How much cunning for mage?

[Ragnoraok]

I saw online that you need 16 cunning to progress discussions. Is this correct? I vaguely remember that you are able to keep a staff very early on if you are able to persuade Irving, but I forget how much cunning that you need.

[bayomaycry]

Originally posted by Ragnoraok:

I saw online that you need 16 cunning to progress discussions. Is this correct? I vaguely remember that you are able to keep a staff very early on if you are able to persuade Irving, but I forget how much cunning that you need.

cunning for mage is not required at all. if you wanna do all them persuades though, iirc you need 17 or 18 cunning for all four. but realistically, you only need like, two or three points in coercion.

[Redman]

You only need 16 to max out coercion but apart from that, Cunning has no value to a mage. To keep the Blackened Heartwood Staff, you need one point in Coercion to persuade Irving.

Also don't invest at all in Cunning because the Mage tower I believe grants you enough of it to reach 16.

[Ragnoraok]

Originally posted by Redman:

You only need 16 to max out coercion but apart from that, Cunning has no value to a mage. To keep the Blackened Heartwood Staff, you need one point in Coercion to persuade Irving.

Also don't invest at all in Cunning because the Mage tower I believe grants you enough of it to reach 16.

How do you reach the mage tower?

Is that the Harrowing ceremony at the beginning of the game? I think I messed up, because the sequence was much shorter than I remember my last playthrough. I defeated the rage demon, exposed Mouse, and then it ended. The last time, I remember going through many more levels, although that might have been a later quest.

[ADEC Inc]

Human mages don't need any points spent in Cunning after the Fade, but elven mages would need one point spent.

Scratch that, mages start with 11 base anyway.

[Redman]

Yes, the one you went through was intended to be short. Don't worry about it and just play the game. Eventually, you'll get the chance to return to the Circle Tower again where you'll go through an extended Fade sequence and this is when you can find fonts that will grant you permanent increases to your attributes. Cunning being one of them.

This is from the Dragon Age Wiki:
Font of Strength (x4)
Essence of Dexterity (x4)
Essence of Willpower (x4)
Essence of Magic (x2)
Essence of Cunning (x5)
Essence of Constitution (x2)

As you can see, you get 5 cunning points in total.

[Ragnoraok]

Originally posted by Redman:

Yes, the one you went through was intended to be short. Don't worry about it and just play the game. Eventually, you'll get the chance to return to the Circle Tower again where you'll go through an extended Fade sequence and this is when you can find fonts that will grant you permanent increases to your attributes. Cunning being one of them.

This is from the Dragon Age Wiki:
Font of Strength (x4)
Essence of Dexterity (x4)
Essence of Willpower (x4)
Essence of Magic (x2)
Essence of Cunning (x5)
Essence of Constitution (x2)

As you can see, you get 5 cunning points in total.

Ahh. thanks. Damn, I wasted cunning I already. I'll just do another playthrough since I didn't get far anyways.

[Dragon Master]

Yeah, cunning is really only important for rogues. Especially if they get the "lethality" rogue skill that replaces cunning adding to weapon damage with strength if cunning is higher.

[Mauman]

Originally posted by Redman:

You only need 16 to max out coercion but apart from that, Cunning has no value to a mage. To keep the Blackened Heartwood Staff, you need one point in Coercion to persuade Irving.

Also don't invest at all in Cunning because the Mage tower I believe grants you enough of it to reach 16.

There's a few persuasion checks that need more than the bare minimum cunning + master skill level.

[_____]

Originally posted by Ragnoraok:

Originally posted by Redman:

You only need 16 to max out coercion but apart from that, Cunning has no value to a mage. To keep the Blackened Heartwood Staff, you need one point in Coercion to persuade Irving.

Also don't invest at all in Cunning because the Mage tower I believe grants you enough of it to reach 16.

How do you reach the mage tower?

Is that the Harrowing ceremony at the beginning of the game? I think I messed up, because the sequence was much shorter than I remember my last playthrough. I defeated the rage demon, exposed Mouse, and then it ended. The last time, I remember going through many more levels, although that might have been a later quest.

It is indeed a later quest. After the events at Ostagar with the defeat of the army and Duncan and the majority of the Wardens, you get sent to a village. After *that*, you start gathering allies of the various factions, including the Circle of Magi at the tower. The order in which you do so can impact a few things, as can your conversation choices. When you go to the tower as a Warden to recruit them, you fight a bunch of demons that broke through to the real world as well as fighting a sloth demon in a dream he forces your party into.

[Ragnoraok]

Originally posted by _____:

Originally posted by Ragnoraok:

How do you reach the mage tower?

Is that the Harrowing ceremony at the beginning of the game? I think I messed up, because the sequence was much shorter than I remember my last playthrough. I defeated the rage demon, exposed Mouse, and then it ended. The last time, I remember going through many more levels, although that might have been a later quest.

It is indeed a later quest. After the events at Ostagar with the defeat of the army and Duncan and the majority of the Wardens, you get sent to a village. After *that*, you start gathering allies of the various factions, including the Circle of Magi at the tower. The order in which you do so can impact a few things, as can your conversation choices. When you go to the tower as a Warden to recruit them, you fight a bunch of demons that broke through to the real world as well as fighting a sloth demon in a dream he forces your party into.

Thank you for this information.