Hello all, *Minor temple spoiler below* Returning to the modpack after a few years away. Currently in a playthrough with a Party of 6 PCs and Meleny. I also just picked up Serena, but I will probably not keep her around for too long I remember when I played previous versions (V5 and onwards) I would always leave 2 NPC slots clear for escorting the 2 ladies from the temple. Other than this escort mission, are there any other cases where it is ESSENTIAL to have spare NPC slots? The only other case I know of is Kobort & Tup. requiring a party of <= 4 PCs I would rather not have any N.C related specifics mentioned, just a general 'Oh, there are three instances in Verbonac where you will need 2 spare, and 1 instance where you will need 1 spare' Is it also possible to 'rehire' certain NPCs once dismissed using the console? Serena is an example., as she has no 'rehire' dialogue that I can see.
I think the only escort missions in the pre-Verbobonc part of the game are listed below, and of those, Paida is the only one that is an actual quest. Although everyone wants to save Thrommel. Most of the other prisoners just see themselves out. Prince Thrommel Paida Jaer the weaver, in the Nodes Sargan, in the Nodes Taki, in the Nodes Ashrem, in the Nodes Darley, in the Nodes If the 2 ladies you are referring to are the ones in the torture chamber with the 2 orcs, they never require an escort, they just ask for gold. Maybe it was an addition to V5 that got removed in later revisions. Essential? Not that I can think of. Spoiler There is a very special case of recruiting Mother Screng and her daughter in Nulb if you have a very small party, and about 5 other circumstances coincide. I've never pulled it off. There are a few, but none that are going to dead-end a quest. It will just go in a different direction if all your slots are full. Anything is possible with the console, but I would recommend against spawning NPCs, especially recruits. It may throw things out of whack. In the original game you could rehire Serena indefinetely, and she reappears behind Mona whenever you let her go.
Most NPCs return to a start point if you ask them to leave the party, and can be asked tonjoin up again later- the only ones who don't IIRC are Otis, Burne, and Mother Screng, who have their own joib/leave criteria. Meleny returns home, as does the other Hommletter who you can marry. Zaxis goes to the brothel in Nulb, Ronald back to Cuthbert's temple in Hommlet. As far a I can recall, there's one quest in Verb that requires 2 slots (purely for a walk-out from the dungeon; not bothering withbthis quest doesn't affect anything) and a couple that can be solved by recruiting but have other solutions.
