I've just loaded the game and am experimenting a little. I've created a human noble and chose stealing as one of my skills. However, I have come across some doors and chests that I can't open. Is there such a skill as lockpicking? I didn't notice one but I might have missed it.

That has frustrated me too. I finally went to the DA forums and found that you can't open the chests until you get a Rogue in your party.

...and sometimes after, too. My party's only rogue has maximum lockpicking skills and cunning at about 28, and he STILL can only open about 85% of the chests we run across.

Of course, if I hadn't MISSED one of the playable characters early in the game, I probably wouldn't be having this problem now...

Thanks Karsten for the chest and Warden's Keep info. I'll go to the Bioware site and look for that mod that adds a chest to the party camp.
Demostenes, I agree with you about lockpicking! I wish you could bash the chests even if you might destroy some of the stuff in it if everyone can't learn the lockpicking skill.

I've just started and am playing as a Dalish Elf Warrior. Finished the cave with the spiders and all and was transported back to the elf camp. The game looks great but I am having a recurrent Nvidia error, "Nvidia_nv4 has stopped responding". Hope I am able to continue since the game looks great.

Hey, that's my main too! My character is a female though. In the end, I chose dualwielding as my main field of expertise, and I'm happy with that decision. I like that the Dalish Elf comes with a nice ranged setup though - so although I did work on her strength, the dexterity is a prerequisite for many of the dualwielding talents, so that fitted in nicely with the ranged skills.

I also played the human warrior and elfin mage and some of the city elf's origin, will try out the dwarves later. I'm too wrapped up with the main story at the moment to really care about them right now.

Well I finished the game as a City Elf Rogue and must say I am impressed with the acting the graphics and the music. The cut scenes were awesome and worth watching. One of the few games that I actually enjoyed the ending, in fact one of the few games that actually had an ending.

I had no problems whatsoever so I didn't install any patches. I only did the main quests and no side quests (other than those that fell my way).

Now that I am familiar with the game I will have a go at it again doing all the side quests so I'll be spending a lot more time.

For those interested, I have found a much more complete walkthru at gamepressure with side quests and all.

This game was worth the bucks.

Oldman, if you played as a rogue, were you able to open all/most of the chests? I'm thinking of restarting with a rogue character because I love "finding" things.

Also, can you eventually return to previous locations to open any chests that you missed? Is there some kind of fast-travel later on? I'm still fairly early in the game so I don't mind restarting if necessary.

Any Rogue can open chests. You have to invest in the skill as some get more dificult later in the game.

The game is completely open ended and you can revisit any place in the game anytime.

As far as quick travel all you have is the world map. Once you get into a city or area where there is an exit to world map you can go to any place but there are no teleports or the like.

Thanks, oldman, for the walkthrough link and great to hear you enjoyed the game so much

Except for Lothering, the Koukarii wilds, and Ostagar. Those cannot be revisited after certain events.

Hmm, didn't know that because I didn't try. I just saw all the towns on the map and assumed I could revisit them and you know what assume means.

I just arrived in Lothering. does that mean I can't go back to Ostagar and get a dog? I don't see Ostagar on the map.

Pokey, you can go back to Ostagar, if you buy Bioware's (new) DLC *Return to Ostagar* for 5 Dollars. It will be out some time before Christmas, I think.

If you decide to buy it, you will get a second chance to get Dog. I think you'll need to do the Kennel Master's Quest before you can get Dog in the first plave, though.

Rob Bartel, a Bioware dev says this about the Return to Ostagaer DLC:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/9/index/241198/7

I've restarted as a noble human rogue (kinda contradictory terms ) and am in Ostagar. I'm about to start the Tower of Ishal. I'm glad I restarted because now I have been able to open all the locked doors and chests. I've collected a lot of stuff but am confused about what I can sell or what I should keep. I've found precious stones, runes, a flying carpet (not a quest item) and an assortment of plants and minerals. Since this is early in the game I still don't know what will be useful later on or whether I can sell with a clear conscience.

