Experience

The Warden and the party grows in strength as they gain experience during their quest to stop the Blight from spreading through Ferelden. Experience can be gained from killing monsters, disarming traps, unlocking doors and chests, studying from tomes and completing quests.

As The Warden and party gains experience, they will level up, gaining additional skills, talents, spells, tactics slots and specialization proficiencies. In addition, they will be able to wield more powerful weapons and wear higher quality armor.

The maximum level in game is 25. However, the developers expect that most players will be level 15-20 if they complete the game and all the side quests; and level 17-22 if they complete the game and all the downloadable content. There is not enough content in game to reach the maximum level of 25.

Level 25 can be reached through donating to the emissaries in the party camp. You will receive 10 experience for each item donated. The easiest method to gain additional levels is to purchase massive amounts of elfroot from the merchant in the Dalish camp. A stack of 99 elfroot costs a little more than one sovereign and an infinite amount of elfroot can be purchased. It seems that you are limited to 880 experience per donation "session", so to get maximum experience of elfroots you should only donate one stack at a time. This is tedious as it involves traveling from the dalish camp to your camp dozens or even hundreds of times, but it is the only known way to achieve level 25 without using glitches or exploits. It should be mentioned that on the PC version pre-patch 1.02 at least you will always donate 1x99 roots instead of everything you have. This allowes you to level up to 25 more easily without having to travel back and forth between Camp and Dalish Camp constantly. Although you still need to reinitiate the conversation with the box every time you donated a stacks. It is possible to junk one stack of elfroot and buy another stack while keeping your previous stack; thus you'll able to buy another stack and so on. This method eliminates the need to make multiple trips between the Dalish camp and your camp as you'll be able to have multiple stacks at one time. Keep in mind that since each item is 10 points, and there's a maximum of 880 per donation box session, one should only buy 88 roots per stack, saving you money. Another method for reducing the tedium of this process: buy deathroots as well. They may cost a little bit more than elfroots, but you'll be able to do two donation dialogues for one stack of 88 roots each type, per trip between the elven camp and party camp, thereby doubling the rate at which you level up. &nbsp

Experience Table
* plus an additional Talent point for the Warden depending on their origin

** except Sten.

Unused Characters
Once obtained, any companion not in the active party will still level up. They will not gain experience as such, but if at any point they are two or more levels below The Warden, they will automatically adjust their level to one below.

For example, say Oghren joins your party level 12, and The Warden is level 11. If you leave Oghren in the party camp and head off adventuring, he will not gain experience. However, as soon as The Warden reaches level 14, Oghren will instantly ascend to level 13. He will remain level 12 until then.

This also applies to characters you are currently using. If, for any reason, The Warden ends up two levels higher than any other party members (as can happen to Dog for the Human Noble), returning to camp with them will make them jump to the next level, regardless of how much experience remains before they would reach it normally.

Auto Level
If you choose to have characters auto level up, the game will automatically distribute stat, skill and talent points. By default, this will make a more rounded character, but one less effective at a specific role than a customised character. The game also tends to spread Talent Points between weapon/spell trees, granting a wide variety of early-level abilities but none of the higher-level ones. At first, you may want to leave you and your companions to handle how points are spent, but it is recommended you handle distribution of the points and skills yourself. Manual application allows you to fine tune your party so ensure no characters point are improperly spent by the computer. In other words do not use auto level.

Leveling Benefits
As Dragon Age is a new generation RPG, the enemies level up with your character, so although base strength is advisable to defeat certain bosses, there is no real chance to 'over level' your characters as in older RPG games where enemies and bosses remained always at their initial level.

The main benefits to levelling your characters are, of course, increased skills and attributes as well as access to stronger weapons and armor and, if chosen, the ability to create higher level poisons and herbal remedies, such as Concentrated Crow Poison and the Regicide Antidote necessary for the small side quest in Orzammar.

Unused companions (companions left at camp) levelling with the player despite not being used is also a new generation RPG feature that is very useful. You can still tailor a disused companion for greater use within the group during specific quests without having to forfeit their gaining levels all together, meaning that if you need Wynne for a certain battle or would like to use her, you don't have to worry about her being several levels below the more frequently used companions in the group.

Gold for Experience
If you have enough Gold to spend and the Dalish already sell unlimit elfroot, you can buy as much as you can carry, travel to the camp and spend all of it (back) to the Dalish using the boxes in front of the emessarys standing there. You had to handle the werewolf-quest first.

Experience Bugs
If an XP exploit is taken advantage of, such as the one for obtaining vials of darkspawn blood (Return to Duncan with the vials but not the scrolls. Repeat this conversation as desired to earn 750 XP for each conversation.), the levelling for future companions will be skewed. They will be of a comparable level to the player, but will not have any of the increased attributes to go with it. For example, when I recruited Zevran into my party after using the exploit for XP at Ostagar, he was carrying a Red Steel sword which he was not strong enough to use despite being at level 14. This meant that the minute he changed to a bow for ranged attacks, he could no longer equip his primary hand sword.

This exploit has been 'fixed' for the PC version of the game with a recent patch, but at the moment, still exists in the XBox 360 version and likely the PS3 version (confirmation needed).

Note: The glitch no longer exists nor did it ever for the PS3.

Note: The glitch is not fixed if you connect to Xbox Live and update the game, as of Feb. 25.

Entering the mountaintop (Urn of Sacred Ashes) from either side, The Gauntlet or the Ruined Temple will give each time 750 XPs. This works for all gates to the mountaintop, even the entrance of The Gauntlet. The leveling of party members and future companions seems to work fine. This works on the PC version up to 1.3 (confirmed).