Overview:
This simple mod uses JIP's capacity to provide perks to NPCs to provide more gameplay quirks and personality to companions. Most of these are debuffs. Much of the intention of this mod is to debuff companions, in unique ways. Companions which are not mentioned on the page are untouched.
This mod is balanced specifically for use with other mods which make companions use normal ammo and non-essential, like EDGE. Balance issues when not using such a mod will not be considered consequential.

These pop ups that describe these characteristics when you recruit each companion for the first time may not be 100% accurate until the final release.

Currently in BETA, and TTW only until the 1.0 release.
Please report issues in the bugs section specifically.

Features:
NV:
ED-E

• No carry weight.
• 5x crit. chance.
• -75% crit. damage.
  He's a turret orb, not a pack brahmin.

Boone

• -75% attack speed.
• -40% movement aim spread penalty.
  Slow this boy down! He hits hard and very accurately in vanilla, and he needs to take the time to pick his targets to be more balanced. He has even better accuracy while not moving though!) Give him an automatic weapon to bypass his attack speed penalty.

Cass

• Cass will periodically steal and drink your whiskey if you're carrying some.
• 2x attack speed.
• 2x reload speed.
• 1.5x additional attack and reload speed while under the effects of Whiskey or Dixon's Whiskey.
• -40% run speed and carry weight while wearing medium or heavy armor.
  She'll burn through ammo, but she can be a substantial boost to DPS if she's hitting her target. Slow her down with low-capacity weapons to moderate her ammo usage in the early game.

Arcade

• -25% reload speed.
• -75% crit. chance while not using energy weapons.
• -50% damage with melee or unarmed weapons.
• +25% run speed while wearing medium armor.
• x2 crit. damage with energy weapons.
  Give him medium armor and energy weapons to have him at his best.

Lily

• +400% received limb damage.
• 0% crit. chance with ranged weapons.
• -75% reload speed with ranged weapons.
• -25% speed.
  She's old, her sight is bad, and she's used to swinging her bumper sword, not firing guns or other melee weapons. Take care of her.

Raul

• 3x spread with energy weapons.
• -75% reload speed with energy weapons.
• 2x equip speed.
• 1.75x attack speed with cowboy weapons.
• -40% limb damage.
• -35 carry weight.
• -20% sneaking speed.
• -50% damage with unarmed weapons.
  Bad knees, but he's got a little bit of old man toughness. Don't bother giving him energy weapons.

Veronica

• +10% run speed.
• +20% crit. chance with unarmed weapons while wearing power armor.
• -35% melee weapon (not unarmed) damage.
• -35% enemy crit. chance while wearing power armor.
• +25% crit. chance while not wearing anything in the "hat" slot. (Most helmets/headgear)
• +25% crit. chance if there's a girl in the party.
• Veronica won't use ranged weapons. She will always switch back to unarmed/melee.
  She do big punch. Keep her healthy, and she'll do reliable close-range damage. She'll benefit more than you will from any PA you find in the game before you get PA training.

Rex

• No carry weight.
• Almost guaranteed crit. chance against bugs, rats, coyotes and dogs, mantises, ants, radroaches, and bloatflies.
• Enemy crit. chance is practically guaranteed when attacked by lake/mirelurks, super mutants, nightkin, radscorpions, nightstalkers, centaurs, and radscorpions.
• -75% limb damage.
• +16(8x2) DT and DR, +40(20x2) energy resistance, +30(15x2) fire resistance, +50(25x2) poison resistance. (Due to a weird engine bug, some resistances on creatures are doubled. The values in the parentheses are the values I set, and they double in game. I've tuned them knowing this quirk.)
  He's not a pack brahmin, he's a dog. Use his cunning robot dog instincts to clear out places like vaults full of creatures. Keep him away from the monsters of the wastes. He's pretty tough to most other sources of damage though!

Sunny

• +15% reload speed and +50% equip speed while wearing light armor.
• -90% equip speed when using Energy Weapons and Big Guns.
• -90% crit. chance vs. robots.
• -75% crit. chance when using Energy Weapons.
• x2 spread when using automatic weapons.
• -75% spread when using varmint rifles.
• x2 crit. damage vs. animals, mutated animals, and insects.
  Keep to her general aesthetic - she'll use your varmint rifle ammunition very effectively, and she'll be crit-sniping most weak critters before you have to even think about them. Sunny will always receive this perk, regardless of whether a companion mod for her is installed or not.

