#beats staring at my weak ass resume in despair at least

[kit-o-nine-tales]

List of DAO mods *I* have installed

 This is a giant list of mods I’ve got installed for Dragon Age origins, including links and my thoughts. Let me save you time when looking for things. It’s the least I can do for the fandom as someone who can’t contribute via creating mods, or fanart. (I write fanfic, but it doesn’t feel like much) This is also to help me achieve some degree of organization, as I am a mess and my memory is garbage.

General improvements (if you don’t wanna go ham (like I did lol), these are the basic essentials)

True colors REDUX - makes the vanilla tints less grey, very nice

Dragon Age Origins Unofficial Remaster - updates textures and makes things so much prettier (True Colors Redux is also included as part of this)

(Dalishious’ mods in general are great go look at them.)

Qwinn’s Ultimate DAO fixpack - this one. If you install nothing else, install this one. it fixes so many things that were left broken in the final release of the game.

Real Pigment - a skin tint fix - no more patchy skin, plus darker skin tones look so much better.

Universal dye kit - change your armor colors! it’s fun!

HQ Eyebrow stubble and scalp hair replacers

Boob patches be gone - removes those extra lines on the boobies of the standard mage robe, because they were silly looking

Neutral female armor - no more boob plate on the medium and heavy armor (also included in the unofficial remaster)

Goblet De-Gobbler - fixes common glitches with the Joining chalice

SJC’s vanilla face textures replacement - more detailed replacements for the default complexions (UOR has it’s own vanilla face texture replacers as well.)

Cosmetic mods - for all your chargen needs

Hairs

Look! Hair! - I’ve installed a ton of hairs from risibisi. Though not all of them (there are. so many. it’s awesome)

Tucked hair by tmp7704

Hairstyle day parts 1 & 2

DAO anto hairstyles

Elven hairstyles

Beautiful people hair ren (a chargen for it)

additional hairs for DA by boodrl

jenya’s random hairstyles (note, a few of these are bugged, check the posts tab)

Character creation expansion plus da2 eye tints

Miikocc hairs

AH00B Hairs

LOTC Hairstyles

Witcher 2 for DA

Raptures Witcher (just the aesthetics file, chargen here)

LHK’s mini hairpack

More hairstyles

Simpliciaty hairs

Hair tweaks and additions

elf hairs by dalishous

Anto Curls

Parisa Hair

KH blogspot

Fluffy bob for origin’s elves

Skins/face textures

Barnzi face textures

Ferelden models: KH textures + the face textures from face and eye textures (I am not using the eyes)

 Fairy face

Alice complexion

Rose complexion

FBD skins

Anna complexion

Another complexion

Pretty skins

Vitligo skins

Face textures

Blackmoon’s Human Female face textures (I renamed them to be additions, not replacements)

KH creator files (includes hair, skins, etc - but you’ll need to do some manual chargen file editing due to some incompatible quotation marks used within the provided chargen files. Overlaps with the FM files.) 

A new freckled skin texture for females

Warden complexions with eyebrows 

Lipstick - mole and freckles textures 

SJC’s skins

Dr. DJ’s bandit emporium - cool scars for your wardens (check the posts tab for how to extract the chargenmorph file)

New skins DAO by Vlissa 

Warpaint skins 

New textures by MissB 

Face texture beta 

Gizmodian faceworks

Dimitri skin texture

Jeane eyes_eyelashes and complexion

Chargen package - more cool scars in this one

Planes traveler appearance package

Tints

SJC’s skin tones

Dalishious Skin Tints

Pineappletree’s vibrant colors

Colorful hair

Colorful hair - highlighted

SJC’s hair colors

Big Brown Eyes

Bright Tattoo Tints

CC extra tints and tones

Simple hair spectrum

Lovely tints

Colorful makeup

SJC’s Lip Colours

Eyeshdow Collection

Lipstick collection

Blush collection

Sun’s Tints

Presets that add things (like longer eyelashes, or unique eye textures)

LOTC’s female eyelashes

Bidelle’s Cosmetics (though tbh, I haven’t actually used any of these ones in game yet)

Six presets with heterochromia - these are fun.

