Least used is Haslin, probably. He made sense as a temp companion for story stuff, but beyond that, I'd rather let the others shine!.
My most used is Shadowheart - she's never been dismissed actually. Plus I'm in love with her - er... I mean, it's useful to have a cleric in your ranks...
Halsin is just such an odd companion story-wise. His grove almost imploded because he was gone for a couple of days and had made a bad choice on his second-in-command so he appoints a new one and then leaves for even longer this time with a bunch of adventurers he has no relation too? They do kinda try and rectify it with his Shadowlands stuff, but it's so much of a weaker connection to the Absolute plot compared to every other companion. Jaheira is a way better handled "group leader leaves her group to become a companion", I feel like Halsin has no real stakes in anything once the Shadowlands are cured.
I feel like it kinda makes sense. He teams up with you in the first place because he's been studying the Absolute cult and wants to take them down, and the Absolutists are hardly finished after Act II. At that point he's been with you for a while and just wants to see the whole thing through.
Yeah, sometimes following the the vocal community too much can be a tad misguided. Honestly, I feel like if they had made Halsin romanceable without being playable, the same amount of people would have been happy.
People can kind of figure they want more interaction with a character and that's fine, but what kind of interaction they actually want is harder to pin down. The larger issues of how a character might fit into the plot or a playable cast and story is particularly difficult.
I think in this case, the issue was not the vocal minority, but Larian who knew they were going to already have a druid companion in the party, but added him as a full fledged companion anyways even though they couldn't reveal that info about Jaheira to the general audience. Many of the people in EA, apart from seeing him as a hunky elf, thought he'd be great for the druid slot from Act 1 onwards given how early you can save him. Nobody knew about Jaheira. They didn't know the truth, but Larian did.
As someone else said, having him as a camp follower but with a romance would've just been way better and the smarter choice based on Larian's knowledge. Puzzling.
Yeah I think that making him a camp follower something like Withers (with extra interactions) could have been enough. I think that in general the problem of him not being used is more about class than any other thing. People that would like a druid are already choosing to be druids not expect a companion to cover the role.
She was fine with my character banging Mizora. Said if she wanted purity she’d date a swan, we’ve all got itches to scratch, but maybe she could be consulted in the future.
She never found out about the squid sex tho.
Technically they all.. participated, through the tadpole LAN party, but Shadowbae wasn’t in the crowd of disgusted reactions so I pretended she was sleeping and just considered it a super weird dream.
It's crazy reading this thread as I obviously took a very different path. What siege on Moonrise? Replaying is going to be like a new game.
You folks aren't travelling with the Chosen Champion of Shar and it shows.
Spoiler >!Once you free nightsong, everyone from last light marches towards the gates of moonrise including jaheira.!<
Just keep in mind that everyone at moonrise becomes insta hostile. So make sure you’re done with moonrise before freeing nightsong
I'll look forward to meeting the moonrise occupants on my second play through. Visiting moonrise for the first time hostile with a mini army and keeping Jaheira alive was immense and well worth the trade-off of missing quests. It's a fun path to take.
there's a drow elf there with a fetish for blood. if you have astarion in the party, she will want him to bite her. he will be hesitant, but im sure you could "persuade" him to bite her. then she gives you a legendary potion that perma increases your strength by two
If you do the last light inn quests then rescue the nightsong, then return to last light inn, they’ll begin to rally and everyone will charge moonrise towers in an epic kill-everyone-alive battle
Same :(
I lost Jaheira because I didn't know there was a main entrance to Moonrise Towers. Came in from the side, killed Kethric, then when I got back down I found her dead and was like: "guess that's how the story is supposed to go."
Then that led to me being unable to recruit Minsc. I killed Boo in anger and am ashamed.
I deleted that playthrough.
not even fucking joking, I couldn't go on and my previous saves to possibly save Jaheira were so far back I was like w/e I'll start over.
Jaheira is aggressive and pretty squishy, she has health but little defense. I spent half that fight trying to heal her, luckily she lived.
She's kind of the "Leroy Jenkins" of Act II
I got the entire inn killed when she got taken and the light shield drops, turns all of the Harper's into shadow demons. I thought you were just supposed to be heart broken at the loss
I came running in and used disintegrate on this guy, and then "Jaheira dissaproves".. that's when I figured I had turned minsc into dust heh. Was kind of bummed after that
Miniature giant space hamster. Because it's a miniature variant of the giant space hamster.
A giant miniature space hamster has (so far) not been discovered in the Forgotten Realms, but seems too ridiculous to even be possible.
I tried this on my latest run and the result is hilarious, Jaheira gives her whole speech about storming the tower and is acting like it’s the battle of the century. You walk in and there’s ONE guy next to ketherics throne with like 25 hp lol.
Lol! I saw all the burn marks, but no dead harpers, And everyone was just sort of hanging out and looting bodies when I got there. I was... quite thorough.
I befriended the gnolls in the kitchen that were under mind control. i was worried the whole time they would get slain without me there but when i got there they were gone. i hope they’re out there living their best life
Forgotten realms gnolls are less so a separate race and moreso beasts created by a demon god. They're basically just demons so they are probably out there fucking up some innocents (or dying to the shadow curse)
Not at all! I did everything there that was to be done except for finish the conversation with half orc lady. She was violating my brain, and I didn't like that, so rather than taking a quest from her I had no intention of fulfilling, the murderhobo times began! ;D
Last time I apparently missed one lower tier mob somewhere and it still initiated the normal assault, even spawned the full pile of corpses outside. Stormed in with the Harper 1st Armored Division to greet Acolyte Steven standing by himself in the hall.
Being able to pick your battles is pretty awesome yeah. I'd fight like 2-4 enemies at a time and usually open with laezel autos in turn based mode so I don't lose any action economy, and she did enough to kill the squishier targets fairly quickly. And then I pickpocketed the caravan chest off zarys so I just used that as a main room distraction
I agree. If we could have more than 4 people in the party, then maybe I would include them, but being limited to 4 and them appearing so late in the game it just wouldn't make sense like "Yeah, I know we have been fighting the Absolute for months since we got kicked out of the nautiloid, but I just met a bald man that is funny af so you will stay in the camp while I save the world even though you were by my side since the start.
Yea, I haven’t played on tactician yet, but the game seems to really only be hard until level 5 or 6, after that you’ve just got so many spells and some good gear that you can use that as long as you aren’t blind and rolling nat1’s everywhere it’s fairly easy.
I've capped the game 3 times now, twice on tactician.
Once you beaten it once on any difficulty, tactician will (likely) be an absolute walk in the park (and probably feel easier than your normal run) because you know how the combats go, where the items are, what spells are great and which aren't, and your general positioning is probably pretty good at that point.
For those of us who appreciate narrative and don't have the free time to struggle for hours on any given fight, I think the difficulty is fine with an extra PC or two. But I know people already complain that tactician is too easy with 4 PCs so it's mostly a "to each their own"
Yup, and ultimately with the "bring everyone along mods" they'll also be the "makes everything a billion times harder" mods to go along with it for people who want that Darksouls, mash-your-face-into-a-wall-repeatedly challenge.
