What companions to choose

[Drachenwulf]

right now I have recruited Aloth, eder, Durance, Kana, Sagani, Hiravias, and the Grieving mother, and I will soon have Pellagina. Beyond trying to complete their quests for the xp, is there any companions that should or should not remain in the party? I am running a Rogue with a Shield as my main.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

"Correctly?"

Much depends on what class your player character is and whether you hire adventurers.

Clearly there are too many NPC companions in the game to fit into one party. I don't mind playing with duplicate classes, though. Like two Priests or two Paladins. And if I want to enjoy NPC banter and their personal quests, I don't mind readding them even if they are at a lower level due to waiting at the stronghold for a long time.

But when you let join an NPC for the first time, he/she starts with the same XP than your player character. That means you can replace NPCs gradually, and e.g. drop Eder or sacrifice him, if you meet a better frontliner, or let them wait for a long time before you pick them up at a higher level.

Assume you fetch them in the order you meet them: Aloth, Eder, Durance, Kana, Sagani. Ooops! Five NPCs already. Party is full. Then when you go west, you meet Pallegina, either switch back and forth between Pallegina and somebody else. Or kick one out forever.

As one can explore the area up to Dyrford Village instead of going directly to Defiance Bay, next NPCs would be Hiravias and Grieving Mother. Big, big problem. Two more in addition to Pallegina. Inbetween you've been notified about Stalwart, which means another NPC (Zahua) after just a bit of fighting and even another one sometime later (Devil of Caroc). Finally, Maneha is available after a little bit of work in the village already, so kicking somebody else may be a real difficult decision.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Sigh. I understand how leveling and party NPC level experience works. I too have played Pillars of Eternity. I'm simply trying to very gently tell you that I don't care that their attributes are not optimal. Again, it has nothing to do with why I enjoy them.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I'm simply trying to very gently tell you that I don't care that their attributes are not optimal. Again, it has nothing to do with why I enjoy them.

Then perhaps you have misunderstood some earlier comment. I don't care for "optimal" attributes. It's just that Pillars of Eternity can be played with lots of different parties, not limited to the NPCs. Up to a certain degree the attributes of the NPCs define how they can be played. You can influence it a bit with talents, but a Priest with low Perception just won't become a hitman. Kana with his high Intellect is tuned for increased Aura, Linger of chants and Duration of invocations. To make that possible, some other attributes are lower than those of a Chanter, who wants to fight at the front.

The game offers much more outside the constraints of the NPCs.

Durance, as another example, is a very helpful support Priest with a high Resolve 18 to compensate the poor base Deflection of priests. However, the availability of a Priest NPC doesn't mean the player must not create a Priest main character. Warrior Priests are fun.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I'm simply trying to very gently tell you that I don't care that their attributes are not optimal. Again, it has nothing to do with why I enjoy them.

Then perhaps you have misunderstood some earlier comment. I don't care for "optimal" attributes. It's just that Pillars of Eternity can be played with lots of different parties, not limited to the NPCs. Up to a certain degree the attributes of the NPCs define how they can be played. You can influence it a bit with talents, but a Priest with low Perception just won't become a hitman. Kana with his high Intellect is tuned for increased Aura, Linger of chants and Duration of invocations. To make that possible, some other attributes are lower than those of a Chanter, who wants to fight at the front.

The game offers much more outside the constraints of the NPCs.

Durance, as another example, is a very helpful support Priest with a high Resolve 18 to compensate the poor base Deflection of priests. However, the availability of a Priest NPC doesn't mean the player must not create a Priest main character. Warrior Priests are fun.

I am aware. I also have played Pillars of Eternity. Regardless, none of this has anything at all to do with what I am talking about.

[Drakkard]

Played first time with myself(druid)-Eder-Aloth-Kana-Sagani-Durance on hard.

Now playing second time with the ones I missed, party now - myself(rogue)-Eder-Hiravias-Mother-Sagani-Pallegina. Now at level 14, just started stalward (but finished that lich sidequest). Hard difficulty too.
Did not meet any WM characters yet, so nothing about them.

Well, you can play without mage and priest just fine. I even have a question - which mage\priest spells are most impotant? Cause I do not remember any.

I found myself lacking fear and domination resistance, but nothing especially serious, or what few scrolls cant fix.
My touchest fight was with Sky (Not Adra) dragon. I dunno why, but with that composition I spent more than 6 hours trying to kill Sky dragon at level 12. Actually, I think I killed her on second hour (once I started to use anti-fear scroll), but I'm playing to get Zero Knockouts achievement, and people were falling.

Honestly I remember Aloth as the most worthless companion, however that playthrough was just after release. He died a lot, and his spells was meh.
Durance - he healed, but I do not remember other his spells at all now. Pallegina takes healing just fine, with Hiravias helping on longer fights.
Mother - her charming and stuns are helping a damn lot, much more viable than I remember Aloth to be. Most helpful caster imo.
Pallegina starts mediocre, but can acquire many usefull abilities later on. Either her or Kana I guess. I never was a lot into Kana's chanting, so Pallegina looks a bit more flexible. But her raw damage is lucklaster. So she mainly offtank and heal\buff others.
Hiravias can hit hard in his form, but I still prefer him casting some AOE, or heals. I love druids in this game, they are pretty powerfull.
Eder is a best tank, nothing else to add.
Sagani - her pet do omfg damage I did not expect, only Hiravias in his form can do same crit numbers. After aquiring double shot Sagani herself start to deal 100+ damage shots. Best raw damage dealer I think.
Kana.. Well, I said I did not dig into his chanting a lot, so maybe I missed his point. He still did fine as offtank and problem-free character mostly.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

Regardless, none of this has anything at all to do with what I am talking about.

