The second stage of the character creation process (following the earlier choice of class) is to pick your character’s appearance and name, and select a narrative background that encompasses the events of Dragon Age: Origins. You must also select a difficulty level.
Appearance, Portrait and Name
These three options enable you to personalize your character, and have no bearing on Hawke’s capabilities or later development. Though you may not notice on first playthrough, your chosen portrait will actually affect the appearance of Hawke’s family members.
If you have access to the Black Emporium Premium Content (see dragonage.com/da2/addons), you can change your character’s appearance, portrait and name at a later date.
Events of Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age II allows you to import information from a Dragon Age: Origins save file stored on your hard drive. The data interpreted by this feature reflects key decisions made by the Warden (the protagonist of Origins), and can influence your adventures in a number of ways. For example:
- Some Dragon Age II quests are only available if you aligned yourself with particular factions or individuals while playing Origins or its expansions. If, hypothetically, your Warden chose to side with the Dalish elves rather than the werewolves, supported Bhelen instead of Lord Harrowmont in Orzammar, or opted to eliminate Sophia Dryden and spare Avernus in the Warden’s Keep downloadable content, you can potentially encounter side quests that reflect later consequences. The reverse, with these three instances, is also true. These are just a handful of examples.
- You will also encounter many ambient references to the world you left behind in your save: from a barman referencing the miraculous recovery of Arl Eamon at Andraste’s apparent behest, to story summaries in the Journal that offer a precise appraisal of your adventures.
If you didn’t play Dragon Age: Origins, worry not: there is a selection of three preset backgrounds that you can choose from.
- Hero of Ferelden represents an optimal playthrough in which the Warden adopted a resolutely noble approach to any given situation. This is the classic “good guy”.
- The Martyr , as the name suggests, implies a path where the Warden opted to sacrifice himself at the climax of Dragon Age: Origins. This wasn’t a Warden who always favored popular or easy decisions, but Ferelden was ultimately a better place for their actions.
- No Compromise could be described as the opposite end of the spectrum to Hero of Ferelden. It’s not that this permutation of the Warden was necessarily evil, though; merely that this particular hard-bitten bastard strode a less flower-lined path through the moral mazes of Origins.
The Hero of Ferelden preset offers access to more reactive events and side quests than The Martyr or No Compromise, and is the option we would recommend for players who didn’t play Dragon Age: Origins.
Difficulty
On a first playthrough, we would suggest that the Normal difficulty level is perfectly pitched for the vast majority of players. Higher settings provide your opponents with improved health, damage output, and attack scores and increase the frequency of special ability usage. You can adjust the difficulty level at any time during play, without penalty, and there really is no shame in dropping down to Casual should you hit a brick wall on a particular quest.
We would advise that all players pay the Nightmare setting a wide berth during their first time through the Dragon Age II story. In addition to the expected array of adjustments that brutally favor your opponents, this mode also activates friendly fire, so your party members can hurt each other with their attacks (particularly the AoE variety). This alteration necessitates an entirely different style of play. Only true Dragon Age masters should even consider it – and, even then, after at least one full playthrough.
Miscellany
- We refer to the main protagonist in Dragon Age II as Hawke throughout the guide. Though he obviously shares this surname with his siblings, this is the neatest way to sidestep the issue of millions of user-created forenames and two potential genders.
- The way in which you approach each conversation can affect how your companions perceive you.