Dragon Age: Origins gameplay and discussion thread.

[Monk]

Making do without a rogue works until you enter one of those areas with enemy traps. I've had quite a few full party wipeouts when AI party members blundered onto traps in a battle. It's amazing how badly a few simple leghold traps can spoil your day.

Maybe it's a console/PC difference but I've found that the basic healing spell isn't worth much when you are in a tough fight. My mage has a very high magic stat and the spell does around 1/5 to 1/4 of a healthbar. That's the same as the lowest level healing item. Most orange rated enemies do that much damage in a single hit. Group heal does far more and it covers everyone; I took spirit healer as a specialisation just to get group heal. Healing items would be a good alternative if only it were easier to control the entire party's actions on the console; the pre-set tactics don't quite get it right. Either they leave it too late or they use them when the fight's as good as over, meaning the item's wasted.

Out of curiosity what difficulty are you playing on?

One of the biggest differences I noticed when playing around with difficulty settings is how much life is refunded per heal. On Easy, a lesser health potion can refund near full life when you are around level 5. On Normal, that same level 5 might only get half that with the same type of potion