I had this exact same problem. For me, it turned out that the Dorian in Black mod was responsible. The author is trying to fix it, but nothing so far. But when I rebuilt my mod patch without that one, Solas & the apothecary came right back. Hope this helps.
@Squonkalicious Generally, a full dxdiag is more helpful than an overview of your specs, as you miss things. 😉 If you're unsure how, you can find instructions on posting a dxdiag here.
Since you're on a laptop, one thing that's likely is the game is trying to use an integrated video card instead of your dedicated GPU (dxdiag would show whether you have an integrated GPU, pretty sure your CPU has one), and since the card is incapable of running the game properly you're getting weird issues like missing people. Check your settings via Nvidia control panel (should be able to get to it by right clicking your desktop and choosing 'Nvidia control panel' from the menu. Go to 'Manage 3D settings' > Program Settings, choose DAI from the list (or you may have to browse, it should be located in [drive] > Program Files > Origin Games > Dragon Age Inquisition (may vary, such as 'Program Files (x86)' instead of Program Files), and tell it to use the Nvidia card instead of the integrated card. It may already be set to do this, it's just worth checking.
If it's not that, you may just have your graphics settings too high, see if lowering them helps. Mods may make a difference in this regard (if you're using a lot of hair mods or texture mods, it can make a difference to game performance).
Try that, post a dxdiag, and let us know how you go. 🙂
(Sorry if any of this is nonsensical, I didn't realise how tired I was).
