Topic: new companions

Some of these are on the forums already soemwhere.

1) Yep, don’t see why that could not be a member. A rare one with negative effects on others. Or a half breed. There are variations.

2) Even this is fine. We are mercenaries not inquizition, anything that helps makes us stronger. Should be rare and bound by location to werevolves territory.

3) Not so sure about these. Don’t see how a battlemage could fit in this world. Maybe, like very maybe some support merlin like mage like could be a thing, with low magical ability. The necromancer, well that could be made an entire game mode like in KeeperRL when you play as the “bad guy”. Would not require much work and would be a splendid addition different to the core game. Perhaps making the evil camps to be friendly while the human settlements enemy. It would open up a lot of possibilities. Would even work as an Evil expansion tho would need much more work to validate a full expansion.

4) This is a question I was waiting with till the roadmap is announced, but hey where are the animals. It was quite common to have dogs to fight with, there were hunting dogs aswell, dog armors. Where are the wild animals? How about some low antasy beasts like giant spiders, plague rats, etc. Some could be made part of the groups like dogs, or wolves for the orcs. Some could be different mini factions like spiders. But all of them could be part of random events. Even mythical creatures like giants or ogres. A random even in the forest or hills finding a spider nest and the choise to try and gather spider silk, or while exploring a nearby cave running into a bear family. There is a lot of opportunity to work with all the other living things other than humans orcs and undead.

None of this is going to happen, at least not in the main game.
Just wait for the modding support… ;)

But war dogs are on their way as companions for bandits.

We want to keep things down to low power fantasy and promote a certain asymmetry between the player and the opponents in the game; Battle Brothers will always be common humans in a pseudo-medieval setting that sometimes have to go up against non-human and supernatural foes. For this reason, your first three points are never going to happen. This isn’t a balancing issue at core but a design decision on how we want the game to feel. However, wardogs are a planned feature for both the player and the bandit faction. Other animals may or may not be added as well.

Like the idea of pets, maybe even have a new class, to combine with them, like wardog trainer, or something like that.

Monks are already included in the game as a class I think, but I am not sure at the moment about the actual effect they have. And your characters can have the ‘idiot’ trait, but I assume that only affects the rate at which experience is gained. Not sure, though. The wildman class gives you quite a bit of a boost to your resolve however, so maybe that comes close to what you imagined? That’d be a battle brother and not a companion though, which I suppose you were aiming for.

In general, I am very happy about the way the developers approach this game and the options which they grant the players. They do not make any hasty decisions and take their time to think about changes before they are implemented – as you can see further up in this topic. I can only recommend to keep it this way.
While orcs and undead would surely be sweet characters to form a battle band with -who would not want to play a plundering orc mob or a constantly growing horde of undead- it simply would not fit into this particular game. They are the evil guys, the opponents, and a lot of the feeling you get when you play through this game comes from that. Despite your opposition being fantastic and horrible at once, stronger and tougher than humans, raise again after being slayn or lurk in the shadows unseen as you pass along, preparing the ambush – your battle brothers will still prevail.

And this, this is exactly what makes this setting so neat. That you face an opponent which might seem overwhleming, unfathomable and the most horrible threat the small country this takes place in ever had to endure. And yet in the end, after a long while, dozends of nerve-wrecking battles and the loss of quite a few of your best men, you will come out on top. Not by the use of magic, not by the use of monstrous beast or other horrors which will cause your oponents to cower in fear, but by the use of the battle-hardened warriors your once normal humans have become.

Therefore, I really appreciate that the developers are intended to keep magic, fantasy races and other supernatural things very low on the player side. Keep it for the enemies, to provide a great challenge you will be matched against, and which will make you fear for the life of your men even in the late stages of the game.

If I correctly translated the faq is the place for companions, the game will be employed by characters who wouldn’t be involved in combat but will give certain bonuses for 12 brothers, right? Will they take one of the 12 slots or to go as an additive? Whether such a character as a blacksmith, for example, which could reduce the consumption of tools and speed fix? The Groom, Ranger – which could increase the speed of the party on the global map? So trivial a doctor, a chef with the same bonuses already on the consumption of food and medicine? Actually here it is important the very mechanics of the impact and its fine tuning under the balance of the game. While the companions you can come up with such …that only the imagination will limit. For example : the old Viking – gives a bonus to all the sheald wall , but increases the consumption of the food ) , or their brewer Krasovic – morality party increased but reduced the defense skill, and attack :)…well, you know what I mean.

Yay for noncombat companions and (non-)combat animals!

Nay for undead and werewolf party members. I like the design of mere humans against the darkness, it is what made X-COM strong. Had you been able to field psionic Greys and recruit Chryssalids, the game would’ve been powertrippy 90s shit.
I was thinking about vampirism and lycanthropy, but I’d implement them as very rare events that basically cost you a Brother. Think “Organ Trail”, you’d basically be forced to decide whether to a) keep them along until they transform and attack you, b) put them down, c) let them go (in the knowledge you’ve released a dangerous monster into the world) or d) subdue them and try to find a cure, which if I were the game designer would probably never happen, but could lead to interesting events, e.g. villagers finding out one of your men isn’t what he seems to be.