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Dragon Age: Origins eGuide
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Contents

  • Maps
    • Ferelden
      • Map of Ferelden
    • Dwarf Commoner
      • Dust Town
      • Commons
      • Tapster's Tavern
      • Beraht's Shop
      • Proving Grounds (Dwarf Commoner)
      • Beraht's Hide
    • Dwarf Noble
      • Ozammer Royal Palace
      • Diamond Quarter
      • Proving Grounds (Dwarf Noble)
      • Ruined Thaig
      • Outskirts
    • City Elf
      • Alienage
      • Arl of Denerim's Estate (Exterior)
      • Arl of Denerim's Estate (Interior)
    • Dalish Elf
      • Forest Clearing
      • Elven Ruins
      • Dalish Elf Camp
      • Return to Forest Clearing
      • Return to the Elven Ruins
      • Return to Dalish Elf Camp
    • Human Mage Origin
      • The Harrowing
      • The Circle Tower (Human Mage Origin)
      • The Repository
    • Human Noble Origin
      • Castle Cousland By Day
      • Castle Cousland (Night)
    • Ostagar
      • King's Camp
      • Korcari Wilds
      • Return to King's Camp
      • The Tower of Ishal
    • Lothering
      • Lothering
      • Lothering Chantry
      • Dane's Refuge
  • Essentials
    • Basics
      • Key Terms
      • Experience and Leveling
      • Your Health
      • Race
      • Class
      • Skills, Talents, and Specializations
      • Items
      • Combat
      • The Map
      • The Codex
      • Making choices
    • Character Generation
      • Gender and Race
      • Class
      • Specializations
      • Appearance and Voice
      • Attributes
      • Origin Stories
    • The Classes
      • Levelling
      • Skills
      • The Warrior: Strengths
      • The Warrior: Attributes
      • The Warrior: Skills & Talents
      • The Warrior: Weapons
      • The Warrior: Talent Tables
      • The Warrior: Specializations
      • The Warrior: Character Builds
      • The Mage: Strengths
      • The Mage: Attributes
      • The Mage: Skills & Spells
      • The Mage: Schools & Gear
      • The Mage: Talent Tables
      • The Mage: Specializations
      • The Mage: Character Builds
      • The Rogue: Strengths
      • The Rogue: Attributes
      • The Rogue: Skills & Talents
      • The Rogue: Schools & Gear
      • The Rogue: Talent Tables
      • The Rogue: Specializations
      • The Rogue: Character Builds
    • The Party
      • Buddy Basics
      • Group Dynamics
      • Dealing with Threat
      • Healing
      • Combat Roles
      • Configurations and Engagement
      • Tactics
    • Companions
      • Understanding Companions
      • Alistair
      • Leliana
      • Morrigan
      • Oghren
      • Shale (DLC Only)
      • Wynne
      • Zevran
      • Dog
      • Loghain Mac Tir
      • Sten
    • Supporting Cast
      • NPCs
    • Traveler's Guide
      • Thedas
      • History
      • Ferelden Society
      • Life In Fereldan
      • Fereldan Timeline
      • People of Ferelden
      • Elsewhere
        • Geography
    • Equipment
      • Equipment Basics
      • Vendor Shopping
      • Weapons
      • Armor
      • Accessories
      • Rune Enchanting
      • Crafting
      • Usable Items
      • Gifts
      • Downloadable Content Items
    • Races
      • Elves
    • The Bestiary
      • The Monster Manual
    • Encounters
      • World Encounters
      • Plot Encounters
      • Random Encounters
  • Walkthrough
    • Walkthrough
      • Tour of Ferelden
      • Essential Locations
      • Dwarf Commoner Origin
      • Dwarf Noble Origin
      • City Elf Origin
      • Dalish Elf Origin
      • Mage Origin
      • Human Noble Origin
      • Ostagar
      • Lothering
      • Broken Circle
      • Arl of Redcliffe
      • Urn of Sacred Ashes
      • Paragon of Her Kind
      • Nature of the Beast
      • The Landsmeet
      • The Final Onslaught
      • Warden's Keep (DLC Only)
      • The Stone Prisoner (DLC only)
    • Side Quests
      • Blackstone Irregulars
      • Brecilian Forest
      • Chanter's Board
      • The Circle of Magi
      • Denerim
      • Favors for Certain Interested Parties
      • Korcari Wilds
      • The Mages' Collective
      • Orzammar
      • Ostagar
      • Party Camp
      • Redcliffe
      • Warden's Keep (DLC Only)
      • Wide Open World
    • Achievements and Trophies
      • PC Achievements
      • Console Achievements
  • DLC
    • Companions
      • Shale
    • Warden's Keep
      • Walkthrough
    • The Stone Prisoner
      • Walkthrough

Dragon Age: Origins Guide › Essentials › Basics

Skills, Talents, and Specializations

Besides attributes, your skills, talents or spells, and specializations define who you are and how effective you'll be in combat.

Each level you will get more powerful as you add points in these areas. For more specifics on skills, talents, and specializations, see the Classes section.

Skills

All three classes share the same skill tree, which includes the following: Coercion, Stealing, Trap-Making, Survival, Herbalism, Poison-Making, Combat Training, and Combat Tactics.

Whether you want to focus on persuading others, detecting enemies, crafting health potions, or learning combat tricks, among other things, you gain skill points every three levels (or one every two levels if you're a rogue) to explore the skill tree.

Because you will probably be able to fill out only two skills, put some serious thought into which ones you want to master.

Talents and Spells

Talents are specific to warriors and rogues; mages learn spells. They are the bread and butter abilities of your class, and you will rely on them more than anything else in combat.

You can't take everything, so choose talents/spells that fit into your play style. For example, a warrior can dual-wield weapons, fight with weapon and shield, rely on a two-handed weapon, or strike at range with bow and arrows.

All talents don't complement each other; choose a path and stick with it to unlock the better talents/spells at higher levels.

Talents require stamina to use, while spells cost mana. While stamina and mana do regenerate, leaving certain talents/spells activated will not allow a character to fully regenerate their stamina or mana.

This could prevent the character from using other talents/spells when starting a new encounter, so always keep an eye on your stamina/mana levels before and during a battle.

Specializations

You unlock your first specialization at level 7 and your second at level 14. Specialization gives special bonuses to your attributes and opens up a new chain of talents unique to the specialization.

They are very powerful abilities in the right situation. Specializations for a warrior include berserker, templar, champion, and reaver.

Mage specializations include spirit healer, shapeshifter, arcane warrior, and blood mage. Rogue specializations are ranger, bard, duelist, and assassin.

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