So there's some important nuances to the tactical system, and I want to post about it. This stuff is all in the game guide, but it's not the easiest to notice, and I haven't seen tutorial popups for them.
First, a note about the rows. There are plenty of attacks that have the Ranged property, even if they look like they're just a normal axe attack or whatever. All that Ranged means is that back-row enemies are legal targets even when there are still enemies in the front row. Attacks without the Ranged tag can only target enemies who are in the front row, unless there are none. However, even Ranged attacks will still prioritize front-row targets by default, unless you give them a targeting condition that excludes all the front-row targets. It also doesn't matter whether the same column is occupied or not, only whether there's anyone in the front row at all. (Note also that what row a character is in doesn't change whom they can target, only whom they can be targeted by.)
Unlike active abilities, passive abilities are only used when the trigger condition is met. Specifically, if a character has multiple passive abilities with the same trigger, at most one of them can activate, and it'll be the top one in the list whose tactical conditions are met. But there's further nuance. some passive abilities have the Limited property. This tag is used to control interactions between multiple characters. Specifically, if there are multiple characters who have Limited abilities with the same condition, only one of them - the one with the highest initiative - will actually be triggered, pre-empting the other Limited abilities. (Abilities that are not Limited can still happen, however.)
First, a note about the rows. There are plenty of attacks that have the Ranged property, even if they look like they're just a normal axe attack or whatever. All that Ranged means is that back-row enemies are legal targets even when there are still enemies in the front row. Attacks without the Ranged tag can only target enemies who are in the front row, unless there are none. However, even Ranged attacks will still prioritize front-row targets by default, unless you give them a targeting condition that excludes all the front-row targets. It also doesn't matter whether the same column is occupied or not, only whether there's anyone in the front row at all. (Note also that what row a character is in doesn't change whom they can target, only whom they can be targeted by.)
Unlike active abilities, passive abilities are only used when the trigger condition is met. Specifically, if a character has multiple passive abilities with the same trigger, at most one of them can activate, and it'll be the top one in the list whose tactical conditions are met. But there's further nuance. some passive abilities have the Limited property. This tag is used to control interactions between multiple characters. Specifically, if there are multiple characters who have Limited abilities with the same condition, only one of them - the one with the highest initiative - will actually be triggered, pre-empting the other Limited abilities. (Abilities that are not Limited can still happen, however.)