Least Liked Companions

[Ineth]

Eder has got a *single vote* of least-likeable companion

 

Now we just need to find out who cast that vote, force them to explain themselves, and set up a tribunal to decide on a fitting punishment!

 

[Venatio]

My least favored companion was Hiravias. Granted, he had good dialogue but he was otherwise so very token. We just picked him up along the road and he comes with us for no true discernible reason. At least with Sagani she had a reason to travel with us, being a Watcher and all, but Hiravis could have done his stuff on his own or with other people. It did not improve my disposition towards the guy that his quest ends on the doorstep of the endgame so if you did not do his quest till the end of your trip to Teir Evron you may have to make a detour if he was not in your normal party. 

 

Also, who the heck hates Kana? That guy was my bro, he ripped Thaos a new one before the final confrontation. He's a jolly scholarly giant with a knack for songs and warfare. The fact that he is being hunted by the Leaden Key also gives him an actual reason to stick with us on our quest as well as a true connection with our character.

 

I will, however, add that in my first playthrough I was completely put off by the fact that neither Pallegina nor the Vailian Ambassador even acknowledge the player if he or she is Vailian, especially since Kana gives your Rautati heritage a nod. That was a massively missed opportunity for immersion right there. The woman lost a point from me on that account. 

Edited May 1, 2015 by Venatio

[perilisk]

I will, however, add that in my first playthrough I was completely put off by the fact that neither Pallegina nor the Vailian Ambassador even acknowledge the player if he or she is Vailian, especially since Kana gives your Rautati heritage a nod. That was a massively missed opportunity for immersion right there. The woman lost a point from me on that account. 

 

Pallegina and the ambassador are from the Vailian Republics. The player character, IIRC, can only choose Old Vailia as an option. You're from Rome, they're from Latin Americia, more or less.

Edited May 1, 2015 by perilisk

[Venatio]

 

I will, however, add that in my first playthrough I was completely put off by the fact that neither Pallegina nor the Vailian Ambassador even acknowledge the player if he or she is Vailian, especially since Kana gives your Rautati heritage a nod. That was a massively missed opportunity for immersion right there. The woman lost a point from me on that account. 

 

Pallegina and the ambassador are from the Vailian Republics. The player character, IIRC, can only choose Old Vailia as an option. You're from Rome, they're from Latin Americia, more or less.

 

 

Oh, well, I had not realized the distinction - quite embarrassing. Still, there should have been some mention considering the cultural connection don't you think? 

[b0rsuk]

My least favored companion was Hiravias. Granted, he had good dialogue but he was otherwise so very token. We just picked him up along the road and he comes with us for no true discernible reason. At least with Sagani she had a reason to travel with us, being a Watcher and all, but Hiravis could have done his stuff on his own or with other people. It did not improve my disposition towards the guy that his quest ends on the doorstep of the endgame so if you did not do his quest till the end of your trip to Teir Evron you may have to make a detour if he was not in your normal party. 

 

He just seems lonely to me. He's an outcast. "It's good to run with a pack again.". Later, he says all he wanted was to earn a place as a respected hunter. Even when he joins your party, he doesn't truly fit. He makes some jokes no one laughs at. He is not in a hurry to reach the druids, he even says something like "as long as we're going to go to (...) at some point." Because he was cast out, he's not very loyal towards Glanfathans anymore. My ending with Hiravias mentioned he returned to his initial community, challenged every last of them to a spiritshifting duel, and then left.

Edited May 1, 2015 by b0rsuk

[Zwiebelchen]

I don't get why Kana, Durance and Hiravias scored so high on the dislike list. Among all the characters, I've found Aloth and Pallegina the most unlikeable ones.

 

Kana is more or less just looking for knowledge and has some funny and interesting dialogue; I don't really know what's not to like about him. Unless people voted for mechanics (granted, chanters are pretty useless outside of PotD mode) here. Also, he seemed reasonable and his dialogue was easy to follow (unlike Durance, who was just very confusing to follow).

Kana and Eder are probably those guys you'd want in your adventure group for being good pals.

 

Hiravias is ... a simpleton. Which makes a lot of sense, considering that as a druid he is half-creature half-man. I enjoyed his dialogue and that he wasn't quite as lore-dumpy as some of the other characters. Maybe it's just me but I like people that are easy to follow and understand.

