I started a new game the other day in Fallout 2 after beating it going the evil route. I was a slaver, wiped out modoc, wiped out klamath, the den, and some other cities. I didn't like having so few party members though, especially not having Cassidy and Marcus, who really make a NPC party worth having.

I started a new game intending to go on a route good enough to the point I can get sulik, vic, and cassidy in the team. But I've run into some problems. Even after I am at accepted karma with Klamath, when I pay Sulik's damages of $350, he says 'you may be ugly on the outside but you are good on the inside. Now we are free, we go find sis.' I was afraid that was a negative response. So i talk to him again and ask him to come with me, and he says 'Want to take a little nap, talk to grampy bone..Not going anywhere.'

Basically he won't come with me even with a 100-110 positive karma standing. Then I go to the Den, and when I talk to Tubby he says 'I would prefer you take your business elsewhere.' I don't ever remember having problems with dialogue with Tubby, but I'm basically getting negative responses from all NPCs.

So I deleted my evil char save games, deleted my new savegame, and started over doing the same good route. And the responses are the same. It's the same negative responses from all NPCs no matter what.

Any help would be appreciated.

What's your charisma?

When people refer to you as "Ugly" it's usually because you really ARE ugly. A charisma score of 3 or less will attract rude comments from many people. A charisma score of less than 5 will prevent you from getting any henchman.

The number of henchman you can have at once is equal to your charisma score -5, with 0's being rounded up to 1.

Not exactly. The number of henchmen you can have is half of your charisma score, so if you have a score of 2 that would mean you can take 1 NPC with you. With a score of 6 you can take 3. A score of 5 makes 2 NPC's because the number is always rounded down.

I don't know where you got your information, but try it out. If you create a character with Charisma of 4, by your measures that would mean he wouldn't be able to get any NPC's to follow him, because it's 4 minus 5, making -1. I'm sorry but that's just not true, I've gotten Sulik to follow me dozens of times with a Charisma of 2 and no significant positive karma :shrug:

To be honest, I was kind of guessing. I was thinking about Arcanum and Dungeons and Dragons and how henchmen-hiring worked in those games, and remembered that a PC with a CHA score of 10 can have 5 NPCs following him/her. I extrapolated from there.

I stand by my statement on ugliness, though. I've observed that myself when playing low-CHA females (everyone called me a ugly [censored]).

You could be right on the ugliness part. But still, I have made a character once with high speech skill and Charisma of 2, I know it's a strange character build but I still went upstairs with Miss Bishop and her Jethead daughter.

Well those two are desperate, they go practically with anyone.

Anyway... if your charisma is 1, you can't have any henchmen and sulik says exactly what OP described.

I regret to inform you that I am indeed not an ugly man and that also, I have had Goris, Vic, and Myron in my party at the same time with both 1 and 2 charisma. Right now, I have 1.

The formula does not work like that. I am 100% sure on that.

What was your Charisma when you asked them to join?

The official formula is 1/2 CH round down.

I'm playing with CH1, and noone will follow me.

This time I have 1.

But every time I play fallout 2, I always remove all my points from charisma - Always. And i've never had this problem before.

The time when I had 3 companions was when I had 2 Charisma due to gifted trait. So the formula can't be '1 npc per 1 CH,' even if my 1 CH is causing this problem.

Don't know what to tell you if you wont believe us on how the mechnaics work. You didn't take the Magnetic Personality trait, or use mentants when you ask them to join did you?

Its your charisma stat thats doing it.

I didn't take magnetic personality, no, and I didnt take mentats either because at the time I was unaware that CH even played a factor in NPC limits. 2 Charisma with gifted, and I had vic, myron, and goris. Unless my math is bad, I should have only been able to have 1 or 2 of them.

If i remember right, goris was bugged and joined even if party limit was full. It could be similar thing with some other npc:s.
Still... it's your charisma, not karma from previous game.

hmm yeah, that sounds right then if Goris is bugged.

CH#/2=(rounded down)# of party members
BUT take into consideration that CH also reflects your charm/beauty, as well as intial reaction, and the reqs for certain responses. So while you might have CH and still get 1 NPC take into account that some people might still not like you enough to join you.
Just take some Mentats, and you'll be OK.