Companion respec via IEMOD

[bartlebooth]

So I can see that you can use IEMOD to respec your companions (including stats). http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console

Has anyone encountered problems later in the game due to doing this? Given that it looks likely this will be introduced in 2.0 anyway, is it worth the risk? I'd love for Pallegina to be a competent tank, but would rather not gimp my save.

[Cantousent]

If I remember from the last time I played, there's a setting to allow you to respec your companions. Let me dig around for it and then I'll let you know... assuming one of our most erudite members doesn't beat me to it. :Cant's expectant grin icon:

[bartlebooth]

There's an option to set companions at level 1 when you first meet them, however the character stats are fixed. This is what I really want to change.

[Cantousent]

Frankly, I think stats aren't nearly as important as abilities. However, I'm trying to remember and I don't think that the setting allows for the resetting of stats. It does, however, allow the player to select attributes from level 1 as I recall. I would at least try it before you install a mod to do the same thing.

 

EDIT: I was posting this as you responded, so I guess the answer is to assess how important it is to you.

[bartlebooth]

Allows you to select talents and abilities, not attributes (which I wrongly called stats). I do have this enabled, however your attributes directly affect how useful abilities/talents are, hence why I'd like to reset them. There's no way to do this in an unmodded game currently.

[Nobear]

So I can see that you can use IEMOD to respec your companions (including stats). http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console

Has anyone encountered problems later in the game due to doing this? Given that it looks likely this will be introduced in 2.0 anyway, is it worth the risk? I'd love for Pallegina to be a competent tank, but would rather not gimp my save.

 

The link you gave tells you how to do it without the IE mod. Scroll down to "31. Utility." Toward the bottom it lists the AttributeScore command.

 

Now, have I encountered problems trying to change things even without the mod? You bet, in 1.0.6 moreover. The first time I ever tried to use a console command, it was simply to remove the Hold the Line talent from my two tanks and add something else for each in its place. I tried over and over, and it bugged or glitched something every time. The glitches did not go away by traveling to a new area, or by saving and reloading.

 

The glitches were that a line on the character sheet would become corrupted with garbled text. Furthermore, the talent I'd try to add in its place wouldn't get added successfully. Ok, sometimes I'd successfully add Cautious Attack to one tank, but adding One-Handed Style to the other wouldn't work. It wouldn't complain that the command was invalid, but nothing would happen and the talent wouldn't get added.

 

So, after that, I just continued to restart my whole game any time I learned something new about the game mechanics and realized I'd been building a suboptimal party. Now I'm in Act 3 and got to the bottom of Od Nua, so I may actually successfully refrain from restarting again until I at least beat the game once. I don't think I'll ever trust my saved game to the console commands, though.

 

Let's keep letting the devs know of our interest in a respec option in 2.0. Last I read from a dev, there were no guarantees the feature would make it. That said, if it's going to be more than a one-time respec for people whose builds will break from the upcoming Perception change, I think it should disable achievements and be unusable with expert mode. Alternately, they could implement some very high in-game cost to using it, or otherwise severely cap the number of times it can be used.

[Cantousent]

Even on hard, though, the stats (attributes) are less important than the rest of the build in terms of function. If you're playing on the hardest settings for bragging rights, then nothing else matters. I'm on board with respeccing. That's all good, but it just seems to me that Pallegina isn't such a bad tank as long as her perks (whatever they're called) are selected properly. I mean, in my first full run, Eder managed to do pretty well with nothing more than his initial build.

 

Of course, that's my take, so I expect push-back where folks feel some personal investment. That and I'll just claim diminished capacity at this point.

 

Furthermore, I'm all for allowing respeccing. I don't think it's necessary, but I think it's cool for players, although I also think there's something to be said for players overcoming sub-optimal builds for *NPCs.* Players should *generally* be able to decide the specifics about the PC, of course.

