Karsten you have been such an invaluable resource for this game. Thank you so much!

Thanks, Pollo Diablo. I found the exit on the other side of the town where I hadn't looked before. Went to camp and all are healed now.

"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."

Well I haven't even started the game yet but I certainly agree with these sentiments and am shocked at such tactics

Right now I am waiting for my engineer to fit a large additional hard drive so I can start to play some of these latest RPGs. They need SO much disk space and my aging computer just doesn't have enough ....

And because of that And because, also, I take eons to get through any RPG I now have at least five new and new-ish RPGs absolutely untouched.
So I'm light years in play behind all you folks !!!!

Well, young lady, it sounds to me like you need to do some serious playing

Well, the annoyance is enough for me that I will not be ponying up any more of my money for extra quests. However, when any CD Project Red games are released, I will be supporting them as much as I can. They totally won my hard-earned dollars with their attitude.

All whining aside, Dragon Age Origins is a pretty good game...

"Well, young lady, it sounds to me like you need to do some serious playing
Ooooh !! I love the "young lady" (I wish) bit, looney4labs

And glad to hear (from Draclvr most recently) that the game will be worth the wait for when I do start my catching up

I may still be back here with you as after at least a couple of hours at different times of trying to get past the first Ogre, I am about to give up and start over. This Dalish Elf Warrior is just not working out! Even though I've gotten used to them, the hideous controls don't help either. I'm used to being able to move precisely and smoothly.

A Dalish Elf Warrior should be able to beat the Ogre. I tried with mine using the same technique that had been working, mainly just trying to bash him. After two tries where we all died, I tried a different tactic and we killed him and none of our group died. Straight melee is very difficult with him and then he will take out your ranged guys.

The controls are very similar to other RPGs except that you depress the right mouse button to steer while pressing the W key.

I didn't really get the hang of battles in this game until I got locked into a very difficult battle against overwhelming forces and was forced to compensate by micromanaging my allies.

At this point, the harder battles in the game go something like this:

1. I press spacebar to pause, use the middle-mouse button to zoom out as far as possible, and survey the battlefield. I want to get an idea of a lot of things here: whether the opposing side has any mages or archers, how many enemies there appear to be, and whether any of them look particularly powerful. I also look for any large groups of enemies my mage might be able to hit with a fireball or blizzard spell.

2. Still paused, I give orders to each of my allies.

My mage usually starts with one of a few spells for crowd control: I may maneuver him in to apply cone of cold if there are some nearby enemies, or toss a quick fireball if they're further away, often followed by blizzard, especially if there are a lot of distant or ranged enemies like archers who I want to slow down. If I choose to use cone of cold, I may have to get the mage in position first, which usually means I use WASD controls after unpausing in step 3.

If the enemies aren't too spread out, and there aren't too many of them, I send my tank (warrior) in to act as a mobile damage sink--by right clicking the enemy I want him to attack. If there are a lot of enemies, or they're spread out too much, I switch my warrior to a ranged weapon (by pressing /, which switches to his secondary weapon) and have him attack from afar. If I have two melee fighters, I usually make sure to concentrate their attacks on one enemy--preferably one who's close by, and especially anyone who threatens my spellcasters. I only split their attacks if there are two enemies with fairly low HP/defense, or if I need to distract two enemies from attacking my mages.

At the start of the battle, I tell my healer to retreat to a safe position (by zooming out and right-clicking her destination), or (if she's already fairly safe) issue ranged attacks against the same enemy the melee fighters are attacking. And if I have a rogue in my party (I usually do) then I may have him try to cloak so he can backstab someone later.

Once I've issued orders to all my allies, I unpause the game...

3. My healer has her tactics set to heal anyone whose health drops below 50%. She also puts up a stone shield to protect herself Most other spells I micromanage, because if I don't she tends to use up all her mana in seconds. So, if at any time 2 or more allies are below ~50%, I pause, switch to the healer, and cast Heal All. If her mana drops too low, I give her a quick potion. And if necessary, I issue other spells as well, such as Rejuvenate.

Additionally, if I'm trying to help a force of NPCs, I watch THEIR health and ty to heal them as much as possible. NPCs tend to die fast, but if you can keep them alive through a battle, their numbers will take a lot of pressure off of your 4 characters. This is made easier by the fact that my mage ALSO has healing spells, so he can help out when my healer is waiting for her spell cooldown to end. Healing NPCs was VITAL when I played through Redcliffe.