LOTC’s eye textures

PNangel eyes to headmorphs (pretty sure my Jean Grey Warden’s green eyes came from one of these ones)

NPC Morphs

DA2 Elves triple mix (with original skin tint Merrill) - makes the elves in DAO look more they do in DA2. Requires some files from elf update, but not all of them. the mod description tells you which ones.

Brown Merrill Continuity fix - puts Merrill in her DA2 robes and fixes the skin-tone contrast. requires loincloth fashion. Also offers another Merrill morph.

Isabella variation - means to make Isabella look like she does in DA2, but a few years younger (I might try to find an alternative tho, I feel like her skin tone is a bit too light)

Qunari update - makes the Qunari look more like they do in the later games

Ferelden racelift - adds some diversity to Ferelden (I don’t use all the morphs in here - it looks weird with elf update installed bc of how the elf eye texture size changes but the morphs from this mod don’t change to fit the larger eyes. But. Still a nice addition)

Ser Gilmore morph with light proportion tweaks - small changes that make him look a little less...off

Unique face textures for companions DAO edition - give them friends of yours some unique skin textures! they deserve them! (I use Alistair, Wynne, Oghren, Loghain (though I almost never recruit him) and Leliana)

Alkolnoix Morrigan - a nice Morrigan morph that gives her darker skin, befitting her implied Chasind parentage

Tranquil 2.0 - gives the tranquil the brand that the game says is supposed to be there

Sten of the Beresaad - for a more unique Sten look to go with Qunari update

Visibly elf-blooded - Ignore the “magic dna” bs that erases biracial elf-blooded characters, and give Alistair, Slim Couldry, Goldanna, some background npcs, and (optionally) Leliana some elven ears. Has a version that uses the unique companion face textures mod, which sealed the deal for me.

Window of the Soul - Eyes Replacement - the eye retexture I’m currently using. (Though there’s another one I’ve been eying. haha.)

Retcon armors/future game imports/retextures

Grey Wardens of Ferelden (w/ Dalishious’ retexture) - make them wardens wear their uniforms! We’re supposed to be an order! All official-like and stuff.

Duncan Outfit - a unique but still GWOF matchy look for Duncan.

Hooded enchanter mesh - replacement meshes for f!Human and f!Elf chasind and tevinter robes (I’m just using the chasind ones from this, skipping the UOR retextures.)

Improved mabari for DAO - a less weird looking dog mesh

Retcon light armor texture rehaul - make the light armors look like they do in the later games

I’m not using this anymore, since the retextures from the UOR accomplish what I wanted this mod for while blending in with DAO better: making the light armors more unisex.)

Loincloth fashion - adds armors from future games, added via console command

Keeper and Merrill outfit fixes - another DA2 Merrill outfit retexture (with skin-tinting) and the option to make Merrill’s robe appear on female characters who try to wear the male-exclusive “keeper’s robe” from Loincloth fashion.

Kirkwall exports - same as LCF, adds armors from future games. Some overlap between the two.

The guardians of Cadash Thaig - again, as above

Dalish armor replacement - makes the dalish armor look like it does in DA2 (no more bare midriff on women wearing dalish armor!!!)

Seamfix and high resolution textures - a DA2 dalish armor retexture

Robes of the wild - HD retexture of Morrigan’s robes with hood

I’m just using the hood from this, after manually removing the robe files. (It doesn’t perfectly match color-wise, but I’m satisfied. For now - if anyone wants to know which files to keep so you can have the hood on its own, just ask.)

Practical Morrigan robes - a really neat looking Morrigan robe retexture, and the one I’m using now.

Dwarves are not mages - get them mage robes off of King Endrin and Lord Harrrowmont

Crow Assassin’s Armor for Zevran - gives him unique armor based off of TWoT2 concept art

Apostate clothing file - three DA2 ports

Dalish Keeper Robes - redresses Marethari, Zathrian, Lanaya, and Velanna.