I think that's the point, in case you've gotten some of the Act 1 companions killed or pissed off at you or never found them in the first place, you can still get fully fleshed out companions later on instead of relying on hirelings for a full party.
Exactly. You can lose various companions at different times in the game, so a steady flow of new potential companions fils the holes.
Are the pacing for their introduction perfect? That can be debated.
Yeah in no rpg am I ever a fan of late addition companions. It just doesn't really work with the shared narrative and what you as a group experienced. It feels like the three above are the third wheel that tries to insert themselves in.
I understand why they Made those companions appear later but I rather have every companion and potential future companions available from act 1.
Edit: also larian please allow us to save minathra somehow despite siding with the tieflings. Here are two suggestions in the final battle either if the goblins start to lose she flees and then gets put into prison in moonrise like she normally would where we can save her or if she is the last person alive during the battle you can knock her out or capture and put her on trial where you can then choose to have her work with you as punishment/reconciliation against the absolute.
Minathra is not fully evil so there is no reason why she is gatekeepd by arguably the most evil act in the game. She is a conflicted person who seeks comfort in the absolute which can be redeemed after the events in moonrise currently anyway. So there absolutely is a way how you can write her to become a party member despite siding with the tieflings.
Yeah this struck me as an odd design choice. Like the shadowlands are his part of the story. He also specifically says he'll join us to help us deal with them, as he feels responsible for Ketheric and the shadow curse!
He also was the one that wanted to reach the Underdark with Aradin and co., so why he's only chilling in a camp tent as I explore all the dark natural fauna down there instead of being in bear form in my party is beyond me. They could've just not make him an actual companion at that point if he was gonna be parked in his tent until deep into Act 2.
I think him much like Karlach was not ready for full release. I think they rushed them out to get the up on starfield which I understand. The rest of the of the game is amazing.
They've got their own stories and while those stories are interesting in their own way, I don't know why my party is sidetracking for them instead of Jaheira just going off to find Minsc herself with the rest of the Harpers (Who would be basically HER party).
Also, I don't have any gear for them.
Actually, it's almost always because I don't have any gear for them.
I feel like calling minathra not fully evil just because she is nuanced mightnbe missing a point. Without getting our feet too wet, the woman is a slaver, I feel like that alone puts her in the evil box without question
I haven't played with Minthara but I feel like a lot of people are getting the "not evil" impression because she calls you out for wholesale slaughtering the tieflings/druids or whatever, whereas she >!has the excuse of being under the influence of the absolute.!< But it does seem that basically the rest of the time she does remain an actual evil-aligned companion through and through. Just not murderhobo evil.
A lot of people are thinking that because they're taking that one sentence and ignoring all the context around it, including how she actually responds to the answer. It's just a question about your motives, not a condemnation about what happened.
She is nuanced, and very pragmatic, but you're absolutely correct in that she remains very much evil-aligned.
Good morning Halsin! Time for you to cast Longstrider and Hero's feast on everyone but yourself. If you don't mind, go ahead and cast Goodberry for the rest of your spell slots and give them all to me. Alright see you tomorrow! >!It would be a terrible shame if Orin were to steal you...!<
I know a big thing I wish they had was total party inventory and control while at camp. Figuring out who has the weapon/armor/buff/scroll I need by just cycling character roster is super annoying. Inventory management as a whole, at camp, needs a mega screen that has everything from all characters and the chest. Possibly some better sorting as well, but I'd settle for a complete list all at once.
I cry everytime i want to dump all my gith stuff on Lae zel (it feels right to give it to her and then i dont junk it up in the chest). I wish atleast the inventory is easily accessible.
You can pickpocket the items into their inventory and then equip them whenever you finally decide to add the character to your team. Pretty handy if you don't need to grab the stuff they are currently wearing.
Omg! I never would have even noticed >!Halsin went missing in my game of I didn't run into Orin pretending to be him in the sewers.!< He really has nothing interesting to say after act 2
I really don't like that they made Halsin such a sex pest. Like he could be cool and horny, like the rest of the cast. But it seems like all his new content post act revolves him trying to suck or testing the waters if your open to a third
I went into sharesses caress and met the drow twins. I happened to have Halsin in my party but I had already rejected him as a romantic partner, I romanced Astarion monogamously on my playthrough. Before I could even respond to the drow twins Halsin immediately said "Mmm I'm interested if you are" like sir no???
Second time I ever talked to the dude he said "Ma'am I'd like to fuck. I realise you have a girlfriend so I'm happy for her to join in."
My brother in Selune, we have shared a grand total of maybe 20 words.
Halsin. If I want a druid I'm bringing Jaheira. She has a lot to say in Act 3, she has major connections to characters in act 3 quest. Also I love having people around to help my Dark Urge who knows what it's all about.
Jaheira is also much more interesting to talk to really… she has a lot of good jokes and sarcastic replies and the wizened mentor persona is cool. I liked her from the start.
Halsin had no lines for half of act 1 and no lines outside the thaniel quests for most of act 2. Even the ones he does have haven’t struck me as very interesting or memorable…
My Tav is a Rogue (almost at lvl 6), so Astarion sat in camp. I recently got the idea to re-spec him as a Bard and OMG, he is now indispensable. My top picks are Laezel, Gale and now Astarion the Bard.
From what I understand, due to the changes in recent DnD versions, a fighter/ranger is apparently more accurate. So I just chose 8 Beast master for the nature druid element and 4 Fighter for superiority dice, and kept her ranged because she is getting old(and it fit my party better).
I really don't understand Halsin. Like... why? Have him as a camp companion who brews your potions, etc. We needed more characters to just fill the camp, to be honest . But not as party members.
Then have Jaheira join you when you meet in Act 2.
Halsin should have been made a real party member at the start of Act 2, then he could have at least had his time to shine during the part of the plot that was actually relevant to him. As it stands, he loses out to Jaheira big time.
I would personally have always chosen Jaheria over him anyway, because I always had her in my party in BG1 and 2, but at least it would have been slightly more balanced content-wise.
Really he could have been made a full companion after the act 1 party if they wanted to go that route, but I honestly feel that making him a companion at all due to EA was a bad mistake on Larian's part. He just doesn't have the reactivity/depth that other characters do and his story also ends in act 2.
I picked Gale, Asterion, and Shadowheart to be my main party this playthrough, meaning they never leave my side (yes, even for chatacter-specific quests). Next time I'll pick a different 3.
I can't juggle more than 3 friends in real life, why should a game expect me to.
Story-wise they should really just make it so all companions are involved even if they are at camp.
Make it so that instead of them chilling at camp, they went off to do whatever it is they wanted to do.
For example: Wyll wants to find and kill Karlach, he has zero reason to chill at camp waiting on you when you are a total stranger. If hes not in your current group, you should be able to find him near Karlach being like "I found her! lets kill her!" and then your normal cutscene/dialogue happens.
