Ember: Don't trust in gods to help you, you'll be a much stronger person if you just believe in yourself instead! :) Also Ember: *Receives godly power and is personally watched over by a demigod archon of heaven*
I don't think she advocates for not trusting the gods to help you because she believes it makes you stronger. Ember advocates for it because the gods, in general, don't do shit. I mean for example Deskari attacks kenabres to disrupt the chain of wardstones. What do the gods do? They just let him. Only time they really intervene is when the player gains mythic power from a "demonic" source or when you become swarm and threaten to eat everyone.
As you mentioned, so much of the story has to do with redemption. Which makes Camellia even more interesting. Because she says she's possessed by a malevolent spirit that causes her to murder. So as with many other companions and the themes of the story overall, you want to help her. But she's lying and just loves murder haha
I actually love what they did with her. She was the obvious earlygame waifu bait, making players think that they can fix her, then suddenly you get the realization that there is no fixing her, no redemption, she is as much or more of a monster than the demons you fight.
@@HeartoftheWinterbut in same time sooooo many players was crying and raging on owlcast and they tried to force them add “redemption” slide in epilogue, and there is even a mod where camellia in weeding dress. I guess those people was raised on Disney movies and just don’t believe that there is just pure psychopaths in the world. Camellia feels really much more alive and realistic then many others just because she is go on the war to have more chances to kill people without consequences. Just as people did and do in real world with wars.
Camelia is covered in red flags from the moment you meet her. I once tried to do her quest & romance her on a demon path and I felt like Padme from the meme. "It's all still just to please the spirits and save the land, right? right?"
@@eriksibul9399 If you're talking about the mod, I think you're talking about then it never tries to redeem her; it just tries to give her better endings, then one day she just left .
Camellia would get instantly killed by like 80% of the party but the game's like "nahhhhh she's sneaky about it" when she's constantly talking about killing everyone
The only thing that made me keep her was the "eventual promise of getting a higher power to join the crusade". Sacrifice 1 or 2 for the greater good and so... then her last mission happened and well... I don;t miss her. I hate that Wolif is relatively hard to recruit, since Camelia is the only other one to pick locks.
As the game keeps describing her reaction to slaughter as "licking her lips nervously." Uh-huh, sure, that's why she's doing it. Girl's about to slide across the dungeon she's so "nervous." I still don't know her late-game very well, because I've only had her survive Act 3 in one playthrough. Anyone Lawful or Good would turn her in, and even my CN Trickster couldn't resist telling her she was safe and then telling the guards to move in.
Yeah her story is weird. They look like they're going somewhere with her and all, but then they give my MC a reason and opportunity to kill her, which was very silly of them.
I can't help but love Daeran. Immediately after meeting him in game I could tell he was using humor to hide behind depression and loneliness and that really resonated with me.
I would agree but he is too callous with everyone and nearly everything for me to actually like him as a person, thematically he is cool, realistically I think he is an awful person and an ass most of the time :D
We’re so far apart on this haha, obviously just a matter of personal preference. I think Daeran is such a unique and interesting companion, Ember is bottom half, super boring goody-two shoes above it all archetype reminds me of when they put infallible child characters in like any popular show or movie, Then we have Regill, the undisputed GOAT for me, what an outrageously cool companion from his lore to his personality to his stellar VA.
I too found Ember overly sugary sweet for my tastes Regill was my favorite with his pragmatic approach to everything. And give him a 2 hander and he busts em up!
I disagree kinda, for me Seelah or whatever feels much more vanilla and sweet. Ember is interesting at least because her philosophy n random insights, sometimes she gave me Malkavian vibes randomly saying wise things and reading people. Also I like how Venduag kinda scare of her and always saying that she is hiding something and she is not what she seems, and when camellia says “meh she just a dump girl” venduag said “I can feel she hide something, and she doing it better then u maniac girl” to camellia.
I was gonna say, I can't believe he did my Daeran dirty like that. I love the idea of a chaotic evil character who doesn't want to consort with demons or murder babies. He's just like, kind of a dick. And all his dialogue is soooo good :')
I love ember, daeran and regill. Regill, is so tough but fair. Ember lightens the mood and I love how she is a shit starter while not meaning to. I love daeran for being all the problems
Lann is deeply troubled, he has to live life with honor and dream. Dream is the only thing he can have. That is why he want to end it in Act3. I respect that he can fight for good without any hope.
This is the only game that did incredible job at evil companions, we have everything, chaotic, lawful and neutral evil and they all have very good stories and fit the campaign.
@@oicrusader2143 I will second this, BG3 has a very tame depiction of evil. You could make a parallel between Mint and Cam, but hell....she doesn't even come close. All "evil" in BG3 has some kind of redemption hence making it less evil? Doesn't mean BG3 has bad characters, just an objective take on it :)
Regill: I don't appreciate your methods, but I appreciate the help Wenduag: Who hurt you? I will show you what love and affection is and you will like it Spoiler: you are crazy. Not even my chaotic evil demon liked you
@@icarue993 The great thing about Regill was that he was way more ruthless than he even needed to be, but it was generally based in pragmatism, and when it wasn't, he still wasn't stupid and would listen to reason. It's rare to see LE portrayed as "so cruelly Law-obsessed that they slipped into Evil in the process," rather than "an Evil person using law and order for its own ends," but it's a much more realistic portrayal. A cruel totalitarian, but one who genuinely believes what he's doing is the best way to run a society.
This video clearly shows that its a taste thing with the companions: I personally have Lann and Greybor as two of my main companions, while Camellia, Seelah and Wenduag are my least favorite ones. I used to dislike Daeran but grew to really appreciate him. I dont really like Nenio as a companion but I always find myself in the need of a true wizard.
Same. Greybor with any of the good alignment characters is hilarious, regill is the same with any chaos or evil characters. Never liked Camellia or Wenduag, one is a straight murder hobo protected by her father who is a PoS in his own right, and not sure even evil characters are okay with cannibalism, that is a taboo that is pretty much outright hated by all. Lann grew on me, listening to him interact with others is tedious at times, but his insight in counsel tends to be spot on, like regill. No issues with Seelah, other then she never comes off as iconic, she is deeply flawed makes just about every mistake one can as a Paladin, even if done for good intentions. I was floored when she is important to the PF lore, nothing about the build or jer actions hinted at that
I didn't like Lann until I swapped him out to go to the Abyss. Then I was like "damn I must have hit a difficulty spike or something, demons aren't just randomly dropping dead anymore."
i like lann already just bc hes a sarcastic memelord sometimes like that one time where he just goes "oh no, i love being a genetic freak who will most likely die before the age of 40, its great"
I used to dislike Lann a lot more until recently because he was extremely pushy with his romance for female characters. If you were even vaguely polite to him he'd keep trying to ask you out. Fortunately they reduced that in a patch. Regill was probably my favourite character overall even though he clearly didn't like my character that much since she was an Azata. I'm really excited to see him being a lot happier in my Aeon playthrough next. He looks like a miniature Sauron, is extremely grumpy, gives pretty good advice (his Military options especially are generally good) and does pretty solid damage with his weird hooked hammer.
Lann is realistic: a teenager whose maximum lifespan is 30 years if not extended in the endings. He's honorable but very simple minded and I was disappointed in the romance. Regill is very widely liked as a solid character, even as he doesn't change a bit.
he's the worst character imo he's writing is awfull... in the prologue he play the "try to save everybody go as fast as your slower companion bla bla bla" and then when you meet regil... he's agreeing with him? wtf? prologue lann and main game lann isn't the same character...
@@Kaliblister Agreed. His writing (and VA) is poor. He's definitely Chaotic Good in the prologue and early game, and it's like they realized halfway through development that he has to be Lawful Neutral because of his class. His class itself also makes no sense. He should have been a Hunter.
This is why I don't like Sos, male character, trying to just be a bro and help him out, pushy AF in the romance line, and if you are a female character that tries to romance him, you find out he's taken early, act 2 or 3, so the entire time he is romancing you he is with someone. Unfaithfulness as a cleric is a poor character flaw.
@@Dan-uf2vh Regill doesn't change and what I hate is that I've seen some people criticize him for it. But overall I'm glad so many people like him. Not every character has to have an arc of change to be good. Some characters are iconic and don't change and the fun is in watching who they already are react to different situations. James Bond and Sherlock Holmes don't need character arcs, they just are who they are and we enjoy watching/reading about them. It's perfectly fine for Regill to be the same person from the beginning to the end of the game and just enjoy how that person responds to things.
