Companion/Sidekick impressions

[Infiltrator_SF]

I wanted to see what others think of companions and their possible usefulness in a vacuum, so we're disregarding composition and just assuming that the character "fits" in a party, role-wise. I'll post about the characters and variations that I actually tried, the list is incomplete, but feel free to share your own opinions and thoughts. The thoughts on them are based on their performance on PotD difficulty.

 

 

Eder - He's a great choice either as a fighter or a riposte swashbuckler. I haven't tried him as a pure rogue. Personality is likable, like who gets annoyed by eder? His armor is great for a tank role and later on you can switch it out because he's not gonna be the one dropping in a fight. 9/10

 

Xoti - Stat wise you'd want her to be a priest and nothing else. Dual class she just has too much stuff on her hands in order to cast it all and single monk, stats are kinda bad for it. Starting gear is nice and offers good bonuses from the get-go. 7/10

 

Aloth - Great, flexible mage that can be molded in most roles, his scepter hits multiple targets so working on his auto attacks can also be an avenue with buff spells. Haven't tried his multis as late mage spells are just too juicy to pass on, but similar to Eder he has the tools to make a riposte rogue work. 8/10

 

Serafen - I tried to make this guy work as all of his roles. His stats are all over the place and just don't offer much in terms of accuracy or damage contribution in a fight. He can't hit his cipher abilities, he can't hit or tank as a barbarian, and the witch inbetween is probably the worst of the three. 4/10.

 

Pallegina - Unlike Serafen all of her subclasses and pure paladin are great. Pure paladin is something to consider if you want to be a generalist support/offtank, but the crusaider (paladin/fighter) or herald (paladin/chanter) offer specialization. Crusader puts eder to shame in terms of defenses, and herald allows you to summon and support based on your party needs. Probably the most flexible companion, and for that, 9/10

 

Maia - Great stats for a ranger and one of the best companions you'd want if you don't want to micro manage her, just leave her shooting and she'll be fine in a fight. Problem is, the ranger kit doesn't have much to offer other than 2 bodies for one party slot. I haven't tried her variations so I can't comment on those. 7/10

 

Takehu - This narcissistic godlike can fil many roles as his choices are druid, chanter or both multiclassed. Since he's a marine godlike, he has a specific spell per power level that is foe only, but gives up some spells from each class for it. All in all, he loses out on the summoning stuff from chanter so I'd say his druid is better, and multi is a bit too wide for two arcane classes. As a druid you get chill fog that doesn't affect allies so.. I guess that alone is worthy of 8/10.

 

 

Sidekicks: 

 

Ydwin - This is what a good Serafen might have looked like stat wise. Even if you don't micro her, you can set mindblades to autocast and watch her annihilate waves of enemies. Her default is Mindstalker (rogue/cipher multi), but her stats are adequate for both single classes, though a ranged role is advised. 9/10

 

Fassina, Rekke, Konstanten:

 

Haven't tried yet.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Infiltrator_SF

[IndiraLightfoot]

I'll reply RP-wise:

The time I had Xoti, she seemed like a great character.

Aloth was a bit more predictable (well, familiar from PoE1) the first couple of hours I had him.

Edér is calming and funny - a fantastic character to have around.

Pallegina - much better in Deadfire. She's easily my favourite so far.

Fassina is almost like a companion - with 2 quests linked to her and I have found some reactivity on her here and there from NPCs and such.

Konstanten - a cool sidekick, laughing loudly during combat, but almost dead as far as questing goes.

 

The rest I've only recruited and can't comment on.

[daven]

Pallegina just told me to f-off basically when I asked her to join me for some reason. Must have made a bad decision in the past life.

 

Haven't found any sidekicks, Serafen seems pretty useless I agree.

[Fardragon]

It may be worth mentioning that as a Chanter, Konstanten has the Skald subclass, which means he focuses on damage invocations, and is a poor summoner.

[Skazz]

It may be worth mentioning that as a Chanter, Konstanten has the Skald subclass, which means he focuses on damage invocations, and is a poor summoner.

 

Also, he has big hands.

 

Damn you, Josh, why do you hate dorfs so

Edited May 15, 2018 by Skazz

[Wormerine]

 

It may be worth mentioning that as a Chanter, Konstanten has the Skald subclass, which means he focuses on damage invocations, and is a poor summoner.

 

Also, he has big hands.

