Dragon Age 2: Best Gender/Class Choice for Story

[ferratus]

So Bioware games always give you a choice of races and classes, but some choices are always more equal than others for reasons of gameplay or story.

In Knights of the Old Republic, the best romance option was Bastilla and the best ending was Darkside, so a Male protagonist who chose the darkside was the best character choice.

In Mass Effect, John Sheppard is all about leading a squad and commanding a military vessel, so taking Soldier is class that best fits the theme of the game rather than worrying about the psychic biotic stuff that isn't really supported in the story.

In Dragon Age 1, you are forced to join an order of knights who wage war against the darkspawn, which makes the rogue and mage classes more of an afterthought (though they did a good job of supporting all the races).

So without too many spoilers, which class suits the ambiance of Dragon Age 2 best? Will the game take me to battlefields, urban squalor and intrigue, or will I be doing magical things? Who is the best character to romance? Could anyone who is part-way (or has finished) the game, tell me which option gives the best story experience?

 

[Krensky]

So Bioware games always give you a choice of races and classes, but some choices are always more equal than others for reasons of gameplay or story.

In Knights of the Old Republic, the best romance option was Bastilla and the best ending was Darkside, so a Male protagonist who chose the darkside was the best character choice.

I strongly disagree. The Lightside ending is both canonical and far more narratively interesting. Redemption is a powerful theme.

In Mass Effect, John Sheppard is all about leading a squad and commanding a military vessel, so taking Soldier is class that best fits the theme of the game rather than worrying about the psychic biotic stuff that isn't really supported in the story.[/qupte]

All of the classes were supported in the story. The Male Urban Youth Sole Survivor Soldier is the canonical version of Shepherd, but all of the classes are supported in the story and dialog of both games.

In Dragon Age 1, you are forced to join an order of knights who wage war against the darkspawn, which makes the rogue and mage classes more of an afterthought (though they did a good job of supporting all the races).

There was no canonical version of the Warden, although there are canonical choices. All three classes were equally supported narratively and game play wise. The different classes offered different play experiences, but that's sort of the point.

So without too many spoilers, which class suits the ambiance of Dragon Age 2 best? Will the game take me to battlefields, urban squalor and intrigue, or will I be doing magical things? Who is the best character to romance? Could anyone who is part-way (or has finished) the game, tell me which option gives the best story experience?

Any. The only effect your gender has is whether or not you can engage in a romance with the character in the Exiled Prince DLC (Only female Hawke's need apply), some banter, and how the Seeker's opinion develops over the story. The other four romance options are all available for both sexes.

Class wise, there's no real difference narratively, although the Mage has more skin in the game because it's about the conflict between the Templars and the Circle. The Mage is probably the easiest class to play, and the Warrior is the hardest and most technical.

Your dialog choices and relationships with your companions matter more for the story then your class or gender. Well, that and your choices in DA:O and it's DLC featuring the Warden if you choose to import a save. Different choices there cause different quests, plots, and banter choices.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, "best" is really an individual taste/feel issue. Lots of female gamers I know think that human woman was the best way to play DAO, for instance, because that was the only way to marry Allister (who arguably was the real star of DAO, with the Warden as Lancelot to his Arthur).

Conversely, I think the dwarves' stories were much more fleshed out than the other races, and find playing a dwarf in DAO is much richer than the other races.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Dwarf Noble, City Elf, and Human Noble are the three best origins in DA:O, with Dalish Elf at the bottom. Mage and Dwarf Commoner are ok-ish, with dwarf being more interesting then Mage.

 

[Ahnehnois]

In Dragon Age I think the biggest thing is looking at the NPCs and seeing what they can (and can't) do for you.

In DA:O, fighter was a poor choice because there were a boatload of decent NPC fighters but only two mediocre rogues and two decent mages (and a good party generally had at least two mages). As mages are powerful, they are the 'better' choice, although the background isn't as interesting and being a rogue was nice for the lockpicking and so you didn't have to carry an NPC rogue.

DAII has fixed this problem by giving you an extra mage if you don't play one. The lack of overhead camera means that aiming spells is fairly difficult, and powers have been revised to the advantage of the fighter and rogue. I haevn't identified what I think a clear best choice yet.

 

[Quickleaf]

Overall I've found it a little hard to get invested in DA2's story as characters come and go, and there are large leaps in time. The framed narrative is really interesting, but the way it's executed is jarring IMO.

So without too many spoilers, which class suits the ambiance of Dragon Age 2 best?

I have a feeling the warrior is a little more supported judging by the scarcity of warrior companions and more common warrior-centric magic items.

That said, I am playing with a rogue and I *love* it, so much better than the DA:O rogue. I get to teleport around the battlefield like crazy without worrying about perfect positioning.

Will the game take me to battlefields, urban squalor and intrigue, or will I be doing magical things?

Refugee camps, urban squalor, noble intrigue, mountain wilds, deep roads - that's what I've encountered so far.

As an aside, I had to laugh at the number of mages getting possessed by demons, it became kind of silly after the 3rd one.

Who is the best character to romance?

Isabella the pirate captain.

Could anyone who is part-way (or has finished) the game, tell me which option gives the best story experience?

I just made it through the Deep Roads as a rogue, and I get the sense that all the classes are fun and viable.

However, I felt cheated at the end of the Deep Roads when a critical character was killed off. Apparently if I hadn't brought them on the expedition, they would have been taken out of the story anyhow. I've heard that if I had brought Anders the death would have been averted, but the character would still be taken out of the story. I felt that relationship was driving my character and to have it so abruptly ended made me lose interest in the game for now.

 

[Eridanis]

Moved to the Media forum (where computer game threads live).

<TARDIS dematerialization sound>

 

[Krug]

So far for DA2, I find the female main character's voice work far superior to that of the male.

 

[LightPhoenix]

In Dragon Age I think the biggest thing is looking at the NPCs and seeing what they can (and can't) do for you.

By that metric, the best class to play hands-down is a S&S Warrior, unless you don't use a tank. Hawke is better equipped for it than Aveline due to the companion armors.

The worst is probably Archer Rogue; Sebastian and Varric both get pretty good specialty trees. Spirit Healer might be a close second; IMO Spirit Healer isn't worth not attacking, and Anders basically gets the tree anyway.

 

[ferratus]

Thanks everybody. As far as I can tell, you're saying that the plot involves stuff that the mage would be interested in, the ambiance of Kirkwall suits the rogue best, and the warrior gets the best loot and party synergy. I think that has pushed me towards the rogue and the mage, though I'm still left wondering which to choose. I like Bethany in the demo better than the Hawke brother, so I'm leaning towards rogue because otherwise she'll die.

For romance options, I found Isabella in the previews to be too ludicrously sluttish for my interest (I was Leilani rather than Morrigan guy in DO:A). I like a little bit of foreplay in my RPG romances. Merrill the elf though seems to be rather boring. Maybe I'll just forget about romance for this game.