DragonAgeOrigins / Tropes A to E

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Affably Evil:
- The Sloth Demon in the "Broken Circle" quest is soft-spoken and polite.
"I made you happy and safe. I gave you peace. I did my best for you. And you say you want to leave? Can't you think about someone other than yourself? I'm hurt. So very, very hurt."
- Also true of the other Sloth Demon, seen only during the Mage Origin, who is too lazy to want to deal with the Mage Warden and spends most of the conversation idly snarking at them. It seems that this is one of their hats.
After-Combat Recovery: After combat, health and stamina/mana are quickly restored while fallen characters are automatically resurrected, with injuries that must be treated by either applying wound kits, retreating to the camp, or having a spirit healer in the party in order to remove associated status penalties. Certain pieces of equipment further increase the rate of recovery.
Alas, Poor Villain: Should you execute him, Loghain says goodbye to Anora and tells you that he trusts you to protect Ferelden in his place. Despite his flaws, he was loyal to his country above all else.
Alien Gender Confusion: The Qunari have a rather different set of social norms from the rest of the races. If the Warden is a female warrior, Qunari party member Sten will declare that despite appearances, she is a man, as women are not warriors in Qunari society.
All Girls Want Bad Boys:
- Morrigan, whose approval will rise when the Warden takes the selfish, individualistic, power-hungry option when presented with a choice of actions. In her romance arc, commanding dialogue options can sometimes lead to her responding with gleeful excitement.
  Warden: Get in the tent, woman.
  Morrigan: Oh? Am I to be interrogated? However shall you wring my secrets from me?
- Oghren lampshades this trope when training the PC to be a berserker — standing around looking mysteriously angry apparently does wonders on the ladies.
- Leliana can also basically say as much to Alistair.
  Alistair: Beyond the fact that he's an assassin who's tried to kill us more than once? No... no, not really. Do women go for that sort of thing?
  Leliana: Where I come from they do, oh yes.
  Alistair: Huh. Really? I see.
All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
- The next time you go to travel once you've assembled the entire party, your camp is attacked by Shrieks, with a bonus unpleasant surprise if you're a Dalish Elf. Curiously, if your party is missing a companion - for instance, you fail to recruit Sten in Lothering - this does not happen. Though it seems to count number of companions rather than "has all companions." With the Stone Prisoner DLC installed, adding an extra party member, you'll get this encounter whenever you hit eight companions, even though there's one still left to get.
- The Archdemon personally leads its darkspawn armies in a massive attack on Ferelden's capital city in the final mission.
Altar Diplomacy:
- A possible resolution to the Ferelden succession crisis subplot is to have your party member Alistair, the Heroic Bastard son of King Maric, marry Queen Anora, the daughter of Maric's army commander Loghain Mac Tir and widow of Alistair's half-brother King Cailan, who dies in battle early in the main plot. Fair warning, though: if you've been romancing Alistair as a female Player Character he'll break it off.^note
- Notes found in the Return to Ostagar DLC indicate that King Cailan was planning to divorce Anora in favor of a political marriage to the Empress of Orlais. This fed into Loghain mac Tir's Cavalry Betrayal of Cailan at Ostagar. (In the Backstory, Loghain and King Maric fought for years to eject Orlesian occupation forces from Ferelden.)
Amazon Brigade:
- The Silent Sisters are a dwarven order of female warriors who cut out their tongues in honor of their order's founder, who did the same when she fought for the right of women to join the warrior caste.
- A party consisting of a female Warden and three of the four potential female companions (Morrigan, Wynne, Leliana, Shale).
Ancient Keeper: The Guardian. You also have to face three trials to reach the Urn of Andraste he guards. Under normal circumstances, you don't need to fight him, but if you choose to destroy the ashes with dragon blood, he'll become irate and attack.
And I Must Scream:
- The Arcane Warrior trainer is the soul of an elf trapped inside a gemstone for untold millennia. At first, he thinks you're a hallucination, and when he realizes you aren't, bargains the knowledge of the specialization for allowing him to die.
- Given the Grand Oak's description, most Sylvans fit this as well. They're apparently demonic spirts trapped in tree-form, unable to see or speak.
- Shale spent 30 years frozen in place in a village subject to the whims of its inhabitants. Before that, it was inactive in an abandoned Thaig in the Deep Roads, in the pitch black, for over a thousand years and conscious every second. And then there were pigeons.
And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When you try to convince Carroll to let you across Lake Callenhad to the Circle Tower by saying you're a Grey Warden, he'll ask you to prove it. Show him the Grey Warden treaties, and he'll dismiss them by saying he has documents that say he's the Queen of Antiva. Pointing out that Queens are female (or that unlike his, your documents are real) doesn't move him.
And Then John Was a Zombie: Implied to be the eventual fate of Grey Wardens if they don't undergo ritual suicide. The Joining doesn't grant immunity to the taint as much as an extended lease on life while you take advantage of the abilities it gives you. After about thirty years at most, or only five to ten if you're really unlucky, you'll start to hear the same unearthly music in your dreams that compels darkspawn to dig up Old Gods and turn them into Archdemons. It's known as the Calling, and when Grey Wardens know their time is up, they celebrate their life before going down to the Deep Roads and killing as many darkspawn as they can before going down. If they don't do this, they'll end up attracting darkspawn like a beacon and wandering off to the Deep Roads or other darkspawn-infested lands anyway as they lose themselves to the taint.
And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- If your Warden is not a mage and you take the option to spare Connor, you'll take control of a mage (Morrigan or Wynne from the party, otherwise Jowan or Irving if they're still alive) to enter the fade and slay the demon.
- Late in the game, the Warden may be taken prisoner in Fort Drakon. You have a few options at the point, one of which is take control of two other party members to break the Warden out.
- During the climatic final battle, the party members you don't take to fight the Archdemon remain to hold the gate. You play that part too.
Angels, Devils and Squid: This is loosely the case with benevolent Fade spirits, demons, and Darkspawn, respectively. The Fade is a Void Between the Worlds, home to spirits both vaguely angelic and definitely demonic, which can be visited by mortal mages and in dreams. The Fade spirits were the first children of The Maker, but were abandoned due to their Creative Sterility. The benevolent spirits typically do not try to cross the "Veil" into the mortal realm, considering it a dismal place full of suffering and they pity mortals. However, they are known to comfort mortals who visit the Fade and a few have been known to actively help mortals, such as the spirit who saved Wynne's life and Justice. Demons are malevolent Fade spirits that embody sin/vice-like traits such as Rage, Desire, and Sloth. They'll take any opportunity to cross the Veil into the mortal world, partcularly by possessing mages and turning them into Abominations, where they attempt to spread their vice. Darkspawn, particularly the "Taint" that creates/powers them, are the Squid. When the mage lords of the old Tevinter Imperium invaded The Maker's "Golden City", he cursed them with the Taint and turned them into the first Darkspawn. They spread the Taint back in the mortal world and retreated underground, where they dug up The Old Gods and infected them as well, turning them into the Archdemons. According to the mage Avernus in the' Warden's Keep DLC, the Taint is something completely "alien" to even demons, allowing Grey Wardens (who are Tainted upon joining to fight Darkspawn but retain their humanity) some protection from them.
Animal Maul Attack: "Overwhelm" is a Talent learned by canine party member Dog, Shapeshifters with Master Shapeshift in their Bear and Spider forms, and Werewolves. When triggered, they will take the target to the ground (ignoring physical resistance) and viciously maul them for several seconds, dealing damage the entire time. It can be interrupted if the attacker is killed or stunned during the attack, and cannot be used against any target larger than a Qunari.
Animals Lack Attributes: The Mabari war hounds. Dog is a perfect example; you can interact with him and literally Pet the Dog to make him roll around on his back, but even though the game specifically states that he's male, it is not evident on his model.
Annoying Arrows:
- Zig-zagged when it comes to enemy archers. They tend to deal less damage than similarly leveled melee or magic attackers with their basic attacks and lower-level talents, but, given the way the game handles Level Scaling, they can suddenly dish out heavy, frustrating damage around the time they learn Scattershot (an irresistible area-effect stun that does strong damage), because until the leveling system teaches them an even higher-tier skill (none of which are nearly as disruptive), they will use it on you as much as possible in every fight.
- A properly built archer party member can consistently inflict incredible amounts of damage. With a powerful bow, Leliana, Nathaniel, or an archer Warden are reasonably capable of inflicting 25-50% more damage than even two-handed fighters with late-game weapons stacked with enchantments, and this is without the bonus of special arrows.
The Anticipator: When the party of new Grey Warden initiates comes to her house to retrieve some Binding Ancient Treaties, the hermit witch Flemeth mentions that "she's been expecting them." Alistair (the junior Warden accompanying you) will try and call her on it, however.
Alistair: Are we really supposed to believe you were expecting us?
Anti-Escapism Aesop: In the Circle Tower, you come across a Templar in the thrall of a desire demon which has created an illusion of a loving wife and happy family, while he actually stands in a tower full of corpses after all his companions were slaughtered. The demon argues that he is much happier this way, yet you can try to break the dream, because 'it's not real'. Whether the Templar would have preferred the dream to reality if he knew the truth is never shown, since if you try to snap him out of it, the demon uses the illusion to make him attack you and you are forced to kill him.
Anti-Grinding: To the extreme. Enemies don't respawn, experience scales upwards so lower-level enemies offer insignificant XP, enemies scale with you, and the level cap is at 25 (30 with DLC) so you can't grossly over level anyway, random encounters technically aren't random, etc. Essentially, all of the classic anti-grinding mechanisms are present in one way or another.
Anti-Wastage Features:
- If you try to hit the "quick heal" button to use a healing poultice while at full health, you'll get a "clunk" sound and the poultice will not be wasted.
- If you try to give a character a plot gift that is obviously specific to someone else (for example, trying to give an item called "Alistair's mother's amulet" to Morrigan.), each character will refuse the gift with their own in-character snarky comment.
Apocalyptic Log:
- Hespith's ominous Madness Mantra starting with "First day they come and catch everyone..." is account of Branka's party's slow demise in the Deep Roads.
- You don't actually get to read it, but "The Last Request" begins with finding a journal on a dead Templar, detailing his investigation of blood mages hidden in the city. The titular request is what he makes in his last entry, once he realizes they've spotted him.
- You encounter two sets of them in the Golems of Amgarrak DLC. One of them is written by the leader of the expedition that you came to find, the other by the original inhabitants.
Arbitrary Headcount Limit:
- For most of the game, no matter how many companions you recruit overall, only three are permitted in your party at a time. For certain events, one or two of those companions will be chosen for you.
- Averted in two instances - once during a scripted battle in camp where all recruited companions join in, then again dur the first part of the final battle sequence... but then promptly reinstated from there on out. It's a little less arbitrary then, though, since the party members that you don't take with you for the finale defend Denerim's gates from the darkspawn.
Arbitrary Weapon Range: By default, ranged weapon users will be "interrupted" if hit by a melee attack during their attack. Taking the low-level "Melee Archer" Talent prevents this, meaning you can fire at point-blank range while being attacked if you desire.
Arc Words: Alistair intones at The Joining, "And should you perish, know that your sacrifice will not be forgotten... and that one day, we shall join you." He repeats that line in narration should he sacrifice himself to prevent a female romanced Warden from dying by killing the Archdemon.
Aristocrats Are Evil: Practically a theme, to note:
- Despite pretenses of tradition and honor, the Dwarven nobility is a Decadent Court waiting to stab you in the back while treating the lower castes and casteless as less than dirt. This happens outright in the Dwarf Noble origin and you'll need to side with one of two morally gray contenders for king in the Orzammar chapter. It's really hard to feel "good" about any of the possible outcomes.
- In ancient times, the Magisters of the Tevinter Imperium tried to kill the Maker and take His Golden City for themselves. They failed and became the first darkspawn as a result. When the game takes place, Tevinter is a Vestigial Empire, but its Magisters are still ruthless blood mages, as can be seen in the Elven Alienage portion of the game.
- As alluded to in conversations with Leliana and the prequel novels, Orlais has a Decadent Court. Although it is well-known that half the bards and minstrels in Orlais are spies and assassins, Orlesian nobles still welcome them since outwitting a rival's agent is part of the game aristocrats play and their music and stories make the game much more enjoyable.
Armour-Piercing Question: This conversation between an Elf Warden and a Chantry Priest at Ostagar:
Elf Warden: You administer blessings to Elves?
Priestess: Of course. The Maker accepts all those who would hear Him.
Elf Warden: And does he steal the homeland of those who don't?
Arranged Marriage:
- The City Elf origin includes one. In ends with murder, rape, and the main character joining the Gray Wardens.
