Best Morrigan Builds: Offensive and Support - Dragon Age: Origins (DAO)
In this post, I will show you how to build Morrigan for different party compositions. This include offensive mage and support roles.
I used these builds on Nightmare difficulty and it helped me clear the game easily. The builds support themselves so there is no need to micromanage them a lot.
So let’s start
Contents
Morrigan The Wizard – maximum spellpower build
If you are planning to have Morrigan in you party, I recommend to have her as a wizard. She already starts with some Primal Tree skills and you would just have to continue expanding this tree.
Attributes
-
Magic: every level +3
I would spend all of the points on Magic, maybe 1-3 points in willpower, but have in mind, that your mana pool increases as you level up while your spellpower doesn’t.
Up to 16 points in cunning (based on how many tactics slots you need).
Skills
You can skip investment in herbalism. I invested only for the Exotic Methods quest. This way you can put more points to Combat Training
Invest as much as you need to tactics
Otherwise nothing special here
Talents and spells
We concentrate on acquiring spells that mostly do single-target damage. This way Morrigan will not make any friendly fire damage. Here is how I suggest to progress:
| Order | Skill | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lightning | Single target electricity damage spell, early in the game |
| 2 | Flame Blast | Mainly take it for progression |
| 3 | Flaming Weapons | Mainly take it for progression |
| 4 | Fireball | An extremely strong ability that can knock down enemies in AOE |
| 5 | Rock Armor | Mainly take it for progression |
| 6 | Stonefist | This spell can knock down enemies like archers or other mages. Moreover, with Cone of Cold, you can shatter enemies. |
| 7 | Combat Magic (optional) | Take this if you chose Arcane Warrior specialization |
| 8 | Frost Weapons | We mainly take this for progression |
| 9 | Cone of Cold | A great ability that can freeze solid enemies making them immobile. Use Stonefist on Frozen enemies to shatter them |
| 10 | Spell Wisp | A sustained spell that will increase Morrigan's spellpower resulting in more damage |
| 11 | Arcane Bolt | A single target spell that does spirit damage |
| 12 | Shock | We mainly take this for progression |
| 13 | Tempest | We mainly take this for progression |
| 14 | Chain Lightning | Unfortunately, this spell does not scale with spellpower. You can fix it with this mod |
| 15 | Arcane Shield | We mainly take this for progression |
| 16 | Staff Focus | We mainly take this for progression |
| 17 | Arcane Master | Boosts spellpower resulting in more damage from your spells |
| 18 | Earthquake | This is AOE spell that can become handy at the end of game to disable many small enemies at once |
Specializations
Morrigan comes by default with Shapeshifter specialization. However, we will not be using it for this build.
There are a few options here for the second mage specialization. The role-playing friendly would be Spirit Healer:
I chose healer specialization for additional magic, as I did not plan to use blood magic while having a low constitution
However
There is an alternative that provides a bigger boost to your overall stats. For that, you will need Helm of Honnleath (so check if it is not used by other characters).
Take Arcane Warrior specialization
It will allow you to wear Heavy armor. With this, you can wear Helm of Honnleath, get +2 to magic, and boost to all other attributes.
Gear
Weapon
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Final Reason |
Provides the largest direct boost to spellpower, this is what the build aims to |
 Staff of the Magister Lord |
One of the best staff in the game. Provides strong overall stats but can be expensive |
 Magister's Staff |
A good staff before you are able to get the best ones in the game |
 Corrupted Magister's Staff |
Similar to Magister's Staff provides more damage for this build, but less mana regeneration |
 Enchanter's Staff |
Early game staff that you can obtain in Lothering. Gives bonus elemental damage and +1 Magic |
Helm
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 The Libertarian's Cowl |
Gives additional mana regeneration |
 Helm of Honnleath |
If you took Arcane warrior specialization and have this helm free, wear it. +2 to all attributes |
 Reinforced Magus Cowl |
Boosts willpower by 2 points, increasing the mana pool |
Gloves
Your main goal is to increase the elemental damage that you do with Morrigan using one of the gloves below:
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Elementalist’s Grasp |
Additional damage to all elements, a must for this Morrigan build |
 Ashen Gloves |
Boosts cold damage by 20% |
| Cinderfel Gauntlets |
Boosts fire damage by 20% |
| Storm Talons |
Boosts electricity/lightning damage by 20% |
Armor
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Vestments of the Seer |
+6 magic boost, outmatches any other robe in general usage |
