Most enjoyable companions?

[Irrevenant]

Edér, for all of the reasons previously stated. Grieving Mother, because she's interesting. Very cryptic and it intrigues me, makes me want to know what her deal is. Excellent work by the voice actor, too. Very fitting, soothing, motherly. She and Edér are permanent members of my party.

Kana. A jolly, scholarly yellow giant, very pleasant to speak with about pretty much everything. Has a similar goal to Veronica in New Vegas that I really like.

 

Durance is fun. Not sure how to put exactly what I think about him into words. I like him, is the simple version.

 

I'm still in the first act, so I haven't met Pallegina yet. I also haven't spent too much time with Sagani or Hiravias since I'm not sure who to boot to make room, and Aloth is still a bit of a mystery right now. But so far, I like them too.

I also don't have a problem with Sagani's lack of accent. Not really a big deal for me.

[Riddlewrong]

The companions for the most part are decent, but not on the level of the old infinity engine games. Those games had clear and outstanding "gotta take this person with me" characters, whereas this game has a lot of "I guess I should because there's a quest" characters. I don't have strong opinions on most of the characters, but here are a few:

 

Durance has an insufferable personality. Unfortunately, he's also the most fleshed out and tied-to-the-plot character in the game. Not taking him deprives you of a lot of lore and interactions with the story, but taking him requires you to put up with his annoying and deplorable traits. Pick your poison, I guess. 

 

Kana is alright on the personality side of things (voice modulation aside), but what bothers me so much about him is that he's a dead weight character. Despite a decent stat spread, he's just not really good at anything. Put him in the back with a ranged weapon and he'll probably miss 70% of his shots. Put him up front with his two-hander and he'll do the same, only he'll also keel over and you'll lose his buffs. By the time he's been in combat long enough to actually cast a chanter spell, you probably won't need it anymore (or he's unconscious).

 

Aloth is pretty inoffensive in terms of personality (depending on which one) and he's got some interesting remarks here and there. He's not super interesting, nor particularly boring. His only real problem is that his build his baffling and ineffective (I'm playing on PotD, so he's doubly frustrating). Enemies also LOVE to focus fire this guy. I don't know what it is about him, but they go out of their way to run around the tanks to get to him, even before he's done anything!

 

Edér is the most all-around likable guy. He's refreshingly vanilla. I really like him. He feels like someone you'd actually meet in a setting like this and want to take along. It doesn't hurt that he's also a fairly competent tank. I probably won't replace him with a custom character after his quest, and that's saying something.

[sparklecat]

 

Durance has an insufferable personality. Unfortunately, he's also the most fleshed out and tied-to-the-plot character in the game. Not taking him deprives you of a lot of lore and interactions with the story, but taking him requires you to put up with his annoying and deplorable traits. Pick your poison, I guess. 

Such a pity I'll never take him along since I want to shoot him in the face, then.

[Cronstintein]

Annoying and deplorable?! 

 

Definitely seems like a crazy homeless guy which is a refreshing change from the usual tropes.  He's the closest to being evil (probably more of a chaotic neutral, tbh) which is something the party is definitely short of.  All the characters a little too goody-two-shoes for my tastes.  I always preferred the evil characters in BG2, for instance (hamster-holders are the exception )

[Yenkaz]

The companions for the most part are decent, but not on the level of the old infinity engine games. Those games had clear and outstanding "gotta take this person with me" characters, whereas this game has a lot of "I guess I should because there's a quest" characters. I don't have strong opinions on most of the characters, but here are a few:

 

Durance has an insufferable personality. Unfortunately, he's also the most fleshed out and tied-to-the-plot character in the game. Not taking him deprives you of a lot of lore and interactions with the story, but taking him requires you to put up with his annoying and deplorable traits. Pick your poison, I guess. 

 

Kana is alright on the personality side of things (voice modulation aside), but what bothers me so much about him is that he's a dead weight character. Despite a decent stat spread, he's just not really good at anything. Put him in the back with a ranged weapon and he'll probably miss 70% of his shots. Put him up front with his two-hander and he'll do the same, only he'll also keel over and you'll lose his buffs. By the time he's been in combat long enough to actually cast a chanter spell, you probably won't need it anymore (or he's unconscious).

 

Aloth is pretty inoffensive in terms of personality (depending on which one) and he's got some interesting remarks here and there. He's not super interesting, nor particularly boring. His only real problem is that his build his baffling and ineffective (I'm playing on PotD, so he's doubly frustrating). Enemies also LOVE to focus fire this guy. I don't know what it is about him, but they go out of their way to run around the tanks to get to him, even before he's done anything!

