Who are the Best Dragon Age Companions? A Comparison for People who like Comparisons.

A piece of fan art depicting the companions from Dragon Age II appeared on my Facebook timeline earlier this week.  The art itself was neat but the comments were what caught my attention.  The comment section was filled with arguments about whether the companions in Dragon Age II were better than those in Inquisition.  Since I had somewhat recently decided to delve back into Dragon Age II and it is fresh in my mind, I decided I would put some serious thought into that question and do a sort of comparison between them to come to a final consensus about which companions are actually better.

I'm going to break down my comparisons by class.  Let's start with our tanks!  Something I've liked about both Dragon Age II and Inquisition is that they made most of the tank characters female.  This seems like a "bucking the system" choice as the stereotypical tank character is usually some hulking male figure.

Dragon Age II--Aveline Vallen

Aveline is your go-to tank in Dragon Age II.  You meet her very early in the game and she's with you until the end.  I will say that I am not a huge fan of the tank talents in Dragon Age II (it's very possible that I am also inept at choosing the correct ones and setting up tactics correctly).  The tank talents in Inquisition are much better even with the small variation between Cassandra and Blackwall.

As a character Aveline has an interesting story--she was raised by her father, a former Orlesian chevalier, with the intent of training her to be the knight he never was.  Aveline seems to have some resentment towards him because of this.  At the beginning of the game she is forced (or your character) to kill her own husband who has fallen victim to the darkspawn taint.  I think BioWare does a great job of finding some small details that make their characters seem more human and Aveline is no exception.  One of the goofier quests in Dragon Age II involves awkwardly trying to set Aveline up with one of her fellow guards.  You realize very quickly how inept she is at capturing his attention and are forced to intervene on her behalf.  Her morality seems to lead toward justice-oriented choices.  As guard captain she's not fond of breaking the rules.  Using BioWare-esque language, she would be more of a paragon-friendly character.

Dragon Age:  Inquisition--Cassandra Pentaghast

Cassandra appears in Dragon Age II as an NPC but becomes a playable character in Inquisition.  Even without being able to play Cassandra in DAII you are already able to get a good idea about her personality--she's strong, serious, and dedicated to the Chantry.

As a playable character in Inquisition you get more opportunities to interact with and learn about Cassandra.  The addition of the "guard" stat in Inquisition made my tanks feel...more tanky--they felt like a damage sponge who could withstand big groups of enemies or just big baddies.  The templar tree specific to Cassandra featured some pretty handy AoE type attacks that were much more useful than Aveline's limited set of group grabbing talents.  In general I felt confident that Cassandra could keep the baddies from whacking my other party members.

Cassandra's personality can feel very stern but it feeds in well with her story of being a dedicated servant of the Divine.  She's focused on her duties to the Chantry and isn't willing to sway much from her goals.  Her story of being Nevarran royalty but giving that up to serve the divine helps define who she is in Inquisition.  She isn't a character who is going to make you laugh, but her interaction with Varric is pretty funny.  They definitely don't like each other after the long interrogation depicted in Dragon Age II.  Like Aveline, Cassandra is made more relatable by her secret love of romance novels.  Late-ish in Inquisition you can set out on a quest to mediate the strained relationship between Varric and Cassandra with the goal of getting Varric to finish writing his romance serial for Cassandra.  It's a light moment for an otherwise serious character.

Dragon Age:  Inquisition--Blackwall

If you're looking for a memorable character...it's not Blackwall.  Blackwall is a former Grey Warden (sort of!  Spoilers!) who you meet as he is travelling through the countryside trying to recruit new wardens.  His talents as a warrior vary from Cassandra's but he is still a very solid tanking character.  I have always enjoyed his "Line in the Sand" ability which can be used to channel the bad guys toward Blackwall and away from your squishy characters.

As a character, Blackwall is not quite as interesting as Cassandra or Aveline.  His dedication to re-building the Grey Wardens is a central theme in your interactions.  A big part of his story is intentionally vague and later on you find out that he is actually faking his identity as a Grey Warden.  He is actually an Orlesian mercenary who had been involved in some intrigue and murder.  Blackwall is actually a man named Thom Rainier and assumed the identity of a Grey Warden who he saw die.

So who's the best tank?  Do you choose someone with an interesting story or with the best tanking talents?

Talents:  Cassandra.  Her templar tree gives you the versatility to be a bulwark against magic attacks but to also use the more AoE oriented abilities to keep the attention of a large group of enemies.

Personality:  Aveline.  Despite being a serious character, Aveline has moments of lightness that make her a fun character to keep in the party.  I've always enjoyed her companion quests that involve her awkward wooing of fellow guard Donnic.

Next:  The Brawny Warrior Men--A comparison!