Least Liked Companions

[Drath]

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.

 

 

A priest who can't heal Health and says crap every time someone goes down is about as jarring as a doctor who didn't manage to treat someone effectively in his/her care and makes a sarcastic joke about it. Another equivalent would be when asked to go to battle, instead of moving to the frontlines, Eder stays put and says "Welp that's a lot of spiders there, and you know how I feel about poison. Tell you what, send the priest instead while I go make myself a sandwich. Pretty sure you guys can handle it " ...except of course that doesn't happen. Honestly I'm surprised Durance doesn't get a 2/3rds majority of the vote.

 

P/S - I'll take hot, steaming mind-love over rabid insanity anytime

[Nakia]

Eder does suggest feeding him to the Amancer in  the Heritage Hill tower.      I will say this for Durance he does seem to be the one person in game that suspects that the gods aren't what they appear/claim to be.

[Drath]

Eder does suggest feeding him to the Amancer in  the Heritage Hill tower.      I will say this for Durance he does seem to be the one person in game that suspects that the gods aren't what they appear/claim to be.

 

Damn I'll have to replay that part again then just to hear Eder say it, maybe give him a brofist when he says that

Too bad I subbed Durance out for Pallegina just before the tower. Wanted another tank, not dead weight once spells expended.

 

P/S - But seriously its nice to revisit scenes with different characters if only to hear what they have to say. At the animancy hearing, Aloth and Pallegina were fairly vocal, followed by Grieving Mother. The rest not so much. Its nice to see where they stand on things even if it has no real impact in the game. Oh yea Durance didn't say a thing then, but he did make some sarcastic remarks about the Watcher in the aftermath of it. Typical, wouldn't expect any different from him.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Drath

[Crucis]

 

Eder does suggest feeding him to the Amancer in  the Heritage Hill tower.      I will say this for Durance he does seem to be the one person in game that suspects that the gods aren't what they appear/claim to be.

 

Damn I'll have to replay that part again then just to hear Eder say it, maybe give him a brofist when he says that

Too bad I subbed Durance out for Pallegina just before the tower. Wanted another tank, not dead weight once spells expended.

 

P/S - But seriously its nice to revisit scenes with different characters if only to hear what they have to say. At the animancy hearing, Aloth and Pallegina were fairly vocal, followed by Grieving Mother. The rest not so much. Its nice to see where they stand on things even if it has no real impact in the game. Oh yea Durance didn't say a thing then, but he did make some sarcastic remarks about the Watcher in the aftermath of it. Typical, wouldn't expect any different from him.

 

 

Trust me.  Durance makes up for it later.  When you're talking to the various gods in the Council of Stars, Durance can't shut up.  It's a wonder that one of the gods didn't send a lightning bolt down his way to shut his pie hole.

 

[Faerunner]

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.

 

I see. That surprises me, since I found Kana's Chanter skills very helpful to the group. It's true that every chanter I ever tried to play took until the end of the battle to get chants or invocations going, but Kana's seemed to work instantly. Battle starts, his big baritone booms out (I love alliteration =), and the party is instantly hit with a very useful buff. Since my party started performing in battle noticeably better after Kana tagged along, I found him very useful on top of being likable.

 

Oh well, I guess my experience was different from others'.

 

 

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

 

I feel your pain there. =( Sagani is easily one of my most favorite companions and even characters in the whole game, but I also couldn't take her with me after a while because the group needed different skills. On my first playthrough my main character was a ranged hunter ranger with an animal companion, so her skills wound up being redundant at best. I tried really hard to keep her around, but finally had to face the fact that she wasn't working. Sad day. =(

 

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.

 

To be honest, from where I'm standing, they're all well-written and interesting. Durance isn't the only one, so he doesn't automatically get brownie points for it from me. Since I think all the companions are interesting and well-written, and we have eight but can only travel with five, I'd rather bring along companions I actually like (whose comments and party banter make me laugh, smile, and feel warm in the heart) rather than suffering through a character whose every word makes me sigh, groan, and roll my eyes.

 

Just because a character is well-written and interesting doesn't mean people have to like what's there. People can very well acknowledge "He's well-written and/or interesting," and still follow up with: "And I don't like him."

Edited June 2, 2015 by Faerunner

[Zwiebelchen]

 

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.

 

I see. That surprises me, since I found Kana's Chanter skills very helpful to the group. It's true that every chanter I ever tried to play took until the end of the battle to get chants or invocations going, but Kana's seemed to work instantly. Battle starts, his big baritone booms out (I love alliteration =), and the party is instantly hit with a very useful buff. Since my party started performing in battle noticeably better after Kana tagged along, I found him very useful on top of being likable.