 

Damn you, Josh, why do you hate dorfs so

He can play Rachmaninov without assistance!

https://youtu.be/ifKKlhYF53w

[Slotharingia]

I'm pretty much only carting Aloth, Takehu and Serafen around. I feel overwhelmed by switching out. Serafen does seem to be pretty rubbish, but I hadn't given it any thought as to why . I had Maia on my team for a bit but she did and said something I found mega offputting. Xoti seemed okay but I booted her early on as I don't find priests that useful, and her personality isn't entertaining enough to make me drag her along anyway, like I often did with Durance. Pallegina seemed decent the time I had her, but too few slots and she doesn't fit with the rest of the team. Neither does Aloth, but the poor guy will just have to perma eyeroll as I need a wizard xD

[PhroX]

I've been running Xoti as a monk and she's been pretty effective. Though that might just be that monks are really good....

[Juodas Varnas]

Pallegina just told me to f-off basically when I asked her to join me for some reason. Must have made a bad decision in the past life.

 

Haven't found any sidekicks, Serafen seems pretty useless I agree.

Only basically?

I tried to make a joke and she went on a 5 minute rant yelling in Vaillian before storming off!

 

And when she finally joined up, she basically went "i'm only here because the Ducs wanted me to come" and i was not able to increase her relationship above 0 the entire campaign.

She really didn't like me, for some reason. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Juodas Varnas

[mrmonocle]

 

 

Xoti - Stat wise you'd want her to be a priest and nothing else. Dual class she just has too much stuff on her hands in order to cast it all and single monk, stats are kinda bad for it. Starting gear is nice and offers good bonuses from the get-go. 7/10

 

xoti is over 9000/10 when you upgrade her lantern.

Edited May 15, 2018 by mrmonocle

[ShadySands]

Eder is the only one that's never left my party. I was planning on keeping all the original companions with me the whole time and just rotating the others in and out of that last slot but I ended up liking them more than I thought I would. I never take the sidekicks off the boat but Xoti, Serafen, and Aloth are probably getting the most party time after Eder though Maia is catching up.

 

I'm playing on classic and function and performance aren't a part of my decision making, just picking personalities I like. Honestly, I've never even looked at any stats other than my own.

[rheingold]

I really like Serafen, though I'm not far in the game. I just wish the would tweak his stats slightly, so he makes a better cipher or barb, because currently he isn't good for anything. Xoti suffers from the same issue. I'm not a power gamer, but some minor tweaks would be great. Xoti is also a mixed bag personality wise for me, I want to like her, but I find religious fanaticism irritating...

Companion I like the most has got to be Maia. Problem is I can't see myself allying with her faction, so I guess I will lose her... frustrating, though I might have to do a pro Ruatai run just for her.

[Juodas Varnas]

I really like Serafen, though I'm not far in the game. I just wish the would tweak his stats slightly, so he makes a better cipher or barb, because currently he isn't good for anything. Xoti suffers from the same issue. I'm not a power gamer, but some minor tweaks would be great. Xoti is also a mixed bag personality wise for me, I want to like her, but I find religious fanaticism irritating...

Companion I like the most has got to be Maia. Problem is I can't see myself allying with her faction, so I guess I will lose her... frustrating, though I might have to do a pro Ruatai run just for her.

Maia is the best of the new companions definitely.

 

I did manage to keep her by going Aeldys' pirates route, but damn Maia's personal quest ****ed up my ending slides so hard, that's what i get for being too good at diplomacy.

[Zeitzbach]

Serafen is awesome, although not in min/max power but I really don't see why he's weak if you just go pure cipher with him.

 

He has decent might and dex. The only flaw is his low per but that doesn't matter much because you can easily obtain high rank weapon in the early game to boost his accuracy. Also because Arquebus module is a +25 accuracy for minor extra shooting time if you need to land an crit.

 

And guns don't have recovery time so you can shoot the Arquebus and use something like Amph wave right away with that early damage focus gain. If needed, self-empower for instant cipher resource generation.

 

I just spam bouncing blade thing from T2 and later, the beam from T3 to Amph wave which is giant Foe AoE damage + prone as I level up. Throw in Pain block if needed on squishy mages or Body Attunement if the enemy is a high-DR type. His low stat doesn't hinder him in the late game because you will really only use Cipher for Amph wave or the T9 +8 Pen buff by then on the wizard or druid that can end the fight in 1 T9 spell cast.

 

The one I'm disappointed in are Pallegina because you can commit suicide with immolation now and Xoti because her power drops so bad late game due to current terrible enemy scaling. I barely get CC'd and devotion isn't even necessary to land a crit consistently so Xoti is a waste of space if you don't get the +damage lantern. Also because Spell Resist lantern seems bugged and it can block your own buffs/heal.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Zeitzbach

[Juodas Varnas]

Serafen is awesome, although not in min/max power but I really don't see why he's weak if you just go pure cipher with him.

