cqd,

You mean Dragon Age, not Dragon Age 2, right? If so, then trust me, I have played that one to death. My "killer" character was also a thief. He specialized in archery & stealth, but by the end (and by "end" I mean through the expansion, "Awakenings") had also picked up enough dual-wield feats to be pretty scary. With Roses Thorn in one hand and Starfang in the other, he simply owned up-close and then would switch to a bow and nail them from far away with stealth criticals.

I really enjoyed the combat in Dragon Age I, but I actually thought it was better in DA2. It flowed better, had a very "cinematic" feel to it without giving up the tactical options that the first one had. My biggest beef with DA2 was the lack of variety (and often just out-right repetition) of the gameplay areas.

EDIT: Oh, and the length too. DA I just felt -- EPIC, HUGE. I mean, my first play-through took about 100 hours -- no kidding. Dragon Age 2 was long enough, don't get me wrong, but it just didn't have that sweep that that DA1 had.