I romanced Merril and never used her for anything but her own quests. I would assume you can do the same with Isabela. I have full friendship with her, and that's really all it requires (that and flirting at the appropriate times in act 2).

Just FYI, there's a bug with Isabela (and a similar one with Sebastien) where if she gets forced out of your party it will gradually reduce your attack speed (it's called the "thumbs up" bug if you want to google it). So you want to be really careful with her. Hopefully that's being fixed with the upcoming patch.

(I was able to I think fix both bugs on pc with a save game editor.)

i banged Isabela and then told her it was all "just fun" without repercussions so far.

stringing Anders along ... he loves me.

want to bang merrill but that is going to take some work because she isn't completely friendly yet.

Hmmm. I'm at a point where Isabella took some book or something that her life depended on. She begged me to go get this book with her, cause it would save her life. Then when we got it, she immediately ran off with it, leaving my group at 3 members in the middle of a battle. And now she's unavailable.

That isn't what you're talking about is it?

No, that's the way it should be.

What happens with the bug is that, if you look under abilites under your character sheet, any bonuses you get from companions shows up on the bottom right (if you have dog, his icon is there). However, when she's forced out of the group, you will keep her friendship bonus, even though she's not there. And what ends up happening is when the bonus finally goes away, that 5% bonus speed that she gives you, gets taken out of your base attack speed. And it stacks. My character, before I fixed it with a save editor, had something like -40% attack speed. Everything in slow motion. Funny, but kind of makes going through Nightmare even more nightmarish. Sebastian has a similar bug, but his chips away at your base damage resistance (mine before fixed was -55%).

This only happens if you have her friendship bonus...

So if you're not friendly enough that the bonus hasn't activated yet, or if you're rival with her, you don't get the bug. And you may not even notice it at first, but it eventually builds up...

just got owned bad ... any suggestions

Well, crap. I took one of the Forbidden Knowledge tomes.

Yeah... that owned me hardcore until I finally figured it out. Here's what I did:

About to try the High Dragon.

Nothing left after that but the end of the game I think.

Man, I kicked the High Dragon's ass.

game is getting noticeably harder now

They are starting to use multiple waves with a delay so that your characters get stuck waiting for cool down timers.

also using sneaky delayed spawns so that baddies can come up from behind you after an area has been cleared or even spawn right in the middle of your party in the heat of a battle.

i think i'm going to have to just get used to switching weapons to suit the resists of the given enemy to make up for having skills on cool down so often. Also don't overkill bad guys because another wave could be coming.

nice twists by devs

After taking a few days off, I'm back for Round 3 playing the female mage.

Made my character really hot (all the better to woo Isabella), but damn this robe makes my ass look huge! LMAO

Finished, finally. I'm not sure I understand what's going on at the end. Although it seems fairly obvious where DA3 will take place.

7 achievements left to finish. It took me over a year to finish DAOs.

typical woman ... it's your huge ass that makes your ass look big

:evil:

Yes, I know. And I've been pummeled by violent women for saying it in real life, too. :$2500:

Al Bundy would not last long in DE2. :D