But regardless of the DRM mechanism, Dragon Age (the game itself) does not know or care about 'mod managers'. It also doesn't care about 'load order', at least not the way BethSoft games do. So, for example, you could install and use all FOUR managers (NMM, DAMM, DAM, and the built-in DAUpdater) and they would all play nice with the game. The Dragon Age That Ruined Dragon Age - Duration: 8:46. The Cantina Recommended for you.

Overview

This document describes how to get modifications (mods) for BioWare's Dragon Age (DA) to work in your game. While they are considered 'unofficial', BioWare produced and released the 'Dragon Age Toolset' specifically to allow and promote the creation of these mods. This Guide does NOT provide instructions for any particular mod, or contain any discussion of how to use the 'Toolset' or the in-game 'Command Console'. Others may have different tips, but with these you can get enough of the basics to figure out what you're doing. At the end are some links to places for finding, evaluating, rating, and discussing the thousands (yes, thousands!) of DA mods. Happy Modded Gaming!

Why use a mod? To customize your game to be more of what YOU want it to be, and to add hours of exciting new adventures beyond the amazing experience BioWare provided!

Assumptions

While mods for DA are fairly easy to use, one thing that may not be clear to new players is that they come in a variety of forms, each of which requires certain steps to get working in your game. These tips are designed to get you started, but they presume you already understand basic PC file and folder terms and activities (downloading, saving, copying, etc.)

NOTICES AND DISCLAIMERS

Copyrights. Electronic Arts (EA) is the copyright holder for the DA game and the materials it contains. Please respect the intellectual property rights of EA, BioWare, (the game's developer) and the authors of any mods.

Safety. Legitimate mods for DA aren’t executable files and can’t introduce malware or alter your computer system's basic operation. They are quite safe, (subject to the usual precautions regarding files obtained from any internet source.) Mods do not make any changes to the game's basic files. Mods are placed in completely different folders, and can easily be deleted entirely to return your DA game to its original state. Please be sure to make back-ups of your saved games before installing any mod. This Guide does not endorse any specific mod, nor are the authors responsible for a given mod's behavior. Any files mentioned in this Guide are examples for illustrative purposes only.

What Are Mods?

The term 'mod', in gaming, can used to mean either 'modification' or 'module'. The more commonly used sense is when referring to a FREELY DISTRIBUTED, player-created, file (or files) modifying something about a game. Very large and complex mods that create whole new sections, adventures, characters, or areas within the game are often called 'modules'. (And technically, the Developer also creates modules. In fact, BioWare often refers to their official Downloadable Content (DLC) for DA as 'expansion modules'. So all Community- or Player-Created modules are 'mods', but not all mods are 'modules'!)

While a mod(ule) can affect anything and everything within the game, most mods only do one, or a very few things. And most of those things fall into a few obvious categories:

a) Appearances. Changes to the way existing elements of the game look. Within DA, 'facemorphs' (called so because they change a character's face) are probably the single most common appearance mod. When used directly in the game, this type of mod usually consists of just a '.mor' file.

b) Items & Equipment. These mods add one or more items to the game. These may simply be items in the game the author thought needed some 'small tweaks', or they may be things that have characteristics, attributes, or abilities ('stats') very different from anything in the original.

c) Bug Fixes. As the name would imply, these correct things the author believes to have been mistakes or problems with the original game.

d) Improvements & Enhancements to Play. This kind of mod makes changes in the way the game actually functions. These go beyond 'Bug Fixes' to introduce new actions or effects.

e) Full Modules. As mentioned above, modules can add new sections, adventures, characters, companions, and whole areas. These are some of the largest mods.

How Are Mods 'Packaged'?

Most DA mods are distributed in one of the common compressed forms ('.zip', '.rar', '.7z', etc.) You'll need the appropriate utility, ('WinZip', 'WinRAR', '7-Zip', etc.) to unpack them in order to have the mod itself. Many players download and unpackage their mods in a separate location (to a folder named 'My DA Mods', for example) in order to determine what type they are and what to do with them.

NOTE: See here for a table of various compression formats and their associated utilities; List of file archivers.

Within those compressed files, mods are usually found in one of three formats; '.dazip', '.override', 'everything else'.
See the next section for a discussion of each of these.

Installing Mods

Once you have the mod unpackaged, (if it needed to be) then each type needs to be treated slightly differently.

a) '.dazip' files. A '.dazip' is a collection of files specially structured to be handled by the built-in program 'DAUpdater.exe'. DAUpdater is a standalone executable found in the following location: 'C:/[program files)]/Dragon Age/bin_ship'. Once you have started it, point DAUpdater to the location of the '.dazip' file you want, and chose 'Install dazip'.