 

Oh well, I guess my experience was different from others'.

 

The general problem with chanters is, that they don't scale very well. They are great at the beginning of the game, because of the summon phantom spell. Granted, you won't have the phantom until building up three phrases, but it's strong enough to still make a difference.

 

However, as the game progresses and the party rises in level, chanters become weaker and weaker. And while the phrases actually become more powerful, they also take longer to perform. The next issue is with invocations requiring more and more phrases as you progress in level. A level 1 invocation takes 3 phrases, a level 2 invocation takes 4 phrases, etc.

 

So basicly, you have to decide between using weak and short phrases to build up invocation stacks fast or you decide to use long and strong phrases and suffer from basicly never using invocations at all. Both is clearly not optimal. And even if you decide to ditch powerful phrases and stack fast, you still have the problem that you need more and more phrases to get to the more powerful invocations out.

While all other characters get bigger/better/faster/stronger with progressing level, the chanter actually gets weaker in comparison.

 

Chanters clearly need an overhaul. They are great at low levels, but they simply can not keep up with the rest of the party on the long run.

[srlapo]

Chanters make great sword and board tanks. Not because they are particularly great at that role, but because their chants are not affected by dexterity. You can just dump dex to three and focus on maxing out deflection with little consequence to their chant/invocation offensive and support abilities. I usually just stick to the chant that creates an aura of damage while I am charging up for the summon and then switch to something with a bit more bite, like Dragon Thrashed/Wailed. They are the only class that makes tanking less passive and boring.

 

Back on topic, I am surprised that Durance gets so few votes. The poll isn't the best written character, it is the least likable one. Durance is both. Him and Aloth get my vote. My only regret is that the blood pool will only take one.

[Faerunner]

*shrug* Again, I didn't experience that problem with Kana. Probably because I played on easy, always had a full party, and relegated him to the back as time went on. I thought his chants, invocations, and occasional spells/summons remained helpful though. (Although it probably helps that he's a companion rather than the main character.)

 

Oh well, back on topic. I agree with srlapo regarding the poll. It's not for best-written characters, it's for least likable. Durance may be well-written, but that doesn't automatically mean he's likable.

 

I personally never understood the expectation that just because something is well-made means people have to like it. To me, asking, "How can you not like Durance? He's interesting and well-written" is like asking, "How can you not like this fish fillet? It has interesting spices and is a well-made dish." And? I still don't like fish. Dressing up something that's not to my taste doesn't erase that it's not to my taste.

[Nakia]

I think Durance is well written because he is so unlikable.  Each potential party member is well written and each one is different as they should be.    They balance each other out nicely in my opinion.  

[GreyFox]

None of them are particularly awesome...I'd rather have had 15+ basic companions in the BG1 vein...the reason they stuck to a low amount was supposed to be quality but that's not there either. I'd call the "good" companions tolerable rather than good and some are downright terrible like people have said about Pallegina. 

IF  they had turned out good then I wouldn't mind the small count but seeing it the way it actually is...

 

I always have my main and 2 hired adventurers because I can only tolerate these NPCs for so long.

Edited June 3, 2015 by GreyFox

[Crucis]

None of them are particularly awesome...I'd rather have had 15+ basic companions in the BG1 vein...the reason they stuck to a low amount was supposed to be quality but that's not there either. I'd call the "good" companions tolerable rather than good and some are downright terrible like people have said about Pallegina. 

IF  they had turned out good then I wouldn't mind the small count but seeing it the way it actually is...

 

I always have my main and 2 hired adventurers because I can only tolerate these NPCs for so long.

 

I realize that it's all personal taste, but Pallegina's my FAVORITE Companion (not for her combat abilities, but for everything else), if for no other reason than her utterly wonderful voice!  I absolutely love her wonderfully exotic, richly accented voice!  It's exactly what the Companions need more of, not less of!

 

I will admit that I wish that there were more Companions, even if they weren't voice acted, or didn't have personal quests.  And were only limited to the occasional banter.  At a minimum, it would have been nice to have the other 3 classes, not covered by the first 8 Companions, included  (i.e. a rogue, a barbarian, and a monk).  And I have hopes that maybe in the expansion, the Devs will add in companions for those 3 classes.  (Please?  Pretty please????)

Edited June 3, 2015 by Crucis

[Talwyn224]

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.

 

 

Yeah this pretty much sums up my dislike for Durance.

