Some Adventuring Fellow NPC Suggestions

[Kincard]

Increasing the Fellow NPC's level cap and especially the monster limit were welcome additions, but there's a couple things I'd like to see adjusted for Fellow NPCs, especially their AI.

1. Have on/off switches for certain magic spells.
Just like with AoE weapon skills, I'd like for certain spells to be turned off- specifically, enfeebling spells. If it's not possible for a one-by-one list of spells you'd like casted on you, I'd like an option for them to stop casting enfeebling spells. Even though there was an attempt to fix the pointless silencing NPCs do, they still do it on certain enemies, such as the Empty.
Furthermore, there have been cases where the NPC would not stop casting slow and paralyze on enemies that were immune to it, causing all the MP that should've been used to cure me to be lost. To avoid this, an option to turn off enfeebling would solve it without too much in-depth work with the AI.

2. Make NPCs use level-appropriate weapon skills.
There's really no reason she should be using Power Slash when she already has Spinning Slash.

3. Give Soothing Healer auto refresh.
I just find it odd Stalwart Shield has Auto Refresh but Soothing Healer doesn't.

4. Make Fierce Attacker more...well, fierce.
As far as I can tell, double attack is the biggest perk that Fierce Attacker gives, but Stalwart Shield gives that same bonus past level 50, so Fierce Attacker loses some of its edge. Counter's not helping much since...well, if I wanted my Fellow to tank, I'd use Stalwart Shield, once again.

5. Make trigger conditions for Blessed Radiance a bit less strict.
Just my own opinion because I think this ability is just so friggin' cool, and it sucks almost never seeing it. I can't think of a lot of situations where enmity between the player and Fellow will be balanced enough for both to be in red HP, so I think it should just be one or the other, possibly based on current class. As in, Healer and Attacker would use it when player is in red HP, while Shield would use it while Fellow is in red HP.

6. More armor and weapon options.
I'm shallow, and I like playing with appearances! I think equipping them mannequin-style would be pretty nice, but I assume this would take a lot of work.

Other suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

[Rie]

3.

PLD has Auto Refresh natively, WHM doesn't.

[Kincard]

WHM can't equip Great Katanas natively either, so I doubt they're just re-using the existing job code for the NPC jobs.

[Mirage]

WHM doesn't get auto-refresh, no. WHMs do however normally wear refresh equipment. Maybe we instead should be able to give our NPCs some gift accessories that would give bonuses only when worn by NPCs.

To keep it from interfering with the current visual equipment system, these items should probably only be for the invisible slots, such as earrings, rings, belts and capes. Because the visual equipment our NPCs are using don't normally give a significant amount of stat bonuses, I think the stats of this equipment should be high enough to make up for the lack of stats on visible equipment.

This would mean stuff like for example a ring like this:
3% haste, 20 attack, 10 dex, 10 acc, 10 str.

or this, for a mage NPC:
Enhances fast cast, +10 int, +10 mnd, +10 magic accuracy, +2 refresh, +5% conserve MP.

[Teraniku]

I'll repeat what I've posted elsewhere, scrap the NPC gear and equipment system and implement an adapted Automaton equipment interface for our NPC's. We all have good non Empyrean gear laying around that's not used. Why not use it on our npcs?

[Panthera]

2. Make NPCs use level-appropriate weapon skills.
There's really no reason she should be using Power Slash when she already has Spinning Slash.

I'd like this. One of the main reason I use an NPC is to setup skillchains for breaking trial weapons. I need it to open a level 3. If it does Induration one more time, I won't take it Promyvion for a nice date.

3. Give Soothing Healer auto refresh.

I just find it odd Stalwart Shield has Auto Refresh but Soothing Healer doesn't.

Heck, give it refresh, and make it smart enough to cast refresh when it wears off. And while it's at it, Refresh me, too!

4. Make Fierce Attacker more...well, fierce.
As far as I can tell, double attack is the biggest perk that Fierce Attacker gives, but Stalwart Shield gives that same bonus past level 50, so Fierce Attacker loses some of its edge. Counter's not helping much since...well, if I wanted my Fellow to tank, I'd use Stalwart Shield, once again.

Maybe the NPC should get Store TP?

Maybe it should have a buff as a kind of a unique TP move to make it stronger? Or let it use TP incrementally like a Dancer. Maybe each NPC job should have a unique WS that not even players get!

Another way to buff NPCs is to create new armor that the player can use, similar to the Hydra gear from Tavnazia, but that does not have to remain equipped for the NPC to receive the effect.

5. Make trigger conditions for Blessed Radiance a bit less strict.
Just my own opinion because I think this ability is just so friggin' cool, and it sucks almost never seeing it. I can't think of a lot of situations where enmity between the player and Fellow will be balanced enough for both to be in red HP, so I think it should just be one or the other, possibly based on current class. As in, Healer and Attacker would use it when player is in red HP, while Shield would use it while Fellow is in red HP.

It really is cool, isn't it though! Good tweak. Maybe it could just use it randomly once every time it's called. Something, anything!

Other suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Make the tank frame able to hold hate! Tank frame needs to be able to cast Flash, which it should have anyway as a Paladin type.

[Greatguardian]

WHM can't equip Great Katanas natively either, so I doubt they're just re-using the existing job code for the NPC jobs.

Except they are, like every other combat-NPC, NM, and monster in the entire game. Monk mobs use Great Axes too. Weapon selection is not affected by job for non-players, but Stats, Job Traits, and Spells are.

In order to give Soothing Healer auto-refresh, they would have to either give WHM auto-refresh, or make Soothing Healer a WHM/SMN or WHM/PLD. I'm fairly sure it's just WHM/WHM right now.

[Kincard]

Like the suggestions so far guys, thanks. One thing that came to mind again when mentioning WSs is the food required to open WSNM WSs for Fellows- I'd like for it to be purchasable with Fellow Points in the same way the balms are. Or hell, just make them accessible all the time, since it was a limitation designed for the level 70 cap the Fellows had anyway.

Except they are, like every other combat-NPC, NM, and monster in the entire game. Monk mobs use Great Axes too. Weapon selection is not affected by job for non-players, but Stats, Job Traits, and Spells are.

In order to give Soothing Healer auto-refresh, they would have to either give WHM auto-refresh, or make Soothing Healer a WHM/SMN or WHM/PLD. I'm fairly sure it's just WHM/WHM right now.

While that makes sense, an inconsistency that can be pointed out is that the Soothing Healer can't punch twice with H2H weapons...this would mean either it has no skill, or the ability to punch twice per turn is just some kind of hidden trait that happens to come with H2H skill for players. I've never tried H2H on my Fellow myself- has anyone ever tried putting the Soothing Healer on H2H weapon and seeing if they ended up ever doing Dragon Kick, despite the one-punch-per-turn?

Of course, the difficulty in changing these things is only known to the development team, so hopefully we can get a more definitive answer in regards to this from one of the mods.

[Yukichibi]

They just have to introduce Fellow's Merit by the guy at rulude garden or rendez vous point, so we can tweak it (pimp my fellow !).

[Ravenmore]

They really do need to do something about the short bus AIs for NPCs and sure pup could get something from the AI fixs so SE could get a 2 for 1 out of it.