Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition: A Rogues' Guide

A discussion on game play as a Rogue for the main character.

Introduction

"...[Walk] softly, and carry a big stick..."
-T. Roosevelt, Big Stick Diplomacy

This guide is not a full a game walk-through, simply a discussion into how to best use the Rogue character class. Personally I have found playing as the Rogue to be the most helpful throughout the game since playing as a Rogue provides the greatest utility at the very start and throughout the game.

The benefit to playing as a Rogue is that they can use the Stealth ability, unlock chests and most importantly pick pockets. Their need for high Cunning plays directly into the player's ability to persuade others, as will as making their fingers stickier and their lock picks...pickier....

The Rogue also gets to use special weapons and items that other character classes cannot which are largely wasted on the companion characters.

Overall, this class provides the player with the greatest benefit through functional utility and versatility compared to the other classes, whose strengths come at the loss of these benefits.

Race and Origin Selection

The choice of Race and Origin Story are left largely up to the player and matter relatively little, but the role with the greatest innate benefits may be the Dwarf Noble.

The penultimate reason being that Dwarves receive +2 bonuses to Dexterity and Constitution, where the other races do not and ultimate reason being that the Dwarven Noble has access to better Pick-pocketing caches than the Dwarven Outcast, yielding something close to at least 1 gold piece by the end of the tutorial which the player gets to keep and becomes closer to 3 gold pieces by the time they reach Ostagar. One of the pockets to be picked in the Dwarven Noble origin story yields a Dwarven Merchants Belt which adds +10% to gold gained. Find the belt, equip it and instant profit in the first 5 minutes of game play.

Therefore, choosing to play as a Dwarven Noble will reward the player by allocating innate stat points to one area of strength and one area of weakness, while also yielding the player with the best weapons, items, and currency received when pick pocketing the unsuspecting, which equates to a higher early game gold yield overall.

Elves make better Mages or Warriors because of their +2 bonus to Magic and Willpower, this equals higher healing potential with a greater usage of combat skills.

Human's are good for any class since they receive +1 to all stats, however this is less desirable than the other races who receive the more specialized stats gains. The reason playing as a human is less desirable over the other two races, is because the +1 bonus to all stats, is relatively wasted in the sense that the character won't be using or needing all of these stat bonuses.

In the end, it doesn't really matter which character race is picked, or which origin story is taken since they all end up in the same place. Pick which ever class the player feels the most comfortable with, or hasn't played with yet.

Allocating Stats

A Rogue Benefits Most from:

High Cunning - As high as possible without completely breaking the character, there is a passive skill to be taken later, which substitutes the cunning stat for strength, increasing chance to hit and overall damage dealt via cunning instead of strength.

Moderate Dexterity - The dexterity skill governs the characters ability to dodge, as well as their effectiveness with the Bow & Arrow, therefore it is relatively essential for Rogues, more so for Archers than anything else. Melee based thieves should look for a 1: .8 ratio between cunning and dexterity, meaning for every 10 points invested into cunning, they also want 8 points invested into dexterity. For Archers the ratio should be reversed, for every 10 points in dexterity, they also want 8 into cunning.

Moderate Willpower - Willpower is also a necessary must have for Rogues of any specialization, since higher Willpower increases mental resistances and allows the Rogue to use more combat skills per fight, for Bards and Rangers, this skill must be raised higher than usual to compensate for the cost of the maintaining their skills.

I.E. turning on a bard dance, or summoning an ally requires a reserve of willpower, cutting down the overall number of skills per battle that they can use, so they need higher than normal willpower in order to compensate, this is Lelani's greatest weakness because her specialized bow requires 42 dexterity to wield, which requires something like 26 skill points to use, which leaves a small pool remaining to be divied up between willpower, constitution, magic, and enough strength to wield armor

Low to Moderate Constitution - Constitution is one of those catch-22 skill investments, since a skilled rogue with high enough dexterity is nearly impossible to hit, however if they are hit it will most likely be a one-shot. Therefore it is necessary to slowly invest into constitution as the player progresses in order to keep up with the players health requirements. The most important thing to remember is that if the player is going to invest into constitution, it is best to maximize those investments from the very start; that way they get the maximum benefit by gaining the maximum number of health points across the entirety of the game instead of at the end.