 

He has decent might and dex. The only flaw is his low per but that doesn't matter much because you can easily obtain high rank weapon in the early game to boost his accuracy. Also because Arquebus module is a +25 accuracy for minor extra shooting time if you need to land an crit.

 

And guns don't have recovery time so you can shoot the Arquebus and use something like Amph wave right away with that early damage focus gain. If needed, self-empower for instant cipher resource generation.

 

I just spam bouncing blade thing from T2 and later, the beam from T3 to Amph wave which is giant Foe AoE damage + prone as I level up. Throw in Pain block if needed on squishy mages or Body Attunement if the enemy is a high-DR type. His low stat doesn't hinder him in the late game because you will really only use Cipher for Amph wave or the T9 +8 Pen buff by then on the wizard or druid that can end the fight in 1 T9 spell cast.

 

The one I'm disappointed in are Pallegina because you can commit suicide with immolation now and Xoti because her power drops so bad late game due to current terrible enemy scaling. I barely get CC'd and devotion isn't even necessary to land a crit consistently so Xoti is a waste of space if you don't get the +damage lantern. Also because Spell Resist lantern seems bugged and it can block your own buffs/heal.

Honestly, late-game, only use i found for Xoti was using that spell (forgot the name for it) that destroys all spirits and vessels that are lower level than you and deals massive raw damage to any that are higher or the same level 

[Zeitzbach]

 

Serafen is awesome, although not in min/max power but I really don't see why he's weak if you just go pure cipher with him.

 

He has decent might and dex. The only flaw is his low per but that doesn't matter much because you can easily obtain high rank weapon in the early game to boost his accuracy. Also because Arquebus module is a +25 accuracy for minor extra shooting time if you need to land an crit.

 

And guns don't have recovery time so you can shoot the Arquebus and use something like Amph wave right away with that early damage focus gain. If needed, self-empower for instant cipher resource generation.

 

I just spam bouncing blade thing from T2 and later, the beam from T3 to Amph wave which is giant Foe AoE damage + prone as I level up. Throw in Pain block if needed on squishy mages or Body Attunement if the enemy is a high-DR type. His low stat doesn't hinder him in the late game because you will really only use Cipher for Amph wave or the T9 +8 Pen buff by then on the wizard or druid that can end the fight in 1 T9 spell cast.

 

The one I'm disappointed in are Pallegina because you can commit suicide with immolation now and Xoti because her power drops so bad late game due to current terrible enemy scaling. I barely get CC'd and devotion isn't even necessary to land a crit consistently so Xoti is a waste of space if you don't get the +damage lantern. Also because Spell Resist lantern seems bugged and it can block your own buffs/heal.

Honestly, late-game, only use i found for Xoti was using that spell (forgot the name for it) that destroys all spirits and vessels that are lower level than you and deals massive raw damage to any that are higher or the same level 

 

 

Empower Maelstorm prevent any of my teammate from playing the game. I just pop 2 unbending on Eder and have him walk in the maelstorm to make fun of how broken "Heal 150% damage from every damage receive" is. AWW YISS, TORNADO AND THUNDER MASSAGEEEe.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Zeitzbach

[Lorfean]

I'm one of those people who cares more about the companions' character and story arcs than their stats, so I'll focus on that in my impressions.

 

I'm not too far into the game yet (just arrived in Neketaka) and have Edér, Xoti, Serafen and Aloth with me, and I also found and recruited Konstanten, one of the sidekicks. Edér is still Edér and he will be with me until the end. Xoti and Serafen have made positive first impressions and I look forward to continuing their arcs and finding out more about them. Aloth... I really liked his arc in PoE, but his chr is not connecting for me in Deadfire so far. Part of this, I'm sorry to say, is due to an encounter he had at The Wild Mare in Queen's Berth, which felt overly forced, unnecessary, and out of character (to me). Even though I think this was mostly due to the way the NPC involved with the encounter was written -- they felt like a complete caricature -- it really broke my immersion with Aloth's story. Which is a shame.

 

Konstanten seems fun, and I am curious how the sidekicks will "feel" compared to the companions after some extended playtime, so he's taken Aloth's place for now.

 

I did also run into Pallegina, but she had no interest in joining me whatsoever, so I guess I'll have to wait and see how that situation develops later on. She was a mainstay in my PoE party, so I look forward to her joining the fold again.

