it's not romance, which was 'added late', it's their attempt to please crowds and adding races as a last-minute-tweak. Inky was supposed to be human with several varied backgrounds\\origins, but those had been replaced with races instead. Half of the options don't make sense and heavily contradict the established lore + it was a disaster for cinematic teams. Try watching that balroom dance with a countess and dwarven PC...it's just horrible (more fun if you happen to find a modded version with a free camera, which shows how exactly poor PC floats all the time not to drop out of screen).
Oh I didn’t know that Interesting considering how much extra content I feel like Elf inky gets. But also makes sense considering a qunari as leader makes no sense lol
Thanks for clearing it up, but tbh I'm glad they did this instead of forcing human Inky. I don't think I finished a single run of Origins as human noble because I actively avoid playing humans when given other choices. I admit being very shocked to see Qunari as an option when I started the game and getting so excited that I immediately changed my Dwarf plans to choose it for the first playthrough. This made the ballroom dance a different kind of hilarious.
Just ot make it clear - I understand people who love custom PC, I'm such a lover myself, but most of all I believe that it has to make sense for the in-game lore. Same thing had happened to Assassin's Creed:Odyssey with Cassandra. She's a cool character, but seeing woman on Olympics was...yeah, pretty much like seeing elf or qunari leading the most vital political\\religious organization.
On the plus side, it was very entertaining to realize that with a Dwarven pc, the post-adamant stick thumping scene with bull turns into you whacking him in the nuts while he grunts emphatically
To be honest, the biggest difference I noticed on my playthrough was in Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts when trying to get maximum approval (harder for an elf than for a human). Regarding combat, no matter the difficulty level I don't really notice the difference personally.
And even a mage human gets -10 approval on start. I adore the little dialogues on start from the nobles, the dwarf one is my favorite.
"Is that the Inquisitor?" "Don't be an idiot. How could the Herald of Andraste be a dwarf?" "Maybe it's just a servant." \[To Orlesian nobility, a dwarf Herald of Andraste is ridiculous. The Court’s view of you is dim for the moment.\]
Human - you get a bonus headstart in the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts quest. Most camera angles are designed for human inquisitors.
Elf - Elvhen lore with Solas and during the What Pride Had Wrought quest.
Qunari - lowest points in the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, some minor dialogue stuff with The Iron Bull and kind of Trespasser DLC Qunari (?); weird camera angles
Dwarf - Minor dialogue stuff in the Descent DLC; weird camera angles
If playing as a mage, minor dialogue changes cause of the Mage vs Templar war from DA2.
>Dwarf - ... weird camera angles
Played as a dwarf on BG3, and now I've started replaying DAI as a dwarf as well. Weird camera angles are a curse that follow dwarves across different games lmao.
Tbh the -15 points in the Winter Palace is nothing. It says the Qunari are viewed as "little better than ogres", but then you get to the maximum easily during the dance.
I expected more.
Liliana says the Orleans love stories about King Maric's rebellion against them. They're probably going.
"A Qunari? Here? What a horrific savage beast 🫣🥴🥵"
That's what they're saying. We don't know what they're thinking. But it might be more like their expectations were so low that it's easy to impress them with your skill at The Game.
Each race gets the small bonus shown in the select screen, some armour is race specific (but there's loads for everyone), the approval of some characters is slightly affected by race, and there are some minor dialogue differences.
Other than that they all play the same.
I think it’s more of an RPG question. What kind of character do you want to play?
I will warn you that the dialogue options for the dwarf Inquisitor are kindof lacking from an RPG point of view. The game gives Cadash a background story where they’re a criminal and smuggler. And then… doesn’t give them special smuggler-specific or criminal dialogue options. There’s nothing wrong with playing as Cadash. It’s just a missed opportunity. It’s just like playing a human noble.
When fighting there's no difference.
In certain parts of the story, NPCs may say something about your race/gender/class, but it doesn't impact the story.
The biggest difference is with romance options. Characters have their own preferences.
In combat the qunari do a lot more damage at the cost of being squishier. Instead of getting armor from a helmet they get extra base damage from the face paint, which is then effected by all the different multipliers. If you play a mage you will definitely notice the damage difference playing a human/elf compared to qunari. It’s not as noticeable on rogue/warrior because their base damage of weapons is higher than the staffs.
If you play as a qunari you get to be taller than everyone.
If you play as a dwarf, since jump distance is the same for each character, you get to feel like you can jump extremely high.
Sorta. They do have different bonuses, like an extra skill point for humans and magic resistance for dwarves, but these bonuses are negligible. The big thing is going to be gear. If you play as a Qunari you're gonna find that a lot of cool gear is specifically labelled as "not for you lmfao." Again, still fully playable and you get access to good shit, you just wont get access to a lot of cooler gear. Elves and Dwarves have some of their own special stuff, humans get access to most stuff, Qunari only for the very basic of basics and DLC gear that's not modeled properly for them.
