Playing a Templar in DAO

[Rithm Fluffderg]

I'm gonna be honest. I... love... paladins. Holy knights who strive to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Blessed by the gods with divine power to do good deeds. So you may be asking "so why do you wanna play a Templar, then?"

Well, that's certainly the reputation they have among non-mages and non-Templars in this universe. The idea is that I make a character who is quite fascinated with the Templars and thinks of them as this. So, naturally, when he (or she, I haven't quite decided) becomes a Grey Warden, they eventually convince Alistair to teach them how to be a Templar.

Well that's my roleplaying justification anyways. I'll worry about the rest of the roleplaying in the game itself.

With that out of the way, what I want advice in is... which combat style should I go for? Sword and shield to absorb damage? A two-handed weapon to spam skills with? Or dual-wielding weapons?

(Also I'm willing to mod the game, if it comes to that)

[Hjelpmooglene]

Sword and shield is all about tanking. You might end up just doing auto attack more than anything. Dual wielding and two-handed would probably be more fun if auto attack bores you. Two-handed weapon would be good if you like spaming abilities and having stun immunity. Dual wielding would be good if you plan to spam abilities and use auto attack. A two-handed warrior with champion/templar specs is a classic solo character. In the end, you have to make the choice what weapons you prefer.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

I plan to take this character into Awakening and have them become a Spirit Warrior, probably. Even if that goes against the Order's ethos.

Thinking about all of this, I've decided how to do this.

I'm gonna go for a two-handed warrior because two-handed fighting style benefits from more stamina, and Templar's Holy Smite benefits from a higher Willpower, so there's a synergy. And yes, that does mean I plan to invest in willpower, albeit to a secondary degree. Dexterity will be all but a dump-stat for me.

I'm tempted to go for an ironic romance with Morrigan. Why? Because I haven't done it yet. So I'll probably bring her along and have her focus on demoralizing the enemy. Otherwise, I'd probably romance Zevran? My templar could probably go either way. (If female, definitely Alistair. He's cute.) If I don't romance Morrigan, Wynne will fill the mage slot in the party. (Tempted to do that even if I *do* romance Morrigan)

I should probably install a mod that lets Sten learn two specs.

I want Leliana to be my singing archer who relies more on auto-attack than abilities (since that's apparently how archery thrives in this game). Or I could have her go dual-daggers, but positioning characters for backstabs is sometimes annoying.

I could go for both Zevran and Leliana and have them sing different songs.

I'd like Alistair in the party, since having two Templars isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's mostly the fact that apparently he's built poorly.

[SlackerBoe]

I love Templars, but hate paladins. Fortunatly for Templars my dislike of elves and mages leads to me keeping the streets of Ferelden clean of such trash and so they are awesome.

(Now let me see here)

If I could give you a suggestion it would be to get crazy:

http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/174/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fdragonage%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D174%26preview%3D&pUp=1

Edit Templar/Assassin/Spirit warrior Sword &shield

[Hjelpmooglene]

I always thought that Leliana was good for crowd control. Scattershot and Arrow of Slaying seem to be good for crowds of enemies.

As for Alistair, I don't think he's built poorly since you get him somewhat early in the game. I think most campanions in the game can be really good if built right. For an example, some people can't use either Leliana or Zevran. Some people can make Leliana good while others have trouble with Zevran and vice versa.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

I love Templars, but hate paladins. Fortunatly for Templars my dislike of elves and mages leads to me keeping the streets of Ferelden clean of such trash and so they are awesome.

(Now let me see here)

If I could give you a suggestion it would be to get crazy:

http://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/174/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fdragonage%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D174%26preview%3D&pUp=1

Edit Templar/Assassin/Spirit warrior Sword &shield

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid I'll pass.

Originally posted by SaveTheKupo:

I always thought that Leliana was good for crowd control. Scattershot and Arrow of Slaying seem to be good for crowds of enemies.

As for Alistair, I don't think he's built poorly since you get him somewhat early in the game. I think most campanions in the game can be really good if built right. For an example, some people can't use either Leliana or Zevran. Some people can make Leliana good while others have trouble with Zevran and vice versa.

Hm... fair enough. It's not like I'll be playing on the hardest difficulty yet (shocking twist: I am not the best at strategy RPGs!) so I suppose I could make anything work, really.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

bump

Any other mods you would recommend?

ETA:

Combat Tweaks looks interesting - especially since one of the changes is that Templar adds +2 Willpower instead of +2 Magic, and it also improves the damage of Holy Smites from the party. And it also makes it so that healing potions scale with constitution if it's higher than magic.

Do you think I should use it?

[SlackerBoe]

It depnds on what you're looking for. I would highly recommend looking at advnced tactics that fixes some of the games broken tactics as well as putting in some new ones (for example you can put revive targeting downed characters into tactics with it). Lock bash is a nice one if you want to loot without being a rogue and you can play with it's settings in the Ini to make it as difficult or as easy as you want. If you're looking to test out different build combinations there is also a few different respec mods.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Thanks. I installed Advanced Tactics and a Respec mod, in addition to a mod that lets me bring my hound with me as a fifth party member. And I did install a mod that gives Sten the proper amount of specialization points. Now the only question is, what should I do with him... if anything? Hmm.

Still thinking about Combat Tweaks simply because there's things about Origins' default combat system I just don't like.

[SlackerBoe]

I would suggest trying it out. I find the concept of modding games in order to change specfic mecahnics you don't enjoy into ones you do to be one of the best features of Pc gaming. I don't usually use Sten myself, so I'm hard pressed to give you suggestions with what to do with him.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

I would suggest trying it out. I find the concept of modding games in order to change specfic mecahnics you don't enjoy into ones you do to be one of the best features of Pc gaming. I don't usually use Sten myself, so I'm hard pressed to give you suggestions with what to do with him.

I might turn him into a Berserker/Champion, or maybe even a Berserking Reaver, since he seems to think Reaver powers are a good deal.

I'm gonna install Combat Tweaks, at least. It should have a patch to make it work with Amazing Tactics.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by peon:

why would you pump dex into a 2h warrior build?

I wouldn't. That's why it's a dump stat.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Holy crap I posted this over a year go and I've still yet to finish my Templar/Paladin run of this game.

Hahaha, I should probably get back to that.

One other thing I should mention is that I'm roleplaying this character (who is a lady, so she can get with Alistair... stupid heterosexual dorks that I don't feel like modding into bisexual dorks XD) as an idealization. She is the ideal paladin. Not an angry zealot who thinks all mages are evil, as she hasn't actually been indoctrinated into that mindset. She thinks magic itself is dangerous, and is probably a lot less liberal about mages than most of my other characters, but she'd rather save mages from themselves than kill them simply for being mages.

I believe she's also using a two-handed sword.

I think the last thing I did was do the DLC that lets you take back the keep. I don't remember the choices I made there, except that I believe I did destroy the experimental vial that would've given me blood powers. I'll... pick it up on an anti-hero reaver at another time.