Dragon Age DLC Campaigns

[LibraryOgre]

So, how do these work? I know some of the DLC (like Warden's Keep) are just part of the game once you've downloaded them, but others, like Witch Hunt, are separate, short, campaigns that are supposed to give you something in your main game once you complete them.

Do you have to complete them before a certain part of the game to get the benefits? Before the game? I've never been clear on it, and so haven't played them.

[Dire_Flumph]

Yes, no specifics since it's your first time, but after a few areas the game basically opens up, and you'll have access to Warden's Keep from the camp (someone will be in your face about it there whether or not you've bought the DLC, which is where the infamy for it comes from). Return to Ostagar and The Stone Prisoner open up locations once you have more access to the full map.

The others are separate campaigns. If I recall correctly, you start a new game and select the DLC. Leliana's Song is a prelude into the backstory of one character, but I wouldn't play it until you have a handle on the game first. Witch Hunt should not be played until after completing the main game as it is an epilogue concerning the fate of one character in the game. The Golems DLC is pretty hard, I wouldn't start out with it.

Edit: Of the DLC, I'd do the Stone Prisoner first as soon as you can attempt it. The other two in-game DLC can wait until you progress a bit further. I'd wait until after completing the main story before doing the new campaign DLC.

It unlocks a new party member and I like Shale. You probably want to unlock her before doing the Orzammar questlines.

[GloatingSwine]

Chronologically, the order is:

Leliana's Song
Origins
Awakening
Golems of Amgarrak
Witch Hunt

That also means that Golems/Witch Hunt are aimed at high level characters who have completed the main game and Awakening.

Darkspawn Chronicles is a non-canon alternate ending to Origins.

[Taevyr]

Warden's Keep, Return to Ostagar and Stone Prisoner are part of the main game, and are automatically available in-game once installed. You can complete'em any time before endgame, but I'd complete Stone Prisoner early for companion reasons. You do get rewards in the main game for completing the campaings that aren't part of the main game, but these aren't necessary in any way to complete the game.

As for the others:

Leliana's Song is a prequel exploring Leliana's past, in which you play as her. Happens before the main campaign, obviously.

Darkspawn Chronicles are a "what-if" campaign played as the Darkspawn Vanguard. Never played through it myself.

The other campaigns happen post-main game, and can be played with either a new character, or an imported character from a completed main campaign. These are the only ones I'd say you have to play through to get the full story of DA:O. You can play through each in order, importing your growing character as you continue.

In chronological order, these are:

Dragon Age: Awakening, which is practically a complete game on it's own, though smaller in scope than Origins.

Golems of Amgarrak, which is a single quest area.

Witch Hunt, which is essentially a series of smaller quest areas/dungeons in pursuit of a certain character.

[LibraryOgre]

Ok, let me clarify:

I have played, but not beaten, Dragon Age: Origins before. I have played it for quite a while, even getting into the Alienage in Lothering, having completed pretty much every quest outside of Lothering, first. However, I did not engage with the separate campaign DLCs, because I was not sure when I needed to play them to accrue any benefits gained from playing them. Do I need to play them before I play the main campaign? Can I play them during? If there are material benefits to playing them during a given play-through, when do you have to play the non-integrated DLC campaigns in order to gain those benefits?

Like, if I'm in Ostagar, post Joining, and I take a break to play Leliana's Song, does Battle Dress of the Provocateur appear in my inventory when I reload my Ostagar save? Does Leliana bring it into the game with her? Do I have to start a new game to get this item?

[Dire_Flumph]

Yes, the way I remember it working is achievement based. For example in Leliana's Song, if you get all of the armor pieces it gives you an achievement. Once you start or load Origins, that achievement should unlock the bonus armor in your inventory directly (I'm shaky on this, but I think the Tier ranking on unlocking is relative to your current level)

[Keltest]

Yes, the way I remember it working is achievement based. For example in Leliana's Song, if you get all of the armor pieces it gives you an achievement. Once you start or load Origins, that achievement should unlock the bonus armor in your inventory directly (I'm shaky on this, but I think the Tier ranking on unlocking is relative to your current level)

The tier ranking is flat. Its always the highest tier available in that expansion. So in the base game its tier 7 (or whatever the max is) and in Awakening its Tier 9 (or whatever the real number is).

