This guide will help break down the various nuances and terminology of Dragon Age. Kinda like a starters guide if you will.

Some Terminology

Tank: A body assigned to contain and focus the target’s wrath upon himself. This assignment is generally reserved for a warrior equipped with a shield and one-hander, as well as high defensive stats and abilities that increase his survivability against heavy damage.

Buff: The act of giving yourself or an ally a beneficial effect. Things like Rock Armor is a self-buff, while Heroic Might is a party-wide buff.
Crowd control: The act of keeping enemies indisposed for a period of time by one of many disabling effects, such as sleep, paralysis, stun, etc.

AoE: Also known as Area of Effect, AoE are spells or abilities that affect a circumscribed region, whose radius can vary depending on the spell level.

Aggro: Slang for monster’s aggression and is used to describe the threat level of a party member.

DPS: Short for damage per second.
There exist many, many more terms, but these are the basic ones we’ll be using throughout the guide.

Character Creation

Players dive right back into the engrossing fantasy world of Dragon Age, this time as a survivor of the Blight named Hawke, who eventually becomes the Champion of Kirkwall. Hawke’s abundant choices throughout dictate the events that unfold around this story’s focal point, with all supporting playable and non-playable characters reacting directly to Hawke.

While the surname remains universally the same in spite of the chosen gender, you can at least personalize the first name. Unlike Origins, however, you don’t have a say in your choice of race, as all permutations of Hawke are human. But like Origins the spread of classes is limited to a mage, rogue, or warrior class, which you choose at the outset of the game. Customizing your character’s appearance and name come later, after an easy breezy prologue.

Warrior

Starting attributes: +3 Strength, +2 Constitution, +1 Willpower
Starting talent: Pommel Strike
Starting health: 160
Starting stamina: 105

The most rugged of classes, warriors bring brawns to the party equation. They are melee-type fighters that are designed to either act as a shield for the rest of the party or deal astronomical damage using the class’s powerful two-handed weapons-derived skills. Unfortunately, warriors can no longer dual-wield weapons. Unless you particularly enjoy fulfilling the tank role, we recommend becoming an unstoppable wrath of vengeance unleashed upon the Darkspawn since you’ll acquire a rather talented tank very early in the game.
For damage-dealing warriors, Strength, Dexterity and Cunning all vie equally for precious attribute points, with a greater emphasis on Strength. For tanks, you want to focus on Constitution, Stamina, and Strength. The bottom line: almost all the attributes are highly relevant in building a battle-hardened warrior.

Mage

Starting attributes: +3 Magic, +2 Willpower, +1 Cunning
Starting spell: Mind Blast
Starting health: 100
Starting mana: 160

Practitioners of the magical arts, mages are, not to be too biased, the author’s class of choice. Their greatest asset is their versatility in filling much needed roles that may be missing in the party, be it an offensive face-blaster, a healer, support in mitigating damage and dispelling ailments, and so much more. Properly played mages generally position themselves on the perimeter of the battle, away from the immediate reach of melee fighters and taking very few hits. This therefore explains the paltry health stock of the spell-caster and justifies miserly placment of points in Constitution.

The most important attributes to any developing mage are Magic and Willpower, as they enhance the raw power of their spells and give a boost to their mana pool. Attributes of secondary importance fall to Cunning and Constitution with Dexterity and Strength being essentially a non-issue.

Rogue

Starting attributes: +3 Dexterity, +2 Cunning, +1 Willpower
Starting talent: Miasmic Flask
Starting health: 125
Starting stamina: 130

Tactically, rogues are not ideal on the frontlines; their fox-like cunning and natural instinct for stealth and underhanded moves make them far more lethal in catching enemies by surprise or disrupting enemy formations. While rogues can definitely hold their own in up-and-personal melee combat, they can also exhibit latent talents in deadly sharp shooting to add variability to the party’s strengths. As far as weapon proficiency goes, rogues can specialize in dual-wielding or in archery (ranged weapons). Outside of battle, their abilities to pick locks and disarm traps make them indispensable to any traveling party.

