I would play through DAO and do the DLC either as you are playing or afterwards
If I play through the DLC before I finish/start DAO, is there any impact to the DAO campaign?
If I play through the DLC before I finish/start DAO, is there any impact to the DAO campaign?
I'm not 100% sure that it's required for the game itself (I believe so), but you definitely need an account to access the DLC.
I barely started the main game and then saw some similar threads to this saying to just go ahead and do the dlc stuff. I started up the witch dlc and imported my character. I think I was level 3 and then in the DLC i bounced up to level 20 almost immediately. Is that supposed to happen?
The DLC about Morrigan is intended to be end game stuff since it also takes place after the events of the Origins - thats probably why it bumped you up to level 20. Forgot about that one since I never played it.
Do not play this DLC before you finish the main game. It has spoilers and takes plus after the main campaign. I'm surprised Bioware didn't label it that way.
There have been some really good sales on DAO/Awakening with all the DLC
I played DAO -> Awakening -> DLCs. If I had to do it again, I'd do Awakenings last. You get abilities and gear in Awakenings that either doesn't transfer to the DLCs, or doesn't transfer properly.
Oh, and listen to me. Listen and listen good. I know it'll be 80 hours from now before you get there, but when you're playing Awakening, and you get to to the Silverite Mine in the woods, after you meet the nature wizard elf, you save your game. And I mean do a manual save. Mark these words. Make a small cut on your arm to remember if you have to. You'll thank me if you need that save because all of your gear is erased.