Ditto :-)

Btw Inn has NO mercenaries available for hire! :-O

Ah! I just found the cave everyone's talking about. I was afraid it was earlier and I failed to discover it. Mama bear is way too tough for my poor chanter to solo. I'm dead before I can summon a helper. I will come back later (and probably be disappointed in the loot for the amount of trouble it will be to come back for it).

All this talk is making me want to PLAY! I will refrain! My Wild Orlan Cipher (Philosopher from the Ixamitl plains) has itches on his fingertips though!

You must play.... plaaaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaay. :-D

@drealmer7: Really it is quite good. I don't think that any patches that come later will improve it much. You should just dive in.

In my experience with something that complex/big, there are bound to be broken quests or encounters, dialogue trees that are incomplete or broken/glitchy quest/XP outcomes that aren't implemented quite right, companion dialogues that are incomplete, and a million other things that just make it, for me, make more sense and more enjoyable to just wait to play. On top of that, it's not really even a good time for me to get started on an RPG like that, because I will be spending most of my time in the gardens very soon and not nearly as much time at the computer/even less time playing games. I have a handful in my backlog I want to finish over the next handful of months too. It's a fun tease to myself to wait in a way, also.

HAH! My gf just said to start a secondary character not my Wild Orlan Cipher. Since I've been anticipating playing the game I've been SET on playing Godlike, so maybe I could do the dual-axe-wielding Fire/Death Godlike Barbarian I've got in my mind since figuring they are more apt towards melee/monk/druid types.

Months and months ago I had been decided on a Death Godlike or maybe a Nature, but for some reasons upon doing the creation screen the Orlan were more appealing above all and for Godlikes the Fire appeals more than the Death, even though the *thought* of experience the world as a Death Godlike, to me, would be more appealing than a Fire and a Nature more than a Fire. But gameplay wise for what classes appeal to me, it's Fire>Death>Nature. It's very conflicting.

Also, with the fire attribute for Fire Godlike it will just kickass for a barbarian, how can I not try that? As well as experience the world from a Godlike's view. I wish the game had a more unique melee class, but dual-axe-wielding barbarian is always appealing to me if no casters appeal in a game for whatever reason (lack of depth usually, or a better system/more fun for using melee.)

-ranting halted-

It does. You have to talk to the Innkeep (Pasca, I think?), and there should be a dialog line related to looking for work, or hiring someone, or something like that. They are not mercenaries as such. You pay some copper and get to create up another character from scratch. You could fill up an entire party this way, but I'm not going this route. I'm taking the Obsidian-made NPCs.

Yeah I liked it.
I let them go afterward.

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes... well, you know the rest.

I might consider hiring on another swordarm temporarily though, long way off from six party members.

I wanted to let them go too, but I ran into an issue with this quest playing as a Paladin. My alignment favors honesty and diplomacy, so I make sure to choose only those responses if options come up (don’t want my Paladin to lose his abilities since the game warns you to stay true to your alignment). Problem is that forced a fight to the death…

Didn’t feel like a very Paladiny thing to do to me. So a warning to all potential Paladins out there, if you want to play a good guy Paladin make sure you choose Benevolence as one of your alignments, as an honest Paladin is not apparently always a good Paladin.

Yeah that kinda sucks.

One odd thing about this game, is that you can have paladins of money. o.O
I just fought some in the same region where I found that nutty Durance... he reminds me of Minsc! :-)

The wolves are killing my party so hard. They just wolfpack on my mage and then chew up the rest. :/ I saw you can make a companion at the inn but that feels lame. I play an rpg for story as well. It's like Dragon quest IX where you can create your companions, but I just couldn't get into it. I don't want to make empty vassals.

I'm sticking with the two friends I made.

[MINOR EARLY SPOILERS AHEAD]

well, put a fighter in the front and let him engage them in melee before you start hitting / casting with the mage :)

i'm playing on hard, and i have to say, they really did mean HARD. it's not like baldur's gate where the only difference is a bit of health and dmg the enemies do.

i got completely wrecked at the temple quest in town. you really do need alot of tactics, weapon switching, and to pay attention to the enemy stats on hard. took me a ton of loads to figure out how to kill the shades / wisps, and a really long time to finish up that place, even after grabbing the fire-phile priest. now busy getting my arse handed to me during the watcher dude quest.

and just another side note, wizards feel really gimped to me, atleast in these lower levels. most of the spells i have are conal effects, which are hard to position for and aim with, because they hit your party members aswell. the good thing is, when you use them properly, they do a ton of damage

Even on normal I struggled quite a bit with the temple, but managed. In the end there were like 5 of those shades coming in and I just tried the flame fan and that killed them in 1 hit. Had I known earlier, I would not have struggled as much I guess.