I agree that the first NPC members you meet are the most important, because you want your character and theirs to grow together. Meeting a new joinable NPC at level 5 or 6 is pretty late in the game ... no thanks, Eldoth. But still, there are story elements that might require such things, and this is why I keep bringing up Narlen Darkwalk as an example. I love it when there are NPC's who don't become party members, but yet who will go on adventures with the PC. And sometimes they may go away for while and then come back, sort of like Saemon Haverian except that instead of just giving information, I would like to see some actual adventuring and some combat with an independent NPC at my side. If you roll up Narlen Darkwalk, Gorpel Hind, and Simon Haeverian into one NPC you would have a great story mechanism to work with.