Yeah the slave market scene as Azata is a scene that genuinely chokes me up whenever I see it. I'm a sucker for stories about slave liberations and similar plot points, so it was INCREDIBLY satisfying in that scene, for all the demons to be like "mmmuahahaha! You're in OUR house puny mortal, there is nothing you can do!!" And your Azata champion is like "....oh really?" 😈 *unleashes the power of chaotic liberation on the slave market* And just the sound of the triumphant signature song for the Azata to play with the more heroic chorus to it, while the energy washes over the market, freeing the slaves, killing demons, and ensnaring the others, was just SO satisfying. 🤣 I never finished the game because I just hated that Demon city level so much, but that part, that part was awesome.
И это полный бред. Простите, я понимаю, у нас тут паверфантазия, НО это не просто нейтральный кусок Бездны - это ВЛАДЕНИЯ ЛОРДА БЕЗДНЫ. Лорды Бездны имеют абсолютный контроль на своем плане. Никакая мифическая сила не позволит тебе ничего там поменять, если этого не захочет Ноктикула. Красиво, но глупо. А самое главное - ничего не решает. Красиво и бессмысленно. В Бездне миллионы таких рынков, закрытие одного, усилит другой. Как не крути. Лишь Ангел вносит реальный impact, выжигая до тла целый план Дескари.
I never noticed the game trying to convince you not to kill Camellia but yeah, overlooking her act 5 quest was a huge stretch that even a MC on the gold dragon path about redemption would've had enough.
It's easy to hate Daeran, but his narrative is styled just like Camellia did. The game never tells you outright, but the hints are on every pebbles on the step. On their true nature, that is.
The two of them really are great counterpoints to one another, the traumatized guy who actively tries to bury his good side under a hedonistic mask and the psychotic monster who poorly fakes her own goodness. I just wish Daeran had a better VA, he really just sounds bored and like his mic was cheaper than the others. Maybe he's better in Dance of Masks, not sure.
Come on. Camelia is covered in red flags from the moment you meet her. You can confidently tell what she is after like 20 minutes into the game based on her amulet, battle cries and not-at-all-obvious remarks.
@@JohnDoe-il4dz Them trying to hide her alignment with her amulet is dumb. The second I saw that item I said to myself "Oh, she's evil". There's literally no other reason to hide it.
I might swap out the top two because I absolutely love Aivu but I definitely agree with most of this list. My first playthrough was Chaotic Good so I went with the Azata mythic path and romanced Arueshalae and all that jazz. It was definitely fun.
Wenduag is one of those characters I feel like theres no real in game justification for ever siding with. Even if youre evil shes shown to be extremely fickle and willing to betray anyone at the drop of a hat if she feels she can get an advantage for doing so. I kill her and move on every time because it feels like the smarter option even if Lann isnt a good fit for an evil party outside of being naïve cannon fodder.
Seems pretty easy to justify taking her if you're an evil character. She has no problem doing terrible things and as long as you're the most powerful in the room, she's going to follow whatever you tell her to do. If she gets out of line, you can just kill her. And the alternative is Lann, a good guy that gets upset over a little bit of cannibalism. He's obviously not going to be okay with you doing evil things and you'll likely end up just having to kill him when you he turns on you, so why would you take him as an evil character? A fickle allegiance from Wenduag is better than an allegiance that'll immediately fall apart with Lann. A lot of evil characters have big egos too, so they might just like having someone like Wenduag along that worships them, and they likely believe they'll always be strong enough to keep her in line or kill her, so her betrayal isn't really something they'd be concerned about.
I rejected Wenduags proposal to join your group when you meet her in act 3 again on a good playthrough and told her to kys and well that made her have the hots for me (degradation kink tbh) I kept her around but never did anything with her or got her into my party, then, in her ending slide she gets killed by greybor. lol. Ok bye wendy
I actually cried with tears of like emotions on Embers quest line she is propably one of my favourite game characters of all times, her tears cracking up in half baphomets altar is one of the most heartwarming moments and at a same time funniest moments I ever experienced im my gaming life
I haven't gotten super deep into my runs before I've restarted playthroughs a couple times, but on a run I think will stick. Wasn't sure if I should watch the video due to spoilers. Thanks for making it clear when they were coming so I could skip, and I 100% found and am really excited for the mythic path I want to go this time thanks to this vid.
Daeran is easily my favorite companion. One, he has a great class for healing or damage. Two, his story is very intriguing and weaves into his personality very well. And finally his interactions with Lann and Ember are priceless and some of the best banter in a rpg. With Daeren and Lann making fun of each other like brothers or close friends. He also never says a mean word to Ember and treats her like a little sister or (our adopted)daughter. (I call him Gorden Ramsey of WotR because he is an a hole that always cooks at camp but treats kids well.) Needless to say my Azata fell in love with him at fist sight and vowed to free the caged count from The Other. The symbol of freedom personified that he is.
I confess I'm a bit boring when it comes to companions in RPGs. I like playing good guys, and I like surrounding my PC with other good (or at the very least neutral) folk who more-or-less get along.
I would like this cast to choose from and the choices to play in just about any other game, but in this one, where it is literally good vs chaos vs evil, it's hard to justify being the savior of the world as a lich, demon, swarm. Devil maybe a sliver as they are at war with the demons also, but even that is hard sell, as the primary backers of your war are all good gods or backed by those gods.
Same. Irl being a decent person consists of opening doors for people and letting someone merge in front of you. This game is a place where being a decent person consists of charging into a group of 12 foot tall demons and putting the fear of God into them. If I did an evil playthrough......I'd only be the millionth tryhard to think I was cool doing it.
Ember is absolutely the best character. One thing that the game never straight up tells you, but can be seen in her class progression, is that her Oracle's Curse actually progresses slightly earlier than normal. She is treated as being one level higher for all her Curse bonuses.
Regill might just be my favourite, which I never expected going into my first playthrough. He's so often the most reasonable voice in the room and one of the few characters that just 100% feel like he's exactly where he's supposed to be and actually deserves to be there. I also appreciate that despite being rigid and lawful, he's actually one of the most 'loyal' characters-because he cares about your results and not how you get them, making him very flexible in terms of what playthrough your doing. Case in point, he even stuck around for the entirety of my trickster playthrough and his ending slide singlehandedly made that my favourite ending by far! Camellia is probably my second favourite. I love how uniquely unhinged she is but I think there's not a single playthrough where her narrative actually fully works. She obviously doesnt fit in lawful/good, but she also doesnt fit into chaotic/evil either because she just keeps hiding and excuse crimes that most demons and evil trickster simply wouldnt think twice of. as for the other side of my tier list. I dislike Seelah and HAAAATTE Lann. He's such a hypocrite. A naive idealist who constantly insults others for being idealistic
Regill is one of my favorites, as well. I appreciate his pragmatism, even if I don't always agree with him. Another point in his favor is that he knows who he is and doesn't need me to help him soul search. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind most of the companion quests, but it's refreshing that a companion isn't relying on me in that way.
I really need to actually make camp on a map more than I do. Because of this video I looked into companion interactions, and a lot of how they are as a character happens while camping, their interactions with each other etc. Also Daeran, Regil and Lann are all companions I rate very highly, Ember is also my favourite, partially for the reasons you described but also because you can take her in wildly different directions. Her lawful ending is dififcult for her, but ultimately it helps her grow up a bit and be less naive and feels like she learns the lesson Andoletta wants her to learn, she even gives Ember a new spell: Storm of Burning Righteousness. Her evil ending is very sad but it is cool that Owlcat gives you the option to play with a victim and essentially bully her and eventually break her soul. I had to kind of force myself to do this because I tend to dislike playing evil characters but at the same time are curious as to the unique content Owlcat made for them, and it rarely dissapoints in that regard.
I know variety is required but man, it's so refreshing to have new WOTR content from you! Can see how you appreciate it and we like seeing you excited dude!
staunton got some added interactions eventually i think, when i played lich he did react to minagho in every encounter, and you can talk with him about killing her, yaniel will also not back down if you meet her with staunton in your party, she will just call you a monster and try to fight you, so you can either let her or just take the opportunity to corrupt her sword
Ember is great! Even my evil Zon Kuthon’s Warpriest was impressed by her force of Will and determination despite all physical and social abuse she experienced. Plus Queen Wenduag is number waifu as it should be! Awesome list Mort!
Oh woah. I didn't even realise until reading the comments that this was only posted 5 days ago! I fully thought this was an old video. With that in mind: I absolutely love Daeran, and his romance is just lovely to play through. I'm a big fan of the quirky remarks, and breaking down his walls. Also, you get to push him into a waterfall, and that's amazing.
I like Arueshalaes build, she is a great buffbot for a party with lots of natural weapon DDs as well. My top 5 favorites: 5. Sosiel 4. Woljif 3. Ulbrig 2. Aivu 1. Arueshalae
I've yet to take Wenduag, even for an evil character it's insane to take her with you given her introduction if you're roleplaying it. One day I'll do a demon run or something.
