Is whoever you pick at the beginning as an NPC companion supposed to be just silent and non-existent in dialogues? Are they meabt to get killed in some fight early on as they don't level up? Because it's very jarring when they just disappear and appear again only to serve as a moderately useless combatant.
I had missed this days ago. The NPC is apparently just to help you get through the starting area, and isn't expected to survive beyond that. Some people have done challenge runs trying to keep them alive for the entire campaign.
