Dragon Age: Origins

What is the best origin story and why?

Male Human Noble. You can become King of Ferelden, and the Awakenings storyline dealing with the Howes and Amaranthine read like they were custom-written for the Human Noble.

What a cute city elf.

Because it was written by people who actually care about their craft or at the very least have some kind of formal training in it

>tfw starting as female noble and having lesbian sex

...

Human Noble was my favourite, also enjoyed the Noble Dwarf but i couldnt stomach playing DA Dwarves cause their shit

She had little to do with Origins. She's the one who wrote the storyline with Hespith and Branka being lesbian lovers and cucking Oghren and that was about it.

Dwarf Noble, if only because you got to actually act like a fucking noble for a while there

>have a guy killed on the sly because you don't like him
>arranging a threesome with gold diggers because you can
>fight and win in the tournament held in your own honour just to show off

>Playing as a sassy city elf who don't need no human
Shit was so cash

Jennifer wrote most of the dwarven NPCs in Orzammar, and the Dwarf Commoner Origin. She co-wrote the plot of A Paragon of Her Kind with Lukas Kristjanson,[3] and wrote the Anvil of the Void quest line, including Branka and Hespith. She oversaw the development of dwarven culture and the city of Orzammar and was an early contributor to the Landsmeet plot.[2]

Male Human Noble.

>What's the best?
You posted it
>And why?
Maliks reaction when you tell him you became a grey warden because you murdered the son of one of his nobles for raping your friend.

actually all of them are fine, mage is a bit short compared to the rest
non-city female elf is canon tho

The only part of the Dwarves people gave a fuck about was the Dwarven Royalty origin and she had fuck-all to do with that. That was done by the superior Daniel Erickson who also did the top-tier City Elf origin.

Nothing Hepler wrote herself was any good.

Explains why dwarves were shit sans Ohgren, and why almost every part of the story with dwarves involved fucking or cucking. The most interesting part of the races of DA was the flip of humans being the "superior" race to elves, which is just the opposite of the norm for fantasy.

>too lazy to google Dalish

got me there

They ripped that off from the Witcher, though.

Being a backstabbing cunt in mage origin was fun.
Being a backstabbing, power-hungry wizard for the entire game was even funnier.

Dwarf Noble
City Elf (Female)
Human Noble
Castless Dwarf
City Elf (Male)
Mage
Shit
Dalish

really hope to ally with tevinter in the next DA

Dwarf noble is the most interesting one to play through, and the one with the most interesting consequences. Human Noble unlocks the most options overall, I think, but for the most part it's predictable and uninteresting.

I'll be honest here, never played the Witcher, never wanted to. DA:O was the only WRPG that I was interested in and really enjoyed and they fucked it up with 2 due to the writing, choices not mattering, and adding voice acting for the protagonist which killed the great dialogue options.

>tfw "evil" options in the game actually made sense for the most part

>go around pickpocketing everyone in the first camp
>overhear some faggot actually complaining about it to Duncan

Most of it made sense because of the context: You're here to stop the Blight, no matter the cost.

I'm partial to the Human noble origin myself, due to the dealings with Howe later on.

Also, am I the only one that feels like DA: Origins was the last good Bioware game?

>What is the best origin story and why?
You posted it, female City Elf rogue. It's interesting, it's fun while also letting you be an absolute badass, you don't have to care about petty human politics, it lets you engage in bants with the shems, and it adds a nice extra tone to romancing Best Girl Leliana.
Male Dalish is next best, because even though the origin itself is average, it gets you some really nice unique dialogue and resonates perfectly when you romance equal-Best-Girl Morrigan.

All the rest are average to poor.

>Dalish the worst
>Casteless Dwarf above anything
Why?

Dwarf noble is the absolute best origin because it all makes logical sense. It uses your lack of knowledge about your family life to its advantage, setting you up to believe your older brother is out to get when, when in actuality it's your younger brother who stabs you in the back in the cruelest form of fratricide.

When you play a human noble, you immediately know who the bad guy is in the story because of the voice actor. You're already expecting something bad to happen. But with a dwarf noble, there's actual political intrigue, you don't realize Baelen is the bad guy because the voice actor doesn't show it, and being cast out into the Deep Roads to die is way more badass than leaving your mom and dad to die.

The human noble story is also silly in that it tells you your brother is out fighting darkspawn, but you don't even meet him until the end of the game. And if the human noble wasn't made a Gray Warden, then he would have stayed with his parents and let himself be killed, which is counter to what every noble house teaches because they are desperate to keep bloodlines running. Regardless of whether the dwarf noble becomes a Warden or not, he IS condemned to the Deep Roads, all for reasons outside of his control, making him a victim of causality instead of stupidity.