- Arl Howe appears to be setting one up between the Human Noble and one of his children (which child depending on the sex of the Warden). The conversation is just to conceal his motives, however, as he intends for you and your entire family to die that very night.
- A male Dwarf Noble can meet a would-be fiancée on his return to Orzammar. Or a Gold Digger he knocked up in the origin, depending on your interpretation.
- The Warden can set one up for Anora and Alistair as a solution to the Succession Crisis at the end of the game, among other choices. Neither is crazy about it, though it goes better for both if Alistair has been "hardened".
Arrows on Fire:
- Coupled with Rain of Arrows during the Battle of Ostagar.
- Fire Arrows and Bolts are speciality projectiles that can be used by a bow/crossbow equipped character. They're imbued with magic to deal extra damage and can be found in other flavors of the Elemental Powers such as Ice and Filth (Nature).
Artificial Stupidity:
- It is very easy to "kite" enemies into harmlessly chasing after one character while your other party members pick them apart.
- Sometimes your allies will just stand around in the middle of a battle, not doing anything as whatever large Eldritch Abomination you're fighting pulls your anus out through your nose. This can be mitigated somewhat by manually adjusting their tactics, but it can still happen.
- Your allies don't pay much attention to traps or environmental hazards like the ground being on fire, rushing headlong through them toward enemies.
- Your allies will lauch their (often powerful) Herd-Hitting Attack AoE spells without regard to Friendly Fire. At times, your own mages can decimate your party worse than the enemies.
- Even the best Tactics settings can fall victim to the Video Game Delegation Penalty. Your allies will sometimes inexplicably fail to do what you've told you, even if the criteria is met to trigger the action. More than a few controllers have been tossed when a mage, in range and with enough mana to do so, fails to use the Heal spell on an ally who has fallen below the health threshold needed to trigger it. If you really need a certain action taken, it's best to switch control to that character and do it yourself.
- If recruited to help defend Redcliffe, Lloyd will charge headfirst into the undead horde armed with a simple dagger and no armor. This is all the more egregious when all the other well-armed defenders play more defensively and Lloyd is a self-proclaimed coward. Also, if you brought oil to ser Perth during the preparation of the battle, the knights, Dwyne, and the mercenaries (and your own party members) won't attempt to avoid walking in the firewall of burning oil if they fight in melee range, which indiscriminately damages (and can kill) both allies and hostile characters.
Artistic License – Medicine: Characters use health poultices by drinking them. (A poultice is supposed to be applied directly to an injury, not entirely unlike a heating pad.) This is turned into a Mythology Gag in Dragon Age: Inquisition, where Iron Bull complains about the taste of his subordinate's healing potions only for said subordinate to respond that "it's a poultice, you're not supposed to drink it."
Ascended Meme:
- For a long time, the Bioware store had two Origins t-shirts for sale: "Morrigan disapproves" and "Enchantment!"
- In the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC, which is the Battle of Denerim from the point of view of the darkspawn, the final battle is against Alistair and his remaining three companions (Morrigan, Leliana, and the Mabari Hound), as they attack the Archdemon. The dog, which has no canon name (the devs wanted to make it clear that the dog has whatever name you choose to give to him), in this alternate reality is called Barkspawn.
Aside Glance:
- Post-coronation, the ruler of Ferelden (Anora or Alistair) speaks a few words to the Grey Warden; but before they're done, they're addressing the camera directly.
- Weylon appears to do this more and more as he becomes agitated with the Warden's questioning.
- When Leliana convinces the Revered Mother to let Sten go, she all but glares at the player.
  Leliana: Thank you, Your Reverence. Your trust is not misplaced... *Aside Glance*
Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
- The Elven clans are led by a Keeper, the person in the clan who knows the most of the 'Old Ways' (i.e. magic), making them extremely powerful combatants. The level of respect that other elves (even City Elves) have for Dalish Keepers is shown more clearly in Dragon Age II.
- Typified by demonkind, which are led by the strongest when they work together.
- Also by the darkspawn; the strongest and most powerful fighters and mages in the horde's ranks command the rest, while they in turn are directed by the will of the Archdemon.
Attempted Rape: Happens to the female guests at the City Elf's wedding. Shianni, the City Elf PC's cousin, isn't as lucky in the "attempted" part... It also happens to a female City Elf, which doesn't end well for the rapists.
Awakening the Sleeping Giant: The events of the City Elf Origin see the local lord's son break up the City Elf Warden's wedding, kidnapping and attempting to rape the female guests, who break out/are broken out, with the situation eventually causing the entire Alienage to riot.
Valendrian: "We are not all so helpless, Captain."
Awesome, but Impractical:
- Almost every AoE attack has Friendly Fire^note. There are no tactical conditions under which you can ever trust companions' AI to use AoE spells or bombs, and the few situations you can lay an AoE trap without your companions stumbling in are still very tricky to set up. One reason that the Blood Mage's "Blood Wound" is so overpowered is its lack of Friendly Fire. This also holds true for several high-level Rogue/Archer attacks which can hit multiple opponents but not your companions.
- The spell combination Storm of the Century is this trope in spades. In order to pull this off, you must cast two of the longest casting time spells a mage can know, Blizzard and Tempest, while Spell Might is active. Good luck getting them both off without interruption since every foe on the map immediately knows where the caster is. If you do pull it off, it does a very impressive amount of damage - which also suffers from the Friendly Fire issue, and you'll spend more mana than a muscle car spends gas. Of course, exploiting the game's Artificial Stupidity can help make it less impractical, and the targeting issue is a lot less pronounced when using mouse-and-keyboard controls on the PC.
- Unlocking some specializations falls into this, unless you reload a save. The Blood Mage specialization for mage's for example is unique and interesting to play, but it requires dooming a child to a demon, which will naturally cause a bunch of party members to disapprove. Similarly, getting the Reaver specalization for warrior requires tainting the Urn of Sacred Ashes, which not only causes massive drops in several characters approval meters, but Wynne and Leliana will turn on you for it. While you can always make said choices and then reload to keep them due to a bug, for those who don't are likely to never try getting them because the costs of unlocking them feel a bit impractical.
Awesome Moment of Crowning: The player's monarch of choice gets one. albeit without an actual crown. The PC also gets one later, if Alistair or Anora were persuaded to marry them; it's not shown, however.
- Whoever you pick to be king in Orzammar gets one as well, and it's really much more awesome than the human one.
Awful Truth:
- Just about everything regarding the Grey Wardens. Becoming one means undergoing "the Joining". While many outside of the order have heard of it, few know what it involves taking in the Taint by drinking Darkspawn blood with a drop of Archdemon blood as well and may outright kill the prospective warden. Even those who survive will succumb anyway in thirty or-so years (if they aren't killed by the dangerous lifestyle in between). There is also the reason Grey Wardens are needed to slay the Archdemon - its soul will jump to another Darkspawn if a non-warden kills it, so a warden must deliver the final blow where its soul will enter the warden, killing them both.
- Numerous details about the Darkspawn are just plain disturbing, as learned when pursuing Branka's party in the Deep Roads. They take females alive, infect them with the Taint, and force feed them their male companions until they become "Broodmothers", birthing other Darkspawn. Then comes the Awakening DLC where you learn that the Architect started the Fifth Blight.

Baby Factory: Broodmothers are women captured by the Darkspawn, infected by the Taint, forced to cannibalize their own kind, who then become bloated monstrosities who birth other Darkspawn en masse.
Backing Away Slowly: This is one of the player's options after finding Sten and the dog barking at each other during a camp interaction.
Back Stab: Rogue melee attacks from behind are back stabs, dealing more damage that attacks from the front. Numerous Rogue talents increase their effectiveness at this, to the point where they can become the highest damage dealers in the game.
Badass Army:
- The Grey Wardens of the past. In Ferelden, they've never numbered past a few dozen, yet in an instance of averting their Impartial Purpose-Driven Faction nature, nearly helped overthrow the despotic King Arland who had an army of thousands. (Ultimately leading to their ban from Ferelden and their greatly diminished numbers at the start of the game.) The Warden's Keep DLC mentions that when Arland's forces besieged the Warden HQ Soldier's Peak, the Wardens held out for months before the fortress was even breached - and when it finally was, the half-starved Wardens still made them pay for every single metre taken. It is worth noting that only the best and most hardened badasses can be recruited into the Grey Wardens; anyone else wouldn't have a chance of surviving the Joining, which is said to be the reason why the Wardens are so formidable. While the Joining grants the Wardens their supernatural powers, those powers are immunity to the taint and the ability to sense Darkspawn. All of their fighting prowess is their own.
- The Dwarven Legion of the Dead takes the fight to the Darkspawn directly in the Deep Roads. Those from any caste of Dwarf (even the casteless) are welcome. They hold a funeral for the person joining and are known even to surfacers for their prowess. They and the Grey Wardens naturally have a strong mutual respect.
- The Gondor Calls for Aid-style army the Warden assembles by the end of the game manages to qualify as this despite also being a mishmashed Ragtag Bunch of Misfits. Since most of the Ferelden army was destroyed at Ostagar and in the ensuing Civil War, the Warden needs to dig deep, pulling together the Knights of Redcliffe, the Circle Mages/Templars, Dalish Elves/Werewolves, and the Dwarves/Golems (depending on player choices). At one point before the final battle, it's mentioned that an army so grand hasn't been seen in centuries, and they successfully end the Blight in the shortest time on record.
Badass Boast: The Warden has a really nice one if you choose to drive out the leader of the Crimson Oars.
Warden: Hundreds have died in my wake. You're just a number to me.
Crimson Oars Leader: I, um... We... We were just leaving. Yes, Oars, we go to the docks!
Badass Creed:
- The Grey Wardens: "In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice."
- The Dalish Elves: "We are the Dalish: keepers of the lost lore, walkers of the lonely path. We are the last of the Elvhenan, and never again shall we submit."
Bad Boss: One of the Vanguard's talents in the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC is "Execute Thrall," thralls being any darkspawn directly under your command. Supposedly it's for thralls who disappoint you and mechanically for making room in your party for other thralls, but there are no repercussions for doing it completely on a whim.
Bad Future: The Darkspawn Chronicles DLC lets you re-enact the battle of Denerim from the point of view of a Darkspawn Vanguard (a sort of general-like figure), in an Alternate Universe where the player's Grey Warden did not survive their Joining, and it was left to Alistair to follow the quests the player had completed. Alistair almost manages to kill the Archdemon before being brutally slaughtered by the Vanguard.
The Bad Guys Are Cops: The Denerim guard suffers this problem according to Sergeant Kylon; after Arl Howe became the new Arl of Denerim, he decided to put his own handpicked men into the guard. Kylon also complains that since most of the guard consists of the illegitimate children of various lords, half of his job is dealing with their stupidity, and the rest of the time being forced to explain to their noble fathers that being a guard is actually dangerous.
Sergeant Kylon: I swear the Arl's men are more criminal than the miscreants we occasionally arrest; some of them are the criminals we have to arrest!
The Bad Guy Wins:
- The entire point of the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC. It's set in an Alternate Universe where the player's Grey Warden did not survive their Joining, and it was left to Alistair to follow the quests the player had completed. Alistair almost manages to kill the Archdemon before being brutally slaughtered by the Vanguard.
- In the Warden's Keep DLC, it's revealed that King Arland was such a despised tyrant, even the politically neutral Grey Wardens agreed to take part in a coup to remove him from power. Arland put down the Rebellion (but not before a few dozen wardens held-out in a months-long siege and still took down many times their number) and banished the Order from Ferelden for the next two centuries.
Bag of Sharing:
- Whenever the Warden is not in the party (sending a mage into the Fade to save Conner, breaking the Warden out of Fort Drakon, the rest of the party holding the front gate during the Final Battle, etc.), the party will still have access to everything in the inventory.
- Once you unlock a Specialization (through having a teammate teach you, by buying certain tomes, etc.), any appropriately classed character can take that specialization once they get an unlock point at level 7 or 14. Yes, that includes, for example, a Warrior who never went near Andraste's ashes with evil intentions learning the Reaver Skill Tree. Furthermore, this is not limited to a single playthrough - once you have unlocked the specializations, they remain unlocked for all playthroughs. You can even save the game, unlock the specialization, then reload your saved game and the specialization remains unlocked.
Bag of Spilling: When freeing Arl Eamon's son, Conner, from the demon by going into the Fade, you are unable to use Fade Shapeshifting, which you were able to use in another visit to the Fade that could be completed previously. Justified if the PC is anything other than a mage, however, since the Fade Shapeshifting was only available to the Warden.
Bare Hands Barely Hurt: If a character lacks a weapon, they'll be relegated to weak looking punches that do almost no damage to enemies.
Battle Cry:
- Each party member has lines they will shout at the start of combat.