[LibraryOgre]

Yes, the way I remember it working is achievement based. For example in Leliana's Song, if you get all of the armor pieces it gives you an achievement. Once you start or load Origins, that achievement should unlock the bonus armor in your inventory directly (I'm shaky on this, but I think the Tier ranking on unlocking is relative to your current level)

Thanks. Maybe I'll detour through them, then.

[Aeson]

I will comment that the bonus items you get in the main campaign from completing the DLC minicampaigns are kind of unbalancing - they're generally very good items for as early in the game as they're available and a couple of them are if I recall correctly in the running for best-in-class in the entire game, and the items individually and especially collectively represent quite a bit of potential wealth, either directly as something you sell to vendors or indirectly because they let you sell some stuff that you'd otherwise be using and allow you to avoid spending gold on items that you know you're going to replace later but would otherwise want to have right now - and they also represent a fair bit of inventory clutter if you're not going to either use or sell them immediately.

Having the items from the minicampaigns isn't going to break the game, but they do have quite a bit of potential to make the early part of the game easier.

[LibraryOgre]

I will comment that the bonus items you get in the main campaign from completing the DLC minicampaigns are kind of unbalancing - they're generally very good items for as early in the game as they're available and a couple of them are if I recall correctly in the running for best-in-class in the entire game, and the items individually and especially collectively represent quite a bit of potential wealth, either directly as something you sell to vendors or indirectly because they let you sell some stuff that you'd otherwise be using and allow you to avoid spending gold on items that you know you're going to replace later but would otherwise want to have right now - and they also represent a fair bit of inventory clutter if you're not going to either use or sell them immediately.

Having the items from the minicampaigns isn't going to break the game, but they do have quite a bit of potential to make the early part of the game easier.

I appreciate that but, TBH, I don't care. I kinda hate the item grind, so the option to have great items available near the beginning (gonna have to get my strength up, which might put a crimp in my already-wonky advancement plans) is always something I like.

So, just to derail my own topic, I'm kinda curious as to why people like the Dwarven Noble background so much. I mean, the story there is depressing, and, unless you're a male who chose to tumble the husband-hunters, it never comes up again beyond a word or two. The dwarven commoner, on the other hand, has you fighting to keep your sister safe, and getting to kill the bastard who was using her, and then getting to leave with all of your stuff.

I mean, I have not played any of the human or elven backgrounds... pretty much 100% of my time has been a dwarven rogue... but between the two, I vastly prefer the dwarven commoner.

[Taevyr]

Well, to be fair, every one of the six origins is rather depressing and ends badly: canonically the events of each origin happen in each game, but you just happened to pick the one in which Duncan intervenes to recruit the person in question: e.g. the Dwarf Noble dies in the deep roads without Duncan's interference, and the Dwarf Commoner starves to death in the Carta's compound without Duncan to take'em away from Orzammar. Not to mention that the Commoner has to leave their sister and mother behind in the slums, without any means of earning money as you were the one doing so, so not exactly a good ending even if he/she survives.

Dwarf Noble is fun because you get a feel for dwarven politics, can run into a companion from the origin in Denerim, and because it ties in closely with the Orzammar questline, making it feel more personal. Dwarf commoner similarly ties into Orzammar, but from a vastly different viewpoint.

Personally, my favorite has to be city elf. It's depressing as hell.

[Keltest]

Well, to be fair, every one of the six origins is rather depressing and ends badly: canonically the events of each origin happen in each game, but you just happened to pick the one in which Duncan intervenes to recruit the person in question: e.g. the Dwarf Noble dies in the deep roads without Duncan's interference, and the Dwarf Commoner starves to death in the Carta's compound without Duncan to take'em away from Orzammar. Not to mention that the Commoner has to leave their sister and mother behind in the slums, without any means of earning money as you were the one doing so, so not exactly a good ending even if he/she survives.

