Supernova difficulty and Companions

[SturmChurro]

Playing in Supernova difficulty companions are completely, and utterly WORTHLESS. There is no point using them unless you invest HEAVILY into companion perks (leadership). Other than SAM even with the best possible HEAVY armor I can find, they die in just a couple hits. SAM can last in average fights, but might as well put him on passive fighting anything strong, he's dead otherwise. God forbid you try to have a melee companion. Supernova difficulty seems to be exclusively for Lone Wolf, or a pure leadership build. Otherwise, your entire crew will be in the grave. 

 

Currently, I have crewmates who are just set to passive or defensive, who follow me around like a non-combat pet from Pillars of Eternity. I have them tag along, because obviously I want them around for the story, and whatever dialogue they might have at locations or to NPC's - otherwise I actually would have taken the Lone Wolf perk. This is absolutely ridiculous, and, in my opinion, companions need a complete overhaul for supernova difficulty. I am not asking for them to be stronger, just not dead after every single damn minor skirmish forcing me to reload, not because I am having trouble, but because they die. Be wary of enemies with aoe, they will die to that too. Primals will kill them pretty much instantly, even if they are on passive if they get hit. 

[SturmChurro]

This is not a bug, who moved this? No need for technical support.

[Amentep]

Suggestions for improvement and changes have better visibility to the developers in one place, technical support.

I can move it back if you wish.

[HiTmAn77]

Yes I agree with you. I also play on Supernova and have no problems, except that my companions die after two hits and I lose a lot of time.  I'm not sure who of the devs implemented this bull****, but it was not his best idea. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by HiTmAn77

[SturmChurro]

6 hours ago, HiTmAn77 said:

Yes I agree with you. I also play on Supernova and have no problems, except that my companions die after two hits and I lose a lot of time.  I'm not sure who of the devs implemented this bull****, but it was not his best idea. 

Yeah, tell me about it. When I first started, I got the first companion, she died to 2 outlaws when I had her on aggressive. At first I was like, "She's just going to get back up right?" thinking like maybe they had an injury system like in Pillars or something. Nope, she just laid their and then died. Tried again... and she died again. It was so stupid. Like I said, even when I put them in heavy armor AND took the defensive perks for them, they still die. I have literally gimped my build not taking lone wolf perk, because I am soloing every single encounter anyway.  I put my leadership to 20 just for fun to see their abilities, and I occasionally use them, but if you aren't killing the enemy with their ability they are liable to get killed immediately after they use the ability. Like I am not going to respec just to go pure leadership, screw that. Just gotta have human sized pets..

Edited October 26, 2019 by SturmChurro

[drunetovich]

Companions are too weak for supernova

[Talio]

Yeha. Right now its lone wolf or having your crew die and having the last save being 1-2 hours ago.

 

They need to give the crew a big of a buff or change how the dying system work for supernova to work as a "fun" way to play

[Clawdius_Talonious]

Companions are hot garbage in Supernova difficulty, they just die and then you can't do anything to revive them, they are worse than useless. It's insane that even once you're out of combat all you can do is go spit on their corpse or reload. Do two things in a row? You better believe your companion is gonna die, and then you'll have to reload because of course you do.

I've mostly enjoyed the game, but it's baffling to me that the game isn't difficult on Supernova, you just can't use companions as... well, companions. Lock them down in the first room of any place you go, or they WILL die. I mean, if there was some item to get them back up and it was expensive and cost prohibitive that would be fine, but what even is the point of having companions if they're just going to die and then you can't even loot their useless corpses? 

[SturmChurro]

Update: They are so useless that when I was doing the platforming to get the 'mind control ray' science weapon. One of my companions fell to their death, and then "left the party". I have to redo the entire dungeon now. Great work! I am at the point where I am just gonna say screw the story and interactions. I'll just go lonewolf. I have had to reload against mantis, because when they  (my companions) follow me around like headless chickens they get hit by aoe and DIE. I have Parvati with over 120 armor rating and she still can't survive ANYTHING. It is so, SO dumb.  Keep in mind I do NOT have my companions on aggressive, they are passive, or defensive at all times. So they are getting killed by the environment, and speaking of environment in that same dungeon I nearly lost BOTH of my companions to the area where the steam vents, because they just stand in it and die. I had to rush through the whole section as fast as I could before they dropped health and died (not like it mattered, see above).