- The Champion specialization has the War Cry ability, which buffs buff to others in your party and can even knock enemies over if they fail a skill check.
Battle in the Rain: The Battle of Ostagar takes place in a rainstorm, perhaps the first clue that it isn't going to go well...
Bears Are Bad News:
- Bears in the game come in two flavors: black bears and great bears. Despite there being nothing supernatural about them, bears are some of the toughest enemies in the game. This is to your advantage if you play as a rogue and get the Ranger specialization, as you'll be able to summon first a black bear and eventually a great bear. Oh, the joys of slaughtering mooks with a bear at your side.
- There is an even tougher, Blight-infected variant called a Bereskarn. It has spikes.
The Beastmaster: The Ranger specialization for Rogues allows them to summon an animal companion, going from a wolf to a bear to a Giant Spider, with the final skill in the tree upgrading them to "Great" version. They can't be controlled directly and are despawned when transitioning through different areas, but will run along with the party and fight at your side.
Becoming the Mask: If you romance Morrigan, then when she proposes her ritual to defeat the Archdemon, you can ask her if this is the reason for the relationship. Tearfully, she says her feelings for you weren't part of the plan, and that even after she leaves, she will never forget your time together.
Bee-Bee Gun: If playing a mage, you can either cast a spell in this vein or become a swarm of insects via Shapeshifting, both of which hit like a truck.
Beef Gate: The game puts these in place to dissuade players from entering areas where Level Scaling is set to higher tiers. For example, there is a group of tough bounty hunters who attack when you first enter the Frostback Mountains, discouraging players from continuing to high-level Orzammar. However, these gates aren't insurmountable (a well-built party spamming exploits, even underleveled, can still get past), so many players carried on into steepening difficulty without being aware they were supposed to change course for an easier area first. For players who later complained about the difficulty, the developers released a list of areas by gradually increasing difficulty.
Bee People: Darkspawn are believed to be mindless beasts who heed the call of the Archdemons, spending their time outside of Blights digging to uncover the Old Gods and turn them into new Archdemons. The Orzammar chapter (and even moreso in Awakening) reveal that Darkspawn are birthed en masse by Broodmothers, giving them a "queen bee" aspect as well.
Behavioral Transformation First: Discussed; Zathrian explains that people suffering the werewolf curse experience enhanced aggression and violent temper-tantrums long before they undergo the actual transformation.
Benevolent Dictator: Should the Player Character settle the dwarven Succession Crisis in favor of Prince Bhelen, his first move is to order The Purge of his rival Lord Harrowmont's entire family. His second move, however, is to abolish the dwarves' Fantastic Caste System and begin implementing significant reforms, whereas if Harrowmont wins, his moves to appeal to the conservatives and nobles end up furthering the dwarves' decline.
The Berserker: A warrior specialization focused on damage output. Oghren starts out as one and will teach you with enough approval.
Berserk Button:
- Don't ever speak unkindly of Duncan or the Grey Wardens around Alistair. He has such a high opinion of the order that he considers turning Loghain into a Warden a great insult, and will abandon you should you go through with it.
- Sten is very protective about his sword due to how tied it is to his role in the Qun. He straight up murdered a family of farmers in a blind rage after he lost it. During your quest to retrieve it, he will threaten anyone he believes to have it.
- Swiftrunner stops just short of physically attacking the Warden should you choose to get flippant with the Lady of the Forest.
Betrayal by Inaction: The Battle of Ostagar is planned to have King Cailan and the bulk of the army, including a vanguard of Grey Wardens, lure the darkspawn horde into a narrow chasm; at that point his general (and father-in-law), Teyrn Loghain, would attack with a second army from the back, trapping the darkspawn between them. However, when the signal comes, Loghain simply orders a retreat and returns with his men to the capital, leaving the king, his army, and every Grey Warden with them to die at the hands of the darkspawn. He takes up as regent for his daughter, the Queen, and attempts to scapegoat the Grey Wardens for Cailan's death while planning to defeat the Darkspawn with standard military action (unaware of why Grey Wardens are needed to stop a blight)...
Betty and Veronica:
- Zevran is a ruthless assassin and prolific lover with very high "body counts" in both senses of the term. Alistair, meanwhile, is a heroic, sweet, and upstanding lover boy who's a virgin until you romance him.
- Sweet, hopeless romantic church girl Leliana contrasts with the sultry, pragmatic, and sometimes cold Morrigan. However, they undergo a Betty and Veronica Switch. Leliana was once a "bard" (a court spy and assassin) and ended up at the Chantry because she was being hunted for treason (though she was framed for that particular crime). Morrigan, meanwhile, has led a completely sheltered existence and her Social Darwinist views are just her parroting what she's been taught by Flemeth since birth.
Bewitched Amphibians: Mages have a reputation for this; it's unclear whether there's any truth to it, though, since we never see it happen.
Alistair: I'd be careful. First it's "I like you," but then Zap! Frog time.
BFS: Any and all great swords. They are about the length of an average human (which somehow doesn't prevent dwarves from carrying them). They deal more damage that standard one-handed swords but prevent the wielder from using a shield.
Big Bad Ensemble:
- The Archdemon and Loghain, despite also being opposed. The Archdemon is the impetus behind the Blight and is leading the Darkspawn to take over Ferelden. Loghain betrays the king, usurps leadership, and plans to stop the Darkspawn threat with standard military action while outlawing/scapgoating the Grey Wardens (unaware of their necessity in stopping a Blight).
- Each "chapter" has Arc Villains driving the conflict in that particular area not directly related to the overall conflict (like Uldred in the Circle Tower, and whoever you choose not to support in the Orzammar/Brecelian Forest arcs).
Big Eater: All Grey Wardens become one after their Joining, per Alistair from his own experience as well as what other wardens told him.
Binding Ancient Treaty: Retrieving a set of these from an old Grey Warden cache is part of the Ostagar questline at the start of the game. They pledge support from the Circle Mages, Dalish Elves, and Dwarves of Orzammar during a Blight and traveling to those places to get that support is part of the overall main quest. However, none of those groups are in any condition to send help right away, requiring that you solve their problems (and possibly get replacements for those groups in the process depending on how you do it). In the end, given the help you've provided, most of them would have sent their support out of gratitute, regardless of the treaties.
Bishie Sparkle: The Bard abilities bathe the user in sparkles when activated.
Bishōnen Line: Abominations. The weakest ones, Rage and Hunger Abominations, are just monstrous mooks who can't even use magic. The Sloth Abomination looks like them, but it can actually speak coherently and is powerful enough to put your entire party to sleep, sending you to the Fade. One Desire Abomination, Connor, still looks mostly human, except for the sunken eyes. Don't be fooled - it's powerful enough to summon enough demons into corpses to start a mini Zombie Apocalypse, and can even Mind Control people. Uldred, a Pride Abomination, looks completely human, is able to transform other mages into Abominations using Blood Magic, and his One-Winged Angel form is one of the toughest bosses in the game.
Bittersweet Ending:
- Although the Archdemon is always slain by the end of the game, it inevitably comes at a price. One of the Warden or Alistair must sacrifice themselves to defeat it. Loghain can be spared and recrutied to the Grey Wardens to sacrifice himself instead, but doing so causes Alistair to leave the party. The Take a Third Option option means having one of the male wardens impregnant Morrigan, who will then get a baby with the soul of an Old God out of it, and she will leave the party once done.
- The ending can also wreak havoc on various romance options. The Warden choosing to sacrifice themself means they leave behind anyone they romanced. The same goes for a sacrificed Alistair if the Warden was romancing him. Choosing to make Alistair king allows only a the female Noble Human Warden to become Queen, while the others have to settle for being a mistress. Having him marry Anora leaves all female Wardens as a mistress-at-best. A romanced Morrigan will leave, either before the final fight if you refuse to perform the "dark ritual", or after if you go ahead with it. The Witch Hunt DLC does allow you to re-unite with her, at least.
- There doesn't seem to be any way to get a very good ending for Orzammar, as none of the choices you can make seem to bring a very positive outcome for them. If you make Harrowmont king, he isolates Orzammar from the surface and tightens the oppressive caste system because the nobles give him so much trouble, and ultimately dies from being poisoned by one of them. But if you make Bhelen king, he gives the casteless rights and takes back several thaigs, at the cost of turning Orzammar into a dictatorship. He also sends assassins to hunt down and kill Harrowmont's surviving kin just because Harrowmont dared to oppose him - by the time of the sequel, Harrowmont's entire extended family has been decimated down to one nephew because of Bhelen. If you decided to preserve the Anvil of the Void, it results in an additionally very, very negative ending for the dwarves, no matter whom you choose to make king. And if you decide to complete Brother Burkel's quest and open a Chantry in Orzammar, it too brings a really terrible end. On the other hand, refusing to do so and bringing Dagna to the Mage Tower will lead, through a series of events, to the Chantry contemplating an Exalted March against Orzammar. And that's bad. Fortunately in that latter case, the events of Dragon Age II cut any efforts at organizing an Exalted March short, since the Chantry now has bigger problems. It is actually possible to get a not-totally-negative ending for Orzammar, but only under very specific circumstances, and the choices required are such a case of Guide Dang It! that when you learn what you need to do, it'll make your head spin.
Black-and-Gray Morality: Unlike almost every other Bioware RPG, this one has no Karma Meter. Individual characters will like or dislike you based on their personalities and beliefs, but the game itself does not judge your actions. You can choose some actions of extremely questionable morality, and some of the moral quandaries you must face are rather complex.
Black Blood:
- While several characters will comment on how black the tainted blood of the darkspawn is, the battle effects are always red, averting it.
- When speaking to Carroll at the docks of Lake Calenhad, he tries to get you to prove you are a Grey Warden by, among other things, asking if it's true that darkspawn blood is black. You have the option to tell him that "It's not black, but it burns when it touches you." What makes this rather strange is the fact that the novel The Calling describes darkspawn blood repeatedly as "black ichor".
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The women of the party. Wynne has white hair; Morrigan's is black; Leliana is a redhead. Played even more straight if the Warden is female and blonde.
Blood Magic:
- A Dangerous Forbidden Technique form of magic learned by mortal mages from demons. It typically involves Cast from Hit Points spells that hit harder than the standard variety, as well as what would usually be classed as types of necromancy. Blood Mages are universally reviled (even by other mages) due to both the raw power involved and the unstable relationship with demons. Still, it is a specialization that can be unlocked by the player (and taught to other mage party members).
- Warriors get the Reaver specialization, implied to be from drinking dragon's blood, which allows them to draw strength from the dead and get more powerful as they take more damage.
- The "Joining" to become a Grey Warden involves drinking a cocktail of lyrium, darkspawn blood, and Archdemon blood in order to gain their immunity to the Taint and sense darkspawn. Many don't survive it and those who do have drastically shortened lifespans as a result.
- In the Warden's Keep DLC, the Blood Mage Grey Warden Avernus has figured out how to weaponize the darkspawn taint. One manifestation of this is the ability to spew blood like a fire hose at your foes, having roughly the same effect as turning a fire hose would on most humans: putting them squarely on their asses.
Bloody Murder:
- Darkspawn can spread the Taint via their blood. Part of what makes the Grey Wardens special is that taking in darkspawn blood as part of the Joining ritual gives them an immunity to it.
- Blood Magic for mages and the Reaver specialization for warriors enable the use of enhanced power thanks to power in the blood.
- The Warden can learn the Power of the Blood talents in the Warden's Keep DLC, essentially the weaponization of the Taint within their blood.
Bloodier and Gorier: This is possibly the first mainstream game to feature persistent blood splatter on character models; it's certainly very visceral compared to other BioWare RPGs. You're going to see quite a bit of it flying through the air, too, more so if you took a skill which involves weaponizing blood.
Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Entirely possible for a female City Elf Origin; in fact, official art includes Kallian Tabris rocking one and looking murderous.
Body Horror:
- Abominations are mages possessed by demons. They become twisted, vaguely humanoid monstrosities as a result.
- Broodmothers are tainted women forced to cannibalize by the darkspawn who bloat to massive size and grow tentacles. They then give birth to more darkspawn like a queen bee.
- In the Golems of Amgarrak DLC, the Harvester is a flesh golem made from the corpses of multiple casteless dwarves. It grows more powerful by brutally murdering people and adding their flesh to its own.
Boisterous Bruiser:
- Alistair reminisces about a Grey Warden named Gregor. Besides being a Shout-Out to "the Mountain" from A Song of Ice and Fire, he is "the biggest man you ever saw" with a "beard worthy of a Dwarf". Gregor could reportedly drink any other Grey Warden under the table, and make Duncan crack up laughing when he outdrinks everyone else in a bet where he had a 2:1 drinking disadvantage.
