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Do you pay your companions?

TheGraveDiggerTheGraveDigger Member Posts: 336
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
Being a silly roleplayer I usually pay my companions before kicking them from the group. I pay them 50g for each day they were with me. I use the CLUAConsole:AddGold("-") command to remove the gold from myself to *simulate* the companion taking it. You can check their total days in the stat screen. Does anyone else do this?

I think the game would benifit from some kind of wage system. Right now you can use, abuse, and rob any companion and they don't care... They even wait around for you to come back! Imagine if they demanded a cut of the gold each week, or refused to leave the group(without violence) unless you pay them for their services.

Imoen, Jaheira and Khalid would probably work for free, but Kagain(a bloody mercenary...), Safana(treasure hunting pirate), and Eldoth(a full blown asshole), etc, should definitely demand payment of some kind.

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Comments

  • CaloNordCaloNord Member Posts: 1,809
    An interesting concept! I was just reminded of the original Guild Wars, if you had NPC henchman or other players with you they got an equal share of any gold picked up to simulate the fair split of treasure.
    I have never done it personally but I doubt you're the only one.
    You are correct of course, it would be a cold day in hell before Kagain worked for nothing... and Eldoth... well let's not go into Eldoth ;)
  • MetallomanMetalloman Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,975
    I usually pay them in beer.
  • ItstucktwiceItstucktwice Member Posts: 182
    I usually repay them with a swift death. After all, what could they possibly do in the rest of their adventures that could compare to being at my side?

    I release them of the their burden.
  • CaloNordCaloNord Member Posts: 1,809
    I may have killed Khalid once... in a room... by the Nashkel mine... Shhhh! Don't tell his wife...
  • moody_magemoody_mage Member Posts: 2,054
    I pay them in the items I buy to outfit them. And in the opportunity to gain levels. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    They get to travel with me. That should be payment enough.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    I let them keep their best items (magic longbow for kivan, mage robe for xzar...),
    and I do give Safana one or two pearls after the "hidden treasure" quest!
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    edited June 2014
    Isn't 50 gold a hell of a lot of money. I seem to recall the average Faerunian peasant only gets about 1 gp a year. Mind you, knowing the state of my memory it could be 1 gp a month.
    I'm a big softy - I only use other NPCs for a very short time, to keep me alive till I can pick up my full team. Then I kind of get attached to the team I've got, so I don't dump them.
  • TheGraveDiggerTheGraveDigger Member Posts: 336
    @bengoshi @Metalloman
    I'd rather cut them down than give them my ale!

    @kiwidoc‌
    Yeah, peasants don't make much at all. I remember reading even trained soldiers only cost around 5gp per month(after you supply the arms and armor). But that still seems strange, since the average watered down pish they sell in taverns costs around 3gp...
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    I don't usually use NPCs, but when I do, I drop them right after they die (or kill them and then drop em').
  • CaloNordCaloNord Member Posts: 1,809
    Well we have to pay them... Unless your Pod...
  • MetallomanMetalloman Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,975
    edited June 2014
    Bah! What else my companions could want from me? Tons of adventures, Magical Items and rivers of BEER every night, all paid by me, finally lots of enemies slain that they'll tell about in front of bonfires and inns fireplaces till the end of their days. What else?
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    I also give them tickets to Durlag's tower tour.
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    edited June 2014
    kiwidoc said:

    Isn't 50 gold a hell of a lot of money. I seem to recall the average Faerunian peasant only gets about 1 gp a year. Mind you, knowing the state of my memory it could be 1 gp a month.
    I'm a big softy - I only use other NPCs for a very short time, to keep me alive till I can pick up my full team. Then I kind of get attached to the team I've got, so I don't dump them.

    Technically, in real dnd, but here we only have gold pieces. In tabletop there are copper, and silver, and all kinds of other thing worth more or less than a gold. The economics of Ferún are very watered down. "General stores" sell a host of different weapons and nothing else:P
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/32218/how-much-money-gold-does-the-average-npc-make
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    Just out of curiosity if you paid your NPCs 50 gp per day, and ended up giving them a couple of hundred gp - how much would that actually weigh?
  • TheGraveDiggerTheGraveDigger Member Posts: 336
    50gp = 1 pound
  • kiwidockiwidoc Member Posts: 1,437
    edited June 2014
    So if I'm currently wandering around with over 100,000 gp either I'm a lot stronger than I knew or I turned it into gemstones :P
    What I was thinking about was how heavy would the pay packets be at 50 gp a day. I know - it's daft to think about things like thatin the very much simplified world of the realms we find in the BG games ... but I'm in a daft mood.
  • TwaniTwani Member Posts: 640
    I generally pay companions if I release them, and I allow them to keep their gear, too.

    Even though it hurts. :(
  • CalmarCalmar Member Posts: 688
    My Charname's party is a socialist party: All ressources and commodities belong to the collective and are distributed to each comrade according to her or his needs; be it gold, potions, magical gear, or stays at inns. There is no room for greed among the individual NPC.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    When permanently dismissing NPCs, I equip them with decent mundane kit (i.e. appropriate armour, helm, shield, if applicable for their class, plus a melee weapon with which they're proficient, and a ranged weapon and a full quiver of mundane ammo if applicable). It seems to me "the decent thing to do", so that they're "equipped to seek work" with some other employer, and usually with better mundane kit than they had when I recruited them.

    However, I don't leave them with magical gear, except that I'll leave a mage robe on a wizard (an ordinary one, not an archmage robe!), and I'll usually leave them their special personal kit even if it's magical (e.g. Neera gets to keep Neera's Staff, etc.)

    I don't see the need for more "pay" than that, even when I'm role-playing a goody-goody. I'll have helped them complete their personal quests (if they have any), I'll have paid for their lodgings and healthcare while they were with my party, the mundane kit I'm leaving them is probably better than they had when we met, and I'll be leaving them with a valuable increase in experience (and probably level). Thus I can't see that they've got much to complain about, they're better off than they started.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    I let Edwin keep the archmage robe in BG1... but I assume he still has it in BG2, therefore I'll clua console one.
  • meaglothmeagloth Member Posts: 3,806
    Yea... If someone leaves my party they're stark naked and usually mostly to all the way dead.
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    I give all my gems and jewels to Monty, Kagain or Imoen.
    For Monty and Kagain it is payment. I also give scroll cases to Edwin.
    For Imoen it is because I just assume she pickpockets them :)


    The one funny thin I used to do with Nalia was have her drop gems off in the slums. For the needy! :)
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    TheGraveDigger said:

    50gp = 1 pound

    Dang, the Central Bank of Amn better get that inflation under control
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