Dragon Age: The Veilguard Character Creation Guide - Find the best faction and class to define Rook

Character creation might just be the most important single step you'll take as you begin a new game of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, not least because you'll experience the whole game through Rook, making your choices and fighting the good fight through them. A few other choices you'll make in Character Creation are particularly important, though, which is why we've come up with this quick guide to creating your character in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

What Can You Change About Rook After Character Creation?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard allows you to change a surprising amount about Rook after you've left the character creation screen, but not everything is malleable. You can change Rook's appearance, voice, and given name at any time, simply by heading to the Lighthouse Infirmary and using the Mirror of Transformation.

Some choices, however, are permanent, as they frame how Rook is perceived by the rest of the world and have impacts on your in-game options.

You cannot change Rook's class, gender identity (i.e. pronouns), and faction.

You can also affirm Rook as a transgender character following the quest "Shadows Crossing" early in the game. After the quest, you'll have a chance to decorate Rook's bedroom, during which time they'll pull out Varric's Shaving Mirror. During the "conversation" that occurs at this point, you can have Rook identify as transgender. This will change Rook's available dialog options in some situations, but have no impact on the core plot otherwise. The choice is permanent, and you won't get to make it again if you leave the dialog by accident.

Which is the Best Class in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

As mentioned in our Beginner's Guide to The Veilguard, your class will define your combat style, but in truth, the three classes differ surprisingly less than you'd think. As a character action title where Rook is the main focus of combat, every character class is self-sufficient to a certain degree.

That means that regardless of your choices, every class has access to the following:

• Defensive actions like blocking, parrying, and dodging
• Offensive attacks like light attacks, heavy attacks, and charged attacks
• Ranged attacks that hit enemies from range and take down magical barriers
• Access to Primers and Detonators to use in conjunction with the party's abilities

Generally speaking, Warriors will fight mainly in melee range and do the majority of their damage using basic attacks, with their abilities acting more like supplements or sources of high burst damage. Warriors also take hits better than other classes, building Rage as they do so. Mages fight from medium range and deal out a lot of elemental damage using their staves and orbs and abilities. Rogues can deal damage at any range thanks to their access to bows and they deal extra damage for hitting enemy weak points. They also have higher mobility than the other classes and a higher rate of attack with their dual blades.

In summary, choose a Warrior if you like to fight up close and would rather block than dodge, choose a Mage for an emphasis on combat at range and spamming abilities, and choose a Rogue if you like evasive acrobatics and dancing around enemy blows.

If you happen to know which companions you want to spend the most time with before you've started, you can also choose you're Rook's class based on some nominal class synergy. Generally speaking, you'll want to have a companion that can either detonate your primers or prime enemies for you to detonate.

• Warrior Rooks have the strongest synergy with Mage companions like Neve, Bellara, and Emmrich, since the Mage companions can apply Weakened to enemies for Rook to detonate. Additionally, certain abilities Warrior Rook can grab can apply Sunder, which Mages can detonate.
• Mage Rooks have the best time with Rogue companions like Harding and Lucanis, who can detonate Rook's ability to apply Overwhelmed. Similarly, Rook can detonate their abilities that apply Sunder. However, Warrior companions like Davrin and Taash can taunt enemies, shield Rook, and detonate Rook's Weakened applications.
• Rogue Rooks can apply Sunder and Overwhelmed, allowing them to hang with both Rogue and Mage companions for their compatible primer/detonator skills. That said, Rogue Rooks that have a hard time dodging may also want to have a Warrior companion on hand to distract enemies with taunts, allowing Rook to build up Momentum in peace.

Which Factions Can You Join in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

Rook's faction choice is surprisingly important in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Reactions to Rook's faction affiliation will occur in nearly every stage of the game, and color their interactions with characters from those factions or based in their locations, including your companions, who are themselves members of one faction or another.

Rook's faction choice defines the following:

• Rook will have certain dialog choices available that reflect their faction choice, particularly in situations where it's relevant (such as Shadow Dragons having dialog options related to Tevinter or Minrauthos).
• NPCs and Companions will reference Rook's membership in a faction, and that membership will influence certain interactions. For example, Neve Gallus, a Shadow Dragon, will have several special interactions with Rook involving the Shadow Dragons or their shared roots in Minrauthos.
• Faction choices will also change Rook's background. Each faction description includes a brief story detailing why Rook isn't an active member of their faction at the moment, and explains why they're with Varric. Check them out in the gallery below.
• Faction membership also confers a slightly boosted "Faction Strength" growth rate, meaning that selling items to faction vendors will yield slightly more Faction strength for Rook's chosen faction.
• Rook's default casual wear will also be an outfit that's based on their faction, though other casual wear sets can be purchased from stores or earned from quests.
• Certain gear items have perks that increase in effectiveness based on the Faction Strength of a certain faction. Since Rook's faction strength grows more quickly, it'll be slightly easier to make the corresponding pieces as powerful as they can be.
• It should be said that the faction gameplay bonuses are not very large at all, and pretty much negligible compared with even a single piece of decent gear. As such, let your faction choice be driven more by what you'd like to see Rook be a part of rather than for mechanical advantage.