- Oghren is a downplayed example. A Dwarven berserker and renowned member of the Warrior caste, he looks at the horrors of facing darkspawn with sporting glee. He's not especially boisterous when it comes to fighting, but is perhaps the biggest drinker in the series, isn't shy about sharing his prowess in this regard, and in Awakening, even seems disappointed by the Joining concoction (both in strength and volume), being the only new Warden who doesn't pass out after drinking it.
Bonus Feature Failure: The game allows you to import your Warden from the original campaign as the player character of Awakening. However, the unique items added by several of the other DLCs will not be transferred. This unfortunately includes the two variants of Starfang, the best longsword/greatsword of the original campaign, from the Warden's Keep DLC.
Bookends: Concluding a Dalish Elf Warden's career with the Witch Hunt DLC results in the character's story beginning and ending with an Eluvian.
Boomerang Bigot: There is one mage in the Circle who begs the Maker's forgiveness just for existing. She wants the Templars to kill all mages, as it's the only thing they deserve. To her, being a mage is a punishment, after all.
Boring, but Practical:
- A Two-Handed warrior who has learned the passive talent Stunning Blows can essentially stun-lock most opponents, including some bosses and even the Superboss Gaxkang, leading to slow and dull but effective defeats. Having two in the party (a warrior Warden, Sten, Oghren) further increases the effectiveness.
- "Kiting" opponents can seriously reduce the difficulty of many battles where the enemy has a large number of archers or mages. Have your party "hold position" away from the enemies, send in one party member to draw aggro, and then retreat back toward the rest of the party while having all of the enemies follow you out. This can even be used to defeat Ser Cauthrien, an "Elite Boss" who is for all intents and purposes supposed to be a Hopeless Boss Fight.
Bows and Errors:
- In the Dalish origin, Mahariel and Tamlen have their bows drawn against some humans and hold an entire conversation with them like that.
- All archer character carry their arrow quiver on their back, which is highly impractical in real life.
Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: During the Dwarf Commoner origin, if you choose to take a bribe, your companion complains that Beraht will "... kill you, he'll kill me... he'll make you kill me then kill yourself!"
Breast Plate:
- "Massive" plate armor has no difference between male and female models except in shoulder width, thoroughly averting this trope.
- Medium and heavy armor, which is made of different kind of mails (splint, scale, chain) justifies it, as the material is supposed to be flexible and could very well be form fitting without sacrificing protective qualities, and they don't show any cleavage whatsoever.
- Light armor shows plenty of cleavage and plays this trope straight, especially the Dalish armor. It's made of deerskin, bares the wearer's midriff, and offers more protection and flexibility than a full suit of leather armor.
Bribing Your Way to Victory:
- The DLCs offer many items and abilities that are head-and-shoulders above all but the most elite gear from the base game, and some of it is available from the very start of the campaign. Examples include one of the strongest massive armors in the game (which is also surprisingly cheap), a very effective mage-only nuke that is Cast from Hit Points requiring a mere 20 hit points and no mana, and the best sword in the game, Starfang, which requires only a random encounter (that can happen very early) and completing the Warden's Keep DLC, which can be done right away if desired. Whatever you can't/don't want to use can be sold, giving you a massive amount of money to buy anything else you could need early on.
- There's a fast, easy, totally valid, and seriously game breaking in-game way to buy level-ups for gold. For every main quest you finish, an envoy of the respective species sets up shop in the party camp. Next to them is a stack of chests where the Warden can donate certain items, and every transaction gives a decent amount of experience points. The elves want alchemy components, something the merchant in their own forest camp sells dirt-cheap in infinite amounts. Purchase a hundred or so full stacks of the stuff (costs ~15 sovereigns), donate them at the chest, and enjoy playing through the remaining game with your max-level hero party. It becomes especially game breaking in combination with the Reaper's Cudgel (a reward from the Golems of Amgarrak DLC), because its insanely high sale value enables this trick from the moment you first encounter any merchant.
Bring My Brown Pants: Invoked early in the game:
Player: What if the archdemon appears?
Alistair: We soil our drawers, that's what.
Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: While anyone of sufficient ability could slay an Archdemon, Grey Wardens are required to actually kill it as they absorb its soul when it dies... which also kills the warden in the process. One of your Grey Warden party members will need to sacrifice themselves at the end of the game... or Take a Third Option and impregnant Morrigan via the Dark Ritual instead.
Bullying a Dragon:
- Various groups are constantly attacking the Warden and their party of trained killers for various reasons. It is lampshaded repeatedly, such as by Sgt. Kylon in Denerim:
  (To the Warden): And people attack you voluntarily?
- You can see it as early as your first visit to Lothering, where you can easily intimidate an entire bandit gang to run away by just mentioning that you're Grey Wardens. Their leader tries to be cocky even after that, but his slow-sounding henchman's constant reiterations about how he heard that the Grey Wardens are "really, really good [at fighting]" take the wind out of his sails really quickly. You can even demand a donation from them to the Wardens. (You can demand too much, refuse to do anything but kill them, or decide to turn in any survivors to the Templars, at which point they figure they might as well fight to the death anyway.) Alternatively, if you've chosen the mage class, you can inform them of this fact. The dull henchman's reaction this time? "I-I don't want to be a toad!"
Burn the Orphanage: The "Something Wicked" quest involves quelling spirits/demons from a burned-down orphanage with a blind (but still capable) Templar.
But Thou Must!:
- You can try to say no to becoming a Grey Warden, but you'll be conscripted regardless. The game lets you rail against this with your dialogue choices, but it still happens.
- Uldred gives you a choice: death, or be willing host to a demon. With the power you've displayed, you would be, in his words, unstoppable. While most players obviously wouldn't choose the option that turns them into nightmarish demon-hybrids, the three replies available are paraphrased as follows: "Never!", "No", and "I'm all right, thank you", meaning you don't even get the option to accept.
- While you can play as an Anti-Hero bordering on Sociopathic Hero as you go about it, you have to stop the Blight, and complete a number of other typical RPG quests to do so — even if it's not something the type of character you want to play would be particularly interested in doing. Of course, no matter how evil you play your character, the whole "genocide" aspect of the darkspawn's plan is rather negative towards them.
- A few quests avert this rather surprisingly, most notably defending Redcliffe village against the undead. You can forgo helping them and allow the village to be all-but wiped out.

Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Aside from "King" and "Queen", the titles of nobility in the game are given a Phantasy Spelling. An Earl (largely equivalent to Count) becomes Arl, whereas Baron and Thegn get mixed and divided into Teyrn and Bann^note, while Teyrn is a higher ranking term closer to that of a Duke. Likewise Sir and Sirrah become Ser and Serah (which are treated as gender-neutral versions of the originals).
Call Reception Area: The Dalish origin has the soon-to-be Warden and their childhood best friend investigating some old ruins and discovering a still-active Artifact of Doom that infects them with the Taint. The Warden survives thanks to the timely interevention of Duncan who then brings them into the Grey Wardens as a "cure" for the Taint.
Campfire Character Exploration: Most of the Non-Player Companion interaction takes place in the party camp, near the campfire. The reclusive witch Morrigan is pretty much the only one who never comes near the main campfire; she has her own in the back of camp.
Can't Drop the Hero: Played straight for the Warden with four small exceptions. In each instance, you play as the active character(s) instead of the Warden:
- If/when someone goes into the Fade to rescue Arl Eamon's son from a demon, the trope is justified because it must be a mage who does it. If the Warden is a warrior or a rogue, you must select from the pool of available mages to play instead - depending on your previous choices in the game, this will be either Wynne, Morrigan, First Enchanter Irving, or Jowan.
- If the Warden is captured by/surrenders to Ser Cauthrien and is imprisoned in Fort Drakon, you have the option to either break yourself out or select two of your companions to perform a daring rescue.
- The Combat by Champion against Loghain at the end of the Landsmeet, should you choose to appoint a different character on the Warden's behalf.
- During the final battle, all companions who do not accompany you to confront the Archdemon will remain at the gate and Hold the Line. You play both parts of the battle.
Captive Enemy as Ally: After Zevran's failed assassination of The Grey Warden's party and after some questioning that Zevran was more then forward with, Zevran suggests allowing him to join their party since The Antivan Crows will just end up killing him anyway for failing his mission and would rather be with someone who could help defend him from such an attack.
Carry a Big Stick: Mauls are one subset of two-handed weapons and have the best armor penetration ratings, but are slow and have reduced Critical Hit percentages to balance them out. The Chasind Great Maul is one of the most powerful (and expensive) weapons in the game.
Cast from Hit Points: The mechanic behind Blood Magic, trading health for greater spellpower. It also negates any healing you get while active so you can't refund mana.
Cat Fight: A male Warden daring or unlucky enough to romance both Leliana and Morrigan can expect to witness several examples of very tense moments between the two that end just short of actual violence.
Central Theme: There are two in Origins:
- The most obvious is blood. The logo is a blood splatter. Darkspawn blood is the key to being a Warden. As is Archdemon blood. A controversial form of spellcasting is Blood Magic. The game is Bloodier and Gorier than any prior Bioware game.
- The other is mortality. The game's theme is "In Uthenera," a song about life and mortality, from a race that lost its immortality. Many of the quests involve sacrifice and death, such as Zathrian's quest. In the end, players choose whether they will cheat death or embrace it.
The Champion:
- Champion is an unlockable specialization for warriors which provides boosts to other party members by inspiring them and can literally knock down opponents with a Battle Cry.
- After Arl Eamon recovers from his illness, he declares the entire party "Champions of Redcliffe" in recognition for their accomplishments.
Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Seen in the Human Noble origin. When Castle Cousland is invaded, the PC is asleep, but Dog awakens them. It's very clear that they are wearing only underwear as someone bursts into the room to announce that the castle is under siege. Less than a moment later, the PC is fully armored and armed and ready to fight. Very considerate of the invaders to give you time to get dressed before trying to kill you.
Chekhov's Gunman:
- Each of the origin stories involve characters who will show up again down the line, ranging from very important (Arl Howe in the Human Noble, Prince Bhelen in the Dwarf Noble, Jowan in the Mage, etc.) to one-offs (Tamlen in the Dalish Elf origin, though Merrill will be very important in the sequel).
- Uldred, the psychopathic mage behind the chaos that hits the Circle, makes a brief appearance at Ostagar. He only gets a single line before being shouted down by one of the Chantry's Revered Mothers.
- You can also meet Wynne while at Ostagar, and have a pleasant conversation with her.
- Following the steps to summon the "Trickster Spirit" in the Circe tower leads to it escaping and killing some people. You'll get a sidequest to put it down.
Childhood Friends: Happens in a few origins.
- Jowan and the Warden Mage. Presumably this is an attempt to make the player feel more inclined to go along with his dangerous plan. You can even try to defend him by invoking this.
- Tamlen and the Dalish Warden. If the Warden is female and tells him she cares about him, it's a case of Childhood Friend Romance where the rest of the Clan comments on how Everyone Can See It and they've all been shippers on deck since you two were little. Becomes an Unlucky Childhood Friend due to both becoming tainted, Tamlen disappearing and later attacking the player party in camp.
Choose Your Own Reward: At the end, the newly-crowned monarch of Ferelden asks the Player Character (if they survived) to choose a boon for themselves, with different options available based on their Origin.
- The City Elf can demand emancipation and legal recognition of the Enslaved Elves, in which case they (or their cousin Shianni) will be created the bann (baron) of the newly-independent Alienage.
- The Human Noble can ask for vengeance on the traitorous Howe family. This means that the Howes lose their titles and land, which are then bestowed upon the Grey Wardens' order.^note
- A Mage warden can ask for the mages of the Circle Tower to be given independence.
- The Dalish Elf can ask for land, so their people will finally have a home to call their own.
- A Dwarf warden can ask for aid against the Darkspawn so that the Dwarves will no longer fight their constant battle against the Darkspawn alone. ^note
- A Warden of any origin can ask "to further serve the crown". This gives the Warden the title of Chancellor and makes a Mage warden the first Mage Chancellor of Ferelden in over a century.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Completing every available sidequest leads to this. Just because an apocalyptic evil is threatening the world doesn't mean you can't stop to do every Fetch Quest you come across.
City Guards: Denerim, Ferelden's capital, has a standard assortment of them. You're unlikely to wind up on their bad side, and there's even a chain of sidequests revolving around helping them clear out some particularly irritating criminals. Woe betide you if you get caught pickpocketing, however, since an impressively large force will turn up to kill you.