Strength should be kept to a minimum, unless the player is planning on becoming a Duelist and intends to dual wield two "medium" sized weapons i.e. two swords or a sword and hand-axe. A minimum of 22 strength is required to wield Drakeskin tier armor and most high tier sword weapons, however, these points into strength can mostly be compensated for via belts, rings, necklaces and additional armor buffs and the permanent stat gains from visiting the Mage Tower and entering the Fade.

Magic is almost completely unnecessary on a Rogue, unless the player decided to invest heavily into Constitution for some reason, in which case they will require a slight boost in Magic in order to adequately heal themselves. A rogue at base level constitution and magic can fully heal themselves with a lesser health poultice. For every 5 points into constitution, you'll want 2 points into magic just to keep the poultices at an equivalent healing rate.

Playing as a Rogue

The Rogues Weapons

Dual Wielding Daggers - Rogues gain no overall benefit from wielding a shield since they cannot back-stab with a shield or gain any combat skills that utilize one. Daggers will always out trump swords or other weapons because Daggers have higher critical hit multipliers and therefore better armor penetration than other weapons.

Rogues can wield whatever strength based main weapon in their right hand whether it be a Sword, Mace, Axe or Dagger which can be swapped in and out based on the need of the situation, i.e. using a mace on a heavily armored knight or a Sword for a lightly armored footpad. However, the Daggers will always provide the highest critical attack damage and the goal as a Rogue is to always be maneuvering for constant and consistent back-stab damage.

While the Duelist specialization allows for the use of the larger Strength based one-handed weapons in the off-hand, this requires the use of Strength which is really counter-intuitive to a class revolving around significant investments into Dexterity and Cunning as well as having a skill that directly substitutes Strength for Cunning.

Bow and Arrow - This should be the main weapon used by the Rogue until enemies have closed in and back-stab opportunities are present. However, heavily investing in the skill tree is not recommended, unless the player decides to dedicate themselves toward ranged combat over melee combat. Starting the game as an unskilled archer is the most highly recommended since the Rogue is weak in melee combat, however, melee combat-wise there are considerably more skills to be invested which will significantly strengthen the Rogues back-stab abilities over-time.

A note on Arrows, always remember to equip the entire party with unused ranged weapons along with stacks of the equip-able arrows that are found to save on inventory slots. Check back at camp and sell them to the merchant, or save them for later.

The Rogues Tools

Stealth - Always make sure to stealth yourself for a guaranteed critical strike on any chosen enemy. Even at range this can provide a significant combat advantage by heavily damaging an enemy or outright killing them, in turn providing a battlefield advantage.

Traps - This skill is required in the early game to complete a mission and yield some small amount of experience points (XP). It's a skill that can also have serious pay-offs towards the late game when strong enough traps can almost or instantly kill entire groups of enemies.

Use Traps and Sneak attacks to lay ambushes. Hide the party around a corner, or other viable choke point, activate Stealth and set traps at the far entrance of the choke, the entrance/exit closest to the party and in between these two points as well. Shoot the nearest enemy while still using Stealth to provoke the group into the first layer of traps, then run back and hide behind the party. Shoot at the enemies as they approach and keep the party held waiting until the third layer of traps has been sprung, then release them from Hold and let them clean up the battle field.

An additional tactic is to throw Bombs at the enemies while they are being funneled through the choke point, and or stuck in or between the trap layers. Wait for the trap effect to trigger, then follow up with a bomb for maximum effect.

Also try: Stealth walking into a group of enemies, laying traps near where they stand, walking back to the group, then use the party mage to trigger an AoE spell like Earthquake or Blizzard and as the spell is cast, use the rogue to shoot arrows into the crowd, as the enemies get knocked down and stuck in the traps, throw bombs into the crowd and after the AoE spell has worn off and/or the enemies made it through the damage zone, release the party to mop up any remaining enemies.

Poison, Traps & Bombs - It should be noted that trap-making and poison/bomb-making are separate skill trees and it is not at all advised to dedicate the player to filling either of these trees completely or at all, unless careful consideration has been taken and it is the players intended choice. This is to save on points necessary to upgrade lock-picking, pick-pocketing and persuasiveness.

Zevran specializes in poisons and should be the party poisoner, Lelani has the tree unlocked, but she has a lot more important abilities to invest in, Morrigan and Wyne both come with Herbalism, leaving Alistair, Sten or the berserker dwarf I always forget, to learn trap making, I would suggest teaching Alistair or Sten before Lothering is destroyed, just because there is a mission to complete for a small amount of XP and I'm a completionist. Anyone can lay a trap but only one party member has to make them and persuasion is key to the main character.

