Fallout 3 offers a selection of 8 permanent companions to accompany the player character. All companions, except for Dogmeat and Charon, have a Karma requirement that must be met in order to recruit them; if one's Karma rating is too high or too low, they will refuse to join the party until it changes to their preferred alignment listed in bold below. Barring certain exploits , the player character is only allowed one "human" companion and one "animal" companion, the latter of which is solely taken up by Dogmeat.
Unlike in previous Fallout games, companions don't gain experience and notoriety independently but are scaled to the level of the player character. Delivering the killing blow oneself is neither necessary nor replaces the minimum damage requirement. Lone Wanderer and Dogmeat. Companions come with their default weapons and armor and will use these, depending on what role they are asked to play melee or ranged.
They will also wear any weapons or armor they are given that is superior to their standard equipment.
All human and ghoul non-player characters so all except Fawkes, RL-3, and Dogmeat are capable of wearing power armor. Armor and weapons worn by companions never degrade with use. Companions have unlimited ammunition for their standard weapon with the exception of Butch , but they will have to be supplied with the appropriate ammunition for any other non-default ranged weapon. If a companion is given several weapons and the appropriate ammunition, they will generally choose a weapon based on the range of the projectile, then on either damage per round DPR or damage per second DPS but not by the in-game interface's DMG stat.
For example, if Star Paladin Cross is equipped with a flamer , she will first attack with her default laser pistol because her target is out of the flamer's range. She will move towards the target to get into the flamer 's range and then switch to it. There are exceptions, however. For example, Charon will always use Protectron's Gaze a unique laser pistol over the laser rifle , despite its reduced range AND damage per round rating.