Civil War vs. Armageddon: The Grey Wardens have a perspective much like the Night's Watch in the game's heavy inspiration A Song of Ice and Fire. Ferelden is being invaded by the darkspawn and the Player Character must gather allies to fight them off and slay the Archdemon leading them. Problem is, all the potential allies are embroiled in conflicts of their own. Ferelden's humans and the dwarves of Orzammar each have a Succession Crisis (in the former case, triggered by Loghain Mac Tir's Cavalry Betrayal of King Cailan in a battle the PC and Alistair only barely survived). The Circle of Mages has had a demon outbreak and is about to be purged by the Templars. And the Dalish elves are battling a tribe of werewolves. The Player Character must resolve each crisis, one way or another, before getting that faction's support.
Class and Level System: Three base classes: rogue, mage, and warrior, each with four specialisations and twenty-five experience levels to get through.
Clingy Costume: Golems are made by putting Dwarves into heavy rock armor and then pouring molten lyrium in with them. Needless to say, it's not coming back off.
Clip Its Wings: During the Final Battle, Riordan sacrifices his life to ruin the draconic Archdemon's wing, robbing it of flight capability and thus allowing your party to engage and kill it on the ground.
Collector of Forms:
- According to Morrigan, the art of shapeshifting requires you to observe the animal you want to transform into until you have mastered its form. Within the game, though, all you need is to be a mage and have Morrigan teach you the specialty at the camp: once you've got that, you can gain new forms simply by progressing along the skill tree like any other ability in the game.
- Upon finding yourself trapped in the Fade during the "Lost In Dreams" quest, players of all origins can learn the ability to shapeshift in their dreams. As a result, you can take on the forms of a mouse, a burning man, a spirit, and even a golem at will, gaining unique powers in each body; unfortunately, all four shapes must first be learned from the lost souls trapped across the islands of the Fade.
Combat by Champion: If the Landsmeet votes against Loghain, he will demand to face you in honorable combat in one last desperate bid for the throne. You may choose to let Alistair duel him in your stead, or ask one of your other two present companions to do it. (You still play as whoever fights Loghain.) Note that whomever you select as your champion must be humanoid; if Dog is in the group and you attempt to select him, Arl Eamon has an amusing line in which he makes you pick someone else.
Combat Medic: Any mage can learn from the Heal tree of spells as well as any of the plethora of damage-dealing ones. Taking the Spirit Healer specialization (Wynne's default) adds even more healing capacity.
Combat Pragmatist: Rogues get skills like Below The Belt and Dirty Fighting. All of the specializations are examples, as well - assassins are obvious, bards are the universe's spies, rangers are noted as being happy to use their environment to kill enemies for them, and duelists emphasize speed, defense, and quick, lethal strikes.
Come with Me If You Want to Live:
- At the end of every origin, the player character is rescued by Duncan from a dangerous situation and (more or less willingly) joins the Grey Wardens. The situation is particularly life-threatening in the Human Noble, Dwarf Noble, and Dalish Elf origins. The other origin stories happen regardless of the origin you choose; Duncan just isn't there to save the would-be Warden.
- There is a possible exception in the Mage Origin: if you decided to snitch on Jowan and Lily to First Enchanter Irving, you will not be under any threat whatsoever at the end of the quest and Duncan will have to outright invoke the Right of Conscription to get you.
Comic-Book Time:
- It's mentioned early by Wynne in a conversation, if you're a Mage, that it's been a year since you were recruited by the Grey Wardens. Why it takes you an entire year to get from the Circle tower to Ostagar is never explained.
- Alistair causes an example of this. You can woo him anytime you like, be it at the beginning of the game or practically before the end... that said, the rose from Lothering he will give you as a gift will still be fresh as the day he picked it... back in Lothering, which most players never see again after the first visit, since it's destroyed by darkspawn after the player finishes one of their major plot missions.
- In Lothering, the helpful bartender at the inn tells you that King Endrin of Orzammar has recently died. When you get to Orzammar, the door guard tells you Endrin died "not three weeks ago." Dagna makes an offhand mention that the Circle Tower is two and a half weeks away from Orzammar. And Lothering is farther away from Orzammar than the Tower is. So unless you leave for Orzammar immediately after leaving Lothering, it's impossible to get there in time for the timeline to make any sense at all.
Commonplace Rare:
- Inverted. Dragons are supposedly very rare in The 'Verse. The current Age was named the Dragon Age because it was preceded by the first sighting of a High Dragon in centuries. If you bring drake scales to Wade, he will tell you that most blacksmiths go their entire lives without ever seeing even one. And yet, by the end of the game, every piece of leather armor on the market will be made of drakeskin. Further, two out of three weapons and pieces of heavy or massive armor will be made out of dragonbone. And by the time you get to Awakening, it will be turned up a notch: leather goods will be made out of dragon wing or even High Dragon hide.
- Played straight with backpacks. A full suit of plate armour costs less than some backpacks do. They can also be tricky to find, if you don't know where to look, since most merchants don't carry them.
Compact Infiltrator: In the "Lost In Dreams" quest, players learn to shapeshift in the Fade in order to navigate the Sloth Demon's dominion; the first form learned is that of a mouse, allowing you to sneak through holes and bypass locked doors.
Compensating for Something: Either Morrigan or Sten can make a crack about this upon first encountering the Tower of Magi.
Convection, Schmonvection: Orzammar, the underground dwarven capital, is full of molten magma. You can stand right over it with no ill effects, however.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: The darkspawn are, as a whole, pretty badass and dangerous opponents for the beginning, middle, and later parts of the game. However, once the massive horde assaults Denerim and the Warden's army arrives to fight them, the Warden and their team will be killing the various darkspawn mooks in one or two hits.
Contract on the Hitman: Zevran will be targeted by the Crows if the Warden spares him. While Master Ignacio doesn't act against Zevran, declaring him to be dead in his eyes, Zevran's old comrade Taliesen will track him down and make him a final offer: rejoin the Crows or die. If Zevran's loyalty is high enough, he will fight against Taliesen at your side; in that case, how Zevran's battle with the Crows is resolved depends on whether or not the Warden dies fighting the Archdemon. If the Warden lives, Zevran will continue to fight and evade the Crows as best he can while living his life which is apparently canon in Dragon Age II. If the Warden dies, Zevran will return to Antiva and single-handedly take over the Crows and become their new Grand Master. His epilogue questions whether this counts as a victory or a defeat.
Contrived Mindwarp Exemption: After being magically drawn into a Forced Sleep by the Sloth Demon in "Broken Circle," you and your party members are imprisoned in regions of the Fade that prove so enchanting that almost the entire team is taken in, from comforting Lotus Eater Machines to soul-rending Nightmares Of Normality. The few party members who proved immune to this treatment usually only did so because they noticed A Glitch in the Matrix - but can't escape. By contrast, you see through the illusion in minutes, easily break out of your prison, and go on to break the other members of your team out.
Corpse Land: The Blightlands and the Deep Roads, sites of long-term darkspawn occupation, have been rendered desolate wastelands where nothing can survive without succumbing to their taint. Corpses in the areas will not rot because even the bacteria necessary for the process are killed.
The Corruption: The Taint, spread by darkspawn. Those who battle them can be infected by the blood, leading to a slow, painful death in most cases. Grey Wardens intentionally infect themselves with a special concoction including darkspawn blood during the Joining ritual granting them immunity to it and the ability to sense darkspawn, though at the cost of a shortened lifespan and nightmares. The dwarven scavenger Ruck demonstrates the mental decay of someone living off of darkspawn flesh, and Oghren offers more details on their health decay. The Warden can reflect on the disturbing implications of Ruck's description of it.
Cosmetic Award: Saving Arl Eamon earns everyone in your party the title of 'Champion of Redcliffe.' He gives you a shield, but otherwise, it's basically this trope.
Crapsack World: Mages have to worry about turning into always chaotic evil abominations. Demons possess not only mages but anyone else they can, including animals; they just prefer to possess mages. Always chaotic evil darkspawn hordes spill out across the land every century or two. Rock Golems have been made from living dwarves. Second-class citizen elves and mages are everywhere. Caste-ridden dwarves have been nearly wiped out and were driven back to two cities. A slaver empire holds the northwest part of the continent; another empire (or two, if you count the dwarves) is riddled with assassins. Thedas has lots of civil wars in its history. You get the idea.
Crafted from Animals: There are several sets of armor that can be made from drake scales and dragon scales by Wade.
Creepy Child:
- The little boy in Haven, who recites an equally creepy nursery rhyme. If you pester him with questions, he'll eventually show you a secret: his lucky fingerbone.
- Amalia, the girl in Honnleath who befriends "Kitty" the desire demon. She becomes even creepier if Kitty possesses her.
Creepy Monotone:
- Done hilariously nonsensically if you choose to let the desire demon (Kitty) possess the girl in Honnleath. Whereas previously both the girl and Kitty had a proper, normal range of expressive intonation, after the possession, the possessed girl suddenly enters a Creepy Monotone.
- Touched upon by Shale when asked why it doesn't really act like other golems:
  Shale: Should I talk in a monotone? Yes, master. I exist to serve the master. I shall kill for the master and only the master.
- This is an identifying trait of the Tranquils, regularly lampshaded.
- The Sloth Demon has one.
- Hespith, particularly when reciting her Apocalyptic Log: "First day, they come and catch everyone. Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat. Third day..." Considering the increasingly horrifying content of the poem, the monotone is especially unsettling.
Critical Staffing Shortage: The Grey Warden force in Ferelden is dangerously small for two reasons. In the Backstory, the Wardens were banished from the country by a tyrannical Fereldan king after a rogue Warden-Commander raised a rebellion against him; they were only allowed back 30 years before the game begins, so there aren't too many of them in the country. Then, in the game itself, most Fereldan Wardens are killed by the darkspawn horde when the paranoid general Loghain leaves them and the reigning king to die, thus leaving the country largely unprepared to fight The Horde.
Crutch Character:
- Dog, who is a potent melee damage dealer/tank in the first few stages of the game. He starts off with "Dread Howl", one of the invaluable area of effect stunning talents in the game, and later on can learn the very useful "Overwhelm" attack that incapacitates the target and can outright kill "squishier" enemies. Later though, his lack of threat management abilities, limited selection of talents, lack of bonus stats, and his lackluster unique equipment (collars and warpaint instead of weapons and armor) cause him to fall behind other higher-ceiling party members in the long run.
- Taking the Ranger specialization allows for the summoning of semi-permanent animal companions, going from a wolf to a bear to a spider in increasing order of potency. It's great in the early stages to have a meat shield you don't need to bother healing/curing injuries as you can simply resummon the creature between battles. They start to lose potency around the midway point and, by the final stages of the game, the Stamina used for them is better spent on the plethora of other extremely powerful Rogue abilities.
Crystal Prison: The ancient elf spirit who teaches the Arcane Warrior specialization has been trapped inside a gem for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. He begs you to smash the rock and free him in exchange for his knowledge.
The Cuckoo Lander Was Right: In between his frenzied ranting, the Chasind Doomsayer outside of the Lothering Chantry turns on the Warden and accuses them of being tainted with the same evil as that of the darkspawn. Given the nature of the Joining Ritual, he's completely right, although it's never explained how he knows this or is able to recognise a Grey Warden on sight. Though given his narrow escape from the darkspawn horde and the diseased blotches around his eyes, it's possible he was infected with the taint and thus can sense it in you.
Cultural Exchange Is Good: In the dwarven city of Orzammar, you can meet a young dwarf who very much wants to be allowed to study magic in the Mage Circle in Ferelden despite dwarves being unable to use magic. She asks you to take a letter to the head of the circle, and if you do so and plead her case for her, the epilogue reveals that she makes several important discoveries about the nature of magic. Regardless of the outcome, she reappears in Dragon Age: Inquisition, having become the world's foremost expert in the crafting of magical items
Cursed with Awesome:
- If you're a Circle mage, and you survive the Harrowing, you're one of the most powerful and feared people in Thedas, able to alternately heal or slaughter people at will. Granted, there are some social restrictions, but they hardly compare to the phenomenal cosmic power. Though this is precisely why the Chantry employs an army of knights specifically trained and equipped to kill any mage who gets uppity about their near-slave status.
- It's even worse for Qunari mages (although this is not actually seen until the second game). The Warden can learn a little about it from Sten, including that they're kept on leashes and their mouths are sewn shut.
- Being a Grey Warden has a lot of perks including immunity to the taint and the ability to sense darkspawn, but some heavy downsides including a significanly shortened lifespan and frequent nightmares.
Cutscene Drop: Entering a cut scene before a battle brings each member of the party right into the fray (including Squishy Wizards and Rogues), exposes hiding party members, defeats the purpose of traps, and in some cases, can even deactivate abilities (such as the Ranger's summoned animals). It's especially grievous given just how much the game encourages tactics and careful positioning otherwise.
Cycle of Revenge:
- The "The Nature of the Beast" quest requires you to either break or support one of these between the Dalish elves and a pack of cursed werewolves.
