The Party
The name of the game should give you a clue that monstrous beasts are in store for you. From dungeon depths to snowy mountaintops, your four-person party will battle anything from devastating dragons to drooling darkspawn.
Unless you want to end up as chew toys for ogres, hone up on the basics and learn expert party dynamics.
You begin your adventuring career on your own. As the story unfolds, you meet companions who join your party and become your allies in battle.
A companion could be a fellow Grey Warden like Alistair, or the unlikeliest of allies, Zevran, an Antivan Crow sent to assassinate you. It's up to you to decide which companions you travel with, because you can have only three companions at once.
The rest remain behind at party camp, a place easily reached from the world map that serves as haven for you and your companions, fully equipped with a dwarven merchant to buy excess goods and sell you wares at a discount.
Each time you leave party camp, you can pick three new companions to accompany you, and in certain non-hostile regions, you can use the Party Configuration button on your top menu to immediately switch companions.