bek

well we obviously mean doors and chests. in BG you would get into a room full of barrels, crates, chests and so on and you had to slowly sweep the screen with the mouse to see which of them you could use or not. in BG 2 you pressed tab ad you could see that from the 50 barrels, 20 crates and 8 chests, only 3, 4 and 5 were of any use and the rest were decorations. traps, hidden doors and the like you had to spot first and then they would highlight Right--I just meant finding more stuff with a seach/spot ability. So a low search might only yield 3 lootable items, while a higher search would yield those 3 plus some smaller/hidden things you might not notice otherwise.

I think it'd be fun to use a search/spot ability too. Tab would highlight the obvious things like doors and chests but a high search/spot ability would show small compartments and hidden doors. Maybe the same ability as detecting traps?

I prefer #3, but maybe the player can choose in-game how to deal with unused/new companions. So say you want to recruit a companion significantly lower level than you are, you are presented with a dialogue option that says something like “I have no use for your skills right now, but let me show you a thing or two…” which raises the level of the companion within one or two of your own. And if you want to welcome the companion as-is, you have a dialogue option for that as well.