Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Best background faction to pick

The best background faction to pick in the Dragon Age: The Veilguard character creator

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The background factions will play an important role in your Dragon Age: The Veilguard adventure, but it’s difficult to know what all of these options mean when you’re still on the character creator. Long-time Dragon Age fans will know a thing or two about some of these factions, but if you’re a brand-new player, we don’t blame you for feeling a little lost.

So, we’ll explain each of the choices, a bit of the lore behind them, and what we think are the best bonuses on offer. If you’re just starting out in the game then you’ll find our Veilguard beginner tips and tricks useful, and use our Veilguard FAQ for more information.

Contents

1. Grey Wardens
2. Veil Jumpers
3. Shadow Dragons
4. Lords of Fortune
5. The Mourn Watch
6. Antivan Crows
7. What is the best background to pick?

Grey Wardens

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The Grey Wardens are the closest Dragon Age gets to a traditional fantasy military, dedicated to fighting the Blight. Choosing them will give you more damage against Darkspawn and increase your health and defense. This is a decent bonus if you’re not the best at action games and need a bit of help, but most players won’t need this minor buff.

Veil Jumpers

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

A group of explorers, the Veil Jumpers delve into ancient elven ruins trying to unlock the secrets of their race. They give you a damage bonus against fade-touched enemies, which you don’t encounter very often, and increased critical and weak point damage. These aren’t terrible buffs, but they’re the kind you need to build your whole character around to exploit to their fullest.

Shadow Dragons

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The Shadow Dragons are a group of mostly mages who work in the dark to overthrow the ne’er-do-wells of Teviner. The Shadow Dragons give you bonus damage against Venatori and increase the regeneration rate of your class-specific ability meter. Both of these are great buffs, as Venatori are a common enemy in this world, and being able to fire off abilities quicker is a huge help.

Lords of Fortune

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The Lords of Fortune are the closest this world gets to pirates – the fun kind of pirate, not the realistic kind. They’re a group of explorers and hunters all in search of great treasure. They boost your damage against mercenaries, which is decent, and they make Takedowns easier in battle. Takedowns are useful, but they’re not the kind of thing you can reliably build a strategy around.

The Mourn Watch

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

If you think Necromancy is cool, this is where you want to be, as this group communes with the dead and even stretches into Lichdom. Their bonuses are good too. Extra damage against the undead will come in handy, and they also increase the extent to which you can apply afflictions on enemies, making them last longer and deal more damage.

Antivan Crows

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The Antivan Crows are like the Assassins from Assasin’s Creed. That’s really it, they’re even Italian. They have good bonuses though. Extra damage against Antaan is a little narrow but still useful, but their biggest bonus is an extra health potion. There are only a few ways to get more health potions in this game, so starting with an extra one is a huge boost that will benefit you from start to finish.

What is the best background to pick?

Based on the bonuses you get, we’d say that the Shadow Dragons and the Antivan Crows are the two best factions, as they offer the best buffs. On top of that, these factions play a big role in the story, and starting as one of them will unlock a lot of extra dialogue options as the story progresses.