AgentTBC

It happens when you load a game in a location where you've recruited a companion, and they have an item or effect which boosts stats. So if, for example, you load a game in Gilded Vale with Eder in your party and he has any items on which give a stat boost his stats will be permanently increased by that amount. Or if you load a game in Caed Nua with with Kana in your party. And that one is easy to see since he comes with a +1 intellect item on so you can save/load over and over in Caed Nua and watch his intellect go up. Sensuki, how did you avoid it? As far as I know it happens every time you load a game in a couple major locations so unless you simply never saved the game there...

There's a bug where your main character and some of the companions can get significantly higher stats and resistances building up over time than they should get. And it's extremely difficult to avoid the bug since it kicks in every time you save/load a game in a couple major locations. So it's quite possible that some people are finding the game too easy because some of the characters are buffed up by bugs.

Yeah, this is a bad one. I've given up playing until patched what with this bug and the similar one with losing bonuses if you put on your armor incorrectly.

Yes. Eder is initially recruited in Gilded Vale, so if you save/reload there his stats will go up. It happens with Kana at Caed Nua because that is where he is initially recruited.

But you guys have correctly identified at least part of the bug and its cause. Any time you load a game in a location where you recruited an NPC that NPC's stats are permanently increased by the amount of whatever stat boosting items he or she is wearing. You don't have to quit to the main menu first, you can just keep hitting quick save and quick load and it'll raise the attributes. I don't know why some people say dismissing them fixes it, it doesn't appear to.

Dismissing companions isn't fixing it for me.

That's not true as far as I can tell.

I started over and am being careful never to replace equipment by double clicking. They apparently aren't sure they can retroactively fix the effects according to a twitter I saw.

Using the console is problematic for a couple reasons. One, you can't be completely sure what passives you're missing. And two, I believe it disables achievements which can be a big deal for some people. Better that it be patched quickly.

This is a major bug and needs to be patched ASAP.

Someone in another thread mentioned they think the active effects get bugged out when you swap armors by double clicking on a new armor in your inventory rather than by removing the old armor first. I will test this later. Still wondering how to add the effect back using console commands!

I think its a general bug with active effects. A bunch of people, including myself, have reported that things like the Wood Elf's "Distant Advantage" active effect disappears and doesn't come back.

How do you add 'em back?

I'm playing a Wood Elf Cipher PC and the Distant Advantage effect has disappeared and nothing makes it come back. It no longer shows under "active effects" and there is no difference in accuracy when I target distant enemies or close enemies. I have a wood elf party member NPC who does have it listed under "active effects" and does gain the accuracy advantage. So apparently this effect is buggy on the player character.