Dragon Age: Origins Party

[Clo]

I'm currently playing DA:O, and I'm not certain about my party. I've been switching back and forth a lot, which I really don't want to do, and right now I have Alistair, Morrigan, and Zevran, and I feel like this sucks. Wynne seems like a better mage, and I don't know what to think about Leliana. I'm facing some indecision.

What parties did everyone use in this game, and why?

[Pheesh]

What character do you play? That will probably have a pretty big impact on who you should pick.

I used to use Morrigan, Wynne and Alistair. My character was an Arcane Warrior. I liked having Morrigan for big AoE spells and what-not, Wynne as a healer, and my character used to tank. Although a lot of the time I used to just leave out Wynne and put in Leliana, because I would get so frustrated at not being able to open chests.

I'll probably start up a new game soon though, and see if I end up changing my line-up at all.

[Clo]

Oh yeah. I'm playing as a Warrior. And I don't find Rogues particularly useful most of the time, besides the chest opening thing.

[Pheesh]

Yeah, if you're a warrior Wynne is probably very helpful, her healing is essential (I got the healing spells on my Arcane warrior up enough so that I could leave her out and be relatively safe). I'd suggest putting in a tank (assuming your warrior isn't set up as one), plus Morrigan and Wynne. But I liked the two mage set up (hell, I liked 3 mages), and someone else could probably tell you an equally helpful strategy.

[Flying Arrow]

My party generally consisted of Main (Mage), Leliana, Wynne, and Alistair. Wynne's a great healer, and my Main was also a Spirit Healer, so the team was never short on health. This worked well enough for a while until my main also specialized as an Arcane Warrior - I never saw a game over screen again.

Rogues are good for the chest-opening thing, aside from backstabs, trapping, etc. There's not very much that's useful in chests, but you can make a good deal of money selling any loot. Also, just opening chests by itself probably doubles the parties XP in any given dungeon. Rogues are necessary for that reason alone.

[Nominus Experse]

loremipsummagnuscarta

[Iceglow]

My ideal party settings consisted of a tank (usually a guy with a 2h weapon such as Sten or Ogrhen of myself an interesting choice here is to use Dog he's not as powerless as you'd think even in the end game) The tanks job was simply to get as much attention on him as possible and to smack the crap out of it, because of how the game mechanics work, enemies target the biggest threat so put a tank in massive armour, give them a massively damaging weapon (the 2handed version of Starfang if you have the warden's keep dlc is perfect for this) and then set them to have Threaten on continuously. Then you have a rogue and a warrior with sword and shield (Zevran is great for less morally good players and if you're playing the evil side of the game perhaps it's not a good idea to use Allistair here just equip Sten and have Alistair train him as a templar if not Leilana and Alistair are the best two for these roles) the rogue is there to open chests, deal with traps and generally you want a great bow on them so they can hang back and not get involved with the melee give them dual wielded weapons if you want them capable in the melee I found most of the daggers from the DLC packs to be brilliant some were better than main game longswords acquired much later in the game! Finally a mage to round the party off now I believe in giving all my mages some healing capabilities even if they don't have the spirit healer mega boost to healing magic. Therefore my personal choice was Morrigan but boy did I have a hard time keeping my good character's relationship values up around her.

Personally I never found Shale much use outside of the Ozramar quests where her abilities and the optional conversation pieces are awesome. Yes Shale is a huge tank of a character but is far slower than Dog and the speed shows in melee, even Sten is quicker and Sten I find to be quite slow by the time Shale gets in to the fight it's all but over if your rogue and melee warriors are quick. Though Shale is epic for just walking around with, especially with Morrigan in the party too they have the funniest conversations.

[Clo]

Yes! This is all very useful. My character is a Champion Warrior and the tank, and I'm switching out Morrigan for Wynne, and then I'll fiddle around with the other two characters, possibly keeping in Morrigan for a two Mage party. I might keep Zevran for the Assassin/backstab thing. But I have duel melee weapons on him now, and I'm definitely, DEFINITELY going to give that man a crossbow instead. I think I have another character yet to obtain anyway. I'll figure it out next time I load my game.


Morrigan just does not seem particularly useful as a singular Mage -- and it's nearly impossible to keep good relations with her unless you're an evil mothersmurfer who doesn't even bother with some major quests.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I am a fan of the two mages, a rogue, and warrior set-up. I use Wynne as a Healer, Morrigan as my DD, Alistair as my Tank and then my character was a Rogue so I would just DD with him and occasionally micro-manage the whole thing.

I dunno how the other rogues are given that I always played one and rarely used the others.

[McLovin']

Me (Arcane Warrior Mage), Sten or Oghren for that 2 handed awesomeness, Wynne for healing cause it really is a must...and then Alistair as a shield and sword tank. Works pretty well. And if you're bored you just switch over to Sten/Oghren for some melee fun.

[Ouch!]

Shale, Wynne, and Morrigan is typically the best set-up you're going to get for higher difficulties, especially if your main is also a mage. Shale takes hits like a champ and can get the attention of all your enemies. Tossing Force Field down to protect Shale if her HP gets too low can save your ass. Otherwise, Wynne keeps Shale alive while you and Morrigan pummel the hell out of everything else from a distance.

[Laddy]

My character was a Warrior, and I used Wynne, Morrigan, and Zevran for a totally balanced party!

[Iceglow]

I'm tempted to do an all warrior/rogue no mage party on a playthrough the criteria will be:

Alistair, Oghren, Sten, Leilana, Zevran and Dog are allowed.

Shale is on the fence of do I allow her or not, she's a DLC character and I'm kinda interested in keeping it to the main game characters only. Now I know that until I recruit Sten and Leilana in Lothering I will have no choice but to allow Morrigan in to the party, but there should only be 2 engagements involving her really so thats not a problem.

(SPOILER)I will also have no choice if I want to save the son of Bann Tegan but to allow Morrigan or Wynne to enter the fade. Same as if I want to actually recruit Wynne in the first place, she either joins the party in the tower or else she attacks you and you're forced to kill her. I might just kill her and be done with that though since I will not be using mages in combat except where forced to do so.

[Clo]

(SPOILER)I will also have no choice if I want to save the son of Bann Tegan but to allow Morrigan or Wynne to enter the fade. Same as if I want to actually recruit Wynne in the first place, she either joins the party in the tower or else she attacks you and you're forced to kill her. I might just kill her and be done with that though since I will not be using mages in combat except where forced to do so.

I had no idea that was an option! I should peruse a walkthrough for this game a little more closely.

Also, I'm currently in the Deep Roads, and my changed party was doing me WONDERS: Warrior, Alistair, Wynne and Oghren, for three heavy hitters and a spirit mage. I was plowing through the deep roads easily.

And then I get to the Broodmother, and now I wish I had Morrigan in there, because it seems like she's weak against fire, and the close-range people are lousy in this battle. I wish I had foreseen this or looked up the upcoming bosses somehow. The idea of backtracking to change my party is making me groan.

[Iceglow]

Equip crossbows/longbows and fire arrows. Works better than spells unless you have the massive AoE spell for fire.