In Dragon Age you won't just be controlling a single character. Rather, you can lead a party of up to four characters that, at times, will include guys as generic as the "tower guard" who offered to help with the mission alongside characters who can presumably stay with you long-term.
When the party entered the tower the guy running the demo opted to swap out one of its number for an elven mage with an impressive arsenal of spells at her disposal. The reason for that became obvious when, moments after stepping through the door into the tower the greasy floor was set ablaze by an enemy hurling a fireball at it. The mage was able to extinguish the fire by calling down a swirling blizzard that left a thin layer of snow on the floor. That was impressive, and things only got better when we were shown how Dragon Age, like other BioWare games, gives you the option to pause combat at any time and give instructions to your characters while time stands still.
As the camera was manually panned around the scene at one point we could clearly see both an arrow and a fireball headed toward the protagonist. There wasn't much that could be done about either of the projectiles, unfortunately, but it's clear that employing the "pause and play" technique could be invaluable in some situations.
Progressing through the tower and battling a number of enemies en route, the mage showed off a number of other spells that included a lightning-like tempest that engulfed the entire room, a flamethrower attack, a glyph of paralysis that slowed down enemies, and her ability to heal other party members. Oddly, she was also able to cast a "grease" spell that coated an area with the same flammable substance the party had almost been killed by earlier. An unusual spell for sure, but an extremely effective one when used in conjunction with a well-placed fireball.
For the REST!!
