Should I get mercenary now or save for BP?

[Sorceress]

I'm at the very beginning of the game, at Oleg's and still to meet Tartuccio in Acient Tomb.
Playing on hard/custom

[Nachtmeister]

Gewt it now. Mercenaries get more expensive the higher your, and therefor their level becomes.

[CHAO$$$]

You dont really need to buy bp early and the gold/bp ratio isnt good enough to justify saving 2K/3K gold just to buy some bp.

The respec mod on nexus mods allows you to make your companions into 20 point buy (i.e. mercenary) custom companions tho and its fairly simple to set up. The game is just better with story companions.

Also you can respec later if you want to. It still costs 1K gold tho.

[dulany67]

Better off getting mercenaries early. As stated above saving a few thousand is nothing when buying BP.

[Balekai]

Yep like others said. If you plan on using Mercs it's best to buy them ASAP (like at Oleg's). The next time you have a lot of cash to spare that's not going to BP or items is post Pitax when they cost a lot of money.

If you don't plan on using mercs and use optimized builds for your existing companions, then save away. I liked having the BP headstart for getting my Kingdom stats up and getting arcane to the point that I have teleporters and the stat I can't remember for aviaries.

[2wamhm]

Speaking of mercs, is there some basic role that is not covered very well with the story companions? So far I haven't seen one that is good as an AoE caster or archer. But maybe I just didn't get far enough.

I am getting ready to restart with a monster tactician. So I was thinking to get at least 1 merc right away.

[dulany67]

I always pick up a sorc or wizard.

[CHAO$$$]

Originally posted by 2wamhm:

Speaking of mercs, is there some basic role that is not covered very well with the story companions? So far I haven't seen one that is good as an AoE caster or archer. But maybe I just didn't get far enough.

I am getting ready to restart with a monster tactician. So I was thinking to get at least 1 merc right away.

The best prebuilt companions are:
Ranger (ekun)
NokNok (knife guy rogue) - better dex than customs due to his unique racial
Alchemist (Jubilost)

Regongar, tiefling sisters and Octavia are pretty good (Magus, Kineticist and Arcane trickster)

Everyone else is kinda meh. Pick from the pool of good companions and build based on that.

Jaethal has an op racial but starts with the inquistor class which is pretty bad.
Valerie is pretty mediocre at tanking but not impossible to fix.
Slayer companions dont exist and they are a pretty strong addition to the game.
Linzi is an awful bard.
You get 2 clerics both of which are pretty meh.

[Flippy]

I got two right at the start even before lvling up they are great.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1939635357

Thanks Nexusmods.com.

Sarena on the left an elven Fey Sorceress or maybe something else i forget all the classes but she is elf and fey i know that :), and Freya on the right an assimar cleric.

[Grifta]

Why not both?

Try to stick with the companions. If you specifically don't want to, then yes, buy mercs early.

After you've bought the Bags of Holding, and the +5 Thievery Gloves (Trapspringer?), then basically spend every spare GP on BP for the first 2-3 chapters (only buy as you need it, but don't buy other equipment). There is enough found gear to keep you in good equipment.

If you focus on the kingdom early on, then you get GP and BP generating things earlier ( Artisans for GP, and higher Economy ranks for BP ). These make mid-late game an absolute breeze.

[Kuromiya]

Get customs. Normie companions are terrible. They have unique dialogues and quests, but they've got bad optimization and even worse personalities (Linzi and Octavia in particular). If you're tempted to get custom companions already, might as well spring for them; they'll be better in the long run!