Combat

Combat in Dragon Age Origins
Combat can be paused by pressing the space bar at any time. 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.

Details
Things you can do while combat is paused include:
 * Drink a healing potion
 * Change targets
 * Switch between weapon profiles
 * Cast spells