I had Ronald for a while but I recently ditched him because of his propensity to switch sides. His latest was to help out Zug when I cast control plants on some of Zug's fungi. At this point I decided he was too unreliable to have in the party.
I never had a problem with Ronald Rynnwrathi turning on my party unless my PCs did something "evil" like attacking a charmed monster, or attacking another NPC in my adventuring party, or attacking a neutral or good NPC who didn't have it coming. Like Elmo and Zaxis, Ronald is VERY virtuous and won't brook any evil acts!
As I do recall playing a good or neutral party when acquiring Ronald Rynnwrathi as an NPC from the Church of St. Cuthbert, his story plot mentioned his parents were killed by orcs. Would like to see a tie-in to the Hickory Branch scenario where member or members of the Hickory Branch force had participated in the killings of Ronald Rynnwrathi's parents. And one of the leaders had a family heirloom on one of them belonging to the Rynnwrathi's family. Something similar DITTO to Canon Terjon's of Church of St. Cuthbert of Hommlet quest in Emridy Meadows.
Well, For once I'm playing a game where I hired him and while he's a very decent cleric & archer, there's one thing that I truly hate about good ol' Ronnie: his unnatural hoarding behaviour towards his old (and pityfully basic) gear. His shield, chainmail & mace are particularly cumbersome. Also, the lack of space it creates can be a bit of a hassle. Also, he's one of the few members of my party who hasn't been killed yet (rather like to keep it that way) and that's why I haven't got rid of his useless starting gear.
If you talk to him a few times and listen to his back story eventually he will let you upgrade his gear. I don't remember how many times I had to talk to him for this, but I do remember letting him sing for the group.
Well, that worked out well - plus he seemed to approve of my advanced knowledge in the mercantile department