Leaping into lava (stay behind me you fool!)

DeAnn wrote:

> Then there is Farwil, the naive braggart of Cheydenhall. I do not
> think he is saveable at normal difficulties. He has such a penchant
> for leaping off that bridge into the lava after dremora and deadroth!
> When this happens mid bridge, even retrieving the sigil ring is a
> problem as the body is not very reachable.

I hated that quest when I first played the game, but I just re-did it with
my current 24th-level sneaky mage with maxed-out Destruction skill, and
found that it was doable (with quite a few reloads).

They did indeed jump off the bridge to go after Daedra, but fortunately, my
tactic of rushing recklessly ahead of them ensured that they were already
past the lava when it happened. After that, it was just a matter of careful
aim, using "heal other" spells between combats, burning through more welkynd
stones and Strong Sorcery potions than I'd normally like, and reloading
after those occasions when one of them stood in front of one of my
400-point-shock-damage touch spells.

Oh, and much yelling of "get back here and fight me!" every time a daedra
completely ignored my character in favour of running after the idiots in
steel armour before I could tag it with a spell.

> I really want a 'stay behind me, you fool!' command. Or, 'Wait here,
> you idiot!' Or 'Whatever you do, do not jump into the lava (again).'
> Maybe, 'fight with ranged weapons only'. Or, how about 'here, use
> these 47 healing potions as needed.' Or, 'Me fight; you drink beer'.

To be fair, Farwil is clearly designed to be annoying. If you do make it
through, his father congratulates you on putting up with him and freely
acknowledges that practically anyone would have let him get eaten by a
daedroth just to shut him up. The Bruma gate-closing tutorial mission is a
lot easier - you just tell the guard captain to stay behind while you clear
out the entire level, then go back and fetch him. This time round, I even
managed to keep two of his soldiers alive too.

--
Mark.
 >> Stay informed about: Leaping into lava (stay behind me you fool!) 

DeAnn wrote:
<snip>
> I really want a 'stay behind me, you fool!' command. Or, 'Wait here,
> you idiot!' Or 'Whatever you do, do not jump into the lava (again).'
> Maybe, 'fight with ranged weapons only'. Or, how about 'here, use
> these 47 healing potions as needed.' Or, 'Me fight; you drink beer'.

This is why I've never understood Companion mods! I have always HATED
companions. (However I am TRYING Ruined Tail for his quest and finding
as long as I take his sword away and only let him use a bow he's
acceptable).

Actually the Bruma mission was the only one where I didn't hate my
companions. They all survived both times I've worked through the main
quest. In fact I really LIKED Burd by the time we got done with that
gate, he was so stinkin SANE. Never got lost, didn't charge in ahead
of me, kept himself alive the entire time. Yeah!

I do hate that knight in Cheydinal. Managed to keep him alive with a
LOT of heal other casts and a few reloads but his friend always dies.
:\

Tandaina
 >> Stay informed about: Leaping into lava (stay behind me you fool!) 

Tandaina wrote:
>>
> This is why I've never understood Companion mods! I have always HATED
> companions. (However I am TRYING Ruined Tail for his quest and finding
> as long as I take his sword away and only let him use a bow he's
> acceptable).
>

For several years, I avoided companion mods in MW just because
companions were so annoying in the main game. However, modders work
hard to make the companions fun to play. In MW, companions got easily
stuck. So mod companions mostly use a script that teleports the
companion to you if they get separated too far. Later companions have
better AI that keeps up better, too. For example, they adjust in-game
speed to be comparable to the character's speed. Mod companions tend
to have scripts that let you tell them to meet you somewhere, havethe
ability to use Intervention spells to follow you and so forth. Some
have fairly well developed personalities and storylines, others just
tag along. You can give them potions, and most have a script to 'hide'
duplicates so that--if they need healing--they do not drink all their
potions at once.

Oblivion companions are new, but have benefited by MW mod techniques.
They often teleport to near you if they get too separated, for example.
And, of course, they can be made indestructable by being made
essential. Most let you give them things. Some even let you train
them and buy them spells.

In short, all the things you hate about companions are also hated by
modders making companions and they find ways to get around those
annoying features.
 >> Stay informed about: Leaping into lava (stay behind me you fool!) 

I managed to keep Farwil and his companion alive after a couple of gos
by rushing ahead and hammering the enemy with a couple of blows,
retreat and heal everybody up, rinse lather and repeat, when outside
the towers. Inside the towers I'd focus on healing the boys up during
and after the individual melees and letting them do the bulk of the
fighting. Actually didn't take too many reloads.

One companion quest that actually worked out nicely for me was the one
with the Jemane brothers. At one point, you're supposed to escort them
from Chorrol to another place out in the wilderness. Since they're
protected quest characters at that time, they can't die. I think I hit
every fort, cave, and ruin in between, before I got them to their new
home. They didn't do too well with the elven ruins, because they
refused to follow me down through a gap in a wall, but otherwise they
were very useful. I was tempted to let them follow me all the way to
the end of the game.

I do wish the NPC's in general all had a better sense of
self-preservation. I got so many of them killed, when I fled back to
the cities looking for Imperial help with difficult beasties, I started
worrying about depopulating the game.
 >> Stay informed about: Leaping into lava (stay behind me you fool!)