I wasn’t categorically for or against your idea. (I don’t usually directly oppose anyone’s suggestions, unless I feel they don’t fit in the game, in which case I usually say so in plain language.) Sorry for being difficult to understand, it’s a bad habit of mine.
What I was doing was point out the potential weaknesses in the idea. This wasn’t to say your idea was necessarily bad, just that it needs refining so as to be good for the game. On principle, I like your idea because I’m a great fan of “finesse” weapons such as rapiers and daggers. But we need to make sure we don’t replace the current “meta” with a new “meta” by making one stat too good.
First of all, thralls operate on a different set of rules than players. They don’t have stamina, they can’t dodge, and the stats they have give them slightly different bonuses than they give to players. So when designing a feature that is dependent on a stat, we need to consider thralls and players separately.
Thrall stats are currently based on their faction, not their class. I think this would be better fixed by giving more STR (or at least more likelihood of increasing STR) for fighters and mroe ACC (or better chance to increase ACC) for archers. I’ve studied the tables of thrall stats and damange multipliers quite extensively, and it’s easy to come to one conclusion:
Some thralls are categorically better than other thralls.
And I’m a bit torn about this. On one hand, I think that’s fine. People are different, as they’re supposed to be. Some are better fighters than others. On the other hand, it’s a problem because it drives people, especially in a competitive game, towards certain choices. If one thrall is the best fighter, then everyone wants that one, and all other fighter thralls become basically redundant in the game. That’s a waste of design space.
Me, I kinda like the second-stringers. I’m currently rebuilding my Complete Collection of Named Noob thralls, ie. Exile, Darfari and Black Hand. I’m training Enica of Cimmeria, a T4 Exile Fighter, as my go-to companion. She started with 0 STR and has the Exile damage multiplier, which is significantly weaker than e.g. Relic Hunter or Cimmerian multiplier - but she’s doing just fine. It’s fun watching her struggle, grow and get stronger. Now, at level 13 she has 12 STR, plus a few points from armor bonuses and food, and she helps me clear Mounds of the Dead. I haven’t taken her against any of the harder bosses yet, but my point is - you don’t need your thrall to be the bestest ever unless you intend to go against other players who do have the bestest thralls ever. That’s why I feel it’s fine that some thralls have silly stats for their class.