A2
: 
Short answer - Tactics. Either:
A) Dedicate a mage character to healing
B) Teach each character how and when to use health poultices
Longer answers:
--Mage Healing--
The least expensive way to keep your party healthy is with a mage character who knows at least one healing spell. Set the mage's tactics to make healing allies a priority I prefer to do this by having the mage cast Heal or Regeneration every time that an ally's health drops below 50% as the 1st or 2nd priority tactic. The cooldown time on both spells is only 5 seconds, so the mage should have no trouble casting the spells rapidly and repeatedly. You can also instruct the mage to drink a Lyrium Potion if his/her mana drops below 25%, to help ensure that the healing magic keeps flowing through longer battles that would otherwise exhaust the mage's mana supply.
+: You don't go through as many health poultices this way. Since mana is more easily renewable than health poultices, running out of healing capability during a long quest is less of an issue.
-: Your mage will generally stay busy enough healing that he/she won't have the time (or extra mana) to cast many other spells, leaving your other characters responsible for the vast majority of the combat. Depending on your choices at the beginning of the game, it may take some time and a little bit of extra planning to ensure that you have a capable healing mage available sooner rather than later.
Also: Watch your mage's position carefully in battle. You'll want to keep the mage away from the fray so that enemies don't target/attack it, but obviously, you also need to stay within spellcasting range of the allies that the mage is responsible for healing.
--Poultice Healing--
For your melee fighters, make poultice use their first or second tactical priority. Ensure that they are always checking their own health and using poultices when their health drops below 50% or 25%. For lower-defense, lightly-armored characters attacking from range with bows or staves, make sure that they are using general behavior that will help them avoid melee combat [no good having them use a poultice if they still keep standing next to the melee enemy that is hacking at them], then make personal poultice use their next tactical priority.
+: With each character assuming responsibility for their own healing, your party is less vulnerable to being severely debilitated by the loss of one dedicated healing character. Without the need to focus one character solely on healing, you can use all four characters to dish out the pain, ending most battles more quickly and easily than a party with only three direct combatants.
-: You'll go through a *lot* of poultices and injury kits with this tactic, which will eat up a lot of coin (one way or another). Early in the game, making your own lesser poultices using the Herbalism skill can help offset some of the pain in your coin purse, but more advanced poultices will often still cost you between 7 silvers and 1 gold per poultice for the necessary ingredients. As the game progresses, you may find yourself wishing that you didn't have to dedicate each character's 1-2 highest priority tactics slots to the poultice routines.
Also: If you chose to use this tactic, having a capable Herbalist in the party may become a necessity plan accordingly. When you find shops or trader that carry your essential poultice ingredients in quantities of 99x, be sure to stock up while you have the chance.
Cheats
Answers
Reviews
Guides
Files
Discussion
Game Info
Bogus
Helpful
Dragon Age: Origins is the spiritual successor to BioWare's critically acclaimed Baldur's Gate, featuring deep character customization and role-playing, morally challenging decisions, tactical party-based combat, and a wealth of gritty, mature sub-plots. It is a dark, heroic fantasy game that combines original storytelling techniques with classic role-playing challenges.