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Avowed lead says the Blood Mage build is 'absolutely the best way to play' the RPG, even if Obsidian stumbled on it by accident

Avowed, an upcoming RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, features a unique "Blood Mage" build that allows players to sacrifice their own health to maintain spells, discovered by accident during development and praised by the studio's production director as the "best way to play".

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Avowed doesn't have any strict classes to choose from, but its range of builds is diverse - and according to Obsidian Entertainment, there's one build that shines brighter than most.

As a dedicated Dragon Age stan and lover of all things dark fantasy, I'm a Blood Mage fan myself - so it's exciting to learn that I can effectively play as one in Avowed. Speaking in an interview with Gamertag Radio, production director Ryan Warden reveals that the "high risk, high reward" build is a favorite of his - and also one developers discovered by accident. "My favorite build … it's a Blood Mage build."

Warden continues, explaining the build in-depth: "What that is, is you're a mage and you're casting, but when you run out of essence you start to deplete your own health in order to keep casting." How did the build come about, though? "We don't have actual builds, it's a classless game … QA was providing a ton of support for how we could build [Gamescom demo setups] out. And one of our QA testers, Jan, was like 'I have a Blood Mage build.'"

That's when Obsidian first realized that the build could be pulled off in Avowed. "We were like, 'What?' And it was this combination of trinkets and rings, and abilities, and it is so much fun." So much fun, in fact, that Warden proclaims that a Blood Mage build "is absolutely the best way to play that I've found so far."It sounds to me like Avowed is shaping up to be one of the best RPGs in a good while - but that's not all that surprising.

Obsidian is the mastermind studio behind the likes of beloved games like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, and more recently, The Outer Worlds as well as its upcoming sequel The Outer Worlds 2. I personally can't wait to dive into Avowed and explore how a Blood Mage build works myself - will it take me back to the old days of playing BioWare's Dragon Age classic Origins? I certainly hope so.

Check our roundup of new games coming this year and beyond for more to look forward to.