Dwarf Noble is fun because you get a feel for dwarven politics, can run into a companion from the origin in Denerim, and because it ties in closely with the Orzammar questline, making it feel more personal. Dwarf commoner similarly ties into Orzammar, but from a vastly different viewpoint.

Most importantly for the Dwarven Noble though, it gets you access to by far the best value merchant in the game. Gorim in the Denerim market gives Dwarven Noble wardens the highest price for sold items you can find anywhere in any DLC, as well as a pretty solid shield if you use one.

On that note, never sell anything to the merchant in your camp. He is the anti-Gorim, giving all wardens the worst prices for sold items in the game.

[Morty]

I will comment that the bonus items you get in the main campaign from completing the DLC minicampaigns are kind of unbalancing - they're generally very good items for as early in the game as they're available and a couple of them are if I recall correctly in the running for best-in-class in the entire game, and the items individually and especially collectively represent quite a bit of potential wealth, either directly as something you sell to vendors or indirectly because they let you sell some stuff that you'd otherwise be using and allow you to avoid spending gold on items that you know you're going to replace later but would otherwise want to have right now - and they also represent a fair bit of inventory clutter if you're not going to either use or sell them immediately.

Having the items from the minicampaigns isn't going to break the game, but they do have quite a bit of potential to make the early part of the game easier.


I appreciate that but, TBH, I don't care. I kinda hate the item grind, so the option to have great items available near the beginning (gonna have to get my strength up, which might put a crimp in my already-wonky advancement plans) is always something I like.


I was going to say, anything that alleviates the desperate scrounging for decent equipment in the early game is a plus in my book.

[LibraryOgre]

Ok, let me clarify:

I have played, but not beaten, Dragon Age: Origins before. I have played it for quite a while, even getting into the Alienage in Lothering,

Bah. Denerim.

As for Rica... I mean, yeah, you have to abandon her to go with Duncan, but you also do so knowing that she's hooked a noble, at least for now, and that your friend Leske will look after her as best he can (or, at least, watch her butt), and you come back to her being the mother of Bhelen's son, which is a not-bad-at-all position for her, especially since Bhelen seems to like her.

Whereas the noble either kills their brother or is framed for his murder, by their other brother.

And has to abandon all their money and gear.

[Keltest]

Bah. Denerim.

As for Rica... I mean, yeah, you have to abandon her to go with Duncan, but you also do so knowing that she's hooked a noble, at least for now, and that your friend Leske will look after her as best he can (or, at least, watch her butt), and you come back to her being the mother of Bhelen's son, which is a not-bad-at-all position for her, especially since Bhelen seems to like her.

Whereas the noble either kills their brother or is framed for his murder, by their other brother.

And has to abandon all their money and gear.

Sure, but you can just casually order people to be executed up until that point and have a kid with a noble hunter. From a roleplaying perspective, i think the Dwarf Noble has the biggest range of potential personalities, from "completely awful in every way" to "Genuinely nice and honorable dwarf prince".

Also, you get to keep the DLC items if youve earned them, and the tunnel leading out of the city actually has some of the best starting gear in the game too.

[GloatingSwine]

Personally, my favorite has to be city elf. It's depressing as hell.

Also you get to slap Cailan around the face with uncomfortable facts about his kingdom when he asks how you got to join the grey wardens.

He deflates rather.

[LibraryOgre]

Beaten Leliana's Song and Tales of Orzamaar.

[Giggling Ghast]

While others have covered the basics, I'll note that The Stone Prisoner is generally meant to be started early on in the game, as it contains some good low-tier loot and brings in a new party member.

Warden's Keep is kind of mid-tier and should be completed after fulfilling one or two of the treaties.

Return to Ostagar is generally a late-tier DLC and should be completed before or after the Landsmeet (though before the final battle, obviously).

