New player here - Do companions permanently lose attributes?

[Kreigar]

I just started trying this mod, and I'm noticing some severe balance issues in the early levels.  For starters, "adventuring" or running around killing people in order to make money is almost completely eliminated as an option early in the game due to the lack of lower-level raiders/looters etc available.  I may be able to take guys out, but my poor swayback horse can only take so many javelins.  Secondly, my companions, who are also low-level and have no decent equipment (because we've yet to make any money) lose attribute points like strength and charisma when they get wounded, further discouraging any sort of troublesome adventuring behavior in the early levels.

Are these attribute losses permanent?  If so, that's a real game-ender for me.  I can't think of any good reason why this "feature" would be present.  It seems to follow the "punish the player" philosophy that made games like Everquest succomb to more player-friendly games like WoW.  Please tell me they aren't permanent, and tell me early-level adventuring isn't completely removed as an option from this mod.

 

[hans123]

Are you talking about the Long Term Wounding System? If so, you can turn it off in the Camp Menu aswell as other options, for example the Invasion of the Dark Knights.

You should visit the Arena and ask for Tournaments. Travel to towns where those are held and bet some money on yourself. You get some good money there aswell as renown which you need to join a faction. With the money you win in Tournaments you should recruit a whole bunch of Initiates from the Swadian villages. Then just go for Bandits and so on.

 

[amade]

You can look into reports>party morale and see how many days it'd take for the wounds to heal. They can be a pain early in the game but later on not so much. It's up to you if you want it on or not but I hardly find it a bother anymore since they can't go lower than -2 penalty (it's just that they take weeks to heal).

You can see your own wounds in your character report.

And yeah, train yourself in the arena first. It's safe and earns you money. Later on go for hungry/desperate bandits (not those bloody raiders or mercs!) because they don't have ranged weapons.