Warden > Hawke >>>>>> Inquisitor
The Inquisitor felt way too bland and tame for my tastes. I enjoy playing ruthless characters and the inquisitor failed to deliver on that part. DAI just lacks interesting moral choices. The inquisitor lacks diversity, emotion, personality and backstory. I often felt like I was saying basically the same thing in three slightly different tones instead of having three entirely different personality paths to follow.
Guest_Caoimhe_*
I loved Hawke, as she was my first, but she had her own story. It had been written (literally lol) and I had to go for the ride, only changing her personality to what I felt suited her and choosing her LI.
Then I played DAI and my Inquisitor had a very simply past. Lived her life as a Mage, has a noble family that's alive. Kind of perfect minus the conclave. It's ok and I can shape her into my choice of leader and give her my choice of LI, but I have to go with DAO. The silent Warden is you. Yes there is a small past, be it a noble run out of their home, or a mage living in the tower, or for those who played an elf or dwarf, they too had a small story to introduce them. That was it though. After that, I truly felt like I was the Warden. I think not having a voice (minus battle cries) made you able to put yourself in the role of the Warden and truly RP.
In the many Japanese RPG games I've played, with a few exceptions in later years, they make your main character voiceless so you can feel you are that character. Probably growing up with those kind of games is what made me love my Warden Amell.
Hawke.......then
Inquisitor/Warden
I feel like Hawke had the most personality and they felt like a real person, I love the Warden but it's difficult going back to a silent protagonist. Maybe one day you can have the varying and diverse options of DAO with voice acting. I'm hoping with some DLC it will help bring more life to the Inquisitor though.
Whoever I'm playing at the time .... (coincidentally they've all got the same first name, that'll be confusing if they meet up)
Lin Cousland (warrior, started off as a mage but realised Alistair needed help ruling still pro-mage though) was driven by a strong sense of duty and love of her homeland. Oh yes and revenge, I've never since felt so much satisfaction as pounding that Barsteward Howe's teeth into the dirt.
Lin Hawke (human mage) Motivations were family, friends and the mage cause. Anders' free-fall was excruciating for her because she couldn't help him.
Lin Travelyan (human mage) Bewildered but practical and resourceful. If they insist on making her the Inquisitor she'll be the best damned Inquisitor there is (hopefully).
However, if they all fell into the fade I'd be the most relieved if out of the 3 of them it was the Warden who made it out alive.
1. Warden
2. Inquisitor
3. Hawke
C'mon, Dragon Age Inquisition is much better than DA2.
In your opinion. The only things better about Inqusition is the prettiness, factor.. and less recycled areas.
Hawke
imo The problem with DA2 wasn't Hawke. I know some didn't like PLAYING a ROLE given to them, but the approach is as valid as any for a role playing game. Hawke was a tremendous character and performances. Sometimes you can affect the world, most of the time all you have is how you handled yourself. I loved the heart of DA2's story.
^Pretty much this.
And those certain 'some people' need to accept that other people, play these games for: the story, characters,world, lore, and not to make their own character. I get sick of the argument that 'Hawke wasn't their character and they couldn't head cannon, and that makes hawke bad' which when you look at DA,Tumblr, and FF.net that it clearly shows otherwise.
For me it's not a matter of Warden, Hawke or Inquisitor but of which Warden, which Hawke and which Inquisitor.
Favourite: City Elf (Tabris) and Commoner Dwarf (Brosca) Wardens and Dalish Inquisitor (Lavellan)
These three were the characters I grew to care for. It helped, I think, that the wardens, especially the city elf, were feisty little ****** who got on just fine with Morrigan and Zevran and that so much of the content of Inquisition revolves around elven lore.
With a pretty self-serving rogue very few interactions with my favourite companions felt forced in DA:O, neither in the original nor in Awakening; for me that was a huge plus.
And in Inquisition, even though I initially walked into the game with the idea that I wanted to romance Cullen, I found this homely elf being all cute and polite so I thought 'Well, why not? I can always romance Cullen on my next playthrough. This older scholarly dude looks like a nice, safe romance option.'... so yeah... god-kisses and heartbreak. And I'm finishing my third playthrough now, over 500 hours invested in the game, and it's 3 out of 3 elves 
... all suckered by the ****** wolf... because Cassandra and Dorian won't return my affections 
But I'm slooowly working on my lady Cadash... because Bull needs a woman too. 
