The PC Version of Dragon Age Origins 2 (this doesn’t work on a PS3 or XboX)
The Mod to Equip Party Members I used version A-1 and not the most updated version. Unfortunately, that one doesn’t hide helmets, but the later version kept the characters in the appearance of their standard gear no matter what you put on them. For this tutorial to work, their appearance has to change.
There’s also a newer version of the mod: Diversified Followers. It’s more refined and current. This tutorial may not work with it, but if you can get it to work I’d go with this one because it’s updated.
Helpful but not necessary:
The Black Emporium DLC Vaddi
What this tutorial teaches you how to do:
Make whatever armor your companions are wearing look like something else. In this example, we’re going to replace the mage Champion set to Blood Dragon Armor on Anders.
Why would anyone want to know this?
Because you can swap armor you don’t like to look at for something you do. It will only change the look and it doesn’t touch the stats. This change will also allow you to put mage robes on non-mage characters, heavy armor on mages, and make them look basically like anything you want them to.
It’s for cosmetic reasons and fun. If this is useless to you, then plug in DA2 or Origins and rev your game back up. You can’t go wrong with that!
Instructions:
– Install the Equip Party Mod
– Download the pyGFF Editor
– First you need Hawke and Anders dressed how you want them to be. Hawke won’t matter, but Anders will need to be in something you plan to leave on him.
Note: this will not work on his standard companion armor that I’ve been able to do. This is my first modding experience in DA2, so I’m not going to say it’s impossible. It probably is possible, but I don’t know how to do it (yet.) If I figure it out, I’ll update this tutorial.
For my example, I put Anders in the Champion set. This is where Vaddi is helpful because you can use it to get any item in the game that you want.
I put Hawke in Blood Dragon Armor. This is where the Black Emporium is useful. My Hawke is a mage and normally wouldn’t have the Strength of Constitution to put on the Blood Dragon Armor. I used the Maker’s Sigh potion to change her stats and put the armor on her.
Note: You don’t have to have the Black Emporium. If you don’t, you’ll need to open another Hawke who can wear whatever you want to put on Anders (or whoever.)
– Remove all Anders’ rings, belt, and staff to help keep this simple.
– Remove Hawke’s rings, belt, amulet, and weapon(s).
– Quick Save your game. This will keep you from messing anything up if there’s an accident, and it’s also easy to find. F5 is the Quicksave default key. If you have to use a Hawke who isn’t in the game with whoever you’re altering (Anders here) then you’ll need to Quicksave for that game, too.
– Download the pyGFF editor if you haven’t already
– Open Editor (not editor.exe you’ll want the file which just says Editor.)
– Open your file(s) This one is for Hawke
You’ll have something which looks like this:
You want Savegame_PlayerChar
You want Savegame_PlayerChar again
Now go down to Savegame_Equipment_Items
Open up the 1. See where it says blood chest? This tells you that Hawke is wearing Blood Dragon Armor as the chest part of the armor. You can usually tell by the abbreviations what part of the armor is what if you think a minute.
– Click on the line just below 1, and you’ll see prm000im_blood_chest in the box below. Copy it by highlighting and a right click of your mouse.
– I suggest you paste this code onto a Notepad, Word doccument, Wordpad, or whatever your favorite storage program is. That way you won’t have to look it up again if you want to do this to another character someday.
– Do the same thing for lines 2 and 3. You’ll get these codes: prm000im_blood_boots and prm000im_blood_gloves. I didn’t change the helmet, thinking it would be hidden. It’s not on the images, but you’ll need to do the same for it if you want it to match.
– Close your trees by clicking the “-“ signs and make them “+” signs.
– If you’re using 2 different files, close your Hawke file and open your Anders file. If you have them together, as I did, then skip what I just said.
– Now go to Savegame_Partylist
Open Savegame_PartyPoolMembers
Click on the party member you want to change. In this case it’s 0 for Anders
Click on Savegame_EquipmentItems
– Click on the 1. Notice you see that abbreviation cht (chest) lgt (light) and champion. This tells you you’re looking at the Champion Mage set which goes on the body. Click on it and it will open a box at the bottom of the screen.
Note: When you look at this later it’s going to Say Blood Dragon Armor but it retains all the stats, including Item Bonus, for the Champion set (at least according to when you mouse over it.)
– Go to your Notepad (or wherever you stored your codes) and copy the chest part of the Blood Dragon Armor. prm000im_blood_chest in my example.
– Paste it in the box.
