Factions breathe political intrigue into Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and youâll align yourself with one while creating a new character. Although you can change things like your appearance later on, you cannot change your faction once youâve picked one.
For the most part, what faction you choose is mostly to do with dialogue options that are available to you, but there are a handful of meaningful gameplay effects as well.
Our Dragon Age: The Veilguard guide will tell you everything you need to know about the gameâs factions, as well as some advice on how to choose the best faction for you.
Once youâre done picking a faction, hereâs how to pick the best class for you.
How important are factions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
There are six factions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and you have to align yourself with one of them in character creation. At a glance, they are:
- Grey Wardens
- Veil Wardens
- Shadow Dragons
- Antivan Crows
- Lords of Fortune
- The Mourn Watch
All six factions have unique, sometimes contrasting motivations (Grey Wardens exist solely to purge darkspawn, while the Antivan Crows are essentially Renaissance Italy assassins), which The Veilguard summarizes during the character creator and expands upon at length throughout the story. Each faction primarily operates in one of The Veilguardâs major hubs, so how frequently you interact with a faction depends on where youâre located geographically.
1/6Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts via Polygon
When it comes to picking a faction, there are some gameplay ramifications to bear in mind. The faction you choose determines what outfit you wear by default at The Lighthouse, your hub between missions. (You can can see these outfits on a generic elf in the gallery above.) Six of your seven companions are associated with a faction, and will naturally push that factionâs interests in dialogue. Lastly, depending on which faction you choose, youâll also automatically get two passive perks that benefit you in combat.
The table below shows which region, companion, and perks are associated with each faction.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard factions and perks
Faction |
Region |
Companion |
Perks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grey Wardens | Hossberg Wetlands/Lavendel | Davrin | Bonus damage against darkspawn, increased health and defense |
| Veil Jumpers | Arlathan Forest | Bellara | Bonus damage against Fade-Touched, increased critical hit damage |
| Shadow Dragons | Minrathous/Dock Town | Neve | Bonus damage against Venatori, increased class resource (i.e., mana for a mage) recharge rate |
| Antivan Crows | Treviso | Lucanis | Bonus damage against Antaam, and you get an extra potion |
| Lords of Fortune | Rivain | Taash | Bonus damage against mercenaries, and it is easier to perform takedowns on enemies |
| The Mourn Watch | Necropolis Halls | Emmrich | Bonus damage against undead and demons, and you can apply an extra stack of elemental effects on enemies |
How to choose the best faction in Dragon Age: The Veilguard for you
As with choosing a class, there is no single best faction to choose in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. You can muscle your way through the game regardless of what faction youâve chosen.
That said, based purely on gameplay, you faction choice can be decided by which class youâre playing as:
- Choose the Grey Wardens if youâre a warrior. The extra health and defense will help you in combat.
- Choose the Shadow Dragons if youâre a mage. Faster mana regeneration means you get to cast spells more frequently.
- Choose the Veil Jumpers if youâre a rogue. Rogues land critical hits more than other classes, so the increase in critical hit damage is a boon.
If none of those perks matter to you, you canât go wrong in aligning yourself with the Antivan Crows. Being able to carry an extra potion is helpful for pretty much all circumstances. Plus, the Antaam are common enemies in Treviso, a Venice-inspired city where youâll spend a lot of time during the early game. The small damage boost against them certainly helps. Also, theyâre the most stylish by a mile (see above).
Beyond gameplay, there are some narrative aspects to consider in your choice. For one thing, if youâve done your research and are particularly drawn to one companion over the others, then simply go with the faction theyâre affiliated with (see the chart above for reference). Youâll get additional chances in dialogue trees to build rapport with them.
Aligning yourself with either the Shadow Dragons or the Antivan Crows raises the stakes for the first act. One of your first major âyep, this is a BioWare gameâ decisions involves choosing to help out the Shadow Dragons or the Antivan Crows. According to our testing, if youâre affiliated with one faction or the other, you can end up with a more emotionally charged cutscene than you otherwise would (though no apparent differences in gameplay). If you want to raise the stakes of that first choice, pick one of those two.
And again, the extra potion really does help a lot.