at an angle, on the side of the door, and let them cast spells partially right
through the wall. By doing this you can freeze them with Cone of Cold or Mind
Blast every so often to slow their attacks.
While they're held up with this you can feel free to handle the fighters. Once
they're all down try to wait off to the sides until they're frozen. Then have
one person set off or disarm a trap and then rush them. They'll go down pretty
quick to melee attacks. Loot the bodies and then move on.
The next room contains a few more enemies, mixed between archers and fighters.
As usual try to let your mage keep the archers busy while you handle the melee
and then clean up. Proceed forward and down the stairs to find three archers at
the end of a long hallway. There is ale on the floor to slow you down and a
tripwire to set off a trap that will stun you so be wary of those and rush the
archers. Once they're dead you can head into the next to last room. Defeat the
four warriors here in the usual manner and head on to deal with the boss.
As usual you have a few options when it comes to dealing with the boss. You can
either agree to pay him money and get evidence while he leaves with the slaves
or you can battle him. Should you choose to fight him then when he's near dead
you can "re-negotiate" the terms which is what you should always do.
-------------------
Boss: Caladrius
-------------------
This fight will be against Caladrius and six of his allies. Two of them are
archers which means the odds aren't too bad here. Send one fighter immediately
to each staircase while your archer supports one of them as there is a fighter
on each of the stairs. Have your mage start to use spells to whittle down
either the archers down the stairs or Caladrius himself.
Once everyone is downstairs go after the archers with everything you have with
the exception of one single fighter - Let him start to entertain Caladrius.
This is a fairly typical battle with the main exception being that the boss is
fairly resistant to cold attacks. He tends to break free of it really quick but
he's still very easy to beat. Simply focus on the archers and then the mage and
lastly clean up the warriors.
-------------------
If you agree to let him go you can get a few things out of him. In exchange for
the lives of the elves he will bolster your Constitution. Should this not mean
much to you then you can Persuade him to give you the documents and he will
leave. Or if you have a high Intimidate you can force him to give you that as
well as the profits he's made so far. But killing him nets you the documents
too so don't let that change your mind.
Speak to Valendrian afterwards before looting the bodies. Now go out into the
Alienage and then speak to Valendrian inside of his house to get Duncan's
dagger, Gift of the Grey. Also, if you're a City Elf, you can go to your home
to get your mothers dagger.
With that done return to Arl Eamon and you can now leave for the Landsmeet at
the Royal Palace.
========================
The Landsmeet (It Begins)
========================
Upon your arrival you will be confronted by Cauthrien if you haven't already
killed her. You can either fight her now or use Persuasion / Intimidate to get
her to stand down. If you should fight her then it's a whole lot easier than it
was the last time so there's no real special strategy needed. If you do kill
her make sure to loot her sword.
Now starts the hard part of the Landsmeet, gathering support. Before now you
should have already spoken to Anora and promised her your support while not
saying that Loghain has to die. If you're putting Alistair up there or him and
her together then you need to have spoken to him already too. Here is a good
way to go about this mess.
1. Persuade - I'm not the one who betrayed Ferelden. The lesser choice would be
The Blight is the threat here, not Orlais option. The second option will net
you the help of Arl Wulf but the first wins you more support overall.
2. NEVER mention Alistair until it comes to a later point or things will only
go in Loghains favor.
3. NEVER mention him leaving Cailin to die in the battle.
4. If you rescued Irminric and gave his sister his ring then you can mention
how he let Arl Howe torture innocents. But it's generally best to say that
he allowed Ferelden citizens to be sold into slavery.
5. If you have a very high Persuade you can tell him that he should instead be
supporting Maric's son. However a generally better idea is to mention him
allowing Howe to torture citizens as above or stealing the throne from his
own daughter.
6. When confronted about the queen tell him you rescued her.
7. "The Queen speaks the truth."
8. Ask him to step down gracefully.
Loghain will basically be asking for a fight at this point so you'll have to
give him one, one way or another. You can either fight him in a duel or as a
whole group. If you fight him as a group then you will still end up dueling him
when you have beaten him down to a certain point. It's possible to appoint
another character entirely to fight in your stead.
-------------------
Boss: Loghain
-------------------
Amusingly enough Loghain isn't that hard... for particular characters. If you
are a warrior with a shield or a mage then you can tear him a new one with real
ease. As a warrior with a shield just use all of your abilities in sequence to
try and keep him stunned, knocked down or generally unable to fight back. It's
easy to take more than half of his health before he's even had a suitable
chance to really fight back.
If you're a mage then your best bet is to use any and all spells that allow you
to freeze, paralyze, petrify or stun Loghain. Get him unable to move and then
hit him with your strongest spells. When you run out of ways to stop him from
moving around then simply run away from him until your skills recharge and do
it all over again.
-------------------
After you have defeated Loghain you will be in a position where you can choose
what will happen to him. You now have two main options - make Loghain a Grey
Warden or execute him for his crimes. If you make him a Grey Warden he will
essentially replace Alistair since blondie abandons your party. If you choose
to kill him either you or Alistair can do the deed. However Anora will not side
with whoever kills her father so if you're looking to marry her then don't do
the killing yourself and if she's to marry Alistair don't let him do it.
From here you can decide whether Ferelden will have a king, queen or some mix
of the two. Make your decision and be ready to stand against the darkspawn. On
to Redcliffe to start the final section of the game.
========================
The Final Battle
========================
Redcliffe is apparently well on its way to being overrun by the darkspawn. As
you arrive they are already sieging the castle, having attacked the town. You
can fight them in the town but there's little reason to do so. Kill any who
come after you and then head to the castle.
Once here you will have three main groups of Hurlocks to deal with. The first
is a group of Hurlocks near the center of the courtyard who have a Hurlock
Emissary with them, the second is near the doors to the castle and it has a
Hurlock Alpha with it. Finally the last group is a huge one that comes in small
groups to attack you via the front gate after you take out the other two groups
of enemies. Try to get rid of the Emissary and then move your people around as
needed to take out the rest of them.
When you clear out all of the Hurlocks an Ogre Alpha will come through the
front gate to attack. By this point he shouldn't pose even the slightest threat
to your characters so drop it like a bad habit.
With the outside of the castle clear you're given the option of going inside or
doing more things outside. The reason for this is that once you enter Redcliffe
castle you're stuck going straight to the end of the game so only go in when
you're sure you are finished with the outside world.
After some yammering with the Arl and his men you can wander the castle and
talk to people, buy supplies from Bodahn and Sandal or just head on over with
Alistair to speak to Riordan. That's some... chipper news he's got there for
you. Go to your room now for a deciding point in the game.
Morrigan will offer to spare you from the sacrifice that must be made at the
end of the game. If you (or Alistair or Loghain) will lay with her then she
will concieve a child using a ritual. This child can then be used basically as
a receptacle to house the spirit of the Archdemon. Nobody will have to die if
you accept her offer. However if you refuse her she will leave the party now
and forever. So if you're not going to take her up on it you should make sure
that Wynne is ready to take over and strip Morrigan of any equipment that you
don't want her to run off with.
===================
Save Denerim - City Gates
===================
You will be controlling the main character now while everyone in your party is
running around fighting the enemies with you. Due to this it's important to not
get yourself KO'ed when dealing with the numerous darkspawn here. However doing
that is incredibly difficult since most of the enemies here are incredibly weak
and easily enough dispatched. The only real dangers lie with the Genlock Alpha
enemies since they have a fair bit of health and can still deal out damage. If
you're a mage try to stay back from these guys when getting rid of them.
Once you've taken out the last of the enemies loot the bodies for any healing
items before talking to Riordan. You will now need to pick your party for the
final part of the game as well as a character who will lead the defenses at the
city gates themselves.
As an additional note when you're in these new areas you will gain the option
to call upon reinforcements from those you previously recruited. This will give
you melee or ranged assistance depending on who you recruited of the up to six
possible allies. Dwarves, Werewolves, Golems and human soldiers are all melee
fighters while the Elves and magi are your ranged attackers. When you deploy a
unit they can't regain any troops lost in battle. Do things very sparingly and
try to save at least one ranged and one melee group for the final fight.
===================
Save Denerim - Market District
===================
When you enter the Market you will be immediately set upon by a whole bunch of
Ogres. At first you're fighting two of them and a Genlock Emissary but they
very rapidly start coming at you three at a time. By this point in the game you
should be used to dealing with even two ogres so the third shouldn't present
too much of an issue. You should also have plenty of crowd control spells,
namely Ice magics, so keeping your allies alive through this should not be a
hard thing to do.
At no point should you ever really need the help of any of the allied troops in
this section.
Keep on killing the ogres until they stop coming and then make your way across
the Market. As you near the far side you will be attacked by a pair of Ogres
with one of the very powerful Hurlock Generals. You don't want to fight all of
these guys at once since they're very capable of killing you due to the fact
that Ogres can pick you up to hammer on you while the General is a master of
knockdown and stun, cheesy punk he is. Plus all three of them love ignoring the
melee guys that are attacking them to go after your mage who hasn't actually
done anything to them. Cue running for your life.
The trick to making this area less frustrating is to draw off that first Ogre
that comes after you without getting the attention of the General. Then draw
the general to you, hopefully with only the one ogre. Now you will have to jump
all over him as quickly as possible. Take out the other ogre and then just lay
on the pain so that he goes down before the other ogre elite and Genlock
Emissary manage to make their way over. Otherwise this fight just gets annoying
to manage since the big guy will pick you up, Emissary will spam magic and the
general will slaughter your archers and mages.
Note that it is possible to have everyone hold position, send one person ahead
very carefully to lure off the Hurlock General and then have everyone jump all
over his face to killify him as quickly as possible. Sometimes you will draw
one of the ogres over anyways but you can often get a major jump on damaging
the general before it comes over.
With all that done loot the generals body for a really good helmet, finish off
the last of the ogres and then head back to the city map.
===================
Save Denerim - Alienage
===================
This is probably the first area you will want to summon up your allies for any
help but it may not be necessary. Do so as a last resort if you find yourself
having serious difficulty completing this on your own. When the time comes for
it, call upon one of the melee armies, humans preferably, and they should help
to tip the scales in your favor.
But to begin with there's nothing happening here. Walk towards the tree in the
center of the Alienage to find some survivors. You can either have them help
you out in the coming fight or try to handle matters on your own. Even if they
are left behind they don't help too much compared to what your soldiers can do
so it really doesn't matter either way.
Rush to the southwest where the gate is holding back an ogre with a whole bunch
of darkspawn behind him. You can either wait for him to plow through the gate
and start fighting him or, a better idea, is to pick the enemies apart. One
skill as simple as Scattershot can wreck chaos upon your foes with them sitting
behind that barrier.
If you have any archers send them and your mages up onto the raised platforms
up on either side of the gate. From here they have a good vantage point to view
the enemies... to better rain death upon them. Any area-of-effect spells that
you have, like Tempest, Inferno, Earthquake or Blizzard, can be freely dumped
onto the enemies from here. Try to use Cone of Cold to freeze the Ogre before
starting to rain destruction upon them. If you have both Tempest and Blizzard,
as well as Spell Might, you can cause a major spell combo to go off that will
absolutely wreck every enemy back there including the general.
Once the fence is broken down you will want to summon up the Redcliffe Soldiers
since there are a lot of enemies incoming. There's an almost constant stream of
regular Hurlock Grunts to deal with, the Hurlock General (who is a powerful
mage this time), numerous Ogre Elites and Genlock or Hurlock Alphas. It gets
really chaotic and it is very hard to do without any support so don't even
bother with trying. Just make good use of everything you've got and you will be
fine. The only way they can really kill you is via overwhelming you.
After you've defeated all of the enemies return to Shianni for a reward before
heading on your way. Make sure to loot the Hurlock General as well for his
boots and staff.
As you head to the next location a random encounter will provide a slight
change of pace. It isn't a fight so much as an event at another location.
===================
Hold the Gates
===================
Your reserve unit will be forced to hold the gates from attacking darkspawn.
This can be pretty tough if you haven't been using your party members at all or
equipping them with things. Who exactly is in your party seems to be totally
random - the first time this was done with Sten as leader had the dog, Shale
and Oghren while the second time with Wynne leading it had Zevran, Sten and
Shalde pop up. If there's any pattern to it, it's hard to tell. But take note
that those who aren't active party members are still moving around, fighting
the darkspawn alongside you. They're just not controllable.
Speak to the Officer and you will have to rush to the south to defend the gate
against the incoming darkspawn. This is actually really easy and you shouldn't
need much healing and you should definitely never, EVER, summon up any of the
other armies to your aide.
Once you're done speak to the Messenger to be head onward with the main fight.
===================
Save Denerim - Palace District
===================
As you head to the palace you get a pretty badass cutscene. At the end of this
you will have to make your way towards the palace. There are two staircases
here, one to the north and one to the south. Both of these have enemies hanging
out on them so you'll want to clear both stairs. Doing this map is generally
easy and you shouldn't need any help. If you find yourself having too many
issues though, summon up whatever remnants exist of the group you called for in
the Alienage and hope that's enough.
Go to the north one first, taking out the Genlock Alpha, Ogre and others. Then
double back to the west and go to the southern stairs. This will allow you to
clear them both without dealing with any excess enemies from the east. At the
southern stairs you really only have an Ogre to deal with so focus on that
before cleaning up the other darkspawn.
The next group in this area is a fairly large amount of Hurlocks with Genlock
Emissaries, an Ogre and a Genlock Alpha with a bow. Try to get rid of the Ogre
first, then the Emissary and lastly the Alpha so as to spare yourself all of
the varying levels of frustration.
Finally there is only one last group stopping you from entering Fort Drakon.
This group consists of a Genlock Emissary, numerous Hurlock Grunts, several
archers, a Genlock Alpha and Shrieks. Oh and to get up to their level you have
to get past a trap that will stun you if you get hit by it. Try to have someone
disarm it while stealthed if at all possible before rushing up there. Your main
target will be the Emissary first and foremost with all others coming second.
Once him and the Alpha are dead you just need to prevent the Shrieks from
taking out your mages / archers and you should have no problems cleaning this
area up.
Loot all of the dead bodies and head into Fort Drakon.
===================
Save Denerim - Fort Drakon
===================
Okay, this area is a doozy and it may be helpful to summon up some allied troop
assistance, namely mages or elven archers. The reason for this is that there
are a whole bunch of archers here, more than is reasonably dealt with easily by
just your party so you'll want to be ready for it.
Directly to your left are a trio of archers behind a barricade while to your
right is a single archer behind one. Further ahead a Dragon Thrall, essentially
a Dragon like the one you fought during the "Nature of the Beast" quest, lands
near a trio of archers behind another barricade. Beyond them lie three paths up
to the doors of Fort Drakon proper, each with a different guardian. The left
has a Hurlock Emissary, the center has a Genlock Alpha and the right has yet
another Hurlock Emissary. Oh and there are alot of grunts and Shrieks guarding
that path as well.
It's suggested that you summon up the mages for this as they can help a great
deal. Also the archers are much more useful against the final boss than any of
the other units are so keep that in mind.
To start with fire off some sort of AoE attack at the archers to your left. It
will more than likely kill them as they're quite weak. Any archers you may have
should focus on taking out the single archer to your right. Now have your melee
units rush forward to deal with the Dragon Thrall, using all of your stunning
attacks to keep it from doing too much damage. If you have another AoE spell by
this point use it on the second group of archers, if not then just use acid
or other bombs to deal with them.
Rush one of the Emissaries with your entire group to take them down and then
cut across. So if you went left take him out, then the Alpha and then the far
Emissary (and vice versa obviously). This will help you cut them down before
they do too much damage with paralyzing spells or fireballs. It also keeps your
party together so the vulnerable ones don't get cut down by Shrieks. Head into
the fort now to work on the final dungeon.
Once inside you will have gained "The Defender" achievement / trophy if you
have preserved the lives of at least half of the troops under your banner. This
means that if you've been holding back because of that it's time to cut loose.
Head into the western room here for an item in a locked chest before continuing
to the south. Once you're inside of the "ballista" room you will be attacked by
a quartet of Lesser Shades and a Greater Shade that have been summoned by a
Genlock Conjurer. This guy is basically a boss Genlock Emissary with the added
ability to teleport, switching places with the Greater Shade regardless of what
is going on or where it may be. This is annoying but manageable.
Try to focus on the Lesser Shades first, using things like Walking Bomb or just
Cone of Cold to slow them, damage them or whatever. They're not the problem,
that lies with the Greater Shade / Conjurer tag team. Send one of your tanks to
tie up in melee with the Conjurer, chasing it around while your party focuses
on the Greater Shade. Once it's dead you can pin the Conjurer down and pummel
him into the floor. If you're finding this too hard then let your mage handle
the Conjurer while everyone else goes after the Greater Shade. You can use your
magic on the Conjurer to freeze / stun / crushing prison or even just use Force
Field on him - whatever you do keep him busy until the Greater Shade is dead...
again and then take out the Genlock.
Continue to the south until you reach the hall that goes east and west. There
is a trap here at this intersection so make sure to find it before proceeding.
When you enter this corridor you will be ambushed. From the west will come a
number of corpses with a Genlock Emissary elite, a frustratingly strong foe,
and from the west comes a Genlock Shapeshifter. This is basically another boss
Genlock Emissary so you're going to want to get to him and beat his face in as
fast as possible. Try to let one person keep the Genlock Emissary busy while
the rest of the team handles the Shapeshifter problem. If you move fast enough
it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Head into the easternmost room to find Sandal hanging out with a bunch of dead
darkspawn in the room. Nice work! Do any last minute enchantment or purchasing
with him as he's the last merchant you'll be interacting with. Buy up every
healing potion you can get your hands on.
Loot the first room and then head down the path to the west through the door.
In the large room with the staircase check upstairs to find some locked chests.
When you're ready to fight head through the door to the east to find a pair of
Hurlock Alphas with a Genlock Alpha. Send one tank to your right to keep this
particular Hurlock busy while the rest of your party goes left towards the
second one. Use all of your AoE, crowd control and power spells to get rid of
that Genlock first before turning to the Hurlocks. They'll go down quickly
enough at this point.
