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Dragon Age: Origins Nightmare Guide by David Milward


INTRO & ABOUT  |  CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES  |  EQUIPPING CHARACTERS  |  COMBAT GUIDELINES  |  CHARACTERS
Areas in Order of Appearance:  
Origins  |  Ostagar  |  Lothering  |  Circle Tower  |  Warden's Keep (DLC)  |  Return to Ostagar (DLC)  |  Stone Prisoner (DLC)  |  Brecilian Forest  |  Redcliffe  |  The Urn of Sacred Ashes  |  Orzammar  |  Deep Roads  |  Denerim  |  Final Onslaught  
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Brecilian Forest: 
Dalish Camp  |  West Brecilian Forest  |  East Brecilian Forest  |  Upper Brecilian Ruins  
Lower Brecilian Ruins  |  Werewolves' Lair  |  Random Encounters  |  Mages' Treasure  |  Leliana's Quest  |  Wynne's Quest  

EAST BRECILIAN FOREST

Lost to the Curse

Now that I'm in the Dalish Camp, I speak with Athras, who's towards the southwest corner. He wants me to find his wife, Danyla, while I'm in the forest.

I enter the East Brecilian Forest through the path where I found the Ironbark. I go ahead a little, and get attacked by a trio of Werewolves. Aldarion makes things fairly easy by hitting them as they're coming in with a well-placed Cone of Cold.

I go further on a little towards the west side and find Danyla, who has become a Werewolf. I could choose to leave her, but she'll force me to kill her anyway by attacking me. I instead choose to end her life mercifully.

I bring news of Danyla back to Athras, and get Athras' Pendant (+4% spell resistance) as a reward. Its spell resistance bonus isn't a big deal, so I don't have much use for it beyond being a bargaining chip with the Mad Hermit.

Mythal's Blessing

This time I return to the East Brecilian Forest, but through the other path. I continue on to the central section of the east forest, and end up in another fight against three Wild Sylvans. This time they're tightly clustered together, so I naturally oblige with Cone of Cold.

A nearby corpse has a buckler called Mythal's Blessing (+1% melee critical chance, 10% to healing effects), which I don't have any use for.

Steel Spiked Collar

Now I continue northwards. A pair of Bears comes after me, but Aldarion makes things fairly easy by catching them with a Cone of Cold. I continue further north still and run into two Ogres at once. Fights against multiple Ogres can be quite unpredictable, since they can either use different talents at once, or use the same talents at the same time. I can't really do better than to offer the following general guidelines:

It otherwise becomes a matter of wearing them down while Wynne uses her healing abilities.

At the end of the north pathway is a graveyard of sorts, with plenty of random items to be looted. The one set item is the Steel Spiked Collar (+1.5 armor penetration, +6 armor). There will be better for the Mabari Hound though.

The Mad Hermit

Now I make for the east side of this section of the forest, where I find the Mad Hermit. The Mad Hermit is willing to trade the Acorn, the Ancient Elven Helm (+25% spirit resistance), and a history book. What he wants in return are certain odd items, which I won't list here because I already address this in my previous walkthrough. As it happens, I trade the Hermit for all three items since I have the Tales of Iloren from getting Cammen his girlfriend, Athras' Pendant, and Deygan's Boots.

I don't stop there. I also take the Golden Ring (+1 Constitution) from the nearby tree stump and provoke the Mad Hermit into a fight. He summons two Greater Rage Demons, which in addition to the Hermit's own spells, can make this a deadly fight. As it turns out, Rage Demons take extra damage from cold spells, so Aldarion carefully aims his Cone of Cold to catch both the Hermit and the two Demons with it. He then follows up with a Shock spell. One of the Demons dies relatively quickly, so Aldarion casts a Winter's Grasp on the other one. The priority is to rob the Hermit of his help as quickly as possible. The Hermit managed to resist my Crushing Prison, and gets off a Blizzard spell. Now I have to do things the hard way, which is to say painstakingly walk everyone out of the Blizzard and then aim missile weapons at the Hermit. He soon falls under the sustained missile fire.

One of the items that Aldarion loots from the Hermit is the Dreamsever ring (+10% spirit damage). This will be one of Morrigan's rings for the balance of the game, since many of her spells rely on spirit damage. Zevran will wear the Ancient Elven Helm for the time being. Sten will wear the Golden Ring for the balance of the game.

Oak Branch

I then bring the Acorn back to the Grand Oak, who in turn gives me the Oak Branch (+1 Magic, +2 Constitution, +10% nature damage).

I then return to the East Brecilian Forest. A large group of Bandits will have taken over where the Mad Hermit used to be. Alistair teases them around a bend in the pathway. I then set up the usual Earthquake + Blizzard + Tempest. Leliana and Wynne drill them at a distance, while the others cut down any who come forward.

At the south end of the Forest will be a magical barrier that prevents progress. Simply having the Oak Branch in your inventory (or the Magical Wolf Pelt if you sided with the Hermit by killing the Grand Oak) will be enough to remove the barrier.

Witherfang

Next is my second confrontation with Swiftrunner, who will be towards the south side of this section of the forest. Here I want to milk as many experience points as I can by killing every other Werewolf besides Swiftrunner before I bring him down and start the next cutscene. Cone of Cold + Shock makes for a good start. Wynne uses Stone Fist to Shatter one that did get frozen. Once Swiftrunner is brought down as the last survivor, Witherfang intervenes.

Gatekeeper

Immediately ahead will be a graveyard with a few item containers. One of them has a Black Onyx Statuette which I gift to Alistair.

I then turn to my right and press on. Another Werewolf named Gatekeeper retreats.

Now I enter the Upper Brecilian Ruins.



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