The Assassin
Overview
The Assassin Rogue is the highest-damage build in Dragon Age: Origins. By the late game it turns you into a glass cannon who can erase nearly any target in just a few backstabs, but unlike fragile mage builds, you’re also slippery, evasive, and able to carry the utility of lockpicking and persuasion for the party. The combination of core rogue passives with the Assassin specialization creates a monster that can chain crits, shred bosses with Mark of Death, and dismantle groups with speed and precision. If you want the most lethal damage dealer possible, this is the build.
Early Game
Character creation should lean toward Dexterity and Cunning, with a single point in Strength every few levels to eventually reach 20 so you can equip top-tier gear. Starting with 4 Dexterity and 1 Strength is optimal. Human is the best race for min-maxing due to its stat bonuses, though any race will work if you prefer roleplay over efficiency.
The early game revolves around three abilities: Dirty Fighting, Dual-Weapon Sweep, and Momentum. Dirty Fighting is deceptively strong because it provides reliable crowd control. Later, when combined with the Coup de Grace passive, it also allows backstab damage on any stunned target regardless of positioning. Dual-Weapon Sweep gives you early AoE damage, which is otherwise hard to come by as a rogue, and lets you stay effective even before you have consistent backstab setups. Momentum is the most important sustained talent in your kit, drastically increasing your attack speed. Since the bulk of this build’s damage comes from basic attacks, Momentum multiplies your output and allows you to land far more backstabs in a short window.
For skills, prioritize Lockpicking and Cunning-based dialogue options. Rogues make the best party faces, and an Assassin who can also open every chest and door is invaluable. One optional talent worth mentioning is Deft Hands. If you plan to keep Zevran or Leliana in the party long-term, you can delegate it to them and accelerate your own build progression, but otherwise you’ll want it yourself to handle locks.
Early Levels
|
Level |
Spell/Passive |
|---|---|
|
2 |
1 Dexterity 2 Cunning – Flurry |
|
3 |
1 Dexterity 2 Constitution – Dual Weapon Training |
|
4 |
1 Dexterity 2 Strength – Deft Hands |
|
5 |
2 Dexterity 1 Cunning – Combat Movement |
|
6 |
1 Dexterity 2 Constitution – Momentum |
|
7 |
2 Willpower 1 Cunning – Below the Belt |
|
8 |
1 Dexterity 2 Strength – Improved Tools |
|
9 |
1 Dexterity 2 Cunning – Coup de Grace |
|
10 |
1 Dexterity 2 Cunning – Deadly Strike |
Equipment
|
Item |
Details |
|---|---|
|
Primary Weapon  The Rose’s Thorn |
Provides +15% bonus damage and additional status effects |
|
Primary Weapon 2 Dead Thaig Shanker |
More then doubles your damage at the cost of additional mana |
|
Alternate Weapon Duncan’s Dagger |
Additional fire damage and mana resource |
|
Helmet  Helm of Honnleath |
Provides +30% damage from having all blast abilities and refunds 25% of mana cost on impact |
|
Armor  Battledress of the Provocateur |
The best armor piece in The Veilguard, provides longer advantage duration, +10% damage for EVERY advantage (you will typically always have 3+), makes the advantages more effective and most importantly heals you for +5% when gaining an advantage which will offset the self damage of Maw of the Black City |
|
Gloves  Igneous Fist |
Makes your abilities a guaranteed critical hit at the cost of our health, this issue is completely negated by Garb of Kinship & Twin Buckle Binding |
|
Boots  Bard’s Dancing Shoes |
Extra Fire Damage |
|
Ring 1  Key to the City |
Significant boosts to our blast ability damage and returns our mana when critical hitting with blast abilities, working in perfect combination with Maw of the Black City |
|
Ring 2  Harvest Festival Ring |
Extra healing and ability damage |
|
Amulet  The Spellward | |
|
Belt  Andruil’s Blessing |
Equipment Overview
Your equipment choices should aim to maximize backstab damage and attack speed while ensuring you meet the strength thresholds for the best light armor sets.
Weapons. Dual daggers are mandatory, as they scale with Dexterity and enable backstabs. Focus on upgrading into Dragonbone-tier daggers as soon as possible, ideally with high critical hit bonuses or rune slots. By midgame, you’ll want to dual-wield items like Fang or The Rose’s Thorn for their superb critical damage. Because rogues get so much passive crit scaling, every upgrade in weapon quality feels huge.
Armor and Accessories. Keep Strength at 20 to unlock the best light armor without over-investing. Sets like the Superior Drakeskin or Felon’s Coat are excellent for their attack speed and stamina regeneration, both of which feed directly into more sustained damage. For accessories, look for rings and amulets that provide Dexterity, critical chance, or stamina regen. Belts that add resistances are a solid choice to cover your survivability gap since this build leans fully into offense.
How to Play Late Game
Once the Assassin specialization is unlocked — ideally by befriending Zevran early rather than waiting to buy the manual late in the game — the build fully comes together. The key sustained ability is Song of Courage, which boosts your critical hit chance and overall damage for the entire party, but especially supercharges your own output. The other crucial active is Mark of Death, which amplifies the damage taken by a marked target. Against high-health enemies and bosses, open every fight with Mark of Death to make them melt.
The passives you unlock as you progress — Lethality, Exploit Weakness, and Coup de Grace — are what push the build over the edge. Lethality shifts your damage scaling onto Cunning, allowing you to pump Dexterity and Cunning for damage while keeping Strength only at 20. Exploit Weakness adds extra damage to every attack against vulnerable enemies, and Coup de Grace allows Dirty Fighting to count as a backstab window from the front. Together, these passives make your every swing deadly, whether you’re flanking or not.
The playstyle in the late game is all about positioning and speed. Open with Dirty Fighting if you need to create an opening, then chain backstabs until the enemy drops. Against bosses, combine Mark of Death with Momentum-fueled auto-attacks to shred their health bars. Dual-Weapon Sweep is still useful for clustered enemies when backstabbing isn’t possible. Between your high attack speed, constant crits, and passive multipliers, even Nightmare difficulty enemies will collapse in seconds.
By the final act, the Assassin Rogue outpaces every other build in raw single-target damage. With practice in positioning and timing, you’ll be deleting enemies faster than they can react, turning every encounter into an execution ground.
Final Levels
|
Level |
Spell/Passive |
|---|---|
|
11 |
1 Dexterity 2 Constitution – Lethality |
|
12 |
1 Dexterity 2 Cunning – Dual Weapon Finesse |
|
13 |
2 Willpower 1 Cunning – Dual Weapon Expert |
|
14 |
1 Dexterity 2 Cunning – Mechanical Expertise |
|
15 |
1 Dexterity 2 Constitution – Mark of Death |
|
16 |
1 Dexterity 2 Cunning – Exploit Weakness |
|
17 |
2 Willpower 1 Cunning – Lacerate |
|
18 |
2 Dexterity 1 Constitution – Feast of the Fallen |
|
19 |
2 Dexterity 1 Cunning – Device Mastery |
|
20 |
3 Cunning – Dual Weapon Mastery |
|
21 |
3 Cunning – Evasion |
|
22 |
3 Cunning – Song of Valor |
|
23 |
3 Cunning – Distraction |
Build Snapshot
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