Is there an easy way to remove the merc advisor penalty?

[|Nick]

I understand that the devs are frightened about people building perfect op merc advisors, but I want to play with one merc.

Is there any way/mod despite editing the savegame to remove that penalty? I don't like messing with my savegames

[Kurosu]

They didnt do it because of "fear". Originally there wasnt even an option to use a merc as an advisor. However because people complained that they ended up with no advisors for some slots ( councilor being the most popular one) they allowed mercs to be used...with a penalty.
Not out of fear of stat bulding, but to maintain balance and allowing the existence of concequences.

Regardless, I dont know how to remove the penalty, but I guess you can use bag of tricks mod to raise the appropriate stat ( con for warder for example) of that merc to balance out the penalty.

[|Nick]

My int based merc is as good as a normal int based character with 12 int...
Thats bs. Even companions stats arent that bad distributed

[dulany67]

Originally posted by Kurosu:

They didnt do it because of "fear". Originally there wasnt even an option to use a merc as an advisor. However because people complained that they ended up with no advisors for some slots ( councilor being the most popular one) they allowed mercs to be used...with a penalty.
Not out of fear of stat bulding, but to maintain balance and allowing the existence of concequences.

Regardless, I dont know how to remove the penalty, but I guess you can use bag of tricks mod to raise the appropriate stat ( con for warder for example) of that merc to balance out the penalty.

I found it a curious decision that they finally allowed you to use mercs as counselors, but then gave a penalty for doing so. It's almost as if they were scolding us for using them.

But original kingdom management was balanced so poorly before they adjusted it, that the penalty for having no character in a position was far too severe. Even now, having 1 less person to handle issues can be punishing because it's far easier for the people to become unhappy than to gain happiness. Judging by the comments you see about kingdom management, I think it is obvious that they missed the mark on difficulty especially for 1st time players. Even if they felt that mercs would be overpowered because of point buy, the -4 penalty goes too far, IMO. And if someone sets kingdom management to easy mode, shouldn't that eliminate the penalty anyway? When a player does that, they are saying either difficulty is too high or that they are not enjoying the difficulty. It is a SP game after all.

But having said that, using bag of tricks to increase the relevant stat greatly would overcome the issue. But of course, then the character is over spec'd for use in the party.

[|Nick]

Yeah, my merc is part of my party, so increasing the ability is no optjon here

[Kurosu]

Then use a different merc for the advisor slot I guess ?
You should also bear in mind that during the advisor rank up events (basically choices on how to deal with a situation/opportunity) the mercs dont get options. They automatically go with one.
And before people ask, this was probably done because the advisor dialogue and opinion on choices during those events is different per advisor since they present/comment on the situation based on their personalities, which the mercs dont have (obviously).

[jsaving]

Originally posted by Fefre/Nick:

I understand that the devs are frightened about people building perfect op merc advisors, but I want to play with one merc.

I don't think it has anything to do with the devs being scared, if it did then they wouldn't have taken the time to add this feature to the game in the first place. And while you are right that your 12 INT merc is as good as a 12 INT joinable NPC, what they're concerned about is that you won't settle for 12s on your merc but will instead twink your build to make kingdom management easier than intended.

If that isn't your intention and you don't plan to wear stat-boosting items and/or max the relevant stat on your merc, then for you the -4 penalty would probably be too harsh and you could reasonably consider using bag of tricks to give you a +4 or even +8 bonus to the relevant stat.

[CHAO$$$]

The real loss is not having the government options you get from the companion advisors.

Some of those are pretty damn significant.