Hi, apologies for my bad English and I am bad at expressing.
Not sure if I am too hasty to make a suggestion as I yet to play higher difficulty. However, in normal difficulty, there are always a few low tier brothers that stick with me for a long time. Actually is it because I can’t find any hedge knight to replace them but that not the point. Regardless how long they survive, they stop glowing once they hit max level.
I am aware some don’t even bother to recruit low tier at all, prefer to buy better equipment to gear up their initial companions instead.
This lead me to think that should be a trait that can be improve over time. For example:
After a low tier brothers kills his first 10 enemies, there will be a event that mention how this brother have grow as a mercenary and allow us to pick a trait such as.
Weapon specialist – 10% increase in chance to hit with a weapon of choice
Defense specialist – 10% increase in melee or range defense
Vanguard – allow 1 extra movement
Background related trait – for example, thief gain a new action call pickpocket that disable a weapons in enemy pocket
After getting the first trait, every 10 kills will improve the trait for 9 more times, with a 1% to 3% gain.
Swordmaster and hedge knight do not need this type of trait.
Noble and military background can have a weaker version of growing trait.
.