Designing the perfect RPG companion

[NecroLord]

Thread title.
What are the qualities and attributes you are looking for in a companion?
Loyalty? Strength?
Try to design your perfect companion.
Or perhaps companions should be ditched entirely in favor of a party designed from the ground up by the player?

 

[Abu Antar]

A perfect companion is one where I get to choose everything that I also get to choose for my main character.

 

[0sacred]

Male, strong of body and mind.

Has something that makes them unique mechanically, something that can't be replicated by another companion or even the PC. Like a personal item, higher stats or skills than they should have at their level.

If he has a personal quest, it shouldn't be obtrusive, i.e. something the player can tackle at their leisure and doesn't dictate the direction the party is travelling.

Must have kewl quips but otherwise keep his opinion and feelings to himself.

Of course, custom created characters > companions any day of the week.

 

[NecroLord]

Berserkerus McRageous:
Class : Barbarian
Attributes : Focus on high Strength and Constitution
Values : Conflict, Bitches, Battle, Excitement, Skill at arms
Virtues : Loyalty, Fearlessness, Strength

Berserkerus McRageous likes to RAGE and to charge and hit things with his Greatsword until they drop dead.
The promise of great battles and bitches are what motivate him.

 

[Cryomancer]

I don't think that perfection is needed. In fact I like when companions have flaws. And I also think that a good background, personality and abilities depends on the setting.

 

[Haba]

A capable companion who fills the gaps in my main character's build. Refrains from interjecting when I am doing the talking, but gives funny banter sometimes.

When camping, turns into a nubile female, cooks, cleans up my clothing and warms up my mattress.

 

[catfood]

Just look at Dogmeat. No personality, no backstory, no nothing. He's just a mangy mutt that follows you around and bites enemies in the ass. That's all you need to make a good, memorable companion. None of this Bioware gay bullshit. Less is more.

 

[NecroLord]

Just look at Dogmeat. No personality, no backstory, no nothing. He's just a mangy dog that follows you around and bites enemies in the ass. That's all you need to make a good, memorable companion. None of this Bioware gay bullshit. Less is more.

Dogmeat and the Dog from Arcanum.
Truly Man's best friend.

 

[Cryomancer]

For a game like Pathfinder Kingmaker, I would love a female blonde, blue eyed Druidess with very high perception, a powerful animal companion and good AI to buff your party and heal your party. For a game like FNV I prefer to go solo.

But I also wish that we cuold get non humanoid companions. Like a Dog or an Ice Golem.

 

[Butter]

Full party creation has always trumped recruitable companions. Fallout companions are some of the best because they don't talk your ear off, but they still get in the way and periodically friendly fire you. BioWare can never be forgiven for popularizing the group therapy/dating sim approach.

 

[agris]

A companion that is integrated into a story where they play a role. They have a logic for existing, for accompanying the player, and an equally strong if not stronger logic for staying on with the player once their story is resolved. Most companions should actually be temporary, and no game that I have played has worked them into a narrative in a believable or disbelief-suspending way. They are usually presented as thinly veiled mechanical helpers, pack wagons, ego massages, or some mixture of all the above.

 

[boot]

This kind of companion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisus_and_Euryalus

A pure, fraternal love, that spurs us on through the jaws of death!

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Gimli

 

[deuxhero]

I think it's great when an RPG companion, especially an early one, provides insight on some part of the setting by either being a paragon of a faction/profession/concept, or being a renegade of the same.

In Mask of the Betrayer, while Sophia has her dislikes and disagreements with the organization as a whole, she's very much happy being a Red Wizard. She's very much a standard Red Wizard (her origins aside), without being an evil maniac. An important viewpoint for an organization the FR setting previously freely embraced as nothing more than a country full of evil wizards who are evil for the sake of it, and for something a lot of players have never heard of and won't appear in the game otherwise for many hours.

In New Vegas Boone is an elite NCR soldier, and agrees with almost every pro-NCR thing (at least as far as his limited reactivity conveys) and hates their enemy but is also hindered by the NCR's inability to properly address its fuckups. Arcade is thoroughly in the Followers mindset of helping people for its own sake, but deep in the factions lack of cohesion and being narrow sighted in who it helps (He's willing to go as far as accepting the killing a Follower for murder if given a justification of preventing his crimes from being tied tot he organization as a whole is given. He needs convincing to spread Helios One's power beyond just those seen as "suffering") . Veronica, by contrast, a serious doubter of the entire Brotherhood establishment.

 

[NecroLord]

Gimli

A proper Dwarf companion.
I agree.

 

[NecroLord]

A companion that is integrated into a story where they play a role. They have a logic for existing, for accompanying the player, and an equally strong if not stronger logic for staying on with the player once their story is resolved. Most companions should actually be temporary, and no game that I have played has worked them into a narrative in a believable or disbelief-suspending way. They are usually presented as thinly veiled mechanical helpers, pack wagons, ego massages, or some mixture of all the above.

Fallout 1 and 2 companions.
Marcus, Sulik, Cassidy...
Great companions that don't talk your damn ear off for hours on end.

 

[Kruyurk]

If my companion is not a literal dog, I don't want him/her to behave like one. A really shit companion is Lydia is Skyrim, she just follows you like a mindless drone.

I like companions that have some distinct personality, that can agree or disagree with you, be nice or be bitchy. KotOR 2 is great in that regard, some companions you can more easily get close to than others, you get to gradually know them. It feels like real world interactions, some people you can become friends with, others have world views too different from yours, but you still get to know and eventually appreciate them just because of the time spent together.

Simply put, I am looking for good writing for premade companions. If you can't provide that just let me create the whole party.

 

[janior]

 

[Dorateen]

Or perhaps companions should be ditched entirely in favor of a party designed from the ground up by the player?

Yes.

 

[MerchantKing]

A perfect companion is one where I get to choose everything that I also get to choose for my main character.

FPBP

 

[behold_a_man]

Vala from Secret of the Silver Blades is a perfect RPG companion. Why have a woman in your game who talks ad nauseam if you can have a woman who merely asks you to 'refer to the journal entry 63' without any time constraint?

 

[Dorateen]

Vala from Secret of the Silver Blades is a perfect RPG companion.

She even makes an appearance in Pools of Darkness, to refer you to more of her... journal entries.

 

[Fargus]

I'll just quote Fanta here:

Dwarf fighter for drinking buddy.
4 females human/elfs for sex slaves.
Now that is what i call a party!

 

[luj1]

Or perhaps companions should be ditched entirely in favor of a party designed from the ground up by the player?

this

IMO Wizardry 8 did it best - 6 PCs + 1-2 OPTIONAL NPCs who keep their mouth shut... no I dont want to date you, fk off cabron

 

[luj1]

I'll just quote Fanta here:

Dwarf fighter for drinking buddy.
4 females human/elfs for sex slaves.
Now that is what i call a party!

Friday night is the same for him in real life, except they use 4 female goats with Bulgarian citizenship