Specializations

I'm hoping that they might bring back Spirit Warrior. They were meant to be rare and viewed with suspicion in the south because of the close connection with spirits and the fact to Templars they look like apostate mages but up in Tevinter I would imagine there were no such prejudices and it would be considered a good way to buff up their Soporati soldiers. To some extent, I think the Seekers in the south are actually Spirit Warriors since they get their abilities from a faith spirit, although in DAI Cassandra just had the Templar build, which I found disappointing because their abilities are meant to be different.

Another possibility is the Perrepatae. In Mage Killer we are told these are warriors in Tevinter specifically trained to kill mages, which would make a lot of sense for, say, a bodyguard if the most likely attackers are going to be other mages. Of course, it could be that their abilities would only be similar to those of Templars but without needing lyrium. Which reminds me, Tevinter Templars don't use lyrium and serve the state as a sort of police force, so presumably they would be trained as perrepate too.

I definitely hope they can come up with something original for at least one of the Warrior specialisations considering we are going to a completely different part of Thedas. If they introduce a specialisation with abilities along the lines of Skywatcher, I hope they adapt it to the northern setting. How about making them associated with a Fog Warrior?

Mind you, I'm hoping that there is more choice in specialisations in all of the classes this time round. Since we are going to Tevinter, Blood Mage ought to be a possibility once again and I would also like Spirit Healer to make a return. Alternatively, how about another specialisation from DAA: Battlemage? As for rogues, I think Shadow should make a return but I wouldn't mind a new unique specialisation or something similar to Legionnaire Scout, again from DAA, but not specifically connected to the Legion of the Dead. Maybe it could be called Sicari Scout.

The problem with the specializations is that since the weaponry is limited, you can't have things that would make sense, like hoplites in ancient Greece, who carried javelins, a short sword and a spear. Tal-vashoth and qunari in the last 2 games were something like this, but it'd be too hard to implement into gameplay for the person playing. You'd have to either make it an ability, or a resource to keep topped up.

I really miss the Shapeshifter! It made me feel more immersed for some reason and gave some nice gameplay variation.

I'd also love to see Spirit Warrior in DAD. Could be a spec that enhances defense and gives self heals, or the spirits could help you do more damage instead (or even both depending on which side of the ability tree you progress down)

Also a Tevinter influenced version of the beserker spec developed in their Grand Proving Arena would be cool. Going beserk is a damage themed thing obviously, could have some aoe abilities, an ability to damage an enemy by picking them up and throwing them would be neat.

Magekiller feels like it would work for warrior or rogue. Probably looking at good defense against aoe magic (dodging or deflecting with shield for less damage), bonus to resist spell effects (honing your mind against spells like sleep, horror etc), an ability to disrupt Spellcasting ("silence" a mage with a presicion strike so they can't cast for a time).

And I'd like to see a leadership spec for the warrior, a buff/debuff spec, inspire your allies and intimidate your foes. I liked the dao champion for this, the dai Champion was mostly just tanking so was disappointing.

Moving away from warriors specifically...
If we have multiple backgrounds then I think it would be fun if we had sort of Mini specialisations (separate from whatever spec we choose at lvl 7 or whenever) granted by our backgrounds. Like if Grey Warden was a background then regardless of which class you choose you get the ability to sense darkspawn and do more damage to them.

This is another thing I was going to say, more specializations. Three is not enough, we need more! And I agree with picking multiple specialisations, that way if you had any shortcoming, another would close up that weakness.

Maybe implement a repspec option as well, we've never had that

I'm don't think we'll ever get true hybrid classes, but it's a nice idea. Templars are almost a hybrid class since they use lyrium, although all templars throughout the series say it's different than magic.

Templars have been in the games since their beginning, and since we going into Tevinter, so it's gonna be there most likely. Also, never played SWTOR or KOTOR, don't really play multiplayer stuff, only ME3 and some fighting games.

Honestly, it's so wild that there is somehow only one way to be a frontline mage, that goes all the way back to ancient elves. What about the apostates who need to hide their magic? Especially second generation ones, who would have the opportunity to train with weapons outside of circle. Running around with a staff totally isn't going to get you dragged to a circle tower, I promise! Or yeah, someone who's magic manifested late. Dragon Age has so much grand, mystical world building around the Maker, Fade, elven Pantheons, but then the things common people would encounter are practically forgotten about, and it's a shame. 



I try
Mages who are more than simple spell slingers, or physical combatants who also use spells have been kind of my thing for pretty much as long as I played RPGs. Arcane Archers are another good archetype, just for other people, I want to be in the melee . And yet, precious few video games offer it as an option to the extent I would like, if at all, so I've had a lot of time to refine what do I actually want, and different flavours for it too.


