WTF???

[proos]

both baldurs gate passed, but here I have a stupor.
Gentlemen, you can't even tell your partner where to go, not to mention the inventory and indicate the target for the attack, or is there something I don't understand?

[Sebslocker]

Where are you? 1 chapter? There are 4 districts you need to clear them all. Talk to npcs

[proos]

Originally posted by Sebslocker:

Where are you? 1 chapter? There are 4 districts you need to clear them all. Talk to npcs

what does this have to do with what I wrote?
As I understand it, partners cannot be instructed where to go?
can't you specify who to attack?
can't he change his equipment?
can't you use their capabilities directly?

[Sebslocker]

You could tell them to change type of attack melee/range I think thats about it.

[Harry]

Yes you can. Unless something was broken with the last patch, you have always been able to command your henchmen some basic actions like attack, move, open, etc

[Jeff Kaos]

You have pretty much no control over henchmen. In the expansion you can access their inventory but in the original campaign you have very little control over their actions. I think the best you can do is tell them how far to walk from you and what sort of attack (ranged or melee) to use. Sometimes you can use the action wheel on them to make them stay by you or command them to return if they run ahead to attack something they can see but you can't but this gets tedious because they will keep running away. I think there's also a way to keep followers from bashing locked doors and chests automatically in case you prefer to unlock locks yourself with a skill or spell.

The best advice I have is to just get used to the henchmen system. It can be a pain but in the original campaign if they die you can always just zap to them, collect them back up and then spend a fee to zip back. A lot of times I don't bother until I needed a loot dump. It gets a little more difficult working with henchmen in the SoU expansion since there's no magic stone to teleport you in and out of danger but they don't die when they go down. They just enter a "Almost Dead" state and you can use a healing kit or potion on them if they pass out. But having control of their inventory can be a boon so there's that.

[proos]

Originally posted by Jeff Kaos:

You have pretty much no control over henchmen. In the expansion you can access their inventory but in the original campaign you have very little control over their actions. I think the best you can do is tell them how far to walk from you and what sort of attack (ranged or melee) to use. Sometimes you can use the action wheel on them to make them stay by you or command them to return if they run ahead to attack something they can see but you can't but this gets tedious because they will keep running away. I think there's also a way to keep followers from bashing locked doors and chests automatically in case you prefer to unlock locks yourself with a skill or spell.

The best advice I have is to just get used to the henchmen system. It can be a pain but in the original campaign if they die you can always just zap to them, collect them back up and then spend a fee to zip back. A lot of times I don't bother until I needed a loot dump. It gets a little more difficult working with henchmen in the SoU expansion since there's no magic stone to teleport you in and out of danger but they don't die when they go down. They just enter a "Almost Dead" state and you can use a healing kit or potion on them if they pass out. But having control of their inventory can be a boon so there's that.

Everything is absolutely true, thanks for the great answer!
It is very strange. Why did you do this if you had complete control in the previous games?
I do not really understand this.
Why simplify the game so much and at the same time make it less interesting?
Companions in this game are simply pointless.
I chose a warrior in the hope that there will be sorcerers and thieves whom I will play as in previous games, but no.
Thank you all for your answers!

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Mostly due to engine limitations.

NWN1 was a MESS on release and a lot of stuff with the OC was done in order to make it functional. Companion control gets progressively better in later expansions as they fixed a lot of the issues via patching. Though you never have 100% control, but they do perform a lot better.

There's a mod though I don't recall what it was called that can updated the OC companions to use Hordes of the Underdark Mechanics and dramatically increases their effectiveness. (also allows customization of party size though I'd recommend keeping it at the default 2 hordes uses since the pathing is still pretty janky if you've got a familar/companion, a summon/dominated npc, and two companions following you around, adding to more to that would just be problematic (though you could raise it to 4 if you never use summons or familars/companions)).


That said, you do have a lot more control over your companions than you think you do. You can't pick specific actions but you can control their general actions via the Commands menu. (i.e. if you want your companions to move ahead, so you can shoot/cast from behind, then there's commands for that).

Or talking to them and adjusting their specific guidelines on certain situations.


Tomi (the rogue) is a solid companion for the UC if you're a tanky type that lacks any other ability to open locks and disarm traps (by default he'll attempt to auto-disarm traps he spots though you can disable that if you'd prefer to order it manually). Just hot-key his open locks command so you don't have to search for it in the radial menu. (if companions have special abilities like Open Lock or disarm trap, it'll be added to the command menu when they're in the party and you can see which companion you're giving the order to by hovering over it, in case multiple companions have the same ability).

Casters though are going to be somewhat lackluster no matter what you do. since they're generally all set-up as blasters for sorcerers (they do have personal defensive buffs but no utility spells) or buff-bot/healers for Clerics/Bards (though clerics do make alright tanks if you'd rather play a mage/rogue yourself). And you can't edit their spell lists.


you can order NPCs through some of the quick access emotes but not all orders are carried out. (I.e. you can use the Quick Chat for stand ground or follow and they'll do it, but you can't use the quick-chat for Open this lock, you need to issue the command specifically).


This changes a bit in SOU and Hordes, since your companions actually have inventories and level-up, and you can give them scrolls and such to help add some more versatility to their spell capabilities. (and they will generally use most scrolls appropriately, though you need to talk to them about their consumable usage on how balls to the wall you want them to go).