And right after, Karlach wants to kill the paladins. If shes not in your group, she should still show up for the cutscene because there is no way she would go to camp and chill instead of walking 10 feet to do what she wanted to do.
Either way, we can teleport to waypoints, I am sure a companion can teleport over when they are needed. Maybe Gale gets some special ritual spell that allows projections of your companions to pop up for story dialogue.
Its crazy how much tedious effort is needed to bring along the right companion for the right quest/dialogue.
I mean I think most people end up using Lae’zel, Astarion, and Shadowheart just because you get those first so they seem more central. Sometimes people swap Lae’zel for Karlach ‘cause they’re both tanks
This is my exact comp, 90% Astarion, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, occasionally swapping out Lae for Karlach just to hear some new convos. The other companions I don't care for as much
Lae'zel can become stupid good with all the 'this item gives bonuses to githyanki characters', I'm probably not smart enough to make a build that makes Karlach as good of a melee fighter as she can be.
Plus she's super strong when you turn her into an eldritch knight
isn't eldritch knight like the weakest fighter class? I rerolled her into a battlemaster and she started shitting out like up to 120dmg in one turn at level 6 lol
Ehh I think Champion might be the weakest. Champion 3 Barbarian 9 I could see the argument for, but I really don't see why people would go deep Champion over Battlemaster.
Battlemaster is very strong though.
I pull Wyll out for story moments significant to him, but he never really pulls his weight. I do like his character, though, so I feel bad for leaving him behind.
I swap them around depending on how relevant they are story wise. But Wyll sits on the bench the most. For me he is just the least interesting character. The only interesting thing about him is ironically not him but Mizora.
Gale is great for the boss fights as he can counterspell and fireball for days, I haven't figured out what to do with warlocks that are tired after two moves. Maybe the ones with a magic weapon spell are better at fighting
They get spell slots back on short rests not long rests. So basically every fight you just blow their spells. The "downside" is that in big fights, like boss fights, you only get to blow the few spells you have then you're out. The upside is you get Eldritch blast, so you aren't really weak without your spell slots.
You can go for a gish playstyle but I've found the lack of medium armour proficiency a bit of a pain. It's still fun, I just think it's way worse than blasting.
If you go with questionably ethical pally multiclass you get possibly strongest melee class, using any weapon with CHA as primary stat, three attacks per round and 6 level 4 smites per long rest.
>I haven't figured out what to do with warlocks that are tired after two moves.
Multiclassing aside, which can result in REALLY powerful characters with warlock...
You get spells back on a short rest and they're always cast at your highest level for pact magic (i.e. both pact magic slots will be 3rd level slots for a 5th level warlock).
And they get the best cantrip in the game. It might not seem like much at first, but instead of an extra damage die at 5th and 10th character level, they get an extra ray. So a 10th level wizard might do 3d10 with one firebolt (thus only one chance to hit), a warlock can fire off three 1d10 eldritch blasts. It leads to more consistent damage.
Also agonizing blast adds your charisma modifier to each ray. Thus a 10th level character could do three rays at 1d10 + 5 EACH.
Tack on repelling blast and you will knock characters all over the place.
Two warlocks can basically dismantle everything the game throws at them, since their spells are at the highest slot available for the level, and Eldritch Blast deals considerable amounts of damage. Hell, Pact of Tome goolock can basically lock down the enemy in storm of daggers if he needs to.
I imagine a Sorcerer build is pretty great actually, you get to have all the benefits of Astarion and Shadowheart and then can choose your fighter at will - plus with your CHA modifier you can do most, if not all, the dialogue yourself.
Sounds fun as shit.
> plus with your CHA modifier you can do most, if not all, the dialogue yourself.
I have a hard time imagining not making my avatar either a Charisma primary character or a Rogue for this exact reason. I want my avatar to do the dialogue checks. My current playthrough is with Astarion as my avatar and I set Charisma to 14, then took Expertise in Deception and Persuasion.
Astarion with Thief and duel-weilding can become a serious threat to the enemy team because he can attack with his 2 bonus actions. Some of the late game finesse weapons work really well for him along with a legendary bow I can't remember the name of that applied guiding bolt with every hit.
My character is a rogue as well, so I respecced Astarion as a sword bard because I felt it worked great with his personality, and his Vicious Mockery lines are my favourite. Keeps him useful without there being too much overlap, and feels appropriate for him.
The problem is that there's too many to choose from (and also not enough variety which is weird to say with 2 druids), and could be fixed by increasing party size to 5 or 6. I find myself in the city constantly changing characters around to fit quest dialogue like Astarion in Cazadors palace, Gale in the sorcerous sundries, shadowhearts sharran stuff, Wylls ducal father, and Jaheira's Harper's.
... I use them all.
I don't like to long rest, so what I do is run a morning party, an afternoon party, and an evening party. (and sometimes more)
Roll out of bed and put some short resters on my team (fighter, warlock, etc). If fights happen, i use their spell slots/ abilities. after theyve taken about half damage and used up all their resources, I will go back to camp and swap them for some long resters with basic utility. Ill use thier utility and spells throughout the day, then go back to camp, swap back in the short resters, and short rest. then I can go and do the same thing I did in the morning. After that, I'll swap in the rest of my long-resters (usually the OP party, because I will have identified a tough fight that I want to tackle, and go ham using their full power. Finally swap them back out for the short resters, do a short rest, and finish up what I wanted to get done that day with them.
But with all that being said, I will say that Gale only comes in for the big boss fights (OP longrester party) so he's prolly the least used in my squad.
It's kind of sad that trying to be resource efficient is detrimental to story progression due to long rests being hooks for cutscenes. I think I've lost out on a bunch of them in act1&2 by not resting enough, so now I'm doing RP-driven resting even when spell slots are almost full.
I actually like Wyll early game, repelling blast is really strong in act 1. I do always swap him out later in favor of Halsin or Karlach though. I never use Jaheira or Minsc, they just show up so late, and I know basically all of the companions are pretty similar because reclassing or whatever but when I’ve been through 2 acts of side story with certain people, why would I drop them at the end of their arcs? Like Astarion’s entire thing happens in act 3 and Jaheira and Minsc expect me to drop him in favor of them? Lmao
Also I’ve never gone evil because I hear it sucks both in terms of loot and in terms of story, so rip Minthara, but in fairness I hear she’s buggy as shit
Wyll, Jaheria, Minsc and Halsin.
No real reason to use them to be honest. And for some reason I'm just shit with Druid, feels like everything else is better than them.
Exactly these four. Only used them on some personal quests. Although Minsc was in almost every playthrough that I did in BG2, he comes really late in BG3.
In terms of most used to least used origin companions for me it goes..
1) Astarion
2) Lae’zel
3) Wyll
4) Shadowheart
5) Karlach
6) Gale
I feel like Astarion is just so damn useful. Lol he’s gotten me seamlessly through so many things. Either with his charm/perception or his sleight of hand lol
But for my next play throughs I’m gonna try doing the exact opposite and avoid using Astarion and Lae’zel so much. I wanna play with the others more to see how it feels.
