So what's your preference?

Warrior, because mage gameplay is shit and I don't like rogue Grey Warden armor (I use Grey Wardens of Ferelden mod). Plus in my head only warriors can wear Warden Commander armor

Rogue, because that way I have access to all the things and see all the areas.

Mage-no contest.

They can destroy foes at range and then take out bosses in melee, with either Arcane Warrior or Shapeshifter. I just enjoy destroying groups at a time, with either spells or Swarm Form getting in the middle of a group and taking them out over time.

Rogue-very impressive, especially with the Ranger spec. There was a table showing how destructive the pet forms got on the old forums, i'll look to see if i can bring it over one of these days.

Warrior-third place, even with it being my original character. The one redeeming thing about warriors is the dual wield warrior spec; I'd like to see it bought back in the future.

First time I've played Origins was with a Mage, second - with a Rogue. I find that Origins is hard on class choices, because:

Why would you play a Warrior if you have Alistair, Dog, Sten, Oghren and Shale? It's like half the cast you now can't use, b/c it duplicates your main

Mages are both healers and rdps in the game, but you have only two to recruit, one heals, other - an openly evil aligned dps and probably the most objectionable evil companion in any BioWARE game since 1998. If you yourself want to be a mage, either heals or dps, you will only see one introduction story AND restrict yourself to only 2 out of 3 races.

Rogues are insanely needful in the game because of stealth, traps and the game's propensity to hide away a mage with uber AoE spell that needs to be interrupted behind a huge mob and traps in an inaccessible place. And, yeah, the chests. You get one rogue early on, and the second - way later. The amount of skill points you get almost dictates two rogues rather than two mages in the party, with one stealth and assassination specialist, and the second the locks and archery specialist. Finally, it is the rogue that is customizable in the traditionally a warrior class, the ranger, AND the rogue class - the bard.

So, overall, I'd say, that if you factor everything in, Origins is designed to be played with a rogue, because it's the most versatile for the player in terms of selecting the team-mates, accommodating the professions of your romances, and building an interesting main character with access to all races and origins (save for a mage one)

The mage is quite useful on deciding how you want to approach a threat through its vast array of spells bestowed from each schools of magic and coupled with specializations.

Rogues can be good. bad. in between. They have, more often, a dirtier background they have to rise above and the skills from that dirtier background to use- for good or evil. Their fighting skills are loose, improper. They're scrappers who have had to fight for what they have in life. People who have had to work around the system- create loopholes in their improper fighting habits with poisons, traps, to even the playing field.

The presentation of Warriors in dragon age is mostly someone committed to king, country, religion- raised among the middle class or above and put into a position where they received "proper fighting training." This is boring to me from an RP perspective on so many levels. Additionally, my only skills I can bring to the table of battle being "whack whack whack", and literally battling at that speed, drives me mad. The closest to enjoying a warrior class that I've found in DA in DAI two hander.

In Dragon Age games: Rogue

Fantasy in general: Mage

A lot of it has more to do with the game design of Dragon Age than mere personal preference.

Rogues are the only class in these games with out of combat utility. Undoing traps, unlocking doors and chests, stealth etc.

Outside of Dragon Age, mages can have spells for all of that stuff and warriors can just brute force things open.

I can certainly understand it.  You don't have any rogues that are really very useful for anything other than DPS (I mean, honestly, Zevran is GREAT at killing people but he's horrible at everything else, and Leliana is such a good-two-shoes that's it's almost laughable sometimes).  And rogues certainly have the dps and killing thing down.

Personally I prefer mages.

Warriors, on the other hand are a dime a dozen.  It doesn't take any skill or strategy to play them at all so I'm sure they're the default for many.

Heh, I always make Leliana great at unlocking chests.  So she is really helpful to me.

True.  She is far better at it than Zevran from the start (plus you get her much earlier), but, you have to admit that she's a bit of a goody-two-shoes in DA:O.

On a larf I had she and Zevran rescue me from the prison.  Their banter was priceless and they work as an incredible team.

Especially with thick soles that weigh as much as bricks?  Or maybe narrow heals with front embellishments - bows or perhaps embroidery.