NOTE 1: The progress bar will reach 100%, but the status message never changes to 'Completed'. It's OK, the mod is installed.

NOTE 2: This is the same procedure used to install the 'official' BioWare DLC if you download it directly from the EA servers rather than using the in-game process.

NOTE 3: You can also use either of the two 'manager' utilities:

DAO ModManager (DAMM), or DA Modder (DAM).

These two manager utilities help with the housekeeping chores associated with some specific mod file-types.

b) '.override' files. These are mods specially created to work with DAMM. They are often ones that interact with OTHER mods and are highly configurable. See the DAMM user's guide for information on how to install the program and use these mods. Only a very few mods are '.overrides'.

The vast majority of DA mods fall into the next category.

c) 'Everything Else'. A mod might be a '.mor' for a new face, or a '.cut' for a new animation scene. It might be a '.dlg' with new dialogue, or a '.ss' with new voices.

If the mod's instructions say, 'Place in your override folder.' it does not need to be 'installed'. As the instruction indicates, simply place it in the folder named 'override' located under: 'C:/[user's documents]/Bioware/Dragon Age/packages/core'.

NOTE 1: If this folder does not exist, (which may be the case if this is your very first mod) just create it.

NOTE 2: Players often place each mod in their '/override' folder into its own sub-folder (named whatever they choose) so that it can be easily identified, (since some mod's file names aren’t much help) and so the entire mod can be deleted without hunting through lots (potentially hundreds!) of other files to find all the pieces.

NOTE 3: Steam and D2D installs use slightly different folder structures than the retail disc version. Adjust accordingly.

Changing a Character's Appearance

Changing the appearance of the Player-Character (the 'PC', aka 'Your Warden') works differently than changing the appearance of any Non-Player Character (NPC).

a) Your Warden. When a DA mod is designed to work with the Character Creator (CC) element of the game to add new looks (e.g. hairstyles, eye colours, tattoos) for a new, player-made protagonist, it must interact with the CC using an '.xml' file named the 'Character Generator Morph Configuration' ('chargenmorphcfg.xml'.) If you want to use more than one of these mods at the same time, you must merge the contents of the multiple 'chargenmorphcfg.xml' files into a single one. This can be done manually, and the article 'Installing cosmetic mods for Dragon Age' describes the process. Also TerraEx, (a fellow player and modder) has made an excellent utility program, 'CharGenMorph Compiler', to do this for you automatically.

b) Changing your Warden's appearance after you've started a game also requires a new '.mor'. One that has the look you want. Several mods make the process of substituting one face for another fairly easy. All of them, (e.g. NewByPower's 'DA Face Replacer') work by having you create the 'right' face on a new character, then replacing your current PC's face with that one.

NOTE: More sophisticated 'plastic surgery' on an existing face is possible using the Toolset, but that is beyond the scope of this mini-tutorial.

c) All NPCs. One of the most common types of mod is the 'facemorph'. (The ones for Morrigan and Leliana seem to be particularly popular… wonder why?) If you want to change an NPC's appearance then you need a '.mor' file with the new face. If you unpack a facemorph mod and get a '.mor', just put it in your 'override' folder. Once there it will be used to replace the named character's face in-game (presuming the author gave it the correct filename.)

NOTE: A new '.mor' will not change the NPC's look in any of the '.bnk' movies (the ones in Denerim with Loghain are this type.) Unlike any cutscenes in which your PC appears, those are static files which a mod doesn't affect.

Uninstalling Mods

a) Any mod installed with the DAUpdater program can be disabled within the game simply by 'unticking' the box next to that mod in the 'Installed Content' screen found under 'Downloadable Content' from the main menu. These mods can’t really be uninstalled except by manually finding all the pieces and deleting them.

b) Any mod installed with either DAMM or DAM (see above) can be disabled by unticking the box next to the mod's name, (just like for DAUpdater) and removed by right-clicking on the mod within that program's menu and selecting 'Uninstall'. (DAMM has a further 'Delete' step, but use the 'Uninstall' first.)

c) Any mod placed in your '/override' folder is uninstalled simply by removing it from that folder.

Either delete it, or cut-n-paste it elsewhere. Both ways work.

Compatibility and Conflicts

Not all mods work and play well with others. Be sure to make a 'Named Save' before installing a new mod. (And if you’re especially paranoid, make a backup of your saved games and characters folder: 'C:/[user's documents]/Bioware/Dragon Age/Saves')

a) The rule is 'Only one mod can change the same part of the game's content at a time.' So if you install two mods that both change conversations with Zevran, unless they are made to be compatible with each other you'll only get the new lines of dialogue from one of them (or in extreme cases, if used together they might cause the game to crash.) This is especially important to understand with any 'romance' mods. Read the Readme for your mods!

