...even skill dump puzzles me.
As leader, your own char is doomed/destined to beef up INT/CHA even if you'd like to pump AGI/STR. Hitting INT, of course, gives compensating skill points, but it seems that somewhere around level 27 or so you begin to have more skill points than you can use [due to AGI/STR ceilings]. So your char, as leader is, in my mind, the ultimate candidate for skill dump. So I gotta ask: why wouldn't you be using B&M to live vicariously, as it were, by letting them have all the AGI/STR bumps, and all the fighing skills that they can - and of course, manage their equipment so they don't over-estimate their capability?
I press this point because I have seen SO MANY threads cursing the only two NPCs you get in native - and even if there are others, the AI still processes them pretty much the same regardless of thier initial profiles. I'm truly puzzled about this as I have had what I consider rather successful development with them in all the games I have played so far [that is, starting with several versions of B&M] - as have some others, judging from a few posting above this.
There are certainly curious things about them that makes you wonder a bit about the internals - for instance, why is Marnid so 'resistant' to following orders when, for all intents and purposes there is nothing'obvious' in his definitions that suggests this should occur - but this should not be a reason to simply discard him out of hand. I would also ask why Borchas' aim for his peers [versus his opponents] is so true, but then my own frequntly seems to have the same characteristic.
Any substantial arguments to either position would be welcome - my primary premise is that B&M are useless only to the extent that the player permits them to become so. [Um, did I paint that target bright enough?]
Banned
