Atton/ Bao Dur/ party member builds?

[Knightmage Bael]

This is just a brainstorming thread for pointing out what's worked for you. Or good ideas you may have.

I recently got a lucky drop of Felenar Armor, and I modified it with the Flexible + Defense armor mod, so it has 14 defense, +7 max dexterity 5-/bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, +3 dexterity.

I put it on Atton, giving him Heavy Armor, and gave him the force powers heal, energy/force barrier, and offensive powers. With a circlet of Saresh, and other equipment/mods, he has a defense of 50 with heavy armor + lightsaber master dueling. Its working pretty well, his force powers do decent damage, and he never gets hit. If he does, Energy barrier takes care of everything.

I usually take Atton + Visas with me later in the game because I can get their defense adn dex up to pretty high numbers.

For Bao-Dur I found Jamoh Hogra's Battle Armor, which has kept his defense fairly high, and just stack strength and constitution, and give him heal. He gets hit, but its never serious damage.

I have been giving my companions master dueling recently, because lets be real, the player is the one who does 90% of the damage, so as long as my companions don't take much damage, they're useful supports. Visas Marr is also great for utility force powers used on the enemy without having to take Kreia with you everywhere.

I'd like to hear what other people have done for Bao Dur/Atton/Visas and other party members.

[Vennek]

Bao-Dur is best suited for staying on the ship and saying "Sorry, General, I'm fresh out (of energy shields you asked him if he could give you)". In theory he or Handmaiden should be great unarmed fighters, and there is gear to beef up unarmed damage however an upgraded Vibrosword of any type will beat unarmed damage so it's not really purposeful to aim for unarmed combat builds.

Atton and T3-M4 are probably the best ranged characters until Nar Shadaa. Both Mira and Hanharr are Scouts so they get both Targeting and Precise Shot feats for free every few levels. This alone makes them the best choice for ranged fighters. Surprisingly T3 has higher attack chance and defense than HK when they're the same level. HK has fancy feats that allegedly makes him diesel in combat but I don't see much evidence of that.

Visas I leave on the ship too because she's sorta clingy and written poorly and I can't see her eyes.

For party, always have Kreia in your party, and keep her leveled too. She gives EXP bonuses that really stack up and add up to extra levels for you late game. I use Atton (for combat) or T3-M4 (at workbench) the rest of the time, then I usually roll with Hanharr after I do his dialogue trees and level him up. Even though he starts with about 20 STR, I make Hanharr a ranged fighter and his damage always beats everyone, even the driods with L33T Systems Upgrades and Level 3 Battle Upgrade in slots. Mira would have even better to-hit chance (same feats, better starting DEX), but I don't want a snippy lightsider slowing my roll.

[Emmental]

Bao-Dur can be given two-weapon fighting for free if he's a Jedi and you have them. It might be a TSLRCM thing, I'm not sure. He kind of needs it, having severe armour restrictions, he basically needs to be naked if you want him to use restrictive force powers, which is a bad idea really. Give him a double bladed lightsaber and pile on the strength. The Jomah Hogra armour is to my knowledge, the best armour for him.

Atton I usually give him some Jal Shay Mentor armour, duelling and pile on the strength as much as possible. He has a good chance of stunning with critical strikes, which if he doesn't kill what he's hitting outright, will be followed up by a sneak attack. Master speed of course.

[Knightmage Bael]

Well that's not really how I play, but whatever works best for you :3

I manage to make Atton and Visas into my best characters. because DEX is king.

I had a giant block of text here but Ill simply say that Mira is annoying because she's not built for the fight the first time you are able to use her. Even if you dump points into stealth and flee, because you still have to fight your way out of the pit.

I build her specifically for the end game fight with Hanharr on Malachor V. Otherwise I just don't like using her. I don't have the patience to micro her.

I keep Atton at level 5, then make him a Jedi. He becomes a beast when you build him properly. Super high dex build, works great.

Anyway, dex builds are better imho for kotor 2 in general. I use dex even for a Jedi Guardian. I used to be all 'bout that STR build, but finesse kills STR as a stat entirely.

The sole exception to heavy armor is Felanar, because it has insane points in max dex/def.

For Bao Dur:

level CON to 18 first. (D-Package Physical Boost)
Jamoh Hogra Battle Armor, STR underlay Mk. V + Ballistic Shielding III or Ablative Plate. (11 def, +2 max dex, damage immunity melee 20% CON&STR+3)
Dominator Gauntlets (+5 STR)
Immortality Belt (melee resist 10-/ )
Master Dueling, use EF Emitter (+5 def)

Energy/Barrier force abilities, use when necessary. resist + immunity stacks, but I don't think immunity + immunity stacks

Gets like 30 STR, 26 CON, dude health tanks and never misses.

[Vennek]

I agree with you that the Felenar Armor is nice kit but really to me the Medium Armor Sith Armor is nearly the same endgame because it gives you +7 Defense and allows a whopping +7 DEX bonus, meaning you can have DEX as high as 24 before you start only gaining ranged accuracy without additional gains in Defense. If Atton's Jedi-fied, and with you holding his levels as you describe especially, then he should easily have better defense in even plain clothing than in Felenar, especially if you're not dividing his attribute points between STR and DEX.

For Atton this playthrough and even for HK-47 and Hanharr, I raised all their INT to 16 before I went to 18 CON for max implants for Atton and just straight DEX for the droids. INT has an impact on chance to score a critical hit, or chance to make damage on a critical hit I think. It's not like there's a shortage of skills in party at all, but I think a pinch of INT is welcome for the occasional one-shotting of enemies that might otherwise take three shots to down.