However, canonically, the Warden is a human mage, specifically an Arcane Warrior / Blood Mage because, in the trailers, he's seen being capable of melee combat while also being able to use Flame Weapons by himself. On top of that, the last name of the human mage is Amell, which would make him cousins with Hawke in Dragon Age 2 who is, himself, a maleficarum.

tl;dr dwarf noble for story, human mage for canon. Fuck elves.

Not going Dalish, and going fuck you humans I'm not a city slave and fucking over everyone while having legitimate lore reasons to do so.

Still I wanted to go into the black city though. Only interesting thing mentioned in game, looks cool as hell, only for the series's to go naw and forget about it. Wtf.

Because they have better written stories, better options and better endings. Elf origins are all subpar and useless, while the others give you good and large insight on the world and the plot. Also, Casteless Dwarf is a good "Rags to Riches" story.

Speaking to Duncan afterwards is also great

>but I need to practice to get better
>just do get caught next time...

casteless dwarf is above those because you can go FUCK YOU I BEAT ALL OF YOU HIGHBORNE FUCKERS

You're not alone, I'm pretty sure it was the last game they made before EA took the reins and forced shit like the dialogue wheel, less customization, voice acting, everyone's a fag, and limiting options to make room for the the 3rd game while simultaneously making them rush the product. I'll never forget how hype I was hearing DA:O was getting a sequel, and the utter disappointment of playing it without paying attention to the news about it.

shit

>dont*

I liked Mass Effect 2 a lot and the majority of people on Sup Forums liked it, too, until DA2 came out and Bioware became the butt of jokes. Even then, I kind of agree and I think that DAO is a better game than it, and the last proper "good" video game Bioware has made.

>dat feel when female Daelish elf is canonical Warden

You go into the forest, find a spooky mirror, smash it, get tainted and then have to leave because you'll die otherwise

All the others have more interesting stories with a bit of depth. They might share the "you HAVE to go with Duncan or you'll die" thing but you have other reasons as well. Mainly revenge. When you show up in Orzammar again it's either to face down your brother or the kingpin that ruined your life. When you show up in Denerim as City Elf or Noble it's to check in on family you abandoned or find leads to Tim Curry.

When you turn up back to see the Dalish as Dalish it's just "Oh hey guys, just stopping by to force you into this war"

I don't think it's canonical, I think it's just the Default. If I remember correctly, the Default Shepard in the Mass Effect sequels is a bumbling idiot that fucked everything up and a lot of his choices are obviously not "canon".

explains the deep roads

canon doesnt really matter in any way, so why feel anything about it

I think Gaider confirmed it on the forums or twitter when DAI was about to come out. Female Dealish who sacrificed herself. Then again, it's Gaider.

>Elf origins are all subpar and useless
>When the City Elf is absolutely top-tier, has an interesting plot, gives you a number of interesting interactions later in the game (especially with and about Shianni); and the Dalish is great from a lore perspective
It isn't 'a good ''rags to riches'' story'; literally the only thing Dwarf Commoner does for the rest of the game is give you an actual reason to side with Bhelen.

It was a good moment, but... that's it. If you're counting that, why not being able to casually murder shems with your very first dialogue?

Yeah "default" and "canon" don't work well in Bioware games. They make it vague enough for it to not matter. The only thing that's Canon is King Allistair, Wynne's Path, and Sten leading the Qunari.

Gaider also said that Leliana's alive no matter what and then later in Trespasser they backtracked and said that she's a Force Ghost or whatever, so I'll take everything he says with a grain of salt.

Not that it matters who's canon because nothing of what you do in either Origins or 2 affects what's happening in Circumcision.

Noble Dwarf Male best origin story

fuck elves
fuck being the king
be your own man

Reread what he said. That's the default background, but just like ME it purposefully shit. There is no actual canon path.

Gaider also said Dwarf romance was paedophilia and female Qunari were just musclegirl fetish pandering

>Noy propping up old man Harrowmont so that you can rule soon

>Pandering is bad when it's for straight men but great all other times
I'll never understand.

Am I the only one who plays a Human Arcane Warrior that uses the face from the trailers?

Supporting Behlen is objectively superior. Not only does it do more to actually help your people, he gets to live the rest of his reign in the shadow of his brother, the Living Paragon, the only Grey Warden Commander to ever survive killing an Archdemon

Bonus points if you do everything to piss him off before giving him the crown at the last minute so he knows that he owes literally everything to you

Gotta love the modding community.

No, I also did.
That armor is great.

Nothing beats tricking Bhelen into thinking you've forgiven him, only to cuck him out of the crown at the last second.

