[WIWD] Dragon Age Origins

[CJC]

Another way to balance out the dwarves would have been to give them some alternate class that the other two couldn't select, like an engineer or something.

Lyrium Brands! Like Garin!
I was actually quite impressed with the concept of Fenris in Dragon Age 2 (even if the character himself was a boring templar-loving jerk), and something like that would have been neat for dwarves. Some sort of lyrium-infused tattooing that grants them elemental prowess but makes them totally nuts. I'd love to play a character like that.

I completely agree that the characters in Awakening were forgettable. I do remember Anders, Justice, and Nathaniel Howe. I don't remember the name of the female elf, and I can't remember if there were any others. I also didn't play through it more than once. I played through Origins like 5 times.

Anders was the most memorable, but I remembered him more for Ser Pounce-a-Lot than for him. Also, in Dragon Age 2 he sort of, well, you know. He BECAME important.
The other characters were Velanna, a broody Dalish mage whose sister was kidnapped by the 'sentient' darkspawn (a ridiculous plot element, by the way) and Sigrun, the last of the Dead Legion (which is also difficult to swallow; these guys are trained darkspawn fighters and they were all eliminated by a few broodmothers? I doubt it). Also, Oghren, but like I said, they took one of his quirky characteristics and made it his sole identity.

Anyway, I like your list of proposed changes. If we're going with unlimited budget, I would have fully voiced the main character too.

Oh definitely! I'd take Inquisition's engine and fully voice the character with three male and three female voices (Sarcastic, Forceful, and Diplomatic, but universal for the gender like they did in Inquisition). Adding the 'not this origin' characters would make this more feasible since a lot of the dialogue aimed at the origin could still be kept, saving a great deal of resources which could then be dedicated to voicing the player.

I'm playing through Inquisition right now. It's fantastic. I absolutely love it.

I'm 60 hours into Inquisition and it is utterly amazing. I only have a few things I would have liked to see differently in that game (a couple little mechanical changes, like easier access to the war table; a few moderate changes to one particular quest line; and one major plot twist), but I'll discuss that in a different thread once the game has had time to settle on everybody's playlists. It's a bit early to post things related to key plot points (and I haven't finished it yet, best to wait until I know the whole story).
Inquisition is definitely a game for the ages. I haven't played anything nearly as addictive in a very long time.