Like just when I think it's bad enough, the idiocy just gets worse and worse. I wanted some challenge, supernova is not a challenge, it's just an annoyance. Woe to me if I have to actually play in a lower difficulty not because I am having a rough time, but because my brain dead, glass (not cannon) companions die over and over, and over to the most idiotic things. The fact that the ai can't even jump properly and if I hadn't reloaded I would have lost one of my companions, is unbelievable. I am literally just wondering now, what's next? Like Christ almighty. 

Side note, has anyone tested the "DON'T GO DYIN ON ME" perk in supernova? It says you can revive downed companions with a quarter health by using your inhaler. I haven't taken it or tested it, because it is a useless perk, but was just wondering. 

Edited October 27, 2019 by SturmChurro

[fakc]

4 hours ago, SturmChurro said:

Update: They are so useless that when I was doing the platforming to get the 'mind control ray' science weapon. One of my companions fell to their death, and then "left the party". I have to redo the entire dungeon now. Great work! I am at the point where I am just gonna say screw the story and interactions. I'll just go lonewolf. I have had to reload against mantis, because when they  (my companions) follow me around like headless chickens they get hit by aoe and DIE. I have Parvati with over 120 armor rating and she still can't survive ANYTHING. It is so, SO dumb.  Keep in mind I do NOT have my companions on aggressive, they are passive, or defensive at all times. So they are getting killed by the environment, and speaking of environment in that same dungeon I nearly lost BOTH of my companions to the area where the steam vents, because they just stand in it and die. I had to rush through the whole section as fast as I could before they dropped health and died (not like it mattered, see above).

Like just when I think it's bad enough, the idiocy just gets worse and worse. I wanted some challenge, supernova is not a challenge, it's just an annoyance. Woe to me if I have to actually play in a lower difficulty not because I am having a rough time, but because my brain dead, glass (not cannon) companions die over and over, and over to the most idiotic things. The fact that the ai can't even jump properly and if I hadn't reloaded I would have lost one of my companions, is unbelievable. I am literally just wondering now, what's next? Like Christ almighty. 

Side note, has anyone tested the "DON'T GO DYIN ON ME" perk in supernova? It says you can revive downed companions with a quarter health by using your inhaler. I haven't taken it or tested it, because it is a useless perk, but was just wondering. 

Wanna good joke?) They die in normal too))) From 3-4 hits) looks like they are useless anywhere

[SturmChurro]

8 hours ago, fakc said:

Wanna good joke?) They die in normal too))) From 3-4 hits) looks like they are useless anywhere

No way! Really?! It's like this is the first time they have ever implemented companions into a game like this then. I mean, at least they don't die permanently. If that is the case, I honestly don't know what they were going for with trash companions then. Like, yeah there are several perks you can take to make it better. I haven't tested a full leadership build (+perks), but I suspect that they balanced them around the bonuses provided in doing so, maybe to try and make leadership more viable?

[fakc]

21 hours ago, SturmChurro said:

No way! Really?! It's like this is the first time they have ever implemented companions into a game like this then. I mean, at least they don't die permanently. If that is the case, I honestly don't know what they were going for with trash companions then. Like, yeah there are several perks you can take to make it better. I haven't tested a full leadership build (+perks), but I suspect that they balanced them around the bonuses provided in doing so, maybe to try and make leadership more viable?

They have good gamage and good abilities...but without leadership they dies to fast. ) With leadership 60 they are a bit tougher (+30%hp compulsory) but aoe wipes them

[HiTmAn77]

Do not get me wrong, I really like the game.

If you put all companions on passive and run away as soon as too many enemies run towards you, they mostly survive. But why do I need my companions if I have to run away all the time and kill all the opponents myself anyway? And sorry for my english, i know its badly.

[thelee]

On 10/27/2019 at 6:41 PM, SturmChurro said:

No way! Really?! It's like this is the first time they have ever implemented companions into a game like this then. I mean, at least they don't die permanently. If that is the case, I honestly don't know what they were going for with trash companions then. Like, yeah there are several perks you can take to make it better. I haven't tested a full leadership build (+perks), but I suspect that they balanced them around the bonuses provided in doing so, maybe to try and make leadership more viable?

fakc is exaggerating, or is leaning way too hard on companions without good personality or leadership skills.

as for your point, i'm playing on hard (life is too busy for supernova's limited saving) with high charm and lots of investment in leadership, and my companions roflstomp most everything (and i get lots of XP from the +50% companion kill XP perk). however, if there's a big enemy (a mega raptidon/raptidon colossus) or if it's a prolonged fight and i'm slow on the inhaler, companions will still go down. so i think companions could easily be effective without as much of an investment, just not as much of a roflstomp (as would be expected since you'd be leaning on yourself more).

but yeah, the supernova interaction seems unbalanced to me. A couple hits from a mega raptidon is enough to knock even my beefier companions out on hard, and I would be ragequitting the game if that meant I permanently lost a companion or lost a half hour's worth of gameplay to reload a save.

