Tactics (Origins)

Once you have the hang of basic combat strategy, you’re ready to use combat tactics that help your party members work together efficiently without needing constant direction. In fact, if you are finding the game "too hard" on Normal mode, chances are that your tactics setup is a significant contributor to your problems.

Basic mechanics
Although the combat tactics screen looks complicated at first, it’s really quite simple to design useful and powerful tactics if you understand the following basic mechanics:


 * The list of tactics is rapidly cycled through from top to bottom for every character during both "in combat" and "in exploration" modes. However, some trigger conditions apply only during in combat mode, which you can tell has occurred if you've set up the game options to automatically pause when you start combat. Such trigger conditions are skipped in each run-through of the list if you're in exploration mode.


 * Whenever a run-through of the list encounters a trigger condition that is true, the corresponding action is attempted. If the action can be completed, then the run-through cycle jumps back to the top of the list and begins again from the top. This is a very important nuance to understand because it can prevent important trigger conditions from ever being "hit" during a run-through. For example, if you put a trigger condition like Self:At least X enemies are alive:At least one enemy is alive high in the list with a corresponding action of Attack as your first item in the list, then as soon as combat starts you will never proceed past that very first item in the list because it will always evaluate as true on each run-through until all the enemies are dead, effectively creating a constant one-step loop that never proceeds past the first item in the list.


 * If the list encounters a trigger condition that is not true, it proceeds to the next item in the list. If the list encounters a trigger condition that is true, but the action cannot be completed for some reason, it proceeds to the next item in the list. When it reaches the bottom of the list it starts immediately again at the top of the list. An example of an action that cannot be completed would be one that calls a specific talent or spell but that talent/spell has been used recently and is on cooldown at the time that action is evaluated.


 * If you are using the default tactics system designed by Bioware, the character you are actively controlling (has the "selected" circle indicator around their feet) is no longer running their tactics. As soon as you switch to another character to actively control, the tactics for your previously-controlled character start running from the top of their list. Similarly, if you select the entire party with the Select All command (the = key), then tactics are disabled for the entire party. Tip: if you have the PC version of the game, there are mods that can force tactics to run even on the character(s) that are selected for active control, such as a popular mod called 'Advanced Tactics'.


 * When the entire party is held in position with the Hold Party command (the H key), tactics continue to run for your non-selected characters, but because they are being held in a position far away from your selected character and the enemies that you might be engaging with your selected character, many of their trigger conditions and/or actions might not be able to trigger correctly. Their tactics will not begin to run effectively until your selected character pulls enemies into range of the held party members, or until you release the party and they can control their own preferred range from the enemies.


 * A common area of confusion when you are first learning to control your party tactics is learning how to prevent ranged characters that you want to use a bow in combat from switching to melee weapons and charging into melee range. This behavior is controlled by the list of drop-down options in the Behavior field at the upper right of the tactics window. Choosing the Ranged option will prevent mages and archers from switching to any equipped melee weapons, and will make them automatically move to stay at medium range or longer from the enemy that they are targeting.

As your characters learn new spells and talents, pre-built tactics (like Archer, Defender, or Scrapper) start to appear when you select an option from the Presets pull-down menu. For example, the Healer preset might appear empty for Morrigan at first, but tactics fill in automatically when she learns the Heal spell. Select a tactics preset that corresponds to the sorts of actions you want the character to take.

Each character initially is limited by the number of available tactic slots, as game progresses and the characters level and acquire larger collections of skills, they will also gain tactic slots. This can also be increases via Combat Tactics to potentially gain up to six extra tactic slots.

The Default tactics do not include taking health poultices, illyrium potions (mana), or deep mushrooms (stamina) automatically, so you should create custom tactics if you want to do those actions. In addition, if the character is supposed to attack the enemy attacking the tank by default, a custom tactic must be constructed to include that. The frameworks for the default tactics can be reviewed using the toolset, and typically consist of one (or two, if a mode is to be deactivated under certain conditions or if an ability is to be applied under at most a couple of circumstances) 'if' statements for each mode, ability, and spell. For their default tactics, the character gets the statements applying to the modes, abilities, and spells it has until it runs out of tactics slots.

Your default tactics will not be visible in party camp--wait until you travel to modify and select them.

General tips for designing your tactics

 * It can be helpful to put your tactics in the following priority order:
 * Combat-triggered sustainable buffs first in the list (Flaming Weapons, Berserk, etc.) to ensure these buffs are available as your character is rushing into combat, before they've sustained any significant damage.
 * Self-preservation actions second in the list, such as Self:Health:Health < 25% > Use health poultice:Least powerful on every character, Self:Mana or stamina level:Mana or stamina < 25% > Use lyrium potion:Least powerful on your mages. After these, on your healer character (Wynne), you might next want to detect health/stamina/mana levels on all allies and apply various spells as appropriate. For example, Ally:Health:Health < 75% > Use ability:Heal followed by Ally:Health:Health < 50% > Use ability:Group Heal, etc.
 * Next should come useful reactive tactical options such as firing off Whirlwind if your surrounded by more than 3 enemies, or firing Stonefist at an enemy that is petrified/frozen etc.
 * Last should come some sort of basic attack condition that will always evaluate as true as long as you're in combat and at least one enemy is left alive (because you don't want characters standing around doing nothing). For example, Enemy:Any > Attack if you want a character to simply attack the nearest available enemy, or Enemy:Target of Party Member:Target of Alistair > Attack if you want a character to always focus-fire on Alistair's target if they're not doing anything else more important.


