| "I'm pretty sure that as long as you don't add him to your party in mercenary, you'll be able to add the combat mage version of him in veteran. Some people have also been able to release companions in veteran to pick up the new versions, but that seems to be hit and miss. I've never been able to release a companion."
Hit and miss is more like it.
I had Lothar in my group up until we rescued Eva. I ended up using Eva as my primary Tank and made Lothar a dual-wielding machine with Agarrus Mace and Falchion from the Night's Shadow Set. At the beginning of the Veteran Difficulty, the new Lothar ended up being a Combat Mage sporting a robe, mage head piece, and all them fancy spells.
I also notice that A complete set of Armor including weapons in Mercenary Difficulty is a lot less effective and less inferior than a scrounge set that is acquired during Veteran Difficulty. I ended up stripping down my Ranger(Sharpshooter)'s set of Olimarch's Bane Set and just went with random Walmart special in the town of Eirulan. He could barely break 800hp with Orlimarch, with the Walmart special armor, he now has 1025 HPs, almost 200AC(armor) and max damage of 245. Orlimach's cant even come close to that.
Sorry for derail but I thought I would share that since you started the subject of the Mid game.
Anyway, Lothar is a mage in my game at Veteran difficulty even after using Lothar as a Damage dealing warrior during Mercenary difficulty.
Would love to see some of your Ranger's stats and if anyone has made Deru into a Rogue like Ninja. She is a bad ass Ninja but the range in throwing skill blows. Let me know what you think.  |