Traveling with Grieving Mother - is it important?

[SparocheeDoom]

So far Grieving Mother was only useful in saving that girl in Dyrford Village, but given my gamestyle, her skills are not helping much. I'd rather use the dwarf archer with her wolf, but I do not want to miss out on important parts where having Grieving Mother in my party makes a big difference. 

[Crucis]

Monarch, no, you won't miss out on any quests that I recall.  Her personal "quest" is nothing but a long string of conversations with her to help her past her personal issues.

 

As a combatant, GM as a cipher is more than effective enough to replace Aloth and not gimp the party noticeably.   Indeed, a cipher can be a nice change of pace from a wizard in a party, plus given the way that ciphers get their spells, you can be more aggressive in your use of those "spells" than you could with a wizard.

 

But if you're jonesing for Sagani and Itumakk, go for it.  Sagani can be a very effective character in her own right.

[Achilles]

She's extremely helpful for producing a good outcome with Aelys in Dyrford Ruins. She's also convenient to have around at one point in Eder's side quest. Other than that...

[Tigranes]

Everybody has only one quest. GM's one, like Durance's, is just talking. So if you're not interested in that you can leave her out. 

[Crucis]

Everybody has only one quest. GM's one, like Durance's, is just talking. So if you're not interested in that you can leave her out. 

 

I find GM's personal quest a little annoying.  On one hand, I sympathize with her personal problem.  And yet OTOH, as a player, I sorta feel like I didn't sign up to play psychiatrist to some of my Companions.  At least with Kana's personal quest, it's entirely action oriented.  Just have him along as you do a good chunk of the Endless Paths dungeon until you reach a certain point, and he's good.  I have to admit that I long for more of the personal quests being closer to the Kana style than the GM and Durance style. 

 

 

And speaking of personal quests, it bothers me slightly that once you've completed Sagani's quest that she doesn't want to leave to head home right away.  After all, she's been away from her home and family for FIVE YEARS.  You'd think that the first thing on her mind would be to leave.  Or at the very least, there might be a dialog option where she wants to go home but if you ask it of her, she'll stay with your party until the end.  But the one option I really have a hard time seeing her accept is to go back to the stronghold and hang out.   It seems to me that there should only be two options for her after completing the quest.  Stay in the party or go home.

[SparocheeDoom]

Cool, I did hear about Eder's quest and GM's role in it. It had something to do with killing ALL the Ciphers in the game to let Eder survive? I NEED Eder, he's the only true tank in my party, I can't let him die!  I also completed the quest about Aelys, which is why I don't feel like keeping GM around. 

 

I guess we all have our ways of playing, I play as a wizard and I also have Aloth, without which I could not go on. When things get heated up and I am willing to lose some party members in combat (not completely though!), I do 3 sets of fireballs from both - my character and Aloth. It USUALLY takes care of things...

 

Its also why I need Sagani - she's a semi-tank. Unless you play as a fighter, this game SERIOUSLY lacks true tank NPC's that can join your party. In most games, I have at least 2 tanks, 2 mages, and one healer, a perfect party!

[Micamo]

At one point in Eder's quest, you need to take an item that you find to a Cipher and have them perform a reading on it to finish the quest. Either you can do it (if you're a cipher yourself), you can have GM do it, or you can have some other NPC do it (probably Kellen from Dynryd Row but I never needed to do that). And even if you don't do his quest, Eder won't die for any reason other than because he died in a fight just like any of the companions can. All it changes is the ending slide he gets.

 

(Also, if you're a Cipher you can help Aelys yourself instead of having GM do it.)