 * Selected party members tactics are DISABLED (in Bioware's default tactics system). If you want to control focus-fire on a single target without disabling tactics, you should therefore avoid selecting the entire party (using the = key) because doing so effectively disables tactics for every character. Instead, set up tactics for most of your members to be triggered by the target of your main "leader" or "tank" character (ex.: Enemy: target of main character -&gt; attack). Control only your "leader" character throughout the fight and whatever target he selects will control the target of tactics being run by your other characters.


 * Rangers pets tactics screen can only be accessed at the very moment they are summoned, by double-clicking the "1 tactics slot acquired" icon at the bottom left of the screen. Note that their tactics setting need to be remade each time they are summoned with currently no way to make them persistent. Saving their presets is useless.


 * The behavior of sustained buffs under Bioware's default tactics system can be confusing. Some sustained buffs, such as Berserk, always deactivate immediately upon exiting combat mode. Other sustained buffs, such as Flaming Weapons, always deactivate upon death. If you've set up a trigger condition of Self:Any to activate such sustained buffs, they will not be automatically reapplied by tactics unless you save, exit, and reenter the game. Why? Because Self:Any for Activate Mode: actions is essentially checked only on game startup. To work around this problem, you should use a trigger condition of Self:Game Mode:Combat for all sustained buffs that you want to ensure are up and running during combat. (Alternatively, there are mods for the PC platform than can effectively change the default behavior of sustained abilities like Berserk so that you can keep it running full time without relying on tactics.)

Tactics Interface
The Tactics dialog box is activated by pressing the backslash "\" key. There are two factors to using tactics effectively.

The first is the preset itself. Depending on the characters class, there are a range of presets available to choose from. If a character modifies the layout, a condition or an action, the preset will be saved to one of three custom presets available for each character. Only certain presets will be available based on class, eg. a Warrior will not learn the healer preset.

From there the player can assign certain default behaviors to their party members for use during Combat. The behaviours control how a character will react in Combat and when to use their tactics. The behaviours takes priority over tactics, meaning if the behaviour of a character is set to flee from area-of-effect attacks and an enemy has 1% of Health remaining and an area-of-effect attack spell is cast, they will remove themselves from the current area until it is safe to carry out their tactics.

Presets
Available presets are:

Healer

 * Usable by: Mage
 * A Healer...

Damager

 * Usable by: Mage
 * A Damager...

Supporter

 * Usable by: Mage
 * A Supporter...

Controller

 * Usable by: Mage
 * A Controller...

Dehabilitator

 * Usable by: Mage
 * A Dehabilitator...

Defender

 * Usable by: Warrior
 * A Defender...

Archer

 * Usable by: Warrior, Rogue
 * An Archer...

Scrapper

 * Usable by: Rogue
 * A Scrapper...

Behaviors
Available behaviors are:

Default

 * This party member will not attack when enemies are visible and will engage enemies only on the player's command. However, if attacked in melee combat, the character will fight back and will then try to chase aenemies if they move away. This party member will flee the location of a harmful area-of-effect attack.


 * If none of this party member's custom tactics are applicible, the character will begin a default attack routine.

Passive

 * This party member will fight back if attacked in melee combat, but will not chase enemies if they move away and will try to remain close to the player. This character prefers ranged weapons and will try to avoid any enemies that come too close. This party member will flee the location of a harmful area-of-effect attack.


 * If none of this party member's custom tactics are applicible, the character will not attack without player direction.

Aggressive

 * This party member will attack enemies the moment they are visible. The character will fight back if attacked in melee combat and will chase down enemies, but will not flee the locations of a harmful area-of-effect attack unless directed.


 * If none of their party member's custom tactics are applicable, the character will begin a default attack routine.

Ranged

 * This party member prefers ranged weapons and will automatically attack from range when enemies are visible. If attacked in melee combat, the character will fight back but will not chase enemies if they move away. This party member will flee the location of a harmful area-of-effect attack.


 * If none of their party member's custom tactics are applicable, the character will begin a default attack routine.

Cautious

 * This party member will not fight back when attacked in melee combat and will try to run away from enemies. If not engaged in combat, this character will try to stay close to the player. This party member will flee the location of a harmful area-of-effect attack.


 * If none of this party member's custom tactics are applicible, the character will not attack without player direction.

Defensive

 * This party member will fight back if attacked in melee combat, but will not chase enemies if they move away and will try to remain close to the player. This party member will flee the location of a harmful area-of-effect attack.


 * If none of this party member's custom tactics are applicible, the character will not attack without player direction.

Conditions

 * See: Conditions

As there are 218 individual conditions, they are listed on their own page.