Pixie Familiar

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I have heard quite a bit of grouching about the AI in the game.
However, I think I may be missing something as this is really annoying. My first time playing through as a wizard character and I picked a pixie familiar. Great at unlocking stuff- haven't even had a chance to find a trap yet as I just got started.
However, she keeps charging into battle and all I want her to do is follow me around and pick a lock or something when I need it. Would be really cool to like throw her in my backpack or something but that does not seem possible.
I keep unsummoning her because she is annoying me, but then I have to rest to get her back again if I want to unlock a chest?
Does anyone have any advice for me here? Thanks.

 

You can use the radial menu to give the pixie some general instructions like "Attack Nearest" or "Stand Your Ground" or "Guard Me". These should be enough to stop her charging into battle and getting killed.

 

I tell her to do that and the next thing I know she is charging right into the next encounter! Isn't there like a scheme or something that I could apply?

She is so small that sometimes I even forget she is around until she is right in the middle of everything.

Also, I am assuming there is no penalty for her dying? Hasn't happened yet but I just started playing about 3 hours ago. Thanks again.

 

If she dies then you lose 1d6 hit points which can be pretty tragic for a low level wizard.......

 

Telling the pixie to stand her groud directly (that is, using her own radial menu) normally does the trick for me. The only thing is that you need to do that for every fight. If she flies to the fray, call her back using her portrait's radial menu and force her to stay behind.

IIRC, one of the dialog options with the pixie allows you to tell her the distance you would like she to keep from you. Increasing that distance may keep her away from harm if you are in front and are attacked. Just make sure to keep your henchman handy.

 

Yup, you get a few points of magical damage for a killed familiar. No biggie, but annoying non the less.

The problem i had with my pixie was that i told her to stay her ground so she survived. Then i went on, cleared the whole dungeon, and arrived at the trapped chests. Now i need her and she's at the start of the labyrint with no option of calling her to me via radial menu because she's simply too far away. Then i run back to the start of it, till i can see her to order her to follow. Another run to the loot, disarm&open&loot and back out again.
All in all, more trouble than it's worth. As hard as it is as a low level wizard, i'm leaning towards stalling my wizardly progress at a few levels to get these roguish disarm&open lock myself. These depend on Intelligence, so a solid bonus is guaranteed, always. Some rogue levels are needed, though non-rogues cannot disarm traps beyond DC35, just the ones you really need to

 

World would have been much easier if you could arm that pixie with a Toothpick + wire, and some nails to fire of from a range of behind your wizard.

 

I reckon its really easy to give your Wizard some good rogue skills by saving up skill points from each level up, given that you only need Spellcraft and Concentration and then piling them all into a one or two levels of of Rogue at a later stage.

 

Well. . . .
Funny enough- I am getting the hang of the pixie. I have not seen her die but the one time. Since it doesn't take away a point of constitution (old BG2 fear) it is not that big of a deal even if she does so I let her just fly around with us.

One thing that she is doing better is stepping up and automatically unlocking things and clearing traps. I have gone through two of the city sections and am liking having her around.

Just as an aside, it seems like a heck of a nice advantage for a mage. I have the barbarian henchman- and with the pixie and my elf mage (long bow and long sword- nice!) I am having quite a bit of fun with this thing.

Thanks for all the input folks and happy gaming.

As always, keep those good thoughts.

 

Rather than the radial menu, try using the voice commands for your familair and henchmen. Hit the "V" key and a little window should pop up on the lower left of your screen.

I've played enough NWN to know that typing "VEE" is "follow me" and "VEX" is stand your ground.

Another option is to download one of the improved AI mods from the player community at nwvault.com. These help improve familiars immensely.

 

How on earth did you ever work out that VEE meant 'follow me'? Did you try out every combination to see what happened?

 

I bet that no familiars are of any use against the Greater Wind Zombie. The pixie would certainly go down in one hit.