Fix: Delete one or both of the conflicting mods. Always presume that a new problem is due to the mod you just added, conflicting with the mod you most like!

b) Missing Items. Ever since game patch 1.03, (which changed the way a brand new game loads for the first time) many (most?) mods that ADD ITEMS to your inventory will fail with a BRAND NEW game until after you've made your first save.

Fix: Disable/Remove the mod until you’ve played your new game to the point where you can make a save. Save, Exit, Re-Enable the mods, Re-Start the game and Load the Save you had just created. The items will now be added to your inventory as expected.

c) Some mods don't react well to some of the official BioWare DLC. The best known conflicts are with 'Leliana's Song' and 'Witch Hunt', (and that one stupid hot spot on the Alienage gate in 'The DLC Which Must Not Be Named'.)

Fix: Disable (untick) these on the 'Installed Content' menu unless actually playing them. Disable/Remove the mods if you have conflicts when playing any of these DLC.

Links to More Information

Now that you have an idea of how to use mods in Dragon Age, here some links to mods and other resources you might like:

BioWare Continuity Network (BCN). This is listing of, and a repository of some (most?) of, the mods that used to be hosted on the BioWare Social Network (BSN) before that site was shutdown. If you see a reference to a mod as being found on the BSN, it might now be preserved here.

Dragon Age Nexus. Independent site for DA mods and discussions. Requires requires a (FREE) registration to download files. Players new to modding might begin by using the 'Categories' search function, as well as the links for 'Top 100', and the 'Most Endorsed - All Time'. This will give a good overview of the kinds of mods available.

Many of the links on this page are broken. I’m in the process of cleaning it up and fixing them. I’ll also add several more mods to my list. For now the correct addresses are:

Each of these links has a number on it when you go to a dead page. Take the number and put it after /mods/

This will take you to the actual mod until I have time to update all the dead links.

The Dark Times Act 1 link has been changed and it’s current.

Tips & Tricks / Cheats have been moved. The page was getting too cluttered. If you’re having problems with More Hairstyles, Pineapple Tree, CC’s Tints and Tones, etc. click on Technical link below for a possible fix.

Technical Mods

First and foremost, there’s a very common problem faced with installing Mods which change hair styles, skin tones, eye colors, add hair colors and other fun things for your character. You may have had the frustration of having one work, not the other, and not being able to get them to all work at the same time.

The reason for this is the all have a chargenmorphcfg file. Only one chargenmorphcfg will work at a time. Thus if you have 3 different Mods with 3 different chargenmorphcfg files, you get a recipe for instant frustration. You can edit them yourself if you feel up to the task, but I prefer things as easy as possible.

Thanks to some kind soul out there, you can have this taken care of in just a few clicks – no tutorials or coding experience needed. Try it, you won’t regret it.

This handy program is called the DA Modder. It makes for easy install / uninstalling of mods. DA Modder

Make your console commands visible. If you’re curious about the console, you can read up on it, here.

Cosmetic Mods which haven’t conflicted:

I get so tired of “losing” Alistair in Lothering. Brown hair, brown eyes, brown armor, brown town. It’s like “Where’s Waldo” Dragon Age style. Put an end to that and other fugly armor by recoloring it – simple, neat and easy interface with a LOT of options. Universal Dye Kit

Has a 5% chance of destroying the holding entirely, if the holding has fewer than 4 buildings. The capital holding can't be destroyed. Has a 10% chance of destroying a random in that holding.

Sometime I like the helmets and think they look great. Other times… to quote Leliana about Ferelden shoes: “Yeeeeiiiick!!” This mod has been updated and I tested it for Awakenings and Origins. I like the option of seeing the faces of my party members if I want to. Show / Hide Your Helmet Be careful with this one and the Golems of Amgarrak. If you try and use it, your enemies don’t spawn. Be sure to turn it off before playing that DLC.

Change your Mabari to black or white. Change it into a wolf, Witherfang, or a Blight wolf. It does change other brown Mabari in the game as well, but I enjoy this little mod. War paint does not show up on the 1.04 patch Mabari Switch

In SAP side as far as I know I have to create a RFC Destination in SM59 with Type T (TCP/IP Connection). It wants a Program ID in Technical settings when you choose 'registered server program'. I read a lot forums but still I have problem that 'what is a registered program and how can I create it'.

