Maneha in WM1?

[mentaltyranny]

Hi everyone... been lurking here awhile and I think this is my first post.  Anyway, I am playing at normal difficulty - for me just challenging enough (I am also physically disabled) without having to break immersion by crafting tons of potions/scrolls, and using IEMod custom NPC stats to "re-shuffe" the companions attributes to fit builds posted on the forums here, steam, and NerdCommando's youTube videos, with my own tweaks.  Keep in mind that I am just swapping attributes around to better fit the builds, I am not redistributing the points.  This seems to make the companions better without feeling like I am breaking immersion by having a companion having CON/RES of 3 and it not reflected in their personality somewhere.  This allows me to get the best of both worlds having story companions in the party and having a descent stat array,

 

So I am LVL 7 and just heading to Russetwood in WM1, and I checked my map before leaving Stalwart Village, and I noticed Maneha appeared by the Ondra Temple and is recruitable.  I was surprised because I thought she would not be available until WM2, since she was added in that expansion, but I guess if you have WM2, she will appear in WM1.  Weird... I am playing a dual wield assassin rogue build posted here, with more well rounded stats.  Before I saw her, I was planning on taking Eder (French Connection), Zahua (Juggernaut), Durance (Fire Priest), Aloth (Zeblastian Hurtstacker), and Sagini (Storm and Plague Caller) until I find the Devil (not sure yet a good build for a second rogue).  If I take Maneha now, I will swap her for Eder and probably make her a Golden Dragon barbarian, as it seems to fit her LVL 1 choice of Barbaric Yell well and would provide a second competent "full" Tank for the party.

 

However, I heard that Eder has good WM1 dialogue, and I am worried that since she wasn't added until WM2 she won't have much say or contribute in WM1, so I am considering just not recruiting her until WM2.  I know she would have "banter" with other companions now, but banter seems to depend more on who else is in the party and isn't location dependent, so I will likely get that in WM2 anyways.  But I don't know if she will have anything to "say" in dialogue in WM1.  Basically, I am wondering which will provide me a better WM1 experience, Eder or Maneha? 

 

Oh, and thanks for any comments in advance!

[mentaltyranny]

Nobody will help me with my first post?

[JerekKruger]

In all honesty the banter in Pillars is fairly limited, it's one of the things Obsidian are planning to improve in Deadfire. From my own playthroughs I can't remember any memorable banter that Edér has during the White March part 1. I can't comment on Maneha as I have still yet to take her for any length of time.

 

My advice would be to take whichever you prefer, or whichever you feel fits the area better. Without wanting to spoil anything I will say Maneha is tied more closely to the White March part 2, so it might be worth subbing her in once you've completed Durgan's Battery.

 

As a side note you honestly don't need to shuffle companion attributes. Attributes in Pillars are far less important than many guides make them out to be, and most the builds* on this forum will work fine with the "wrong" attributes.

 

*An exception would be Durance as a Fire Priest, since that build makes heavy use of high Dexterity to speed up his casting. That said the Fire Priest is an very powerful build for (arguably) the most powerful class, so for normal it'll be overkill anyway.

[M4xw0lf]

Well, I never drop Eder, and I never bring Maneha for anything else than her own quest in WM2 (playing Barbarian as my main character most of the time), so I can't really help you.