 

Durance... I can understand why people find him annoying... simply because he has an obscene amount of option dialogue...

At first, I didn't like him aswell, as he dumps loads of lore at you right at the beginning [sorry, Obsidian, but there are much better ways to deliver narrative than huge walls of text!] and his way of talking is just ... hard to follow at times. But by the time I actually went through his quest, I noticed that he actually has many likable traits. He's definitely one of the most multi-dimensional characters in PoE.

 

Grieving Mother... wow, I don't know why she got so many votes. This character is awesome. Not only does she have the most interesting and relatable backstory, but she is also a warm-hearted, yet misguided person that you just want to cure. Her quest conclusion felt extremely satisfying to me. It was the only companion quest that I really felt good about completing. She just kind of put too much heart into what she did and then ended up making unrational decisions, ignoring the consequences. It's the perfect example of how to write a character that feels altruistic and caring, without the pitfalls of a mary-sue character.

 

Sagani was a very down-to-earth character. But compared to Kana and Eder, she felt a little bit more bland, without much memorable dialogue (also, way too many fantasy nouns in her dialogue). But then again I didn't complete her quest, so maybe things get more interesting here. I'll definitely pick her in my next playthrough just to see what she has to offer.

 

Pallegina was just annoying right from the start. She definitely felt like a pure lore-dump to me without any memorable character traits, quotes or just about anything that makes a character interesting. On top of that, she is most likely the last character you will pick up and as a paladin suffers a lot from the mechanics aswell. Boring, weak and lore-dumpy is never a good combination.

 

So, why did I vote for Aloth and not Pallegina?

Let's be fair: I instantly liked the idea behind Aloth when I picked him up the first time. But once I advanced through his questline and through the game, he was a complete disappointment. He was okay mechanics-wise; nothing to complain about, but his dialogues were few, his connections to the leaden key felt like an optional afterthought and the whole split personality thing never really mattered. It was completely weird that all the other characters seemed to constantly pick on him about Iselmyr, when literally the only situation in which Iselmyr actually manifested was in the sanitarium. For a character that shows up very early in the game, he just doesn't have enough meaningful dialogue.

He gets my vote for the biggest disappointment.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[Yria]

Grieving Mother... wow, I don't know why she got so many votes. This character is awesome. Not only does she have the most interesting and relatable backstory, but she is also a warm-hearted, yet misguided person that you just want to cure. Her quest conclusion felt extremely satisfying to me. It was the only companion quest that I really felt good about completing.

My disappointment with the Grieving Mother was caused mostly by the end of her quest. At first, when you meet her, she seems to be a very intriguing character that is probably linked to the main storyline somehow. She keeps talking about how you will cure the Legacy together, how she will guide you if needed, she sort of looks like... I don't know, Kreia to your Exile? Overall, she appears to be someone very improtant, she seems to share a bond with the PC.

And then you finish her quest, and you find out that she is just a deluded midwife who happened to possess some mental powers. All her talks about the world's fate, about curing the Hollowborn and such were just dreams of a woman eaten by her own guilt. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice twist character-wise, and I liked that. But after this revelation I see absolutely no need for her to talk so freaking allegorically in absolutely every dialogue(and I mean actual dialogue, not visions, those were all right). She is no prophet, she is no madman, she is just a simple woman with a self-forced amnesia. So... why? To simply make her look mysterious and super important, to trick the player?

It also didn't help that I was utterly put off by her actions at the Birthing Bell when the Legacy started. And I don't like that other companions don't react to her being in the party. I mean, I understand why they don't give her any thought, but technically it's minus one person for possible party banter.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Yria

[Zwiebelchen]

 

Grieving Mother... wow, I don't know why she got so many votes. This character is awesome. Not only does she have the most interesting and relatable backstory, but she is also a warm-hearted, yet misguided person that you just want to cure. Her quest conclusion felt extremely satisfying to me. It was the only companion quest that I really felt good about completing.

My disappointment with the Grieving Mother was caused mostly by the end of her quest. At first, when you meet her, she seems to be a very intriguing character that is probably linked to the main storyline somehow. She keeps talking about how you will cure the Legacy together, how she will guide you if needed, she sort of looks like... I don't know, Kreia to your Exile? Overall, she appears to be someone very improtant, she seems to share a bond with the PC.