Also do you give your companions upgraded weaponns or armor that you find on your trip? Do you let them keep it in case you use them again later or do you take the item back? One of my grey warden recruit companions had a better sword that I had given him but when he died in the ceremony the sword went with him. Most of the time you don't know what will happen so you take your chances I guess. Anyway, just wondered what others do.

You can get Dog right at the beginning if you are playing a noble human. He's side quest part of the human origin story at the start. If that is not your origin story you can get him from the kennel master in Ostagar in return for finding something for him. The quest is not triggered by the kennel master but is triggered if you stumble across the item. Good game so far.

I think you'll need to keep the runes; they can be used to upgrading weapons etc. There's some people that can enchant weapons for you, runes are needed to do this.

That's annoying. Most games will let you know if you can't return. I did all the Korcari wilds quests, including the flower, but when we returned, we reported to Duncan first. That got us caught up in the ceremony and then immediately sent to the tower. I thought we would return, but we got transported to the hut and no option to return to Ostagar.

On the Bioware Social site (and in the old forums) people have complained about they're not being told that the game closes them off at that point in time, you're talking about, Pokey.

I think that's why the devs. decided to make this Return to Ostagar DLC.

Replaying has taught me to finish all side quests at a location first as finishing the main quest at a location can close off opportunities to complete the side quests. That is why I robbed the Tranquil's chest first and returned the flower to to the dog keeper before I went to Duncan. But I didn't know that either the first time through. Now if I trigger a closing sequence I reload and finish other stuff first. That is annoying.

Pokey, if you haven't finished the Tower yet

Perhaps I was spoiled by all attention paid to the gamer's experiences by the developers of The Witcher, but it annoys me that after paying $50 for a game, I have to pay another $5 here and there for enhancements to the game.

I understand what you're saying, and we are, of course, free to not get the DLCs at all. The game can be completed without the need to play through the DLC offered, though.


I know we got spoiled by CD RED Project and their excellent 'for the fans' line when they decided to give away the extra content for free to all registered owners. To celebrate this, I bought a copy of the Enhanced Edition retail, and to help the devs. get some more money. It still left CD RED Project and the publishing house in great financial turmoil; a turmoil they are still struggling with to this day.

Three of my party got injured in a fight with the bandits. All look like they are on fire but only Alistair has injuries showing on his stats. I healed Alistair with injury kits (had to figure out how to use the radial menu) but the rest are still glowing. Do I need to use more injury kits on the others even though they show no injuries.?

Also, I understand I can return to my camp and get healed, but if I try to use the map, it says "no travel at this time". How and when can I go to my camp?

You need to be on the main map to travel to your camp Pokey, so find the "World Map" exit from where you currently are and then visit the camp.

I absolutely agree. The thing that irritated me the most was that guy at my camp with a ! over his head. When I went to get the quest they wanted me to download it and pay for it. Plus it seems you must accumulate points in order to buy the dumb thing.

At least in Baldurs Gate Icewind Dale and NWN Bioware sold the enhancements separately with enough quests to be worth the money rather than having to download each extra quest separately at 5 to 7 bucks a pop.

This new trend towards downloading has some pros and cons but for me the cons far outweigh the pros.

But that's just one man's opinion.

Incidently I did download the mod for the chest at my camp and it worked fine with no problems.

You do not need to accumulate points for it. You can buy the points at the Bioware Social Site. Just go to your profile and find the tab saying add bioware points. You can even buy points for
7 $ worth=560 Bioware points.

Many, many people, including me, have protested about this on the Bioware site. I've said that I didn't like the idea of having an NPC quest giver in my game, if I haven't (yet) bought the game.
Bioware responded with the 'yes, but this is to make sure that people not following the game development will be aware of new DLC'. To me, this just seems like a (poor) excuse for trying to sell more dlcs..

And quite frankly, when you log into the game (via your account) there could be a message saying 'new dlc' available coupled together with a description of it.

As for the quest icon (exclamation mark), you can just turn it OFF in the game's options menu. Note that doing this will turn OFF every quest mark in the game.

As for the injuries, if they have abilities or something like this checked, they will show as not fully healed. If, say a mage, has a persistent thing running like a certain spell or something, he or she will show up as not fully healed.