 

In terms of class choices, I kept Eder, Xoti, Aloth and Konstanten single classed -- Fighter, Priest, Wizard and Chanter, respectively -- and multi-classed Serafan as a Witch (Barbarian / Cipher). My PC is a Scout (Ranger / Rogue). I am really digging the multi-classing system in Deadfire.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Lorfean

[Infiltrator_SF]

I'm one of those people who cares more about the companions' character and story arcs than their stats, so I'll focus on that in my impressions.

 

I'm not too far into the game yet (just arrived in Neketaka) and have Edér, Xoti, Serafen and Aloth with me, and I also found and recruited Konstanten, one of the sidekicks. Edér is still Edér and he will be with me until the end. Xoti and Serafen have made positive first impressions and I look forward to continuing their arcs and finding out more about them. Aloth... I really liked his arc in PoE, but his chr is not connecting for me in Deadfire so far. Part of this, I'm sorry to say, is due to an encounter he had at The Wild Mare in Queen's Berth, which felt overly forced, unnecessary, and out of character (to me). Even though I think this was mostly due to the way the NPC involved with the encounter was written -- they felt like a complete caricature -- it really broke my immersion with Aloth's story. Which is a shame.

 

Konstanten seems fun, and I am curious how the sidekicks will "feel" compared to the companions after some extended playtime, so he's taken Aloth's place for now.

 

I did also run into Pallegina, but she had no interest in joining me whatsoever, so I guess I'll have to wait and see how that situation develops later on. She was a mainstay in my PoE party, so I look forward to her joining the fold again.

 

In terms of class choices, I kept Eder, Xoti, Aloth and Konstanten single classed -- Fighter, Priest, Wizard and Chanter, respectively -- and multi-classed Serafan as a Witch (Barbarian / Cipher). My PC is a Scout (Ranger / Rogue). I am really digging the multi-classing system in Deadfire.

 

Oh I'm looking into personalities as well, for example Teheku is at least, initially, really aggravating, obnoxious and egocentric which is immensely annoying to me, on the other hand, Eder is very likeable, sort of like a smart minsc.

 

It's too bad the amount of joinable characters is low compared to the old stuff like BG2. If I recall there were at least 15 of them. All with full stories - sure, they weren't 100% voiced, but having to pick between 7 full compainons to make a party of 5 really feels restricted, the 4 sidekicks are alright but, you know, before pulling the BG1 > BG2 and PoE1 > PoE2 analogy people need to think about stuff like this.

[Lorfean]

It's too bad the amount of joinable characters is low compared to the old stuff like BG2. If I recall there were at least 15 of them. All with full stories - sure, they weren't 100% voiced, but having to pick between 7 full compainons to make a party of 5 really feels restricted, the 4 sidekicks are alright but, you know, before pulling the BG1 > BG2 and PoE1 > PoE2 analogy people need to think about stuff like this.

 

 

Hm, that's an interesting point. PoE had 8 before the expansion and 11 after but neither amount ever felt restrictive to me. BG2 had 16 (17 with ToB), and each had their own questline -- though some were a lot less involved than others -- and reactivity, with a handful being romance options and (if I remember correctly) having a lot more content to them as a result.

 

My memory is fuzzy in regards to BG2 so I can't fairly compare the amount of content-per-companion between BG2 and PoE / Deadfire, but the companions in PoE felt very fleshed out to me -- possibly more so than the bulk of BG2's companions -- which might explain the roster being smaller in the PoE games.

 

I haven't gotten far enough in Deadfire yet to say anything meaningful about the companion content, but so far it feels similar to PoE, with the added reactivity and chr development of the relationship system potentially providing  even more depth. So yeah, I'm fine with the number of companions in PoE / Deadfire -- sure it's not a lot if you're looking for more variety in terms of party building, but they do give you other options there in the sidekicks and mercenaries.

 

Also, I personally don't really go for the PoE = BG1, PoE2 = BG2 line of thinking anymore... I saw the first game as heavily inspired by BG and IWD, but always felt Deadfire would be more of Obsidian's own beast. And it is, IMO.

[daven]

I'm not entirely sure what this relationship system even does, other than have Xoti allegedly bite her lip and Aloth roll his eyes every other sentence.

[Judicator]

Eder - good tank, haven't tried the reposte swashbuckler build, but I'll give it a go on my next playthrough. Likeable, but nothing special personality-wise.

Xoti - okay priest, bad everything else. I like her character and voice. 

Aloth - pure wizards are strong and Aloth is no exception. He's a bit uninteresting to me as a person though.

Pallegina - a total nag, even worse than she was in PoE 1, but all of her builds are fantastic. 

Sarafen - I like his personality, but mechanically he sucks. His stats are garbage.

Maia - boring personality and I generally don't care much for rangers.

