Craft magical maces and brew up bee bombs in Dragon Age: Inquisition

By Will Fulton Published December 2, 2014

The latest feature video for Dragon Age: Inquisition focuses on crafting and customization in BioWare’s upcoming RPG. The recent livestream highlighted character customization in designing your Inquisitor, so this video looks at the objects you will be able to craft over the course of the game.

Collecting herbs and other ingredients from around the countryside will allow you to brew potions with Alchemy, ranging from standard fare like healing tonics to jars full of bees that you lob like grenades. Your keep will house a blacksmith to whom you can bring rare designs and crafting materials for producing a wide range of equipment for you and your followers that can rival in power some of the legendary artifact’s that you will collect along your journey.

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Dragon Age: Inquisition hits PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles on November 18, 2014.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s best sidequest puts gender identity front and center

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When creating my Rook at the beginning of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I was happy to see options for the non-binary gender and preferred pronouns. Features like that are always a welcome addition to RPGs that are all about creating and embodying a character. I didn't expect to see those identity decisions pop up much in the actual story, and they didn't for over 10 hours. Characters would no doubt address me with the correct pronouns, but Rook is clearly a vessel and the personal growth is reserved for your companions.

The presence of inclusivity options to any extent is worth celebrating, so I wasn't holding it against the game if it didn't take the idea any further. Then I hit a mission that left my team's confidence rattled. My main objectives were to speak to three specific characters. I was on my way to talk to Lucanis when I interrupted two other characters having a conversation. Neve, a mage who had been with me from the start, was discussing fashion with Taash, a dragonslayer I had only recently recruited and hadn't even taken out on a mission since meeting. What appeared to be one of many casual conversations between companions that give the world and people a bit of flavor ended up showing just how important it was for BioWare to highlight the subject of identity. It moves a little quickly for the weight of what it is trying to convey, but still feels genuine and inspiring.

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How to transmog equipment in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dragon Age The Veilguard Rook standing between Bellara and Neve.

With the wide assortment of equipment and clothing your character can wear in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it's not easy choosing what you want your Rook to wear while venturing on quests and slaying enemies. Sometimes fashion comes before function, but luckily The Veilguard allows you to prioritize both with the transmog system.

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How to respec in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

A character draws a bow in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

You can spend a long time making your character in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Between their race, appearance, background, and class, there are a lot of ways to customize the game to your liking. Once you do make your choice and get into a few battles, you will earn your first skill point and be prompted to spend it in the skill tree. That's all basic stuff for an RPG, but even seasoned veterans of the genre might get a little overwhelmed by the size of the skill tree here. It's more like a bush, and you will begin at the center and can carve any path you want toward the edges, where the specializations are. However, you will never have enough points to unlock them all. In fact, you will only be able to reach a single specialization at one time. While you could spend an hour reading and mapping the perfect upgrade path, why not just have fun and try things out and respec your points later? Here's how to reset your skill points in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
How to respec in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Respecing in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is easy, free, and can be done as many times as you like. When you want to refund your points after you've unlocked the skill tree and spent your first points, you have two options. The first is to simply select the individual skills you want to refund (as long as they aren't connecting two nodes) and refund them one by one. Or, you can start from a clean slate by pressing Y or Triangle on the controller to refund every single point you've spent.