Cunning and Dexterity are, quite arguably tantamount to life supporting oxygen in consideration of a rogue’s most vital attributes. The higher the Cunning, the better the chance of picking locks and disarming traps.

Interactions

At the heart of each RPG are its characters. In Dragon Age II, Hawke is the nucleus, the glue that holds the malleable story together, Hawks decisions greatly effect the story as can be expected since he is the main character. In-between all the bloody battles and the rallying of strength to partake in more bloody battles, the interactions between the myriad characters and Hawke govern the story’s development as well as Hawke’s relationship with these characters. How certain dialogue choices affect the conversation, though, is left up for discussion within the walkthrough as you come to influential turning points.

Applying a conversational style that’s similar to the Mass Effect franchise, Dragon Age’s dialogue wheel makes a thoughtful interaction with each person entirely possible. However, unlike Mass Effect’s morality system, Dragon Age employs more of an “approval” system approval from your companions. Indeed, it’s undeniable that conversational decisions carry influential power in so far as how your party members and NPCs perceive Hawke.

The structure of the wheel is universal. The choices on the right side of the wheel steer the conversation toward conclusion, whereas the left side is reserved for unraveling story or character information. In addition, a huge variety of icons, each serving to elicit a very specific type of response, directs where the conversation goes, usually toward a copious number of potentially good or bad outcomes. Familiarize yourself with this list since these icons will be the driving force behind any conversation in the game.

	Hawke takes on a nice and understanding tone.
	Steers the conversation in a certain direction with exclusive conversational options; could be both and bad.
	Hawke will act charmin
	A choice that generally leads to sarcastic or snarky responses.
	Any dealings with money being lost or gained will have this icon tagged on.
	Hawke’s words take on a more confrontational or aggressive stance.
	Lean on this for a more blunt response out of Hawke.
	When this icon appears, Hawke defers judgment to a party member. Usually this action reinforces cordial relations with the character.
	A gesture of murderous intent.
	This is perhaps one of the more common options in the game, allowing for a more diplomatic approach to situations.
	This indicates Hawke will tell a lie.
	Not always available, but when it is you can use it to pursue romantic relationships with the recipient.
	When available, this turns down a character’s offer of affection.
	Usually appears in light of a yes/no choice. This is to take a positive stance.
	Usually appears in light of a yes/no choice. This is to take a negative stance.
	Indicates curiosity and allows Hawke to dig up more information about a particular matter.
	This icon is an exclusive choice that appears based on previous dialogue choices.

Friend or Foe

A character’s opinion of Hawke is quantified by his levels of friendliness or rivalry. Measured on a 200-point scale, you can view the current relationship on the Character Record selected from the start menu. Quite simply, the two opposite ends of the spectrum basically represent the classic duality, good and bad. All party members join the party with pre-existing reverence, making them more Friendly, or ill will, which drives them more towards Rivalry. Each character reacts differently and can be swayed in one direction depending on whether your choices directly or indirectly align with his or her moral inclinations. So, while a decision may not jive with one character, someone else could definitely get behind it.

Keep in mind that a companion deep in Rivalry doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing, although it can influence who you can romance and what specialized abilities you can choose.

In the Characters section, we’ll go over the finer details of each party member you’ll come across, since knowing individual agendas beforehand makes — as wrong as this sounds — manipulating them that much easier.

Attributes

Once you’ve chosen a class that defines Hawke’s functional capabilities, it’s time to address the pressing need for an appearance and name befitting of a Champion of Kirkwall. These customization options are pretty inconsequential to the story itself, but merely play on the player’s own superficial preferences.

Funneling your attribute points into the right attributes can mean a world of difference in how to max out your character’s potential and that in itself also is predicated on the role you decided for your character. With each level gained, you bank three points with which to apply individually to a total of six attributes.

Here are all six attributes and the attached in-game blurb:

(A caveat: Our opinions on the prioritization of these attributes are only guidelines. That’s to say, you shouldn’t rule out any particular statistic completely, but such considerations should be based upon the dynamics of your individualized party, meaning your party setup should be a huge factor in determining which attributes matter the most. For example, if you lack a good healer, then health for, say, a mage would obviously be bumped up a few notches on the priority list.)