Click Save
Repeat for the gloves and boots on lines 2 and 3
Go to File at the top of the program.
Save
When prompted, tell it that it’s okay to overwrite. Remember, if anything is wrong, this was just a quick save. You can always delete it without ruining your game.
You should now have Anders in the Blood Dragon Set
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* Dragon Age Origins, the Toolset and all its characters belong to Bioware and their respective owners. This blog is dedicated to their work with fiction, tutorials, and things to share with other fans.
The actual content of this blog, however, is created by me. Please do not copy it in whole or part without a link back. You don’t need my permission to paraphrase, share links, or borrow any of my content. After all, it’s dedicated to Dragon Age. You can borrow it word per word or right off the page if you give me credit by linking back to my blog. It only takes a second, it’s appreciated, and that’s all I ask.
Grey Wardens, Dragon DA 2 and Cousland Surname (c) Bioware. Reginald belongs to me. You may not copy my art nor my post for reproduction anywhere (including the web) without my permission.
This all began as an experiment and an idea of a dramatic pose struck by my beloved Rogue, Reginald. It was done with Paint Shop Pro 9, a mouse, and patience. I did do a sketch of the armor and scan it in once I sketched out an outline with an IPen. I didn’t like it and went back to the mouse fairly quickly. The griffons were freehand drawn with the mouse which was easier than it sounds. This is my third piece of digital art that I’ve ever done, so I still have a lot to learn.
Image is a thumbnail, click on it for a full view.
This is Reginald Cousland, who appears in several pieces of my fiction. Here, he’s the Warden Commander of the Grey after the events of Dragon Age 2. His armor is customized and I deliberately changed some of it to befit a ridiculously strong (badly built since it was my 2nd playthrough to Origins) rogue. He’s strong enough to wear heavy plate, but tends to go a little lighter when I write for him. I removed some of the plates in his art and altered some other spots to fit his personality. He’s a dual wield rogue who favors Starfang.
Normally, armor picks up the world around it because it’s reflective. I’m just now learning digital painting so I did the light source and left it at that.
From humble beginnings, I decided to try an IPen which I bought for $20 back in 2009 during a sale. I didn’t like it and went back to my mouse, but here’s where Reg began.
Below I went back to a tracing of the outline and put in the armor with a pencil. Sometime you just can’t beat Old School for my needs. Maybe once I have a tablet I’ll change my mind.
Time to slap on the first colors. Originally, I planned on having the arm behind him and the scenery in the ruins of the Werewolf Lair. Things changed in the 70-80 hours it took me to do this.
Some serious LIPS going on up there… going to join the Rolling Stones, Reg? I got that fixed and also decided to reposition his arm for simplicity of design.
Here you can see I’ve been hard at work on his shading, turning him from 2D to 3D.
There he is below, waiting for a background. I accidentally chopped the top of his sword hilt off, but I’d done so much with the background, I didn’t want to go back and redo it all over again. Someday, I may remake the background, but I really wanted to move on to something new by this point. I also had to take into account Starfang is too short. The idea in the end was to make it look like Reg was teetering on the edge of a rafter somewhere (typical of him) and the sword is hanging down behind his boot and the wood beam.
The background is deliberately drab because Reg does his best work in the dark. Ahem. Anyway…
Image is a thumbnail, click on it for a full view.
To save time on my other posts (like the Builds) and to give more detailed information, I’ve compiled a list of the equipment I like best on my characters and NPCs. I’ve also included full information on how to get them or where they come from. That was just a little too much for the Build’s pages. I put some general info on those posts, so there will be some repetition. I was afraid if I put all of this on each page would be overwhelming.
This is by no means the only good equipment in the game, and you may have better luck with something else. I’m just sharing my experiences in what I like and use most often to get me most easily through the game.
You get this by going to Wade’s shop in Denerim and taking him Drake Scales. I think PS3 players have a couple more Drakes than the PC players do on Easy. PC players must collect all of the scales possible in the Haven / Ruined Temple area of the map. I saw at least 2 more on the PS3 when I played part of a game. One was in the Circle Tower and one was with the bearskarn in the random map encounter. (Both scared the life out of me, too, because I wasn’t expecting them to be there.) Take the scales to Wade and he’ll make you a “rough draft” set of armor. Go back to him with the rest of your scales and he’ll make you a better set.
