Re: New party members Dragon Age Inquisition

"Agents" are never able to be Party members, and can never be "equipped" with anything.

Some of them can perform certain "operations" found on the War Table, but only in a fairly indirect manner (their names appear associated with either the assignment of the operation, or the Report of its completion.)

"Companions" (or "Followers", as Mark Darrah called them in interviews) are another matter.   They are recruited after fairly lengthy interactions, and they appear as one of the available choices whenever you use the Party selector.

[EDIT:  I forgot.  There is one agent who's equipment you can improve.  It's a series of operations, each of which results in better gear and capabilities for that agent.  But the agent is still never a Party member. I won't spoil things by saying which agent that is. 😕mileywink: ]