There are simple ways around that, if you're willing to RP. For starters, leaving Lann with the mongrels is the obviously more safe choice for the mongrels; and you can keep Wenduag in check when she's with you. If you want to go with a more esoteric angle, pick an Oracle, and then you can just do whatever because you've had a vision on how events are going to unfold.
I have only taken her once and I tried to romance her (as a good character). It was fun but she betrayed me (seems to be a tricky romance to get right). She was a powerful dual axe thrower though and I really missed her after she was gone.
Why do you think its insane for an evil character to take her? Seems to make plenty of sense to me RP-wise, especially when the alternative is Lann who isn't cool with evil shit and, RP-wise, would likely break his alliance with you the moment he sees you doing some evil things. Wenduag will follow whatever messed up evil things you do or ask her to do. If she betrays you or outlives her usefulness, then from the perspective of an evil character, you can just kill her lol. Better to have a useful evil minion that will follow orders but may potentially betray you than it is to have a good aligned character that will absolutely betray you when he sees what kind of person you actually are.
@@Denkart You don't know any of that when you get the choice. All you know about her is that she eats people, conspired to kill you, betrayed the last person she followed, and betrayed/killed/ate many of her own people. Is she going to betray you when she meets the next powerful demon you might run into? Which seems likely you might. For an evil character just meeting her, nothing about her makes you think she'll stick with you and not try to kill you again later, even if you're not against her killing and eating folk. Even if you're thinking this Lann guy is boring and doesn't like it when **I** want to kill and maim (or eat people who knows). The alternative isn't just Lann, you can take neither of them, which is fine. None of this matters that much, we can rationalize anything we want for RPing. You want to redeem this monster, you want to have a wild time killing people with this spidercat mutant, whatever.
@@Argo.nautica I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you don't know any of that when you get the choice. None of what I said requires any knowledge of future events. Those are the justifications I used on my first playthrough. You know when you have the choice that Lann simply will not work with you. He already wants to kill Wenduag at the beginning because of what she's done. It's easy to assume that he will want to do the same to you as soon as you do something he doesn't approve of. No point in taking someone that won't work for you at all. You know Wenduag is unreliable and follows strength, but has no issues with doing evil things. So you can at least use her until her usefulness runs out or she betrays you, at which point you can kill her. As an evil character, you would already expect any minion you have to desert you or betray you given a chance, so that's no surprise and she admits as much. What harm can some lowly mongrel do to you anyway? Choosing neither as option is perfectly fine as well. Just saying there's nothing really insane about picking Wendu as an evil character and really there are plenty of reasons to do so. It can be as simple as being an evil character with a large ego that simply likes having a little minion that worships them and doesn't fear betrayal because they believe they'll always be the strongest to keep her in line. Of course, you're also right in saying that there are definitely reasons to NOT take her as an evil character. I just felt like explaining some reasons why an evil characters would since you said it'd be insane to do so lol.
During my first playthrough I played an Angel/Paladin... and then Camillia happened... damn I struggled but decided on the role playing route and did what a lawful good paladin was meant to do... That character really surprised me lol.
Daeran grew on me. He reminds me of Anders from Dragon Age 2, someone who I would find grating but my MC won't. It's easy to like a character when you, the player, like them to begin with. But characters like Daeran bring out the roleplayer in me more.
Exactly. Couldn't stand him at first, but by the end of the game I was roleplaying that he and my character were best friends. He's incredibly witty too, so I appreciate the writing that went into him.
Woljif was a total turnoff when he cowardly ran away from my party, what made it worst is he was my best dps guy I made into a Baked Trickster. Never used him again after that.
I've never felt more turned off or more betrayed in my life. Never forgave him either because he never tried to redeem himself and show he wasn't completely a yellow bellied Coward
That is why he ran, he does so much base damage him running away is a difficulty spike. I also feel rp wise it makes sense. He is a thief who didn't sign up for war. Him getting scared is fair.
@@Frey12 RP-wise I always treated him like he was part of the supply caravan like Horgus...just a black market/informant guy. Not a crusader. So he wasn't a deserter in my eyes. A coward, yeah, but I didn't treat him like a knight or expect honor from him at all during the story.
They really did great job on Regil and Seelah, both are lawful by rule but they also somewhat chaos. Seelah is fun to interect since you get somewhat borderline chaos but still lawful enough reaction from her. While Regil, this guy just do straight very lawful stuff but if you think about it, somehow it feel like chaos things might because he is a gnome 😂
I gave Selaah one lvl dip into Sable Company Marine to give her a hippogriff mount and its bad ass charging into the front line of a giant hippogriff. Currently she is lvl 11 paladin lvl 1 Sable Marine and lvl 1 Cavalier. I will get her to lvl 8 Cavalier order of the sword to get her to add pet str to charge. and since the flying attack counts as a charge it should work quite nicely
I played it only once, Lann and Aru were the ones who put everything down, the rest was just for the number. I didn't use Nenio as a wizard myself, Phantasm Killer was always ineffective/resisted. Well, i'm not a pro :-) I liked Ember, Aru and Aivu the most, maybe even Seelah. The rest were lucky that i played as a good guy :-)
Making phantasmal killer work consistently requires stacking a lot of bonuses onto it specifically, onto illusion in general and onto making your spell DCs higher. Once you get to that point it can one-shot some bosses if you're lucky.
When encountering Ember, the main quest of the game becomes 'Don't let anything bad happen to Ember'. This involves closing the Worldwound, as it presents a significant threat to Ember.
Lann and Wenduag are two possible sides of the way people react to traumatic childhoods (speaking as someone with a traumatic childhood and who knew others with said). Lann has realistic flaws of depression and low self-esteem, but in the end is a decent person who reacts to his trauma primarily by wanting to protect innocent people, while Wenduag is the type of traumatized person who reacts with the whole "If I'm the one oppressing other people then nobody can ever hurt me again" mentality. I ended up vastly preferring Lann to Wenduag as a result, especially since a lot of Wenduag's behaviors and attitudes are so utterly horrible. I also will stump for Sosiel again, in that he's an absolute expert at diplomacy, passive-aggressive snark, and Politeness Judo (him running circles around Konomi in particular was a joy to watch). He also has an interesting arc about trying to overcome his anger issues. It's just that this character archetype is not one typically applied to male characters versus female characters, so it reads less interestingly than if he was a female character. Finally, credit to Daeran for being biggest surprise for me. When we first read the character's description in the KS updates I was prepared to dislike him, but he's written as a genuinely hilarious and complex character. Him being an actually self-aware troll who's upfront about being a jerkass goes a long way I think.
My favourite team for this run is Seela, Ember, Ulbrig, Daeran and Woljif. Great banter, healer heavy (which I LOVE, nowhere near enough RPG's these days have viable healers), and just enough grunt with Woljif sneaking around causing chaos. Love it. This game really does deserve far more love than it gets 💜 Nenio grates on me the way you described Daeran grating on you. I LOVE Daeran, but Nenio makes me want to tear out my hair. Cannot stand her personality. I wish I liked Camelia more, because her story is delightfully evil. It took me SO long to figure out what was going on with the heads lol.
Nenio's quest is fantastic. To me, it (along with the secrets of creation and probably sacred lands) is a perfect example of what puzzles in games should look like. I've enjoyed a great deal solving them, and I wish I could wipe out my memory and figure out their principles again. Also, Daeran's nihilistic attitude is like a breath of fresh air in this world of Extremely Serious Existential Struggle Of Good Vs Evil. He's not even really evil in the same way Wenduag or Camellia are. He just wants to be left alone. I have to put a serious effort into not romancing him on every single one of my playthroughs 😆
I love Daeran. Especially when you have Ember and Lann. Daeran picks on Lann, but he's very protective of Ember, and it makes for an amazing dynamic. Also, I think he's pretty funny.
I like Daeran because he is so sarcastic, Wenduag because of her evil personality and I played as daemon (and yet I was surprised AND happy when she betrays me because it represent her so good), Arueshalae because she was so unusual. In my opinion, Pathfinder WOTR has one of the best companions in the game industry along with Dragon Age Origins.
I love Ember. She really pull out my "Must protect" emotion. There are some things you can do that actually makes her sad, and those are unacceptable. I need her to always be smiling. A gameworld where Ember is sad isn't a world worth saving.
Damn lol every single playthrough i end up sending ember away from my party, she creates a cognitive dissonance in my mind, her potrait is scary, that void like stare is horrific, but she has a kind personality, gives me the heeby jeebies, shes like those horror movie child characters that end up being the main villain in a plot twist.
