Dragon Age Origins...Bug in acquiring specialization while leveling up?

Arch Demon

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Currently the level of main character is 13 (I'm playing as a mage) and till I have not unlocked any specialization. The game manual says (and I quote)- "..the main character can choose two specializations, earning points at levels 7 and 14...". I never got any option to select any specialization when I reached level 7. Is this a know bug? Did any of you encounter this while playing DA:O ?
 

Happiness Assassin

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You can only unlock specializations by doing certain things in game to unlock them. You being a rogue (iirc) the 4 specializations are Assassin (learned from recruiting and befriending Zevran), Bard (learned from Leliana after becoming friends), Duelist (unlocked by "winning" against Isabela, who is at the Pearl in Denerim), and Ranger (a manual for which can be purchased from Bodahn).

Talk to all your companions and see if you can unlock their specializations. I believe the only one who doesn't give you one is Sten.

One note, unlocking a specialization in game unlocks it for all subsequent playthroughs, meaning you only have to unlock Arcane Warrior one time for it to use it on all future playthroughs, even if it is not for your specific class.
 

queenie

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Have you actually unlocked any of them, though? You can unlock Arcane Warrior during the Dalish quest, Blood Mage during the Arl of Redcliffe quest, Shapeshifting by talking to Morrigan if her approval is high enough and Spirit Healer if you buy a manual from Wonders of Thedas in Denerim.

If they're unlocked, and you can't actually choose one... erm, I don't know, then. Never happened to me.
 

NeutralDrow

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What the people above me said. Level 7 and 14 are when you can choose Specializations...assuming you have any. Hell, I was level 12 or so before I unlocked my first mage specialization and I'm still waiting to unlock a second (Blood Magic and Spirit Healer, respectively, because I am Elf Jesus).

On the plus side, from what I understand, once you unlock a specialization on one character, it's unlocked and immediately available to any character you make afterward.
 

Megalodon

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It's also worth noting specialisations aren't included in the usual level up screen/process, they're done separately. There should be a specialisations section somewhere on your character sheet, click on the (unlocked) icons to take the specialisation.
 

Arch Demon

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KazuhiraMiller said:
You CAN choose specializations at 7 & 14, if you've learned them. You need to get your allies to like you enough to go "Hell yeah, I wanna teach you how to fight like me."

I think Leliana is the easiest to get to like you enough to go "Okay, bud. Here's how you do that bard shit."
Thanks for your reply.
What did you mean by "..if you've learned them"? I thought that once a character reaches level 7 , then in the Level-up screen, you can just unlock a specialization. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?
 

Arch Demon

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queenie said:
Have you actually unlocked any of them, though? You can unlock Arcane Warrior during the Dalish quest, Blood Mage during the Arl of Redcliffe quest, Shapeshifting by talking to Morrigan if her approval is high enough and Spirit Healer if you buy a manual from Wonders of Thedas in Denerim.

If they're unlocked, and you can't actually choose one... erm, I don't know, then. Never happened to me.
I'm very sure I've unlocked at least one...for Alistair. And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
 

Steve Waltz

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Arch Demon said:
And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
You have to made a deal with the Desire Demon instead of killing it.

Also, if you have Dragon Age: Awakening you can just buy all the manuals there and not have to worry about it. That way you can avoid being an absolute bastard when it comes to unlocking the Reaver and Blood Mage specializations.
 

Furbyz

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Arch Demon said:
queenie said:
Have you actually unlocked any of them, though? You can unlock Arcane Warrior during the Dalish quest, Blood Mage during the Arl of Redcliffe quest, Shapeshifting by talking to Morrigan if her approval is high enough and Spirit Healer if you buy a manual from Wonders of Thedas in Denerim.

If they're unlocked, and you can't actually choose one... erm, I don't know, then. Never happened to me.
I'm very sure I've unlocked at least one...for Alistair. And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
Yeah, you have to let the demon have the kid to get it. Oh and under no circumstances pick Shapeshifter. You've probably figured out from Morrigan that it's just horribly useless, but I still feel the need to point that out.

They never stopped to realize that in the shapeshift form, your damage is governed by strength, so all those points in magic do nothing at all except on the last one and even then it's not anything impressive. Arcane Warrior is beastly though. Soloing the game on Nightmare is entirely possible with that.
 

