Is a great game, but it is a product of its time. BioWare released Dragon Age in 2009 while still working on Mass Effect 2, so Dragon Age repeats many of the same design mistakes that made Mass Effect frustrating at times. If it’s been a while since you dove into Dragon Age’s rich lore or loveable characters, you probably missed out on the game’s mod scene.

Luckily, in the last five years the game’s the community has coalesced around a dozen-or-so stellar mods that everyone absolutely must add to their playthroughs. Before you head into the wilds to face the Templars and the Mages in November’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, start at the beginning with these 15 essential mods for the game that started the series. This list originally contained 18 mods, but we’ve downsized as some mods become unavailable or no longer compatible with the game as it stands today. A note that will make modders mad at me, due to its age, does not feature Steam Workshop integration.

Heck, it’s a surprise that it’s even available on Steam at all and not exclusive to Origin. All of the mods on this list are hosted only at Dragon Age’s mod nexus, and each will need to be individually installed according to their creators’ whims. To help, I recommend using, a handy program with a user interface that encourages drop-and-install mod tracking. It’s very easy to use, so you should check it out.

It’s only now that I’ve been immersed in Steam Workshop integration for a couple of years that I realize how janky and haphazard third-party mod hosting can be by comparison. Though using DAModder will save you some headaches, it doesn’t work for all mods. Some mods, like Bash Locks, need to have code pasted into.ini files. Others, like Dragon Age Redesigned, come packaged with individual.exe installers for each element. I still recommend DAModder in general, but it will only help with about half of the mods on this list. Am I a spoiled, whining, crybaby asking for endless handholding? After many hours fighting with mod installation readme.txts and lore-friendly PDF guides: Yes.

Download Free Madness Project Nexus Hacked Version. And you should be, too. Now, onto Dragon Age: Origins' finest mods. Gameplay mods Lock Bash I almost never roll a sneaky rogue/thief/hacker in a role-playing game. If RPG characters are a reflection on their players, this means that I am the type of person who trips over his own shoes and has broken furniture by accidentally falling on it. For those of us cursed to wander bullishly through the china shop of life, locked chests and doors are tortuous reminders that we can’t explore every corner of every dungeon. We are not skilled with tiny metal lockpicks, so we can’t enjoy the secrets within.

Unless, that is, you’ve got the Lock Bash mod and a large hammer. With Lock Bash in Dragon Age, warriors and mages can get in on the larceny by smashing open or disintegrating locks, respectively.

The first time I played Dragon Age: Origins was on the Xbox and I had a hard time. Does the natural body mod remove the ridiculous. Skyrim mods to get you in. Installing Natural Bodies All In One. Dragon Age: Origins DA Modmanager. IF you have issues with further install of mods thru this program- After.

The mod even includes animated destructions, so you get to see the hinges shatter on that wee, puny lockbox. I did run into a couple of bugs where having Lock Bash installed made me unable to talk to quest-bearing NPCs through doorways (notably Owen the Blacksmith in Redcliffe), and I had to uninstall it to get the story moving again. These hang-ups are rare, though, so it was worth it to keep this great mod on hand.. Auto Loot© by Pheelon At once the most useful and most obnoxious mod on this list, Auto Loot eliminates the middleman in your corpserobbing adventures.