Also you can customize their gear which helps a lot compared to the generic crap the OC companions get. On the other hand, the OC companions refresh their supplies of potions every time they die, rest, level-up and get new for free automatically, while the others you have to provide all of that yourself.

[DrLoboto]

Originally posted by proos:

It is very strange. Why did you do this if you had complete control in the previous games?
I do not really understand this.
Why simplify the game so much and at the same time make it less interesting?
Companions in this game are simply pointless.

NWN has a different concept than Baldur's Gate. I think it was planned with multiplayer co-op in mind, so that everyone would play a single character, just like in pen-and-paper D&D RPGs, and a party would be composed of several players working together. The henchmen in single player mode are a poor replacement for live players in your party, plus the original campaign's restrictions and the bad AI make it worse. But as others have said, you do have some control over them.

Personally, I find using the radial controls too slow and cumbersome, I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts. If you press "V", a small menu will open in the bottom left corner of the screen showing they keys to submenus (e.g. "W" for combat), and then the individual commands (e.g. "E" for "Attack!"). If you familiarize yourself with the most helpful commands and their shortcuts (e.g. V-W-E for "Attack", V-W-X for "Hold", V-E-E for "Follow Me", V-W-F for "Guard Me" etc.), you will be able to control your party members better and faster after a while. Tell them to attack and they will attack the nearest enemy. Tell them to guard you and they will focus on the foe you are currently engaged with. Tell them to hold and they will stop everything they're doing and freeze on the spot. Tell them to follow and they will abort their actions and run towards or after you for a few seconds, then resume their own program (so if they're distracted by enemies, you might need to spam this command every few seconds if you want them to keep following you and not run back to attack again). Attack a locked chest or door (ideally with a ranged weapon, in case it is trapped), then shout "Attack", and the henchmen will target it, too (triggering any potential trap, if equipped with a melee weapon). If they keep trying to bash doors or chest without you telling them to, shout "Hold" to make them stop. And so on, and so on.

You're right though, if you pick a fighter as your main character, you won't be able to switch to playing a magic user in your party mid-game.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

the only issue with Quick-Chat controls is that it doesn't work for every action, only a few basic commands.

(i.e. you can't order your thief to lockpick with the Open Lock quick-chat, you need to either use the radial command menu or add it to your hot-bar from the command menu).

[DrLoboto]

Yeah, but the thief will probably try to lockpick automatically, as soon as you click on a locked door or container. Disarming traps would be more of a problem, but then again, quick commands + slow radial once in a while is still better than slow radial for everything all the time. ;)

There's another potential issue - quick chat commands are for the whole party. So if you have more than one follower in the party and you want to give them individual commands differing from each other, you'd still have to use the radial. (But the same as above applies, better than having to use it all the time.)

[proos]

thanks for the answers guys. I will play as it is, without mods. I prefer to play games without mods.

[Tux]

oh I have no doubt they will read this and get to fixing this 19 year old game asap

[Crystal Sharrd]

Originally posted by Tux:

oh I have no doubt they will read this and get to fixing this 19 year old game asap

It just got updated two hours after you posted.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/704450/view/3106917607911382880

[Smugass Braixen-Chan]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/704450/discussions/0/2949285188586814917/

Originally posted by Smugass Braixen-Chan:

Originally posted by Frog King:

how? i cant find the setting to enable it and i cant figure out how to control them in-game

Took me way too long to figure this out

• Go to your Documents -> Neverwinter Nights (NOT where the game is located in your Steam Folder, because this is an old game that likes to spread its files all over your computer!)
  
  
• You'll find a file called settings.tml
  
  
• Right Click -> Open With -> Select your text editor of choice (Notepad will do)
  
  
• CTRL+F then find player-party-control
  
  
• Switch player-party-control from false to true
  
  
• Save and go into the game
  
  
• Hold down CTRL and select your party members either by CTRL+Click or CTRL Drag with the selection box. (You can select multiple people with CTRL+Click, and is way less laggy than the drag box, so is generally better)
  
  
• Hold down shift and control them as if you would a player. (If you move them, they will walk by default b/c you are holding SHIFT. Double-Click on the ground to make them run)

Note that the Radial Menu is still your own Radial Menu, so unfortunately you cannot force them to cast spells or use abilities that you don't also have. (Linu will still refuse to use Turn Undead, then waste it on a single zombie) But basic stuff like attacking, and moving you have full control over.

Oh, apparently it can potentially break scripts if you run over a script-trigger that the game expects a player to run over, not a henchman, so only use it in combat and don't "Scout Ahead" with it.

It also doesn't work on servers unless the server enables it. So this is only really for single player. But on a server you have this thing called "Other Players" so it's not that big of a loss for Multiplayer.

[Haethei]

I find playing with the janky henchmen controls rather fun. My current character (a wizard) relies on adventuring with a strong melee fighter and putting as many buffs on him as I can fit in my spell slots. He's extremely strong, naturally, but his brain is small and the interesting gameplay is more about controlling my party members, as well as using some crowd control spells on the enemies.

It would certainly be much more effective if I could tell my henchman to run into a room before I do, but I simply don't have that option and I must run head first into a room as a squishy wizard before the enemies will notice me and come out to fight.

Having more control over the henchmen would definitely be useful, but I must admit I really enjoy the silly mechanics involved. Maybe it would be less fun if you are struggling more than I am, though.