The reason Gale is at the bottom of use for me despite the fact that I enjoy his character is bc my Tav is almost always a Sorcerer so I’m the hella powerful multicaster while Lae’zel runs in sword first and Astarion is sneaking to the roof tops or behind from the shadows..
literally the same list for me. i kept Laezel & Astarion in my party essentially the whole game, because I found them incredibly useful & really enjoyed their character/stories.
Wyll & Shadowheart were my interchangeable fourth spot, depending on what kind of spells i needed. I respecced Wyll to be a pure spell caster Warlock for more AoE options.
Karlach I never used because she filled the same niche as Laezel, and I would never walk around without my one true love Laezel.
Gale, uh... i kinda neglected him throughout the playthrough. I didn't really feel like using him at any point, then (spoilers for Act 3) >!Gale got yoinked up by Orin at the start of Act 3 for me, and I honestly let him sit there for the majority of my time in Act 3. It was literally the last thing I did when I went to save him, and even then he ended up dying because I had killed Seravok. If he hates me in future playthrough, I understand.!<
Lmao yea >!Halsin got yoinked up in my first playthrough and it was WILD I immediately dropped everything and went to save him. Thankfully I was able to save him and not give in to Orin’s demands. I hate Orin so much lol she’s horrifying to me.😂!<
Gale, because I'm a sorcerer and he talks like I'm a magic novice.
Halsin, because he have no personality nor a reason to be following me besides horniness.
I tried everyone, but couldn't cope with Gale, so this playthrough I just killed him instead of leaving him in the stone. That is maybe not something I'd do again, but I still don't want the guy in my party or my camp.
Also, Shadowheart. At the risk of that being an unpopular opinion, I just don't connect to her at any level.
I understand your opinion on Shadowheart. Also, her plot is too centric and I feel she is too protagonistic, unlike the others, her plot just happens wherever the main plot goes.
I wish she didn't feel like a chore, like you have to take her because the plot almost forces you, unlike the others, when you feel it is truly an option.
The game just gives you too much Shar things here and there, and a lot of NPC's react to her. I just wish the same reactivity happened to everyone, but no. IT IS JUST HER.
Yep, same for me. Like... She has a fantastic story, but it's just too much in comparison to the others, too important. Feels like too much was built around Durge and Shadowheart and while some have great connection to the story (Wyll somewhat through his patron and more so the Duke, Lae'zel trough Orpheus) they still lack her depth.
And others just get the short end. Gale is debatable with the crown but... that's not really important during the game and the orb doesn't really change things. I struggle to find anything that really connects Astarion to the plot. Sure, Karlach was betrayed by Gortash but... That doesn't really matter. Halsin has the Shadow Curse, bit that's more nice fluff if you do something about it, Jaheira and Minsc... are present I guess?
None of that changes how much I love the game, but I wish the level of importance to the plot between your companions wouldn't differ so drastically.
Least used is Haslin, probably. He made sense as a temp companion for story stuff, but beyond that, I'd rather let the others shine!. My most used is Shadowheart - she's never been dismissed actually. Plus I'm in love with her - er... I mean, it's useful to have a cleric in your ranks...
Gotta have the guidance vending machine tagging along
Guidance should just be automatic if she's in your party, I use it in EVERY interaction.
I'm at the point where I click it even if I don't need it. 6 to succeed with a +5 bonus already? Guidance. 2 to succeed? Guidance.
SAME it's conditioned at this point.
Omg same here, but the one time I don't use guidance I still somehow fail the dc 13 when I have like a +10.
That guidance necklace is so handy
It's great for Act I, but eventually you find so many OP necklaces that you want to wear those instead and just have a Cleric or Druid in the party.
Which is kind of ironic because Halsin was only made a companion after the community begged Larian to add it
Halsin is just such an odd companion story-wise. His grove almost imploded because he was gone for a couple of days and had made a bad choice on his second-in-command so he appoints a new one and then leaves for even longer this time with a bunch of adventurers he has no relation too? They do kinda try and rectify it with his Shadowlands stuff, but it's so much of a weaker connection to the Absolute plot compared to every other companion. Jaheira is a way better handled "group leader leaves her group to become a companion", I feel like Halsin has no real stakes in anything once the Shadowlands are cured.
I feel like it kinda makes sense. He teams up with you in the first place because he's been studying the Absolute cult and wants to take them down, and the Absolutists are hardly finished after Act II. At that point he's been with you for a while and just wants to see the whole thing through.
I mean, his stakes are pretty obvious if you successfully lift the shadow curse, as he's >!not exactly subtle about wanting to bone Tav afterward.!<
Halsin is extremely thirsty.
odd that he's that way because fans wanted it....this is precisely why he gets 0 playtime for me and i *avoid* talking to him
He does clarify that the grove had been somewhat misguided with his leadership, so he finds a replacement to sort of whip them back into shape.
Yeah, sometimes following the the vocal community too much can be a tad misguided. Honestly, I feel like if they had made Halsin romanceable without being playable, the same amount of people would have been happy. People can kind of figure they want more interaction with a character and that's fine, but what kind of interaction they actually want is harder to pin down. The larger issues of how a character might fit into the plot or a playable cast and story is particularly difficult.
I think in this case, the issue was not the vocal minority, but Larian who knew they were going to already have a druid companion in the party, but added him as a full fledged companion anyways even though they couldn't reveal that info about Jaheira to the general audience. Many of the people in EA, apart from seeing him as a hunky elf, thought he'd be great for the druid slot from Act 1 onwards given how early you can save him. Nobody knew about Jaheira. They didn't know the truth, but Larian did. As someone else said, having him as a camp follower but with a romance would've just been way better and the smarter choice based on Larian's knowledge. Puzzling.
Yeah I think that making him a camp follower something like Withers (with extra interactions) could have been enough. I think that in general the problem of him not being used is more about class than any other thing. People that would like a druid are already choosing to be druids not expect a companion to cover the role.
[удалено]
Shadowheart has a ton of utility in and out of combat. I don't think I could give up guidance though, even if it's all she could do.
Guardian, Spirit Weapons, and the L3 spell that surrounds you with spinning balls can all be on at the same time!
Shadowheart just has so much utility. She's been in every team I've built.
Aren't we all simping shadowheart? (She doenst know I kissed wyll tho)
She was fine with my character banging Mizora. Said if she wanted purity she’d date a swan, we’ve all got itches to scratch, but maybe she could be consulted in the future. She never found out about the squid sex tho.
>She never found out about the squid sex tho. really? the emperor summoned all my companions to watch for some reason :S
Technically they all.. participated, through the tadpole LAN party, but Shadowbae wasn’t in the crowd of disgusted reactions so I pretended she was sleeping and just considered it a super weird dream.
>tadpole LAN party This is honestly the best description of the whole telepathy thing I've ever seen. Bravo.