Follows Chalk

• +20% crit. chance with .45 Auto Pistols.
• -90% spread with .45 Auto Pistols.
• -66% attack speed with .45 Auto Pistols.
• -60% spread with .45 SMGs.
• x2 crit. chance when attacking animals, mutated animals, or insects.
• -90% limb damage when attacked by animals, mutated animals, or insects.
• x4 spread with any energy weapons.
• x2 attack speed with tomahawks and war clubs.
• -25% damage with tomahawks and war clubs.
• +10% run speed in light armor.
• -25% enemy crit. chance in light armor.
  He's been trained by Joshua - he'll take his time and pick his shots effectively. When used with EDGE and companion ammo use, he probably won't even need a restock of ammo until you complete the first phase of HH objectives. When using the right melee/throwing weapons, he hits/throws quite frequently, but doesn't hit as hard as Waking Cloud.

Waking Cloud

• Waking Cloud will always wear her own clothing and won't change armors or wear headgear or accessories. (Backpacks are okay.)
• To compensate, both her body (and head, if localized damage in JIP is enabled) get 9 DT+DR, and she has a mesh replacement to justify this change a bit. Her outfit also has a playable version with male and female meshes added to the reward chest at the end of HH.
• She will also only use her Yao Guai gauntlet when set to melee combat. (Only her own. Ask her about her gauntlet to see why.)
• -75% limb damage.
• x4 gun spread.
• -90% reload speed.
• -75% enemy crit. chance.
• She will regen 1 health at a moderate rate in combat while under 25% health, but lose 25% speed. On the other hand, when she's above 25% health, she will gain:
• 3% knockdown chance with unarmed weapons.
• x2 crit. chance with her gauntlet.
• x3 crit. damage against yao guai.
  She's a tough lady. Let her do what she does best, and she'll go toe to toe with tough enemies and hold her own. However, she loses some substantial DPS when she's low on health, especially vs. yao guai, so you do have to keep an eye out to make sure she isn't in a bad spot with no backup.

Joshua Graham

• -50% attack speed.
• -50% spread.
• +50% reload speed with handguns.
• 2x crit. chance vs. humans.
  

Roxie

• Health regeneration while above 50% health.
• +50% damage vs. lobotomites.
  The health regeneration is indicative of high tech healing systems present in her technology, and her military cybernetics allow her to target NPCs (just lobotomites, since she can't leave OWB) with extreme effectiveness.

TTW:
Clover

• -25% shotgun spread.
• -25% equip speed with two-handed weapons.
• -70% equip and reload speed with big guns.
• +25% crit. chance with one-handed melee weapons.
• Slower run speed with heavy armor. Power armor speed has the highest penalty, heavy non-powered armor has less, and medium armor has the least speed reduction, while light armor/clothing have no penalty.
• +15/10 DT and +25/15 DR while in medium/light armor, respectively.
• -20% carry weight.
  Knives and shotguns, Clover likes to play up close and personal. Let her show some skin, and she'll show you her tenacity.

Dogmeat

• +50 Sneak.
• +15% run speed.
• Has the Legion Mongrel "hamstring" effect, which deals guaranteed damage to a random leg upon hit.
• +2 STR, +4 END, +25% DR while under 15% health.
  

Fawkes

• 3x weapon spread.
• -80% received limb damage.
• -20% run speed.
• 2x melee weapon crit. damage.
  Locked in that cell, he has no practice with ranged weapons. He's a tank with melee weapons, but he's slow to match.

Charon

• 3x limb damage.
• -75 health.
• -40% automatic weapon spread.
  The ghoulification has taken a toll, but he's still a solid shooter.

Jericho

• 3x damage dealt to the player.
• 2x automatic weapon spread spread.
• -50% equip and reload speed with non-machineguns.
• +25% equip and reload speed with machineguns.
• +10 DT when equipped with medium armor.
• 10 DT penetration when targeting raiders.
  Echoes of Ian in Fallout 1 burst-firing your whole health bar in one attack when he misses his target. Hire him at your own risk.

Butch

Butch sucks until he's stuck with you for a while. He also gains a special bonus once his skills improve, based on whether he saw you be good or bad while he learns how to survive in the wasteland from you.
• Butch's movement speed, crit. chance, run speed, aiming move speed, and limb damage suffer penalties until he spends roughly a month with you.
• He will receive the following bonuses once he improves: Run speed will increase by 25%, crit. damage will double, attack speed with non-machineguns will increase by 25%, and machinegun spread will improve by 20%.
• While Butch is a follower, your karma changes will be tracked. Once a month has passed, Butch's disposition will be decided and you will be notified, his skills will improve, and you will gain some xp.
• Your positive and negative karma changes are summed, and sum must be greater than 100 (karma is on a scale from -900 to 900) for Butch to get the good bonus. Otherwise, his disposition will be decided as evil. He did start a gang and (threaten to) assault people, after all.
  Karma changes will still be tracked to their full magnitude even if you already have maxed out karma in one direction or the other.
• Butch's evil bonus is doubled reload speed.
• Butch's good bonus is -75% enemy crit. chance.
  

