Keep original characters or hird from scratch?

[fudgycocoabo]

Just curious, do you prefer cutting a lot of named hird members for your own custom dream team or keeping/using the the people you start with? I personally like to cut out certain members after they have outlived their usefulness.

[Karjus]

With specific content for the named NPCs I can't see me ever cutting one of them for a generic mercenary.

[perji]

I prefer taking the named people from Skjern with me.

The problem with the named NPCs is that they have a lot of wasted skill points that you can never reclaim, so they will always be less efficient in battles. Their attributes (like Strength or Perception) are also all over the place, since they're trying to cover several roles but never excelling at any one of them.
HOWEVER there are several points in the narrative where having the right person in your party (actually in your current party, not just in your hird but waiting at the ship) can turn an encounter around completely. Can't say much more than that without spoilering too much, but it's well worth it to match them to the location (ex. bring Aife when doing quests in Pictavia).

The custom ones can become your dream team with perfect attributes, skill point distribution and even moral characteristics, but the game will lose a lot of its flavour. They're treated like strangers from Ribe, not people from your home that you've known all your life, so there will be a lot less random conversations and you will lose the encounter triggers that would normally happen with named NPCs. Like a certain house in Ribe where you go have a drink, you can bring a custom hirdman trained in withcraft and healing, but only if you bring Roskva will you get the warning that the drink is poisoned.
Well I guess if you're into high difficulty you'll be wanting the good stats dream team, but if you're more into the storyline and easier difficulty pick the named NPCs.

[fudgycocoabo]

Ah yeah, Roskva is my girl! She and Gunnar are hands down my favorite hird members. I personally cut what's his face (not Ketill the guy who challenges you to a duel) cuz his stats sucked for being a front line fighter (I couldn't spell his name from memory to save my life). I only kept him around at first to round out my party and then when I had the opportunity to dump him on the curb in Ribe I took it and made my sword and board hero, Big Bjorn. Dude was a combat beast. That said, he was a lot like what's his face and had weirdly contradictory emotions so he stayed mostly indifferent.

[Slim Shady]

I didnt take anyone from skjern except Asdanf(the cousin ?) Nejfra and Ketill, I thought its best if i leave the res behind to take care of the place.
Am I missing out on anything ?:P

[fudgycocoabo]

Gunnar and Roskva have some fun moments though as far as I know Eydis doesn't really have anything going for her.