[nize2864]

On 10/26/2019 at 10:43 AM, SturmChurro said:

Playing in Supernova difficulty companions are completely, and utterly WORTHLESS. There is no point using them unless you invest HEAVILY into companion perks (leadership). Other than SAM even with the best possible HEAVY armor I can find, they die in just a couple hits. SAM can last in average fights, but might as well put him on passive fighting anything strong, he's dead otherwise. God forbid you try to have a melee companion. Supernova difficulty seems to be exclusively for Lone Wolf, or a pure leadership build. Otherwise, your entire crew will be in the grave. 

 

Currently, I have crewmates who are just set to passive or defensive, who follow me around like a non-combat pet from Pillars of Eternity. I have them tag along, because obviously I want them around for the story, and whatever dialogue they might have at locations or to NPC's - otherwise I actually would have taken the Lone Wolf perk. This is absolutely ridiculous, and, in my opinion, companions need a complete overhaul for supernova difficulty. I am not asking for them to be stronger, just not dead after every single damn minor skirmish forcing me to reload, not because I am having trouble, but because they die. Be wary of enemies with aoe, they will die to that too. Primals will kill them pretty much instantly, even if they are on passive if they get hit. 

I'm playing on supernova too. Since I got SAM at about lvl 8 or 9 I've been having the companions kill everything for me. So I'm rocking with Parvati and Sam and parvati set to ranged only and Sam to mellee. Up to level 15 I've had 30 leadership and they've been doing really well killing loads of stuff really easy and only dying sometimes in massive gun fights with 6+ enemies and that's without using any healing items for them. At lvl 15 now same companions and I'm clearing the monolith danger zone with the high level enemies and had to bump my leadership skills both to 60 for my companions to survive and still I let them kill 99% of the mobs due to the extra exp they give with the perk. So companions are really strong you just gotta play it smart and use their action skills wisely. 

I'm barely shooting any guns or swinging any weapons on my lvl 15 character I usually just stay and watch and just activate the companions action skills when I have to. 

So companions on Supernova difficulty are NOT weak AT ALL! 

[SturmChurro]

4 hours ago, thelee said:

fakc is exaggerating, or is leaning way too hard on companions without good personality or leadership skills.

as for your point, i'm playing on hard (life is too busy for supernova's limited saving) with high charm and lots of investment in leadership, and my companions roflstomp most everything (and i get lots of XP from the +50% companion kill XP perk). however, if there's a big enemy (a mega raptidon/raptidon colossus) or if it's a prolonged fight and i'm slow on the inhaler, companions will still go down. so i think companions could easily be effective without as much of an investment, just not as much of a roflstomp (as would be expected since you'd be leaning on yourself more).

but yeah, the supernova interaction seems unbalanced to me. A couple hits from a mega raptidon is enough to knock even my beefier companions out on hard, and I would be ragequitting the game if that meant I permanently lost a companion or lost a half hour's worth of gameplay to reload a save.

The saving isn't as bad as you think. You can just save in one of the many instances in each zone. It autosaves as you enter or leave one. So for example, in emerald vale, you can just walk into the community center for a save at the center of the map. You don't even have to sleep very often either, just drink caffeinated drinks which will sate your thirst, and keep you going. 

3 hours ago, nize2864 said:

I'm playing on supernova too. Since I got SAM at about lvl 8 or 9 I've been having the companions kill everything for me. So I'm rocking with Parvati and Sam and parvati set to ranged only and Sam to mellee. Up to level 15 I've had 30 leadership and they've been doing really well killing loads of stuff really easy and only dying sometimes in massive gun fights with 6+ enemies and that's without using any healing items for them. At lvl 15 now same companions and I'm clearing the monolith danger zone with the high level enemies and had to bump my leadership skills both to 60 for my companions to survive and still I let them kill 99% of the mobs due to the extra exp they give with the perk. So companions are really strong you just gotta play it smart and use their action skills wisely. 

