Ok, I got Fidel, now how do I make him use the club I put in his inventory? His melee skill is highest but I see no way to put the club in his hands.I did instruct him to use melee or close combat and not ranged. He will only use his hands or feet to fight. Also how do I make him heal himself with food or meds? Are meds the only way he can be healed? Thank you.

Fidels hand to hand is the lowest skill, pistols is higher and he will use a pistol if I give him one. Rifles are very low So I gave him a rifle just to see what would happen and he immediately put away his pistol and equipped the rifle for which he had a much lower skill. very confusing!!

NPCs tend to heal themselves only with meds, such as the pills, the stims or the super stims.

They'll generally use the weakest of these, at least from my experience. It's possible they'll use the stronger versions if they're more hurt, but I can't recall if this actually happens.

As the game goes on, I would just remove the weaker meds/stims from all NPCs and just give them the stronger ones, so they can actually heal themselves properly.

Also, the pills may cause strength reduction, which can be annoying if it happens in the middle of a battle.