AgentTBC

Do we really need threads like this? Mostly they just serve to reveal bigotry and cause flamewars.

They were okay but no levitating talking skull.

Close enough. It's not a remotely balanced distribution which is what you should expect from companions.

Putting 17+ might and Int, 15+ dex on casters is min-maxxing. It just is. It's the very definition of min-maxxing! Which is absolutely fine for characters you build but isn't reasonable to expect from the companions.

I do think Grieving Mother could use some tweaking unless there is a very good reason story-wise why she is so... nothing. I'm not sure what her role is supposed to be ability-wise.

Yeah, you change one insipid joke and all of a sudden you've got Black Helicopters and FEMA camps. Come on guys, this is a non-issue.

If you're waiting for it to be retroactive I think you're out of luck. The companion attribute changes will likely stay non-retroactive I think.

Aloth: Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 12 10 11 16 16 13 to Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 12 10 15 12 16 13 Eder: Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 16 - 16 - 11 - 10 - 13 - 12 to Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 16 - 16 - 11 - 12 - 10 - 13 Durance: Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 14 - 15 -- 9 -- 9 - 13 - 19 to Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 14 - 13 -- 9 -- 9 - 15 - 19

I'm glad they changed it if only to annoy the kind of people who get annoyed at them changing it. There was no reason not to change the thing and anyone who gets mad at the change needs to re-evaluate their priorities.

Those changes look good. Hiravias gains some more duration on his spells which is great and Sagani gets a bit more damage, duration, and interrupt. Pellegrino's change makes no difference whatsoever but makes sense from an RP perspective. If Grieving Mother really didn't change at all then she's still crap. Maybe she's supposed to be crap RP-wise? I didn't play enough to find out before the patch since I was waiting for the bug fixes and kept starting over to try different classes. I think all of the changes are good and welcome with the possible exception of Grieving Mother's lack of non-crapitude. But since I settled on my first playthrough being a cipher that's okay.

I know somebody else posted Durance but since I'm posting them all as I pick them up, I will confirm. Durance - Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 14 - 15 -- 9 -- 9 - 13 - 19 to Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 14 - 13 -- 9 -- 9 - 15 - 19

edit: This is to Luckmann You're all over the place; Eder losing a couple points of intellect because a couple of his fighter abilities lose duration is breaking the character and a travesty but Durance gaining a couple points of intellect which increases the duration of basically every spell he has is breaking the character and a travesty. I'm not sure you're looking at this fairly.

I agree that if Eder was to be a pure tank he would have been better off losing Might or Con. But it's obvious that Obsidian intended the companions to be jack of all trades types, maybe with a focus on one area but not exclusively. Which is what they did with Eder. He's a bit better as a tank than he was by gaining some deflection but he still has the might to do a bit of damage if you prefer. I don't think losing a couple tenths of a second on knockdowns is a big change. And I think Aloth's change was quite good.

I'll update with the other dudes in a new playthrough as I pick them up. I'm going for Durance now.

Eder: from - Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 16 - 16 - 11 - 10 - 13 - 12 to Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 16 - 16 - 11 - 12 - 10 - 13 So he loses a bit of INT and gains a bit of PER and RES which is an excellent change for a fighter. It looks like they made good but modest changes which is probably the way it should be.

There are some other changes. I started a new game so I will check the companions as I pick them up. But Aloth moved 4 pts from Perception to Dexterity. So he loses a bit of deflection and gains action speed which I think is a good change. He's still a control mage and not a damage dealer but that's obviously the way Obsidian wants it and is not a bad thing necessarily: So Aloth went from: Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 12 10 11 16 16 13 to Mig- Con- Dex- Per- Int- Res 12 10 15 12 16 13

That is strange. Why those particular tweaks? That doesn't make any sense.

I don't mind imperfect companions and working around limitations but there's "imperfect" and there's "monkey throwing a dart at random number list". So I'm okay with leaving the full respec to a mod and just having okay but not perfect companions.

That's... well, okay. Same as every RPG ever I think.

gkathellar is being sarcastic. His tagline says "If I'm typing in red I'm being sarcastic".

mazeltov: when you pick Eder up at level 3 he has two talents AND a fighter ability. He has Defender, Rapid Recovery, and Weapon Focus: Ruffian. That's 3 picks at level 3 when you should only get 2. So it seems like you're actually better off picking up Eder at level 3 than rushing through to get him, assuming you don't mind the Defender pick which you probably shouldn't unless you want him to be a big DPS fighter. But if you pick him up at 3 you get both Defender and Focus: Ruffian in addition to Rapid Recovery.

I just noticed something; if you pick up Eder at level 3 he has both the talent Rapid Recovery and the talent Focus: Ruffian. But you should only get one talent pick at level 2 and none at level 3. And if rush through the prologue areas to get Eder at level 2 he only has Rapid Recovery. And you don't get another talent when you level him to 3. So that Focus: Ruffian pick, while a bad talent, is not a waste of a pick because its basically free. It's not replacing a better talent it's just a bonus. Guess I shouldn't have rushed to pick him up!

Patch notes look good!

from the patch notes: Modified attributes of companions and Itumaak. Could this be the miracle we have been waiting for?

Are the backer beta testers under NDA? I'm wondering how they missed it or if it wasn't present in the tested version.