Awakening, Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt are all set after DAO. If you wish, you don't have to play as your Warden for those pieces of content, as you could choose a new character.


Personally, my favorite has to be city elf. It's depressing as hell.

Hell yeah!

[Morty]

I never played Return to Ostagar, but it felt a little gratuitous to me. Taking revenge on the ogre that killed Cailan? That's like taking revenge on a boulder in the avalanche that buried him. Though we do also learn some important things about the dearly departed king.

[Giggling Ghast]

I never played Return to Ostagar, but it felt a little gratuitous to me. Taking revenge on the ogre that killed Cailan? That's like taking revenge on a boulder in the avalanche that buried him. Though we do also learn some important things about the dearly departed king.

Well, the actual purpose of Return to Ostagar is to recover Cailan's arms and armour, particular the sword that once belonged to King Maric. Killing a bunch of darkspawn is really just a side benefit.

The ogre you reference is actually dead in the DLC, but gets re-animated by a genlock necromancer that acts as an unofficial BBEG. Killing it a second time nets you Duncan's sword and dagger, which are still embedded in the monster.

Also, the DLC allows you to decide what to do with Cailan's corpse. The darkspawn have his body on display as a trophy; you can decide whether to leave him there, pull him down and toss him to the wolves, or give him a proper burning. Depending on who's in the party, you can earn considerable approval or disapproval with companions.

On a final note, if you somehow did not recruit Dog earlier, you can do so in the DLC. Dog also gets some unique "dialogue,' so to speak.

[JadedDM]

Return to Ostagar also gives you considerable more insight into why Loghain betrayed Cailan at the battle. (Not saying it justifies it, just gives you a better understanding of what he was thinking.)

[Dire_Flumph]

Return to Ostagar also gives you considerable more insight into why Loghain betrayed Cailan at the battle. (Not saying it justifies it, just gives you a better understanding of what he was thinking.)

I actually thought they did a good job with him defending himself, both at the Landsmeet and later if he becomes a Warden. I agree he wasn't justified, but I really liked that there was more reason behind it than just the power grab.

Although, anytime I see someone defend their decision to betray the Qunari alliance in Dragon Age: Inquisition, I always prod them if they noticed that their reasoning for betraying your allies and leaving them to die is usually suspiciously similar to Loghain's.

[Keltest]

I actually thought they did a good job with him defending himself, both at the Landsmeet and later if he becomes a Warden. I agree he wasn't justified, but I really liked that there was more reason behind it than just the power grab.

Although, anytime I see someone defend their decision to betray the Qunari alliance in Dragon Age: Inquisition, I always prod them if they noticed that their reasoning for betraying your allies and leaving them to die is usually suspiciously similar to Loghain's.

Loghain knew there was going to be a losing battle well in advance though, he didnt fall into unfortunate circumstances where somebody had to die regardless. He actively pushed for a weaker Ferelden force at Ostagar instead of waiting for the Grey Wardens and/or reinforcements from Redcliff. The reasoning may be the same, but the circumstances are different. He also pretty clearly had no intention of actually marching in at any point, and you can see he actually tried to talk the king out of being in the midst of the battle where the "foreigner" Grey Wardens were going to be. He may not have pulled out as a power grab specifically, but he clearly never had any intention of going in to begin with and set things up such that he and his loyalists would be the survivors while the Wardens would die in totality.

[Giggling Ghast]

I actually thought they did a good job with him defending himself, both at the Landsmeet and later if he becomes a Warden. I agree he wasn't justified, but I really liked that there was more reason behind it than just the power grab.

Although, anytime I see someone defend their decision to betray the Qunari alliance in Dragon Age: Inquisition, I always prod them if they noticed that their reasoning for betraying your allies and leaving them to die is usually suspiciously similar to Loghain's.

An interesting argument. Certainly the two situations are similar, but there is a key difference:

Loghain’s paranoia about the Grey Wardens was largely unfounded and was doubly misguided considering the large gathering of darkspawn in the south. The darkspawn were the obvious threat, not the Wardens.