The rooms to the north contain some minor treasure and the room all the way to
the east contains a fight with numerous archer Genlocks as well as a Genlock
Alpha but it's a waste as there's no treasure or reason to go into this room.
Make your way to the south into the hallway but don't go too far forward. There
are five traps lining this hallway and if you get caught in one you will die
easily to the Genlock Master Assassin and Genlock Assassin Acolytes that come
out of the doors to your east. Truth be told this isn't too hard but it can be
really troublesome if your main fighters are caught in leg hold traps.
If you have a high stealth you can try to go into the hallway and disarm them
first. Should that not be an option have one person go far enough forward that
he gets caught in a trap. When the assassins come rushing out to kill him hit
them with every stunning or freezing spell and skill in the book. This will buy
you enough time for your character to free himself before fighting them. Take
out the Acolytes first so that you can gang up on the Master Assassin. They go
down easily enough.
The next room to the south is the final one you will have to deal with before
the final boss himself. Inside of this room is a Hurlock Emissary and on each
side of the room is an Ogre elite. Make it your primary goal in life to get to
that Emissary ASAP or he will beat you down with spells. Focus on stunning him
so that you can catch him and kill him before turning to the Ogres. They will
go down quickly enough without his help.
Now search the room, including down both stairs on the sides of the room, to
find chests with lots of healing items inside of them. With those in hand it is
time to do your final preparations.
------------------------
Final Boss: Archdemon
------------------------
This dragon is just ridiculously powerful. Ridiculous amounts of health and
defense, deals damage like a chainsaw on legs and it even has the audacity to
use a number of spells on you!
Let's run down the list of the most important attacks in its arsenal:
1 - Basic claw and bite attacks. These can hit everyone anywhere near its front
or even on its sides.
2 - Those behind it are in danger of being lashed by the tail, sending them
flying away from the dragon.
3 - Those in front of the beast are in danger of being picked up in its mouth
and chewed on. That's just great.
4 - Leaping into the air it flaps its wings sending everyone nearby flying away
from it. This isn't bad as it gives your people some space to heal.
5 - With a great roar your entire party is stunned for some time.
6 - The ability to spit balls of energy at a far away target in front of it or
breath a gout of this energy at those close to it. This isn't fire damage
as you might expect and is instead spirit damage. Weird.
7 - While not strictly an attack it can leap up into the air, coming down in
another location to strike at your vulnerable party members or just to put
some space between you and it to use its breath weapon.
8 - After losing 75% of its health it will begin to use a weird swirling vortex
of energy to attack your party. This is a funnel of purple-black energy
that swirls in place, expanding to cover a large area. This does damage to
any who remain in it while also debuffing your attack and defense. Try to
get out of the radius of this storm as soon as possible. And yes, this is
yet another spirit damage attack.
9 - After losing 50% of its health it will begin to use a weird attack where it
drops bursts of spirit energy from the sky onto your party. These are hard
to dodge so just muscle through them and keep on healing.
Another thing to note is that the combat tactics of this beast change as you
deal damage to it.
100%-76% Health: The dragon attacks as normal with no special surprises. It is
not yet using either attack #8 or #9.
75%-51% Health: The dragon will call up some darkspawn to attack you while it
also begins to use attack #8.
50%-26% Health: Now the dragon will retreat from you, leaping to a far away
platform outside of melee range, where it can use its spells
in safety. It will begin to use attack #9 as well as summoning
up a whole lot of darkspawn.
25% Health to Death: More darkspawn are summoned up but this is basically just
a retreat of the first phase. However he will continue to
use attacks #8 and #9 with gusto.
As soon as the fight starts you should summon up the mages, if you have them,
or the Redcliffe infantry. Mages are good because they deal damage to the beast
quickly but they die just as fast. This is actually a good thing since it means
they will hurt it and then make room for other support. If you get the infantry
instead it doesn't matter if they're messed up badly, that's ideal as well.
With your allies in tow make a beeline straight for the dragon and start to
attack it. Try to keep your melee units to its sides while your mages and / or
archers hang back while split up from each other a bit in case of "fireball"
attacks. Your physical attackers should use their strongest skills as often as
possible while your mage should prioritize their actions as follows:
1. Heal any party members who are hurt more than 50% immediately.
2. Make sure any support skills are running. It may behoove you to have as many
Rejuvenation spells running as possible, especially on archers, to help them
attack the dragon with everything you've got.
3. If you have any spells that can stun, or even slow, the beasts onslaught
then use it. Cone of Cold can do this well but it doesn't last long and very
precious few other spells can do even that. Experiment to find useful ones.
4. Use offensive spells to damage the dragon.
Whether it is through a mages healing or use of your own potions try to never
let your health dip below half. Even a max level party can be cut down quite
fast by this beast so don't take any chances especially on harder difficulty
levels and just keep that health up.
Simply attack the dragon until it is down to 75% health. Here it will begin to
use attack #8, the spirit vortex spell. Don't allow your party members to stand
within this, have them immediately move to get out of it and heal up before
taking the fight back to the dragon.
When the dragon has lost half of its health it will jump to a far platform.
Immediately run to the ramp that leads up to a ballista near the dragon. Send
one fighter to man the ballista while your mage and archers continue to attack
the dragon. If you have the ability to do so summon up the elves to help attack
the beast. With the offense you're putting forth have your fighters alternate
between activating the ballista to puncture the dragon for about 50 damage and
attacking the darkspawn who come to mess with you. If possible try to defend
the elves as well to keep them around longer.
Once you reduce his health enough he will leap to a far away platform and ready
himself for the final showdown. Get over there, taking out any darkspawn who
get in your way and attack him with everything you've got. Use any bombs you
may still be holding, every Lyrium and Health potion and just about anything
else you can pull out. This is the final stretch and now isn't the time to fail
in this endeavor.
Keep up the pressure and the beast will finally fall.
------------------------
That's it, you've done it! Sit back and enjoy the ending, you've earned it. Do
take note that there are four endings. One with Morrigans ritual, one where you
strike the final blow, one where Alistair does it and one where Loghain is the
one to sacrifice himself.
************************
*NOTE: Human Nobles who feel like their Origin didn't have much impact on the
game, besides enjoying killing Arl Howe even more, will find the ending to have
a little bonus in there for you. It's kind of annoying that there's nothing
else based on your Origin but hey, at least it's something.
************************
=========================================================
5. Side Quests
=========================================================
Ostagar
========================
The Mabari Hound
===================
Speak to the Kennel Master to find out that one of the Mabari is sick. To treat
it he needs to beast muzzled. If you agree to help you can go into the kennel
to either muzzle it or,if you're feeling like not getting a party member, kill
the poor thing. If you muzzle it he will ask you to look for a flower that
grows in the swamps.
Shortly after enering the Korcari Wilds you will find the flower the Kennel
Master asked you to pick up. You can now head back to Ostagar. Give it to him
so he can use it to help the dog. When your time out in the Korcari Wilds is
over you will now have a new ally, your very own Mabari Hound. He will find
you when you leave for Lothering after the battle, joining up with you for a
random encounter before becoming part of your party.
===================
The Hungry Deserter
===================
If you speak to the prisoner inside of the hanging cage and press him on what
he was doing sneaking around he will offer to give you a key to the mage's
treasure chest in exchange for food and water. The guard watching over him is
supposed to still have his so speak to the man. You can either pay the guard
ten silver for the food or you can Persuade him into giving it over. Give it to
the prisoner for the key. Now take the key over to the Tranquil nearby the
mages to find the chest. Unfortunately you cannot open it with him nearby and
will have to wait until you've finished your ritual.
Alternately if you're feeling like being an absolute bastard you can kill him
and just take the key from him. This doesn't get you into much trouble, nor is
it really shortening the quest too much.
========================
Korcari Wilds
========================
The Mabari Hound - Human Noble
===================
Even though this is said to start in Ostagar it is really started by going into
the Korcari Wilds. Here you will find a white flower with a red center that you
can pick up. When you go to do so your companions will explain that the Kennel
Master is looking for flowers like these so you should bring it to him. Do so
for a reward of 20 silver or no reward if you're feeling particularly giving.
===================
The Missionary
===================
* NOTE: Hold off on trying to complete this quest until you have the "Last Will
and Testament" quest since they're in roughly the same areas.
After you battle the first group of wolves look near the body of water to the
east. You will find a dead body face down in the water, search it to find a
letter. This is your starting point for the quest and you must read the letter
to find the directions to the camp where this boy is supposed to meet his dad.
They are as follows:
- Look for a tree leaning on a ruined building.
- Pass under a fallen tree "bridge"
- Pass a submerged tower on the right
- Look between a high, ruined arch and a mossy standing stone
- Walk along a path of roots and stones
- Look for two large statues with a chest between them.
Be careful when doing this as you will have to fight a whole bunch of wolves
with a seriously strong Alpha Wolf leading them. This bad boy is really strong
and more than capable of killing party members. As a matter of fact he's taken
down Jory every time this quest has been done. Once he's defeated you can open
the chest for some good rewards.
===================
Last Will and Testament
===================
This body is found at the top of a tall hill to the south of where you start.
Once you've found the dead body you need to find the sealed box with all that
he left for his family. He explains in the letter that it's found in a Tevinter
Ruin all the way to the western reaches of the Wilds. Make your way south until
the road splits in all four directions and then go to the west. Keep going that
way and north where possible until you see a bunch of bodies hanging from a
ruins. You may have to fight a Hurlock and four Genlock Archers along the way
but that's nothing too hard.
When you find the camp you will have to fight a larger group of Darkspawn so
try to stick together. Once they're all dead head into the camp to find the
hidden box in a campfire. You can either open it up to keep for yourself or
keep it closed and bring it to his family. It's your decision so do as you will
but MAKE SURE to open the chest near this. Inside is a journal that you will
want to read. The quest ends here but you can get more treasure.
Walk to the first trail sign (a white X on your map) and activate it. Now you
will be following these through the swamp so use your map to guide you. After
you run all over this damnable place the actual cache will appear on your map.
Run on over there and open it up for some good equipment. Yay!
===================
Pinch of Ashes
===================
This is an unmarked quest that can be completed but it's mostly for experience
as the quest reward is fairly weak unless you're a mae. You will find the note
about this quest and a bag of ashes on a dead Genlock Emissary after crossing
a trapped bridge (one of the first big encounters here). From the bridge you
crossed to get here go to the left where you will see a cliff that overlooks a
dome that's sunken into the water. Here there is a pile of rocks that you can
sprinkle the ashes over. Doing this causes the spirit from the story to come
out to attack you. He's pretty tough, doing about 30 damage a hit, and he has a
lot of health. Make sure everyone continually uses their abilities to take him
down before he does too much damage to your party. On his body you can find a
good healing item and a pile of rags under it gives you mage boots.
========================
Lothering
========================
A Fallen Templar
===================
This quest starts by finding the locket and note on the body of the dead
Templar on the bridge going into the city of Lothering. When you go into the
city you can find Ser Donall in the Chantry. Give him the locket to end this
quest. You can ask for a reward but he does not offer one so keep that in mind.
===================
The Chanter's Board
===================
Activating this quest, just near the Chanter, is more like activating a series
of sub-quests. When you look at the board a quest will present itself, by
completing this quest you will recieve a monetary award. The first one is just
below:
-------------------
Weed Out the Bandits
-------------------
Apparently a group of bandits are lurking to the north of Lothering, three
groups in all, and they need to be wiped out. While this doesn't sound like it
is going to be anything too difficult, you'd be quite surprised how all of
this plays out. The first group, found north and a bit west out of town, isn't
that bad. It mostly consists of archers and a few Mabari hounds to keep you
busy in melee while they fill you full of arrows. This isn't terribly difficult
to handle - just keep the hounds stunned, or knocked down, until they fall and
then take the fight to the melee enemies.
The second and third groups are quite tough though. The second group consists
of a pair of dual-wielding rogues and a few archers. This doesn't sound bad but
the dual-wielders are capable of doing a lot of damage and stunning you while
the archers pick away at your health. It's imperative that you keep your party
tight, focusing on a single enemy and getting rid of them. It's easily enough
done by using Winter's Grasp (Morrigan) on one and then having everyone attack
that person. Once the dual-wielders are defeated you're free to pick off the
archers who will pose little threat now.
Lastly comes the Bandit Leader and his gang. One archer and three melee rogues
accompany the two-handed sword wielding leader. Your best bet is to immediately
have one of your warriors get right up in the leaders face. Make sure you watch
his hitpoints so that he doesn't go down and have him focus on stunning or
knocking down the leader. It won't kill him but it will keep him busy. Now have
your other three focus on killing one of the enemies at a time. If your fighter
isn't doing so well you could have Leliana or the Mabari Hound focus on helping
your fighter keep the big guy busy but you shouldn't need to, either Alistair
or Sten are more than capable of this as are most melee oriented PCs.
When the leader and archer are the only ones left you can kill the leader. When
he's dead the archer will fall quickly enough, leaving you free to loot the
bodies. If you have Leliana open the chest for some more treasure. You can now
return to the Chanter to turn in this quest.
-------------------
When Bears Attack
-------------------
You may panic a bit when you realize that you're going after a FAMILY OF BEARS
but it's not as bad as it sounds. Make your way to the northeastern part of the
woods to the north of town. Here you will find a trio of black bears, raging
from the Blight. This makes them do more damage but they seem to take more as
well. Focus on one of them, taking them out sequentially. If you have Morrigan
as an active member have her use Vulnerability hex on one and then hammer it
with spell after spell while your party members are taking out one of the other
bears. Return to the Chanter for your reward.
-------------------
A Last Keepsake
-------------------
If you spoke to the boy as you were crossing the bridge you'll be familar with
this one. His mother is still missing and presumed dead and the church would
like a keepsake from her body for the child. This is easily done by just going
to the north in the wilderness to find a pack of wolves circling the body. It
might seem like there are a helluva lot of them but they go down pretty fast so
long as you use your abilities. Try to spread out your party here rather than
sticking to one at a time since this will actually get rid of them pretty fast.
Grab the keepsake from the body and return to the Chanter for your reward.
===================
A Poisonous Proposition
===================
Speaking to Barlin at the tavern will unlock this quest so long as you have
someone who can actually make and use poison. Basically all you need to do is
get the supplies to make some poisons and sell them to him for some coin. You
will need to make three flasks of Venom, no other poison will do. It's likely
that you don't have enough, or even any, Toxin Extracts or Venom flasks so you
will have to get some from spiders. Leave town to the north and then head to
the east to find a bunch of Giant Spiders just loitering about. Kill them, loot
their bodies for the Toxin, have Leliana make the Venom and then turn the quest
in to Barlin. This nets you a good chunk of silver.
===================
More Than Just Plants
===================
Speaking to Elder Miriam reveals that the town is short on healing supplies. If
you can go to the woods nearby to find the items needed to make three lesser
health poultices she will reward you. You can either go into the woods or just
make it with stuff you already have on hand. In either case you're rewarded
with 50 silver.
===================
The Qunari Prisoner
===================
Sten is locked up in a cage near the rear exit of the town. Speaking to him
will reveal his crimes but he's also someone that you could use in your quest.
Head back to the Chantry after finishing up with him and find the Revered
Mother. Speak to her to find out about the Qunaris crimes. You can either ask
kindly to have him released, in which case Leliana helps you convince her, or
you can bully your way through this. In either case get the keys and then go to
release Sten.
You could choose to send him away, refusing to let him join you and just let
him go free but that's a waste. He wishes to join you so let him. He's a pretty
powerful warrior so let him come along. Having him and Alistair in your party
at the same time is something of a waste so pick one and stick with it.
========================
Redcliffe
========================
A Missing Child
===================
Speak to Kaitlyn just inside of the Chantry to find out that her brother has
run off towards the castle. Leave the Chantry and go to the south a bit to
find Kaitlyn's home. Walk inside and go into the bedroom. When you enter you
will hear a noise inside the dresser. When he comes out you can convince him
that you're a friend by mentioning his sister. From there you can just talk him
into going back to the Chantry or you can convince him to give you the key to
his fathers chest containing a sword used to kill dragons. You can Persuade him
if you have that high enough, Intimidate him or just offer to give him and his
sister money. Return to the Chantry and speak to Kaitlyn to finish this quest.
===================
Lost in the Castle
===================
This is started up after you've promised to help Owen, the blacksmith, find his
daughter in the castle. You won't be able to do this until after completing
your defense of the town. Once you enter the castle continue forward until you
fight the Devouring Corpse in the long hall. Continue to the east all the way,
past two doors on the north wall and one on the south. The last door is a store
room that Valena is hiding in. Speak to her and she will be able to make a run
for it so long as you've killed most of the zombies, and those Mabari, along
the way. You can now return to the Smith to speak to him about this.
===================
The Chanter's Board
===================
Caravan Down
-------------------
A caravan is under attack and has sent for help from the Chantry. Unfortunately
with the situation in Redcliffe they can't send any help so it's up to you.
Head over to the Caravan on your map to find that it has been wiped out, only
a group of enemies remain. This is probably one of the most annoying fights in
the game thanks to the Genlock Emissaries and their penchant for making your
characters go berserk. When they're surrounded by the red aura they won't take
orders, don't use skills and can't heal at all. If you don't have a mage with
healing abilities then they're likely going to fight themselves to death.
If possible try to have one fighter go after the Genlock Emissary near the two
Genlock warriors, have the other fighter go after the Genlock Alpha and have
your Rogue go after the last Genlock Emissary. Your mage can help the first
fighter with crowd control while also helping to keep the others alive. If you
do this then they often won't cast anything too dangerous allowing you to take
them out with ease. Return to the Redcliffe for your reward.
-------------------
Brothers and Sons
-------------------
Company Easthill, a band of conscripts, has gone missing and it's up to you to
find them. Travel to the battlefield, far to the north, to find the company.
As you proceed forward you will be assailed by numerous wolves but you can find
a diary on the dead body nearby the rocks where you begin. This will explain
that the conscripts have been wiped out unfortunately. If you decide to search
everything in the field you will have to fight yet more wolves and even a big
brown bear so decide if it's worth it or not and head back to Redcliffe.