 

Edér is the most all-around likable guy. He's refreshingly vanilla. I really like him. He feels like someone you'd actually meet in a setting like this and want to take along. It doesn't hurt that he's also a fairly competent tank. I probably won't replace him with a custom character after his quest, and that's saying something.

 

Kana performs quite well if you stick him with a 2H weapon, heavy armour and a talent to increase accuracy and another to increase damage. As long as you have two other tanks he's well able to survive and do some damage while buffing the party.

[Bollockoff]

I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of internal party relations in PoE, honestly. Eder should really have a chip on his shoulder with Durance when he goes off on one of his Eothas bashing moments. Certain party selections in BG2 would become awkward eventually because of this but in a way it added more realism to the characters if they'd eventually try to kill each other. It didn't much bother me.

 

Likewise, it's a bit crap that NPC's won't react to your own party members interjecting in conversations. Durance's lines about the Magran priestess in First Fires are fairly amusing but she doesn't even say anything in response. I don't know if this is because the team had several writers working in isolation? It gives that impression anyway.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Bollockoff

[Ineth]

@Bollockoff

It was like the in BG2 too, though.

Your own party members would interject warnings/advice in conversations with certain NPCs like Bodhi, without them noticing it, apparently.

[Katarack21]

I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of internal party relations in PoE, honestly. Eder should really have a chip on his shoulder with Durance when he goes off on one of his Eothas bashing moments.

Screw that, Durance talks about being personally, directly involved in the Purges and Eder doesn't say a word. That took my right out of the whole conversation.

[Bollockoff]

@Bollockoff

It was like the in BG2 too, though.

Your own party members would interject warnings/advice in conversations with certain NPCs like Bodhi, without them noticing it, apparently.

 

I do remember a few times there were responses in BG2. Even if they were throw away lines.

[Bollockoff]

Hell, there's little acknowledgement your party is given outside of conversations with your PC. Remember the playboy Elf in the Copper Coronet?

[zered]

Pellagina, Eder, Aloth and Kana - best team there is.

[Trauma_Hound]

My favorite companions are my own custom adventurers. Not touching the pre made companions until they are 100% customisable - stats and talents.

 

They are able to be customized through the command console and there's a mod that allows you to reset them to square zero and build them back up.

 

Durance is certainly one of my most favored NPCs in any game I've come across.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Trauma_Hound

[Ineth]

Aloth [...] Enemies also LOVE to focus fire this guy. I don't know what it is about him, but they go out of their way to run around the tanks to get to him, even before he's done anything!

 

Same here.

 

Even though my cipher has similar deflection and lower DR than Aloth, enemies much prefer to swarm Aloth.

 

I wonder if the enemy AI is coded to specifically target wizards, and why.

Is it because the Infinity Engine AI did it? It made sense there, as wizards were much more "special" and pidgeonholed into the "squishy nuke" role. But in PoE it makes much less sense imo.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Ineth

[Katarack21]

 

Aloth [...] Enemies also LOVE to focus fire this guy. I don't know what it is about him, but they go out of their way to run around the tanks to get to him, even before he's done anything!

 

Same here.

 

Even though my cipher has similar deflection and lower DR than Aloth, enemies much prefer to swarm Aloth.

 

I wonder if the enemy AI is coded to specifically target wizards, and why.

Is it because the Infinity Engine AI did it? It made sense there, as wizards were much more "special" and pidgeonholed into the "squishy nuke" role. But in PoE it makes much less sense imo.

 

I have not experienced this problem and I've run with Aloth literally the whole game.

[dododad]

Great

Durance - Great voiceacting, plenty of lines and great fit into the main story.

 

Good

Eder - Likeable and well tied into a story, just lacking the same amount of content that Durance has.

Hiravais - Comedy relief that went well. Same as Eder, If he commented more often, he could be a tier higher.

 

Decent

Sagani - Grounded motherly character, and finally a female dwarf character that's well written. It's just my personal hate for how rangers are depicted in this game, that keeps her here.

Kana - I hate his portrait, and quite like his backstory of being a scholarly orc-thing, it's just that he's really not as well developed as I'd like.

Pallegina - Crappy stats, ugly 3d head, and gimped class aside, probably the character that I'd like to like the most. Her, Kana and Aloth appear to have the least amount of content in the game.