Make your Mabari look like a Rottweiler. This only changes the dog in your party so you can use it with the mod above to change the other hounds if you want to. (Scroll down to the file you want.) War paint doesn’t show up on the 1.04 patch.The Rotty Mabari

Make your Mabari Grey – although like the Mabari Switch mod this will change all the Mabari in the game. It’s still a nice color if you like a grey dog. The war paint works for this one, but only on the NPC Mabari.

If you’re tired of putting runes into a weapon and walking down the street dripping cold or looking like you’re on fire, below is one for you. This removes the special effects on weapons when you put runes in them or if they naturally have the effect because of what they do. Spells like “Frost Weapon” still show, but other effects won’t. Worked in Awakening, too. Remove Weapon FX

This one removes the weird dripping light associated with activating a personal power like Berserker. You’ll flare for a few seconds to know it’s active then the effect goes away. Worked in Awakening, too. Personal FX Remover

The name says it all Sexy Mage Robes for the Human Male. This Mod replaces one of the robes with a sexier, shirtless version. (I’m female, so I like to stare at Anders in this one.) Video at the bottom with the Mod in action.

These two mods are also “Beefcake” for people who like to see a shirtless man. This one replaces the underwear with a pants only shirtless version. This is a replacement texture for the mod which will put hair on the chests.

Click to enlarge – this shows you what they will do.

Now if you want to run around Ferelden full time either in your underwear or in the pants, this mod will allow you to do that. All the protection and stats of your armor remain intact, but you see only a character in their loincloth or pants as above. Fully customizable so if you want to see your ladies looking sexy but not your men or vise versa you can pick and choose who you reveal in the party. Even works with Ser Gilmore.

Turn about is fair play – sexy female mage robes – you can also get a variety of sexy outfits for your female mages. I wasn’t impressed with these because many of them didn’t seem to do what I liked the way the vanilla Archon robe or the Reaper’s Vestment do. However, they will make your party drool worthy if you like to look at well dressed (or partially dressed) women. 😉 They seem to be well balanced and not intended to be game breakers.

Here is a large selection of sexy armor and robes for both men and women. There’s something in this mod for just about everyone, from simple bared arms on male mages, to more revealing armors for women (not an adult mod.) A little leg (and much more.)

Replace the “Can I get you a ladder so you can get off my back?” comment in the violent voice sets. This is not perfect and some people won’t find the replacement phrase to make sense. S/he will say: “Now I cloak my naked villainy” in replacement of the “Ladder” comment. This may seem odd since s/he may be doing nothing but opening a door or chest. If the ladder bit gets on your nerves and you love the voice set, however, you may want to give this a try. Violent Voice Minor Mod

Make your Mabari bark less. He still lets out the occasional “woof” but he’s not nearly as chatty with this Mod. Barker Breaker

The Witcher comes to Ferelden. I’ve never played The Witcher and this mod is listed in 2 places on this page. I got it strictly for the hair, and didn’t care about the armor (although it does have a great look and someone clearly had insane talent to create it) or the weapons. You might, however, particularly if you like The Witcher.

TMP’s mods are well worth watching if you liked the Grey Warden armor, Dog, or armors in Dragon Age 2. This modder is bringing a taste of II over into Origins. This is also where the armor came from in the screen shots I have of Alistair for wallpaper images. Check it out and bookmark if you like it, this is an ever expanding project

Cosmetic Mods Which Can Conflict:

(But that can be easily fixed with the Mod at the top under Technical.)

More hairstyles for the DA Toolset or for the in-game character creator. More Hairstyles

Anto Hairstyles – As the name suggests, more hair.

Additional Hair for DA – Even more hair

Hairstyle Day – Yet another Hair mod.

If you need help using them in the toolset I put up a Tutorial. Use in the DA Toolset

Add a huge array of more skin tones (natural and fantasy), hair colors, tattoo colors, and brighten the eye colors. I like all of that so use the combo pack, but if you just want one effect and not all, you can get these individually. Search “pineapple” on Dragonagenexus if you want to look for them individually, or follow this link to get all of them at once: The Whole Pineapple

Even more skin, hair, tattoo and eye colors (for use in the toolset or with in-game creator.) CC’s Tints and Tones

This one doesn’t add a whole lot, but there’s a few scars and effects for you with the in-game generator and possibly the Toolset (never have checked on the Toolset.) Chargen Package

If you have white lines showing up in the hair, this can usually be fixed with the DA Toolset.

Companions

Alistair’s First Night – this is a very romantic replacement for the first time Alistair spends the night with his love. I’m not sure if there’s anything for dwarves, but there’s elf and human sequences. This is not classified as “adult” material on the site.

