For Origins you don't need sky-high DEX, about 50ish is enough with kit like Vartag's shield early and Howe's later. My Reaver/Champion had to stand on a glyph for tanking Cauthrien, but apart from that and a bit of healing for the spider queen she didn't need much in the line of support. Having someone clash clusters of mages makes things much more enjoyable, though.
Early on, emphasis is on DEX because all defensive talents require level 12 or higher, and armour can be donned using shoehorns like Helm of Honnleath, Harvest Festival Ring, Ring of the Warrior and so on. There are some +STR weapons that are worth keeping for that purpose.
Notable early STR requirements would be 25 for Overpower (the tank's only shattering ability) as soon as Morrigan has Cone of Cold, and 26 for Shield Expertise around level 12 at the latest. However, you'll probably start a bit earlier building up STR to within shoehorn reach of DLC armour first and Wade's Superior Plate later.
It may be worth keeping tomes for level 12 because there are three nice talents beckoning: Shield Expertise, Shield Mastery, and Frightening Appearance or Rally (depending on which specialisation you picked first). I went Reaver first since the level-12 stun was the last thing I wanted from it anyway and half of the Champion abilities aren't available before level 14 when you can take your second specialisation. But that was with an 'only looted pots' rule which made Devour a bit more attractive than normal. However, it seems that Devour takes less time than chugging a pot, if any at all. I swear my toon continued hitting an ogre alpha while she healed by devouring a pile of corpses deposited there for that exact purpose.
Sword & board warriors don't really start to shine until they are past the magical level-12 threshold, when everything changes. Soon after that you'll be eating revenants for breakfast and ogres for snacks. Having purpose-built swords is a huge help: Starfang with elemental GM runes for general work, tier-7 Topsider's Honour with GM cold iron against undead, and something like Duncan's with GM silverites against darkspawn. The best magic boost comes from Flaming Weapons, with Telekinetic Weapons a somewhat distant second and Iced Weapons last.
Starting with about level 20, talent points went into Dual-Wielding; the full DW Sweep line including Momentum and Whirlwind, plus DW Training for full efficiency against harder targets (ogres and such). That made the endgame thoroughly enjoyable. Sword & shield for durability dancing with the ogres in the market square, sweep and whirling dervish for opening the dance and for tearing through waves of grunts (with Momentum picking up the slack while they are cooling down). Wade's for giving Archi what-for while he was being roasted.
In Awakening you can respec, and Awakening builds tend to be different from Origin ones anyway.
P.S.: if you look at the rap sheet of my character you'll see that I started investing into WIL and CON. That was with an eye towards the unknowns of Awakening and Amgarrak; with hindsight I'd pile everything into STR/DEX and rely on things like the Blood-Gorged Amulet and Lifegiver for turning myself into a golem-like high-HP monster if necessary.
Retour en haut
I also liked some of the shield mods available. or use TWF to upgrade and add enchantments/
