Companions and their usefulness

[Corvey]

So as in title, there are few things I'd like to confirm:

1. From what I can see available companions are random, started new playthrough and this time I got quite a few new faces and only one healer with "Bitterdraught" name.

2. Companions are kinda useless, unless you use them to get caravans or to make them into vassals later on. Medicine skill gives almost nothing so no point in having a surgeon, scouting skill same, trade and steward you can easily get yourself. Engineering useless too. So did most of you just use them for caravans and vassals?

3. Who thought those skill and attribute allocations? Are those random? Why my "healer" has 1 point in INT and 8 in vigor? And to top it off they have so many skillpoints that it takes ages to get them at least 1 lvl up.

Am I doing something completely wrong and they ARE usefull but I'm missing something?

[Darkness]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the overall points in the skill makes you better at that thing. The more medicine you have, the less of your troops will end up in a grave. The better your engineering, the faster you can build things. The PERKS are just flavor in addition to all that. At least that's what I've gathered since I have high charm and my companion has a high medicine skill.

[Darkness]

Also, giving them their own parties is also a major boon as they act on their own, do quests, fight enemies, raise armies, and give all the benefits back to you.

[Bordric]

I should try the giving them their own party. How do you do that?

[Aethrys]

Originally posted by Bordric:

I should try the giving them their own party. How do you do that?

Clan menu, parties tab, form party. Need to be in a kingdom to actually order them to form an army with you (at no influence cost)

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Bordric:

I should try the giving them their own party. How do you do that?

Go into your clan [L], click parties, and you can choose who to assign. Keep in mind though, you should either get a lot of gold or have a stable income because they usually cost 600 to maintain until they become capable of taking care of themselves. Really only something to do when you either have enterprises or castles.

[Bordric]

Originally posted by Darkness:

Originally posted by Bordric:

I should try the giving them their own party. How do you do that?

Go into your clan [L], click parties, and you can choose who to assign. Keep in mind though, you should either get a lot of gold or have a stable income because they usually cost 600 to maintain until they become capable of taking care of themselves. Really only something to do when you either have enterprises or castles going.

Thanks sounds fun

[Corvey]

Originally posted by Darkness:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the overall points in the skill makes you better at that thing. The more medicine you have, the less of your troops will end up in a grave. The better your engineering, the faster you can build things. The PERKS are just flavor in addition to all that. At least that's what I've gathered since I have high charm and my companion has a high medicine skill.

The thing is I didn't notice any difference between having a surgeon with 80 medicine in my party and not having him. My casualties and wounded soldiers were in comparable numbers if not the same and healing of wounded troops was abysmally faster then without surgeon.

And basically what you all said is get them their own parties because that's the only thing they are worth keeping for. Kinda lame ;/
In warband having a medic and scout was essential, gearing up your comapnions and getting them as vassals later on felt really rewarding and you felt like they can really make a difference. In bannerlord I feel as my companions are just caravan leaders, as vassals they behave poorly, quality of their troops is low to medium and number stays around 70-80 tops, at least from what I saw. Not to mention they often have problems with food and prioritise for some reason looters and other vagabonds on the map instead of let's say help me corner fast enemy.

[Miggy]

Well, if all things fail the companions at least don't have wages and you can pimp them up as nicely as you can soooooo...

[Jiro Dragonheart]

Originally posted by Miggy:

Well, if all things fail the companions at least don't have wages and you can pimp them up as nicely as you can soooooo...

And they follow you into towns and villages if you want support in certain quests.