And it's also why I usually gravitate towards games with more open-ended class systems, whether that's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Mass Effect Andromeda, or even something like Souls games. Because they tend to make what I want possible more often than strictly defined systems. Not to say there aren't games with strictly defined classes that gave me what I wanted. Pillars of Eternity has Ciphers who are super cool both thematically and in gameplay, Pathfinder games have Magus the eldritch scion variant is better than the int ones tho

For Dragon Age specifically, Arcane Warrior and Knight Enchanter have been a decent compromise, but they are both hindered by being only specialisations. Arcane Warrior needed to give you more melee options than just auto-attack, but of course it couldn't because it needed all 4 of its specialisation slots to actually enable mage to be in the melee, and Knight Enchanter was stuck with staves and light armour. The latter could've been fine, since there are heavy looking light armours (or making heavier ones with fade touched mats), but the lack of melee weapons is a big one, since in DAI you can't even let yourself use whatever with mods without breaking combat balance in half, since non-mage weapons have 4 times the staff damage, but mages have high weapon damage ratios on abilities to balance it out. (For comparison, more powerful warrior abilities are around 250-300% weapon damage, while several mage abilities are 800%-1200% weapon damage, while lvl 25 greatsword has ~300 damage per hit and staff has ~85)

And that's ignoring the fact that them being specialisations means you're stuck with only one sort of flavour for your character, while hybrids could let you have basic hybrid capabilities as well as specialisation to flesh it out.

Which is ultimately why I propose either open-ended system where you can mix and match to your heart's content, or hybrid classes so they can be balanced for what they need to do. 

As was the case in DAO. There you didn't need the staff to focus your magic but it could be kept equipped when casting spells, whereas other weapons had to be sheathed/dropped from the hands to do this (which I was okay with). It could also be used as a channel for a particular form of ranged magic. So, it made sense to keep the staff equipped the majority of the time as the number of other weapons you could use was limited without the Arcane Warrior specialisation. For some reason, probably simplicity, they decided to dispense with this in DA2 and make it necessary for a mage to always carry a staff to channel their magic. Of course, there was no arcane warrior spec in DA2 but it was still frustrating compared with DAO. Then when they introduced Knight Enchanter as the replacement for Arcane Warrior in DAI, they gave you a magical light sabre instead of the ability to use weapons and armour normally restricted to warriors. Of course, it wasn't just mages who were affected by the simplification of the fighting mechanics. Now warriors can't use ranged weapons at all and rogues can only dual wield daggers. I would much rather have the flexibility we had in DAO but I doubt that will ever return.

I don't feel we need hybrid class which you opt for from the outset of the game. I much prefer having the option to take a specialisation that has a hybrid feel to it, as with Arcane Warrior in DAO and Legionnaire Scout in DAA. So, Knight Enchanter should have been more a mage/warrior crossover rather than more akin to being a Jedi. Spirit Warrior could have some degree of magical offensive capability as well as defensive, although to some extent that was the case with Templar, so a bit of tweaking could probably turn it into an effective Warrior/mage hybrid. As you say, just renaming and adjusting the lore surrounding the Legionnaire Scout would do the trick for Rogue/Warrior. Nevertheless, I wouldn't mind being restricted to just one class type if we had the sort of variety and adaptability of skills available to it as we had in DAO. Also, a return to multiple specialisms if your level warrants it. I found DAI very disappointing in that respect.

I'm going to take a contrary tack here (I know you're all surprised ) but hopefully one I can flesh out fairly well. Specialization is a great way to provide flavor to a 'base' class, but it should also be one of the most important role-playing moments for the Player in the game. It should influence some options available, some interaction topics, Companion approval and interactions, and so on to the same level if not more than say Race or base Class. As such, I'm really not a fan of multiple Specializations for a Character. Each Specialization should be a unique viewpoint, an exclusive window into the Protagonist's soul after several hours of play. The type of dedication doesn't really allow for two different viewpoints. I think Inquisition was going the right direction in general with Specializations by adding trainers and trying to make the pursuit of a specialization more part of a story and lore, but there were dreadful decisions on implementations (we certainly agree on that, gervaise). What I would like to see is some more interactive work with a trainer (and possibly Companions) that help cement the viewpoint of the specialization and emphasize its role. Then there should be a triggerable adventure roughly the size and content level of Cassandra's assault on the Promisers in Promises of Destruction from Inquisition with the focus on learning the basic tricks of your trade and/or to fuse the story of your chosen specialization to your Character. With the level of involvement in the story of your specialization, having more than one might be difficult to test effectively besides not making as much sense in this scenario. I would like to see perhaps one more available spec per base class and some more broadening of the Skill trees for each one so the Player can build a richer experience no matter what specialization they choose.

Now, about classes in the modern CRPG. Classes in the classical sense were always pretty much stand-ins for roles. Looking at the old AD&D class system, the basic classes were pretty much direct maps. Fighters -Tanks, Clerics - Support/Healers, Thieves - DPS, Wizards - Blasters. With Dragon Age, though, the three classes have blurred the lines somewhat in all roles. Warriors are still the best Tanks, but they can also DPS and do a little Support. Rogues can be DPS machines but as Archers they can be Blasters or do Support. Mages were narrowed in Inquisition, but you could build a Knight Enchanter Tank. Instead of getting rid of classes or try to multiply base classes, add some more skills in both Base and Specializations that would allow a Player to build to any Role or a hybrid of Roles with any base class. The base would just describe how the Role would be filled. Warriors would fill Roles with physical strength, discipline, martial training, fortitude, etc. Rogues would fulfill roles with guile, speed, alchemy, stealth, etc. Mages would use magic that best suits the Role. The two keys would be 1: to guide the Player so they don't wind up with a scattered, useless jack-of-all-trades and 2: to balance things so each base class can complement the others without making one the obvious, only choice.

Thanks for your time.