Sidekicks stories

[blotter]

Wizards supposedly have a high mental discipline. That probably conflicts with being a hapless alcoholic.

 

Maybe her arcane knowledge comes from a remembered past life rather than her own rigorous study in this one, and the memories of what she had to go through to obtain it are so traumatic/her past personality is so maddened and grotesque that she turns to alcohol to suppress them. Or maybe she's just burned out from failure after years of diligent work.

 

Then again, mental discipline is probably most closely represented within the game by Resolve, and it's not like it's impossible to make a wizard with an absolutely abysmal Resolve score to begin with.

[rjshae]

 

Wizards supposedly have a high mental discipline. That probably conflicts with being a hapless alcoholic.

 

Maybe her arcane knowledge comes from a remembered past life rather than her own rigorous study in this one, and the memories of what she had to go through to obtain it are so traumatic/her past personality is so maddened and grotesque that she turns to alcohol to suppress them. Or maybe she's just burned out from failure after years of diligent work.

 

Then again, mental discipline is probably most closely represented within the game by Resolve, and it's not like it's impossible to make a wizard with an absolutely abysmal Resolve score to begin with.

 

I tend to associate Resolve with stubbornness rather than mental discipline; they seem like different aspects. You can have a scholarly discipline but be indecisive, for example. But perhaps Randora is just a Friday night party animal, and the rest of the time she's sober and serious (...and grumpy)?

[blotter]

I tend to associate Resolve with stubbornness rather than mental discipline; they seem like different aspects.

 

It's also defined as determination and inner drive, which seem like they'd play a crucial role in determining whether someone had what it takes to hang in there through the rigors of arcane research, and there's also its contribution to the character's capacity for concentration to consider. 

 

Mind you, I wouldn't be disappointed to be wrong here since I can also see how attributes that also dictate a character's behavioral tendencies might become somewhat problematic (though limiting Resolve's connotations to stubbornness doesn't particularly eliminate the problem in this regard either).

 

You can have a scholarly discipline but be indecisive, for example.

 

A character with high Resolve wouldn't necessarily have to be assertive or decisive regarding matters that they don't know or care enough about, and for a sheltered scholar type of character, the number of things they dismiss as trivial or outside of their range of expertise could extend to cover quite a bit.

 

But perhaps Randora is just a Friday night party animal, and the rest of the time she's sober and serious (...and grumpy)?

 

Her sidekick description has her claiming that she functions better after a few drinks to "take the edge off", though at the same time she claims that she never drinks at sea, which would prevent her, as a captain, from receiving the supposed benefits of her drinking professionally under most conditions. Then again, the fact she's had trouble staying as a captain in any one place could also suggest that she might be exaggerating when she says she "never" drinks at sea.

 

To me, her attitudes toward alcohol sound like they differ from those of someone who goes too far in letting loose during her downtime. Then again my impression is based on the assumption that "at her best" refers to skills and performance; thinking on it further, it could as easily apply to social contexts and emotional well-being, which might work pretty well with the possibility you raised.

[Lotti Fuehrscheim]

A drunken sea wizard? What could possibly go wrong...

 

That was the train connection between the Netherlands and Germany in the North.

 

Still out of order since 2015.

 

 

[EbonyBetty]

I'm feeling' a little R&R aka Randora and Rekke (zing!) I hope Randora is like the wizard-version of the drunken kung fu master, meanwhile with Rekke I seem to gravitate towards mysterious/"ugly" figures. Honestly I'm sometimes cool with underdeveloped companions, it allows my imagination to fill in the empty spots. 

[smjjames]

Hopefully they do further flesh out Radora's/Randora's background because right now, it's only skin deep compared to the others. Ydwin is an eccentric Pale Elf animancer with a fancy for examining dead bodies and I don't know if the gruesome scenes part implies crime scenes or not, Bonteru is a Dwarven rogue with an obsession for catelogueing the various poisons in the Deadfire region, Rekke is a mysterious mariner rescued from a shipwreck who speaks no known language and 'looks odd'. Randora meanwhile, is... a somewhat nondescript drunk who can barely hold a job for long. The other sidekicks have more background to them than Randora does in the description alone.

[Messier-31]

 

REKKE is described as an odd looking human who speaks gibberish. This "storm folk" ethnicity is Asian oriented (I mean look at him), and I think that there is an unknown land east from Deadfire (Rekke is found on a flotsam near the eastern edges of the archipelago) where his people live. This would explain his odd looks/language. Plausible!

 

 

RADORA is a Vailian wizard. I imagine encountering her at sea, because Obsidian said she has difficulty keeping a captain's position for long. Maybe the player may actually oust her from that position and take her ship/crew for himself. Far fetched speculation.

 

 

BONTERU, the Aptapo dwarf that has poison fetish, and apparently some runic tatoos. This one might be really one hell of a intersting wacko to interact with. Him being the only dwarf character joinable to the party I wager that I will have problems dismissing him.

 

 

The infamous YDWIN looks super serious. This pale elf means business, but I hope there will be some of that original concept art happy demeanor left in her. The addition of spectacles is great, has post-medieval vibe to it, as it should be in Eora. Animancy discussions inbound.

[Guest 4ward]

they're all interesting characters to me, i think it would be a good idea to make them full companions even if the release would be postponed by a couple months. Great work by the portrait artist (Lindsay Laney?). They all have an expression to them. Mike Sass, who did the BG/BG2 portraits would be proud. I hope that the portraits for the player character will be equally great. Mad props!

[Pope]

Though not a huge fan of the sidekick concept myself, those portraits look great indeed.

