Many of the Mage's abilities are capable of friendly fire, or otherwise require precise placement in order to be effective such that their operation should not be left to scripting. I'll provide more specific examples of this when I go over how I develop my Grey Warden and the companions. Minimally Scripted Mage as the Quarterback, Highly Scripted Warriors and Rogues

Likewise greater attack and defense ratings also mean taking down monsters stunned by Captivating Song for example much more quickly. For example, if only a few monsters make it past crowd-control, your higher attack and defense ratings will make themselves that much more effective on the fewer number of foes that reach you. Higher attack and defense ratings can accentuate other strategies like crowd-control and holding the swarm at bay. Even so, paying attention to attack and defense and armor ratings is still important. Prudence dictates calling upon other strategies as well, like exercising crowd-control. This is not to say that every battle can be run on auto-pilot. It therefore pays to maximize your attack and defense ratings for your characters, with armor and other factors coming second.

There are times when both your party and the monsters are crowding around each other and mixing it up. Given this dynamic it is usually more important to minimize the number of times you get hit, and maximize the number of times you hit the enemies, than to rely on damage reduction. Attack and defense can always be built up on level ups. Armor remains static, and gets chipped away as higher level foes have more Armor Penetration. I started this thread even though I for the most part agreed with Blackthorne TA's response in order to start some debate. Maximize your Physical Combat Advantages: Attack and Defense, then Armor and others Below are a number of general guidelines for the conduct of combat in Dragon Age Origins (Nightmare), which will be fleshed out through specific examples in other parts of the guide.

Best mage build dragon age origins