 

I think all of the companions are well written and Durance's back story... well as he said, he burned people alive which I find utterly horrific and, since I was playing a kind wayfarer paladin, would be expect repulsed and disgusted by hearing that from someone who is supposed to be your ally. Also he's not not good as a priest as many have pointed out so on my 2nd play thru I will not be picking him up at all. I wouldn't even want him in Caed Nua to clean the privies as he has too much blood on his hands and is unrepentant and more than a little insane to have hanging around your stronghold. In fact I think if you do recruit him he should lower your reputation in general and as mentioned before, he really should have had more negative random banter with all the party members thus making it really hard to justify keeping him in the party. Personally I'm glad he burned himself to death at the end, its a fitting punishment for such a damaged soul. I must say again though that this is good writing as it's elicited an emotional response from me.

 

As for the rest of the companions, well I quite liked all of them as they all brought different things along with them Eder is the dependable guy, Kana is the fun loving bard, Pallegina is the noble but not right so holy & righteous paladin, Sagani is just a decent tribeswoman trying to forefill her  traditions, Aloth has flaws but admits his mistakes and vows to make amends if you give him a 2nd chance, Hiravias is just fun and is an awesome combat DPS wisecracking beast plus he & my PC seemed to have some interesting random banter which I didn't expect and thus made me like the dude even more and GM had the most intriguing story of all.

[Fardragon]

I didn't really dislike any of them. Which made a refreshing change from the NWN2 OC, where I disliked ALL of them.

[Fardragon]

 

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.

 

I liked that Sagani didn't have some fo-ethnic accent.

 

I couldn't take Dragon Age: Inquisition seriously because all the stupid accents. It reminded me of 'Allo 'Allo*. I was waiting for Leliana to say "Leesten very carefully, I vill say theese only varnce".

 

 

* An old British sitcom set in occupied France during WWII, in which all the characters spoke with deliberately fake French and German accents.

[Crucis]

 

 

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.

 

I liked that Sagani didn't have some fo-ethnic accent.

 

I couldn't take Dragon Age: Inquisition seriously because all the stupid accents. It reminded me of 'Allo 'Allo*. I was waiting for Leliana to say "Leesten very carefully, I vill say theese only varnce".

 

 

* An old British sitcom set in occupied France during WWII, in which all the characters spoke with deliberately fake French and German accents.

 

 

I guess that we differ on this.  I think that the NPCs in this game that are the most memorable are those with the least bland voices.  And Sagani tops the list of bland voices.  I liked the dead animancer that you have to talk to in Gilded Vale.  I liked Pallegina.  I liked Calisca.  

 

In a world where there are clearly different languages and accents and isolated cultures, the idea that someone coming from those isolated cultures has a total non-accent fails the laugh test.  It's one thing for native Dyrwoodans to have a bland non-accent.  They're sort of the baseline local culture for the immediate setting of the game.  But for people coming from thousands of miles away, from different and sometimes isolated cultures, they should never have a bland accent.  

 

I also sort of thought that Sagani's voice sounded too ... I don't know ... sweet.  I think that a rougher, sort of deeper voice, sort of like Calisca's would have been more appropriate, though with a different accent.  Calisca's accent sounds sort of like backwoods Dyrwoodan, but the tone and timbre of her voice are just a little deeper than that of Sagani's.

 

 

[Fardragon]

I figured Sagini has a light voice because, as a dwarf, she isn't very big!

 

And she definitely doesn't have a non-accent, she sounds distinctively North American. Call that Dyrwoodian if you like, but as an intelligent, sophisticated person, she would speak a foreign language with the accent of the people she learned from, not some broken pidgin.

[Nakia]

I agree with  Crucis;  The actress who did Sagani has a lovely voice but I didn't feel it suited the part.  It was too educated. I lived in New York city for 25 years where you will hear such a multitude of accents.   We all have accents and the trick is choosing the right accent for the part.  I loved "Allo, Allo" but it was a farce meant to be laughed at and thus over done.  

[Fardragon]

Sagini is SUPPOSED to be well educated.

 

It's turning the cliche of the primitive barbarian from the unsophisticated culture on it's head. Her culture is just as sophisticated as the Dyrwoodians, if not more so.

 

 

The accents in Allo Allo and DA:I where overdone. The difference is, Allo Allo was SUPPOSED to be a farce!

Edited June 9, 2015 by Fardragon

[Nakia]

Yes she is well educated in how to live in a harsh climate where a lot of college educated people would die rather quickly.    She probably speaks perfect whatever language they speak but even traveling around for five years wouldn't completely rub off her accent.  She would still have a trace.  I doubt she would take the time to have elocution lessons.    People raised in Virginia have an accent even when having a Doctorate degree unless they intentionally learn what is called Standard American English. 

