*

There are posts for other characters as well.

Obviously this post contains information about Leliana, so if you don’t want spoilers, please do not read any more.

Note: I had an opportunity to play on the PS3 recently. The approval rates vary slightly from the PC. This is for the PC version, but it should get you close on console, as well. The unique gifts (Andraste’s Grace flower and the Cute Nug) seemed to boost approval much more on the console than they do on the PC.

Leliana is bisexual so you can romance her as either a male or a female Warden. She’s also the most difficult of the four to actually consummate the romance, so you’ll have to be more patient with her than with the others. If you’re a male Warden who is in it for the fun you can always romance Morrigan and / or Zevran first as you work on Leliana then decide which one you want to stick with once their approval gets high enough (if you want to have your Warden with either one.) If you’re playing a bi female you can romance Zev or Alistair for awhile and do the same. Just be prepared for the backlash. They don’t like you messing with them, and some will hit you with massive negative approval when you break it off. (Varies depending on which character.)

Spend a lot of time talking to her in camp and click on her when you go into a new area of the world. She’ll often have something to say, and will even adopt a Nug named Shmooples in a side quest at Orzamarr.

1. Leliana is a lay sister of the Chantry. She has apparently spent most of her life as a bard in Orlais, a minstrel assassin, and a spy employed by the nobles of Val Royeaux. She makes a great melee rogue with Dual Weapon talents but can also shell out some damage as an archer. Leliana is a little difficult to start a relationship with.
2. Oct 18, 2010 This entry was posted in Dragon Age Origins and tagged Approval Rate, Dialog Choices, Dragon Age Origins, Leliana, romance, Tutorial, Warden. Post navigation ← The Wolves of War Chapter Four – Dragon Age Fan Fiction.

Leliana is a “Girl Scout” at heart and approves of good deeds over mercenary ones. She rolls better with Wardens who are at the very least neutral if not good. If you’re playing a pretty evil Warden, you may want to leave her at Camp most of the time and rely on dialog or gifts. She’s very into the Chantry, stories, and love. You can get approval from her by telling people to keep the faith and all will be well, doing good deeds for people, donating to the Chantry, and overall making the “nice” decisions. Like everyone else in your camp, she responds well to being flirted with and agreeing with her views on the world.

Dragon Age: Origins I have been hearing that if you are maxed out with her sometimes she won't approach you, though I think I was maxed and she approached me. I do recall that SHE had to make.

Make sure to initiate the romance as quickly as possible. She doesn’t seem to have nearly as many triggers to begin a romance that the others do. I had to practically dodge Alistair and Zev as a female, and Morrigan was hit on my men even when they didn’t necessarily return the interest. An option came up where she asked if he’d ever thought of her as more than friends. Leliana is best if you make your interest known as early as possible.

Note: If you just want to be friends with her, it’s petty easy to stay out of a romance, unlike some of the others. The dialog which triggers her interest is usually fairly obvious. You’ll want to avoid the line “She was special to you, wasn’t she?” after the personal quest as an uninterested female, but that’s the only one I’ve stumbled across on accident when I didn’t intentionally want romance.

How To Romance Leliana

Bugs: Unless you use a mod like Dialog Tweaks you can get some slightly odd reactions out of her. With really high friendship approval, she may act like she’s in a romance if you’re a female Warden who marries Alistair, even if you aren’t. I also had trouble actually dumping her with a male Warden even when he’d decided the Pearl was where he’d get his fix and ditched Morrigan and Leliana both. I’m not sure if that was a one time incident with my game or if it’s common, but she turned into Crazy Chantry Stalker Chick on him.

I haven’t personally confirmed this one because it’s the only thing I haven’t done as of writing this post, but a PS3 playing friend had her attack the Warden when in the party while poisoning the Sacred Ashes and the Warden was forced to kill her. If you plan on doing that, best to leave her in camp.

I’ve only actually romanced her as a male Warden, but I have stumbled across a couple of her romance triggers on accident. There may be more than just these.

As a female: When she talks the Warden woman’s hair there’s a line in the dialog line “And do you often enjoy the company of other women?”

After her personal quest, you can also say: “She was special to you, wasn’t she?” and it will trigger romance.

This is break down of my dialog was done as a male human noble and a male city elf.

You can start working on Leliana’s approval right away in Lothering. Just outside the Chantry there are some merchants arguing with a Chantry sister. If you convince the merchant he’s being unscrupulous Leliana is happy. Try and kill them and she’ll chew you out and give you negative approval.

