I played through DA: O as a Human Mage, and took "Arcane Warrior" so that I could wear some of the heavier armour, like the Blood Dragon and Juggernaut and others, and because in almost every RPG that allows for it, I play as a blend of magic user and physical weapon user, more commonly known as a Battlemage. Anyway, I wasn't as pleased with the gameplay as I thought I would be, because I'd been conditioned by a couple of BioWare's other party-based RPG's, namely Jade Empire and Mass Effect, to play more "Action" and less "Strategy". Pausing every ten seconds to re-route an assassin or archer out of the way of a heavy gets old fast.

On the other hand, BioWare promised that Awakening would deliver more backstory and locations, and the ability to travel out of Ferelden, etc. I'm a sucker for lore and new stuff (read: I'm a completionist), but is that enough to buy this expansion? Has anyone else had a good (or bad) experience with it? I mean, that last DLC pack for DA: O where you meet up with Morrigan was just pandering, and I'd really rather not spend a whole $20 (Amazon price) on junk.

I really enjoyed Awakening. If you want more Lore then it's just the thing you are looking for. It's also no-where near as bad as some of the DLC. First play through will probably take you 16-20 hours. It's not precicely outside Ferelden, it's on the north coast. Choices you made in DA:O will have some effect on the game such as who is king/queen and a few of the older party members will turn up. The new party member are all pretty good with Anders a particular highlight. The only real issue I had with the expansion is the new specializations and the increased level cap really push your characters into god level power. If you are already playing an Arcane Warrior/Bloodmage then adding Battlemage is almost like pressing an I WIN button it really is that stupidly powerful a combo.

Anyway I digress. It's not a DLC it's is a full expansion of decent length and I think you will enjoy it if you are looking for more from the DA world. There are also interesting choices to be made near the end that might have a huge impact on the DA world.

This was my experience. I imported an Arcane Warrior in, and it was ... easy. I wasn't surprised though, tank-mages generally break any game. Dragon Age already favors mages, since they get more battlefield control spells (that 'cone of cold' spell, in particular, forgot the named used). Actually, since my arcane warrior was able to essentially solo two dragons in Origins, perhaps expecting a challenge when my character was even MORE powerful would be expecting too much out of an expansion. :)

All in all, the story wasn't bad, however I never felt the urge to replay it. I played through Origins 2.5 times (computer imploded halfway through the 3rd playthrough, and I never got back to it). Not sure why it didn't hold my interest as well, but figured I would mention it. Maybe it is because I like lower level characters more in general; I liked Baldur's Gate better than Baldur's Gate 2, for instance.

Given the way I played through the first time, which was to get as many achievements unlocked as possible, and that meant recruiting Loghain Mac Tir to the Wardens, which naturally caused Alistair to leave permanently. Now that I have the "Recruited everybody at least once" achievement, I think I'll play through again and try to get Alistair and Anora as King and Queen, and see how that plays out. The "reluctant ruler" bit always offers many opportunities for humorous situations.

I played as Arcane Warrior/Spirit Healer, because of the way I had my squad arranged, thus becoming a sort of "surrogate dedicated healer". So there's really a Battlemage class? Is it like the Battlemage as described in Sacred or TES: Oblivion? Also, is there a way to deliver the final blow to the dragon in DA:O yourself and use that same character in DAO: A without doing Morrigan's diablerie? I mean, that's gotta have some hellish backlash.

I actually liked a lot of Awakening more than the original... it has some different ideas and cool locations, and the ending was great.

At the end of the day though it's the same game.

Battlemage adds more crowd control spells that really give the opposition no chance to even start the fight. It's not a traditional AD&D Battlemage no, it's very much the Dragon Age style mage in the middle of the melee dictating the ebb and flow of battle. AW/SH/BM won't be AS powerful as the Bloodmage option as you lack the all powerful Blood Wound spell but Hand of Winter and Elemental Chaos added by Battlemage will still give you lethal combinations.

Also yes even if you sacrifice your Warden in DA:O you can import them. Bioware just assume the player took the Dark Promise pact with Morrigan. If you want to try something new however you can start a new character in Awakening as an Orlesian Warden and in his/her canon the origian PC took the sacrifice.

"Crowd control" pretty much describes the Battlemage's spells from Sacred. I mean, Meteor Storm and Fireball are pretty much the definition of Area of Effect. I forget, though, if Meteor Storm could be used in caves or not. I don't think Ascaron went in for that much realism.

As for Oblivion, the actual description for Battlemage in the player's guide is "Battlemages are highly useful for players who don't like long, drawn out fights". That's me to a "T". It's like, as close as you can get to Jedi in anything that isn't involved in the Star Wars universe.