Which faction should you choose for your character in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

Key things

• Lords of Fortune have great outfits, but lack narrative impact or strong mechanical benefits.
• Veil Jumpers offer increased damage against specific enemies and useful buffs to critical damage.
• Mourn Watch provides a unique narrative perspective, racking up suffering and increased damage against common enemies.

When creating a tower in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one of the things you will need to choose is their faction. There are six factions to choose from that will dictate your Rook's story, along with some mechanical advantages and exclusive dialogue options throughout the game.

These factions won't make any significant changes to the story, so it's okay to pick whichever one you think is more interesting. Still, some make you feel more connected to the current events compared to others, not to mention some have better mechanical tweaks than others. From a narrative perspective to a gameplay buff, which faction is better?

6 Good luck

For Gold And Glory

Despite having some of the best outfits, Lords of Fortune unfortunately got the short end of the stick – especially since you can wear any outfit regardless of faction.

Their faction has very little impact on the narrative, and apart from Taash and everyone involved in their story, you only have one character, Isabela, to represent them. Sure, she's a legacy character, but she's still just her, and she doesn't appear much anyway.

The mechanical advantages aren't the best either. You get increased damage against mercs, an enemy type that rarely appears in the game, and takedowns are easier to pull off, which is a nice bonus, but situational. If your build revolves a lot on stunning enemies, this is really good. Otherwise, it won't change the game much for you.

5 Veil sweaters

Uncover the past

Veil Jumpers are already doing better because their group is more prominent in the story. You'll encounter them early on and have a few missions involving them, though not as much as the other factions here. Anyway, it's a much better start.

As for mechanical buffs, you deal more damage to enemies with fade (constructs and such). They don't appear often, but much more often than mercenaries. They are also some of the toughest enemies, so the increased damage against them is interesting.

Finally, your critical damage hurts more, as does your weak point damage. This is also situational, but builds that rely heavily on these types of damage will benefit from being a jumper – your ranger might like this one.

4 Mourning watch

Guardians of the Great Necropolis

The Mourn Watch faction is less distinct than the Jumpers in terms of narrative, but it still has a few things going for it. Its members are all interesting characters, including a compelling companion to Emmrich, and its positive outlook on necromancy gives it a unique style compared to everyone else in the game.

Any affliction you inflict on enemies will stack, which is another thing you might call situational, but this time there are more builds that rely on it. After all, almost every class can cause some kind of trouble, so it'll be at least somewhat useful regardless.

The last thing followers are mourning for them is increased damage against demons and ghosts, two very common enemy types. It will help against many encounters throughout the game.

3 Shadow dragons

Viva La Resistance

Being part of a resistance group focused on freeing slaves and defeating evil mages is very compelling. It's also extra compelling when one of the biggest decisions in the game revolves around your city. Regardless of your decision when the time comes, either option will make the story interesting for your character because it's more personal to them.

Older characters from this faction also appear here, but they are not relevant to the story either.

Aside from the moment above, your faction won't show up as often, but it's still a strong plus for them. Along with that, they have increased damage against Venatori, another enemy type that spawns a lot, so that's a nice bonus.

Your class-specific resource—rage for warriors, mana for mages, and momentum for wanderers—regenerates faster than normal when you're a Shadow Dragon, which is a nice perk regardless of build.

2 Antivan Crows

Dragon Creed

Professional Assassin is also an interesting story, although the game is still focused on combat and not a stealth game where you stab people from behind. The Crows are an interesting group in their own right, with great supporting characters, and their city is also involved in one of the biggest decisions in the game.

They deal extra damage against Antaams, who appear a lot in the game and have quite a bit of health and armor, so that's a nice bonus. They can carry an extra potion which is useful at first, but healing with companions is easy and you can also carry extra potions through items.

Basically, Antivan Crows are almost tied with Shadow Dragons, as Crows are better in some areas while Dragons are better in others. The reason Crows win is basically because of the more interesting NPCs.

1 Gray Guardians

In the war of victory

This is Dragon Age and it's hard to have a faction as impressive as the Gray Wardens here. Although they don't have as much choice as the previous two, the Guardians as a whole play a big part in the story, so being one of them makes everything that much more personal.

Along with that, all their bonuses work well. You do more damage against darkspawn, and since the plot itself revolves around fighting elven gods using blight to control the world, that extra damage is useful. In addition, fighting the doom-wielding beings also makes the story more interesting for the Gray Warden.

You also get a boost to your defense and health, which is useful for any character from level one to level 50, as opposed to something that's only useful early on, like an extra potion. Their additional dialogue and even an additional choice for one of the main decisions of the game also make them more compelling.

If you want to have as many exclusive dialogue options as possible, we recommend the Gray Warden elven mage. Gray Warden for the above reasons, Elves because they have some dialogue based on fighting with their gods, and Mage because magic can be talked about sporadically.