[gkathellar]

Cant basically has the right of it. You can steamroll the whole of the game on PotD, including the Endless Paths and the Adra Dragon, using the existing companions and their stats. I know, because I finished doing it like two days ago. I had Pallegina in particular specced as a shield-using offtank, and I'm pretty sure that by endgame she could have soloed just about anything other than the boss/miniboss fights.

 

The two most important things in this game are talent choices and player skill. Attribute spreads are certainly important, but as long as they're not aggressively bad, you'll do fine.

[Nobear]

Overall I agree with the above two posters. The only half-compelling reason I could see to respec the companions is to achieve that feeling of "perfection," or to try to get as close to it as possible in this game. As stated above, that's not necessary to do even on PoTD, but if you'd rather seek "perfection" and control over attribute spreads, you can always hire adventurers at an inn.

 

Given that the game is beatable on PoTD with all companions aside from your main, I'd personally rather have their backstories, banter, and dialogue interjections along with me. You just can't have the best of both worlds. It's meant to be that way, you know, because the attribute spreads of companions were designed to make RP sense, rather than to be optimal but unrealistic.

[Cantousent]

I actually don't mind sub-optimal NPCs. Sometimes you see builds that are just plain crazy for NPCs and *those* sometimes get on my nerves. As long as there's a story based reason for the decisions and the character is viable, I'm pretty happy with taking NPCs the way they are. Even with all that, I'll probably still use the respeccing option if they put one in because of exactly what you said, Nobear. It's just cool to tweak your party to exactly what you want and still keep the NPC dialogue.

[Gary1986]

So I can see that you can use IEMOD to respec your companions (including stats). http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console

Has anyone encountered problems later in the game due to doing this? Given that it looks likely this will be introduced in 2.0 anyway, is it worth the risk? I'd love for Pallegina to be a competent tank, but would rather not gimp my save.

 

We going to get companion attribute respec in 2.0 update?

[Nobear]

 

So I can see that you can use IEMOD to respec your companions (including stats). http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console

Has anyone encountered problems later in the game due to doing this? Given that it looks likely this will be introduced in 2.0 anyway, is it worth the risk? I'd love for Pallegina to be a competent tank, but would rather not gimp my save.

 

We going to get companion attribute respec in 2.0 update?

 

This was in no way promised by the devs. I remember one thread from just after the planned Perception change was first leaked. A dev responded to my request for a respec option, saying it was one idea that had been considered, but that he couldn't say whether it'd make it into the expansion, because it would require significant work and they have a lot of other ideas to consider. This was in reference to the idea of a one-time respec to allow players to adjust their builds to the planned Perception change. There was no mention of companions.

 

We have no idea whether the devs have even decided it was worth implementing a respec option for the expansion, let alone the details of how it would be implemented.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Nobear

[Cantousent]

Yeah, and if it's the same thread I remember about it, some of the members here were quite invested in *not* having a respec option. I don't see why I should care if folks get a respec option or not, although, as we've discussed, I wouldn't clamor for it just to change the attribute stats. The way attributes work in the game, it's just not big of a deal.

 

Really, none of the NPC characterisitcs is all that important and the reason I say that is, if you're having an undue amount of difficulty beating the game as is on normal, then the problem is probably more with inexperience or the inability to grasp some of the gameplay mechanics. That's not a dig at folks. After all, there's no shame If you're simply new to the genre or something like that. Even if you're experienced but find these games difficult, there's neither shame nor servitude in that either. However, if the problem *is* grasping game mechanics, then respeccing won't do you much good. You have to know what a good build is before you can respec to something significantly better. If you don't know what to do, then there's no use in respeccing. Conversely, if you do know what to do, you can create a better build for your NPCs, but you won't need to do so because the builds as they exist are perfectly viable.

[bartlebooth]

Thanks very much for the responses, really helpful. I'm still fairly early game (level 5) and not having too much trouble now I'm getting the hang of the mechanics, it's more just wanting my cake (companions who contribute to the narrative) and eating it too (wishing GM had more Might and Pallegina was a bit more focused). I'm just being a control freak.