However, there are legitimate reasons to mistrust the Qunari, up to and including the fact they proceed with Dragon’s Breath whether you are allied with them or not.

[GloatingSwine]

Loghain's primary concern was that Cailan was planning to get rid of Anora because she was still childless and remarry the Empress of Orlais, giving Orlais almost de-facto rule over Ferelden again. (Especially because Cailan had almost no interest in the rule of the actual country and left most of that to his wife).

Meanwhile, the Grey Wardens that were expected to be coming were also Orlesian, and he is unable to regard them as being independent from that nation's military.

Cailan's letters you can find in Return to Ostagar hint towards that, and if you leave it until endgame and go back there with Loghain in the party he'll also mention it. (It was supposed to be part of the main plot but didn't make it in).

So Loghain saw his opportunity to remove what he thought of as a traitor king and preserve both the strength and independence of Ferelden by retaining his own forces and by ruling through his daughter. It would have worked better as a plot if it weren't for the few cutscenes we get of him before the landsmeet being him scheming like a saturday morning cartoon villain and his chief lieutenant Arl Howe being such an obvious git. Loghain was actually right, but the main plot did him dirty.

[Morty]

Well, the actual purpose of Return to Ostagar is to recover Cailan's arms and armour, particular the sword that once belonged to King Maric. Killing a bunch of darkspawn is really just a side benefit.

The ogre you reference is actually dead in the DLC, but gets re-animated by a genlock necromancer that acts as an unofficial BBEG. Killing it a second time nets you Duncan's sword and dagger, which are still embedded in the monster.

Also, the DLC allows you to decide what to do with Cailan's corpse. The darkspawn have his body on display as a trophy; you can decide whether to leave him there, pull him down and toss him to the wolves, or give him a proper burning. Depending on who's in the party, you can earn considerable approval or disapproval with companions.

On a final note, if you somehow did not recruit Dog earlier, you can do so in the DLC. Dog also gets some unique "dialogue,' so to speak.

I realize that the meat of the whole thing was an insight into what had gone down between Loghain and Cailan before the battle + some extra battles and loot, but the emphasis on that one ogre just felt a little silly to me, the way the marketing played it up.

[LibraryOgre]

Did most of the DLC, except for Golems of Amgarrak. I keep getting destroyed in the four-golems fight. Just SLAUGHTERED. But I finished the rest, including Darkspawn Chronicles. Now, I am lugging about a bow and a sword I cannot use, until I can.

[Giggling Ghast]

Did most of the DLC, except for Golems of Amgarrak. I keep getting destroyed in the four-golems fight. Just SLAUGHTERED. But I finished the rest, including Darkspawn Chronicles. Now, I am lugging about a bow and a sword I cannot use, until I can.

Yes, the four-golem fight is infamously difficult. I got through it with the use of a lot of traps and a nearly-indestructible Warden, and even then it was touch and go.

[Sloanzilla]

I feel like the Warden's Keep was vastly under rated. Easily my favorite DLC. Metal AF.

[Inarius]

Did most of the DLC, except for Golems of Amgarrak. I keep getting destroyed in the four-golems fight. Just SLAUGHTERED. But I finished the rest, including Darkspawn Chronicles. Now, I am lugging about a bow and a sword I cannot use, until I can.

Yeah Golems is actually hard compared to the rest of the DLC and main game. I beat it only barely with my mage character, it was a bit easier with my dual wield warrior only because I had so much defense I pretty much couldn't be hit so I didn't have to worry about the rest of my party dying off as much as I did with my mage. Its even worse if you're going for the achievement because you need to beat the fight on hard or nightmare, but you do get a nifty mace that has a stupidly high resale value allowing you to manage to have enough money to take advantage of the fact that the dwarven camp merchants inventory resets once after you leave lothering.

[LibraryOgre]

I am currently doing the ******* run through the Urn of Sacred Ashes, because I haven't unlocked Blood Mage or Reaver. I am finding Ranger to be hella useful, and I think before I pick up Zevran or Leliana's new specialization, I'm going to save, and see if both can have a summoned animal at the same time.

