Companion Stat customization pretty please

[mothra]

Hi,

 

As in most RPGs companions come with predefined set of stats, in POEs case might, dex, int ... etc etc

While you can choose abilities/talents each level up you still have to choose those that profit from their starting stats and the gear you put on them,

especially on higher difficulties. I love higher difficulties that reward preplanning but even more I love using companions.

The Adventurers hall gives you all the options to make crazy party compositions in terms of classes

(to quote Mr. Sawyer: "We are all holy warriors" etc etc)

 

Wasteland2 was a good example of having ridiculous stats/talents on companions since combat was somehow built around unpredictability with rogue chances, weapon jams and the like.

 

One of the reasons I moved to the normal difficulty (aside from trash mob clusterf**k fights) was the way companion stats were handled (or not handled). Especially in the case of Pallegrina I had the impression someone just threw a few 1-20 dice on the floor and filled out her template. Or if they actually give an companion acceptable stats they lock her into horrible gear (for the way i wanna play a rogue... looking at you Devil)

 

So please, just give me those little arrows left/right of my companion stats when I recruit them or put an option in the menue so I can actually fully utilize my companions classes through the whole game and build them the way I like. As it was in POE1 most of my beloved companions were just dead weight compared to the absolute steamroll of an adventurers hall party.

 

I like to roleplay, I disable metainformation ingame, don't put on stat stacking gear to "fool" the system during conversations, don't stealth through 5 maps so I can pick up the grieving mother at lvl3 but at companion stats in PE1 I have enough of "character identity" and just wanna game.

Edited January 29, 2017 by mothra

[Boeroer]

I like that you have to use what's there.

 

And to be honest the stats have not that much of an impact on the performance of the companions. Did a ton of PoE playthroughs. The stats may not be optimal for some builds, but they always worked.

 

And what about the Devil? It's only a breastplate - nothing too restrictive. As a bonus she's immune to mind control and poison. That's way more important than the ability to dress her up. I like the char design of the Devil.

 

If I want a minmaxed or superspecial guy I'll hire an adventurer.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Boeroer

[Messier-31]

Companion Stat customization pretty please

 

So please, just give me those little arrows left/right of my companion stats when I recruit them or put an option in the menue so I can actually fully utilize my companions classes through the whole game and build them the way I like. (...)

 

I like to roleplay, I disable metainformation ingame, don't put on stat stacking gear to "fool" the system (...)

 

Funny, mate. It seems you want to have a cookie and eat it at the same time.

 

If you really like to roleplay, as you claim, then get a grip and play with companions the way they were created by Obsidian. And they were created that way for a reason, because game-wise they are just other people in that world, they have their strenghts and weaknesses. So either suck it up and play with them the "proper roleplaying" way or make yourself an adventurer with desired stats. That's what this option is for anyways, happen somebody doesn't like what he gets.

[PrimeJunta]

One of the reasons I moved to the normal difficulty (aside from trash mob clusterf**k fights) was the way companion stats were handled (or not handled). Especially in the case of Pallegrina I had the impression someone just threw a few 1-20 dice on the floor and filled out her template. Or if they actually give an companion acceptable stats they lock her into horrible gear (for the way i wanna play a rogue... looking at you Devil)

 

Companions are always higher-level than hirelings. That more than makes up for any sub-optimal stat distribution.

 

Pallegina specifically is a solid and versatile companion. Her relatively even stat spread means you can build her as tank/support or as damage/alpha-striker. 

 

Seriously, this is one area where I think Pillars got it exactly right: enough companions with sufficiently versatile stat spreads that you can make any number of different parties with them, and Adventurers' Hall if you want to hog-wild with minmaxing. Please don't change it.

[Boeroer]

What I would really really like is an "official" option (no mods) where you can build adventurers like the official companions - with char model, starting stats and equipment, a background story, maybe even voice and custom banter and so on and share it with the rest of the community. I mean it's easy to import custom portraits. Would be nice if this could be done with custom builds, too. Just drop them into a folder and they appear in the game - maybe in an inn or besides the generic hireling.

Or make it so that you can choose hirelings from an online source, hosted by OBS. Would make hiring adventurers way more interesting.

It would make developing class builds a lot of fun. I mean even more than now.

They could even include reference letters from former employers (aka rating).

 

Make this stretch goal and I'll be superhappy.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Boeroer

[mumbogumshoe]

I really disagree with that. They have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to companion customizability by the player. They gave us the option to create our own fully customized adventurers, which is great, but the companions are something different. They're fully realized characters with unique personalities, and their stats should reflect that in a sense. Yes they're not optimized. They shouldn't be. Characters have their shortcomings, that's fine. People act as if they were completely unplayable but they weren't. Forced you to think out of the box a bit sometimes, maybe play a class differently to how you play them normally. That's good in my opinion. Overcoming adversary is fun. It wasn't that PotD was impossible with the companions, it was just a good deal harder than with fully customized adventurers. That's good too, it's supposed to be hard.

Edited January 29, 2017 by mumbogumshoe

[Boeroer]

As PrimeJunta pointed out, the official companions start one level higher than hirelings and therefore are always more powerful in the early to mid game (which is the hardest part). One level matters a lot more than a few stat points in the right places.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Boeroer

[mothra]

 

Companion Stat customization pretty please

 

So please, just give me those little arrows left/right of my companion stats when I recruit them or put an option in the menue so I can actually fully utilize my companions classes through the whole game and build them the way I like. (...)

 

I like to roleplay, I disable metainformation ingame, don't put on stat stacking gear to "fool" the system (...)

 

Funny, mate. It seems you want to have a cookie and eat it at the same time.

 

If you really like to roleplay, as you claim, then get a grip and play with companions the way they were created by Obsidian. And they were created that way for a reason, because game-wise they are just other people in that world, they have their strenghts and weaknesses. So either suck it up and play with them the "proper roleplaying" way or make yourself an adventurer with desired stats. That's what this option is for anyways, happen somebody doesn't like what he gets.

 

 

I pointed out that party customization is where I draw the line in terms of roleplaying and I just wanna game. 

Maybe quote that part instead of truncating it to fit your rebuttal.

This aint about logic, this is a purely selfish request.

 

If I would take companion descriptions as an indicator for how they should be built the grieving mother would have 10+ perception and the rest of her stats would be 10-

 

I don't think many ppl that play this game for the story alone care about their stats anyway, you afk with partyAI below normal in that case. They wlll never experience their "identity" or face a bigger challenge. I just don't think it is a big deal to give you that option.

Edited January 29, 2017 by mothra