Some thoughts about combat design in DA:I/DA4 (maybe)

Just a small discussion/thoughts about what I think are the two biggest flaws in DA:I's combat : teamplay (refined scope) and AI (both player+enemy). Sure, in the next game (DA4?) you could keep introducing new classes or improve/remake the abilities into something else, create new sub-specs, etc. But all of that is the ice on top of the cake, the cake itself needs to be good on its own. And I'd boil that down mostly to teamplay + AI.

Player side
Power fantasies are needed. You want to feel extremely powerful in the right scenarios. Godlike. However, the strength that Dragon Age has vs other generic games is obviously its party-based system (4 players). But what I mean by "godlike" moments is that they should be a result of using the party system correctly. I could put it this way: the sum of strengths of everyone in the party should be godlike, but single entities are worth nearly nothing. Which means stuff like Knight Enchanter in DA:I or AW in DA:O who don't need their party and can solo everything on their own? - epic failures of the party system. When design errors like this happen, DA becomes just like any generic third person action RPG. It loses what makes it stand out combat-wise. So, in other words, design should instead mostly focus on the synergy between each class/spec and how they complement each other. For instance, let's say you're playing as Cassandra (the female warrior) in a hypothetical DA game (not DA:I, because the warrior class sucks in that game), she's a very powerful warrior, and in some scenarios, she can shoulder-bash enemies to the ground, send them flying into ragdolls crashing into walls. Her sword attacks have weight behind them, each attack staggers the enemy, etc. Playing as her feels amazing combat-wise - you feel like she's a goddess warrior who could rule the f'ckin world... until she encounters a situation where she can't unleash all her power that easily - maybe she has to face another enemy warrior who protects himself with a body shield. In this hypothetical scenario, as Cassandra you should NOT be able to even land a hit on this shield guy: you try to kite him, combat roll behind him, doesn't matter. This tank guy always faces you with his shield no matter what. You're desperate and need help, such as another party member to distract him - maybe a mage in your party who freezes him, or a rogue who puts him to sleep, etc. If you are alone as Cassandra, you should NOT be able to win this fight in a reasonable time frame, because that's beyond her scope of what she's capable of (yet in the right scenarios, she feels like a goddess! if the tank guy is put to sleep, she can become a goddess of war again, etc) DA:I already does this, but I feel the scope could be much tighter than it already is. The second thing that you want besides scope is being able to feel like godlike given the right circumstances - A strong enemy with a counter paired with the right party composition can quickly make you go from feeling powerless to feeling like godlike, and that's when it becomes fun. Third thing is for all that to happen, the AI for the team needs to be better : you rarely see Dorian/Solas freezing a soldier for you so you can combo a shieldbash with Cassandra, having partymembers "set up" the way for you. Without good AI, you'd constantly have to switch between party members because of a tighter scope of what each member can do, so the AI has to do a lot more of that for you, creating the right setup for you to feel "godlike"

Enemy side
Same thing for the enemy side, it's already done to some level in DA:I (e.g. you'll see a mage buffing soldiers with barrier, or granting them knockdown immunity iirc? I don't recall the specifics) But I don't only mean the AI has to be better on the team-synergy front like in the paragraph above. I mean individually as well, each enemy should feel powerful on its own (which they don't in DA:I). Lots of small problems in DA:I right now are due to this. E.G. I think the reason you can't walk very fast in combat in DA:I is because (well in part) of the enemy not being powerful enough to punish you for sprinting/letting your guard go but the enemy AI itself is not good enough. If you could sprint, you could too easily dodge telegraphed attacks / projectiles, or get behind the enemy and backstab him as a rogue, or get away from dangerous situations, etc. I'm sure there are other reasons too though. But the point is enemies should be way more reactive in general, and more powerful aswell. If I'm trying to close in with an enemy mage as a tank, that enemy mage should immediately dodge / teleport whenever I get close, independently of which state they're in. And by more powerful, it means some degree of teamplay is needed to get this enemy down. Let's take for example that enemy mage again, if I'm closeing in with a tank, maybe that enemy mage should stonefist me / forcefield me back so I can't get close, or teleport away; some element here at play prevents me from easily unleashing my power onto him unless something is tactically done, maybe the mage AI on my team has to debuff him, or protect me from his stonefists, or something like that.

But yeah, I could expand on those thoughts, but TL;DR basically the point is you want to feel godlike, except only in the right circumstances. You have to earn that right, and you do it through tactical teamplay. Because it's "not always" and rather a reward than something you take for granted, the scope of each character has to be tighter (no stuff like the Knight Enchanter can-do-everything from DA:I), and tighter scope = need for better team AI. As for the enemies, they should be much smarter as well, more reactive (you have to force an opening through teamplay) and more powerful, each having its own brain (they don't in DA:I). The beauty of combat is when it's gods vs gods, not when it's gods vs peasants, and I feel like if it's done right you don't even need bulletsponges like they have in DA:I and any of these weird coping systems such as not being able to sprint