[Guest 4ward]

 

the sidekicks concept won‘t work IMO. They all need to be BG2-style companions so that neither do they kill the pacing (like later Bioware games) nor are they just sidekicks like in BG1. The BG2 chars still left room for the player‘s imagination. But BG1 style chars coupled with BG2 companions? Sidekicks work best in pairs, they feed off each other making puns. But the BG2 companions also were funny. A character just being a sidekick always gets me thinking that this guy is missing something. Minsc was the only sidekick left in BG2, with Dynaheir gone, Boo became the other part. If you didn‘t like his sidekick role, the only motivation to leave him in the party was that he was an able party member and his similar motivation to go after the antagonist.

 

The sidekicks in Deadfire don‘t have this motivation i would bet. With the exception of Minsc, BG2 chars all got an upgrade over BG1, most of them had family issues to deal with like Cernd, Anomen, Keldorn, Jan, and/or they were romance options. But Obsidian promised sidekicks in their backer campaign. Perhaps they can call them sidekicks but write them as companions so we get 4 new full chars. Here‘s an idea: write them as companions and give them an animal like Boo as sidekick.

[TheisEjsing]

Well. in retrospect most characters in BG 2 were rather shallow. My wager is that sidekicks in PoE II will be on par with quite a few BG II companions. It has already been mentioned, that sidekicks will have banter, motivation, and if I recall correctly, some smaller questlines. So yeah, that sums up most BG II companions. It won't be any problem. We should just be happy, they go deeper with the actual companions.

Edited September 29, 2017 by TheisEjsing

[Wormerine]

What we know sidekicks won't have are following things:

 

1) relationship system

2) their own story arc

 

I see no reason to suspect that they won't be well implemented into the game. It totally could happen, and I imagine I will much prefer to keep fully fleshed companions around, at least on my first playthrough, but i do expect them to be closer to some of BG2 characters rather than silent BG1.

[Karkarov]

Well. in retrospect most characters in BG 2 were rather shallow. My wager is that sidekicks in PoE II will be on par with quite a few BG II companions.

They have already stated the sidekicks will be about equal in content/character stuff to a BG1 character, or one of the less verbose BG2 characters.

 

For me if two of the sidekicks needs to become full companions in the expansion it is a question of comparison to what has come before.  Meaning what at the base level have we already had between the two games?

 

There has been ....

 

1 Elf - Just Aloth, no other Elf companions.

1 Dwarf - Just Sagani, and unlike Aloth she didn't make it into the sequel.

4 Aumaua - Kana Rua, Maia Rua, Maneha, and Teheku (yes, godlike is only half your race).

2 Orlan - Hiravias and Serafen.

2 Godlikes - Pallagina and Teheku

7 Humans - Eder, Durance, Zahua, Grieving Mother, Xoti, Devil of Caroc (yes she counts, she was a human first), and Pallegina.

 

So Humans and Aumaua pretty well represented already, Orlans aren't horrid either, and we already have two godlikes as companions.  So to me the answer is obvious, it should be Bronteru, and (oh god no) Ydwin.  As we have no dwarf companion at all in Deadfire so far, and the only Elf in either game has been Aloth.  They are the only two racial groups that only have one companion to them.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Karkarov

[Messier-31]

@Karkarov

 

[Guest 4ward]

Well. in retrospect most characters in BG 2 were rather shallow. My wager is that sidekicks in PoE II will be on par with quite a few BG II companions. It has already been mentioned, that sidekicks will have banter, motivation, and if I recall correctly, some smaller questlines. So yeah, that sums up most BG II companions. It won't be any problem. We should just be happy, they go deeper with the actual companions.

 

 

i understand but i don‘t like the concept still. How deep a character is should depend on me IMO. These sidekicks are interesting so i ask them about their background and all kinds of topics and their answer is? Nothing? Everything? Just a little bit? And the other full companions on the other hand are talking at length about everything? It‘s like you want to talk to Chewbacca on the Ebon Hawk in KotOR and you get nothing out of him whereas Juhani is sharing her thoughts and story. Feels strange. I mean i won‘t complain, i‘m ok with that and if the sidekicks are as good as the BG2 chars i‘m very happy as long as the ‚deeper‘ characters‘ dialogue is initiated by me.

[Bill Gates' Son]

 

They have already stated the sidekicks will be about equal in content/character stuff to a BG1 character, or one of the less verbose BG2 characters.

 

BG1 characters barely had any content at all.  I'm pretty sure Josh said they would be equivalent to Mazzy or Minsc.  Both characters had content, but it wouldn't that substantial.

[dragubaba]

It's official, the sidekicks seems to be a lot more interesting characters than the actual companions. Except for maybe that pirate orlan. A fully fleshed out companion who nobody can understand would have been an interesting character but I'll take a sidekick one just as well. This all ofcourse stems from the need to "play it safe". Oh well.

[Infinitron]

Those aren't Bonteru and Radora! They've been cancelled: https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/913809471830343680

 

these sidekicks are, in order from the first tweet: konstanten, ydwin, rekke, and fessina. bonteru and radora are dust in the wind. #rip

[AndreaColombo]

I surely hope they rethink the name "Fessina". It means "little p***y" in Italian.

Edited September 29, 2017 by AndreaColombo

[morhilane]

I surely hope they rethink the name "Fessina". It means "little p***y" in Italian.

 

The Fessina Estate has an interesting name in that case...

[Gfted1]

Google translate doesnt support that conclusion but Im willing to accept it may be true. Funny if so.

[ShadySands]

Probably slang or something

[SkySlam]

I can confirm the words of Andrea, it was my first thought as well!

I strongly support a change of that name

[Gfted1]

Jeez, what do you guys have against kittens?

[Barbedbeat]

I surely hope they rethink the name "Fessina". It means "little p***y" in Italian.

Definitely.

 

I cracked up in a most shameful manner upon reading it. 

Even though I cannot wait to recruit her, so I can have someone in the party I can call "my li'l c*nt".