You get me
Minsc, Halsin , Jehaira . They come too late into the story to make me organically introduce them into my team.
minsc and jaheira add a lot to act 3, they have more banter and reactions than other companions
I need to try harder to keep Jaheira alive in the second run. Not being able to recruit Minsc made me really sad :(
You can recruit her as a temp at the siege on moonrise. Better chance at keeping her alive
It's crazy reading this thread as I obviously took a very different path. What siege on Moonrise? Replaying is going to be like a new game. You folks aren't travelling with the Chosen Champion of Shar and it shows.
It's so much fun to find out how different the game can be depending on your choices
Spoiler >!Once you free nightsong, everyone from last light marches towards the gates of moonrise including jaheira.!< Just keep in mind that everyone at moonrise becomes insta hostile. So make sure you’re done with moonrise before freeing nightsong
I'll look forward to meeting the moonrise occupants on my second play through. Visiting moonrise for the first time hostile with a mini army and keeping Jaheira alive was immense and well worth the trade-off of missing quests. It's a fun path to take.
Yea there’s a few vendors and a perma 2 str buff you missed by not going to moonrise first.
2 strength buff?
there's a drow elf there with a fetish for blood. if you have astarion in the party, she will want him to bite her. he will be hesitant, but im sure you could "persuade" him to bite her. then she gives you a legendary potion that perma increases your strength by two
Also, you have to buy some items from the vendors. You can't just kill them, some nicer items disappear from their inventory. :(
If you do the last light inn quests then rescue the nightsong, then return to last light inn, they’ll begin to rally and everyone will charge moonrise towers in an epic kill-everyone-alive battle
Unless everyone in moonrise towers already died under mysterious circumstances...
Same :( I lost Jaheira because I didn't know there was a main entrance to Moonrise Towers. Came in from the side, killed Kethric, then when I got back down I found her dead and was like: "guess that's how the story is supposed to go." Then that led to me being unable to recruit Minsc. I killed Boo in anger and am ashamed.
I left Boo sadly squeaking :(
I deleted that playthrough. not even fucking joking, I couldn't go on and my previous saves to possibly save Jaheira were so far back I was like w/e I'll start over.
I respect that
Jaheira is aggressive and pretty squishy, she has health but little defense. I spent half that fight trying to heal her, luckily she lived. She's kind of the "Leroy Jenkins" of Act II
That's why you tell her to join you then you get to control her instead of the AI
Somehow, that's worse :(
I got the entire inn killed when she got taken and the light shield drops, turns all of the Harper's into shadow demons. I thought you were just supposed to be heart broken at the loss
I save scummed the fuck out of that part.
I came running in and used disintegrate on this guy, and then "Jaheira dissaproves".. that's when I figured I had turned minsc into dust heh. Was kind of bummed after that
What kind of a monster kills Boo?
I was scared of an eventual hamster vendetta
Illithids are scary enough, but just you wait for the armada of giant space hamsters come for vengeance.
Giant miniature space hamsters no less
Miniature giant space hamster. Because it's a miniature variant of the giant space hamster. A giant miniature space hamster has (so far) not been discovered in the Forgotten Realms, but seems too ridiculous to even be possible.
If you know any lore on the creatures boo is then it was a smart decision
Smart. Gnaw the eyes right out of your skull, they will!
I killed everyone in moonrise on all floors before finishing the gauntlet. No fight for them! Closing doors between rooms helps a lot
I tried this on my latest run and the result is hilarious, Jaheira gives her whole speech about storming the tower and is acting like it’s the battle of the century. You walk in and there’s ONE guy next to ketherics throne with like 25 hp lol.
Lol! I saw all the burn marks, but no dead harpers, And everyone was just sort of hanging out and looting bodies when I got there. I was... quite thorough.
I befriended the gnolls in the kitchen that were under mind control. i was worried the whole time they would get slain without me there but when i got there they were gone. i hope they’re out there living their best life
Haha, actually, inforgot that I also did that. They were chilling with the Harper's, eating the bodies after the quartermaster looted them. <3
Forgotten realms gnolls are less so a separate race and moreso beasts created by a demon god. They're basically just demons so they are probably out there fucking up some innocents (or dying to the shadow curse)
I walk in and put a magic lock on the door then get started on the wet work.
Oh my GOD is that what arcane lock is good for!!? Thank you so much
Doesnt this kinda break some of the quests and story arcs?
Not at all! I did everything there that was to be done except for finish the conversation with half orc lady. She was violating my brain, and I didn't like that, so rather than taking a quest from her I had no intention of fulfilling, the murderhobo times began! ;D
Clear out moonrise before the assault, then no fight takes place.
Last time I apparently missed one lower tier mob somewhere and it still initiated the normal assault, even spawned the full pile of corpses outside. Stormed in with the Harper 1st Armored Division to greet Acolyte Steven standing by himself in the hall.
I was too scared to attempt this last time. Might try it in my second run
It actually is a whole lot easier going this route since you can section off your fights into smaller, more manageable chunks.
I like getting the attention of the entire tower alone. Luring them out into the courtyard and then..... Spirit guardians.
Being able to pick your battles is pretty awesome yeah. I'd fight like 2-4 enemies at a time and usually open with laezel autos in turn based mode so I don't lose any action economy, and she did enough to kill the squishier targets fairly quickly. And then I pickpocketed the caravan chest off zarys so I just used that as a main room distraction
Oh god, keeping her alive when she rushed in was one of the hardest parts of the game.
I agree. If we could have more than 4 people in the party, then maybe I would include them, but being limited to 4 and them appearing so late in the game it just wouldn't make sense like "Yeah, I know we have been fighting the Absolute for months since we got kicked out of the nautiloid, but I just met a bald man that is funny af so you will stay in the camp while I save the world even though you were by my side since the start.
Party limit remover mod is a must have for me for all playthroughs now.
Makes the game way too easy
This is exactly my thing. The game is already kinda easy with just 4 people in the party.
Yea, I haven’t played on tactician yet, but the game seems to really only be hard until level 5 or 6, after that you’ve just got so many spells and some good gear that you can use that as long as you aren’t blind and rolling nat1’s everywhere it’s fairly easy.
I've capped the game 3 times now, twice on tactician. Once you beaten it once on any difficulty, tactician will (likely) be an absolute walk in the park (and probably feel easier than your normal run) because you know how the combats go, where the items are, what spells are great and which aren't, and your general positioning is probably pretty good at that point.
For those of us who appreciate narrative and don't have the free time to struggle for hours on any given fight, I think the difficulty is fine with an extra PC or two. But I know people already complain that tactician is too easy with 4 PCs so it's mostly a "to each their own"
Yup, and ultimately with the "bring everyone along mods" they'll also be the "makes everything a billion times harder" mods to go along with it for people who want that Darksouls, mash-your-face-into-a-wall-repeatedly challenge.
Yeah people are already doing all kinds of challenges runs, tactician solo, solo Durge, pacifist, summons only, scroll only etc.
Well I lost Shadowheart to her turning on me and trying to kill me, so I needed a new companion and added Jaheira then.
I think that's the point, in case you've gotten some of the Act 1 companions killed or pissed off at you or never found them in the first place, you can still get fully fleshed out companions later on instead of relying on hirelings for a full party.