-------------------
Skin Deep
-------------------
The Chantry would like samples of Corpse Gall to better study the monsters that
have been infesting the town. These are gotten easily by proceeding with the
main quest, The Arl of Redcliffe, as the undead are plentiful inside of the
castle. Once you have nine of them you can turn them in to the Chantry for free
or you could gather up 18 of them for an actual reward.
-------------------
Desperate Haven
-------------------
A group of refugees have attempted to travel to Redcliffe only to be waylaid.
It's up to you to get there to rescue them. When you arrive at their camp a
large group of Hurlocks and Genlocks will be attacking them. There are two
groups of refugees - a man and woman near the far left side and three men near
a cart in the middle. The man and woman are being attacked by several Hurlocks,
a Genlock archer and an Emissary so it's best to leave them to their fate or
you might get killed.
This is because a large group of Hurlocks / Genlocks are rushing at the three
by the cart and you don't want to find that they've killed those three and are
now moving to flank your party. You can really only save one group and trying
to help those by the cart is the safer option. Use crowd control spells to thin
out the enemies as quickly as possible and move your people into position to
try and flank them. They will usually ignore your people since they're trying
to kill the refugees so they leave themselves a bit open.
Once they're dead you can move on to the other group that's killed the couple.
They should go down pretty quickly as there's only four of them. Just get a
fighter or two up on top of the Emissary and watch it end.
Bring news of this back to the Chanter for your reward.
-------------------
Unintended Consequences
-------------------
Something in the wilderness has been killing defenseless merchants and the
Templars are too busy to do anything about it. It's up to us then. Head out to
the world map and start adventuring. Eventually you will be find a caravan
surrounded with bloody corpses only to be attacked by a Trickster Whim. Yep,
that's right. It's the one that you summoned in the mage's tower while doing
those rituals. He calls up a number of mirror versions of himself although they
are quite a bit weaker. One is an archer, one is a mage and the rest are melee
types although their dual-wielding style is pretty deadly. This isn't too hard
so long as you can get rid of the mage and archer quickly, or at least tangle
them up. Their picking at your health will really drag down your party so get
rid of them while the melee bunch kill everything except the main Trickster.
Eventually all that will be left is the main one whom you can then gang up on
to finish him in short order. Return to the Chantry Board to finish this quest.
===================
Denerim
===================
Pearls Before Swine
===================
It seems that things are getting so out of hand that the Sergeant is having
some issues with keeping the peace in the Market District. The leader of the
guards, Arl Howe, has let his mercenaries roam free. These men have been
causing difficulty in the Pearl, a whorehouse. We have to go over there to beat
them down but not kill them. When you arrive speak to the White Falcons to be
told to piss off. You can either Persuade them away, Intimidate them or just
beat them into the ground. They're not especially difficult if it comes to a
fight so just choose as you like. When they're gone you can go back to the
Sergeant for your reward.
However as you make your way back to the Market District the Sergeant will come
across you in a random encounter. As you begin to talk a man named Cristof will
attack you with some more White Falcons. Since you have Sergeant Kylon and his
men with you this is really easy. Make your melee characters focus on Cristof
while your mage deals with archers / crowd control once again. If you can use
ice spells to fully freeze some enemies then there's a good chance they will be
shattered, making your job even easier.
After they're wiped out return to Kylon in the Market for another quest.
===================
The Crimson Oars
===================
It seems that the mercs in the Gnawed Noble Tavern have been causing a bit too
much trouble so they're getting evicted. Much like the White Falcons you don't
need to fight them to get rid of them. If you have Persuade you can ask them
if they wouldn't rather drink by the docks. Then ask if they wouldn't prefer a
bar with "friendlier" women. This will cause them to leave for a different bar
that doesn't have nobles. If you have to fight them it can be kind of a pain
since the room is so tight. Use crowd control spells but be careful not to hit
your own people. Mind Blast is a godsend here.
Return to Sergeant Kylon and speak to him for your reward. Now speak to him a
few times more to get a little extra as well as his personal thanks for all of
your help with the Market District.
===================
Friends of Red Jenny
===================
While adventuring in the Mage's Tower you will find a Small Painted Box in
First Enchanter Irvings office. Take this and, upon return to Denerim, bring it
to the back alleys of the Market District. Here you will find a Mysterious Door
that you can knock on. When it opens present the box to be rewarded with some
gold for your troubles.
===================
Honor Bound
===================
A fool named Ser Landry will challenge you to a duel for allowing the king to
be killed. Unless you're incredibly Cunning with a high Coercion skill it's
nearly impossible to talk him out of this (Cunning: 21, Persuasion rank 2 was
not enough) you will have to meet him for this duel in an alley. Great. If you
refuse to fight him you will be jumped while traveling from location to
location within Denerim so it's better to just duel him. This is much easier
since all you need to do is keep on stunning or freezing him so that he can't
fight back and take him out. He isn't terribly difficult.
===================
Drake Scale Armor
===================
This is listed as a Denerim quest but it actually starts in the wilderness. If,
or rather when, you fight a Drake you will be able to loot a Drake Scale off of
the corpse. These fine scales could be used by a master armor smith to fashion
a very strong suit of armor. As you can guess this person is located in Denerim
so that's where you need to go. Before even going further you will need to be
sure that you have three Drake Scales, no less will suffice.
When you reach Denerim you will want to head to the Market and to Wade's
Emporium. Ask the guy at the counter about it and a conversation ensues where
Wade offers to make Drake Scale armor for you. What you will want to do is to
give him a gift of gold as well, this causes the armor to turn out better than
it would have otherwise. It's expensive but worth it. It takes time before this
will be finished though so you'll have some waiting to be doing. Come back
later to find out that he ruined the armor. If by ruined he means made a really
great suit of studded leather armor. Equip that and leave. If you've paid him
then it will be a better suit of armor than normal.
You now need to get three more drake scales. If you're having a hard time with
finding enough of them, look for more during the "Urn of Sacred Ashes" quest
as there are some more scales for you to get. Once you have the scales return
to him and pay him the gold once again (yeouch, that's a steep price) and when
he gives you this set, which doesn't take as long to make, it will be much
better than normal. If you don't pay him either time you get two decent suits.
If you pay him the first and not the second you get two good suits. If you pay
him the first and the second you get a great pair of armors.
There's a last step to this quest below...
===================
Dragonscale Armor
===================
By killing the High Dragon located on the Mountain Top during the "Urn of
Sacred Ashes" quest you will be able to loot its body for incredible equipment
as well as a Dragon Scale. Take this back to Wade and he will offer to forge a
suit of Dragon Scale armor for you. Sure! Make sure to give him the 30 gold you
can offer to him for this to ensure you get the best possible equipment that
you can get out of this situation.
And that's the end of your dealings with Wade's Emporium!
===================
Forgotten Verses
===================
This quest is picked up during the "Urn of Sacred Ashes" quest. You will find
a scroll in a scroll pile, an Encrypted Scroll. Pick this up but you can't do
much with it until you get out of the temple. When you get the chance return to
Denerim and speak to the Sister Justine right outside of the Chantry. She takes
them off for a bit before turning to you to talk about Maferath's final days.
That's not what matters, what matters is the seven and a half gold she gives
you as a reward for that. Holy crud!
===================
The Last Request
===================
You will find this quest by locating the body of Sir Friden in the Rundown
Back Street. It seems that this templar was hunting down a blood mage in
Denerim which resulted in his death. His journal gives you the location of the
blood mage and asks that whoever finds it kills the blood mages. Let's get to
that since maleficarum are bad news. These blood mages are located in the
Deserted Building on the Denerim city map.
Do yourself a favor and do this quest early on. The longer you wait to do this
quest the stronger the enemies are. By the time you're level 13 or 14 the enemy
archers are firing off every special ability in the book one after the other
and killing your mage in short order while also stunning your whole party.
Head to the back of the deserted house and check the concealed door then the
door behind it. Go down the stairs to find a bunch of mercenaries, some melee
and some archers, with a Blood Mage. Get to that mage with your fighters while
your mage tries to stop the archers from killing people with special attacks.
When they're all dead search the bodies for the key to the next room, using it
to go through the locked door.
Keep moving through the building until you see an enemy in the next room. Poke
your head out of the doorway to goad the enemies outside the door to come into
the room. This is a great chance to freeze them with Cone of Cold or stun them
with Mind Blast. However you handle it kill them off. There is a trap in your
way from getting to the next area but if you try to disarm it mages will often
take your face off. Get past it however you choose.
Past the trap you have a number of enemies to face. A mercenary will charge you
as two Mercenary Archers will begin firing arrows at you. When you move into
the room more a Mercenary moves down the steps to attack while an archer and
Blood Mage on the elevated area will begin to attack you. If you tell a fighter
to go after the Blood Mage he will usually get right past the merc on the steps
so try to let one go that way while you go after the archers and then the two
mercenaries. Otherwise you'll get plucked apart.
When they're all defeated loot the bodies and then continue on. In this next
area once you go into a room or walk too far down the hall enemies will come to
attack you. This group, comprised of powerful melee Mercenaries and a pair of
Blood Mages, can be pretty tough since those two mages, working in tandem, can
really ruin your day. Try to freeze them if possible, along with a merc or two,
so that you can hopefully shatter them and get through this quicker.
There's little of note in the eastern room but there are af ew things to find
in the western room so loot them. When you go into the north room be wary since
a rogue archer will attack you while another tries to stealth backstab you. A
Qunari Mercenary will come out of nowhere to attack as well. This isn't that
hard though so eliminate them before looting the room. Continue to the east.
There is a large pressure plate here so disarm that. This hallway has some...
ale on the floor that slows you down. Making this situation worse is that the
enemies are around the corner just looking to start some trouble. There are a
bunch of archers behind a barricade with a Blood Mage. If you try to rush in,
even with the slowdown inducing floor, you will face a hail of arrows and magic
attacks. Should you survive the rush in Mabari Hounds come out to attack so you
need to be very careful here. If you have a spell like Fireball now's a great
time to use it.
When you get past this you can go through any door to reach the next room. You
should enter through the center door as this puts you closest to the Blood Mage
elite and his two archer buddies who are the worst of the enemies here. The
north side, and south side, of the room just have a Mercenary and Blood Mage.
It's suggested that you just rush into the room and annihilate the mage and his
archer buddies and then worry about the rest of the enemies as this makes your
life much easier.
This next room can be really miserable depending on what sort of party you have
at your command. This entire room is full of archers, all along the eastern
wall and a few to the south. There's at least four of them, plus an elite Blood
Mage by the door to the south. With the barricade blocking off one archer and
all the booze on the floor this is a really annoying room to get through. Try
to bum rush the southern side of the room with a fighter and mage. If you're
really lucky the enemies will cluster together and you can hit them with crowd
control magics. If you're not so lucky then you'll just have to try to kill the
enemies fast enough that it doesn't matter. Try to let a ranged attacker, be it
a second mage or archer, get at the enemy behind the barricade so you don't
waste time trying to destroy it.
When the room is cleared you're almost done. If you can unlock doors then open
the door to the west to get some goodies before going through the southernmost
door to find the boss.
-------------------
Boss: Blood Mage Leader
-------------------
Honestly this fight is harder than some of the main quest related bosses thanks
to the support he has. With a blood mage, Qunari Mercenary and a Mercenary
Leader (elite) this is no pushover of a fight. You'll need one warrior to get
right into the face of the merc leader so that he's kept busy while the other
goes right after the Blood Mage Leader. Let your mage get that blood mage while
your archer either helps out with the merc or blood mage leaders.
Now you'll need to focus on getting rid of the regular blood mage ASAP or he
will be a drain on your health. Once he's gone you can focus on the leaders as
your mage can handle the Qunari merc alone. If you can freeze the Blood Mage
leader and the Qunari at the same time then this goes by all the faster. Try to
prevent the leader from doing much of any spellcasting and this will be a quick
fight. Otherwise it may drag on until you lose via attrition.
-------------------
Loot the bodies, getting a key to open the bedroom if you didn't already pick
the lock, and then get the heck out of here.
===================
Unbound
===================
There are a number of ways to start this quest and they all are part of the
same quest. To sum it up there are three pieces of information you need to get
your hands on before the quest itself properly opens up, before that it will
simply be notes in your codex.
1. Inside of the Ruined Temple, southwestern corridor. On the Adventurer's
corpse you will find a journal with some information.
2. Orzammar, Tapster's Tavern. Speak to the adventurer to find out that he is
being hunted by something (or thinks he is).
3. Elven Ruins, southern center hall. Search the Adventurers Corpse to find a
second journal with some information.
Now the Unbound quest will appear in your journal. You need to go to Denerim
and try to vind this Vilhm Madon. Search in the Dirty Back Alley where you will
find the Quaint Hovel. Knock on the door and mention Gaxkang to be allowed in.
-------------------
Boss: Gaxkang
-------------------
That name should sound familiar to anyone who played Baldur's Gate II - Kangax
the Liche anyone? Well he's just as much of a pain here as he was in that game
just in an entirely different way. But Kangax is a royal pain in the rear end
in either case.
Kangax comes in two very distinct forms. His first form, which looks like a
Revenant, fights pretty much exactly like one. He uses his sword and shield to
hurt people in front of him as well as on his sides. Using his magics he can
blast you with fire or electricity or pull you into melee range, a treat that
he usually reserves for mages. Plus that shield of his is quite adept at
blocking your attacks. He doesn't use his magics all that often though so that
will make your life a good bit easier. Be wary of his ability to stun people
who are near him with his yell or knocking you down with his shield swipe.
His Arcane Horror form is a problem as well although not as great of one. This
form is basically exclusively a spellcasting form although he does use his
melee attack every now and again. This is the form where he throws out Cone of
Cold, Fireball and Shock with a good bit of regularity.
Slugging it out with Kangax is really just a war of attrition. Cone of Cold is
really weak against him, not freezing him for all that long, Mind Blast doesn't
do jack, most elemental damage spells do very little damage (ice does nothing)
and just about every other skill has a very high chance of being resisted. Even
physical attacks tend to do very little damage to him so you're not going to
have much of any choices here.
Come into the battle with as many healing potions as you can as well as lots of
Lyrium potions. Activate any abilities that you have to help you raise your
defense as well as elemental resistances and anything that will help you resist
knockdown or stun.
-------------------
===================
The Tortured Noble
===================
While adventuring inside of The Arl of Denerim's estate during "The Landsmeet"
quest you will come across Oswyn, son of the Bann of Dragon's Peak. He has been
held hostage by Howe for some time while investigating the disappearance of a
friend. Release him to gain the support of his father, Sighard, during the
Landsmeet. You can find Sighard in the Gnawed Noble Tavern with his friend,
speak to him to acquire his support at the Landsmeet. If you tell him that you
require no reward for doing compassion you will gain more of it.
===================
Lost Templar
===================
While adventuring inside of The Arl of Denerim's estate during "The Landsmeet"
quest you will come across Irminic, a Templar who has been captured by Howe. He
asks you to deliver a ring to his sister, Bann Alfstanna. Alfstanna, like most
of the other nobles, can be found at the Gnawed Noble Tavern in the Market. Go
to her and give her the ring. She is more than willing to support you once you
tell her where her brother currently resides. If you're a human noble she even
mentions offering you some bowmen for when you take back your Teyrnir.
===================
Something Wicked
===================
Ser Otto, a blind Templar in the Elven Alienage, has sensed something foul in
the air. He's managed to get some information from the elves but he would like
your help in the matter. Agree to this and then speak to the Deranged Beggar
near Valendrian's House. Next search around and you will find a dead rabid dog.
Report this and then come back. You will find some blood near a feral dog that
smells like rotten eggs. Go back to Otto and tell him of this. The two of you
will now go to investigate the orphanage.
The inside is empty and it looks like a slaughterhouse. Walk to the west, north
through the rooms and into the hallway. As you head to the east a bunch of
Rabid Wardogs will attack from the doors to the north and south. After they are
dispatched continue to the east into the next room to find a Tormented Woman.
She's easy enough to defeat although the webs in the room can make it a bit
trickier than it might otherwise be.
In the next room you will be attacked by a quartet of Rioting Spirits. These
are pretty weak but they can be a pain if they should gather around one of your
weaker party members. Keep moving forward until you reach the quest marker. A
Demon will attack you with a bunch of Lesser Shades that are easily dispatched.
Focus on the Demon first and then the spirits but be careful not to hurt Otto
in your AoE attacks.
Continue into the next hallway when the talking is over and go into the room.
Here you will fight a pair of spirits and a total of four Lesser Shades. When
they're down continue to the north to find a pair of Lesser Shades with four
Spirits in the room just beyond. Two Lesser Shades and a Great Shade await in
the next room and this one can be tough. Try to get rid of the Lesser Shades
first since they're easier to hit. Only when they're dead should you turn your
attention to the Greater Shade. Let your mage try to contain him with freezing
spells and hope he doesn't do too much damage.
In the next hallway you will be attacked by four Rage Abominations. These are
easily enough defeated due to their reliance on melee attacks so get rid of
them before going into the boss room.
Here you will fight another Demon that is easily enough dispatched. Once it is
dead then the real boss will show itself. This Demon is fairly tough due to its
serious amount of health. Let your whole party focus on it and don't let the
Lesser Rage Demons that get summoned up distract you from beating his face in.
Once he goes down, easily enough with cold attacks, you will be able to clean
up the Lesser Rage Demons. Pick up the amulet from the chest in here to start
another quest before leaving.
===================
Hearing Voices
===================
Take the amulet you found inside of the chest at the end of the Something
Wicked quest and bring it to the Deranged Beggar. Give it to her to help clear
her head of the problems she was having. There's no real reward for this but
there's no gain in keeping the amulet either.
===================
The Trial of Crows
===================
As you move to leave the Market Place a young boy will deliver a note to you.
It's from the Antivan Crows, they wish to meet with you. Make your way to the
Gnawed Noble Tavern where you will find Master Ignacio in a room. Speak to him
to find out that he has an offer for you. This is a series of quests that he
wishes for you to partake in. Even for a "good" character it's worth doing some
of these since there are some bad guys in here.
-------------------
The First Test
-------------------
A man named Paedan is currently using The Pearl to gather up people who will
"support the Grey Wardens", you can find one of his posters in the Market. The
scroll that Ignacio gives you indicates that this man is working for Loghain,
trying to lure people into a trap. Head on over to The Pearl and tell the owner
that you're looking for the men. She will send you into the back where you can
find them behind the rearmost door.
