[Anaximander]

By now I've gotten comfortable with the DX bonus for elves so for my campaign that's where it's at. If anyone else runs a dragon age game and uses something else though, I'd love to hear about it!

The Qunari will keep the ST bonus, but I'd prefer to think their discipline is a product of their social background not of inherent predisposition to it. After all, the Qunari civilization is not perfect and not all Qunari seem to be able to live in the confines of their society the way Sten does. See "Tal Vashoth" for reference.

I suppose given the lore on Mabari an IQ 8 makes sense. Does this sound like an IQ 8 animal to you? "Mabari are magically bred by the Formari and they are not ordinary animals. Each Mabari chooses their master in a process called imprinting. Although fierce combatants, a Mabari companion is shown to be a highly sociable animal, and though not capable of speech, the Mabari can clearly respond to speech with growls, whines, barks and several other actions that demonstrate intelligent comprehension of any words that are spoken to it."

I dig that lens, thanks for that. While I would not elect to make one for every possible character background, it is an extremely useful idea and could totally be implemented in my campaign.

I will look into the Pyramid article you mentioned. As of now I am using Thaumatology and Ritual Magic in my game.