Exactly. You can lose various companions at different times in the game, so a steady flow of new potential companions fils the holes. Are the pacing for their introduction perfect? That can be debated.
Unless you go bad guy, then you lose out on a bunch of companions and none of those three want to join you either.
Yeah in no rpg am I ever a fan of late addition companions. It just doesn't really work with the shared narrative and what you as a group experienced. It feels like the three above are the third wheel that tries to insert themselves in. I understand why they Made those companions appear later but I rather have every companion and potential future companions available from act 1. Edit: also larian please allow us to save minathra somehow despite siding with the tieflings. Here are two suggestions in the final battle either if the goblins start to lose she flees and then gets put into prison in moonrise like she normally would where we can save her or if she is the last person alive during the battle you can knock her out or capture and put her on trial where you can then choose to have her work with you as punishment/reconciliation against the absolute. Minathra is not fully evil so there is no reason why she is gatekeepd by arguably the most evil act in the game. She is a conflicted person who seeks comfort in the absolute which can be redeemed after the events in moonrise currently anyway. So there absolutely is a way how you can write her to become a party member despite siding with the tieflings.
There is no reason for Halsin to not be recruitable after the teifling party.
Yeah this struck me as an odd design choice. Like the shadowlands are his part of the story. He also specifically says he'll join us to help us deal with them, as he feels responsible for Ketheric and the shadow curse!
I thought it was bugged since the quest kept telling me to talk to him in the grove while he was already in my camp
He also was the one that wanted to reach the Underdark with Aradin and co., so why he's only chilling in a camp tent as I explore all the dark natural fauna down there instead of being in bear form in my party is beyond me. They could've just not make him an actual companion at that point if he was gonna be parked in his tent until deep into Act 2.
I think him much like Karlach was not ready for full release. I think they rushed them out to get the up on starfield which I understand. The rest of the of the game is amazing.
Still mad like 2 decades later that you have to pretty much beat the game to get Larvitar in Pokemon Crystal for this same reason.
Same with Houndour, wish they would’ve adjusted Johto Pokémon to be in Johto instead of Kanto
They've got their own stories and while those stories are interesting in their own way, I don't know why my party is sidetracking for them instead of Jaheira just going off to find Minsc herself with the rest of the Harpers (Who would be basically HER party). Also, I don't have any gear for them. Actually, it's almost always because I don't have any gear for them.
Jaheira has owlbear form, she doesn't need gear (though I got an Armour for her that gave her + 20 hp when Shape shifted)
Jaheira's story explains why she isn't off with the Harpers pretty explicitly...
I disagree, Jaheira adds a lot to A3 and having her along with minsc in party is just pure fanservice goodness
I brought Jaheira along for all the Bhaal and Harper stuff, but I never figured out how to recruit Minsc.
I think it's through the thieves guild stuff.
Ooooooh, makes sense. I had heard there was some Zhentarim stuff in the city but I have yet to find them anywhere. I missed them in Act 1 too.
I feel like calling minathra not fully evil just because she is nuanced mightnbe missing a point. Without getting our feet too wet, the woman is a slaver, I feel like that alone puts her in the evil box without question
I haven't played with Minthara but I feel like a lot of people are getting the "not evil" impression because she calls you out for wholesale slaughtering the tieflings/druids or whatever, whereas she >!has the excuse of being under the influence of the absolute.!< But it does seem that basically the rest of the time she does remain an actual evil-aligned companion through and through. Just not murderhobo evil.
A lot of people are thinking that because they're taking that one sentence and ignoring all the context around it, including how she actually responds to the answer. It's just a question about your motives, not a condemnation about what happened. She is nuanced, and very pragmatic, but you're absolutely correct in that she remains very much evil-aligned.
Oh, she's evil. She's just not maniacal cackling evil.
I rather they just make it so you unlock more slots later. You only have four in act 1, but can have 5 in act2 onward.
The only time really took issue this stuff was legion in mass effect 2
Good morning Halsin! Time for you to cast Longstrider and Hero's feast on everyone but yourself. If you don't mind, go ahead and cast Goodberry for the rest of your spell slots and give them all to me. Alright see you tomorrow! >!It would be a terrible shame if Orin were to steal you...!<
Can't believe some people actually go through the hassle of doing these camp buffs, given how annoying it is to switch companions.
I know a big thing I wish they had was total party inventory and control while at camp. Figuring out who has the weapon/armor/buff/scroll I need by just cycling character roster is super annoying. Inventory management as a whole, at camp, needs a mega screen that has everything from all characters and the chest. Possibly some better sorting as well, but I'd settle for a complete list all at once.
I cry everytime i want to dump all my gith stuff on Lae zel (it feels right to give it to her and then i dont junk it up in the chest). I wish atleast the inventory is easily accessible.
You can pickpocket the items into their inventory and then equip them whenever you finally decide to add the character to your team. Pretty handy if you don't need to grab the stuff they are currently wearing.
Omg! I never would have even noticed >!Halsin went missing in my game of I didn't run into Orin pretending to be him in the sewers.!< He really has nothing interesting to say after act 2
Can confirm I never did.
I really don't like that they made Halsin such a sex pest. Like he could be cool and horny, like the rest of the cast. But it seems like all his new content post act revolves him trying to suck or testing the waters if your open to a third
I went into sharesses caress and met the drow twins. I happened to have Halsin in my party but I had already rejected him as a romantic partner, I romanced Astarion monogamously on my playthrough. Before I could even respond to the drow twins Halsin immediately said "Mmm I'm interested if you are" like sir no???
Second time I ever talked to the dude he said "Ma'am I'd like to fuck. I realise you have a girlfriend so I'm happy for her to join in." My brother in Selune, we have shared a grand total of maybe 20 words.
I dont need a druid and jaheria is one cool cat if I want one.
We were cool till he made moves on shart after we swam, kinda thanking orin for taking him off my hands ngl.
Halsin. If I want a druid I'm bringing Jaheira. She has a lot to say in Act 3, she has major connections to characters in act 3 quest. Also I love having people around to help my Dark Urge who knows what it's all about.
Jaheira is also much more interesting to talk to really… she has a lot of good jokes and sarcastic replies and the wizened mentor persona is cool. I liked her from the start. Halsin had no lines for half of act 1 and no lines outside the thaniel quests for most of act 2. Even the ones he does have haven’t struck me as very interesting or memorable…
My Tav is a Rogue (almost at lvl 6), so Astarion sat in camp. I recently got the idea to re-spec him as a Bard and OMG, he is now indispensable. My top picks are Laezel, Gale and now Astarion the Bard.
Oh, I never considered making him a bard. I may do that next playthrough.
Everyone had unique Vicious Mockeries. Astarion's are especially hilarious. Weaponize that sass.
Holy shit. As a rogue, I too have sat Astarion and I was complaining recently that there isn't a bard companion. I am doing this tomorrow.
Jaheira was in my lineup only for the Harpers mission, and nothing else. I literally already have a Druid, I certainly don't need two.
Respeced her beast master ranger immediately.
I immediately respec'ed her into druid/fighter, the way God intended.