And then you finish her quest, and you find out that she is just a deluded midwife who happened to possess some mental powers. All her talks about the world's fate, about curing the Hollowborn and such were just dreams of a woman eaten by her own guilt. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice twist character-wise, and I liked that. But after this revelation I see absolutely no need for her to talk so freaking allegorically in absolutely every dialogue(and I mean actual dialogue, not visions, those were all right). She is no prophet, she is no madman, she is just a simple woman with a self-forced amnesia. So... why? To simply make her look mysterious and super important, to trick the player?

It also didn't help that I was utterly put off by her actions at the Birthing Bell when the Legacy started. And I don't like that other companions don't react to her being in the party. I mean, I understand why they don't give her any thought, but technically it's minus one person for possible party banter.

 

 

See? Isn't the fact alone that there's so much you can say about this character proof enough that it's fantastically designed? Obviously, you read her story and memories pretty carefully.

I couldn't even think of more than 3 sentences to say about, say, Pallegina.

 

And if you like the twist or not is subjective. You call it disappointing, I call it clever. On a meta-level, she tricks not only the PC but also the player into thinking that she is important for the story, so that you take her along (which, mind you, is crucial for her as the watcher is the only one who can see through her protective web of amnesia). And wether you are put off by her actions or not: the birthing bell plot fits her character perfectly. False altruism induced by her guilt about not being able to save the children. It's the classic "good intentions gone bad" and nothing wrong with that.

[Yria]

See? Isn't the fact alone that there's so much you can say about this character proof enough that it's fantastically designed?

Not really. I still have a problem with her talking overly cryptic for no reason whatsoever (memory loss isn't a convincing reason), so I can't really call it fantastic design. Though I agree that her story is pretty good, and it's nice that she can provoke strong reactions, unlike, yeah, Pallegina. But. Least liked companion is not necesserily the worst written one. You can like a companion as a character and still dislike them as a person. So I'm not surprised GM or Durance scored so high in this poll. 

[Strange_Trees]

Ugh, it's hard to choose because I really liked all the characters   So I ended up voting for Grieving Mother, strictly on a "least likely to be fun at parties" basis.

[Nakia]

Ugh, it's hard to choose because I really liked all the characters   So I ended up voting for Grieving Mother, strictly on a "least likely to be fun at parties" basis.

True but somehow I don't think very many women would find Durance fun either. 

[Omnicron]

 

Eder has got a *single vote* of least-likeable companion

 

Now we just need to find out who cast that vote, force them to explain themselves, and set up a tribunal to decide on a fitting punishment!

 

 

 

 

I got to say Eder felt his happy go lucky attitude and emotional thinking was annoying. Man was it LOL funny putting him in that bloody pit. Grieving mother is second worst with her obsession with muh babies, think of the babbies! I love kids but I just wanted to do a babality on the bitch.

 

 

   

 

I voted Hiravias because his humor was off-putting, but maybe if I kept him longer it would have been ok.  I only really found Eder, Aloth, and Durance decent in my ability to get to know them. Grieving Mother also had a fairly personal plot but it was told with a lot of visual description rather than dialogue, which I found interesting, but also distancing. Pallegina I liked as a personality, but her character lacked depth. I have not taken Kana or Sigani yet, but I have had some chats with them. Kana seems as talkative as Jan Jansen, but far less entertaining, which just feel like it could be annoying (can anything ever match the awesomeness of Jan Jansen???  )

Edited May 27, 2015 by Omnicron

[Strange_Trees]

 

Ugh, it's hard to choose because I really liked all the characters   So I ended up voting for Grieving Mother, strictly on a "least likely to be fun at parties" basis.

True but somehow I don't think very many women would find Durance fun either. 

 

I bet he'd be hilarious though :D

[Zwiebelchen]

I bet he'd be hilarious though :D

 

... and then everyone had the pox.

[Tennisgolfboll]

Voted durance.

 

Three small reasons and 1 big one.

 

His quest bugged for me.

 

He eventually was such whiny, grumpy old man i got fed up with him and told him to get lost. Loved that the genocidal murderer torched himself in the end slide.

