Surgeons

[Laurence of Arabia]

Rather than having a surgery skill (or it could still be kept as well ) why not make it so that ther are characters like marnid+borcha, but hey dont ight, and act as doctors, but level up as they improve in surgery?

Then you could hire the right amount of surgons for you.

Also another thing to spend money on.

 

[Worbah]

I think there should be other 'specialists' as well. trackers, trainers, etc.

 

[DaLagga]

I agree. You really should have non-combat support units for your party that mainly enhance/take the place of some of your skills.

 

[Laurence of Arabia]

ye, surgeons, trackers, trainers, hunters (get food, an activity you could aprticipate in, hint hint) scouts (sight distance). I think specialists would be an excellent idea.

 

[Wanderer]

Doing this, though, removes the 'Hero only' aspect of party skills.

Not something I'm against, directly, but it's a definate change in party organization.

Also, by doing this, you're emphasizing the leadership skill more then the rest. You'll remove a good portion of training the INT attribute at all, which balances off the combat portions. Either you're a super powerful fighter, or you've balanced that with the ability to put people's guts back inside and learning to read tracks.

Turning Marnid and Borcha into war machines at the expense of rounding off the character is bad for gameplay, in my mind.

 

[Worbah]

They could be NPCs like Marnid and Borcha, just put them at the bottom of the list if you don't want them to fight. Or have a separate 'Specialist' slot. If only one can be included, you'd still have to develop your own characters non-combat skills.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

You would be able to spend more of your earned experience points on direct combat skills because you'd leave the surgery, first aid, tracking, etc. to hired specialists. That's increased flexibility alright.

I'm curious. Would these specialists fight? If yes, then they are characters like Borcha and Marnid, who can already earn medical skills, tracking skills, etc. If no, how would they defend themselves?

If they don't appear during combat, then they'd only be a character you would notice if you went to a certain screen. In essence, they'd be a virtual embodiment of a particular skill (like surgery) and instead of checking on your surgery level, you'd check on his surgery level. But otherwise, noncombatant specialists in a party would be not be seen..

I'm not in favor of it and I'm not against it. I'm just trying to see what it may lead to.

 

[Wanderer]

I think it would lead to powergaming, personally.

You can currently achieve the same result by getting Marnid, powering the heck out of his INT skill by leaving him in combat for a while, then pushing him to the back of the pack (another thread Armagan described the order of selection), and leaving him as your 'surgeon'.

 

[Caius]

This 'specialists' issue reminds me of a free (once free at least) mmo named World of Pirates, they world map was quite a bit like this games and instead of having specific skills you had specialists like a cook and a surgeon and such that would up your stats and improve the way your ship ran (like a lvl 4.2 cook would keep your morale high all the time(5 was highest I believe)).

 

[Laurence of Arabia]

Ye, like pirates, you can get gunners, cooks, quartermasters, navigators. Your skills in say, surgery, could still outclass those of a surgeon, but he would help. And definitley, they should not fight. There should be a specialists slot.

 

[Corto]

I also think this is a good idea. Hireable professionals for your group which can perform some traits far better than your character. Different levels for these experts (poor, average, good, excellent, most famous) AND much higher cost than normal mercenaries would make sure that it's balanced and will not lead to powergaming.

I think these specialists should be NPC-like characters, so they would cost you 1 party slot each. These specialists shouldn't be scripted NPC characters, though: they just work for you and give a bonus to one skill, they are not companions like Marnid or Borcha. The locations and skills of these specialists should vary. You could find them from taverns, wilderness, as prisoners... lots of possibilities. These experts would be good at what they do (tracking, surgeon, trade etc.) but lousy on other skills (another balancing feature). And they are expensive.

And they should fight also, of course. Just imagine your frustration when Dark Hunter party slaugthers your tracker expert in an important battle. Until you find a replacement for your departed specialist you have to rely on the next best thing (which means you or one of your NPC's).

It wouldn't be an easy job to balance this, but if a good compromise between the weekly cost of a specialist (only high level characters should be able to afford specialists), their skill level and the appearance frerequency is found, it will not be too much of a powergaming feature but a rich add to the game. At least that's what I believe.

 

[Laurence of Arabia]

no, i dont think they should fight personally. There should be seperate slots for them. They should also, as you rightly brought to our attention, cost a lot of money.