My rogue build is a little unorthodox... I'm a sword and board fighter, so my talents are only going to Rogue and Specialization talents. It creates a few bottlenecks, especially early on, but I find it a lot more fun, especially with a Ranger, who eats a lot of fatigue, anyway.

[Keltest]

I am currently doing the ******* run through the Urn of Sacred Ashes, because I haven't unlocked Blood Mage or Reaver. I am finding Ranger to be hella useful, and I think before I pick up Zevran or Leliana's new specialization, I'm going to save, and see if both can have a summoned animal at the same time.

My rogue build is a little unorthodox... I'm a sword and board fighter, so my talents are only going to Rogue and Specialization talents. It creates a few bottlenecks, especially early on, but I find it a lot more fun, especially with a Ranger, who eats a lot of fatigue, anyway.

Rogue is sort of odd in that most of their melee power comes from their own class skill tree instead of the weapon skill tree. I honestly dont know how much extra damage dual wielding contributes versus a single weapon, since most abilities dont work with backstab, up to and including the passive models.

And AFAIK, you can in fact have 3 summoned animals at the same time. One per character.

As for blood mage and reaver, you can actually save the game right before unlocking the specs, do the dirty deed, then reload and play the less pointlessly destructive route and still retain the unlocks. I think you can also buy tomes for them in Awakening in case you didnt get them before.

[LibraryOgre]

Rogue is sort of odd in that most of their melee power comes from their own class skill tree instead of the weapon skill tree. I honestly dont know how much extra damage dual wielding contributes versus a single weapon, since most abilities dont work with backstab, up to and including the passive models.


TBH, I think I'll wind up with a fair amount of power from Stealth 3, and am getting a lot from Stealth 2. At Stealth 2, you can throw bombs on people and remain undetected. At Stealth 3, you can disappear in combat. Poison, Bomb, Backstab solves a LOT of problems.



As for blood mage and reaver, you can actually save the game right before unlocking the specs, do the dirty deed, then reload and play the less pointlessly destructive route and still retain the unlocks. I think you can also buy tomes for them in Awakening in case you didnt get them before.

That's what I'm going for. I've got a save right before I talk to Kohlun the first time, and I'll bop back there after I learn it and be more of a jerk.

[Inarius]

Rogue is sort of odd in that most of their melee power comes from their own class skill tree instead of the weapon skill tree. I honestly dont know how much extra damage dual wielding contributes versus a single weapon, since most abilities dont work with backstab, up to and including the passive models.

And AFAIK, you can in fact have 3 summoned animals at the same time. One per character.

As for blood mage and reaver, you can actually save the game right before unlocking the specs, do the dirty deed, then reload and play the less pointlessly destructive route and still retain the unlocks. I think you can also buy tomes for them in Awakening in case you didnt get them before.

Basically you use momentum, the modal that gives you haste (but dont stack it with the actual haste spell unless you get the mod to fix the haste cap bug) and thats pretty much all you need from the dual wield tree. The passive that increases offhand damage is good, but the bleed one is bugged and the top tier passive isnt needed since daggers are best for rogues. Other than that the only somewhat useful thing in the DW tree is probably the single stun attack but its mostly just as a backup to the stun in the rogue tree which animates faster so should always be used first.

I can also confirm that you can indeed buy tomes for them in Awakening if you miss them the first time in origins. You can even save the game, buy the tome and reload the game just like with the quests if you're too cheap to take the gold hit for buying the tome.

[LibraryOgre]

I can also confirm that you can indeed buy tomes for them in Awakening if you miss them the first time in origins. You can even save the game, buy the tome and reload the game just like with the quests if you're too cheap to take the gold hit for buying the tome.

I am 100% too cheap for that. I unlocked Reaver, but will probably use a Tome for Blood Mage... since I'm not playing a mage, I don't want to go through to the Redcliffe one, yet.