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The 10 Best Dragon Age: Origins Mods

Published

9 months ago

July 19, 2023

The Best Dragon Age Origins Mods to Download

What are the best Dragon Age Origins mods?

Dragon Age Origins is one of the most in-depth modern RPGs, and it kickstarted one of Bioware’s most popular franchises.

However, it was released in 2009 and has started to show its age when compared to modern titles.

Fortunately, the modding community hasn’t left it behind, and today we’re looking at the best DA: Origins mods the Nexus has to offer!

The 10 Best Dragon Age Origins Mods

There is no shortage of mods for Dragon Age Origins, but we’ve tried to single out the best that have ever been made.

To do this, we selected mods based on the ratings, number of downloads, and the impact they have on the game as a whole.

So, before you go save Ferelden again, take a second to read our list of the 10 best Dragon Age Origins mods:

10. Lock Bash

Kicking off our list is a mod that adds something that should have been in the game from day one; lock bashing!

This mod allows players to force open locked chests and doors by bashing them, which totally makes sense.

If you’re running around with something like one of the best warhammers in Skyrim, there’s no reason you can’t bash in a door!

Now, if you don’t have a high lockpick skill, you can literally attack any locked object to break it open and get the goods.

However, to make things more balanced, there is a chance that doing this will break items or cause them to be lost in the rubble.

We really love this inclusion because it makes the lockpick skill still useful, while bashing remains a bit of a gamble.

Your class and stats are also factored in, so magic for mages, strength for warriors, and dexterity for rouges.

For instance, if you’re a warrior but have extremely low strength for some reason, you won’t be able to bash doors. The same goes for mages with low magic.

If you’re dealing with chests, these stats will determine how likely you are to lose an item, but all of this is customizable.

So, if you want to just make it so you can bash without a second thought, you can totally do that too!

9. Dragon Age Class And Specialization Pack

We really love how Dragon Age Origins handles classes, and this mod takes things a step further.

While DA: Dreadwolf is poised to introduce a new skill tree, this mod adds several new classes and specializations to this classic!

The new classes include Ritualist and Warlock, both of which are magic based, with their own unique skills.

As for specializations, there are 9 for rouges, 7 for warriors, 4 for mages, 5 for warlocks, and 2 for ritualists.

These specializations are automatically unlocked when your character meets their criteria, and some of them are incredibly cool.

We really enjoy the Elemental Archer, Spellcrafter, and Hexblade specializations, but there are plenty to suit any playstyle!

This mod also works with the Spirit Eater class mod, which was made by the same creator and adds the Essense Thief specialization.

If you want a bit more variety during your next playthrough, the Dragon Age Class and Specialization Pack is an absolute must-have!

8. Leliana’s True Sacred Ashes Armor

This mod adds Leliana’s Armor from the Sacred Ashes trailer that was, for some reason, not included in the vanilla game!

Called the Battledress of the Faithful, this armor is seriously cool looking with a red and black color scheme mixed with silver chainmail.

Once this mod is installed, you can purchase the armor from Bodahn for 9 gold and 27 bronze sovereigns.

While that sounds steep, by the time you hit the Temple of Sacred Ashes quest, you should easily have more than enough coin to cover it.

However, it is restricted so that only Leliana can wear it, though the Leliana True Sacred Ashes script by Siramods removes the restriction.

So, if you put it on Leliana and think that you could wear it better, you can feel free to equip it yourself if you’re playing as a human female.

Unfortunately, it won’t fit Elven female protagonists or male protags who just want to look pretty for a bit.

7. No Helmet Hack

Dragon Age Origins is one of the best fantasy RPG games of all time, and as such, it should have a way to hide your headgear!

This simple mod makes it so that you can wear helmets without actually looking like you’re wearing them!

Wearing a helmet can give you a decent armor boost, but sometimes it really clashes with the aesthetic you have going for your character.

Fortunately, this mod allows helmets to be placed in the cloak slot so that they won’t actually appear on your character’s head.

The only issue with this mod is when your character is stripped of their equipment during the Silverite Mine section of Awakening.

To prevent bugs, it’s advised that you remove all helmets before entering, which will remove the chance of any glitches.

Aside from that, this mod works perfectly, so you can stay protected without actually having your character’s face obscured!

6. Extra Dog Slot

Origins may be one of the best Xbox 360 games, but it drops the ball on a few things, namely your trusted mabari hound.

One of the worst parts of Dragon Age Origins is having to swap out your trust mabari for a companion who’s more useful in battle.