Star Paladin Cross

• -75% attack speed with non-energy/melee weapons.
• Will not wear any body armor but her own.
• Cross will put her helmet on (if she has it) in combat, and take it off when outside combat.
• Cross will only stay close to you, she will always revert to close following after a moment if you set her to far distance.
  Clingy, but tanky. She's very competent.

Sergeant RL-3

• -90% crit. chance.
• +50% spread.
  

Bittercup

• -75% melee and unarmed damage.
• -50% crit. chance with any weapon that is not a one-handed and ranged weapon.
• +25% limb damage received.
• -50% carry weight with medium or heavy armor equipped.
• -25/50/75% run speed with medium/heavy/power armor equipped, respectively.
• +15% crit. damage with non-cowboy one-handed ranged weapons.
• -15% spread with non-cowboy one-handed ranged weapons.
• +25% sneak speed.
• +15% attack speed with non-cowboy one-handed ranged weapons.
• +35% explosion radius.
  Bittercup will always receive this perk, regardless of whether a companion mod for her is installed or not. Handguns and grenades. She'll be a pain in the ass if you weigh her down with anything heavier than light armor.

Sarah Lyons

• 100% crit. chance on her first hit on the target that last hit you.
• -40% attack speed when not attacking that target.
  Sarah's specialty is "covering fire." She's highly trained and has practically no maluses, but she does take some time to line up her shots.

Customization:
I may open some of these factors up to customization in the future; for now, I don't plan to.

Requirements:
JIP LN, xNVSE, Johnny, the usual stuff.

Installation:
Regular installation. Ensure that this file loads last if Veronica is willing to stay on ranged weapons, or if Star Paladin Cross is willing to accept a further distance order and stay on it.

Ensure that uNPCPerks in your JIP config ini is set to 1 specifically. If this setting is 0, this mod will not function at all. If it is set to 2, crashes may occur, due to JIP attempting to put the perks in this mod onto inappropriate entities.

Patches:
I will likely make patches to apply these philosophies to modded companions that I like. There is no timeline for these changes, and I will not be doing so for any companion mods that I don't use/like.

Compatibility:
Compatible with most things, including NPC appearance edits.
Incompatible with other mods which directly edit the scripts of Veronica or Star Paladin Cross.
The fix to allow Veronica to accept Vera's Dress as a dress is included.
Waking Cloud Sorrow Combat Armor and it's optional retexture are included here. Do not use this with the standalone version of that mod.

Bugs:

Under The Hood:
These changes are performed by adding perks to each character. Each perk is removed and readded when the game restarts, since perks don't always update their changes behind the scenes if you change their values.
Direct overwrites to companion scripts were only used where necessary.

Questions:
There's a change in the changelog that I'm not seeing!
Check the version number vs the one that's currently available. Listing changes in the changelogs for upcoming changes as I make them is the only way I can make sure I don't forget to document them.
One of the companions has only debuffs and no buffs!
Yeah. Sometimes that's because there aren't thematic things I want to emphasize about a character, sometimes that's cause a companion is really good and needs more debuffing than others.
I can just wait for a month for Butch's progression and that's dumb/annoying to have to do!
Play hardcore, and there will be an economic penalty for doing so.
I don't like hardcore!
Exercise the restraint to not just wait the month then.
A whole month is a long time for Butch to improve.
This may be true. There's a lot of TTW though, and plenty of time by my estimation to use Butch without having to be stuck with him for a huge chunk of the game. I am open to changing this amount of time; but only based on feedback from players who play in hardcore mode.
Neutral Butch bonus?
Nope.
No perk addition to non-vanilla companions if no companion mod for them is present?
I don't want to bother with that.

Note: I didn't bother to add characteristics to DLC companions that wouldn't come up during their DLC. For instance, Honest Hearts companions don't have maluses against robots, even though I normally would have given characters of their flavor such.

Permissions:
Do whatever.

Support:
If you'd like to support my modding work or say thanks, feel free to donate via the Nexus or here at Ko-Fi.