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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 |
Aldarion | Alistair | Leliana | Mabari War Hound | Morrigan | Oghren | Shale | Sten | Wynne | Zevran | |
LELIANA, BARD / RANGER
I now use the Sacred Ashes mod from Dragon Age Nexus, which allows me to significantly alter the appearance of either Leliana or Morrigan. I used it to change Leliana's appearance to more closely resemble what she looked like in the Dragon Age television commercial. Here's the link:
Sacred Ashes Mod
Strength 18 Dexterity 22 Willpower 16 Magic 14 Cunning 17 Constitution 10
Starting Inventory / Enchanted Dagger (Grey Iron), Seeker's Circle
Talent Selection
Starting Talents at 7th level
The Bard and Ranger specializations have a certain synergy or way of complementing each other that makes this the perfect build for Leliana. I have certain priorities to address, and in a certain order.
Mechanical Expertise at 8th level: A lot of traps that will come shortly will require this, so not getting it now means missing out on a lot of experience. This, by the way, coupled with a high enough Cunning score, suffices for pretty much every trap in the game.
Archery: For Leliana to simply acquire Aim represents the economic route to making her an effective Archer. Aim, in conjunction with the Song of Courage and bonuses from many of her items, will also allow her to score critical hits with her bow with great frequency. Leliana often makes certain parts of the game so much easier by either using her bow to egg on outlier monsters as part of the 'drawing out' technique, or by wiping them out as a sniper in a process of attrition. The delay caused by Aim will be more than offset by the Repeater Gloves that drastically reduce the firing time. She will towards the end acquire Master Archery, but by then it becomes icing on the cake.
Bard Songs: The two key songs here are the Song of Courage and the Captivating Song. The Song of Courage provides hefty bonuses to critical chance and attack bonus. The bonuses increase with her Cunning score. The Captivating Song is one of the best 'swarm control' abilities in the game. If her comrades are surrounded by a lot of enemies, Leliana can plant herself in the thick of it and keep the monsters locked down in a nearly perpetual state of stun. The monsters will have most, or at least many, of their attacks interrupted when this song is active. More Cunning will make the Captivating Song harder to resist.
Ranger Pets: Whatever shortcomings Leliana may have in comparison to a melee Rogue build that focuses on dual-wielding talents (like Zevran), they will be more than made up for by the Ranger pets. My usual choice was the Blight Wolf. It is very fast, has a higher defense than the other pets, and can use Overwhelm to score hideous damage on its target. The Blight Wolf can also help clear out monsters close to the party faster, thus allowing Leliana to return to her bow quicker.
Sometimes though, certain boss battles make defense negligible since the boss will hit most of the time anyway. In such isolated instances I will summon a Great Bear that has far more health.
At later parts of the game, one of my practices was for Alistair to turn off his Rally and for Leliana to turn off her Song of Courage as soon as they arrive in a new area. Leliana then summons her Blight Wolf. Now Alistair will turn Rally back on, and Leliana will turn Song of Courage back on. The Blight Wolf will now be empowered by both sustained abilities, and the results are impressive. The Blight Wolf can also augment Leliana's use of Captivating Song, since it provides an extra attacker to chomp away on the stunned monsters.
Note that summoned pets and other sustained abilities will make a huge demand on stamina. But Leliana will be effective without activated talents. Sure, the odd Dirty Fighting or Deadly Strike is nice, but Leliana's efficacy will not rise or fall by it.
Melee Attacker and Backstabber: Leliana is no slouch when she's forced to draw her axe and dagger, even before she attends to this priority. But once she's attained Aim and the Ranger talents, I have her round things out with Dual-weapon talents and Rogue close combat talents. She becomes equally deadly with either bow or axe & dagger, and with the Blight Wolf in tow to boot.
*Note* Paracelsi is absolutely correct when he says it is easy for a player to struggle with this build during the low to mid levels, although it really starts to shine at the higher levels once things fall into place. One of his recommendations for attenuating the rough early going is to have Leliana make frequent use of poisons for her melee weapons when she has to fight up close, and to use elemental grenades to damage multiple foes when opportunities present themselves. And indeed I did have Leliana use such tactics quite frequently during the early going to make up for some of her early defects.
