The Warden

The Player Character is your customizable character, who will come from one of a wide spectrum of Ferelden's social strata, from the lowliest of dwarves and elves to nearly the height of dwarven royalty and human nobility. After playing one of six unique origins, your character will join the Grey Wardens and deal with the deadly threats facing Ferelden.

Character Creation
You will begin by selecting your character’s gender, race (human, elf or dwarf), and class (warrior, rogue or mage), though the mage class is not available to dwarves. You can then choose an origin from whatever origins are available, before choosing a first name, customizing your character's appearance, taking your character’s portrait and choosing a soundeset. Next, you select what attributes and skills your character will possess. If you are playing as a warrior or rogue, you will then select your character’s talents. If you are playing as a mage, you will select your character’s spells. Finally, you select your preferred difficulty level and your story begins.

Surname
While the player can select the first name of the character freely, each origin has a set surname:


 * Human Noble: Cousland
 * Human Mage: Amell
 * Elf Mage: Surana
 * City Elf: Tabris
 * Dalish Elf: Mahariel
 * Dwarf Noble: Aeducan
 * Dwarf Commoner: Brosca

Starting Abilities
Each character begins the adventure with two specific skills and one talent or spell. These abilities are in addition to a number of freely selectable skills, talents, and spells. They depend on class and origin.

Warrior
 * Dalish Elf: Survival, Combat Training, and Pinning Shot
 * City Elf: Coercion, Combat Training, and Dual-Weapon Sweep
 * Dwarf Commoner: Stealing, Combat Training, and Dual-Weapon Sweep
 * Human Noble and Dwarf Noble: Combat Training, Improved Combat Training, and Shield Bash

Note: Basically, one skill is granted depending on class, the other depending on origin.

Rogue
 * All rogues get Poison-Making and Dirty Fighting. The second free skill depends on the origin:
 * Dalish Elf: Survival
 * City Elf: Coercion
 * Dwarf Commoner: Stealing
 * Human Noble and Dwarf Noble: Combat Training

Mage
 * Mages start with Herbalism, Combat Tactics, and Arcane Bolt.

Story
After your character's origin story is played out, the player is sought out by Duncan, the leader of Ferelden's recently reformed Grey Wardens, to join them and aid King Cailan Theirin and his troops against an upcoming army of darkspawn in Ostagar. This is where the main plot of Dragon Age: Origins will begin.

The actions of the Player Character are entirely decided by you, the player. But unlike many other cRPGs, your choices are not tracked by a single meter or bar, rather each of your party members have their own meter that reflects how they feel about your actions.

Level
Typical to roleplaying games, a character's level will display the progress of the character's power. When your character levels up, certain things are automatically increased (health and stamina/mana), while other things (talents and attributes) must be manually increased, unless Autolevel is activated. There is no end level, and it is presumed you can reach whatever level you desire.

Equipment
Player characters have the following equipment slots. Additionally, there is a toggle to switch between two weapon sets.

Quotes

 * Dwarven Commoner: When I saw your, majesty, the scepter was a little... soft."

Dialogue

 * Alistair: "One good thing about the blight is how it brings people together."
 * Dalish Elf: "You are a very strange human."

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 * Morrigan: "'Tis cold in my tent, all alone..."
 * Human Noble: "Then get a thicker blanket."