Starting Dorian's Companion Quest

[Lunarwench]

Sounds good, SD, will do. Thanks for the advice!

[xSleyah]

After several hours of playing around with it, I FINALLY got the quest to trigger. Based on my experience and what others here have said, I really think the issue is having JUST the right amout of positive favor with Dorian, not too little and not too much (dumb, right? It should be available starting at a certain amount and above--I hope Bioware fixes this soon). I wish I could say exactly what I did to make it trigger, but I can give you the ballpark (note that I sided with the Templars and therefore didn't recruit Dorian until Skyhold): I completed both the "Dorian's Request" and "A friend in Qarinus" War Table missions. Then I headed to the Hinterlands with Dorian and completed a SINGLE portion of the One Less Venatori quest. Then I went back to Skyhold and talked to Dorian, which got me the Felix scene. In a previous save I tried completing the whole Venatori quest before talking to Dorian--no dice. I also tried talking to him immediately following the War Table missions and before starting the Vinatori mission--nope. This would explain why people who talked to Dorian at Haven are having issues, because they may already have too much favor by the time they reach Skyhold. For me, even the amount of approval I got from just regular conversation and the Venatori quest seemed to put me over the limit. 

Since I sided with the Templars, I can't speak to whether specific actions at Haven have anything to do with the bug. I don't know if talking to other people before or after Dorian at Skyhold matters, either; in fact, in the save game I got it to work in, I had already talked to everyone, including Varric on the battlements. Also, since I hadn't recruited Dorian by the "Corypheus must be stopped" line, that doesn't seem to be an issue either. There really just seems to be a small window where you can get the scene, and after that you're locked out, unfortunately. 

Anyway, I just wanted to post this in case it helps someone. I would say if you're way past Skyhold's discovery and don't have any nearby saves, go ahead and don't waste your time trying to make this ridiculous thing work. But if you're around that point, don't give up, try what I did and other Dorian-related actions, and see if you can find the right amount of approval to trigger the quest. Here's hoping there's a patch soon!

[darkmanifest25]

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@xSleyah wrote:

Based on my experience and what others here have said, I really think the issue is having JUST the right amout of positive favor with Dorian, not too little and not too much (dumb, right? It should be available starting at a certain amount and above--I hope Bioware fixes this soon).

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If this really is the cause, it makes sense, since this was a problem in Dragon Age: Origins, too, if you got companion approval up too high, too quickly (such as with giving gifts one after another), you'd miss out on scripted scenes.  Problem disappeared in DA2 because you could no longer interact with companions outside of scripted moments, now it's back, and even trickier because you can't visually track approval rating.  Considering the Venatori quest gives massive approval with each kill, it's probably really easy to get Dorian up past the right spot once at Skyhold.

[CelesteEvesun]

I sided with the Templars and couldn't initiate Last Resort of Good Men, either, because the cutscene where Dorian receives the letter about Felix was never triggered so I thought I was doomed and had to start over, but after mucking around for about seven hours, I found a solution that worked for me.

What did it for me was NOT finishing One Less Venatori. I only finished it up to 2/3 (I didn't kill the group in Exalted Plains) and then went back to Skyhold to speak to Dorian. Up until that point, I had exhausted all dialogue with him and flirted with him at every opportunity I got. With One Less Venatori only up to 2/3, the cutscene with Felix' letter did trigger for me and Mother Giselle was in the hall after that with the letter from Dorian's father. So I guess for me that last Greatly Approves pushed Dorian's approval of me over so I couldn't start the quest.

I don't know if I was just very lucky or if it's an actual solution, but I thought I'd share anyway in case it works for anyone else. Good luck!

EDIT: I.... just saw someone else posted a similar solution. Guess that's what you get for not reading the entire thread, oops. Oh well

[Slypaw]

As of Patch 1.03, this is no longer an issue for me; I finally got the cutscene about Felix's letter and the conversation with Mother Giselle!

Hope it works for everyone! :D

[sakuravaan]

Yes!! It finally works! Damn Mother GIselle... Finally you showed up.

Thanks for the patch Bioware C:. 

There's still the bug at the tavern thou... well, nothing can't be solved.

Thanks again!

[EA_David]

Thanks for the confirmations!

[Evistanique]

I know it's been months since anyone has posted on here, but I've been stuck with this quest not triggering in the tavern for hours now. I tried all the suggestions posted, and none of them worked. However, I did just finally get it to trigger and I'm not sure if it was purely random, but it's another suggestion that worked for me. All I did was save my game while my party was inside the tavern, shut the game off, restarted it and loaded the previous save  from inside the tavern and voila .... Cut scene immediately triggered! Not sure if it will work for everyone, but just adding it to the list