Hello all. In the near future (reading the manual now) I will be playing DA:O for the first time, and I was wondering: what race, class, background, attributes, skills, talents/spells, and specializations would be good for a first-time player?

I would probably play a human as my main dude's race, as I tend to place myself as the protagonist in these types of games. (I am human in real life, afaik.)

I played all the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment games, and feel comfortable with any class. I appreciate the different styles of play that each class affords.

My priority would be seeing as much story as possible during my first time through, as I never know if I'd get a chance to play a second time. Not sure if one class and/or background is better based on this priority? Also not sure if certain party members deliver more story than others?


Thanks in advance for any replies!

Hey, you have a couple of good questions.

It is general agreed upon that the human noble role ties the best into the overall story, with more personal incentive to deal with issues, tasks and help to the people of Ferelden.

For classes you got warrior, roque and mage. Mage is not available on the human NOBLE choice.

Warrior is what you'd expect, and with that in mind, just a lot of fun. With your shield you stun and knockdown, or with a two-handed weapon you can hit multiple enemies.

Roque is more ability based, and more proactive. You have to act and react. The archer side is underpowered, but with mods you can bring that back to a very balanced archer class. If you're not into bows, you have two one-handed weapons and you have the most skills as a dual wielder. Multiple enemies to hit, stuns, debuffs and a lot of damage. But you're more squishy of course.

Now, these things are very subjective. With mods you can just alter anything. If i recall correctly, the origins title has the most mods on nexus from the three games.

What you can do with mods? you can just alter almost everything. Appearance, how your class works, you can multiclass by making all talents and skills available to you. I for example made a dwarf who learned stealth and could transform into a terrible Bereskarn if he reached a level of rage (i just roleplayed that part).

You probably have enough experience to understand that your party is also important, although i never liked that i needed 4 people to kill foe. So i modded that to, with more damage output from all parties while hp was not increased.

Good question about the story the party members provide. Every party member has a personal story quest, but once you have decided which one you take (or everyone for that matter), i suggest you google it because even i have not discovered them all. Some party members give more story at certain locations, and that is mostly it. There are some highly recommended companions for specific locations. I also suggest you google these. If you dont want to do that, you'll come far with logical thinking. Some companions have backgrounds that will give you hints to make up your mind.

Good luck!

Thanks fighterkill! I really enjoyed reading your post. I will probably play a human warrior noble.

I'll stay away from mods for now, as I usually prefer to play the original game the way the original developers intended. Hell I've never even modded Baldur's Gate, only play the original BG vanilla.

As for the party members, I guess I will play that by ear. I'm hoping to resist the urge to google that, as it'll inevitably lead to spoilers.

Thanks again fighterkill!

+1 to human noble for purpose of history for the first game.

Though, if you pick a female human mage, you will annoy a NPC on the first and second game (and if you pick again a female mage for the thir game, you can annoy him even more). There will be also a small, almost irrelvant history link between your character from the first game and the second.

A similar thing would ocurr if you pick a Dalish origin, though it would be a minor connection to other character(s) on the second game.


For mods, to be honest, I only apply some minor one on my games focused on bugs mostly:


- Sigrun_Law_Order ( www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/3001 ) To Fix a possible bug in the expansion of the game (in a single quest).
- Silverite Mines Equipment Glitch Fix v1.0.2 Probably the most important fix for the expansion (NASTY BUG that can take away all your items)
- VigilanceFix - Minor visual bug fixed with a single weapon in the expansion
- FtG UI Mod v2.1 - Fixed issues with the fonts being too small in modern HD
- Qwinn's Ultimate DAO Fixpack v3.51 But probably is better for a second game.

Thanks for your post, Belsirk! Interesting on how there are certain links between the games with certain characters!

What is really neat is how your choice of race/class changes your "origin" story and can color your perspective on some key plot-related NPC's upon 2nd or 3rd run-through. As in, someone you sided with as a human could be someone you end up absolutely loathing when doing a dwarf run-through. Just for example. Very replayable game.

TRUE: I spent THREE HOURS agonizing over which group of dwarfs to side with! :P
I ended up going with the rebels.