Guard

Guard is a combat mechanic in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Description[]

Guard: A type of combat training that protects the target from damage. Incoming attacks must deplete the guard before the target loses health. Some abilities, spells, and weapons do bonus damage against a target's guard. A target with an active guard resists being staggered or knocked down.
—Codex entry: Status Effects

Guard generation and loss[]

A warrior's guard at full.

There are two aspects of guard generation, the maximum guard and things that add to guard. The latter increases guard (seen as a metal colored mesh over the health bar) until the maximum is reached. Increasing the maximum increases the amount of guard that can be added. Guard that would be added after the maximum is reached is discarded.

Unlike Barrier, guard does not decay over time. Instead, guard is removed when one of the following occurs:

No loss
- Riding a mount as either the rider or in the party
- Swapping members of the party in and out using the Change Party station in camps
- Claiming a fort
Incremental loss
- One point of damage reduces guard by one point, including damage from falling.
- Loading a saved game can reduce the guard of the Inquisitor.
- (Trespasser) Travelling through Eluvians has a chance of reducing guard.
Total loss:
- Fast travel of any kind
- Creating a new camp
- Resting at a camp
- (Trespasser) Returning to the Winter Palace via the Eluvian.

If a character has both barrier and guard active, damage is applied first to the barrier, then to guard and finally to health. This is independent of whether the barrier or guard was applied first.

Maximum guard[]

Maximum guard is roughly calculated by taking the guard factor, multiplying it by the character's maximum health and rounding down, where the initial, unmodified guard factor is 25% and bonuses are additive to that percentage.^[1] If, for example, health is 100 and the guard bonus from an item is 8%, then the new maximum guard is 100*(25%+8%) = 33.

Due to the complex workings of the game engine, the above formula is sufficient for estimating maximum guard in most scenarios. For more exact calculations, see the Guard section in Combat Mechanics.

Maximum guard increasing abilities[]

Bulwark

Untouchable Defense

Maximum guard increasing items[]

Gaining guard[]

Guard is gained from the use of activated abilities or as a benefit from items, usually as a consequence of hitting an enemy. Guard that is gained from active abilities like War Cry do not depend on the level or aggression of the taunted creature. It is thus possible to build up guard by following a slow moving animal like a Gurn around and taunting it until guard reaches full.

Damaging guard[]

Guard is normally damaged at a rate of one point of damage per one point of guard. This damage can be increased by the various abilities and items below, each of which give a bonus as a percentage. The final guard damage is computed by adding 100% to the sum of the bonuses and multiplying that by the damage done. For example, if the damage is 50, and Ring The Bell is activated in the attack (bonus 400%), then the final guard damage is 50 * (100% + 400%) = 250.

If the damage is greater than the guard, the guard damage bonus is ignored, the guard deducted from the damage and the remainder applied to health.^[2]