I'm barely shooting any guns or swinging any weapons on my lvl 15 character I usually just stay and watch and just activate the companions action skills when I have to. 

So companions on Supernova difficulty are NOT weak AT ALL! 

I'm not saying they are weak, their damage is fine. They just end up dying so quickly. I am curious how you actually got through the beginning of the game if you played like that. The weaker enemies my companion and I can burn down quite easily, but if I get one more powerful enemy focusing on them they are dead - very quickly. My build consists of only 20 leadership, and a little bit higher determination (I think). The companion skills are strong, but you gotta be really careful because once you use them they are in the fight and enemies will attack them. Stuff like primals with N-ray will nuke them.

Thing is with a proper solo build your character can kill enemies extremely quickly as well. You can kill a large group of marauders with a sniper utilizing time dilation (1-shot headshots) or just run in with an acid machine gun, and mow everything - whilst having high temperament (regen) is another one.

[nize2864]

1 hour ago, SturmChurro said:

The saving isn't as bad as you think. You can just save in one of the many instances in each zone. It autosaves as you enter or leave one. So for example, in emerald vale, you can just walk into the community center for a save at the center of the map. You don't even have to sleep very often either, just drink caffeinated drinks which will sate your thirst, and keep you going. 

I'm not saying they are weak, their damage is fine. They just end up dying so quickly. I am curious how you actually got through the beginning of the game if you played like that. The weaker enemies my companion and I can burn down quite easily, but if I get one more powerful enemy focusing on them they are dead - very quickly. My build consists of only 20 leadership, and a little bit higher determination (I think). The companion skills are strong, but you gotta be really careful because once you use them they are in the fight and enemies will attack them. Stuff like primals with N-ray will nuke them.

Thing is with a proper solo build your character can kill enemies extremely quickly as well. You can kill a large group of marauders with a sniper utilizing time dilation (1-shot headshots) or just run in with an acid machine gun, and mow everything - whilst having high temperament (regen) is another one.

I prefer to play with the companions since they are interesting and decided since i'm gonna use them i'd invest in their skills so now they do pretty much all the fighting for me until i get up to lvl 26ish just cuz i love that 50% exp bonus from companion kills. 
At the beginning of the game i've set Parvati to ranged only and when fighting the big brute things i've ordered her to stay at range while i was kiting the big mobs and she was still shooting and helping me with them. Until level 8 Parvati was dying a lot if i'd send her straight into the fight but since i got SAM i barely do any fighting myself i just let sam charge in first and Parvati then paralize the strongest mob with her action skill. Lvl 21 or 22 now and since i got SAM i've used about 3 or 4 healing items to heal them. I've had quite a few reloads cuz one of them may die if i get too ****y but what i'm trying to say is that companions are not weak in any way they are just as tough as you if not more! But if you're not going to invest in Leadership then don't expect them to do much in fights. At 100 Inspiration skill they have 200% dmg bonus and they melt everything on Monarch with ease. By the time i get to hit something the mobs are already dead... 

[SturmChurro]

5 hours ago, nize2864 said:

I prefer to play with the companions since they are interesting and decided since i'm gonna use them i'd invest in their skills so now they do pretty much all the fighting for me until i get up to lvl 26ish just cuz i love that 50% exp bonus from companion kills. 
At the beginning of the game i've set Parvati to ranged only and when fighting the big brute things i've ordered her to stay at range while i was kiting the big mobs and she was still shooting and helping me with them. Until level 8 Parvati was dying a lot if i'd send her straight into the fight but since i got SAM i barely do any fighting myself i just let sam charge in first and Parvati then paralize the strongest mob with her action skill. Lvl 21 or 22 now and since i got SAM i've used about 3 or 4 healing items to heal them. I've had quite a few reloads cuz one of them may die if i get too ****y but what i'm trying to say is that companions are not weak in any way they are just as tough as you if not more! But if you're not going to invest in Leadership then don't expect them to do much in fights. At 100 Inspiration skill they have 200% dmg bonus and they melt everything on Monarch with ease. By the time i get to hit something the mobs are already dead... 

Yeah, SAM is a really good companion. A primal behemoth will kill him still, but I found that he could fight most other enemies fine, like he could charge into a marauder group, or the like, and kill them plus tank them. Probably the best companion in the game, I talked about him in an earlier post I think.