 

 

Pallegina is a paladin and since she is expected to represent the Vailian Republics so I assume has some training besides how to fight but she has an accent, a beautiful accent that makes her stand out.  It fits her and adds to her charm.

 

I have a friend who was born and raised in Texas, fourth generation Texan, he has a college education is very intelligent is a historian and a very good writer but he does have a Texas accent.   I could go on and one.   The point is that an accent doesn't mean you are stupid or backwards in fact as I posted before we all have accents.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Nakia

[Fardragon]

You are kind of missing my point. Sagini most definitely does have an accent. It may be that you aren't hearing it because her accent is very similar to you own local accent, but she sounds very foreign to me. I didn't think Pallegina had a particularly strong accent.

 

You seem to be expecting mistakes in pronunciation - which intelligent, well travelled people tend not to make, unless they learned the language from non-native speakers in the first place (or it's an affectation, which I find many French are prone to when speaking English).

Edited June 9, 2015 by Fardragon

[Crucis]

You are kind of missing my point. Sagini most definitely does have an accent. It may be that you aren't hearing it because her accent is very similar to you own local accent, but she sounds very foreign to me. I didn't think Pallegina had a particularly strong accent.

 

You seem to be expecting mistakes in pronunciation - which intelligent, well travelled people tend not to make, unless they learned the language from non-native speakers in the first place (or it's an affectation, which I find many French are prone to when speaking English).

 

 

Good gawd, the only way that someone could think that Pallegina doesn't have a strong accent is if they were Italian.  Compared to the bland American/Dyrwoodan "accent", Pallegina's accent is extremely pronounced. Maybe not as thick as it could be.  But if it were a lot thicker, it'd start getting to the point where it wouldn't be understandable for most people.  So, I'd say that Pallegina's accent is strong, while remaining understandable.

 

As for Sagani, accents are sort of relative.  Everyone has one, relative to other people.  That said, I don't buy the logic that Sagani should have a Dyrwoodan accent.  That sounds like a total reach and complete BS to me. 

[Fardragon]

Pallegina's accent isn't Italian. More Bulgarian if anything. But I'm used to listening to European accents, living near London, so it doesn't sound unusual to me. American accents, I only hear on TV.

 

The thing about learning languages though is most people do it at school in their own country. So I learned to speak French with an English accent because I was using it with English speakers, not French speakers. But if you first learn a language by being immersed in it, and you are good at language acquisition, you will learn to speak with the accent of the people around you. About the only way to tell that such people are not speaking their native language is their pronunciation tends to be a bit TO good*. Native speakers get sloppy.

 

I used to teach at a college for overseas students in London, so I have quite a lot of experience in working with people for whom English is a second, third, or fourth language.

 

*Idiom can also be a bit of a givaway. The words "lend a hand" translate easier than the meaning!

Edited June 9, 2015 by Fardragon

[Nakia]

 Fardragon has a point.  Sagani speaks with  excellent Standard American English which would sound foreign to him but bland to me.  If she had a posh English accent he might understand why we from the USA find her accent not in character.  I do have VA training and I do notice differences in accent.  Standard American English is an accent invented by voice coaches for Radio announcers so that there would be a standard  accent understandable by the majority of people in the USA.  For someone not accustom to hearing this accent or a very similar one on a daily basis it would sound exotic.  

 

Here is a link that someone interested in the subject might enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBXVPerzYqk

[Crucis]

Sorry, I'm not buying it, Nakia.  Just not. 

[Strange_Trees]

 Fardragon has a point.  Sagani speaks with  excellent Standard American English which would sound foreign to him but bland to me.  If she had a posh English accent he might understand why we from the USA find her accent not in character.  I do have VA training and I do notice differences in accent.  Standard American English is an accent invented by voice coaches for Radio announcers so that there would be a standard  accent understandable by the majority of people in the USA.  For someone not accustom to hearing this accent or a very similar one on a daily basis it would sound exotic.  

 

Here is a link that someone interested in the subject might enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBXVPerzYqk

 

Interesting! Something about how Sagani spoke always seemed notable to me, but I could never put my finger on why. Although I'm not American (Polish-Canadian) and I can't really differentiate American accents very well. Although I've noticed pretty much all of the companions have noticeable accents to me; Aloth, Edér, Pallegina, Kana, and Hiravias all have noticeable accents. Grieving Mother always sounds strange and detached, and Durance sounds like a chain-smoker to me