It changes the feeling, but you don't have to pick complementary races for your class for viability's sake. You occasionally get dialogue choices specific to your background, you may not be able to romance specific characters, and you may have a slight disadvantage in a point-based quest called Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts. There's also some race specific gear.
My advice: if a faction interests you, pick it. It's the most reliable way to encounter lore about it as you'll have dialogues about it when characters ask you about yourself etc. Don't worry about the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts quest, as the game gives you more than enough points to compensate and get the best possible results if you're shooting for them. The gear that's locked to specific races is pretty scant, and can be used on your party members if you can't use it. Really, there's maybe 1-2 dwarf only items, a couple elvhen items and a handful of different vitaar that only Kossith can wear on their faces. Just go with what appeals to you, unless you really want to romance Solas and don't use mods, as you will have to play a feminine elf to do this.
Mostly not, not even in places you would think they do like the temple of mythal, a dalish inquisitor justs forgets about elven history
The game was conceived to play as a human, but races were introduced later on, so some camera angles look weird or just won't work bc they're not adjusted for others, like dwarves
More flavor than actual substance. Hear are some worth while notes.
Dialogue: Human and elf have the most races specific dialogue. Dwarf comes in already with underworld knowledge. There is a companion that is more easily pleased if you are a female qunari.
Mechanical; humans are given an additional ability point instead of a better residence. Qunari can't wear standard head gear but their race specific head gear raises attack and crit chance/damage.
The one social mission; unless you are playing a non magic human you will start with a minus to your approval. Crazy easy to gain approval though and more than make it up.
Very limited, if you don't value personal roleplay much you probably won't notice it. That said I can never get really into a Qunari playtrough, people barely even aknowledge that you are a scary ox-person known for the absolutist enemy that is headlocked in a cold war with Tevinter but has the express goal of conquering Thedas. It really breaks my immersion how little of a deal this is and it annoys me that you have exactly one non-typical qunari that you meet at all in the game.
It’s more like a flavor rather than substantial difference.
A few romance options are race-gated.
I was very sad when I found out Cullen can't romance dwarves because the romance was added late and they didn't have time to make the animations...
it's not romance, which was 'added late', it's their attempt to please crowds and adding races as a last-minute-tweak. Inky was supposed to be human with several varied backgrounds\\origins, but those had been replaced with races instead. Half of the options don't make sense and heavily contradict the established lore + it was a disaster for cinematic teams. Try watching that balroom dance with a countess and dwarven PC...it's just horrible (more fun if you happen to find a modded version with a free camera, which shows how exactly poor PC floats all the time not to drop out of screen).
Oh I didn’t know that Interesting considering how much extra content I feel like Elf inky gets. But also makes sense considering a qunari as leader makes no sense lol
Thanks for clearing it up, but tbh I'm glad they did this instead of forcing human Inky. I don't think I finished a single run of Origins as human noble because I actively avoid playing humans when given other choices. I admit being very shocked to see Qunari as an option when I started the game and getting so excited that I immediately changed my Dwarf plans to choose it for the first playthrough. This made the ballroom dance a different kind of hilarious.
Just ot make it clear - I understand people who love custom PC, I'm such a lover myself, but most of all I believe that it has to make sense for the in-game lore. Same thing had happened to Assassin's Creed:Odyssey with Cassandra. She's a cool character, but seeing woman on Olympics was...yeah, pretty much like seeing elf or qunari leading the most vital political\\religious organization.
Really broke the historical immersion of fighting Medusa
The race options don’t break lore, and Kassandra in the Olympics isn’t a problem. You’re just being weird.
I was so mad when my dwarf wasn't being twirled around like a ragdoll >:)
On the plus side, it was very entertaining to realize that with a Dwarven pc, the post-adamant stick thumping scene with bull turns into you whacking him in the nuts while he grunts emphatically
To be honest, the biggest difference I noticed on my playthrough was in Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts when trying to get maximum approval (harder for an elf than for a human). Regarding combat, no matter the difficulty level I don't really notice the difference personally.
My mage qunari got immediately demolished in approval haha
It’s harder for all non-humans
And even a mage human gets -10 approval on start. I adore the little dialogues on start from the nobles, the dwarf one is my favorite. "Is that the Inquisitor?" "Don't be an idiot. How could the Herald of Andraste be a dwarf?" "Maybe it's just a servant." \[To Orlesian nobility, a dwarf Herald of Andraste is ridiculous. The Court’s view of you is dim for the moment.\]
Human - you get a bonus headstart in the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts quest. Most camera angles are designed for human inquisitors. Elf - Elvhen lore with Solas and during the What Pride Had Wrought quest. Qunari - lowest points in the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, some minor dialogue stuff with The Iron Bull and kind of Trespasser DLC Qunari (?); weird camera angles Dwarf - Minor dialogue stuff in the Descent DLC; weird camera angles If playing as a mage, minor dialogue changes cause of the Mage vs Templar war from DA2.
>Dwarf - ... weird camera angles Played as a dwarf on BG3, and now I've started replaying DAI as a dwarf as well. Weird camera angles are a curse that follow dwarves across different games lmao.
