Combat

See also Combat Mechanics

Combat, of course, is a central component of play in Dragon Age: Origins, and is central to advancing the game's narrative as well as gaining experience points which are used to "level up" playable characters.

Combat Modes
Combat in Dragon Age: Origins has two different modes.

The first mode is a "normal" attack. This mode is the default attack for any character, uses no special moves or spells, and expends no stamina or mana. Warriors and Rogues, in this mode, attack with their equipped weapon dealing normal damage, while mages attack with either a simple spell dealing minimal nature damage or by attacking with their equipped staff (or weapon if the mage is an Arcane Warrior). For this reason, using a "normal" attack with a warrior or rogue is more commonplace since it is still effective (depending on the equipped weapon's statistics) while "normal" combat mode for mages is often resisted or minimally effective.

The second mode of attack is that of special abilities or spells. This mode uses up stamina (warriors and rogues) or mana (mages) and can be either a sustained or activated ability. Special abilities are useful for melee/archer fighters in that they often deal greater damage, activate multiple strikes without rest to a target, or allow for greater accuracy or damage. However, special abilities for mages, or spells, are absolutely essential, since a mage's combat abilities are primarily tied to the use of mana for a variety of different effects including damage, buff, healing, or control.

Health
Heath is the most critical combat statistic to watch, as it is the amount of total damage a character/enemy can take before falling unconscious. The red meter outlining the left side of the character portrait tracks this statistic (percentage left vs. total). Health is increased by constitution, 5 health points per 1 level constitution.

Stamina
Stamina is the pool which allows warriors and rogues to utilize special skills while in combat. The brown/tan meter outlining the right side of the character portrait tracks this statistic (percentage left vs. total). Stamina is increased by willpower, 5 stamina points per 1 level willpower.

Mana
Mana is the pool which allows mages to cast spells. The blue meter outlining the right side of the character portrait tracks this statistic (percentage left vs. total). Mana is increased by willpower, 5 mana points per 1 level willpower.

Health and Stamina/Mana in Combat
A played character falls unconscious when that character's health meter drops to zero, and can will only revive if either the combat sequence ends with at least one party member still standing, or if a Spirit Healer Mage revives that party member with the Revival spell. Characters can heal themselves and others with health poultices or through magic abilities.

Special abilities and spells are only able to be activated if that character has enough mana/stamina, as each ability requires a specific amount of mana/stamina to activate - the exception being that Blood Mages can use their health as a well to cast spells from. While mana can be replenished though lyrium potions, stamina cannot. Both mana and stamina replenish over time while in combat.

Fatigue
Fatigue is a statistic that affects your stamina and mana usage while in combat, and is gained mainly through equipping armor on a character. Fatigue affects combat in two ways:

First, if the amount of fatigue crosses a threshold where it exceeds what would naturally be "absorbed" by the character, depending on strength, fatigue will decrease the available stamina/mana available for use in combat.

Second, if fatigue is counted negatively against stamina/mana, activated abilities and spells will cost fractionally more to activate, the percentage increase in cost being equal to the percentage over the threshold fatigue the character has. For instance, if a character has 10% fatigue over the threshold, an ability will cost 10% more (for instance from 30 stamina/mana to 33 stamina/mana).

Spellpower
Spellpower is the attribute that determines the effect of many mage spells. Only mages have spellpower. It is calculated as [ Magic - 10 (with a minimum of 0) ] and therefore increases by one point for every point a mage spends on his Magic attribute above 10. There are several other ways to increase spellpower including equipping staves, other equipment, and activating sustained Mage abilities Spell Wisp and Spell Might.

Pausing Combat Action
Combat is performed in real-time throughout Dragon Age: Origins. However, combat actions are each performed according the length of time each action is set to. Because of the wide array of actions available to any given character, pausing to plan or assign actions is generally a must, especially for a mage.

Combat can be paused by pressing the space bar at any time, or by enabling the game's auto-pause function in the "Gameplay" menu. While paused the player can select any of the party members and then issue commands to them. Upon resumption of combat the characters will continue according to the actions they were given and according to their Tactics settings. It is not possible to issue chains of commands during a single pause; each character will execute the last command they were given and then continue following their Tactics

Details
You may queue one of the following actions while combat is paused, which then will execute once gameplay is resumed:
 * Drink a healing potion
 * Drink a lyrium potion
 * Use any other type of salve or "potion"
 * Apply a poison to your weapon(s)
 * Cast a spell / Activate an Ability
 * Issue a Move command

The following actions can be performed without restrictions while combat is paused:
 * Deactivate Sustained Abilities (Note: This will likely cancel the character's current action, but there is no limit to the number of Sustained Abilities you can deactivate at once)
 * Switch between weapon profiles
 * Change Characters or select multiple Characters
 * Change targets
 * Modify your quickbar hotbuttons
 * View the Character Info, Skills, and Talents/Spells windows
 * View (and modify) the Inventory and Tactics windows. This includes changing armor/equipment.

You may not Level up a Character or Save your game while in combat (paused or not)