Is it possible to make Alistair and Morrigan happy?

[MonkeySage]

I like both of these characters, but it seems the strangest things make them unhappy.

Like, not being a jerk to Alistair makes Morrigan unhappy.

I'm not particularly interested in any romance paths (although Alistair is kinda cute, but I'm playing male and don't know if the game allows that, lol).

[Giggling Ghast]

I had them both befriended in my canon DAO run.

Alistair appreciates humour and approves of helping people; however, he really doesn't appreciate anyone badmouthing his surrogate father figure Duncan. Morrigan appreciates an open mind about magic and loves jewelry, so be on the lookout for those gifts.

You cannot romance Alistair as a man. However, if you want a gay love interest, you can recruit a bisexual party member named Zevran.

[VoxRationis]

Morrigan is perhaps the hardest person to please in dialogue if you're playing a decent person; however, she's the easiest to please with gifts. Give her shiny things. Gold and silver are best; fortunately, you'll find a lot of those.

I often do roster-swaps between dungeons or when I'm about to do a side-quest. If you're comfortable being two-faced, you can say Alistair-pleasing things when he (and probably Leliana and Wynne, since they all like the same options 95% of the time) is around and Morrigan-pleasing things when she's around. Keep in mind that a lot of major story decisions will become known to your whole party regardless of who's with you when you do them. I've lost Wynne that way.

[JadedDM]

I befriended them both, too. I would take Alistair with me on missions and do nice things, which made him happy. I'd leave Morrigan at camp, and just shower her with shiny gifts, which made her happy.

[Sajiri]

As much complaints as Morrigan seems to get, I never had a problem with her while playing a good character and I romanced Alistair. Early on it feels like unless you choose the most cruelest options, she'll be unhappy no matter what, but by the time you can start talking to her more in the campsite there were plenty of options there. But I think really if you want to play a good character, just leave morrigan behind and take alistair out. If you want to play evil, do it the other way around.

I might be wrong, but I always felt that the gender you play as had an effect on how easy it was to befriend Morrigan and Sten. It's been a long time since I played DA:O but I recall with Morrigan I had at least one conversation that eventually ended with her laughing 'oh men are so silly' with my female warden. Meanwhile I had a very hard time finding the options that would make Sten happy, and he had a whole conversation about 'you're a woman. That means you cant be a warrior' where most choices ended in disapproval that my husband playing a male warden never had.

[Kish]

As other people have said, it's pretty easy. Just throw gifts at Morrigan. Alistair is good and Morrigan is evil, but it's not hard to get Morrigan's approval all the way up with a thoroughly good character. One important thing for this goal:

Do not spare Loghain. No matter what anyone else says, Alistair will consider that an extinction-level offense.

[Zevox]

It's extremely easy to make everyone in your party happy in DA:O, honestly. Just look up which gifts get bonuses when given to each character, and give every one you find and can buy the appropriate character. From there, as long as you don't do anything the character disagrees with immensely (which are pretty darn obvious - I'd give examples, but it sounds like this is your first time through the game, so spoilers and all), you're good.

[Lethologica]

I usually had both of them in my party. Honestly, I never really had trouble with either of them even so, although sometimes I'd stuff Morrigan in the corner while I petted a dog or something. Mostly it's enough to be their friend, although Alistair sometimes like jokes and Morrigan sometimes expects you to be as cynical as she is.

And yes, gift mechanics are your friend.

[MonkeySage]

Gift mechanics are very interesting. I gave Leliana a bushel of flowers and she took it very well, lol.

[Douglas]

It's possible, if you pick all the right dialog options, to get Morrigan to something like 90% of maximum approval and romanced before you even reach Lothering, just by talking to her a lot. There might have been a gift involved too, I don't remember, but mostly dialog. I did that at least once.

As I recall, it involves a chain of dialog options that are unlocked by increasingly high levels of approval, each one attainable via the ones with lower approval requirements. I used a guide.

[Giggling Ghast]

Gift mechanics are very interesting. I gave Leliana a bushel of flowers and she took it very well, lol.

It's not the best system, honestly. That's why gifts largely go by the wayside in subsequent Dragon Age games.

[MonkeySage]

I think I may have screwed up... o.O

Apparently I initiated romance with Morrigan by accident. It's not something I was at all interested in, is there a way to end it softly? Like, without lowering approval?

[Zevox]

There is no way to end any romance without lowering approval.

[MonkeySage]

Oh goody... It apparently started with the conversation where she asks why I kept probing questions. I said something that I figured would just be a goofy friendly thing, "You can probe whenever" or something like that.

Nothing else since, but now apparently I'm in the romance? Didn't even know it was that easy to initiate it. Most games make it very obvious you're going into romance territory.

Worse, I didn't even realize I made this mistake until about 20 saves after that conversation.

[Kish]

Break up with her and suck up the approval loss then--it's not going to matter much in the grand scheme of things. (Whether that will include future games thinking the Hero of Ferelden finished the game romantically involved with Morrigan, even if you break up with her now...is something I'm a little curious about.)

[Dienekes]

As much complaints as Morrigan seems to get, I never had a problem with her while playing a good character and I romanced Alistair. Early on it feels like unless you choose the most cruelest options, she'll be unhappy no matter what, but by the time you can start talking to her more in the campsite there were plenty of options there. But I think really if you want to play a good character, just leave morrigan behind and take alistair out. If you want to play evil, do it the other way around.

I might be wrong, but I always felt that the gender you play as had an effect on how easy it was to befriend Morrigan and Sten. It's been a long time since I played DA:O but I recall with Morrigan I had at least one conversation that eventually ended with her laughing 'oh men are so silly' with my female warden. Meanwhile I had a very hard time finding the options that would make Sten happy, and he had a whole conversation about 'you're a woman. That means you cant be a warrior' where most choices ended in disapproval that my husband playing a male warden never had.

Sten's easy. Just tell him to shut up and get in line. So long as you don't actively antagonize him just telling him to stop talking usually ends with you getting some respect. He admires people who don't sugar coat and know how to lead.

[Keltest]

Sten's easy. Just tell him to shut up and get in line. So long as you don't actively antagonize him just telling him to stop talking usually ends with you getting some respect. He admires people who don't sugar coat and know how to lead.

Amusingly enough, there is also a point in the game where you can literally beat the crap out of him to get approval.

Sten is very straightforward and goal oriented. he doesn't appreciate diversions and he doesn't understand why you aren't just marching up to the darkspawn and punching them to death. Why the developers didn't include a dialogue option to the effect of "because that's obviously suicidal and therefore unhelpful" is beyond me, but there you go. A Qunari in the third game says that his people pick leaders from the ones willing to make decisions and live with the consequences. Doing that generally earns approval.

[Giggling Ghast]

See, this is why they included heart symbols with the flirtatious dialogue options in future Dragon Age games. :smalltongue: