Got mine yesterday, chose Hume Female Beatrice.
Started off with generic Scale Mail.
Day 1 : First Frolic through Rolanberry
I was excited to obtain my npc, but I had been researching into it, and found that she was apparently level 30, so I decided taking her somewhere with my 72 RDM was not a bright Idea. I changed to 43 Black Mage, and we set off. I called her just outside of Lower Jeuno in Rolanberry.
We proceeded to fight a variety of too weak bees, and easy prey goblins, quadavs and malboros. After about 20 minutes I accidently sent her away. /sigh-_-) When I checked the rendevouz point she had switched her feet to gaiters and her hands to mythril gauntlets.
Day 2 : Second Attempt, exp in the Green Grass
Having researched more into it, and gotten once again excited about the NPC deal, despite the annoyance of all the inital upsets with the 20 hr recast etc. I changed to 32 samurai, got my friend (26 whm) and went to Rolan. I called the NPC just outside, and we spent roughly 40 minutes fighting ep wasps, dc goblins and quadavs, and em quadavs and goobues. I was getting about 20-46 exp a kill, and my whm friend 30-60 (she didnt have the exp reduction from the npc). My friend left after a fight. Upon checking the Rendevouz point, I was a little upset to see that only her legs had changed to Plate Leggings. >_<) Her outfit dosent match at all Scale Mail, Mythril Gauntlets, Plate Leggings, Gaiters. Anyways... No level 31, I'm not quite sure how far it is but I hope to get it tommorow!
As for her AI, its definatly intellegent. She repetadly made use of flat blade to stun bomb toss and various spells. She voked at critical moments when my hp was low, or when the white mage got hate. And she also closed a few skillchains. Overall, We got about 1-1.5k exp a little less for me because of the exp reduction.
And on another note, has anyone noticed a signifigant difference between, Exping at a level under 30, where the npc is capped. Exping roughly around 30, where it would be good for an exp pt. and Exping where the npc is fighting stuff much higher than itself. I'd like to try exping on some of my lower jobs with her at my side, but I dont want to if its going to give less exp ^^; I want her to get 31, and some un-ugly armor.
Also, the feature to chat with the npc, and the ability to ask luto if any new jobs have come up. I'm thinking that as the NPC progresses, new quests with Luto might open up. Perhaps NPC can be changed even further, gain more "Stamina" to assist you longer, and possibly even be upgraded to have a smaller cooldown or an ability to enter more areas through quests, it definatly looks like they'd be able to help on more than 1 quest, or why bother making a chat option when only 2 lines will ever be uttered by the npc.
Also, I've noticed from reading all of these posts, and my own experience, that if the npcs is fighting monsters below or around its level, it will stay longer, whereas if they are far higher than the npc, it will be a more strenious fight,and they will run out of energy sooner. So if you want them to stay around fight something they are a match for, not a level 60 mob with a 30 npc, it may stay alive and hit it, but the battle will be tough and it will be weary quickly. I wanted to race and try to get my npc up, and I will every day, but it looks like I'm already far behind ^^) So lets level our npcs and see what happens when we choose all different ways!
Edited, Fri Jul 22 01:43:08 2005 by RamseySylph