New Recruits - Career plans... are they just worse?

[Vim]

My question is about new recruits. I've noticed those in the tavern start 1 level below my level. Currently that means they recruit at level 2, but I don't get to level up their aptitude points. Thus, I can't use career plans on them from level 1->2. Does this mean that later in the game only the ones you've had since the start will have a chance to be strong?

Should I be recruiting as much as possible now in the early game to make sure I get competent soldiers for later?

[Wandering Flare]

They should have as many aptitude points when hired as the amount of levels they have above 1, if they don't have any then that is a bug.

[LordPraxxus]

Unless I'm understanding you wrongly, you're incorrect about Career Plans and new recruits. You only get your first Aptitide Point (AP) when you hit Lv2, so e.g.- a Lv11 Tavern recruit with 10 Aptitude Points, is the correct amount. Also, a 2 Knowledge Point Perk called "Fast Training", gives new recruits 1 extra AP. So new recruits get an extra level's worth of AP which your starting 4 won't have. When you actually recruit that Lv11 with 10 AP, he gets 11 AP because of "Fast Training"

Unless you know what you're doing, chances are most people have levelled up at least once or twice without Career Plans unlocked, and have spent AP on sub-optimal stats (which you cannot respec). So new recruits serve to fix that, and they can also have 2 Positive traits (without a 3rd negative one). They also apparently can have higher Constitution and Willpower than your starting 4, but honestly, min-maxing and save scumming to get optimal recruit stats is a waste of time (believe me, I've done it). Also, if your starting 4 get riddled with negative traits (and you don't want to save scum to avoid them), it can be quite a challenge to get rid of them. You'll need a 2 Knowledge Point Perk called "Drinking Buddies", 2 Alcohols & 300 Influence, +3 Adores relationship and 2 Best Friends who both have Negative traits, which is a challenge by itself. And this is only possible mid to late-game.

Recruit till you have 10 mercs in your party (which is the ideal size imo), over time, as and when you're able to sustain paying and feeding them; 1 for each profession. The earlier you recruit, the lower their level disparity becomes. The XP training "Training Dummy" Camp Item can only be acquired by beating the Arena in Ludern, which is the 4th region in Region-Locked, and not recommended early game in Adaptive. BUT, don't recruit until you have "Career Plans" and "Fast Training" Knowledge Perks unlocked.

Ideally you should have 2 of most classes (with diff specs) to round out your party comp. You can make do with only 1 Ranger, 1 Archer and 1 Spearman, also get at least 1 Pugilist (the new class), or you can run whatever party comp you want.

[mrak20105]

Don't spend a lot of money on hiring recruits at the beginning of the game. Otherwise you will go bankrupt. Try to trade more and fight less at the beginning, or fight only with animals to farm skins and meat. You can find more interesting recruits later when your finances are in order.
Don't listen to bad advice. Both the bard and the scientist are extremely important from an early start. The scientist generates knowledge very well, the bard generates both money and experience. Gaining experience as a bard is much easier than as a woodcutter or fisherman.

[Vim]

Originally posted by Praxxus:

Unless I'm understanding you wrongly, you're incorrect about Career Plans and new recruits. You only get your first Aptitide Point (AP) when you hit Lv2, so e.g.- a Lv11 Tavern recruit with 10 Aptitude Points, is the correct amount. Also, a 2 Knowledge Point Perk called "Fast Training", gives new recruits 1 extra AP. So new recruits get an extra level's worth of AP which your starting 4 won't have. When you actually recruit that Lv11 with 10 AP, he gets 11 AP because of "Fast Training"

Unless you know what you're doing, chances are most people have levelled up at least once or twice without Career Plans unlocked, and have spent AP on sub-optimal stats (which you cannot respec). So new recruits serve to fix that, and they can also have 2 Positive traits (without a 3rd negative one). They also apparently can have higher Constitution and Willpower than your starting 4, but honestly, min-maxing and save scumming to get optimal recruit stats is a waste of time (believe me, I've done it). Also, if your starting 4 get riddled with negative traits (and you don't want to save scum to avoid them), it can be quite a challenge to get rid of them. You'll need a 2 Knowledge Point Perk called "Drinking Buddies", 2 Alcohols & 300 Influence, +3 Adores relationship and 2 Best Friends who both have Negative traits, which is a challenge by itself. And this is only possible mid to late-game.

Recruit till you have 10 mercs in your party (which is the ideal size imo), over time, as and when you're able to sustain paying and feeding them; 1 for each profession. The earlier you recruit, the lower their level disparity becomes. The XP training "Training Dummy" Camp Item can only be acquired by beating the Arena in Ludern, which is the 4th region in Region-Locked, and not recommended early game in Adaptive. BUT, don't recruit until you have "Career Plans" and "Fast Training" Knowledge Perks unlocked.

