easily distracted

Two methods of adding freckles in the DAO/DAA character creator, elucidated.

Freckles in the DA:O Chargen, Method 1:

Use Rekicker’s Freckles Plus Tattoo Pack (from either DANexus or BSN). These files override some of the native tattoos with either freckles or “face paintings” and can be applied and colored in the Character Creator. (Note that these will also override the default tattoos as they appear on NPCs. For lore purposes, therefore, my preference is to install only two of the files: the one for Dwarf Noble and the first file for Human/City Elf, to preserve the Dalish and Dwarf Commoner tattoos.)

Freckles in the DA:O Chargen, Method 2:

If you haven’t already done so, install the Dracomies True Textures component of the Dragon Age Redesigned mod. (A lot of other mods seem to call for these textures, so I include them in my standard install, whether I’m using the NPC morphs or not.) There are two “freckle skin” textures in the package; adding them to the chargenmorphcfg.xml will make them accessible in the in-game Character Creator.

Extract the following files from the Dracomies Textures erf:

uh_hed_freckledfema2_0d.dds
uh_hed_freckledfema2_0n.dds
uh_hed_freckledfema_0d.dds
uh_hed_freckledfema_0n.dds

and place them within your mods override folder. For some reason, the files will not always work in the Character Creator if they are not extracted!

Edit the <skins> section of chargenmorphcfg.xml, appending the following lines:

<resource name=”uh_hed_freckledfema_0d” />
<resource name=”uh_hed_freckledfema2_0d” />

I usually insert them right before the closing </skins>, so they will be the last two positions on the “Skin Complexion” slider. An added benefit to the freckled skin textures is they can be used in conjunction with tattoos! Skin texture + freckle tattoo gives a very nice, tonally realistic effect, IMO. Also, freckled ginger Dalish!