At the beginning of a game, one of your first big decisions (besides your appearance) is your class. It can be an intimidating choice and one you don't want to regret. But, first, you need to ask yourself: do you want to play a chunk of pure muscle that can stand against anything, even dragons? Are you a lithe and sneaky character who strikes from the shadows? Or are you seeking the power fantasy that comes from having magic at your fingertips? The answers to these questions shape how you experience and enjoy Dragon Age: Origins. Luckily, we are here to help you make that decision. This article looks at each class in an overview and considers its strengths and weaknesses. By the time you've finished reading, you'll have a clear and more informed idea of what class is best for you.
Warrior
Warriors are a classic class type found in any RPG game. The staunch defender of the party, warriors, rely on heavy armour, high strength, and a deep health pool to weather the attacks of your enemies. Typically, warriors are used as tanks to help protect your delicate party members. However, they can also become fearsome damage dealers, utilizing two-handed weapons to decimate adversaries.
In Dragon Age Origins, warriors can train to use a sword & shield, dual-wielding or two-handed weapons. The former is for tanking due to the added protection gained from a shield. The latter options are for the warrior that prefers their blows to hurt rather than protect.
Unfortunately, warriors can be notorious for boring gameplay, and Dragon Age: Origin is no exception to this rule. With most of your skills as passives or sustained, the options for active skill usage are limited. As a result, you're likely to spend most of your gameplay auto-attacking while you wait for your abilities to come off cooldown. Because of this, warriors may not be a good fit for those looking for more high action, high mobility fights. It's also worth noting that this issue eases up if you play a warrior that doesn't serve as a tank. Without the focus on taunting and protecting the party, a warrior suited to dealing damage can be just as enjoyable as any other class. Despite these points, warriors have plenty of strengths to make them a worthy choice to play.
What is great about Warriors:
- Your chances of dying as a warrior are slim to none. Unless you're being intentionally foolish or haven't built them around survivability, your warriors are generally safe to be left alone to do what they do. On higher difficulties, they will need more micro-management, but they are a capable class that doesn't need to be babysat to avoid death.
- Warriors serve as a target dummy to help protect your delicate party members. This helps make sure that your rogues and mages are pumping out as much damage as possible because they can spend less time retreating from melee or being dead on the ground.
- It's hard to ruin a warrior through improper stat assignment. It mainly consists of dumping as many points as you can into strength to unlock heavy armour types. Saving some for constitution to improve your health pool or willpower for a stamina increase never hurts too. Beyond that, slight additions to cunning or dexterity can help with damage and coercing characters with unique dialogue options. It's hard to ruin a warrior character with improper stat assignment.
- As a non-combat point, having a warrior as your playable character can make more sense from a roleplaying perspective. Depending on the race and origin you choose, it would make more sense for that player to be a warrior. For example, a warrior Cousland fits the narrative of a nobly born child, coached from a young age to either rule their family estate or serve as a commander in the army. That sense of instilled power and command is better suited to a warrior.
- As another RP point, it feels more impactful and appropriate if your player character, the hero of the story, is the one to lead your party into battle. As the voice of reason and the one making hard decisions, a warrior is more accurate to the vision of what a leader looks like.
Rogue
Rogues are notorious for being quick-witted and sly of tongue, morally grey and self-serving. Often depicted as lean and limber, rogues are quick and efficient, able to dash in and out of combat with ease. Rogues in Dragon Age: Origins continue to run with this narrative. Armed to the teeth in supple leather, carrying daggers, swords or a bow, the art of playing a rogue lies in field control and leaving foes defenceless. As a versatile class with valuable skills both in and out of combat, playing a rogue keeps you busy and delivers a high paced fighting experience.
However, this wealth of utility comes with a hefty warning. Because of the way skill points and their respect trees are designed in Dragon Age, a rogue will often have to sacrifice damage output for utility. The same points used to level up lockpicking and stealth are used for combat abilities, so to ensure your rogue can pick any lock or stay concealed from enemies, they are going to remain far weaker than they should be.
This necessity for advanced skills also means a rogue played passively is a rogue with lost potential. A rogue's use in battle must constantly be considered between stealth, trap-laying, poison-making, and bonuses to flanking enemies. At times, it may seem that setting up a fight with your rogue may be more time-intensive than the actual battle. A rogue that only attacks with their weapons is significantly weaker than a more active approach.
Regardless of this issue, rogue remains a favourite of fans with a plethora of unique gameplay opportunities.
What is great about Rogues:
- Almost every location in Dragon Age: Origins contains one or more locked rooms with no available key. Rogue is the only class that can lockpick these rooms to access the treasure, secrets, and special interactions inside. These unique interactions can be used to solve quests in more imaginative ways than the default solutions. This can also unlock unique dialogue options you would never see otherwise.
- Rogue is the only class that gives you the ability to choose between melee and ranged fighting. You can either use daggers and swords to fight in the heat of battle or string your bow from afar to bring down prey without ever smelling danger. This unique choice means you could play two rogue playthroughs and have them both be completely different experiences.
- A rogue's control of the battle can turn an otherwise impossible battle into an effortless chore. By pausing before the fight to lay traps and position yourself while in stealth, you can guarantee a fight balanced entirely in your favour. This is especially useful for those braving Nightmare mode, where mindless and passive playstyles no longer cut it.
Mage
Mages are the epitome of a gamers power trip. The ability to conjure and control a force that we, as humans, can never experience is a fantastical venture and likely why you're playing a game like this in the first place.
Mages are a ranged class that use magic to conjure spells and control the elements. In addition, they have an arsenal of spells and abilities that can be used to heal, harm, or disable. These aspects create a versatile and crucial character to have in your party.
Unfortunately, mages are prone to becoming glass cannons. Their high damage output can mark them as targets, and with only cloth to serve as armour, it doesn't take a lot to bring a mage down. For a player who isn't paying attention, this can cause their mage to become a liability and ruin an initially successful attack.
Additionally, mages are notorious for friendly fire. With many powerful areas of effect spells, the chance of harming party members is high when attacking melee enemies. As you increase the game's difficulty, the consequence of hitting your party with a dangerous spell becomes more potent, with friendly fire resulting in a team wipe. To counteract this while playing a mage, you need to constantly micro-manage the battlefield to keep enemies grouped and allies out of harm's way.
What is great about Mages:
- Mages have a variety of spells and talent trees at their disposal. Depending on what you decide to level, mages can feel significantly different with each new playthrough. While you tend to focus on only one fighting style when playing warrior or rogue, mage can serve as a delicious pick and mix option, free from most constraints.
- The synergies available can be so potent that playing mage feels overpowered at times. With buffs, heals, paralysis, stuns, slows and area of effect spells, the versatility in your arsenal is limited only by your creativity in how you mix these spells together.
- Playing a mage in the Dragon Age universe creates a unique and layered roleplaying experience. Because mages are frequently polarized as good, evil, free, and oppressed, having your character play be a mage involves you in the storyline and quests more intimately than if you were a rogue or warrior. Your opinions on whether mages should be confined to the Circle or if blood magic should be illegal will gain additional depth when you are part of the discussed population.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best class in Dragon Age: Origins, and the one you should choose to play, will depend on who you are as a person. The kind of gameplay you enjoy will dictate the class suited to you.
If you prefer strategic gameplay and having access to a versatile skillset, then a rogue will be your best option. In contrast, if you enjoy a hack and slash fighting style or serving as a protector or leader of the group, a warrior is right for you. Lastly, anyone wanting to live the fantasy of having unmatched power or enjoys the flexible jack of all trades style of skill selection should choose a mage.
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