Wade’s Superior Dragonbone Armor
You can also get other kinds of lighter armor with this quest. Just ask Wade to make you a different set if you need something for a Rogue. In order to get this quest, you must kill the Andraste dragon in Haven. Sneaking around it or allying with the Cult won’t allow this quest, I don’t think. She’ll drop some dragon scales (and a bunch of other stuff.) Take the dragon scales Wade. He’ll happily (and quickly) make you a set of armor.
Red Jenny Seekers: You get these by finishing the side quests given to you by Master Ignacio called The Trial of Crows.
Ignacio is located in the Denerim Marketplace. He has a receding hairline and will talk about traveling. In the dialog ask him if he needs any help. At first, he’ll say no, but to ask later. Next time you leave the city a messenger boy will give you a letter telling you to meet someone in a room in the Gnawed Noble Tavern.
Note: This quest can get bugged. Make sure either do it before taking Slim Coldrey’s side quest where you go into the back alley and steal the nobleman’s key or finish Slim’s then talk to Ignacio. The messenger boy is present for both quests, and if you try to do them at the same time, one may not trigger correctly.
After you complete the assassinations (which conveniently turn out to be allies of Loghain’s and help the Wardens) you’ll get the Red Jenny Seekers as a reward.
Libetarian’s Cowl – Found on a charred corpse in the Templar Quarters of the Circle Tower.
Here’s where to find it:
Cameo Cowl – Drops as a reward from the side quest Five Pages Four Mages. When going through the Circle Tower, look for the pages in the eastern chambers of the Great Hall (screenshots of the actual maps can be seen by clicking this link. It was too big for Photobucket.) Once you get all 5, you’ll have a random encounter while traveling. A shifty fellow named Beyha Joam will be there, and you confront him as being into forgery. When he’s dead, he drops the Cameo Cowl, clothes, and perhaps something else random and inconsequential.
Mage Gloves – There are a variety of mage gloves which will do 10% or 20% [element] damage. It could be fire, cold, nature, etc. I use these, but didn’t catalog them because you should find at least one pair during normal play. I think Uldred drops a pair, for instance.
Archon Robes
A simple set of robes I use for the first parts of the game because of the health regeneration. You find them in one of the chests in the Circle Tower. Exactly where to find them is on the map below.
Reaper’s Vestment
You can buy this from the Tranquil in the Wonders of Thedas shop.
Juggernaut Set – This set is found by disturbing wards on Tombstones through the Brecillian Forest. They will unlock a group of undead and a Revenant which you must kill. The Revenant will drop a piece of the set. (Area maps pending for when I go through the forest again with a character.)
The armor is found in the Werewolf Ruins. I’ll get screenshots of exactly where all this is next time I play the area. You must find a tablet with strange instructions on it – just keep looting and you’ll find it. Then you’ll come across a large room with a small fountain in the center. There’s a jug in the fountain. Unfortunately, you must have the tablet for it to work, but here’s what to do:
Fill the jug with water
Put the jug on the alter on the side of the room
Kneel and pray
Take the jug
Take a single sip of water from the jug
Take the jug back to the fountain
Pour all the water out into the fountain
This will open a hidden door. You must kill several shades and a ghost then you’ll get the chest piece to the set.
Rock Knocker Helmet – Dropped by the Broodmother and sold by Janar in Orzammar (be sure not to tell him you sent his daughter running off to study magic if you do that side quest. He won’t sell to you if you do that and tell him about it. Ignorance is bliss.) You can also buy one from Gorim in the Denerim marketplace.
Shields (Vanilla game):
Fade Wall
This is a random drop from Gaxkang in the side quest Unbound.
There’s a dwarf in Tapsters Tavern who is babbling and sounds crazy. Speak to him.
There’s another clue on a corpse in the Ruined Temple of Haven (see below for green spot on map. This is the actual place you’ll find it. Click to enlarge pictures.)
There’s a clue in the Werewolf Ruins. See below.
You go to one of the back alleys of Denerim and knock on the door.
Save your game.
Knock on the door. A dialog will open up about Gaxkang and you go in and fight him. This is likely not going to be an easy fight, and I think he’s ranked right below the Archdemon in how hard he is to kill. He’ll always drop the Keening Blade. He’ll also do a random drop of the Fade Wall Shield and something else inconsequential (gold, poultices, etc.)
Because the drop is random, you’ll probably have to reload your save. I’ve had him drop it the first time I killed him, but I’ve also had to kill him repeatedly for almost an hour before I finally got the shield.
Note that the healing effects are bugged on the PC. I’m not sure about the console. You can pick a mod up to fix it from my list of mods.
