Mercenary Equipment

[Dreger]

I have a mercenary equipped with a full set of Blessed Blackthorn armor, Blessed Amulet of Ghost Form, Blessed Ring of Ring of Immunity, and a Blessed Ring of Elements, and Lugar's Blade (Legendary+Nightshade). I have two questions about this..

1) Does the merc get the bonuses for wearing the full set? Er, does his large weapon hit twice on 5+ and is he indeed protected from being disarmed?
2) All 3 of his jewelry has +D3 Healing on them, yet I only see +1's floating by him when he's healing. Are these enchants working on him?

As far as the enchants go for his stats, I can see that he is being affected by them. But, beyond that, I don't know what all he is or isn't being affected by...

Thanks!

[nibbe]

About 99.99% of stuff that is not a heritage or challenge works on NPC creatures. There are some exceptions somewhere but I can't remember where and what at the moment.

If the merc is equipped with 6 pieces of Blackthorn then this happens:

if (weapon != null && weapon.isLarge() && src.getSetItemCount("Blackthorn") >= 6 && Dice.roll("D6") >= 5) {
combinedDamage *= 2;
}

It does not actually hit twice where you'd see damage 7 and damage 7 but instead it will show damage 14. That effect doubles the damage that has gone through resistances but hitting twice fits better in the description as there is limited space for those.

The healing enchants work if he knows and casts a spell but those 1's come from resting.

If you want a merc to use spells then you need to hire a caster. Here's a list of mercs and their talents, spells and the level they learn them (3, 6, 9, 12 unless there's a 0 in which case it's an innate talent or spell that they learn at level 1).

Warrior (Melee)
Dual Wield (3)
Shield Bash (6)
Deadly Throw (9)
Crushing Blow (12)

Fighter (Melee)
Strong Will
Heroic Charge
Crushing Blow

Duelist (Melee)
Dual Wield
Deadly Throw
Blade Flurry
Strong Will

---------------

Archer (Ranged)
Dark Vision
Steady Shot
Aimed Shot

Bowman (Ranged)
Dark Vision
Steady Shot
Quick Shot

Marksman (Ranged)
Dark Vision
Slow and Steady
Silent Move

---------------

Cleric (Caster)
Lit. Common (0)
Focused Cast
Sixth Sense
Turn Undead (0)
Cure Poison
Divine Grace
Renewing Touch
Banish Daemon

Priest (Caster)
Lit. Common (0)
Focused Cast
Sixth Sense
Turn Undead (0)
Cure Disease
Divine Might
Healing Touch
Banish Daemon

Wizard (Caster)
Lit. Common (0)
Focused Cast
Sixth Sense
Flaming Orb (0)
Mirror Image
Amplify Magic

You can use that list to give the merc the best equipment for their class. E.g. a warrior is a sword and board kind of guy while a duelist would prefer two weapons. If you want buffs and poison and diseases taken care of, hire a cleric and priest and if you want them to stay alive give them a wizard's staff for an orb spell and they will behave like wizards (stay at range and try not to die, and actually hit their spells due to conduit).

Another thing with equipped friends is that they don't spend arrows. If you equip them with a stack of magic arrows they will never run out of them.

[Dreger]

Wow, thank you very much for all of this info!

I did notice they did not spend arrows/bolts and that after a dungeon reset they still had their magic bolts and arrows, which I thought was very cool.

As a player, I've been running trollish bloodline, and when I had gear on with +D3 healing and rested I did see that I would get heals greater than +1 and even multiple +'s (so I thought) to my heals and thought that came from the +D3 healing on my gear. But I never realized that those heals from my gear were due to me being trollish and that I wouldn't see them normally without being trollish.

I've been working on a new pets/followers/mercs guide and the same problem I had with running trollish for so long applies to pets in that what you get used to you don't realize may or may not be the norm. For instance, when you go for months or years just running woof as a pet and then try other types of followers, like the mercs, and realize that you can't heal all pets by talking to them... :)

Biases are too easy to develop without even thinking that you are developing them. I've been doing my best to work out what mercs actually do what. Being that I ran for so long as an agility build with dual wield and blade flurry and had never ran a strength build, I had quite a lot of biases built up. For my last/current run I decided to do a strength build to A) get that Sword and Buckler heritage that I never bothered with and B) the Close Relations heritage for my mercs. So.. My interactions with the mercs have been rather colored with my own biases, without even realizing it.

For some reason I had gotten my warrior and fighter reversed. I had thought that my warrior didn't come with a shield, while my fighter did as I had thought I equipped them the same way they came. e.g., my warrior wasn't equipped with a shield. This explains why he wasn't using Heroic Charge like I thought he should.. And well, in my mind I thought a fighter sounds like a simple sword and buckler type while a warrior seemed more like the name of a two-handed sword user. That's what I get for thinking ;)

Honestly, I haven't been impressed with using a shield really at all. I'm sure it's great early to mid game, but not late game where you really lack damage not being two-handed or dual wielding. So, now I know I need to swap out a fighter for this warrior's gear lol.

Thank you ever so much for such a wonderful game! I'm a game developer myself and go back to the days of Zork, MUDs, Rogue, and Island of Kesmai. So yeah, guess I'm dating myself lol. I could think of so many ways to expand on this game, but like the original Rogue, there is so much to learn and possibilities to explore that I'm simply grateful I can just enjoy playing it without even thinking "It would be so much better if only..." It's just a great game and really makes it enjoyable to play like a true rogue-like should be where you die, don't simply re-load a save, and really enjoy new runs. Bravo!

Can't wait for the next DLC and being able to support you more!

[Vinceathor]

Thank you Nibbe for responding! I just recently started playing with mercs and have loved it. I was curious about their different skills as they leveled.

Love the game and I appreciate everything you guys have put into it!

Is there ANY WAY I can turn off my wizards mirror image skill? I absolutely despise the 10+ mirror images I end up with on one map sometimes lol