What level will my recruited NPCs be? ( and who should I recruit ...)

Wowo

So I've hit 5 cleric/4 wizard on my current no-reload game and I'm wondering if I should start recruiting yet.

I haven't touched anyone except Imoen.

Will I get level 4 NPCs due to wizard levels?
5 due to cleric?
6 due to combined XP?

Away from the factual stuff ... Any ideas on who would mesh well with my shorty caster?
I'm thinking:
Imoen thief/wizard specialising in traps (though maybe safana is a better bet XP wise?)
Coran (with OL)
Yeslick
...
That's all I got. Seems well covered but 2 slots is a bit much for covering NPC quests.

Wowo

After some experimentation I've found that other NPCs will actually affect the level that new recruits will be at and in a peculiar way for some reason.

With just myself (5 cleric/4 illusionist):
Level 6 Aj
Level 6 Imoen

With myself and Imoen (6 rogue)
Level 6 Xzar
Level x/x Montaron (whatever fit there as expected)
Level x fighter/5 Druid Jaheira
Level 6 Khalid

With myself and Imoen (6 rogue/1 wizard)
Level 4/4 Jaheira
Level 4 Khalid
Level 4 Aj

To get the level 6 .cre I had to kick Imoen *before I transitioned to the appropriate map* (kick before talk wasn't enough). Leaving the map, kicking, coming back worked fine though (so you can have her come help/get XP for Mulahey for instance before recruiting Xan).

I guess it averages active classes only or something?

Wowo

Some further info; completing Garrick's quest by killing Silke doesn't activate his .cre so you can do that, leave/kick, recruit. Handy for Lore and I thought pick pockets but he's only 65 while Monty is 85 so I had G play a rousing tune while M picked me Algernons cloak (luck bonuses work from song or no?).

Presumably works the same for Alora. Not sure if the implication is that as long as you don't recruit someone that their .cre doesn't activate though.

baaddare

this table might help you as you can see it is a combination or your PC lvl and which npc you are trying to recruit:

http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/good.htm

Wowo

So some weirdness since the patch. Seems its changed and the .cre is getting activated just by being on the same map. Xzar and Monty were level 1 when I recruited with level 5/5 cleric/thief even though I'd never seen them let alone talked to them. Garrick was the same too.

Kivan was 6 as I'd not been to high hedge before.

Wanderon

Wowo said:

So some weirdness since the patch. Seems its changed and the .cre is getting activated just by being on the same map. Xzar and Monty were level 1 when I recruited with level 5/5 cleric/thief even though I'd never seen them let alone talked to them. Garrick was the same too.

Kivan was 6 as I'd not been to high hedge before.

Ouch...thats going to hurt folks that want to save companions and pick them up later at higher levels - it does seem like weirdness too - that would essentially mean you could never get Xzar and Monty any higher unless you leveled up in the prologue and/or imported higher level characters to start the game since everyone is forced on to that map at the start of the game.

Maybe someone should post this in the bug forum and ask if it's a bug or a feature.

Wanderon

Well I just loaded up another run I had done where I had not spoken to Dyna but had cleared the gnoll map - did not speak to safana but cleared most of her map (walked right next to her) and did garricks quest at level 2 or so and killed silke but did not talk to garrick afterwards -

I went to each of them in turn in normal fashion moving about the map as a party would (as opposed to using console or other methods to get there) with my now level 6 party and recruited each of them and they were all at level 6 so no weirdness with my game with all patches current.

One thing I noted was Imoen did not trigger her "good-bye dialoge" when removed from the party (twice) altho Xan did when I removed him for dyna.