 Robes of Possession |
Morrigan specific robes gives +5 magic, however, it also boosts cold damage by 20% |
 Tevinter Mage Robes |
Gives +5 spellpower and also boosts mana regeneration |
Boots
Not many choices for boots. If you do not have any of the listed just equip any to increase the armor stat of Morrigan
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Fade Striders |
The best boots for mages. Gives +1 to magic |
 Magus War boots |
Gives +12 defense |
Belts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Sash of Forbidden Secrets |
Only accessible if you finish The Golems of Amgarrak DLC. An alternative to Blood Ring and a bit overpowered. |
 Destructionist's belt |
Boost spellpower and mana regeneration. A decent alternative until you get Andruil’s blessing |
 Belt of Magister Lords |
Gives a bonus to spellpower of 3 points |
Amulets
Here there are many choices so select an amulet based on what is available.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Amulet of War Mage |
Boosts all elemental spells damage by 5%. useful for this Morrigan build as she will use many different elemental spells |
 The Spellward |
Does not boost your damage but increases willpower giving a larger Mana pool |
 Pearl of the Anointed |
Provides +1 to all attributes |
 Heart of Witherfang |
Gives +1 to magic, so it is similar to Pearl of the Anointed, however, it provides fewer overall bonuses |
Rings
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Key to the City |
One of the best rings that gives +2 to all attributes, found in Orzammar |
 The Lucky Stone |
A good all-around ring that provides +1 to all attributes |
 Ring of Faith |
+10 to fire damage |
 Frostshear |
+10% boost to cold damage |
 Dreamsever |
+10% to spirit damage |
 Dalish Battery |
+10% electricity damage |
| Ring of Study |
A great ring at the beginning of the game that you can obtain if you chose Magi origin |
Tactics
Using AOE spells with AI is fairly difficult. Usually, you need to intervene to correctly use them. To circumvent this I use fireball first so that it would hit enemies before my companions get to them. Otherwise, I use single target skills mostly: Stonefist, Lightning, Arcane Bold, Winter's Grasp.
In case the enemy gets close, I use Cone of Cold or Winter's Grasp to freeze them and change my position
If you manage to get Petrify, also try to utilize that.
Morrigan the Controller – support build
I usually prefer to leave companion characters alone and not micromanage them. In my eyes, they should deal with enemies automatically.
This Morrigan build is perfect for this type of playing. Your spells will not deal friendly damage and concentrate on controlling the battlefield. All of this is possible due to the Entropy tree.
Moreover, in this playthrough, I used Morrigan as the sole healer in the party (from level 15 onwards), which worked out pretty well. Moreover, there was no need to invest a lot of time to manage her. So let’s get through the details
Attributes
-
Magic – the main attribute which you need to invest in. For this particular build, I have put in all the points. This made me sure that spells like Paralyze worked even on High Dragon
-
Willpower – if you feel that Morrigan is out of mana points too fast you can put in a few points here and there. However, as you see I am getting 29 points to boost to willpower from equipment
-
Cunning – needed for tactics, get up to 16
Skills
Your priority should be getting tactics and combat training at least to level 3. You will be needing many slots to cover the use cases of your spells: healing, sleeping, confusing, paralyzing, etc.
Specializations
These are the two specializations you will need: Shapeshifter and Spirit Healer
Unfortunately, you get Shapeshifter automatically and you cannot change that. For the second specialization take Spirit Healer. You will need the passive effect of more magic points. Moreover, you will get access to Group Heal which may be useful down the road.
Talents and Spells
Early levels
I recommend getting Paralyze so that you could deal with enemies like archers or mages. After that get both Sleep and Waking Nightmare.
Now you will be able to do the Nightmare combo by casting sleep and then activating Horror on one of the enemies.
Waking Nightmare will give you a cheap and fast option to control enemies AOE. It will cause disarray among their ranks, especially for the normal enemies.
I also recommend getting Heal to provide support in critical situations
Level 14
Get the second specialization which will Spirit Healer. Once you get Group Heal and Revival Morrigan can now act as a sole mage in the party, providing heals, buffs, and CC.
Moving to endgame
Here I recommend getting Haste ability. This ability will increase your party members' attack speed (works well if all other party members are melee/ranged). You should obtain it at level 17~. At the time you will also have good equipment providing a large boost to mana regeneration to sustain Haste.