When you knock on the door they will ask for the password. "The Griffon will
rise again" gets you inside. However once you're in the men here will attack
you no matter what you do. The small space works to your side though since they
haven't got any mages. A Cone of Cold does wonders here. Just focus on Paedan
first, then the Qunari. Let your mage keep Shaevra out of the fight like you
would an archer and the fight ends quickly. Return to Ignacio for... nothing.
The game says you got a reward but instead all you get is two more contracts
instead. I'm not sure if this is what's supposed to happen but as of this FAQ
there is nothing else to be had.
-------------------
Mercenary Hunt
-------------------
This scroll indicates that a band of mercenaries in the forest south of Denerim
need to be wiped out. They are Qunari mercs called the "Word of Kadan-Fe". When
you next get to the world map you will note a "Kadan-Fe" hideout on the world
map. Go there to find these warriors. This isn't a particularly hard fight if
you're prepared for large groups of enemies. Alternating between stunning foes
or knocking them down, or freezing them if possible, you can keep these guys on
the ropes. Just go for the yellow named elite Qunari Mercenaries first since
they're the main damage dealers. When this is done head back to Denerim for the
reward
-------------------
An Audience with the Ambassador
-------------------
Next is Ambassador Gainley who is currently in Orzammar. After you take him out
a servant in the employ of the Crows will clean it up. You can find this man in
the Royal Palace inside of the Diamond Quarter. He's located far in the rear of
the building with about seven bodyguards. These guys are well armoroed and well
armed so be careful about how you do this. It's best to use AoE crowd control
to stop them from beating on one person as they like to take your party apart
by ganging up on one person and then the next. Lastly will be Gainley and his
three archer buddies. They're easily taken out so remove them and go back to
Denerim for your reward.
-------------------
The Ransom
-------------------
Now he wants us to help his assassins kill a bunch of Arl Howe's elite men,
namely their leader Captain Chase. Sign me right the heck up for that! Head to
the location on the Denerim city map and be ready for a brawl. These soldiers
are fairly tough and they love nothing more than focusing on your archers or
mages so you have to do a lot of babysitting because they can kill them faster
than you might think possible.
This section may require a few reloads if you're trying to get through it with
nobody getting KO'ed because of this so you need to be extra careful. Let your
warriors go rushing into melee while your archer hangs back, using skills to
keep Captain Chase from fighting at 100% effectiveness. While they're doing
that let your mage move around trying to catch as many people with AoE crowd
control spells and the like.
Once you've taken them all down head back to Ignacio. Get your reward from the
chest before talking to him. You can either get some information from him, kill
him or do both. If you choose not to kill him then his friend Cesar near the
cages in Market Square has some special wares for you.
===================
Chanter's Board
===================
Back Alley Justice
-------------------
Some thugs are robbing and killing people in the back alleys so we get to kill
them for money. Sounds good to me. Your first stop should be the Dirty Back
Alley. If you've picked up the Blackstone Quest, Death Notice, you can tell
Tania here about her husbands passing. In addition there is a Blood Mage's
relative door to mark here. The enemies aren't too rough although you will end
up using healing items. The two Thugs and Leader that enter melee with you are
pretty tough and those archers will be picking at you. Try to let your mage
deal with the archers while your party tangles with the fighters.
Next we can move onto the Dark Alley. This is more of the same as before but
with more melee types. Unlike last time the six enemies are five fighters with
one archer. As such crowd control is really important here so good use of Cone
of Cold, Winter's Grasp, Mind Blast, Stonefist and such spells can make a huge
difference. If you're lucky one good Cone of Cold can freeze three or four of
them who may then be shattered.
Lastly on to the Rundown Back Street. This is a really big group of enemies who
can really hammer you down if you're not prepared. You'll either need a whole
lot of expendable healing potions or crowd control spells since there are a
whole lot of enemies. Three archers and four melee warriors, one of whom is a
pretty strong warrior... it can get ugly. As usual try to let your mage snipe
off the archers while hitting the group of enemies with whatever spells will
help your fighters out. It shouldn't be too bad.
Return to the Chanter's Board for your reward. Heh, that rhymed.
-------------------
Missing in Action
-------------------
It seems that a soldier from Teyrn Loghains army is having some issues. We have
to find him for his family. There's no real way to find this guy without going
through the game until "The Landsmeet" quest. Here you will find your way into
Arl Howe's estate and into the dungeons. Rexel has been imprisoned down here
and you will need to kill the jailor to set him free. Get the key off that ones
corpse and then let Rexel out of his cell. You can either kill him to put him
out of his misery or set him free. Regardless, return to the Chanter's board.
-------------------
Fazzil's Request
-------------------
Now we're trying to find the people who stole an old mans sextant? Odd but if
the pay is there we may as well. You're not told much besides it being a
foreigner who did this. Really narrows it down.
-------------------
Loghain's Push
-------------------
They want us... to help out Loghain's troops? You've gotta be kidding. Well it
is not quite what you may think. Your party can use this as a chance to mess
with Loghains troop movements. Head back to the world map and go towards the
Civil War location on the world map. When you arrive you will see the Bannorns
troops entering combat with Loghains. Quickly move to start killing Loghains
troops. They're pretty weak so you shouldn't have much difficulty especially
with the allied troops. Simply spread your men out, helping an allied soldier
kill an enemy soldier while your mage incapacitates Loghain's Sergeant. This
should take little time or effort. Return to the Chanter's Board to report the
loss of these poor troops.
========================
The Brecelian Forest
========================
Cammen's Lament
===================
Cammen can't seem to convince Gheyna to marry him since he's never been able to
become a full hunter. There are a few ways to finish this quest but they're all
pretty easy. Firstly you could kill a wolf, take its pelt and bring it back to
Cammen. With a little bit of Persuasion he will agree to show it to Gheyna as
his own kill. Or, if you're very persuasive, you can just talk to Gheyna and
convince her, with two progressively harder Persuasion checks, to marry Cammen
without him completing his hunt yet. Either way you will net you the Tale of
Iloren, a book.
===================
Elora's Halla
===================
Look for Elora in an area off to the side where she is tending to the Halla.
There are two ways to handle this problem. If you have a moderate Survival
rating you can calm the Halla down. This allows Elora to figure out that this
isn't the injured Halla, it was just concerned for one of the others. Should
you have a higher Survival you can figure out that this Halla isn't injured but
this causes you to not find out about the other Halla in the herd who may be
sick so it's your call how to end this.
===================
Rare Ironbark
===================
Find Varathorn in the center of the Dalish camp. During conversation he will
mention that if you gets his hands on Ironbark he can make you something really
good. That sounds good so let's keep our eyes open for the blue wood on the
floor in the forest. After encountering Swiftrunner and his two werewolves you
will head to the east over two bridges. Head to the north from here to find the
fallen tree that was mentioned although it doesn't look blue at all.
As you near it a tree will attack you, holy crap! This creature, Wild Sylvan,
is pretty much a nature oriented Ogre. It doesn't do as much damage as the Ogre
does per attack but it makes up for it with the ability to capture everyone
nearby in roots, doing damage while they're tangled up. Fire attacks do a lot
of damage but it doesn't have much health anyways so just take it out however
you like. Once it's down get the wood from the tree and head back to Varathorn
so you can get your reward.
There are three things you can get here of note. Firstly if you ask for him to
make you a longbow you get a pretty strong bow. It's especially useful if you
can get it early on. Secondly you can ask for a breastplate that's not quite as
useful but it may be helpful if this is the first story location you went to.
Lastly if you choose to give Varathorn the Ironbark without asking for a reward
he will instead give you an amulet that provides nature resistance.
===================
Lost to the Curse
===================
Athras has a problem but you're going to need to Persuade it out of him for the
most part. Luckily it isn't that hard to do. But it seems that his wife may, or
may not be, a werewolf and he'd like you to find out some information and in
return he will give you an amulet. Sounds like a fair trade so let's do it.
Once you're inside of the Brecelian Forest you will be able to find the path to
the eastern part of the woods. Once there follow the quest marker to find his
wife, Danyla, burning up with pain. She asks you to tell her husband that she
is dead and to give him a scarf. You are then asked to mercy kill her so that
she doesn't have to suffer anymore.
************************
*NOTE: Alternately if you didn't start the quest with Athras you can still come
upon Danyla here. It all runs the same way except that she starts the quest for
you. That's the only difference.
************************
You might hope that there's a way to make this all have a happy ending but it's
not possible at all. Even if you know how to end everything with the main quest
well you still have no choice but to either kill Danyla or have her attack you,
thus forcing you to kill her. As such just mercy kill her and be done with it.
Now return the scarf to Athras for your quest reward.
===================
The Elven Ritual
===================
After seeing the ghost child for the second time in the Brecelian Forest temple
you will find a scarophagus in a room to the south. Inside of it is a tablet
that explains how to perform an elven ritual for some purpose. When you reach
the lower level head towards the northeast part of the dungeon to find a pool
of water with an altar.
- Go to the fountain and examine it.
- Take the earthen jug.
- Fill the earthen jug with water.
- Leave the fountain.
- Head on over to the altar just west of the fountain and examine it.
- Place the filled earthen jug on top of the altar
- Kneel before the altar and pray.
- Take a single sip from the water in the jug.
- Take the earthen jug.
- Leave the altar and go back to the fountain
- Dump the water in the jug back into the pool.
Now the room to the north will be open to you so head inside. Search the three
sarcophagi around the room while killing the two skeleton archers. Now walk up
the stairs in the center here to find a ghostly woman that will attack you. She
is am elite Shade who will summon up two other Shade enemies to fight you. This
can be a tough fight if you're not ready for it. Try to get them to cluster so
you can use Cone of Cold on them if you have it. Otherwise use spells to knock
them down while you take them out one at a time. It shouldn't be too hard. Now
you can loot the Elven Burial Chamber sarcophagus to find Juggernaut Plate
Armor which starts the next quest.
===================
The Mage's Treasure
===================
There are four pieces to this armor as you might have imagined but there are a
few ways to start this quest up. The first is to go to the northmost part of
the eastern Brecilian Forest and kill the Ogres there. Examine the gravestone
to prompt an attack by a Revenant and skeletons. Killing them all off will get
you the Juggernaut Plate. The other way to start this up is to complete the
Elven Ritual quest inside of the Elven Temple. This will net you the Juggernaut
Plate Armor.
With those two pieces accounted for the other two can be found pretty easily.
- In the Western Brecilian Forest, north of the Grand Oak's Clearing you can
find a gravestone that's clearly marked on your map. Examine the grave to find
wards that, when disturbed, call up a Revenant and some Skeletons to fight.
This isn't a hard fight so long as you don't let the Skeletons distract you too
much from the Revenant. As long as the Revenant doesn't take out your mages or
archers distract you too much it shouldn't be an issue. This nets you the next
piece of the armor.
- In the Eastern Brecilian Forest there is a locked chest just past the barrier
that was preventing you from going to the Elven temple. Nearby this, along the
eastern wall, you will find a somewhat hidden gravestone. Examine the grave to
find wards that, when disturbed, call up a Revenant and Skeletons to fight.
This isn't a hard fight so long as you don't let the Skeletons distract you too
much from the Revenant. As long as the Revenant doesn't take out your mages or
archers distract you too much it shouldn't be an issue. This nets you the next
piece of the armor.
This completes the set of the armor as well as the quest.
===================
Panowen's Revenge *Unmarked*
===================
If you have freed the Werewolves from their curse via Zathrian's death then you
may find Panowen hanging out in the western forest with two hunter friends. She
demands to know where the wolves went, even as humans, so she might exact her
revenge on them. If you don't tell her then she will attack you and you'll be
forced to kill the lot of them. However if you can use Persuasion to convince
her that you don't know where they are or mention Zathrian's death then it will
be no problem getting through this.
========================
The Circle of Magi
========================
Watchguard of the Reaching
===================
You start this quest by finding the first note in the first floor bedroom. A
note is found in an Apprentices Cabinet with a second in the next room. Finding
all of these will allow you to look for this thing the apprentices found. This
quest is easily completed by searching each room for anything of interest. The
notes are spread out between the first and second floors so keep searching.
You will find the last note on the third floor in the common room. Here there
are three statues on the wall, activate them in this order - left, right and
then middle. With that done head to the central room on this floor, where the
Abomination boss waits, and activate the statue here. Now go back down to the
first floor. Once you're ready for trouble go to open the basement door.
This causes a Shah Wyrd to be summoned, a boss Rage Demon basically, that will
start to go all stompy stompy on your party. Anything you have that protects
against fire will help obviously, as will any salves for said purpose notably
on your rogue / mage. When the beast dies it will drop some chainmail as well
as a powerful great sword.
===================
Summoning Sciences
===================
This quest is activated by searching the textbooks in the first floor library.
However you cannot start it until the Tower has been cleansed of the Fade taint
that has caused everyone to be Possessed. Once it has been cleared you can go
ahead with this quest. Activate the items in the following order:
- Summoning Font
- Tome of Spirit Personages
- First Summoning Flame
This summons a Spirit Hog, a non-combatant that drops a gem.
- Summoning Font
- Rodercoms Uncommon Calling
- Silver Coin at the feet of the Magus Gorvish statue
- Second Summoning Flame
This summons a Trickster Spirit that does nothing.
- Summoning Font
- Elvorn's Grande Beastiary
- Trace sigil on first area common table
- Spiritorum Etherialis
- Statue of Magus Gorvish
- Novice Phylactery
- Third Summoning Flame
This summons a Fade Rifter that attacks you. When it dies you can find a few
pieces of armor on its body.
===================
Five Pages, Four Mages
===================
When you reach the fourth floor you will pick up a scrap of paper from a what
appears to be a writing table. This paper rambles on about the tome that this
person has acquired. There are more of these in each room on the floor. Once
you have all five of them you will be told to be on the lookout for the man who
scammed these mages.
Eventually you will have a random encounter with this man. When confronted on
his constant scamming he will attack your party for quite possibly the most
annoying fight in the game. It's not that it's hard, no. But apparently when
coming across travelers he stashes a mage up in the hills for no reason other
than to spam fireballs when your party catches on to him. It's almost as dumb
as the "wolves who have apparently set foothold traps for you" random encounter
you'll find early on.
How easily this fight is depends on how quickly you get rid of that damnable
mage. The merchant and his guards are strong, yes, but the mage is the one who
will drain your health like water through a sieve. Try to have your mage focus
on getting rid of him. If you have an archer let them start picking at him as
well to get him dead faster. Once the mage falls just focus on the merchant
since he is, oddly enough, the biggest damage dealer there. However with the
mage out of the way he will fall quickly enough, allowing you to end the quest.
========================
Orzammar
========================
The Lost Nug
===================
Boermor needs you to help him find a Nug so that he can save his business
venture. You can find this down to the southwest from him, near the mines.
These are scattered all over the place so search thoroughly for them and he
will give you silver for every single one you can locate. There are ten of the
weird little things in total to find and they're basically all located in hard
to see spots around Orzammar. The real reward comes at ten but it never hurts
to accept it and then just find the ones you can as you're going along.
===================
An Unlikely Scholar
===================
Dagna wants you to bring a message to the Circle magi asking to go study there.
It's odd, but sure why not? Make your way to the Circle Tower and speak to
First Enchanter Irving, asking if he is willing to bring Dagna on to study with
the mages. He will agree fairly readily and you can return to her with the good
news. As a reward you can ask for a rune or some Lyrium Potions.
If you don't wish to help her out you can try to talk her out of it. Speak to
her father and then talk to her. You should be able to convince her that she
needs to stay home for the good of her family. This takes the wind out of her
life but she can be convinced of it.
===================
A Mother's Hope
===================
Filda has lost her son in the Deep Roads. Since you know you're going to end up
down there at some point you may as well accept the quest. Eventually the main
quest will bring you to the Ortan Thaig where you will see Ruck scavenging off
of a dead darkspawn. Speak to him and he will run off, leaving you to deal with
a bunch of Giant Spiders that attack.
Head towards his camp and speak to Ruck again. It seems that this is her son
after too many years in the Deep Roads. You have a few options now: you can be
honest to the mother, telling her of what became of her son, or you can choose
to tell her you found him dead, as a hero. If you so choose you can even kill
Ruck to make it the truth... well closer to the truth. Oghren suggests this
last one as the state Ruck is in is pitiful.
Going back to Filda and telling her that Ruck is dead will lead to her giving
you the shield she was holding for her son.
===================
The Chant in the Deep
===================
Brother Burkel needs you to help him open up a Chantry in Orzammar of all
places. But sure, why not. When you head to the Diamond Quarter go into the
Shaperate and speak to the Shaper about this. You will need to convince him via
one of three ways: high Cunning, Persuasion or Intimidate. Persuasion is done
easily enough if you have a high enough Coercion skill, as is Intimidate. But
to get him to do this via Cunning involves telling him that the Chantry has
charities that care for orphans and widows. He doesn't always respond to the
other two dialogue choices well, especially the Casteless remark, unless you
have a stellar cunning score. Now return to Burkel with the good news.
===================
Zerlinda's Woe
===================
You can find Zerlinda begging for money in the far back corner of Dust Town.
There are a few ways to handle Zerlinda's problem. You can either talk her into
leaving for the surface, Persuade her into abandoning her child in the Deep
Roads or you can speak to her father. You can find her father in Tapster's
Tavern in the Commons if you go that route but you'll need a good Coercion
rating to convince him. If you can convince him to take her back return to her
with the good news.
There is a fourth option that comes up if you complete The Chant in the Deep
before doing this quest. You can suggest that she goes to Brother Burkel for
shelter as that's one of the charities of the Chantry. This gives her a place
to stay if not a happy ending since the other two routes aren't exactly happy
endings (the surface isn't safe these days).
===================
Thief in the House of Learning
===================
A Shaper in the Diamond Quarter Shaperate asks you to find someone who stole
a text from the memories, their histories if you will. This man has supposedly
gone down into Dust Town so that's where you'd want to start looking. You will
find Shady Corebit easily enough but he will only attack you when you speak to
him. Kill him and search his body to find a reciept for the Proving Grounds, a
good indicator that someone there may have it. Look to the north for Fixer
Gredin and his cronies who will attack as soon as you even attempt to speak to
them. Defeat them and you have two ways to handle the situation. You can either
sell the tome to the gnearby man Jertrin or you can take it back to the Shaper
and return it to him. Jertrin will give you some money while the Shaper will
not so choose your path.