Gameplay altering stuff

Awakening in the OC + expanded integration - add stuff and spells and skills from DA:A to the base game

The Winter Forge - change how items look! rename them! change their stats, their item tier! copy stats from one item to another!

(I play with the cheatmode bc I am a dirty cheater and I am not ashamed of this. But you don’t have to do it that way.)

Open lock spells - let your mages bust open some treasure chests. you know they’re dying to.

Spell School Divine - some healing spells, some offensive spells, some companion buffing spells (I don’t use these spells often, but I do have them installed)

Arcane Warrior plus - more spells for your arcane warrior

Arcane Warrior weapons drawn casting - no more putting your sword down to cast 

(NOTE: this might have broken paralysis glyphs for me. Or maybe it was something else. I don’t use that spell too much though, so I haven’t bothered trying to fix it/figure out what did it)

Dragon Age Class and Specialization pack - adds a bunch of specializations, some weapon mastery skills, and two new magic classes: warlock and ritualist

I can’t remember what the game was like before I installed this one lol

Chantry Monk specialization 

Want your mage to be able to PUNCH PEOPLE? this is the place to go.

Half-Wraith specialization - now rogues can teleport. if you want.

Emerald Knight specialization - your warrior can summon a wolf!

Seeker of Truth specialization - your warrior can heal? (haven’t used this one too much) 

Wild Keeper specialization - your mage can turn enemies into squirrels!

Knight specialization - your warrior gets a bonus reduction to fatigue, and more companion buffs

Lich specialization - your mage can summon a fuckton of skeletons (from dead enemies) also, transform into an arcane horror

Beastmaster specialization - your mage can summon wolves and sylvans and stuff

Wild mage specialization - you ever wanna just... cast something and not know what’s going to happen? here ya go

Necromancer specialization - more skeleton raising antics

Paladin specialization - magical two-handed talents for warriors? (haven’t used this much yet)

Death Knight specialization - more magic talents for warriors (also haven’t used much yet)

Grenadier specialization -  bombs!!! no crafting needed!! (for rogues)

Extended dog talents - more talents for dog, your bestest buddy

Extra Dog slot - bring dog everywhere! without taking up a companion slot.

Full Combatant Dog - gives dog more talents

No Helmet Hack  - hide them ugly things

(Note: if you have a bunch of mod-companions, it can sometimes make your helmets disappear permanently. So... leave some companions’ helmets visible.)

Tower Guard Rogue + Tower of Ishal companion options - no longer must you suffer the indignities of leaving locked treasure chests behind in the tower of Ishal!

Higher Level Cap and More specialization slots - go up to level 70. You know you want to (if you have as many bonus dungeons installed as I do, anyway)

All shapeshifting from mouse - learn all the Fade shapeshifting skills when you talk to that first mouse (it makes Lost in Dreams less back-tracky, but without skipping it entirely)

Teleport - A spell that lets you teleport around (check the posts tab for install advice)

Ancient blood magic rewritten - more blood magic spells! (check posts tab for advice on how it works)

Qwinn no Wynne - leave Wynne behind during ABC without killing her! (I got bored of seeing her Fade nightmare every time)

Complete bi overhaul - idc what bioware says, Morrigan is not straight.

This conflicts with Qwinn’s, but if you install this as an override and Qwinn’s as a dazip, it doesn’t break anything (so far - haven’t finished a play-through with it yet myself)

Also looks like it might conflict with the epilogue slides from Karma’s Origins companions.

Polygamey - date everyone at once (Note: does not work on mod-created companions)

Reverse Blood sacrifice - steal the blood of your enemies, not your friends

Non-circle mage origins - Want to be a mage but tired of the magi origin? Here ya go. (Some conflicts with other dialogue altering mods (CBO, Qwinn’s... for example) - I’m only using it for a very specific play-through, then will be moving it to my back-up folder. Gave it load priority rather than deleting anything.)