Megalodon

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Arch Demon said:
Thanks for your reply.
What did you mean by "..if you've learned them"? I thought that once a character reaches level 7 , then in the Level-up screen, you can just unlock a specialization. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?
No, you get the specialisation points at level 7 and 14, but you need to unlock the specialisations through the plot before you can take them.
If memory serves, Morrigan can teach you Shapeshifter, the Arcane Warrior is aquired through a side quest during the Dalish arc, Wynne teaches you Spirit Healer (?) and the demon possessing Connor can get you Blood Mage.
However, once you unlock a specialisation, it remains unlocked for all future playthroughs, no need to unlock them,a second time.
 

NeutralDrow

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Steve Waltz said:
Arch Demon said:
And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
You have to made a deal with the Desire Demon instead of killing it.

Also, if you have Dragon Age: Awakening you can just buy all the manuals there and not have to worry about it. That way you can avoid being an absolute bastard when it comes to unlocking the Reaver and Blood Mage specializations.
Furbyz said:
Yeah, you have to let the demon have the kid to get it.
You can technically get Blood Magic in a non-bastardy way if you have Master Coercion and okay Strength, enough to make the highest intimidation check in the game. It's what I did, since getting it normally would otherwise have frightened me off.

Irving: "Now remember, desire demons like to tempt people with offers. Don't bargain with demons, it never works out."
Me: "I understand, master. I won't bargain with it."
*steps into the Fade*
Me: "Welp, he didn't say anything about not extorting demons!"
*finds demon*
Demon: "You're pretty strong, so I doubt I could take you in a fight. Tell you what, how about I leave for a while, and only come back later?"
Me: "I have a better idea. I'm here, you can't beat me, so you're going to leave the kid. Permanently, end of discussion. Now, what will you give me so I don't rip you apart?"
 

Furbyz

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NeutralDrow said:
Steve Waltz said:
Arch Demon said:
And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
You have to made a deal with the Desire Demon instead of killing it.

Also, if you have Dragon Age: Awakening you can just buy all the manuals there and not have to worry about it. That way you can avoid being an absolute bastard when it comes to unlocking the Reaver and Blood Mage specializations.
Furbyz said:
Yeah, you have to let the demon have the kid to get it.
You can technically get Blood Magic in a non-bastardy way if you have Master Coercion and okay Strength, enough to make the highest intimidation check in the game. It's what I did, since getting it normally would otherwise have frightened me off.

Irving: "Now remember, desire demons like to tempt people with offers. Don't bargain with demons, it never works out."
Me: "I understand, master. I won't bargain with it."
*steps into the Fade*
Me: "Welp, he didn't say anything about not extorting demons!"
*finds demon*
Demon: "You're pretty strong, so I doubt I could take you in a fight. Tell you what, how about I leave for a while, and only come back later?"
Me: "I have a better idea. I'm here, you can't beat me, so you're going to leave the kid. Permanently, end of discussion. Now, what will you give me so I don't rip you apart?"
How much strength are we talking? I can't imagine stacking strength as a mage, but if it's achievable by gear, that's pretty cool.

I didn't mind letting the Desire Demon have the kid so much. Because it gave him time enough to become a fully trained mage with at least a chance of defending himself, it seemed like a pretty decent deal with the devil overall. Or at least that's how I'm remembering it. I'm honestly not sure if that's accurate and it's been a long time since I played DA:O. I did think it was kinda funny that you have the option of dooming Redcliffe in 20 years or so for sex.

Now getting the Reaver specialization...could never do it. I mean that's just a level of bastard I can't achieve. Especially since Leliana was one of my core party members. Doing that will instantly cause her to leave and turn hostile.
 

Terminal Blue

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Furbyz said:
How much strength are we talking? I can't imagine stacking strength as a mage, but if it's achievable by gear, that's pretty cool.
It's a "very hard" coercion check, so you need to beat a score of 100. Each point of the coercion skill gives 25 score, so with the max 4 levels of coercion the check will succeed even with strength 1.

With strength 26, you should be able to do it with 3 levels of the coercion skill.

Strength 51, 2 levels.

And so forth.

One other thing to remember is that unlocking a specialization unlocks it for all future playthroughs (unless that's been fixed, it's been a long time since I unlocked the specialization). So if giving the kid to the demon bothers you you can do it once, unlock the specialization and then reload a previous save. Same with reaver.

Which is handy, because reaver is boss.
 

Rayce Archer

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If you want shape-shifting, and you plan to use Morrigan much, be careful. She stops teaching it if she likes you TOO MUCH.
 

Arch Demon

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Furbyz said:
NeutralDrow said:
Steve Waltz said:
Arch Demon said:
And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
You have to made a deal with the Desire Demon instead of killing it.

