Revenant

Description
Revenants are demons inhabiting the corpses of the fallen, and as such, share the same strengths and weaknesses as creatures like Devouring Corpses, and Fanged Skeletons.

Involvement
Ten Revenants can be found during the campaign, as part of three separate quests:
 * The Black Vials: Six boss-level Revenants are trapped in glass phylacteries:
 * Caridin's Cross, Denerim, Circle Tower, Orzammar Royal Palace, the Lower Ruins, and the Werewolf Lair
 * The Mage's Treasure: Three boss-level Revenants in the Brecilian Forest, one in the west & two in the east. These are summoned by triggering gravestones.
 * Arl of Redcliffe: A lieutenant-level Revenant is the Redcliffe Castle courtyard when The Warden breaks in to investigate.
 * In addition, in Awakening it is possible to encounter Revenants in the Blackmarsh after escaping the Fade. The various Fade Portals spawn various undead and demonic enemies, including Revenants, though at this point in the game they are only Elite level and far easier to dispatch of than their boss-level, Origins counterparts.

Skills
Revenants have five different skills, and like party members, have conditions for their Combat Tactics:

Other Statistics
Revenants have the following characteristics:
 * High Armor, Health, and Regeneration.
 * Immunity to Stunning and knockdowns.
 * Immunity to Cold and Nature damage, although they can be frozen.
 * Vulnerability to Fire damage; normal reaction to Spirit, Lightning, and (despite the Codex text) Physical damage.
 * Highly resistant or immune to flanking and backstabbing.

Some of their basic strategies involve:
 * Pulling or Mass Pulling ranged attackers and healers.
 * Damaging multiple opponents in melee.
 * Killing weaker party members in one blow (spiking).
 * Wearing down the party with their allies (skeletons or lesser darkspawn).

Basics
Killing a Revenant takes careful planning and a well balanced group. Be sure to have plenty of healing (both from spells and items), at least one Tank, and at least one party member that can disable opponents. As always, a tanking Warrior should bring Weapon and Shield Talents to help keep aggro off the other party members.

Effective Tactics

 * Use snares to stop the the Revenant and/or slow it down:
 * Snares include: Glyph of Paralysis,
 * You can set traps ahead of time (although the demon will often resist weaker ones).
 * Slow down their regeneration: Curse of Mortality
 * Make them miss: Misdirection or Death Hexes.
 * Increase their vulnerability: Vulnerability and Affliction Hexes and Mark of Death.
 * Have a mage activate Telekinetic Weapons to increase armor penetration. Sunder Armor, Shattering Blows, and Shattering Shot are also highly effective, espescially if you face a Revenant early in the game where they tend to have extremely high armor versus your physical damage output.
 * Some Revenants spawn with undead allies. It might be best to cast Force Field/Paralyze the Revenant at this point and flee the battle area, aggroing its undead allies and dealing with them in a separate location. The party can then return at leisure and deal with the Revenant alone.


 * A tank maintains aggro while the other party members whittle down the Revenant's health.


 * For Mages: the Revenant is totally immune to cold damage from both staves and spells like Winter's Grasp, but Cone of Cold will serve to freeze it in place. The Revenant cannot be shattered.


 * Another possibility, more easier but longer is to wait for the revenant to attack the more threatening member of your party and just make this character run, possibly around a pillar or some obstacles. Other members are free to hit the revenant with archery or mage sticks while he is running to catch your lure character. The obstacle is very important because when the revenant is trying to attract you you just fall down and he always has to catch you. Sometime, you have to flee to another part of the map to find a suited ground for the fight. This strategy is very efficient, If you can manage to kill first other lesser skeletons.

Alternative Tanking

 * Force Field: the tank use Threat and Taunt to maintain aggro until Force Field is reapplied. The remaining party members keep their distance, using ranged weapons, spells, and fire bombs to deal with the demon. Ironically, bows work just fine, as dealing too much damage causes the Revenant to switch its attention from the tank to other party members.
 * Arcane Warrior: Attract aggro by casting offensive spells and hexes on the Revenant; spend as much mana as possible.Switch on Rock Armor, Arcane Shield, Shimmering Shield and Aura of Might and switch to heavy armor and weaponry. Thus you can easily obtain 50+ armor and survive heavy attack while dealing some damage. Flank with the rest.
 * Mage Tank: One unconventional method is to have a mage aggro the demon then run in circles around an obstacle. The other party members should be using ranged attacks to kill the demon. The mage can cast any heavy damage spell to attract attention; afterward, good spells to use include Vulnerability Hex, Drain Life, and any method of healing.

Suggested Groups
With the right tactics, a group of any composition can defeat Revenants.

Mages please note that Revenants are completely immune to cold damage, so staves like Winter's Breath are useless against this foe and avoid wasting precious mana on spells like Winter's Grasp. Cone of Cold can be used as 'crowd-control' to immobilize the Revenant briefly, but the spell will inflict no damage. Revenants are also immune to Shatter spell combinations, so don't waste your time trying.

The following are suggested teams that have proven successful to others.