Meanwhile, my mage tries to stay back near the healer, lobbing as many spells as he can at the most dangerous enemies, and freezing or fireballing any large group that threatens to overwhelm my forces. And whenever my warrior kills a target, I pause, switch back to him and specifically tell him which enemy to attack next. That (usually) prevents him from suicidally charging across the map to kill the enemy on the other side of the room.

If my melee characters are set to attack with ranged weapons, and the enemy comes too close, I quickly switch their weapons back to melee. Often, battles with very powerful enemies can center around this tactic: draw them close with ranged weapons, batter them with melee, then snipe at them with ranged weapons again as they retreat, to prevent your warrior from chasing them down and getting swarmed.

Similarly, my mage took the arcane warrior spec, so if my warrior needs the help, or my lyrium potions are running low, I may activate combat magic and shimmering shield, which makes the mage a virtually unstoppable melee fighter...at the expense of a preposterously fast mana drain.

Similarly, if I'm up against an enemy with very powerful attacks, I may choose to have characters activate modes that give them defense bonuses. Shale, for example, can hold up very nicely to a dragon if you activate his Stoneheart ability--and he does a great job making sure the dragon attacks HIM instead of my flimsy mage.

Of course, my healer can only do so much, so I have to float around distributing healing and mana potions as necessary, too. On the other hand, a paralyzed or stunned ally is defenseless and can't use potions, so I make sure to concentrate my healer's efforts on them until they recover. I easily spend more time distributing orders while the game is paused than I do watching the battles play out.

When the battle is over, I do damage control: first, I disable any mana or stamina-draining abilities like combat magic. I also heal anyone who was injured (usually caused by falling in battle, as distinct from someone who merely lost som HP.) My healer now has a spell which heals injuries for everyone but herself, so I don't spend much on injury kits.

In other words, not dying pretty much requires pausing constantly and issuing dozens of orders every battle--usually from a birds-eye view.The zoomed-out view also makes it easier to issue movement and attack orders (by right-clicking to move or attack, or left clicking to cast or select a spell).

As far as Ogres go, the main thing (as Pokey mentioned) seems to be to stay back as much as possible. If you have a mage with cone of cold, that will work great to freeze him for a few crucial seconds while your warrior picks away at him. Otherwise, it's probably best to have everyone use ranged attacks, and slow the ogre down as much as possible with whatever spells or abilities you DO have. Paralyze it, or throw a fireball, or try to have your rogue stun it. Freeze it, or use a poison or enchanted weapon to slow it down. And if all else falls, kite it around--have one character run around while it follows him, and have everyone else attack from a distance. If he changes targets, just change who you're controlling to match. Ogres are slow, so you shouldn't have to much trouble staying away from it.

Later on Ogres are less of a problem, as your warrior can do a much better job defending himself, and you'll have more options for slowing it down.

I've tried making everyone ranged and several combinations thereof. I know I can get it done because I've gotten close, so I'll keep trying.

This is the first RPG I've played in a very long time that didn't allow you to use the WASD keys for movement and moving the mouse back and forth for steering. Several of us here have never run into one which makes you continuously press the RMB to "steer." Very fatiguing on the right wrist.

Now that I think about it, I've been subconsciously avoiding depressing the right button for long periods of time.

First off, I generally don't use the WASD keys in this game unless I have to. Especially when traversing long distances, I just right click as far away from my character as possible. I also fight most battles almost exclusively from overhead.

Unfortunately, it's still more convenient to be in an over-the-shoulder view for movement across long stretches of terrain, due to the decreased visibility in overhead view. I have to still adjust the camera fairly often, and sometimes I have to use the WASD keys to move somewhere or to react quickly to enemy movement--but I definitely have minimized the amount of time I have to keep the right mouse button pressed.

In fact, the last time I backtracked through a long maze, rather than walk back the usual way (which would have still involved a lot of camera movement) I sidestepped the mouse entirely. Instead I used the WASD keys to move, ignored most of what was happening on the screen, and used the map to tell where I was. My characters spent a lot of time staring at the wall, but it worked surprisingly well, and it gave my hand a rest.

That doesn't work nearly as well when there are enemies around, though.