Improved kiss for Alistair – Give the man a kiss that knocks him out of his boots rather than the generic vanilla version.

Also by DahliaLynn (the same author as the kiss and First Night for Alistair and Ser Gilmore.): Alistair and Female Human Noble Wedding. True to her form, this exquisite scene is jammed with amazing animations and emotion. A must for the lady Wardens who love Alistair and marry him at the end.

Alistair’s Nightmare – Great for romanced and bromanced / buddy Alistair. Gives your Warden a tent to sleep in either alone or with your love interest. At a random point it will trigger a nightmare for Alistair.

Dark Ritual Replacement If a female Warden is in love status with Alistair and takes Morrigan’s offer for the Dark Ritual, this is a touching scene which replaces the vanilla one where he’s happily having sex with Morrigan. (Because let’s be real, that scene was set up for the male Warden anyway. It works for him/male Wardens who love her. For Alistair and Loghain? Not so much.)

A ring from Alistair – This is a nice little mod which gives an engaged female Warden (Cousland or others) a wearable ring in their inventory.

61 Alistair Head Morphs. Exactly what it says it is. They’re very generic and vanilla changing eye color, hair color, hair style, and adding beard / stubble but not altering his features. I can call them bland – I made them. 😛

This one will allow you to keep your Mabari with you the same way a Ranger or a Mage can summon a “pet” to be with the group. It still functions 100% and becomes a 5th party member. Extra Dog Slot

Ever want to get Zevran in your group earlier? This mod triggers the cut scene with Howe / Logain hiring him just after Lothering. Zev will then go after you as soon as you leave Lothering. Zev ASAP

Slap Morrigan — The name pretty well says it all, and for those who aren’t “Team Morrigan” and she drives you insane, it gives you the option of a “light hearted mod that lets you slap Morrigan. Useful when she disapproves of you opting not to drown a bag of kittens. It overrides her main conversation with a new one adding the slap interaction.” Conflicts with Lady Olivia’s Alistair Dialog Mod and some others. Although some of my female Wardens have smacked her on occasion, this one often hasn’t worked for me. Slap Morrigan

Karma’s Origins Companions – This mod is huge. It also works with Ser Gilmore, the extra people in the Return to the Korcari Wilds, and extras from Dark Times Act 1. It also works with several other mods which add party members. Once again, be sure you read the instructions. This adds a whole bunch of romancable NPCs who have their own quests (made from scratch and adds a lot of fun game time.) The characters aren’t voiced, but they do have a lot of dialog which (in my opinion) fits them. This is a WIP with updates now and again. Next up is a new romance scene for Cullen.

Dialog Mods:

Some of the Dialog Mods will conflict, others won’t. Where possible, I made a note of my experiences with them. All of them have been used by me.

There is actually original content in some of the dialog with Alistair and Morrigan (male and female Wardens) which was blocked out accidentally in the miles of code. This Mod unlocks Alistair’s content, as well as provide small tweaks which glitched in his dialog.

For female Wardens in a romance there’s some slight variants on what he says in camp. It’s all original content but (for example) rather than “Something you need my dear?” the Mod has him saying the “My love?” sentence from when you’d change over to him in play.

What I’m not personally fond of is that it changes one of the slides at the end. That’s not my thing, so I just uninstall it right before slaying the Archdemon. Alistair Dialog Patch

Be warned: It conflicts with the Slap Morrigan Mod and sometime other dialog fix mods. As far as I know, there hasn’t been anyone who has fixed this.

At the very bottom of the post there’s a copy of the conversation about the Joining which was restored by the Mod if you want to see it.

This fixes some bugs in Leliana and Zevran’s dialog, plus allows you to kiss Leliana or Zevran any time. You can also ask Leliana to sing at any time in camp. It didn’t conflict with Lady Olivia’s Alistair Mod. Dialogue Tweaks

I’ve only gone through the game using this mod (1.03 patch), so I’m assuming it fixed what it says it did. I haven’t played a city elf to the end while not using it, but the dialog with his love, Leliana, came up the way I’ve heard it described on the PS3 version of the game. I’m assuming it works. City Elf Romance Alienage Fix

Now for those who are “Team Morrigan” the Morrigan Restoration Patch / Dialog Fixpack is well worth it.

This is canon, so it will not change the game (or endings.) It does, however, unlock a lot of original content voiced by Claudia Black (Morrigan’s voice actress) and restore scenes which were cut. Like Alistair’s mod, it polishes up some places where her dialog wasn’t correct and fixes the Shapeshifting bug.

There are restored scenes were you have the option of protecting or betraying Morrigan to templars, return with her to Flemeth’s hut before her quest is done, getting busted for lying to her about the True Grimoire and the intended interaction between them when you return from the Wilds with the True Grimoire.

