Which THREE DA2 companions are must-have for you?

Varric, Fenris and Aveline are my go-to companions unless I am doing personal quests for the others. Varric because I need a rogue if I'm playing a mage, which is what I usually do. And Fenris and Aveline are great warriors and tanks and get rid of those enemies pretty darn quick. And since Fenris is my LI, I take him mostly everywhere - unless I'd doing mage friendly quests

Fenris enjoy following Hawke. Anywhere. Including to fight for mages. He should be understand: there are no mage freedom, ONLY freedom. Especially if he wants to live with a mage. Why need to hide this from him?

Fenris, especially with the DA2 Redesigned mod. He shaves away that edgy lone wolf haircut and went bald instead, making him actually badass-looking, thus earning my female Hawke's rivalmance (unfortunately, she flirted with Anders before recruiting Fenris... girls do prefer bad boys after all).

This is during my current replay of DA2, still in Act 1 though, so my opinion might change and improve on the other companions.

Aveline and Merrill are okay, having a decent friendship with Hawke. No strong opinions about either of them. I like that Aveline strides between bending the rules and upholding justice rather than acting like a by-the-book stiff. It helps that she's the only tank in the game supporting my mage-Hawke. Merrill is cute enough (I went with her default look rather than the "Redesigned" fan-made one as I found it cuter), and her use of blood magic despite her naive persona is kinda adorable.

I want to say Varric is another must-have, but as funny as he can be sometimes, I just don't like him enough to feel he's a "must-have" companion, much like Aveline and Merrill. I like having him around, but I could make do without him too. Same with the sassy pirate with a mouth. Varric > Isa any day though in terms of who's funnier.

My mage-Hawke is sympathetic enough towards Anders, as am I, but I really prefer Awakening-Anders over this more angst-filled one. I miss the sarcasm. And god, poor Justice, now turned into a spirit of vengeance. Since I'm already a mage, he's not really a must-have unless I need a healer around (and even then, he's not that great as a healer compared to Spirit Healer Hawke, which to be fair, is a tree I currently haven't taken up).

Soooo, in conclusion, there's only one for me - the edgy lone wolf. But mostly because of that one rivalmance sex scene I accidentally saw the other day. Man, that's hot.

I haven't actually recruited Seb yet, now that you mention it. Some said that he's way more whiny than Carver. lol Would love to see just how much I could put up with him.

While I'm not the biggest Sebastian fan, I like having him in my game. Adds variety to Hawke's merry band. Plus him pulling off ultimate drama queen is worth a few laughs

Currently in Act 2 of my DA2 replay, so I have a weightier opinion now. But truth be told, I feel like it really comes down to the type of quests I'm doing. If it's a mage/templar-related quest, it would naturally be Anders, Fenris, and Merrill, for their relationships to mages in general. If it's a more "clear the thugs out" mob-quest, or something related to the Kirkwall guards, then the guard-captain Aveline would be the ideal companion. Varric is kinda the odd man out here as he rarely fits into a lot of the quests I'm doing, but he generally fits into those that require a cunning wit or a sharp tongue, which is why he's often paired with Isabela on those missions due to their prowess as fellow rogues.

And because Sebastian only arrived in Act 2, I haven't figured out where to place him yet. I generally don't bring him along on mage-related missions, because I want Maximus Hawke to maintain friendship with him, not rivalry, and most of the time, rescuing mages or sympathizing with them will produce tension with Seb, something I'd rather avoid. I actually had to force the usually sarcastic Max to make the more diplomatic dialogue choices just to get on his good side, at times feeling rather unnatural about it.

That said, because I'm using the Dragon Age wiki as a guide, I try to bring along companions that have bonus dialogue or approval on specific quests, though more for thematic reasons than the desire to gain approval. It also gives me good excuses to swap out my party members in a healthy frequency. Gives me lots of ambient dialogue to listen to.

On a sidenote: the usually dull Aveline that I didn't bring along very often had a really badass scene in the Act 2 quest, "Offered and Lost" if you brought her along to The Hanged Man:

Aveline: "Who bought your honor, and turned a proud guard of Kirkwall into a drunken Mabari bitch?"
Guard: (whimpers and scurries off)

That gal's starting to grow on me. I might romance her in the next playthrough.

I rotate my party quite a bit, but my most used team must be Anders, Varric and rotation in warrior slot (if I have Carver, he's mostly occupying this spot in Act 1, in Act 2 & 3 Aveline/Fenris). What can I say, I like mage, rogue, warrior formula for companions no matter which class I play myself (same goes for other DA games).

Isabela, Varric and Merrill! Especially Isabela and Merrill, they're like honey.

I never roll a warrior Hawke so it is a bit lopsided, but I always made my parties based on the characters/quest relevance rather than functionality lol

Act 1: Bethany, Varric, Aveline
Rest: Varric, Aveline, Isabela

My party for the endgame with my mage was Aveline, Varric and Carver. Same party I had when I arrived in Kirkwall. Those meant the most to me, it wasn't about usefulness. Before Carver showed up it was Merrill, as two mages is always fun.

Why the hell is this poll locked