===================
Lost to the Memories
===================
Orta is looking for help with finding information on the Ortan Thaig. She feels
very strongly that her family is descended from a noble family called Ortan. To
prove that she's a noble she needs you to find their thaig, lost outposts of
the dwarven families. Once again we're going to go into Deep Roads eventually
so we may as well accept this.
You will eventually find yourself at Caridians Cross heading into the Ortan
Thaig for the main storyline. When you arrive you will go through some tunnels,
fighting darkspawn and spiders, until you reach the Thaig proper. Take out the
spirits here as well as the Stone Golem and go towards the center. Here you can
find a treasure chest. This Ortan Thaig Chest contains the records that Orta is
looking for so head on back to her.
She tells you to find her in the Assembly after they have acknowledged her
family's claim. Head to the Assembly and speak to her. You can either ask for
money, of which she gives you a small amount, or simply ask her to support one
of the people fighting for the kingdom.
===================
Figor's Imports - **Unmarked Quest**
===================
As you pass by Figor's Imports you will see a man forced into his shop by some
thugs. If you follow them in they will try to extort you as well. Hah! You can
either Intimidate them into fleeing or fight the lot of them. They're not that
hard to take down though so either way works just fine. Speak to Figor to find
out some information about Jarvia.
===================
Jammer's Stash
===================
This is started inside of Jarvia's base. Inside of a room you will find a
journal that tells you how to get into Jammer's stash of goods. You need to
take only the three cheapest items in each of three treasure chests. Taking any
of the other items will only injure you. As such you're going to have to be
fairly careful.
The first stash is Kanky's Common Box. Open it up and take out the Silver
Costume Ring from within. Next take the Iron Letter Opener from Jammer's Common
Box. Lastly take the Garnet Trinket from Pique's Common Box. You now bring this
to Jammer's Stash to recieve a good cap as well as almost eight gold.
===================
Asunder
===================
To start this quest you will need to head to the Aeducan Thaig. Make your way
to the crossroads area, a very large chamber with a number of tunnels running
off of it, and search to the west. If you look carefully you will be find some
sort of Bloody Sack. Inside of it are a set of limbs as well as a note. It
seems that some creature has been dismembered, its pieces scattered throughout
the Deep Roads. You need to find all of the pieces to figure out what's going
on here.
Head on into Caridin's Cross and start looking around. Early on you will find
another Bloody Sack and the next one can be found in a tunnel northeast of the
exit to Ortan Thaig. Lastly you need the Altar of Sundering, this is found in
the Ortan Thaig itself. When you find it place the parts on top of the altar to
prompt the Fade Beast to reappear. You can either fight him or ask for a reward
for freeing him. Should you free him you get 25 gold. If you fight him...
-------------------
Boss: Fade Beast
-------------------
Yeah, this guy is far scarier looking than he actually is. To be fair to him he
does do a good bit of damage with each hit. The Beast can knock people down
with melee strikes, send out an explosion of fire to burn everyone nearby and
he's remarkably magic resistant. Top it off with a lot of health as well as a
high armor rating and this is a pretty serious enemy for a side quest.
Defeating this guy will either be really easy or really hard. Since he is ever
so magic resistant you will not be able to Mind Blast him or paralyze him with
any ease. But he's still just as vulnerable to being frozen as basically every
other enemy in the game. If you've got Cone of Cold it's no problem to just hit
him with that so you can get some free shots in.
Should you not have access to Cone of Cold then you're going to want to bring
Wynne along for this as it's going to take awhile. Try to keep hitting him with
your special abilities to lower his attack rating, defense rating and even,
hopefully, stunning him every so often. Wynne, or another spirit healer, can
keep the party alive while they just hammer away on the big guy. He'll go down
eventually.
-------------------
There's no reward for doing it the good guy route though so that's all there is
to the quest.
===================
An Admirable Topsider
===================
When fighting some of the Genlock Emissary's in the south caves of Caridin's
Cross you will find a hilt of this sword. The next part is found inside of a
vase in Ruck's Cave, this is the Topsider's Pommel. Now go to the Dead Trenches
to find the blade of the sword on the corpse of the Ancient Darkspawn. Now take
the whole part of the warrior's grave in the Ortan Thaig. This completes the
quest and nets you your reward, the Topsider's Honor. One of the best of the
longswords you can find, it deals a lot of damage and has three spaces for you
to put runes in it. Awesome.
===================
Proving After Dark
===================
These are basically just arena battles against teams of enemies. The first is
against a blood mage and three warriors. As usual target the mage before going
after the warriors. The next battle is against a Dust Town Thug, Champion and
two warriors. This is a pretty easy fight so don't worry about it. For all of
this all you get is money so don't stress over missing this quest.
===================
Of Noble Birth
===================
**MALE DWARF NOBLE ONLY**
If, during your Origin story, you met Mardy and decided to have her and / or
her friend join you for the night then find her again. She will have a child,
your child, but it is considered Casteless because of your exile. To get her
out of this state you will have to speak to either Bhelen or Harrowmont about
taking the child into your family. Speak to whomever you're siding with before
you give them the throne to get your child off the streets.
===================
The Golem Registry
===================
After siding with either Branka or Caridin you will be inside of the Anvil of
the Void room. In a corner of the room is a large golem shaped carving holding
a tablet in its hands. Take a tracing of this and return it to the shaper for a
reward from them.
========================
Blackstone Quests
========================
These quests are special in that they can be picked up from any Blackstone
outpost or near your first liason you meet in Lothering. By opening the chests
nearby you can find letters that represent quests you may understake for them
and then return to these liasons for your reward. Many of these require a bit
of travel to them so be sure to check in often and see if they compliment where
you are about to travel.
===================
Lothering
===================
Scraping the Barrel
===================
This requires you to travel to Redcliffe, Lothering and Denerim. You're going
to be heading to all of these places soon so pick up this quest. Since you're
already in Lothering, let's find the Patter Gritch. Go into the Chantry and
head towards the rear where the Revered Mother is. Speak to the man just on the
outside of the doors to find Patter. He will go without trouble. Next comes the
one in Redcliffe, Dernal Garrison. He's found up a hill from the chantry in a
house that lies just under the windmill. Unfortunately the man in Denerim is
inside of the Alienage which means he's locked off until it opens up after you
complete all of the main quests. After the Landsmeet starts you can enter the
Alienage and talk to him by the gate. This completes the quest.
===================
Dereliction of Duty
===================
Much like the above quest you will be heading to Denerim but you'll also need
to go to the Frostback Mountains and Lake Calenhad. The first one you should
come across is Sammael at Lake Calenhad Docks. When you speak to him he will
attack you no matter what dialogue choices you make. He's a pretty tough nut to
crack but his two allies are much weaker. It's easy to keep him subdued with a
few good magic spells while you take out the other two. Then everyone can focus
on him for a quick kill. Loot his body for the Guild Supplies and head off.
The next one is Layson in Denerim. You'll find him in a Dirty Hovel in the Run-
down Back Street. He too will attack you when spoken to but if you could beat
Sammael then he should be no problem. Lastly you will find Tornas hanging out
near the entrance to Orzammar. Just like the others you will have to fight him
so grab the Guild supplies from his corpse and head to the Blackstone Liason to
turn this quest in.
===================
Redcliffe
===================
Greasing the Wheels
===================
Now you get to go to Denerim to bribe some people for the Blackstone Mercs.
Isn't that a noble cause? This is a simple if somewhat annoying quest. You'll
be travelling around the city, looking for hooded couriers. Speak to them and
they will sneak off to give the gift to their masters. Find all five of them to
end this quest. One is in the Market District, one is in the Dark Alley, one
is in the Rundown Back Streets, another is in The Pearl and the final one is
found in the Elven Alienage. Now return to the Liason for your reward.
===================
Denerim
===================
Notices of Death
===================
You're going to be the bearer of sad news to four new widows. The first one is
Sara in the Market District in Denerim. She's located in a corner straight
ahead from the entrance to the district. The other one in Denerim, Tania, is
found in the Dirty Back Alley. The rest can be found outside of Denerim;
Larana is located in the Lake Calenhad Inn and Irenia is found in the Redcliffe
Chantry so give them the bad news and then return for your reward.
===================
Restocking the Guild
===================
Come forward with a gift of 20 health poultices and recieve a reward. It sounds
simple enough but that's a lot of health items to be handing over. Don't take
this quest until you're willing to do it since they will snatch your potions
the next time you talk to one of them with those in hand. A good way to do this
is to buy the flasks from Bodahn in the camp, as well as the distillation
agents and get elfroot from the merchant in the Dalish camp. Then you can make
as many as you like to turn in the quest.
========================
Mage's Collective Quests
========================
These quests are special in that they can be picked up from any Collective
Liason or near your first liason you meet in Lothering. By opening the chests
nearby you can find letters that represent quests you may understake for them
and then return to these liasons for your reward. Many of these require a bit
of travel to them so be sure to check in often and see if they compliment where
you are about to travel.
===================
Lake Calenhad Docks
===================
Herbal Magic
===================
One of the Mages needs ten Deep Mushrooms to make the herbal remedy that will
allow his mind to better percieve other worlds. Who knew that mages were really
drug addicts? In either case you will get Deep Mushrooms as you go through the
game and it's simple enough, although time consuming, to let it happen over
time. Should you find yourself needing to buy these to simply get this quest
over and done with them all you need to do is buy them at Orzammar. They will
sell up to 8 of them. That's a good start to finishing this quest off.
===================
Thy Brother's Killer
===================
Kill the Blood Mages in the Brecelian Forest before they draw foul attention to
the mages sanctum. Simple enough.
===================
Notice of Termination
===================
It seems that three of a mage's apprentices are being given the door since they
are not up to his standards. It's up to you to give them the "good" news. Two
are in Denerim and the last is in the Frostback Mountains. The first two are
found in the Market Place so they're easily gotten to. One is standing near
the Market Square while the other is inside of the Wonders of Thedas shop to
the south. Now to the Frostback Mountains. He's just outside of Orzammar,
near the western side, so speak to him to finish off this quest.
===================
Careless Accusations
===================
Due to a blood mage being found near this mage's home he is being accused of
being a practicioner as well. Three witnesses are traveling from Lothering to
Denerim and you're going to have to intercept them. They are a random encounter
that can occur when you pass Lothering on the map, anywhere between it and the
city of Denerim. When you encounter them you have two options: kill them or
use Coercion to talk them out of it. You can use persuasion or intimidate to
talk them out of it. If that's not in the cards then you will have to fight or
let them go. Take out the mages first if you have to fight them as they're the
main threat. Then go after the leader, using whatever stunning / paralysis, as
he is the last main threat. Now take the letter to the Mage's Collective for a
very nice reward.
===================
Places of Power
===================
You need to activate four mystical sites for your benefactor. Essentially this
consists of little more than going to that location, finding the Place of Power
and then activating it. In the Mage's Tower it is the table located in the
first floor study. In Orzammar it's inside of the Ortan Thaig, a main story
quest location. This altar is the same one used in the "Asunder" side quest so
you may have already been near it. In the Brecilian Forest you will see an
Ancient Tombstone indicated on your map. Examine the nearby rocks to find this
place of power. Lastly in Denerim
===================
Denerim
===================
Blood of Warning
===================
The mages wish you to take four vials of goats blood to mark doors in the city
of Denerim. This will allow the homeowners to evacuate before the Chantry comes
in, smashing everything to get at a few supposed evil magi. Two of them are
found in the Market District while the others are around the city. The next one
is found in the Dirty Back Alley so head there, mark the door and then move on
to the Dark Alley where you will find the last door. Now return for your quest
reward from the Liason.
===================
A Gift of Silence
===================
In order to keep the Templars happy with the Collective you need to get them
some Lyrium for their addiction. You'll need 10 Lyrium potions to appease the
knight Commander Harrith in Redcliffe. All you need to do is get those Lyrium
Potions and bring them to Harrith to complete this. Alternately you can speak
to the Knight-Commander in the Market District of Denerim to turn them in to
him so as to get the Mage's Collective in trouble. Both ways take your Lyrium
potions so don't let that decide the situation for you.
===================
Have You Seen Me?
===================
A group of mages want you to find their friend Renold who was last seen heading
towards the Brecelian Forest. Obviously we need to travel from Denerim to that
place to find him. Make your way from Denerim to the Brecelian Forest. As you
go you're hoping for a random encounter that will feature an Abomination. It's
easy enough to defeat and once dead search the dead mage lying nearby. This is
Renold and the Abomination was his apprentice. With both of them at peace now
head back for your reward.
===================
The Scrolls of Banastor
===================
This sounds a bit dubious but there's coin in it for us so why not. You will
find a pair of these Scrolls while going through the Mage's Tower but there
are more that you will need to find. Two more can be found in the Ruined Temple
as you go through the "Urn of Sacred Ashes" quest. This leaves you a last one
to locate. This one is found inside of the Ruins inside of the Brecilian Forest
in the Lair of the Werewolves. Inside of a room to the southwest you will find
the final scroll. Return to the Liason for your reward.
========================
Favors for Certain Interested Parties
========================
These are like the Blackstone Irregulars and Mage's Collective quests except
for the Rogues. However these are mostly contained to Denerim, requiring very
little in the ways of travel. As such they're easier to do.
===================
Correspondence Interruptus
===================
In your travels you've likely come across love letters. Well now you know what
to do with the blasted things - give them to the thieves so they can cause some
trouble. You need to find twelve of the blasted things though which is a bit of
a trial and will take you forever. A list is below:
Brecilian Forest- Elven Ruins, Upper Level
Circle Tower - Senior Mage Quarters
Dalish Camp - Near Varathorn
Denerim - The Pearl
Denerim - Market District Wade's Emporium)
Denerim - Arl of Denerim's Estate
Haven (must start Urn of Sacred Ashes Quest) - Villager House
Lake Calenhad Docks - Inside The Spoiled Princess
Orzammar - Carta Hideout
Orzammar - Royal Palace
Redcliffe - Basement passage
Redcliffe Village - Windmill
===================
Solving Problems
===================
You need to dump some bodies so that nobody gets in trouble for removing those
loose ends. The first body is located near the Chantry, pick it up and dump it
into the Chantry well. The second is located in the warehouse. While here be
sure to loot the chests. Pick up the body, dump it and then head over to The
Pearl to find the last one. Take it to the well, dump it and then head on back
to the Gnawed Noble for your reward.
===================
Negotiation Aids
===================
You need to deliver fifteen toxin extract samples to the bartender for "K". It
is fairly hard to do this since it's pretty rare that these are sold and when
they are it's only one or two per store. Your best bet is to go into Orzammar
for this one. While doing the main storyline quest you will have many chances
to fight spiders and they are a fairly reliable source for this item. If that
doesn't work head to the Brecelian Forest and into the Dalish Camp where you
can buy as many of these as you like. Once you've gotten the fiften samples go
on over to the Gnawed Noble for your reward.
===================
Sign of Safe Passage
===================
Only opened up after completing the "Solving Problems" quest.
For this one you're going to have to head to the Brecelian Forest to fire off
a signal arrow to bring some allies of "D" into Denerim. This is going to be
pretty tough since the woods aren't very safe. After entering the Western
Brecelian Forest head to the east, along the path, until you see a fallen tree
up ahead to the northeast. Directly to your east walk off the road and head
down to the south. Here you will find the firing point so equip a bow and fire
off an arrow from here.
Doing this unfortunately has the end result of getting you attacked by a group
of Denerim Mercenaries. They're not the strongest lot of enemies but it can be
tough since you're backed up against a cliff. Use any and all AoE attacks that
you have to seriously cut into the enemies health as quick as possible or they
just might overwhelm your mages and rogues. The mercenary leader should be
engaged by a warrior so as to keep him busy while this is going on.
When they're defeated you can return to Denerim for your reward from that punk
"D" who sent you out here.
===================
False Witness
===================
Only opened up after completing the "Solving Problems" quest.
Some thieves are going to be turning their back on their allies, going to the
right side of the law for redemption. We can't have that now can we so let's
go wipe them out. One is in Denerim, one is in Orzammar and one is near Lake
Calenhad. Brian, at Orzammar, will fight you by himself while Skinny Frank at
Lake Calenhad has a pair of buddies with him. Neither fight should present much
difficult for your party. In Denerim Cam can be found in the Wonders of Thedas
shop in the Market District. This guy has three allies with him but he's not
much harder than Frank. Return to the tavern for your reward.
===================
Untraceable
===================
Only completed after completing the "Negotion Aids" quest.
So that he can bribe the right people K needs you to get him 10 garnets. This
is actually a whole lot harder than it sounds since you really don't find them
all that often and they're mostly gotten early on, when you're prone to just
selling everything that isn't nailed down. The only real suggestion that might
help is to visit merchants you've sold to in the past and see if they have any
that you can rebuy back. When you've gotten them all return for your reward.
===================
Dead Drops
===================
Only opens up after completing the "Untraceable" quest.
You need to deliver rewards to four locations for "K". The first is in Denerim
Market Distrct near the animal cages. The second is at the Spoiled Princess Inn
at Lake Calenhad Docks. The third is near the docks in Redcliffe Village. Last
you have one in the Frostback Mountains near the merchants.
There are two ways to resolve this quest. First, if you head on over to the
Frostback Mountains first you can choose to disarm or detonate the packages
instead of delivering them. This will cut you off from the final "K" quest. If
you choose not to detonate them or deliver to Orzammar last then you will end
the quest and can head back for your reward. How you finish this one is really
up to you so do what your character would do.
===================
Harsh Decisions / New Ground
===================
Harsh Decisions opens up after completing False Witness. New Ground opens up
after completing the Dead Drops mission.
These are essentially two sides of the same coin. With Harsh Decisions you're
going to be trying to get the attention of K's men so that you can kill them
and then K for D while New Ground is vice versa. Pick whichever of the two that
you like and then off the other guy.
Once you pick up Harsh Decisions it will begin but New Ground takes a bit more
to start up. Find the three characters you must signal with K's wink and nod.
