After having played a dual wield rogue through in Dragon Age: Origins, studying up on the subject matter, and reading lots of community posts, I realized that there is a lack of detail-oriented class guides that put all those bits and pieces of information together. So, I finally got around to jotting down something about melee rogues that offers something for both power gamers and casual players.

This guide currently applies to the latest version of Dragon Age: Origins (v1.04). If you are playing a version of the game below 1.02b (e.g. console user not playing the Ultimate Edition or patched up to 1.03 at least), then you will encounter the infamous "Dexterity bug" which prevents Dexterity from contributing to piercing weapon damage (such as daggers). In that case, you may want to focus on Cunning instead of Dexterity.

Any mods mentioned in this guide apply to the PC version of the game only.

Contents

1. Attributes and Core Talents
   • 1.1. Race / Origin
   • 1.2. Fade Bonuses
   • 1.3. Core Talents
   • 1.4. Specializations
   • 1.5. Bonus Talent Points
   • 1.6. Dexterity Build
   • 1.7. Cunning Build
2. Skills and Characteristic Abilities
   • 2.1. Lockpicking
   • 2.2. Poisons
     • 2.2.1. Bombs (Grenades)
     • 2.2.2. Weapon Coatings
   • 2.3. Stealing
   • 2.4. Stealth
   • 2.5. Traps
   • 2.6. Coercion
3. Equipment and Properties
   • 3.1. Fast vs. Slow Weapons
   • 3.2. Critical / Backstab
   • 3.3. Armor Penetration
   • 3.4. Enchantment!
   • 3.5. Avoidance
4. Party Synergies
5. References