Dragon Age: Origins party composition....

[MobBoss]

Just wanted to create a thread to discuss party composition in regards to the game. Obviously, your going to be able to pick from more than just 4 party members for consideration.

I myself have only just really started the game (6% complete) and will soon have 2 additional members to choose from (as soon as I get Sten released that is).

So, my main is a sword/shield warrior, much like Alistair, and I have the dog (melee DPS), Morrigan (offensive caster) and the Bard (forget her name) you find in Lothering.

I currently have the dog sitting out and going with the 4 humans mostly because the caster and bard give me additional non-combat skills I like (open locks, herbalism, poison making), but I am not sure how long I can keep these two together as I am sure there will be friction within the party with them both in at the same time.

So, as part of this discussion, please indicate what race/class you went with for your main and then the rest of your party composition to support that choice. Please bear in mind that some of us are still early in the game so try to keep spoilers to a minium.

Please discuss!

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I was a Primal + Healing mage myself. My other party members were Alister, PUPPY, and Leliana(sp).

Not sure HOW good my party selection was. I wanted a rogue and 2 warriors. In retrospect i could've switched the puppy with some of the other warriors you stumble upon in your travels. Alister was better than him. Maybe the other warriors would've been better than the puppy, maybe not dunno.

 

[PhroX]

My last game I was a Control/Debuff focused mage, with Alistair, Sten and Leliana. Worked well, as it was pretty balanced overall. Alistair takes the hits, Sten does damage, Leli buffs everyone, and deals out a fair bit of hurt thanks to the archery fix (as well as being my romance option), and my mage keeps anything dangerous helpless.

 

[Leonel]

Human warrior was my favorite for a bit but I'm really liking my human mage! Casting an AoE fireball into a gaggle of darkspawn is pretty satisfying. Plus I'm a spirit healer too so I can heal Morrigan, Leliana and Allistar while mob controlling any yellow and orange bosses.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I was a Primal + Healing mage myself. My other party members were Alister, PUPPY, and Leliana(sp).

Not sure HOW good my party selection was. I wanted a rogue and 2 warriors. In retrospect i could've switched the puppy with some of the other warriors you stumble upon in your travels. Alister was better than him. Maybe the other warriors would've been better than the puppy, maybe not dunno.

Wow, you played with the dog? Did it do anything special story wise? I mean all the characters bring in some stuff to the table in terms of story and side-quests, for the dog, what happens? Does he ever interact with the characters (NPCs and your characters) randomly like all the other do? (no spoilers please I guess? I'm not done with the game)

My dog was called Turtleneck.

My party is me (tank à la Alistair, so I dropped him from my party), Leliana, Wynne and Sten.

You don't want to have more than 2 melee characters, seriously. I tried replacing Leliana with Zevran (the melee rogue/assassin) and it was kindda pointless. I imagine that if I had been a long distance character myself I may have considered him alongside Alistair. He was a little annoying as a character though.

Up to now, I find having Wynne in my party kind of boring too, I'd rather have Morrigan but at the time it seemed Wynne fitted better with my strategy. I'll just have to play with Morrigan next playthrough... I'm already hitting on Leliana this game anyway. moohaha.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Wow, you played with the dog? Did it do anything special story wise? I mean all the characters bring in some stuff to the table in terms of story and side-quests, for the dog, what happens? Does he ever interact with the characters (NPCs and your characters) randomly like all the other do? (no spoilers please I guess? I'm not done with the game)

My dog was called Turtleneck.

My party is me (tank à la Alistair, so I dropped him from my party), Leliana, Wynne and Sten.

You don't want to have more than 2 melee characters, seriously. I tried replacing Leliana with Zevran (the melee rogue/assassin) and it was kindda pointless. I imagine that if I had been a long distance character myself I may have considered him alongside Alistair. He was a little annoying as a character though.

Up to now, I find having Wynne in my party kind of boring too, I'd rather have Morrigan but at the time it seemed Wynne fitted better with my strategy. I'll just have to play with Morrigan next playthrough... I'm already hitting on Leliana this game anyway. moohaha.

Well the dog DOES interact with the party. But mostly in funny short "conversations".

My dog was Spot !

