One of the reasons I'm so stoked for July to hurry up and start and end is to dig into questions like this. There are so many teases of subplots in EA, some we see a little more of than others, and for each of those subplots, the Zhents, Raphael, companions' issues, how many different paths through each of those plots will there be?
Me too! I've found the hints at so many stories so tantalising, I can't wait to find out more about them all. The ones you mention, then I'm really looking forward to finding out more about the sisterhood of hags, the Ironhand gnomes' takeover plan, what really did happen at Moonhaven, how the tieflings from the grove get on in Baldur's Gate (it was good to spot some of them in the recent trailer), hopefully getting to that Sharran temple in Grymforge Nere was trying to get to, plus the quests that started and never finished in EA like finding out what happened to Duke Ravengard and the Nightsong. I even want to find out what happens to the irritating artist we can rescue from the Zhentarim.
Regarding the reset to level 1 I cheerfully admit to inconsistency. I don't at all mind Shepard and gang being reset to level 1 in each ME game, and I'm perfectly happy to just accept Halsin and even Jaheira at, say, level 5 even though she in particular should probably be higher, without any implication or explanation of them having lost power - I'll accept that's just the level they've reached for the purposes of this particular story. And in principle I don't mind having characters whose back story is that they used to be powerful and are now less so. The thing that's making me itch is that so many of the companions' stories are following that same pattern, which makes it feel a bit artificial. I hope at least that Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Astarion don't get stories like that and we can assume that our travels with them are the first time they've really had chance to progress.
And I'm aware that we've probably diverted away from the topic of this thread. As long as the OP doesn't mind and their questions have been answered it's probably not doing any harm, though it could make it difficult to find the next time we end up talking about this again as I'm sure we will. I might do some thread splitting and merging to create a companion feedback megathread if the topic keeps popping up everywhere as it understandably is at the moment given the news. I'll see how things go tomorrow.