Here are the different Factions Rook can join.

The Grey Wardens

The iconic faction of Dragon Age: Origins, the Grey Wardens are a military order dedicated to stopping Blights and defeating Darkspawn.

Grey Warden membership for Rook gets them a slight bonus to defense and health, as well as a minor damage bonus against Darkspawn. Darkspawn will be a consistent and recurring threat at every stage of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, so for pure gameplay reasons, a Grey Warden faction choice is a solid one.

Narratively, a Grey Warden Rook will have additional options for certain quests (including a very early game quest), and have some enhanced interactions with Warden characters, like Davrin, as well as characters affected by or fighting against the Blight.

The Veil Jumpers

The Veil Jumpers are a group of Dalish Elves that reside in Arlathan Forest, patroling it and studying the ancient elven magic and relics from the last great elf civilization. They're technically adept, respectful of nature, and often walk around shoeless. Involved in the plot from early on, the Veil Jumpers are one of Rook and the Veilguard's earliest allies. Bellara is a member of the Veil Jumpers, as well.

Having Rook be a Veil Jumper on sabbatical gives them a damage bonus against "fade-touched" enemies and a minor bonus to critical damage and damage when targeting enemy weakpoints. Unfortunately, Fade-Touched enemies are something of a minority in the foes the Veilguard will face, mainly residing in ancient elven ruins or places like them, making the damage bonus more situational. The boost to crit and weakpoint damage is great for Rogues, though.

Veil Jumper Rooks also have additional dialog options with Veil Jumper characters like Bellara, Strife, and Irelin, and additional options if they happen to be elves, as well.

The Antivan Crows

The Antivan Crows are among the best-known Dragon Age factions for certain fans. OG Dragon Age: Origins companion Zevran was a Crow. That said, until The Veilguard they've mostly operated in the shadows, only appearing in the games as mysterious assassins or a group to be aided or foiled in side quests. Now they're front and center as the representative faction of Treviso, the Antivan capital.

Choosing an Antivan Crow background for Rook casts them as a trained killer fighting against an occupation. The Qunari Antaam soldiers have launched an invasion of Thedas, occupying Treviso and throwing Antiva into chaos. A Crow Rook will gain a damage bonus against Antaam, a reason to fight for the liberation of their home, and a Hidden Pouch that adds an extra potion for Rook to use in combat. They'll also have additional dialog and interactions with Antivan characters and Lucanis Dellamorte, one of the Crows' deadliest and a Veilguard companion.

Antaam are persistent and tough enemies present in many parts of The Veilguard, so getting a bonus against them can help in pitched fights. An extra potion is also a potent bonus, considering it's the only way for Rook to heal damage on their own. That said, there are other ways to get extra potions, so it's not all that unique.

The Shadow Dragons

Based in the slums of Minrauthos, the capital of the Tevinter Imperium, the Shadow Dragons are an underground resistance movement fighting to change the oppressive empire from within. They battle to abolish slavery in the empire and break the power of the worst of Tevinter's Magisters. They're also the sworn foes of the Venatori, a hardcore cult that aims to bring back the extremely evil Tevinter Imperium of old.

A Shadow Dragon Rook will be a native of Minrauthos, and familiar with some of the best and worst of Tevinter society. They'll have extra interactions with fellow Shadow Dragon Neve Gallus, and gain a damage bonus against the Venatori, who are among the most numerous of the Veilguard's foes. Shadow Dragon Rooks also generate their class gauge a little bit faster, though after testing I found the difference to be minimal.

The Mourn Watch

Other than via Inquisition alumnus Cassandra, very little of the central Thedas kingdom of Nevarra is represented on-screen. The presence of the nation's Mourn Watch probably won't give you a much clearer picture of what the place is actually like. That's because Mourn Watchers are elite members of Nevarra's necromancer hierarchy, responsible for the country's Great Necropolis. In other words, compelling as they are, they're probably not representative samples.

Still, A Mourn Watch Rook will have additional interactions with Mourn Watch members, a bonus against Undead and Demons (Demons being a particularly common foe), and a built-in rapport with Emmrich, the Mourn Watch expert the team brings in. Mourn Watch Rooks can also apply an additional Affliction stack, allowing them to further build up damage-over-time effects like Burning, Shocked, Necrosis, and Chilled.

The Lords of Fortune

Based in the coastal region of Rivain the Lords of Fortune are basically a fusion of pirate crew and adventurer collective, famed for extravagant heists and treasure-seeking. A Rook linked to the Lords of Fortune will have additional interactions with Taash, the Qunari Dragon Slayer, and have input wherever Rivain and the pirate life are up for discussion.

Gameplay-wise a Lords of Fortune Rook will have a damage bonus against Mercenaries, which, to be frank, are only slightly more common than dragons as an enemy type. To be clear, you really only encounter Mercenaries in situations when almost any other enemy type wouldn't make sense. A Rook from Rivain will also be able to initiate a Takedown move slightly earlier, making stagger less of an issue in fights.