Companions won't necessarily trust the PCs when they first meet. They never start their initial encounter hostile, but they need to be influenced to friendly before they'll be comfortable allying with the PCs. Each companion is presented with a brief influence encounter.

Each companion includes several character options that have the uncommon or rare trait; once the PCs have befriended a companion, these options become available and the PCs gain access to them.

Companions that have joined the PCs don't need to accompany them on every encounter. They can be held back in reserve to guard a campsite, left to perform downtime activities, serve as leaders in the kingdom, and so on. But at times, it may make sense for one or more companions to accompany the PCs on their adventures. If you allow this, you'll want to adjust encounters to account for the increased number of characters in the party.

The seven primary companions each have a personal quest as part of their storyline. Though some companions provide foreshadowing to the PCs beforehand, each quest formally begins with a specific event timed to coincide with particular developments in the Kingmaker Adventure Path and also to a specific character level for the companion. (In order to avoid the party becoming distracted with multiple personal quests at the same time, each quest triggers at a different character level.)

Whether the PCs decide to accompany the companion on their quest is left to the players to decide. However, this book assumes that the PCs join the companion, who takes a full role in the PCs' party through the events and encounters of the short adventure. These companion quests are therefore designed for a party of 5 characters rather than the standard 4, so encounters in these quests are slightly more dangerous than comparable encounters in the Kingmaker Adventure Path.

If the PCs choose not to accompany a companion on their personal quest, it's up to you to determine the ramifications. A companion might to try to tackle their quest on their own (in which case, that companion's disappearance might serve as an additional hook to lure the PCs into that quest), they might choose to let the quest slide and not pursue it, or they might even abandon the PCs to seek help elsewhere—such as from potential rival settlements like Drelev or Pitax. In such a case, a former companion could well show up as an antagonist working against the PCs later in the campaign!