This post has spoilers. So, unless you’ve beat the mage tower, don’t read on. 
With that out of the way…
Mage sanctum
Last night, I felt the first real pulls of Dragon Age in a serious way. No, I felt the story before and was interested but that mage tower brought it to a whole new level. There were surprises, tense spots, and battles that I only survived by the skin of my teeth. Tip: kill the mages first, or they’ll make you regret it.
Unless you’re playing a mage, this will probably be totally unexpected a new territory. You get sent into the fade by one of the most horrible abominations you’ve encountered. From there, it’s puzzles as you hop from island to island in the nightmarish dream you’re made prisoner in. How freaking cool is it to shapeshift into the Burning Man or the Spirit Walker? I wish the console had a zoom function so I could get a better look at these guys.
The final few islands where you save your group mates were excellent touches, too. I feel like I know my party members on a much deeper level than I did before. The sloth demon that runs the place appeals to their innermost desires and blinds them to the truth. But, to you, they talk in the most ominous demon voices I’ve heard in a video game. This whole area was an exceptional touch to an already great game.
Now, I have the help of the Templars in overthrowing the traitor Loghain. Although, I’m starting to wonder when I’ll actually be able to specialize my warrior into a berserker. I’m level 9 now and, according to the manual, I’d have the option to customize at levels 7 and 10. I don’t recall specializing at all at level 7, unless they mean picking up the Warden’s Keep abilities. I’m hoping I didn’t miss something I’ll have to backtrack to fix.
Anyways, I was up FAR too late playing that game last night and, as a result, I wound up sleeping my morning away in a dreamless daze. No Fade for me, thank-you-very-much. What do I want to do now that I’m rested? Figure out what happens next.
After RL gets squared away, I’m heading back to Ferelden. With any luck I’ll get to hand Loghain his iron-clad backside.
In order to specialize, you have to buy a book from a vendor (the one in the party camp usually has at least one at the very bottom of the list), be taught by a party member (for example, talk to Morrigan enough and she allows you to become a shapeshifter), or as a quest result. So at any level up after learning one you select it as a specialization and get the additional talents (provided you are above lvl 7 for the first one and 14 for the second.)
Berzerkers are traditionally dwarves, so Orizimar will provide a way to specialize that way (without getting too spoilerific).
Ah, thanks for the tip. I’m going to find the vendor first thing tonight
Not sure if this changes from game to game, but I found the zerker book being sold by the dwarf in Denerim’s market square. I was a little dissapointed in the abilities, though :[
Totally agree about the tower and the fade puzzles, it was a neat section of the game.
Yeah, I checked the party camp and the vendor sells a book to become a spirit healer but nothing else. I’ll head out to Denerim tonight. Thanks for the tip!
Nice website man, picked up a couple nuggets here…just can’t wait for Cataclysm, I found a rumor that it’s being coming out Nov 2010, however with Blizzard you never know :/