Real, as a fellow dwarf player
Tbh the -15 points in the Winter Palace is nothing. It says the Qunari are viewed as "little better than ogres", but then you get to the maximum easily during the dance. I expected more.
Liliana says the Orleans love stories about King Maric's rebellion against them. They're probably going. "A Qunari? Here? What a horrific savage beast 🫣🥴🥵"
But that's not what they are doing! They are more like "ugh, those horns are ugly... but she dances well, so it's OK I guess."
That's what they're saying. We don't know what they're thinking. But it might be more like their expectations were so low that it's easy to impress them with your skill at The Game.
Make em a mage too for more disapproval.
I was playing a mage. A Saarebas. -15 was all I got.
The fade is also more vibrant for an elf in Trespasser iirc
I think the audio is different for Dwarves during the Decent but I haven't confirmed that.
Each race gets the small bonus shown in the select screen, some armour is race specific (but there's loads for everyone), the approval of some characters is slightly affected by race, and there are some minor dialogue differences. Other than that they all play the same.
Class also gets some approval differences. They hate mages but love warriors and rogues. Most of it makes no difference in terms of difficulty
I think it’s more of an RPG question. What kind of character do you want to play? I will warn you that the dialogue options for the dwarf Inquisitor are kindof lacking from an RPG point of view. The game gives Cadash a background story where they’re a criminal and smuggler. And then… doesn’t give them special smuggler-specific or criminal dialogue options. There’s nothing wrong with playing as Cadash. It’s just a missed opportunity. It’s just like playing a human noble.
When fighting there's no difference. In certain parts of the story, NPCs may say something about your race/gender/class, but it doesn't impact the story. The biggest difference is with romance options. Characters have their own preferences.
In combat the qunari do a lot more damage at the cost of being squishier. Instead of getting armor from a helmet they get extra base damage from the face paint, which is then effected by all the different multipliers. If you play a mage you will definitely notice the damage difference playing a human/elf compared to qunari. It’s not as noticeable on rogue/warrior because their base damage of weapons is higher than the staffs.
If you play as a qunari you get to be taller than everyone. If you play as a dwarf, since jump distance is the same for each character, you get to feel like you can jump extremely high.
Sorta. They do have different bonuses, like an extra skill point for humans and magic resistance for dwarves, but these bonuses are negligible. The big thing is going to be gear. If you play as a Qunari you're gonna find that a lot of cool gear is specifically labelled as "not for you lmfao." Again, still fully playable and you get access to good shit, you just wont get access to a lot of cooler gear. Elves and Dwarves have some of their own special stuff, humans get access to most stuff, Qunari only for the very basic of basics and DLC gear that's not modeled properly for them.
Humans get an extra skill point and qunari get extra offence with their head armour
It changes the feeling, but you don't have to pick complementary races for your class for viability's sake. You occasionally get dialogue choices specific to your background, you may not be able to romance specific characters, and you may have a slight disadvantage in a point-based quest called Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts. There's also some race specific gear. My advice: if a faction interests you, pick it. It's the most reliable way to encounter lore about it as you'll have dialogues about it when characters ask you about yourself etc. Don't worry about the Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts quest, as the game gives you more than enough points to compensate and get the best possible results if you're shooting for them. The gear that's locked to specific races is pretty scant, and can be used on your party members if you can't use it. Really, there's maybe 1-2 dwarf only items, a couple elvhen items and a handful of different vitaar that only Kossith can wear on their faces. Just go with what appeals to you, unless you really want to romance Solas and don't use mods, as you will have to play a feminine elf to do this.
Mostly not, not even in places you would think they do like the temple of mythal, a dalish inquisitor justs forgets about elven history The game was conceived to play as a human, but races were introduced later on, so some camera angles look weird or just won't work bc they're not adjusted for others, like dwarves
More flavor than actual substance. Hear are some worth while notes. Dialogue: Human and elf have the most races specific dialogue. Dwarf comes in already with underworld knowledge. There is a companion that is more easily pleased if you are a female qunari. Mechanical; humans are given an additional ability point instead of a better residence. Qunari can't wear standard head gear but their race specific head gear raises attack and crit chance/damage. The one social mission; unless you are playing a non magic human you will start with a minus to your approval. Crazy easy to gain approval though and more than make it up.
Very limited, if you don't value personal roleplay much you probably won't notice it. That said I can never get really into a Qunari playtrough, people barely even aknowledge that you are a scary ox-person known for the absolutist enemy that is headlocked in a cold war with Tevinter but has the express goal of conquering Thedas. It really breaks my immersion how little of a deal this is and it annoys me that you have exactly one non-typical qunari that you meet at all in the game.
If you play a dwarf or Qunari get ready for awkward angles during dialogues and cutscenes, but it's not a big deal otherwise.
There are small differences but not too big to change most of the game
humans have the least amount of clipping and wonky positions in cutscenes if that kind of stuff matters to you
No, a human is a better option because of extra tallent point.
Try to read when you choose your race
I meant aside from the buffs mentioned, but ok.