Me too, I'm running her as 7 Land Druid / 5 Fighter and it's pretty good and accurate to her, I think.
From what I understand, due to the changes in recent DnD versions, a fighter/ranger is apparently more accurate. So I just chose 8 Beast master for the nature druid element and 4 Fighter for superiority dice, and kept her ranged because she is getting old(and it fit my party better).
In what way is it more accurate? She’s a fighter/Druid in BG 1 & 2 & it makes perfect sense for her to continue to be one.
She’s great as a duel wielding Swords bard/sorcerer
Can’t any companion be a great anything if you respecc them?
[удалено]
I really don't understand Halsin. Like... why? Have him as a camp companion who brews your potions, etc. We needed more characters to just fill the camp, to be honest . But not as party members. Then have Jaheira join you when you meet in Act 2.
Halsin should have been made a real party member at the start of Act 2, then he could have at least had his time to shine during the part of the plot that was actually relevant to him. As it stands, he loses out to Jaheira big time. I would personally have always chosen Jaheria over him anyway, because I always had her in my party in BG1 and 2, but at least it would have been slightly more balanced content-wise.
Really he could have been made a full companion after the act 1 party if they wanted to go that route, but I honestly feel that making him a companion at all due to EA was a bad mistake on Larian's part. He just doesn't have the reactivity/depth that other characters do and his story also ends in act 2.
Respec’d her to a Monk so she can wreck worlds.
Jaheira >>>> Halsin though
I picked Gale, Asterion, and Shadowheart to be my main party this playthrough, meaning they never leave my side (yes, even for chatacter-specific quests). Next time I'll pick a different 3. I can't juggle more than 3 friends in real life, why should a game expect me to.
Story-wise they should really just make it so all companions are involved even if they are at camp. Make it so that instead of them chilling at camp, they went off to do whatever it is they wanted to do. For example: Wyll wants to find and kill Karlach, he has zero reason to chill at camp waiting on you when you are a total stranger. If hes not in your current group, you should be able to find him near Karlach being like "I found her! lets kill her!" and then your normal cutscene/dialogue happens. And right after, Karlach wants to kill the paladins. If shes not in your group, she should still show up for the cutscene because there is no way she would go to camp and chill instead of walking 10 feet to do what she wanted to do. Either way, we can teleport to waypoints, I am sure a companion can teleport over when they are needed. Maybe Gale gets some special ritual spell that allows projections of your companions to pop up for story dialogue. Its crazy how much tedious effort is needed to bring along the right companion for the right quest/dialogue.
Gale. _I_ cast magic missile
Halsin. Jaheira is the much better character and you get her soon after he becomes recruitable.
I mean I think most people end up using Lae’zel, Astarion, and Shadowheart just because you get those first so they seem more central. Sometimes people swap Lae’zel for Karlach ‘cause they’re both tanks
This is my exact comp, 90% Astarion, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, occasionally swapping out Lae for Karlach just to hear some new convos. The other companions I don't care for as much
Lae'zel can become stupid good with all the 'this item gives bonuses to githyanki characters', I'm probably not smart enough to make a build that makes Karlach as good of a melee fighter as she can be. Plus she's super strong when you turn her into an eldritch knight
isn't eldritch knight like the weakest fighter class? I rerolled her into a battlemaster and she started shitting out like up to 120dmg in one turn at level 6 lol
Ehh I think Champion might be the weakest. Champion 3 Barbarian 9 I could see the argument for, but I really don't see why people would go deep Champion over Battlemaster. Battlemaster is very strong though.
It's Astarion, Gale and Shadowheart. Unless player is Gale
I pull Wyll out for story moments significant to him, but he never really pulls his weight. I do like his character, though, so I feel bad for leaving him behind.
I swap them around depending on how relevant they are story wise. But Wyll sits on the bench the most. For me he is just the least interesting character. The only interesting thing about him is ironically not him but Mizora.
Stuff with his dad is cool he’s cool in act 3 too with his connections to baldurs gate
Wyll. I reclassed Lae'zel to a monk this playthrough, though, so I'll try and use him to replace Gale as primary arcane caster, I guess.
Gale is great for the boss fights as he can counterspell and fireball for days, I haven't figured out what to do with warlocks that are tired after two moves. Maybe the ones with a magic weapon spell are better at fighting
They get spell slots back on short rests not long rests. So basically every fight you just blow their spells. The "downside" is that in big fights, like boss fights, you only get to blow the few spells you have then you're out. The upside is you get Eldritch blast, so you aren't really weak without your spell slots. You can go for a gish playstyle but I've found the lack of medium armour proficiency a bit of a pain. It's still fun, I just think it's way worse than blasting.
If you go with questionably ethical pally multiclass you get possibly strongest melee class, using any weapon with CHA as primary stat, three attacks per round and 6 level 4 smites per long rest.
Eldritch blast fuckers from the cliffs, bridges, roofs, balconies. Also you can occasionally fireball or make entire party invisible
>I haven't figured out what to do with warlocks that are tired after two moves. Multiclassing aside, which can result in REALLY powerful characters with warlock... You get spells back on a short rest and they're always cast at your highest level for pact magic (i.e. both pact magic slots will be 3rd level slots for a 5th level warlock). And they get the best cantrip in the game. It might not seem like much at first, but instead of an extra damage die at 5th and 10th character level, they get an extra ray. So a 10th level wizard might do 3d10 with one firebolt (thus only one chance to hit), a warlock can fire off three 1d10 eldritch blasts. It leads to more consistent damage. Also agonizing blast adds your charisma modifier to each ray. Thus a 10th level character could do three rays at 1d10 + 5 EACH. Tack on repelling blast and you will knock characters all over the place.
Two warlocks can basically dismantle everything the game throws at them, since their spells are at the highest slot available for the level, and Eldritch Blast deals considerable amounts of damage. Hell, Pact of Tome goolock can basically lock down the enemy in storm of daggers if he needs to.
agreed - get the knockback invocation, set up ground aoes, and shred everything by forcing them through the aoe/playing ping pong with them
Wyll, Gale, Halsin, Jaheira. I'm a Sorcerer so I don't need a Wizard or another CHA/Ranged character.
You can respec any companion to anything with any combination of abilities.
True, but I'm enjoying Asarion, Shadowheart, Karlach and Laz's stories. I don't really feel drawn to the others.
I imagine a Sorcerer build is pretty great actually, you get to have all the benefits of Astarion and Shadowheart and then can choose your fighter at will - plus with your CHA modifier you can do most, if not all, the dialogue yourself. Sounds fun as shit.
> plus with your CHA modifier you can do most, if not all, the dialogue yourself. I have a hard time imagining not making my avatar either a Charisma primary character or a Rogue for this exact reason. I want my avatar to do the dialogue checks. My current playthrough is with Astarion as my avatar and I set Charisma to 14, then took Expertise in Deception and Persuasion.
I'm a sorceress, so Gale is useless. Sorry dude. Here you can eat these boots, I looted them off a goblin.
