30 Days of DA: Who Are You?

[owlmoose]

Day Eighteen: Character you are most like

Diplomatic Hawke.

I can only speak to f!Hawke, since I have yet to play an m!Hawke game, although I gather the characters are basically the same. And it's fair to speculate that I might relate so strongly to a diplomatic Marian because she was the first Hawke I played, and most of us tend to have the PC make the decisions we ourselves would make the first time through. But picking the diplomatic options almost always came naturally. And unlike the Warden, Hawke is not a tabula rasa -- you can take her in different directions, nudge her along, but there is the basic core of a personality there. In contrast, when I played my aggressive!Hawke, she was so unlike me that sometimes I had a hard time relating to her -- although pulling on that persona was an awful lot of fun. So I do think it's a fair answer.

Many aspects of Hawke in her diplomatic persona resonate with me -- her desire to help friends and family and the downtrodden (refugees, slaves, mages), her commitment to compromise and working with others and looking for the solution that will make the most people happy. Trying to genuinely see the best in most people, even those with whom she disagrees. Seeing violence as a last resort rather than the obvious solution. And sometimes, or so it seemed to me, telling people what she thinks they want to hear rather than what she might actually believe. (Although that last one might be a little more projection than the rest...)

Complete list of questions

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

Random n00bish question: how many different personalities are there for Hawke? Three? (Diplo, Aggressive, Sarcastic)?

I'm starting to suspect that my Hawke is currently selecting Aggressive/Blunt lines when I don't have a choice for what she says. Odd. I swear I've been selecting Diplomatic options more often when given the chance.

[owlmoose]

Yes, three. Diplomatic/Helpful (green and blue), Humorous/Charming (purple, aka Snarky Hawke), and Aggressive/Direct (red). Your first dialogue choice sets your personality, but if you pick enough choices in another vein, it can change. The way to know for sure what personality you have is to select another character, talk to Hawke, and see what she says. It'll be pretty clear which path she's on.

One of the things I found most amusing about my aggro!Hawke in comparison to diplo!Hawke was her reponse to completing the random delivery quests. Diplo!Hawke always said something nice and friendly like "did you lose this?" whereas aggressive!Hawke often said "keep better track of your things!"

[sarasa_cat]

Hm! I'm about to boot up my PS3 in a few minutes. So, select another character to control and have that character initiate a conversation with Hawke?

[owlmoose]

Yep, that's the trick.

[sarasa_cat]

What should I look for to determine if she's in aggressive vs diplomatic mode?

[owlmoose]

See what she says. An aggressive Hawke will say something impatient like "what do you want?", whereas a diplomatic Hawke will express some kind sentiment (and a humorous Hawke will crack a joke).

[sarasa_cat]

Ah! I'm glad they have a way of finding out what mode Hawke is in!! :)

Assuming my Hawke is indeed in aggressive more, I wonder if it is because she has been cross with her brother one too many times?!

[owlmoose]

At least according to the wiki, your very first response sets your personality, and then further choices of that type will "stack". So if your first response was aggressive, and then you distributed your responses fairly evenly after that point, you may have stacked enough aggressive responses to set that personality. Once it's set, you can change it by selecting another response style more often, but apparently it takes many more times of choosing that style to force a change. There seems to be a period of time at the beginning of each act where you can change the personality more easily, though.

[sarasa_cat]

Ah!!

Well, assuming my Hawke is in aggressive mode (still haven't booted up my PS3), I sort of like her bluntness because it gives her a hard edge that feels fitting for the kinds of issues she's dealing with on the primary and secondary quests.

[owlmoose]

I *adored* my aggressive Hawke, once I figured out the right balance of aggressive vs. diplomatic responses, and the occasionally snarky remark, to make her blunt, direct, and not suffering fools gladly, rather than just mean. It took most of Act One, and I almost turned Varric into a rival in the process, but overall I enjoyed it a lot, and sometime I want to do a game where I play her like that from the beginning.

[sarasa_cat]

Hm... maybe my Hawke is in diplo mode. Not sure. Or maybe she switched at some point. She seems less blunt now.