Least favourite: Noble Human Warden (Cousland) and Aggressive Hawke. I wanted to like them, I did... I think I have up to 30 hours on my warrior Cousland who was supposed to be Alistair's queen and at least 200 hours in DAII divided between 5-6 non-diplomatic Hawkes (of which only one mage finished the game) but I never really bonded with any of those. Only green Hawke and (occasionally) sarcastic Hawke said things which matched something I might say in a given situation... aggressive Hawke, to me, came accross as having... issues.
Side note: If I could have played Fenris instead of Hawke in DAII I think that would have made the game for me... elven ex-slave with epic tats which help him rip someone's heart out of their chest becomes Champion and Viscount of Kirkwall and has a rivalmance with his Dalish blood-mage companion... yes please.
Despite race selection being one of my favourite things, and an advantage DAO/DAI have over DA2, Hawke is actually my favourite. DA2 has a lot of flaws, with the recycled maps and limited locations it could get boring very easily. But I've had just as many playthroughs in DA2 as DAO, simply because I enjoy Hawke (and companions).
Although the 3-tone system can be limiting, Hawke also had more presence and personality than either of the other two protags. With them, a lot of the personality feels like headcanon, whereas Hawke can show some of it. Sometimes s/he said something that forced me to alter my idea of her personality/views, but mostly I was able to combine what the game presented and what I wanted from Hawke. I really feel like Hawke seemed as much of a real character as the rest of the team, rather than an avatar. Hawke also felt enough like 'my character' for me to feel attached, unlike Shepard in ME3, who felt very fixed.
The fact that DA2 was Hawke's personal story helped a lot, with the inclusion of their family, their house, etc. And although the 7-year thing wasn't implemented well, it gave you some room to headcanon (and act out) Hawke's personality/morals changing over the years. They also felt close to their friends, not just as colleagues, because friendship/loyalty is the only thing binding them together.
If there was a way to combine what Hawke brought with race selection, I'd be in heaven!
Cousland Warden
Tabris Warden
Aeducan Warden
Brosca Warden
Sarcastic Hawke
Other Hawkes, all Inquisitors.
Despite race selection being one of my favourite things, and an advantage DAO/DAI have over DA2, Hawke is actually my favourite. DA2 has a lot of flaws, with the recycled maps and limited locations it could get boring very easily. But I've had just as many playthroughs in DA2 as DAO, simply because I enjoy Hawke (and companions).
Although the 3-tone system can be limiting, Hawke also had more presence and personality than either of the other two protags. With them, a lot of the personality feels like headcanon, whereas Hawke can show some of it. Sometimes s/he said something that forced me to alter my idea of her personality/views, but mostly I was able to combine what the game presented and what I wanted from Hawke. I really feel like Hawke seemed as much of a real character as the rest of the team, rather than an avatar. Hawke also felt enough like 'my character' for me to feel attached, unlike Shepard in ME3, who felt very fixed.
The fact that DA2 was Hawke's personal story helped a lot, with the inclusion of their family, their house, etc. And although the 7-year thing wasn't implemented well, it gave you some room to headcanon (and act out) Hawke's personality/morals changing over the years. They also felt close to their friends, not just as colleagues, because friendship/loyalty is the only thing binding them together.
If there was a way to combine what Hawke brought with race selection, I'd be in heaven!
Agreed. Sarcastic Hawke is the best protagonist of any Bio game I've played yet. Although I do have a soft spot for my first mage inquisitor.
EDIT: Sorry, I have to amend that. Femshep is right up there at the top, too, but she benefits from being the star of three games, and not just one.
They were all pretty much blank slates to me.
Sure, some of them had more personality choices (Warden), and some of them better fleshed out with acting and vocals (Hawke/Inquisitor(?)), but my headcanon will always trumps any and all lack of options should the developer not add enough. So it's kinda like asking which of your own characters do you like the most.
Hawke >> Inquisitior > Warden
Hawke felt more like an actual person where as the inquisitor just felt like... the most neutral PC i'v ever seen, Bioware being forced into multirace choice did not do the inquisitor any favors either, Im a dwarf? Well that doesn't matter, Your an elf? Better be female and romancing solas or It doesn't matter either, Your a qunari? Okay then, You don't worship Andraste? You better or the game will spend a ton of time trying to convince you to.