@@tendatonda1634 She's more like a pure naive child. She doesn't have a hint of malice in her, and simply wants all beings to strive to be good within their own power. I think that's what did it for me; she's just like a kid who thinks the best of everyone and the world. Even when faced with the horrors of reality, she still chooses to believe. I just can't break her heart.
My favorite companions were Lann, Seelah, Nenio, Sosiel and Daeran. Sometimes, I would switch Daeran for Amber when I needed some firepower. Overall, most companions were really cool and well written. The only one I thought was bad is Camellia. I thought her drama was too on the nose and stupid. I try usually to keep all companions on my first playthrough to see all the content available, however, when finally given the chance, I didn't hesitate to kill her. I really wasn't interested in her.
The only major mimsalignment with my personal preference is Sosiel, he can be amazing domain master, even just guarded hearth for tough battles is amazing
Some thoughts on a companions: Aivu: In addition to her personality, she also gives you one important additional benefit: She can be a mount for classes, that usually don't have mounts, such as Sword Saints and Titan Fighters. Galfrey: While she has great stats, the main problem mechanically is that you have zero customisation options and a paladin build without a mount is really not that great. Arushalee: If you could respec her from level 1, she would be great as mix of charisma based caster and dexterity based warrior. With the worst ranger subclass however she is not that great. However, being the only female love interest, that is neither a serial killer, nor a cannibal, nor only present for the last 10 minutes of the game is a benefit. Regill: His build is ok but not great, but I really like him as character, as he examplifies the idea of the hellknights and of a lawful evil character who is far more lawful than evil. Camellia: She is certainly powerful mechanically, as she is both good at rogue skills, has level 9 spell, the option of getting an animal companion and good debuffs. However, keeping her around in a non-evil playthrough just doesn't make much sense. Trevor: He is basically an example of how not to build a character. Sosiel: Good mechanically, but in a way the most generic good healer character you could come up with. As a rule of thumb, the sooner you meet a companion the more useful they are, because you can give them far better builds than the default builds late game companions have.
Kestoglyr have an unique interaction if you bring him to the Ineluctable Prison (act 5), the mini quest here leads to a unique scimitar as a reward. The weapon is honestly pretty good and with the additional interactivity and dialog he should at least rank equally to Ciar in my opinion, if not even higher considering you can customize his build a lot more than Ciar. :)
Something else about Aivu you didn't mention... Her breath weapon has innate Selective, essentially. Basically it can't hit your allies, unlike most of the other breath weapon attacks. That makes her especially good if you're using real time combat mode, cause she can breath weapon a big dogpile of allies and enemies and only the enemies get hit.
Nenio is probably THE best example of "true neutral" i've ever seen in any game... usually representations of this alignment tend to just be portrayed as good characters that act like they strive for neutrality (main example being Jaheira from BG1/BG2, which while i love... to me it's objective that she is a good aligned character) Nenio meanwhile has no real moral compass...all she wants is gather as much knowledge and the apply the scientific method...that's it. Wether that involves saving the realm, or witnessing her allies tortured so she can take annotations on the limits of the human body doesn't make a difference fo her. All that matters is the neutrality of the laws that make the universe. I understand that the original way the True Neutral alignment was imagined in ADnD, being focused on "helping the losing side in order to keep balance", is an interesting and compelling narrative tool, but 99% of the time i've simply seen it's potential completely squandered, so i prefer this kind of approach at this point.
Nenio being high ranked for you to me is wild. She called my PC "boy" once and I wanted to send her to Pharasma herself. I refuse to let her survive past Act 3😂😂😂
"i'm sure you'll disagree on something"... Ember N1 - nothing else matters thus nothing to disagree to. She's one of those fictional characters that not only interesting to read about, but also makes one to ponder about his real life (and what sheer/borderline psychotic selflesness can be)
Ah, recognition for the lover of cookies, and the fact that, even nerfed hard, she's still a DRAGON, and thus, quite powerful when she needs to be. Also she's adorable, and I love her, and she's the reason it's hard to do any other path, including the, now completely, canonical angel path(Recent APs in 2e have fully established, Baphomet is alive, but Deskari is not. That is a world state you can only get on the angel path)
Wow our companion ranks are different 😂 and I think I killed 3-4 of the companions in the unfolding of the story. Camellia had to go when I caught her red handed....Aeon Hellknight. My hands were tied 🤷 Greybor wanted to extort me for money. Like. No. Woljiff stole and deserted. Wenduag was a traitor.
Man we're quite different in our rankings, though granted I've just reached Act 5. Regill is really high for me. Whenever there's a council decision, he usually makes really good arguments. Daeran is really funny, but I'm not super into him. Camillia is probably the most annoying of the whole cast, with Ember not far behind, and Nenio on thin ice. I do agree though that Lann is really bland, but his reunion with his mom was surprisingly the only companion quest that's moved me so far.
I think Nenio, Ulbrig, and Regill are my top 3. I do, however, use a respec mod so as not to be locked into character builds. (I find it amusing to turn Ulbrig into a Fey Shifter and pretend he got cursed by the fae to be stuck in the form of the thing that killed him, for example.)
Ember: Don't trust in gods to help you, you'll be a much stronger person if you just believe in yourself instead! :)
Also Ember: *Receives godly power and is personally watched over by a demigod archon of heaven*
@@likeAG6likeAG6 Winter's Grasp has nothing to do with flat-footed debuff
And when she ascends, she makes a complete fool out of herself when she realizes she can't help everyone.
Even as a newbie, l can tell that she is meant to be an extremely naive character.
Andoletta: "She's out of line, but she's right."
I don't think she advocates for not trusting the gods to help you because she believes it makes you stronger. Ember advocates for it because the gods, in general, don't do shit. I mean for example Deskari attacks kenabres to disrupt the chain of wardstones. What do the gods do? They just let him. Only time they really intervene is when the player gains mythic power from a "demonic" source or when you become swarm and threaten to eat everyone.
I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm already sure you're wrong
Arueshalae #1, the rest is flexible
He can't be wrong about his favorite companions 😂
Average UA-cam experience.
😂
@@damiang1442 This is the internet. Of course he can ... and is. ;-)
As you mentioned, so much of the story has to do with redemption.
Which makes Camellia even more interesting. Because she says she's possessed by a malevolent spirit that causes her to murder.
So as with many other companions and the themes of the story overall, you want to help her.
But she's lying and just loves murder haha
I actually love what they did with her. She was the obvious earlygame waifu bait, making players think that they can fix her, then suddenly you get the realization that there is no fixing her, no redemption, she is as much or more of a monster than the demons you fight.
@@HeartoftheWinterbut in same time sooooo many players was crying and raging on owlcast and they tried to force them add “redemption” slide in epilogue, and there is even a mod where camellia in weeding dress. I guess those people was raised on Disney movies and just don’t believe that there is just pure psychopaths in the world. Camellia feels really much more alive and realistic then many others just because she is go on the war to have more chances to kill people without consequences. Just as people did and do in real world with wars.
Camelia is covered in red flags from the moment you meet her. I once tried to do her quest & romance her on a demon path and I felt like Padme from the meme. "It's all still just to please the spirits and save the land, right? right?"
@@eriksibul9399 If you're talking about the mod, I think you're talking about then it never tries to redeem her; it just tries to give her better endings, then one day she just left .
Ant that makes her perfect to participate in lich ritual after ending her quest and romance.
Insanely terrible list. Thats why i love you
Camellia would get instantly killed by like 80% of the party but the game's like "nahhhhh she's sneaky about it" when she's constantly talking about killing everyone
she is helpfull, is she not?
The only thing that made me keep her was the "eventual promise of getting a higher power to join the crusade". Sacrifice 1 or 2 for the greater good and so... then her last mission happened and well... I don;t miss her. I hate that Wolif is relatively hard to recruit, since Camelia is the only other one to pick locks.
As the game keeps describing her reaction to slaughter as "licking her lips nervously." Uh-huh, sure, that's why she's doing it. Girl's about to slide across the dungeon she's so "nervous." I still don't know her late-game very well, because I've only had her survive Act 3 in one playthrough. Anyone Lawful or Good would turn her in, and even my CN Trickster couldn't resist telling her she was safe and then telling the guards to move in.
It's more that the players are " but she's hot and I can fix her"
Yeah her story is weird. They look like they're going somewhere with her and all, but then they give my MC a reason and opportunity to kill her, which was very silly of them.
I can't help but love Daeran. Immediately after meeting him in game I could tell he was using humor to hide behind depression and loneliness and that really resonated with me.
Daeran's charm works on me, but I love the flamboyant Astarion/Zevran/Daeran archetype. Camellia's the one where I'm like: "Maybe pull back a bit."