Howe’s Shield – Located in the Arl of Denerim’s estate. If you play a city elf you can start the game with a Denerim Guard shield which is a good early shield. The green arrow is where it’s actually located.
DLCs:
Battledress of the Provocateur – Leliana’s Song. Collect all the pieces as you play through the DLC and get the armor for Origin and Awakening.
Warden Commander Armor – Soldier’s Peak. Kill Sophia Dryden’s possessed corpse and collect this armor. If you go later in the game it’s better armor because your Warden is a higher level. I’ve read you can put lower level armor in the chest outside, leave the area, return, and it will be upgraded. I’ve never tested this and normally just go after I’ve completed a couple of the main Blight Quests.
I normally combine this with Rock Knocker because it doesn’t come with a helm.
Cailan’s Armor – recovered from various high level Darkspawn in Return to Ostagar. As long as you’re careful to pick up the drops you can easily get this. There’s some bugs associated with this set in Awakening at the Silver Mines. Unless it was fixed with the 1.04 patch, I’ve read your game can completely crash or the armor can vanish without returning when you’re kidnaped. To be safe, always save your game before you go into the mines if you’re wearing Cailan’s set.
Cailan also had a shield, but you don’t have to use it to get the set bonus.
Helm of Honnleath – The Stone Prisoner. This drops from the demon possessing the cat and called “Kitty.”
Vestments of the Seer – Comes with Witch Hunt. I think you get it for either finishing the DLC or just owning it.
Blood Dragon Armor – I’m very fond of this for the protection it gives and the +50 to Health. You get some of it automatically and have to buy the rest from the dwarf merchant in camp.
Lion’s Paw – I like to use these for starting characters and for medium level rogues.
Helm of the Deep – I like this because any character, even a mage, can wear it right away. There’s no strength requirement.
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* Dragon Age Origins, the Toolset and all its characters belong to Bioware and their respective owners. This blog is dedicated to their work with fiction, tutorials, and things to share with other fans.
The actual content of this blog, however, is created by me. Please do not copy it in whole or part without a link back. You don’t need my permission to paraphrase, share links, or borrow any of my content. After all, it’s dedicated to Dragon Age. You can borrow it word per word or right off the page if you give me credit by linking back to my blog. It only takes a second, it’s appreciated, and that’s all I ask.
Tips & Tricks / Cheats have been moved. The page was getting too cluttered. If you’re having problems with More Hairstyles, Pineapple Tree, CC’s Tints and Tones, etc. click on Technical link below for a possible fix.
Restoration of lost dialog, bug fixes, etc. in Zev,
Leliana, Morrigan, and Alistair. Also general bug fixes like missing items or not getting experience for quests.
Storage, Ser Gilmore, and anything which doesn’t fit
anywhere else.
Unfortunately, Mods will only work on the PC version of this game. If you’re a console XBOX or PS3 player, these can’t be used.
By my 5th time through the game, I started using mods for variety and to spice up the game. Some call this cheating, but I’m not posting to debate “cheating” or “not-cheating.” I’m here to share experiences on Mods I’ve used.
Mods Which I Have Not Tested with 1.04 Patch
Alistair Dialog Patch, Leliana and Zevran dialog fix. (Although Zevran Dialog Fix / ZDF itself has been tested.)
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Technical Mods
First and foremost, there’s a very common problem faced with installing Mods which change hair styles, skin tones, eye colors, add hair colors and other fun things for your character. You may have had the frustration of having one work, not the other, and not being able to get them to all work at the same time.
The reason for this is the all have a chargenmorphcfg file. Only one chargenmorphcfg will work at a time. Thus if you have 3 different Mods with 3 different chargenmorphcfg files, you get a recipe for instant frustration. You can edit them yourself if you feel up to the task, but I prefer things as easy as possible.
Thanks to some kind soul out there, you can have this taken care of in just a few clicks – no tutorials or coding experience needed. Try it, you won’t regret it.
This handy program is called the DA Modder. It makes for easy install / uninstalling of mods. DA Modder
I get so tired of “losing” Alistair in Lothering. Brown hair, brown eyes, brown armor, brown town. It’s like “Where’s Waldo” Dragon Age style. Put an end to that and other fugly armor by recoloring it – simple, neat and easy interface with a LOT of options. Universal Dye Kit
Sometime I like the helmets and think they look great. Other times… to quote Leliana about Ferelden shoes: “Yeeeeiiiick!!” This mod has been updated and I tested it for Awakenings and Origins. I like the option of seeing the faces of my party members if I want to. Show / Hide Your Helmet Be careful with this one and the Golems of Amgarrak. If you try and use it, your enemies don’t spawn. Be sure to turn it off before playing that DLC.