Now the down side: it doesn’t necessarily play nice. If it won’t work correctly, I suggest removing all other dialog mods. (Save your game frequently.) You’ll know for sure after you complete her personal quest. If it teleports you to her and she just stands there with her typical response to your Warden (“What comes, my friend?” Laughs, etc.) then you have a conflict. If it shows your Warden strolling across camp to her, then it’s working.

You’ll also know at the end of the Broken Circle Quest when you speak to Greagoir.

I did get it to work with the Zevran Dialog Fix mod which is specifically compatible and with Party Banter 5 which is part of the Zev Dialog Fix.

I realize it would be great if all the modders were able to release one giant mod that fixes all the dialog for everyone, but let’s be realistic… We’re not paying these people and they’re giving their hard work and time to the community out of the goodness of their hearts. Morrigan Dialog Patch

ZDF’s party banter fixes restores a LOT of ambient chat which was supposed to originally be in the game. These are all the original voices by the actors. Some of them are pretty amusing. I don’t know if it works with the other Dialog Mods other than Morrigan’s.

There’s a lot of great mods on this page, but so far all I’ve tested has been the Party Dialog Banter.

I plan on running a character to romance Zevran and being all about Zev where I’ll test out some of the mods specific to him. He hasn’t got his turn in the barrel, yet, since Audrie (the recycled female Warden mage with 5 different incarnations) has always been with Alistair.

If you feel adventurous, give them a try – they look like fun! Zevran Dialog Fix

General Fixes:

Plus Healing Received Fix – There’s a bug which makes the Healing Received on items obsolete. This fixes it.

Golem Registry and Shapers Life Reward Fix – Fixes the bug where you don’t get experience for these quests.

Unobtainable item BUGFIX – This fixes a whole list of bugs where things couldn’t be stolen, looted, or just aren’t there in the PC version.

Toolset only:

Add quite a lot of extra tattoos and scars to the toolset character creation. Tats and Scars

Many new hair styles for ladies (including earrings) and more are supposed to be made when the author has the time. LOTC Hair

Hair which is tucked behind the ears and out of the character’s faces. This is particularly good for elves. Updated to include some males and hair from DA2.

Weapons and Armor

Shadow Warden Armor – Mostly I just like the way it looks, to be honest… but it’s worked out well, too, without being game breaking. Seems to be about on par with some of the stuff I’ve gotten from vanilla DLCs.

Bow of the Forgotten Ranger – There’s very few bow mods out there, but this one was around some of the more powerful unique ones found in the vanilla game. It’s got a bit more punch than they do. Has optional arrows.

Awakening Mods

I had no idea Sigrun had a personal quest, even after playing Awakening a half dozen times. This is a bug fix which will allow you to complete it.

I don’t always have a problem with the Silverite Mines removing armor, but I did last time I played. Here’s another bug fix which will make sure you don’t lose any of your equipment.

Ever wonder why you couldn’t complete the Blackblade Armor set in Awakening (which I don’t think they fixed even with the 1.04 patch)? Evidently it’s bugged, but this mod will restore it to where it’s supposed to have dropped in the game. There’s also an option to have it drop sooner if you want to use it more. Awakening Blackblade Armor Dragon Drop Fix

Bring your old friends / lovers from Origins to hang out with you in Awakenings. This Mod isn’t perfected, yet, due to scripting problems. Your old friends speak in text only for now and they can’t join your party. I still think it’s worth the mention because it’s great fun and it was nice to have them hanging around to say “hi” to. I thought the characterization was well done and what the modder had the people saying fit their personalities (my 2 cents on it, anyway.) Origins Friends in Awakenings.

Other Mods:

Ser Gilmore NPC Mod – Be sure you read ALL instructions because this mod WILL conflict with a LOT of others. However, I think it’s worth it to take out your other mods and play this at least one time. I actually wrote a review on this one if you want more of my thoughts / specifics. There was too much to put here.

Of Noble Cast – this is a fun mod for the Origin story. I didn’t find it game breaking but did think it was a lot of fun. You start out wearing normal clothes rather than armor (it’s your brother going off to war, after all, not you) and have access to somewhat better armor as befits a noble. Adds a touch of realism as well as giving you slightly better stuff at the start.

