The tank guide a good read, since a well made tank can make or break a party - and Alistair is basically pre-made to be a tank.
Battle Tactics:
- A good basic strategy is to have a rogue and a tank in your party at all times. Give the tank your heaviest armour, make sure they've got lots of health, and send them into the fight first. Then bring in the rogue, move around to behind all the enemies that are attacking your tank, and start backstabbing. If you've got a healing mage in your party, focus on keeping the tank alive. Otherwise, just feed poultices to your tank whenever their health starts approaching 50%.
- Pause, issue orders, unpause, let a couple of seconds go by, pause again and assess. This type of fighting can get very repetitive, but you'd be surprised how much the battlefield can change in the space of a couple of seconds. It's a good way of spotting any dangers early.
- Get to the Circle Tower early in the plot. There's an excellent healing mage available there. Otherwise pick a mage PC and pick healing spells (just be aware that you may end up sitting your PC at the back of the fighting and controlling your party members for most fights!)
Stats and Abilities:
- Abilities: Passive traits beat activated abilities every time. As a quick comparison - it's better to have a Warrior who can ignore flankers than to have a Warrior who is able to sometimes knock down an enemy. So if something gives you a passive trait, go for it. Otherwise, if it's a passive ability like Shield Wall, activate it as soon as you enter a new area, and leave it on for every single battle.
- Stats: Oh my, the stats... Seriously, the stats in this game can be a nightmare. Different party members require different stats for different roles. And there's relatively little explanation of what the stats mean.
- Your tank is going to want primarily constitution, with some strength and dexterity. I'd recommend putting at least two points into constitution every time your tank levels up. It won't let them avoid damage, but it will let them take more of it. Points in strength will let them equip better armour. Points in dexterity will help them block attacks more often.
- Your mage is going to want a roughly 50-50 split between willpower and magic. Magic improves their spells, willpower lets them cast spells more often.
- Rogues need cunning and dexterity. Roughly 50-50. Cunning improves their backstabs and long range aim, dexterity improves their general attack and lets them dodge a lot.
- DOG. Dog is a bit of a joke character, but with the right build he can be lethal. If you want to go for this, focus on constitution and strength, again roughly 50-50. Then go to his tactics menu and set him to attack anyone that uses a magic attack (the tactics interface can be a bit of a pain to use though). He will charge across the battlefield and basically eat any enemy mages, especially if he gets the overwhelm ability. And trust me, not having to worry about mages is a blessing.