Ultima VI: The False Prophet/Companions

You can have the Avatar and up to seven companions in your party. The avatar starts at level 3 and can always use magic. The next chart shows the values of the characters at the point you acquire them. This guide contains a few spoilers.

Companions
Locations are grouped in four sets:
 * (a) Mainland: locations that can be accessed since the earliest stage of the game;
 * (b) Peninsula: locations beyond poison swamp; swamp boots are recommended;
 * (c) Islands: locations that require a skiff or ship to get to;
 * (d) Quest: locations with further requirements.

Beh Lem, Dupre, Iolo, and Shamino will not willingly leave the party. You have to kill them if you want them out, and if you want them back, you need to make sure you have room in your party before you resurrect them. Else they can't join you unless you kill them again and remove the extra party members.

Julia and Blaine get mad if you tell them to leave the party and refuse to rejoin. If you have them in your party and think you will want them back at a later time just kill them and leave them somewhere you can easily get to.

Sherry is required to get one of the runes. You need to give her cheese in order for her to join. She can fit through mouse holes, portcullises, and fences which can make some puzzles easier. She can carry any equipment that other characters can as long as you raise her Str. If you want to train her so you can use her I suggest equipping her with a wand, boomerang, or sling. Healers will not resurrect her you will need to cast the eight level spell in order to revive her.

Beh Lem is required when you reach the gargoyle city. He will join you only if you know the Gargish language.

Experience
When a character in the party has enough experience to reach the next level you can talk to a shrine and meditate at it to gain a level. Experience maxes out at 9999. Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence max at 30. Keep in mind that the Avatar gets Dexterity +1 for training with Loubet in Serpent's Hold for the first time. Dexterity and Strength are the most important; I suggest you don't raise Intelligence.
 * Dexterity affects how fast you move and attack; it also determines how well you attack with most weapons.
 * Strength affects how well you attack with blunt weapons; the weight of equipment you can wear is equal to your Strength, the total weight you can carry is equal to twice your Strength.
 * The Avatar's magic points are equal to twice his/her Intelligence; companions who can use magic have magic points equal to half their Intelligence; still, magic is ruled by the amount of gold that is spent to buy reagents, and only subsequently by the Intelligence and the amount of MP.

The ant mound east of Sacrifice shrine at sextant location 22 N, 70 E is a good place to earn Exp. The ants are very easy to kill and you should be able to go into solo mode and roam the dungeon without any problems. If you use a moongate to get there, the gargoyles at the shrine could be a problem.

Suggested party
The initial party is made of four members: the Avatar, Shamino, Iolo and Dupre. They will not leave if asked to.

There is room for four more party members (two more only in the SNES port). It is advisable to always leave one free slot in order to recruit less useful characters just to access their equipment and then dismiss them.

In order to avoid confusion during battles, it would be advisable to have characters with different sprites. This way, the three fighters Seggallion, Sentri and Gorn and the two bards Gwenno and Leodon are discarded.

Dexterity is probably the most important attribute: it rules hit rate, stealth and perhaps evade rate. Blaine and Jaana have very high starting dexterity, and can both be met on Britannia mainland, i.e. in the eraliest stages of the game. Sherry has even higher starting dexterity, but her strength is negligible (raising her to maximum level can be an interesting challenge). Beh Lem joins only very late in the game. Julia, Katrina and Leonna have the lowest starting dexterity, and their starting strength is just average or lower.