I know respec wasn't officially promised by devs in 2.0, but did see something that hinted it was coming. Probably what NoBear is talking about, so sounds like if we do get anything like that it's a one off for the player character. We'll just have to wait and see. I definitely won't be mucking around in the console now.

[gkathellar]

I know respec wasn't officially promised by devs in 2.0, but did see something that hinted it was coming. Probably what NoBear is talking about, so sounds like if we do get anything like that it's a one off for the player character. We'll just have to wait and see. I definitely won't be mucking around in the console now.

 

IIRC, more has been said about the prospect on Something Awful than anywhere else. What has been indicated about it is that it may be accessible multiple times, but is likely to be prohibitively expensive (in game, of course) if that's true. I don't think anything's been said on the subject of PC vs. companions, alas.

 

That said, Console Commands other than IE's additions are totally stable, so if you really want, adjusting attributes and ability choices the slow way won't muck up your game.

 

Thanks very much for the responses, really helpful. I'm still fairly early game (level 5) and not having too much trouble now I'm getting the hang of the mechanics, it's more just wanting my cake (companions who contribute to the narrative) and eating it too (wishing GM had more Might and Pallegina was a bit more focused). I'm just being a control freak.

 

Just a few tips for these two characters from my recent PotD playthrough:

 

 

You can mitigate GM's weaknesses to some extent by going for the standard Blunderbuss-expert Cipher build, which will still deal pretty nice damage even with her lower might. Aside from that? Focus on her debuffs, which her high Intelligence and Dexterity play more towards. Ciphers also love accuracy - if you've got any gloves of accuracy, she's a good candidate for using them. None of PoE's casters are really optimized for pure DPS, and while they can still deal a hell of a lot of damage just due to AoE size, their biggest potential contributions lie in debuffing. Finally, if you really, really need more damage from her, Antipathetic Field is difficult to use but has enormous DPS potential.

 

Pallegina's spread is actually pretty reasonable. Better than it looks at first glance, anyway. With a shield (especially with the addition of a draining weapon), she really holds up quite nicely in combat on PotD. She'll never be an offensive powerhouse, but she can hold most foes indefinitely, and the strong defense of paladins does have certain advantages when it comes to throwing out support powers (Liberating and Reviving Exhortations probably top anything else the class can offer) while enemies wail helplessly on them. She's not a great contributor, but I think that's a product of her class more than anything else.

 

[bartlebooth]

Thanks for the build tips, wasn't quite sure if it was worth bothering to spec Palle as a tank.

[Nobear]

That said, Console Commands other than IE's additions are totally stable, so if you really want, adjusting attributes and ability choices the slow way won't muck up your game.

 

I like your advice for the two companions in question, but as far as this statement, speak for yourself lol. I wrote about my experience above. It was so bad, I figured the console commands probably weren't something the devs were even worried about, which is why I haven't made a bug report about it. I couldn't in good conscience recommend to a new player that they risk their game save this way. Well, I think we've convinced Bartlebooth that he doesn't need to worry about companion stats anyway, so it seems like a moot point for him now.

 

To expand about great cipher skills that even Grieving Mother can rock with, here's some that you'll want to keep an eye out for and make sure she takes, in general order of lowest level to highest: Mental Binding, Ectopsychic Echo, Tactical Meld, Borrowed Instincts, and Amplified Wave. I consider those all must-haves that she still regularly uses at max level. Mental Binding is a CC and DPS-boosting enemy debuff, Amplified Wave is a huge radius CC + raw damage power, Tactical Meld and Borrowed Instincts will raise her accuracy through the roof, and Ectopsychic Echo will remain a very high DPS source even at max level. Target a summon with it, march the summon around behind enemy lines, and watch everything melt while GM can resume shooting and regaining Focus. Pain Block can also make the difference between life and death in the very toughest fights in the game, even though decently-built tanks can honestly become practically invincible in all but a small handful of fights from midgame on.

 

Have fun!

Edited July 30, 2015 by Nobear