Change your Mabari to black or white. Change it into a wolf, Witherfang, or a Blight wolf. It does change other brown Mabari in the game as well, but I enjoy this little mod. War paint does not show up on the 1.04 patch Mabari Switch
Make your Mabari look like a Rottweiler. This only changes the dog in your party so you can use it with the mod above to change the other hounds if you want to. (Scroll down to the file you want.) War paint doesn’t show up on the 1.04 patch.The Rotty Mabari
Make your Mabari Grey – although like the Mabari Switch mod this will change all the Mabari in the game. It’s still a nice color if you like a grey dog. The war paint works for this one, but only on the NPC Mabari.
If you’re tired of putting runes into a weapon and walking down the street dripping cold or looking like you’re on fire, below is one for you. This removes the special effects on weapons when you put runes in them or if they naturally have the effect because of what they do. Spells like “Frost Weapon” still show, but other effects won’t. Worked in Awakening, too. Remove Weapon FX
This one removes the weird dripping light associated with activating a personal power like Berserker. You’ll flare for a few seconds to know it’s active then the effect goes away. Worked in Awakening, too. Personal FX Remover
The name says it all Sexy Mage Robes for the Human Male. This Mod replaces one of the robes with a sexier, shirtless version. (I’m female, so I like to stare at Anders in this one.) Video at the bottom with the Mod in action.
These two mods are also “Beefcake” for people who like to see a shirtless man. This one replaces the underwear with a pants only shirtless version. This is a replacement texture for the mod which will put hair on the chests.
Click to enlarge – this shows you what they will do.
Now if you want to run around Ferelden full time either in your underwear or in the pants, this mod will allow you to do that. All the protection and stats of your armor remain intact, but you see only a character in their loincloth or pants as above. Fully customizable so if you want to see your ladies looking sexy but not your men or vise versa you can pick and choose who you reveal in the party. Even works with Ser Gilmore.
Turn about is fair play – sexy female mage robes – you can also get a variety of sexy outfits for your female mages. I wasn’t impressed with these because many of them didn’t seem to do what I liked the way the vanilla Archon robe or the Reaper’s Vestment do. However, they will make your party drool worthy if you like to look at well dressed (or partially dressed) women. 😉 They seem to be well balanced and not intended to be game breakers.
Here is a large selection of sexy armor and robes for both men and women. There’s something in this mod for just about everyone, from simple bared arms on male mages, to more revealing armors for women (not an adult mod.) A little leg (and much more.)
Here are some other animal and tribal themed Tattoos, including the Dragon Age symbol which I used on my character Donovan. You can see him on the “What the Toolset Will and Won’t Do” as well as in my Cousland music video. I’ve also used one of the wolf tattoos on a Dalish elf. Good stuff! The modder also included some presets so you don’t have to know how to use the Toolset if you can’t or don’t want to. (See the below if you want to see the video with the tattoo in action.) More Tattoos (Includes Presets.)
Replace the “Can I get you a ladder so you can get off my back?” comment in the violent voice sets. This is not perfect and some people won’t find the replacement phrase to make sense. S/he will say: “Now I cloak my naked villainy” in replacement of the “Ladder” comment. This may seem odd since s/he may be doing nothing but opening a door or chest. If the ladder bit gets on your nerves and you love the voice set, however, you may want to give this a try. Violent Voice Minor Mod
Make your Mabari bark less. He still lets out the occasional “woof” but he’s not nearly as chatty with this Mod. Barker Breaker
The Witcher comes to Ferelden. I’ve never played The Witcher and this mod is listed in 2 places on this page. I got it strictly for the hair, and didn’t care about the armor (although it does have a great look and someone clearly had insane talent to create it) or the weapons. You might, however, particularly if you like The Witcher.
TMP’s mods are well worth watching if you liked the Grey Warden armor, Dog, or armors in Dragon Age 2. This modder is bringing a taste of II over into Origins. This is also where the armor came from in the screen shots I have of Alistair for wallpaper images. Check it out and bookmark if you like it, this is an ever expanding project.
Cosmetic Mods Which Can Conflict:
(But that can be easily fixed with the Mod at the top under Technical.)
