Was the thing with briefly recruiting companions before SoD fixed?
Chronicler
Member Posts: 1,391
When Siege of Dragonspear launched, if you recruited Neera briefly to take her gem bag in the main BG1 campaign, then tried to recruit her again in SoD, she would still be level 1, like when you'd recruited her in BG1, with a mostly empty spellbook.
I seem to recall that they did something about that but I just wanna make sure before I proceed.
I seem to recall that they did something about that but I just wanna make sure before I proceed.
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To be fair, an npc recruiting at level 1 in a campaign levels 6-11 is kinda ridiculous. There should be a baseline level that all npcs in SoD start at, and IF they were recruited in BG1 AND the levels reached go above the default start, it should carry over. But level 1 in SoD is nonsense.
but this is the main reason i use the tob level thing in the tweak pack.
I don't have too much experience with the latter half of the series, but is that how things work in Throne of Bhaal?
If you recruit Viconia briefly at level 7, then re-recruit when you get into Throne of Bhaal, will she still be level 7 in a level 25+ campaign?
Throne of Bhaal didn't have the same problem with reduced companion options meaning you're likely to take along somebody you didn't keep with you through the main campaign, but I could see how the system might get grandfathered in that way.
tob added this thing where the npc will adjust to your level when recruited. the tweak pack adds this to bg1, sod and soa.
Yes, that's exactly how it is. I wanted to recruit Valygar in ToB once, because two of my companions got chunked in hell, but I had recruited him in BG2:EE for the sphere, so yep, he had the level that I left him with, way behind my other companions. Or at least that's how it is with companions you picked up in BG2, and ToB is just an extension. It doesn't work that way with former BG1 companions.
So, the only conclusion is to never recruit someone and then drop them if you plan to pick them up again.
It doesn't make too much sense in my opinion, because if you traveled with someone for a couple of days and then meet him again after 3 years, we would have gained some experience along the way, wouldn't he? Unless, of course, you tell him to wait for you at the Copper Coronet and he loyally sits there drinking ale until the Pocket Plane summons him ...
Edit: overlooked what @megamike15 wrote... are you sure? If so, it must have happened a few months ago.
This isn't new, either - I'm looking at an old copy of the game I happen to have, which I think is version 2.3.
BGEE recruits get a catch-up trigger when they first join - XP of 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K, or 32K. SoA recruits get a similar catch-up trigger - XP of 125K, 250K, 500K, 750K, 1000K, or 1250K.
It would be appropriate to give SoD re-recruits a catch-up trigger as well. What do the new NPCs start with?
You are right. My mistake. I just checked the save file that I was referring to. Valygar has 2.5 million XP.
I just assumed it was where I had kicked him out of my BG2:EE party because he was level 12 at the beginning of ToB, while even my paladins with their slow progress were at level 18.
There's definitely a catch up trigger if you're recruiting them for the first time. If you played through the entire main BG1 campaign, you're probably a bit higher leveled than the characters you recruit, so they'll start out at level 7ish, give or take depending on the class, and then gain a level or two of experience when you recruit them.
It's just that if you were perhaps a little cavalier with these characters in the campaign where you had companions falling out your armpits, when you come back and find that they're now one of one or two characters on your end of the alignment spectrum of a given class then you've completely screwed yourself over, because they only scale up to the first time you recruit them in either campaign.
However, knowing that isn't how it works should encourage people to be more cautious in loving and leaving NPC companions.