Though Dragon Age II is now officially a decade old, players new and old haven't stepped down from the beautiful, expansive world the franchise is known for. While some players may grow tired of its outdated combat or graphics, others are just finding more to love in the now-classic entry into the series' growing library.
Recent or retro, the decision to port games to PC always breathes new life into a series' community, if just for the easier access to in-game mods (just look at the expansive legacy of Half-Life II). Even Doom: Eternal is carrying the classic games' popularization of community mods with some impressive recent additions. Fans will never exhaust their creative energy towards things they love, whether that means spending their free time to create full graphical overhauls, or just replacing character models for a laugh. Regardless of intent, mods are a fantastic excuse to return to a game, and DA2 is certainly no exception.
9 Ultimate HD Overhaul
CommandBen and Aegrus' overhaul mod Dragon Age 2 Ultimate HD is an impressive reskin of the game, providing players with absolutely gorgeous HD textures to add a certain layer of immersion in terms of environmental effects and details. While the base game does have an HD DLC, it's often hard to notice the real difference between that version and vanilla, whereas DA2UHD immediately stands out with its visual and textural upgrades, on par with even some recent games.
8 True RPG Party Equipment
User Dragonagefun's DA2 Equip Your Part V3 fixes a lot of players' frustrations with their companions feeling static and items feeling useless after a certain point. The goal here was to make DA2 feel a bit more like classic RPGs, where players have the freedom to reinstate partners' equip loads to better fit their stats.
Mixed with Ishmaeltheforsaken's Diversified Follower Armors and KwanJin's Unlock Companion Skill Trees, there's a lot more to love in DA2's admittedly stale follower options.
7 Deeper Magic Systems
User Lautreamont has made a wonderful workaround to DA2's limited spell abilities, stemming from frustrations with unsatisfying magic levels and lackluster summons. Better Mages - Better Spells offers a lot more powerful choices for casters without breaking the game like some other mods might aim to. What players will find here is a lot more akin to D&D's spell leveling system, giving higher level players more reward for investing in their practice.
6 Better Summoning Options
Setiweb, irritated with DA2's limited spellcasting summons, made a mod that (without feeling unfair) allows caster classes a broader range of magic summons tailored to the lore. Simple Summoning allows players access to over a hundred new creatures, including wyverns, demons, goblins, and support companions. This allows DA2 to feel a bit more like Final Fantasy in terms of harnessing awe-striking creatures in battle.
5 Multiclass
While the opening of skill trees to allow any class to access any other class' skills may be game-breaking if abused, it can be a fun addition with due responsibility.
HellGhost87's Multiclass allows players to invest in options that may be more suitable to their play style, rather than being stuck with just one skillset. This can make a fun addition to new play throughs for gamers that might want to try something fresh with their next iteration of Hawke.
4 Skill Tree Overhaul
Jumping off the multiclass train, Harfen's Super Lots of Skill Upgrades allows even the most straight-forward class a lot more freedom in terms of what players want their abilities to look like. Where a lot of players might be tired combining their limited options throughout multiple playthroughs. Combined with the formerly mentioned multiclass mod, this allows class options to make a much bigger difference than they ever could in the vanilla game, and can be a fun gamechanger for veteran players looking to shake things up.
3 Upgraded Combat Encounters
The combat systems in DA2 are divisive to say the least. Where some players love the realism and length, others are angry for the same reasons, claiming even the stock enemies feel too tanky and ruin the game's pacing.
There are actually quite a few community mods centered around this problem, but Lautreamont's Better Combat mod is one of the more popular ones, aiming to synergize the party's class features to allow them more tactical freedom, reminiscent of old RPG party balancing.
2 Character Aesthetics
Any game with customizable characters eventually hits a rut as far as options, especially when it comes to RPGs in the 2010s, many of which have aged pretty poorly as far as diversity and freedom in customization. Trufflesduval aims to cure this same-ness at least a little, providing quite a few more options for character building in their Chargen Revamp mod, not only allowing more customization in the main builder, but also for family presets. On their page, they also recommend a handful of other good aesthetic mods to match with this one.
1 Bigger Inventory
As is true for a lot of RPGs, inventory systems either feel too vast or too limited for any given player, resulting in a bit of frustration centered around how many or how few items can be held at any given point. While DA2 doesn't go too far to either side of the spectrum, Mykel12345's Backpack Mod gives players more room on the get-go so as to allow more exploration before having to go out of their way to sell or drop items. This can make or break early-game collect-it-all efforts, especially when players don't want to be bothered with intrusive "can't pick up" notifications and constant inventory management.