+2 Approval (You will need at least 1 block persuasion for this to work)
– Is your profiteering ruffling a few feathers?
– You don’t think you’re being unscrupulous?
– I think you can compromise and still make a profit, no?

Due to the Reaper’s Cudgel from the Golems of Ammarack DLC I usually have over 300 gold at this point. I never have actually used it as a weapon and presumably the +4 strength makes it worth over 300 gold, or something else on it. At any rate, I don’t worry about the gold levels in my game. You may want to keep the gold if it’s not as free flowing in your game.

To get another +4 Approval, donate 5 sovereigns to the Chantry. She’ll give you approval for the donation of silver, too, but this is the most Approval for the fast track.

Give her the Bronze symbol of Andraste found in a chest for another quick +10

Once in camp approach and talk to her.

+2 Approval
– This vision of yours….
– You dreamed of the Blight?
– And this made you want to help me?
– I suppose I couldn’t sit by either.

+2 Approval
– What was life like in the Chantry Cloister?
– Condescending? How so?
– I prefer your ideas to those of the Chantry.

+ 6 Approval
– What was someone like you doing on Lothering’s Chantry?
– You know, a beautiful charming woman like yourself (not sure if this is exclusive to the men or not, but this is obviously one of her romance triggers.)
– Those initiates can’t have been more lovely than you. (Avoid asking her if her fruit is forbidden. I think she considers this cheeky and can get cranky.)
– Affirmed?
– So your skills were learned before your time in the Chantry?

+5 Approval – listen to all her stories. As long as you ask her to continue and listen to all of them you’ll get the Approval.

+1 Approval
– Why did you decide to come to Ferelden?
– What happened to your mother?
– You were young, that’s understandable.

+1 Approval
– Do you miss anything about Orlais?
– It sounds wonderful.
– What sorts of things?
– Were they ridiculous shoes? (I think you can get another point if you’re into shoes yourself and select “Oh! I love shoes!” my guy just wasn’t quite that into footwear.)
– Wouldn’t that be hard to walk in?
– You don’t need fancy shoes to make you beautiful. (Male option only, I think.)

Dragon Age Origins Leliana Romance Elf

+2 Approval
This conversation is critical to get to her personal quest.
– I heard in Orlais minstrels are often spies?
– I don’t remember.
– I thought minstrels were bards.
– What sorts of services does a bard offer?
– You seem to know quite a bit about these bards.
– I’d never leave that, it sounds too exciting.

Head out of Camp as she’s now chatted out. For a few quick points, go off to the Dalish camp.

Leliana is the only one in your group who actually gives a +2 for sparing Zevran. Others will either give you negative or have no opinion.

+4 Approval – help the young Dalish hunter named Cammon. You’ll need some persuasion for this one, as well. Just be polite to him and the woman he’s in love with, don’t try to bed either one of them yourself and help him solve his problem by either persuading the girl or killing a wolf for him.

+2 Approval – head to Redcliffe village and tell Bann Teagan you’ll help with the problem. What / how you go through the dialog won’t matter so long as you’re polite and end up telling him “yes.”

+1 Approval – You’ll see a weeping woman at the door named Kaitlyn. Tell her you’ll look for her little brother.

+5 Approval – Again, you’ll need Persuasion for this, at least 2 blocks of it. Also make sure you have some gold in your pocket before completing this. Go around the corner, convince Bevin out of the closet then persuade him to talk about his grandfather’s sword. Tell him you can help his family out in exchange for the sword. Go back to talk to Kaitlyn again and tell her the sword is valuable. Give her 500 silver (5 gold) for it. Alistair and Sten will also give Approval for this, but Morrigan will give you a negative. If you’re playing a man don’t accept the kiss in return or Leliana gets upset.

+1 Approval – talk to Murdock and take the (Persuasion) “Have faith we will succeed” option.

+1 Approval – Next stop is the blacksmith. Tell him you’ll rescue his daughter (which is the only way to get his help, anyway.) She’ll also give you +2 Approval when you actually find Valena and tell the girl to run for it and get out of the castle.

Grab the Andraste’s Grace flower for her. It’s up in the area where you talk to Ser Perth, in the trees area. There’s also a Landmark Tree for your dog to pee on nearby. Give it to her for a quick +16 Approval and a short cutscene.