Despite the warden being last i do not dislike the warden i just feel that the warden is fun in about the same way a sock puppet is, yeah sure its fun to imagine and act out a voice for him/her for a while... but eventually you just realize that once you remove your hand from it, i like to think that my characters have future beyond me.
That being said tho, I hope the warden either gets an off-screen death/stays dead or gets sent off to their happy ever after, I do not want to play the warden again, I do want hawke back tho.
All three main pc's have been excellent!
I might rate them based on personal preference, but that wouldn't make my #3 choice less of a favorite than #1? The margin between them would be very slim.
Hawke
Inquisitor
Warden
Warden ---> Inquisitor ---> Hawke
I was just one of those people that was very disappointed with DA2 and it's repetitive locations and confusion about the story and my role in it. I'll agree with the OP here however in that the Inquistor needed a backstory. The reason the Warden was and is my favourite is that I got to see them and know a bit about them before the events at Ostagar. I wasn't just thrust into the situation of becoming a Warden with the feeling that I didn't exist up until that point. As a Dalish Elf at least as the Inquisitor, Solas hints that your clan sent you to spy on the events at the Temple of Andraste. Knowing who my character was before the events of the game and generally having choices with regard to background would have been so helpful. Admittedly, it wasn't just about the lack of ability to choose a race in DA2 that was disappointing, it was that I was saddled with the same background based on that restriction and I'm one of those RPG players in that I like to visualise and create my character as either a reflection of myself or a reflection of my greatest RPG fantasies.
Most interesting: Hawke (Female, sarcastic)
I think this is the best rogue character I have ever seen in a game (not the class but, well, roguish), the voice actress is incredibly spot on and the writing is just excellent in 99% of the case. Also, I like that she's not this huge hero that needs to save the world, but instead she's an immigrant, centred on making her family survive. The only drawback is that you have to play human, something i usually find extremely boring in games if there is another choice. I guess that shows how much I liked her, despite that. 
"Only" interesting: The Inquisitor
Despite being able to play Tal-Vashoth (was I happy), I feel like the Inquisitor is doomed to lose this one. She simply doesn't get enough definition; I find her to be a lot like how anime/manga is done - in the sense that the protagonist is usually more boring than the support cast. However, I do not hate her at all. Both voice actresses do very well, and I think the writing that is there is fine also. DAI feels less focused than the other two games, for good and ill - mostly good for me, since I love open world-ish. But I think the Inquisitor does suffer a bit.
The Warden. Because it was the only one I felt I had full control over. The other two felt like characters someone else had made for me and told me to play.
1.Hawke. Sarcastic personality is the best for me, his lines always cracked me up:)
2.Inquisitor. The VAs are good, but the protagonist as a whole seemed a bit boring to me.
3.Warden. I guess its because silent protagonist is just not my thing and that blank stare(the same as with Shep in ME1-2).
Favorite: Hawke.
Can't go wrong with sarcastic!Hawke, and I'm one of those people who loved DA2 from the start, so I never had a real issue with the game itself either. I really liked Hawke's storyline too, so yeah... This was a no brainer for me.
Least favorite: I feel like I'm going to be a minority in this but... the Warden.
I felt no attachment to my Warden WHATSOEVER. I honestly don't care about her and whenever I see people talk about how they wish their Warden would return like an actual character I just... I don't get it?? I mean yeah, I do get it, they do like their Warden, but I just can't relate. It's probably because Hawke and the Inquisitor are voiced protagonists... they felt like actual characters. The Warden felt like a dummy or a puppet with no personality, like she wasn't real. I dunno. The only good thing about my Warden was that I got to romance Alistair through her, that was a big plus... but other than that? I'd be happy to just forget about her I guess...
The Warden and Hawke are actually pretty close... the Warden had the Cousland and Surana variations (among others), which allowed for a lot of customization and many unique playthroughs... but on the other hand, Hawke was a cool character whose story and personality options kind of made up for the fact that s/he was somewhat inflexible. Both characters had more than enough dialogue and quest options to allow for a good deal of roleplaying and variation between playthroughs. That said, the Warden has the edge, but I have to admit that the quality of their respective games undoubtedly plays a role in this...
The Inquisitor, however, wasn't particularly interesting to me, and this was only exacerbated by the revelation of how they gained their unique power. Overall, the character felt very boring and safe, and there were many times where it seemed that the auto-dialogue was made intentionally bland in order to keep things neutral (which made the character seem even less interesting). I also didn't particularly care for any of the VAs, so there's that...
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