New starting Robe for Dalish Mage - a nice companion to the above mod. Gives you several options to choose from , though you’ll need to download the mod that gives you the outfit you want separately.)

Story mods (mods that just add fluff, basically)

General

Clan Sabrae says Goodbye - a longer, heartrending farewell scene for the end of the Dalish origin

Be more elfy; Dalish dialogue overhaul - allows for a more knowledgeable Dalish warden, fixes the lethallan/lethallin mix up in the beginning, and also gives you bisexual Tamlen - be sure to give it load priority over CBO.)

Talk elfy to Me - gives you the ability to select a more dalish voice set using clips from DAI

Dance party - you and your companions can dance at camp (and at the Gnarled noble tavern)

CmessaZ7′s hugs - Human noble can hug mom or dad, F!mahariel can hug Tamlen

but this conflicts with Be more Elfy, so I’m not using it anymore for Tamlen, sadly. Even though I really want to give him a hug

The Human noble hugs conflict with the Cousland keepsakes mod further down this list

Hugs for Tabris - Tabris can hug their dad, Shianni, and Soris

The rescue at ishal - cutscene of dragon-Flemeth coming to rescue PC and Alistair

Non-transphobic sex-workers - bc transphobia isn’t cool, y’all

Lady Aeducan the non-warden - changes it so that the middle aeducan is a woman when talked about in Orzammar, if not chosen as the warden (instead of defaulting to being a man)

Satina in the sky - apparently, Thedas has two moons (according to extended canon.) this adds a second moon (will conflict with the unofficial remaster, either delete that moon, or make sure this one is alphabetically placed last for load priority)

More hairs for kids and diversified children - makes the kids less clone-y. Best applied to a fresh game. Some conflicts with DA2 elves triple mix morphs. (I think the UOR has this or something similar; I’m not using the morphs from the UOR)

The children’s closet - makes it so the kids aren’t all wearing the same two outfits. Requires this. (included in the UOR)

Daveth and Jory in the fade - puts them in the Warden’s fade dream instead of the randos. requires GWoF

Let Me Live - an NPC Rescue Mod - I haven’t played through with this yet, but it’s like a dream come true. I can finally save Nial! ❤️❤️❤️ And Nelaros!

Romance add-ons

General

Dahlialynn’s Sleep til dawn - cuddle with your LI in your tent! Compatible with karma’s and Ser Gilmore

Origin romances

Farewell, Ser Gilmore - give Ser Gilmore a hug or kiss goodbye

A flower from Tamlen - Tamlen (my beloved!) finds a flower and gives it to the Dalish warden (if romance flag active) 

Kissing Tamlen - allows a Dalish Warden to remember a past kiss with Tamlen, and you get a free ring!

Alistair

Alistair nights: Moonlit bath - E rated bathtime with Alistair

Alistair’s Magical kiss - a private kiss with Alistair

Alistair’s visible kiss - better camera angles for the regular kissing scene

Alistair’s funeral - if Alistair makes the sacrifice, a romanced warden can kiss him goodbye 

The Proposal - Alistair asks for PC’s hand in marriage if engaged

Dahlialynn’s Alistair epilogues: The royal wedding - marry Alistair!

Funeral kiss - if a PC romanced Alistair and made the ultimate sacrifice, he kisses her body at the funeral. 

Dahlialynn’s Alistair’s nightmare - A Sleep til dawn add-on 

Alistair Romance Eavesdropping - adds in-camp cutscenes for some of the Alistair-centric companion banters

Alistair Romance Appetite - a playful scene involving food

Alistair Romance attraction - even the wildlife adores him

Alistair romance: the steamy bits - another E-rated bath with Alistair mod

Alistair romance: hot water - you guessed it! another e-rated bath with Alistair (a popular theme. This one is the prettiest, imo)

Zevran

Intrigues of an Antivan Crow - adds a bunch of romance scenes, some e-rated

Leliana

Leliana stories - much like the above intrigues, adds additional romance scenes for Leliana. Made by the same person.