I used kiting against the Ogre and it was effective. Alistair can use taunt on the Ogre and then run around the room with the Ogre chasing while everyone uses ranged or spells on him. He was down below 1/4 before he peeled away from Alistair and was no trouble to bring down.

I'm getting quite scared after reading how even some of you veterans are finding the combat difficult

Are any of you using "easy" mode ??

I am definitely playing on easy mode because I am pretty combat challenged.

Also for the wimps like me there is a god mode.

Ahhhhh !! There is a God Mode out there already ??

Well, I'm sure I will be needing it with this game

Thank you, oldman

I'm playing on easy mode. The benefit of easy mode is that you are not vulnerable to friendly fire.

I had no trouble with the ogre. I had Dog and Alistair torment him while I (archer) and a mage dropped his health. What I found strange was that my offficial game guide said that when you enter the tower a guard and a soldier would join your party. However, I had Alistair and I automatically got Dog. It was a no name mage that joined us (no guard or soldier). He was a very good mage, too. Nobody died.

Don't worry - after the battle at Ostagar is over, you get to keep all your companions that you recruit after that, -unless you specifically ask them to leave, at which point you can of course, first remove all their inventory.


Glad you're enjoying the game, Rowan! I just want to mention, that in my case, both with my mage and with my Dalish elf, I was able to trigger the quest for dog, by speaking first to the kennelmaster in camp. Then I'd get the item needed for the dog, later when you have to go out into the wilds in any case for other business.

I picked up first the guard while making my way to the tower, and the mage at the entrance to the tower.

Warning: the mage and the guard do not remain with you, though dog and Alistair do.

Regarding the long tactics post that Demosthenes posted, and other remarks about playing on "easy" and "normal"

I'd started off on normal, and then while doing the Redcliffe area, fighting a certain enemy proved so hard, that I turned the game down to easy for a while, until I decided to get Shale and some cool area effect spells. Now playing on normal again.

The biggest difference, is that on normal you have to be extremely careful of friendly fire. In fact, I had a case of Wynne killing herself with her own fireball!

So what I do, is I make diligent use of the hand (stop) button before every single battle, and I micromanage my party member's every single move. It's a bit like a chess game. Fun.

PS. Demosthenes: Are you by any chance a Disciples fan, hmm? Just wondering because of the nick...

Where do companions go after you release them from your group? I'd like to be able to change my mind and get them back.

Your companions will be waiting for you at your camp, assuming you didn't choose them to go with you. If you asked them to leave, that may be different. You can reach it by going to the exit of the city or area map and then clicking on your camp in the upper right of the world map. You can heal everyone and buy supplies there. I've had Sten waiting there for a while.

However, what I had meant was, you can let them leave you permanently if you want to, though I have no idea why anybody would want to do that.

One also has to keep in mind, that if their disposition gets too low, and party members start to dislike you too much, they can leave your camp out of their own accord. Making certain plot choices in their presence, could also make them leave you, and apparently even attack you.

The best way to have them like you, is to give them gifts appropriate to the party member. If they only like you 2 or 3 points more, you'll know that you gave the wrong gift to the wrong person. If their disposition towards you rises by 6 points or more, you'll know it was the right gift to give.

Thanks for the taunt suggestion against the ogre, Pokey. That did the trick.

I'm having a problem with the back alley quest in Denerim. I've done two of the alleys, but the last one, I think it is Dark Alley, is really difficult. I thought having Morrigan use cone of cold would help, but I can't get her to use it consistantly. Most of the time nothing happens. It is very effective when it does work but I am not sure what is wrong. I could use some ideas for winning this battle.

First of all, make sure you're in direct control of Morrigan while she casts Cone of Cold. If you issue the order and then switch characters, there's a chance her tactics list will take over and choose to do something else.

Secondly, remember that CoC, like other spells, has a fairly long cooldown. After you've cast it, you'll need to let it recharge before you can cast it again.

When you select the spell, make sure to position the cone appropriately. Just clicking the button to cast the spell won't work if you don't then tell Morrigan which direction to cast the spell (by clicking an area near her.)

Also note that while positioning the cone, the area of effect will be outlined. If there's no outline when you click, the spell isn't going to be cast.

Finally, don't try to move her until after she's finished casting the spell, as moving will interrupt it.

Thanks for the tips. I went back and tried it again and was successful this time. It is a very effective spell. We beat the thugs in Dark Alley but seems there are more even though we did all three alleys.