#so any mod I would make that necessitated a combat encounter would necessarily start with “learning that system from scratch”

[sapphim]

(Last Line of Defense) Oh, thinking more on it, probably after the convo with orsino before the battle, warp Hawke and party to the courtyard, add more waves of templars attacking (enough to be equivalent so), get rid of the demons completely and have friendly npc mages in the gallows instead. When you finish killing the templars, go back to the room with Orsino and trigger that convo (ideally with the no harvester mod). Then go back out to fight Meredith. I totally get if you find that pointless, and I appreciate you even answering. I just personally have issues with how the battle is planned out on the mages side.

Ok that does actually make quite a lot more sense than what I was picturing! It's no secret that the mage ending is underbaked compared to the templar ending and they ran out of time to finish it properly. Given the constraints in place it's really not a bad idea at all, and if a toolset existed it would be a totally feasible project for someone to tackle.

The problem is that without a toolset you have to be singularly motivated to find it worthwhile to go to the amount of effort that would be called for here. Weighing out your options becomes a question of how you get the most value out of the time spent, and the value judgment will be different for everyone.

Thanks for elaborating :)