More hairstyles for the DA Toolset or for the in-game character creator. More Hairstyles
If you need help using them in the toolset I put up a Tutorial. Use in the DA Toolset
Add a huge array of more skin tones (natural and fantasy), hair colors, tattoo colors, and brighten the eye colors. I like all of that so use the combo pack, but if you just want one effect and not all, you can get these individually. Search “pineapple” on Dragonagenexus if you want to look for them individually, or follow this link to get all of them at once: The Whole Pineapple
Even more skin, hair, tattoo and eye colors (for use in the toolset or with in-game creator.) CC’s Tints and Tones
This one doesn’t add a whole lot, but there’s a few scars and effects for you with the in-game generator and possibly the Toolset (never have checked on the Toolset.) Chargen Package
Alistair’s First Night – this is a very romantic replacement for the first time Alistair spends the night with his love. I’m not sure if there’s anything for dwarves, but there’s elf and human sequences. This is not classified as “adult” material on the site.
Improved kiss for Alistair – Give the man a kiss that knocks him out of his boots rather than the generic vanilla version.
Also by DahliaLynn (the same author as the kiss and First Night for Alistair and Ser Gilmore.): Alistair and Female Human Noble Wedding. True to her form, this exquisite scene is jammed with amazing animations and emotion. A must for the lady Wardens who love Alistair and marry him at the end.
61 Alistair Head Morphs. Exactly what it says it is. They’re very generic and vanilla changing eye color, hair color, hair style, and adding beard / stubble but not altering his features. I can call them bland – I made them. 😛
This one will allow you to keep your Mabari with you the same way a Ranger or a Mage can summon a “pet” to be with the group. It still functions 100% and becomes a 5th party member. Extra Dog Slot
Ever want to get Zevran in your group earlier? This mod triggers the cut scene with Howe / Logain hiring him just after Lothering. Zev will then go after you as soon as you leave Lothering. Zev ASAP
Slap Morrigan — The name pretty well says it all, and for those who aren’t “Team Morrigan” and she drives you insane, it gives you the option of a “light hearted mod that lets you slap Morrigan. Useful when she disapproves of you opting not to drown a bag of kittens. It overrides her main conversation with a new one adding the slap interaction.” Conflicts with Lady Olivia’s Alistair Dialog Mod and some others. Although some of my female Wardens have smacked her on occasion, this one often hasn’t worked for me. Slap Morrigan
Some of the Dialog Mods will conflict, others won’t. Where possible, I made a note of my experiences with them. All of them have been used by me.
There is actually original content in some of the dialog with Alistair and Morrigan (male and female Wardens) which was blocked out accidentally in the miles of code. This Mod unlocks Alistair’s content, as well as provide small tweaks which glitched in his dialog.
For female Wardens in a romance there’s some slight variants on what he says in camp. It’s all original content but (for example) rather than “Something you need my dear?” the Mod has him saying the “My love?” sentence from when you’d change over to him in play.
What I’m not personally fond of is that it changes one of the slides at the end. That’s not my thing, so I just uninstall it right before slaying the Archdemon. Alistair Dialog Patch
Be warned: It conflicts with the Slap Morrigan Mod and sometime other dialog fix mods. As far as I know, there hasn’t been anyone who has fixed this.
At the very bottom of the post there’s a copy of the conversation about the Joining which was restored by the Mod if you want to see it.
This fixes some bugs in Leliana and Zevran’s dialog, plus allows you to kiss Leliana or Zevran any time. You can also ask Leliana to sing at any time in camp. It didn’t conflict with Lady Olivia’s Alistair Mod. Dialogue Tweaks
I’ve only gone through the game using this mod (1.03 patch), so I’m assuming it fixed what it says it did. I haven’t played a city elf to the end while not using it, but the dialog with his love, Leliana, came up the way I’ve heard it described on the PS3 version of the game. I’m assuming it works. City Elf Romance Alienage Fix
Now for those who are “Team Morrigan” the Morrigan Restoration Patch / Dialog Fixpack is well worth it.
This is canon, so it will not change the game (or endings.) It does, however, unlock a lot of original content voiced by Claudia Black (Morrigan’s voice actress) and restore scenes which were cut. Like Alistair’s mod, it polishes up some places where her dialog wasn’t correct and fixes the Shapeshifting bug.
There are restored scenes were you have the option of protecting or betraying Morrigan to templars, return with her to Flemeth’s hut before her quest is done, getting busted for lying to her about the True Grimoire and the intended interaction between them when you return from the Wilds with the True Grimoire.