I absolutely Love Daeran too. Favorite romance option for me
@@karlklein2263 Daeran is REALLY annoying at first, but he really grows on you. Great character
I would agree but he is too callous with everyone and nearly everything for me to actually like him as a person, thematically he is cool, realistically I think he is an awful person and an ass most of the time :D
And he is nice to Ember
Ember hellfire ray machine gun build is super funny both lore and gameplay wise.
She's goes pretty well with Corruptor mythic abilty and Enchament spells too. Stinking cloud is real good early on against enemies.
Nenio meeting Baphomet is the funniest line in the game.
'I will take particular pleasure in killing you.' - Baphomet, moments before disaster.
We’re so far apart on this haha, obviously just a matter of personal preference. I think Daeran is such a unique and interesting companion, Ember is bottom half, super boring goody-two shoes above it all archetype reminds me of when they put infallible child characters in like any popular show or movie,
Then we have Regill, the undisputed GOAT for me, what an outrageously cool companion from his lore to his personality to his stellar VA.
I too found Ember overly sugary sweet for my tastes
Regill was my favorite with his pragmatic approach to everything. And give him a 2 hander and he busts em up!
Daeran bounces off of the other companions so well that you end up keeping him in the party just to see what he'll say next
I disagree kinda, for me Seelah or whatever feels much more vanilla and sweet. Ember is interesting at least because her philosophy n random insights, sometimes she gave me Malkavian vibes randomly saying wise things and reading people. Also I like how Venduag kinda scare of her and always saying that she is hiding something and she is not what she seems, and when camellia says “meh she just a dump girl” venduag said “I can feel she hide something, and she doing it better then u maniac girl” to camellia.
I was gonna say, I can't believe he did my Daeran dirty like that. I love the idea of a chaotic evil character who doesn't want to consort with demons or murder babies. He's just like, kind of a dick. And all his dialogue is soooo good :')
I love ember, daeran and regill. Regill, is so tough but fair. Ember lightens the mood and I love how she is a shit starter while not meaning to. I love daeran for being all the problems
Lann is deeply troubled, he has to live life with honor and dream. Dream is the only thing he can have. That is why he want to end it in Act3. I respect that he can fight for good without any hope.
This is the only game that did incredible job at evil companions, we have everything, chaotic, lawful and neutral evil and they all have very good stories and fit the campaign.
Agreed wrath of the rightous and bg 3 both do a great job at giving you companions for an evil playthrough
@@addex1236 I disagree, bg3 had only one "evil" companion Minthara.
@@oicrusader2143 I will second this, BG3 has a very tame depiction of evil. You could make a parallel between Mint and Cam, but hell....she doesn't even come close. All "evil" in BG3 has some kind of redemption hence making it less evil?
Doesn't mean BG3 has bad characters, just an objective take on it :)
Regill: I don't appreciate your methods, but I appreciate the help
Wenduag: Who hurt you? I will show you what love and affection is and you will like it
Spoiler: you are crazy. Not even my chaotic evil demon liked you
@@icarue993 The great thing about Regill was that he was way more ruthless than he even needed to be, but it was generally based in pragmatism, and when it wasn't, he still wasn't stupid and would listen to reason. It's rare to see LE portrayed as "so cruelly Law-obsessed that they slipped into Evil in the process," rather than "an Evil person using law and order for its own ends," but it's a much more realistic portrayal. A cruel totalitarian, but one who genuinely believes what he's doing is the best way to run a society.
Oh wow, I requested a companions ranked video and you didn't disappoint Mort! My man!
This video clearly shows that its a taste thing with the companions: I personally have Lann and Greybor as two of my main companions, while Camellia, Seelah and Wenduag are my least favorite ones. I used to dislike Daeran but grew to really appreciate him. I dont really like Nenio as a companion but I always find myself in the need of a true wizard.
Same. Greybor with any of the good alignment characters is hilarious, regill is the same with any chaos or evil characters. Never liked Camellia or Wenduag, one is a straight murder hobo protected by her father who is a PoS in his own right, and not sure even evil characters are okay with cannibalism, that is a taboo that is pretty much outright hated by all.
Lann grew on me, listening to him interact with others is tedious at times, but his insight in counsel tends to be spot on, like regill.
No issues with Seelah, other then she never comes off as iconic, she is deeply flawed makes just about every mistake one can as a Paladin, even if done for good intentions. I was floored when she is important to the PF lore, nothing about the build or jer actions hinted at that
@tihonannenkov4114 I would say Greybor has potential... but he comes late and there isn't enough content for him to shine
I gotta say Lann is kind of my favourite. Yes he is a simple mind, but just kind of refreshing at that 😊
Man, everyone hates Lann, I love his sarcasm, and the dude is easily slaughtering the most enemies of my group.
I took Lann because I think he's more mechanically flexible than Wenduag but personality wise he's just a much less charming Alistair
@@hieutruong7456well, he has negative charisma score.
I didn't like Lann until I swapped him out to go to the Abyss. Then I was like "damn I must have hit a difficulty spike or something, demons aren't just randomly dropping dead anymore."
@@Incubansoulthank you, I cackl3d like this in a good while😂
i like lann already just bc hes a sarcastic memelord sometimes
like that one time where he just goes "oh no, i love being a genetic freak who will most likely die before the age of 40, its great"
I used to dislike Lann a lot more until recently because he was extremely pushy with his romance for female characters. If you were even vaguely polite to him he'd keep trying to ask you out. Fortunately they reduced that in a patch.
Regill was probably my favourite character overall even though he clearly didn't like my character that much since she was an Azata. I'm really excited to see him being a lot happier in my Aeon playthrough next. He looks like a miniature Sauron, is extremely grumpy, gives pretty good advice (his Military options especially are generally good) and does pretty solid damage with his weird hooked hammer.
Lann is realistic: a teenager whose maximum lifespan is 30 years if not extended in the endings. He's honorable but very simple minded and I was disappointed in the romance.
Regill is very widely liked as a solid character, even as he doesn't change a bit.
he's the worst character imo he's writing is awfull... in the prologue he play the "try to save everybody go as fast as your slower companion bla bla bla" and then when you meet regil... he's agreeing with him? wtf? prologue lann and main game lann isn't the same character...
@@Kaliblister Agreed. His writing (and VA) is poor. He's definitely Chaotic Good in the prologue and early game, and it's like they realized halfway through development that he has to be Lawful Neutral because of his class. His class itself also makes no sense. He should have been a Hunter.
This is why I don't like Sos, male character, trying to just be a bro and help him out, pushy AF in the romance line, and if you are a female character that tries to romance him, you find out he's taken early, act 2 or 3, so the entire time he is romancing you he is with someone. Unfaithfulness as a cleric is a poor character flaw.
@@Dan-uf2vh Regill doesn't change and what I hate is that I've seen some people criticize him for it. But overall I'm glad so many people like him. Not every character has to have an arc of change to be good. Some characters are iconic and don't change and the fun is in watching who they already are react to different situations. James Bond and Sherlock Holmes don't need character arcs, they just are who they are and we enjoy watching/reading about them. It's perfectly fine for Regill to be the same person from the beginning to the end of the game and just enjoy how that person responds to things.
Interesting that you consider Arue to be the Anime character instead of Ember.
And yeah, her getting into horny jail was hillarious.
"I wont let you hurt my friends!" 😭😭😭 Ember is the best girl and must be protected at all costs!
She is so nice :)
Yeah the slave market scene as Azata is a scene that genuinely chokes me up whenever I see it. I'm a sucker for stories about slave liberations and similar plot points, so it was INCREDIBLY satisfying in that scene, for all the demons to be like "mmmuahahaha! You're in OUR house puny mortal, there is nothing you can do!!" And your Azata champion is like "....oh really?" 😈 *unleashes the power of chaotic liberation on the slave market* And just the sound of the triumphant signature song for the Azata to play with the more heroic chorus to it, while the energy washes over the market, freeing the slaves, killing demons, and ensnaring the others, was just SO satisfying. 🤣 I never finished the game because I just hated that Demon city level so much, but that part, that part was awesome.
И это полный бред. Простите, я понимаю, у нас тут паверфантазия, НО это не просто нейтральный кусок Бездны - это ВЛАДЕНИЯ ЛОРДА БЕЗДНЫ. Лорды Бездны имеют абсолютный контроль на своем плане. Никакая мифическая сила не позволит тебе ничего там поменять, если этого не захочет Ноктикула. Красиво, но глупо. А самое главное - ничего не решает. Красиво и бессмысленно. В Бездне миллионы таких рынков, закрытие одного, усилит другой. Как не крути. Лишь Ангел вносит реальный impact, выжигая до тла целый план Дескари.
I never noticed the game trying to convince you not to kill Camellia but yeah, overlooking her act 5 quest was a huge stretch that even a MC on the gold dragon path about redemption would've had enough.