Now signal the guard contact. With that done you can leave the Market District.
While traveling around Denerim, for either quest, you will soon be attacked by
your targets men. This fight consists of one Lieutenant, four henchmen and
three archers on a raised platform. Make sure to get rid of the Lieutenant
first and then go after the rest of the men. This isn't a hard fight regardless
of the number of enemies you're dealing with. Loot their bodies once you've
killed them to find directions to your targets hideout.
Once there you will find yourself up against your target, three rogue henchmen
and a pair of archers. Ironically enough this fight is almost as easy as the
last fight even with the inclusion of a "boss" enemy. Let your mage and rogue
take out the archers while your fighters handle the melee types. When those two
are dead you can then focus on getting rid of the henchmen en masse with any
crowd control or AoE spells you might have.
When they're all dead loot the bodies before heading back to the Gnawed Noble
Tavern for your reward and the end of the rogues quests.
========================
Party Camp Quests
========================
Enchanting
===================
When you rest in your camp for the first time after Lothering the two dwarves
you rescued will set up shop there. Bodahn acts as a merchant while Sandal
will enchant your weapons for you. That's really all this is - a tutorial to
get you learning about Enchanting your equipment.
========================
Companion Quests
========================
Leliana's Past
===================
If you can get Leliana's approval up to around 65% or so she will tell you of
her past the next time you go to the party camp. It seems that she is being
hunted by some people from Orlais which might come up in the future. Lo and
behold that the next random encounter you get into involves a bunch of hired
assassins coming after her.
This fight can be rough since there's a fair number of strong enemies here as
well as a few Mabari and wolves to get in your way. The easiest, also quickest,
way to complete this fight is to have Morrigan cast Vulnerability Hex on the
Assassin Leader before starting to hammer him with every elemental spell you
have as well as Drain Life. You can also use stunning spells to keep him from
trying to kill her. Once his health is low enough he will beg you to spare him
in exchange for information.
After he tells you where his contact is located you can either kill him or not,
it's your call. However you will need to head to Denerim to find this contact.
When you enter Denerim head forward and watch the houses on your right to find
a house with "Assassination Contract for Leliana" on a door. Walk inside to be
immediately attacked by two huge guards. Don't bother trying to knock them down
as it doesn't work, pretty much at all, stunning works well as does freezing.
Take them out and then open the door to head further in.
Here you will meet Marjolaine. There isn't much to say about this conversation
besides it having two conclusions: you can either kill her or let her go. If
you choose to let her go then that's the end of this. Should you not want to
let her go then you're in for a tough battle.
-------------------
Boss: Marjolaine
-------------------
Marjolaine is a powerful melee combatant as well as spellcaster. She will make
liberal use of a Mind Blast like spell that stuns everyone as well as cutting
people down in melee. She has two more guards, one in each side room, that is
watching over a mage. If you leave these two mages alive they will kill you in
very short order. As such there are two ways to approach this fight.
1 - Rush them. Take control of a melee fighter and have him slip past one of
the pressure plates to get into the side room. From here you can get into the
mages face and pummel it down. While he's doing this have your mage go to the
other door and use paralysis / freezing / knockdown spells to make short work
of the other one. This isn't hard at all but you'll still have to deal with the
rest of the enemies.
2 - Be tricky. Force your party to leave the room, disabling tactics if you
have to, and have them hold position in the first room. Here, where you fought
the two guards, you will force them to come to you. Tuck into a corner and
wait. Marjolaine will come to you so use a spell to make it easier for your
party to beat on her. Shortly after the mages and guards will come to you. Now
move Morrigan to the door and have her use Cone of Cold to freeze the lot of
them. Focus on a mage with everything you've got to take them out quickly. Try
to get them both dead regardless of what it takes, even if you have to heal the
heck out of Morrigan. Now have her pull back and help the party with Marjolaine
as she's likely almost dead. All that's left is clean up.
Regardless of what you do search the bedroom for a treasure chest with some
very good items, notably a great bow, before leaving.
===================
Alistair's Family
===================
To start this quest up you will need to get Alistair's approval up to about 75%
or so. This is easily done by going to Redcliffe and finding his mothers amulet
in the Arl's study. Once his approval has reached the desired amount he will
ask to go to Denerim and speak to his sister Goldanna who lives near the Elven
Alienage. This is easily done by going to Denerim and heading to the center of
Market Square where you will find her house. No matter what you do things don't
go very well. If you'd like to not be a jerk you can tell him that you're his
friend but otherwise things end poorly for the guy.
===================
Flemeth's Tome
===================
Morrigan desperately wants to get her hands on her mothers tome, something she
will tell you once you've completed a Blight quest. If you've done the mages
tower then you will have likely found the Black Tome but if you haven't it's in
the First Enchanter's Office on the second floor. Go inside, open the treasure
chest in the rear of the room and take the tome.
Go to the party camp and give her the tome as a gift. This prompts a long bit
of conversation. That's where this ends for now but it's not done. After some
time she will ask you for help when you talk to her in the party camp. She has
discovered Flemeth's intentions towards her and isn't happy about it. You're
asked to go, without her, to Flemeth to kill her.
You can go one of two ways with this. If you don't want to, or can't, beat
Flemeth then you can agree to lie to Morrigan and tell her Flemeth is dead. By
giving her Flemeth's Tome you can see to it that Morrigan believes the lie. If
you don't want to do this then you can fight Flemeth. This is one of the harder
fights in the game thanks to the raw power this beast of a woman wields.
-------------------
Boss: Flemeth
-------------------
When she changes into her dragon form Flemeth has four primary means of attack.
The first is basic claws and bites, these aren't anything all that big. They do
a good bit of damage but they're not the problem. The only real issue with
these are that she can hit you no matter where you are. If you're fully behind
her expect to be kicked instead. Her second attack is a weird flailing type
attack that knocks down the people standing near her while doing a good bit of
damage to them. The third attack is a roar that will stun almost everyone that
you brought along thanks to its tremendous radius. Her last attacks are two
different fire breaths. If you're close by then she will use a sweeping wall of
fire but if you're far away she spits out a ball of fire that explodes. Both of
these can leave you on fire, dealing damage over time to whomever it hits.
What ends up making this fight so hard is that of Flemeth's special abilities.
She can pick you up in her mouth, gnawing on you for a bit before throwing you
up into the air, doing it some more and then slamming you into the ground. This
does about 300 points of damage or so, give or take, and can wipe you out in no
time even if you have someone heal them while they're dragon bait. Only allow
your strongest characters to stand in front of her face as she can't do this if
you're near her rear flank. Keep any melee rogues back here or watch them die
in very short order.
All of this sounds bad, and it really is, but your ability to defeat Flemeth is
based upon how prepared you are. Activated skills, potions and salves aren't
going to be enough to defeat her due to their short duration. You need good
equipment, weapons, skills, spells and to be fairly leveled. There are some who
have beaten her as early as level 9 while others end up waiting until level 13
or even later. That's not necessary but it may be necessary depending upon what
sort of character you've built.
Regardless of what you normally travel around with you're going to want to have
at least two Warriors and one healing dedicated Mage. Some people find that
having a third Warrior works out while others prefer an archer. Depending on
your class you will find different strategies to be more effective:
Mage - If you don't have healing magic then it's best to wait until you have
gotten Wynne. If you're not going to be able to get her, or have killed her,
make sure you have at least some minor healing capabilities since you'll need
to heal anyone who gets grabbed in her mouth. However you do have choices in
what to do here: you can either bring in two warriors and an archer, two
warriors and another mage (to either heal or attack) or, my favorite as a mage,
three warriors. Just make sure you keep your health up as much as possible to
get through her attacks alive.
Rogue - Let's just hope you're playing an archer type rogue, as a dual-wielder
is likely to get killed. Archers can hang back near the mages, spread out a bit
so that they don't both get hit by any stray fireballs, peppering Flemeth with
Rapid Fire arrows. Dual-wielding characters should get behind the dragon and
start cutting... and praying. You will need a healing mage here as well as the
two warriors to keep cutting at the dragon.
Warrior - This is easy! Either bring two fighters or a fighter and rogue with
your healing dedicated mage and just go to town. You, Alister and Oghren or
Sten can do incredibly well just cutting at the thing, especially if someone is
using two-handed swords (you should have Yusaris which works great here). If
you're finding that she does too much damage with her fire attacks swap out
Alister for Shale (if you have the DLC) and equip him with Flame Crystals to
protect him from fire attacks quite a bit.
Honestly this fight comes down to tanking her damage while doing as much damage
to her as possible. Mages do the most damage but you're probably not going to
have that option unless you're a mage PC since you can't bring Morrigan. Archer
types with Rapid Fire going can do a good bit of damage but this isn't a really
good idea unless you're using a strong bow (Ice Arrows help with this). Fill
her full of arrows to pick her apart little by little.
When she goes down search her body for a key; use this to get into the hut and
open the chest. Take Flemeth's Tome to Morrigan in the camp to make her your
bestest friend evar!
===================
Wynne's Regret
===================
Once you get Wynne up to around 70% approval she will tell you about one of her
apprentices who ran off due to her mistakes. This Aneirin ran off to to try to
find the Dalish Elves and was hunted by the Templars. The least you can do is
take a look around if you find yourself in that neighborhood, the Brecelian
Forest, since you have to go there anyways eventually.
Eventually you will find yourself in the Dalish camp in the Brecelian Forest.
Make sure Wynne is in your party and speak to Sarel, asking him about Aneirin.
Apparently they know who Aneirin is and where he can be found. You will need to
bring Wynne into the Brecelian Forest proper to speak to him. He is found in
the eastern Brecilian Woods to the north of the Mad Hermits Clearing. This will
net you Aneirin's Token, a fairly decent amulet.
===================
The Sword of the Beresaad
===================
It seems that there's a very good reason Sten went berserk, he awoke without
his ancestral sword. Without this sword he is little better than a deserter to
be killed by his own people. You should try to find this blade for him and a
good place to start would be Lake Calenhad Docks. When you arrive there you
will see a Scavenger rummaging about. Talk to him to find out that the last guy
who scavenged at this spot has moved on to Orzammar. Great. Bring Sten with you
to the Frostback Mountains and look on the right side to find the human who is
just standing around.
This man, Faryn, was the scavenger mentioned from Lake Calenhad. Speak to him
to find out that he sold the sword to a dwarf named Dwyn. This little runt is
hanging around in Redcliffe, you may have met him if you've done those quests.
Speak to Dwyn with Sten in the party and you can either pay him for the blade
or just take it from him. Returning it to Sten via gifting provides a huge
bonus to his Approval even if the sword itself is rather lackluster.
===================
Oghren's Flame
===================
After spending some time with you, and having his approval rating raised up,
Oghren will ask you to go find someone that he had cheated on Branka with. This
starts his personal quest. Your first destination is going to be Lake Calenhad
Docks as the girl is supposed to have worked in that inn. Head on into The
Spoiled Princess and Oghren will spot Felsi working as a waitress.
Speak to Felsi to find out just what Oghren did to make her cut ties with him.
It's... pretty damn funny actually. Return to Oghren to tell him what she said
and then let him talk to her. There doesn't really seem to be a way to make it
turn out well between them since Oghren is a total mess when it comes to just
about anything involving anyone. Unless that is you choose to lie about the
queen needing you. This causes her to start talking to him again for no real
reason. Jealousy? I dunno but it works.
========================
DLC Quests
========================
The Stone Prisoner
========================
Sulcher's Pass
===================
To start this one you'll need the Stone Prisoner DLC content to allow access to
Shale. With that done make your way over to Sulcher's Pass to find Felix, a
merchant who'se pretty down on his luck. He will tell you about a control rod
he has that lets you control a golem. This golem is to the south in Honnleath,
a town overrun by the darkspawn. Luckily he's willing to just give you this
control rod since he doesn't know if it will even work.
===================
The Golem in Honnleath
===================
Travel down to Honnleath where you will see some peasants running from a pair
of Genlocks. Defeat them and travel into the town proper to find a large group
of Hurlocks and Genlocks waiting. Take them out, they're not very hard, before
heading to the west. Here you will find a very large group of darkspawn waiting
for you. Focus on the Hurlock Alpha first, removing the main damage dealer,
and then get rid of the rest of the melee enemies. Move forward to find three
archers - deal with them so you can search the bodies.
Now you can attend to Shale in the middle of the town. When you try to use the
rod and code word nothing happens. Walk over to the northwest to find Wilhelm's
Cellar. Go inside to find a fairly large, sprawling basement. Grab the crystal
from the storage area and open the door to find enemies. This library has a lot
of Genlock with a few Hurlock to fight but they're not too hard. Try to use a
few good crowd control spells to make your life simple, focusing mostly on the
Hurlocks. They'll go down quickly.
Search the area for loot before moving on. Be sure to grab Wilhelm's Special
Brew from the ale barrel in the next room. Continue into the large room at the
far end of this cellar to find a whole lot of darkspawn. The three up on the
ledge with their bows are annoying but the real problem is the Genlock Emissary
so focus on him. Try to get a fighter in his face to take him out while you
have your mage keep the archers busy. This lets your other two members deal
with the rest of the enemies.
Search the magical barrier to start up a conversation with the man who has the
barrier up. You'll need to speak to Matthias to find out the proper phrase but,
of course, he needs you to do something first. His daughter ran off just ahead
and you'll have to rescue her if you want the code. You could intimidate it out
of him if you chose but rescuing her isn't that hard.
When you reach the study of this place you will be attacked by Lesser Shades
and a Dust Shade. Magic is the most effective means of fighting these so try to
have your fighters run interference while your mage does the dirty work. If you
can enchant your weapons to do elemental damage with a spell that will help out
a fair bit. Make sure to get the Harvest Ring the Dust Shade leaves behind as
it is a very good magic ring.
Continue forward to find the Containment Chamber. Here you will find the demon
has tricked Amalia into staying with it. It's hard to get through this without
troubles unless you have a high Persuade. If you have that you can convince
the demon that you will free it and allow it to possess Amalia. Otherwise you
are mostly stuck actually allowing the demon to take the girl. To free the
demon you will have to move the tiles on the ground to get the flame from one
end of the board to the other. There are numerous solutions to this so just
keep sliding pieces until you've solved it. These puzzles are a real pain.
Once the demon is free you can battle it. Kitty changes into a pretty hot demon
and attacks with several undead. Focus on her first since she's a spellcaster,
using everything at your disposal to keep her stun locked until she's dead. Now
clean up the undead, search the bodies and head on out of here. Mattias will
tell you the real activation phrase so head on out and try it on Shale.
Shale joins your party now and he's quite the effective warrior if not a little
bit limited (much like the dog).
===================
A Golem's Memories
===================
To start this quest you will need to bring Shale to speak to Caridin during the
"A Paragon of her Kind" quest. It's also possible to start this by talking to
her after completing that quest without actually going through the trouble of
using Shale. His memories will surface enough to know where the Cadash Thaig is
and he would like to go there. So let's go visit! Obviously this is in the Deep
Roads under Orzammar so we need to start there.
As you head forward into the Cadash Thaig you will be attacked by Hurlocks and
Genlocks. It starts easy but as they die Shrieks pop out to attack your melee
forces. Take them all out and loot the corpses. Start going down the tunnel to
the north until Shale stops you for a little chat. When that ends you will have
a large chamber in front of you with enemies waiting to attack. It's nothing
that bad though, just some Hurlocks with Genlock Archers and a lone Bronto. You
should have no problems with fights like this at this point since you've been
dealing with the Deep Roads long enough by this point.
The next area has a bunch of Genlocks with a Hurlock Emissary as well as a few
traps near the far bridge. Once again you shouldn't have too many problems with
this section, just focus on the Emissary first. Try to stun him so he doesn't
run away too far since the next side of the bridge is... chaotic.
However chaotic doesn't really mean dangerous. When you reach the far side of
the bridge you will see Genlocks in the distance. Some Deep Stalkers will pop
up in your face though, causing you some difficulty with getting to the Genlock
targets. Take out the Deep Stalkers before heading towards the Genlock. As you
near them and their Hurlock buddy will come under assault by Deep Stalkers as
well. Yep, they're fighting each other. Devastate the lot of them with AoE
spells to end this mess.
Search the area before continuing to the south. A bunch of Deep Stalkers will
pop up to ambush you and, as they're defeated, another group will come up led
by an elite Deep Spawn Leader. This is no issue so take them out and keep going
deeper. Your first potential challenge comes up here: Genlock rogues will come
out of nowhere, attack you and then retreat. This will pull your party into a
fight with some Genlocks and Hurlocks. It shouldn't be too hard of a fight but
if someone runs forward by themself and gets surrounded it can be a real pain
in the rear end. Also note that if you search the area you will likely get into
a fight with two Shrieks and a Shriek Alpha.
Going up the hill yet more Hurlocks and Genlocks rush to the attack but there's
only a single Alpha among them so it's no real hurdle. Walk twoards the twin
bridges to find an Ogre Alpha. As you start to battle this boss a trio of
Shrieks will attack, one from the front and two from the rear. Honestly to call
this a boss fight is a joke. Just handle this guy like you do all bosses and
let your mage / rogue keep the Shrieks busy. He goes down fast enough that you
shouldn't have any issues at all.
Now activate the monument here to awaken Shale's memories, search the chest,
bodies and crystals here and then leave via the handy bridge out of the Thaig.
Back at the camp you can speak to Shale about her memories
========================
Warden's Keep
===================
Soldiers Peak
===================
If you have downloaded the Grey Wardens DLC then you will have access to this
quest. It is started by speaking to Levi Dryden who has quite a yarn to spin
for you but you can't actually begin the quest until you've purchased the DLC.
Levi is pretty obvious in your camp so he's easy to find at least. Once you
have the DLC and agree to help Levi he will go ahead to wait for you at the
Soldier's Peak on your map. Go on over there when you're ready.
************************
* NOTE: Once you've installed the Warden's Keep DLC a new random event will pop
up on the map for you. You will encounter a clear Superman homage as two farmer
types find a baby in a crater. Look in the crater for a pile of ore that you
can loot Meteor Metal Ore from. Take this with you to Soldier's Peak, there's a
person there who can smith it into a sword for you.
