How often to switch party members

[slquoue]

I've got a preferred party of a Paladin, Shadowheart, Gale and Astarion who I want to get to practice how to fight with to get the most out of them. However I now have Lae’zel and Wyll at camp, and am soon to get Karlach. How often do you switch party members both to do quests and to use their unique advantages, and how much do you stick with your 'core' members to learn how to get the most out of them?

[Steffan]

PLenty of ways. It boils down to your preferences.

1. After a long rest
2. In situations where I do not want to rest, some of the companions are spent and others not. Swapping can delay ong rest
3. For companion quests

[Ceredh]

I did it for companion quests always in Act 1, mostly in Act 2 and seldomly in Act 3. The Ravengard and underwater quest f.e. I did entirely without Wyll (because I don't like him and I'm kind of Warlock with my main), and that worked without problems. I had not Lae'zel with me in the Creche in two playthroughs, which might have been a mistake, but it worked nevertheless.

In Act 3 I was used to a certain party composition and I did not want to experiment much (first playtrough of Act 3, in Honour mode). You are lucky that your main is a Paladin, I don't like the class and would never play as one but I wanted one in my party (who wouldn't?), so I made Jaheira a Paladin/Bard. If you have a Wizard, Cleric and Paladin in the party, how could you want to replace them with a different class?

So that was my Act 3 group more or less. Only problem was lockpicking, so Astarion was sometimes in (as Fighter/Rogue), and that's not a problem for your composition.

[slquoue]

Astarion is the one I am tempted to switch out - either for Karlach or Wyll maybe?

[LouisaB75]

I started out with my druid, Shadowheart, Gale and Astarion. When I got Karlach I switched her in for Gale. Lae'zel is dead and Wyll just hangs out in the camp. I am very reluctant to break up my current team as they work well together. But I suspect I may have to at some point. I am only on my first play through though.

[Ceredh]

Much depends on the difficulty level if you consider party composition from the performance part. It is just not necessary to think about it on Easy, Normal and mostly also Tactician. I would take the companions according to the quests.

Astarion, Karlach or Wyll? If kept as the original class both Barbarians and Rogues are quite strong in early game. Warlocks are quite strong during the whole game. All of them are not depending much on spell slots for normal combat, that's great/necessary with your party composition. Of them Karlach is the best damage dealer in early game, with in-build advantage, which is quite an ... advantage.

I would use none of them as pure class however till the end, they suck a bit later. My choice would be Astarion (starting as Rogue-Thief, later Fighter-Battlemaster 8/Rogue Thief 4) because he is just king with lockpicking, and ranged is mostly better than melee.

[OnlyOffensive]

They all have unique interactions though most of the game, but from my epirience:

Shadowhearth has alot of stuff in act1-2, act3 shes the most useless when it comes to having her in party.

Gale story basically starts at the end of act2, especially if you use him for act boss fight. Before that hes not that interesting to have in party. he has couple things here and there, mostly in act2.

Astarion is fun to have everywhere, he has alot of stuff in each act.

Pretty much take companions where you expect them to have story.

[illumnati]

Your character, Shadowheart, Lyzel, Astarion, Gale, Wyll, Karlach, Haslim, Jaheira, Minsc.
Those are the 10. Switch them out when their story line matters. Approval or disapproval.
Back away if you might fail the dialog,

[dancing.in.the.web]

Mostly i switch to other campanions on their quests.