From what I have gathered from what you are saying, it looks like the companions being such trash has to be completely on purpose. The only way to make leadership an effective build would be to make companions trash, because otherwise why would you invest any points in them? I don't think I like the inclusion of this skillset then. I mean it's a cool idea on paper, but playing low leadership with companions is an utter annoyance. The problem is, if what you say is actually true, then like I have questioned before, the only viable build with companions is high leadership. So if you want to use them (in supernova) then you better be playing high leadership. So any other build you might want to play would be sub-standard, unless you decide to go lone wolf, and invest in personal skills. 

[stiven]

Well duh, as i said in other thread, on Supernova this game has only two builds, for any purpose, not just if you like to use companions - 

1. Build with high leadership

2. Everything else

And that is sucks hard. Cause forcing you to play lonewolf for a couple of first level. And don't even mention Monarch... those acid AoE splashes would melt your palls even with perks on bonus HP, and armor and leadership 60. And even then if you don't careful even just for a moment, your pals could die pretty quick from acid+raming combo, or being stunlocked by swarm explosion. They really should make companions immortal on Supernova, and just, let say add 15-30 min CD on them, if they fall down. 

 

[SturmChurro]

3 hours ago, stiven said:

Well duh, as i said in other thread, on Supernova this game has only two builds, for any purpose, not just if you like to use companions - 

1. Build with high leadership

2. Everything else

And that is sucks hard. Cause forcing you to play lonewolf for a couple of first level. And don't even mention Monarch... those acid AoE splashes would melt your palls even with perks on bonus HP, and armor and leadership 60. And even then if you don't careful even just for a moment, your pals could die pretty quick from acid+raming combo, or being stunlocked by swarm explosion. They really should make companions immortal on Supernova, and just, let say add 15-30 min CD on them, if they fall down. 

 

I'd be willing to bet the lone wolf build is still superior in anyway than a high leadership build. Especially if having 60 leadership means they still die to packs. It's just too hard to micro them, and too annoying. So much simpler to just solo everything on your own, safer too. Getting hit is a joke with the amount of adreno you find, so even if you don't have high regen it doesn't matter at all, plus you can just kite packs and reset them. So, I'd argue there is only one viable build in Supernova, and that is lone wolf.

[nize2864]

4 hours ago, SturmChurro said:

Yeah, SAM is a really good companion. A primal behemoth will kill him still, but I found that he could fight most other enemies fine, like he could charge into a marauder group, or the like, and kill them plus tank them. Probably the best companion in the game, I talked about him in an earlier post I think.

From what I have gathered from what you are saying, it looks like the companions being such trash has to be completely on purpose. The only way to make leadership an effective build would be to make companions trash, because otherwise why would you invest any points in them? I don't think I like the inclusion of this skillset then. I mean it's a cool idea on paper, but playing low leadership with companions is an utter annoyance. The problem is, if what you say is actually true, then like I have questioned before, the only viable build with companions is high leadership. So if you want to use them (in supernova) then you better be playing high leadership. So any other build you might want to play would be sub-standard, unless you decide to go lone wolf, and invest in personal skills. 

I wouldn't say that you need high leadership for them to be effective. 50 leadership is more than enough for them to stay alive while shooting things down from a safe range. Just don't think that they are going to tank stuff on supernova all the way to the end with 50 leadership. Companions are perfectly balanced in my opinion. If you don't want to invest at all in them then they are going to die a lot in supernova but with 3 levels of investment into leadership they will become pretty decent and as long as you order them to keep their distance you'll be fine. That's what supernova is about you gotta use a bit of tactics if you want then to survive you can't just storm into mobs and expect them to be unscratched. However I think that they shouldnt permadie on any difficulty but a concussion debuff stack on every death would be reasonable. 

 

[nize2864]

12 minutes ago, SturmChurro said:

I'd be willing to bet the lone wolf build is still superior in anyway than a high leadership build. Especially if having 60 leadership means they still die to packs. It's just too hard to micro them, and too annoying. So much simpler to just solo everything on your own, safer too. Getting hit is a joke with the amount of adreno you find, so even if you don't have high regen it doesn't matter at all, plus you can just kite packs and reset them. So, I'd argue there is only one viable build in Supernova, and that is lone wolf.

Well I'm not at endgame yet but Im having 0 trouble with a high leadership on supernova. However I play the game the way I like and not to be able to kill everything with ease at any difficulty. I dont mind to struggle from time to time and to reload the game that's what high difficulty is about. For me companions make the game much more fun so I'd rather always have a bit invested in them so they can stick around and live. 