- Due to Arl Howe's betrayal and brutal murder of most of the Couslands, the Human Noble Warden can decide whether or not to engage in one of these. Later in Awakening, the Warden can follow through on a threat to murder the members of Howe's family in retaliation by executing Nathaniel Howe when he is caught attempting to assassinate the Warden. On the other hand, it's entirely possible to avert this, playing the Warden as simply seeking revenge on just Arl Howe himself. In Awakening the Warden can decide to recruit Nathaniel into the Wardens instead of executing him (or let him go, in which case he comes back and joins of his own volition), then befriend him and inspire him to redeem his family's name after he realizes the extent of his father's crimes. One possible epilogue reveals that Nathaniel even rescues the Warden's brother from bandits and the Howes are returned some of their lands, ending the bad blood between the families.

Damned by Faint Praise: You can ensure Jowan's execution with this. Say something that's barely nice about Jowan ("Well, he's trying to be a better person, I guess?"), and Arl Eamon will say this trope word for word.
Damsel out of Distress: The Female City Elf. Vaughn recognizes this, as he orders two guards to escort you to his chambers, but only after your hands are bound first. Then Soris appears and slides a sword across the floor to you. Cue the reaction of the guards. "Oh... sod." You then proceed to slaughter your way through the castle, save the other women taken, and effectively rescue yourself.
Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Blood Magic can be learned by Mages via bargains with demons. When used directly, it functions via Cast from Hit Points in exchange for greater power than standard spells. Though the player party mages can't engage in it, other examples of Blood Mages in the game imply that you can use other people's blood for even greater power still (while reducing the risk to yourself, of course), bind demons to your service, and raise the undead. In all cases, it is strictly outlawed by Chantry law and any mage even suspected of using it is made "tranquil" if not outright executed.
Darker and Edgier:
- Origins is easily the darkest and edgiest Bioware game up to its release. It's Bloodier and Gorier, set in a very Crapsack World, and features tons of Grey-and-Gray Morality in the various conflicts you'll need to resolve with no true Golden Ending (and even the better endings still plenty bittersweet).
- Out of the DLCs, Awakening is darker still (dealing with rival factions of intelligent darkspawn and the political fallout of the main game), then Golems of Amgarrak takes it even further (the horrors behind the creation of Golems, an horde of Harvesters is still alive). This makes Witch Hunt Mood Whiplash in comparison, what with it being the last DLC, the return of lighthearted banter between your party members, the assorted Harry Potter references at the Tower of Magi, and the return of Dog. It's also the only DLC/expansion with the potential for an unapologetically happy ending (the Warden reuniting with a romanced Morrigan).
Deadly Upgrade: The "Joining" ritual to become a Grey Warden. It involves drinking a special concotion of darkspawn blood, lyrium, and Archdemon blood. It kills many prospective wardens outright and those who survive are limited to about thirty more years of life before they start to go insane. (Most wardens who reach this point choose to go to the Deep Roads and fight darkspawn until they die.) The powers it brings include an immunity to the taint and the ability to sense darkspawn.
Deal with the Devil:
- This turns out to be the cause of all the trouble in the Redcliffe arc. Connor made a deal with a demon to save his father from being poisoned. The demon kept its word... which allowed it to possess him.
- Mage characters can negotiate with the demon for access to Blood Magic in return for allowing the demon to permanently possess Connor, though with a high enough coercion skill, your "deal" can basically amount to "I'll let you live if you null your deal with the kid and teach me blood magic."^note*
- The sidequest "Asunder" involves summoning a demon, and you can choose to either fight it or let it leave in exchange for a reward. Said reward turns out to be a pile of cash (25 sovereigns). Not bad, and there are no (in-game) consequences either.
- In order to complete the quest where you get Shale as a party member, you need to deal with the demon "Kitty" first. One option is to allow her to possess a little girl in exchange for a way out, and some unique loot. You can also betray Kitty by pretending to agree and then kill her before she can take the girl.
- At the end of the Broken Circle quest, pride demon Uldred will try to tempt the player into becoming a powerful abomination. Considering what an obviously terrible deal it is, the game won't let you accept.
Death of a Child: You never kill children except a demon-possessed Connor in Redcliffe if you so choose, but children do die. Most notably, the Human Noble's nephew Oren is brutally murdered during the origin.
Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Loghain attempts to pin King Cailan's death on the Wardens, whom he believes are all dead. It doesn't work, because the nobles are (mostly) unwilling to trust him and also because not all the Wardens died.
Deconstructor Fleet: The game heavily deconstructs the "fantasy hero" genre, adding realistic and unpleasant politics and bigotry to the fantasy setting, and making moral choices complicated and difficult. At several points, you have the option between doing what is good and doing what, ultimately, will best help save the world.
Defeating the Cheating Opponent: Learning the dueling specialization from the pirate Isabela requires beating her in a game of Wicked Grace. However, she cheats. Unless your own Cunning skill is high enough for your character to realize it, Isabela is unbeatable. The only way to beat her without that high Cunning score is to have Leliana or Zevran in your party and listen to them when they tell you what to do.
Deflector Shields: The Mage's Arcane Shield (boosts Defense) and the Arcane Warrior's Shimmering Shield (boosts damn near everything). And yes, you can have both on at the same time. In the unpatched version, Shimmering Shield is bugged and doesn't drain mana when in use. This was fixed with the patch, but it's still overpowered.
Degraded Boss:
- The very first boss you'll fight is an Ogre at the top of the tower in Ostagar, and it's going to take everything you have to slay him. Later, they'll become a somewhat more regular enemy (though still one of the rarer darkspawn), especially in the Deep Roads and finale. By about halfway through Awakening, Elite Ogres become an elaborate speed bump.
- The High Dragon at the Temple of Andraste is the second-toughest boss in the game. In Awakening, you face one again in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon that goes down without much trouble (although, due to a bug, the game may record it as the most powerful foe slain, even though it definitely isn't).
Dénouement: Origins has an entire level set after the Final Battle, where you can talk to your companions and significant Origin characters to learn about their future plans, while the cheering crowd outside waits to see their savior. If the Warden dies, there is a Meaningful Funeral for him/her instead. Additionally, there is a slide show epilogue detailing the fates of your companions and some NPCs. And there is the Witch Hunt DLC, which wraps up Morrigan's storyline, which was Left Hanging in the original game.
Detachable Lower Half: The Harvester in ''Golems of Amgarrak" is a Body of Bodies monstrosity made up of numerous corpses. The sections can can apart and keep on fighting.
Deus Sex Machina: Morrigan's solution to the Someone Has to Die problem in the endgame involves having the male PC, Alistair, or Loghain impregnate her under a special ritual. The unborn child will capture the Archdemon's soul instead, sparing the wardens.
Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The music played in the main menu, in the character creation menu, and when opening the game's launcher is a shorter version of the song performed by Leliana after completing "Nature of the Beast".^note
Difficult, but Awesome: The Blood Mage specialization, both because the Mage base class is designed to be a Squishy Wizard with low health and because using Blood Magic (the power that allows you to Cast from Hit Points) before you've learned Blood Sacrifice (which allows you to replenish your health by leeching off of your teammates) is an excellent way to kill the caster, since Blood Magic Nerfs all other healing effects by 90%. If you manage to master the specialization, though, the caster will be able to cast many more spells before running dry than a normal mage would ever be able to, and will eventually gain access to Blood Wound, which is probably the single most powerful spell in the game.
Disaster Democracy:
- King Endrin of Orzammar dies shortly after the events of the Dwarf Noble origin, leading to a Succession Crisis. The Assembly, a collection of nobles, needs to elect a new king, with the choices being Lord Harrowmont or Endrin's youngest son, Prince Bhelen (the position is not explicitly hereditary). They are, of course, split and unable to decide. Despite there being a Blight on the surface, Orzammar will not honor their treaty with the Grey Wardens unless the situation is settled, so the Warden will have to swing the election one way or the other.
- After allowing King Cailan to die at Ostagar, Teyrn Loghain assumes a regency for his daughter, Queen Anora. The Ferelden nobles are torn and engage in a civil war over his support. Over the course of the main quest, the Warden can garner support and find evidence of Loghain's wrongdoings, pushing for either Hidden Backup Prince Alistair or Anora herself (willing to turn against her father) as the new monarch at the Landsmeet. (No matter what you do, Loghain will ultimately challenge you in a Duel to the Death for the position.)
Disc-One Final Dungeon: Each of the origins leads to one place - Ostagar. While the main battle rages below, the new Warden and Alistair will need to climb a darkspawn-ridden tower to light a signal fire, ending with a boss battle against an Ogre. It's obviously not the final dungeon though.
Disc-One Nuke:
- A couple of the origins give the opportunity to obtain "nuke"-level prizes:
  - If the Dwarf Noble makes certain choices in their Origin story, they can leave for Ostagar with nearly 30 sovereigns — a ridiculous amount of money that other characters won't have for a good chunk of the game. The Dwarf Noble also gets a huge discount and excellent resale value from the merchant Gorim in Denerim, which means even more money. This makes buying the best equipment in the game as soon as it becomes available much easier. The Dwarf Noble also receives a powerful shield from Gorim, free of charge, which no other character can obtain.
  - A Dalish Elf Warden can take Merrill's Tevinter Mage Robes during her short stint with them (essentially So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear in reverse), providing them with one of the best mage robes in the game for free.
  - A particular pair of mage boots, which can only be obtained during the Mage origin, are the only boots in the game that provide a magic boost.
- Many of the promotional "packs" and DLCs provide extremely powerful equipment right away at the start of the game. Much of it has certain attribute requirements before it can be used, but it isn't hard to Min-Max a character to be able to use it very early, plus it can be sold for a "nuke"-level fortune if you don't want to wait to use it.
  - Of particular note is the Reaper's Cudgel. While a solid weapon on its own, the real nuke is in its resale value - it can be sold for an absolutely insane price of over 330 gold sovereigns!^note Sell it at the first merchant you find (the quartermaster in Ostagar), and you can buy literally everything the first few shopkeepers you encounter have in their stock, should you wish. (For reference, most of the other promo/DLC items sell for perhaps 5 gold sovereigns max. Still good for the start of the game, but a pittance in comparison.) Perhaps a fitting reward, since you only get it by beating a very difficult DLC boss on Hard or Nightmare difficulty.
  - Completing the Witch Hunt DLC allows the player to bring both the Sorrows of Arlathan bow and Vestments of the Seer robes with them on subsequent playthroughs of the main game. The former is a massively-powerful bow but at least is limited by the dexterity requirements, while the latter is the best set of robes in the game, and has no requirements. A starting mage won't ever be changing clothes unless you opt for the Arcane Warrior specialization (which uses armor instead).
- There are some tricks to turn Mages into early game nukes (compared to Squishy Wizards with Magikarp Powers they're intended to be)"
  - Getting your Mage Warden to 16 Strength can allow you to wear Medium Armor early in the game. Add a Stone Skin self-buff (and maybe some Rock Salves for overkill) and your wizard will be the most durable party member in the early game.
  - Once unlocked in a previous playthrough, specializations will be available right away in all other playthroughs once the character hits level seven. In particular, the Arcane Warrior specialization for mages allows them to substitute their Magic attribute total in place of the Strength requirement on equipment, allowing them to wear heavy armor. Throw in a few defensive sustained talents and consumables, and they'll become ridiculously hard to kill. Once again, as early as level seven.
  - Area of Effect spells are disproportionately powerful, with the drawback of potentially damaging allies as well since Friendly Fireproof is not in effect... at least on the higher difficulty settings. On Normal or lower, you can spam them as early and often as you can cast them with no drawback. Cone of Cold in particular, which can be obtained relatively early, gives the mage a power that can even freeze the Archdemon in place. One strategy involving the spell has the player keeping the big bosses and semi-bosses in place while the rest of the party dishes out damage.
- The Warden's Keep DLC offers a few:
  - If completed as early as possible, the Warden-Commander's Armor is a great "massive" armor set with a handful of bonuses. However, it Level Scales, meaning it will fall behind other sets of armor rather quickly as better "tiers" become available, while costing you a great set of late game armor (if you were to wait until late in the game to acquire it). There is an exploit that can be taken to reset the armor's "tier" - leaving it in the party chest then leaving/re-entering Soldier's Peak on console, or by selling it to Mikhael Dryden, then leaving/reentering the Peak and buying it back if playing on PC.
  - A random event that can happen as early as right after Lothering allows you to recover a fallen meteorite which you can take to Soldier's Peak and have forged into one- or two-handed sword, Starfang. It is bar none the best sword in the game, occupying its own tier (which eventually shows up as Tier 9 in Awakening), and you can start the process of getting it as soon as you leave Lothering. It's biggest downside is that it won't carry over into Awakening or Witch Hunt (while other DLC items will).
