Hm, I accidently picked up that druid chick, and now I want to get rid of her, thought I can't seem to figure out how to do it?

Wait until you reach Neverwinter. Prior to that you can't reorganize your party.

Feels kinda wierd beeing a neutral evil tiefling and bringing along a wood elf druid. I truly wanted to fight my way through them bladelings alone, not joining up with a druid. Ah well...

Thanks alot!

Obsidian has forced you to accept all joinable NPCs into your "menagerie" of available followers. I don't personally understand why they decided to go this route. Perhaps it will make more sense once I've finished the game, but I doubt it.

My chaotic good warlock really doesn't want the evil ranger Bishop hanging around my keep, but I'm forced to have him. I would love to kick Qara to the curb as well, as she is chaotic neutral leaning toward chaotic evil, but I have no say in this matter either.

I'm guessing that all this sillyness has to do with game balance, as newbie characters might tell companions to take a hike, and end up underpowered later in the game.

I don't know, I guess I sort of still don't get it. No other CRPG that I'm aware of has needed to go this route before, and I'm hoping that the devs didn't just think it was a "cool idea" to force followers on the player. Hell, in Baldur's Gate you could even tell Imoen to take a hike, and she was fairly central to the plot.

I think they just did it for convenience's sake. You go back to your "stronghold" to switch out party members.

In BG2, almost everyone you told to take a hike ended up in the Copper Coronet. Here they hang around the Flagon or your Keep.

It's a little worse in this game just because they force you to take certain NPCs for certain missions, but IMO that's somewhat more realistic. E.g. Bishop knows the area where you're going during the mission where you first pick him up, so you need him to guide you.

KOTOR2 went this route. The silly thing is when you first meet a companion you're given about 4 dialog options but they all end up being "okay, you can join me." So typical of this game: the illusion of choice, but no real choice.

If they really annoy you, can could always tell them "Stand your ground" and just leave them at the beginning of a map and not utilize them in fights.

Well KOTOR2 is also Obsidian's baby, so they've just repeated what seems to be, at best, an awkward design choice.

While it's true that in BG2 you pretty much always knew where to find any potential companions you may have previously brushed off (in most cases at least), that never really felt awkward to me. It at least made some level of sense that Edwin would head over to the Coronet to do whatever dealings he had.

But with NWN2, not only do I have these guys in my keep, but each and every time I leave my keep I get presented with a screen asking whether I'd like to add these guys to my party-- like they are now inherently some sort of wierd extension of me.

I don't so much mind that I had to take Bishop on a mission, because he knew the area well, and I needed a guide. Duncan called in a favor that he had with the ranger and it helped further my player's cause. Fine. But once that business was over, there's this little thing called "parting ways" that I would deeply love to see happen where Mr. Bishop is concerned. He's a completely detestable individual, yet, apparently we have some existential lifebond formed between us.

What can I say, this is an aspect of the game that just doesn't "work" for ole Marceror.

I agree that it's both frustrating and pretty obviously the result of laziness. No need to think about different cut-scene sequences if you force all the NPC's to be around, without regard to my character's alignment, choices or actions.

It's a major sticking point for me because it really takes away from the re-playability. With BG2, I could spend plenty of time just thinking of who to take in my party, and trying out new combinations gave me new banters, new quests, new opinions about my choices.

Even in NWN you had the option - while you could use each NPC in each chapter, you could also pick one and run with him/her. In NWN2, however, even if you chose to run with the same party as much as possible, many of the "interactions" will be exactly the same.

As far as I can tell, the only interactions that include members not in your party are ones at your stronghold (at least that's how it has been with me).

There have been a couple of times where I decided to replay a small part with a different member; most memorably the rescue of the "rebel sister" in Blacklake. I had Sand from the previous missions, but since there were so many undead, I decided it would be easier if I had someone with Restoration spells, so I traded him with Elanee. I had several different interactions with Elanee including the conversation with the Gnome painter in the street.