Okay, Virgil is impossible to keep alive. I have a looowww Charisma (4) b/c I took "Only Child" and he is my only follower. I have endured him b/c I hear he is important to the story line. However, Virgil rushes to his doom all the time. He sucks as a melee fighter - barely plinking the creatures we now face (level 25+) even though I have equipped him with the best equipment I find (I'm a mage, so he wears most of the heavy stuff) How different is the game without him? I am in Black Mountain Clan dungeon and was about 2/3rds through when Virgil rushed yet another Ore Golem and got pasted...... Will I miss a lot of the storyline or just a bit? Sigh - if I have to, I'll keep him alive. Opinions?
I agree. I've never had trouble keeping Virgil alive, although I do tend to play melee-capable characters and kill most of the bad guys myself. Remember, too (minor spoiler) that the Worthless Mutt will join you regardless of your follower limit. He is a truly killer melee fighter. -- Mal
Even in real time combat you have a command to tell your followers to back off from rushing into stupid battles. It's one of the F keys (F2 or F3 I think). This also somtimes helps if they start attacking a NPC you don't want to hurt and don't want them to turn hostile. This works both ways in that there is also a command (again one of the F keys) to tell your followers to attack a certain enemy out of a group.
You don't need Virgil to complete your game. It's completely playable without him, but you'll never hear his voice again. I recommend keeping him for your first playthrough to familiarize the story with yourself, but after that, you can kill him right after you meet him at the blimp. You actually won't miss the main part of the story with no Virgil. He'll mostly just tell you where to go when he's still alive. You can hear all you need from plot NPCs in the game, like Bates or Loghaire. Midway through the game, Virgil hardly says anything important at all, unless you want to know his backstory.