Takehu - needs to die in a fire.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Judicator

[Wormerine]

My take on companions is as follows:

 

Eder - straight up fighter. Very useful. Eder is Eder. I like him. Or to be more accurate: I liked him in PoE. I don’t remember him doing or saying much of note in Deadfire. What was there was very Eder’y. I want more. I feel like “reunion” isn’t really acknowleged. I was excited to see him for the first time, but he just didn’t say too much ever since.

 

Aloth - same as above, though as he is a rather silent character I don’t mind it as much. With both those cases I am not sure if I would care much for them, if not for the already established personal attachment. I feel I really should be able to have a more in-depth talk with Aloth after leaving Port Maje all things considering. Good wizard.

 

Pallegina - yhh.... very wrong save import kinda started us on the wrong foot. She also really dislikes one of my permanent companions so I didn’t spent much time with her just yet. I felt like the breaching her exile ending from PoE with Deadfire is very amwkward. Stitches are visible. Great paladin.

 

Serafim - so far my favourite new companion. He has good introduction, you know why he follows you, and he didn’t verbally sexually assaulted my character, unlike other three. Gameplay wise - I manage to do stuff with him a bit more once I ditched his blunderbuss for full melee (I play as cipher, so I made him a barbarian). I certainly keep him more for story when dealing with Principi rather than gameplay.

 

Xoti - psychotic, emotionally unstable character. I don’t know WTF is happening with the relationship system, but many things went very wrong with Xoti for me. Very unappropriate reaction descriptions to various events, and her craving for sexual relationships. I feel like I am talking to an unstable and very dangerous individual. Solid priest though.

 

Maia - meh? Enjoyable unremarkable companion so far. Hoping she will reveal another layer as time goes on. Surprisingly little to say about her relation to Kana outside a throwaway reactivity line. Alright ranger, though wow, rangers lack interesting abilities - people were right. Once again, surprisingly quick to test the water as far as romantic interest. I am considering her a potential romance option, even in spite wondering how an orlan could satisfy aumaua but then I remembered she is Kana’s sister... which just feels awkward. And no way I am going to side with Royal Deadfire Company.

 

Takehu - he has been swiping my ship’s deck for the majority of the game so far on account of very forward advances toward my male orlan being the first thing he said to me. Just rejoined my party for some adventuring. We will see how it will go.

 

Recruited Konstanten and Ydwin, both are still level 1 and swiping the deck.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Wormerine

[Owlbear]

Edér is awesome as a swashbuckler. Also we are war buddies from the first game, so he has a place in my party no matter what.

 

Xoti is fine as a priest, but I find her somewhat annoying. It's probably thanks to her childish behavior, like when she is throwing a tantrum whenever I don't agree with her about Eothas/Gaun.

 

I use Aloth as a Spellblade, because of his undercover agent background it kinda makes sense, and using escape and cover rogue abilities with sneak passives are not that bad imo. As a character I don't really care about him, the usual Aloth is boring and easily forgettable, but with his inner sidekick it's a whole different story. I love their banters with Edér.

 

I was kinda looking forward to recruit Pallegina and I still think she's great as a paladin/chanter, but as a character she is even more stuck up than I am, so there's no place in my party for another way too serious person.

 

Serafen is a dirty little troublemaker, but I like him. Too bad the only useful thing he can really do well is to be a charm/dominate spamming midget.

 

I hated Takehu since the moment I met him. Even tho he is definitely not bad as a druid/chanter, the only reason I kept him around was because of his benefactress, but even that couldn't make me suffer him for too long. 

 

Maia is a fine ranged dps as a ranger/rogue and I also like her as a character. My party desperately needed more ranged characters and with her pet bird and Edér they have fun banters, so she is also one of my full time party members.

 

 

I didn't try the sidekicks so far.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Owlbear

[Voss]

My party settled into (with my watcher as a no-subclass cipher):

 

Eder as fighter\rogue. Useful, but mostly just a body. Persistent distraction helps.

 

Chokey, full priest. A few useful defensive spells, plus some full on nukes. Surprisingly tanky.

 

Maia, as ranger\rogue, which seems obvious. Mostly passive abilities and pet healing. Spams hobbling shot, and is fairly absurd with it. Does a lot of damage with a superb arquebus

 

Finally, pallegina, she who will not die. Paladin\chanter. Fantastic. Just tanked Nemnok while wielding a great sword and default armor and he was three skull red, never went below 75% health.

[Fardragon]

 

Eder is very likeable, sort of like a smart minsc.

This is referenced in the game, Maia asks him if he has had a head wound.