In this topic? Then what are you talking about? I've reread from the beginning.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

Regardless, none of this has anything at all to do with what I am talking about.

In this topic? Then what are you talking about? I've reread from the beginning.

I'm talking about things like this.

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

My lastest go-to party has been

PC Wizard
Eder
Durance
Sagani
Grieving Mother
Maneha

Fun party banter and effective as a fighting force. Won all of the big fights with this group.

You retort with the following.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Maneha is broken in 3.01 in several ways. 3.02 will hopefully fix that. Her banter is looping. "Ondra's Tides. Durance, you crack me up", is what she begins with again when entering almost every area. Her personal quest is forgotten some time later when talking to her again. And unless I've skilled her very poorly, Zahua is the much better melee fighter and did much more damage than her in less time even.

I come back after the next exchange with a scathingly sarcastic remark designed to drive the point home that I don't care what is optimal. I figure done is done. So, moving on I talk about the character Kana in completely non-statistical terms.

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I like Kana too. He just wears his heart on his sleeve. The game even gives the player the option of slapping him down when he tries to lighten the mood.

To which you chime in with.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Kana is fine. But Kana has 16,12,9,14,17,10 attributes, and one doesn't need to skill all Chanters like that. Chanters are more flexible. Fortunately.

What? Who cares what Kana Rua's attributes are? I just got done telling you in no uncertain terms that I certainly didn't, and I was clearly talking about his characterization. Again, who the hell cares what his Resolve score is?

And then you continue to hound me with lengthy and detailed information about gameplay statistics that I already know. D'amarr, I need you to read closely. I'm going to only explain this one last time. Here goes.....

I know how character attribute scores work in Pillars of Eternity. I know this because I have logged several hundred hours in Pillars of Eternity, just as I imagine you have. Even beside that, I do not care what attributes which NPC has, or who deals the highest DPS in battle, or that Zahua is evidently the more optimal choice, or that Kana Rua has a score of 10 in resolve, or that you can make a more effective chanter yourself. I've played chanters. I know. It does not factor into who I want in my party. I pick them because I enjoy their stories, their banter, their aesthetic. Yes, we can all do the algebra and come up with higher, faster and stronger. I do not care about that. At all.

[Marksthecylon]

There are no characters which are required to progress the story so go with who you like (or dislike). I personally despise Durance which is why i keep him around as its been a while since any character in a game provoked such a stong response from me.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Originally posted by Marksthecylon:

There are no characters which are required to progress the story so go with who you like (or dislike). I personally despise Durance which is why i keep him around as its been a while since any character in a game provoked such a stong response from me.

Oh man, me too. Durance is fantastic simply because he is such an awful person. I love the token evil teammate in RPGs. I brought Viconia along in Baldur's Gate, and Durance here is the closest thing among the cast in PoE.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I'm talking about things like this.

Thanks for trying to make yourself clear. Some comments on that cannot be avoided.

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I come back after the next exchange with a scathingly sarcastic remark designed to drive the point home that I don't care what is optimal.

Why? Where did I say anything about "optimal"? I poined out that Maneha is affected by several bugs, which make her repeat the same banter and later make her forget that she has completed her quest. Some such bugs in the 3.01 game are harmless, such as the Yenwood related mob reappearing. One can even restart the battle of Yenwood once more, but at the end of the scripted battlefield interaction, Yenwood is empty.

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

Who cares what Kana Rua's attributes are? I just got done telling you in no uncertain terms that I certainly didn't, and I was clearly talking about his characterization. Again, who the hell cares what his Resolve score is?

The topic subject is "What companions to choose?". Looking at Kana's attributes (since one cannot change them but only influence them with items) can help with the decision whether Kana fits into a party. Even if the player character is a Chanter already, Kana can be of interest. Not only for the short personal quest. I said "Kana is fine". I could expand on that.

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

And then you continue to hound me with lengthy and detailed information about gameplay statistics that I already know. D'amarr, I need you to read closely. I'm going to only explain this one last time. Here goes.....

Fix your attitude! And don't put words into my mouth. I am free to comment on whatever I like to comment on. Nowhere did I comment on "gameplay statistics" or "optimal" parties. More often than not I go for fun parties myself. But Maneha with bugs is not fun. It's annoying.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Christ, D'amarr, you've done nothing but talk about attributes and what is better. I've made it abundantly clear that I don't care about that. Stop bothering me with it. Put some points into perception on next level up, will ya'?

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

Christ, D'amarr, you've done nothing but talk about attributes and what is better. I've made it abundantly clear that I don't care about that. Stop bothering me with it. Put some points into perception on next level up, will ya'?

Poor attitude and poor memory. You just need to return to page 1 of this topic:

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

My lastest go-to party has been

PC Wizard
Eder
Durance
Sagani
Grieving Mother
Maneha

Fun party banter and effective as a fighting force. Won all of the big fights with this group.

Same comment. Maneha is broken. Banter loops. Personal quest bug. And if answering the "What companions to choose?" question of this topic, Zahua deserves a mention.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

I think I'm being trolled here. It must be. Nobody can be this dense.

Goodnight D'amarr. Enjoy whatever you're doing here.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I think I'm being trolled here. It must be. Nobody can be this dense.

Goodnight D'amarr. Enjoy whatever you're doing here.

No, not a troll. Far from it. Not an undead troll either.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Originally posted by Vita, Mortis, Careo:

I think I'm being trolled here. It must be. Nobody can be this dense.

Goodnight D'amarr. Enjoy whatever you're doing here.

No, not a troll. Far from it. Not an undead troll either.

Man, I've already explained to you that I have not encountered any of those bugs. Personal quest completed. No problem. Yenwood Fields completed. No problems. Stop it already.