Haven't posted an update in a while, just been too lazy as it takes time away from playing more DA. I'm still at it hardcore, so far I'm at 70+ hours. The game has gotten much easier for me, probably has a lot to do with the advice you've all given me and the fact that my characters have gotten a lot stronger. That's another thing I've always loved about Bioware RPGs, if you do go out of your way to explore more and check out and complete as much side quests as you can, you are rewarded with more leveling and loot. I think the big turning point was this amazing armor set I found which was a little bit of a bitch to acquire, but boy did it pay off. I definitely wouldn't say its been a push over, I still have to think tactically during boss fights, which there are some awesome boss fights, but I feel like I'm given a little more breathing room as my characters can take more hits without have to chug a potion or take a heal every time I have to pause. I've also managed to get my approval ratings for all the characters up pretty high, all except of Alistair, I've kind of been neglecting him since now I have so many characters that are high damage melee. Though I haven't been using the trap skill like at all, and I know it's something that can be very useful, especially for crowd control, but carrying around materials for everything like potion and poison making starts to really take a chunk out of your inventory, trap making would just take more of it. I also wish there was a hotkey for crafting, since I no longer have any room in my ability bars to have that crafting button for easy use. Probably the most amazing thing I've witnessed so far are some of the finishing moves characters will pull off, I nearly shat my pants watching my dwarf tackle an ogre, driving his sword through his face. Fantastic.