>You go into the forest, find a spooky mirror, smash it, get tainted and then have to leave because you'll die otherwise
>When you turn up back to see the Dalish as Dalish it's just "Oh hey guys, just stopping by to force you into this war"
True, but that makes sense because it's a different clan (even though that decision is a flaw in itself). Like I said, Dalish is an interesting origin not because the origin story itself is good, but because it gives you access to unique dialogue you don't otherwise get (and it fits really well thematically with romancing Morrigan).
Mage Origin wasn't interesting at all, both Dwarf Origins have you doing stupid things for stupid reasons (though Noble was far worse) and the Human origin is best for the complexities it allows later, especially as a girl; I wouldn't consider any of them to be worth more than Dalish - though not necessarily less.

>Then again, it's Gaider.
Answered your own question, user.

>could've just gone with the simple answer of 'we know you might've picked something different but we're exercising out authorial authority'
>come up with a complete clusterfuck of an explanation
Classic Bioware. That said, tainting the Ashes is a retard move no matter how you look at it (unless you're playing an atheist Elf or something)

I literally never played Awakenings and now I kinda want to. I almost always played with the Human Noble storyline because I like the boring race. Pretty sure the only time I deviated was for mage tower which was meh.

I find it interesting how different Sten looks in that cinematic.

You become Prince-Consort, not King.

I will admit that that is a close second.

>Not being a manipulative Human Noble and puppeteering everything
>Not keeping Loghain alive to kill the Archdemon and cuck Morrigan out of the demon babby
>Not imprisoning that backstabbing barren bitch Anora
>Not making Alistair king and influencing him so that Eamon couldn't
>Not staying alive to rebuild the Grey Wardens in Ferelden, bring the Couslands back to their former glory and becoming the most powerful faction in all of southern ferelden

Plebery like this should be illegal.

Worst thing about bringing Leliana back in Inquisition or DA2 is that it was utterly unnecessary and just cause massive inconsistencies. In DA2 she's barely a cameo at the end and in Inquisition it could've been some other spymaster.

Everything in Inquisition was unnecessary. The whole game was like an "apology" after DA2 and it was just nonstop pandering to what's left of their fanbase instead of making an actual good game with a good story.

>keeping Loghain alive
>making Alistair king even when you've left Loghain alive
>having the gall to deride others as plebs
Get into the trash, where you belong.

Noble dwarf is the best by a mile. More engaging story, better writing, better characters, actually great twists and drama.
Mage is the worst one.

>Not keeping Loghain alive to kill the Archdemon and cuck Morrigan out of the demon babby
>Not making Alistair king and influencing him so that Eamon couldn't

Is it possible to keep Loghain alive and still keep Allistair? I thought it ended up as one of those gay binary choices where you can only have one or they other. Turning Loghain into a Grey Warden and having him kill the Arch Demon would be a terrific way for him to redeem himself.

Having PC kill the arch demon and die after telling Alistair you'll support him is a total bummer.

>>actually great twists and drama
>saw the twist coming a mile away first time playing
>can do nothing to avert it
Can't decide if that's good writing or not.

You can if you harden him.

Doing anything less than that is shirking your duty and failing at realpolitik.

>Male Noble
>Warrior
>Morrigan
>Pragmatic Moralfag
This is the 10/10 way to play

>I think Asshole is going to try to kill you
>Yeah nah fuck off Behlen you twat
>they're all dead

It's like you (should) say at the end before you're exiled: Behlen played the game so much better than you

>female Qunari were just musclegirl fetish pandering

He's right there and I love it.

>You can if you harden him.

Ah, and I did, too. Something to keep in mind if I ever play again.

You have to "harden" Alistair first.

it apparently worked. most of the reviews for dai were "don't worry, it's not da2", as if that makes it automatically good or something.

is this a meme and influx of bioware forums refugees? or are those games really worth playing?

>Is it possible to keep Loghain alive and still keep Alistair?
No - if Alistair is hardened, he'll (reluctantly) accept leaving Loghain alive to turn into a Warden, but he'll essentially label it unforgivable and leave your party. You can still make him King, but you only get the one of them - makes sense from both a character and mechanical perspective, so there you go.
>Turning Loghain into a Grey Warden and having him kill the Arch Demon would be a terrific way for him to redeem himself.
Which is exactly why he doesn't deserve it, from an in- or out-of-character perspective.

I know it worked, which is why I hate it so much. The game itself had no merits, and was actually worse than DA2 in a lot of aspects.

It's literally just a bunch of pig-feed with no substance, to fill the trough of bioware's shitty fanbase. Cullen is there because their shitty audience keeps jerking off over him. Ditto for Leliana. Everything about DAI is disgustingly masturbatory, and not in a good way.

It's literally just excuses for what polls and studies showed players were doing in previous games. After all EA holds the coin purse and they want to cut costs. Why make romances and shit for specific combos only a small percentage of players plays?