Ever want to make Sten / Oghren use a shield, Alistair use a greatsword, Zev a bow master, put different spells on Wynne / Morrigan, or have Leliana a duel wield specialist? Ever put points on something and found out it was useless but didn’t want to start over just to fix it? This handy Mod lets you build your Warden PC and team however you want. Respec your party

Ever get tired of either having a Rogue forced into your party to open chests or switching over to them constantly to pick a lock? This mod solves that. You can bash open chests with “might or magic” and if you have Leliana or Zev with you, they automatically go to the door or chest to pick the lock for you. That’s what actually won me over on this mod. I missed that aspect of NWN. Works with Dragon Age Origins and Awakening. Lock Bash

Do you hate the Fade when the Sloth demon sends you to it in the Quest Broken Circle? If you do, try this one. It will give you all the boosts to your stats you’d get normally and all codex entries with limited play. You only have to go through your party member’s dreams and you’re done.

I used this one due to a bad crash and I hadn’t saved before I went into the Fade. I really, really didn’t want to redo the whole thing, so tried this Mod out. Worked perfectly for me. Skip the Fade

This allows you to play the Arcane Warrior mage at little more easily. I’ve gone through 9 or 10 incarnations of mages but found the Arcane Warrior to be tedious with the taking-the-weapon-out-putting-it-back-taking-it-out-again constant animation. At most, I’d put one block into it so I could have him/her wear armor and left it at that. This mod allows you to cast with your weapon out. Normally I fling spells first, anyway, then rely on Shapeshifting, running away or swordplay last so I didn’t find this a mod which overpowered the game. For me it just ironed out an irritation. Seems to be working in Awakening. Arcane Warrior Casting with Drawn Weapon

Although you get a camp storage chest at Soldier’s Peak, sometime I don’t want to do the peak right away. This will put a storage chest in your camp. Works with the 1.04 patch. Camp Storage Chest

Want even more storage than ever? Try Innodils Pocket Plane This will give you more storage than you and most of Ferelden could ever possibly need. As a nice bonus it also allows you to buy any crafting supplies. You have to pay for them, just like anywhere else, but it’s convenient. I haven’t tested this in Awakening, yet, but where some of the other mods have been buggy this has been solid and worked perfectly. Be careful with it and DLCs, however. It will conflict with Witch Hunt and needs to be turned off before playing it.

Hug your virtual friends and family in your Origin. If you’re human, your brother and father are about to go to war. Your mother is leaving the estate to you (and we all know how things end up.) Hug your parents. Hug your best friend from childhood, Tamlen, if you’re a female Dalish elf.

Romance Cullen a little bit with a female mage. The stolen kiss is top notch cinematography. This also unscrambles some of Cullen and Jowan’s responses and corrects them – it contains some dialog fixes for those two. Cullen Romance / Dialog Fixes

No Friendly Fire – Yes, I know, fans are in 2 very opposite camps about this effect. If you don’t want to use it, don’t download it! 😉 There are 3 options for this.

Mrsquits version – I have some trouble getting this one to work (but you may not.) I also like to change difficulties sometime if things get too hard with my variety of mods to make the game more challenging. For me, it’s a hassle to have to hunt the file down, delete, then put a new one in for each difficulty. Worth giving a try if you play on one difficulty all the time.

Csimbi version – This one works perfectly up to at least 1.04 patch. The only problem I had with it was that it doesn’t knock down your party, either. This may be a plus for you. I liked that effect, and only wanted the actual damage removed.

Unknown Version – This is my favorite and was linked here for a long time and it’s an easy install DAzip file. Unfortunately, the author deleted their account. I have it uploaded to my web space (if the author wants it removed, of course I will. I couldn’t find an email or any contact documentation except BSN in the readme.)

Randomize Dragon Age – This is an amazing little mod which put more kick into my game. It’s completely customizable to make it harder or easier depending on how badly you get maimed. This will insert new creatures (even bosses) randomly and also put in new drops.

The Witcher comes to Ferelden. I’ve never played The Witcher and this mod is listed in 2 places on this page. I got it strictly for the hair, and didn’t care about the armor (although it does have a great look and someone clearly had insane talent to create it) or the weapons. You might, however, particularly if you like The Witcher.

Add Awakening items to Origins like the Sentinel Set, Hirol’s Set, and other items. It will also allow you to use all the advanced skills from Awakening while in Origins. In order to add the items you will also need the Mods below: Add Item, Make Console Commands Visible, the link to the codes (I suggest printing the ones you want out), and may want to read up on how the Console works (link provided.)

Add Item Mod – allows you to put anything into Origins or Awakening via the Console.

Make your Console text visible.

Shut Gorim UP! This does exactly what you’d think. Gorim (that dwarf in Denerim who keeps saying: “Dwarven crafts! Fine dwarven crafts!” will only say it once.

