Did you not play DA 2 or really play DA:I to hear Varric's backstory, because I can tell you he is a helluva lot more than an author that is keeping up with elite career fighters. I mean he was an elite fight in before you even met him in DA2. Also, in DA:O you absolutely did NOT start with young fighers besides Allistair. Morgan was a top level mage, Wynne as well (I mean she was even an instructor). Leliana was a trained bard and assassin for royalty. Zevran a trained assassin and crow. So where exactly are these "young" fighters besides the MC? So basically EVERYONE besides the MC was more powerful characters to start that they scaled down to your level. Also with DA:I they really never went into the backstory of the Inquisitor, but the companions, once again, were established powerful characters that the scaled down to level with. Cassandra was a trained knight and the Chantry Seeker, Iron Bull a trained merc, Dorian and Vivian were both powerful mages, and again Varric was a trained, accomplished rogue from DA2. So your whole argument about lvl 20 characters being scaled to level 1 is basically the MO of basically most of the RPGs today that have companions.
Morrigan is, at best, a young prodigy trained by an old and powerful mage. I don't see how that makes her herself uber powerful, especially considering how caged and sheltered she was for her whole life, and therefore how most of her knowledge isn't practical in any way.
But anyway, following Morrigan and Alistair, a 6 months Grey Warden recruit, we get a retired bard and assassin (Leliana) who's spent years willfully atrophying her skills in a cloister, and beast of a dude (Sten) who's been starved for weeks by the time we meet him. This is the people we start with and only then, like i said, the experienced companions start to come in.
And thinking about it the game gives you a whole lot of reasons for their not being as powerful as they should be, what with Oghren not having touched a weapon in 2 years, or Shale's birdwatching, or Wynne having literally died. I suppose Zevran's the odd one out, but then again he makes his appearance around the time the party is at around lvl 10/15, so he's not really Gale either.
DA2 follows the same rules, if admittedly a bit more loosely. First companions are a random soldier and your two young siblings, and only after 1 or 2 years (timeskip) you get to meet people like Anders and Isabela (who should still be more powerful that they're portrayed as).
Agreed on Inquisition. That was my original point, really.