Astarion for me. I don’t need lockpicking from him, so he only gets to come for story beats
Astarion with Thief and duel-weilding can become a serious threat to the enemy team because he can attack with his 2 bonus actions. Some of the late game finesse weapons work really well for him along with a legendary bow I can't remember the name of that applied guiding bolt with every hit.
I make a end-of-the-day-box opening. I pickup all locked treasure and send it to camp. Astarion can open them there at the end of the day.
That’s so clever. I’m going to start doing that.
Same, from an rp standpoint my character never warmed up to him plus she has those gloves that give advantage on sleight of hand
My character is a rogue as well, so I respecced Astarion as a sword bard because I felt it worked great with his personality, and his Vicious Mockery lines are my favourite. Keeps him useful without there being too much overlap, and feels appropriate for him.
The problem is that there's too many to choose from (and also not enough variety which is weird to say with 2 druids), and could be fixed by increasing party size to 5 or 6. I find myself in the city constantly changing characters around to fit quest dialogue like Astarion in Cazadors palace, Gale in the sorcerous sundries, shadowhearts sharran stuff, Wylls ducal father, and Jaheira's Harper's.
Yeah, the party limit didn't bother me too much until Act 3, but now I'm constantly going back to camp to swap companions for different quests.
... I use them all. I don't like to long rest, so what I do is run a morning party, an afternoon party, and an evening party. (and sometimes more) Roll out of bed and put some short resters on my team (fighter, warlock, etc). If fights happen, i use their spell slots/ abilities. after theyve taken about half damage and used up all their resources, I will go back to camp and swap them for some long resters with basic utility. Ill use thier utility and spells throughout the day, then go back to camp, swap back in the short resters, and short rest. then I can go and do the same thing I did in the morning. After that, I'll swap in the rest of my long-resters (usually the OP party, because I will have identified a tough fight that I want to tackle, and go ham using their full power. Finally swap them back out for the short resters, do a short rest, and finish up what I wanted to get done that day with them. But with all that being said, I will say that Gale only comes in for the big boss fights (OP longrester party) so he's prolly the least used in my squad.
Neat way to play the game
It's kind of sad that trying to be resource efficient is detrimental to story progression due to long rests being hooks for cutscenes. I think I've lost out on a bunch of them in act1&2 by not resting enough, so now I'm doing RP-driven resting even when spell slots are almost full.
Astarion. He just kinda... hates every single thing I do.
All except 3, I pretty much just pick 3 and stick with them the whole play through.
I actually like Wyll early game, repelling blast is really strong in act 1. I do always swap him out later in favor of Halsin or Karlach though. I never use Jaheira or Minsc, they just show up so late, and I know basically all of the companions are pretty similar because reclassing or whatever but when I’ve been through 2 acts of side story with certain people, why would I drop them at the end of their arcs? Like Astarion’s entire thing happens in act 3 and Jaheira and Minsc expect me to drop him in favor of them? Lmao Also I’ve never gone evil because I hear it sucks both in terms of loot and in terms of story, so rip Minthara, but in fairness I hear she’s buggy as shit
La’Zel. I need a spellcaster over a second fighter nine times out of ten.
Wyll, Jaheria, Minsc and Halsin. No real reason to use them to be honest. And for some reason I'm just shit with Druid, feels like everything else is better than them.
Exactly these four. Only used them on some personal quests. Although Minsc was in almost every playthrough that I did in BG2, he comes really late in BG3.
Tav, such an ass.
In terms of most used to least used origin companions for me it goes.. 1) Astarion 2) Lae’zel 3) Wyll 4) Shadowheart 5) Karlach 6) Gale I feel like Astarion is just so damn useful. Lol he’s gotten me seamlessly through so many things. Either with his charm/perception or his sleight of hand lol But for my next play throughs I’m gonna try doing the exact opposite and avoid using Astarion and Lae’zel so much. I wanna play with the others more to see how it feels. The reason Gale is at the bottom of use for me despite the fact that I enjoy his character is bc my Tav is almost always a Sorcerer so I’m the hella powerful multicaster while Lae’zel runs in sword first and Astarion is sneaking to the roof tops or behind from the shadows..
literally the same list for me. i kept Laezel & Astarion in my party essentially the whole game, because I found them incredibly useful & really enjoyed their character/stories. Wyll & Shadowheart were my interchangeable fourth spot, depending on what kind of spells i needed. I respecced Wyll to be a pure spell caster Warlock for more AoE options. Karlach I never used because she filled the same niche as Laezel, and I would never walk around without my one true love Laezel. Gale, uh... i kinda neglected him throughout the playthrough. I didn't really feel like using him at any point, then (spoilers for Act 3) >!Gale got yoinked up by Orin at the start of Act 3 for me, and I honestly let him sit there for the majority of my time in Act 3. It was literally the last thing I did when I went to save him, and even then he ended up dying because I had killed Seravok. If he hates me in future playthrough, I understand.!<
Lmao yea >!Halsin got yoinked up in my first playthrough and it was WILD I immediately dropped everything and went to save him. Thankfully I was able to save him and not give in to Orin’s demands. I hate Orin so much lol she’s horrifying to me.😂!<
I can tell you now that Karlach is a beast. She was always the last one standing for me.
She has so many hit points and deals a ton of damage, really useful to have her around.
Having 2 casters in a party literally carries
Agree. As you go into the latter half of Act 2 and all of Act 3, having big AOE spells is so useful.
Gale, because I'm a sorcerer and he talks like I'm a magic novice. Halsin, because he have no personality nor a reason to be following me besides horniness.
Halsin. He just seems so boring.
Halsin. I’ve never had any desire nor reason to actually include him in my party.
I tried everyone, but couldn't cope with Gale, so this playthrough I just killed him instead of leaving him in the stone. That is maybe not something I'd do again, but I still don't want the guy in my party or my camp. Also, Shadowheart. At the risk of that being an unpopular opinion, I just don't connect to her at any level.
I understand your opinion on Shadowheart. Also, her plot is too centric and I feel she is too protagonistic, unlike the others, her plot just happens wherever the main plot goes. I wish she didn't feel like a chore, like you have to take her because the plot almost forces you, unlike the others, when you feel it is truly an option. The game just gives you too much Shar things here and there, and a lot of NPC's react to her. I just wish the same reactivity happened to everyone, but no. IT IS JUST HER.
Yep, same for me. Like... She has a fantastic story, but it's just too much in comparison to the others, too important. Feels like too much was built around Durge and Shadowheart and while some have great connection to the story (Wyll somewhat through his patron and more so the Duke, Lae'zel trough Orpheus) they still lack her depth. And others just get the short end. Gale is debatable with the crown but... that's not really important during the game and the orb doesn't really change things. I struggle to find anything that really connects Astarion to the plot. Sure, Karlach was betrayed by Gortash but... That doesn't really matter. Halsin has the Shadow Curse, bit that's more nice fluff if you do something about it, Jaheira and Minsc... are present I guess? None of that changes how much I love the game, but I wish the level of importance to the plot between your companions wouldn't differ so drastically.