Poisons buff weapons for additional damage and Bombs are useful for chucking at groups of aforementioned enemies. The Bombs are non-discriminatory and will splash damage the party, so be careful whose being targeted or going to be targeted, since there is a slight animation delay between choosing the throwing location and throwing the bomb.

Specializing the Rogue

The specializations available to the Rogue are:
Assassin - Extra damage to poisoned targets, bleeding back stabs, additional damage based on Cunning Modifier. (This is one of the specializations that I would recommend, even though it is Zevran's specified role)

Bard - Buff and Debuff the party. (I wouldn't ever recommend specializing in this class, since that is Leliana's specified role)

Duelist - Dual wielding specialist, dual wield specific combat abilities, regular attacks can apply chance to bleed, eventually allows Rogue to dual wield strength based weapons, chance to hit and chance to defend buffs. (This is the other specialization that I would recommend, since the Rogue class is supposed to specialize in dual wielding weapons, just don't purchase the feat that allows for dual wielding strength based weapons in the off-hand unless the Rogue is building Strength/Dex)

Ranger - Able to summon extracurricular party members; Spider, Wolf, Bear, and blighted versions of previous summons. (This class is also a good option, especially for ranged specific Rogues, or for the other Rogue party members.)

Notes on Specializing The Rogue

Which specializations the player takes are purely up to them however, these are my thoughts on the various specializations.

The specializations available to the Rogue are:

Assassin - Extra damage to poisoned targets, bleeding back stabs, additional damage based on Cunning Modifier.

The Assassin specialization is the most important and beneficial specialization available for all Rogue's and should always be taken since the abilities it gives directly enhance and buff the power of the back-stab. No other class improves the power of the back stab in such a way, yes Duelists can wield heavier and more powerful weapons but their abilities do not directly buff the Rogue's unique and purpose built back-stab attack in such a way to make it more beneficial. Therefore all other class decisions should come second to unlocking this specialization tree.

Unlocking Zevran as a playable character who will teach the player the ways of the assassin after some smooth talking.

Bard - Buff the party and de-buff enemies.

Personally speaking, I don't recommend choosing this a player class. Leliana is the party Bard and Bard's require pools of Willpower in order to be able to effectively use their abilities and maintain in combat. If the player goal as the party Rogue is to play as a high Cunning and Dexterity Rogue, then Willpower investments will interfere with their other abilities.

Instead, utilize Leliana as she is meant to be utilized which is as a supporting Archer since her character specific weapon requires an investment of 42 Dexterity points to wield. Have her stand back and pick enemies apart while maintaining buffs so that the player can move in and back stab opponents.

Duelist - Dual wielding specialist, dual wield specific combat abilities, regular attacks can apply chance to bleed, eventually allows Rogue to dual wield strength based weapons, chance to hit and chance to defend buffs.

Taking this specialization branch after the Assassin branch is preferred since the Assassin branch buffs the players back-stab attack and the Duelist branch will buff their regular attack causing the player to inflict consistent and persistent bleeding damage irregardless of positioning, as well as giving them extra stuns for re-positioning.

Ranger - Able to summon extracurricular party members; Spider, Wolf, Bear, and blighted versions of previous summons.

This specialization tree is just for fun really since it will allow the player to summon an additional party member in the form of a wield animal. The only real downside to this specialization branch is that maintaining the summon requires maintaining a stamina cost which would otherwise be better spent on a stun ability.

To me, the strongest specialization path for the Rogue is to go:

Rogue -> Assassin -> Duelist = Maximized damage

Pockets to Pick

If the player picks a pocket and is caught, the item in the pocket may be replaced with an item of equal or lesser value.

There are also cursed items in peoples pockets that might spawn enemy encounters later or provide some form of consequence for accumulating.

After a test run as the Dwarven Noble, with maximized Cunning, the player can leave the origin story with over +1 gold coins and be the time they have left Lothering have over +10 gold, which they can then run around the map without doing anything of significant consequence and rack up over +100 gold before advancing the story line any further than necessary.

There is nothing of ultimate significance to be found in the Origin story besides money, the Dwarven Merchant Belt is found in a chest in the first room available to explore after starting, equip the belt then pick everyone's pockets and sell everything possible before speaking with the Dwarf King and advancing the story line.

