Mercenaries Vs Story Companions

[Carjriak]

I'm not after changing the classes of the prebuilt companions you receive(yet anyway)

I just want a way to either change their stat distribution(so I can have them with the stat layout I want for them) or to give the custom mercenaries their special action during rests.

I want a pop up when the new companion joins(maybe not even a popup just when I go to the inventory) to edit their stat distribution, don't even need to go to their perks yet because 10+ perks is enough

Or when I make a mercanary give me a handful of choices to give them a bit of fluff so that when they're camping they can do something, copies or extra of the ones already present for your prebuilt ones like Valeries maintaining armour or Amiris sharpening weapons

I love some of the characters, Ekun, Valerie, Amiri, Tristian and even Linzi but their stats are far from optimal and I want them to be as useful and strong as a custom merc of the same level

I don't want to have to sacrifice story for a strong party or the other way round

Yes I am asking to get my cake and eat it all too but it's a singleplayer game let me do that

In short, mercs with resting special actions
Or
Story companions with custom stat distribution

These are probably the easiest ways to help balance the strength between the two

[Kyun]

if you are ok with that, there are mods that let you edit attributes, so you can "optimize" the story companions the way you like them.

[Carjriak]

Originally posted by wie Ebenholz:

if you are ok with that, there are mods that let you edit attributes, so you can "optimize" the story companions the way you like them.

I mean that works but I'm lazy and want it built in

[Lane]

Keep in mind that although stat distribution might not be optimal, many story characters have more total attribute points than a custom character would. So even if its not optimal you are actually getting more powerful character than you normally would. Depending you just how much you want to change them, you might be already getting the stat distribution you would do yourself with extra points in undesired attributes.

[Carjriak]

Originally posted by Lane:

Keep in mind that although stat distribution might not be optimal, many story characters have more total attribute points than a custom character would. So even if its not optimal you are actually getting more powerful character than you normally would. Depending you just how much you want to change them, you might be already getting the stat distribution you would do yourself with extra points in undesired attributes.

Just because it's a higher point cost doesn't mean they're more powerful at all because for their class the stats are wasted, sometimes entirely, like for example Valerie having 15 in Charisma, that is I think 7 wasted points
Looking at point buy online she's at 27 points(Yes 2 above what we're given for the MC but she's effectively at 20 because of the ones wasted on Charisma.

Yes this is the worst case I've seen on any of the characters for wasted points and some do benefit more than others but redistributing the points as you wish helps you specialise them more, yeah they won't do somethings as well as they used to but you make them better at their main task.
I think if you're wanting to assign their stats anew you would have to take the 25 point buy just to make it fair and show they're losing something

[Zuul]

Valerie has stats in charisma because she’s usable as an advisor...and CHA is the stat for regent. Hence her score of 15 is a +2 to any rolls she makes on the kingdom level, and is an easy bump to +3.

[Carjriak]

Originally posted by Zuul:

Valerie has stats in charisma because she’s usable as an advisor...and CHA is the stat for regent. Hence her score of 15 is a +2 to any rolls she makes on the kingdom level, and is an easy bump to +3.

Yes she is usable as an advisor for that role but there are others more capable in Charisma available for the same role so it's almost pointless even with that.

But I'm not just saying about her, others have stats that you're not really after for their class capabilities so it would be appreciated if we can either rearrange their stats to our needs

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

Respec mod has you covered, you can just rebuild them the same way (Or make val an aasimar paladin of imodae! Although you need to remove the atheist tag), or the bag of tricks mod you can alter stats there without rebuilding

[For_Science!]

Originally posted by Carjriak:

Just because it's a higher point cost doesn't mean they're more powerful at all because for their class the stats are wasted, sometimes entirely, like for example Valerie having 15 in Charisma, that is I think 7 wasted points
Looking at point buy online she's at 27 points(Yes 2 above what we're given for the MC but she's effectively at 20 because of the ones wasted on Charisma.

Yes, and 20 points is the standard, both for your companions and for mercs, so Val was given that high charisma essentially for free. (Though what the designers were thinking with her 14 Str / 19 Con is a bigger mystery to me. A heavy-armor tank needs to be able to carry her frikkin' armor...)

[vitamin boost]

Originally posted by wie Ebenholz:

if you are ok with that, there are mods that let you edit attributes, so you can "optimize" the story companions the way you like them.

I wish there was something like that for Mac too. :(

[For_Science!]

Originally posted by ishkalafufu:

I wish there was something like that for Mac too. :(

You can't run mods on a Mac, but if all you want to change is the companions' attributes (and not their entire build), editing the save files is pretty straightforward. You need a tool to edit zip files without actually unpacking them; on a Mac I use BetterZip for that.

[erian]

Originally posted by Zuul:

Valerie has stats in charisma because she’s usable as an advisor...and CHA is the stat for regent. Hence her score of 15 is a +2 to any rolls she makes on the kingdom level, and is an easy bump to +3.

Valerie has high charisma bcs she is prebuild dazzling tank.And she is extremly usefull in this role.Her stats are perfect for this .She doesnt need high str(most of the time she will be dazzling),her dex hits cap with belt,her int will reach combat expertise with item.Its funny to read about her suboptimal stats when people are not even trying to play her with the build she is intended for.The only one with mediocre stats for her role in the game is Amiri(and Linzi,but its much less aparent).And i dont see a lot of complaining about it.

[vitamin boost]

Originally posted by For_Science!:

Originally posted by ishkalafufu:

I wish there was something like that for Mac too. :(

You can't run mods on a Mac, but if all you want to change is the companions' attributes (and not their entire build), editing the save files is pretty straightforward. You need a tool to edit zip files without actually unpacking them; on a Mac I use BetterZip for that.

Oh cool! I'll try that. (I thought there was zero hope for Macs. LOL)

[vitamin boost]

I would like to think that Val has really high CHA because (as the game likes to remind me ALL the time) of her "divine beauty"... -_- (devs throw me a bone here! how about a ridiculously goodlooking dude for me to romance huh? I don't want some orc freak getting all touchy on me..ok i was kinda being a racist there..loljk..only humans need apply please..)

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

What drugs are you on? Pretty sure the only companion that's 20 point buy is amiri because she's from pfs. Ekundayo has a 31 point buy. Owlcat have stuff all over the place :/

There is an editor on nexus for macs.

[vitamin boost]

Originally posted by =NK= Col. Jack O'Neil:

There is an editor on nexus for macs.

Thanks man, I'll check that out!

Oh and I see we have a fellow cultured fan of the tv series here.. *slightly nods head*