************************
When you reach the fortress itself head up the frozen path, up the stairs into
the courtyard for a cutscene. After that proceed forward to start a long battle
that will have you running all over this courtyard. First the dead bodies near
the stairs wake up, Arland Corpses and Skeletons come to attack you. Once they
have been easily dispatched some Grey Warden undead will come from the south-
west to attack. There are four of them - two melee types, two with crossbows
and one spellcaster.
===================
Ancient History
===================
To the southwest, where the Grey Warden undead attack from is a statue you can
examine. This starts the Ancient History quest. Essentially you will be trying
to find all of the pieces that explain the history of Warden's Peak. These will
be pointed out in each room that they're relevant so simply following the
walkthrough will suffice.
Once they fall the final group appears out of thin air. This consists of a
few Warden Skeletons led by a Warden Master Scout. He's basically just an elite
skeleton so taking him out is no problem at all. Once he's defeated loot him
before going inside of the fortress.
More talking and then you can head forward into the next room. In here you will
find an Arcane Horror with a pair of Lesser Rage Demons. The demons are easy
enough to take out but that Horror is a real pain in the rear. Focus on him as
much as possible, trying to keep him staggered and reeling from your attacks so
that he can't use his magics to tear you a new one.
With that dead head on into the barracks to the west. In here the corpse of one
Commander Athlar will attack with a trio of archers on the upper level as his
support. Try to let your mage handle the archers while you use your warriors to
dismantle Athlar, it shouldn't be too hard at all. Now search the room for
loot and then head to the east. In the small hallway there's nothing but a pair
of doors: the first leads to the kitchen and has nothing but a chest in it
while the second leads to the library, the way forward.
Once you enter the library you will see a trio of Demons as well as a stronger
demon, the Archivist. However they will fall relatively easily if you use any
crowd control spells on them. When they are defeated you can search the book in
the corner to find a book for the *Ancient History* quest or you can examine
the Archivist's Book for another cutscene. Messing with either book calls up a
few more demons so be ready for that before doing so.
When you're done here head on up to the second floor.
As soon as you're up on the second floor you will see a roiling blackness in
the far corner of the room you're in. This is obviously a very bad sign. As you
approach you will get another cutscene explaining a bit of what's happening in
this place before you're attacked.
-------------------
Boss: Rage Demon
-------------------
This right here is the mother of all Rage Demons and boy is he pissed. The
fight starts with him and four Warden Acolytes being summoned up. The Demon is
fairly weak, only attacking with a moderately strong physical attack, and the
occasional stunning move. However while the four Acolyte's "live" they will be
healing him constantly rendering him effectively invincible.
Obviously you'll want to kill the Acolytes first and, luckily, they're fairly
easy to take out. They only have about 120 HP or so which means you'll have no
issue with a mage solo killing all of them. Unfortunately once you do that he
has backup: two more Acolytes and two Greater Rage Demons. At this point you
may need to pull a warrior or two to deal with the Rage Demons since they can
throw off flamethrower attacks and Fireballs that will damage your party fairly
heavily which can be a killer with the Rage Demon around.
Try to let your mage stun / freeze the demons while your warriors cut them up
one by one. When both are down turn your fighters back to the boss Rage Demon
while your mage and / or archer deal with the Acolytes. Once they go down it is
easy to defeat the boss.
-------------------
Go into the next room after looting all of the bodies to find some Shambling
undead that are easily defeated. The door to the bridge is sealed off so you'll
only have one way to go - north. Before going pick up the raspberry jam for the
third log in the *Ancient History* quest. When you enter the Commander's
Quarters you will have a conversation with the thing in Sophia Dryden's corpse.
Now you have two options with this section, you can either kill the demon or
you can agree to help it. You don't actually HAVE to help it, nor let it out of
the tower, but you can agree to do so. Whatever you do open the chest in the
room and pick up the journal from off the desk to learn more about Sophia. Not
exactly sounding good for poor Levi is it.
Exit out to the bridge to find a bunch of skeletons guarded by traps. The three
archers are the only damaging ones so use your mage to get rid of them. Cross
the bridge into Avernus' tower.
In the next room there are a quartet of Shambling Corpses to deal with, knock
them off and search the room. Of interest are Avernus' Notes on a desk. Read
the Ability Notes on the floor near the desk and then you can handle the
Alchemical Concoction. This gives you two abilities dependant on your class and
it has no drawbacks. There's no reason not to drink it unless you're into some
hardcore character roleplaying.
Heading into the next room you will meet the old mage Avernus. You have two
more options right now after speaking to him - either killing the insane old
bat or join with him. If you join with him to seal the damage he caused you are
going to have to fight "Sophia" but he will submit himself to whatever sort of
justice you have in mind for him. This is very much the suggested route to go
as he's somewhat frustrating to fight.
If you fight...
-------------------
Boss: Avernus
-------------------
This isn't really that much of a boss fight to be honest. Avernus runs up the
stairs and creates thre magical traps to catch you up when you try to close to
melee with him. The trick to this is just don't bother with trying to do so.
Get your mage and archer types to focus on him, freezing or stunning him and
knocking him down as much as possible. So long as you keep him from being able
to muster any real offense then you won't have to worry about him.
Otherwise you will be dealing with lightning blasts, Fireballs and Winter's
Grasp attacks. In addition he has several Warden undead that will help him out
in the battle. It's really not that hard to defeat all of them though so long
as you focus on Avernus above all else.
When he dies be sure to loot his robes from his dead body. They're pretty good
especially if you're a Blood Mage.
-------------------
When you're done in this room search it to find some chests to open up as well
as the final part of the *Ancient History* quest, a guy who is attached to the
wall thanks to being impaled on spikes. Now all you need to do is to find that
cache it mentions to finish off this quest.
This part can go one of two ways. If you're siding with "Sophia" then all you
need to do is go back to the main building, let Levi talk to Sophia and then
let her go. She will cleanse the demons from Soldier's Peak and allow you to
take the stronghold. But the best route involves working with Avernus so it's
time for trouble.
When you enter the main hall you will have to battle Sophia. This isn't much of
a fight at all unless you're very low leveled.
-------------------
Boss: Sophia
-------------------
Sophia will start the fight by animating a bunch of dead bodies and then going
into melee with you. She can throw off some magics but the real danger comes
from Avernus who will gladly Fireball your party to get at her. On Nightmare
this can be a real issue so be very careful with this part. Simply have all of
your party members use their strongest skills at once. Freeze her if you can,
knock her down if you can't and just keep pummeling her to take her down in no
time flat. Once she's defeated all that's left is to clean up the remaining few
undead that are still fighting.
-------------------
However that's not the end of this little situation. Avernus / Sophia needs to
close the portal to the fade and this requires him working magics while you try
to hold off waves of demons.
1st Wave: Three Lesser Rage Demons - This is no trouble at all. Just give them
a few strong attacks and watch them fade away.
2nd Wave: Four Greater Shades - This can be a bit trickier since these guys are
hard to fight in melee. Try to let your rogues and mages handle them
with ranged attacks while your melee guys simply tank damage.
3rd Wave: Two Ash Wraiths and two Rage Demons - The hard part of this one is
the Wraiths but make sure you get rid of the demons first. They can
do a fair bit of damage with cheap shots and you don't want to deal
with that. Just focus on getting rid of them while your mage tries to
keep at least one of the Wraiths entertained.
4th Wave: Desire Demon - You've likely fought these already so they shouldn't
pose much of a threat to you. But if you haven't then it's simply a
matter of fighting them like you would a boss mage. They like to cast
spells to mess up your party, like Fireball or Mind Blast, but they
really can't take a hit so just jump all over them to cut her apart.
It won't take very long to take her down.
Sophia can now either be betrayed or actually allowed to leave while Avernus
can be handled a number of ways. You can either kill him, allow him to go back
to his research or you can cast him out of the Wardens. Should you kill him you
will get his robes and his staff, both of which are pretty good. Letting him
live is more a matter of story flavor as nothing ever comes from it.
This ends the Warden's Peak quest. However there's one last thing to do once
you have all of the Ancient History notes. Go to the painting over the mantle
in the second floor main hall. Examine it to get the option to recite the Grey
Warden's oath, do so and a hidden cache will pop out. Open this to get some
really good equipment. Now you can leave Soldier's Peak but make sure to return
later on so you can have trade with Levi's family.
A good way to get the family to spawn in is to leave Soldier's Peak, go to the
party camp and then immediately leave and come back. Now there will be a smith
here, Levi sells goods, there's a chest you can store items in and it's looking
a whole lot better might I say. If you have found the Meteor Metal Ore from
the random encounter you can give it to the smith to have a very powerful sword
forged for you. The blade is Starfang a powerful sword that can be either a
longsword or two-handed sword at your request and it has three slots. Nice!
=========================================================
6. The NPCs
=========================================================
Be mindful of the fact that at the bottom of this list is a spoiler on the last
character, a hidden one that can only be recruited by getting rid of Alistair.
This section is clearly marked with spoilers but be mindful of it.
Here's a breakdown of the below sections:
Race: There isn't much of anything about a party members race that matters. The
only race with any real racial abilities is the dwarves.
Class: Self-explanatory, this is what class the character belongs to.
Specialization: What sort of specialization the party member comes with. This
is usually a huge boon to your party as these give some very
useful abilities very early on.
Tactics: Suggested ways to build your character as well as how they can be
used to greatest effect.
Gifts: This lists what sort of gifts a party member enjoys. If it's listed as a
plot item then it gives a +10 bonus as well as starting up a dialogue
with that person. Any gifts not listed here are just general gifts. You
can give these to anyone for a very minor boost (5 or less). These range
from simple necklaces to a number of other, minor items.
------------------------
Alistair
------------------------
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Specialization: Templar
Tactics: Alistair starts off as a sword and shield warrior. He fits this role
pretty well so there's no reason to change it. Focus on raising his
shield skills up as much as possible but don't neglect the Precise
Striking line as the third and fourth skills are really good. All of
the boosts the third skill gives to your stats will help him out alot.
The Templar skills should be increased because the final skill is very
helpful against mages. Specialize him into the Champion class so that
he can lead the party with some helpful buffs to complete the package.
In combat Alistair should serve as your primary tank thanks to the
high defense that his shield provides. He serves as a nice target for
arrows and blades alike due to this. Once you get Shield Wall turn it
on to stop them from being able to stun or knock him down. Let him
focus on dealing with the groups of enemies while everyone else takes
out strategic targets or assists him.
**********
Gifts
**********
Allistair's Mother's Amulet - Plot Gift +10
Black Runestone
Duncan's Shield - Plot Gift +10
Onyx Demon Statuette
Small Carved Statuette
Stone Dragon Statuette
Stone Warrior Statuette
White Runestone
------------------------
Dog
------------------------
Race: Dog
Class: Warrior?
Specialization: None
Tactics: Honestly it doesn't really matter how you grow your dog. You'll have
the opportunity to get most of his skills before he's been maxed out
on his skills. The only skill that you must get is Overwhelm because
it makes the dog very dangerous to all non-boss enemies. Other than
that it's not really the most important which skills you take.
In combat the dog isn't meant to be a tank nor a primary attacker. If
anything he takes the place of an archer or mage, a support fighter
who can help take down enemies or use status ailments to slow down the
enemy offense. This makes him a fairly valuable party member in his
own right especially early on when you don't have good equipment.
**********
Gifts
**********
Beef Bone
Lamb Bone
Large Bone
Ox Bone
Veal Bone
************************
*NOTE: Giving gifts to the dog is mostly a waste of time as his approval is
100% to begin with and it never goes down. However giving his items to the rest
of the party doesn't give you more than one or two points so you won't really
get anything either way.
************************
------------------------
Morrigan
------------------------
Race: Human
Class: Mage
Specialization: Shapechanger
Tactics: Morrigan starts out specced to really deal a whole lot of damage to
her enemies. The first thing you want to purchase with her is Cone of
Cold and the next should be Stonefist. This will allow you to shatter
frozen enemies and freeze those who are in your way for crowd control.
After that work towards Death Hex and Death Cloud, a ridiculously
powerful combo that makes short work of most enemies. Spell Might can
help but it's not necessary. When it comes time to pick another
specialization go for Arcane Warrior or Blood Mage.
Using Morrigan is as simple a matter as learning how to place her. If
there are a bunch of enemies gathering around one of your characters
shift to a different position and use Cone of Cold to freeze them. Now
you can shatter one with Stonefist before using regular spells to
damage the rest. If you pick up Shock it makes this easier. Mind Blast
should be saved for when someones life is in danger. With this you
will have little difficulty with most fights.
**********
Gifts
**********
Black Grimoire - Plot Gift +10
Flemeth's Grimoire - Plot Gift +10
Golden Amulet
Golden Demon Pendant
Golden Mirror
Golden Rope Necklace
Silver Brooch
Silver Chain
Silver Medallion
Tribal Necklace
------------------------
Leliana
------------------------
Race: Human
Class: Rogue
Specialization: Bard
Tactics: Honestly there isn't much to Leliana besides her being an archer. The
only skills that you'll definitely want to get for her is the Arrow of
Slaying and Shattering Shot. Beyond that just make sure you don't
ignore her Rogue skills, especially lockpicking, since they are very
useful. If you're willing to take the stamina hit get her Bard up to
level three so that you cna help boost your party's stats. When the
time comes to give her another specialization Ranger is a good idea if
you don't mind losing more stamina or Duelist for those situations
that she's forced into melee.
When it comes to combat make sure to set her tactics to Ranged. This
is incredibly important since it means she will do her best to get the
heck away from the enemy and go right back to attacking with her bow.
Just pick her targets for her and let her go. So long as you've set
her skills in the tactics menu she will do just fine.
**********
Gifts
**********
Andraste's Grace - Plot Gift +10
Blue Satin Shoes
Bronze Symbol of Andraste
Chantry Amulet
Cute Nug - Plot Gift +10
Etched Silver Symbol
Golden Symbol of Andraste
Silver Sword of Mercy
Steel Symbol of Andraste
------------------------
Sten
------------------------
Race: Qunari
Class: Warrior
Specialization: None
Tactics: Sten is pretty simple to max out. Get him all four of the first row of
warrior skills as soon as possible while also going for as many of the
two-handed weapon skills as you can get. It's more important to go for
the top and bottom rows of the two-handed weapon tree before trying to
take anything else. When the chance comes to make him specialize, this
comes up at level 14, take the Champion spec to make his life easier.
Unfortunately Sten is going to be a pain in the ass early on in the
game. He requires a lot of babysitting since he tends to go down very
easily thanks to his lack of defense. Make sure his tactics are set to
enable him to heal up when his health gets too low. Otherwise you're
able to pretty much set his tactics to use his talents to let him open
up on the enemies.
**********
Gifts
**********
Painting of the Rebel Queen
Portrait of a Goose Girl
Silver Framed Still-life
Sten's Sword - Plot Gift +10
Totem
Water-stained Portrait
------------------------
Wynne
------------------------
Race: Human
Class: Mage
Specialization: Spirit Healer
Tactics: When you're setting up Wynne's spells make sure to max out her Spirit
Healer spells first thing. Then start learning the Ice spells, namely
Cone of Cold, to provide some crowd control and follow it up with the
Mind Blast spell. If you're feeling slap happy you can go for Tempest,
Blizzard and Spell Might to use the Storm of the Century spell combo
which turns Wynne into an instrument of pure death. Pick up the Blood
Mage or Arcane Warrior specialization when the time comes.
In combat Wynne should prioritize her actions like such; healing,
support and then damage dealing. If someone is hurt, heal them. If a
group of enemies is closing in then freeze them. Should you have no
pressing business then feel free to start using Arcane Bolt, Stonefist
and Winter's Grasp to deal damage.
**********
Gifts
**********
Discovering Dragon's Blood
Fancy Scroll
The Guerrins of Ferelden: A Genealogical History
The Rose of Orlais
The Search for the True Prophet
Tattered Notebook - Plot Gift +10
------------------------
Zevran
------------------------
Race: Elf
Class: Rogue
Specialization: Assassin
Tactics: By the time Zevran joins you he will be pretty well set up as a dual-
wielding Assassin with stealth skills. You don't need to bother with
his stealth skills any further so focus on getting his Assassin skills
maxed out, followed up by Rogue skills and dual-wielding. He can do a
ridiculous amount of damage if allowed to flank an enemy so you want
to encourage this by giving him all the boosts you can. When the time
comes specialize him to be a Duelist for maximum effect.
When using Zevran in combat you'll want to get him behind an enemy of
your choice as soon as possible. Let him start to chop them up from
behind since his abilities almost all revolve around backstabs. This
will allow him to do a ridiculous amount of damage to most enemies,
especially on bosses where he can really shine. if paired up with a
mage casting Death Hex and Cone of Cold Zevran can enable his party to
outright slaughter most enemies.
**********
Gifts
**********
Antivan Leather Boots - Plot Gift +10
Dalish Gloves - Plot Gift +10
Medium Gold Bar
Medium Silver Bar
Small Gold Bar
Small Silver Bar
------------------------
Oghren
------------------------
Race: Dwarf
Class: Warrior
Specialization: Berserker
Tactics: While Oghren comes to you as a two-handed weapon wielder this isn't
as ideal as it is on Sten. You don't need two of the same type of
attackers so it's suggested that you swap him to a dual-wielding type
of character. Let him learn most of these while not forgetting the
warrior talents. When the time comes to specialize give him Ravager if
you've unlocked it or Champion if you haven't. Him having the Warcry
talent will help out.
When using him in combat there isn't much to be said about him. Should
he be a dual-wielder or two-handed wielder he fights mostly the same.
Set the skills you really want him to use in his tactics screen and
try to keep watch on his health or he will go down really fast.
**********
Gifts
**********
Alley King's Flagon
Chasind Sack Mead
Garlbog's Backcountry Reserve
Golden Scythe 4-90 Black
Legacy White Shear
Sun Blonde Vint-1
Wilhelm's Special Brew (DLC Only)
------------------------
DLC: Shale
------------------------
Race: Golem
Class: Warrior
Specialization: None
Tactics: Shale is at once a really easy to use character and a really hard to
use character. You'll find yourself with enough points to max out all
but two of his talent trees without much difficulty. Max out whichever
of his warrior skills appeal to you, they're not important. You will
want to max out his first two paths, that of the ofense and defense.
