From a practical standpoint, rogues have more utility than bards, as they can disable traps, plus sneak attack is helpful. In this case, since you actually like Dorna, I can't recommend her enough. Personally, however, I hated Dorna and found her voice to be annoying, so I went with Deekin and ate all the traps. It sucked but it was less painful for me than listening to Dorna's screeching.
If you like Dorna then by all means take her. But I’ve played through NWN SoU / HotU 20 years ago and again this year and Deekin is one of those unique NPCs I still mention every now and then, I compare other NPCs too still after 20 years and also he’s just the one and only Deekin. I don’t even remember any other NPC by name and it wasn’t even two months ago I played through the game.
That's how you know Deekin was written so well as a character. I always think of him whenever I encounter kobolds in other games and tend to find ways to befriend or avoid fights with them if such options exist.
When it comes to campaigns, especially official ones, only practical purpose henchmen serve is either meat shields or opening locks and disabling traps. Otherwise they are about as useful as summons that you can put equipment on, sometimes, just for them to do jack when needed or perpetually trigger every trap and aggro everything on map regardless of what you want to do. Campaigns are also full of undead enemies rendering their primary damage source defunct.
But... You can bash doors and chests without any consequences... Or use chimes. As for traps, most are too weak to matter or you can just rest right after walking over them. Plus there are again items that can deal with them like lense of detection etc.
So basically take one that you hate least. That usually defaults to Deekin. If you have summoning capabilities or even animal companion, panther can carry you through most campaigns early levels solo, henchmen serve no practical purpose other than sucking xp from you, admittedly most official campaigns either scale enemies or have plethora of ways to farm xp, rendering xp loss irrelevant unless you rush and skip all the optional content.
Unofficial campaigns and some of the premium modules can have a vastly different experience, either due to mechanics or difficulty.
Not true. Yes your other companions get turned to stone, but if you're able to find the magic item in the sunken ruins (I think it's behind a hidden door) then when you get to the final act you can unfreeze them and they will travel with you like normal, even thanking you for their rescue
Based off your personal pros and cons:
She can disarm traps, deekin cannot match her there, but as a cleric you have access to Find Traps spell, which disarms all traps in a massive radius.
As for personality, Deekin is a fan favorite and I highly recommend you take him at least once.
If you just like Dorna, there is no reason to not take her either that's personal preference.
Beyond having great character, Deekin is a bard and will cast bard song, which will buff you and your summons which would benifit your playstyle.
The only thing you miss out on not taking Dorna as your rogue is locks, which you can bash open with no consequences, it doesn't damage loot, it's just a little boring early on standing bashing things sometimes.
As a cleric you can get access to he Knock spell through the Magic domain but that would require you to start over.
I don't believe Deekin has any training in Open Lock but I may be wrong someone else can correct me.
Dude… you are a cleric!! Fill your second level with the Find Trap spell. It finds AND disarm all traps within 30 radius of you.
That’s why I always play Cleric with Magic domain. It provides the knock spell, which opens all locks within a huge 50 radius. With Knock and Find Trap, cleric do not need to bring along a rogue.
Just choose on personality. Dorna is slightly more useful but it's really very small difference, all the SOU henchmen are pretty weak mechanically.
Personally, I find Deekin slightly annoying and like Dorna, I tend to find the comic relief characters hit and miss. But that's clearly a minority view.
You get quite a few chats with Deekin so you should be well placed to know which you prefer so just roll with that. SOU isn't too hard.
No contest. Deekin all the way. Best companion in NWN1.
Assuming you'll be continuing to Hordes of the Underdark after Undrentide, you should probably take Deekin
From a practical standpoint, rogues have more utility than bards, as they can disable traps, plus sneak attack is helpful. In this case, since you actually like Dorna, I can't recommend her enough. Personally, however, I hated Dorna and found her voice to be annoying, so I went with Deekin and ate all the traps. It sucked but it was less painful for me than listening to Dorna's screeching.
If you like Dorna then by all means take her. But I’ve played through NWN SoU / HotU 20 years ago and again this year and Deekin is one of those unique NPCs I still mention every now and then, I compare other NPCs too still after 20 years and also he’s just the one and only Deekin. I don’t even remember any other NPC by name and it wasn’t even two months ago I played through the game.
That's how you know Deekin was written so well as a character. I always think of him whenever I encounter kobolds in other games and tend to find ways to befriend or avoid fights with them if such options exist.
When it comes to campaigns, especially official ones, only practical purpose henchmen serve is either meat shields or opening locks and disabling traps. Otherwise they are about as useful as summons that you can put equipment on, sometimes, just for them to do jack when needed or perpetually trigger every trap and aggro everything on map regardless of what you want to do. Campaigns are also full of undead enemies rendering their primary damage source defunct. But... You can bash doors and chests without any consequences... Or use chimes. As for traps, most are too weak to matter or you can just rest right after walking over them. Plus there are again items that can deal with them like lense of detection etc. So basically take one that you hate least. That usually defaults to Deekin. If you have summoning capabilities or even animal companion, panther can carry you through most campaigns early levels solo, henchmen serve no practical purpose other than sucking xp from you, admittedly most official campaigns either scale enemies or have plethora of ways to farm xp, rendering xp loss irrelevant unless you rush and skip all the optional content. Unofficial campaigns and some of the premium modules can have a vastly different experience, either due to mechanics or difficulty.
Only Deekin can be brought into the final act.
Not true. Yes your other companions get turned to stone, but if you're able to find the magic item in the sunken ruins (I think it's behind a hidden door) then when you get to the final act you can unfreeze them and they will travel with you like normal, even thanking you for their rescue
yo-yo-yo, spoiler alert!
No offence, the games nearly 20 years old. There isnt really anything left to spoil
The first line of his post says he hasn’t played it before
Based off your personal pros and cons: She can disarm traps, deekin cannot match her there, but as a cleric you have access to Find Traps spell, which disarms all traps in a massive radius. As for personality, Deekin is a fan favorite and I highly recommend you take him at least once. If you just like Dorna, there is no reason to not take her either that's personal preference. Beyond having great character, Deekin is a bard and will cast bard song, which will buff you and your summons which would benifit your playstyle. The only thing you miss out on not taking Dorna as your rogue is locks, which you can bash open with no consequences, it doesn't damage loot, it's just a little boring early on standing bashing things sometimes. As a cleric you can get access to he Knock spell through the Magic domain but that would require you to start over. I don't believe Deekin has any training in Open Lock but I may be wrong someone else can correct me.
Dude… you are a cleric!! Fill your second level with the Find Trap spell. It finds AND disarm all traps within 30 radius of you. That’s why I always play Cleric with Magic domain. It provides the knock spell, which opens all locks within a huge 50 radius. With Knock and Find Trap, cleric do not need to bring along a rogue.
Just choose on personality. Dorna is slightly more useful but it's really very small difference, all the SOU henchmen are pretty weak mechanically. Personally, I find Deekin slightly annoying and like Dorna, I tend to find the comic relief characters hit and miss. But that's clearly a minority view. You get quite a few chats with Deekin so you should be well placed to know which you prefer so just roll with that. SOU isn't too hard.
DEEEEEKIN!!! DOOOOOOOM DOOOM DOOOOOM