Dragon Age Origins: Talents and spells - part 1 Dragon Age: Origins Guide
Last update: 07 June 2024
Warrior
PRIMARY TALENTS
I would recommend that you focus primarily on acquiring main talents from the Warrior category (there are eight of them in total). Unlock a Powerful talent as soon as possible, because doing this will extend your life bar and will neutralize some of the negative effects of wearing a powerful (and heavy) armor. The same deal goes with a different talent from this group - Bravery. This ability will provide your warrior with very useful bonuses to damage being dealt to monsters, improve the overall resistance to enemy attacks and increase a chance of scoring a critical hit. As for the active talents (they're the ones requiring you to activate them manually), make sure to choose Perfect striking right after you've advanced to the 12th level.
As for other of warrior's talents, it really depends on how you want to play this game. My recommendation would be to choose between fighting with a blade and a shield or fighting with a two-handed weapon. Choosing two weapons or bows/crossbows is not a good idea for a warrior, because a rogue should specialize in these type of activities.
If you choose Weapons and shield category you should consider unlocking the Shield bash ability as soon as possible, because this attack can knock down your opponent and that comes in handy especially while going against more powerful monsters. Overpower is also an interesting idea for an active talent, however in this case you'll want to disorient your opponent along with inflicting some injuries. Sadly in order to unlock this ability you must first develop Combat training and you'll also have to invest a lot of points in strength. Once you've taken care of your offense don't forget about your defense. In this case you should consider unlocking the following talents - Shield block (active talent), Shield mastery (passive talent) and Shield tactics (passive talent). Don't forget to unlock Shield expertise ability later on during the game (12th experience level or later) and to spend points on improving your dexterity attribute.
If you choose Two-handed weapon category you should focus mostly on unlocking talents which will allow you to stun or knock down your opponent. Pummel strike is an interesting ability and it should be followed by Stunning blows and Two-handed sweep. Don't forget that it's important to continue spending points on strength, because otherwise you'll have problems gaining access to some of the best talents from this group. As for more direct attacks, choose Critical strike (your character will try to land one SERIOUS blow), Sunder armor (possibility of destroying or damaging opponent's armor) and Mighty blow (aside from dealing a lot of damage you can also make your opponent move slower).
SPECIALIZATION TALENTS
Each one of your warriors can have up to two specializations, becoming a berserker, a champion, a reaver or a templar. Notice that some of your warrior followers will already have one specialization chosen for you - Oghren will be a berserker, Loghain will be a champion and Alistair will be a templar.
Berserker: Choosing this specialization will grant you with a bonus to strength and your life bar will be extended by a decent number of health points. I would strongly recommend "testing" this specialization on Oghren and choosing it for your other warriors if you like what you see. You should always start off by choosing the sustained Berserk ability. The fourth talent from this group, called Final blow, is also very interesting, especially if your character is using a two-handed weapon.
Champion: Choosing this specialization will grant you with bonuses to willpower and cunning. To be honest it's not one of my favorites, especially since some of the active talents (War cry and Rally) have a similar effect to mage's spells (penalties to attack and to chance of being knocked over for your enemies and bonuses to attack and defense to your allies).
Reaver: Choosing this specialization will grant you with a bonus to constitution and you'll be more resistant to melee attacks. The interesting thing is that this specialization doesn't feature any passive talents, because two of them are active and the remaining two are sustained. Consider becoming a reaver if you want to become more deadly while going against group of enemies. You can start sucking out their life bars (Devour) or inflict spiritual damage (Aura of pain). This isn't the best category, but in my opinion it's a better choice than being a champion.
Templar: Choosing this specialization will grant you with a bonus to magic and you'll be more resistant to mental attacks. I'm sure that you'll appreciate all the good things this specialization can offer while going against enemy mages, because not only you'll resist more of their spells, but you'll also be allowed to steal their mana (passive talent Righteous strike). As for active abilities, I would recommend using Cleanse area often, because this talent will nullify all the negative effects of spells being casted on allied units.
Rogue
PRIMARY TALENTS
The basic principle remains the same, so you should be investing a lot of points to unlock talents from the main Rogue category. Some of the most important talents here are the ones involving lockpicking and disarming traps and if your main character is a rogue you should definitely acquire at least two of them as soon as possible. If you've chosen a different class start developing this tree after meeting Leliana and adding her to your main team. This isn't something you should ignore, because being able to open doors and chests will not only give you access to valuable objects but will also make some of the quests much easier. Notice that there are also four talents involving using camouflage and you can ignore them at first, but later on during the game you should unlock one or two. These talents may come in handy while trying to steal something or while trying to surprise a monster from behind. As for other talents, make sure to acquire Dirty fighting (EXTREMELY useful ability which allows you to stun an opponent easily for a few seconds), Coup the grace (after you've stunned the opponent your character will automatically start inflicting serious injuries) and Below the belt (a quick attack which often deals a lot of damage).