Companion mods (mods that add more recruit-able companions)

Ser Gilmore companion NPC - Ser Gilmore from the Human noble origin miraculously survives the fall of Cousland castle! And he wants to help you kill darkspawn and get revenge on Arl Howe.

Lealion - a mage who was at Ostagar can join you in Lothering (she has like, no dialogue, but hey, more mages)

Saarebas Qunari mage companion - a qunari mage can join you at lake Calenhad (requires Qunari update) he has a little more dialogue than Lealion, but still, nothing compared to Gilmore. But again; more mages!

MerAnne’s Dwarf Companions - adds a bunch of dwarves you can recruit (you can even choose their genders) more content than Lealion & Saarebas, but slightly less than Gilmore I think. Haven’t played the mod with a dwarf warden yet, I think they get more dialogue

Karma’s Origins Companions - the one, the only.

recruit (& heal) Tamlen (MY BELOVED), Jowan (poor lil meow meow), Soris, Leske, Gorim (Thank FUCK, Lady Aeducan no longer has to get dumped), Cullen (eww), and original characters Adela and Ox. make sure to check the readme.

There are some aspects of it I’m iffy about, but I’m just so grateful for Tamlen that it could literally punch me in the face every time I start the game and I’d just ignore it.

Quests and Legends - I haven’t actually played this one yet, but I will soon. It has a compatibility patch with Karma’s. I think it adds one new companion?

Return to the Korcari wilds - hilariously 2009 music choices, adds two companions. Karma has a compatibility patch for it. More content than Lealion, less than Ser Gilmore or Karma’s

Dark times - adds three companions, three specializations, and has a karma’s patch.

It’s... also not the best. really goes in on the elf-racism, among other things. ppl rave about it, but I wasn’t that impressed tbh. the megaupload download link in the comments is safe, at least, it was when I used it.

The bloodworks - adds one new companion (two actually, but you have to choose between the templars or the blood mages - I have literally never gone with the templars), not much dialogue. Also a bunch of quests, a spell line, a warrior talent line, and allows you to make an absurd amount of money. has a karma’s patch. Ties in with Dark times a little, along with Ser Gilmore

Bonus dungeons/quests

Pints and Quarts Tavern - a tavern near Redcliffe with a bunch of people who need help with things. some misogynistic story beats in the final quest. Not very lore-compliant either.

Hilltop under siege - a village under attack from darkspawn. a little silly, kind of non-lore compliant

King Calenhad’s tomb - freaky tomb emerges from Lake Calenhad. Not lore compliant, and the trap rooms are straight up maliciously designed

Ancient Elven ruins - somebody stole the family heirlooms of a dwarven house, they disappeared into this place. Not lore compliant, I think. Ties in with one of the P&Q quests

Spiders and Knives - adds a few balanced quests and rewards to Lothering, plus another party storage chest (warning, the rogue dagger reward is bugged and might remove the coup de grace skill when unequipped)

Alley of Murders - there’s an alley, and there have been murders. People praise this one a lot, but I’m eh about it. made by the same people as the Bloodworks

infested grounds - a nobleman has a dragon problem on his property (he deserves it, tbh) by the same person as P&Q

Swamp tower adventure - there’s a swamp, there’s a tower, and there are beasties. Also by the same person as P&Q

Inverness keep - apparently, some nobleman died and left his estate to the wardens. You can get skill books here, store stuff, get alcoholic gifts for Oghren, and actually do something with those silver goblets, silver bowls, and the vases you find. (plus silk carpets, and the painting gifts, if you’re not giving them to Sten)

Innodil’s Pocket Plane - god mode storage you can access from anywhere 

Tombs of the Undead - this is a good one. Three tombs, different difficulty levels, pretty lore compliant, the codex entries are well written. It almost feels like it could have been part of the game to begin with

Temple of Vulak - a temple full of demons. bit of a tough one.

