Dragon Age II Forum Q&A

Dragon Age II lead gameplay designer Peter Thomas has taken it upon himself to answer any questions the community may have about “gameplay and RPG systems changes” over on the sequel’s official forums. A sampling:

What changes have been done to leveling and character development and it’s influence in combat.

Leveling is pretty much the same as Origins. When you get a certain number of XP you level. When you level you get a certain number of points to distribute in various categories.

The effect of levels on combat will be significant. Facing a much lower level enemy will allow you to tear through them pretty quickly. Facing a higher level enemy will be a challenge.

The power of the various abilities will progress with the power of the character as he levels and upgrades his equipment. Abilities are more intended to add new capabilities to the character, rather than another button to press or icon to click that does the same as everything else. These capabilities and how you use them in a given situation will determine your effectiveness.

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what exactly can you tell us about the 2h weapon skill tree or playstyle, and how is it different from origins?

The two-handed weapon style is focused on dealing the most damage to the most people. The Warrior class itself is focused on melee AoE damage, and two-handed weapons do the most damage over the largest arc. Compared to the Origins version, two-handed weapons will deal damage to an arc of enemies with each swing. The animations have been completely redone as well, with the impact event (when damage is applied to the target) moved to the front of the animation, rather than near the end (like in Origins). The result will be that you attack, deal damage almost immediately, then follow through with your swing.

Each of the weapon style trees are focused on attacks and abilities that are specific to that weapon type. The result of this is that a weapon style tree itself is smaller, and abilities that could be applied equally well to other weapon styles were moved to more general talent trees. The two-handed style is focused on power and AoEs.

Thanks, Gartar.