Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s Classes Don’t Need to Reinvent the Wheel, But They Might Be

Highlights

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is the highly-anticipated fourth installment in the Dragon Age series, with a full reveal promised by developer BioWare this summer.
A leaked gameplay clip and screenshots suggest that there may be faction-specific classes in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, adding to the role-playing factor of the game.
While faction-specific classes can enhance role-play, they may also restrict players and enforce penalties for not abiding by faction rules. The implications of this system will be interesting to see.

Dragon Age fans have been waiting nearly a full decade for the next Dragon Age game, as the last title, Dragon Age: Inquisition, was released in November 2014. Finally, although no release date has been set for it yet, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is officially in development as the fourth mainline installment in games-in-order-chronological-sequels-explained/”>the Dragon Age series.

While not much is currently known about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, developer BioWare has promised a full reveal coming this summer. Until then, however, fans can look to several leaks and rumors for information regarding some of the upcoming adventure’s potential features. One leak from last year, in particular, seems to suggest quite an extensive overhaul may be coming to the franchise’s character classes in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, even if it wasn’t necessary to begin with.

What to Expect From Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in 2024

The year fans have been waiting for, at least one of them, appears to be coming in 2024 for the highly-anticipated Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

A Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Leak Suggests a Massive Change to Classes

In February 2023, a Reddit user who claimed to be a playtester for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf leaked a very brief clip of its gameplay and a few screenshots, including an image of the character screen. Although many sections of the screen were blurred out, one particular portion indicated the character was a “Level [Redacted] Grey Warden.” This description seems to signify the character’s class, but that brings a rather weighty implication along with it.

Although players have played as a Grey Warden in past Dragon Age titles, the Grey Wardens are, at the end of the day, a faction — not a class. As such, this would mean that the character revealed in the leak is tied to the Grey Warden faction in some way, possibly in the way of them being a member of the faction. The only thing that would make this different is if the Grey Warden faction were somehow simply converted into a class for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, perhaps by providing a skill tree full of Grey Warden talents and abilities. However, other info detailed in the leak implies something else.

A gameplay description leak reveals the character’s class to be the Elvish “Knight” class, and if that is true, then the Knight class would somehow be connected to the Grey Warden faction. In other words, it’s possible that players can only equip certain classes by first joining one of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf‘s factions. So, if the character’s description does mean that they are a member of the Grey Warden faction, that would also mean that classes are faction-specific in Dreadwolf, which both positively and negatively complicates things a bit if they are.

The Pros and Cons of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Possibly Having Faction-Specific Classes

If Dragon Age: Dreadwolf does end up having faction-specific classes, there are some clear benefits. First, having classes exclusive to factions would contribute to the overall role-playing factor of the game, as characters could then have specific origin stories in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, much like the various races and backgrounds in Dragon Age: Origins, and characters would likely treat the player differently as well. Furthermore, faction-specific classes could potentially develop over time, perhaps even to the point of making certain skills reliant on the player’s reputation with that faction.

The downside of having faction-specific classes in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is that it would likely force players into a corner. If players commit themselves to a particular faction, they may not be able to utilize the skills of other classes. Additionally, while it may enhance role-play, it could be disadvantageous in some respects, down to enforcing a penalty on the player for not abiding by their faction’s rules and standards. Nevertheless, it would certainly make things interesting.

Whether last year’s Dragon Age: Dreadwolf leaks are factual remains to be seen, so every bit of information on the game’s classes is up to speculation. Thankfully, however, fans will be receiving information straight from BioWare this summer during Dragon Age: Dreadwolf‘s full reveal, so they only need to wait a little longer.