I feel like of all the Companions the puzzle of how to do handle Jaheira under the 5e scheme is the most interesting.

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She can recruit in at around lvl 6 which pretty much matches how she performs as an ally (with the wildshape Panther), but the pair of scimitars and her presentation in the old games suggests she's got at least 1 lvl in fighter. For me she came in at the same lvl as the PC which can be a little hard to explain. Given her semi legendary status, even randos from Avernus are in the fan club now, seems like she would recruit in at a higher level than the other PCs. I would say 1 lvl higher than the protagonist's current level would make sense, and this could be explained by an imagined throwaway line about old wounds. You know leaving her drained somehow of her former strength, cause of the connection to the land and the return of death gods and such. Perhaps she gets nailed in that first big fight with a mark of Myrkul or something, and that's why she comes in at the lvl she does.

For early recruitment, you have to have a party of 3, cause if you hit that scene with 4 you'll get the dreaded "looks like you're all full up" response, but with no way to dismiss a current companion from the hostile area.

Either way assuming she comes in between 6-8 (likely 7?) how do you handle her Class and Abilities...?

Pure class Druid with martial flavor feat?

Split class evenly (like a nod to the old multi-class) or weighted more towards either Fighter or Druid?

Another martial class to druid maybe, or Ranger or Bard for the Harper angle? It seems like there are many interesting options, and I kinda dig how we can choose here, but I'm also changeable of mind. I do feel like fighter druid would be right for oldschool vibes, but there are so many new options in a 5e scheme that could cover a similar archetype.

Her attribute spread in BG1 was

15 STR, 14 DEX, 17 CON, 10 INT, 14 WIS, 15 CHA

In BG2 she had 17 DEX which was a bit of a retcon. With all 3 Wisdom tomes from BG1 that had her at 17 WISDOM, or 1 up in any other stat, but in 5e we are closer to that BG1 spread probably. Like just knock off a point on each and you're pretty close to the 27 point buy we have going.

She keys off default druid stats, so basically low STR high DEX in the default, though of course we can Withers that, but has her pretty solid. Circle and such is our choice or the additional class at lvl up. What are you all running with?

I haven't gotten to Misc yet, though I imagine a similar question arises there, and how to translate his progression and high STR. From BG1 before Barbarian was a class option, he seemed very much a Ranger Barbarian prototype, with an animal companion that was entirely imaginary (for all we knew) and a loadout that had him packing steel by his catchphrase, so what to do with him in the new much more open ended scheme is also curious. Dip out of Ranger into something else? Try to rock a striker STR ranger on a respec... I could see it also being an interesting q. But Jaheira comes in first so figured starting there. What are you all trying out?

Last edited by Black_Elk; 24/08/23 09:26 PM.