Leliana's Archer abilities stopped working

Thing · Post by **Thing** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:07 am

I'm well into my current game (which includes all the standard DLCs plus Dark Times Act 1), Leliana's archery abilities no longer function. She's level 14 and has worked fine until now, but whenever I try to use Arrow of slaying, Rapid Shot or any other archer based abilities a message appears above her saying "you cannot use that ability". All the personal characteristics are high enough (Dex for instance is at 46). I've reloaded a dozen earlier saves and the problem seems to have kicked in about 15 hours of play ago ...... As you can imagine I don't relish re-running 15 hours of play.

I use her mainly at a distance so while the rest of the team is battling I rarely focus on her and she is often off-screen following instructions - this is why I probably haven't seen it until now

Her rogue abilities are fine (stealing, dirty fighting, lock-picking ...)

For the moment I've taken her out of the party until I need traps found or locks picked - but I had planned to play an all-girl group and I don't particularly want to polute that principle by resorting to Zevran.

Anyone seen this before? Anyone have any suggestions?

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:27 pm

Is Leliana using her bow in combat, or is she just standing there? You might want to unequip and re-equip her bow and see if that resets anything, or perhaps try out a different bow.

You might also want to check her tactics page and make sure you have her set for ranged combat.

SWC

Thing · Post by **Thing** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:55 pm

Thanks for the reply SWC

ideas always welcome.

Yup, she's equipped with Marjolaine's Recurve and is able to fire as a standard archer - no problem on that count - just a total absence of abilities...

I have un-equipped ad re-equipped, without any effect - with and without saving between times.

Tactics are fully disabled for her as I prefer to select the type of attack she uses as situations progress (scattershot, arrow of slaying ...)

Any more ideas?

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:33 am

Does Leliana still have the combat training skills? That's the only requirement other than dex for the talents you've listed.

You could unequip all of Leliana's gear, and then equip a bow and see what happens. I'd also try her with a different bow and see if that makes a difference.

You mentioned Dark Times. Are you using mods? That could be interfering in some way.

SWC

Thing · Post by **Thing** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:09 am

Thanks again for the suggestions

Since the last post I've tried re-specializing her (Character Respec addon v1.6), to no avail

I've stripped her and equipped her with a standard bow - no joy

As for combat skills - 4th level (expert)

Yes I have several mods, none of which have presented problems so far. Apart from the Respec Mod mentioned above and the EA standard ones such as Amulet of the War Mage, Red Dragon Armour, Battledress of the Provocateur etc. they are :

Baldurs Gate 2 Irenicus Dungeon using DAO motor, but adding BG2 spells, abilities etc
Dark Times Act 1 (a bit buggy, but no major problems so far) v1.02 plus 1.05 Fixpack
Extra Dog slot v4.1
Lock Bash (Origins)
Lock Bash (Awakenings)
Morrigan Restoration Patch
Qwinns Unofficial DA:O Fixpack v2.0
Tall Storage Chest v1.1
The Winter Forge (for all parts of DAO and DLCs)

I have deactivated all of them, forced a load and still encountered the same problem. It's wierd that it's only the Archery abillities that are affected, steal, stealth and rogue attacks/modes all operate normally.

Total time on this game is now about 60 hours, so I suspect I'll have to complete with Zevran. ah the fun of gaming

GoldDragon · Post by **GoldDragon** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 2:35 pm

With Tactics completely disabled, characters WILL simply stand there and do nothing (unless attacked). Not disabling them will make her fight.

On the Tactics page for her, is she set to default or Ranged? The latter will force her to stay with a bow (even in Melee).

One idea for her to use scattershot:

Enemy clustered with 4 or more: Scattershot (I use adv Tactics, but the basic one should have this)

Enemy boss/elite: Arrow of slaying.

All from memory as it has been some time since I was in Origins.

swcarter · Post by **swcarter** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:55 pm

Are you having much trouble in combat? If not, then you could just stay with Leliana. Marjolaine's Recurve comes with rapid aim (making rapid shot redundant), so you'd only be losing the use of a talent here and there. I bet Leliana is doing pretty good damage regardless.

SWC

Thing · Post by **Thing** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:20 pm

No problems at all with combat. Tactics are set to ranged so she dosn't just stand there doing nothing.... Not a major combat issue because my style is to avoid direct combat interaction as much as possible (3 mages and one archer - get them out of the way from a distance - the coward who runs away can always fire another arrow!). In a typical combat I use Death Cloud and Storm of the Century to safely take out most of the opposition - throwing in Earhquake and a few grease fires generally does the business if anything is left over. To be honest, Leliana is more decorative than anything. However, it's nice to vary the attacks by stealthing her and doing major damage to a few key opposition players with Arrow of Slaying - even if it dosn't kill them directly it draws them to the mages so they can be safely finished off at a distance. I'll stay with her because the interaction with Morrigan and Wynne can be hilarious at times.
Happy New Year to all!