Daly

Yeah that's a fair point. I wouldn't suggest having every character chip in to every conversation. I'd just suggest having them chip in where they've something unique to add to a situation. In a situation where there ends up being lots of options, well that's ok imho. It's a benefit of a diverse party. If you're a party leader you're going to know what your team can do. In the middle of a conversation your mage might lean in and whisper a suggestion in your ear or you may turn to your fighters and say 'go beat it out of this guy'. Maybe a neat modification could be if there were multiple folks in your party with similar skills maybe instead of listing them all next to each character you could have them act together for a little boost to your roll. Like an intimidate act with three fighters in your part would be more effective than one. Ultimately I would like to see what options are available to me without doing something 'gamey' like clicking all my characters or restarting conversations with different folks. If there are lots of options so be it, you can still only select one.

Your dialogue options should reflect the input from everyone in the party who has something to offer. All on one screen, without having to click through all your companions. Maybe there could be some sort of range calculation, so companions all the way across the map aren't included. The main conversation options should always be from the point of veiw of the PC. This would let you roleplay a dumb character who doesn't allow party input. You'd still see the party input options but wouldn't select them. If your PC is unavailable or too far away it should be from the perspective of the party member that initiated the conversation - Having conversation proximity would allow you to roleplay a companion knowingly approach an NPC behind your PCs back. (Which might make a dumb character playthough more fun) Like this: Conversation Option 1 Conversation Option 2 [Companion Name] Char specific conversation option [Companion Name 2] Char specific class action This way you'd be able to reliably see what value a smart but less combat savvy party member was bringing to the group. Think anlong the lines of a talky bard with low strength. It'd give a natural flow to the conversations too by having companions apparently join the converation as they saw fit without you clicking around to see what options people had. If any conversation options were really actions (like intimidate or lie) that were valid for multiple party members then they would each be listed by character so any racial or stat bonuses could be accounted for that action. This would also accomodate companions butting in by themselves.