Probably lone wolf is would be better performing but I'd rather just enjoy the game exactly the way I like instead of looking how to get the strongest possible build. 

[fxluk]

I do not understand why they just didnt copy paste solution from POE2.

Instead of insta death it should be like 2-3 take downs, each with additional debuff and after 3-4 downing, without healing previous debuffs = death.

You would still invest some in leadership to companions to be effective, but without worrying/loading EACH fight when they die.

Edited October 30, 2019 by fxluk

[stiven]

5 hours ago, SturmChurro said:

there is only one viable build in Supernova, and that is lone wolf.

Well, keep in mind, that this game is very MMO-ish in terms of combat. Meaning, - levels of your companions, comparing to the levels of enemies which they are fighting, is what is influencing outcome of the fight, most heavily. Not to mention the higher your level, the better the armor you can buy for companions. So if level of companions >= level of the enemy, add better armor, and better weapon (both of which, comes with leveling up), and suddenly the game becomes much easier. Which leads to optimal way of playing - stuff your pals far away for a time being, till at least level 15, then buy one of those 50-83 armor sets, respec, level up leadership, give them level 20 (via tinkering, you can level up items up to 5 levels above your own) weapons with plasma or corrosive mags - now you can finally play this game with companions. Or play sniper+sneaker char, as i played, with companions standing as far away as possible. This way you usually can kill 1-3 of weakest enemies in the pack, even before the rest of them become alert to your presence, - kill some more enemies from the pack while they running towards you, then run away and let them reset, - repeat procedure until you kill everybody. This way is much more sub-optional if compare it to lone wolf, and IMHO so much less fun when it comes to world PvE, but i if you reaaaally want to, you surely can solder on through it. And once your party's level becomes >= level of enemies, game becomes much easier. Why to even bother, you ask?  Well, one of the reasons fro keeping them around, alongside other things, is that they provide significant boost to your skills. For example my char has 0 charisma, sorta to speak, but just because he had Parvati, and Felix in his party, his persuade skill was around 30-50 even early on. Which helped a lot with nailing those pesky social skill checks, and as bonus allowed to crack a lot of closed doors and containers. Those bonuses would become even bigger later on,  you can have like +40 to 3 skills, just by having the right companion with you.

 

 

[SturmChurro]

3 minutes ago, stiven said:

Well, keep in mind, that this game is very MMO-ish in terms of combat. Meaning, - levels of your companions, comparing to the levels of enemies which they are fighting, is what is influencing outcome of the fight, most heavily. Not to mention the higher your level, the better the armor you can buy for companions. So if level of companions >= level of the enemy, add better armor, and better weapon (both of which, comes with leveling up), and suddenly the game becomes much easier. Which leads to optimal way of playing - stuff your pals far away for a time being, till at least level 15, then buy one of those 50-83 armor sets, respec, level up leadership, give them level 20 (via tinkering, you can level up items up to 5 levels above your own) weapons with plasma or corrosive mags - now you can finally play this game with companions. Or play sniper+sneaker char, as i played, with companions standing as far away as possible. This way you usually can kill 1-3 of weakest enemies in the pack, even before the rest of them become alert to your presence, - kill some more enemies from the pack while they running towards you, then run away and let them reset, - repeat procedure until you kill everybody. This way is much more sub-optional if compare it to lone wolf, and IMHO so much less fun when it comes to world PvE, but i if you reaaaally want to, you surely can solder on through it. And once your party's level becomes >= level of enemies, game becomes much easier. Why to even bother, you ask?  Well, one of the reasons fro keeping them around, alongside other things, is that they provide significant boost to your skills. For example my char has 0 charisma, sorta to speak, but just because he had Parvati, and Felix in his party, his persuade skill was around 30-50 even early on. Which helped a lot with nailing those pesky social skill checks, and as bonus allowed to crack a lot of closed doors and containers. Those bonuses would become even bigger later on,  you can have like +40 to 3 skills, just by having the right companion with you.

 

 

Yeah, I know all this. I think I outlined earlier they were like non-combat pets, with their passives. Think of Pillars of Eternity 2 where they give you passive buffs, some are definitly better than others like Parvati, etc. for passives for sure. I had parvati in over 120 armor rating, the UDL armor, and she was still getting nuked, by mantis, etc. There are some enemies that they can just never fight.