Now the down side: it doesn’t necessarily play nice. If it won’t work correctly, I suggest removing all other dialog mods. (Save your game frequently.) You’ll know for sure after you complete her personal quest. If it teleports you to her and she just stands there with her typical response to your Warden (“What comes, my friend?” Laughs, etc.) then you have a conflict. If it shows your Warden strolling across camp to her, then it’s working.
You’ll also know at the end of the Broken Circle Quest when you speak to Greagoir.
I did get it to work with the Zevran Dialog Fix mod which is specifically compatible and with Party Banter 5 which is part of the Zev Dialog Fix.
I realize it would be great if all the modders were able to release one giant mod that fixes all the dialog for everyone, but let’s be realistic… We’re not paying these people and they’re giving their hard work and time to the community out of the goodness of their hearts. Morrigan Dialog Patch
ZDF’s party banter fixes restores a LOT of ambient chat which was supposed to originally be in the game. These are all the original voices by the actors. Some of them are pretty amusing. I don’t know if it works with the other Dialog Mods other than Morrigan’s.
There’s a lot of great mods on this page, but so far all I’ve tested has been the Party Dialog Banter.
I plan on running a character to romance Zevran and being all about Zev where I’ll test out some of the mods specific to him. He hasn’t got his turn in the barrel, yet, since Audrie (the recycled female Warden mage with 5 different incarnations) has always been with Alistair.
If you feel adventurous, give them a try – they look like fun! Zevran Dialog Fix
General Fixes:
Plus Healing Received Fix – There’s a bug which makes the Healing Received on items obsolete. This fixes it.
Shadow Warden Armor – Mostly I just like the way it looks, to be honest… but it’s worked out well, too, without being game breaking. Seems to be about on par with some of the stuff I’ve gotten from vanilla DLCs.
Bow of the Forgotten Ranger – There’s very few bow mods out there, but this one was around some of the more powerful unique ones found in the vanilla game. It’s got a bit more punch than they do. Has optional arrows.
Ever wonder why you couldn’t complete the Blackblade Armor set in Awakening (which I don’t think they fixed even with the 1.04 patch)? Evidently it’s bugged, but this mod will restore it to where it’s supposed to have dropped in the game. There’s also an option to have it drop sooner if you want to use it more. Awakening Blackblade Armor Dragon Drop Fix
Bring your old friends / lovers from Origins to hang out with you in Awakenings. This Mod isn’t perfected, yet, due to scripting problems. Your old friends speak in text only for now and they can’t join your party. I still think it’s worth the mention because it’s great fun and it was nice to have them hanging around to say “hi” to. I thought the characterization was well done and what the modder had the people saying fit their personalities (my 2 cents on it, anyway.) Origins Friends in Awakenings.
Ser Gilmore NPC Mod – Be sure you read ALL instructions because this mod WILL conflict with a LOT of others. However, I think it’s worth it to take out your other mods and play this at least one time. I actually wrote a review on this one if you want more of my thoughts / specifics. There was too much to put here.
Of Noble Cast – this is a fun mod for the Origin story. I didn’t find it game breaking but did think it was a lot of fun. You start out wearing normal clothes rather than armor (it’s your brother going off to war, after all, not you) and have access to somewhat better armor as befits a noble. Adds a touch of realism as well as giving you slightly better stuff at the start.
Ever want to make Sten / Oghren use a shield, Alistair use a greatsword, Zev a bow master, put different spells on Wynne / Morrigan, or have Leliana a duel wield specialist? Ever put points on something and found out it was useless but didn’t want to start over just to fix it? This handy Mod lets you build your Warden PC and team however you want. Respec your party
Ever get tired of either having a Rogue forced into your party to open chests or switching over to them constantly to pick a lock? This mod solves that. You can bash open chests with “might or magic” and if you have Leliana or Zev with you, they automatically go to the door or chest to pick the lock for you. That’s what actually won me over on this mod. I missed that aspect of NWN. Works with Dragon Age Origins and Awakening. Lock Bash
Do you hate the Fade when the Sloth demon sends you to it in the Quest Broken Circle? If you do, try this one. It will give you all the boosts to your stats you’d get normally and all codex entries with limited play. You only have to go through your party member’s dreams and you’re done.
