Dragon Age The Veilguard Faction Guide Choosing the Right Option for Your Class

Choosing your faction in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is more than a simple allegiance-it’s a defining step that shapes your journey, dialogue, and combat style in the world of Thedas. With six distinct factions ranging from the legendary Grey Wardens to the shadowy Antivan Crows, each offers unique perks, companions, and story consequences that make your choice permanent and impactful. Whether you seek raw power, stealth, or arcane knowledge, this guide will help you navigate the political intrigue and pick the faction that best fits your playstyle and narrative desires.

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 game’s factions, as well as some advice on how to choose the best faction for you.

Once you’re done picking a faction, here’s how to pick the best class for you.

How important are factions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

Factions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard play a crucial role in shaping your character’s backstory, dialogue options, and gameplay experience. Choosing a faction affects your reputation with that group, granting unique perks, combat bonuses against their enemies, and access to exclusive faction shops with powerful items. Your faction choice also influences story decisions and relationships with companions, offering unique dialogue and potentially altering the fate of minor characters. Since the selection is permanent, it significantly impacts your journey and playstyle, making it an essential decision when creating your character.

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 Jumpers
• 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 Veilguard’s major hubs, so how frequently you interact with a faction depends on where you’re located geographically. There’s also one merchant per faction, whom you can buy gear from and sell valuables to, which improves your strength with that faction and, ultimately, their impact on the endgame.

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 faction’s interests in dialogue. Lastly, depending on which faction you choose, you’ll 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

Dragon Age: The Veilguard features six distinct factions, each offering unique perks and shaping your gameplay experience. These factions include the Grey Wardens, known for their enhanced defense and health bonuses and effectiveness against darkspawn; the Shadow Dragons, who provide benefits suited to mages and focus on opposing slavery and corruption; the Antivan Crows, skilled assassins granting extra potions and damage bonuses; the Veil Jumpers, explorers of elven ruins with perks favoring rogues; the Lords of Fortune, treasure-seekers with a more roleplay-focused appeal; and the Mourn Watch, an elite necromantic order. Choosing a faction influences dialogue options, faction-specific shops, and passive buffs, making it important to align your choice with your preferred class and playstyle for optimal synergy and narrative impact.

How to choose the best faction in Dragon Age: The Veilguard for you

When choosing the best faction in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, consider how each faction aligns with your preferred playstyle and the character you want to role-play. Each of the six factions offers unique combat bonuses, exclusive dialogue options, and specific reputation perks that influence your interactions and story outcomes. For example, Warriors benefit most from the Grey Wardens, Mages from the Shadow Dragons, and Rogues from the Veil Jumpers or Antivan Crows, depending on whether you favor ranged or melee combat. Since your faction choice is permanent and affects your relationships with companions and factions alike, pick one that complements your class and appeals to your narrative preferences to enhance your overall experience.

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 you’ve chosen.

That said, based purely on gameplay, you faction choice can be decided by which class you’re playing as:

• Choose the Grey Wardens if you’re a warrior. The extra health and defense will help you in combat.
• Choose the Shadow Dragons if you’re a mage. Faster mana regeneration means you get to cast spells more frequently.
• Choose the Veil Jumpers if you’re 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 can’t 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 you’ll spend a lot of time during the early game. The small damage boost against them certainly helps. Also, they’re the most stylish by a mile (see above).

Beyond gameplay, there are some narrative aspects to consider in your choice. For one thing, if you’ve done your research and are particularly drawn to one companion over the others, then simply go with the faction they’re affiliated with (see the chart above for reference). You’ll 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 “yep, this is a BioWare game” decisions involves choosing to help out the Shadow Dragons or the Antivan Crows. According to our testing, if you’re 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.

How can I determine which faction aligns best with my playstyle in Veilguard

To determine which faction aligns best with your playstyle in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, consider the class you plan to play, as each faction offers unique perks that complement specific classes. For example, warriors benefit most from the Grey Wardens due to their health and defense boosts, mages align well with the Shadow Dragons thanks to faster mana regeneration, and rogues thrive with the Veil Jumpers because of increased critical hit damage. If perks are less critical to you, the Antivan Crows provide useful advantages like carrying an extra potion and increased damage against common enemies, making them a versatile choice. Additionally, your faction choice affects dialogue options, companion relationships, and narrative flavor, so you might also want to pick a faction that matches your preferred story or companion interactions. Ultimately, your faction shapes both gameplay and story experience, so weigh your combat style alongside narrative preferences to find the best fit.

How do the faction perks align with my preferred combat style in Veilguard

The faction perks in Dragon Age: The Veilguard align closely with different combat styles, helping you tailor your gameplay experience:

• Grey Wardens are ideal for warriors, offering increased defense and health, making your character more durable in frontline combat.

• Shadow Dragons suit mages by boosting the regeneration of class-specific resources like mana, enabling more frequent spellcasting.

• Veil Jumpers complement rogues with increased critical and weak-point damage, enhancing stealth and burst damage tactics.

• Lords of Fortune benefit players who favor aggressive combat takedowns, as they increase the frequency of such moves.

• The Mourn Watch provide an advantage against undead and demons by applying an additional affliction stack, useful for players who focus on status effects.

• Antivan Crows grant an extra potion slot and increased damage against Antaam enemies, offering versatility and survivability, especially for those who prefer a balanced or potion-reliant playstyle.

While these perks offer some combat advantages, none are overwhelmingly superior, and all factions appear throughout the game, allowing you to build reputation and access unique gear regardless of your initial choice. Ultimately, choose a faction that complements your preferred combat approach and narrative style, knowing you’ll engage with all factions during your journey.