Two of the remaining categories are tied only to combat and you'll be allowed to choose between using two melee weapons and a weapon for ranged attacks. You'll also have to decide whether you want to unlock talents only from one group or from both groups. My recommendation is to mix things up a little, because in some situations you'll want to attack enemies from a distance and in some battles a bow or a crossbow just won't work (for example in narrow corridors, small arenas or while fighting fast moving creatures).
Dual weapons category has a lot of interesting talents and you should take special interest in all the abilities found in the first row. They're passive and it would be a good idea to choose at least two of them (if not more). As for active talents from this particular group, start off by choosing Dual striking and Riposte. Other interesting attacks include two talents ideal for dealing with a lot of enemies at the same time (Dual-weapon sweep and Whirlwind), but it's my recommendation to focus mostly on gaining access to talents handy in quick elimination of single targets.
Archery category also has some very interesting passive talents. Melee archer is an important upgrade which allows you to increase chances of a success while fighting the monsters in narrow corridors or small rooms. Master archer on the other hand offers valuable profits to almost all active talents of this category. As for manually activated abilities, you should unlock Aim (great way to start a new battle), Critical shot (possibility of inflicting major injuries, assuming that you've hit the target), Rapid shot and Scattershot (both of these talents may come in handy when trying to defeat larger groups of enemy units).
SPECIALIZATION TALENTS
Each one of your rogues can have up to two specializations, becoming a bard, a ranger, an assassin or a duelist. Notice that your rogue followers will already have one specialization chosen for you - Leliana will be a bard and Zevran will be an assassin.
Bard: Choosing this specialization will grant you bonuses to strength and cunning and it's one of the main reasons why you should choose it. These bonuses will make a difference especially in the early parts of the game and it would be a good idea to learn the specialization from Leliana as soon as she's joined your team. The talents themselves aren't great. Two of them are songs allowing you to influence the rest of the team in a positive way (Song of valor, Song of courage), the third one can make the enemies more vulnerable to your attacks (Captivating song) and the last one distracts enemies (Distraction). Not that useful and don't forget that the power of your actions depends on how many points you've spent on the cunning attribute.
Ranger: Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to constitution and you'll be more resistant to forces of nature. The bonuses alone are weak, but the good news is that you can count on a lot of interesting talents being added to your arsenal. Three of them will allow you to summon powerful creatures to fight at your side (Summon wolf, Summon bear, Summon spider) and the bear should be the one to choose for the purpose of most battles. Don't forget that you can issue orders to the creature and even activate its special attacks. The final fourth talent (Master ranger) should be purchased if you feel that the animals really make a difference. Doing this will make them even stronger.
Assassin: Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to dexterity and you'll also increase your chances of scoring critical hits. The most useful talent from this category is the first one - Mark of death. Make sure to use it against powerful creatures, so that your chances of winning will improve greatly. Three of the remaining talents are supposed to be used to attack enemies by surprise and in most cases you won't have time for that. Besides, you would have to spend some points developing camouflage to make this all work.
Duelist: Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to dexterity and to damage being dealt to monsters. In addition to that you'll increase your chances of performing successful hits. This is an ideal choice for a rogue with two blades and a light armor. You should always start off by activating a sustained Duelist ability and then activate Keen defense. As for the other two talents, Pinpoint strike is far better, because it improves your chances of performing critical strikes for a short period of time.
Mage
PRIMARY TALENTS
The Mage class is very unusual and one of the reasons is that there are only four generic talents to choose from. Arcane bolt will do its job only at the beginning of the game, however you shouldn't ignore this tree, because the passive Arcane mastery ability is very helpful for casting deadly spells.
There are four categories of spells in total and I wouldn't recommend acquiring abilities from more than two categories. Remember that in order to make the mage an essential part of your team you must gain access to the most powerful spells sooner rather than later. If you have more than one mage in your team (for example, main character and Wynne or Morrigan and Wynne) make sure that all these characters are using different kinds of spells, not the identical ones.
The first category of spells is called Primal and it contains four groups of abilities. Each row has spells of the same element - fire, ice, earth or lightning. My recommendation is to choose two groups and at least two spells from each group. Don't rely only on one group, because you may end up in trouble if you encounter a monster resistant to certain types of magical attacks. The lightning schools seems to be the most interesting one, because a lot of monsters will be vulnerable to electrical attacks and the spells themselves will deal great amounts of damage. It would be great if you would decide to unlock Blizzard, as it is one of the best spells in the game.