My progression was:
Skill Selection
Starting
8th level
Survival - Getting an early read on where the monsters are is actually pretty helpful. It also helps with at least one quest in the game.
10th level
Improved Survival - I will need at least two ranks to be able to complete a quest in the Dalish Camp. It is also a stepping stone to having Leliana be able to detect the presence of any monsters in the area.
12th level
Expert Survival - A stepping stone to Master Survival.
14th level
Master Survival - Completing this skill tree.
16th level
Expert Stealing - There are some good items that can be pickpocketed, and Leliana is my designated cutpurse.
18th level
Master Stealing - Rounding out this skill tree.
20th level
Expert Combat Training - Now it's time to develop this tree, both for the combat bonuses but also to ensure access to certain talents.
Script
Self: Any - Song of Courage
Enemy at Long or Medium Range - Aim
Enemy at Long or Medium Range - Jump to Tactic #7
Enemy at Short Range - Switch to Melee
Enemy at Short Range - Dirty Fighting
Enemy: High Armor - Deadly Strike
Enemy Target of Leliana - Attack
Leliana's default script is to keep Song of Courage active, and use Aim with her bow. She only draws her axe and dagger when the monsters come close enough. There are three instances of manual control. One is where the monsters in melee range have been cleared out, only leaving those that are still at a distance. In this instance I manually switch Leliana back to her bow. Note that you can't integrate any switch back into the script, otherwise she'll get stuck in an endless weapon switching loop. The second is where I want to pick the right moment and the right spot to use Captivating Song.
The third is when I summon a Ranger pet. This in part because I want to retain control over my choice of pet. It is also because whenever I enter a new area and do not have to fight right away, I have to summon the pet again and reset its script. Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but it is worth it. I script the Blight Wolf as follows:
Enemy Health > 75% - Overwhelm
Self surrounded by at least 3 Enemies - Dread Howl
Enemy Health > 50% - Shred
Enemy attacking Leliana - Charge
Enemy at Short Range - Growl
Nearest Visible Enemy - Attack
Inventory
Missile Weapon: Far Song
Primary Melee Weapon: The Veshialle (Grandmaster Frost Rune, Grandmaster Lightning Rune, Grandmaster Paralyze Rune)
Off-Hand Melee Weapon: The Rose's Thorn (Grandmaster Frost Rune, Grandmaster Dweomer Rune, Master Hale Rune)
Helmet: Helm of Honnleath
Body Armor: The Felon's Coat
Gloves: Repeater Gloves
Boots: Bard's Dancing Shoes
Amulet: Seeker's Circle
Belt: Longbowman's Belt
1st Ring: Harvest Festival Ring
2nd Ring: Silverleaf
By default she'll use the best bow in the game to hit enemies at a distance. If enemies get too close, she'll then switch over to probably the best dual-wielding combination for Rogues, The Veshialle plus The Rose's Thorn. Many of her items provide bonuses that augment her abilities: Cunning, Dexterity, defense, attack, bonus critical/backstab damage, and bonuses chances of both melee and ranged criticals. Leliana is definitely an instance where individual pieces of armor provide greater aggregate benefits than any leather armor sets.
A potential alternative bow is the Sorrows of Arlathan, for anyone who has the Witch's Hunt DLC. I don't use it, however, so the Far Song is the bow of choice for Leliana in my playthrough.
Attribute Increases
My first priorities are to raise Leliana's Dexterity to 30 and her Strength to 27. The reason for this is that she will wear items that raise both Dexterity and Strength by 4. This in turn allows her to begin using Dragonthorn bows (34) and The Veshialle (31). Then I let Cunning catch up. After that, I alternate between +2 Dexterity +1 Cunning and +2 Cunning +1 Dexterity each level. Dexterity simultaneously improves both attack and defense. Cunning helps trap disarming, armor penetration, chances of successful attacks and landing critical hits in conjunction with her Song of Courage, and makes the Captivating Song harder to resist.