Sure, your dog isn’t the strongest member of your party, but he’s still a good boy who deserves to be brought along.

Thankfully, modder Dheuster felt the same way and created a permanent 5th companion slot just for your mabari!

Best of all, you don’t even have to select him on the companion screen; he’s just always there unless you disable the mod. (But why would you?)

We love being able to bring our best boy Barkspawn along, and he’s actually extremely useful as well! Plus, he totally keeps morale up!

The only reason you would want to avoid this mod is if you’re secretly a dog-hating Loghain supporter, in which case you should rethink your priorities.

5. Equal Love

Were you as disappointed as we were when you played a female character and realized you couldn’t romance Morrigan? Then this mod is for you!

Equal Love, as the name suggests, brings love to everyone in the world of Thedas by removing gender-based restrictions around romances.

While we understand why these limitations exist in the context of the game, it’s still nice to be able to go back with this mod and romance whoever you want.

Now female characters can romance Morrigan and even become a couple with Anora if that’s the ending you’re going for.

Likewise, male characters can finally get the chance to romance Alistair or the charming Dalish hunter Cammen.

Male characters of noble birth will also have the option to rule alongside Alistair at the end if you choose to make him king.

Really, we wish all of this was already included in the vanilla game, but fortunately, this mod sets things right!

If you’re tired of Origins gatekeeping your romances, we highly recommend this mod, as it really does a lot to improve gameplay!

4. Qwinn’s Ultimate DAO Fixpack

This mod is a bit like the Unofficial Skyrim Patch, one of the best Skyrim mods, in that it fixes a lot of bugs in the base game.

As of version 3.5, which was released in 2020, this mod addresses 850 bugs that range from dialogue errors to scripting issues.

It also restores a ton of content that was completed and exists in the game files but was left out by Bioware.

This includes a load of cut dialogue in the mage origin, 18 interparty banters, 13 unobtainable items, and cut break-up reactions for Morrigan and Zevran.

There is even the option to turn Morrigan or Godwin into Greagoir as apostates, which had previously been cut during development.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of restored cut content! There is an absolute ton that you can now experience with this mod!

What we really love about this mod is that it doesn’t make any changes to the actual gameplay but improves the experience in a way that makes sense.

Plus, the restored content provides a ton more replayability that even those who know the game inside out can enjoy!

3. Auto Loot

Many of the best open-world PS5 games have incorporated auto looting, and this mod brings it to Dragon Age Origins!

Now you can quickly grab what you need without having to pause and open the menu, which just slows you down.

With this mod active, all you need to do is walk up to a corpse, and you’ll auto-loot everything they had on them.

You can also set up exclusions for specific items so you don’t end up picking up a ton of stuff you don’t want.

This mod also comes with a “Loot Everything Near Me” Skill, so if you have the inventory space, all nearby items will automatically be added.

When you use this ability, text with whatever you’ve picked up will display above your character’s head, so you don’t have to open your inventory and go hunting.

It really is a great quality of life change that we didn’t know we wanted, but now we can’t play without it!

2. Improved Atmosphere

Improved Atmosphere isn’t a reshader but rather a huge reworking of NPC behavior that greatly adds to the immersion.

This mod adds hundreds of new items for NPCs to use while also adding new ways to approach situations and recreating cut content.

What we really like about this mod is that it makes many of the NPCs feel much more realistic, especially with regard to their routines.

For instance, you can now find NPCs wandering around, talking to each other, drinking, and working like real people would.

The number of in-game encounters and opportunities has also been increased to provide more roleplaying possibilities.

We really love that this mod really makes each town you come across feel functional and not just like a bunch of NPCs standing around waiting for the protagonist.

Improved Atmosphere really makes Ferelden feel alive, making you want to fight harder to preserve it from the darkspawn!

1. Dragon Age Redesigned

Dragon Age Origins may be a classic game, but its graphics haven’t aged half as well as its story and gameplay!

Thankfully, the Dragon Age Redesigned mod combats this by overhauling the faces of characters so that they’re much more realistic.

While the graphics will never look as clean as those in the best PS5 exclusive games, these improvements go a long way toward making it look way better!

This mod overhauls over 1240 NPCs, and there are three versions that you can choose from; Lore, Aesthetics, and Recommended.

Each version tweaks appearances in a different way, though the Aesthetics and Recommended versions require the Tucked Hair mod by Tmp7704 to work properly.

We’re fond of the Lore version ourselves, particularly because it makes your companions look more like their promotional art.

This is definitely the facelift that Dragon Age Origins sorely needed, and since installing it, it’s become a must-have on our mod lists!