The Ballistic plate, the 20% melee damage immunity, is the best overlay probably. The Ablative plate.. if that's the one that raises Defense by 3 and gives some phys damage resistance, the problem that for force users is that the physical damage resistance force power will work better, the -5 dmg from the armor does not stack (the game takes your highest resistance on any one piece of gear or any power and uses that only), but you'd still get the plus 3 Defense.

I wish they had scaled unarmed damage up a little better to make it viable. It's clear they thought about making it tenable with so many feats and so many items that boost it.

[Emmental]

Well in KOTOR 1 there was a hard low level cap of 20, armour upgrades provided no real benefits and STR had no inherent bonuses, which made using 2 lightsabers and a high DEX very good.

In KOTOR 2 there's no level cap and a higher soft cap at around 30, but equipment doesn't get any better after around 20, so your defense falls off hard towards the end even with a high investment into DEX. You'll be able to dodge most trash, but the enemies that matter will still hit you. Like Atton fighting Sion on hard for example.

The best defense is technology and the force. Armourweave + energy resistance and ballistic shielding + force barrier combined with improved toughness and virtually nothing will get through. The character is just as unkillable whether you have a high DEX or a high STR except the high STR character does alot more damage.

Unlike KOTOR 1 which was a flat bonus, KOTOR 2 features a 50% STR modifier bonus when using a single blade or a double bladed lightsaber. The higher your STR, the higher the bonus and forms like Shien and Juyo make it even more trollish. We're literally talking about hundreds of extra damage per round with master speed.

All of this applies to any Jedi character except Kreia, she's stuck in a bathrobe so no upgrades for her, but I would still focus on WIS with her anyway being a consular. Naturally if you want to put Jedi characters in a bathrobe, then DEX is your only real defense, but armoured characters with a high STR fare much better in a fight both defensively and offensively.

[Knightmage Bael]

Well given how OP lightsabers are, everyone is better with them, with the sole exception of perhaps Mira, with two Mandalorian Disintegrator pistols (master speed rapid shot is op).

Also if you stop at level 31 or 32, you can get the end game gear without falling off too much. Any levels past 30 just make the game take too long because everything becomes a damage sponge lol.

pump con for those implants, then pump the main damage attribute. you can stop at 16 too for the reflex one which gives +3 dex, but the physical boost implant d-package gives +3 to str, dex, con which is really good.

That and jedi clothes top heavy armor because the dex/def boost + force powers blow it out of the water. The highest def in the game you get through Jedi clothes, not through armor. I think its 70 or 74 or something. Which is crazy. Not even Sion can hit you with that unless he crits.

Last game I pumped dex as a sentinel got to a def of 65, used equipment to grant immunity to Crits, made Sion a joke.

[cerberusiv]

This is my take on builds for party members. I wrote it several years ago and my views haven' changed.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1234247381

For Atton high dex, armour that allows +6 or +7 dex benefits and crit hits with a pair of
Mandalorian Disintegrators are the way to go.

Bao-dur gets by just fine with unarmed due to his special attacks. The problem is that unarmed bonuses from Tech and Jedi do not stack so better to leave him as a workbench specialist.

Mira is the equivalent of the Maxim machine gun at the Battle of Omdurman for this game. A pair of high end energy blasters and she will clear an area before jedi can get close enough to hit anything. For the arena on Nar Shadaa trap Hanharr with adhesive grenades from her launcher then blast him. Same for Malachor.

Visas is simple. Pump DEX and take lightsaber finesse. In combat cast the best immobilising Force power she has and Master Force Speed then just slicd and dice.

The game isn't particularly hard if you have an idea what is coming so I keep companion builds simple.

[Emmental]

I really should write a guide one of these days showing all the numbers....but I'm just so lazy.

[Knightmage Bael]

Originally posted by Dave:

I really should write a guide one of these days showing all the numbers....but I'm just so lazy.

The numbers get a bit crazy. This game has a surprising amount of versatility up until level 26 or so, when everything starts plateauing.

@Cerberusiv
I still like high STR/CON + Jamoh Hogra armor for Bao Dur.

Felenar armor for Atton with felxible underlay is the best. 21 defense rating. +3 dex with that. This armor is so good for him its not even funny.

I agree with you on everything else though. Just get Mira master force speed and she'll clean up everything. Its just that first fight with her that I find aggravating.

[Kref]

Very intresting thread. Also I do not find the game hard enough to search for good party builds, probably next time I should play as a "mage" class.

[Knightmage Bael]

Originally posted by Kref:

Very intresting thread. Also I do not find the game hard enough to search for good party builds, probably next time I should play as a "mage" class.

I did that once and got bored, lol. spamming lightning storm even as a good jedi, going through Trayus academy feels like a cheese lol. Stun/Storm combo OP haha.

This game has a lot of interesting characters, but they're trying to do two different things with them and it doesn't always work out.

Like the Soldier/Consular build for Mical. lol

[Emmental]

Soldier/Consular is amazing though.

[Knightmage Bael]

Originally posted by Dave:

Soldier/Consular is amazing though.

Tell that to Mical. :P His stat distribution gives him poor WIS/CHA, and with no CON to back anything up. He can't hit anything, and he can't tank anything. It just...yeah he doesn't work. Even with high WIS modifying equipment he only reaches mediocre levels, and then that happens at the cost of defense or health.

[Emmental]

He's definitely not a caster, but he starts with 14 STR, 16 DEX and a pretty good 14 CON. Give him Jal Shay armour with the good ol' ballistic shielding and armourweave and his defense means nothing like everyone else. Just focus on the STR and a double bladed lightsaber and enjoy those juicy feats and defense bonuses he racked up before becoming a Jedi.

[Knightmage Bael]

I guess you could use him to buff. The reason why you pick consular though is to cast offensive powers.

You get enough force powers with a Jedi guardian to get all the buffs you need to.