 

And his comments when eder, aloth etc go down. Yeah smart head your next in line now. Didnt you fight in war, zero battle smarts or what?

 

The big one? He admits to have murdered children and is proud of it, i cant stand that. I was gonna kill him when removed him from the party but he didnt walk away so i could target him but vanished. End slide gave him a fitting end anyway.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Tennisgolfboll

[Faerunner]

Sorry Durance fans, he's probably the only companion I actively dislike.

 

I'm a little more neutral on Hiravias and Pallegina too, but it's not that I dislike them so much as their charm just doesn't appeal to me. (I would like Hiravias except his "dirty humor" can get laid on a little thick, to the point that I sometimes feel like I need a shower, even if I find his lighthearted humor legitimately funny and a much-needed mood relief from how dark and depressing the setting can get.)

 

I'm surprised that so many people dislike Kana. I thought he was very likable personality-wise, and very useful chant- and invocation-wise. Oh well, I guess I'm not a very good judge of character.

[Nakia]

Sorry Durance fans, he's probably the only companion I actively dislike.

 

I'm a little more neutral on Hiravias and Pallegina too, but it's not that I dislike them so much as their charm just doesn't appeal to me. (I would like Hiravias except his "dirty humor" can get laid on a little thick, to the point that I sometimes feel like I need a shower, even if I find his lighthearted humor legitimately funny and a much-needed mood relief from how dark and depressing the setting can get.)

 

I'm surprised that so many people dislike Kana. I thought he was very likable personality-wise, and very useful chant- and invocation-wise. Oh well, I guess I'm not a very good judge of character.

I think you are a very good judge of character.  I like Kana too.  He is an intellect and intellects can be annoying or boring to some people.  

[Zwiebelchen]

I'm surprised that so many people dislike Kana. I thought he was very likable personality-wise, and very useful chant- and invocation-wise. Oh well, I guess I'm not a very good judge of character.

 

I think it's not that people dislike Kana. I also thought that he was generally likeable.

However, I think the biggest flaw about Kana is that rarely anyone ever picks him up to have in the party. Because Chanters more or less only matter in PotD (and only few people play at this difficulty setting) - and even then, their contribution is up to debate. So he suffers from bad mechanics just aswell as Pallegina.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[Drath]

Least liked was Durance for me. Couldn't stand his horrible acerbic personality. He might be pretty well written dialogue wise (I found the amount of text, a tad heavy though) but saying dumb things about party members when they're knocked out from a hit is pretty much a no-no for me.

Gameplay wise, I never felt like I needed a priest in the game. I got him early on hoping that he would be able to provide some healing for the party (1st playthrough, starting off blind with no idea of health/endurance mechanics) and was rather disappointed when I found out he could only heal endurance and not health. Didn't really need that as Eder has Constant Recovery to help keep himself up. Generally I felt that if the other party members were getting hit consistently enough, there was probably something I could have done better in that fight anyhow, or should come back to it at a later date. As I try to minimize my rests, a class needing them doesn't suit my playstyle. His early spells are nice to have, but nothing game changing and in most cases I couldn't really tell if I would have gotten out of a battle in significantly better shape if he had expended a few of them. Aside from Priests having both bad base Deflection and Accuracy, Durance is also saddled with horrible Dex on top of that, so he wasn't impressive at low levels as a heavy armor offtank, a 2nd line reach weapon user or even a ranged combatant.
His functionality certainly improved at L9 but by then I had enough of his prattling that I didn't really care. A Paladin or Chanter could provide needed support in his place.


My favorite was Eder. Happy-go-lucky, humorous, can-do attitude. I liked his party banter: stroking Itumaak, buying a drink for Iselmyr, etc. Gameplay wise, you'll be needing some sort of tank in-game and Eder's a solid one, make no mistake, while still doing a reasonable amount of damage.
 

 

 

I'm surprised that so many people dislike Kana. I thought he was very likable personality-wise, and very useful chant- and invocation-wise. Oh well, I guess I'm not a very good judge of character.

 

I think it's not that people dislike Kana. I also thought that he was generally likeable.

However, I think the biggest flaw about Kana is that rarely anyone ever picks him up to have in the party. Because Chanters more or less only matter in PotD (and only few people play at this difficulty setting) - and even then, their contribution is up to debate. So he suffers from bad mechanics just aswell as Pallegina.