Now if you will have any points left here are some other abilities to take into account:
- Mass Paralysis
- Miasma
- Rejuvenate
- Staff Focus
- Arcane Mastery
Gear
Your aim is to get a boost to these stats:
- Magic
- Spellpower
- Mana regeneration
- Willpower
Weapons
Weapons are sorted best to worst
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Staff of the Magister Lord |
One of the best staff in the game. Provides strong overall stats but can be expensive |
| Final Reason |
It will give a strong boost to spellpower relatively early in the game |
| Magister's Staff |
A decent staff before you can get the best ones |
 Corrupted Magister's Staff |
Similar to Magister's Staff provides more damage for this build, but less mana regeneration |
| Enchanter's Staff |
Early game staff that you can obtain in Lothering. Gives bonus elemental damage and +1 Magic |
Helm
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 The Libertarian's Cowl |
As there are not many options, this helmet provides mana regeneration and a little defense |
 Reinforced Magus Cowl |
Worse option, because Willpower does not increase mana regeneration only your mana pool |
Gloves
There are not many options for gloves, so if you do not have recommended ones, take anything that you find.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Ashen Gloves |
As you will not be doing much elemental damage, use these gloves in case you will use Winter’s Grasp |
Armor
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
 Vestments of the Seer |
Extremely powerful mage armor obtained after finishing Witch Hunt DLC |
 Tevinter Mage Robes |
Large spellpower boost and increased mana regeneration bonus makes it great value for money |
 Robes of Possession |
Morrigan only Robes, provides a large bonus to magic |
 First Enchanter Robes |
Decent robes can be bought in the Denerim Market district from Cesar. |
Boots
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Fade Striders |
The best boots for mages. Gives +1 to magic |
 The Lion's Paw |
Mainly getting them because of armor boost. Good early in the game |
Belts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Sash of Forbidden Secrets |
Only accessible if you finish The Golems of Amgarrak DLC. A bit overpowered. |
 Andruil’s Blessing |
The best belt in the game provides a large boost to all stats, but should not be prioritized for this character |
 Cinch of Skillful Maneuvering |
You will need to finish Witch Hunt DLC to unlock this belt |
| Destructionist’s Belt |
The belt provides +3 spellpower and is quite cheap to get in Ortan Thaig |
| Belt of Magister Lords |
Similar to Destructionist’s Belt but does not give mana regeneration bonus |
Amulets
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| The Spellward |
By giving you +8 to willpower the amulet will increase your mana pool greatly to support party members. |
 Pearl of the Anointed |
+1 to all attributes |
| Heart of Witherfang |
All you need from this one is +1 to magic |
Rings
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Key to the City |
One of the best rings gives +2 to all attributes, found in Orzammar |
| The Lucky Stone |
+1 to all attributes |
 The Wicked Oath |
You need this ring only for mana regeneration |
 Ring of Study |
+1 to magic |
Tactics
Generally, I would recommend this build to be used if Morrigan is the only mage in the party and others are DPS + Tanks.
As I mentioned, this character's priority is being a self-sufficient AI. So that you would need a minimum amount of interventions. Moreover, it can act as a healer to support your party.
Everything comes down to how well Waking Nightmare and Sleep lands. So AI can make mistakes here
However, this build provides Haste, so in the first half a minute of the fight, your companions can shred through the enemies, to deal with weaker ones. However, we want to disable Haste when we have low mp as that means that the fight could take longer and we want to have mana points for heals.
Setup Heal and Group Heal as top priorities, in case your party members are in danger
Conclusion
Thank you for reading these best Morrigan's Builds in Dragon Age Origins. I hope the post helped you to understand how to best utilize her in your playthrough. If you need any more information feel free to leave a comment
Discussion
Not really like the "Enchanter's rope" model from Vestments of the Seer do you had any mod that can change that?
Morrigan had really nice body and the vestment ruin it with that plains old rope with the green color
Haha, unfortunately Nexus Mods is what I can recommend :)
Just wanted to say that Morrigan can benefit from the Enchanter's Staff early game right at Lothering (available at a discount if you side with the unscrupulous merchant). It costs 4 gold, but provides +1 Magic, +10 Spirit Reaistance, and +5 to all the nature damages. It's a jack of all trades staff that can really carry you early game until you run into the more power staffs mid game.
Excellent suggestion!! I included the staff in the weapon list. Thank you
You have "Charged Mitts" listed with a +20% Boost to Electricity/Lightning Damage.
Charged Mitts only give +10%
Storm Talons give +20%
Thanks! Fixed it
I read through all of the builds with great interest. For Alistair I want to use the Juggernaut tank build. Since I only started playing the game recently, the group will probably consist of Alistar, Morrigan, the dog and me (human magician, possibly Arcane Warrior build). Later on, especially Wynne as a healer, I think.
Now to my question. In Morrigan's wizard build, Tactics at position 4 shows Self: Sorrounded by at least two enemies -> Mind Blast.
