Dragon Age Origins: Skills Dragon Age: Origins Guide

Last update: 07 June 2024

This section of the atlas describes all available skills (they're the same for all three classes).

Coercion is a skill reserved for the main character and I would strongly recommend reaching level 2 as soon as possible and reaching level 4 at about half way through the game. Persuasion is a very important feature of the game, because most of the conversations will contain special dialogue options reserved for such characters. In most cases using this skill will allow you to convince other people to change their minds, however in some cases high persuasion may result in receiving additional payment or even a special quest. You'll be dealing mostly with persuasion or intimidation attempts (high cunning or strength required), however from time to time a high cunning skill or knowing something about poisoning people may also come in handy.

Pickpocketing is a very interesting feature of the game, because it won't take too much effort to turn this into a very profitable business. The main reason why you should consider stealing from other people is that you won't be receiving any penalties if you fail in acquiring their items. I would recommend for one of your rogues to fully develop this skill and don't forget that the main character will also have to spend at least one point here if you want to unlock quests for the Denerim's thieves guild.

Trap-making, herbalism and poison-making abilities are also important, however you'll only have to ask one person to develop such skills (naturally it would be wise to choose different characters for each skill to speed up this process). The only objective is to unlock the ability of creating certain items and it won't even matter who'll possess such knowledge. Prevent two or more people learning similar things, because you would only waste precious points.

Survival skill is one of the less useful ones and I would recommend ignoring it entirely or choosing it only when you're close to the end of your journey. Developing this skill won't make the game any easier and you'll only want to spend all four points to be able to complete one of the subquests in the Dalish camp.

Combat training should become one of your top priorities, even when you're playing as a mage. Choosing this skill for a warrior or for a rogue will result in the ability of using new combat talents and will improve the speed in which the stamina will be regenerated. As for a mage, he or she can count on defense bonuses and on an improved mana regeneration.

The last category is Tactics and before you invest any points here you should spend some time thinking whether you'll rely on the artificial intelligence of your followers or maybe try issuing all commands by yourself.