If you do Ser Perth’s request for “holy protection for the knights” take Leliana out of your group before delivering them to Perth to avoid negative approval.

Play through one of the main Blight quests and when you return to camp a cutscene will trigger with Leliana. She’ll approach the Warden and say she lied about why she was in Lothering.

+3 Approval
– So you didn’t get tired of the life?
– Fascinating! Tell me more.
– So you were dutiful but you still got in trouble?
– Important documents?
– Is this a bad thing?
– Did you give the documents to someone?
– What happened then?
– How unpleasant.
– I don’t think you would have.
– Thank you for trusting me with this.

Next time you leave Camp have her in your group. You’ll run into a band of assassins who are after her. Suggest to her that you should go to Denerim and confront Marjoline and this will trigger her personal quest.

Go to Denerim. Kill Marjoline, but save before you go into the door to confront Marjoline – just in case. This can be a tough fight if you do it too early or without good equipment.

Return to camp and talk to Leliana. Note that here I hardened Leliana’s personality. She can either embrace her tougher side or continue down a gentler path with the beliefs in the Maker closer to a Chantry sister. She won’t enter the 3-some at the Pearl with Isabella (or a 4-some with Zev, Warden, and Isabella) unless she’s hardened. More on that later. Her ending will also differ depending on which you choose, but otherwise game play stays the same.

I’ve heard rumors that she won’t get involved with a female Warden unless she has a hardened personality, but I can’t confirm or deny this because I’ve never played that relationship.

+8 Approval
– No, I thought you looked like you wanted to talk, though.
– Is there anything I can do?
– She would have attacked you there, eventually.
– It’s only human, don’t punish yourself.
– You’re not slipping, this is who you are – a bard, a spy.
– Deep down you know this is where you belong.

Once her Approval is high enough, you can click on her and she’ll finally invite the Warden to bed with her. My city elf was crazy about her but extremely clueless. She nearly had to hit him in the head with a pot to get him into her tent. You can take her up on the invitation immediately or get a few chuckles at her expense if your Warden is dense. Either way, you can finally get the Warden in the tent with her.

If you need a list of her special Gifts here they are.

She will get into a 3-some or 4-some at the Pearl with the lady pirate Isabella. To do a 3-some you must have her personality hardened. Talk to Isabella, ask her to teach you to be a duelist. When the option comes up (you’ll need Persuasion here. I think it’s 3 blocks but I’ve only done this once and my guy had 5. I’m not sure the minimum.) Ask Isabella if there’s not another way you can learn and Persuade her to take you to the ship. There’s no cutscene, but some humorous dialog. If Zevran is in your party, you can turn it into a 4-some. As long as he’s in the party, he’ll want to come along for the fun.

According to the WIKI if you play a female in the 3-some and Oghren is in the party, he’ll pass out.

Adopting Shmooples: One of Leliana’s special gifts is a Cute Nug. To get this, you need to have her in the party when you go to Orzamarr, have a high approval rate with her, have talked the majority or all of her conversations to an end, and have done her personal quest.

Dragon Age Origins How To Romance

Click on her once you’re in Dust Town. She’ll talk about the “subterranean pig bunnies” and how she’d like one for a pet.

Go back to the main part of Orzammar and there’s a dwarf who has lost his nugs (that sounds more painful than it is.) He’s near the entrance to the Diamond Quarter. In ambient conversation, Leliana will mention she doesn’t like common nugs, they seem dirty.

Wrangle a nug or two for the dwarf, pick up a few silvers, then head back to Dust Town. They’re all in the main area and easy enough to find – just follow the squeaking or PC players can press the Tab key.

(You may be able to skip this step, but I don’t think I ever have.)

Dragon Age Origins Romance Options

In Dust Town, there’s a dwarf called “Idle Dwarf” with some dead nugs in the background near him. He’ll tell you a story about how his father might have fallen into the sky topside. Ask him about getting a nug as a pet.

Leave Orzamarr and go back to camp.

Return and talk to this dwarf again. The “cute nug” will be added to your inventory with other gifts.

Give it to Leliana and you’ll get another huge boost in approval as well as a cutscene.

Shmooples will then join your camp, and even be next to her at the very end of the game when you say farewell to everyone.

Like all the love interests, you can be involved with multiple partners for awhile. Eventually, however, if the approval of one of the others gets high enough, she will demand that the Warden choose her or the other person.

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