And to be clear : I don't consider that a hollow, personality-less, malleable/editable/make-your-own Mercenary will do the job.
But isnt this exactly why they exist?
I mean ... feel free to corect me if im wrong, or if you played DoS and know how Larian handle mercenaries ...
But i fully expect them to be blank paige with no personality, story, or dialogues ... just being there to fill the gasp between point where you loose companion, and point where you get replacement.
If i pick the only example from EA: Second siege of the Grove...
In final release i expect:
- first of all for our companions to leave us before the battle
(It looks really stupid when Wyll is murdering civilians with us, just to afterwards, still covered with their blood, yell at us that we are evil and he leaves us.)
- Wyll leaves us, no question asked ... bcs this is too much for him (as it is)
- Gale wants to leave us for simmilar reasons ... but can be persuated to stay (as it is)
- Lae'zel leave no question asked ... bcs this is foolish delay, and we are supposed to search for Creche, rather than stand for weaklings (if we decide to help Tieflings)
- Astarion wants to leave us ... but can be persuated to stay (bcs there will be battle, and killing goblins will be fun)
Then, after the battle is done ...
I would expect at very least Wizard and Warlock mercenaries to be recruitable from some forces that belong to Minthara (if we kill her, then too bad) ...
And some Fighter and Rogue mercenaries recruitable from Groove forces (my personal prefferences would be Aradin, and the girl with a Bow from his group)
Until later in story (like Act II.) where we would meet proper replacement companions with story and personality.
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Reasoning is quite simple:
Every companion have two roles ... story and combat ...
And while i kinda like loosing story aspects for my decisions, bcs that are consequences, and the heavier consequences, the more impactfull my decisions feel ...
I dont really like the combat aspect ... bcs when you loose Fighter zhere is nothing positive about it ... and the worse part is that Fighter can only be properly replaced by another Fighter. :-/
I mean ... Fighter may not be the prime example since some could Argue that Barbarian or Paladin can be proper replacements ... but that is THE important part, they only can be and only if you play specific builds with both original and replacement. :-/
Its certainly harder to replace Dex-Fighter, or Eldrich Knight with Barbarian.
This is much easier in Dragon Age, where you only have Rogue, Warrior and Sorcerer ... or in Mass Effect, where you only have Tech, Biotic or Combat ... and in both cases, unless you leave some of them completely, it doesnt really matter how will you asemble your party.
But here, with all that options and especially with 4 members only ... it feels much morw important. :-/
//Edit:
I would much, much, much have preferred it if Larian had not made any of the Companions an Origin, and had instead put the saved resources to use toward 4 more Companions.
I mean, let me rephrase this in a way that fit within the scope of the thread. My hope is that future party members will all be Non-Origin Companions.
May i ask on what is this this gues based?
I mean, as far as i know, the only difference between Origin and Non-Origin companion ... is that Origin companions were on Nautiloid, and so we can play as them, bcs their story counts with them starting at same place as we do. O_o
So ... i would dare to claim that if our companions would be non-Origin ... it would save ... nothing basicaly. :-/
