Since I'm new here, let me state to begin with that this forum is an outstanding source of information. You helped me very much in becoming a better player. So, thanks to all for that.

Actually I ceased lurking to ask a question. According to my experience most NPCs who will join your party come in five versions with more or less experience points depending on the character level of the main char (or average party level, haven't tested that yet):
161.000
400.000
800.000
1.200.000
2.500.000 (ToB)

Usually it's wise to let them join at an early stage to prevent a waste of weapon proficiencies and thief ability points, of course - but I never checked the hit points of the different NPC-versions. Can someone confirm if the hit points of the particular NPC-versions are set? Or does the program determin the additional hit points at random by rolling, while they are not in your party? And if so, will the NPCs get maximum increase on easy and normal difficulty? I'd do a little experimenting by myself, but can't right now due to annoying computer trouble.

i have no idea [img]smile.gif[/img]

welcome to (posting on) Ironworks!

OH, I'm pretty sure that they're set, since each NPC actually has about 5-6 versions stored in the game's files. When an NPC joins the party, there's some code somewhere that looks at the PC's level or XP and then selects the appropriate version of the NPC. There's a 2DA config file that covers this decision.

So, I think that it's safe to say that the HP for each NPC version is embedded in the CRE file for that version of the NPC.