She also fills the same niche (flat-out Evil) as Wenduag. A very pointless character, IMO.
I do love how you can straight up tell her that you're keeping her around just because she's u̶s̶e̶f̶u̶l̶ helpful.
It's easy to hate Daeran, but his narrative is styled just like Camellia did.
The game never tells you outright, but the hints are on every pebbles on the step.
On their true nature, that is.
The two of them really are great counterpoints to one another, the traumatized guy who actively tries to bury his good side under a hedonistic mask and the psychotic monster who poorly fakes her own goodness. I just wish Daeran had a better VA, he really just sounds bored and like his mic was cheaper than the others. Maybe he's better in Dance of Masks, not sure.
Come on.
Camelia is covered in red flags from the moment you meet her. You can confidently tell what she is after like 20 minutes into the game based on her amulet, battle cries and not-at-all-obvious remarks.
@@JohnDoe-il4dz Them trying to hide her alignment with her amulet is dumb. The second I saw that item I said to myself "Oh, she's evil". There's literally no other reason to hide it.
Hey now, Arueshalae being an anime character just makes her even better. Best Companion.
why ember is my fav companion: she's ember and she is a wholesome cute little baby, don't hurt her... also she is my weapon of mass destruction
Camellia and Ember are the two opposite extremes of severe mental issues.
@@kalicula7718Cam is an absolute freak to boot. Nothing says psycho, even to other psychos then lets pound after we kill someone.
I might swap out the top two because I absolutely love Aivu but I definitely agree with most of this list. My first playthrough was Chaotic Good so I went with the Azata mythic path and romanced Arueshalae and all that jazz. It was definitely fun.
Same here. But I only did one for the moment.
Wenduag is one of those characters I feel like theres no real in game justification for ever siding with. Even if youre evil shes shown to be extremely fickle and willing to betray anyone at the drop of a hat if she feels she can get an advantage for doing so. I kill her and move on every time because it feels like the smarter option even if Lann isnt a good fit for an evil party outside of being naïve cannon fodder.
She pretty much exists solely to be a demon's pet.
Seems pretty easy to justify taking her if you're an evil character. She has no problem doing terrible things and as long as you're the most powerful in the room, she's going to follow whatever you tell her to do. If she gets out of line, you can just kill her.
And the alternative is Lann, a good guy that gets upset over a little bit of cannibalism. He's obviously not going to be okay with you doing evil things and you'll likely end up just having to kill him when you he turns on you, so why would you take him as an evil character? A fickle allegiance from Wenduag is better than an allegiance that'll immediately fall apart with Lann.
A lot of evil characters have big egos too, so they might just like having someone like Wenduag along that worships them, and they likely believe they'll always be strong enough to keep her in line or kill her, so her betrayal isn't really something they'd be concerned about.
On the other hand, killing her as part of Lann's quest in Act 3 is pretty good. It shows shat she's completely insane.
I rejected Wenduags proposal to join your group when you meet her in act 3 again on a good playthrough and told her to kys and well that made her have the hots for me (degradation kink tbh)
I kept her around but never did anything with her or got her into my party, then, in her ending slide she gets killed by greybor. lol. Ok bye wendy
I actually cried with tears of like emotions on Embers quest line she is propably one of my favourite game characters of all times, her tears cracking up in half baphomets altar is one of the most heartwarming moments and at a same time funniest moments I ever experienced im my gaming life
I haven't gotten super deep into my runs before I've restarted playthroughs a couple times, but on a run I think will stick.
Wasn't sure if I should watch the video due to spoilers.
Thanks for making it clear when they were coming so I could skip, and I 100% found and am really excited for the mythic path I want to go this time thanks to this vid.
Daeran is easily my favorite companion. One, he has a great class for healing or damage. Two, his story is very intriguing and weaves into his personality very well.
And finally his interactions with Lann and Ember are priceless and some of the best banter in a rpg. With Daeren and Lann making fun of each other like brothers or close friends. He also never says a mean word to Ember and treats her like a little sister or (our adopted)daughter. (I call him Gorden Ramsey of WotR because he is an a hole that always cooks at camp but treats kids well.)
Needless to say my Azata fell in love with him at fist sight and vowed to free the caged count from The Other. The symbol of freedom personified that he is.
I confess I'm a bit boring when it comes to companions in RPGs. I like playing good guys, and I like surrounding my PC with other good (or at the very least neutral) folk who more-or-less get along.
I would like this cast to choose from and the choices to play in just about any other game, but in this one, where it is literally good vs chaos vs evil, it's hard to justify being the savior of the world as a lich, demon, swarm. Devil maybe a sliver as they are at war with the demons also, but even that is hard sell, as the primary backers of your war are all good gods or backed by those gods.
Same. Irl being a decent person consists of opening doors for people and letting someone merge in front of you. This game is a place where being a decent person consists of charging into a group of 12 foot tall demons and putting the fear of God into them. If I did an evil playthrough......I'd only be the millionth tryhard to think I was cool doing it.
Ember is absolutely the best character. One thing that the game never straight up tells you, but can be seen in her class progression, is that her Oracle's Curse actually progresses slightly earlier than normal. She is treated as being one level higher for all her Curse bonuses.
Regill might just be my favourite, which I never expected going into my first playthrough. He's so often the most reasonable voice in the room and one of the few characters that just 100% feel like he's exactly where he's supposed to be and actually deserves to be there. I also appreciate that despite being rigid and lawful, he's actually one of the most 'loyal' characters-because he cares about your results and not how you get them, making him very flexible in terms of what playthrough your doing. Case in point, he even stuck around for the entirety of my trickster playthrough and his ending slide singlehandedly made that my favourite ending by far!
Camellia is probably my second favourite. I love how uniquely unhinged she is but I think there's not a single playthrough where her narrative actually fully works. She obviously doesnt fit in lawful/good, but she also doesnt fit into chaotic/evil either because she just keeps hiding and excuse crimes that most demons and evil trickster simply wouldnt think twice of.
as for the other side of my tier list. I dislike Seelah and HAAAATTE Lann. He's such a hypocrite. A naive idealist who constantly insults others for being idealistic
Regill is one of my favorites, as well. I appreciate his pragmatism, even if I don't always agree with him. Another point in his favor is that he knows who he is and doesn't need me to help him soul search. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind most of the companion quests, but it's refreshing that a companion isn't relying on me in that way.
Arue being so low is a crime, she is such a well-written character and such a genuinely good person/being
three words. Fall-From-Grace.
I really need to actually make camp on a map more than I do. Because of this video I looked into companion interactions, and a lot of how they are as a character happens while camping, their interactions with each other etc.
Also Daeran, Regil and Lann are all companions I rate very highly, Ember is also my favourite, partially for the reasons you described but also because you can take her in wildly different directions.
Her lawful ending is dififcult for her, but ultimately it helps her grow up a bit and be less naive and feels like she learns the lesson Andoletta wants her to learn, she even gives Ember a new spell: Storm of Burning Righteousness.
Her evil ending is very sad but it is cool that Owlcat gives you the option to play with a victim and essentially bully her and eventually break her soul. I had to kind of force myself to do this because I tend to dislike playing evil characters but at the same time are curious as to the unique content Owlcat made for them, and it rarely dissapoints in that regard.
Great list, would be interested to see the companions ranked by build power (without re-leveling)
Not ordered within tiers:
S-Tier: Seelah, Lann, Camellia, Sosiel, Nenio (the GOAT party)
A-Tier: Daeran, Ember, Wenduag, Kestoglyr, Galfrey,
B-Tier: Arueshalae, Regill, Greybor, Lich companions besides Staunton and Kestoglyr
C-Tier: Staunton
D-Tier: Trever
I know variety is required but man, it's so refreshing to have new WOTR content from you! Can see how you appreciate it and we like seeing you excited dude!
Love the videos! Currently in act 4 for the first time (I always stopped in act 3 lmao). Failed to get trevor, but good to know I didn't miss much
staunton got some added interactions eventually i think, when i played lich he did react to minagho in every encounter, and you can talk with him about killing her, yaniel will also not back down if you meet her with staunton in your party, she will just call you a monster and try to fight you, so you can either let her or just take the opportunity to corrupt her sword
Yeah i share your opinion on Lann. In the beginning i liked him, but the more i interacted with him the more it was clear he was this games carth.
Ember is great!
Even my evil Zon Kuthon’s Warpriest was impressed by her force of Will and determination despite all physical and social abuse she experienced.
Plus Queen Wenduag is number waifu as it should be! Awesome list Mort!
Oh woah. I didn't even realise until reading the comments that this was only posted 5 days ago! I fully thought this was an old video. With that in mind: I absolutely love Daeran, and his romance is just lovely to play through. I'm a big fan of the quirky remarks, and breaking down his walls. Also, you get to push him into a waterfall, and that's amazing.
