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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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Characters 
Aldarion  |  Alistair  |  Leliana  |  Mabari War Hound  |  Morrigan  |  Oghren  |  Shale  |  Sten  |  Wynne  |  Zevran  | 

WYNNE, SPIRIT HEALER

Wynne

Strength 14 Dexterity 14 Willpower 26 Magic 29 Cunning 16 Constitution 13

Starting Inventory: Silver Aron, Senior Enchanter Robes

Talent Selection

The setup that I describe here provides just the right mix of offensive damage, healing, and crowd-control such that you can pretty much rely on her as your sole mage from the word 'go', if you're so inclined. As a side note, I also have Wynne cherry-pick the Blood Specialization. What I mean is that she takes the specialization at 14th level in order to get its bonuses to spellpower and Constitution, but won't select any spells or abilities that are made available by the specialization.

Starting spells at 12th level

I have Wynne add the following spells through Tomes of Arcane Technique:
Spell Wisp - The bonus to Spellpower this sustained ability provides starts off pretty small, but it becomes quite large at higher levels. The bonus becomes well worth the rather small upkeep of 30 and fatigue penalty of 5%.
Lifeward - This is like using a Heal Contingency in BG2, and can often come in handy for either particularly intense battles or as a fail-safe against certain special attacks that inflict massive damage.

13th level

Haste - Increases attack speed (i.e. attack animations) by 33% while imposing a -5 penalty to attack. On the whole this really does enhance melee attacking power, especially when stacked with other sustainables like Telekinetic Weapons, Flaming Weapons, Miasma, Song of Courage, and then Rally.

14th level

Cleansing Aura - A great sustained ability for particularly intense and prolonged fights, since it heals everyone somewhat every few seconds even while Wynne is using another ability. It drains mana rapidly, so be discriminating about when you use it.

15th level

Flame Blast - Wynne begins to develop her powers over fire. This can be useful for when Wynne wants to damage a small cluster of foes that may be lined up next to her comrades.

16th level

Flaming Weapons - This sustained will add +20 points of fire damage with each weapon blow. Not bad.

17th level

Fireball - This is sometimes a preferable offensive option to what Aldarion can do depending on the situation. It comes out in a flash, knocks its targets off their feet, and continues to score lingering fire damage.

18th level

Grease - This spell can combine with another fire-based spell for one of the better spell combos in the game, Grease Fire. In fact, a Grease spell followed up immediately by a Fireball is one of the best combos there is because it allows Wynne to utilize both crowd-control and heavy damage almost instantaneously.

19th level

Inferno - Another useful lingering damage spell, and one that Wynne will be well equipped to use. Can be thrown in along with a Storm of the Century for good measure, or put on top of Grease for an especially deadly Grease Fire combo. *Note* Combining a fire spell with a Storm of the Century usually requires that the Storm be completed first, since a fire spell and a cold spell (i.e. Blizzard) will otherwise cancel each other out.

20th level

Glyph of Warding - For particularly crowded fights Wynne can plant this Glyph into the thick of things, granting bonuses to defense and mental resistance.

21st level

Glyph of Repulsion - This has more than one use. One is that it can be used as a method of crowd control by planting it at a narrow bottleneck (e.g. hallway) to keep the enemies back. If you cast Glyph of Paralysis on it before it expires, it will unleash the Paralysis Explosion combo. Wynne can also use it to drive back foes during particularly intense fights by planting it in the thick of things. She can also use it as a defensive resource by planting it right at her own feet after she has scored a lot of 'aggro' on the monsters.

22nd level

Arcane Shield - Now Wynne keeps this active to boost up her defense rating. This is useful not just when enemies get close to her but also when archers take aim at her.

23rd level

Staff Focus - Wynne does spend a lot of time firing away with her staff, so this certainly can't hurt.

24th level

Arcane Mastery - Adds +5 to Spellpower. Hard to argue with that.

Skill Selection

Starting

15th level

Improved Combat Training - Mages always have an interest in developing this skill tree, plus it gives Wynne a +1 mana regeneration bonus during combat.

18th level

Expert Combat Training - Same thing.

21st level

Master Combat Training - Rounding out this skill tree. She already has her Combat Tactics tree filled out as well, so anything after is just filler.

Script

Self: Any - Spell Wisp
Self: Any - Flaming Weapons
Self: Any - Haste
Self: Any - Arcane Shield
Self: Surrounded by at least three enemies - Rock Armor
Self: Health < 50% - Heal
Ally: Health < 50% - Heal
Nearest Visible Enemy: Attack

Wynne is rather minimally scripted, both because many of her abilities require precise placement or the right situation, and also to reflect her role as the 'quarterback'.

Inventory

Weapon: Staff of the Magister Lord
Helmet: The Libertarian's Cowl
Amulet: Aneirin's Token
Armor: First Enchanter Robes
Gloves: Cinderful Gauntlets
Belt: Belt of the Magister Lord
Boots: Magus War Boots
1st Ring: Ring of Ages
2nd Ring: Ring of Study

A lot of Wynne's items provide bonuses helpful to Mages, Magic, Willpower, defense, Spellpower, and mana regeneration. I've ditched the Reaper's Vestments in favor of the First Enchanter Robes, which provides bonuses to Magic, Willpower, and defense. Some of Wynne's items also provide bonuses to fire damage, her key source of offense. Ring of Ages offers elementals resistances, which is useful for a character who always tries to stay out of the thick of it. Aneirin's token will also augment the bonus to Spellpower that Wynne receives when she uses Vessel of the Spirit.

For those of you with the Witch's Hunt DLC, and even better option for Wynne's robe may be the Vestments of the Reaper (+9 Willpower, +6 Magic, +10 armor, +12% spell resistance).

Attribute Increases

I initially pump up Magic in order to access the fourth-tier talents in spell trees. After that I alternate between +2 Willpower +1 Magic and +2 Magic +1 Willpower with each level.


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