However, it is not listed under Talents and spells.
Likewise, Morrigan has Stone Armor from Talents and spells -> Primal. This is not listed under Tactics. Shouldn't she use it? Did I miss something?
I found a mod on Nexusmod that allows all points, talents and specializations to be reassigned. It works. This means that "clean" builds are also possible.
I look forward to the answer.
Regards
Hey, Amadeus!
Mind blast comes by default with Morrigan. However, good catch, it is not shown. I will update it.
Rock Armor is a sustainable skill that lowers your mana pool (which you need for spells) and increases mana consumption. Because your mage shouldn't be attacked in the back rows of the party, there is no point in having that talent active for higher armor. However, if you do get attacked, you can use Mind blast and reposition yourself. If it is one enemy, well, usually you can just run away or use Winter's Grasp.
Regarding the mod, that is true, you can reassign everything. However, I would use that only on your main character and try to leave companions "vanilla setup", because your party will be overpowered and you will miss what was intended by the game developer. But that is just my opinion
Thank you for your feedback, and ask more questions if you need :)
Hello zanuffas!
Thank you for the quick response and the update!
I've owned the game, Ultimate Edition, since December 26th, 2020 (Steam, as a temporary alternative to Skyrim) and I've just arrived in Lothering and died again with the bandit group;).
I read a lot on the internet and try to understand everything. I find the learning curve for combat and tactics very steep. I want to play the game at normal level. So I'm very grateful for your builds with skills, gear AND tactics. Meanwhile I believe that there is no such thing as THE best group. It seems to me that your builds are all endgame builds?
You wrote somewhere whether the intermediate steps would also be interesting. Yes, they would be very interesting for me.
After reading the builds again (finished playing Leliana's song) I tend to build Leliana as a dual dagger and Morrigan as a crowd control build. Does that fit? What would you recommend?
So far I've only done micromanagement for my magician character. I do not yet understand exactly how the other skills, for example in the Warrior (War Cry, Rally, Taunt etc) or Rouge, work together. I mean when can and must the skills be used?
In other RPG's I always play a hybrid, e.g. paladin, magic, armor and melee weapon. In Skyrim, my main character is a Spellsword. Tank is in front, I intervene where necessary as a DMG or if the tank kneels I heal it a bit. Do you understand what I mean? ;) That's why I find your Arcane Warrior Build so interesting.
Sorry English is not my mother tongue, this is a Google translation.
I look forward to the answer.
Kind Regards
Hey!
I made a permanent link: https://discord.gg/BuSWbAndDb try it now :)
Hello Zanuffas, that RL kept me in suspense longer than I thought. Thank you for your tips, I continued to play a little. I have Discord but haven't used it much. Unfortunately your link has already expired. If you like send me a new one. I will then react faster;)
Hey! Thank you for coming back. If you are interested we can talk on discord, to take a look at your party: https://discord.gg/wfuxndrU :)
Now, to answer your questions. Dragon Age Origins is quite a difficult game at the start. It starts to get easier from level 9-10 onwards. So I do not recommend playing it on Nightmare or Hard if it's your first time.
You need to use areas to your advantage, block the path with tank, etc. Of course, it is hard to do in Lothering open fields, but you can lower the difficulty for the time being.
Another option would be to re-roll. I did this a few times, after I learned the game better, managed to get better gear and to pick more relevant talents and spells.
The idea in this type of RPG is to constantly CC your enemies. How to do that at the beginning of the game?
Alistair - use Shield Bash and Shield Pummel often. For example, if you see an enemy running to your mage, just Shield bash him.
Morrigan - use Winter's Grasp on archers that will be hitting you to freeze them. Also, use Horror to put fear in enemies and stun them. If someone is hitting Morrigan, use Mind Blast, and move her away.
Leliana - I would not recommend going for dagger build when learning. Use archer build on your first playthrough. The dual wield build is more advanced and requires to understand backstabbing and having good aggression management
Main character - as I understand he is a mage. There are many spells, which you can use, you can try Glyph of Paralysis or Paralyze + Miasma. Also, Winter's Grasp and Cone of Cold are amazing. Arcane warrior is also quite an advanced build. I only used it on my third playthrough :D I could make a blood mage build that is similar to the Morrigan wizard build, but you will have more offensive spells and similar capabilities to Arcane warrior (except tanking).
The builds which I suggest are endgame. But I mentioned what should be priority skills as you progress through the game. If I will have time I will add general level guidelines, what talents to take when :)
So if you have any more questions we can talk on Discord and I could go through your characters and give some tips :)