Dislikes the Shiny Weapon: One of the items added by the "Feastday Pranks" Downloadable Content is the Butterfly Sword, a powerful but garish greatsword that glows pink and is surrounded by butterflies. Gifting it to Sten massively drops his approval rating for the Player Character.
Dissonant Serenity: Hespith speaks in a highly Creepy Monotone, and seems completely detached from her horrible situation. It's the result of being broken both by circumstances and Branka's obsession, and it isn't pretty. Worse, as you come to realize, she's in the initial stage of turning into a Broodmother.
Distracted by the Shiny: The purpose of the Lure traps. The description of the Glamour Charm required to make them gets distracted by them too:
This minor magical charm captures the viewer's attention and distra... ooo, pretty...
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Chantry and Christianity (especially Catholicism), leaning into Crystal Dragon Jesus territory. World-spanning religions involving a prophet betrayed by one of her closest disciples, of which the symbol of her death becomes the symbol of the religion, filled with Inquisitors and Templars, and in which only a specific sex can usually preside over church services.
Doing In the Wizard:
- If you take Oghren with you on the "Urn of Sacred Ashes" quest, he'll mention his Stone-sense picking up a huge lyrium vein under the mountain and temple, and that the urn's healing properties might be from centuries of exposure. This is one of many arguments in the game (Morrigan makes a few) that the Maker might not be real.
- Similarly, while Wynne is a believer, she initially notes that the Gauntlet is practically brimming with magic. Both Oghren and Wynne's comments are also Foreshadowing, as the presence of so much lyrium in that location ends up being extremely significant in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Double-Edged Buff:
- The Aodh waraxe gives its user increased fire damage and resistance to fire, as well as an increased melee critical chance, but also decreased resistance to cold damage.
- Most combat stances give some form of buff at the cost of something, such as Aim for archery giving bonuses to attacking at the cost of slowing your attack speed.
Double Entendre:
- "Have you ever licked a lamppost in winter?" from a conversation about sex between the Warden and Alistair. (As an in-joke, in Awakening, there's a staff named Lamppost in Winter. The item description says that licking it would not be advisable.)
- Zevran employs this occasionally, when he's not being blatantly obvious.
  Zevran: The thing I miss most about Antiva is its leather.
  Warden: Is that some kind of euphemism?
- In romancing Alistair, he will at one point give the female PC a rose, stating that it reminds him of her. She can reply, "Feeling thorny, are we?"
- There's quite a bit of this in general if you're looking, obviously in companion romances, but also particularly where the Warden can flirt with or seduce NPCs. (Example of the latter is Isabela in the Pearl. "Can we go back to your ship? I'd love to see what's below deck.")
- Oghren gets a pretty good one early in Awakening, upon discovering a ghoul equipped with his stolen gear.
  Oghren: No one touches Oghren's junk and lives!
- In the City Elf origin, you may encounter a drunk elf that recites a rhyme about a woman and how he would make promises to her while making love in the sea, but declaring he can't grant her wish because "my wife gets suspicious when I come home smelling like fish". "Smelling like fish" can either be literally or refer to the smell of something else...
Double-Meaning Title: Origins both is the first game in the series and has multiple character origins as a major feature.
Downer Beginning: No matter which origin you pick, the game begins with a disaster that leads to you joining the Grey Wardens and then the disaster at Ostagar:
- Human Noble: Arl Howe betrays your house and burns it to the ground, killing all of your servants, your parents, and your nephew (only a child at the time). If it weren't for Duncan thinning the enemy ranks and conscripting you into the Grey Wardens, that would have been the end of you.
- City Elf: The son of the local lord crashes your wedding and kidnaps you/your bride-to-be and a bunch of your friends. You trash his house in the ensuing escape/rescue, and said lord sends soldiers to arrest and execute you. If it weren't for Duncan conscripting you into the Grey Wardens, that would have been the end of you.
- Dalish Elf: You encounter an enchanted mirror while exploring some ruins outside your home; the mirror infects you with the darkspawn taint, which only Grey Wardens are immune to. If it weren't for Duncan conscripting you into the Grey Wardens, that would have been the end of you.
- Dwarf Noble: Your younger brother tricks you into/frames you for murdering your older brother, and you are stripped of your nobility and sentenced to death in the Deep Roads. If it weren't for Duncan conscripting you into the Grey Wardens, that would have been the end of you.
- Dwarf Commoner: In the process of working for the local mob boss, you are caught impersonating a warrior of a higher caste than you and sentenced to death. If it weren't for Duncan conscripting you into the Grey Wardens, that would have been the end of you.
- Circle Mage: Right after your Harrowing, your buddy Jowan convinces you to break into the Circle's secret vault and destroy his phylactery so he can turn apostate before being made Tranquil on suspicion of being a blood mage. You are caught in the act, Jowan reveals he actually is a blood mage before escaping, and the local Templar commander demands your head for the whole fiasco. Even if you tell First Enchanter Irving before hand, the situation is very tense and your safety is a bit up in the air. If it weren't for Duncan conscripting you into the Grey Wardens, that would have been the end of you.
- All origins: You participate in the Battle of Ostagar, but Teryn Loghain abandons you in the middle of the battle; King Cailan and all of the Grey Wardens are killed. If it weren't for Flemeth coming to your rescue, that would have been the end of you.
Downer Ending:
- The overall ending to the main story arc is always bittersweet, but due to there being many smaller Multiple Endings for the various places and people that you tried to help during the story, some of them are outright downers. For example, helping Brother Burkel start a Chantry in Orzammar leads to his death. Some of the major story decisions are also massive downers, though they're at least made obvious when you're making that choice. Such as, for example, supporting an obviously insane Branka and saving the Anvil of the Void to create more golems, which happens after learning of the horrors that go into their creation.
- Most of the origin stories also have these, in one form or another, particularly the Human Noble and Dalish Elf. It could be argued that the only one which definitely doesn't is the Dwarf Commoner, for whom becoming a Grey Warden is largely an improvement to their situation in life.
Dragon Hoard: A few dragons, most of them optional bosses, have a lot of treasure to be plundered afterwards. Some of them are actually called "Dragon Hoard."
Draw Aggro: The "Threaten" ability of warriors causes enemies to flock around the user, drawing them away from squishier party members.
Dream Spying: Grey Wardens can see the Archdemon in their dreams. They can also get hints about the size and direction of the darkspawn horde.
Drunk on the Dark Side: Maleficars, mages who embrace demon magics, tend to go this route. Notable for containing both a straight example in Uldred and a subversion in the hapless blood mage Jowan, who is a Hero with an F in Good.
Dual Wielding: An option with one-handed weapons. The "off-hand" weapon is restricted to a dagger unless the character unlocks a high-tier passive talent in the Dual-Wielding tree that allows them to use two full-sized weapons. It dishes out extra damage with faster attacks in comparison to defensively oriented Sword and Shield or the heavy-hitting Two-Handed
Duel Boss:
- The end result of the Landsmeet will always be one of these against Teyrn Loghain. The Warden can represent themself or choose another party member (except Dog) to be their champion.
- A sidequest has a knight challenge you to one of these when you arrive in Denerim. If you agree to fight him one-on-one, his underlines will compliment your honor.
Dug Too Deep: Inverted/Parodied: Hidden at the very far end of the ruins in the Dalish origin is a small statue. Clicking on it gives the message "A strange statue commemorating the emergence of - and short-lived trading relationship with - dwarves, who dug too high and too frugal and struck elves." Clicking on it spawns some skeletons to attack you.
Dump Stat:
- Attributes:
  - For non-mages, Magic has very little value. Potions and the Reaver's Devour ability get some use out of it, but it's far better to invest in other attributes for non-spellcasters.
  - Strength for mages. It can stay at the minimum value of 10 all game and it'll never be a problem.
- The Survival skill. Except for one minor quest at the Dalish camp requiring two ranks in it^note, it will never be needed. It grants you Nature (aka poison) resistance, but the enemies that can spit poison at you have worse attacks anyway. It grants you the ability to detect enemies at greater ranges, but most of your abilities cannot be used at that extreme range anyway.
Dungeon Bypass:
- In the Mage origin, when you need to get the form signed, you can simply ask Senior Enchanter Sweeney and you won't need to clear out the spiders. (If you do it afterwards anyway, you get potions as a reward instead.)
- In Redcliffe, you can just choose to not rescue the village, skipping several smaller quests involved with bolstering its defenses and a long battle sequence with multiple waves of enemies.
- In Redcliffe Castle, you can choose to kill Connor and you skip a Fade sequence. However, said Fade sequence is actually easier than killing him, and certainly not as annoying as the other one from the "Broken Circle" quest.
Dueling Messiahs: The Grey Warden and Teyrn Loghain. Loghain truly believes that he is the only one capable of saving Ferelden from the Blight and acts accordingly, but misunderstands certain crucial facts regarding why Grey Wardens are needed to stop a Blight, with disastrous results (and to be fair, some of those facts were deliberately kept secret). Under different circumstances, he might well have remained the hero he was in the past. Toward the end of the game he can be made aware how badly he's screwed things up, causing him to either Face Death with Dignity, knowing that he's leaving Ferelden in the Warden's capable hands, or join the Wardens himself.
Dying Moment of Awesome: If you refuse Morrigan's Dark Ritual, whichever Grey Warden kills the Archdemon gets one, giving up their life by delivering the killing blow. Even if you are a clueless idiot, the epilogue slide where Sten returns to Par Vollen (if you have enough approval with him) really drives it home. When asked by his people if he met anyone worthy of respect on his travels, he replies, "One." By dying to stop the Blight, you have earned the rank of Basalit-an (literally, an outsider worthy of respect) among the Qunari.
Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much every party member you can recruit in this game has a major psychological trauma or three in their past (or in some cases their present). Alistair is a former templar turned Grey Warden who is also a Royal Bastard, Leliana is a spy in hiding, Sten murdered a family over his lost sword, Oghren is a massive drinker (even by Dwarf standards) whose wife has gone off the deep end, and many, many more... By having them join the party, maxing out their approval, and completing their personal side quests, the Warden can help them with their various dysfunctions.
Dynastic Drama: The civil war side story concerns replacing the slain King of Ferelden. You can choose his illegitimate half-brother or the widowed queen he left behind.

Early Fireball Spell: In the Magi Origin, Dalish Elf Origin, and Ostagar sequence, the player is joined by a Mage Guest-Star Party Member who comes automatically equipped with the Flame Burst and Flaming Weapons spells, ensuring that the player is introduced to these mechanics regardless of how they build their permanent Mage party members.^note
Early Game Hell: In general, the game's early sections are pretty unforgiving on all difficulties. This is because the player has to go through their origin, Ostagar (including two dungeon zones), and reach Lothering for the game to truly open up and allow the player to customize their party. Most origins lack a healer or tank to rely on, enemies tend to outnumber you in each fight, most encounters are designed to give the enemy the advantage and force your party to attack them first, and your party lacks a dedicated healer if you aren't playing a Circle Mage origin that focuses on healing. The enemies outside Lothering for instance can easily kill your party quickly, even on Normal, because your party isn't super strong and the enemy likely have the numbers advantage. Usually this eases up once you start one of the major story quest zones and level up, but it isn't uncommon to see players die early on because the game can be unforgiving for a bit.
Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Sten and the other Qunari are all but human in appearance here—very tall black men with white hair and purple eyes. Dragon Age II onward gives them grey skin and horns, as well as their war paint (the vitaar). Having the Qunari be horned was intended from the beginning, but was unfeasible due to game engine limitations. Qunari are programmed to use human armor and the helmets wouldn't work with the horns. This is evident when you note that ogres, Qunari darkspawn, are horned here. In later games, it's established that some Qunari are unhorned and look more human, and in Dragon Age: Inquisition, where you have the option of playing a Qunari, you have the option of creating one more in line with the first game's designs.
- Class design in Origins is more fluid than in later games with few restrictions on what class can wield which weapons. Rogues can, in theory, equip two-handed weapons, for instance, while warriors are able to pursue Dual Wielding and archery. The devs, however, felt that this made rogues and warriors feel too indistinct from each other, so from Dragon Age II onward, dual-wielding and archery becomes rogue-only, while warriors are restricted to two-handers and weapon/shield. This also means that dual wielding full-size weapons (swords, axes, and maces, as opposed to daggers) is removed, as is the ability to equip two sets of weapons (usually one ranged and one melee) and swap between them.