All four of his skills on the offense path are incredibly powerful
combat tools while the defensive mode allows him to tank very well.
One thing that you need to keep in mind is that these skills are not
useable if you're in the wrong form. So, for example, the four offense
skills are not able to be used if you're in defensive mode. But you
can set up your tactics so that Shale bounces between the two forms.
Simply have him set to switch on Pulverizing Fists when his health is
higher than 50% as well as setting a few skills to use. Then have him
set to use Stoneheart when his health is lower than 50%. This will let
him repeatedly switch forms and which skills he uses.
**********
Gifts
**********
Remarkable Amtheyst
Remarkable Garnet
Remarkable Greenstone
Remarkable Ruby
Remarkable Sapphire
Remarkable Topaz
_ _ _ _______ _______ _______ _________ _ _______ _______ _______ _ _
| ) ) ) ____ \ ____ ) ___ )\__ __/( \ ( ____ \ ____ )( ____ \ ) )
| | | | ( \/ ( )| ( ) | ) ( | ( | ( \/ ( )|| ( \/ | |
| | | | (_____| (____)| | | | | | | | | (__ | (____)|| (_____| | |
| | | |_____ ) _____) | | | | | | | | __) | __)(_____ ) | |
(_)_)_) ) | ( | | | | | | | | | ( | (\ ( ) |_)_)
_ _ _/\____) | ) | (___) |___) (___| (____/\ (____/\ ) \ \__/\____) |_ _
(_)_)_)_______)/ (_______)\_______/(_______/_______// \__/\_______)_)_)
------------------------
Loghain
------------------------
Race: Human
Class: Warrior
Specialization: Champion
Tactics: See Alistair. The two of them play almost identical. Every step of the
way basically. Give him the Templar specialization since that's one of
the most useful ones there besides the Champion, which he has. There
isn't much else to be said about him besides he's a bastard.
**********
Gifts
**********
Ancient Map of Imperium
Botanist' Map of Thedas
Current Map of Ferelden
Map of the Anderfels
Map of Occupied Ferelden
_ _ _ _______ _______ _______ _________ _ _______ _______ _______ _ _
| ) ) ) ____ \ ____ ) ___ )\__ __/( \ ( ____ \ ____ )( ____ \ ) )
| | | | ( \/ ( )| ( ) | ) ( | ( | ( \/ ( )|| ( \/ | |
| | | | (_____| (____)| | | | | | | | | (__ | (____)|| (_____| | |
| | | |_____ ) _____) | | | | | | | | __) | __)(_____ ) | |
(_)_)_) ) | ( | | | | | | | | | ( | (\ ( ) |_)_)
_ _ _/\____) | ) | (___) |___) (___| (____/\ (____/\ ) \ \__/\____) |_ _
(_)_)_)_______)/ (_______)\_______/(_______/_______// \__/\_______)_)_)
=========================================================
7. Specializations
=========================================================
Specializations are powerful class add-ons that grant you a stat bonus as well
as new skills to learn at level up. Each of these four skills follow a theme
and are often quite powerful. The first one or two of these aren't usually too
special but the last two are often very powerful. However they're all fairly
powerful in the end. You gain your first specializations point at level 7 and
then a next one at level 14 so you can have two of these.
Take note that once you've unlocked a specialization it will stay unlocked for
every other playthrough beyond that. However you'll need to be a particular
class to actually get certain specializations to unlock. For example you can't
unlock Blood Mage unless you're playing a Mage while you cannot unlock Champion
without being a fighter... unless you have the optional party member. There are
ways around this, such as buying books, but it's not fool proof.
************************
*NOTE: For whatever reason the mage specializations are mostly locked to you
unless you're playing a mage. It's frustratingly difficult to get Morrigan to
teach you Shapechanger, Blood Mage is impossible to get and Wynne won't have
any talks with you about Spirit Healers. If possible you should make one of
your first playthroughs a mage so as to unlock these for Morrigan and Wynne.
************************
To unlock specializations you must be of the specified class. Then proceed to
go through one of the three below methods to unlock the other class.
-------------------
NPC Approval
-------------------
By raising NPC approval you can easily open up Specializations with your party
members as they're all specialized from the get go. You'll need to get their
approval somewhere in the 65% - 70% part of the meter. The classes you can
unlock are as follows:
Allistair - Templar
Morrigan - Shapechanger
Leliana - Bard
Sten - None
Wynne - Spirit Healer
Zevran - Assassin
Oghren - Berserker
Loghain - Champion
DLC: Shale - None
This is most easily done by following the charts in the above section that tell
what items they prefer. If you give them a bunch of items then their approval
will fly up regardless of any previous approval ratings.
-------------------
Books
-------------------
There are a number of books you can buy to unlock classes. They all cost you a
a fair chunk of gold, between eight to fifteen pieces, so unless you're a Rogue
who'se been stealing every that isn't tied down you probably won't be able to
afford one for your first specialization. It's more likely you will have to get
your first one from a party member and the second from a book.
************************
*NOTE: There is a pretty cheap trick you can pull off with the books. Since you
permanently unlock a class once you've... well, unlocked it, it's more than
possible to buy a book and then reload your game. This will unlock your chosen
class and then give you your money back right quick.
************************
-------------------
Quests
-------------------
During several quests you will have the opportunity to ingratiate yourself with
someone who will teach you how to be a particular type of character while in
others your mere actions will mark you as on the road to one. These are the
last way to unlock Specializations. A list of them are as follows:
Urn of Sacred Ashes: Reaver (side with Cult) / Champion (not siding with cult)
The Arl of Redcliffe: If main character is a mage send them to the Fade to deal
with the demon. Sleep with her to unlock Blood Mage.
========================
The Specializations
========================
Warrior Specializations
-------------------
Champion: Think of the Champion as a paladin of sorts. This noble knight uses
his mere presence to distract foes, bolster his allies and to knock
enemies around. The first ability of this skill, Warcry, enhances
your attack and defense. Rally, the second skill, gives further
bonuses to attack and defense while the third one enhances this yet
more. Finally Warcry is given the ability to knock people over when
it is initially used.
- Bonuses: +2 Willpower, +1 Cunning
- Unlock by: Speak to Loghain once he has been forced to join your party. By
getting his approval up you will be able to convince him to teach
you how to be a Champion. Loghain is very hard to convince to
teach this to someone other than a warrior.
- During the Urn os Sacred Ashes quest if you do not side with the
Cult by poisoning the Ashes then Arl Eamon will unlock this for
you upon returning to Redcliffe.
- There are no books that unlock this.
Templar: Think of Templars as the anti-mage units of this game. Their mere
presence makes fighting mages much easier. The first skill isn't all
that impressive since it just takes a few MP from a mage each time you
hit them in melee. The second skill is pretty bad as well, removing
all magical effects in the area including your own. Mental Fortress,
the third skill, makes it really hard for magical effects to stun or
paralyze you while the last one is a doozy. This beast knocks over all
enemies in the radius while dealing a bit of spirit damage to them. If
it's used on magic using enemies they will lose a chunk of MP and take
extra damage for the MP that they lost.
- Bonuses: +2 Magic, +3 Mental Resistance
- Unlock by: Speak to Alistair when his approval is above 70% and ask him to
teach you how to be a Templar. He will teach this even if you're
not a warrior for your other party members / next character.
- There is a book to unlock this. Buy it from Bodahn in the Camp.
Berserker: Berserkers are powerful opponents driven into a rage that is used to
bolster their strength in combat. Their first three skills center
around their Berserk ability. This increases damage in exchange for
lower stamina regeneration although the second and third abilities
go a long ways to improving this. The last ability isn't so great as
it's just a raw damage dealer but it can be useful nonetheless.
- Bonuses: +2 Strength, +10 Health
- Unlock by: Speak with Oghren when his approval has gotten high enough, about
60% or so, to unlock this specialization. He's pretty eager to
teach someone else to be as hardcore as he is. Oghren will also
be happy to teach non-fighters if you get his approval higher.
- There is a book to unlock this at Gorim's shop in Denerim Market.
Reaver: Surprisingly enough the Reaver isn't actually all that impressive. His
first two abilities are great - the first one, Devour, allows you to
heal yourself simply by being near dead enemies. This happens naturally
during fights so it works out well. Frightening Appearance, the second
skill, works well for tanks or offensive focused types. However the
third and fourth abilities are just terrible. They both want you to be
at low health to be effective but you're just too likely to die.
- Bonuses: +1 Constitution, +5 Physical Resistance
- Unlock by: There are no party members that you can speak to to unlock this.
- By siding with the Cult of Andraste you will be given some Wyvern
Blood to drink (post destroying the ashes). This unlocks the
Reaver specialization at the cost of Leliana and Wynne turning on
you for your heresy.
- There is no book to unlock this.
-------------------
Rogue Specializations
-------------------
Assassin: The Assassin is a powerful specialization that is rare in that it has
four good abilities. The first allows your party to deal more damage
to a specific target which is just fantastic on bosses. All three of
the following abilities are focused on making your backstabs all the
more powerful. Getting all of these going at the same time with a
character who is exceptional at flanking means that you will have an
easy time cutting down the hardest of bosses with an Assassin around.
- Bonuses: +2 Dexterity, +2.5% Critical chance
- Unlock by: Speak with Zevran when his approval is above 70% and he will be
willing to teach this to you. Note that he is actually pretty easy
to get his approval up so run with it. He will be more than happy
to teach this to you even if you're not a rogue.
- There is a book in Alarith's Store in Denerim that teaches this.
However this isn't available until after the Landsmeet.
Bard: Bard's are basically warrior poets who use their talents to get the best
out of their allies. Their first skill, Song of Valor, is fairly good but
it's not their best skill. The second ability is helpful since it allows
the Bard to escape melee combat easily. Song of Courage and Captivating
Song are phenomenal though, the first giving great bonuses to your party
combat capabilities while the second stuns the heck out of your enemies.
This is a great specialization for an archer spec.
- Bonuses: +2 Willpower, +1 Cunning
- Unlock by: Get Leliana's approval rating up to around 75% or so and she will
be willing to teach you how to be a Bard. She is more than happy
to teach anyone this even if you're not a rogue yourself.
- In addition to this there is a man named Alimar in Orzammar. You
can convince him to teach you with the proper dialogue choices.
Ranger: As you've probably guessed the Rangers are the outdoorsmen who prefer
to fight with their bows. Each of their talents summons a progressively
better animal to fight in melee for you. Wolves are strong, able to try
and pull enemies down to the ground, bears are incredibly strong and
the spiders can web your enemies up. Just make sure to go for the last
skill, Master Ranger. It makes these skills even more powerful.
- Bonuses: +1 Constituion, +5 Natural Resistance
- Unlock by: This can only be unlocked by buying the book from Bodahn at the
party camp. There is no other way to get this class.
Duelist: Focusing more on speed and cunning over strength the Duelist is a real
terror in melee combat. Dueling, the first skill, grants you a bonus
to attack whether it's in melee or ranged combat. The second skill is
only useable in melee combat, slowing enemies and imposing defense
penalties. Keen Defense grants a defense bonus to the Dueling skill so
it's only of some use. Pinpoint Strike allows you to land critical
hits with every attack for a short time.
- Bonuses: +2 Dexterity, +1 Damage
- Unlock by: This can only be learned by talking to Isabela in The Pearl, the
brothel in Denerim. You can do this one of two ways, both of which
can be made easier with your party. Beating her in a game of cards
requires you to have a very high dexterity relative to your level.
If you can't do it yourself then you will need to have Zevran or
Leliana with you as they will help after losing a few rounds. If
this doesn't work for you then ask to "get to know her better" by
using your Persuade skill. This won't work if you're currently in
a relationship with Leliana or Alistair as they will stop it if
you haven't hardened their personality.
************************
*NOTE: There are a few amusing things that can occur here. If you ask to get to
know her better Zevran will join you if you're in a relationship with him.
Should you have hardened up Leliana or Alistair they will join you in a three-
way as well. If you're in a relationship with Zevran and Leliana (between 80 to
90% approval) without having gotten to the "love" approval rating then you can
actually have a four way with her. This has no effect on the rest of the game.
************************
-------------------
Mage Specializations
-------------------
Spirit Healer: This is the second best of the mage specializations although it
may be argued by some that this is actually the best. Just the
very first spell is more than enough - Group Heal gives your
entire party an appreciable health boost. The second skill is
also incredibly useful; Revival gives you the only spell that
can revive people in the middle of combat. The last two spells
are useful but nothing too special, helping you with slowly
healing your HP in the middle of combat.
- Bonuses: +2 Magic, Minor combat health regeneration
- Unlock by: After you have completed the four main storyline quests "The Arl
of Redcliffe", "A Paragon of her Kind", "Nature of the Beast" and
"Broken Circle" you can speak to Wynne to get her to teach you the
specialization. Get her approval up to at least 60% after this and
she's willing to teach anyone who asks.
- There's a book to unlock this in Wonders of Thedas, the mage's
shop in the rear of Denerim's Market.
Shapechanger: Shapechangers are a somewhat contentious class. Some claim that
the forms you change into are powerful enough to take the loss of
your spells others can't be bothered with losing their magics.
The wolf form is strong but not as strong as the Bear form. Use
of the third form, the Swarm, when surrounded by enemies to try
and resist their attacks but it's mostly useless. Master Shape-
shifter is necessary if you're using the various forms since it
makes your spider and bear much stronger. It's great to use the
Corrupted Spider to pull enemies down to chew them up.
- Bonuses: +2 Constitution, +1 Armor
- Unlock by: Convincing Morrigan to teach you this isn't very difficult so long
as you get her up to 75% before asking her, otherwise she can be
pretty snarky about the issue. However she's very finnicky about
teaching this to non-mages so save before you ask her.
- There's a book to unlock this in the Dalish Camp from Varathorn.
Blood Mage: The Blood Mages are some of the most powerful spellcasters in the
land but also the most dangerous. Their first two spells are very
weak but the third and fourth are incredibly strong. Blood Wound
does a lot of damage to all non-undead enemies, more than you might
expect it to do. Blood Control is freaking awesome. If it works on
the target then they will fight by your side as an ally (the blue
circle). Should it fail on the target they take a whole load of
damage so it's win-win either way.
- Bonuses: +2 Constitution, +2 Spellpower
- Unlock by: During your mission to save the Arl of Redcliffe you will have the
option to send someone into the Fade. If your PC is a mage then
you can send him into the Fade to deal with the demon. At the end
of this section the Desire Demon will ask you to talk, agree to
speak to her. She offers you to make your party like you more or
to train you as a Blood Mage in exchange for letting her have the
boy. If you have a high intimidate score you can convince her to
train you and then leave the boy alone in the future. This is the
ideal way to go about this scenario for the sake of Ferelden.
Arcane Warrior: The Arcane Warrior mixes combat capabilities with spellcasting.
Combat Magic, the first skill, lets you use your magic for an
attack bonus as well as using your spellpower rating to replace
your strength score. It also lets you use your Magic attribute
instead of strength to determine if you can use equipment. The
second skill only enhances these abilities. Shimmering Shield,
the third spell, blocks most damage as well as granting huge
bonuses to resistances (elemental and physical) to make hurting
the mage very hard. The last ability simply gives him a bonus
to mana regeneration and attack evasion.
- Bonuses: +1 Dexterity, +5 Attack
- Unlock by: There is only one way to unlock this class and that's durig the
"Nature of the Beast", inside of the Lower Ruins in the Brecelian
Forest. As you move through the eastern sectino of the level you
will find a small room that leads off to the west with books along
the walls. Inside of this room you will find a Broken Stone Altar,
this is the room we are looking for. On the floor you can find a
strange gem that you can "speak" to. Help it out by placing it on
the altar and it will teach you how to be an Arcane Warrior. Any
class can do this but it's really easy to miss.
=========================================================
8. About the Author
=========================================================
My name is Daniel Acaba, I live in Groton, Connecticut and I am 26 years old.
Im a freelance writer who has done work for a number of sites and have come
onto the writing staff of a website recently. I am still actively pursuing
more paid work in the field of video game journalism, preferably as a FAQ /
strategy guide writer.
---------------------------------------
So far Ive written the following FAQs:
---------------------------------------
Genji: Days of the Blade - PS3
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - PS3
Bloodrayne 2 Boss FAQ - Xbox
Sims 2 Career FAQ - PC
Resistance: Fall of Man - PS3
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus Boss FAQ - PS2
Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony - PSP
Brave Story New Traveler - PSP
Super Star Soldier - Wii
Ninja Gaiden Sigma - PS3
Lair - PS3
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army - PS2
Dawn of Mana - PS2
Two Worlds - XBox 360 / PC
Conan - PS3 / XBox 360
Clive Barker's Jericho - PS3 / XBox 360 / PC
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Wii
Turok - XBox 360 / PS3
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - PS2
Frontlines: Fuel of War - Xbox 360
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES - PS2
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga - PS2
Overlord: Raising Hell - PS3
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest - Xbox 360 / PS3
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 - PC
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 - PS2
Sacred 2 - PC / PS3 / Xbox 360
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Sith Master Walkthrough - PS3 / Xbox 360
---------------------------------------
CCC Exclusive FAQs:
-------------------
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - XBox 360, PS3, PC
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom - XBox 360
---------------------------------------
Games Radar Game Guides:
-------------------
Guides to Everyone in Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Wii
Fallout 3 Main Quest Game Guide - PS3 / Xbox 360
Gears of War 2 Game Guide - Xbox 360
Mirror's Edge Game Guide - PS3 / Xbox 360
---------------------------------------
IGN Exclusive FAQs:
-------------------
Fable 2 - Xbox 360
F.E.A.R. 2 - Xbox 360 / PC
Bionic Commando Mini-Guides - Xbox 360 / PS3
Dragon Age: Origins - PC / PS3 / Xbox 360
---------------------------------------
Thanks go to:
My girlfriend for helping me out with finding differences in the playthroughs.
Kxizm who made a Specialization guide that helped me figure out how to get to
the Duelist.
All those folks on messageboards who gave tips on how to unlock the other
Specializations.
Credit : This FAQ Copyright 2009 Daniel Acaba @ IGN.com
