Your Party's Make up

[NavFamG]

Very early in the game you get your first 4 companions:
Rhulana, Forgrimm, Dranor and Gladys

Than down the road comes:
Gwendala, Jost, Nasreddin, Traldar, Auralia and Ancoron

My question is do you keep the original team you've put together and trained up or swap some of them out, and if so why?

Ex: Putting in Jost instead of Gladys.

I'm running a 5 man group and have kept the original group together.

[Mobile Doll Cordelia]

I kept Forgrimm, Rhulana, and Gladys (as a replacement for Dranor) throughout the game. I briefly considered using Gwendala, but I kept Gladys instead, since she had a lot of social skills that I otherwise lacked. (My main character was a warrior.)

I didn't even know you could have Traldar until I completed the game and looked at spoilers.

[NavFamG]

He's the only one that doesn't auto-join upon meeting, after the castle fight you have to go to him in the ducal throne room.

I noticed that alot of the companions are just other sides of the same coin and you have to look at the secondary things they can do for you. 3 of them are fighters yes, but only Traldar get's you the noble bonuses, where as Forgrimm it's Dwarfnose and Rhulana plants and animals. Just like you found in weighing Gladys vs Gwendala or Jost who's actaully a stronger wizard but doesn't have the social skills.

[Jhea]

i mostly use forgrimm and rhulana, then that elf from the swamp (is it gwendala?) and my main of course, which happens to be a woodelf as well.
forgrimm and rhulana make the tanks and the others just snipe everything from afar and support the team with magic and/or arrows ;D

[dwig]

I am using Forgrimm, Rhulana, and Gladys right now. My main is a ranger and handles range attacks and support spells, so I do not need any more casters.

However, I am tempted to swap one of my warriors for Ancoron when he is available since he has points in spear (if I recall correctly) and that would allow him to learn mortal blow, which seems more useful than the other high level attacks because it inflicts wounds.

[NavFamG]

I went with high damage 2H swords, when used with mighty blow you get some high numbers. You have to find a way to up their ED though as the attack burns through the points pretty fast.

Most swords & sabers allow Mighty Blow. What you have problems with it Precision Attack is only swords and fencing weapons.

[dwig]

Mortal blow gives +2 wounds. You don't really need high numbers if you can get to five wounds quickly.

[NavFamG]

Oh Mortal blow, read it wrong, oops.

[dwig]

Yeah, the terminology is confusing. Mighty blow is easier to get and it is what I am using now. It seems that wounds are easier to apply via ranged attacks anyway.

[NavFamG]

If I remember right, there's a couple of swords that either are wounding weapons or give a good percentage to wound. I'm playing RoT right now and have the 50% wound short sword on one of my characters.

[dwig]

There is a rapier that has 25% chance to wound available in Moorbridge (chapter 4).

[EolSunder]

I just keep my early team, because they are with me from near the start, so i can build them up exactly how I like.

Forgrimm as a tank with axe and shield (or mace, whichever i find higher at the time). Fully armored. I stick blacksmithing on him since he starts with it already anyway.

Rhulana as a 2ndary warrior with saber/shield and full armor, with perception.

Gladys as my main thief with all the thief benefits (pick, lock, speech skills, etc). Just basic combat ability with rapier/shield and defensive skills with high parry to survive in combat.

Now while its good to go as a combat character as your main since some parts of the game its just you and 1-2 companions, so having combat ability is good, i want to diverse some, so my main i like as a alchemist so i can gather up all the plants/animals parts about right at the start. Skilled with bows to help stay in back and keep protected since not a combat character. Also need to stay in stock with healing potions for those harder fights. Any magic i get is all boosting magic (i hate combat magic in this game, too slow), so i can boost up before fights which last a good while, also able to cure poison, treat wounds, etc all that stuff that my thief cannot do.

Later ill stick bowyer on my elf archer to create my bows/arrows for my alchemist to use.