- The attitudes toward female warriors change in subtle but notable ways in the series, making Origins stand out a bit. A female Warden’s gender is constantly brought up as odd and unusual, with many expressing surprise and the occasional sexist remarks upon meeting them, although this is somewhat handwaved by the fact that the PC is literally the first female Warden in the country in a generation. Even your female Warden can comment on it in the leadup to the Joining, stating that "I swear I'm the bravest one here, and I'm a woman." (Either honestly believing her being more capable than the men is somehow wrong, or intending to shame the men into getting their shit together, either way implying her being the brave one is exceptional.) This is dialed down in the second game and, by the time of Inquisition, the player’s gender is almost completely unremarked upon in dialogue almost to the point of Purely Aesthetic Gender. Female warriors are also a lot less common in Origins compared to the rest of the series; female Templars and female warriors as party members do not appear until Awakening. Inquisition ultimately has just as many plot-important female warriors as male.
- Similarly, Sten is confused by the idea of female warriors, as under the Qun women are not put into martial roles and instead serve as priests or other non-combat roles in his words. He even flatly asks if you truly are a woman if you play one because it goes against what he knows and he can't reconcile that initially. Later games quietly retcon this to be that women can be warriors under the Qun, with Sten's confusion being attributed more to his lack of experience in the field and not being able to mentally separate gender from roles as good as later characters like Iron Bull can.
- Grey Wardens do not wear any particular uniform in this game, which they are never seen without in the sequels. People don't ask you why you are not in uniform, nor can you wear one to prove your identity. It becomes default gear in Awakening, though even there, you can switch out of it and no one will question it.
- It's possible for you to end the game with no companions by not recruiting the optional ones and killing/alienating the rest. Alistair and Morrigan will always be in your party for the majority of the game, but it is entirely possible to reach the final battle with them having left the party. From Dragon Age II onward, you'll always have at least three in the end, no matter what you do.
- Every game in the series has a tagalong spirit, but Faith's role in Origins is quite different from its successors. It never interacts with other people, plays no role in the narrative aside from giving Wynne a unique buff spell, and does not receive any characterization of its own. This is quite different from Justice/Vengeance, Cole/Compassion, Spite/Determination, or Manfred/Curiosity, who all have distinctive personalities and play roles of various importance in their games' stories.
- It only becomes clear in hindsight, but Origins is the only game in the series where the player never explores the interior of a dead or sleeping titan.
Earn Your Bad Ending: If you make Harrowmont king and save the Anvil, then not only will dwarven souls be stolen to make new golems, but (after Harrowmont bans its use on dwarves) humans and elves will be kidnapped from the surface and sacrificed. This will lead to all-out war between the dwarves and humans until the gates are sealed off.
Earn Your Happy Ending: If you really put in the work — completing all questlines in the most benevolent ways possible, finding all of the Third Options, maxing out approval with all companions, etc. — you can achieve the best possible endings for everyone and everything. Even then, the "happiest" one still have plenty of bittersweet elements. (For example, Orzammar will either be led by an oddly progressive dictator or a kind-but-traditionalist king, with no other option.)
Easing into the Adventure: Each of the origin stories includes some very simple combat against very basic enemies to ease you in, with a slightly tougher Warm-Up Boss toward the end. It's even lampshaded in the Human Noble Origin, when Ser Gilmore remarks that killing the rats in the cellar (your first fight) sounds like the start of every adventure story his grandfather told him.
Easy-Mode Mockery:
- Notably Averted by the main game. The developers have said that 'Hard' mode was the intended base difficulty for gamers, but that's never suggested in the game or game materials. The only benefit to playing a higher difficulty is the loot drops from a single Superboss, and there aren't any achievements related to them.
- Two DLCs, Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt, do have achievements for beating their final bosses on "Hard" or "Nightmare" difficulties. Doing so on Golems also unlocked a high-end weapon reward for future main game playthroughs.
Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors: Rage Demons (which are made of fire) are weak against ice attacks.
Elves vs. Dwarves:
- Downplayed compared to other fantasy media, but there are hints toward a small rivaly between the races. An Easter Egg statue in the Dalish origin suggests that the two races engaged in trades in the distant past, describing the relationship as "short-lived" with a dig at the Dwarves tendency to dig too deep out of greed. An elf Warden walking around Orzammar draws a lot of odd comments from its citizens, as well. Further, if you bring Oghren to the Dalish Camp and talk with Varathorn, who's currently arguing with his apprentice about the quality of his wooden craft, Oghren joins in and complains about how the elves are still using wood as materials for their crafts, while dwarves simply use stones. Varathorn actually finds the comment a bit humorous.
- Parodied by Zevran and Oghren in their party banter. Oghren goes as far as admitting that he thinks Zevran is all right. The elf promptly deadpans that he's got to be drunk.
  Zevran: Hello, my stocky little friend!
  Oghren: Huh. You got small breasts for a gal.
  Zevran: Ah. This is where we begin the typical dwarven/elven rivalry, is it?
  Oghren: Nahhh.
- Also seen in the conflict between the high and mighty cultured Orlesians (described as "painted fops" by Fereldans) and the honorable, salt-of-the-earth freedom-loving Fereldans (described as "one bad day away from barbarism" by the Orlesians).
Empathy Doll Shot: There's a doll in the elven Alienage apartments, and its description makes sure to emphasize how well-worn and loved it is.
End of an Age: Morrigan's warning in Witch Hunt talks about this coming. (The sequel shows what she was talking about.)
The End... Or Is It?: The last shot of The Golems of Amgarrak is dozens — maybe hundreds — of Harvesters escaping the thaig's destruction and scuttling off into the Deep Roads.
Ending Theme: "This Is War", by 30 Seconds to Mars. Maybe they should have saved this song for Dragon Age: Inquisition, considering that its plot deals with the fallout of the war that the Champion of Kirkwall inadvertently caused.
Enemy Strength Groupings: Enemy mobs come in five tiers: critter, normal, elite, boss, and elite boss.
Entendre Failure:
- Occurs between Alistair and Zevran during a conversation with Shale.
  Zevran: Here, take that Templar fellow. Rugged good looks, quick wit, manly shoulders. Just getting him to hop borders is a challenge worthy of the great heroes.
  Alistair: A challenge? I'd happily hop borders, given the chance. I've never even been close to leaving Ferelden.
- There's also this little gem possible for either male or female Wardens:
  Leliana: But now it's getting late. I think I might... turn in early. I can't help thinking about how soft and warm my bedroll is.
  Warden: You don't want to talk to me anymore?
  Leliana: Of course I do. You know I enjoy your company. But... it's getting a little chilly, and I prefer to be in my bedroll.
  Warden: Well, I shan't keep you.
  Leliana: You know, it'd be nice if you came with me.
  Warden: What for?
  Leliana: So I can show you my collection of pressed flowers... obviously.
  Warden: I didn't know you collected pressed flowers.
  Leliana: I... don't. Stop pretending you don't know what I want!
  Warden: I have no idea what's going on.
  Leliana: Ah, the games you play. Listen, I want to spend the night with you. There. I said it.
- There's also the option to say (in reply to her turning early):
  Warden: I'm going to stay up and write in my journal.
  Leliana: Oh, maybe you could come into my tent and I could watch you write? "Dear Journal... Leliana has shown much affection for me. Even asked me to come to bed with her, but alas, subtlety is lost on me."
  Warden: Wait, what?
An Entrepreneur Is You: Averted (perhaps spitefully, even) in that the prices may vary slightly if at all from location to location, regardless of relative supply/scarcity, and goods will never sell for the value paid for them. Ever. Anywhere. Even if you craft something, you can't even get the value of the raw materials bar certain exploits, i.e. Potent Lyrium potions, but farming those takes a silly amount of time and a lot of loading screens.
Escort Mission:
- There are several missions where you have to keep NPCs alive to get good rewards.
- The blind Templar Ser Otto seems Handicapped Badass enough to inspire player confidence, but he can die quite easily before his Plotline Death, and then his quest is lost.
- Surprisingly averted in the Warden's Keep DLC, which seems like this should be part of the plot. Levi Dryden, an NPC who accompanies the party throughout the whole thing, doesn't fight at all - but he also doesn't need protection, as the various enemies encountered in the fortress simply ignore him. (Presumably this is to keep the DLC from being next to impossible on higher difficulty levels.)
Eternal English: Averted for the Dwarven language, which has undergone some minor changes since the time of the First Blight. All modern Dwarves use "Astrast Tunsha"^note as a farewell, while Paragon Caridin uses the more archaic form, "Astrast Nal Tunsha".
Eternally Pearly-White Teeth: Subverted - almost everyone, peasants and royalty alike, seem to have yellowed teeth, which is fairly realistic considering the equivalent technology level.
Even Evil Has Standards: Zevran mentions that the Antivan Crows were reluctant to take a contract on the Grey Wardens; even in Antiva, the killing of Wardens is considered 'impolitic'. Ignacio later tells a PC who has completed several contracts for the Crows that the only reason they took the job is because they thought Loghain had a better chance of defeating the darkspawn.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
- Everyone in the game calls you "Warden" and refers to you solely as "the Warden", with few exceptions. Nobody ever addresses you by your first name. (Probably this is because you get to pick your name yourself, when first setting up your character.) However, the Human Noble and Dwarf Noble are frequently referenced by their surnames (Cousland and Aeducan, respectively) since they have relevance to the plot. While their names aren't very important in Origins, the Human Mage and Dalish Elf Wardens get their surnames mentioned a fair few times in the second game, as there are some characters in that game with connections to them.
- This is lampshaded by Sten (who also happens to be an example), of all people, in his Fade's dream during the Broken Circle quest:
Warden: Why do they call you "The Sten"?
Sten: For the same reason they call you "The Warden".
Everything Fades: Downplayed. All bodies fade away into low-polygon bones and gore, which remain when you return. Averted when you return to Ostagar to find the king's body perfectly intact, but that is given a codex explanation: the darkspawn taint is so fatal to living things that it even kills the parasites that would normally break down dead tissue. (And of course, when you return, it's winter, which would further stave off decomposition.)
Evil Empire: The ancient old Tevinter Imperium, whose rule stretch over almost all of Thedas, had all the brutality of the Romans (that's saying a lot) plus Blood Magic. The modern Tevinter Empire, while a Vestigial Empire controlling a tiny fraction of their old territory, isn't much better with slavery, Blood Magic, and an apparent Forever War against the Qunari.
Evil Is Sterile: The darkspawn are incapable of reproducing like other species ^note. They also seem to be mindless brutes who are only capable of destroying things, although the existence of the Architect in Awakening suggests that darkspawn may have the capacity to be less destructive if they are freed from the Archdemon's control.
Evil Pays Better:
- The lack of a Karma Meter means that refusing a reward will normally have no impact except the negative one in your wallet. Occasionally it may net a few approval points with your familiars, but you can just buy them some cheap gifts to make them happy instead. In fact, if you don't walk around with your "good-aligned" allies, you can freely intimidate many people into giving you greater rewards, with no adverse effects whatsoever, and some party members will even approve of it. The game at least accounts for this by having rewards be given by the NPC with the choice to accept or not, though demanding a reward will usually result in the more good natured party members disapproving.
- During the Siege of Redcliffe, Owen, the village blacksmith, will only agree to better outfit the militia if you agree to rescue his daughter from Redcliffe Castle. Doing so gets you a pleasant end to the quest, Owen's gratitude, and a piece of armor. However, killing Owen (either initially or at his request if you report that his daughter is dead) causes him to be replaced by another unnamed blacksmith who sells Far Song, widely considered to be the game's Infinity +1 Bow. By not taking the "evil" option, the player cannot get it.
Evil Twin: The party will face a group of evil mirror counterparts in one of the last chambers of the Gauntlet. They have the same abilities and equipment as the real party members as well as, to judge by Leliana's comments, the same faces but with malevolent expressions.
Evilutionary Biologist: Surprisingly common for a fantasy setting. Avernus, the Architect, Zathrian, the Dwarf/Tevinter Mage partnership which built Amgarrak ...suffice it to say that once you hear of someone "experimenting" with magic, you know it won't end well.
Experience Booster: The Archivist's Sash grants +50% experience from newly discovered Codex entries. The bonus only applies to the Warden, however.
Exploiting Enemy's Strengths: The Mana Clash spell operates on this trope. It drains an enemy spellcaster's mana, then deals Spirit damage based on how much mana it drained so enemies with very high mana levels get hit much harder by it than enemies with little mana. With the right setup and some gear that boosts Spirit damage, it's entirely possible to One-Hit Kill some of ths strongest spellcasting monsters in the game with it when weaker enemies would be left alive by the same setup.
Exposition Fairy: The Warden ends up taking this role in the Warden's Keep DLC and explaining various things to Levi Dryden, such as the reason for the "ghosts" at Soldier's Peak and why the Grey Wardens were practicing Blood Magic.

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