I used this one due to a bad crash and I hadn’t saved before I went into the Fade. I really, really didn’t want to redo the whole thing, so tried this Mod out. Worked perfectly for me. Skip the Fade
This allows you to play the Arcane Warrior mage at little more easily. I’ve gone through 9 or 10 incarnations of mages but found the Arcane Warrior to be tedious with the taking-the-weapon-out-putting-it-back-taking-it-out-again constant animation. At most, I’d put one block into it so I could have him/her wear armor and left it at that. This mod allows you to cast with your weapon out. Normally I fling spells first, anyway, then rely on Shapeshifting, running away or swordplay last so I didn’t find this a mod which overpowered the game. For me it just ironed out an irritation. Seems to be working in Awakening. Arcane Warrior Casting with Drawn Weapon
Although you get a camp storage chest at Soldier’s Peak, sometime I don’t want to do the peak right away. This will put a storage chest in your camp. Works with the 1.04 patch. Camp Storage Chest
Want even more storage than ever? Try Innodils Pocket Plane This will give you more storage than you and most of Ferelden could ever possibly need. As a nice bonus it also allows you to buy any crafting supplies. You have to pay for them, just like anywhere else, but it’s convenient. I haven’t tested this in Awakening, yet, but where some of the other mods have been buggy this has been solid and worked perfectly. Be careful with it and DLCs, however. It will conflict with Witch Hunt and needs to be turned off before playing it.
Hug your virtual friends and family in your Origin. If you’re human, your brother and father are about to go to war. Your mother is leaving the estate to you (and we all know how things end up.) Hug your parents. Hug your best friend from childhood, Tamlen, if you’re a female Dalish elf.
Romance Cullen a little bit with a female mage. The stolen kiss is top notch cinematography. This also unscrambles some of Cullen and Jowan’s responses and corrects them – it contains some dialog fixes for those two. Cullen Romance / Dialog Fixes
No Friendly Fire – yes, I know, fans are in 2 very opposite camps about this effect. If you don’t want to use it, don’t download it! 😉 This removes friendly fire from all modes and not just Easy.
Randomize Dragon Age – This is an amazing little mod which put more kick into my game. It’s completely customizable to make it harder or easier depending on how badly you get maimed. This will insert new creatures (even bosses) randomly and also put in new drops.
The Witcher comes to Ferelden. I’ve never played The Witcher and this mod is listed in 2 places on this page. I got it strictly for the hair, and didn’t care about the armor (although it does have a great look and someone clearly had insane talent to create it) or the weapons. You might, however, particularly if you like The Witcher.
Add Awakening items to Origins like the Sentinel Set, Hirol’s Set, and other items. It will also allow you to use all the advanced skills from Awakening while in Origins. In order to add the items you will also need the Mods below: Add Item, Make Console Commands Visible, the link to the codes (I suggest printing the ones you want out), and may want to read up on how the Console works (link provided.)
Add Item Mod – allows you to put anything into Origins or Awakening via the Console.
Shut Gorim UP! This does exactly what you’d think. Gorim (that dwarf in Denerim who keeps saying: “Dwarven crafts! Fine dwarven crafts!” will only say it once.
Remove circles from beneath the feet of characters and enemies. This will either completely remove the circles or make them lighter – your choice. Makes the game a little more realistic. Very subtle, but I found I really like it.
Learned Shapeshifting Forms – this one has the potential to be a game breaker. You can shapeshift into everything from a Deepstalker to a High Dragon. Personally I found some of the forms just too large or the natural monster shape to obstruct my view. I’ve stayed to the Darkspawn, demons, and werewolf shapes because of that. All in all, a really fun mod to play around with, however. Only works on the Warden and not on Morrigan or the NPCs.
Extra Quickbars – I lamented the days of Neverwinter Nights where you could push a button and bring up a new bar at the bottom of your screen. For mages, in particular, you end up having to pick and choose what you want in your quickbar slots with DA:O. This will give you three quick bars rather than just the one in the vanilla game. A GREAT addition for mages and almost a must for the Shapeshifting mod listed above. If you can’t find the arrows, they’re under the Skills menu.
Over 100 beautiful Head Morphs for the PC and more constantly being added. I like to make my own morphs but sometime it just isn’t possible for people. If you can’t use the Toolset because your computer won’t handle it, or maybe you just don’t have the knack for making people look how you want to. Some of these are presets, some are files you drop into your override, but take a look if you struggle with your Warden’s looks. There’s every race, both sexes, and everything from the gorgeous to the otherworldly.
I get a lot of hits from people looking for the sex and nudity mods. There’s no link for those here, but I’m sure you can find them on Dragon Age Nexus. Join their site and if you’re over 18 you can search for anything you want.
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Whuffie's Dragon Age Blog 