Navigating the tactical layers of Dragon Age: Inquisition can be the difference between surviving a Fade Rift and wiping in seconds—especially on higher difficulties. One of the most common issues players encounter is how to keep their ranged fighters—mages and archers—out of melee combat, where they’re vulnerable. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into party composition theory, tactical behavior settings, and a few practical solutions to maximize your team’s survival and efficiency.

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Smart Party Composition: Roles Over Names

When putting together your party, it’s less about who you bring by name and more about the roles they fulfill. For instance, if your main character is a DPS Warrior, you’ll still need a dedicated tank, a rogue for utility, and a mage for elemental support. This balanced setup allows you to handle everything from locked doors and destructible walls to magical obstacles.

Even though you might prefer certain companions—Blackwall as your tank, Cole or Sera as your rogue, Solas or Vivienne as your mage—it’s helpful to rotate party members. Still, the underlying role structure should remain consistent.

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Behavior Settings: Solving the Melee Problem for Ranged Units

A major challenge is keeping your ranged characters—like Solas or Varric—out of danger. Many players try to assign specific characters to follow or defend each other. For instance, setting your mage to follow the tank, or the rogue to defend the mage. While this seems logical, it creates complications every time you swap party members, requiring constant micromanagement of settings.

A smarter method? Set ranged characters to follow themselves. Through repeated testing, it’s been shown that this setting keeps ranged characters at a safe distance. When set to defend themselves, characters often move in too close and get caught in melee. But when they’re set to follow themselves, they maintain optimal distance.

The setup was tested with multiple character combinations:

• Solas (follow self) and Varric (defend self): Varric moved into melee.
• Dorian (defend self) and Sera (follow self): Sera stayed safe, Dorian didn’t.
• Reversing the settings flipped the results, confirming the behavior pattern.

This trick is simple, elegant, and highly effective for keeping both your mage and archer alive.

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Tanks and Melee DPS Behavior Options

Your tank—like Blackwall—can also benefit from being set to follow themselves. This keeps them locked onto threats and focused on engaging enemies without drifting off.

For a second melee DPS, like a Reaver Warrior, you have two reliable behavior options:

• Follow the tank to support frontline engagements.
• Follow the ranged character to provide reactive support.

Both strategies work well. Choose based on how aggressive or reactive you want your melee fighter to be.

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Initiating Combat Without Drawing Aggro to Ranged Fighters

One of the trickiest moments for mages and archers is the first attack. If a ranged character initiates combat, enemies will often target them immediately, leaving you scrambling to recover. Instead, use the Tactical Camera to manually move your tank and melee DPS into position before engaging.

Here’s a simple flow:

1. Enter Tactical View.
2. Move your tank and melee fighter near the enemy group.
3. Let them initiate the fight.
4. Only then allow ranged characters to begin casting or shooting.

This strategy ensures your tank draws initial aggro, and your fragile backliners remain safe.

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Skill Tactics: When to Enable, Disable, or Micro-Manage

Setting skill behaviors is less of a one-size-fits-all solution and more about adapting to:

• Your party’s build
• Enemy types
• Encounter location
• The difficulty level

Some abilities simply don’t work well with AI. Examples include:

• Ring of Pain: Great on paper, but AI mishandles it.
• Charging Bull: Can disrupt positioning or pull aggro unintentionally.

In these cases, set the skill to Disabled or Preferred and manually control it during key moments. Pay attention to how characters use their skills and tweak accordingly.

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Final Thoughts: Efficient Tactics Without Constant Rework

By making small adjustments—like setting ranged fighters to follow themselves—you can drastically improve your party’s efficiency and survivability. These behavior settings hold up even as you rotate companions, reducing the need for constant micromanagement.

Also remember: using the Tactical Camera proactively, especially before a fight starts, gives you a huge strategic advantage. Control the battlefield before your enemies get a chance to.

This guide barely scratches the surface of tactical options in Dragon Age: Inquisition, but hopefully it gives you the groundwork to better understand party dynamics and AI behavior.

Questions or experiences to share? Drop them in the comments. And happy holidays to those celebrating—whether you’re spending time in Thedas or with family.

Stay tactical, stay sharp.