Romantic Entanglements--Dragon Age: Origins

Maybe you're not a fan of all the sci-fi weirdness that is a part of the Mass Effect series and prefer the more fantasy oriented Dragon Age.  The Dragon Age series follows the general patterns of BioWare games and presents you with the option to romance a member of your retinue.  No longer do you have to worry about dating an alien.  Instead you have to puzzle through the intricacies of inter-racial relationships between humans, elves, dwarves, and qunari.

Dragon Age:  Origins is an epic game with equally epic romantic options.  Your chosen hero can have one of three different races and have a different background depending on the class you choose.  As a result of these added modifiers, I spend much more time thinking about and playing matchmaker to my many heroes of Fereldan.

Has it been awhile since you've played Origins?  Yeah, it's been awhile for me too but I'm going to try to remember all the options for romance.  Let's start off with Alistair, the goofy, former almost-templar and possible inheritor of the Fereldan throne.  One major difference between Dragon Age and Mass Effect is that I tend to match my characters based on their chosen classes AND personality traits as opposed to just personality.  Would a mage really hook up with a templar?  I suppose it's possible, but probably unlikely.  I tend to match Alistair with my warriors/rogues who take a decidedly anti-magic stance and who opt for the more paragon-like choices.  If you do choose Alistair you have to make some rather disturbing choices later in the game regarding him possibly marrying Anora AND impregnating Morrigan.

If Alistair is not the perfect match for your hero you could opt for Leliana.  You meet up with her early in the game and have ample opportunities to interact with her and learn her history.  As a former bard but also a former nun she is an interesting choice.  She's a good match for almost any class/race/background combo due to her weird background.  Leliana is my favorite romantic choice in Dragon Age:  Origins and one of my favorite characters.

Maybe your character is more of a tough guy/girl who wants to blaze their own path.  Morrigan is definitely the best option in that case.  You have to play a pretty ruthless character to win Morrigan's favor--she usually disagrees with almost all of the choices I make and I get used to seeing the -10 pop-up.  Morrigan is definitely an exotic choice with her "witch of the wilds" background and growing up under the care of a possible demon.  She is also arguably the most physically attractive member of your crew.  You do have to consider the whole "demon baby" scenario towards the end of the game.  In my many playthroughs of DA:O I have had success romancing Morrigan once.  She and my dwarf rogue made a strikingly odd couple.

Zevran.  I've never picked him.

But what about possible non-human matches?  There's always Zevran, the elven assassin from Antiva.  I have never chosen him as an option.  Never!  I don't really know why...  He could be a good match for a character with more of a renegade type of background.  I always liked listening to Zevran talk about his life in Antiva.  He's actually really interesting--an assassin who grew up in a brothel.