 

 

Same here. I didn't dislike him. I thought his comments rather amusing at times. I can't say his portrait or his character model appeals to me though. Shades of the Na'vi race from Avatar (movie) but rendered in a way that didn't strike me.

I brought him along as a party member for a good while too and he was pulling his own weight, especially in longer battles where invocations came into play. But I needed to make way for a cipher in Grieving Mother (best class to pair up with a Rogue main IMHO), needed Aloth for AoE, Eder was mandatory for tanking, Sagani was solid for dps while also providing a pet to tank with, and I had just picked up Pallegina... so someone had to go

Edited June 1, 2015 by Drath

[Krajzen]

I don't know how people can vote for Durance. I mean, I understand why - he is completely insane :D - but he is so well written and interesting character I can not like him just because I don't like his motivations. And mentality. And erotic retardation. And lack of hygiene. And the fact he is completely insane. Oh well.

 

Same with Grieving Mother, she is creepy but too fascinating character to me not like her.

 

(not to mention the fact these two are getting more likeable the more you know them)

 

 

My least favourite character is probably Kana. Not really sure why as I like aumauans and unorthodox races. I found him super boring. Wise giant chanter? Here his originality ends and he turns to be easygoing joking combat machine without depth.

 

Some people prefer simple, nice guys like him over desperate crazy Durance or telepathic midwife Grieving Mother or other weird, controversial characters. I have a friend who always sides with more moderate, nice clean typical heroes. I always prefer crazier or more problematic sidekicks. In Mass Effect I was a fan of Jack, bald female tattoed psyched criminal telepath with emotional issues, as well as of Javik - super pessimistic egocentric ****. I was trying to understand them and decide whether they are silly freaks or well-written characters.

 

This doesn't change the fact Eder is my favourite companion in PoE, he is impossible not to love :D

[Zwiebelchen]

Some people prefer simple, nice guys like him over desperate crazy Durance or telepathic midwife Grieving Mother or other weird, controversial characters. I have a friend who always sides with more moderate, nice clean typical heroes. I always prefer crazier or more problematic sidekicks. In Mass Effect I was a fan of Jack, bald female tattoed psyched criminal telepath with emotional issues, as well as of Javik - super pessimistic egocentric ****. I was trying to understand them and decide whether they are silly freaks or well-written characters.

 

Yeah I'm a sucker for weird. I'm pretty sure I'd make hot steaming mind-love to GM if the game allowed me. :D

 

...

Wait, that sounded just wrong on so many levels.

 

For crazy problematic sidekicks, I'd vote for HK-47 in the KOTOR series. Genocidal killer droids ftw...

[tinysalamander]

 

 

I don't know how people can vote for Durance.

For example, you play a priest of Eothas and see a raving lunatic that wants to join you, rambling about who knows what goddess (which turns out to be a goddess of war) and fate… Dunno, I just said no and moved on. He should've sneak around my party, though, if he was that desperate. Maybe he did, and the game just didn't show it

[Crucis]

I don't get why Kana, Durance and Hiravias scored so high on the dislike list. Among all the characters, I've found Aloth and Pallegina the most unlikeable ones.

 

Kana is more or less just looking for knowledge and has some funny and interesting dialogue; I don't really know what's not to like about him. Unless people voted for mechanics (granted, chanters are pretty useless outside of PotD mode) here. Also, he seemed reasonable and his dialogue was easy to follow (unlike Durance, who was just very confusing to follow).

Kana and Eder are probably those guys you'd want in your adventure group for being good pals.

 

Hiravias is ... a simpleton. Which makes a lot of sense, considering that as a druid he is half-creature half-man. I enjoyed his dialogue and that he wasn't quite as lore-dumpy as some of the other characters. Maybe it's just me but I like people that are easy to follow and understand.

 

Durance... I can understand why people find him annoying... simply because he has an obscene amount of option dialogue...

At first, I didn't like him aswell, as he dumps loads of lore at you right at the beginning [sorry, Obsidian, but there are much better ways to deliver narrative than huge walls of text!] and his way of talking is just ... hard to follow at times. But by the time I actually went through his quest, I noticed that he actually has many likable traits. He's definitely one of the most multi-dimensional characters in PoE.