Great list. I agree with most of your choices and I can understand the reasoning for the ones that we don't match up.
This came at a perfect time for me, i picked the game up a couple of days ago and have been stressing over my party. I WANT EVERYONE IN MY TEAM
Haha, Mortismal showing what alignment of character he enjoys playing here. Thanks for the refresh on me needing to replay Pathfinder.
I like Arueshalaes build, she is a great buffbot for a party with lots of natural weapon DDs as well.
My top 5 favorites:
5. Sosiel
4. Woljif
3. Ulbrig
2. Aivu
1. Arueshalae
I also really appreciate Arueshalae's DDs.
I've yet to take Wenduag, even for an evil character it's insane to take her with you given her introduction if you're roleplaying it. One day I'll do a demon run or something.
There are simple ways around that, if you're willing to RP. For starters, leaving Lann with the mongrels is the obviously more safe choice for the mongrels; and you can keep Wenduag in check when she's with you. If you want to go with a more esoteric angle, pick an Oracle, and then you can just do whatever because you've had a vision on how events are going to unfold.
I have only taken her once and I tried to romance her (as a good character). It was fun but she betrayed me (seems to be a tricky romance to get right). She was a powerful dual axe thrower though and I really missed her after she was gone.
Why do you think its insane for an evil character to take her? Seems to make plenty of sense to me RP-wise, especially when the alternative is Lann who isn't cool with evil shit and, RP-wise, would likely break his alliance with you the moment he sees you doing some evil things.
Wenduag will follow whatever messed up evil things you do or ask her to do. If she betrays you or outlives her usefulness, then from the perspective of an evil character, you can just kill her lol. Better to have a useful evil minion that will follow orders but may potentially betray you than it is to have a good aligned character that will absolutely betray you when he sees what kind of person you actually are.
@@Denkart You don't know any of that when you get the choice. All you know about her is that she eats people, conspired to kill you, betrayed the last person she followed, and betrayed/killed/ate many of her own people. Is she going to betray you when she meets the next powerful demon you might run into? Which seems likely you might. For an evil character just meeting her, nothing about her makes you think she'll stick with you and not try to kill you again later, even if you're not against her killing and eating folk.
Even if you're thinking this Lann guy is boring and doesn't like it when **I** want to kill and maim (or eat people who knows). The alternative isn't just Lann, you can take neither of them, which is fine.
None of this matters that much, we can rationalize anything we want for RPing. You want to redeem this monster, you want to have a wild time killing people with this spidercat mutant, whatever.
@@Argo.nautica I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you don't know any of that when you get the choice. None of what I said requires any knowledge of future events. Those are the justifications I used on my first playthrough.
You know when you have the choice that Lann simply will not work with you. He already wants to kill Wenduag at the beginning because of what she's done. It's easy to assume that he will want to do the same to you as soon as you do something he doesn't approve of. No point in taking someone that won't work for you at all.
You know Wenduag is unreliable and follows strength, but has no issues with doing evil things. So you can at least use her until her usefulness runs out or she betrays you, at which point you can kill her. As an evil character, you would already expect any minion you have to desert you or betray you given a chance, so that's no surprise and she admits as much. What harm can some lowly mongrel do to you anyway?
Choosing neither as option is perfectly fine as well. Just saying there's nothing really insane about picking Wendu as an evil character and really there are plenty of reasons to do so. It can be as simple as being an evil character with a large ego that simply likes having a little minion that worships them and doesn't fear betrayal because they believe they'll always be the strongest to keep her in line.
Of course, you're also right in saying that there are definitely reasons to NOT take her as an evil character. I just felt like explaining some reasons why an evil characters would since you said it'd be insane to do so lol.
My usual party consists of Seelah, Woljiff, Arueshalae, Ember and Nenio with me playing another melee class, usually Paladin or Cavalier.
During my first playthrough I played an Angel/Paladin... and then Camillia happened... damn I struggled but decided on the role playing route and did what a lawful good paladin was meant to do... That character really surprised me lol.
Perfect timing, just started my first run 😊
Daeran grew on me. He reminds me of Anders from Dragon Age 2, someone who I would find grating but my MC won't. It's easy to like a character when you, the player, like them to begin with. But characters like Daeran bring out the roleplayer in me more.
Exactly. Couldn't stand him at first, but by the end of the game I was roleplaying that he and my character were best friends. He's incredibly witty too, so I appreciate the writing that went into him.
Woljif was a total turnoff when he cowardly ran away from my party, what made it worst is he was my best dps guy I made into a Baked Trickster. Never used him again after that.
I've never felt more turned off or more betrayed in my life. Never forgave him either because he never tried to redeem himself and show he wasn't completely a yellow bellied Coward
That is why he ran, he does so much base damage him running away is a difficulty spike. I also feel rp wise it makes sense. He is a thief who didn't sign up for war. Him getting scared is fair.
@@Frey12 RP-wise I always treated him like he was part of the supply caravan like Horgus...just a black market/informant guy. Not a crusader. So he wasn't a deserter in my eyes. A coward, yeah, but I didn't treat him like a knight or expect honor from him at all during the story.
They really did great job on Regil and Seelah, both are lawful by rule but they also somewhat chaos. Seelah is fun to interect since you get somewhat borderline chaos but still lawful enough reaction from her.
While Regil, this guy just do straight very lawful stuff but if you think about it, somehow it feel like chaos things might because he is a gnome 😂
I gave Selaah one lvl dip into Sable Company Marine to give her a hippogriff mount and its bad ass charging into the front line of a giant hippogriff. Currently she is lvl 11 paladin lvl 1 Sable Marine and lvl 1 Cavalier. I will get her to lvl 8 Cavalier order of the sword to get her to add pet str to charge. and since the flying attack counts as a charge it should work quite nicely
I played it only once, Lann and Aru were the ones who put everything down, the rest was just for the number. I didn't use Nenio as a wizard myself, Phantasm Killer was always ineffective/resisted. Well, i'm not a pro :-)
I liked Ember, Aru and Aivu the most, maybe even Seelah. The rest were lucky that i played as a good guy :-)
Making phantasmal killer work consistently requires stacking a lot of bonuses onto it specifically, onto illusion in general and onto making your spell DCs higher. Once you get to that point it can one-shot some bosses if you're lucky.
@@bookbagfox The other thing that really helps is Persistent Spell (ideally with Favourite Metamagic to reduce the level cost).
When encountering Ember, the main quest of the game becomes 'Don't let anything bad happen to Ember'. This involves closing the Worldwound, as it presents a significant threat to Ember.
Lann is pretty much my deeps and must have for me...but I'm playing them as rolled rather than multiclassing
Lann and Wenduag are two possible sides of the way people react to traumatic childhoods (speaking as someone with a traumatic childhood and who knew others with said). Lann has realistic flaws of depression and low self-esteem, but in the end is a decent person who reacts to his trauma primarily by wanting to protect innocent people, while Wenduag is the type of traumatized person who reacts with the whole "If I'm the one oppressing other people then nobody can ever hurt me again" mentality. I ended up vastly preferring Lann to Wenduag as a result, especially since a lot of Wenduag's behaviors and attitudes are so utterly horrible.
I also will stump for Sosiel again, in that he's an absolute expert at diplomacy, passive-aggressive snark, and Politeness Judo (him running circles around Konomi in particular was a joy to watch). He also has an interesting arc about trying to overcome his anger issues. It's just that this character archetype is not one typically applied to male characters versus female characters, so it reads less interestingly than if he was a female character.
Finally, credit to Daeran for being biggest surprise for me. When we first read the character's description in the KS updates I was prepared to dislike him, but he's written as a genuinely hilarious and complex character. Him being an actually self-aware troll who's upfront about being a jerkass goes a long way I think.
Regill too low, you must be a demon.. you fiend!
Oo more Pathfinder stuff! More plz
Nenio is by far and away my favourite. Then again, Harrim was my favourite in Kingmaker, so there may be something wrong with me.
For me, the ending fight as Angel against Deskari : he dies to Nenio's Weird (the mass and stronger version of Phantasmal Killer on lvl 9 spells)
My favourite team for this run is Seela, Ember, Ulbrig, Daeran and Woljif. Great banter, healer heavy (which I LOVE, nowhere near enough RPG's these days have viable healers), and just enough grunt with Woljif sneaking around causing chaos. Love it. This game really does deserve far more love than it gets 💜
Nenio grates on me the way you described Daeran grating on you. I LOVE Daeran, but Nenio makes me want to tear out my hair. Cannot stand her personality. I wish I liked Camelia more, because her story is delightfully evil. It took me SO long to figure out what was going on with the heads lol.