Also, if you have Dragon Age: Awakening you can just buy all the manuals there and not have to worry about it. That way you can avoid being an absolute bastard when it comes to unlocking the Reaver and Blood Mage specializations.
Furbyz said:
Yeah, you have to let the demon have the kid to get it.
You can technically get Blood Magic in a non-bastardy way if you have Master Coercion and okay Strength, enough to make the highest intimidation check in the game. It's what I did, since getting it normally would otherwise have frightened me off.

Irving: "Now remember, desire demons like to tempt people with offers. Don't bargain with demons, it never works out."
Me: "I understand, master. I won't bargain with it."
*steps into the Fade*
Me: "Welp, he didn't say anything about not extorting demons!"
*finds demon*
Demon: "You're pretty strong, so I doubt I could take you in a fight. Tell you what, how about I leave for a while, and only come back later?"
Me: "I have a better idea. I'm here, you can't beat me, so you're going to leave the kid. Permanently, end of discussion. Now, what will you give me so I don't rip you apart?"
How much strength are we talking? I can't imagine stacking strength as a mage, but if it's achievable by gear, that's pretty cool.

I didn't mind letting the Desire Demon have the kid so much. Because it gave him time enough to become a fully trained mage with at least a chance of defending himself, it seemed like a pretty decent deal with the devil overall. Or at least that's how I'm remembering it. I'm honestly not sure if that's accurate and it's been a long time since I played DA:O. I did think it was kinda funny that you have the option of dooming Redcliffe in 20 years or so for sex.

Now getting the Reaver specialization...could never do it. I mean that's just a level of bastard I can't achieve. Especially since Leliana was one of my core party members. Doing that will instantly cause her to leave and turn hostile.
 

Arch Demon

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NeutralDrow said:
Steve Waltz said:
Arch Demon said:
And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
You have to made a deal with the Desire Demon instead of killing it.

Also, if you have Dragon Age: Awakening you can just buy all the manuals there and not have to worry about it. That way you can avoid being an absolute bastard when it comes to unlocking the Reaver and Blood Mage specializations.
Furbyz said:
Yeah, you have to let the demon have the kid to get it.
You can technically get Blood Magic in a non-bastardy way if you have Master Coercion and okay Strength, enough to make the highest intimidation check in the game. It's what I did, since getting it normally would otherwise have frightened me off.

Irving: "Now remember, desire demons like to tempt people with offers. Don't bargain with demons, it never works out."
Me: "I understand, master. I won't bargain with it."
*steps into the Fade*
Me: "Welp, he didn't say anything about not extorting demons!"
*finds demon*
Demon: "You're pretty strong, so I doubt I could take you in a fight. Tell you what, how about I leave for a while, and only come back later?"
Me: "I have a better idea. I'm here, you can't beat me, so you're going to leave the kid. Permanently, end of discussion. Now, what will you give me so I don't rip you apart?"
Thanks for your informative post. I think you might be able to answer some questions that have been bothering me for some time. Actually, I finished the Arl of Redcliffe quest before the Broken Circle quest.The reason being that the Circle of MAgi was not accessible on the map. Only after completing the Arl of REdcliffe quest, did I realize that first you have to go to Lake Calenhad and then to the Circle. If I had known this before, I would have first gone to the Circle of Magi. And before going into the fade, I wasn't very attentive during the conversation between Jowan and Isolode (spelling may be incorrect). I assumed that oeither Isolode or Connor has to be sacrficed. After the Arl of Redcliffe quest, I completed the Broken circle quest. But neither was I able to save Irving nor take the help of mages. Is it because I had already completed the Arl of Redcliffe quest?
 

Arch Demon

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Steve Waltz said:
Arch Demon said:
And I've completed Arl of Redcliffe quest and didn't get the Blood mage specialization :(
You have to made a deal with the Desire Demon instead of killing it.

Also, if you have Dragon Age: Awakening you can just buy all the manuals there and not have to worry about it. That way you can avoid being an absolute bastard when it comes to unlocking the Reaver and Blood Mage specializations.
Thanks! Didn't know getting that specialization was decision-based!One thing that I've noticed in this game is that if you do something which you feel is morally ethical, you tend to miss out on some good stuff. No idea why they designed the game like that.
 

Carrington666

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Arch Demon said:
I assumed that oeither Isolode or Connor has to be sacrficed. After the Arl of Redcliffe quest, I completed the Broken circle quest. But neither was I able to save Irving nor take the help of mages. Is it because I had already completed the Arl of Redcliffe quest?
No, it doesn't matter which quest you do first. To save Irving and the circle you have to read that book you find on Niall's corpse (the Litany of Adralla) everytime Uldred tries to use his bloodmagic on the captured mages. As long as you prevent him from turning Irving into an abomination you can get the help of the mages.