Ideally you should have 2 of most classes (with diff specs) to round out your party comp. You can make do with only 1 Ranger, 1 Archer and 1 Spearman, also get at least 1 Pugilist (the new class), or you can run whatever party comp you want.

The only "optional" profession I can say is "Bard", as that is a class that only serves to earn influence/money once every day by performing at inns and giving the whole party +1 Willpower. But, if you want to be super-optimal, that +1 Willpower from Bard and +1 from the "Fortitude" perk, can get all your units +2 Willpower, which is a level's worth of AP that can be spent on Movement or Crit%. Another profession, "Scholar", you won't really need or unlock until you've hit your first tomb. "Fisherman", is necessary in early game for free food (and fish for some food recipes) and free "fish oil" (required for Alchemy/Apothacery). Once food isn't an issue, and you've built up a stockpile of Fish Oil, and have crafted fish requiring recipes (for the Knowledge Points), you can largely ignore this profession and change them to something else. All other professions are necessary and useful throughout the game.

This isn't exactly answering my question, so I'll use a few examples to make what I mean more clear. :)

I am currently level 3. I've had career plans since level 1, so all of my 4 characters have gotten a total of 4 aptitude points since I used career plans to get +2 per level.
There is a level 2 recruit at the inn, whom have no aptitude points to distribute. Meaning he has already "leveled" outside of my control.

At level 2 this is not an issue, but let's say i play until level 8. My characters will have 16 aptitude points from levels, but a level 7 tavern character sounds like he might have at most 6 aptitude points. This is a -drastic- drop in power, so my question is if this is how it works? If so recruiting early would be the only way to avoid having a horrendously weak party...

[LordPraxxus]

Originally posted by Vim:

This isn't exactly answering my question, so I'll use a few examples to make what I mean more clear. :)

I am currently level 3. I've had career plans since level 1, so all of my 4 characters have gotten a total of 4 aptitude points since I used career plans to get +2 per level.
There is a level 2 recruit at the inn, whom have no aptitude points to distribute. Meaning he has already "leveled" outside of my control.

At level 2 this is not an issue, but let's say i play until level 8. My characters will have 16 aptitude points from levels, but a level 7 tavern character sounds like he might have at most 6 aptitude points. This is a -drastic- drop in power, so my question is if this is how it works? If so recruiting early would be the only way to avoid having a horrendously weak party...

I think I understand your confusion. You actually need to hire them to increase their stats with the Career Plan perk, it works the same as with your starting 4 mercs. And they get the same amount of Aptitude Points as your starting 4. Only with "Fast Training" perk, do new recruits get extra +2AP which your base 4 mercs don't get.

The advantages of hiring new mercs are the same as I have stated in my original comment.

[Vim]

Okay, so once I hire them, I get to distribute all of their levels worth of aptitude points, so I get to spend my influence to make sure they haven't fallen behind? I guess I should just hire one and see what happens, but I seem to recall the one I did hire didnt' get any aptitude points that I could distribute, leading me to believe it had been pre-distributed, and thus maybe only a +, instead of a ++.

[LordPraxxus]

Originally posted by Vim:

Okay, so once I hire them, I get to distribute all of their levels worth of aptitude points, so I get to spend my influence to make sure they haven't fallen behind? I guess I should just hire one and see what happens, but I seem to recall the one I did hire didnt' get any aptitude points that I could distribute, leading me to believe it had been pre-distributed, and thus maybe only a +, instead of a ++.

Unless you have a bug in your game, the only "disadvantage" new recruits (from inns) have over your starting 4, is that they are lower in level, which isn't even a problem if you just play the game and engage in its systems. In fact they have more advantages - they can have slightly higher base stats than your starting 4, they can have 2 positives and no negative trait, and with "Fast Training" perk they get an extra level's worth of AP. And, with a perk calles "Human Resources", you can even pay money to post a recruitment notice for a merc with specific features that you get to pick and choose, eliminating most of the randomness of potential recruits.

The only reason you wouldn't want more mercs in your party is, if you deliberately want to run a smaller party. Most players run with ~10 or more mercs, and some crazy people even run with 30+ mercs. Gaining and losing members is all part of managing and improving your mercenary warband. Just make sure you're capable of feeding and paying your new mercs, you don't want to be in a position where you starve them or skip their wages.

Recruiting more mercs (than the starting 4) and growing your warband (in size and power) is one of the main objectives of the game. You can capture prisoners and even recruit them, you can hire prisoners, you can find 6 unique mercs in the various regions, and you can hire mercs from inns (which is the safest and best option). No matter where or how you get them, though they may have different skill and starting stats, they all level the same way. That's just how the game works.