Now for the Super Mega Owlcat companion list. PFKM, WOTR and WHRT.
Nenio's quest is fantastic. To me, it (along with the secrets of creation and probably sacred lands) is a perfect example of what puzzles in games should look like. I've enjoyed a great deal solving them, and I wish I could wipe out my memory and figure out their principles again.
Also, Daeran's nihilistic attitude is like a breath of fresh air in this world of Extremely Serious Existential Struggle Of Good Vs Evil. He's not even really evil in the same way Wenduag or Camellia are. He just wants to be left alone. I have to put a serious effort into not romancing him on every single one of my playthroughs 😆
I pretty much agree with your list lol wouldn't change it. Great content!
Thinking of moving on to this game after BG3. Thanks amigo.
Woljiff is by far my favourite companion, the most fun VA lines as well
Regill is my favorite here, it is rare to see a well written stoic discipline lawful evil type of man like him in any game i've played
I like Kestoglyr, the fact that he is a lvl3 fighter when he joins makes him super flexible.
I love Daeran. Especially when you have Ember and Lann. Daeran picks on Lann, but he's very protective of Ember, and it makes for an amazing dynamic. Also, I think he's pretty funny.
Wenduag best girl.
I like Daeran because he is so sarcastic, Wenduag because of her evil personality and I played as daemon (and yet I was surprised AND happy when she betrays me because it represent her so good), Arueshalae because she was so unusual. In my opinion, Pathfinder WOTR has one of the best companions in the game industry along with Dragon Age Origins.
Ember and her "easy" way to do good has to be number 1. She is the only character that break the wall and can talk to your soul.
I love Ember. She really pull out my "Must protect" emotion. There are some things you can do that actually makes her sad, and those are unacceptable. I need her to always be smiling. A gameworld where Ember is sad isn't a world worth saving.
Oh, brother...
Damn lol every single playthrough i end up sending ember away from my party, she creates a cognitive dissonance in my mind, her potrait is scary, that void like stare is horrific, but she has a kind personality, gives me the heeby jeebies, shes like those horror movie child characters that end up being the main villain in a plot twist.
@@tendatonda1634 She's more like a pure naive child. She doesn't have a hint of malice in her, and simply wants all beings to strive to be good within their own power.
I think that's what did it for me; she's just like a kid who thinks the best of everyone and the world.
Even when faced with the horrors of reality, she still chooses to believe. I just can't break her heart.
@@rollin340 all the more reason to leave her in kenabres alive, no sense in taking a kid to the frontline of a crusade.
Wild, Aivu and Ember are some of the worst for me while Lann is high up. Tastes really are different. =D
My top 3 would be Regill, Camellia and Daeran. Honorable mention to Nenio.
Arueshalae, Seelah and Nenio are my personal favorites
My favorite companions were Lann, Seelah, Nenio, Sosiel and Daeran. Sometimes, I would switch Daeran for Amber when I needed some firepower. Overall, most companions were really cool and well written. The only one I thought was bad is Camellia. I thought her drama was too on the nose and stupid. I try usually to keep all companions on my first playthrough to see all the content available, however, when finally given the chance, I didn't hesitate to kill her. I really wasn't interested in her.
The only major mimsalignment with my personal preference is Sosiel, he can be amazing domain master, even just guarded hearth for tough battles is amazing
I always use the ToyBox mod to respec Sosiel into a crusader, but keeping his glaive weapon and deity. He makes a great frontline healer and dps.
Some thoughts on a companions:
Aivu: In addition to her personality, she also gives you one important additional benefit: She can be a mount for classes, that usually don't have mounts, such as Sword Saints and Titan Fighters.
Galfrey: While she has great stats, the main problem mechanically is that you have zero customisation options and a paladin build without a mount is really not that great.
Arushalee: If you could respec her from level 1, she would be great as mix of charisma based caster and dexterity based warrior. With the worst ranger subclass however she is not that great. However, being the only female love interest, that is neither a serial killer, nor a cannibal, nor only present for the last 10 minutes of the game is a benefit.
Regill: His build is ok but not great, but I really like him as character, as he examplifies the idea of the hellknights and of a lawful evil character who is far more lawful than evil.
Camellia: She is certainly powerful mechanically, as she is both good at rogue skills, has level 9 spell, the option of getting an animal companion and good debuffs. However, keeping her around in a non-evil playthrough just doesn't make much sense.
Trevor: He is basically an example of how not to build a character.
Sosiel: Good mechanically, but in a way the most generic good healer character you could come up with.
As a rule of thumb, the sooner you meet a companion the more useful they are, because you can give them far better builds than the default builds late game companions have.
Thanks for the spoiler warning before revealing Camelia's secret identity!
Kestoglyr have an unique interaction if you bring him to the Ineluctable Prison (act 5), the mini quest here leads to a unique scimitar as a reward. The weapon is honestly pretty good and with the additional interactivity and dialog he should at least rank equally to Ciar in my opinion, if not even higher considering you can customize his build a lot more than Ciar. :)
"his shadow doing more than a shadow should"
anyone remember "dracula dead and loving it"
Criminal list, I love Lann
Something else about Aivu you didn't mention... Her breath weapon has innate Selective, essentially. Basically it can't hit your allies, unlike most of the other breath weapon attacks. That makes her especially good if you're using real time combat mode, cause she can breath weapon a big dogpile of allies and enemies and only the enemies get hit.
Nenio is probably THE best example of "true neutral" i've ever seen in any game...
usually representations of this alignment tend to just be portrayed as good characters that act like they strive for neutrality (main example being Jaheira from BG1/BG2, which while i love... to me it's objective that she is a good aligned character)
Nenio meanwhile has no real moral compass...all she wants is gather as much knowledge and the apply the scientific method...that's it. Wether that involves saving the realm, or witnessing her allies tortured so she can take annotations on the limits of the human body doesn't make a difference fo her. All that matters is the neutrality of the laws that make the universe.
I understand that the original way the True Neutral alignment was imagined in ADnD, being focused on "helping the losing side in order to keep balance", is an interesting and compelling narrative tool, but 99% of the time i've simply seen it's potential completely squandered, so i prefer this kind of approach at this point.
For me Aru is #1. Great character, story arc/quest and fantastic romance.
I virtually never used Ember during my playthrough, forgot all about her until act 4!
@@mr.fantasthicc4423they also missed one of if not the most annoying companions
Aivu the cookie monster and horny jail Arue make the Azata path a load of fun. Looking forward to a lawful evil Regil and Wendy playthrough though.
Aivu was the entire reason I ditched my original plan to go gold dragon. I think she's my number one.
Nenio being high ranked for you to me is wild. She called my PC "boy" once and I wanted to send her to Pharasma herself. I refuse to let her survive past Act 3😂😂😂
I love to hate her
"i'm sure you'll disagree on something"...
Ember N1 - nothing else matters thus nothing to disagree to.
She's one of those fictional characters that not only interesting to read about, but also makes one to ponder about his real life (and what sheer/borderline psychotic selflesness can be)
Ah, recognition for the lover of cookies, and the fact that, even nerfed hard, she's still a DRAGON, and thus, quite powerful when she needs to be. Also she's adorable, and I love her, and she's the reason it's hard to do any other path, including the, now completely, canonical angel path(Recent APs in 2e have fully established, Baphomet is alive, but Deskari is not. That is a world state you can only get on the angel path)
I like how Aivu was ranked and so high even.
Wow our companion ranks are different 😂 and I think I killed 3-4 of the companions in the unfolding of the story.
Camellia had to go when I caught her red handed....Aeon Hellknight. My hands were tied 🤷
Greybor wanted to extort me for money. Like. No.
Woljiff stole and deserted.
Wenduag was a traitor.
You killed woljif?!? He didn't steal he got scared and ran. 😭
Man we're quite different in our rankings, though granted I've just reached Act 5.
Regill is really high for me. Whenever there's a council decision, he usually makes really good arguments. Daeran is really funny, but I'm not super into him. Camillia is probably the most annoying of the whole cast, with Ember not far behind, and Nenio on thin ice. I do agree though that Lann is really bland, but his reunion with his mom was surprisingly the only companion quest that's moved me so far.
Thanks for the video. So... which one helps you wander in wisdom? Onward to 400k. All glory to the algorithm.
I miss greyborposting so much. Really made me love that character
Maybe rank bosses/enemies too? Thematically some of them are really cool if you include the mythic path related ones like Mephistopheles
I think Nenio, Ulbrig, and Regill are my top 3. I do, however, use a respec mod so as not to be locked into character builds. (I find it amusing to turn Ulbrig into a Fey Shifter and pretend he got cursed by the fae to be stuck in the form of the thing that killed him, for example.)