What's your strategy of getting followers?

I've watched Dante get repeatedly wounded and lose fatigue, then cast Body of Air as soon as he had the chance, and wind up on his back. It's happened more than once. I'm beginning to think he does it in order to drive his foe-of-the-moment into a fit of helpless laughter.

In fairness, it does happen often, but it's the kind of thing that leads me to wish they'd made the AI follower code a bit more intelligent.

She's excellent with a bow, agreed. My negative comments stem from rare occasions when she's cast Squall of Ice. Yes, I know she's probably not supposed to cast it, and I've had other people tell me she doesn't cast it. But I'm very far my second game, now, and in both of them she has, cast it. Rarely; but she does, and to bad effect. Body of Water, too, which is pretty silly. I can't remember when she started on either, but she was getting up in levels before she apparently decided those were great spells and it was time to use them.

 

I've never seen Dante do anything except cast Shield of Protection and run off and stay out of the way until the fight is over, so I never bother with him.

Raven is good with a bow, but I've had trouble even getting her to heal me. She seems to stand around like she's helpless when it comes to magic, except for that Body of Water spell.

I've had very little luck getting any character to cast ANY offensive magic of any kind, so I just don't bother with it anymore. I think it's a major flaw in the NPC AI design that needs serious reworking, personally.

 

If you generalize that to refer to the entire NPC AI, I'll be happy to agree with you. I'm not quite sure why Troika decided to remove player control of a party during combat, since that's one of the most desirable features in RPGs. After all, look at how many folks are thrilled at the combat detail in TOEE (ironically another Troika game), with far less roleplaying in other aspects of the title. Perhaps they just didn't get a sufficient enemy AI going, and figured the only way to deal with the problem was to leave your followers similarly braindead. Whatever the cause, it's a shame the matter was never redressed.

 

My problem with Raven comes when she puts that deadly bow away & changes into a usless blob of jello.

Z'an at least changes into rocks, & rocks hurt things. I have seen her cast Tempus, but only in a fight where it was wasted.

Jormund, when he puts away his stick, will summon a Fire Elemental & cast body of Fire on himself, but if Raven has not achieved true jelloness, the fight is over before any marshmellows get roasted. I have seen him use Fireflash & Lightning Bolt.

At lower levels, Dante will light up a Shield of Protection or VoA & run away. On his next turn, he will cast Major Heal all around. Once he is 25 or 30th level, & has a good weapon, he is a good melee fighter. Never seen him use much in offensive magic.

Geffory keeps on summoning those damned zombies. You have seen how well that works for the Hand. I have seen him use Fireflash, but never Harm or Quench Life. At least he does not seem to have Jormund's delusions of melee Mastery.

Waromon is a one trick pony... er lizard. But that one trick is Entangle something & make it grow lots of feathers. A good trick it is. Just give him a good bow & lots of arrows.

I have not played Smythe enough to know him.

 

I remember Smythe being a good healer and fairly good with Fireflash and melee. In battles I had that late in the game, I didn't really need his help as I had a lot of tanks in my party, but I remember him being a pretty solid magic using follower.
Decipher that gramatic mess and I'll be proud of you. Really, I will be.