DAO Progression Overhaul

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These are personal-use files I’ve tooled around with for my own Origins playthroughs. The files are modular so it’s easy to delete changes you don’t like. Basically:

  • Rebalances Awakening specializations and abilities to be available in the origins mid-to-late game (with Awakening in the OC installed)
  • Converts lockpicking + stealth to skills, and lowers the requirements for Awakening runecrafting, which makes skill selection more meaningful and frees up some ability points to allow rogues to utilize multiple weapon styles more effectively (stealth is now available to ALL classes but warriors and mages should ignore the lockpicking skill as I wasn’t able to hide it from them.)
  • Custom experience gain table intended for use with Advanced Tactics and CNTS which grants 20 tactics slots by the end of origins (enough to acommodate advanced tactics but still require taking levels in combat tactics to get fancy), and grants that third spec point at level 22 if you hit that before starting Awakening.
  • Enables arcane warrior swordcasting for all spells including power of blood from Soldier’s Peak DLC
  • 1 second cooldowns for a handful of abilities that really annoyed me

Readme included in the download and below.

Download “DAO Progression Overhaul” dao-progression-overhaul.7z – Downloaded 314 times – 7 KB

  • ABI_rogueskills.gda
    • Rogue abilities Lockpicking + Stealth have been converted to skills
    • Stealth is available to all classes
    • Lockpicking cannot actually be used by mages and warriors by default
      • the hidden rogue skill can be added with the console: runscript addtalent 4020
      • but I recommend you just use lock bash
    • Characters will continue to gain skill points at the same rate
      • if installed mid-game, your attributes will transfer over to skills
      • but if you respecialize, those transferred points will be converted back to attribute points
  • ABI_sharedsustains.gda
    • Sustained spells that affect the entire party now have a one second cooldown so they’re not a pain in the ass to reapply on revival:
      • haste
      • song of valor and courage
      • flaming, frost, and telekinetic weapons
    • Haste can also be cast with a drawn weapon (yes this entry is redundant)
    • (One second cooldown is for Advanced Tactics compatibility. Removing the cooldown from sustains entirely can make them flip out)
  • ABI_swordcasting.gda
  • ABI_gwb_swordcasting.gda
    • ALL spells can be cast with a drawn weapon, arcane warrior style
      • Soldier’s Peak DLC (gwb) included
    • Why? Because this limitation is stupid and arbitrary. (You can cast earthquake with a sword drawn but not haste?)
      • Haste also has a one second cooldown (yes this entry is redundant)
  • ABI_annoyances.gda
    • The cooldowns of blood magic, berserk, and stealing have been reduced

Awakening in the OC

  • ABI_gxa_specs.gda
    • Awakening specializations now scale alongside base game specializations (lvl cap 0-12-14-16)
  • ABI_gxa_classtalents.gda
    • Awakening class abilities now scale more slowly, starting at lvl 14-16 and capping at vanilla
  • ABI_gxa_weapontalents.gda
    • Awakening weapon trees are now capped only by attribute, not by level, as in the base game
  • ABI_gxa_runecraft.gda
    • Awakening rune crafting is available starting at lvl 16
  • exptable_ct.gda
    • Slower progression than the CNTS built-in table. Three slots at level 1, capping at 20 slots at level 18-25
    • A third specialization point is granted at lvl 22, as in Awakening. You will not get a fourth upon import
  • exptable_gxa.gda
    • Slower progression than the CNTS built-in table. Progression will resume in Awakening to cap at 30 slots at level 35