Agreed in principle. I, personally, can't imagine a scenario in which I would ever put a joinable NPC anywhere not on the accessible-in-chapter-2 map.
Although there are the exceptions that prove the rule: Imoen, for starters, who is nominally the reason for going to Spellhold in the first place. And Solafans are very content to head to the Underdark with all speed so they can pick up Solaufein. Again, I think those exceptions are best left as exactly that, but I can see how they would fuel an argument for putting an NPC in an oddball location.
There's also Tiax, but then again, he's Tiax! He gets all the pardons. I'm also talking about NPCs that require you to fork over the gold to get them. Ones like Fade and Ninde, and fighting vampires so soon will drive you and your party mad.
And there are lesser ones like going deep into the Planar Sphere early will probably be frustrating.
Speaking about things that make me mad, here's a trap: projection!
This happens most during flirts and action situations in parenthesis (and if you're abusing those, I have no respect.) Don't tell me subjective things that my character is thinking! The game works around this in romances by giving you different options so you don't have to say Subjective things.
If your introduction is (you see a beautiful Mary Sue before you) then it's probably down hill from there. Let ME decide if she's pretty or if my character's attraction is something else.
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Although there are the exceptions that prove the rule: Imoen, for starters, who is nominally the reason for going to Spellhold in the first place. And Solafans are very content to head to the Underdark with all speed so they can pick up Solaufein. Again, I think those exceptions are best left as exactly that, but I can see how they would fuel an argument for putting an NPC in an oddball location.
And there are lesser ones like going deep into the Planar Sphere early will probably be frustrating.
Speaking about things that make me mad, here's a trap: projection!
This happens most during flirts and action situations in parenthesis (and if you're abusing those, I have no respect.) Don't tell me subjective things that my character is thinking! The game works around this in romances by giving you different options so you don't have to say Subjective things.
If your introduction is (you see a beautiful Mary Sue before you) then it's probably down hill from there. Let ME decide if she's pretty or if my character's attraction is something else.