>Which is exactly why he doesn't deserve it, from an in- or out-of-character perspective.
Yes, which is why you turn him into a Warden and don't have him kill the Archdaemon so that he has to live with it for the rest of his life.

Sup Forums always liked DAO, for a very good reason. Maybe you should quit shitposting and play some vidya, nerd.

Origins is great

Inquisition is ok if you never recruit Iron Bull or Sera

>label it unforgivable and leave your party
The worst part is you're never given the opportunity to explain yourself to the faggot

And then when you talk to him as King he's all "well gee, thanks for making me king of a country, I guess" like a whiny little bitch. And you still can't set him straight on the matter

>Gay/Lesbian people are all attracted to the same stereotypical bullshit and can never, ever like anything else that "straight men" potentially like

Don't forget this. Can't I be attracted to female Qunari without being "internally oppressed" or a sleeper agent of the patriarchy?

>Doing anything less than that is shirking your duty and failing at realpolitik.
No. Firstly, 'realpolitik' is a flimsy justification given by idiots and fools. Secondly, there's no good justification you can make for him actually living, except being a retard or insane - he's someone who from the very start of the game has followed one bad decision with another, getting Ferelden into a worse situation than the Orlesians ever did. He's personally set himself against you, even though it's the worst possible thing he could've done, and on top of that there's no real incentive to keep him - after all, you don't know that killing the Archdemon requires a sacrifice, and you definitely know that if you want Loghain you lose Alistair (who you may have just made King of Ferelden)
It's a shit decision for chumps and retards.

>>Behlen played the game so much better than you
>Only option to tell him to fuck off
>Can't take any other action
>Can't even take any prospective protective/preventative action either
>Can't do anything
>Still get exiled even though it's a stupid decision (even though this last one makes sense)
That's only 'playing the game better' because of the constraints imposed by the writing.

It's easy to understand. They're pandering to themselves because people who jerk off over gay/lesbian romances is what's left at Bioware. The entirety of Inquisition is pandering, and they don't see it as wrong because it's what they like.

What's done is done and killing him is wasting resources. Being a Grey Warden is a death sentence anyway and having a walking corpse is better than just a corpse.

Male Dalish Elf is objectively the best.

>shitting on shems at every turn
>that unique argument you get to have with Leliana where you put the bitch in her place when she refers to elf servants as prize animals
>being a badass archer
>fighting for the glorious elven gods

So just play DAO, huh? I heard only negatives about the newest one ("single player mmo", pandering, shitty performance, constant crashes etc.)

>>fighting for the glorious elven gods
>He doesn't know

Yes.

>he thinks DA games made after Origins count

Origins is aggressively mediocre, but it has a lot of content and is the last Bioware game that can be legitimately called an RPG / last DA game before the SJW mindrot.

None of the Dalish know, so it's okay.

>Breaking down Morrigan's tsundere barrier as a valiant paladin

Is there anything better?

Installing the mod that lets you turn Morrignan in and have her imprisoned is actually better.

The only good thing about Inquisition is talking to Morrigan if she was romanced in Origins.

How's DA:O on steam? Was thinking of picking it up.

>Yes, which is why you turn him into a Warden and don't have him kill the Archdaemon so that he has to live with it for the rest of his life.
Cruel but still better than he deserves.

>The worst part is you're never given the opportunity to explain yourself to the faggot
>And you still can't set him straight on the matter
Why would he care? The Grey Wardens are literally the only people in Alistair's entire life that accepted him (until you, possibly), he sees them as a surrogate family and views joining them the highest honour imaginable. You're proposing that Loghain - someone who singlehandedly killed his entire family, including his mentor who saved him from a shitty life, someone who betrayed him own king out of petty jealousies and delusions, someone who blamed Grey Wardens for the above even though it makes no fucking sense, who personally sent mercenaries, his own soldiers and assassins after you to kill you, who betrayed the most important ideals of Ferelden (the country he claims to love) by selling elves into slavery and using a blood mage to try and assassinate Arl Eamon (subverting the Chantry to do so); someone who single-handedly almost destroyed Ferelden as a country completely, who has opposed the two of you in every possible way, even when the situation is hopeless - be allowed to join them?
Fuck you, that's what Alistair thinks. And he's right to. The Grey Wardens take anyone - but they don't take everyone. It's not a right to join them.

>and killing him is wasting resources. Having a walking corpse is better than just a corpse.
Untrue. Killing him is a symbol - a very powerful one, if you have Alistair do it during a duel - and saying that you have to keep him alive to use him is disingenuous. For one, the message it sends and impact it has has to be taken into account. Secondly, and far more importantly, you lose Alistair if you want Loghain - so in actuality, you gain nothing.

Human noble because its the fastest.