As part of the character creation process for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, players must select a class for their player-controlled Rook as well as a faction. After you’ve customized much of your Rook’s body, including things like the type and material of the Qunari horn, for example with the hundreds of options available in Veilguard, it’s time to choose that class.
There are three classes to choose from: Rogue, Mage and Warrior. As the names suggest, each game has a unique combat system and therefore plays differently. Although you perform things like light and heavy attacks with the same buttons, what those attacks do varies depending on your class. For example, a warrior with a sword and shield can hip-shoot or aim his shield to throw it like Captain America, while a mage can use that same button to perform magical ranged attacks – read more about Veilguard’s combat in Game informer exclusive feature here. Furthermore, the differences will only increase as you specify these classes and unlock their individual specializations.
- The villain has access to three specializations. The Duelist is the fastest of the three, with two blades for quick attacks; the Saboteur uses tricks and traps; and the Veil Ranger is purely ranged, shooting enemies from afar with a bow.
- The Magician can use necromancy with the Death Caller specialization; Evokers wield fire, ice, and lightning; and the Spellblade uses magic-infused melee attacks.
- The warrior can become a Reaper, using night blades to steal life and risk death to gain unnatural abilities; a Slayer, a simple but strong two-handed weapons expert; or the Champion, a tactical defense fighter.
While these specializations don’t matter up front – you learn about them through the skill trees as you progress through the game – it’s nice to see the potential of each class before you choose it.
For the penultimate step of the character creator, at least during the demo BioWare showed me, players select a faction. The Gray guards back, along with other returning favorites and new additions like the Antivan Crowsthe Mourning Lookthe Shadow Dragonswith pirate theme Lords of Fortunewhat I chose for the current one in my demo Game informant cover story, and the Veil sweaters.
Each faction has unique casual clothing, which is worn in specific cutscenes when the character is not wearing armor, and three unique traits. For example, the Lords of Fortune gain extra reputation with this specific faction, have increased damage versus mercenaries, and execute enemies with slightly less effort. Veilguard game director Corinne Busche says this faction selection, which ties into your character’s backstory, will determine who your Rook was before, how they met Varric, why they travel with Varric instead of their faction, and more.
“The message of The Veilguard is that you can’t save the world alone. You need your companions, but you also need these factions and other groups in the world,” says creative director John Epler. “You help them, they help you now.”
He says that BioWare wanted to avoid the trope of having to collect 200 random resources or objects before he could help you save the world. Instead, the team wanted to create factions that want to help you, but have realistic challenges and problems ahead of them, so that it makes narrative sense why you help them in return for their help when the time comes.
“As for gameplay – each of our classes has a specialization, and each of them is tied to a faction,” Epler continues. “But other than that, every faction has one [companion] like [people we’re calling agents, ancillarily] who exist as the faces of these factions. We didn’t want to just say, ‘Here are the Gray Wardens, go deal with them.’ We wanted characters within that faction who are sympathetic, who you can see and who can become the face of the faction, so that even if there are times when the faction as a whole is in trouble with you, these characters are still with you; they still have your back.”
If you wish to make changes to your character’s physical appearance, you can do so using the Mirror of Transformation, found in the main Veilguard hub, The Lighthouse. However, class, origin, and identity are fixed and cannot be changed once selected in the game’s character creator.
[Editor’s Note: This article previously stated players can change their physical appearance, class, lineage, and identity using the Mirror of Transformation. That is incorrect as class, lineage, and identity are locked after you first select those. The article has been updated to reflect that, and Game Informer apologizes for any confusion this mistake may have caused.]
For more information on the game, including exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below.