Strength – “Strength increases damage and attack values for warriors. For all classes, it increases fortitude, which measures resistance to effects like being knocked back or set aflame.”
What we think: This attribute benefits the frontline melee fighter who squeals with delight at the thought of big damage. This includes warriors and rogues who intend to engage heavily in melee combat. Greater Strength also contributes to greater accuracy with weapons and physical resistance against such effects as getting knocked back, which increases DPS (damage per second) over the long haul.

Dexterity - “Dexterity increases damage and attack values for rogues. For all classes, it increases the likelihood of landing a critical hit.”
What we think: Critical hits create more opportunity for inflicting heavy damage or landing huge heals. Obviously, the higher the chance of critically striking an enemy or an ally with a spell, the more the resulting effect is amplified. This can apply both to damage and heals. Moreover, dexterity is the perennial favorite of rogues, especially for ranged attackers since this attribute boosts the power of ranged attacks.

Magic – “Magic increases damage and attack values for mages. For all classes, it increases magic resistance, which absorbs a proportion of damage from magical attacks and affects the duration of hostile magical effects.”
What we think: In all things dealing with magic, this single statistic stands heads and shoulders above all others. If you’re a mage, this sits in contention with Willpower as the sole attribute you should be dumping points into.

Cunning - “Cunning increases defense for all classes as well as the amount of damage inflicted by a critical hit. Cunning also determines the rogue’s aptitude for picking locks and disarming traps, with difficulty thresholds every 10 points.”
What we think: Cunning is a key attribute for rogues simply due the fact they need it to up their lock-picking and trap disarmaments. You’ll soon discover many places that are rigged with traps and be pining for someone to disable them. Warrior tanks should also be squeezing points into Cunning for added defense. For others, it still is a crucial statistic to invest in, especially as characters increase in level.

Willpower -”Willpower increases the size of the mana pool for mages or the stamina pool for warriors and rogues.”
What we think: The importance of Willpower can vary from person to person; it all depends on how you play your class. Mages might want to consider putting points into Willpower since a deeper mana pool translates into a higher damage output. The same logic applies to rogues and warriors as well, but to reiterate the point, the case rests on the kinds of abilities you have and how you play your characters.

Constitution – “Constitution increases maximum health for all classes.”
What we think: A bigger health pool is always a good thing, but unless you’re a warrior tank or someone who potentially faces a lot of heat there are more developmentally important attributes to focus on.

Abilities

This time around BioWare put in place a rather complex system for uniquely customizing and expanding upon your character’s abilities. There are well over several dozen abilities for each character class, each branching into specialized talent trees. Note that each class can further branch out to be true masters of a certain discipline, but the availability of those is contingent upon the individual character and fulfilling other prerequisites that will reveal themselves to you when the time comes.

Avoid spending ability points willy-nilly simply because the staggering number of abilities for each class necessitates careful calculations that are again very character-centric. Many of these abilities stack with one another in a neat complementary fashion, thus making the sum of the abilities far superior to any single one. Figuring out the combination’s for a certain build is all part of the fun, and we will highlight some of the better builds for certain character archetypes in the appropriate section. We urge you to check it out for hot tips on the development of each character.

For now, though, there are a couple things about the ability trees you need to know. Ability points come on a once-per-level rate and can be spent to unlock any ability in a talent tree given that the prerequisites are satisfied. Abilities unlock incrementally, opening access to deeper parts of a tree. As far as we know, abilities are etched permanently in the character once set.

Abilities come in three types:

Activated: Indicated by a diamond icon. Ability needs to be activated by the player and is governed by a cooldown mechanism.

Passive: Indicated by a circle icon. Permanent effects that are added to your character. Requires no mana or stamina to use.

Sustained: Indicated by a hexagonal icon. In order for the effects of a sustained ability to be upheld once activated, it constantly draws from a specified percentage of stamina or mana.

There is a whole separate realm of upgraded abilities that enhance existing, learned abilities. Then, you have specializations which zoom in on unique bonuses of the class and grant new powerful talents.