Playing Dragon Age Origins for the first time

Play on Nightmare if you're on PC. Play on whatever on consoles because it plays really fucking weird.

Just go in blind, it's better than way. My first playthrough was really great. Just remember to get the Arcane Warrior spec when you get to the elven ruins so you can create a really OP mage next time.

I did? I know a little about Dragon Age lore, so I figured as playing as a non-traditional female Elf (warrior that doesn’t use magic at all) would be interesting.
I’m an achievement whore, so I’ll do it eventually.
What achievements should I worry about?

What's the most fun?

>I’m an achievement whore
you're on console, right?
get ready for a dozen different playthroughs lol

Get the mod that unlocks all the prestige classes. Otherwise you only get some of them near the end of the game once you finished building your character, and unless you want to do a second playthrough you never get to experience some of the most fun specs.

>Anything I should know?
You seriously need to calibrate your monitor.

Actually here's my tip: don't spec in Blood Mage if you're an asshole enough to unlock it in the first place because it's completely fucking useless

expect a somewhat unsatisfying ending, and make that a full-on cliffhanger if you have the DLC

expect to never have the itch from what remains unexplored after Awakening/Morrigan's Mirror scratched because the second game is almost completely unrelated and the third is an abandoned mmo stuffed into the skin suit of a single player RPG

blood mage is dope on the harder difficulties because it contains some of the only high impact aoe spells that don't FF

Yeah.. I don't mind. I tried to one hundred percent Prototype.
On Xbox 360.
What's wrong with it?

series starts like poetry ends like pottery
people started complaining about the tumblr writers who were starting to appear among senior staff interviews at bioware but we were at peak goobergate hysteria so a lot of folks wrote it off
then by the third game the story isn't even about you, it's about two Bioware donut steels that were just minor codex entries before the third game. You end up spending the entire game in the thrall of an elven god ... that will fall in love with you or something despite the fact that he's millennia old and capable of reality-bending... anyway it doesn't matter because nothing you do in the game mattered, since he'll ultimately leave you for his ~*one true elf god love*~ or some shit. The worst part is the game doesn't even have the stones to tell the player this directly or allow you any reaction to the fact that you're just a pawn in some stupid game to serve the ancient elves; it's just hinted at via the intertext on codex entries and then reinforced by the DLC.

That AoE might be useful but the other spells are really shit imo. Base spells, Arcane Warrior and Spirit Warrior have much better stuff. Also using HP to get spells never seemed ideal for me as a mage since you're not going to spend much on constitution unless you're going for Arcane Warrior anyway.

Still, it's more useful than Shapeshifter. I guess this one might also have its uses but for me it was so shit I actually forgot it existed. Don't get Shapeshifter, OP. And don't spec Morrigan on it either, save for actual useful stuff.

Theres some achievements that require you to make a decision at some points in the story. The achievements are clear on what you have to do iirc, and you will know when the decision comes. Theyre basically the big moments, like do you side with the mages or the templars, or do you side with the lady of the forest or whatever, or side with the elves. That type of shit. Just make a save file before making the choice, and revert back to get the other choice later on. Iirc, you dont even need to play through the other choice for some of them.

IDK if there's a NG+ or harder difficulty than what I played on, but I usually play games on the step below Mania/Insane/whatever and that AOE carried me through the rest of the game and Awakening with rare exception. It's insanely OP.

Is the DLC for DA2 literally just items and nothing else? So I can skip the entire thing?

What about for Inquisition?

No way there's something to do with Corypheus in DA2's DLC isn't there? I remember being so annoyed by the way he's introduced before someone pointed out he's been seen before.

Oh goddamnit, you're right. Looks like I need to find the DLC for this shit too. Might just pirate it all.

Exiled Prince adds a meh companion.
Mark of the Assassin is an ok add-on in Orlais.
Legacy is the coolest one since it has Corypheus and Grey Wardens and shit. Makes for a nice epilogue to the game too.

None as good or as big as Awakening tho (but to be fair it was an expansion pack)

Fuck. The way the list is arranged on the wiki is just random, so I assumed it was all item packs. Thanks

I mean I feel like I just assisted a suicide but whatever. DA2 is so bad I wouldn't even play it on a completionist run... and I'm pretty fucking autistic.

DA2 has item dlcs, but it also has story dlcs too. They are not expansions like DA Awakening though, theyre more like a short story chapters. 1-2 hours to beat them.