Dragon Age: Origins Preview and Video Interview
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Our second battle took place in a forested area of the Wilds, and this time, we took our elf mage into battle. As we saw, wizards can keep their distance while the warriors keep your foes at bay, and in such cases, may even have the opportunity to use "spell combos," where one magic spell heightens the effect of the next one. The example we watched started off with perennial Baldur's Gate favorite spell "grease," which creates an oily, sticky mass on the ground that slows the movement of anyone walking through it, followed by another perennial favorite, "fireball," which, when hurled at the grease patch, exploded and dealt additional damage to everyone in range (including our party members).
However, the game will apparently offer many other types of magic spells that have powerful tactical uses for players who are bold enough to get a bit closer in battle. Aside from "area effect" spells such as grease and fireball, Dragon Age will also have spells that affect only an individual enemy you must target, as well as spells that affect enemies along a forward line extending from your character, and even spells that will affect enemies within a cone extending outward from your character. If you don't mind doing a little stick-and-move, your wizards will be able to weave in and out and serve up some freshly-seared monster carcass, though if they're not careful, your foes will draw a bead on them and pummel them silly. Fortunately, because Dragon Age will have many different "schools" of magic (which have not yet been announced), you'll actually be able to customize and specialize a magic-using character along a specific path, and even recruit multiple wizards in your party for the specific purpose of setting up spell combo chains.
