Arcanum

>She will offer her services as a party member as long as the player character has a technological aptitude of at least 10, is a high enough level, and is capable of conversing with her on the subject of her study.
You should be fine.
You might want to replace her eventually, once you're rolling in alternatives, but she's a good stop-gap for an early tech character who needs access to a bit of healing. Just make sure you're absolutely hording every random bit of trash you find, because as a tech character you'll constantly need supplies.

Ok, I checked his inventory and he was wielding an unidentified mace, which I don't remember giving him. Turns out, it is a "Mace of Betrayal" and it does exactly what it sounds like -- heals enemies with each hit.
Thanks to you comment I found out that you can check the character sheets of your companions by right-clicking their portraits. Thank you.
That sounds worrying. Will he betray me at a crucial point, like that piece of armor from Planescape: Torment?
Ok, sounds good. Would Sogg need a replacement? I think he is quite a capable fighter.

You could definitely rock with Sogg the whole game, if you wanted. Pure fighters are going to fit into magic or tech parties (you might even be able to make him some nice tech gear to wear).
He's not a very interesting character, narratively though, so a lot of people will eventually abandon him. I think the only time I kept him around is when I played a gnome who just had a bunch of half-ogre and half-orc minions do all the fighting for him.

Good to know. I'll keep him then, since my character is too limp-wristed to fight anything directly, but he can tesla rod enemies pretty well, when they are attacking Sogg.

Sogg is one of the hard carries.
There are at least 2 more you can get.
Jayna isn't worth a slot, she's a strictly worse Virgil, even for a Tech. Just take 1 level of Therapeutics and you are better than she is.
Also Virgil has a really cool story; also even though he can't heal you, he can still heal Sogg. He also is a very capable melee fighter in his own right.

Jayna is worth a slot in the very early game when you don't have any other options, especially if you're playing a tech character who hasn't invested in medicine. But yeah, she'd probably be first on the chopping block as soon as your party got maxed out.

Companions can betray you in arcanum, but I won't spoil exactly who. Sogg is a beast and I have him as a primary fighter most of my games, unless I challenge myself to play solo or as a racist that doesn't tolerate half-ogres.

It's fun abusing Master Persuasion and getting characters to stay in your party regardless of your alignment of other members. There's a couple of elves that should be mutually exclusive, but with Persuasion (and a little bit of basically cheating) you can convince them to both stay.

I remember being pissed that killing a gypsy made it impossible for me to finish the game pacifistically. It is, at the same time, cool that such a minor choice heavily impacted my playthrough, but it is also bullshit that the pacifist dialogue is hardlocked behind precise values. I don't think you need max charisma or speech to convince Master in fallout to commit suicide, albeit having evidence is more crucial for that dialogue. Still, it feels like a regress, at least to me.

I didn't even know Arcanum had pacifist options!

Yeah, they are hard to show up because you need some pretty high and precise stats for them, as well as a particular companion in tow.

I need to reinstall this just to play through it in real time mode for once. I nearly died laughing the last time I tried it and one of the shopkeepers in the first town mowed down my whole party with a solid stream of arrows.