 

Grieving Mother... wow, I don't know why she got so many votes. This character is awesome. Not only does she have the most interesting and relatable backstory, but she is also a warm-hearted, yet misguided person that you just want to cure. Her quest conclusion felt extremely satisfying to me. It was the only companion quest that I really felt good about completing. She just kind of put too much heart into what she did and then ended up making unrational decisions, ignoring the consequences. It's the perfect example of how to write a character that feels altruistic and caring, without the pitfalls of a mary-sue character.

 

Sagani was a very down-to-earth character. But compared to Kana and Eder, she felt a little bit more bland, without much memorable dialogue (also, way too many fantasy nouns in her dialogue). But then again I didn't complete her quest, so maybe things get more interesting here. I'll definitely pick her in my next playthrough just to see what she has to offer.

 

Pallegina was just annoying right from the start. She definitely felt like a pure lore-dump to me without any memorable character traits, quotes or just about anything that makes a character interesting. On top of that, she is most likely the last character you will pick up and as a paladin suffers a lot from the mechanics aswell. Boring, weak and lore-dumpy is never a good combination.

 

So, why did I vote for Aloth and not Pallegina?

Let's be fair: I instantly liked the idea behind Aloth when I picked him up the first time. But once I advanced through his questline and through the game, he was a complete disappointment. He was okay mechanics-wise; nothing to complain about, but his dialogues were few, his connections to the leaden key felt like an optional afterthought and the whole split personality thing never really mattered. It was completely weird that all the other characters seemed to constantly pick on him about Iselmyr, when literally the only situation in which Iselmyr actually manifested was in the sanitarium. For a character that shows up very early in the game, he just doesn't have enough meaningful dialogue.

He gets my vote for the biggest disappointment.

 

OK, I'll bite.

 

Not a real bit fan of Kana because I've never been a big fan of bards/chanters in general.  They just don't do it for me.  I don't hate Kana.  I just don't like him much either.  I do appreciate him as an adventurous scholarly type though.

 

Durance?  Seriously?  It's easy to see why some people don't like him.  The guy participated in the Purges.  He's not exactly a likeable character.  That doesn't mean that he's a bad character, just not exactly likeable.

 

GM?  I think that maybe some people were turned off by her personal "quest".  Maybe.

 

Pallegina?  I can't see why you don't like her.  I love her.  I love her voice, in particular, because it gives her a much needed foreign/exotic touch that's lacking in, for example, Sagani.  I'll admit that in combat, she's nothing special, but as a character, I enjoy having her around.  But then again, I like paladin characters in general, so I'm probably biased.  Frankly, Pallegina's wonderfully exotic voice almost carries the entire character.

 

As for Sagani, I don't mind her personal quest.  It seems interesting enough.  My problem with her is that her voice is so freaking bland for an isolated culture.  IIRC, isolated cultures tend to produce rather strong accents, and Sagani's accent is totally non-existent.  She might as well be a ranger from Dyrwood.  Her voice has no character, IMO.  Let me be clear.  I don't dislike Sagani's character or usefulness in combat.  But I seriously dislike her ridiculously bland voice for the reasons I state above.  Her voice is the polar opposite of Pallegina's.  And IMO, Sagani's voice is the worst of all the companions, by far.

 

Speaking of voices with character, IMO, a voice that was sadly underused was Calisca, the tutorial NPC fighter.  Her voice has a nice touch of a backwoodsy accent and real character unlike Sagani's which was as bland as white bread.

[srlapo]

Speaking of voices with character, IMO, a voice that was sadly underused was Calisca, the tutorial NPC fighter.  Her voice has a nice touch of a backwoodsy accent and real character unlike Sagani's which was as bland as white bread.

Ah, "Astrid" from Skyrim. She did one of the PC voices as well, I think.

Edited June 2, 2015 by srlapo

[Zwiebelchen]

Damn, why are all voice actresses always totally hot?

 

 

Speaking of voices with character, IMO, a voice that was sadly underused was Calisca, the tutorial NPC fighter.  Her voice has a nice touch of a backwoodsy accent and real character unlike Sagani's which was as bland as white bread.

Ah, "Astrid" from Skyrim. She did one of the PC voices as well, I think.

 

 

I don't know why, but voice actresses are always smokingly hot. Does it come with the job?