I've managed to get some recruits to join my gang, namely Ian, Katja and Dogmeat. I've noticed during combat they can take a few hits, and this got me to wondering if they heal over time like I do.

I only ask because during some recent combat, which was so epic that I'm now referring to it as "The Battle of Adytum" Dogmeat took some major hits, so I healed him. Then I got to thinking maybe he would have healed naturally. Is this the case, or do I have to use stimpaks on my gang?

-Health
Fallout 1
To heal Dogmeat, you must use a stimpak manually. Any other human companions can heal himself, (Only) if they have a stimpak in their inventory. You can also rest. Press Z, or use your Pipboy and select rest.


-Equipment

In Fallout 1. To change equipment of your companion you must pickpocket or sell them the equipment you wish to give them.

In Fallout 2, there is menu to just give them the item, or take the desired item away.

gogwitcher300

Thanks for the info.

I wondered why it came up in the text when I used a stimpak on Dogmeat, but not on Ian. I must've been giving Ian the stimpaks and he was using them on himself. I think from now on I'll use barter to keep Katja and Ian's inventories topped up with maybe two or three stimpaks apiece, that should do the trick. Cheers.

You can also use your First Aid and Doctor skills on companions as well. This also has the added bonus of giving you experience, 25XP for each Firast Aid success and 50XP for Doctor. You can only use each skill a limited number of times in a day (or more precisley in a 24 hour period), so when both skills are giving you a message like "You have already used this skill" or "You are too tired" then rest until the next day and try again. It may not sound to impressive, but adding and extra 200-400 experience to the end of most battles can really add up over the course of the game.

I've been using the doctor and first aid skills here and there, and while they only heal a few hit points, it all adds up.

All this talk of healing is redundant now, though, as I've lost my entire gang during my battle with The Master. They were gone in a few short turns - massacred by Super Mutants. I actually felt bad and even thought about going back to my last save and trying again. I don't think they would've survived the end battle anyway, just too many Mutants for them to deal with. I bet Dogmeat would've had a good crack at 'em, though!

As for experience, I'm up to level 13 at the moment. I'm traveling around the map trying to complete all the quests to see how far I can get. It'd be great to get all 21!

I got in the habit to use all my first aid and doctor skills after every battle for as many injuries as possible (and then also usually rest and do it again, instead of wasting stimpaks). Still useful for Fallout 2 as well.

You can definitely reach level 21 in F1 if you wander aimlessly and do random encounters - otherwise I don't think it's possible to reach that level with just quests. Not that you'll need it to complete the game or anything.

I only just realised how useful the doctor skill really is after picking up an eye injury. I was missing all these shots and couldn't understand it. When I looked it said I had the eye injury and my perception had dropped from seven to two, so I used the doctor skill and managed to fix it, and all of a sudden my aim was back! It took a few attempts to do it, but it was definitely worth the effort.

Good to know that level 21 can't be reached by quests alone. I noticed that if I hang around the area around the military base, I keep running into Mutant patrols. Each one has five or six Mutants and a Floater or two, and each battle is big, big points!

Plus eye injuries cannot be treated by other any other NPC doctor in the game! Most docs will treat most other injuries (such as broken arms etc), though they charge a ton - much better to save that cash while getting XP at the same time.

The military base has, from memory, the toughest enemies in the vicinity when compared with other areas of Fallout, so it's probably the best place for gaining levels.

I must admit that when I saw my perception had dropped to two, I thought I'd picked up an eye injury in real life! I didn't remember choosing two when I made my character and thought I was seeing things for real! Anyway, all is well now, I'm back to melting Mutants with one shot from range (most of the time) with the plasma rifle, so I can't complain.

As for the doctors, I've only dealt with Doc Morbid, but I didn't end up getting help from him because I didn't like the attitude of his heavies. I would've shot them all on site if I thought my reputation wouldn't have been affected too much!

From memory I don't think killing Doc Morbid affects your reputation that much - and he almost sort of deserves it... ;)