 

[Fëanor]

Always Leiliana (except for final battle) + very often Sten + and Mostly Shayle or Orghren, gay elf dude died way to often, dog has only overwhelm that's awesome so he was left behind often
The Dragon i could beat only with Morrigan and Wynne(sp?) on the team and a helluva lot of potions.

Final battle was actually much easier, thanks to the mage's cirle horde i reckon, never even used the elves or dwarves or human allies.

Spoiler final sequence :

My team for the final battle was Sten, Oghren and the Traitor dude, mostly because my 3 best weapons were all 2handed. Obviously the Traitor ended up being the one whom took one for the team.

 

[scherbchen]

I agree that you don't want 3 melee type characters, mostly they just get in each others way.

right now I am breezing through nightmare mode with Alistair, Wynne, Morgaine (yeah, 2 mages is pretty lame) and myself as the backstabbing, smart-mouthed duelist/assassin sidekick. toughest fight was against the high dragon so far but only because he kept going straight for me both at first and then after I got revived. so it was tank-tank-tank and nuke that bugger with staffs, sigh.

 

[MobBoss]

Well the dog DOES interact with the party. But mostly in funny short "conversations".

My dog was Spot !

A buddy of mine used the dog to some degree and said it would bring him random loot when asked to 'fetch' or something like that. Nothing wrong with free loot.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

A buddy of mine used the dog to some degree and said it would bring him random loot when asked to 'fetch' or something like that. Nothing wrong with free loot.

He does ! However most of what he finds are gifts iirc.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

First time I played an city elf rogue and had Alistair, Wynne and either Leliana or Morrigan with me for the most part.
Leliana and Morrigan are both good for ranged combat, but if your PC can pick locks Morrigan is much better with the right spells. I would often initiate a fight with Morrigan casting cone of cold and have my rogue use riposite, Alistair use overpower and Wynne use stone fist to shatter the first three enemies.
Sometimes I would substitute Alistair for the other melee fighters but compared to Alistair and Shale the others tend to die pretty often and I only use them to listen to their bickering.

I now started a game as a mage and took the healer role for myself, leaving Wynne in the camp most times. I always have Leliana to pick locks and use Morrigan more often, but this time she focuses more on her shape shifting powers and fights on the front lines.

 

[scherbchen]

with two mages I can usually take out a fair number of opponents out of large white/yellow spawns. allistair and my rogue run side by side. I stun the first two and allistair takes over while riposte and dirty fighting are on cooldown and they die pretty wuickly due to auto-backstab against stunned targets. it's pretty rare I even have to heal against most spawns.

against orange opponents who are not the high dragon allistair will engage the big mob and the rogue takes out whites or casters first while mages keep allistair alive (wearing juggernaut, lifegiver and starfang longsword he can take quite a beating and will build up enough of aggro via damage and skills alone untill the rogue gets there) and crowd control yellows who are eventually dispatched by my rogue and staff-fire.

ran into the first big problems today in the deep roads with my players at level 18 and forced to take the berserker dwarf while making my way to the broodmother and had to reload a couple of times. running two mages did coddle me somewhat I suppose.

then again this setup (2 mages, allistair and backstabber rogue) is as close as you can legally get to cheating on your second playthrough I suppose. nevermind that I spent probably upwards of 450 gold on items by now.

 

[Riffraff]

Well atm I'm playing with a warrior dwarf (noble) with the shield branch. He recently got the reaver specialization, so he's got a nice heal spell which means I don't need Wynne really (killed her anyways...) . Main party consist of Morrigan and Sten - not quite sure on my rogue yet, I'm using Leliana currently but I'd like to swap to the elf later, once he's got a few levels in lockpicking.

 

[kcwong]

He does ! However most of what he finds are gifts iirc.

Yeah, like a "found cake" with dog spittle on it... it's a gift item alright, but I have no idea who would want it.

Also there're some landmarks all over the place, and you can take your dog to mark it. I found one in the last area (after you choose a party for the last battle), so I don't know what finishing this secret quest will do.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Also there're some landmarks all over the place, and you can take your dog to mark it. I found one in the last area (after you choose a party for the last battle), so I don't know what finishing this secret quest will do.

I dont think there is any quest about this. If you mark the area, he gets mabari dominance activated all the time while in that area. It boosts some stats cant remember which.