However, the most notable pockets to pick in the early game are any and all important characters, hence the need to maximize Cunning as soon as possible. If the player is caught, the NPC whose pocket you were trying to pick will swap their loot out for something of lesser value.

Duncan - His pockets are very hard to pick and should not be attempted until the last moment before the Joining ceremony and not unless the player has like +22 Cunning. He doesn't have anything good but this is the only time available to pick his pocket so it's a unique opportunity.

Dragonthorn Crossbow - After entering Lothering and defeating the bandits, remove Alistair from your party, enter the conversation between the arguing priestess and the scalping merchant, side with the scalping merchant for +5 approval from Morrigan which Alistair would have disapproved of, then promptly pick the pocket of the scalping Merchant.

I'm not really sure if there is anything else of extraordinary value to be found in the pockets since I haven't kept that much track since there are like 1000+ pockets to pick.

Conclusion

This guide is currently a work in progress, but I hope that I shed some light on some of the game subjects and that other players found it helpful.

Please feel free to like, favorite, and leave comments below.

Keep an eye out for my other guides across other franchises such as Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy and various other games like A Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkeled, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II (KOTOR II) and Sega's ultra horror survival game - Alien: Isolation.

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*Beyond the minimum for equipping the weapon, that is.

[ADEC Inc]

Dwarves get +1 str, +1 dex, and +2 con. Humans get +1 to str, dex, cun, and magic, with an extra point to spend on any attribute they choose. Rogues don't usually spend much if anything on willpower since they don't rely on spamming abilities, and constitution is pretty much a waste. Pumping cunning is great for Song of Courage and the amazing Tainted Blade, whether melee or ranged. Assassin+Bard is demonstrably the strongest melee rogue setup.

Duelist has nothing to do with wielding larger weapons in the offhand. That comes from the duel wield weapon tree. Doing so does not require str either because Lethality can still be used.

Dwarven Noble can make a cool 25 gold by aiding Lord Dace and selling his note of credit. Sadly you can't wait to sell it to Gorim.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

@Dhafeuwst

Thanks for the feedback, I forgot about the Fade or was going to introduce that information at a later date since I haven't written a full game walkthrough or was going to write a separate guide for that. I also haven't ever played through the expansion content even though I need to. I keep messing up some minor late game detail that I forget to plan for and find myself in an endless cycle of restarts.

[Dhafeuwst]

After a quick check, Awakening's DEX requirement is 50 for Unending Flurry, si it's OK to overshoot during Origins if you intend to play the DLC expansion after.
During Awakening, investing a bit on willpower is a good idea since you get access to very stamina heavy but extremely effective talents, like the Twin Strikes + Low blow + Unending Flurry combo (will mow on bosses in seconds). Doing it while under the effect of the shadow specialization passives, the game is not even fun anymore.

[Dhafeuwst]

You might want to mention that on endgame you shouldn't increase Dexterity past the requirements of talents (36 in Origins I think ? Not sure for Awakening). beyond that point, stat points are better invested in cunning since you're already very hard to hit and will basically never miss. Don't forget to take into account the Fade permanent bonuses before investing in STR and DEX to not overshoot the 20 and 36 targets.
It should also be stated that due to a bug, using momentum (which is awesome) and Haste from a mage party member (even more awesome) simultaneously gets them to cancel each other (it gets you over the max of x0.5 animation time reduction). Some mods can fix this.

Your description of getting one-shot most of the time does not match my game experience, starting from mid-game my rogue character was always much more tanky than my full plate warriors, even when he caught the ennemy's attention. I don't remember investing a lot on constitution either.

Nice guide overall.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

Is there anything that people would like to see added to this guide?

[MidnightGuideWriter]

Thank you every body for your awards, likes and patience.

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[MidnightGuideWriter]

@Jet Jaguar
Thank you for the observation. Whenever I get around to more guide editing, I may pick that comment out and include it in the relevant section. Personally I've never played with the bard specializations so it's something I was unaware of. That probably also means that playing the Warden, Leliana and Zeveran as a bard all using song of courage might add a 3x stack maybe.

[Jet Jaguar]

If the Warden is a bard and Leliana is a bard, you can stack Song of Courage to get your hit chance/crit chance even higher.

[MidnightGuideWriter]

@Cyber Cenobite

The Ranger has always been one of my favorite specializations since its the equivalent of carrying two party members.