Utilities - console command scripts and stuff

Enable console commands

Make console commands visible

Chargenmorph compiler - a must to make all those hairs and stuff play nice with each other

Change your hero hair and face anywhere - want to change what your warden looks like midway through the game? start a new game with the desired appearance (or use the toolset, idk how to yet though), then use this tool to switch it in

additem with console improved - add any items using their id codes

Console- add points - add talent,skill, specialization, and attribute points via console and use through the regular level up menu (for ppl who have played so many times that they no longer care about cheating lol)

item set descriptions - adds a codex entry that describes the base game item set stats

VFX weapons file - alters the visual effects on weapons to be a lil less dramatic (I think there are other mods that do this, I might try some of them out as well. Eventually)

Fade shroud unghost - makes fade shroud not turn your mage into a ghost (I actually don’t mind this vfx, but I wanted cleaner screenshots for my one Warden. I’ll probably remove it once that warden is done)

Madd gift guide - tells you who the gifts are for (I pm have it memorized at this point, but still.)

DAO- Modmanager - an alternative way to install mods (also capable of installing overrides)

DAmodder - another mod manager, dazip files only

Flycam - allows you to detach the camera from your character and look around. Great for screenshots, requires console commands.

Item mods - just adds items, armor, etc. Or alters the stats of existing items

(an important note about some of these: some have to be unchecked from the installed content menu if you want them to become available in a new game - they appear directly in player inventory after being checked on, but smthn about how the game handles inventory means they won’t appear in the inventory of a fresh file unless checked on after the game has started. I’ll mark these with a *)

*Adamantium battlemage regalia -  uses Legion of the dead armor design. Way overpowered armor and weapons for an arcane warrior

Improved companion items - gives the companion’s exclusive items better stats so you don’t feel like you have to replace them later in the game (I always felt bad for taking away their keepsake items) It also applies to the Warden’s oath (I actually use it now instead of throwing it storage!) and Sten’s sword Asala

Dirth’enna Ensalin armor set - an armor set for arcane warriors that you only receive if you send the tapped spirit to its final rest. Not as overpowered as the other one, overwrites one of the UDK tints

*Wings of Velvet - some pretty mage robes + a staff, and optional jewelry.

City elf ring - with stats - adds a stat boost to Tabris’ wedding ring item, so it can be worn for sentimental value and be useful

Improved ancient elven armor - increases the stats and tier of the ancient elven armor set

The Phoenix Armory for females - some pretty armor and weapons for women (i like sexy armor when it’s my choice to have it be that way; not when it’s the default)

instruments of the warden mage - some griffon-y weapons for mage wardens.

Mahariel’s heirloom - gives Mahariel’s heirloom amulet a unique icon and great stats, so they can sentimentally wear it through the entire game

Cousland family mementos - sentimental items for your Cousland

has a conflict with the Human noble hugs, for some reason.

Alistair’s mother’s amulet - makes his amulet into a wear-able item for him (requires console commands to spawn)

Jar of bees - HAHAHAHAHAHA I can throw bees at people

*Wing of Lilith - robes that use the desire demon skirt/sleeves. UDK compatible

*Warden commander armor - the Warden’s Keep DLC armor but with a helmet, shields, swords, and higher stats (I have it bc Dark Times changed the appearance of the DLC armor into something ugly and generic for some reason?)

RL’s swan song - adds a vendor to the Pearl who sells a ton of stuff (Don’t install all the items, it will probably bork your game. Just pick the ones you like)

RL’s Fashion Bazaar - no merchant for this one, just console commands.

Arcane armor and weapon sets - more stuff for Arcane warriors. Buy from Bodahn

Alistair’s rose (as reward) - adds a wear-able commemorative amulet to your inventory when Alistair gives you the rose

Inquisition Mage Armor - the one I use with the Dalish mage starting robes.

Hahahaha that’s all..... for now. When I add more things (or try out the stuff I haven’t used yet) I’ll reblog with updates.