What's the most followers you can possibly have?

[Xander77]

Charisma divided by 4 = 5 followers (no ways that I know of to raise it to 24). Peruasion Expert = +1 follower, 6 total.

Some of these are possibly unintended glitches and I want to be sure it all works in every version of the game, including those with the unofficial patch:
Worthless Mutt is always a free follower, regardless of party size limits and your charisma (7). Dante (in Black Root) and Jormund (Qintarra) both apparently ignore the party size limit if asked to join as a part of the appropriate quest, but won't rejoin you if asked to wait (9). Thorvald Two-Stones (Isle of Despair) can be persuaded to join your party, and he won't leave if not present for the talk you have with guards at the entrance to the Wheel Clan (10).

Cynthia Biggs can apparently be retained in your party if you transport her to Ashbury but ask her to wait the moment you set foot there (11?) but will eventually leave your party upon reload? Lady Druella, Murgo and Swyft are all temporarily followers that will eventually leave your party if you don't take them to the right destination?

Anyone I'm missing? Anything that doesn't work in the steam version / unofficial patch? I'm kinda ignoring the Void gang - I don't think they take up follower slots, but they don't really count as followers to me.

Before someone pops up with "but why would you want to do this" - the answer is "because".

[Bluebeak]

Originally posted by Xander77:

Anything that doesn't work in the steam version / unofficial patch?

The Steam version is just the CD version. There's virtually no differences afaik.

[Muro]

Obligatory mention that with mechanical companions the number goes up to "however many you wish until the slowdown becomes unbearable".

[EpicStoffer]

I just left isle of despair, and I currently have 7 actual companions and mutt. I´m aware I could´ve had 8 companions (Cynthia), but I didn´t like the idea of her suddenly leaving (with all my stuff), so I choose not to pick her up.

To clarify to whoever might get here thanks to a google search (like I did), Dante most *definitely* counts towards the follower limit, regardless of *anything* in the unofficial patch (i tried during quest, with wait, etc).

Making a parter member "wait" while you´re above the maximum limit with actual companions, seems to have a decent chance at locking you to the official maximum limit, so be very careful with that (vollinger wouldn´t re-join my crew, even though thorvald is supposedly holding a free slot. Can´t remember if I tried having Thorvald wait and re-join, but I´m pretty sure that he counts as a "real" companion to the system once you´re back from the Isle of Despair).

TL DR if you really wanna run with the maximum allowed (consistent) companions, it seems best to get your entire team up and running before you go to the Isle of Despair, as the companion limit gets a bit wonky once you exceed the maximum allowed actual companions.

@Fluffball, you forgot magic. Not only can wizards summon a bunch of different magical monsters they can keep active, but they can freaking *dominate mind*, which means that you can take over *any* NPC you want, and have them "join your team" (so long as you don´t run out of fatigue, lol). I personally think that mechanical and normal magical creatures shouldn´t be mentioned in this context (because they aren´t really companions), but NPC´s that you overtake with Dominale Mind *kinda* feels like they *almost* should count as it (I can tell you that having an army of Madam Lil and her lovely "friends", was infinitely amusing).

Hope this helps someone, or at least give them a slight chuckle ^^

[EpicStoffer]

As a small side-note, it seems the unofficial patch also fixed the Thorvald bug, with allowing him to be a permanent (free) follower. I went to Tarant, and within a few minutes he had forced himself out of my party, stating that I (rightfully, lol) had no intention of bringing him to the Wheel Clan

[Xander77]

Yeah. Thorvald left my party somewhere in the Wheel Clan (i.e, I told him to wait while talking to the guard - he was around for part of the dungeon, then disappeared towards the end. If he had ambient dialog indicating he was leaving, I must have missed it)

[Spooky]

heh, I have somehow ended up as an almost level 44 character and only just now have spoken to the elf queen... my only follower so far has been virgil, despite me speaking to everyone and doing all the side quests and maybe places that my character wasn't supposed to be able to do early on (oops) hehe... The "Professional Knife Tosser" background is a bit OP maybe ? or I am just stubborn :D

I guess that I have broken this playthrough a bit for followers but have been looking around for tips, just wanted to add here that there is a way to get one more follower I guess if you are using the Arcanum Multiverse Edition version since there is an option to set max stats to 24...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=760410053

... It seemed a bit too much in the realms of breaking the game for me, but I did set my max level cap to 100 "just in case" so maybe any followers that I get won't be hoplessly underlevelled by the end hehe... though I guess by that point my character will be a god, lol. It would make a nice change since the last playthrough I vaguely remember doing everything and got to the last fight and my party simply could not win :).

[Balthazad]

i just saw your question while googling something different and i just wanna say ONE thing:

Vivifier.

permanently increases all your attributes by +1.
can be crafted if you got high enough chemistry and therapeutics.

be aware that on your way to getting there, do therapeutics absolutely first, so you get +INT (and other) pots that last for 4h - and their buff can be used for leveling therapeutics & chemistry up to max, so you dont have to spend more than 15 points totally into intelligence.
same works for the lvl2 electrics ring, which is great to start the game with, besides lvl2 smithing sword.
-> lvl3 smithing via manual in tarant for the axe that's then with further manuals turned into pyro- & venom-axes (requiring lvl1 explosives & lvl6 chemistry), given u spend a week in tarant questing and check the inventor shop's daily. each manual adds as much expertise as you have intelligence when picking it up, so just drop it -> buff INT -> pick up. by stacking manuals, once you got 20 INT, you can easily craft all non-academical recipes, which are the real fun ones.
result?
plenty of points left for persuasions & charisma & beauty. or whatever else you like to add into the soup.

~*Zen-Moding out into Space*~

[Xander77]

Originally posted by Balthazad:

i just saw your question while googling something different and i just wanna say ONE thing:

Vivifier.

1. Not sure how this is relevant to the question of how many NPC followers one can have.

2. Regardless, to the best of my knowledge, there's only one Unknown Chemical Compound in Vendigroth, so you're only getting one Vivifier.