Remove circles from beneath the feet of characters and enemies. This will either completely remove the circles or make them lighter – your choice. Makes the game a little more realistic. Very subtle, but I found I really like it.

Learned Shapeshifting Forms – this one has the potential to be a game breaker. You can shapeshift into everything from a Deepstalker to a High Dragon. Personally I found some of the forms just too large or the natural monster shape to obstruct my view. I’ve stayed to the Darkspawn, demons, and werewolf shapes because of that. All in all, a really fun mod to play around with, however. Only works on the Warden and not on Morrigan or the NPCs.

Extra Quickbars – I lamented the days of Neverwinter Nights where you could push a button and bring up a new bar at the bottom of your screen. For mages, in particular, you end up having to pick and choose what you want in your quickbar slots with DA:O. This will give you three quick bars rather than just the one in the vanilla game. A GREAT addition for mages and almost a must for the Shapeshifting mod listed above. If you can’t find the arrows, they’re under the Skills menu.

Over 100 beautiful Head Morphs for the PC and more constantly being added. I like to make my own morphs but sometime it just isn’t possible for people. If you can’t use the Toolset because your computer won’t handle it, or maybe you just don’t have the knack for making people look how you want to. Some of these are presets, some are files you drop into your override, but take a look if you struggle with your Warden’s looks. There’s every race, both sexes, and everything from the gorgeous to the otherworldly.

Improved Atmosphere – Conflicts with a few things so be sure to read on any mod you use. Karma’s Companions has conflicts with this. It adds people and makes the world more interesting around your Warden. There’s also subtle color changes in clothing and some armor that’s altered here and there.

Increased Combat Dialog – Very simple mod which makes your party shout more frequently in a battle.

Faster Combat (more like Dragon Age 2) in Origins – What it sounds like.

The Mods below are Fan Made additions to your main campaign. They appear on your world map the same was as the Bioware released DLC Return to Ostagar or Soldier’s Peak.

Return to Castle Cousland – This is what it sounds like. The voices were straight from the Toolset so a little distracting to me, but it was fun to run through.

Ancient Elven Ruins – Fun little mod which has some recycled maps but is fully voiced. Not completely lore friendly for the stickler of those kinds of things, but a great early adventure for lower level Wardens.

Pints and Quarts – This is a series of fan made adventures which aren’t 100% Lore friendly. Fully voiced, and I had a lot of fun with them. (Works best if you play Ancient Elven Ruins first.) If you want a challenge, do these on Nightmare.

Swamp Tower Adventure – By the same person who did Pints and Quarts and Elven Ruins. Good fun, and if you want a challenge, try it on Nightmare.

Infested Grounds – Another by the same author as above. It lets your Warden and party go through a fan built area, interact with fully voiced NPCs, and enjoy some new battles.

Return to the Korcari Wilds – This is one of the best put together fan mods I’ve seen. It’s remained popular for a reason and is complete with cutscenes, 2 companions, voice, and a personal quest.

Alley of Murders – A fun, fully voiced adventure which starts in Denerim.

The Blood Works -Be careful with this one. It’s a huge mod with a lot of unbalancing perks. (You can get unlimited books to max out your Warden literally in everything. Which can be fun if you want to try everything out, but does unbalance the game.) It completely crashed my game to the point I couldn’t finish it while using the 1.05 patch. I’ve read a lot of complaints about mods crashing, but that was the first one out of everything on this page which had an issue with 1.05. It may have also been 1.05 with Improved Atmosphere. I uninstalled that when I started over, as well.

It’s fully voiced but some of the people are really quiet and some very loud. Be prepared for that.

Rumored to conflict with Return to Korcari Wilds but I ran it with RtKW, Ser Gilmore, Karma’s Companions, and Dark Times Act 1 without any problems.

Worth a try? Yes! Just be warned of bugs and use the 1.04 patch.

Quests and Legends – I haven’t played this, yet, but it looks incredible.

Dragon Age Dark Times Act 1 – This is huge and can be a lot of fun. It teleports you to an odd Fade-type realm with all new maps, 3 new companions, and is fully voiced. Unfortunately it won’t ever be finished, but it’s definitely got a lot of extra game play in even the first Act. Does have some bugs in it, so be careful and save frequently. Update: This mod was originally hosted on BSN and lead to a Dropbox, Mediafire or a torrent. The above link goes to someone’s shared cloud storage. If it’s the creator or not, I don’t know. It appears to be a clean and working copy. That’s where my latest download came from, but use with caution.

I get a lot of hits from people looking for the sex and nudity mods. There’s no link for those here, but I’m sure you can find them on Dragon Age Nexus. Join their site and if you’re over 18 you can search for anything you want.