The second category of spells is called Creation and in this case you should carefully examine all the spells from the first row, because their purpose is to heal your team members. Make sure to have at least one mage with healing capabilities in your team, so you won't have to worry about carrying health potions nor about buying them constantly from the vendors. Naturally Mass rejuvenation is the best spell in this group, because it heals everyone and returns a large amount of health. As for the other categories, glyphs may prove to be interesting, especially when it comes to paralyzing the monsters using Glyph of paralysis or knocking them back using Glyph of repulsion.
The third category of spells is called Spirit and you should be interested mostly in the third and in the fourth row of spells. The third row contains a lot of abilities allowing you to suck the energy out of the monsters or to poison them. Virulent walking bomb does the job pretty well here, especially when used in a crowded area with a lot of potential victims. As for the last row of spells, Mind blast allows the mage to stun his opponents easily and in can be unlocked in the early stages of the game. Crushing prison on the other hand allows the mage to inflict massive spiritual damage.
The final fourth category is called Entropy and there's definitely something to choose from, especially from the first three rows. I would recommend ignoring only the last fourth row, because it contains a rather useless death magic spells. As for the more useful attacks, make sure to unlock Mass paralysis (possibility of paralysing or slowing down larger groups of monsters at the same time), Death hex (the targeted being keeps receiving critical hits) and Sleep.
SPECIALIZATION TALENTS
Each one of your mages can have up to two specializations, becoming a blood mage, an arcane warrior, a spirit healer or a shapeshifter. Notice that your mage followers will already have one specialization chosen for you - Morrigan will be a shapeshifter and Wynne will be a spirit healer.
Blood mage: Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to constitution and it will also raise the power of your spells. It's a relatively interesting specialization and I would recommend choosing it for Morrigan to pair it with her shapeshifting abilities. As for the available spells, consider using Blood sacrifice often, but make sure not to "take" too much health from the other members of your team. The final two spells from this group (Blood wound and Blood control) are also interesting, however you can't forget that they will affect only the creatures with blood flowing through their veins, so they won't work on most of the monsters.
Arcane warrior Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to dexterity and you'll also gain a bonus to your offensive capabilities. This is an excellent choice for a mage trying to gain at least some of the advantages of being a warrior. I wouldn't recommend ignoring this unique opportunity, because you may find a couple of cool items for an arcane warrior throughout the course of the game, including an excellent armor. As for the spells, make sure to use sustained Combat magic ability and to unlock two passive talents - Aura of might and Fade shroud.
Spirit healer: Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to magic and you'll allow the mage to regain health much quicker. This is an excellent choice for a mage whose primary concern and job is to protect the remaining team members using healing spells. Make sure to pair this with some of the abilities from the Creation category. As for the spells offered by this specialization, Revival is by far the most useful ability. This spell allows you to resurrect one of your fallen colleagues without having to wait for the battle to end. Make sure to select a correct spot on the ground, so you won't waste mana and time needed to recharge the spell.
Shapeshifter: Choosing this specialization will grant you a bonus to constitution and you'll also improve your armor. Being able to transform yourself into a different creature is an interesting alternative to typical spells. My favorite is the Bear shape, because the bear is an ideal creature for inflicting serious injuries. It's also very resistant and it has useful special attacks. As for the other abilities, don't forget to unlock Master shapeshifter talent before the game has ended, because not only your animals will receive various profits, but you'll also be given a chance to take bereskarn form instead of standard bear form.
Mabari hound
TALENTS
You'll want to have a mabari in your team in the early stages of the game, prior to encountering some of the best followers. It's important to keep unlocking new abilities for the dog, especially if you want to make the animal a good replacement for a warrior. There are eight talents for you to choose from and most of them are very useful.
The first row contains two interesting talents. Combat training is a passive ability and unlocking it will grant you bonuses to attack, "armor" and to chance of inflicting serious wounds. Overwhelm on the other hand is an active ability and the basic idea is similar to some of the monster behaviors you might have noticed during the game, because your hound will knock enemy down and start biting a helpless opponent.
The second row has two interesting active talents and you shouldn't take long until their unlocked and ready for use. Charge gives you a chance to knock down opponents which comes in handy while fighting stronger creatures and Shred provides the dog with a chance of scoring critical hits.
Either way don't forget to keep purchasing better items for your mabari hound. A collar works like an armor, increasing the overall resistance of the dog, and kaddis provides the animal with offensive bonuses.