 

Bad

Aloth - I've had him around for most of my playthrought, and he's just quiet. He says nothing, does nothing, his quest is dull. I kept waiting for him to suddenly transform into super Aloth and start throwing around meaningful word, but nope, nothing. Few words against animancy, some jokes, and that's it. Only saving graces are him being only wizard in the game and good voiceacting.

 

Really Bad

Grieving Mother aka Emo Milf - Atrocious voiceacting that in no way fits the character, accompanied by some of the worst writing in the game. She's on par with Durace in amount of content, but when you have huge blocks of text that mean nothing, it becomes hard to tolerate. So, what worked on Durance, comes out pretentious in her. Maybe she'd fit into Planescape setting, in this lore she feels extremely out of place.

 

 

 

Overall, main thing that ties everything is big disparity in content per character. Both in number of voiced lines, and in written lines. Durance and Grieving are by far the most vocal in that aspect, but seeing them fall into big extremes in what people like, I'd much rather see attention given to them disparaged among all of the companions.

 

I'm also missing  more meaningful interactions among the companions. I've no idea how Durance and Eder can get along, seeing one was responsible for things the other is running from. It could easily be explained through dialogue, but we're left with some missed opportunities.

Edited April 6, 2015 by dododad

[Bollockoff]

I originally thought the thugs at the entrance of Dyrford were talking about Grieving Mother. Then I noticed they said they were after an Orlan. Would have made for a stronger introduction to GM rather than a very forgettable quest.

[Bhazor]

Grieving Mother is Avellone doing his "cryptic old woman" thing again. Only this time she's hot. So I very much approve
 
Durance is just great. With some wonderful nuanced twisty writing. Asking him "Is that why you walk with a staff?" was one of the better pieces of writing I've seen so far.
 
 
 
I like characters who are hard to understand. Much more interesting than the standard "Kooky comic relief" , "Tsundere love interest" and "Inoffensively bland soldier" archetypes you get in Bioware.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Bhazor

[sparklecat]

Hmm.  I'm finding that Eder has a ton of content; he talks to me about what just happened nearly every time I do something main quest related.

[Starthief]

I actually think Kana is my favorite.  I like his voice and his attitude.

Eder is a solid guy with an interesting story.

I like Pallagina's voice and portrait, and the circumstances of meeting her were kind of interesting; I haven't gone through much of her story yet.

Durance makes my skin crawl, and if it was me choosing traveling companions I'd never have picked him up.  But he's definitely an interesting character.


I haven't used the other NPCs enough to have opinions about them, but I didn't like Aloth during the brief period I had him.

[sadako]

I like Iselymir (hope I spelled that right) not much of her appearance, but she seems like a bundle of trouble.. which means making enemies, which means killing enemies.. which brings XP. Joy!

[Sphecida]

Lady Webb and her snarky little Orlan.

 

Ok, fine. I've only just finished Act II, and my thoughts align with many:

 

Durance - most interesting dialogue, but I would have slit his throat long ago if he hadn't been so good at keeping my party alive. He's like your father's creepy co-worker who eyes your cleavage at the holiday party.

 

Edér - surprisingly funny and likeable; has lots to say. Kind of an Alistair. Bonus points for petting the animals. 

 

Aloth - most similar to rl friends; story too short

 

Sagani - most realistic, but a little boring. Someone has to remember the thermos, after all.

 

Pallegina - wonderful voice; don't know her very well yet

 

Kana - I must be one of the few players who enjoys his enthusiasm. His story maroons him at the keep.

 

Grieving Mother - at first, I thought she was awesome: a Goth midwife. But her gloom started to get on my nerves, and while having two ciphers can be interesting, she just didn't add much to the party conversation. Update: Her story became clearer and more interesting. I like how her story relates to what's going on in Dyrwood.

 

Hiravias - I already knew what a cloaca is, but I had to ask anyway. Update: I got into his story, and now I appreciate him more.

 

I'm really missing a rogue companion. I made one, but he won't talk to me. 

Edited April 13, 2015 by Sphecida

[Skie Nightfall]

Still mid game here, but I can't see a game without Hiravias, Sagani & Eder for me. Listed in order

 

Aloth is boring, Kana really didn't fit my main character.

 

I don't like Durance much, but am curious to see the rest of his quest line.

 

I'm a cipher, so probably benching GM.

 

Going to give Pallegina a chance now instead of Aloth (probably) after seeing some good reviews here.